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My crew lost 9 nameless sailors and also almost lost the ranger's animal companion. However, of more pressing concern were the sahuagin who successfully breached the hull.

A boulder was summoned to plug the hole and sailors were furiously working the bilge pumps while copious mending spells were applied to the broken hull.

The monk in my group's party took the Martial Artist archetype which doesn't require you to be lawful.

I made the mistake of asking the affected player to roll his save for the resonant one. Got the players convinced OOC that deep platinum is cursed and they fobbed it all off in Quent.

I just told my players out of character that Harrigan was a level sixteen character. That impressed the importance of not doing anything stupid on them.

Only one of my PCs would be okay with overt consensual sexual relationships in the campaign, the rest wouldn't even be comfortable with those, let alone rape, so I don't use them. The potential with Lady Smythee was strictly political and Tessa won't make any first moves. They haven't gotten to the brothel yet so I'll wait to see how they react to the idea before deciding how to roleplay it. There are occasionally children hovering near our gaming table anyway so sometimes the mature themes have to be toned down regardless.

Yeah, if my players insist on playing trox or drow nobles, I make them play with one less character level than the APL. That being said, these are the non-core races I'm allowing in my S&S campaign:

Aasimar, aquatic elf, catfolk, changeling, dhampir, fetchling, goblin, hobgoblin, ifrit, monkey goblin, orc, oread, ratfolk, skinwalker, suli, sylph, tengu, tiefling, undine and vanara.

Well, when the campaign started, I figured backstabbing and duplicity wold go hand-in-hand with a group of unaligned, newly minted pirates - I even allowed them to be evil-aligned (something I usually frown upon) if they wanted to be and fully expected there to be a chance of some PvP occuring. I didn't however, expect two thirds of the entire party to kill each other in the space of twelve game hours while in range of a pair of ballistae manned by angry defenders of a castle.

Thankfully, these players are relatively new to the game and still very much enjoy experimenting with new builds.

I'm not using experience points in this campaign and have been levelling them up at set intervals instead so forcing them into level two characters would be impractical.

The party bard/sailing master had just married Lady Smythee for the Lordship of Tidewater Rock. He believed that as lord of the Rock, he should be in command of the party's ship.

The synthesist/captain, who had become increasingly bloodthirsty since leaving Bonewrack Isle, had made it clear from the start that he wanted to slaughter all of the inhabitants of the Rock but stayed his hand due to the combined pressure from all of his officers. The bard had gotten most of the other officers together to explain his plan: offer the captain the chance to resign in exchange for his life. The rogue (who was an honourary officer as a PC but didn't have an actual position) offered to simply assassinate the captain while he slept in exchange for some real power on the ship. The others agreed but the rogue betrayed them and alerted the captain to their plan. The gunslinger/gunnery master switched sides when he saw that the plan had gone awry and the bard & surgeon/cleric both ended up dead.

The bard and the cleric were Sandara Quinn's closest allies and she respectfully asked the captain to get off at the next friendly port (so she could go on to form Queen Bes' Own later in the game). The captain slew her on the spot. The gunslinger witnessed this and fired at the captain, which earned him a grisly death too.

The captain and the rogue launched an attack on Tidewater Rock next like the captain originally wanted to but lookouts had witnessed the fighting on the ship and had barred the entrance. The captain smashed it down and charged headlong into the keep as fast as he could looking for people to kill, the rogue hot on his heels. The garisson outflanked them and although Sergeant McCleagh was killed, he and the guards managed to kill the captain. The rogue tumbled through their lines and managed to escape. The session ended with the rogue swimming for the ship, an absent player's first mate/monk taking over as de facto captain and Tidewater Rock's ballistae firing upon them. The players want to roll up new characters but obviously, they can't just turn up onboard and start playing.

tl;dr

The party of six is now a party of two; players with dead characters want to begin playing again ASAP and the central plot location for the next several events is hostile and ready to defend itself.

You could have the Cleric spot an area of the nearby cliffs that is much easier to climb(DC 10), then he can take 10 climbing it.

And then finds some cool loot to make everyone else jealous(this is optional of course).

The reason the cliffs are Climb DC 15 isn't due to a lack of handholds, it's because they're soaking wet.

Thanks for the more constructive suggestions, guys :)

Just to clarify, I was hoping for a suggestion that the Cleric could utilise by himself without need for GM intervention. This would allow him to feel a strong sense of personal achievement and justifiably let him snub his nose at his wife and best mate for being the lazy douches that they've made themselves out to be. In regard to the bridge, yes I was talking about after the trap had been sprung. I was wondering what people's thoughts were about the process of re-tying it. The description says only the eastern rope remains attached when the supports tear. Do you suppose, if they don't discover the knotted ropes below the bridge on the island side, that the one remaining rope would support a medium creature's weight if they shimmied across it to reattach the western rope?

