Rigger Tasks
1 Rigging Repair: The ship’s rigging frequently gets
damaged and must be repaired, requiring DC 10
Climb checks to reach the rigging 30 feet up, followed
by a DC 10 Profession (sailor) or Dexterity check.
2 Line Work: Hard work hoisting and lowering sails,
requiring a DC 10 Profession (sailor) or Dexterity
check. The PC must also make a DC 10 Constitution
check to avoid being fatigued at the end of the shift.
3 Upper Rigging Work: Work in the upper rigging, 50
feet up, requiring DC 10 Climb checks, followed by a
DC 10 Profession (sailor) or Dexterity check.
4 Rope Work: Handling the ship’s ropes, including
coiling them, stowing them, and securing them to
cleats and single and double bollards, requiring a DC
10 Profession (sailor) or Dexterity check.
5 Lookout: A climb to the crow’s nest 60 feet up,
requiring DC 10 Climb checks followed by a DC 10
Perception check.
6 Mainsail Duties: Tough work raising and lowering
the mainsail, requiring a DC 10 Profession (sailor)
or Strength check. The PC must also make a DC 10
Constitution check to avoid being fatigued at the end
of the shift.
Swab Tasks:
Swab Tasks
1 Man the Bilges: Vile and sweaty work cleaning out the
bilges (area A11), requiring a DC 12 Strength check.
The PC must also make a DC 10 Constitution check to
avoid being fatigued at the end of the shift.
2 Rat Catcher: Catching rats and other vermin belowdecks,
requiring either a DC 10 Stealth check, Survival check,
or Dexterity check to catch and kill enough rats,
cockroaches, and beetles for a good day’s work.
3 Swab the Decks: Backbreaking work mopping the
decks and scrubbing them with sandstone blocks
called holystones, requiring a DC 10 Strength or
Constitution check. Failing either check results in the
PC being fatigued at the end of the shift.
4 Hauling Rope and Knot Work: Tying and untying
knots in the ship’s ropes and moving heavy coils of
rope from one part of the ship to another, requiring
a DC 10 Profession (sailor) or Strength check. The PC
must also make a DC 10 Constitution check to avoid
being fatigued at the end of the shift.
5 Runner: Passing messages to the crew and officers
of the Wormwood in all parts of the ship except
officers’ cabins (areas A4 and A5), requiring a DC 10
Acrobatics check and DC 10 Constitution check.
Failing the Constitution check results in the PC being
fatigued at the end of the shift. A PC with the Run feat
automatically succeeds at this task.
6 Repairs: Things constantly tear or break aboard the
ship and need repairs, whether sewing sails or splicing
rope all day, requiring a DC 10 Profession (sailor) or
Dexterity check.
Cook´s Mate Tasks:
Cook’s Mate Tasks
1 or 2 Cooking: Assisting Ambrose Kroop in preparing
the day’s meal. If Kroop is sober, no check is
required. If Kroop is drunk, this requires a DC 10
Profession (cook) or Intelligence check.
3 Fishing: Catching tonight’s supper using the ship’s
nets. A DC 10 Profession (fisherman) or Survival
check provides enough fish. A failed check results
in a day in the bilges as punishment the following
day (see the swab task Man the Bilges on page 23).
4 Turtle Hunting: Hunting leatherback sea turtles
with harpoons, treble hooks, and nets. A DC 10
Profession (fisherman) or Survival check provides
enough food. A failed check results in a day in the
bilges as punishment the following day (see the
swab task Man the Bilges on page 23).
5 Bull Session: Drinking with Ambrose Kroop and
listening to his stories. The cook’s mate must
drink an additional rum ration, but is able to take
an additional ship action during the day.
6 Special Occasion: Captain Harrigan is celebrating
something today, and wants one of the ship’s
pigs butchered and cooked for dinner. The PC
must make a DC 10 Profession (cook) or Survival
check to slaughter the animal, then help Kroop
to clean, cut, and prepare the carcass. If Kroop is
sober, no additional check is required. If Kroop is
drunk, this requires a DC 15 Profession (cook) or
Intelligence check.
Please determine your work at the start of each day yourself. In rare cases I may set a different work for each of you without rolling.
The Wormwood works on discipline and routine. Captain Harrigan’s philosophy is that a busy swab is a tiredswab, and tired swabs don’t pick fights with each other.
After breakfast, the crew work at their allotted jobs until dusk, when they gather on the main deck to witness punishments (the “Bloody Hour”), eat dinner, and receive their rum rations. After punishment time and the evening meal, the crew can do what they wish until dawn
bell the next morning.
Each day, you are assigned tasks to complete, based on the your jobs (cook’s mate, rigger, or swab). Each task represents a day’s hard work and requires at least one successful skill check to complete. Failing a task’s required skill check results in punishment.
