GM Greaek's Skulls and Shackles (Inactive)

Game Master Greek Stronghammer

Discuss your characters and background here

I’m using Besmara’s Blessing. First I thought of having them already coming from the Shackles, but maybe it’s even better if we come from another place and fled to th Shackles - maybe the parents were bandits, pursued by the Chelish Navy, and we kept something from them that the navy is still interested in and that motivates them to be pursuing us. How about that?

I could get behind that - the question is, what did they steal and where is it now? Presumably we can't just have some kind of maguffin right at the start.

1. Were our parents pirates or non-pirates?
2. What was their opinion of pirates (good, bad, neutral)?
3. How did they die (shipwreck, killed, storm, etc)?
4. Where did we grow up (in Port Peril, elsewhere in the Shackles, etc)?
5. Once we reached the age where we left home, did we leave together, or did we go our separate ways?

For #5, I'm thinking we split up. Maybe we all got press-ganged as we were supposed to be meeting up for (a reunion/a discussion of our Chelaxian macguffin/a return home after our time in Chess's character's care)?

Hi, I can post again. Since oyzar dropped, are we going to have to re-hunt for a fourth?

Checking back in after the outages - I'm still here!

I think I might do an NPC, I set up a discord server in case the site troubles continue
https://discord.gg/kmeHs4a

Okay, got it. Hopefully the outages don't continue.

Just popping in to say I’m still interested.

Same. Here's hoping the servers stay up a little longer this time.

Looks like we lost The Chess in the all the website troubles.

The GM said he'd be unable to post until after 3 on Sunday. We'll have to wait till then for him to tell us what he decides to do.

One of my players in another game JoshB said he would be interested, so we might do that

What's the composition of the party?

What sort of thoughts about backgrounds / coming together?

Is it the typical, pressganged Shackles start?

I've got a wildshape focused druid, and Phntm888 has a sorcerer. We'd been talking about being a family that got press ganged when meeting up for a reunion.

We are both currently half-orc, as well, if you want to get in on the family. The two players who were originally going to do this were going to be a half-orc bloodrager and an Elven Investigator, who was going to be the Captain.

Incidentally, while I have the character created, I have not created an alias yet, and I will be going on vacation starting tomorrow evening outside of the country. I will have my phone and should be able to access my Wi-Fi, but should be able to post. I just may need to be botted. I will create the alias before I leave.

My thoughts so far have been either a ranger or a combat focused cleric.

Either of those ideas could lend itself to a good profession(sailor) skill with a good wisdom.

It is the typical Pressganged start
The NPC will probably be a Barbarian if he goes Ranger, or Swashbuckler if he goes Cleric

I played with building a half-orc ranger with the abendego diver archetype last night.

Do we feel ok with having a druid as the primary healer?

I know it's a drag for a druid to have to dedicate spell slots to cure spells instead of spontaneously casting like a cleric.

Greak, how would you feel about a cleric of Gozreh taking the aquatic druid domain? If I was building a cleric, I would be aiming to build him towards being Aquaman.

I'm okay with it. I'm a sorcerer, so it's not like I won't have a good Use Magic Device.

Will your character be joining the family, then? We'd love to have you.

If so, you can join us in creating the background. So far, this is what we've got:

1. We were orphaned by our parents' shipwreck. Originally, the Investigator's player was going to have been a survivor who watched over us, but we can create a new NPC for that.
2. Our parents were shipwrecked by an attack from the Chelish Navy after they stole something. Originally, we knew what it was and where it was, since the Chess would have been part of the crew, although now we can skip that part and not know where or what it is.
3. As we reached adulthood, we each went our separate ways, agreeing to meet back up later. We get pressganged as we head to our established meetup.

We still have to answer the below questions:

1. Were our parents pirates or non-pirates?
2. What was their opinion of pirates (good, bad, neutral)?
3. Where did we grow up (in Port Peril, elsewhere in the Shackles, etc)?

We also never decided what order we were born in, or if we were all triplets or something.

