We’ve already had our first session of Reavers on the Seas of Fate, entitled “Maiden Voyage.”
First Session (12 page pdf) – The characters, still lowly seamen, meet for the first time upon a poorly-disciplined ship, the Albers, bound to Riddleport from Kintargo. With women on board and gambling and fighting allowed, it’s only a matter of time till the captain turns up dead, filling the crew with mutual suspicion, and then a mysterious ship comes out of the fog…
For this first adventure, I combined the old Atlas Games 3e scenario Maiden Voyage and the new Sinister Adventures pdf Mysteries of the Razor Sea. Both are first level ghost ship scenarios; Maiden Voyage focussed more on the ship and crew the players were travelling with. Mysteries of the Razor Sea was totally about the ghost ship – it had more horror and is tougher. So I felt they complemented each other well; basically I am using the ghost ship from Razor and everything else from Maiden Voyage, with some changes to lead in to the next part of the adventure, which will be in Riddleport. Entertainingly, the crewman “Bull” was actually named “Ox” in the adventure. I considered letting him keep it and having him and the PC “Ox” really hate each other in the same way chicks wearing the same dress to a party would, but even with the minor name change they’re both bald Garundi and I got a lot of the same dynamic.
As a side note, lots of the Atlas Games stuff is on clearance sale at paizo.com and it’s good material. Besides this adventure, I may use some of their other scenarios like Three Days to Kill, and I’m using Nyambe: African Adventures to flesh out the Mwangi Expanse. Heck, if I decide to cross the sea to Arcadia I may use Northern Crown: New World Adventures. Stock up while it’s cheap and still available!
I felt the first session went well – I thought we’d get a lot farther, but the players got into the interaction with each other and the NPCs; we played three hands of the card game Skulls, investigated the death of the captain… There were only two very minor combats, a boxing match between Bull and then the PCs helping to subdue Bull when he attacked the first mate, convinced he had murdered the captain. The rest was all roleplaying fun!
And it’ll be a great object lesson for when later in the campaign the characters sign on to a pirate charter and read “no women, no gambling, no fighting…” They will nod sagely to themselves about the wisdom of all these strictures.
Geek Related 