[5e] Spell & Crossbones

[Quickleaf]

What's the order of, I dunno, importance? Captain then First Mate? You'll have to forgive me Queenie doesn't know ship... stuff. Katerina does lol. I think you might have posted a link actually let me go looking.

Well, each officer is important in their sphere of influence. On a pirate ship the Captain had to variously butt heads with, cajole, and negotiate with several officers (though NOT in battle when the Captain was the sole authority). Traditionally if the Captain died the Quartermaster would take command (by vote of the crew of course), though it wasn't unheard of for older and more experienced First Mates to rise to the position instead.

Also curious, anyone wanna be Facebook friends? I don't bite. Much LisaMarie McCarthy. Too many people around here know me no sense in hiding it lol.

Sure! I'll look you guys up. Mainly I've been friends with Shadow on here, who helped immensely with editing my book, but I'm looking forward to hosting ENWorlders in Hawaii one of these days once I get a bigger place.

Except that Thorn Whip is only on the Druid spell list. And in looking further Guiding Bolt is only on the Cleric Spell list. Sooooo, I need to re-tweak it a bit.

Well, Spell Sniper does give you a bonus attack cantrip from ANY class. Seriously gaming accountant, read the rules!

So...it must be that you don't want to use Wisdom instead of Intelligence to cast it? Hmm. I guess we can house rule that you can use Intelligence with whatever cantrip you pick with Spell Sniper. That seems fair.

 

[Queenie]

Btw, what BBCODE did you use to create that OOC box? I could try that out and reserve SBLOCK for messages intended for individual players, and see which you guys prefer.

[ OOC ] [ / OOC ]

It actually looks like there is a tag here but it's not showing for me... aka above you see that blue circly thing on the bottom of the tool bar? Underneath the Quote button. If you mouse over one it says mention, one more says ooc. Lemme see...

OOC: Hello Friends!

It works!

Also:

[SBLOCK] blah blah blah [/SBLOCK] which is [ SBLOCK ] blah blah blah [ / SBLOCK ]

But all those letters are together. A GM might do something like [SBLOCK=Katherina the Amazing] You and your Monkey rule the PBP Universe!!!! [/SBLOCK]

Which looks like [SBLOCK = Katherina the Amazing] You and your Monkey rule the PBP Universe!!!! [ / SBLOCK]

We should also have

Spoiler

tags, which just blacks out the text, but I can't seem to get that one to work. But generally yes, GM's try to keep certain info more private that way the other players who don't peek should not know. IT does make it a little easier as sometimes it's hard to remember what your character isn't supposed to know.

 

[Quickleaf]

Wait, it's Monday! That means it is time for the...

FUN PIRATE FACT OF THE WEEK

Did you know Emanuel Wynn was a real French pirate who some credit as the originator of the Jolly Roger? Wynn's flag depicted the traditional skull & crossbones with an hourglass underneath. Supposedly the message to other ship captains was "if you can see this flag, your time is running out" or, according to Wikipedia, "only by timely surrender will you avoid death." Personally I like to think of it as a reminder to other pirate captains, as in "keep your eye on the egg timer in the ship's kitchen or you'll burn the flan!"

 

[Fenris]

Well, Spell Sniper does give you a bonus cantrip from ANY class. Seriously gaming accountant, read the rules!

So...it must be that you don't want to use Wisdom instead of Intelligence to cast it? Hmm. I guess we can house rule that you can use Intelligence with whatever cantrip you pick with Spell Sniper. That seems fair.

Yes, I saw that afterwards. But Zef's wisdom is a 16, so for now, no difference with Intelligence. But it would only do 1d6 for now., 2d6 at 5th level, still nice. Would I have to drag them towards me?

 

[Queenie]

[MENTION=8058]Queenie[/MENTION]. My understanding is that Captain and Q'Master typically got 2 shares to the regular crew's 1; Master, Gunner, surgeon, and Bosun got between 1 and 1.5. But each ship had a different contract.

I'll post IC tomorrow am on this theme.

I'm w/o FB. 2 many TLAs and abbrvs.

Well, I think the Gentleman who is also savvy enough to be Captain should be next in command, no? So I think it might be your choice as to Jim's Fate: Quartermaster or First Mate. We can play it in game if you'd like or just chat it out here.

Also, what is TLA's? lol

Mal, do you have a preference?

Well, each officer is important in their sphere of influence. On a pirate ship the Captain had to variously butt heads with, cajole, and negotiate with several officers (though NOT in battle when the Captain was the sole authority). Traditionally if the Captain died the Quartermaster would take command (by vote of the crew of course), though it wasn't unheard of for older and more experienced First Mates to rise to the position instead.


