The Skull & Shackles Player’s Guide gives players all the spoiler-free information, inspiration, and new rules they’ll need to create characters prepared for the swashbuckling adventure and piratical perils of the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path.
Within, players of this campaign will find everything they need to create character backgrounds tied to personalities and events vital to Pathfinder Adventure Path’s expedition onto the high seas, along with new campaign-specific traits to give bold adventurers the edge they’ll need to take on the varied and unpredictable dangers of the pirate isles known as the Shackles. New rules for ship-to-ship combat also give players the resources they'll need to sail pirate vessels, board enemy ships, and claim plunder as true scallywags.
Adventurers don't need to take to the seas unprepared! Gather your allies, practice your best pirate voice, and let the Skull & Shackles Player's Guide set your course for the swashbuckling adventure of the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path.
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With 30+ years of sailing experience under my belt, I find this guide to be spot on! I think five pages of character-related content is thorough enough, without telling the players “This is the character you need to play in this campaign.” I love the scar and “peg leg” rules, and love that one of the character types is an amputee that has no debilitations from his lost limb, and a + on fortitude and a hatred and fear of sharks!
The ship-to-ship combat section is longest, most detailed and, IMHO, necessary. The combat rules were previously sketchy, and would have been onerous to employ. Can you imagine figuring out damage for a 20 ballista broadside, plus archers with fire arrows? The idea to split the rules into “fleet actions” “ship to ship” and “shipboard” conflict is brilliant, and brings a real tactical element into play. I’m having images of the old “Star Fleet Battles” game already... I’m itching to see how the fleet action rules are different. As far as ship to ship combat is concerned, reading rules that regard opposed skill checks of pilots, including maneuvers such as “Shearing”, “In Irons”, “Dirty air”, “Wind gauge”, etc, lets me know that the game designers have done their homework. The effects of spells list is as comprehensive as I could wish for (and also vitally necessary), and I love the siege weapon section (Awesome that we now have different sizes of ballistae). Well done, lads and lasses… looking forward to playing this one!
At 30 pages, this is the longest Player's Guide I've seen yet. The balance differs significantly from previous Player's Guides. Instead of being mostly advice about characters and how they link with the adventure path with a couple of extra rules thrown in, this is the opposite: there's a whole bunch of rules for ships and naval combat and the players get only a few pages.
The usual breakdown of why particular classes or races may be in the area, or what connections they may have to the adventure path, is pretty much skipped. There are vague backgrounds mentioned in the mostly mediocre traits but otherwise this section appears rushed and incomplete. This will be a major shortcoming for those players who wish to define their characters in terms of life in The Shackles. Likewise there is no overarching goal implied to aid party unity which will be even more important in a Chaotic leaning Adventure Path.
The rules for Naval Combat start simply, devolve, then end with over four pages about seige engines. The premise is good, the execution is standard and details are overly complicated. However, there is a highly useful page about spell effects at sea (though Fireball is listed under 'D' for Delayed Blast Fireball). There are also plenty of options and ideas for ships, with stats and modifiers for various types, and included are a ship character sheet and a page of ship counters. At about nine pages, this is a nice balance between complexity and options.
Overall, this is not a Player's Guide but a bunch of extra rules that look like they didn't have the room to be crammed in the module.
The first thing you'll notice is that, unlike Players' Guides for other adventure paths, there are no extensive writeups for each individual character race/class. In fact, this one manages to do that job in a few paragraphs. That leaves the remaining twenty-odd pages for the naval combat rules. At first glance, these appear solid, though of course we'll have to wait for a play session to give them a full test.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
The player guide gives advice on cleric, Druid, and inquisitioners. But doesn't give anything on oracles. What would be the best choices for curses and mysteries for the oracle. Mysteries wise, I think battle, waves, and wind would work.
The player guide gives advice on cleric, Druid, and inquisitioners. But doesn't give anything on oracles. What would be the best choices for curses and mysteries for the oracle. Mysteries wise, I think battle, waves, and wind would work.
Those are all good choices. I think Heavens could be useful as well.
Lore would work well, especially after the first book I would think, while the tribal elements of Garund would also suggest juju and ancestors as possible fits.
How would you handle ship-to-ship combat between the PCs and Kelpie's Wrath? Should Besmara's herald have some ranks in Profession (sailor) to make it better at maneuvering?
Uninstalling Reader X and installing Reader 9.5 solved the printing problem for this file. This is the first file that would not print in Reader X for me - so I still think there is something different about this pdf file.
Thanks for the advice Joana.
I also had an issue printing with Reader X. I tried re-installing Reader X, repairing the program, and updating my printer driver, but still could not print.
I did go back and print out several other pdf's I have downloaded from Paizo, but none of those had this problem.
After a little bit more experimentation, I did isolate the issue down to the first page (cover). The rest of the pages would print without problem. I managed to print to the cover by selecting the Print=>Advanced=>Print As Image option.
Mundane trade goods are non-magical (but valuable) items—spices, cloth, and lumber are good examples of trade goods.
Thanks for the attempt but that doesn't quite answer my question. Perhaps I was not specific enough.
Note: Not being smart alec but rather trying to clearly communicate...
1. "mundane" is nonmagical- already understood
2. "trade goods" MAY be things like bolts of silk, lumber, etc. - already understood
Quote from Eye for Plunder
"In addition, you begin the campaign with a selection mundane trade goods worth 50 gp that you were able to scrounge together during your first day on the Wormwood."
The description sounds to me as if referring to equipment when referring to "mundane trade goods" because I just don't see having a pile of lumber as being very useful to a character but I can see finding various equipment amid the loot/debris/discarded items as being very useful. Or, is it simply that one can gather things like bolts of silk and then trade it to other press ganged crew members for gear/favors or save it to trade when coming into port?
Lumber can be carved with the Craft skill (which can be used untrained) to make improved weapons. Silks can be traded and bartered with the crew (there are a couple in mind that might be prime targets for this sort of thing). Spices might be given to Kroop (or whomever is his assistant) for a distraction later. This is one of those traits that may not have a direct mechanical bonus, but is up to your GM to determine how best to handle the implementation of.
Note: It seems like an alchemist will be completely useless without an alchemy crafting kit or as close as possible without actually being completely useless.
Note: It seems like an alchemist will be completely useless without an alchemy crafting kit or as close as possible without actually being completely useless.
Really depends entirely on the GM, but yeah, that's how I'd play it. I'd also say an alchemist might be able to cobble together something in the galley if they're looking to create items (an increased DC to their Craft check for improvised equipment), but they'd have a better chance if they were the cook's mate.
Still having trouble printing. I've tried skipping page 1, page 1 and 2, to no avail. Tried printing as image, get a password prompt. I have reader x, version 10.1.3, tried on desktop at home and work laptop, no printing.
I had the printing problem, too, of "the document could not be printed", and "there were no pages to print". Solved it by going into Adobe Reader preferences, in the Security (Enhanced) category, and unchecking "Enable Protected Mode at startup".
IIRC, I had to close and reopen Adobe Reader after making the change.