So my basic idea for Skull and Shackles kind of looks like this so far...
First I am going to place the pirate port (called
Point Peril) on the inside asteroid belt of Diaspora. Probable on the inside of one big one that the various Free Captains found maybe 30-40 years ago and set up shop. They formed or joined with the criminal trade syndicate now called the
Cold Trader (yes from FFG WH40K world, but I LOVE that game). This group deals with pirated ships and goods.
I like Captain Barnabas Harrigan so we will keep him and rename his ship the
Wormwraith. I am not 100% gorked the starship rules yet but right now I am thinking of a Tier 11 Large vessel. Of course the ship that they later capture that the heroes gain will be much lower but still trying to figure out starships
For the setting, I was thinking that the Diaspora area overall is a bit more 'dark and corporate evil' so the players might have a reason to become pirates (as I don't like running evil campaigns). I need to come up with something probably one big corp that really dominates most of the people's lives in the area and NOT for the better.
The other idea would be to set the game within to the Azlanti Star Empire, or some other evilish empire like an Aspis Consortium corporate system, that would make the whole piracy thing much more like privateers. It would also give a Cheliax analogue for later in the AP. Sure, you're moving away from the presented setting somewhat, but you'll have lots of themes from the Skull and Shackles AP to draw from for ideas. Zombie planets, aquatic planets, planets inhabited by giant cannibals, etc.
Also wooden ships have much different tasks the starship so the assigned "jobs" for the characters are going to be much different and have to come up with some new challenges and checks for the players. So of course they will not be assigned to anything "Crew" worthy but mostly minor maintenance work, one gets to work in the gallery with the cook of course, and maybe two get assigned to Engineering to 'assist' the chief engineer. Their main function of course is to act as canon fodder with boarding actions against target starships or whatever raid they might be going on.
The first encounter is the heroes waking up and Master Scourge ordering them about. The heroes probably get to keep their armor as it is assume somewhat about vacuum possibilities so I need a high-tech 'cat-of-nine-tales'. I was think something similar to an Incapacitator but something that also causes pain. Maybe call it a Pain Prod and add the Pain feature (similar to stun BUT with pain). He uses it on all of them just so they get a taste.
For other gear the heroes probably start without much or anything else. Drones will be handled like animal companions. You can either get it later in the adventure or its down in the hold somewhere to be sold off later.
For Mister Pluggs tests not sure what would be good for here. He probably just asks who can cook or likes food to assign that person to the gallery. I was thinking not even a test, he just looks for the smartest species like Androids and Ysoki first and assumes they known engineer and send them to the engine room.
The heroes day to day lives for the next couple of weeks will mostly be interacting with other crew members and doing lots of basic manual labor/chores. They will notice that they ship has suffered a lot of damage recently (where Wormwraith lost most of its crew).
They might land on some of the outlying planets or moons to pick up new supplies and get something special for the Captain ("He has a fondness for Marata Blood-Spiders. The fresher the better so you need to try and catch them live. Yes they are very poisonous. Try not to die...").
Then the happen upon the merchant ship and attack. The heroes are given weapons and maybe space suits for a vacuum assault. If they do good they get some respect from the Captain and get to be part of the skeleton crew who is to take it back to Point Peril for prize.
Now maybe a Drift problem causes the ship to be damaged on the way and they have to put down for repairs. Still trying to figure this out. This is where the heroes will overpower the villains and seize the ship as their own!!!
I figure the heroes will be 3rd or 4th level by this time and that is the tier for the ship to start. It will have a hold at least along with a few weapons.
