I've taken Skill Focus Craft (Alchemy) for my alchemist. No regrets. Skill Focus always has a ton of appeal for me.
I agree it's useful to have a perception specialist in the party but I've never felt it was a must-have for every character in the party. One person cries, "Wolf!" and pretty much everyone is on board after that. I have never experienced a bitter TPK in decades of gaming for lack of 100% max perception builds across the party.
Lack of perception can be fun, too. That sorcerer is too self-absorbed, that cleric only feels the faith. So long as someone in the party gets around to saying, "Hey, your mightyness, wake up!" they get to apply their own specialties.
Nice, I like it!
I expect my group won't be able to spend so much. They are playing Island of Empty Eyes now and are still securing the island and dealing with ghost Bikendi.
But some do have an eye for showmanship so I'm curious to see how it will play out.
Oh, looks like I will re-sub for this AP. I was always wary of playing CoC, so I never did. It was always described to me as an inevitable loss to insanity. I didn't want to play a game that legitimized the practice of having sadistic GMs get their jollies raping my characters, mentally or otherwise. I was waiting to see the Player's Guide. This is very well presented, including the bit about player consent and discussing beforehand as a group how far is acceptable. Good job!
We're years away from completing our alternating S&S and RW paths (enjoying both! :D ) but this will be nice to have on the back burner. Sign me up!
(Edit: By "CoC", I meant Call of Cthulu, not Curse of the Crimson Throne, which I also never played but not because it gave my an unappealing vibe.)
Start at Absalom to unmask the Pathfinders' Decemvirate! Does no one else find it odd there's a whole National Geographic Society with agents everywhere that don't know who the boss(es) is(are)? Might lead to conclusively deal with whatever it is they are so keen on not being scried by. (Come to think of it, who runs the real National Geographic Society!? Oh,crap!-- ) Any connection with the only slightly less veiled Pactmasters of Katapesh?
Call Razmir's bluff.
Cool places in Nex: Escape From Alcatraz Valkus Isle; and/or explore the Well of Lies, maybe following the same clues as explorers of old who found clues in the ruins of the Mwangi Expanse.
Break/Defend the Citadel of the Alchemist in Thuvia to end/ensure the monopoly of the sun orchid elixir. Maybe involve/threaten-the-hermeticism-of the wise-women of Osibu in the Mwangi Expense, requiring interaction with the epic-sounding Nemesis Well?
I agree that Skywatch in Brevoy sounds like a great place to start ending mysterious silences. An uber obervatory would be a great place from which to launch a planet-hopping campaing.
The Shackles have received a lot of love. There are a few high-level hooks there. One that interests me is Raugsmauda, the lich who presumably crowned the last Hurricane King and was the source of his moniker, Bonefist. She has an abandoned lair (The Pit of Raugsmauda) , a current lair (Raugsmauda's Reach)and is supposedly still haunting the waters aboard the ghastly vessel Naieghoul. If the crown of the Hurricane King sits on a new head, maybe the past kingmaker has an objection...
Hmm... Thanks for the thought-provoking question! Also, very keen on supporting high-level play, so thanks for starting the conversation.
1. If the PCs discontinue the Bloody Hour, Conchobar is a slacker.
2. Conchobar will make a show of losing consistently to other crew in gambling. This is a ruse to cover his studying of the crews' tells. After a couple of weeks of this or after the next awarding of plunder, his luck will devastatingly turn as he makes off with all of his opponents' shares. (Conchobar has ranks in Profession (Gambler). This may lead to some shore leave encounters as well when the local casino goons seek restitution.)
3. How does the new regime address discipline? Do they continue the Bloody Hour tradition or do they have other methods? This will be an issue unless all of the crew can tolerate each other.
4. If Kroop is still the cook or part of the crew and his alcoholism was not addressed before, he will fail to perform until that is addressed.
5. Until the Captain or a sympathetic PC/officer gets Leadership, mutiny remains a very real possibility if the crew is mistreated. Maybe a faction of crew press-ganged from a recently plundered vessel dares a night-time coup.
6. New sleeping quarters: 2 or more crew members or NPC officers are unsatisfied with their sleeping quarters (I deserve an office!)
7. Belly Morale: Are the officers eating significantly better than the crew? Is there a Captain's Table for the elite? Some crew may strike due to disparity of quality of food.
