Discussion thread! Discuss the piratey things!
Hmmm... got some editing to do.
Oh, Carlos...ss... XD
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Mechanics time!
Every day I will roll randomly on a table to see what your daily task is! There's a different table for the rigger, for the cook's mate, and for the swabs. Each job has a skill or ability check that goes with it. You are welcome to take 10 on these checks, but there are penalties for failure so bear that in mind when making that choice!
A lot of your day is taken up by your tasks on the ship. But not all of it! Aside from your daily task based on your position, you will also have time to perform two Ship Actions, one during the day and one at night. You can also attempt up to two additional Ship Actions in the dead of night, but this has two risks: first, the possibility of getting caught and punished; and second, you will need to make a Constitution check or be fatigued the next day.
So what kinds of Ship Actions can you perform? Here are some examples, which are by no means exhaustive. You give me something you want to try to do and we'll make it happen (or make the attempt happen, anyway).
[u]Daytime Ship Actions[/u]
Work Diligently: Gain a +4 bonus on any one check for a job's daily task.
Influence: Make normal checks for a job's daily task and attempt to influence a single NPC.
Sneak: Make normal checks for a job's daily task and briefly explore one area of the ship (generally one Perception or other skill check).
Shop: Take a -2 penalty to your job's daily task to visit the ship's store. You can purchase goods (once you have money again).
Shirk: Take a -2 penalty on all checks for a job's daily task and take time exploring a single area of the ship. As Sneak, but you may take 20 instead of rolling or taking 10.
[u]Nighttime Ship Actions[/u]
Sleep: Go to bed early and sleep through the night (automatically recover from fatigue).
Gamble: Play or gamble on a game of chance or pirate entertainment (more on those once we reach nighttime in-game).
Entertain: Make one Perform check to entertain the crew.
Influence: Attempt to influence one NPC.
Sneak: Take time exploring one area of the ship. You can take 20 on a single Perception or other skill check, but must also attempt a Stealth check to avoid being seen.
Steal: Attempt to open a locked door or locker. You must also attempt a Stealth check to avoid being seen.
As to the other crew members, you have probably noticed several are openly hostile to you and others are entirely neutral. Mechanically, this means that with the notable exception of Sandara Quinn, everyone on the ship is either Indifferent, Unfriendly, or Hostile. When you roll checks to influence a given crewmate with your Ship Action, you will roll Diplomacy to improve their attitude toward you. Good RP (and sometimes certain personality quirks that can be discovered and exploited) will grant you bonuses to the checks. While making friends on a pirate ship might not feel like a priority, necessarily, it might come in handy further down the road. You never know!
That's a lot to take in, so feel free to hit me up on Discord with any questions!
You can post your rolls when you respond to my current Gameplay post. The game also assumes that these NPCs' attitudes apply to the whole party, not just individuals. Which probably doesn't make a ton of sense right off the bat, but once you four start meshing as a group down the line it's slightly more understandable.
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Okay so two things.
First, now that you can relax and start getting to know people, I've made a handy little spreadsheet that gives their names, pronouns, and a brief description of each, as well as their job (rigger or swab, or officer position) and their current attitude toward the PCs. (Ignore the column on "Trainable Skills;" I'm still working on that.)
You can find the spreadsheet here!
I also included pages for loot, once you start finding that. It will automatically calculate total weight, market price, and sell price, based on how many you have in the Numbers category. If you don't want to use this sheet and would rather use your own methods of loot tracking, that's fine! It honestly didn't take very long to set up so it's not a big loss. :)
Second, you've made it to nightfall!
Nighttime on the ship is for dinner, relaxing, and taking your rum ration.
[u]Rum Rations[/u]
Rum rations function similar to other drugs in Pathfinder. They have the possibility of addiction. It's a relatively low Fortitude save to avoid, but it is possible. Rum rations are required on ships because they're laced with citrus juices to ward off scurvy. Refusing your nightly rum ration is punishable by three lashes.
