The crew of the Duquetimme finally have reached a point of equality with the Umbra, and are making strides with the original landing crew to cut lumber and rebuild their old ship. The success of the voyage is questionable, but they have discovered the existence of the island and its viability as a trade hub, thus making at least some headway for the Poulin Trading Company.
As things are starting to look sound and solid, Niklas notices a new set of sailors making a beachhead on the far coast of the island. He doesn’t recognize the flags, but they appear to be different than those of the Duquetimme. Things will not be nearly so easy for the parting of the Duquetimme Crew as they first appeared, perhaps.
PLAYERS
- James – Edouard Fasson. Doctor, cook, etc.
- Alex – Louis Jalbert. Part-time merchant and full-time scumbag.
- Zach – Marshall Yaeger, late twenties. Scout and marksman.
- Matt – Leon Donnelly. Midshipman, navigator, shipwright, and jack of all trades.
- Charlie – Christian Kavan. Cook and gentleman adventurer. Has the approximate size, shape, and mustache of a walrus.
- Kevin – Carey Ignacious, the dreamy first mate.
- Sam – Niklas, resident Umbra badass.
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Ship of fools was the first D&U AP I listened too. It’s kinda a sad day listening to the last episode. Well I still have 16 more episodes of Frieda to listen to.
Awesome session, and a really great end to the mini-campaign. It doesn’t hurt that I am a sucker for happy endings. Or ridiculous, badass endings in the case of Louis, because I am not sure if becoming a drug lord and murdering your father figure really counts as “good”.
Also, the fight with the Xexorian ninja might have shown that limiting Flair expenditure on damage might be in order, unless you don’t mind bosses getting one-shot by whoever has been hoarding Flair.
Thanks! It was a fun mini-campaign to run. Isn’t all of it, either. There are several other scenarios in the campaign (as it’s a sample campaign I’ve put in the book) that we didn’t run through, as well. They basically change up who the big bad is, which also dramatically shifts the theme of things (Bazzi practically being a personification of capitalism, another big bad is driven by pure imperialism, etc, etc).
Also, a lot of rules were tweaked following the end of this campaign. Flair was one of them. In recorded games following this, you can only ever spend one point of Flair on any roll at a time, but regenerating Flair is a lot quicker.
A very nice session. I was sad last night when I had to leave half of it unlistened to, but I really needed to get some sleep before work. But this afternoon I finished it and like a good book it both makes me happy that I got to listen to an interesting story, and sad that it is over now. But then again you guys will have more stories for me to listen to soon.
Thank you and may you always stay drunk and ugly…
Not a very good parting word that.
After seeing the subtitle for the AP I made a mental note to cue up “Float On” for the epilogue. It did not disappoint. It was like listening to the end of an awful 80’s movie (Sorry, I meant awesome).
Two things from the overall campaign:
1) In both this and United We Stand certain characters had special skills (Niklas’ Shadow Camo and The Sheriff’s Sheriff Collar). Did everyone have a skill like this? Or were these just two special skills the PC’s made for their characters?
2) I understand why she was guarding the ship, but maybe next time you do a campaign try to have the super-boss character not just show up at the finale. I can’t remember if she was introduced during the ship to ship, and if she was I apologize for forgetting, but it seemed like she just kinda popped up like a bad video game Final Boss. That being said it was nice that she wasn’t the evil mastermind behind Bazzi. Instead she was just a fanatical follower of the Bazzi family.
Other Things:
Great job Charlie on making a loveable boisterous chef / aged adventure. This may come from a funny thing that made me chuckle every time Christian was in the scene. When I first heard Christian talk I instantly got the idea from Charlie’s voice that he talked with something in his mouth (a cigar in my mind). But after the ship crashed he still talked like something was in his mouth. And since I don’t remember his stash of cigars floating onto the island, I got the idea in my head that he had a mini-stroke. Nothing serious, just he can’t talk except out the side of his mouth. None of the PC’s made a comment because they could still understand him and nothing else seemed wrong with him. …. Shut up it was funny to me….
Yaeger gets my vote for MVP. Although he was kinda aloof for the beginning of the campaign he quickly, in my mind, became the heart of the crew. He acted loyally to the captain sticking to my morals. He didn’t freak when they crashed and discovered the Umbra. He tried his damnedest to save everyone during the storm, and, arguably, he fought the hardest to protect the Umbra and crew during the raid on Bazzi’s landing party. Zach big props on your character.
I’m glad you enjoyed the campaign! And to answer your questions:
1) These are actually perks in the system. Umbral characters have access to several non-human perks, shadow camouflage included. They work similar to advantages/disadvantages. Though, all things considered, the Umbra-only perks vastly overpower anything humans can get in almost every feasible way. Following Justice For All, the sequel campaign to Ship of Fools, I thought to better balance the Umbra versus human characters. But then I realized something: Umbral societies don’t inter-mingle with human societies. When they do . . . well . . . man tends to fear that which is vastly different than himself. As history tells us, man at first seeks to destroy this different thing. The Umbra are balanced against each other, to be sure, but they don’t need to be balanced against humans. If they’re walking into a human settlement, they’ve already put themselves into a position that “killing 1d4 investigators per turn” cannot solve.
Woo, that was a barely relevant rant!
2) It’s true, yes. Her inclusion at the end was improvised. She’s in the campaign earlier, actually, and briefly shows up during The World At Large, but the crew actually avoided any situation during The World At Large where they could have possibly spoken to her. She’s an antagonist alongside Bazzi, and isn’t actually all that strong. She’s supposed to only be any good at sneaking (which is how she’s supposed to be met in The World At Large, but, again, the crew pre-empted any situation wherein they could have possibly met her), and has a special unique perk that lets her deal an extra d10 of damage if she gets the jump on someone. That aside, she is as written pretty weak. When we got to the final battle with Bazzi and his crew, I amp’d her up a bit. Didn’t expect someone to try something as insane as boarding Bazzi’s ship and using it against him, but the idea was so great when they brought it up that I sat back and thought, “This is awesome. I need to supplement how awesome this idea is by giving them their own boss fight.” Then, paired up with the resources available (Bazzi’s crew, Bazzi’s assassin, and Bazzi himself), I felt Bazzi’s assassin would be the best option for a unique boss fight.
I can definitely see what you mean, though. She only appears once prior to this game, and isn’t toted up to be all that tough when she first shows up. I was mostly just working with what I had, and the idea of Bazzi leaving half his crew on his ship struck me as something he wouldn’t do. Bazzi is both arrogant and cautious. He’s arrogant enough to bring his entire crew with him, leaving his ship nearly abandoned, and he’s cautious enough to ensure that no one of his crew whose loyalty isn’t absolute will ever have an opportunity to take any of his riches (another reason to keep them off the ship if he’s left for shore).
Again, though, I agree with your point entirely. In hindsight, I would’ve done things a lot differently with that fight. I just figured I should explain what I was thinking at the time, y’know?
Thanks! Part of the reason for the late blooming of Yeager is that he was made to be an on-shore scout more than being terribly useful on the ship, so once they got to the island he really got the chance to shine. That he was present to hear about the mountain ended up working out better than I ever dreamed.