GM Greaek's Skulls and Shackles (Inactive)

Game Master Greek Stronghammer

The biggest issue for games like skulls and Shackles or hells vengeance you run into an issue when everyone is greedy and all for themselves, and the group falls apart. That is why I'm having the four players all make their characters together, so they can tie their backgrounds together some, and have IC reasons to support each other above other NPCs. So 4 people post, and we can begin character creation

I'm very interested in playing... If someone agree to a strong romantic relationship with my character... Of course we could start out not knowing each other so we could play though all the stages, but would be nice if we both plan things so we end up together.

Perhaps we could each have a sibling, hence end up with everyone connected together? Though I'm certainly open to other ideas as well.

Color me potentially interested. What kind of posting rate are you aiming for?

I keep applying to Skull & Shackles recruitment threads and I keep not getting selected. Well, this time I'm gonna be in one. I'm in!

Ah yeah... Posting rate. I feel it's much easier to keep up interest if everyone post once per day... A couple times per week is too seldom, but I could see settling for something in between.

Are either of you interested in a relationship? I'm open to playing either gender.

Do you have any specific classes you prefer?

Is there any specific content that is allowed or disallowed? I'm considering the mesmerist from occult adventures, but for another game you did not allow occult. Is that the case here as well?

Another idea for how our characters are connected could be that they all are brothers or sisters I guess.

I'm in!

I'll retract my statement that I'll only be interest if one of you are interested in eventually becoming romantically involved with my character... So I guess that makes 4. Though I still hope that one of you are.

Do any of you have a strong desire to be captain? I could do it, but I'm fine with someone else taking that role if they want.

I would love to go for the role of captain, in particular. I have even a scratched background already :) Curious on the rules!

I would love to go for the role of captain, in particular. I have even a scratched background already :) Curious on the rules!

The whole idea of the campaign is that we work together on backgrounds. What did you have in mind?

Would you be open to ending up in a relationship with my character? It might fit best if one of the pair end up as captain.

What class were you thinking off? I imagine the captain either is captain is charismatic (diplomacy) or wise (profession sailor), but I guess other things could potentially work too...

Perhaps a discord server could make setting up the game easier. I still want to play here though. Feel free to message/add me there. oyzar#0638

I'm not in Discord (or able to join it), but we can surely continue talking here. I don't have any class in mind at the moment - it will depend on what the rules are. I have more of the concept and background - he's an old sailor, basically, with deep ties to the sea itself. I'd think he goes much more the route of wisdom, but charisma is a possibility.

I'd prefer to chat here as well

Hey Greaek! Thanks for running it! What are the build rules?

Then we'll make do with chatting here.

What do you mean by "old" The Chess? I like how starting ages are usually fairly young (16-27 for humans), since it shows that the characters generally have little experience and have most of their lives ahead of them. Of course, someone could easily have basically grown up on a ship and as such have over 20 years experience even at 27.

Since you didn't respond to my idea, I'm guessing you didn't like either of them (relationship or brothers)?

So, what are the build rules Greaek?

25 pb, core races, no occult, psionics, or path of war, but other then that all classes by paizo fly. 2 traits,One from the players hug guide

The Chess - since you were leaning towards a wise Captain type, were you thinking more cleric/druid, or just a wise class in general? I've got a few different ideas, and it would help narrow them down.

Oyzar - I don't typically do relationships with my characters, as having previously played with a couple of people who did has put me off on them.

wow was looking for a skull and shackles and here there is no time to even try.

have fun yall.

less than 1 hour and its full.

@Phntm888: Thanks for your honest answer. I'm sorry to hear that it went that way for you...

What do you think of the idea of us all being related? Or do you have some other suggestions for how to tie us all together?

I got a bunch of ideas myself... But it kind of depends on the rest of you.

Before we get that far though. What do everyone think of alignment? I believe it's possible to play this campaign with good characters as well as evil, but it's an advantage if we're roughly on the same page.

hey anyone willing to GM and have a little longer recruitment for others to see?

Thoughts on posting rate, DM? Anything more than "1/day most days" and I'll probably bow out.

My initial thought is to roll a druid of some flavor.

Well if you stick around maybe one of the 4 will drop it

Will we be allowed to use the background skills rules form unchained? It'll make it easier to allocate those necessary profession points.

@Sbodd: Any thoughts on tying characters together?

I don't think more than "1/day most days" is going to be realistic in the long run... At least for me. But I still would like to try to aim for 1/day if the rest of you are up for it.

With a divine caster already, I can probably toss my idea of a Cleric of Basmara on the sea (channeling negative energy and using variant channeling(ale))?

If half-orc works as a race (depending on what we figure out for background), I have an idea for a bloodrager/skald.

1ce per day most days is what i prefer

Yes background skills

My idea was that of a shifter with ties to the ocean - someone which would end up looking almost like Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.

It would work really well with the custom-made Octopus Aspect for Shifters:

But if the GM doesn't like the idea of something third-party, then I could make it work with something like a druid kraken caller for example (I still rather go the shifter route because I'd prefer it to look more martial than caster, but I'll adapt to however the GM prefers).

My character is somewhat "cursed" on his birth, and had been navigating ever since. I think we could all have met across different ships or inns, and have that "piratey friendly" type of relationship like Barbossa and Jack Sparrow, for example.

