Drakir2010's page

I used to be all up-to-date on what's kosher and what's not on the Paizo messageboards, but thanks to things changing in life I'm not here much anymore... As a result, if it's uncool that I'm sending traffic to my Instagram, please accept my humble apologies and lock my thread.
Canadian advanced apology out of the way...
I figure some of the folks here might like to see the Flooded Cathedral in all its 3D printed glory. Please feel free to take a gander and let me know what you think. Potential for minor spoilers, but I don't think it's too bad.

Hi folks,
my nephew is getting into gaming, and I want to gift him the CR PDF. I can't seem to add the PDF to my cart. Can someone point me to the right means to do so?

Well, my campaign just took a strange turn.
There's a "prefab" encounter in The Lost Colony about a local sahuagin skulking about in the bushes outside Talmandor's Bounty. My party found him, captured him, negotiated his release with the local sahuagin baron, and hosted an entire delegation (it didn't go well. The colony has to donate "two sharks worth" of meat to the sahuagin at the dark of the moon every month in exchange for not wiping the colony out. The party can't WAIT to feel ballsy enough to "renegotiate")
Only problem... There wasn't any reference to that original sahuagin having any kind of air-breathing apparatus, and as I'm relatively unfamiliar with them I just presumed they were amphibious.
This evening I discovered the truth and I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, I need to do about this. Perhaps all the sahuagin we've encountered on land had Necklaces of Air Adaptation? That's about 40k of loot that wandered through town and no one really noticed... I'm more leaning toward the cop-out of this particular tribe being amphibious mutants... Anyone have a more interesting solution?
Loving the AP BTW, we're about halfway through module 2. Anyone have theories for why this campaign doesn't seem to be as popular as some of the others?

Hopefully will come back to them soon, but for the moment I need all of my subscriptions cancelled. Thanks!

Thank you Misroi!
This is the kind of horse's mouth info I had hoped to get (even if I find the concept of a "dead name" less liberal than I believe a racially diverse magical world would develop).
Now I have to hunt down Crystal's thread for any other guidance on this module. :)

I am afraid I don't see any mention of Rexus being averse to his birth name. To the contrary, I infer that he would be very open about his time as a girl and his younger identity.
I see no signs that Rexus' time as a female was troublesome or traumatic. He is described as exuberant and secure. His transition reads as being slightly rough, but no more so than the Viking child who chooses not to pillage or any other such "not as society expects" outsiders.
In fact, Rexus' tutor is described as being very open in his/her transexuality. I imagine Rexus would be similarly as open (I'm debating naming the tutor, should it ever come up, Ziggy Stardust in male persona:).
I've chosen to make his birth name Alexa, as I feel it is just similar enough to his current name while being distinct.

I apologize if this is answered somewhere else, but I can't seem to find it. Was Rexus' name always Rexus, or did he take the name Rexus when he transitioned? I'm having one of my players be a long-term childhood friend turned love interest.

I just noticed this thanks to the blog... Is it too late to "pre-order" and get the subscriber incentives?

Mythraine wrote:

Off Topic:

Can you please link to the Cardstock ship you used?

I'm not sure if this is the one Drakir2010 was talking about, but Rob McCreary put together this one for our in-house Skull & Shackles campaign.

That is indeed the one I used. Don't let the size of it intimidate you if this is your first time. I'd never even done a single cardstock wall before, and yet I wound up with a showpiece.

bugleyman wrote:

The squares on this map aren't actually an inch; they're ~4% too small. Perhaps not a big deal to some, but since I regularly mix flip mats, several different brands of tiles, and other one-inch-grid-based accessories, it's problematic for me. Regretfully, I won't be picking up anything else in the line until the problem is corrected, so I'm posting here in the hopes that it can be.

Shameless bump. I'd really like to know if this has been corrected for the rest of the line...

I believe it has not. I grabbed a ruler and my two latest flip-mat classics last night (city streets and prison) and found that both were smaller than true inch squares.

Ok, dramatic presentation of my choice, Skull and Shackles (I seem to be the only one so far...).
I posted a retrospective not too long ago on the S&S board that sums up the majority of my reasoning, but in summary:
1) Vast selection of fascinating NPCs. There are characters in there that my players and I will remember forever.
2) Many opportunities for peripheral show off bits. There's a cardstock sailing ship available that took months for me to construct, but took my player's breath away. Additionally, we constructed several others using insulation foam and flip mats. Pirate maps. Character-specific miniatures. Chests of gold... We always got to play with props.
3) An appropriately big scope, without being world-shaking. While my future adventures in Golarion will likely reflect what has happened in our various adventures, a new Hurricane King is an easier thing to accommodate than, say, the absence of the Worldwound.
4) For my group, an ideal blend of railroad and sandbox. We have previously completed Kingmaker, and attempted Carrion Crown. We found that Kingmaker wasn't suited for our gaming style, because we didn't have enough continuity to pick up a thread months after we first heard it. Meanwhile Carrion Crown moved along at such a pace, players who missed a session were left confused ("Wait, migo? I thought we were dealing with Frankenstein's monster...") S&S by contrast had nice easy-to-summarize chapters that flowed smoothly from one to the next.

Skull and Shackles

How about this one?

Ebay is also an option.

Wow... I don't know how you found that Hawkmoon. I spent at least half an hour trying different searches and going 5 pages of results deep to try to find something. Regardless, a big thank you for that!

Sigh... Being Canadian is brutal sometimes...
Even trying to follow the very helpful pointers in this thread (sincerest thanks for the help, everyone:) is totally stymied.
Bigger lots? Not on Canadian Amazon.
Ship from American Amazon? Not allowed.
Alternative Canadian company? I don't think they exist.
Alternative American company? Shipping is almost as high as the purchase price!
If I was American, I could sleeve a whole AP comfortably for $60-$80.
For me, the baseline price is going to be $120, and that's before I apply our terrible currency conversion.
Going to go cry in my Timbits... ;)

Oops. Yeah I was specifically looking for the clear ones from the S&S box. While they sell for about $11.45 for a pack of 200 on amazon.com, they sell for $10.98 for a mere 100 on amazon.ca. There just doesn't seem to be a reasonably priced equivalent in the Canadian market. Do we have a tariff on clear plastic or something?

