Area C4. The Mire.
The area is listed as CR 4, but only has two CR1's in the block and description. Mistake in the name of the area?
2 CR 1 = CR 3 + 1 for dangerous terrain.
I am wondering if I missed something about being able to be armed while on deck...if the PCs get their gear back can they just wear it? I haven't found anything that says no and the NPCs (Presees included) indicate that they have combat gear.
IF they are allowed to carry weapons, why search the PCs for hidden ones during the bilge ambush?
I would play it; if they got there gear back with permission then yeah just wear it. If the stole it back then they get in trouble.
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Not to beat a dead horse, but on the rum ration question: how can it knock you out in the Heave game?
Unless I'm missing some fundamental rule here, the rum ration needs to have some kind of variable, cumulative, non-lethal effect for this game to be possible, and as written, it doesn't.
Geeking a bit after reading Wikipedia's article on blood alcohol and playing with washington university's blood alcohol level chart: If a rum ration contains 6oz of alcohol - that's 12 normal drinks - one of them is enough to knock out a fast-drinking low-tolerance character, and would leave a slow-drinking high tolerance character sloppy drunk (fatigued).
Playing Heave essentially means consuming a lethal amount of alcohol and trying to make yourself vomit before the alcohol suppresses your gag reflex or knocks you out and you die. I guess that's why they call it heave - Lovely game!
Lovely game, indeed. Our barbarian nearly died playing it. In fact, some of the players bet on the one NPC they were having trouble with earlier. Towards the end of the game, he groaned about wanting to quite, but the PCs managed to Diplomacy him into continuing. Poor bastard wound up drinking himself to death. He won, though.
I don't think I saw this in the AP,
But was it mentioned anywhere what colors the Wormwood flies?
Does Harrigan have his own private signal?
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I don't think I saw this in the AP,
But was it mentioned anywhere what colors the Wormwood flies?
Does Harrigan have his own private signal?
I wondered the same thing. Any chance it's covered in Isles of the Shackles of Pirates of the Inner Sea?
I plan on having my player design their own flag once they have their own ship. I think they'll really enjoy it! Plus if they're smart, they'll make or capture a number of national flags in order to impersonate friendly ships.
The section dealing with the Riptide Cove gives all sorts of wonderful environmental conditions about the cavern complex except light levels.
Which is surprising, since light levels have figured into every preamble about a location or zone in every other adventure path adventure.
I assume that D1 is normal lighting for outdoor condition at the time (being open to the sky). I assume D2 would be most likely the same (being the edge of the cove proper)
Is the rest of the complex dark without light sources or bioluminescence?
I assume so, but there might be small openings in the ceiling above allowing some light in (at least in the few shore side caves I have been in)
I wondered the same thing. Any chance it's covered in Isles of the Shackles of Pirates of the Inner Sea?I don't think I saw this in the AP,
But was it mentioned anywhere what colors the Wormwood flies?
Does Harrigan have his own private signal?
Nope.
Without official input, I think I will base it on the Wormwood's clock.I'm sure that the PCs will want to initially keep an eye out for it to stay away from, but near the end of the AP, they will specifically be seeking it out.
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I will probably use the red pirate flag from this page.
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So we just played our first session and finished through Day 8, with the group saving Rosie after she fell overboard (though I might make it that one of Scourge's cronies pushed her).
Anyway, the PCs are mostly fatigued/exhausted after that day, and though I didn't roll, based on their Con scores it seems that a good number of NPCs would be exhausted as well. So Scourge is going to be dealing out several lashes (6 per person who fell asleep).
I was thinking of having the Captain pardon one lash from everyone (I read in one of the books, don't remember where) that sometimes a Captain can "save" one lash as a mercy, or something.
Is it unrealistic to think that the Captain would do this for 14 or so crew members? They did successfully navigate the storm and recover a (wo)man overboard.
Alternatively, I was considering having the Captain take the lashes on himself, ordering Scourge to give him 20 lashes. It's probably too far-fetched, but thought of him terrifying Scourge is pretty hard to pass up. The captain takes his shirt of and faces the bosun. "If you miss, I'll give you three lashes with the cat. If you hit me in the eye, you'll be keelhauled."
