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Okay, so now that I am in a Skull and Shackles game where I am not the GM able to throw out Pathfinder's alcohol rules that make no sense to me, I'm kind of at a loss.
Basically, my character has two choices...
Make a Stealth check every night to pour out/hide her rum ration without drinking it (which as a faithful of Besmara is against her religion)... or be dead in a few days, unless I constantly roll 1's for the Con damage.
I mean, yeah drinking too much alcohol IRL can give you alcohol poisoning, yes. But by Pathfinder's rules Cayden Cailean would not have passed the Test of the Starstone, he'd have been dead before he even left the tavern.
What? The alcohol rules can only sicken at worst.
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What? The alcohol rules can only sicken at worst.
Aboard many ships, half a pint of rum is distributed to each
crew member at dusk. The rum is staggeringly strong, and isoften watered down to make grog. Characters drinking the
ration are affected as though they had taken an addictive drug
(see page 236 of the GameMastery Guide for details on drugs
and addiction). The rum ration is doled out more to keep
the crew sated and docile than for recreation. The penalty for
selling or spilling the ration is six lashes, or six lashes from
a cat-o’-nine-tails for a second offense. Deliberately tipping
away rum on board a crowded ship without being seen
requires a DC 10 Stealth check. While on merchant or navy
vessels rum rations are strictly limited, on pirate ships, crew
members can often request more rum if they please.
Shackles Rum Ration
Type ingested; Addiction minor, Fortitude DC 5
Price 2 sp
Effect variable; +1d4 alchemical bonus to Charisma and
fatigued for 1d8 hours
Damage 1d3 Con
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That's significantly worse than the usual rules.
The GMG says only that alcohol can sicken the drinker after a number of drinks equal to 1+(2xCon Mod). No Con damage. It doesn't cause addiction unless consumed in great quantity, either, so no penalties there. ("Those who regularly abuse alcohol might eventually develop a moderate addiction.")
It looks like the point is to cause additional difficulties for the characters, both in a metagame sense and in that the ration is distributed to keep the crew compliant - though they're seriously overdoing the latter.
Are you sure that pouring it out would be against your religion? The only reference to booze/rum I can find in Besmara's writeup is that spilling alcohol on a deck is good luck. Certainly she doesn't seem the type to require you to be suicidally obedient.
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If you're okay with joining the Third Party Masterrace I'll highly recommend The Red Dragon Inn.
You can read my review of it there for the rest of the book or ask me directely, but the intoxication rules are universal with each drink giving intoxication at different rates and once they're drunk, there's weapon damage for various items that you'd find in a tavern for when they get into a fight. On the downside the rules here won't kill you as you will pass out before you reach that point of where you could die. But if you feel like killing yourself by drinking is too unfun then just let them pass out and fort save for hangovers.
However this is probably the most fun book for pirate settings. You can even add things to the menue like Drfagon Breath Ale, Knomish Inspirational Ale, Wizard's Brew, Pixie Punch, Dwarven Firewater, Arcane Spirits, Troll Swill, or if you want to get sober, Kau'fee and Holy Water.. But I can understand not wanting to get an entire book to solve one problem.
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Well, spilling a bit of rum but pouring out the entire barrel or such would be at best a good way to get yourself in a fight which would break the "no quarrels on ship' rule.
I'm just at a loss how I am going to either constantly make the stealth checks (I am not a stealth character), or avoid death with all that Con damage that only heals at 1 point per day (currently have 2 Con damage)
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If you're okay with joining the Third Party Masterrace I'll highly recommend The Red Dragon Inn.
You can read my review of it there for the rest of the book or ask me directely, but the intoxication rules are universal with each drink giving intoxication at different rates and once they're drunk, there's weapon damage for various items that you'd find in a tavern for when they get into a fight. On the downside the rules here won't kill you as you will pass out before you reach that point of where you could die. But if you feel like killing yourself by drinking is too unfun then just let them pass out and fort save for hangovers.
