|
If they are too late then I'll let my players figure out he's headed to Rickety Squibs and to try to intercept him there. If they make it back in time then the encounter goes down as the book describes.
** spoiler omitted **
Also your player might hate you for it.
|
|
Would indeed require some clever problem solving.
** spoiler omitted **
I like how you think.
It doesn't make sense for Mr Plugg to wait around for the PC's to return to The Man's Promise so he can kill them unless he has no other way of getting water. Marooning them on Bonewrack Isle is simpler and cleaner and a classic pirate trope.
It is important to note that he does not, in fact, have any other way of acquiring water. Sandara is the only cleric on board, and she is supposed to be kidnapped by the Grindlylows. That means that, even if he trusted magically created water, his only source of it would be the PCs. Doesn't make it a good idea to maroon them.
Also, even if they get in this situation, there is no need to rig up a sail. Both ship's boats already have them.
Besides which...
really ?
Ship repairs : Cracked hull, no magic ? Guess the players will be back before the remainder of the crew have even careened the ship (on what precisely, I wonder) to reach the crack, nevermind repairing it.
The crew will still be out of water, too. 3-4 litres a day (tropics), on a crew of about 12-20.. do the math. Actually, any ship should hold "water barrels" (like twenty or so, roughly a ton or two)... but that of course would wreck the original plot
Sailing to Ribbety ? Good luck, does the cutter have a compass or a navigator with at least some tools ? Do they even know where Ribbety is located precisely ? if they are off by only 5% - and no clue where they are on the jungle coast - good chance finding the place. Really makes you wonder why the Chelians never did...
And the cutter won't have a chance to catch the Man's Promise at sea, unless the wind is very light indeed.
Seems very arbitrary, good chance of wrecking your party or causing some real reshuffling of plot
Along these lines, there's something I'm very confused about...
Now, once the party mutinies, you have to figure that you'll lose at a bare minimum six - Scourge, Plugg and half of the baddies, and that's assuming NONE of the friendlies are killed.
Anyway, in our case the group mutinied before the storm hit. Once the dust settled we had our 4 PC's, Rosie, Kroop, Sandara, 3 Rahadoumi sailors (who did not participate in the fighting) and 2 former Wormwood crewmembers who had surrendered... that's 12 people left to sail a ship that requires 20.
The numbers just seem not to have been very well planned out. We're just going with it, assuming that the ship can be sailed with a dozen if just barely...
|
|
really ?
** spoiler omitted **
Seems very arbitrary, good chance of wrecking your party or causing some real reshuffling of plot
|
|
Along these lines, there's something I'm very confused about...
** spoiler omitted **
Yeah.
Since standard sailing checks outside of combat are DC 5, it would be pretty easy for the crew to still make it Rickety's Squibbs by taking 10 (someone must have a +5 Profession(Sailor), right?). They would be in big trouble if there was another storm or ship battle, but hopefully the Gods/GMs will smile on them and not let that happen.
|
That's actually not a bad idea, turning the island in a race to rescue allies in order to return to the ship before it's repaired and commit bloody mutiny is very Pirates of the Caribbean.
So here's how I'd run it (depending on when the players want to mutiny):
If the PCs have made lots of friends on the ship: One of them (Quin or Kroop) tells the PCs that during the storm a lot of Plugg and Scourge's loyal hands will be busy trying to keep the ship afloat. If the PCs can strike then they may be able to win free - This combat would thus be the PCs vs Plugg and Scourge (and maybe 1 or 2 hands) during a storm (penalties and acrobatics checks w00!).
If the players are victorious Plugg will try to slip off the side of the ship and swim for shore - he can vex the PCs again while they are on the island.
The big wave hits and the PCs awaken on a broken ship, with the water barrels all broken and some of their most reliable crew members missing. They can leave someone they trust in charge while they go and search the island.