You can just find out what punishment will be by failing some skill checks :-)
Work takes place under the watchful eyes of Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge.
Antal is in for an interesting life. The ship’s cook, Ambrose Kroop, spends half of his time senselessly drunk. Otherwise, he is merely drunk, but not helplessly so. If Kroop is insensible, Mr. Plugg supervises the cook’s mate instead.
When the cook is drunk, Antal must make the day’s meal for the pirates
by himself, in addition to her normal duties for the day. If the PC has to hunt or slaughter the food as well as cook, all checks for both tasks are made with a –4 penalty. In such cases, if the cook’s mate takes any ship action during the day other than working, all work checks
automatically fail (the cook’s mate does not receive the +4 bonus for working diligently in this case; see below). On a failed check, well... you will see what happens.
Regardless, food is still food, and the crew generally eat what they are given, no matter the results of the cooking checks (though they are still likely to complain loudly and frequently).
The captain’s cabin girl, “Caulky” Tarroon, collects the officers’ food from the galley each evening to take it to the captain’s cabin. She tastes the food for poison before serving the other officers (you can’t trust anyone on a pirate ship).
Ship Actions:
Ship Actions
In addition to your normal jobs on the ship, you can also utilize your time during the day (and night) to explore the ship, scrounger for gear, interact with your shipmates, or attempt to influence NPCs.
Your activities aboard ship — carrying out your assigned tasks; exploring the ship; robbing, bullying, or befriending shipmates; working; or playing—are performed as part of ship actions.
These actions reflect the time required to set up or complete an activity, such as gathering enough crew to play a game, scouting out a
room to make sure it’s empty, and so on. Remember that even the cook’s mate has a job to do during the day, and ship actions are meant to reflect the available time you can carve out from his or her work time without going into too much detail.
Each one of you can normally take two ship actions each day, one during the day and one at night. You can also attempt to take up to two additional ship actions during the middle watch in the dead of night, but to do so the PC runs the risk of being fatigued for the next day.
Possible daytime actions
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
Shop: Take a –2 penalty on all checks for a job’s daily task and visit the quartermaster’s store (who may or may not have precious equipment!)
Shirk: Take a –2 penalty on all checks for a job’s daily task and take time exploring one area of the ship. The PC can take 10 on a single Perception check or other skill check, but must make a check to avoid being discovered.
Possible nighttime actions
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
Entertain: Make one Perform check to entertain the crew
Influence*: Attempt to influence a single NPC
Sneak*: Take time exploring one area of the ship. The PC
can take 20 on a single Perception check or other skill
check, but must make a check to avoid being discovered
Steal*: Attempt to open a locked door or locker. The PC
must make a check to avoid being discovered
Pirates curse sometimes. Does someone of you feel not okay with an in-character-pirate that curses VERY nasty, e.g. sexual, extremly violent or racistic curses? Do you think doing this in character is okay on the paizo-boards?
Just asking because sometimes I like to do it for flavor, though never out of character of course.
We did 0-level adventures sometimes. I just told my players to create a teenager-character. I used no system.
I just let them write a background and roleplay. If checks were not to avoid, I just let them flip a coin (success or no).
And then, at the end of the first adventure (could be a prologue to the first adventure too) all other players build your character based on your character description and you roleplaying.
It was really amazing, because in our group everyone has his favorite classes and that way, everyone got to try something new.
@OmegaZ: I am really curious, how this Section of Blast/Crowd Control would look like. Why don´t you put it together?
A spell I often overlooked at spell selection is Possess Object. Just think of your group buying a Coach. Your Sorcerer lies in the back and casts the spell. Now your group has a wagon that moves on itself with considerable speed. If you invest all construction points in speed, your wagon can speed your overland movement to 60 ft.
Sure, you may say, that at this caster level (at least 10) you already have teleport at your disposal. But teleport doesn´t allow you the other possible uses of the spell, e.g. :
* You are afflicted with mummy rot. Just skip your mind over to your animated object and suspend the disease until you are at a temple.
* Wow, that is a whole lot of loot... and it weighs way too much to carry it. Take over that large table in the corner, put your body an some loot on it and carry about 1500 ibs. (Str 14 +8 for being large, x3 for being a quadruped)
* Attacked by a waterborne creature and you can´t swim? No Problem! If your ship isn´t the Queen Elizabeth, you can just use the ship as a weapon and slam the sea monster back to where it came from.
* The fighter is down? Need a new tank? Get something big made of stone or metal and stand right into harm´s way!
I have a protean sorceress and she will take shrink item at the same moment when she gets possess object. So I can just keep lots of useful objects in my pockets.
