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Skull & Shackles #1
Pathfinder Adventure Path #55: The Wormwood Mutiny
Captives of Fortune
Pirates take whatever they please, whether it be ships, plunder, or people! The adventurers wake to find themselves press-ganged into the crew of the pirate ship Wormwood, the vessel of the nefarious Captain Barnabus Harrigan. They’ll have to learn how to survive as pirates if they’re to have any hope of weathering rough waves, brutal crew members, enemy pirates, ravenous beasts, and worse. But when fortune turns to their favor, it’s up to the new crew to decide whether they’ll remain the pirate’s swabs or seize control and set sail for adventures all their own.
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path launches the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path and includes:
- “The Wormwood Mutiny,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 1st-level characters, by Richard Pett.
- Details of life aboard a pirate vessel and rules for becoming the most infamous scallywag to sail the seas, by Jesse Benner, Richard Pett, and F. Wesley Schneider.
- Revelations on the daring faith of Besmara, goddess of pirates, strife, and sea monsters, by Sean K Reynolds.
- Death and plunder in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws.
- Four new monsters, by Jesse Benner, Sean K Reynolds, and Steven D. Russell.
Cover art by Daryl Mandryk
Pirates take whatever they please, whether it be ships, plunder, or people! The adventurers wake to find themselves press-ganged into the crew of the pirate ship Wormwood, the vessel of the nefarious Captain Barnabus Harrigan. They’ll have to learn how to survive as pirates if they’re to have any hope of weathering rough waves, brutal crew members, enemy pirates, ravenous beasts, and worse. But when fortune turns to their favor, it’s up to the new crew to decide whether they’ll remain the pirate’s swabs or seize control and set sail for adventures all their own.
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path launches the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path and includes:
- “The Wormwood Mutiny,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 1st-level characters, by Richard Pett.
- Details of life aboard a pirate vessel and rules for becoming the most infamous scallywag to sail the seas, by Jesse Benner, Richard Pett, and F. Wesley Schneider.
- Revelations on the daring faith of Besmara, goddess of pirates, strife, and sea monsters, by Sean K Reynolds.
- Death and plunder in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws.
- Four new monsters, by Jesse Benner, Sean K Reynolds, and Steven D. Russell.
Cover art by Daryl Mandryk
92 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 2012
48 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 11, 2018
En realidad el argumento de la aventura se podría resumir en un par de páginas, pero lo interesante son todas las complicaciones y explicaciones con que lo adornan para llegar a las 50: la vida en un barco pirata, las costumbres, los trabajos, las localizaciones del barco, sus tripulantes, la cronología de los hechos, etc. Tal vez son demasiados datos como para que un máster los recuerde todos y los aplique o los enseñe durante la partida, pero ahí están.
Mención aparte es la costumbre de meter uno o varios bichos en cada localización de lo que se supone que es una isla desierta, a veces rozando el ridículo en términos de sostenibilidad de dichas poblaciones. Pero bueno, son las típicas cosas que se pueden obviar sin que se resienta la historia.
Completan el resto del paginado (casi la mitad) con tesoros, PNJs, siete páginas de "La vida de un pirata", que incluyen un interesante sistema de abstracción y aplicación del botín y la infamia, cinco dedicadas a la diosa pirata Besmara y los detalles de su adoración, otras cinco con la primera parte de un relato de Robin D. Laws que me ha gustado bastante, y otras nueve de Bestiario en el que se describen (en un párrafo) tres navíos con algún truco, algunos posibles familiares de mago de temática pirata, un bicho intrascendente, otro con posibilidades y un sustituto de Davy Jones bastante aceptable.
Mención aparte es la costumbre de meter uno o varios bichos en cada localización de lo que se supone que es una isla desierta, a veces rozando el ridículo en términos de sostenibilidad de dichas poblaciones. Pero bueno, son las típicas cosas que se pueden obviar sin que se resienta la historia.
Completan el resto del paginado (casi la mitad) con tesoros, PNJs, siete páginas de "La vida de un pirata", que incluyen un interesante sistema de abstracción y aplicación del botín y la infamia, cinco dedicadas a la diosa pirata Besmara y los detalles de su adoración, otras cinco con la primera parte de un relato de Robin D. Laws que me ha gustado bastante, y otras nueve de Bestiario en el que se describen (en un párrafo) tres navíos con algún truco, algunos posibles familiares de mago de temática pirata, un bicho intrascendente, otro con posibilidades y un sustituto de Davy Jones bastante aceptable.