So the sleeves included with S&S are out of stock, and it appears they have been for quite some time. What's the current "closest approximation"?

Switching GMs isn't always easy, and that was part of why I refer to Aberdeen as my "Mary-Sue" character. I made him very alien to the Shackles because I didn't want to turn him into a knowledge crutch. Luckily, I had read the entire AP when they were first released, and we started actually playing about a year later, so I'd had the chance for the specifics to fade from my memory. For instance, I knew that there was a "right" and a "wrong" eye to get into the Sahuagin Tunnels in Mancatcher Cove, but I couldn't remember which was which, so I was able to play as ignorant as all the others. My other GM is a bit of a forgetful guy, so he tended to read what he needed to know (only modules 2 and 4), and not much else. If he hit on any spoilers, he didn't ever let them influence him that I noticed (and also, there's not a lot of spoiler possible in the AP, once one knows the basic plot. I'm sure some other APs would be worse for that).

As for Fort Scurvy, Mr. Nelson told me in March that it was a bit of a backburner project, but he hoped to have it ready for GenCon. I don't think that happened though...

A lot of the pirate council votes followed what is written in the module for negative consequences. For instance, they failed to successfully prevent the public funds from building statues of Kerdak Bonefist in every port. I had to be very aware that the numbers on the plunder selling table were made more difficult for the balance of the campaign. And for flavour, every time their ship put in to port, I made a point of telling them how many resources were clearly being squandered on the as-yet-unfinished statues (the pirate senate swiftly abolished the statues once they took power). And though it didn't come to it, and I wasn't yet using a point-based fleet narrative, if they had failed to get Tessa's motion through, I'd have assigned a heavy negative to points for their fleet.

I haven't found a good fleet battle alternative, but I don't think it would be too hard to create one. I'd start by figuring out a baseline, say 1 point/ship in a squadron. So a Mercenary Squadron would be worth 3 points, say. I'd put in some modifiers based on the squadron's military capability... So a fleet of warships gets a bonus point per 2 ships. And then I'd find other things the PCs can do that would help or hinder them, and assign point values based on those values I found squadrons to be worth. Say, losing Tessa's proposal is worth -10 points, and a particularly valuable magic item, like a lord's banner/pirate flag would be worth 1 point. Lastly, I'd create maybe one or two "set piece" encounters to replace the time spent in the fleet battle. So, for instance, I'd make a quick deck plan and an NPC Codex crew for the Reefspider (flag ship of the Reefspider Squadron in Harrigan's fleet). I'd offer the PCs the opportunity to assault the ship directly while the fleet battle was ongoing. It would allow the PCs to feel pretty badass as their relatively powerful abilities let them mow through a pirate ship, plus force them to choose whether they really want to use their most powerful abilities now, or against the Wormwood in a short time, when they won't have time to rest and all their buffs will have worn off. I'd assign a pretty hefty bonus number of points if they finish off the Reefspider decisively, but slim or nil if it takes them a while to do it. Then I'd total how many points the PCs could reasonably achieve, and set out a table, like the Regatta had, for varying degrees of success. One shouldn't need more than 3...
1 point to 1/3 of total: The PCs are very nearly defeated. Their fleet is in ruins, their allies are dead, and their own ship is virtually destroyed... However, the battle hurts the Wormwood's fleet too. With a last bit of luck (I've admitted when discussing this method elsewhere, I'm very fond of the "A beloved NPC ally sacrifices themselves to make this last chance possible" trope), the PCs ship is thrust bow to gunnels with the Wormwood, and the PCs get their chance to yank victory from the jaws of defeat. The PCs take a -2 morale penalty to all the good stuff while the final combat takes place.
1/3 of total to 2/3 of total: A victory! Harrigan's fleet is turned back, and the PCs run down the Wormwood. Boarding action begins! No bonus or penalty.
2/3 of total and up: Decisive victory! The enemy fleet breaks upon the solid rock that is the PCs well armed, well prepared, and dashingly gorgeous fleet. Now, all that is left is to board the heeling Wormwood, and take her captain's head! This time, the PCs get a +2 morale bonus to all the good stuff. Yay!

After my group finished the Skull and Shackles campaign last month, I sat down to write a retrospective. I wanted to go over what worked, what didn't, and what things were really interesting. It's a long read, but I figured the folks here may be interested in reading how my group did it, from beginning to end.

It took us almost 2 years, but another campaign has faded to black. The lowly landlubbers who were press-ganged into service aboard the Wormwood after a bit too much fun at the Lusty Mermaid have been instrumental in protecting the Shackles from the most serious Chelish threat in the last 50 years, and then overthrown the long-reigning Hurricane King in order to put the Free Captain of their choice upon the throne. They each hold positions of power in the Pirate senate, placing them only slightly beneath the Hurricane King himself in terms of their influence and prestige. Let's take a look back over the campaign, the game itself, and the stuff we did, shall we?

Characters

We had quite a few characters who ran with the crew from start to finish. And we had a few that fell behind.

Captain Testudo: A survivor of the entire campaign, a polearm style fighter who happened to be just likable enough to serve as the captain of the crew. By times, a shrewd wheeler-dealer, for some reason he chose not to focus on the boarding pike, but instead on the ranseur. This meant that the weapon found in the Black Tower had to be changed for convenience' sake, but that's what a GM is all about. He died at least once, but luckily had enough plunder reserved that his loyal crew never even knew...

Raijuhiro: Also lived through the whole campaign. A Tien monk, who had come to the Shackles after deciding his homeland no longer had the appeal it once had... Raijuhiro had inadvertently killed his sensei while arguing in favour of learning forbidden lore. After the accident, he had absconded with the scrolls detailing these techniques (which were the source for his unique combat powers). To preserve and protect the knowledge, he had the writings tattooed onto his body by one of the Shackles' best body artists. I'd intended to have there be a connection between him and Isabella "Inkskin" Locke (probably by way of the tattooist), but never figured out a way to fully develop this. Instead, ninjas from his homeland attempted several times to kill or capture him (ninjas vs. pirates, woo!). Eventually one of the Tien pirate lords, Lo Shei Wen, grew interested in the people passing through his port and made contact with Raijuhiro. In exchange for protection from the parties pursuing him and the pirate lord's military support during the Battle of Abendego, Raijuhiro traded the knowledge hidden in his tattoos to the pirate.