Also, here's the alias with the stat block.

Might have to do 2 NPCs, as you are lacking a trap disabler and a primary Melee tank, maybe swashbuckler and barbarian

I am on-board with being part of the family.

I am leaning towards the ranger, who will be able to handle frontline combat, but not capable of dealing with traps.

I like the Stormborn bloodline Phntm888.

Darvan has spent the last couple of years working as a fisherman and diver. This shouldn't surprise anyone since he has always been able to swim like a fish.

He carries a folded net over his left shoulder and carries a trident in his right hand.

He wears his hair in ropey dreadlocks that dangle down past his shoulders. Since his siblings saw him last, he has gotten a trident shaped tattoo that covers the left side of his face with the shaft of the trident running down his neck to disappear under his leather armor.

Here's my alias. Still got a few more things that need work, most notably the animal companion.

Alright, think I've got the crunch all done.

Honestly, since Darvan is a Strength Ranger, you could skip the Barbarian and just do a Swashbuckler. We should be fine on the front line.

Anyone have further answers to my above questions? I like the idea of growing up in Port Peril, but we can change that.

I'm good with growing up locally. As for the rest... I don't feel strongly about birth order.

It might be fun if our parents had wildly different opinions on piracy - could be a good source of sibling tension. Say, Dad objected (he'd gotten a nasty scar when his merchant ship was boarded long ago), but Mom was fine with it /was actually an ex-pirate?

The NPC is done, do y'all think we'd be able to get cc done faster if we were discussing on discord?

Not sure we've got a whole lot left to do. We've got a party concept, character sheets... Are you looking for more individual detail before starting?

If the group is ready to start I'll make an opening post tommorow or sunday.

Opening post made

Sorry, forgot to post in this yesterday! Posting now.

Just so you guys know I'm adding another player, he should dot soon. When he joins and has his character we can discuss whether the NPC (A swashbuckler picaroon who switched one of their class skills for disable device) is still neccessary

Hey y'all, Happy to be here, Greaek I have a Gillman Kineticist all rolled up with standard 15 point buy, he's hydro so some usefull utility and healing along with the rest. as for fitting in I read the others backstory and maybe he's a local contact of the Brothers, they could have been planning on meeting him. ill dot in with him so you can take a look. ifhe doesn't fit let me know.

dot

2 things
25 point buy
No kinetics or any of the other classes like it

DM, how crucial is Disable Device for this AP?

Np I’ll rework it

The other build I have set up is a shifter but I imagine that would overlap with the Druid to much

so I rebuilt as a swashbuckler, take a look and let me know what you think. if its good I'll go ahead and post in gameplay.
Also does the Picaroon start with a pistol?

Had to look at my character sheet and think some on what I was planning for a build. :-)

He's a TWF ranger that will play around with some of the net feats.

The archetype will give him bonuses underwater, a swim speed, and aquatic focused spells.

Someone who could end up shooting siege weapons as a career choice might be helpful.

Someone who could end up shooting siege weapons as a career choice might be helpful.

Give me about five levels and I could do it

Well, first, I think I'm counting your Point Buy at 26 points, not 25.

Panache is a little high, it should be equal to your Charisma modifier (3).

Picaroon swaps the Opportune Parry and Riposte deed for the Melee Shooter deed.

Other than that, looks good.

thanks for the check Gormak and I thought panache users gained twice their CHA mod?

Nope, just Charisma. I double checked before I posted that.

For characters with a mix of grit, luck, and panache, they pool the resources together into a combined pool. (Those who use panache and luck gain twice their Charisma bonus in their pool.)

I misread the above passage, oops.

Bump?

I'm still here, I've been busy, and when I haven't been busy I was working on a group who have been waiting on a map for a bit, and also I'm working on a google slideshow compiling npcs, jobs, etc.

So are we taking a hiatus?

No, I'm gonna make a post right now

It's not letting me post in the Gameplay thread right now. Here's my d6 roll.

1d6 ⇒ 2

1d6 ⇒ 3

Same issue here