However this is probably the most fun book for pirate settings. You can even add things to the menue like Drfagon Breath Ale, Knomish Inspirational Ale, Wizard's Brew, Pixie Punch, Dwarven Firewater, Arcane Spirits, Troll Swill, or if you want to get sober, Kau'fee and Holy Water.. But I can understand not wanting to get an entire book to solve one problem.
Well, and that wouldn't help cause I'm not in this case the GM. I was therefore more posing it as "how do I deal with this issue as a player" due to Pathfinder's horrible as written alcohol rules. If I was the GM I would definitely check out that book you mention.
DC 10 Stealth isn't that bad unless you have a DEX penalty, and I can't think of more than one or two builds that have a DEX penalty. Still a gamble, but you don't have much of a choice. Someone to cast Invisibility maybe?
You might not have to make Stealth checks every day.
Live with a little CON damage. If you roll well (a 1 on the d3) then it's a minor thing, tomorrow you heal it back anyway so there is no need to risk the Stealth check. If you roll a 3, well, then the next day you heal 1 back and risk a Stealth check avoid making it worse.
You should be able to survive this way for a while, with only a little Stealth risk. Unless you somehow thought that Constitution was an ideal dump stat...
By the way, this has been brought up many times before.
Here's an interesting thread.
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I'd suggest you get together with the other players in your group and simply have the entire party ask for extra rum rations. After you're all dead of con damage, maybe the GM will rub a couple brain cells together and dump the grog thing entirely.
Every night of full rest that you get cures 1 point of ability damage. In Skulls and Shackles, it really just means that you won't be able to perform any of the nighttime activities.
Assuming its not against Besmara's religion to share with your crew, you could always give your rum ration to someone else. Or you could take the flogging.
Also, those rules only apply the Wordwood's grog because that stuff is TERRIBLE. As others have said, drinking alcohol normally only sickens you.
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I'm currently GMing this adventure path on book 5. Seriously, the hard rules for this are stupid. We just skipped the addiction part and con damage and rolled for fatigue. Come on, this is supposed to be rum (which we sometimes drink while playing) not anti-freeze.
Hopefully the GM gives you an extra day to complete the first dungeon, the printed time limit is insanely short unless the players are super lucky, super optimized, and super experienced.
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Every night of full rest that you get cures 1 point of ability damage. In Skulls and Shackles, it really just means that you won't be able to perform any of the nighttime activities.
Except you take d3 points of damage with every ration, average 2. So you're taking damage more quickly than you're healing it.
Assuming its not against Besmara's religion to share with your crew, you could always give your rum ration to someone else.
Not against the religion but appears to be against the rules of the ship - "no selling the ration" probably is meant to include giving it away.
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I'm currently GMing this adventure path on book 5. Seriously, the hard rules for this are stupid. We just skipped the addiction part and con damage and rolled for fatigue. Come on, this is supposed to be rum (which we sometimes drink while playing) not anti-freeze.
Maybe the implication is that the rum on that ship *is* antifreeze. But that does beg the question why the rest of the crew is still functional.
I would just rule that this is "temporary ability damage" and that it just lasts the next 24 hours, and is halved if you get a full nights rest.
DC 10 Stealth isn't that bad unless you have a DEX penalty, and I can't think of more than one or two builds that have a DEX penalty. Still a gamble, but you don't have much of a choice. Someone to cast Invisibility maybe?
A DC 10 Stealth check should not be a gamble at all. Unless you have a penalty to your stealth you can auto succeed by taking 10 every time.
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Shackles Rum Ration
Type ingested; Addiction minor, Fortitude DC 5
Price 2 sp
Effect variable; +1d4 alchemical bonus to Charisma and
fatigued for 1d8 hours
Damage 1d3 Con
WHY ARE YOU FAILING THIS?
The Shackles Rum Ration affects are on purpose, to keep you from trying to take over the ship to early. They added the effect for meta reasons. The party is supposed to drink it once, realize what's happening to them because of it and then try to avoid drinking it. It also adds to the air of dread and powerlessness that your supposed to have at this point. You were forcible taken onto this boat against your will, regardless of your desire to be a pirate.