Jenny: Yet another survivor. A Changeling wave oracle, with a haunted past. Like all PC changelings, she had resisted the call to join her mother and become a true hag (sea hag, obviously). Her mother's wrath had destroyed Jenny's entire village in the form of a massive tidal wave (Jenny, the burgeoning oracle, was able to survive). I borrowed a page from Eberron when we were originally developing this backstory, and gave Jenny's mom a power-boost (plus a player surprise) by making her half-night hag (applying the half-fiend template). I suppose by rights that would mean Jenny could have had the fiendish template, but I justified not granting by virtue of having turned down her mother's hag blood, she also turned down her grandmother's fiend blood. In retrospect, it might have been interesting to tempt Jenny with the potential to unlock her fiendish ancestry by some sort of side quest... Regardless, what we had with Jenny was a lot of fun regardless. To further tie her in, I decided that Haetenga, the night hag pursuing her sister's heartstone on the Island of Empty Eyes, would be Jenny's grandmother (in retrospect, I wonder why Haetenga never appears...) A hag sister showed up on a ship captained by a coven to give Jenny some hints that her mother was still around. Pursuing another little changeling girl who was undergoing the Calling led to discovering her mother's name and that she commands a powerful warship that travels the entire Aryth Ocean (and had many levels of witch). When the group began to explore the island of Empty Eyes, Jenny realized that she was kin to Lodhotha, who had contributed the heartstone for Bikendi's transcendence ritual. Eventually, Jenny's mother, Shatanna, and her warship appeared near the island of Empty Eyes. Jenny's mother started right away with a tidal wave to try to destroy the fledgling settlement. I did some research into the actions of tidal waves to try to make it as authentic feeling as possible. Eventually the party captures Shatanna's ship and rechristened her as their new flag ship, the Pimp Daddy. Shatanna fled to be with her lover, Jenny's father, Gilbrock the Tongue. Jenny once again got the chance to face down Shatanna when the party took down Harrigan, but again Shatanna escaped. She hasn't been seen since, but Jenny uncovered evidence after the final battle that Shatanna was one of the sea hags responsible for Turpin Irons' defeat and the animation of Brinebones. All in all, a character I felt served the campaign extremely well.

Valeria: An undine witch, who also survived through the entire campaign. Unfortunately, because she would disappear for months of in-game time when my gamemastering partner was GM, I never got to develop an extensive character arc for her.

Aberdeen Littleguppy: My Mary-Sue character (kind of). An undine stormborn sorceror with the racial alternate ability to breathe water. He had an extensive back story that was never fully explored. Similar to Valeria, because he was only present for about half the campaign, the things I had in mind for him never had the chance to come to fruition (and I didn't feel I could GM with him present without turning him into the worst kind of Mary-Sue). Basically, his offshoot of the undine live in the depths far below the Eye of Abendego, hence his stormborn bloodline. He had fled his people when the rulership was overthrown. He had been raised alongside the prince, and was one of his physical duplicates in times of duress (think Padme and her handmaids, if you can bear to recall Phantom Menace). I had pictured an attempt to bring revolution to his people by posing as the dead prince after some time gathering power in the Shackles, but as I said, I'm not good with the Mary-Sue roles, plus it was just too far removed from the pirate aspect of the campaign to pursue. Maybe as a follow-on one-shot in future he can come to his friends for help.

Tommo: A falconer archetype human ranger. One of those who are no longer with us... He started off with some promise. There is a parrot named Pluck hanging around the Wormwood who is largely just a nuisance since his pirate died. Tommo adopted him and used him as the "falcon" part of his archetype. Unfortunately, Tommo was, I believe, separated from the party as they investigated Jasperleaf Apothecary in Tempest Rising. There are only so many direct hits one can take from an alchemist's bombs before the result is a pile of ash...

Korhil: an elf ranger. Retired from the campaign when one of our players stopped being able to attend regularly.

Draven: the rogue that replaced Tommo.

Accessories

We went through an interesting variety of accessories to make the game more appealing. Some were hits, and some were misses:

I printed out the ship icons located in the S&S player's guide, and mounted them on foamcore to make them relatively permanent. We didn't do a lot of ship-to-ship combat, so they didn't see much use in that sense, but they did come in handy a few times. Their most prominent use was during the naval warfare segments, when they could be grouped to form the various squadrons associated with the battle, making it easier to visually track damage and so on.

Similarly, I purchased the Skull and Shackles map pack, and created at least one cool accessory from that. The pack includes an 'in-universe' map of the Shackles, complete with frayed edges, strange monsters depicted on the edges of the ocean, and a ring where someone set down their rum on top of the map at some point. Grabbing a measuring compass from an old-fashioned arithmetic tools set meant that it was possible to actually lay out a course on the table in authentic "nautical" fashion. I wish I'd been able to find a good set of map pins to add to the process. Ideally, combining the pins and a nice place to store the map, my players would have been able to drop pins at sites of interest, and actually create a map of "Our Shackles" instead of "Paizo's Shackles". Alas, map pins are harder to find than you'd think.

Years ago, Games Workshop published a naval game called Dreadfleet. One of the players and I grabbed it at the time because even then we theorized we'd be doing Skull and Shackles one day. When I actually sat down and looked at the minis for the purposes of using them though, I was pretty disappointed. Most of the ships are either very specific to the Warhammer universe, or they "go to 11" in a way that I just find unworkable (thinking in particular of the ship with a 10 story castle on the stern). Ultimately, the only ship I actually put on the table was the ghost ship, which served well as the Deathknell. That said, there were some really nifty rocky islands in that set. In an ideal world, I'd have done more ship-to-ship combat, and been able to use them to make for interesting strategic terrain.

Paizo's Skull and Shackles miniature set was invaluable. It was very gratifying to be able to drop a bone fisted corsair on the table for Kerdak Bonefist, or a pistol wielding half-orc for Tsadok Goldtooth. And Brinebones... So pretty. Really cool addition.

One of my players perfected the technique for turning battle scale maps into full scale ship models. The PCs first ship, once it was rechristened into the Phat Momma, was wonderfully represented on the table using a combination of printouts, pink insulation foam, and white glue. Going forward, I'd probably use some Ikea dowels or something similar to stabilize the layers as they stack together, but now that the campaign is finished, I think the germ of that idea will just stagnate (I had hoped to do it for the Filthy Lucre, but never did so).