8. A stowaway is discovered and brought before the new officers. The crew is near-violently divided on how they believe it should be handled. Group A says "Turn 'em in and split the Bounty", Group B says "We can't suffer another moment with this cursed figure aboard! Walk the plank!" Group C doesn't care. Someone has a bias:"She's my sister! If she goes, I go!" Vs "If she stays, I'm gone!" How do the PCs handle it?
9. The dinghy disappears overnight, along with some crew and a disproportionate amount of plunder. Remaining crew divided on reaction: Some insist on chase and punish, others would rather cut their losses and raid the seas some more to make up the loss.
10. A romantic interest expects preferential treatment. If he gets it, other crew grumbles.
11. "Crimson" Cogward starts a Fight Club. Participants are consenting but it may affect performance on deck the following day.
The Phantom, without breaking a sweat. Broadway Phantom is based on the original, who was an expert trap-builder. Dracula didn't recognize his own security consultant.
Tarrasque vs Barney, the purple dinosaur you love and who loves you and you're a happy family.
These are excellent, especially Hell Harbor, Drenchport and Ollo! Thanks for sharing.
The House of Stolen Kisses is more than just a brothel. It is a... hotbed... of intelligence.
Quent, though classy, is boiling with barely kept secrets. Bluff for innuendo is rampant. A word is never just a word; a look never just a look; a sale never just a sale. Everyone is flying casual. But not too casual. Uncouth behavior is discretely resolved behind the scenes. Casino Royale. A Sense Motive expert new to town might have trouble sleeping.
PCs making an innocent purchase might unintentionally be passed a message meant for another. Mayhem may ensue.
Not entirely fully statted but you're welcome to what I've come up with for the first volume here: Side Quests - The Wormwood Mutiny. My party are almost finished one of them and are pursuing another. Haven't started the Vol 2 side quests yet though my party are on Parts 2 and 3 of that one now.
That is a pretty cool Peppery rescue. Nice touch letting them witness her demotion as setup to Part 5, equally nice that you let them act on it right away. We're easily a year from this point the rate we play, also with a little extra stuff. I hope it can be as lively a race.
I like it; this AP continues to satisfy. I look forward to exposing the gradually quickening pace for the unfolding of the scale of horror gripping the city:
Spoiler:
1. It's normal/festive before going into the auction hall.
2. Nice, civilized auction.
3. Zombie rush! Normal-ish encounter for adventurers but a violation of the standard script: they're not in a dungeon, they're being attacked on home turf!
4. Ongoing local instability with crumbling awning. Collateral damage!
5. What, in the street too!?
6. Good gods, it's everywhere!
I appreciate the craft and care in the encounter design throughout the adventure. Good style - in just a few sentences I have a pretty good idea how individually each NPC acts. I like the meaningful interaction with random auction attendants at the beginning and the consequences for involvement with them that comes to fruition at the end. I like the liberal use of awarding Story Award xps for results rather than just leaning on a slain monster focus for xps. I like the potential for the PCs to grow from just-another-foreign-opportunist to vital-to-a-community-in-crisis type of party. The PCs don't have to bite all the hooks but there seems to be a lovely cadence of threat and payoff for helping.
I revel that it still feels fantasy-Ancient-Egyptianny, from adventure to new magic items, artifact, creatures and journal. Cool Names! Lovely art! I still have years left in the AP I'm currently running and look forward to doing so but I do believe I'll have to start another group this fall once I'm done reading this AP. Another good job!
After capturing the Man's Promise, we renamed her Besmara's Booty
!? That's the very name my players have settled on! I'm thinking that in a pinch it may earn them a grace-of-Besmara rescue if required, after which she may just take all their loot. ("What? It's my booty. You said so yourself.")
I played it out though I made it clear to the players that there was some obvious railroading. They had their reasons to be in Port Peril at that bar as suggested in the Player's Guide. The PCs were strangers to each other so they did not work as a team yet, unlike the Wormwood crew. All but the monk had the good grace to fail their saves vs the oil of taggit. So the Wormwood Recruitment Team simply attacked the monk once their other targets were mollified. We rolled it out: he was level 1 and was outnumbered like 6- or 8-to-1. Got a sack over his head and was flank sneak-attacked until dropped.