I also think it would be funny to have Scourge fatigued as he's doling out all of these lashes, then make him roll a Con check or pass out from DOING all the whipping, netting himself 6 lashes from the cat from Plugg. ;-)
Good times.
Stuff where Harrigan isn't a horrible person
These are all good ideas, if you want to play up Harrigan as not being irredeemably horrible. The thing is, he is supposed to be the main adversary for most of the campaign. It is impossible to say for certain without the rest of the AP, but my guess would be that a kinder, softer Harrigan might be troublesome over the course of the next four adventures.
I also think it would be funny to have Scourge fatigued as he's doling out all of these lashes, then make him roll a Con check or pass out from DOING all the whipping, netting himself 6 lashes from the cat from Plugg. ;-)
This, however, would be hilarious. I can imagine Plugg desperately trying to whip his enemies into submission, only to barely scratch the skin before collapsing and looking like a total fool.
Good times, indeed.
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Stuff where Harrigan isn't a horrible personThese are all good ideas, if you want to play up Harrigan as not being irredeemably horrible. The thing is, he is supposed to be the main adversary for most of the campaign. It is impossible to say for certain without the rest of the AP, but my guess would be that a kinder, softer Harrigan might be troublesome over the course of the next four adventures.
I also think it would be funny to have Scourge fatigued as he's doling out all of these lashes, then make him roll a Con check or pass out from DOING all the whipping, netting himself 6 lashes from the cat from Plugg. ;-)This, however, would be hilarious. I can imagine Plugg desperately trying to whip his enemies into submission, only to barely scratch the skin before collapsing and looking like a total fool.
Good times, indeed.
I prefer Barnabus Harrigan as a more respectable villain. It'll lend more to the roleplaying if the PCs know of him, respect and revile him rather than him just be another CE roadbump on the way to 16th level.
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That was my thoughts too. Yeah, he's an intimidating badass and ruthless towards his enemies, but he has a few members of the crew that have been his loyal crew/friends for YEARS. You can't keep that long term solely by intimidation/fear. Eventually he's going to be vulnerable, and someone would just slit his throat (like the other officers would do to Plugg, or he would do to them, if they had the chance).
Speakin' of Cap'n Harrigan, how have you handled the cabingirl, Caulky Taroon? Is there something sinister implied there, or is she just another crewmember in your games?
Once the pc's are on the Man's Promise during the storm, it says everyone is up in the rigging. Are the grindylow's climbing up to abduct people? When the grindylow party boards, how would the pc's encounter them?
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Once the pc's are on the Man's Promise during the storm, it says everyone is up in the rigging. Are the grindylow's climbing up to abduct people? When the grindylow party boards, how would the pc's encounter them?
Their work for the day is in the rigging, but not all jobs require you to be all the way up in the rigging, and people are probably not up there 100% of the time.
For the encounter, the PCs can be on deck for a few minutes between work - just enough time to fight the grindylows before they're called back up to the rigging.
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I ran the Day 8: The Storm last night and it seemed fine on paper, but playing it out I was really confused and Im not sure I handled it right. I had Rosie fall overboard. She was seen on the first round but the PC didnt alert anyone (he wanted her to drown), on the second round other people noticed and she was 40 ft away at that point.
To get the rope close enough, a PC must make a ranged touch attack against the character in the water (range increment 10 feet). On the f irst round, the NPC is 10 feet away. Each succeeding round, the NPC drifts 1d3×10 feet farther away from the ship. If the attack misses, the rope lands too far away to help and must be drawn back and thrown again or a new rope must be thrown (use the rules for splash weapons [Core Rulebook202] to see where the rope lands)Okay, so are the PCs supposed to hit Rosie's touch (Touch AC 13), or the Square's (per splash weapons), which is only 5? At 40 ft away they were at a -6 to hit. The next round she drifted to 60ft away, so it was a -10. they rolled a 6 (after penalties) which I thought would hit the square's AC of 5. Should Rosie have drowned at sea?
Why does it matter where the rope lands? Does the NPC get their normal actions to swim, or is that figured into the Swim DC of 20 to not be lost at sea?
They need to hit the character's touch AC to get it close enough for the character in the water to grab. If you played it with hitting the square's touch AC, that's fine too, as long as the PCs have the chance to rescue the overboard character.
The two consecutive DC 20 Swim checks that the character in the water must make represents that character taking actions to swim. Since the ship is moving much faster than most characters can swim, however, people on board have to rescue the character in the water before they vanish into the stormy seas.
Sooo, then what is the point of determining which square it lands in if there is no mechanic for the NPC to get to an adjacent square? Im still confused. :(They need to hit the character's touch AC to get it close enough for the character in the water to grab. If you played it with hitting the square's touch AC, that's fine too, as long as the PCs have the chance to rescue the overboard character.
The two consecutive DC 20 Swim checks that the character in the water must make represents that character taking actions to swim. Since the ship is moving much faster than most characters can swim, however, people on board have to rescue the character in the water before they vanish into the stormy seas.
Well... If it lands directly behind them then presumably the rope will trail through the overboard character's square as the ship moves, right? Perhaps the swimmer can attempt a reflex save or swim check to get to the rope and grab it as it passes; a sort of 12.5% chance for a do-over on a missed ranged touch attack if you will.
Anyways, I had a question about riptide cove.
Area D5, according to the side-view, is one of the few areas that is completely above-water at low tide. The monster living there however is a devilfish, which is water-dependent and will suffocate out of water.
What does the devilfish do when the water goes away? What happens if the PCs go through riptide cove at low tide? How is that encounter supposed to be run when the terrain is literally deadly to its own inhabitant?
I would say the devilfish likely just goes into area D8 during lowtide, making for a much tougher challenge if the pcs go into area D8 during lowtide.
Noticed something today that doesn't really matter (I guess), but still bugs me a bit.
Mr. Plugg, according to his stat block, speaks and understands no languages.
I assume that's something that they just forgot to put in, but it irks me. Especially because he's got enough Int for a bonus language, and I have no idea what that language would have been intended to be.
Personally I'm giving him Common and Polyglot (although if I remember correctly, Polyglot is the local common, so maybe instead I'll give him Polyglot and... Giant).
(I feel like I'm encountering significantly more typos, mistakes, and accidental omissions in S&S than were in Jade Regent. It's odd, and a little concerning.)
Actually Polyglot is the old language still spoken by tribesfolk, but the more civilized people of Garund speak Osiriani.
I guess both would fit depending on his background.
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Sooo, then what is the point of determining which square it lands in if there is no mechanic for the NPC to get to an adjacent square? Im still confused. :(They need to hit the character's touch AC to get it close enough for the character in the water to grab. If you played it with hitting the square's touch AC, that's fine too, as long as the PCs have the chance to rescue the overboard character.
The two consecutive DC 20 Swim checks that the character in the water must make represents that character taking actions to swim. Since the ship is moving much faster than most characters can swim, however, people on board have to rescue the character in the water before they vanish into the stormy seas.
The rope still has to land somewhere - it doesn't just vanish if you miss. If it's thrown too far, it might be quicker to throw a new rope then draw in the old one. Or, as Gluttony suggested, the character in the water might get another chance to grab the rope, if that passes through their square.
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Anyways, I had a question about riptide cove.
Area D5, according to the side-view, is one of the few areas that is completely above-water at low tide. The monster living there however is a devilfish, which is water-dependent and will suffocate out of water.
What does the devilfish do when the water goes away? What happens if the PCs go through riptide cove at low tide? How is that encounter supposed to be run when the terrain is literally deadly to its own inhabitant?
This is what sometimes happens with side-view maps, which don't always match up with the main map. [sigh]
I would make area D5 slightly deeper, so the devilfish can stay there during low tide. Alternatively, it could move to a neighboring area instead during low tide (area D4 [staying above the lacedons], area D6 [avoiding the trap], or area D8).
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Noticed something today that doesn't really matter (I guess), but still bugs me a bit.
Mr. Plugg, according to his stat block, speaks and understands no languages.
I assume that's something that they just forgot to put in, but it irks me. Especially because he's got enough Int for a bonus language, and I have no idea what that language would have been intended to be.
Personally I'm giving him Common and Polyglot (although if I remember correctly, Polyglot is the local common, so maybe instead I'll give him Polyglot and... Giant).
(I feel like I'm encountering significantly more typos, mistakes, and accidental omissions in S&S than were in Jade Regent. It's odd, and a little concerning.)
Not sure what happened to his languages, but he should speak Common and Polyglot.