Partway through the campaign, I finally acted on the suggestion in the introduction matter for Tempest Rising, and invested in the Maiden of the High Seas from WorldWorks Games. Though I'd never done any paper crafting before, I am somewhat creatively minded and have plenty of patience when it comes to a project like this. The end results were, to put it bluntly, mindblowing. The Maiden was used to represent Shattana's vessel when she made her assault on the PCs stronghold, and was, of course, seized and turned into the PCs flagship. I went as all-out as possible, using the 3D boom kit-bash included with purchase. I still proudly display it in my geek room, and can't imagine how badly it would have failed by now if the booms were just 2D sheets. That said, it's kind of old in terms of card-stock technology. If a company were to produce such a ship now, making it robo-cutter compatible, and even better somehow fold-flat, I would be all over it, even without a pirate campaign on the go.

The same player who made the ship models (and also my substitute GM) began to play with Hirst Arts molds part way through the campaign. We still have some learning curve to get around when it comes to converting 2D walls on a map into 3D walls with real thickness, but we used it to build Tidewater Rock, and it was spectacular. Being on top of the tower meant the miniature was actually UP off the table, while the minis below looked like ants. Ants, I tell you! Unfortunately, expansion of the inventory available was derailed by a new addition to the family, but they seem to have an infinite lifespan (unlike the cardstock Maiden, for instance), so production can only expand!

It was only in the last portion of the campaign that the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game caught up to where we were in the plot. I played quickly with doing so, but in future I think it could be very handy to be able to show cards that represent the story's NPCs and notable goodies (I'm not sure how many of the original Wormwood's crew have cards, but it would be really handy as a memory jog. We had a lot of trouble keeping NPCs straight just based on names and descriptions).

External Items

I invested in a handful of additional resources to make the game more expansive. I think the ones I would have liked but skipped due to cash flow issues is larger than the ones I used.

I might have benefited from, but did not purchase, Pirates of the Inner Sea, Ships of the Inner Sea, and... I think there was one other...

I purchased Fire as She Bears from Malhavoc Press, and tried my best to blend Paizo's nautical movement rules with their "everyone on the ship has something to do" rules. It didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I think you need more Age of Sail class ships to make it feel right.

I did get the Islands of the Shackles reference. I found it was pretty helpful with fleshing out the Shackles, and because I knew what was "available" and what the AP was going to "use", I felt I had a larger toolkit to craft things. For instance, I'd have never known anything about the Tien Free Captains that were a part of Raijuhiro's plot without this book, because they are never mentioned in the AP.

I also got the Plunder and Peril module, but it was too late to use to replace or blend with Raiders of the Fever Sea, as it is meant to do. As a result, I set it aside without ever carefully reading it. Only on the day we finished the campaign did I open the included map and find that it has a comprehensive list of pretty much every major site in the entire AP. Oops!

I used quite a few Paizo map packs and flip mats to great effect. In several cases, the maps in question were published just for this AP, and in several others it was just a matter of being a perfect fit. Map Packs Lost Island, and Boarding Action were just useful for the occasional impromptu battle scene. flip mat pirate ship was turned into a 3D model of the PCs first ship (discussed elsewhere), and map pack ship's cabins served as the Wormwood. Although flip mat Waterfront Tavern is explicitly called out as the map for the Theater of Corruption in Price of Infamy, it was poorly explained and I wound up hand-waving the details. The bristly ship on one side of flip mat Warship served as the top deck of Abrogail's Fury, and since all the other ships had been more traditionally shaped, it really helped establish the "different-ness" that was the Chelish flagship.

And thanks to the generosity of Jason Nelson, I was able to review an early version of Legendary Games' upcoming product, Fort Scurvy. Should my players have decided that they wanted to do a direct assault on Fort Hazard, Fort Scurvy would have been what they found. Instead, they went with the path Paizo presented, letting Arronax, Tessa, and others storm the fort from the surface, while they snuck in from below and attempted to find Kerdak's secret anchorage before he could launch the Filthy Lucre. However, it helped me feel confident in presenting both options, meaning it really felt like it was their choice how they took on the final chapter, instead of being shoehorned into the only path I had maps for.

Plot revisions

My players largely followed the plot as written throughout most of the scenarios. We did yadda-yadda-yadda over the dinner party at the end of Island of Empty Eyes. It meant we lost a role-play heavy portion of the module, but as I have seen critiqued a few times in relation to this AP, there wasn't a lot of room for failure.

"It is assumed that the PCs will succeeed". I recall seeing this several places in the AP, and I kind of questioned that. I only hit on the appropriate solution (or more precisely, realized the solution was right there in the AP) when we were into part 6. It is this: If the PCs are assumed to succeed, plan the plot as if they will succeed. Instead, make their preparation, planning and skill contribute to the magnitude of their success. This is best illustrated by looking at the Free Captain's Regatta vs. The Battle of Abendego. Throughout the regatta, the PCs earn points toward their race score. In the end, they may get a decisive victory, with a huge side reward, or they may get second place, and then get bumped into first place due to a DQ. Meanwhile the Battle of Abendego used the cumbersome fleet battle rules (discussed elsewhere) and yet the actual "victory" hinges on the battle that takes place aboard Abrogail's Fury. What was the point of the fleet then? Instead, I would alter such things to remove cumbersome rules, and instead focus on a similar system of points to determine a resounding success or a Pyrrhic victory.

We used the infamy and plunder rules a little, but found they were a little tough to keep track of week after week.

The Wormwood Mutiny: The plot followed very closely to the module as written. I ignored the rum ration rules as written, in order to avoid having everyone die. The PCs warmed easily to the "good" NPCs and quickly grew to dislike the "bad" ones. Because of the charismatic oracle, the party was able to turn a large number of the indifferent and even unfriendly crew over. However, if I hadn't done a lot of preparatory work to have a full Excel spreadsheet detailing the crew ready to go in advance, it would have been a nightmare. That said, because each character is detailed in a way that makes them quickly unique and memorable, I felt that the Wormwood really did feel like it was alive with individuals, rather than faceless NPCs ready to be ticked off as casualties. The chore cycle worked well, and getting to gank Plugg and Scourge was a very satisfying reward. I'll still never understand why the name Phat Momma was chosen for the captured ship, but so be it.

