Ideas for an adventure - Taking over a pirate ship

[hanez]

Hi my campaign is transitioning into the Paizo skull and shackles adventure path where the players become pirates. I want them to hate an evil empire, sail the seas robbing there ships and burning there towns to the ground, while also chasing treasure. When we last left the adventure, the players were stranded on an island, where they lit a signal fire and a ship is coming to "Rescue them". I was thinking about using this as a transition to get their on boat.

Im thinking the ship is an empire ship, and they are coming to take them prisoner/enslave them. The players job is to overcome the ship. They are level 4, and one of our players is a necromancer who dreams of being a piratee with undead sailors.

So the question is how do we make this believable? Would it be cheesey if it was rthat easy to take over the ship? How would you modify the story to be more interesting and believable?

 

[jonesy]

Cheese and cliches aren't always bad.

Anyways, are they trying to capture the ship or is that your idea for the adventure? If it hasn't occurred to them it might turn out differently from what you are planning regardless of what you design.

Some options:

1. The crew of ship coming to take them in are fresh recruits with very little combat experience and are indeed just that easy to defeat.

2. Just as the ship is about to send boats to shore to bring the characters in, another faction attacks their ship with a faster smaller ship. In the ensuing battle the smaller ship gets sunk, and both sides nearly kill each other off, leaving an opening for the characters to take charge of the situation.

3. Some of the sailors on board the ship are actually rebels, and could offer their assistance to the characters in capturing the ship and using it against the empire. You could even have the characters tied up, brought aboard, and have them be rescued by the rebels.

4. The characters are taken prisoners onboard the ship. The ship then proceeds ahead on its primary mission of attacking a village. This attack presents an opening for the characters to try and escape, and take over the ship.

You could even try combining these so that the characters have multiple chances.



5. You just begin the session with "You have taken over the ship."

 

[hanez]

they are excited for a "pirate campaign" and tried to fix a wrecked boat so they'll want to take it over if the opportunity presents itself. But they think the boat coming to rescue them is friendly. Im thinking perhaps when a boarding crew comes, they can make a perception check to see their unfriendly and then plan how they would like to continue.

 

[Scott DeWar]

sense motive wold be more logical. The ship should be flying colors of the empire, that would be noticed by a perception check.

 

[Aeolius]

As the boat approaches from a distance, you notice it lacks a mast. As the ship beaches itself upon the island, you see the portholes have all been barred. Prison Ship

 

[Relique du Madde]

Easy. Many of approaching ship's crew have been pressed from a recent haul and would easily join the group in a mutiny. The reason they have not risen against the empire is because their spirits are broken after days to weeks of torture and they need someone to rally them since their previous leader's corpse has been hung from the mizzenmast as warning to all mutineers).

-Sent via a cybernetic device.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Easy. Many of approaching ship's crew have been pressed from a recent haul and would easily join the group in a mutiny. The reason they have not risen against the empire is because their spirits are broken after days to weeks of torture and they need someone to rally them since their previous leader's corpse has been hung from the mizzenmast as warning to all mutineers).

This is what I was going to suggest -- traditionally the crews of a ship were very mixed, with seamen recruited/pressed from any and all ports the ship visits -- and if it's a military ship, those were often much more difficult to get voluntary crew (danger and lousy pay) so they were often made up more of pressed men and convicts dumped out of prisons into the gundecks of warships.

You might think about a couple of different factions -- drawn on national or cultural lines -- that exist below decks. It might be important to work to convince different groups to work together to overthrown the ship's officerns, requiring some good RP.

-rg

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Easy. Many of approaching ship's crew have been pressed from a recent haul and would easily join the group in a mutiny.

That was my thought too!

 

[Stormonu]

As others have stated, mkaing the officers empire and the crew mostly pressganged into service makes a takeover far more likely. Perhaps the party simply has to overcome the officers - the crew is willing to idly watch the characters challenge the captain/officers, or the party could induce a mutiny.