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So I'm about to (surprise!) DM Skull & Shackles for my group, and I've been doing some research up front on the forums and elsewhere in order to make everything go as smoothly as possible/avoid potential issues/iron out bumps in the AP. I noticed awesome threads full of fan additions/comments, etc in the forums for Rise of the Runelords and especially Curse of the Crimson Throne, but nothing much here so far. So I thought I'd make a catch-all thread for all the little improvements people might have been using in their games.
For example, there is definitely an issue with player motivation in this AP, since after the end of book 1, trying to tell your new bunch of pirates what they 'should' do is questionably piratey in the first place. DM_aka_Dudemeister has a great solution for this here: http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5wfi?Motivational-Issues
Alternatively, SaintMac's suggestion http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5sq7?Just-a-suggestion-for-GMs-on-thisBig-Bang- Whip lets you use an actual whip sound, which might be cheesy, or very effective.
For my own addition, I think it might help the pacing of the AP somewhat if the Free Captains' Regatta gets thrown around a bit before the PCs are actually going to need to know about it: maybe they find leaflets or fliers among the possessions of other crewmembers, posted in their favorite fence's shop, etc.
So what has everyone changed or added to their campaigns?
One(/two) some might change is(/are) the Forced Into Service and/or PCs Gears Are "Lost" part(s).
And, look below the text entry box for the "How to format your text" thing, might help.
I had my PCs get shipwrecked; they were the only survivors of a ship called the Pitiless Whore. They were sunk by a Chelish ship named the Asmodenaut (from another Paizo source) that had cannons aboard. Soon after, the Wormwood rolled up, rescued them, put them to work and Harrigan told them they'd let them off at next port if they wanted, but because Jakes Magpie, a recently press-ganged sailor, had killed the cook's mate and was going to be keelhauled, he needed sailors-- if they wanted to sail in the Wormwood, they would work or he'd put them back in the ocean. The ship spent a day salvaging the Pitiless Whore and the PCs got back some of their equipment that way.
It helped the campaign not start out ultra confrontational and honestly made it a lot smoother.
Another thing I changed was to make Harrigan a lot less evil. I'm trying out a houserule called ' True Alignment ' which means that a serial killer and a balor don't have the same alignment-- the serial killer is CE, and the balor is True Chaotic Evil. So, Harrigan was a lot less evil-- extremely LE, very silent, imposing. I had him jump down from the helm (leaving Plugg to sail) to help out during the man-overboard event on Day 8: The Storm in Part 1, which earned him some respect. When Plugg brought out Owlbear and had him fight the sorcerer of the party, the sorcerer blasted Owlbear with color spray after using Bluff to convince him to do some foolish things to get out of fighting him ("We're playing 'do what I say!' I say... do 20 jumping jacks"). Plugg went off the deep end, and Harrigan stopped him short of trying to kill the sorcerer.
Of course, one party member hates him beyond reason because when he said 'I have one rule-- don't speak to me' the party member immediately tried to joke with him and got shouted down.
Those are my changes so far, besides adding in a goblin crewmate and adding a lizardfolk oracle of nature to Bonewrack Isle. Planning to use them as colorful background characters later on.
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There are definitely issues with poisoning all the PCs and stealing their stuff to start an AP- presumably Dwarf Alchemists and the like would be very upset over succumbing to something like that via DM handwave. A few people have suggested combining The Wormwood Mutiny with Souls for Smuggler's Shiv for thematic or gameplay reasons, and others have suggested replacing Bonewrack Isle with Smuggler's Shiv because the former is actually deadlier than the latter.
I'm actually starting my game with the PCs having to escape from Chelish retaliation and subsequently sneaking onto the Wormwood. Otherwise, page out of DM_aka_Dudemeister's book.
Harrigan seems tough to play. He can't be horrendously terribly evil, because the PCs can't be pushed into anything suicidal against him. On the other hand, they pretty well have to strongly dislike him, or they'll seek an alliance once they have their reputations together: "Hey Harrigan! Remember us? Here's your (squibbed) ship back! Ours is better!"
This isn't from anything more than a read-thru, but I was both doubtful of the "take the rock for luck" hook to Tidewater Rock and disappointed in the wasted roleplay opportunity of a pirate queen with a map tattooed on her back.
I mixed them up a bit in my brain. In my version, the PCs come across the riddle portion of the map (I'm thinking burned into a captain's desk they loot from another pirate and later learn had belonged to Captain Wolfe). This MUST be the clue to unlocking the map he'd left with his widow on Tidewater Rock.