Like Capt Savage, I half expect my gang to make a point of going back the the Formidably Maid to see if they can find some familiar heads to knock together.
No regrets. Sure, there was a railroad but the dice played along and I hate god-moding my PCs even more.
Planting the seed: The Buzzard’s Bounty is a rumour that one of the NPCs formerly loyal to Plugg shares with the new regime after the mutiny.
Plugg gleaned from the Rahadoomi sailors from the Man’s Promise the rumour of the unfound plunder from the shipwreck of the Blue Buzzard and its location near Tempest Cay. He used the rumour of this booty to lure the selected crew to go solo with him. Part of the plan was to use that loot to secure the entry fee into the Free Captains’ Regata. Survivors of Plugg’s clique can share the plan with the new regime, who may well adopt it for their own.
Kroop can use the opportunity to explain the risk the PCs face by sailing in the Shackles without one of Bonefist’s Letters of Marque and/or without a reputation of their own. If the PCs want to dare to look for the Buzzard’s Bounty, he can recommend they skirt the Shackles and approach from the North, tacking against the storm winds coming off the Eye, though that route sports its own hazards and is not predator-free.
Above the Waves:
The Other Predator:
Should the PCs take up the rumor and sail their way to Tempest Cay, they find they are not the only ones fishing for plunder that day. The Sea Lash, under the command of Captain Slip (p79 Raiders of the Fever Sea), is plying the same waters for the same treasure. The Sea Lash has furled sails when initially spied. The lookout (or anyone else, once attention is drawn) can make a DC 20 Perception check to determine that the Sea Lash is stationary due to being anchored. (This check succeeds automatically if specifically looked for.) Depending on their approach, the PCs might notice the Lash’s dingy with a handful of crew some 100’ away from its ship. There is no land nearby to indicate why a ship would be anchored or have its boat launched. From a distance, it’s a DC 25 Perception or Profession (Sailor) check or DC 30 Knowledge (Geography) check to notice or have knowledge of the oyster reef which poses a threat to vessels only if the lookout fails to spot it in the clear Shackles waters when drawing near.
Determine when the crew of the Sea Lash becomes aware of the PCs. Slip will call in his dingy, raise anchor and drop sail in readiness for hostilities.
The PCs can engage the Sea Lash in combat, can parley and come to an agreement, can hang around and let them do the work and then attack or can just give up. If the PCs have not changed the name of the ship, the Man’s Promise may be recognized as a Rahadoumi slaver and prompt an attack from the Sea Lash.
For purposes of diplomacy, Capt Slip is hostile to professed or known slavers. He will momentarily put aside the treasure hunt to eradicate the present slaver threat. He is unfriendly to anyone staking a claim on “his” rumor (which escalates to hostile should anyone actually make a play for it). His attitude improves to indifferent for those who can prove they were former slaves themselves. He will defend his claim to the plunder and has no objection if he and his crew take another ship as prize during such an encounter.
Capt Slip is not initially keen on splitting the bounty but he is not zealous to the point of giving up his life for it. If that appears to be the alternative, he will be amenable to a deal.
If the party convinces Slip that they outclass him but still let him sail away with a fair share of the plunder, Slip will remember them favorably for later in the adventure path should the party decide to recruit a fleet. (Note that if the party is generous and easily let Slip sail away with all or most of the Bounty with little to no bloodshed, his opinion of the PCs will not improve with respect to being won over for recruitment. He sees no compelling reason to sail under chumps.)
The reef is a natural hazard which has claimed passing vessels unrelated to the Buzzards Bounty. On a clear day, the spotter should not have a difficult time catching signs of the reef and the mostly submerged and stuck wreckage of other ships. (The ill-fated Captain Roronet found the oyster reef served two purposes: first he hoped his pursuers would dash their vessels against the reef in his pursuit, second he figured if he couldn’t spend his loot, treasure-hungry clams would deprive anyone else of the privilege.)
So I've decided, at least for the first installment, to go ahead and use those lovely little plot-hook rumors in the inside back cover of the book. As a rule, I want to introduce the rumors in the volume in which they appear. This was mildly problematic for The Wormwood Mutiny because the PCs only gain their freedom near the end of the adventure. Consequently, all of these were introduced on Bonewrack Isle in order for me to comply with my self-imposed rule.
