I found reading Tempest Rising the least satisfying of the books of the series. It essentially seems to consist of sailing round the shackles running errands for other people. Also a decent chunk of the book is taken up by tests set in Port Peril that are totally uneccessary? Why on earth would a pirate captain need to unfurl a sail when he has crew to do that.
Instead thought I would replace the first three quarters of the book with the PCs quest to build their own ship. I substantially increased the treasure in Mancatcher cove to pay for this. They have paid Rickety a sizeable down payment to relocate to tidewater rock and set up a new dry dock will meanwhile hunt for more materials while Rickety completes the ground works.
I am reducing the Port Peril to roleplay and maybe a few random encounters.
- they can still help out Tessa Fairwind but as a side quests in the ports they visit to outfit their ship - rather than the main reason for travelling.
- I added a character, Ishmael Pequod. Who was found in a cell beneath tidewater rock. Every year 2,000gp arrive from port peril provided the strange old man was kept locked away and quiet. Of course the PCs freed him only to find out he was the master shipwright who built the filthy lucre. Bonefist wanted him kept out of the way so he couldn't build a ship to rival his own. A little crazy but brilliant he has developed plans while imprisoned for a dark wood ship that could win the Free Captain's Regatta.
The PCs want to find
- A large enough supply of dark wood (I'm thinking the Aspis consortium has a supply the PCs want to hijack - possibly on Dahak's fang which is why no one has found it before now)
- magical sails
- a magical wheel (already part of the book)
Any other ideas? My intention is for the dark wood to be the first item to find, then they spend three months exploring the shackles as free captains before collection their ship and winning the regatta.
Just as an aside I am using the Fire as She Bears ruleset so the PCs have chance to totally customise their ship and armaments. The "Last Laugh" their name for Mans Promise is looking a bit rickety and unimpressive by comparison.
What are your thoughts, good and bad. Are there any snags you can see or plot holes I will need to fill. Most of all - any suggestions for ways I can improve it.
Regards
Rob
I think that chapter provides extra hints that Cheliax is spying on the Shackles so it provides extra foreshadowing of what is to come.
It also introduces them to the Hurricane King and possibly other pirate captains during the introduction ceremony.
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I like your idea The Sword.
I also found the book a little unsatisfying and overly-complicated. My group is much more interested in action and exciting quests than they are in intrigue. The notion of Cheliax running a spy network in The Shackles is easy enough to investigate and explore without the complicated 'errand running' that dominates the book.
So far, I've heavily modified / rewritten large chunks of Tempest Rising to suit our group's style. I came up with an almost entirely new set of tests for the Testing, which went over very well.
I shortened and streamlined the 'spy hunt' portion of the book; we have fewer locations, more chances for explosive encounters that are less ... tedious, and better combat with more dangerous enemies.
I really like your idea of the new NPC shipwright. I might try to work that in to our story, but the crew hasn't decided to go back and visit Tidewater Rock for a while.
Finding enough wood for the ship would be a serious enterprise, especially if it's rare stuff. Maybe they need to head south to Sargava to trade for it? I've had a thought to do a "The Green Inferno" style interlude. That could be a perfect opportunity for them to get captured by cannibals.
Magic Sails, Jalhazar's Wheel, Charts of the Four Winds, Besmara's Bones, Svingli's Eye, even a magical rudder could all be part of 'the complete set' needed for a truly impressive ship.
I suggest trying to write something in to the story that reflects some sort of a meaningful change due to the PCs recovering whatever specific items for the ship that you have in mind. Example: maybe the magical sails are enchanted against lightning; they might have a tough time if some of their regular sails are destroyed in the regatta from a storm elemental, but would be immune from this kind of attack with the magical sails.
Thanks for the response. The part has had a few run ins with Aspis consortium and I have seeded the idea that they are manufacturing dark wood items, furniture etc somewhere in the shackles/mwangi expanse and exporting them to Cheliax.
My plan is for the PCs to follow an Aspis ship to a Mask of Zorro style hidden base while defeating the Aspis mercenaries and the Reds dragons hey have bribed to leave them alone. My thoughts are the consortium are using huge amounts of slave labour shipped out of blood cove and the PCs can work to free them for support. It will be quite a big segment but I think I will end an extra level in and scale the difficulty of later books up.
I'm being quite restrictive on what magic is available so I'm not too bothered by going into higher level play.