Below is a FB chatlog after our most recent Friday night game that I GM. I thought it was a nice illustration of PC thinking and thought I would share. I changed the names to the names of the characters, to protect the innocent of course. Not edited so excuse the grammar and typos if necessary.
Theoretically the group is seven (!!!) players but so far the max has been 5 at one time. The ship setting really helps when it comes to PCs being in the background, as they can just be off doing ship things and reappear whenever the player shows up. This was the night that the two missing players happened to be the Ftr and Barb, so the party was lacking in front line firepower. Needless to say morale is low, so I'll need to try and help them get their mojo back. Bonewrack Isle is a great time, if deadly.
The session ended with half the PCs on the coconut crab beach waiting for the other half to come by in the rowboat. Just as the rowboat team was approaching shore, they spotted 4 grindylows (I described them as squid goblins, i realize now it should have been octopus goblins) approaching quickly in the water...
I made some comments in ITALICS
GM
The heroes had a rough time of it last week without any frontline support
Krakeneye (Grippli Ranger)
One tiny frog can't hold back all the ghouls and crabs. Especially when he has West Nile. (actually it is Ghoul Fever)
Norah Nearwaters (Human Rogue (Charlatan))
but at least we have coconuts! (The plan is now to bring a bunch of coconuts instead of water to the boat since they have been beat up pretty badly)
Emon (Dwarf Cleric of Gozreh)
It remains to be seen if we can get our nuts off of the island
Krakeneye
Hydration is hydration, am I right?
Squid goblins may cut our campaign short.
GM
Whoever wasn't there last week will also be on the rowboat. (The players went back for the rowboat and rowed to the coconut crab beach).
Krakeneye
I also need to find an amulet of protection against attribute damage. I feel like I'm only at my normal attributes 25% of the time.
The rest of the time I'm poisoned by mummies, or curses, or some virulent insect.
GM
Need to buy some potions of lesser restoration
It's a dangerous world!
Krakeneye
Yeah. Pirate ships are known for their great selections in potions and finery.
Norah Nearwaters
you know what goes great with malaria? centipede poison.(they have been dying to use the centipede poison they stole from one of the lockers on the Wormwood).
Krakeneye
Maybe if I drink a bunch of poison they'll all fight each other and keep me alive.
GM
You'll never know unless you try
You guys notice that one of the grindylows (squid gobs) is wearing a tricorne hat
GM
Curiously like the one Sandara wears
Norah Nearwaters
the plot thickens.
GM
Did you eat your chunky soup?
Krakeneye
Maybe they're here to help. Probably not, but I'm trying to look on the bright side.
Norah Nearwaters
maybe it's just a new kind of cosplay. maybe it really is Sandara!
GM
I guess you'll have to ask to find out!
Krakeneye
I've been thinking. Maybe we're starting too big. We could steal this 30ft dinghy and start our pirate life small.
GM
Not exactly built for long voyages
Emon
It would take us weeks to get anywhere and one good storm would end our journey quickly.
We will have to wait on the island til I can create food and water.
Krakeneye
Just as long as we don't have to fight anymore crabs.(crabs really messed them up, constrict is rough on 2nd lvl dudes).
Emon
Hehe
GM
Giant crabs are pretty rare and you doubt the island could support any more than you encountered trying to give them some good news.
Lots of tiny ones though!
Emon
I'm sure the crabs are the most intimidating thing on this island.
This island is a great place for my dude to commune with nature.
GM
It's just a lonely little island, what else could possibly be here?
Emon
If we live who wants to stay and take our chances. I think they may come after us.
They will need Water to get to land. You can only live 3 days without water.
3 weeks without food. 3 min without air.
GM
Emon does have a point. Despite the ultimatum the ship needs water to survive
Emon
If we had more time we could set a trap for them
Exploding Coco nuts!
Norah Nearwaters
where's an alchemist when you need one?(I had an aborted RotRl campaign previously and one of the players played an alchemist that did more damage to the party than the bad guys).
GM
The ship had some small amount left, but they would be hard pressed to try any long sea voyages without stocking the reserves up again
And right now nobody knows how far off course they are. definitely an uncharted island
Krakeneye
It's a cat and mouse game. We could set up some Home Alone style traps and whack Mr. Plugg in his stupid face with a can of paint.
Grogg (Human Barbarian (Sea Reaver))
Did I miss something? Are we stranded on a deserted isle?(he missed this session).
Krakeneye
We aren't really stranded. The boat that we were sent to sell was kind of hijacked by Mr. Plugg or Scourge. I can't remember. It has some of our pals, and some of our enemies on it. There was a terrible storm, we crashed the boat, and then we were sent to get fresh water from a nearby island.
We have 2 days to return with water.
Norah Nearwaters
and we got our asses handed to us by some crabs.
Krakeneye
And ghouls. And I have West Nile/Malaria/Hep C.
And Lissie (Drow Sorcerer)came pretty close to death. And Norah almost got her ass ate up by a frog.
Emon
36 hours have passed and we have a. Few Coconuts
Krakeneye
And now we have to deal with a bunch of goblin squids.
Norah Nearwaters
things are looking bad.
Krakeneye
I humbly bow down to our new squid goblin overlords.
Emon
Oh and I have expended all of my healing for the day.
They might treat us better than plug
GM
Two crew members (Fipps and Sandara) also went missing during the storm right before the ship ran aground on a reef
This was too funny. The party just hit the island last night and they are pretty beat up. I may cut and past your FB chat to show them that they are not alone.
Yeah morale was still low at the beginning of the next session, so I let them level up after the next fight (eel). Unfortunately, one of the PCs (Grogg) was killed then. I let them get their spells and hp back after the level (some divine intervention) and so they were a little more upbeat entering the cove. Unfortunately another PC (who wasn't in this chat) didn't make it out...it's rough out there for would-be pirates!
We loved our time on Bonewrack - the entire Wormwood Mutiny, actually - but our GM did away with a couple of things that seemed like it would only drag the game down for a low level party of four. One of them was the Rum Ration rules, another was the botflies/ghoul fever thing. Bonewrack was challenging enough without saddling players with conditions they had no possible remedy for.
We also discovered Aron Ivey alive which was great, since it let us learn all about the Infernus backstory and add a talented carpenter (he built the stockade after all) to the crew.