I am currently GMing the Wormwood Mutiny for 5 players and i have run into an issue, they are running out of things to do. The party has been diplomacy-ing every NPC they can and they have a good few of the crew except the officers (and even some of them) as friends, this is by day 4, when we start tomorrow i will be sending them into the bilges (i apparently misread that and will have to push the bilges and hartshorn back a day to compensate). So after they finish making the entire lower ranks of the ship their allies what am i going to do to eat up their ship actions? so far they have completely disregarded exploring of any kind in favor of gaining favor with the crew. Does anybody have any ideas as to what to do to encourage some more exploration and less diplomacy?
Conchobhar Turlach Shortstone: Friendly (made friends with the rigger)
Sandara Quinn: Friendly (Default friendly)
Rosie Cusswell: Friendly (Got her fiddle)
Aretta Bansion: Indifferant
Fipps Chumlett: Indifferant
Jaundiced Jape: Indifferant
Slippery Sy Lonegan: Indifferant
(^^^ amazingly the rigger managed to talk these four around after the encounter with them)
Cut-Throat Grok: Friendly (the cook's mate made friends with her and managed to get most of his stuff back in one bluff check(he got a huge number and she rolled a 1))
Really its only the cooks mate and the rigger who are diplomacizzing people, the rest have just been working dilligently every day, i have also had trouble finding reasons for plugg to lash them due to them doing quite well on their skill checks and being very under the radar. i still need some help finding ways to get them to explore though, if for nothing else than to eat up the ship actions and possibly fail a check
If they are doing fine with finding allies then focus on the other events. Or focus on those new allies if your group likes RPing more. The idea going forward is making them feel oppressed, abused and unappreciated so that when the opportunity arises that they take it and mutiny.
I followed Dudemeister's advise and added a wrecked ship encounter to break up ship life. It worked out pretty well having an adventure on a sinking ship.
If there's enjoying the character interactions, you could always add drama. Maybe two NPCs who consider them friends have a feud and ask the PCs to side with them? Maybe Scourge is enamored of an NPC who takes a shine to a PC? What if an NPC wants to mutiny, but the PCs have figured out what an incredibly bad idea that is and have to talk him/her out of it?
The party has expressed nearly no interest in exploring any of the ship, they kind of are either diplomacizing or working dilligently, and because of the fact that they are passing every skill check i am having trouble figuring out how to get them punished
My party was extremely diligent and dedicated themselves to impressing their superiors with their work ethic. Through roleplaying I managed to make them enemies with Badger, and I said that she was involved with Scourge. Plugg barely needs an excuse to be cruel, so when Scourge asked him to pick on the PCs he was delighted to oblige.
It's a pirate ship. It's not going to be fair. Are there non-humans? Maybe Plugg/Scourge/some other officer is a racist. For that matter, maybe Plugg sees all of their diplomacy as a threat to his power base, and picks on them for that.
Conchobhar wants to drug Rosie so that she'll hook up with him. That's pretty ugly, and a plot element I downplayed in my game, but it could really stir things up if that's what you need.
If you must punish them, diplomacizing the crew could be seen by Plugg and Scourge (if they somehow tumble to the diplomacizing) as gathering favor/building factions for a mutiny.
I second having Plugg and Scourge punish them for gathering crew members for a mutiny. Even if they aren't it could very well be seen that way and mutiny can be punished harshly.
My party was extremely diligent and dedicated themselves to impressing their superiors with their work ethic. Through roleplaying I managed to make them enemies with Badger, and I said that she was involved with Scourge. Plugg barely needs an excuse to be cruel, so when Scourge asked him to pick on the PCs he was delighted to oblige.
It's a pirate ship. It's not going to be fair. Are there non-humans? Maybe Plugg/Scourge/some other officer is a racist. For that matter, maybe Plugg sees all of their diplomacy as a threat to his power base, and picks on them for that.
Conchobhar wants to drug Rosie so that she'll hook up with him. That's pretty ugly, and a plot element I downplayed in my game, but it could really stir things up if that's what you need.
Oddly enough the party was quite good at staying under the radar, they havve yet to meet a few of the less fleshed out NPCs in the ranks similar to them but for the most part they have managed to make anybody they have come into contact with friendly. an odd twist for me is that they ALL look completely human except for the halfling (who meekly complies with anything he is told, i believe his backstory was he was a former slave in cheliax), i expected more varied races but all i got was two humans, a kitsune (never leavves human form), an aasimar who is the cooks mate, and the halfling slave. as for Conchobhar trying to drug Rosie, exactly where did you find that? i am looking at the entries for both of them and it doesnt mention anything more than that conchobhar likes rosie and that rosie thinks he is stylish
If you must punish them, diplomacizing the crew could be seen by Plugg and Scourge (if they somehow tumble to the diplomacizing) as gathering favor/building factions for a mutiny.
I second having Plugg and Scourge punish them for gathering crew members for a mutiny. Even if they aren't it could very well be seen that way and mutiny can be punished harshly.
this may well be what i will need to do, they are surprisingly compliant considering all the stories i have heard about PCs being rowdy and such
as for Conchobhar trying to drug Rosie, exactly where did you find that? i am looking at the entries for both of them and it doesnt mention anything more than that conchobhar likes rosie and that rosie thinks he is stylish
Fair enough. Maybe I read to much into it. He's holding an "elixir of love", and there's no way to use one of those things that is non-creepy. Since your players need extra conflict, having Conchobhar slip the elixir to Rosie and then having her flip out about it once it wears off would give you extra story conflict within the group that they've already befriended.
Give them more things!
1 - Don't make it a party attitude; make it a PC attitude. More bookkeeping for you but there's no reason that just because an NPC is friendly to one PC that NPC has to be friendly to everyone.
2 - Make sure you're using the diplomacy rules correctly. You can only make one diplomacy roll on someone each day. If you are using a shared attitude towards the party, you shouldn't let an NPC be influenced by more than one character.
3 - Anyone who is hostile is going to be really difficult to change: DC is 25 + charisma bonus.
4 - The NPC officers and their lackies would be talking trash about the PCs and would be working against them. Give the NPC officers 3 or 4 rolls a day (intimidate and diplomacy are both good options) to sway characters away from the PCs side. Remember that their DCs for diplomacy rolls will be quite different from the PCs.
5 - Have some of the NPCs who are hostile to the PCs start doing nasty stuff to the PCs. Be lunchroom bullies - think of the stereotypical middle-school and high-school bullies do and have NPCs do that to the characters. Have Scourge order a PC to tie a rope incorrectly and have the PC either do it correctly (getting punished by Scourge for disobedience) or do it as ordered (resulting in an NPC getting hurt, losing attitude, and getting the character punished by Plugg). Start distracting them with these sorts of things so they role-play them out better.
6 - Let them know that they can do things other than diplomacy, too.