Drinking a rum ration requires a DC 5 Fortitude save to avoid addiction. Regardless of your save, it grants you a +1d4 bonus to Charisma-based checks for one hour, and causes you to be fatigued for 1d8 hours. It also deals 1d3 Constitution damage.
Now, here's where I'm going to deviate from the script a bit, because as you can imagine, that can cause you to build up some serious Con damage pretty quickly with a few bad rolls, and you only heal 1 per day without complete bedrest (not likely to happen on a pirate ship). So I'm going to rule that a successful Fort save cuts the Con damage in half, rounded down (minimum 0 damage). However, each time you drink another rum ration within an hour of the last one increases the Fort DC by 2.
With that out of the way, let's move on to those crazy games pirates play!
[u]Arm Wrestling[/u]
Burlier sailors love feats of strength, and arm wrestling is common as entertainment on ships. Pirates, however, have to be freaking extra about literally everything, so pirate arm wrestling has an element of danger.
During an arm wrestling match, the two opponents lock hands and place elbows on a surface, usually a barrel. The rest of the surface is then covered in nails, broken glass, caltrops, or some other sharp, painful substance. The participants make opposing Strength checks while those around them place bets (copper and silver are common, though it can go up to a gold piece if someone's feeling frisky). The winner wins; the loser takes an amount of damage equal to 1d2 + the winner's Strength modifier.
[u]Hog Lob[/u]
Participants lob a lead ingot covered in greased pigskin, called the "hog," across the deck in an attempt to throw it the farthest, while others place bets on the participants, which can be any number of two or higher. Bets are placed before each round of the game. Then, each participant makes a ranged attack roll. The hog is an improvised weapon, imposing a -4 penalty to the roll (unless you have the Throw Anything feat). The participant with the highest roll throws it the farthest and wins the round.
[u]Heave[/u]
This potentially deadly drinking game is played with rum and takes place between any number of pirates, who bet to predict the winner beforehand. Each pirate drinks a half pint of rum in one swig. Doing so forces participants to make a successful DC 15 Fortitude save, because the rum is drunk so quickly, and deals 1d3+1 Con damage (halved on a successful save as normal). This DC increases by +3 for each consecutive drink. Failure by 10 or more means the pirate passes out. Pirates then take turns drinking until only one is left standing. Some tales tell of entire crews drinking themselves to death through this game, leaving ships of drunk ghosts wandering the shipping routes.
Some notes on spellcasting underwater!
Casting underwater is tough without the ability to breathe water; you need to make a concentration check (DC 15+spell level) or lose the spell. So Oduim is fine, but Draxxie or Carlosss will need a spell like air bubble or water breathing to cast normally.
The rules don't mention sound-based effects like Inspire Courage or Raging Song. It's a common misconception that sound doesn't travel well underwater, but the problem is that humans aren't really designed to hear down there, so a lot of it gets lost. It makes for a weird place to try and adjudicate sound-based spells and effects in water.
For sake of ease, I'm going to rule that you can use effects like Raging Song, but you'll use two rounds of air instead of one for the action, because you're purposefully expelling air every round. Also, Raging Song will only affect those above water (if Draxxie is above water) or only those below water (if she's below water). Sound has a hard time transitioning between different modes of conveyance (e.g. air to liquid or air to solid) so I'm ruling the ability loses its power in the process.
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Fun fact: coffee will give Asami full fighting strength. Per Ultimate Equipment: "This drink is brewed by pouring boiling water through crushed, roasted coffee beans. Two cups is potent enough to reduce the penalties from the fatigued condition from –2 to –1 for 1 hour."
Um...I originally intended for Oduim to be a coffee addict. Anyone happen to read the 'other gear' spoiler on his character sheet?
Air Tank, pressurized (60/minutes)
Backpack
Belt Pouch
Blanket
Coffee Pot
Coffee, Mwangi (91 cups worth)
Fishing kit (tackle/hooks/pole)
Flint & Steel
Holly & Mistletoe
Mess Kit
Pot
Soap
Spell Component Pouch
Torch (x10)
Trail Rations (x5)
Waterskin
2 copper pieces
Nice!
