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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9753449" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I mean that in both the first and second adventure booklets the are interludes with absurdly difficult combats that show up with swarms and combat in water and so forth that a non-optimized party of four could not realistically expect to survive. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You probably shouldn't speculate too much on play that you weren't actually a party to. We did in fact sail outside of the Shackles, yet in fact in doing so the adventures don't really give the GM any guidance on that or how it is to be handled. It's really not the GMs fault that we were forcing him to make up so much stuff, especially when your answer seems to be "just make up some stuff".</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>First of all, I think it's very much a disservice to players to assume that they don't want at least casual realism or at least something that plays a little bit like a famous pirate movie. One of the many problems with the adventure is that it has no sense at all of what a realistically sized crew of a pirate vessel or warship actually is, and it sort bakes in expectations that the players won't know, won't care, and will engage with the rules rather than the setting and that their engagement with the setting won't be informed by knowing something about how actual pirates behave. </p><p></p><p>So maybe what you say is applicable to someone whose only knowledge of pirates is "Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl" but I've got like 8000 pages of reading on pirates and the great age of sail, and if something promises pirates then I expect pirates.</p><p></p><p>The crazy thing is that the setup of this whole thing is being supposedly abused by a cruel and vicious band of pirates that don't treat the crew fairly, and then arranging a mutiny against said pirate officers, and then the game hand waves the resulting contract into something that is grossly more unfair to the crew than the situation that they revolted against. Like the rules actually expect you to give smaller shares to the crew than the supposedly terrible officers you mutinied against, and they expect that you won't try to develop a pirate contract or a real rapport with that crew through roleplay. </p><p></p><p>None of the minigames really make sense and the cargo aboard the ships are worth so much vastly less than the ships that it's ridiculous to do anything but arrange prize crews to transport and sell the ships, and yet the rules don't expect you to do this even though that is the actual model by which you end up with your own ship. </p><p></p><p>Handwaving away the background action depends very heavily on assumptions that are readily violated. It's just a great idea for a game with some compelling NPCs and really novel potential escape scenario (sadly with too much of a railroad as written) that loses so much in the execution.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9753449, member: 4937"] I mean that in both the first and second adventure booklets the are interludes with absurdly difficult combats that show up with swarms and combat in water and so forth that a non-optimized party of four could not realistically expect to survive. You probably shouldn't speculate too much on play that you weren't actually a party to. We did in fact sail outside of the Shackles, yet in fact in doing so the adventures don't really give the GM any guidance on that or how it is to be handled. It's really not the GMs fault that we were forcing him to make up so much stuff, especially when your answer seems to be "just make up some stuff". First of all, I think it's very much a disservice to players to assume that they don't want at least casual realism or at least something that plays a little bit like a famous pirate movie. One of the many problems with the adventure is that it has no sense at all of what a realistically sized crew of a pirate vessel or warship actually is, and it sort bakes in expectations that the players won't know, won't care, and will engage with the rules rather than the setting and that their engagement with the setting won't be informed by knowing something about how actual pirates behave. So maybe what you say is applicable to someone whose only knowledge of pirates is "Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl" but I've got like 8000 pages of reading on pirates and the great age of sail, and if something promises pirates then I expect pirates. The crazy thing is that the setup of this whole thing is being supposedly abused by a cruel and vicious band of pirates that don't treat the crew fairly, and then arranging a mutiny against said pirate officers, and then the game hand waves the resulting contract into something that is grossly more unfair to the crew than the situation that they revolted against. Like the rules actually expect you to give smaller shares to the crew than the supposedly terrible officers you mutinied against, and they expect that you won't try to develop a pirate contract or a real rapport with that crew through roleplay. None of the minigames really make sense and the cargo aboard the ships are worth so much vastly less than the ships that it's ridiculous to do anything but arrange prize crews to transport and sell the ships, and yet the rules don't expect you to do this even though that is the actual model by which you end up with your own ship. Handwaving away the background action depends very heavily on assumptions that are readily violated. It's just a great idea for a game with some compelling NPCs and really novel potential escape scenario (sadly with too much of a railroad as written) that loses so much in the execution. [/QUOTE]
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