May 13, 2012
This is the first of the Pathfinder Adventure Path books that I've purchased, although I've glanced through many others. I've always enjoyed running adventures that involve ships and the seas, so this one appealed to me right off the bat.
For those unfamiliar with the Pathfinder Adventure Paths, they are published roughly monthly and will have a six issue run devoted to one large campaign, split into six individual adventures.
This is the first part of the six issue Skull & Shackles campaign.
It starts with the Player Characters having been press ganged into the crew of the pirate ship Wormwood.
The first half of the book is the adventure itself. There are a few preset encounters and a sizable dungeon type section near the end, but alot of the focus of this first book is on the players interactions with the crew and getting a rating of "friendliness" between the Players and the crew members, which will become important as the adventure moves on. This means alot is left up to the DM to handle as far as giving the crew members personality and coming up with additional situations for opportunities for interactions to take place. This means I don't think this would be a good adventure for a novice Gamemaster to try and run, and even experienced Gamemasters could find it challenging.
There is an abstract system for handling some of this, but I think that relying on it too heavily could detract from the enjoyment of the game and could cause the first part of the adventrue to drag out somewhat.
I was a little suprised that they didn't include a table that could be copied for actually keeping track of the standings between the PC's and the crew, I think a GM is going to need one and it would have been nice to include it. Also, although several important crew members are described in alot of detail, there are a large number that are only given very brief descriptions, not enough to really give them much personality. This would mean additional work on the Gamemaster's part to flesh these characters out if you want to roleplay encounters with them rather than just rolling dice to see if side with the Player Characters or not.
The second half of the book includes more background material on treasures, pirate life, creatures, a short work of fiction and an outline for the campaign as a whole.
Overall I was fairly impressed with the book and look forward to seeing future installments.
Whether I will get a group of players together and run it remains to be seen, I'm still learning my way around the Pathfinder system, and running through an entire Adventure Path is a fairly long term committment. I think I'll see if I survive as a player in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path first :)
For those unfamiliar with the Pathfinder Adventure Paths, they are published roughly monthly and will have a six issue run devoted to one large campaign, split into six individual adventures.
This is the first part of the six issue Skull & Shackles campaign.
It starts with the Player Characters having been press ganged into the crew of the pirate ship Wormwood.
The first half of the book is the adventure itself. There are a few preset encounters and a sizable dungeon type section near the end, but alot of the focus of this first book is on the players interactions with the crew and getting a rating of "friendliness" between the Players and the crew members, which will become important as the adventure moves on. This means alot is left up to the DM to handle as far as giving the crew members personality and coming up with additional situations for opportunities for interactions to take place. This means I don't think this would be a good adventure for a novice Gamemaster to try and run, and even experienced Gamemasters could find it challenging.
There is an abstract system for handling some of this, but I think that relying on it too heavily could detract from the enjoyment of the game and could cause the first part of the adventrue to drag out somewhat.
I was a little suprised that they didn't include a table that could be copied for actually keeping track of the standings between the PC's and the crew, I think a GM is going to need one and it would have been nice to include it. Also, although several important crew members are described in alot of detail, there are a large number that are only given very brief descriptions, not enough to really give them much personality. This would mean additional work on the Gamemaster's part to flesh these characters out if you want to roleplay encounters with them rather than just rolling dice to see if side with the Player Characters or not.
The second half of the book includes more background material on treasures, pirate life, creatures, a short work of fiction and an outline for the campaign as a whole.
Overall I was fairly impressed with the book and look forward to seeing future installments.
Whether I will get a group of players together and run it remains to be seen, I'm still learning my way around the Pathfinder system, and running through an entire Adventure Path is a fairly long term committment. I think I'll see if I survive as a player in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path first :)
September 4, 2012
Looking forward to running this for the gang.
August 20, 2016
Very much looking forward to playing this.
March 30, 2013
I ran this adventure last summmer and it was a lot of fun.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews