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As for Isabella, make her CN so she can do the 'unstable dangerous b%&!%' thing while still being open to stealth or seduction. Hell, have her tag along like the untrustworthy Penny Cruz character in Pirates 4.
But RAW.... we can't do that.
Yes, I too was disappointed. But I like this suggestion. Would be interesting to have the author chime in and explain the NPC.
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As for Isabella, make her CN so she can do the 'unstable dangerous b%@+!' thing while still being open to stealth or seduction. Hell, have her tag along like the untrustworthy Penny Cruz character in Pirates 4.
But RAW.... we can't do that.
This ain't PFS - RAW is not an abolute requirement. I'll definitely be considering ways to keep Isabella around (although probably more as a rival than as a deadly opponent).
This ain't PFS - RAW is not an abolute requirement. I'll definitely be considering ways to keep Isabella around (although probably more as a rival than as a deadly opponent).
But RAW.... we can't do that.
Gosh, if we played by RAW, the APs (any AP except "Crimson Throne" ) would be one-third as much fun...
Nevermind sleeping, stunning, knock-out or pinning her. And nevermind the highly idiotic idea to paint your "treasure map" on the back of an utter fool like her.... Somebody obviously watched "Cutthroat Island"
Off-topic, and just out of idle curiosity...
Gosh, if we played by RAW, the APs (any AP except "Crimson Throne" ) would be one-third as much fun...
Why did you place CoCT as an exception? Is there any necessity to absolutely stick to the RAW in CoCT?
Off-topic, and just out of idle curiosity...
Gosh, if we played by RAW, the APs (any AP except "Crimson Throne" ) would be one-third as much fun...Why did you place CoCT as an exception? Is there any necessity to absolutely stick to the RAW in CoCT?
no, because CotC was that good, IMHO the best AP ever (yet). We replaced "Stonewall Castle" with something more along our own style, the rest was just great writing with some extra sprinkles thrown in by the GM.
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I’ve only read the first 2 sections so far. I really like the Squibs section. Upon reading part 2 I’m scratching my head thinking about how I can use this.
First it makes no sense the ships passing so close to pirate infested waters would be so lightly armed, and most of the encounters look like cake walks for a party of 4th and 5th level players. So, I’m adding levels to the marines and more guards onto all the merchant ships. Because this is likely a one encounter a day situation I’m going to design the ship guards to be a big challenging combat.
Also raiding the villages along the coast seems really easy so I’m adding dogs to each village and possibly a chief of some sort. Also I will add some variety with a undead village, and maybe when the ship is passing so close to land a large tribe of cannibals comes racing out on canoes to attack the ship.
Second, I’m thinking about how often the encounters should come. I’m thinking about adding shipping lanes onto the maps and in those shipping lanes ship encounters occur every few days. Outside of the shipping lanes merchant ships are virtually non-existent, and that’s where the other encounters would come into play. I’m not sure if shipping lanes are covered in the Oceans section at the end I haven’t gotten that far.
Also I agree with the previous post, quibbing about missing teeth and in another post about fish breats, seems rather silly. If you really want to quib, quib about the clothed Nereid in book 5 of kingmaker when the descirption says she is naked.
No doubt you'd find the "cheesecake" debates on these forums to be 'rather silly' too. Whatever was I thinking...
The character being drawn perfectly when they obviously aren't just because people would like to see a token 'hot pirate chick' was kind of my point.
There's clearly a bit of fanservice going on here, which isn't in itself a bad thing. They obviously put her on the cover for a reason, even though she's actually a minor NPC.
Which makes it seem all the more odd that the writer goes out of his way to say that the PCs CANNOT interact with her in any way beyond combat. If she's captured, she instantly kills herself and there's no way they can ever even talk to her. If she survives, she just attacks them again.
Sure, you can change anything you want, but we're getting back to the thing about 'fighting the written material' again. I'd be interested to know why the writer wanted to make absolutely certain that players couldn't do anything with her except kill her.
Sure, you can change anything you want, but we're getting back to the thing about 'fighting the written material' again. I'd be interested to know why the writer wanted to make absolutely certain that players couldn't do anything with her except kill her.
The AP is a guideline IMO. As a GM I very much try to be as canon as possible so that I don't lose track of what I've changed. I think that the writers wanted to limit some of the character options a bit so they didn't have to have every eventuality.
'So, if Rosie is alive, and you've captured Isabella - then do xxx, but if Isabella is dead and so is rosie, do yyy. Alternatively if Isabella is alive, but Rosie is dead - do zzz.' can be tiresome to think about... and this is only the 2nd of 6 installments. IMO one of the hardest parts in writing an AP series like this is making SURE to keep things inline and not allowing for too many choices that impact later choices directly.
What if your players decide to fight against the Wurmwood crew when they come across the Man's Promise? What if they just kill rickety squibbs at first sight? There are lots of major plot changing things that need to be curtailed to make the story go as planned - otherwise it's no longer the AP 'Skull & Shackles', but instead just another ad hoc pirate adventure.
There's clearly a bit of fanservice going on here, which isn't in itself a bad thing. They obviously put her on the cover for a reason, even though she's actually a minor NPC.
Which would have been much better if she were more important to the story.
As it is, in the most literal sense the heroes only want her for her body - talk about unfortunate implications.
Which makes it seem all the more odd that the writer goes out of his way to say that the PCs CANNOT interact with her in any way beyond combat. If she's captured, she instantly kills herself and there's no way they can ever even talk to her. If she survives, she just attacks them again.
Then why is she given such a detailed write up in the appendix?
Actually building on Anlerran's previous idea, moving Isabella Locke to a CN "inconvenient girlfrend" character akin to Angelica (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) would have made more sense. But, one would need to remove much of the horrible abuse she suffered.
This would open up several options.
The problem with them derailing what is written is quite strong through the campaign.
So far I'm solving it by adding sidequests, such as raiding a Pirate Captain's fortress instead of Tidewater, and introducing some NPCs and fleshing out some of the unused Captains given later in the AP.