FYI: I have been keeping up with the roleplaying IC:
As of Wednesday, 17th May 2017, the thread shows that Nia knows what's what about Van Djik and his ghost story, and about his fate. Blaise now has the hardwood key. The moonlight is weak and day is approaching. Ghede waits without.
Yep. Great that you're following; that will make integrating into game easier.
To start firming up a character, I rolled some stats on Coyote Code last night:
Anonymous (rolled 2017-05-16 22:20:59)
Scores: 16, 12, 13, 15, 14, 12 (That looks awfully good to me.)
Solid. A lot of good rolls in this game.
[QUTOE]Origin of magical power: became a Ship Mage at 1st level, through training. (?) That looks
self-generating to me, but I'm almost surely over-thinking the issue: he gets his magical power as a Ship Mage from the fact that he already has magical power as a Ship Mage. (LOL WUT?) (Yeah, I'm over-thinking it.)
(and one of his trinkets looks like a representation of Ouroboros, the Worm of the Full Circle, with tail in mouth, to show that his magic
is its own source?)[/QUOTE]
Not sure there's enough there to actually pin any story on. Might want to develop it some more. Sorcerer, right? Usually that's associated with magical bloodlines or exposure to arcane energies/events.
If taking Variant Human, the Feat at 1st level would just about have to be "Magic Initiate" in order to get more cantrips. The Sorcerer class has a plethora of options, and the Ship Mage adds eight more, so it's hard to get more Mending (which Old Zef already has) and Ghost Rigging and Unfasten and Buoyancy and still have space available to get even one attack cantrip, for a character who is going to be fairly terrible at fighting with weapons.
(Also thinking a Feat at 4th level to get Ritual Caster, but that's not nearly as clear-cut an issue.)
Yep, those homebrew cantrips are a lotta fun.
I believe Nia & Old Zef can cast rituals, yeah? So no need from a party balance standpoint. If you want to do rituals for character reasons, go for it.
Aiming for what ship duty? Rigger? Diver? Carpenter, as assistant to Old Zef? (Kid was going to be a rigger, but Kid is not around now.)
OK... current PCs are designed toward:
Katerina – Captain
Old Zef – Boatswain/Carpenter/Artillerist
Nia – Sailing Master
Etienne – Quartermaster?
Blaise – Gunner
So, leaving Old Zef with multiple overlapping duties for now, let's assume you're NOT a carpenter (unless your concept really leans that direction). In that case, the open duties include...
6. First Mate: A large ship might have several Mates serving aboard it, hence the designation "First Mate." A Mate acts as apprentice to the Sailing Master and Boatswain. Their responsibilities include the fitting out of the vessel, examining whether it is sufficiently provided with ropes, pulleys, sails, and all the other rigging necessary for the voyage, hoisting the anchor, and at port seeing to the care of the sails, yards, mooring, anchor, and cables of the ship. Proficiency in water vehicles is recommended.
8. Surgeon: The Surgeon (one of the ship's Warrant Officers) not only should be proficient in Medicine, but often is the most educated person aboard, making the Sage background or proficiency in various Intelligence-based skills useful. Proficiency with surgeon's tools is recommended, and healing magic is especially valued. Ships without a proper Surgeon often appoint the task to the Carpenter, who make do with carpentry tools.
9. Cook: Technically the cook is another member of the crew, but their skills make them stand apart. Proficiency with an herbalism kit may be handy, though there are no in-game representations of a Cook's skill. Instead, it is left to the player to roleplay.
10. Crew: While crew are usually NPCs, any PC with the Sailor background can fill in for the responsibilities of crew. Crew include Able Bodied Sailors, Riggers (who value training in Athletics and Acrobatics), Cabin Boys (typically small boys or Halflings), Powder Monkeys (who run gunpowder from below decks), and Swabs (who mop the decks).
Bond(s): temporarily have three in mind: Vengeance/Justice, Redemption, Recovery (from the yellow fever, if there's a cure down on La Gloriosa). (These are subject to revision or reduction as story considerations merit, or require, or allow.)
So Vengeance/Justice is against Jacques Cassard, captain of the
Achéron who attacked and killed many men aboard
The Coral Curse?
And Redemption is....what?
Let's remove the yellow fever component (i.e. remove Recovery from your bonds). As [MENTION=8058]Queenie[/MENTION] rightfully stated in-character that is usually a "die from it, or get over it" illness. Van Djik's condition is exceptional for story reasons which are secret for now, but likely not for long.
What relationships would such a person have with the rest of the party? As a Ship Mage, he has been sailing for a year or five, or ten, so he has met some of the others? Or as a carpenter, he has worked on repairing and maintaining the ships that some of the others sailed on?* If he's to be recruited in Nassau, he should have some valid reason to already be on New Providence Island; so English nationality? (I've been brainstorming imaginary names of Englishmen, and they're all over the map in range from plain to exotic. (John David Collins? Corum "Guatama" Sidheharte? Those are merely the extremes; though Corum Sidheharte would be a better name for a Feylock instead of a Sorcerer, dangit.)
It sounds like your character creation process is (1) fill in a bunch of game terms (e.g. class, subclass, feats, ship duty, bond, etc.) and then (2) from that extract some kind of a story.
That's a fine approach, but what I see missing are the two things that players often overlook:
(1) Connection to the other PCs / party
(2) Connection to the adventure story (i.e.
La Gloriosa)
In my first post, you'll see I listed potential Bonds connecting you to
La Gloriosa.