[5e] Spell & Crossbones
- Thread starter Quickleaf
- Start date
tuxgeo
Adventurer
Robinson Crusoe would probably be the right period as well.
But not Titanic! Nor The Unsinkable Molly Brown. . . . I mention those (set two centuries later) because of Brown's story: survived the sinking of more than one ocean-going vessel.
A PC with that kind of history might be thought to be a Jonah, and might thereby damage the morale of the rest of the crew, or not be hired at all.
But not Titanic! Nor The Unsinkable Molly Brown. . . . I mention those (set two centuries later) because of Brown's story: survived the sinking of more than one ocean-going vessel.
A PC with that kind of history might be thought to be a Jonah, and might thereby damage the morale of the rest of the crew, or not be hired at all.
Quickleaf
Legend
Entirely up to you whether you feel Blaise is sympathetic enough to Van Djik or not to attempt Lay on Hands. But your idea of using it to give a brief respite or momentary burst of energy seems fine to me.
I am planning on continuing the ghost story, regardless – not going to leave you guys with just the buildup! – but I needed to break up my post because already it was getting really long, and I personally find long posts harder to digest and suspect others might have the same issue. I notice players do better retaining bite-size information that they get to interact with. Whenever it's just the DM talking for long periods, that's when most players lose track.
Quickleaf
Legend
Inspiration to you!
[video=youtube;ZXsQAXx_ao0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0[/video]
She's either swooning or broken-hearted over his vow of chastity. I cannae tell.
Kat would only accept vows of chastity as a challenge She gets what she wants.
Of course, Lisa can't back this up by passing ONE roll.
I've read everyone's stories a bunch of times, but I think we've mentioned I have a terrible memory. I thought Blaise was a fighter. Whoops! I should have remembered when he said he was immune to disease. SOooooooooo much story to drag out of everybody....
<---------------------------------------- WORST CAPTAIN EVER
tuxgeo
Adventurer
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.
I need to get into more of a hurry on making a character, or be left behind in the progress of the story. Single-classing may require using the Variant Human race; so if that is the case, nationality is nearly wide open. (English? French? Spanish? Native islander or coastal mainlander? Former slave?)
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.)
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?)
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.)
Background may end up being Custom. It will depend on other decisions.
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.)
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.)
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.)
* Edit to add: It might be that trying to be both a Ship Mage and a Carpenter is taking on too much, and they conflict in the sense of his trying to go in two different directions when there's a general call to quarters.
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.
I need to get into more of a hurry on making a character, or be left behind in the progress of the story. Single-classing may require using the Variant Human race; so if that is the case, nationality is nearly wide open. (English? French? Spanish? Native islander or coastal mainlander? Former slave?)
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.)
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?)
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.)
Background may end up being Custom. It will depend on other decisions.
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.)
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.)
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.)
* Edit to add: It might be that trying to be both a Ship Mage and a Carpenter is taking on too much, and they conflict in the sense of his trying to go in two different directions when there's a general call to quarters.
Last edited:
Quickleaf
Legend
Yep. Great that you're following; that will make integrating into game easier.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Similar Threads
Recent & Upcoming Releases
-
June 16 2026 -
June 16 2026 -
September 16 2026 
Arcana Unleashed(Dungeons & Dragons)
Rulebook featuring "high magic" options, including a host of new spells.
Replies (151) -
September 16 2026 -
October 1 2026 -
October 6 2026 -
January 1 2027
