This may have been covered before; I'm not sure...
In the first part, Souls for Smuggler's Shiv, it mentions that all the fellow castaways are unwilling to help with camp duties if Unfriendly. Considering they're all stuck shipwrecked on an island together; doesn't that strike anyone as kinda, well, stupid? "I don't like any of you, so I'm going to linger around here but I'll starve before I help hunt, and wild monsters can come attack, because I'm not helping to stand guard..."
This was mentioned by a couple of players last time I ran SS, and as far as I can tell, they're not wrong... gearing up to run it again with a new group, do any other GMs have feedback on this?
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I view at as a "who put you in charge" mentality. I would play it out as them questioning the PCs decisions and doing their own thing. So, the NPCs go out hunting, but keep most of it for themselves or they do guard duty but fall asleep or get distracted doing something else.
This is the purpose of the Diplomacy check to get everyone on-board with the same plan and work together.
Sure the PCs can say screw you guys, but they will miss out on some good RP opportunities and same boons later on.
Yes, it's stupid, but people who lose their heads in survival situations, well, aren't thinking clearly.
Besides taking an opposition to the PCs leadership, I had a few of the NPCs sink into hopelessness and despair. Several were despondent for the first few days. One became so openly hostile that the PCs confined him for most of the adventure.
You could also have their loss of hope / depression / panic manifest itself in ways that are not obviously apparent at first. An NPC becomes obsessed with some activity that takes away from the survival of the group (futility trying to repair the ship for example). Or becomes convinced that the PCs are doing the wrong thing and they do subtle things to thwart the PCs efforts. For example, one NPC may become convinced that keeping an active fire is attracting too much attention, and building a camp is too noticeable. He/ she secretly keeps putting the fire out and dismantling shelters.
The first time I ran, it was ludicrously easy to convert all the NPCs; thanks to a character with a pretty awesome Diplomacy mod at first level. Just struck me as odd with the set-up.
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The first time I ran, it was ludicrously easy to convert all the NPCs; thanks to a character with a pretty awesome Diplomacy mod at first level. Just struck me as odd with the set-up.
I found this as well as we had a bard in the party who managed to talk them all round to his way of thinking. It meant that the NPC quests went a bit easier as they were all willing to share information and the camp duties were easier to sort out as well. Wasn't a major issue but what should have been a slightly more drawn out process was done and dusted in the first couple of days on the island.
TBH within 2 sessions we had enough of them and felt really railroaded for the rest of the AP being forced to 'use/interact' with them. I was most miffed when they turned up at