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I have one question that I cant seem to find the answer for... Why is Kroop sent aboard the Man's Promise with all the deckhands? What is Harrigan's motivation for getting rid of his cook (and long-time crew member) ?
I seem to remember reading something along those lines. It's that Kroop has been becoming steadily more and more of a drunkard. I'd imagine with Kroop at first being a chef to boast of, he's been cut some slack - even drunk he's still a better cook than any of the rest of the crew might have been. Now, however, he's become a liability - I'd say the assignment of a cook's mate was the first hint that Harrigan had had enough of Kroop's drinking. Sending him aboard the Man's Promise has the advantage of a) getting him off the ship and out of Harrigan's mind for awhile - remember that Harrigan expects Mr. Plugg to take the prize in as he's supposed to, not make off with it himself, and b) Harrigan might think the harsh discipline of Mr. Plugg might whip him back into shape.
Some notes from my campaign thus far, in no particular order:
Some notes:
1) The rum ration is nasty - the game of Heave very nearly killed Tarmav (our barbarian) off, as he'd already taken some Con damage from a bull session with Kroop earlier. That said, due to the gold won I let them move Tilly toward being friendlier for participating in the game. Arland and Garrick both cast purify food and drink, which I allowed to take away the nastiness of the brew. Tarmav and Andre became fairly adept at getting rid of it, until roughly day 14 or so where I handwaved the rum ration away, saying that they had by this time figured one way or another around it.
2) Tarmav was apparently the lightning rod of hate, as Kroop was constantly drunk - he was sober maybe 4! 4! days out of the entirety of Part 1. Furthermore, every time he took ability damage he would end up taking full amounts, every time I hit him with an attack he took full damage... just really good (and nasty) rolls on my part. This continued even to the bilge fight. Still though, he was pretty awesome throughout, basically taking down everything thrown at him until the bilge fight, and he might've even pulled that off had he not had such crap rolls to hit.
I could have potentially killed Tarmav during the bilge fight, except a) I liked the character and b) Note since this happened during 1 session, Tarmav was still level 1 at this point, with no weapon. At lvl 1 it was a pretty nasty fight, and I would've felt like a complete jerk had I killed him, so I had them beat him unconscious instead.
I assume that the fight should normally occur with the character at level 2? Seems a bit too much of an uphill battle for a level 1 character.
3) The group hardly looked around the ship at all, instead focusing on influencing other crew. The only places explored was the galley (mw dagger, cookbook, prosthetic leg, and the steadfast grapple found) and the bilge (where they found everything after the dire rat fight). They've missed out on some stuff, but at the same time only 5 of the crew are hostile to them now. They never tried to steal anything - the keelhauling made them pretty cautious. Mr. Plugg is going to have to draft some Rahadoumi sailors to make up for it. I have a fairly strong feeling that the moment they get on the Man's Promise my players are going to rebel early, which could be interesting. If they do, it'll be a pretty massive battle as both factions (with Plugg shored up by Rahadoumi) go at it. If they wait until after the island, the PCs are going to be large enough in level that I'll have their allies be fighting in the background, rather than as part of the battle.
4) The group was more or less fine with no equipment save for their daggers (which every party member actually took, funny enough) for practically the first half of the adventure - they finally (after many failed rolls) managed to bring Grok to helpful right in time for the reefclaw fight.
5) The reefclaws came very close to drowning Garrick, our cleric - they had no problem grappling the party members and soon drug 2 of them down to the reef. Quick thinking blasted one off of Garrick, and Sandara was able to save him just in time. Funny thing is, Garrick had actually 'killed' the reefclaw himself, but its' death frenzy knocked him unconscious too.
6) Prep. Can't stress this enough. I had the Ship's Cabins out as the map, with areas appropriately labelled with pieces of paper, plus task sheets for each job (players rolled their own job and informed me if they failed or passed - all players were trustworthy on this), plus a quartermaster store list (with gp value), a sheet showing influence status of all NPCs, all heroes inputted into Hero Lab with the encounters already made up... all that prep-work meant that everything went nice and smooth. Without that, the game would've gone much, much slower. It won't be so bad once they get past the ship parts of the first module, but the first part really runs the risk of bogging down unless the GM takes the extra bit of time to do his prep.