Sure! I'll look you guys up. Mainly I've been friends with Shadow on here, who helped immensely with editing my book, but I'm looking forward to hosting ENWorlders in Hawaii one of these days once I get a bigger place.

Okay 1) we've noticed that you live in Hawaii. We're already planning to visit Where is Hawaii might I ask?

2) This Captain isn't planning on dying anytime soon. She's got too much on her to do list to deal with that.

3) Definitely look me up and I'll pass you on to Fenris. Since he's a teacher his FB is pretty locked down.

4) Don't worry I'm used to dealing with unruly, stinky men.

Seriously gaming accountant, read the rules!

I know, right?? Duh.

PS Kat's other language is French. Makes sense.

 

[Queenie]

How available is magic in this setting? Like, would it be difficult to get scrolls somehow, whether buying or stealing or bartering or what have you?

 

[Quickleaf]

Yes, I saw that afterwards. But Zef's wisdom is a 16, so for now, no difference with Intelligence. But it would only do 1d6 for now., 2d6 at 5th level, still nice. Would I have to drag them towards me?

Yeah, the spell does say its a pull. Allowing you to slide (using 4E-speak) might be a bit potent particularly on the high seas. There is no other cantrip, for example that does forced movement and the Level 1 Thunderwave clarifies that it is a push. So a cantrip that allows you to slide is probably too much...unless we were eliminating the damage altogether (in which case we could up the force movement to 15 ft probably).

I saw you posted you were thinking about Identify. A good option too.

Well, I think the Gentleman who is also savvy enough to be Captain should be next in command, no? So I think it might be your choice as to Jim's Fate: Quartermaster or First Mate. We can play it in game if you'd like or just chat it out here.

Mal, do you have a preference?

To interject: Hugo Van Hann (@Malvados) has the Quartermaster well covered and it dovetails nicely with being Cook. First Mate or Sailing Master (sometimes called Master of Sail, or just Master) would suit Gentleman Jim better IMHO. And [MENTION=23484]Kobold Stew[/MENTION] has the right of determining shares; each ship arrived at their own contract.

And from what I've read, something like 8 shares was almost unheard of except in a few exceptional cases. Which yours could certainly qualify for...for example, most pirate ships wouldn't need to invest in diviners to locate sunken treasure, heavy diving bells, scrolls of underwater breathing, writs of safe passage thru Merfolk realms, etc. I'll leave it to you all to negotiate as you see fit, however.

Okay 1) we've noticed that you live in Hawaii. We're already planning to visit Where is Hawaii might I ask?

LOL! In the middle of the Pacific

2) This Captain isn't planning on dying anytime soon. She's got too much on her to do list to deal with that.

They all say that...

 

[Hannerdyn]

[MENTION=8058]Queenie[/MENTION] You know, my preference is to eschew any leader-ship on the ship-ship. I can leave the quartermaster role and just be a cook, I'm happy with that as it's more fitting with Hugo's personality.

And sure, I'll be your FB buddy. You'll have to suffer my bad jokes and kid pictures.

 

[Quickleaf]

How available is magic in this setting? Like, would it be difficult to get scrolls somehow, whether buying or stealing or bartering or what have you?

Ah! Good question!

Potions are almost always the product of Voodoo or rarer Mayan/Carib/Arawak magic traditions. Generally they don't taste like raspberries and honey. Saucily stuff is usually involved. So getting potions usually means a trip to a mambo or houngan (voodoo priestess/priest). IIRC Doctor Hawken has the herbalism kit proficiency, allowing him to concoct healing potions.

Scrolls are somewhat rare outside the the halls of magical schools (like the Academie Royale des Sciences, or equivalent in other nations), though with a bit of digging one can probably find someone who can sell a couple scrolls even in a smaller port like Nassau. Native traditions sometimes have unusual scrolls on clay tablets or stranger things, and Veve symbols are commonly used as scrolls for certain kinds of Voodoo magic.

Magic items (swords, armor, wands, and such) are almost never traded. If one or two are for sale (alwyas private auction, never open to public) you can bet there will be more ships at port and some very wealthy bidders with heavily armed guards.

 

[Hannerdyn]

Also, Hugo is drinking the brandy because he has terrible impulse control, he saw Old Zef do it, and brashly feels like the deal is already done anyway.

Hugo's a complicated character with several vectors and decisions that all end up with him consuming something he probably shouldn't.