I do apologize for the length; pages worth. In my head at the outset it seemed like they would take a paragraph each. Then I realized it had to make sense for someone else to read. So now it's long, wordy, still part brainstorming, not fully statted and each will probably require more than one post (I do not know what the limit is for one post).
If you play Capt Firix Drakethorn, Razmira the sorceress, Davor the Red or Lionel Ulyses Caleb Kilick, feel the Forbiddance and Antipathy and read something else instead!
Largely spoilered so as not to assault the eye and presented in the order given in the book, here's my take on The Buzzard's Bounty, Fisherman's Folly, Shipwreck in a Bottle and The Lost Messenger:
We're enjoying the monk in the campaign I'm running. Very much sticking to the personal code interpretation of lawful. You know, that rigorous discipline required to train/eat/sleep properly for an athlete who can tap into ki powers. As well as the discipline required for extended life at sea and the running of a ship. The monk PC has so owned every match (welcoming committee, the bilges, Owlbear) that he has a couple of followers who are keen on honing their pugilistic skills. If he gets Leadership, there may well be a ship of monk pirates!
(Also, piracy is *not* illegal in the Shackles. Plus, many of the PCs' opponents *are* pirates and therefore criminals somewhere. So fighting them is upholding the law in at least one country.)
A completely miscast dog-sledding husky-training ranger from Irisen investigating the odd imposition of warm weather in his home town during Sands of Winter, Part 1 of the adventure path, Dominion of Summer. :-P
May be using the Four Dollar Dungeon, Horn of Geryon between the mutiny and Bonewrack Isle.
I have Ship of Fools as an additional Fever Sea encounter if we feel up to it by then.
Also considering Treasure of Chimera Cove as a treasure map adventure.
Finally, if they fail the Dominator encounter or get caught by slavers, can use No Response From Deepmar as a last resort chance to regain freedom.
All in all should be fun. May have to up the ante on some of the Big Bads by the end of the AP though.
Hey, Maverick Indingo,
Don't let the incredulity scare you away. After all, you're PCs aren't actually threatening all their Absaloms, just yours. If you're up to it, knock yourself out and have a great time!
Do you have the Absalom sourcebook? (I don't)
I haven't read the histories so I can't help you there.
However, the PFS (soon to be retired?) Intro scenarios and PFS Field Guide show that beyond Absalom lie the Cairnlands, a wasteland of centuries worth of ruined siege towers from countless ambitiously funded failed attempts.
They also establish that Absalom's armada is actually harbored on Kortos' small neighboring island. The entry to Absalom proper is protected by the Flotsam Graveyard, a maze of shipwrecks and tiny islands through which safe passage is a closely guarded secret. Absalom's armada can then pin an invading force between itself and the Flotsam Graveyard.
Of potential interest to your players might be a mission to steal the secret passage through the Flotsam Graveyard from the Pilot's Guild. They would have to take great care to steal that secret, well, secretly so that the Pilot's Guild is unaware that another party knows of it. Otherwise I imagine given sufficient warning the guild can mess with the naval maze and create a new route. (I haven't read that, I'm just assuming they could muster emergency resources to pull it off if they were aware of an imminent threat.)
There's also The Black Whale, a floating prison of 6 ships, in the area. "Only the Grand Council holds a complete list of those interred here... and the dangerous knowledge they possess." This smacks of classic Alexandre Dumas! Your PCs may catch wind of prisoner here that may be in their pivotal interest to bust out before s/he succumbs to the eventual loss of life from incarceration there.
The Shackles big defense - apart from the epic load of threats actually inhabiting the Isles - is the Eye of Abendego. If you've finished the AP and the Shackles have survived the Chellish plot, others may have heard of the failed but hopeful invasion. The cat is out of the bag: given enough resources, the Eye of Abendego can be navigable. Now that word gets out that it is remotely possible to launch a fleet through there, your players may have to be prepared to play defensive all the while plotting their takeover of the City at the Centre of the World.
Assuming that your PCs intend on keeping their title as Hurricane King. Maybe they don't give two hoots. In which case, they might be plotting Golarions biggest bait and switch: Let the Shackles be fought over by all the nations that have had their shipping hamstrung for decades by impetuous pirates. Dangle the carrot at the opportune moment: when the worlds eyes are on the epic smiting of Buccaneers, Bam! Absalom finds itself overtaken and sports Besmara's colours from its towers! What!? Did that just happen!?
