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I love the ideas, and I did leave a detail out. The bard in the group stepped up and took the heat, claiming he started the mutiny. I’m not adverse to killing off a PC, I always ask my players to have a backup ready. The bard does have a PC childhood friend in the party with him, his death would be a great motivator. Also the fact the swash having to live with a death he inadvertently caused.

Some of the Rahadoumi also did manage to take a boat, they could be floating dead from crossbows or magic. I love the follow the leader idea, and the party may be able to use that boat. The bard may have a peg leg in his future instead of death. If I were to use the lifeboat, and not sink the Man’s Promise, maybe both boats wash up on Bonewrack? Potentially returning some old crew mates. A full day head start might make that a possibility.

Typing this response while also thinking on your excellent suggestions. Sorry if my words are a bit incoherent and jumbled. Thanks a ton for the advice, it’s always good to take a dip outside your own mind every now and then.

This will contain spoilers for Book 1 in Skull & Shackles AP, don't read any further if you want to avoid the info.

The group has been talking mutiny aboard the Wormwood, naturally. We've made it to the Man's Promise and they were given their orders to take the sterncastle and hold it. Round 3 comes around in the combat, and I single out one of my players about a sailor sneaking up behind Captain Barnabas. He ignores it, Barnabas deals with the sailor in one swoop and vanishes inside the captain quarters of the Man's Promise.

Now the same player, who was just released from the sweatbox for killing two sailors, decides he wants to ignore the sterncastle and calls for a retreat back to the Wormwood. He hopes to gather their friends aboard the Wormwood. He also goes to tie a rope around the door and stick his rapier in the handles of the captains quarters, hoping to trap Barnabas in there. I allowed a few rounds of confusion, some allies backing up quicker than others. He seemed surprised when I told him some loyal to the captain were going to untie the knot (not that Barnabas needed the help).

They managed to cut the grappling hooks keeping the two boats together amidst the confusion. They knew the Wormwood was the faster ship, they were hoping to get away. Barnabas came out and laid out an ultimatum to everyone, saying he'd spare everyone if the one who lead the mutiny stepped forward. Barnabas and the Swash PC tied on Intimidate/Diplomacy to sway opposing sides, both rolled a 39, using Hero points.

Here we are, the PC's and allies aboard the Wormwood. Barnabas and a big list of his crew on the Man's Promise. Grappling hooks were only finished being cut 1-2 rounds ago. Peppery has access to quite a few offensive spells she could use to destroy most of the opposing crew (fireball, ice storm, lightning bolt). Barnabas I can see easily jumping the gap between the ships with his +24 Acrobatics.

My thoughts are Barnabas is going to jump over to the Wormwood and capture them if possible, and have them kneel down Walking Dead Neegan style. More than likely this will result in at least 1 PC death, maybe a few friendly NPC's also. Poking for ideas from fellow GM's. The group understandably was upset the plan didn't work, and I couldn't help by second guess some of my decisions. After thinking on it more though, it felt like a rushed and desperate plan.

It repeatedly references this coast as the western all throughout the book. Someone must have had the map upside down at certain times writing this. They got North and South right though.

Reading through the first book of The Way of the Wicked. Daveryn is repeatedly referred to as a western port. The city is on the east side of the island, anyone else notice this? Any explanation for this I’m not seeing? Or possibly just an oversight by the authors.

There was another guard up there who he successfully intimidated with a nat 20. Also, he killed the guard with a rock, making it look like it was done by the giants. They are well known heroes in the town, so the intimidate went a lot further.

A unnamed town was being attacked by giants who throw rocks! PC’s are on the wall dealing with the threat from range. A Guard cowering and screaming while taking cover behind the wall. PC CN Rogue kills the guard just to stop the screaming. (Using Syrinscape for audio, muted the screams out once this happened). I believe this to count as an evil act, should I knock his character down to CE for this? What are your thoughts.

I’m relatively new to DMing, this is the only group I’ve done it for. Going on 2-3 years now. I’ve never had to adjust anyone’s alignment before.

I did see it somewhere but can’t remember where, sorry no access to the book atm. I believe it was an action that allowed a 5ft step without provoking any reactions, someone correct me if I’m not remembering fully or correctly.

On page 17 of the PT rulebook, it states “If she is carrying a total amount of Bulk that equals or exceeds 5 plus her Strength modifier, she is encumbered.”

On page 175 under Bulk Limit, “You can carry an amount of Bulk equal to 5 plus your Strength modifier without penalty; if you carry more, you gain the encumbered condition.”

So with a Str modifier of 1, my bulk limit would be 6. Encumbered at 6 or 7 Bulk, what does everyone think?