So the PCs go there and either conquer, capture, or woo Lady Wolfe nee-Smythee to get their hands on the map and seek out the great treasure.
Other, minor changes pop up as I read through, but this is the only plot change I've thought out.
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Oh, man, thanks for bringing up Isabella Locke! This is the kind of thing I made this thread for. Now, I fully understand that every Charisma 14+ female NPC the players run into is not going to fall into their arms. (Although as written, many do). I also understand that as written, Locke would literally kill herself before allying with the players in any way.
But there has to be a compromise here. Locke is by far the most interesting villain of the AP at that point, with the most interesting map the players are likely to find stuck on her. Just killing her, throwing some 1st level spells around to Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V the map and walking away seems to be a huge waste. So let's brainstorm this-
I agree that the clue should come before the map, so that the PCs know who Isabella is before she kicks the door down. Finding said clue in Tidewater Rock would be ok for me, because my PCs are already going to want to take it for its defensive value and as a base of operations versus Cheliax. So that's all good.
As for Isabella, maybe the players could find out that magic latent from her Bloodline Tattoos causes her map to only appear when she is conscious. Naturally, they'd have to find a way to subdue her long enough to follow the map. Or something. Work in progress. It just seems more 'piratey' to have to sail around with an unwilling hostage who HATES you in order to get the job done, rather than 1 murderer + 1 calligrapher = map done.
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Quick thought: how about Mancatcher Cove happens to sit in the center of extremely hostile weather patterns/tides/reefs to the point where only the constantly updating map on Isabella's back (think the Harry Potter movies) could let the party through?
As an added bonus, this marks a violent weather event in both parts 1 and 2, setting the PCs up to know how to handle the Regatta in part 3.
Could this work?
Isabella Locke is... yes, expandable
Is was planning to a) have her feature several maps on her body, so the players may have to do some research on her. Probably hide the real one on her skull aka "Cutthroat Island".
I will also introduce her earlier, making clear the Sahuagin-relations. The plan is on sabotaging the PCs' ship with a bunch of them swimming up ans sabotaging their ship ( chaining the rudder etc. ) while they are plundering their prize, preventing repairs through dozens of Sharks in the water and then have her sneak in and stealing their fresh booty out from under their hands.
This should cause enough enmity, and motivate everyone to find out about her, the "Tresher" (which is distinctive enough).... and possiblly the plethora of maps on her body.
Leading in to "the pirate treasure"... I may even hint at her looking and searching over all the maps on her body, but being unable to find the loot herself. ....since it is tattooed onto the back of her skull, within the hairline.
"The Rock" as written, does not make all that much sense either. It is so much more effective to put the tower on top of the island - increasing it's sighting radius my dozens of miles and making it less obvious so merchant sailors will not avoid the island altogether, because rumours spread - for sighting, rather than placing it in the shallows.... so this whole thing will go into some island traipsing ("Lost" anyone ), trying to find the "the Rock" on a mildly volcanic island.
Should possibly include a Black Smoke Monster (say, a ghost of a pirate who even in Death will try to get inside... giving everyone extra motivation ) since we have some fans of "Lost" in the group.
Also makes the "sneak up" attack by Locke much more fun, later.
Mancatcher grove.... Who in his right mind will sail his ship into that narrow, windless basin ? Why not use your longboat ? Or stand on the cape ? This will need rework as well - or the removal of the Canopy Creeper which eerily reminds me of an oversized flumph.
Although it might work with Ninten's "aggressive weather pattern"... safe harbour and all. hmmm
The "Regatta" will be updated severly (more effects playing into it) , as will the silly "shipwreckers" in AP-3.
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Wanted to throw in my two cents on the Island of Empty Eyes. I know it's a little bit ahead of what everyone is discussing but there is one thing that really bugs me.
On the Island of Empty Eyes why does nearly everything have its morale listed as "fight to the death". What is the fun of taking over an island if you wipe out all the native inhabitants. Here is one of my changes.
The cyclops clan in the fortress will have an old Ghol-Gan seerer who, if the PCs can find and talk to before killing the whole tribe may be able to convince the cyclops to aid the PCs and co-exist on the island together in exchange for food. Imagine when the Pirate Lords arrive at the player's party to judge them and there is a cyclops waiting on the dock to welcome them with the players.
I have other ideas in mind but wanted to share that one, having an entire island of cyclops (especially a tribe linked to a lost empire) is awesome but then killing them all off just kind of takes away alot of possibilities.