I do like the Malfeshnekor/Lamashtu angle that Nobodyshome's friend suggested but I don't think his character will go for it.

The beaches on the Thistletop map appear to all be at the base of sheer cliffs and that's how I've described them to the players. I'm not ruling out the discovery of a nearby trail, but it feels almost as much of a GM intervention as just stumbling upon a potion of flying.

Incidentally, the Cleric's player's plan was to try and find a way back to Sandpoint and leave his party to their fate.

Heh, and here I was hoping for an answer that would let the Cleric help himself out of the situation...

An earth elemental doesn't bestow its Earth Glide ability to another creature touching it so unless it leaves a portion of itself outside the cliff for the Cleric to hang on to, I don't see it working. Also, the Summon Monster spell only has the creature attack things unless the summoner can communicate with it which I don't think the Cleric can.

Rather than just levelling vitriol against his fellow players, could you guys please stick to the original question? Thanks :)

Oh, and I did grant the Cleric exclusive XP for the bunyip.

They did bring 100' of rope but they decided to use it to cross the chasm between Thistletop and the Thistle Tunnels. Then none of them wanted to head back to the Tunnels (crossing the rope line), unsecure said rope, get the Cleric out, resecure the rope and have the Cleric run the risk of falling in the sea again (he doesn't have any physical skills).

It's not about being mean, it's about being lazy. They know he's alive, they just don't want the hassle and would rather get on with the adventure using healing potions. It's particularly unnerving since in RL the Cleric is married to the Magus and the Barbarian is his best friend.

I don't want to encourage this behaviour by skipping the skill checks required for them to regroup but neither do I like the idea of the Cleric doing nothing while the rest of the party are gaining levels without him. I mean, the bunyip was worth a lot but it was only about 10% of the XP value of clearing out the fortress.

If they don't change their tune next session I think the Cleric might just have to stumble upon a potion of flying while the other party members rack up some 'sloth points' (they have no idea that I'm counting their sins).

I have a cleric PC who is trapped at sea level outside Thistletop. He managed to kill the bunyip by himself - just - but can't manage the climb back up (10 Climb checks with only a +3 skill mod against DC 15).

The rest of the party have gone on to clear out the goblin fortress by themselves and are planning to enter the dungeon without him too. This quite understandably leaves the cleric's player feeling very left out of the game.

He doesn't have any rope and at level 3, he has no way to float or fly. He could manage the swim into the Collapsed Treasury but he doesn't have any idea that such an entrance exists. The best solution I've come up with is to summon a giant spider with Summon Monster II, grab on then Bull's Strength while it's climbing the cliff so it can make it within 3 rounds.

Any better suggestions? While I'm here, what's the best way for the PCs to repair the rope bridge by themselves once it's collapsed?

I run two games. All of my DM notes and rulebooks are digital for ease of transport (I never play in my own house). One game is at a table, using a laptop - I am constantly trying to angle that laptop so that the player sitting next to me can't metagame off my game notes on the screen.

The other game is at a player's house. I use his PC in the living room. Everyone is sitting at least three feet from the monitor but otherwise have full view of the screen. Their distance means they can see the maps, but not any of the text.

I agree with the above post about players being able to see the dice that kill them as being more fun...to an extent. I have great luck rolling dice, invariably, my players don't. High PC mortality rates can get very frustrating very quickly and can really derail a long campaign.

If a PC wants to seduce an NPC I'll use the relationship rules. I give my players a lot of freedom to do what they want (almost always with repercussions) but the relationship rules are drawn out enough to discourage seduction attempts that generally are only good for a couple of brief laughs from the others at the table and otherwise are only good for flattering one player's ego. Of course, if an NPC wants to seduce a PC, it's entirely up to the PC how they want to react.

Both of the gaming groups I run have a married couple and a single woman in her 'dirty thirties' as players. The couples are too afraid to instigate romantic and sexual liaisons with NPCs while their partners are sitting next to them while the single women don't have the patience for love and just want to get down to the sexy stuff. With one notable exception who spends a lot of time and money with prostitutes, the other four male players are too embarrassed to do anything in the presence of a couple of women.

My solution: Racism. NPCs are not enlightened socialists like people want them to be. If a player plays an atypical race for the area they can expect to face persecution wherever they go. Children pointing while parents usher them away, price markups in shops, higher Bluff and Diplomacy DCs (though lower intimidate DCs) and even if the rest of the party makes fast friends, the 'alien' is at best tolerated until they personally save someone's life.