7) The party loves Owlbear, and Owlbear loves the party, since the druid feeds him crabs pretty much the same time he feeds his alligator (who's been continually gnawing at the bars of its' cage, but has yet to break out). They haven't bothered trying to free the alligator yet. The ranger's hawk was waiting for him on top of the crow's nest when he won the rigging test.
8) Tilly and Maheem have ascended to full NPC territory, as Tilly was the winner of the Heave game and was the first befriended by the party. Maheem, on the other hand, won arm-wrestling twice - the big Rahadoumi is probably number one on enemies under Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge.
9) I set up the Boarding School to make it as fun as possible, pitting PC against PC, which ended up hilariously as the ranger nailed the barbarian (before he even got on the rope!), only to get his come-uppance later on when the barbarian got him twice while he was on the rope. Ironically, the only one who actually fell was the druid, who if I remember correctly simply failed a climb check by too much - to keep it all from bogging down I made it so that one failure was enough, rather than going out for all three. All three, especially with the druid's bad climb check + 4 people chucking stuff at him wasn't going to be fun for the player.
10) Tilly ended up falling during the storm (she was helpful by this point), and all my party members spotted her right off. The druid immediately went overboard to help her, followed by the barbarian, who thankfully thought to tie himself off with rope. They managed to get Tilly to safety with little problem, but the fatigued druid had to be saved - by the time he and the dwarf met up, he'd drifted 75 ft away from the board.
So, re: The Mire
Assume the frogs stay 15 ft away from the planks. Let's say one hits with the tongue, succeeds on the grapple, and pulls a PC 5 ft into the muck. The PC is grappled, but the frog is not. Now let's say the PC tries to escape the grapple and fails and it's the frog's turn.
How does this work? Does he have to make a grapple check (with a +5, due to the PC escaping) just to pull the PC 5 more ft? And if so, on the next turn could he 5ft move and bite? And how does the bite with grab interact with the tongue with grab? It's a bit confusing.
I know this should probably be in the rules forum, but I don't want my players to see my question, hehe.
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Another problem I have is that it seems odd to take 18 seconds to kind of "reel someone in" with the tongue. Plus, when you grapple someone that is not adjacent to you, they are moved adjacent to you (or the grapple fails). So I'll probably have it that if the tongue hits someone from 15 ft away and if the grapple is successful they are moved adjacent to the frog.
I also wanted to say that if you (like me) prefer the mutiny to happen after Bonewrack Isle, you can do something I did.
First off, my PCs had made several crew members helpful (though two of them died in the fight against the Man's Promise).
So I had Plugg take 6 of the Rahadoumi that the PCs had captured onto his ship. On the Man's Promise, Plugg makes a rule where you can't have any weapons on deck (save, like, a dagger) unless you are an officer or on "guard duty". He names all of the hostile NPCs as his officers, has the 6 Rahadoumi alternating guard duty 3 at a time. This slowed down my PCs mutiny plans (as they tried to figure out how to get the key from Fipps, the "master gunner", who had the key to the secure storage where all the equipment was stored).
Also, I did something to create a sense of urgency to get back to the ship (since I have 2 divine caster PCs who can just create water and I didn't want them to just wait on the island so Plugg and all them would be dehydrated). When the PCs and NPCs figured out Plugg had changed course and meant to take the ship for his own, then the storm hit, I had Conchobar sing a song about the dangers of mutiny (telling the story of Whalebone Pilk from Book 2).
Afterwards, Plugg said any talk of mutiny is forbidden, and told the PCs Conchobar will be in the sweatbox until they get back.
So the tidewater cutlass allows a hydraulic push with a whopping +1 CMB? Kind of underwhelming.
Looks like +3 to me (CL is listed as 3rd). Still underwhelming, but on a crowded ship, even against CMD 15(ish) of low level characters you`ve got a 45% chance of putting someone in the drink (to be eaten by sharks or at least out of the action for a couple rounds).
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It's a reward in the adventure's first volume. Were you expecting something earth-shattering?
So the tidewater cutlass allows a hydraulic push with a whopping +1 CMB? Kind of underwhelming.
I was just about to ask this myself. It came up in my game tonight. I think it should be a little better, but I'm not sure how to go about it.
So the tidewater cutlass allows a hydraulic push with a whopping +1 CMB? Kind of underwhelming.I was just about to ask this myself. It came up in my game tonight. I think it should be a little better, but I'm not sure how to go about it.