In short, have fun! Let us know how it works out. :-)
Harrigan (and Plugg and Scourge for that matter) could be a Hobgoblin(s). Hobgoblins whip goblins all the time.
The Shackles tolerates a werewolf on the Council. A hobgoblin pirate is no stretch, especially one with a reputation for taking out Cheliax vessels.
My PCs are also focusing on some of the officers in Wormwood Mutiny. They don't know about the injunction against influencing the officers. I agree that the potential for more poignancy in Part 5 is greater if the PCs actually do strike a relation with specifically those officers, so I'm allowing it. Though I did caution that the officers are clearly willing members of the crew and followers of Harrigan so they won't win any participants to a hypothetical cause of mutiny from among the officers, so that should not be their sole focus.
(In my campaign, the cook's mate is a sorceress, so Peppery is taking a professional interest into grooming her into an apprentice. Grok is the QM who has all their gear. It's most certainly in their best interest to get on her good side if they want any hope of being more than "naked".)
I like how you granted the wish and quite correctly gave them dismembered torsos.
Hopefully the possibility of finding loot enough to raise their former officers is incentive enough to continue exploring their island. Until then, a couple of corpses will not in of themselves excuse the party from their upcoming roles as hosts to the Free Captain lords. That's still a task they should want to excel at if they wish to have any influence on the Council. That's Part 4 in the clear for you.
For Part 5, it's a matter of timing. Harrigan's invasion of their island is all the more inspired by his need to silence his former officers - and those meddlesome PCs - once and for all. He could have found out by the Eel or Norgorberish divination. Say they raise Grok/Longfarthing early on. So they blow the whistle on Harrigan before the party find his secret lair. In that case the lair that Harrigan held while Grok and Peppery were tortured is the one that he just cleared out of, and the one in the book is the *other* bolthole that Harrigan had been bolstering during Grok's and Peppery's incarceration, of which they know nothing but about which the party can still learn of with the clues as written.
It would still be on the party to accomplish most of this leg work as Bonefist is clearly no longer willing to consider that being Hurricane King means he should lift a finger in any sort of effort. Harrigan, the reputed "Scourge of Cheliax", is not singly a threat to the King and it is inconceivable that Harrigan would so blatantly turn against the reputation he has built with zeal. And even if he did go so starkly against his character, Bonefist cannot conceive of a way for the Chellish fleet to come upon them unawares. Even Grok and Longfarthing are not aware of the lengths Druvalia has gone through to ensure her invasion.
Ultimately, being right about Harrigan in the first place can play out as one of the winning arguments in convincing other Free Captains to ally with the PCs in Part 6. So you're all good to go there, with only minimal tweaking and you can still use all the encounters.
Up to you whether the former Wormwood officers, once rescued and healed, still have the heart to participate in person or just give info and hide from a distance. By that point, the party will have eclipsed them in infamy and levels.
Make sense? Good on you for allowing your players some breathing room. Hope you continue to enjoy the rest of the AP.
...he wants an equal share of the Brine Banshee's treasure. He doesn't care about magic items; he just wants enough money to live out the rest of his life in modern comfort.
You're right; it doesn't explicitly say. Whatever makes sense for you. I get the impression he also doesn't care about adding the value of the magic items prior to determining share worth. To make things really simple, I'd say he'd probably settle simply for a share of
Spoiler:
the 12 pts of plunder in gold and silver ingots secured in the brig.
He's a lvl 6 expert; I believe he could reasonably be expected to barter for a PC share rather than a crew share. If a PC share means "not counting payout to a crew" then yes. If he's tagging along, he would likely serve as an officer (or at least a VIP passenger), offering the use of his expert skills as appropriate, rather than grunting as one of the crew.
I haven't crunched the math or even played that often. In different campaigns I play a rogue and a monk. I'm thoroughly enjoying the monk and am much more satisfied with the PF monk than monks of any other permutation of AD&D I've encountered. (Way back when, there was an old Best of Dragon Magazine, Vol. I-don't-remember with an article rebuilding the monk class to make it considerably more palatable. That was my favorite Dragon article ever.)