I don't really like much the idea of romantic or family relationships.

I apologise if i wasn't clear by core races,i meant phb only

Problem with that kind of "piratey friendly"-relationship you mention is that it doesn't exactly lead to a tightly knit group preferring each other over "other pirates". Barbossa and Jack Sparrow is a very good example of a relationship where you eventually end up stabbing each other in the back.

I think it does. There's camaraderie - just watch the last movie and you'll understand they prefer to unite against other odds.

Well if you stick around maybe one of the 4 will drop it

That has good and bad...

bad, we would have to start over on character creation talk as a new person may change the dynamic.

My immediate gut for a group bond would be family, or something functionally similar (not actually related, but - grew up together as an orphan gang, survived three years on an island after a shipwreck.)

A shared diety could also work... Especially if it's not the local favorite. I'm not expert enough on Golarion to say what would work best - Gozreh? Naderi could be interesting too.

Well, I would certainly strongly prefer a much tighter connection than that. What drew me to this thread is exactly the opportunity to craft a shared background together... Childhood friends or family both fit the bill.

The God of piracy is Besmara, but we don't start off as pirates, so unless you're a cleric it might be a bit odd to worship her.

We could easily be friends or rivals around the docks of Port Peril which are being pressganged together and therefore needs to work together, and the tight bonds are created naturally as we advance on the adventure.

Sbodd: Besmara would usually be the choice here, I think, although between pirate players and pirate enemies, most people will worship her.

EDIT: With my "cursed"-type of background, maybe we could all share the curse, or some sort of tie around it that pulls us together.

@GM: Would the Shifter aspect I mentioned above be allowed?

With only PHB races, no

Shifter is a class, not a race.

@Sbodd: Could you be open for ending up in a relationship with my character?

I was thinking *not* Besmara ("the local favorite") since that would be something to specifically bind the PCs together - if everyone follows Besmara but we followed some other diety, that'd make a natural reason to stick together. (I'm not committed to this idea, just brainstorming.)

*slowly bangs his head and screams about Eberron*
Yes that sounds fine

The main idea I have for a character I have at the moment is a half-orc bloodrager\skald (one level of bloodrager, rest skald). A melee beast that provides raging song and other buffs as well as plenty of skills.

Though an Eldritch archer Magus sounds interesting as well. It might be nice to have someone capable of lung range fighting (ranger, gunslinger or the Magus), though it might be nice to have a full arcane caster too...

Perhaps my character and sbodd's were friends growing up and they frequented a tavern that Chess' character often visited. There the shifter could have told stories of the sea, totally enarmouring the two youngsters.

A full arcane is always welcome! In a game with pirates (and treasures, and chests...) I imagine it'd be good to have someone capable of trapfinding. And, at the end of the day, a healer as well. With only 4 in the party, we might have to organize to cover our bases.

@GM: Any restriction on alignments?

@Party: What about you guys? Should we go for something good or evil? Or neutral?

Oyzar: I'm not really into playing out a romance.

Also, bringing up a different question you asked: alignment-wise, I'd definitely prefer that we not be too deeply evil. Pirates means LG is probably off the table, but I'd like all the PCs to at least be likable.

I think I would prefer simply neutral (of the chaotic sort), though if we're going good, I might switch over to a flying blade following Desna.

I would prefer neutral to good, but if you can play a likable evil character (Belkar from order of the stick, or Nester from the glass Cannon podcast) then I'd be Ey-Okay with that

@GM: Are drawbacks okay?

@Party: Instead of going a third-party route, I decided to simplify and go for a simple Elf Ranger combining the Tidal Hunter and Trapper archetypes. I'm now covering trapfinding so we don't need to worry about it anymore. I'm building it to focus on ranged combat but he can survive melee if needed. I believe it has the flavor I wanted (with the whole waterborn and whatnot) while still being useful to the party.

Yes take you can take a Drawback for a 3rd trait

Great! Last question - initial wealth. I know we're pressganged by the beginning of the module and not supposed to have any gear to start, but I imagine we should pick it anyway to find it later, like in Strange Aeons?

Max from class

On the lines I was before, I'm considering building an elf investigator instead - coming with trapfinding and skills, lots of skills. Building him as a ranged damage dealer with decent social interaction. I'm still filling the same roles as before, and hopefully he can be useful to the party :)

Geez you guys covered a lot since yesterday. I’m trying to catch up.

Sbodd mentioned playing a Druid, so I’ll rule out my divine ideas. In that case, I think I’ll go for a Stormborm sorcerer. Should be able to avoid too much overlap with oyzar in terms of spellcasting.

As for past ties, I like the idea of going with “we all knew each other in Port Peril” or “we’re related.”
Both are good for me.

Man, it's been a long time since I've rolled up a Pathfinder character :p

So, Phntm888 is an arcane caster, Chess has a ranged skillmonkey, and oyzar's going melee. Given that mix, I'm tempted to opt for a wild shape focused druid, especially for the synergy with a skald. (If the group thinks caster focused would be better, I could do that instead - not wedded to the wildshape build yet).

DM question: is the campaign water-focused enough for an aquatic animal companion to make sense, or would it still be sidelined a fair amount of the time?

A good pick would be the titanoboa from the bestiary 6 or some amphibious animal