Also, see this:
Drunkenness
Just like drugs, alcohol can be abused and have significant negative effects. In general, a character can consume a number of alcoholic beverages equal to 1 plus double his Constitution modifier. Drinks consumed in excess of this total cause the character to become sickened for 1 hour per drink above this maximum. Particularly exotic or strong forms of alcohol might be treated as normal drugs. Those who regularly abuse alcohol might eventually develop a moderate addiction.
Basically, this particular rum is a drug, not just normal alcohol. It's honestly much more interesting than the normal alcohol rules.
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Talk to your GM.
The rules are there to increase the danger/trouble/unhappiness on the boat, and they do a good job of that.
Unfortunately, playing a Pirate whose main concern is life is avoiding rum is pretty unsatisfying. We want to be Jack Sparrow and cry out in horror when the run is gone, not thank Besmara in relief.
I would suggest to your GM to make the rum have only minor penalties, and try to find something else to convey how bad it is to be on the wormwood.
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As said, The rum in the part of Skull and Shackles isn't quite normal alcohol. That 'rum' is more like some sort of vaguely potable rotgut that's thrown together for reasons of keeping the crew pliable.
The fact its the No. 1 killer of PCs in that AP though is a notation to the fact that a lot in the early parts of Skull and Shackles weren't thought through very well.
Besmara's also a pirate goddess. Her religious dogma are really more like..suggestions.
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Once again, that save is just for addiction, and people aren't complaining about that, it's the automatic 1d3 con damage from just drinking the rum they don't like.
WHY IS THIS MORE DEADLY THAN MOST POISONS?
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Once again, that save is just for addiction, and people aren't complaining about that, it's the automatic 1d3 con damage from just drinking the rum they don't like.WHY IS THIS MORE DEADLY THAN MOST POISONS?
It seems like they were under the impression that no one would ever consider to use drugs to inconvenience their enemies. Don't know why. Cheaper than poison, no save, though it does usually provide a positive benefit as well. It's a little hard to get people to take drugs as well, but there are some injury activated drugs.
And mechanically it works just fine. The flavor is the problem.
Gets worse if you're the type of player who doesn't just think about the PCs. All the other pirates are supposedly getting the ration too. They play drinking games with it. Why does anyone survive?
Meh, NPCs don't necessarily fall under the same rules as PCs. Really, all that needs to be added to the poison is something like:
"The con damage of this rum cannot reduce the drinker's constitution below 4."Now it's dangerous, but can't outright kill you on it's own. Of course, the PCs needn't know this. They might simply not feel worse the next day for reasons they don't understand.
For what it's worth, my group handled the problem by throwing our rum overboard and then using repeated castings of purify food and drink on the rum. As well as also supplementing it with castings of enhance water.
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Quick question. How would people feel if they hadn't named this Rum. If it was some other name with negative connotations. Because it seems to me, I'd just be happy when we actually found rum we could drink later, instead of the poison they were feeding us.
Hooch, moonshine, rubbing alcohol, turpentine, Poseidon's Piss, call it whatever they want, if it's doing an unavoidable 1d3 CON damage to everybody on the ship then this is going to be a ghost ship in about two weeks, three at most.
That's the part that breaks my sense of verisimilitude. Sure, I can dump my Toxic Troll's Tequila over the side, but when I start to wonder why the crew seems magically unaffected and I see them drink it every day, then I start to think I'm on the Black Pearl and these guys are really undead with no CON scores. Or maybe they're very life-like constructs or plant-people. I start to think I'm in a horribly cliche movie or something, but whatever the movie is, it won't have actual pirates and definitely not Captain Jack Sparrow...
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How about this as a suggestion.
Have it be normal rum. Have the guy pouring the drinks give "special" rum, or perhaps he secretly adds drugs to it (a high sleight of hand skill, or maybe off-screen entirely) so that ONLY the PCs get the damaging stuff.
The captain trusts her normal crew and lets them have normal rum to keep them happy. The captain doesn't trust the new guys so she arranges to have the weakened and docile until she figures out that they are trustworthy.