I'm not sure about the monk being versatile on his own (I don't have any issue). However, I would argue that the monk ads versatility to the party:
The monk rules at dishing out subdual damage for taking captives alive. Want to interrogate the villain? Karate chop-chop.
Want to neutralize your dominated team mate without slaying her? Karate chop-chop. They don't need to line up a sneak attack with a sap to do it,either.
The monk is also a great spell-caster disruptor. Using acrobatics to bypass guards, get adjacent and stun fist the fool. (Sure, provided you can perceive the caster and she's not flying. Even against an invisibly flying caster though, the monk has perception and enhanced acrobatics for jumping as class skills to somewhat mitigate those tactics.
Monk love here. In my party, I don't at all feel trumped by the other classes. (Edit: inserted the required noun.)
Aww... Missed it by *that* much! Now I just have to wait for the official title to be posted and I could be a wiener and claim, "That's exactly what I was going to propose!" :P
James Jacobs wrote:
"Wrath of the Righteous"
That's *exactly* what I was going to propose!
Just to keep to my word. But I guess I was lying; I wouldn't propose that in a million years so no stealing thunder here. Congrats, Kajehase! :D
And very classy to include some recognition. Thanks for sharing the deliberation process. :)
I see the Shackles Letter of Marque as either a deliberate tongue-in-cheek statement to other nations (as if a pirate needs anyone's authority to relieve a ship of plunder - the PCs Raid the Fever Sea all through Part 2 without a Letter of Marque, after all) or as a Get Out of a Fleecing Free card: Given all the skullduggery involved in Shackles life, it's not surprising that not everything is as it appears. I get the impression life is cheap in the Shackles and consequently there is a consistent turn around in the who's who in the zoo. Outside of the Shackles, it's of dubious use as it would only likely guarantee arrest, hence the efforts to keep them secret.
If you're a pirate lord in the Shackles and it appears some up-and-coming crew, not knowing any better, is trying to board your vessel to commit piracy upon you, the Letter may grant you more options. Sure you can tough it out and eventually send them packing. But maybe you're busy and would rather conserve your resources to use against a fatter merchant. You can parley with the other captain long enough to whip out your secret Dude, I'm a Better Pirate Than You card (the Shackles Letter of Marque). That allows the upstart to realize who exactly he is dealing with so he can reconsider his bold stunt. Both pirates can come to terms without profitless battle. After all, why squander crew against a ship with no plunder?
The above I guess more in conversation with Ikki as it in no way addresses your request, Singer. I'm all for more Shackles player hand-outs so all the power to you. I'm too lazy for wording right now. Good luck!
Haven't read 5 or 6 yet, so admittedly talking out of my ken.
Still, based on 1-4, I'm going to have a blast running this. It *does* have treasure maps. (Vol 2 is a deadly *walking* treasure map, at that.) Vol 4 has Bikendi's hidden stash - the map is not obvious but that is *so* a treasure map! The other maps require some work but yeah, 6 x 4 = 24 Xs on the Shackles marking spots of varying difficulty and sailor lore flavour.) It *does* have piratey flavour past Part 3. (At least, 4 does. More "island exploration" than dungeon crawl per se. The cyclops stronghold is more "cliff-hugging ruins" than dungeon crawl per se. You see that kind of stuff in various incarnations of Sinbad (boats without cannons but still good fun). *Tons* of potential adulty hottiness/ manipulative romances/ harbour in every port kind of thing. Article in 3 with Port Peril has tons of coastal urban hooks. Article in 4 with Mysteries of the Shackles has a solid handful of outlines for maritime mysteries. It does have ghost ships. Well, okay, ship(Whalebone Pilk).
Those cyclopes in Part 4: They're just an epic patient shove away from becoming *allies*. If your PCs like skirmishing giants, bonus! If your PCs like tackling complex issues like ending famine, bonus! I don't know what becomes of the off-screen cyclopes fleet but there's another shoe with weighty consequences: The Ghol-Gan Strikes Back! or Cyclopes Walking Siege Engine Crew on Your Team!
There's a lot of sand. Don't discount the S&S Players Guide: ship mods! special ammo!