I agree this is pretty lame. I think its +3 because the sword is caster level 3. I also assume its a standard action to use this? Would making it a swift action make it more interesting and usable? Also scaling the weapon up to a +2 will make this a +6 hydraulic push, while a +5 weapon will be a +15 if I understand how it works correctly.
Shade325
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I will be running this shortly and have been looking through some of the comments and have a couple of questions/concerns/comments.
1) I plan on pre-rolling tasks for the NPCs (and PCs) and therefore being able to more fluidly present to the PCs what is going on day-to-day on the ship. This also allows me to tell the players who is working with them at any given task. It also allows me to avoid rolling the cook's mate "special occasion" three or four times in a row.
....a) I will also preroll pass/fail for many of the NPCs, so that a few of them get lashings as well. I want the PCs singled out, but not too much. I keep in mind that if the PCs befriend the NPCs daily tasks may change.
....b) I was also thinking, as per a previous thread, of creating small "encounters" for the lookout pirate to spot. If he fails, somebody else spots it, but too late to respond appropriately.
2) I was going to have the NPCs "work diligently" most days, unless the PCs do something to alter that. In the evening, I was going to pre-select many of the NPCs nightly activities, varying between entertain, gamble, and influence. I will start with Tam and the four that jump the PCs, and allow some of them to take "influence actions" to poison a few of the NPCs against the PCs. I will describe the PCs seeing Tam talking to NPCs for Scourge and Plugg.
3) I was thinking of having the grog be "special new pirate grog." After a pirate has earned it, i.e. been through a combat with the ship, they get the real stuff. This provides an explanation for why everybody isn't dead.
....a) It also means that the PCs can try to influence Grok into giving them the real stuff early.
4) I am most likely going to have 6 or 7 players. Many encounters are already set up to be single character encounters. The reefclaws, The Man's Promise attack, and the dire rats are easy enough to add an extra opponent or two. Everybody says that Bonewrack Island is hard enough as is, so I will probably leave it. My major question is the ambush on day two....
1) Good idea. Note that with some failures you get punished by being sent to work the bilges the next day. Also, when NPCs are helpful they can provide a +2 bonus to a PC's task, so if you're rolling for all the NPCs you probably would want to count that person as shirking if they are helping out one of the players. Have you looked at this thread?.
A few DMs have made some very helpful spreadsheets there.
2) One thing I did was basically have Conchobar being a bookie, as well as throwing out different odds for different things (Rosie armwrestling Fipps the first time was pretty awesome, hehe). Made for some fun RP and a good way to get him to join the PCs after they're all on the Man's Promise, if he isn't already helpful (as Plugg bans gambling)
3) I know the grog can be deadly, but it's not that bad with a low DC sleight of hand to dump it overboard. If you want, you could make another ship action for shirking to allow recovering a single point of ability damage due to rum.
One of my players is a drunken master. I ruled that for him the rum ration only did 1d2 damage instead of 1d3, and he could never become "addicted". With the exception of one day where he passed out exhausted (maybe after the storm?), he drank the rum ration every single day.
Personally, I don't like the idea of two separate rum rations, but that's just me. Along the lines of your suggestion, though, maybe have the veterans on the crew have a tolerance or something where they only get 1d2 damage. It helps a lot.
4) Yeah, you could wait until 3 or 4 of the party report on deck first, then ambush the other half of the party.
5) I ruled that kipper was using the explosion to blast open one of the locked doors, probably the one in the main hold. But yeah, an explosion on a ship that you want to capture doesn't sound like a great idea. Perhaps the explosion weakened the hull, allowing for the hull breach when the ship crashes into the reef on Bonewrack Isle?
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What is the point/effect of Kipper setting off the alchemist's fire during the attack on the Man's Promise? It seems to be pointlessly destructive and not have any noticeable effect.
The alchemist's fire explosion is just flavor text, to describe other things happening in the battle beyond the PCs' role in it. It doesn't have any effect on the campaign, although...
Another question. Sandara told Grok her things were cursed to get them back. Rosie is still trying to get her fiddle. Cog has stolen or found enough stuff to probably trade Grok for his stuff. Why/how does Conchobar still have his stuff?