I have an orc player in Sandpoint and a couple of goblins sailing the Arcadian ocean who can attest to this, though I manage to keep the games fun enough so they don't ragequit. It can be a delicate balancing act alienating the character but not the player.

'Course, in places like Katapesh, Kaer Maga and Durpar (I primarily DM in the Forgotten Realms and Golarion), these attitudes are relaxed and my players can feel more free to be a drow or ghoran or whatever esoteric race that they want to experiment/powergame with.

Good to know. I hadn't read that far ahead yet. Assumed Kipper and Patch weren't considered officers. Looks like I'm going to have to find a replacement first mate for Captain Scourge (probably Narwhal) and write up a replacement for Patch when the party is due to run into her again. Can I get a page ref for the penalties for ships being undercrewed please?

I had no intention for pirates not to want to save their own skin, they'll *try* to back off if Scourge goes down or if they've taken enough damage - it's just that my players really enjoy cutting down fleeing opponents (even Owlbear with my most pathetic crying impression didn't stop 'em).

I noticed something a little weird a few weeks ago and am posting before it becomes an issue in my game. A sailing ship such as the Man's Promise is supposed to have 20 crew minimum for it to be able to sail (p35). On the same page, it says that the skeleton crew consist of all the original sailors (I assume this means the swabs and riggers under the 'Wormwood Pirate' umbrella term as well as Kipper and Patch), plus the recent 'presses' (Sandara, Rosie, Cog and Conchobar), Owlbear, Fishguts, Plugg, Scourge and the PCs. Assuming a 4-character party, this comes to twenty eight crew total. Now, at least eight of those crewmen plus Plugg and Scourge are supposed to be hostile and upon returning from Bonewrack Isle, will attack.

Even if we assume that there have been 0 NPC casualties in the four weeks leading up to the scripted mutiny (an unlikely event. On my ship Plugg and Patch are already dead and it doesn't look good for Rosie, let alone the poor PCs who had to slog through the overly deadly Bonewrack and Riptide), it seems unlikely that there will be twenty crew left alive unless a surgical assassination or duel is organised between the PCs, Plugg and Scourge.

Have any other DMs had to deal with a lack of bodies after the mutiny? What were your workarounds? Or did you just ignore the minimum complement issue? I was thinking of adding a scroll of Skeleton Crew to the Brinebrood Queen's treasure hoard just to get the ship to Rickety Squibs.

My guys have overpowered ability scores (nobody has a score below 15), they have a synthesist power gamer in the party and I'm cutting them more than their fair share of slack - Bonewrack Isle still proved to be a major challenge.

So after all of their shenanigans on the Wormwood (see my last post in this thread), Captain Harrigan wants the party off his ship, foisting them onto Scourge's Man's Promise. They're told to go get their stuff but I'm a nice DM and don't force them to accept an escort belowdecks.

So that troublesome half-orc from last time hasn't earned any of his equipment back and since the entire crew is on the main deck (and Grok is unfriendly) he can't even buy his stuff from her.

He breaks into the store and TAKES his equipment back, including that sack of coffee and his earthbreaker. I remind the player that this stuff belongs to Harrigan now and that he'll have to walk past him on the way to the new ship. He shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly and says that's fine.

Back on the main deck he's stopped by the cap'n himself.
"You've got some brass balls to steal from me, swab. I've keelhauled folk for less."
"I'll pay you more than they're worth from my share of the booty." (Fool forgot honourifics AND the respectful tone)
"What if I'm not interested in yer gold? I'll give ye yer stuff - got no need fer it anyway - in exchange fer two of yer fingers."

The player asks me what the game penalties for losing fingers are. I say -1 Dexterity for every thee fingers lost. The character says okay, grits his teeth, draws a knife and cuts off the little finger from each hand.

"Those weren't the fingers I wanted." Harrigan says with an evil smile.

1. Kyras - half-elf gunslinger. The voice of moderation (when he isn't drinking). Likes to think ahead since he created his character without ammunition or gunpowder.
2. Merisiel - elf ranger. A dual-wielder who really just wants to hit things.
3. Jer'Kai - human cleric of Besmara. Inferiority complex personified. Repeated failures caused her to resign herself to being a healbot.
4. Qaroline - goblin swashbuckler. Maniacal kleptomaniac.
5. Choden - dwarf monk. Quiet and reserved but always willing to punch things for justice!
6. The nutter with no name - half-orc fighter. Known as 'Captain Coffee' by some. Zany and eccentric but also very intimidating.

