Actual Play – The Storm (6/11/2015)

Skull and ShacklesGM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Meg Pressley, Rocko Moran, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Pathfinder
Adventure Path: Skull and Shackles

A short synopsis

Day 7 – Heavy rains, sodden dispositions. Someone tried to kill Anand by cutting at rope he was climbing up from the crows nest!

Day 8 – The storm hit. Jack went overboard and the heroes took action to save him including knocking Mr. Plug off the wheel to turn the ship around and charming Maheem to lend a hand pulling him in.

Highlights

  • Vyv makes contact with a parrot named Pluck.
  • Davey gets healed and chats up the ship’s sawbones, Habley.
  • Anand beats Maheem at armwrestling!
  • Madi dances well enough to get the crew off their feet as well.
  • We all pull together to save Jack! Anand swims out to rescue him, Madi throws ropes, Davey turns the ship, and Vyv keeps us afloat!

XP Awarded

  • 150 (Surviving the storm)
  • 50 (Rescuing Jack)
  • 50 (Winning at games)
  • 50 (Entertaining the crew)

Total gained: 300
New XP total: 1625

One thought on “Actual Play – The Storm (6/11/2015)”

  1. Favorite Bits
    – Vyv trying to make friends with Pluck!
    – Ratliner showing off Anand’s physical prowess.
    – Madi giving as good as she got with Scourge. (And it was great to get a reminder of all the reasons why we love Scourge.)
    – Our rescue! All of us coming together to save little Jack! So exciting. So dramatic. So glad everyone made it safely back on the ship. (So glad Vyv chose to tell Davey how to steer, so we didn’t all die!)
    – Cool that we all felt we had to work diligently when the storm came! The threat of Nature was potent enough that we didn’t want to fuck with things.
    – Dancing with Madi!
    – The development of Maheem. First with Anand during their armwrestling match. (Very tense for me! With not only aaaaall of my 9 gp, but more importantly Anand’s reputation, on the line.) Then when Davey skirted danger by leaping off his foot. And then his forced friendliness with, and caring for, Madi! Adorable!

    Other thoughts:

    – Madi is certainly living up to her chaotic alignment! I also appreciated bringing the Besmara’s Chosen aspect into play. Davey (and I) are still not sure if she’s serious, but if she is, then that’ll be a fun conflict to explore!

    – I think one of the tough things is dealing with failure. I’m sure I’m not the first to remark on this, but other games make it clear how to move forward after a character’s goal isn’t achieved, and D&D doesn’t have the same mechanisms. Eg when Anand tried to find out the history of Pluck’s master and when Vyv didn’t succeeding at trying to win over an NPC. Sean rolled with these – making them partial successes (take a +X forward to future attempts to gather information/make friends), but I think that those were spontaneous GM decisions and not built into the system/adventure. And there was a moment of ‘Oh. Well, that sucks.’ before he stepped in to save the momentum.

    – I was surprised I cared so much about Jack! Davey was, actually, still a little wary of the fellow’s attentions and was much more fixated on Anand. But I really didn’t want Jack to go, so I’m afraid I may have made Davey act out of character. It’s cool. Davey’s feelings for Jack can be deeper than I intended. Or maybe he’s sick of losing people and just doesn’t want to see more of his friends die.

    – Re punishing Davey. I realize mutinous actions may be unforgiveable offenses on board this ship and Davey’s life was in jeopardy. I really like him, and I’m happy he didn’t get whipped to death or keelhauled, but if Davey gets in a fix again I’m fine rolling a new character if it comes to that. Will keep us on our toes. Also narrating hero deaths (Ah, Polaris!) is its own special treat.

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