Conchobar is very charismatic. You could offer as explanation that he just convinced her to give him his stuff back the old-fashioned way, by which I mean good old-fashioned diplomacy (despite his lack of ranks in diplomacy, which the players don't necessarily need to know of).
I've been looking over the map for the Wormwood, and in addition to the lack of access from the cargo hold to the deck, has anyone noticed that half of the aft grate sits over a crew cabin...
Regular members of a crew don't really have luxury, so I think the location of the gate over their cabin is intentional.
As for the lack of access from the hold to the deck, I think the general conclusion that was reached in this topic was that there's meant to be stairs or a ladder (or some method of ascending/descending) from the deck into the hold and vice versa through the grate closer to the prow.
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Thanks for the responses. I will probably give most NPCs the +4 for working diligently and just no bonus if they help a PC. I figure helping a PC is about as much as influencing an NPC, so they both come with no modifier. I also will limit influencing and helping to in the same area. So if the cook's mate is on deck fishing, she can get help. If she is in the galley, then it may be shirking to help her.
Another question. Sandara told Grok her things were cursed to get them back. Rosie is still trying to get her fiddle. Cog has stolen or found enough stuff to probably trade Grok for his stuff. Why/how does Conchobar still have his stuff?
How do you all run the climbing tasks for riggers. A lot of them start with "Climb x feet, and then..." Do you let them make an infinite number of climb checks? Do you allow them to make enough to reach that height without failing? Some number in between? It just seems most of the tasks are one or two rolls that represent a days worth of work, but climbing is a little more specific.
Rob, thanks for the response. I will make sure to keep Kipper around and describe the explosion nice and loud.
For climb checks, I am having the player roll several climb checks to reach the desired height. To succeed, the player must make the height in successful climb checks before meeting one of the fail conditions below.
The player 'fails' if either of the following is true:
1) They (hard) fail any single check by >=5.
2) The have more 'soft failures' (fail by 1-4) than successful checks. Ignore this on the first roll.
The first fail case really means that the player took a bad spill from the rigging. Calculate fall damage from whatever height they were when they fell. I considered adding a 'man overboard' chance (eg: d100 1-60: Character lands on the main deck and just hurt themselves, 61-75: The Character falls at the feet of Capt. Harrigan and Mister Plugg having a conversation at the helm... extra embarassing, 76-100: MAN OVERBOARD! (see the storm scenario for recovery)), but likely will leave that to the scripted components to not over-do water recovery encounters.
The second case is more of the character was just slow and clumsy during the entire process. Probably a verbal whipping and/or a possibility of loss of attitude with whatever NPC they were working with. If the NPC had to help them that much and carry their slack... why would they respect/help them?
Example:
Tamara the rigger has randomly gotten rigging repair: so she must 'climb 30 feet' as part of the assignment. She is not working with any of the NPCs, and has a Climb skill of +6. She chooses to shop today, and is taking a -2 on all checks (giving her a +4 net). Since she is a human, she climbs 15' per check (another simplification - I'm not making a check per action, just per round-equivalent of movement). She must make 2 successful climb checks before meeting one of the conditions I listed above.
The climb check is a DC10;
Her first roll is a 5+4=9. Soft fail.
Her second roll is a 20+4=24. Success! She has climbed 15'.
Her third roll is a 13+4=17. Success! She has climbed 30' and is successful at this part of the task.
If she had rolled a 1+4=5 on the third roll, she would have failed and fallen 15' (use normal fall rules). If her third roll had 'soft' failed, she would have failed the task but not fallen.
Hope this helps and gives some idea on what you can do to make it a little more interactive and consequential. The skill-test allows formore 'detail' in what actually happened so you can tell the story appropriately.
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Rigging Climbing StuffsJust wanted to point out climbing is listed as quarter speed, not half.
But if you use both your move and standard actions to move, that comes out to be half speed. So if you do a fast climb at the higher DC making you move at half speed, then via both actions you move at your full speed for the round.
I just sounds like Mege was letting them roll once for both actions.
Huh I never noticed that it's a quarter speed, I think I'll continue to ignore that and leave it at half speed for ease of use. Moving at 5 feet a round or 10 if you double move isn't very fun.
I appologize if I am hashing over details coevered elsewhere but...
I have a rather large gaming group and am getting ready to start this AP. Are there any suggestions for dealing with groups of more than 4 PCs?