HA! Take that, Krine!
You totally have enough time to brew up a pot before the battle.
Where's Sandara gonna be? If she's staying behind, I'm not gonna drag her along, but if she's crossing ships anyway...
Oh she's definitely crossing. Only Caulky stays behind; her life sucks enough without adding combat into the mix.
The only ones who aren't available are:
Officers (including Ambrose)
Caulky (hiding)
Owlbear (meat-shielding for Plugg)
Samms and Jape (helping Ambrose with a task)
Anyone else, including Sandara, is available to join you.
Rad. That's my vote; I don't care who else we get.
I say Jack as well then. Better to keep those we care more about closer than farther where more random bad s+@@ can happen.
Rad! If I don't hear a different vote before tomorrow, I'll go ahead and move forward with Jack and Sandara with you.
Tactically it may be a mistake to bring a young lad with little combat experience instead of a hardened salt - but as a character-building thing to do it's totally cool ;)
Little combat experience and a recently-removed hand, even. They probably shouldn't even be sending him over, quite yet, but no one said Scourge was good at his job!
All the better reason to keep him close. GM does he or Sandara have armor and if so what kind?
Cause if mage armor gives them a boost, he’d use his cast on that for them.
Sandara has no armor on immediately, but she'd wave off the casting, having her own spells to protect herself with. And a little peak behind the curtain, Jack has the exact same statistics as every other member of the crew save a couple special cases that have their own stat blocks. So he's got his own armor and weapons, the problem is that he doesn't have his dominant hand. He's going to be swinging at a penalty for quite some time.
Little combat experience and a recently-removed hand, even. They probably shouldn't even be sending him over, quite yet, but no one said Scourge was good at his job!
Even if he was competent, he'd probably still send Jack over just to be a dick. In his douchey brain, Jack is, like most of the crew, expendable -- moreso now that he's been permanently injured. They can always just kidnap more warm bodies at port, after all. Not exactly efficient, but Scourge is about as bright as a 3-watt bulb.
Sandara looks like a shoe-in but there seems to be some hesitation on bringing Jack. Do we have a vote for someone else? If not, Jack it will be!
My hesitation on Jack is purely "he shouldn't be sent over in the first place"; if he's getting sent over, we may as well keep him close enough to keep an eye on him.
I'm good with sending Jack.
Draxxie may raise an eyebrow at Carlosss asking for him, but her mind's on the fight and the prize.
Jack it is! Will post shortly.
Hey, quick q: does the Scent ability work underwater? Alter Self lets me grab a swim speed and scent, if I can find a Small or Medium humanoid with both.
Shark says yes ;)
Sadly not a humanoid :(
Estelle has a working solution - see Discord :)
I have you with 21 max hp, not 20?
The extra 2 hp is because you had Inspired Rage on you.
I have 10 HP for 1st level (8 hp +2 Con mod), then another 10 for 2nd level because you rolled max, +1 hp for FCB at 2nd (1st level was an extra skill point). Did I goof somewhere?
I am travelling today, but should be able to post tomorrow :)
Hey GM, think you can do better? ;)
...Please do better.
Dice-bot's gotta average out somehow :)
One, those are placed to be hidden under her clothes so SHAME ON DRAXXIE! :P
Hey, it doesn't say that on her sheet :p
And Draxxie would totally loot the body anyway XD
... WOW.
That is just...
Oof.
No worries! The only thing riding on this is fun, and there are plenty of ways to have fun between posts!
Always good to have you back~
Welcome back, bud
Oof. The dicebot has been unkind on my end! Glad to have you back Oduim!
It's entirely possible my math is wrong but it looks like you've overspent by 2 skill points? I will double check. Are the skill bonus totals on your sheet including the ACP from your hide shirt and shield? Might account for why the numbers are off on my end.