I guess I’ll add in some preferences for my PC’s also. Currently Elf Rogue, Elf Witch, Dwarf Fighter, Half-Orc Druid and soon to be Ranger it sounds like another friend is joining up. Medium progression until 6 then we go to slow. They are heavy into combat and character builds. Rp is something they enjoy also, to much of it though and they start getting antsy. Edit: When I say RP, I just mean any encounters that don’t involve kicking somethings teeth in or puzzle solving really.

Very cool ideas, way more than I expected. I like it, thanks! Has my mind turning a whole bunch of new directions now. Always great to get other minds in the mix!

Fairly new to running tabletop now, trying out a home brew campaign for the first time. All I’ve run in the past are Pathfinder adventure paths. I’ll skip a lot of details to keep this easier but I’m prepping for session 2 now and would love help brainstorming.

Last week we started off with PC’s already friends arriving at a City for a festival/competition. 3 of the 4 pcs were in 3 seperate competitions, archery, melee and magic. During the magic trial a demon was summoned unknown to the young npc who did it and was slain. 2 other portals were opened at the other 2 games to cause chaos.

A member of the Arcane Society helped set it all up with the help of a shape shifting demon (Gallu) who walks the city as a human. 4 demons escaped the city, (Yaenit, Schir, Hala, Vermlek). Yaenit will overtake Gnoll tribe, Schir will be his lietenant, Hala creates storms and abducts people in an outlying village, Vermlek took over Npc corpse that had been killed in original summon.

Arcane Society member leaving city hoping to pass as missing person as Gallu demon remains in city abducting people to bring to him to convert/torture to increase power with cult. A Pc is being mentored by another member of the Arcane Society also, thinking of using him as a false lead somehow.

Baphomet might be my end game Demon Lord villain behind it all, not sure. Right now the PCs have only dealt with initial invasion and sent on a side quest to eliminate spiders chased out of woods by the demons/gnolls.

Any help brainstorming, changes to current hooks or future hooks. Anything at all to help get this campaign rolling in a higher gear. Thanks

Thanks for all of the replies. I've read them all and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have talk with him outside game about it all. This whole ordeal is partially my fault for not explaining alignment well enough nor consequences and limitations of intimidate.. I'm sure we'll get past it and the party is only level 2. I'll go over it all with him and then try to get him a little more invested in the character he built rather than rolling dice and intimidating. Him and his girlfriend both joined in late, she seems to be enjoying it and getting a lot more involved than him. But there's still work to be done in getting them more informed with everything. Tough to do when neither of them have been bringing their character sheets home with them though.

Thank you both, I think I know how I'll go about it. I'll explain intimidate has its uses in combat. Talk to him about people becoming unfriendly and other possible consequences. Both of you have been very helpful, and I am giving him the option for right now to change his character around as he learns the game. So if he decides he doesn't want those ranks in it, I'll let him change it out. I don't want to dissuade him from keeping it, just explain to him if he keeps it up people aren't going to act to kindly towards him.

Is he roleplaying or just making intimidate rolls?

You should ask him to roleplay how he does it before rolling to see what he says to people and making NPCs react properly. An intimidate check might be the character threatening the NPCs but it might also be more subtle. Depending on what he's doing NPCs should react. Even if they are too scared to do something at that moment it doesn't mean that the NPC doesn't tell others about the PC's behavior or try to have that character punished.
Intimidating is not necesarily unlawful. Actually, many leaders rule with fear. But openly doing it has consequences. Just be consequent.

I do ask him to tell me how he is saying it each time. It's usually "give me a better deal or else" to the Sheriff it was "Would you shut up before I make you". Now I'm not sure how I want to punish him if I do, being it's his first time playing. Maybe I'll just warn him about consequences being a thing in table top rpgs. I also don't want to ruin his first experience playing either.

I was thinking of a merchant's guard tripping him in the streets and eyeing him up. Or guards telling him they are keeping an eye on him. He might just get enjoyment out of it, any getting tripped my provoke him to attack. He can be a bit of a hothead at times.

I'm a new DM, my first session was roughly a month ago. Started off playing with 3 friends at first, and then 2 more eventually jumped on board. One of the newer additions decided to make a monk, this is his first time ever playing any sort of table top game but he is very familiar with video game rpg's. Monk has always seemed to be his default since Everquest.

Anyway to the point, he's a LN monk and uses intimidate every chance he gets. Running Rise of the Runelords and the first thing he did upon getting to Sandpoint was intimidating every merchant he encountered for a better deal. The Sheriff would like to talk to them? Nope he intimidates the Sheriff with a high roll to shut up. Now it seems like this is going to continue, I feel there should be some negative consequences for this. Would constantly intimidating affect his Lawful alignment?

Keep in mind, this is also a very good friend of mine. I realize this is all new to him and maybe I should sit down and talk to him about it. Or maybe there isn't even an issue at all, like I said I'm a first time DM. Any input is appreciated. Thanks