This AP can really lend itself either way to comedy and tenseness. Like most groups, the difference between the two is a matter of a die roll at my table.
However, once you've read some of the backgrounds of the NPCs such as Harrigan or read some of the encounters in the last few books, the darker tones are definitely there.
It's fairly flexible. Can be gritty, scurvy pirates or high fantasy pirates, dark comedy pirates or a mash of the whole lot like a Joss Whedon Firefly-at-sea spin. Whatever floats your boat, pardon the pun. Hope you enjoy; we're having fun with it so far.
pretty..... lighthearted beyond book one. Very little in the way of "scurvy" or even hard times at sea, no weevil's in the twice-baked. More in the vein of Errol Flynn and Fairbanks. Oh, and every major female pirate is a redhead.....
Finale (books 4-6) is.... not very piraty at all, unless severly rewritten/reconstructed.
every major female pirate is a redhead.....
I think that was the elephant in the ocean no one was willing to bring up. I wonder how long before my wife picks up on that. Shush! ;-)
We've only recently started and only are on Day 5.
Part 1 warns you against having the other officers fraternize too much with the PC. This was in deference to *potential* treatment by the other contributors. Feel free to have them interact; it may mean more later - briefly in Part 3 and great potential for poignancy in Part 5 if the PCs have some attachment.
Part 2 has a chapter that has had some GMs grasping at meaningful hooks.
I'm currently running Skull & Shackles, and for your group, I would certainly suggest customizing Book 1 Part 1. After that, you should be fine.
The first 20 days are done with the characters at level 1, and possibly level 2 near the end. During that time, the roll daily for "do your job or get whipped" and then for "Hold your liquor or be hung over". They're basically slaves who are treated badly by their masters.
There are a lot of ways to lighten this up though! Here are a few ideas:
- I gave all of my players +1 skill point per level, usable only for craft or profession skills.
- During character generation, make sure one player has a point in Profession(cook) and profession(fishing). This character will become the cook's mate. Make sure the other character either have a point in profession(sailor) or high STR & CON scores.
Then assign them the jobs they are prepared for: Cook's Mate, Rigger, or Swab. The book says to make 1 cook, 1 rigger, and the rest are swabs. 1 cook is important, but you can assign as many riggers as you want without hurting anything.
- Make "rum rolls" fun rather than a drag, or skip them altogether.
- Vary the punishments a bit. Whipping, scourging, and sweatboxing are all pretty dark. When someone screws up, have an officer toss them in the sea, mock them, make them sing or dance in front of the crew, wear something silly for the rest of the day, etc.
- Make yourself a list (I used a spreadsheet) of all the NPCs. You'll need it to keep track of them all. To make it fun, make a few personality notes about each.
every major female pirate is a redhead.....I think that was the elephant in the ocean no one was willing to bring up. I wonder how long before my wife picks up on that. Shush! ;-)
*grins*
Dead giveaway. Sandara, internally got called Scarlett O'Quinn all the time (but then the group really went sideway on slighting/making fun of every other pirate around....).
As for the officers : yeah, some interaction might be good, and even be helpful to keep the group from trying a mutiny too early. Having some of the officers using higher powered feats (say like Vital Strike) will ring a a "meta-game" bell, that the officers are far tougher than what the players may hope for.
We had Peppery be the "charismatic" XO ( Master) who cushioned a lot of Harrigan's fearsome brutality (which I may have overdone, especially in the "Man's Promise" fight. They were certain of there being demonic influence in him after that). Allowing for brutal threads, and some softer resolution.
yeah that redhead thing is getting changed becasue its annoying we also had to change mr plugg name to keep gritty feel to game.
yeah, some of the names from book one... Made the initial mistake to use their "given names" and ended up with the players starting to use "harry" (Harrigan), "Peppy" (longfarthing), "Happy" (the sawman), "Whippy" (Scourge), "Kippy" and "Patchy" and "the Plugger" for most of the officers. Nevermind Kroope, the "Cookie".
Had to do some serious back-talk to the players after the first two sessions, including some ingame violence (by whipping) for disrespect to the officers to keep things more gruesome and violent aboard the Wormwood.
the names in AP#1 : not Nicolas Logue's best work
I disagree, I think the nicknames in book 1 fit pretty well. Heck the Druid in our party picked up the nickname Sharky for landing a shark on the deck of the wormwood, the cook's mate is called Spew and the Captain is Bones.
I disagree, I think the nicknames in book 1 fit pretty well. Heck the Druid in our party picked up the nickname Sharky for landing a shark on the deck of the wormwood, the cook's mate is called Spew and the Captain is Bones.
Something else entirely. That's absolutely players' privilege and usually the players will not try to downplay each other.
But "Peppery" and "Mr. Plugg" (please let us not delve into associations )... Habbly Quarne ? Patch Patchsalt ? Master Scourge... not really, too easily lending themselves to derogation. Which in a way indicates how the players' go on and view the opposition.
I quite enjoy the names.
After the press-ganging, oppressive bullying, physical, verbal and emotional abuse, one-sided discipline and enforced alcohol abuse, making fun of their oppressors - if only in private - is just about the safest form of resistance the characters (and players for that matter) have left. I suspect that might happen no matter their names.
Although now that I'm thinking about it, my players have for the most part respected the names. The exception being Fipps (the Fat Man) and Jaundiced Jape. Now they're Jake and the Fat Man. I've no objection.
The NPCs in our game have even taken to a mildly derogatory nickname for one of the PCs, so that can certainly work both ways. The PC has started to dig himself out of that one and that alone was a valued victory in the opening weeks aboard the Wormwood.
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I thought Mr Plugg was a great name for a villain. I don't even know what this association is.
Heck in real life there were pirates named Calico Jack, and Hornigold, and Lafitte.
If you think a pirate has a ridiculous name, just make sure the players only laugh once. Keelhauling isn't for the weak of heart.
I thought Mr Plugg was a great name for a villain. I don't even know what this association is.
Heck in real life there were pirates named Calico Jack, and Hornigold, and Lafitte.
If you think a pirate has a ridiculous name, just make sure the players only laugh once. Keelhauling isn't for the weak of heart.
Plug(g): in German.. very close to Stöpsel, a diminuitive of "plug" as in "Plugging".... plugging stuff, of whatever type or denomination. Compare some other threads hereabouts where a lot of comments are made on a latent homosexuality of Plugg (and whoever). I don't think they went up coincidentally.
Calico : yeah, why not, mixed clothing, no problem. Lafitte ? aehh, where is the problem... and Hornigold.. yeah, that would be weird. In RL or ingame.
Sorry, I like Quinn, Morton, Fitch or Halmis (all from AP#3 ) or Pegsworthy and Inkskin (AP#2) better as pirate names or those associating with them.... more evocative, less liable to become some form of ironic endearment. Nevermind Bartholomew Rodgers or Morgan etc.
Yeah, our own group quickly went to "Barnacles" Harrigan. First out of disrespect, laters because we as the PCs couldn't shake the feeling he was sticking around forver.
But then again, names are easily changed, or "enforced". I just feel the casual naming in the first part is sort of distracting. But that... yeah, gets better over time
I thought Mr Plugg was a great name for a villain. I don't even know what this association is.
Heck in real life there were pirates named Calico Jack, and Hornigold, and Lafitte.
If you think a pirate has a ridiculous name, just make sure the players only laugh once. Keelhauling isn't for the weak of heart.
After the Man's Promise ran aground in my game Saturday, the following came out of my mouth...
"So Mr. Plugg says to you, "It will take a day and a half to plug the hole....heh heh.,,," A mild chuckle from the table.