Are all the PCs supposed to be granted the title Free Captain and later Lord? Are each of the PCs supposed to gain a seat on the pirate council?
I have a player who says that if it doesn't specifically say that, they it is the intention of the writers that all players are Free Captains and Pirate Lords.
Even if that was the intention, I won't allow it. I think it's cheap. No other Pirate Lord has a crew of officers that are also captains and lords.
Not too sure on that really. I would say you are right and that it's the captain of the ship who gets free captain and pirate lord honour. BUT it does say on the letter of marque:
"Lawful letters of marque are issued to
specific ships, not individuals, but in the
Shackles, they are granted to a specific
captain and his or her officers."
which somewhat implies they are sort of free captains but not really
i see nothing wrong with advisers though
I think that later in the adventure path a group of pirate lords come to assess which of the PCs become pirate lords. So that implies to doesn't necessarily have to be the Captain. Because they are only awarded the Isle of Eyes, after the regatta. Not an automatic seat on the Pirate Council.
I would assume that if the Pirate Council find two or three PCs capable then they all could be granted the title of Pirate Lord.
I have only read through the whole AP once, and I'm only in book 2 so I'm a little fuzzy on the actual details.
But from what I can remember, it seems like every PC has a chance to become a Pirate Lord.
All PC can become pirate lords depending the outcome of the events in Book 4. If the players achieve the 15+ total respect, they each gain their own seat on the Pirate Council.
It really isn't that vague. By the end of Book 4, the PCs have either only no seat, one seat or each of them have seats on the Pirate Council.
Up to that point, just being a Free Captain doesn't mean they have a vote or chair on the council.
Its listed in the conclusion of the chapter. Based on their respect points after the party will determine their seat count.
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Are four votes (default party size with everyone on the Council) really enough to make the challenge of swaying votes meaningless?
I haven't read this chapter yet, but based on the list of pirate lords in Chapter 3, doesn't the Council contain close to 20 people? Four can sometimes sway 20, but not reliably.
There's a certain number that actually show (11 plus PCs), and the mechanics of how each will vote and DCs of the several checks (bluff, diplomacy and intimidate) they're allowed to make to sway the votes are all in the book. They can also spend Disrepute. Issue #2 is the hardest of course, but most are 4 to 7 so four votes would sway the result.
So yes, many will be relatively easy, but the biggest one is issue 2, which my group only made a draw. Well, at least the cash will still be there later to make statues of the new Hurricane Queen!
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There's a certain number that actually show (11 plus PCs), and the mechanics of how each will vote and DCs of the several checks (bluff, diplomacy and intimidate) they're allowed to make to sway the votes are all in the book. They can also spend Disrepute. Issue #2 is the hardest of course, but most are 4 to 7 so four votes would sway the result.
So yes, many will be relatively easy, but the biggest one is issue 2, which my group only made a draw. Well, at least the cash will still be there later to make statues of the new Hurricane Queen!
In that case, adjusting the number of PCs invited to join the council should be a pretty effective way to fine tune the difficulty of swaying the votes.
If the party includes a master of debate, who doesn't need much help, then having only a couple of party members on the council is a way to make those skill checks feel important.
If the party has focused on combat over social skills (or if they've annoyed a few council members), inviting everyone to join the council might give them a shot at getting votes decided in their favor.