If any PC gets down to around 5 CON, the captain orders the drink-server to stop poisoning just that PC.
This seems to fit the theme established in the adventure and gives a reason to explain why the rest of the crew is not suffering. Also some RP opportunities to do some detective work to figure out WHY this stuff is so nasty and WHU the rest of the crew is OK, then maybe even get buddy-buddy with Diplomacy or magic to get the guy pouring drinks on the PCs' side so he stops harming them. Too bad the authors couldn't have written it that way in the first place.
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WHY IS THE DRUG WORSE THAN MOST POISONS? WHAT IS THIS STUFF? ITS WORSE THAN ARSENIC!
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Does saying it twice, in all caps both times, make it more insightful?
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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In our game we had a PC get assigned as a cook's assistant, and after the first two days he started watering down our group's rum rations so we were drinking "normal" alcohol. He had a high Stealth so he got away with it.
I agree with the other posters that say take 10 and dump it. Our GM had most of the crew doing that - the ones that drank the ration often hadn't lived long enough to be there when the adventure started. He ruled that everyone passes on the ration most of the time.
Also remember that a DC15 Heal check can get you back 2 points of ability damage per night.
It's still not a well thought out mechanic, but it's survivable if you're smart about it.
Does saying it twice, in all caps both times, make it more insightful?
no because it wasn't insightful in the first place.
WHY IS THE DRUG WORSE THAN MOST POISONS? WHAT IS THIS STUFF? ITS WORSE THAN ARSENIC!
Drugs are generally worse than poisons (when looking at the game mechanics). Most drugs have some sort of benefit, but also have a strong unavoidable downside. They do not easily lend themselves to being used offensively.
Poisons are meant to be used offensively, and so they have saves for the negative effects that come into play.
Drugs are poisons are really the same thing, its usually the dosage that makes the difference (in reality).
In a slapstick kind of way, I kind of like the idea of every pirate on board desperately trying to pour their drinks over the side or into some inconspicuous barrel. All of them concealing it from each other, but not the audience. Hijinks ensue.
Cute if you're playing Keystone Cops Pirates. Or if Larry, Moe, and Curly are the First Mate, Captain, and ship's boy.
Not as good if you're playing a game where verisimilitude has any practical bearing on the game world.
Looks like this is specifically a Skull & Shackles question?
Easiest explanation is that this is cheap, tainted grog. Think moonshine that will make you go blind.
Why hasn't it killed everyone? Because most of the crew is also secretly chucking it (See The Eleventh Voyage of Ijon Tichy by Stanislaw Lem.)
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In our game we had a PC get assigned as a cook's assistant, and after the first two days he started watering down our group's rum rations so we were drinking "normal" alcohol. He had a high Stealth so he got away with it.
I agree with the other posters that say take 10 and dump it. Our GM had most of the crew doing that - the ones that drank the ration often hadn't lived long enough to be there when the adventure started. He ruled that everyone passes on the ration most of the time.
Also remember that a DC15 Heal check can get you back 2 points of ability damage per night.
It's still not a well thought out mechanic, but it's survivable if you're smart about it.
On the other hand, the fishing in waters the ship passed through is probably quite good...
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Looks like this is specifically a Skull & Shackles question?
Easiest explanation is that this is cheap, tainted grog. Think moonshine that will make you go blind.
Why hasn't it killed everyone? Because most of the crew is also secretly chucking it (See The Eleventh Voyage of Ijon Tichy by Stanislaw Lem.)
Ahh, but then we're back to the terribly-anti-thematic case of Benny Hill anti=pirates stealthily dumping rum overboard rather than (thematically) happily drinking themselves into a rum-sotted-stupor at every opportunity.
50 rough-and-tumble teetotaling pirates, all skulking about the ship, under the watchful eye and lash of their vicious captain, smiling and nodding and pretending to sip and feigning intoxication, while looking for the first opportunity to dump their rum into the nearest potted plant. Yes, the ship has scores of potted plants all over the deck - the crew bring them on board to provide cover/concealment for their stealth checks and also to be a convenient dumping place for their daily ration of cyanide rum.