Yes, I was overly generous with the tactics that I had the Wormwood pirates use, which I immediately came to regret when I saw the rolls that my players were making against Plugg & Scourge.

Our next session was last night and I decided against having Harrigan kill them all on the eve of battle. Instead I let them play out the battle as planned. They performed flawlessly and also managed to off a hostile crewman in the confusion - finishing their occupation and defence of the aft deck with 3-and-a-half rounds to spare.

I roleplayed out the loot divvying as them being showered with coin for their performance and then having it angrily taken away from them for their crimes. We ran out of time before I could complete my plan however - which involves the captain cutting on them (battle scar and amputation table) before booting them off his boat onto the Man's Promise.

I did nix the XP though. I was surprised at how well my players took it - especially my older ones whose faces always lit up when I gave them XP rewards in the past.

A Feral Gnasher got picked on to go to the bilges on Day 19. When Plugg and Scourge attempted to confiscate his greatclub, he attacked them with it and got soundly whipped for his trouble before being murdered.

His half-orc replacement turned up the following day in a dinghy waving an earthbeaker over his head as if he was about to make a hostile boarding action. One of the PCs on the ship tosses a rope down to him and the half-orc is pulled up carrying a 50 lb bag of coffee beans that he'd been munching on constantly while at sea. The crew try to restrain him while they rob his 'cargo', not realising that the half-orc willingly intended to put the sack of beans belowdecks himself, however when it is TAKEN from him, he manages to escape and bull rush the crewmen away from the sack, cradling it like a baby. When Plugg and Scourge come over, he pulls out and unfolds a portable deck chair, takes a seat and successfully stares down Mister Plugg.

Then Mister Plugg does an Indiana Jones and uses his cat to grab the orc's leg and pull him off his chair onto the deck. The rest of the party takes this as a sign to start their planned mutiny and manage to kill Plugg as well as knock out Scourge before they're overpowered.

My gaming group recently acquired a new player with fairly severe Cerebral Palsy. They're a great person and a witty roleplayer but their difficulties cause a few problems at the table. They frequently have muscle spasms which cause them to involuntarily kick out, they have trouble rolling just one die, let alone multiple dice, especially d4s, they're incapable of writing anything down (character sheet edits, note taking, etc) and though volume certainly isn't the issue, it's often difficult to make out what they're saying.

Does anyone have any experience with players with this kind of disability? I'm admittedly worried about brooching the subject directly for fear of making them feel like they're not wanted. Does anyone know of any accommodations we can make to ensure our games run more smoothly with them at the table?

I've already set up a little bucket suspended on a wire that others can place dice in and can simply be tipped forward to roll but does anyone have other suggestions?

OK, so the Wormwood is chasing the Man's Promise but I and they have lots of problems. The party is too chaotic even for the Wormwood and were determined to get revenge on Mister Plugg.

First, they stole a bunch of items from the quartermaster's store and tried to pin the thefts on Mister Plugg - failing miserably to convince Grok (not that she could so much against the first mate anyway) that they weren't in fact responsible. They would have gotten away with the theft itself if they hadn't tried to plant evidence on Mister Plugg and attempted to drop him in it with Grok, offering 'found' items and pointing her toward his bunk where they'd stashed the rest. All it served to do was lose them the stolen items and earn the distrust of Grok.

Then, after one of the PCs was killed in the ambush on Day 19, the party worked out who the culprits were and the dead guy's RL brother's character vowed revenge, persuading most of the rest of the party to attempt to murder Mister Plugg in his sleep. I had Sandara talk them out of that but on the following day, when the player's new character arrived, a fight broke out during his 'indoctrination'. I made sure that the captain and his inner circle stayed out of the fighting until someone died but the party got lucky and Master Scourge and Mister Plugg were both defeated before the party looked to be overpowered and decided to surrender. As a parting shot though, the party Fighter decided to coup de grace Mister Plugg and managed to kill him.

The killer was put in the sweat box to be keelhauled at the bloody hour while the rest of the party were chained up in the bilges. Their release was secured when the Man's Promise was spotted though that's when we run into the third problem: Even after being awarded XP for Plugg, Scourge and a crewman also defeated in the fighting, none of them have enough XP for level 2 yet. The one party member who's accomplished the most is still 70xp off advancing with the rest being several hundred xp away.

I plan on advancing Master Scourge and Patch Patchsalt to make up for the loss of Plugg but unless I retroactively switch to the fast XP track I'm not sure what to do about their lack of XP without setting a precedent I'd have trouble passing off to my players.

Any advice?