Raiders of the Fever Sea: At this point, I stepped down from the GM chair and my substitute GM took over. I hadn't reviewed the module in quite some time, so I was playing largely ignorant of what was going to happen. I really wish I'd had access to Plunder and Peril during this module. The sandbox just felt too unfocussed, and we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. Once we hit Tidewater Rock, we had one of the most memorable combats of my player-tenure. The assault by the Thresher and Inkskin Locke against a full Hirst Arts molded tower was just great visually, and it put us back on the smoother railroad tracks we are more comfortable with.

Tempest Rising: Back in the GM chair for this one. The party had a spot of fun getting their Free Captaincy. Never ones to leave a stone unturned, they tracked down both the Brine Banshee and the Dryad's Grave (why not, since they cross from one to the other so easily anyway). The Free Captain's Regatta was a big hit, I believe.

Island of Empty Eyes: A bit more of a sandbox than Tempest Rising, but it was, I believe, just the right amount of one (again, I was playing, not GMing). It didn't devolve into the "I don't know; what do you think we should do next?" disorientation of Raiders. Everything through to the end of Sumitha was a great deal of fun. We glossed over the dinner party, which part of me feels was to our detriment. Some cool character development could have occurred. However, at this point we were becoming a little weary of the module. It had already reached at least one "end" when we completed Sumitha. Following on with another small chapter to reach the end just felt a little straining. The other GM chose what I felt was a reasonable level of success and related it to us. Of note, The Eel survived, and left me with a recurring villain to use a few more times as the campaign progressed. Alchemists are vicious! (He returned in The Price of Infamy).

The Price of Infamy: Another fun module. The Pirate Council was a great way to once again introduce NPCs, and have some real roleplaying fun. I had to take detailed notes on the outcome of the council votes, because I really wanted the implications of what was decided to be very far reaching. We found the fleet creation to be a lot of fun (although the Theater of Corruption/Waterfront Tavern was a bit confusing). However we found the fleet battle rules themselves to be tremendously swingy and just not that much fun for most of the people at the table. Giving each PC one squadron to roll for helped a little, but the guy whose squadron routed on the first turn still was bored. If I were doing it all again, I'd turn the entire fleet battle to narrative. The PCs will win, but they'll find their fleet decimated and most of their allies lost if they aren't fully prepared. Due to the weapon choices of the party's most martial character, Aiger's Kiss had to be turned from a sword into a ranseur. The Black Tower itself was a spectacularly fun delve, but I wish I'd remembered the forbiddance spell in the portal chamber. It would have had an effect on the outcome, but probably nothing significant. I took the time to gather bits and pieces and craft a few paper exterior walls to build Harrigan's Fortress in full glory. Jenny's mother Shatanna happened to be at home with Jenny's father, Gilbrock the Tongue, and the Eel was waiting to contribute to Harrigan's last stand. Shatanna escaped again, but the Eel did not. However, he once again nuked the character of the player who had already died to an invisible alchemist. To finish the campaign, he took control of Jackaw Razorbeak, who had surrendered earlier in the fortress. Jackaw lasted until the final confrontation with Kerdak...

From Hell's Heart: Once again, the fleet rules were too swingy to make things work properly. I basically fudged together a win for the party by calling in a couple of reinforcements I had been planning as a "just in case" (having been warned that this battle was brutal thanks to the Paizo messageboards). The one I most liked was having Besmara's Herald, Kelpie's Wrath, summoned when Sandara Quinn walked the plank of her own volition, making a sacrifice to draw her attention. The PCs managed to convince themselves that Kerdak's long life and blase attitude about the Chelish invasion were the result of a 40 year old infernal contract. Based on that, they and their allies agreed that Kerdak needed to be unseated, but instead of choosing one of my PCs, they chose Arronax Endymion to be the new Hurricane King. He, of course, agreed. Given the option, they chose to let Arronax, Tessa, and their other allies assault the surface of Fort Hazard, while they took the back route outlined in the module. We really, really enjoyed the under-world beneath the fort. The PCs wound up taxing almost all of their resources to the limits, without ever reaching the point where they had no choice but to back out to rest. Thanks to access to a large plotter, the entirety of the Hurricane King's Residence and the Filthy Lucre was presented on the table in a single evening. Because of the dynamic nature of the combat, I think this supremely helped to make the final showdown memorable. The PCs really felt like combatants could come from anywhere, instead of feeling like they would only come from the parts of the battlemap that had already been drawn. I wish I'd noted Hypatia's role as Kerdak's silent but ever-present companion far, far earlier in the campaign. It would have been far more interesting if she'd been sitting in the council meeting at the beginning of Price of Infamy, for instance. When Jackaw got killed just before the final battle, that player took over Tessa Fairwind, and had her join from the surface assault. And then Tessa died too. Thanks to a well-timed dispel, Kerdak wound up in the lagoon, and, well, Tessa's body was used to lure the dire sharks right to him. He got out, but by the skin of his teeth. A minute later, it was over, and the PCs joined the Shackles senate...

So that's kind of my take-away from this adventure path, the most successful I've ever been part of. I hope folks here can benefit from my little retrospective.

Thanks Sharaya,
It looks like I also have doubles of city streets and prison pre-ordered in my side cart. Can those be made into singles?

Darn. Looks like I'm going to have to retire Firefox for Paizo... I've disabled all of my plugins and looked through all the configuration options, but I still can't get in. It appears Microsoft Edge works fine though.

Hi Paizo
Flip mat classics are pretty awesome, but I seem to have gotten carried away with preordering. Can you adjust the order above and my side cart so that I am only going to get one of each flip mat classic?
Thanks!

Hi Paizo,
I have a problem, and I hope it isn't TLS related.
Whenever I attempt to access secure.paizo.com in any form (message boards, my account, my subscriptions...) on my tablet, I get:
secure Connection Failed
The connection to secure.paizo.com was interrupted while the page was loading.
- The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
- Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

This is happening on a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 running Firefox v40.0.2.

I'm able to do things from my iPad, like this post, but it's less convenient.

