We started playing this last Sunday. There are, currently, two players with two characters each, though one of our irregular players "audited" the session. I've covered our first session on our group's new game blog
link if anyone's interested in reading it.
I had the most fun with Aretta, to whom they took an instant dislike based on her portrait from the paper minis. One of PCs took a swing at her at the wakeup call and got sapped for it, then she tried to conk the cleric one for talking back to the captain during their "welcome briefing". Later the PC from the morning accepted an armwrestling challenge from her and won, using her Killer Instinct trait (I think that's what it is) to really slam Aretta's hand into the sharp stuff. I think she's going to be permanently hostile to them...but I might have her proposition the one male in the party and give them a second chance if he accepts.
I also like Shortstone and played up his womanizing and Rosie's open disgust (but secret admiration), since the party has three females. They didn't like him much but he got four lashes of the cat for "taking the caulk" (second offense) and that messed him up pretty good. The cleric and Sandara did a Heal check and helped him feel better and he's now just Indifferent. I would like them to bring him over to their side so he can be on their crew going forward.
One issue that came up was the rum ration. After seeing the discussion about this on the forums here I decided to have it do 1d3-1 Con damage...i.e. from 0 to 2 damage on any given day. I told the players out of character that it's clear the rum is dangerous stuff but would give them a Cha bonus if they wanted to take the risk.
The player of the party's cleric convinced me that Purify Food & Drink would turn it into a harmless substance...with the proviso that she'd have to make Stealth/Sleight of Hand checks to do so without being noticed. I also haven't really figured out what Besmara would think of such behavior.
Reading the description of the spell I think this is a reasonable use of it. I made the check DC 20, possibly lowered by aiding Bluff or other checks by friendly characters. Any pirates that have particularly grown to hate them and are looking for a way to get revenge might get specific Perception checks to notice her "spiking" the punch. Getting noticed will result in the same punishment as tipping it away.
So. Can I get some opinions from the forum on whether this is reasonable? Any thoughts appreciated.
M
Edit: Not sure why the link I posted kept getting hosed. I think it's okay now.
I've been working to get this blog up to date. It's missing one historical post, the taking of Man's Promise. We're up to the confrontation between the PCs and Scourge/Plugg at this point.
The most recent post is here. You can click on the Skull & Shackles tag to get just posts related to that campaign...or not if you want to read about other things we've been playing (sci-fi fans might enjoy our Microscope RPG session recaps).
M