I will change some of it. It's sculpting sand. (Sorrinash is *so* a wereshark. That was no mistake. :-D ) By virtue of it being sand, I don't thing it could all be quantified, at least not without drastically altering the format. Railroads are there, sure but I don't find them super solid. They're kind of mushy. There can be consequences for bucking them; maybe the "wrong" NPC lives. (And yeah, maybe the wrong PC dies...)
Huge plus that Charisma is a rewarding ability throughout the AP, even for non-spellcasters. Winning over crewmates. Winning over Free Captains. Winning over Pirate Lords. Spying/investigating! Seduction! But maybe your players like being crusty die-hard, murder-magnet bastards, bonus! No end of Pirate Lords to pillage and plunder. You can hire the Eel to help. (Big fan of the Eel. :-) )
Parts 5 and 6 would have to be pretty irredeemably epic craptacular to invalidate the above. Am prepared to eat my words if necessary.
Thank you for making a pirate AP! Thank you for tackling the sea-faring stuff!
I know that my players plan to each captain their own ship ... The final stretch of the regatta might not even be against Harrigan so much as against each other.
Tem wrote:
That's an interesting situation. If they're all planning on being Free Captains of the Shackles, I guess they'll each need 10 plunder to get audiences ... and ... have to pass all his tests. (They all need to be Free Captains to participate in the race, right?)
My group is months away from this. (Heck, we're a month from starting the AP still.) *But* this will definitely come up. Thanks for bringing it up and presenting an elegant solution.
New question/food for thought:
Leadership - Pre-requisite: Character 7th level.
That's right on target for Part 3 but there's no mention of how to treat this in the AP.
I'm considering somehow having minimum Leadership scores as thresholds for alternate/optional access to the various Impositions on p56 of Vol 1. Or maybe allow the PCs to skim more plunder shares for themselves while still maintaining loyalty. (I know the AP says just let the crew share one point of plunder no matter what but I think I'll let the pirates come up with their own share scheme. Similar to history (some of the earliest true democrats were pirates! :P )Would certainly consider the outcome as grounds for the Fairness and Generosity modifier.) Or using the cohort level limit as a gauge for which other Free Captains would rally to the PCs call. Followers would be perfect to either complement staff at the Rock from Part 2 and/or the fort in Part 4. (Sometimes Pathfinder and its predecessors is like playing Monopoly - PCs accumulate real estate.)
I can see a lot of applications of the Cause the Death of Other Followers modifier.
I can also see a lot of applications of the Has a Stronghold/Base of Operations modifier, assuming possessing a ship counts as a stronghold. Maybe the crew replacement abstractions would count only for ships and Leadership feat followers would count only for land holdings.
Right after the character's acceptance as Free Captain (and officers) would be some good timing for the Leadership feat. Given the written-in assumption of crew replacement in the AP, how would you use the Leadership feat in this series? Would you use it at all? Thanks for any soundboarding. :-) (Edit: sp)
I'm thinking of using the Shiv island from Serpent Skull
Yeah, I'll probably use that too. We're playing Serpent Skull now - pure awesomeness. We fixed the Shiv! So I think when I run Skull and Shackles, this will come up as a new port, perhaps one of the few the players can build their infamy prior to becoming Free Captains. I wonder if my players will respect the Sargavan deal or just pillage the fort.
more ferrinwulf wrote:
We don’t use the XP system anyway, they just level up as and when the AP suggests.
I was considering exactly this. Why bother tracking xp if the paths are designed to level up at certain points anyway? If I insert side-quests or other modules, I would certainly consider rewarding with a level or 1/2 a level. How are you and your players finding it so far?
What would one have to do to *not* get two AP in August?
Shattered Star looks great but reminds very much of a campaign I already ran for 6 years. So I am not all that jazzed on starting that all over again. Yet I'm very keen on completing the Skull & Shackles collection (which I'm thoroughly enjoying so far and look forward to the final installment so I can start prepping the campaign. Giddygiddygiddy :-) )
Is there a way to divorce the two to only get the one and maybe sit out Shattered Star?
"She can swear like a sailor" or so they say.
I'm too much of a prude to really pull it off so I've come here to ask the impossible of you:
Without banning yourselves from these forums and/or using typical four-letter words, please post some insults/jibes/taunts/banter/witty reparte that would make your mother wish she could unbirth you. When I eventually run this AP, I'll work in as many of the good ones as I can. If I can remember to do so, I'll come back to give you credit and +1 you.