Any idea?

A while ago, Games Workshop published a game called Dreadfleet. it contained several miniature ships on a roughly equivalent scale to the ship-to-ship rules. A friend and I snapped it up because we planned to do S&S "some day" (and we expect to finish the AP before the end of summer!)
I have to actually UN recommend putting in any effort to locate this set. As seems to be the case with a lot of GW stuff, the miniatures are just too tied into the Warhammer universe to bypass my eye for detail. There's a pretty decent sailing ship, for instance, but it has a 5 story castle on the stern. I did get use out of the ghost ship, but it was the only one that I really liked.
That said, there are some pretty cool rocky islands and the like in there. If you want to add some extra tactical fun to ship-to-ship, drop a couple of those on the seascape.
And the mechanical squid ship may see some use in my upcoming Iron Gods campaign...

Dave Justus does a good job of justifying the necessity of fleet battles. I won't go into detail because I would likely just repeat him.

My group did run the fleet battles as written, and the summary we had of the need for them was "meh".

The morale element made battles tremendously swingy. My group was pretty harshly trounced in the opening round of the Battle of Abendego, and rightly so (50 ships meant for combat against a ragtag pack of about 35 things we could scrounge together? Even giving tremendous advantages for "home water", they still didn't stand much chance). Besmara's Herald was summoned when a tremendously loved NPC sacrificed himself to earn her aid and try to give them a fighting chance. I gave the Herald the same fleet capabilities as one of their lost squadrons, and if I hadn't claimed it had unbeatable morale, it would have immediately turned around and gone home on the next round. Then the dice spontaneously turned around, and the Chelish fleet pretty much disintegrated. I didn't keep an accurate count, but I'm pretty sure that my group actually took out three squadrons. The other six routed.

On top of that, there's a not-inconsiderable amount of bookkeeping involved, as each squadron has independent morale, loss count, and hits. Hits taken alter squadron stats, so you have to keep that in mind too. Also, some of the Lords of Hell have unfortunately similar names. I spent far too long trying to figure out if it was Mammon or Moloch that had routed.

Now what I have said is all about the Battle of Abendego, which we did two weeks ago so it is fresh in my mind. The Battle of Empty Eyes didn't have quite the swing when it ran, nor did the bookkeeping make me go cross-eyed. But do my players remember it as particularly exciting? I don't think so.

If I were to do it again, I would take a lesson from the way the Free Captain's Regatta was run as a game element. Hmm... Thinking as I type here... The Chelish invasion of the Shackles is going to fail, and the PCs will get their chance to face Druvalia toe-to-toe on the bridge of Abrogail's Fury. They don't need to know that... But exactly how dramatic/pyrrhic the victory is should depend on how well prepared the PCs and their allies are, as determined by a point-based system.

Points for:
- Number of squadrons/ships recruited
- Particular NPC allies (My PCs had worked really hard to get in good with the Master of Gales. He thrived at the edge of the Eye of Abendego)
- Access to particular spells/magic items
- Admiral/Commodores' charisma, leadership, profession (sailor)
- Research into Druvalia, Cheliax, the western navy
- Having defeated the more frivilous motions during the Pirates Council in the previous module
- Give those PCs listed in the OP as being capable of taking out Chelish ships "single-handedly" the chance to actually do so, running two or three assaults on the lead ship of individual squadrons, awarding points based on how decisive the victory is. I really like this idea, because the above examples (witch spells, cleric summons, etc) all use relatively precious higher-level abilities. Is it worth casting Cloudkill to kill the crew of Mammon's Spear? Or should I hold on to that 5th level spell for when we board Abrogail's Fury?

Then a sliding scale for victory:
0 points - The PCs' ship is the only one left. Maybe a single ally commodore routed and can be rejoined later, but the majority of the PCs' support in the Shackles are dead. The defenders on Abrogail's Fury get a morale bonus on all the good stuff in the final combat.
Half points - A major NPC sacrifice turns the tide of battle at the critical moment (I admit, I love this trope when conducting epic confrontations). That NPC is dead, but victory is ours! Proceed to capturing Abrogail's Fury.
Maximum points - A decisive victory! The armada breaks like surf on the rock that is the people of the Shackles. Now, the admiral herself must die! The PCs get the morale bonus in this case.

I think that would allow the plot to continue, the PCs to remain relevant, and avoid the unfortunate headaches that the fleet battle system seems to cause.

Hello Paizo,
I admit, this is probably because of the way I did things.
After I received the advanced warning about the above order, I added several things to my sidecart. Though several of the things are releasing this month (bigger flipmat, flipmat classics ship and tavern), they didn't show up on the "on its way!" email that I received last night, and they're still showing in my sidecart.
It's no problem to me if these don't ship until the July subscription shipment now, but I want to make sure that there won't be an issue with the "preorder to get the PDF free" promotion.

Hi Drakir2010,

There are several ways you can get the sounds going in the Syrinscape Players.

1) Each Player (Fantasy and Sci-Fi) comes with 2 free SoundSets so you can test them out, make sure they work on your machine, and see if you like them.

2) You can (as you mentioned) subscribe to all the content. This gets you permanent ownership of everything we release while you are a subscriber PLUS everything in the back catalogue unlocks while you remain a subscriber. You can buy 2 month blocks of subscription here at paizo and apply as many as you like to your account at syrinscape.com. The subscription blocks you buy here at Paizo don't automatically renew.

3) You can just buy individual SoundSets here as well. You pay once, and you own it forever.

Does that all make sense to you?

Feel free to ask more questions so I can clarify further. Also, check out syrinscape.com for lots more info (in the store and FAQ). OR ask questions at forum.syrinscape.com and users themselves can help you.

Ben

Thanks Ben,

That's exactly the kind of breakdown I have had trouble figuring out here on Paizo's site. You have a new (non-subscription) customer!

I sincerely love the concept of ambient gaming music. I'd love to experiment with this. However, can someone help me understand how the pricing model for Syrinscape works? As soon as I see the word "subscription", I get nervous, particularly with something gaming related.
You see, my group are all approaching dreaded midlife, and while we try to make our game take place every second week, we have young children, jobs, significant others, extended families, and any number of other things that cause us to miss sessions, sometimes several in a row. I don't want to start a subscription and then continue to pay when I'm getting no use out of the product. I see something about "keeping" packs, so I think there must be some aspect I'm not getting. Can anyone clarify for me what I get for what I pay?