If the PCs haven't made a whole lot of friends: Run as written, but the PCs are aware that Plugg is going to try to repair the ship while their gone, send out a second group for water and leave the PCs marooned. The PCs will believe they have I dunno 4 days? That seems reasonable before the ship is seaworthy again. Their only hope lies with rescuing those captured by the beasties on the island and returning with allies in time to mutiny against Plugg.
In this case Plugg will surrender when he reaches <10 hp, and the PCs can either execute him or leave him stranded on the island. (If they do the latter he might return to vex them sometime in a future book. Hooray for recurring villains!)
** spoiler omitted **really ?
** spoiler omitted **
Seems very arbitrary, good chance of wrecking your party or causing some real reshuffling of plot
The problem wouldn't be with Plugg, the problem would be that the PCs must travel a long distance on a ship that isn't made for that, they would be very limited on supplies and be at the mercy of the elements.
|
|
The problem wouldn't be with Plugg, the problem would be that the PCs must travel a long distance on a ship that isn't made for that, they would be very limited on supplies and be at the mercy of the elements.
Bonnie Prince Charlie rowed from the Northwest coast of Scotland around the North Sea to France in 1745. It was a lot more than 100 miles in a rougher sea than the Fever Sea and in a smaller boat with no sail. It's the sort of thing heroes do and makes a great story. Imagine how satisfying it would be for players to catch up with Plugg at Rickety's against odds and see the look of surprise on his face...
The biggest problem I can see is how precisely are the PC's supposed to know where Mr. Plugg is going. And how fast is the cutter anyways, it's a a little over two days for a Sailing ship to go 100 miles, 48 miles per day according to the Core, i would imagine it would take significantly longer in the cutter. Add in not knowing where they are going, lacking any navigational tools, and any other supplies, why on golarion would the pc's ever be able to make it to rickety Squibs before Mr. Plugg is done there.
|
|
The way I would rule it is that Mr. Plugg is not ACTUALLY going anywhere, the PCs will return just "in the nick of time". Perhaps one of the few allies they left aboard the ship sabotage Mr. Plugg's efforts at marooning the PCs. To me it's more about giving the PCs the impression they might end up marooned.
The way I would rule it is that Mr. Plugg is not ACTUALLY going anywhere, the PCs will return just "in the nick of time". Perhaps one of the few allies they left aboard the ship sabotage Mr. Plugg's efforts at marooning the PCs. To me it's more about giving the PCs the impression they might end up marooned.
Our PC's mutinied before the storm hit, before they got wrecked... the GM nudged us a bit towards that through the NPC's, I suspect because he anticipated that sort of inconsistency.
Another thing that seemed odd - correct me if I'm wrong but there is NO reason to suspect that Sandara needs to be rescued as opposed to simply being lost to the sea or eaten by the grindylows... in fact our group never even considered the possibility until they saw a grindylow wearing her tricorne hat and our GM had to throw a few breadcrumbs at us to get us to notice that, otherwise we'd have filled our water stores and been gone.
(I figured why put everything in a spiler tag if there's a spoiler warning in the title line of the thread)
That's what my group did, when they saw that they changed course and imagined that Scourge and Plugg mutinied against Harrigan they plotted another mutiny (they did a good work influencing a lot of people including Owlbear) killing Plugg, Scourge and a couple of others the night before the storm.The way I would rule it is that Mr. Plugg is not ACTUALLY going anywhere, the PCs will return just "in the nick of time". Perhaps one of the few allies they left aboard the ship sabotage Mr. Plugg's efforts at marooning the PCs. To me it's more about giving the PCs the impression they might end up marooned.Our PC's mutinied before the storm hit, before they got wrecked... the GM nudged us a bit towards that through the NPC's, I suspect because he anticipated that sort of inconsistency.
Another thing that seemed odd - correct me if I'm wrong but there is NO reason to suspect that Sandara needs to be rescued as opposed to simply being lost to the sea or eaten by the grindylows... in fact our group never even considered the possibility until they saw a grindylow wearing her tricorne hat and our GM had to throw a few breadcrumbs at us to get us to notice that, otherwise we'd have filled our water stores and been gone.
