JohnB's Games

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====== Making friends and influencing people ======

The Wormwood’s Crew The Wormwood is a busy place, and the PCs are in constant close proximity to their shipmates. In such close quarters, friends and enemies become very important— enemies might attack at any moment, but friends can help watch your back 

At the start of the adventure, 18 pirates serve aboard the Wormwood (in addition to the ship’s officers and the PCs). Like the PCs, most of them were impressed onto the crew, but some have been aboard several weeks now. 

With the exception of most of the ship’s officers, the PCs can interact with any of the crew NPCs during their time on the Wormwood. Each NPC’s initial attitude to the PCs is listed below, and the PCs can attempt to change an NPC’s attitude using Bluff (to pretend to be friendly), Diplomacy (to be genuine), or Intimidate (to frighten an NPC into submission). These checks are treated as Diplomacy checks to change a character’s starting attitude (regardless of the actual skill used), but they take time. Each check requires a ship action (see page 24), and a PC can only attempt one such check each day against a given NPC.   

There is no right or wrong way to approach these characters, but some NPCs have characteristics that influence their thinking, which can be discovered with a DC 15 Diplomacy check to gather information or a DC 15 Sense Motive check. Long term changes in an NPC’s attitude remain in place unless the PCs change it again through some action. 

Friendly NPCs help out their shipmates during the day. A friendly NPC can provide a +2 bonus on any single job task skill check made by a PC (see page 24), provided the NPC has ranks in the appropriate skill.
 
Helpful NPCs provide aid not only during the day as above, but also at night, providing a +2 bonus on checks to influence other NPCs, or on checks for pirate games and entertainments. Helpful NPCs might also lend money or equipment – although that requires another ‘influence’  check. If a PC abuses a helpful NPC in any way (such by attacking or cruelly duping the NPC), that character becomes hostile for the remainder of the adventure.
 
Hostile or unfriendly NPCs tend to stick together with Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge in the evenings, where their talk is at the expense of the PCs and their friends. But remember that  Master Scourge and his cronies are also interacting with others at the same time – so attitudes might change against you as well.