My two cents on some of your questions:

- My players and I worked together to justify eliminating teleport in a way that I felt was pretty in-universe consistent: The deck of a moving ship is just too ambiguous to target with teleport effects beyond line of sight. It helps to justify why people are spending thousands of gold on ships instead of permanent teleport items: Because your enemies have a much harder time finding you when you're a moving target. We said that Teleport Without Error is powerful enough to overcome the limitation, but because the AP has such a low end-point, it hasn't become a serious issue (and we are only a session or two away from the finale). The few times they've felt the need to teleport to a known port, it meant that they'd have to organize a rendezvous to catch up to their ship, and hope that the ship and the teleporters actually make their rendezvous (which I felt had an appropriately nautical feel to it but adding a touch of magic).

- Humans is indeed a safe choice for a ranger's favoured enemy. Have a look in the S&S player's guide for other recommendations across all classes where a poor choice could hobble a class feature.

- We never had a significant problem with map distances. In fact, often the distances seemed a bit long. On a related note: I recommend checking out Paizo's Skull and Shackles map folio. There's an in-universe map of the Shackles in there that I don't believe is reproduced anywhere else. I mounted it on some cork board, and kept flag pins on hand throughout the game. Whenever the PCs discovered something, visited a city, or just wanted to say "neat rumour. Let's check it out if we ever get near there", they stuck a pin in the map. It has dozens of pins in it now, and the locations really mean something to the PCs. Add in a nautical protractor (like from a mathematical instruments set), and explain that the PCs' ship can travel x inches in a given day. Set the protractor x inches wide, and the players can start estimating their time travelled with a quite authentic feel.

- I'm not very familiar with 5e. I'd say take a look at the existing system, find the elements that are no longer part of the ruleset, and try to find a 5e equivalent. I'm afraid I can't be much more help, sorry.

- Just general advice: Try to give the PCs some personal story beyond wanting to be pirates. While it's true of any campaign, I found this one really lent itself well to developing personal plots because the adventures are such a healthy mix of railed and sandbox materials (honestly the best I've run or played, including Kingmaker).

So excited to get this! By amazingly fortuitous timing, my players will be starting the 6th module in Skull and Shackles tomorrow night. One of these maps is going to make Abrogail's Fury a flagship to remember!

Firstly, please give Diego a pat on the back for me. It's much appreciated. In my imagination, intercepting the package involved a furious race through dangerously crowded hallways, and a last second slow-motion leap to catch the parcel as it bounced like an errant basketball around the lip of a mail bin labelled "sent".

Second, my flip-mat:Warship was moved into order 3571972. I received the notice that it has been shipped and that my PDF can be downloaded, but I'm not seeing it in my downloads. Can someone take a peek at that for me?

Just wanted to point out that this post got missed and the order nearly shipped. Luckily with a quick call to Seattle, I was able to get Diego to stop the shipment and save me over $125.

Hi Paizo,
I replied to your email a few weeks ago, but I gather it got lost in the shuffle. Please cancel my Adventure Card Game subscription, and ensure that the Wrath of the Righteous base set does not ship as part of the above order. Thanks!

All good points. Also, how soon are you going to be running that part of the adventure?

I ask because, if you're looking for a mighty tough pirate king's fort, you might want to take a look at the upcoming Fort Scurvy from Legendary Games, which should be available sometime after GenCon.

Has this happened? My players expect to wrap up part 5 by next week, and I have a funny feeling that when Kerdak challenges them regarding the impending invasion, they're going to want to get him out of the way before they do anything else. Since going in the stealthy way has never been my group's way of doing things, I'm hoping to have an impressive pirate castle I can drop in their way...

Hi Paizo,
Please cancel my adventure path and module subscriptions.
Woe is me.
I'd like to keep my card game and map subscriptions going.
Yay!

Hi Paizo,
Can I get the above orders (one is my monthly subscriptions) combined to save on shipping? I had some issues during checkout (a blank screen at one point?) so I never had the option.
Thanks!

Ouch...
Last night at 5:59pm Paizo Standard Time, a package containing one item from my order shipped. Looks like everything else in my order is in a different package, which now won't ship until Monday!
Wishing my pdf-accompanied products had been in that lucky package that squeezed out the door. It's going to be a LONG weekend!
:)

These dry erase crayons intrigue me. Has anyone tested them on Paizo flipmats?

Regarding the original post: distributors have Skull and Shackles, and stores were able to get the base set this past week. I'm unsure why the OP's local store doesn't have them, yet, but it certainly can't be distribution's fault. All three of my distributors were able to deliver to me on time (ACD, Alliance, and PHD), and I received notifications from other distributors that they had the item, as well.

I neglected to mention I live north of the 49th parallel.

Thank you very much for weighing in Mike. I want to apologize profusely for the tone that you detect in my original post. I never intended for there to be any snark, sass or nastiness. I guess I chose my words poorly. My intent was only to convey, as Steve said, that without any information, it is very easy to read between the lines and start theorizing on worst case scenarios. As things move forward, I'm sure everyone wants to know what they ought to anticipate.

So if I understand my history, it went something like this:

For the Rise of the Runelords, a Chinese printing company was contracted. Some players noticed issues with the cards from different print runs being noticeably different. It was sometimes possible to tell the set a card came from by minute differences in colour and such on the card backs. Paizo decided to switch to an American printing company who would allow them tighter control over the colour palette used on the cards. This, of course, caused an even more noticable difference in cards, between those printed in China, and those printed in the US. However, by single sourcing Skull and Shackles to this American outfit, the cards would be extremely uniform, satisfying those gamers to whom it mattered.

Now, the American company seem to be overwhelmed trying to meet the demand for Paizo's fabulous game. Decks are showing up just in time for GenCon, not arriving at all for subscribers, and having significant issues making it through to distributors (still haven't seen a base set at my local shop; their distributors haven't gotten any). Along the way, it appears that the printer has made promises to Paizo that they have relied on and trusted. These promises seem to have been broken.