(I figured why put everything in a spiler tag if there's a spoiler warning in the title line of the thread)
Love it.
We attacked the night before, dazing the two men (women, actually) on deck until they could be killed or thrown overboard. We had two fighter types throw open the doors of the officer's quarters and hold that bottleneck as I sent in a horde of summoned augmented dire rats to sow chaos and thin the herd a bit. That allowed our Fighter and Sandara (with whom he had a little thing going) to face off with Plugg in a showdown that had been building since day one. It was great.
I'm with sabedoriaclark on this one. screw the rules, it makes a good story :D
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
** spoiler omitted **really ?
** spoiler omitted **
Seems very arbitrary, good chance of wrecking your party or causing some real reshuffling of plot
Your privilege. Personally I'd certainly wonder if it makes the story a better one - or if the player would just feel trundled about by the AP/GM. I'd expect many cries of "just how convenient".... Sounds more like Johnny Depp and "Pirates of Carribean" ?
My own group - after incessant years of playing (this group for roughly twelve years, most of us for 20-30 years, 2-3 a month ) prefers "increased" realism and planning for it. Which makes for more work with the APs... *shrug*
YMMV
Since the guys kicked everyones guts before the storm, the situation did not arise for us. Things went down more along the lines of "we are too few" and "why did you have to kill everyone before the storm". Which made for fun situations on the island (they are not done yet) - everybody realizing they were in the poodoo together, and now everyone looking suspiciously at the group whether they would safe the crew or would be left behind if the rest made off with the cutter^^ So for now, they took the compass along, better safe than sorry.
Bonnie Prince Charlie rowed from the Northwest coast of Scotland around the North Sea to France in 1745. It was a lot more than 100 miles in a rougher sea than the Fever Sea and in a smaller boat with no sail. It's the sort of thing heroes do and makes a great story.
"Bonnie" Prince Charlie did nothing of that sort.
He was rowed to Skye by local fishermen (a monstrous, 2 mile inshore sound... ), and sailed from there on the large french frigate L'Heureux . With a compass, full crew, good amounts of food, maps and still in inshore waters. Utterly heroic^^oh, and it was September 15th, 1746.
If quoting facts, get them straight, please (source is Magnus Magnusson, "Scotland. Story of a Nation", p.625-627 )
PS Sail to Scotland (1745) on Du Teillay, a full-size brig.
PS And the North Sea is on the East of the British Isles. You would mean the Atlantic and Irish Sea. *grin*
|
|
My own group - after incessant years of playing (this group for roughly twelve years, most of us for 20-30 years, 2-3 a month ) prefers "increased" realism and planning for it. Which makes for more work with the APs... *shrug*
Our groups and GMing style definitely differ. By all means enjoy your style of play, though as you yourself have noted in other threads D&D isn't exactly the game to be playing for realism.
"Bonnie" Prince Charlie did nothing of that sort.
Thanks for the fact check. You're right I had the Flora MacDonald/Betty Burke story blown out of proportion in my head.
That historical example aside plenty of people have traveled longer than 100miles in smaller boats than a cutter. Of course it's not easy, but in a game where players will be summoning creatures from alternate planes, breathing water, flying, launching fireballs around, and recovering from fatal wounds in the blink of an eye on a routine basis I doubt players will quibble much about whether they have the skill or tools necessary to navigate a boat.
"Bonnie" Prince Charlie did nothing of that sort.Thanks for the fact check. You're right I had the Flora MacDonald/Betty Burke story blown out of proportion in my head.
That historical example aside plenty of people have traveled longer than 100miles in smaller boats than a cutter. Of course it's not easy, but in a game where players will be summoning creatures from alternate planes, breathing water, flying, launching fireballs around, and recovering from fatal wounds in the blink of an eye on a routine basis I doubt players will quibble much about whether they have the skill or tools necessary to navigate a boat.
quite a few of these abilities come at higher levels than intended by the AP.