Going forward though, Paizo are essentially committed to these guys for the next 6 months, minimum, aren't they? What does this mean for the rest of the AP? Should we anticipate Raiders of the Fever Sea being pushed back another month? And what happens to Organized Play? And the worst of it is, Paizo really don't have the ultimate recourse: "We're taking our business elsewhere", until Wrath of the Righteous begins in (tentatively) February. The printers seem to have them over a barrel, eh?

No email on Friday :(
Guess it'll be Tuesday at the earliest now...

Thanks Hawkmoon. It actually reassures me to know that Paizo haven't gotten themselves into THAT kind of hot water.

@RiftNasika: Your situation is different than mine, then. I have not been charged, only the pre-authorization has occurred. What you are seeing might warrant a direct contact to Customer Service or a thread specific to your concerns.

More than one customer in this situation have started threads specific to RiftNasika's concern. They have been ignored. That is what is so perplexing. As has been said, if people were charged but the product didn't ship, that is illegal. It bears consideration that it is wise when acknowledging a potentially illegal act that one choose one's words very carefully before speaking.

So the more I think about this, the more I think Paizo really ought to give a full accounting of what has happened. The way I see it, this passive voiced apology and stonewalled silence only invites customers to speculate on their own theories as to what has happened. The longer customers are left to speculate, especially while frustrated, the more hostile their theories are going to become.

I first have to say that I am a huge fan of Paizo. I've been with them ever since they spun off from Wizards, and as they've gone through their trials and tribulations, and their rise to prominence, they've always been on my radar. In recent years, I've had multiple subscriptions with them (until some employment issues) and always touted them as the best of the best regarding customer service. Their open customer service forums have only served to help anyone who cares to see how transparently they deal with complaints, mistakes, errors, and genuine concerns. So when a company with that kind of glow in my eyes does something to tarnish that, it isn't a simple blemish. It's an outright shock, and silence doesn't help to improve that.

So right now, my theory on what has happened is still somewhat sympathetic to Paizo. But as the 22nd of August grew ever closer, and then passed, that theory has definitely evolved from the totally innocent theory that originally had a hold in my brain.

I'm going to be saying "Character Add-On Deck" a lot. I'll abbreviate it CAOD.

My theory:

Shortly prior to August 9th - The printer tells Paizo there's a problem. Their entire run of class decks is messed up. Also, a lot of the CAODs are also messed up, but not as many. They're going to crank as many class decks as they can in the time before GenCon, but will have no trouble meeting the CAOD requirements for the entire allotment (GenCon plus subscribers).
A DECISION IS MADE: to push back store copies of the class decks to September, but to push through with CAODs, not mention the potential shortage, and trust the printer's promise
HOWEVER: Just in case, the decision is made to NOT ship subscriber shipments that include CAODs, so that supply for GenCon will be guaranteed. This includes stopping shipments for which the label has already been printed and the subscriber has already been charged. This is probably my biggest worry with this theory. In the past, people have asked to be charged on the first day of the shipping window, so they can have their PDFs unlocked quickly. They're fine with getting the physical books whenever, as long as they have the digital copy. Paizo have said they cannot do this, as it is ILLEGAL to charge for merchandise before it ships... so... yeah...

August 21st - GenCon begins. The rest of COADs haven't shown up yet, but the printer makes good on their promise to have enough class decks to cover certain obligations for GenCon. They promise they'll make sure to get all the COADs by the 22nd. Paizo breathes a sigh of relief, while subscribers unable to make pickup at GenCon have started to notice that their packages aren't moving...
A DECISION IS MADE: to stonewall communication regarding these issues, and give a token promise that all will be well by the 22nd.

The week after GenCon - The printer isn't communicating, customers are beginning to notice the stonewall policy and become very concerned.
A DECISION IS MADE: to maintain silence and cross fingers that it'll all work out on the 22nd.

August 22nd - It becomes apparent that the COADs are not going to arrive. With nothing to pack/ship, and the stonewall policy still in place, most of Customer Service goes home early to enjoy their weekend.
A DECISION IS MADE: To write a passive voice ("mistakes were made") message boards post declaring the COADs a wash for August, they'll get pushed into September, and we'll finish up all those held up orders first thing Monday... Or maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. Y'know, soon. The poster locks up for the night and goes home to enjoy the weekend. Hoping that the messageboard people will exhaust their vitriol over the weekend, and that subscribers who don't regularly follow the messageboards will be just fine with knowing absolutely nothing.

At any point, these decisions could have gone significantly different, and could have avoided a lot of disappointment and the blemish on their otherwise fine reputation. Instead, we find ourselves here.

Sorry for the long post.

So the Character Add-On deck was available for sale at GenCon, but Paizo "misgauged our ability" to have the decks "ready to fulfill subscribers orders." What exactly does that mean? Was there something wrong with the decks sold at GenCon? Was the entire stock shipped to Indianapolis and then lost on the way back to Seattle? Or is it, as some have feared, that the decks at GenCon were the only stock, nothing was reserved for subscribers, and subscribers got the "more will probably come in by the 22nd *cross fingers*" treatment?
This whole debacle is very unlike Paizo's usual transparency.

Hi Customer Service,
Now that the August shipping window has closed, can you please provide some update as to what's holding things up?
I have to say that I've been rather perplexed this month. I'm very familiar with Paizo's history of generosity, openness, and transparency. The issue with the class decks comes to mind as an example of how quickly Paizo step up and share what's going on. That's why I find the previous week, when Customer Service appear to have avoided any kind of discussion on the holdups that seemed to be common to so many people, to have been... uncharacteristic.
Cheers.

Actually the answer for me is yes, I did receive my shipping e-mail. They printed a label on the 7th for it, unfortunately UPS still has not received the package.

I guess that's an issue with my reading. I counted your situation as "I'm not sure" because I read the post as being about shipping confirmed. I missed that it's only about the email. More properly, the only two answers have been "No" and "Yes, but evidence suggests it hasn't actually left the warehouse."

So if I've read this thread properly, the answer to the thread title has been a mixture of "No" and "I'm not sure", without a single "yes".
This with only 2.5 days left until the end of the shipping window (August 22nd, unless an extension on the window has escaped my notice).
And for what it's worth, I'm another "No".

I seem to be suffering the same mysterious credit card decline as certain other people on here. Can I trouble someone to let me know if the updated payment methods have fixed my issues?