This is technically part of a series, considering I keep titling each of these stupid ideas with a volume.
So I’ll just edit in a link to the next part here.Next : Stupid Ideas Volume 4. The Full Picture
Previous : Stupid Ideas Volume 2. Regarding Vendors
big post up ahead
this post is to give crew and deckhands more personality, that’s all if you needed the tldr.
If the place your ship is docked to is within proximity of a tavern and you’ve been away for a prolonged amount of time from your ship ( 10-20 minutes ish ) your deckhands should be off the ship to take a break in the tavern. They’ll be talking about your most recent escapades, be it sinking a fortified pirate ketch with only 200 health remaining, chasing down your rival, defeating a fearsome sea monster, etc.
When you’re back at your ship, they’ll immediately rush back to it after the sounding of a ship bell.
Maybe there’d be like a list of 10 topics they’d be talking about, resetting each time they take a break at a tavern.
Each topic would also have an assigned “importance” value.
If you already have 10 topics and you get a new one, if the new topic’s importance exceeds the one of the bottom-most topic in importance, the bottom-most topic will be replaced.
If the new topic is more important than any above that, it’ll take the highest place in the list it can according to its importance.
I’d go in more detail about this but you get the gist.
To avoid repeats, every topic also has a “type”, be it naval combat, land combat, etc.
Only the most important topic of that category will stay. So if you sink a pirate sailboat and a fortified pirate ketch, they’ll be talking about the fortified pirate ketch.
Second thing, crew concern.
After you’ve been away from your boat for an hour or longer, your crew will actually start to be concerned for you and sometimes miss you.
“Do you think the Captain’s gonna come back?”
“Man, (name) is taking long. Hope they’re alright.”
“Captain (name) usually isn’t away this long.”
“I miss the Captain.”
If you come into the tavern, they’ll be relieved and concern will reset.
“It’s good to see you’re alright, (name).”
“(name)'s back! I think we’re gonna set sail soon.”
And if you get on your boat, some of them will comment on how long away you were before returning to their normal lines.
“We were worried about you, Captain.”
“Adventure Awaits!”
Neat bit of personality.
What? Did you think I was gonna recommend a decrease in reputation requirements?
Also every town should have a tavern or at least something like that to rest.
also i do admit i made this one just a bit early
@Breaded_Butter asked for more ideas regarding deckhands as individuals
so first of all :
What if prolonged travel with deckhands without breaks, as well as your lack of proficiency ( namely having your ship being low health consistently, having it sink, being defeated, having the ship be bombarded, etc ) starts to actually take a toll on them based on their personality ( which is another thing ) aaand eventually if you perform too poorly, their enthusiasm dwindles and it starts to look more like these experiences are causing trauma.
High enthusiasm :
“Cannons are armed and ready!”
Low enthusiasm :
“Cannons are armed.”
Low proficiency and various personalities :
“I think it’s best if we don’t engage.”
“Captain, you’re not armed to deal with this.”
“You’ve had nothing but losses, stand down.”
“You lack the experience to even put a scratch on that thing!”
“(NAME), YOU’RE GONNA GET US ALL KILLED!”
“ADVENTURE IS CALLING, BUT DEATH ISN’T!”
“Another engagement closer to our death.”
“Sure, let’s waste away our lives at sea and not head for the coast.”
Also, high proficiency will lead to your crew having high morale. They’ll do things like sing shanties in unison when nothing interesting is going on, expressing a battlecry when they engage in naval combat, etc.
If your proficiency is beyond just “low”, your crew will experience a sort of trauma.
They’ve seen their friends and you die so many times, they… can’t help but comment on it.
I don’t really know how to write trauma dialog all too well…
But I’ll try.
“All I hear when I rest is cannonballs hitting the ship’s hull…”
“Captain, I don’t want to see my friends die again…”
“I still hear the screams of yesterday…”
“(name), I don’t want to be here anymore.”
“If I die I’ll be in a better place.”
“(audible crying)”
Also, random fluff dialog.
“Do we even have food onboard?”
“If I had to keep track of how many times this ship bumped into something, I would’ve already lost track.”
“Is anyone keeping track of the amount of kills (name) is racking up?”
“Man, I could go for a drink right now.”
Maybe even fluff dialog with hints, which originate from where you got your deckhand from?
“Y’know, I’ve always thought one of the more eastmost spires in the jaws was… just a bit conspicuous.”
“Just a rumour, but apparently someone found a huge skeletal structure somewhere in the Frostmill tundra.”
Furthermore, town-specific shanties will be sung if your entire crew is from a certain town.
So if your entire crew is from Redwake, they’ll sometimes sing a shanty only specific to redwake.
[Next part of this idea is related to boarding!]
Based on personality, deckhands will have lines which can be savage, patriotic, etc.
“More lambs for the slaughter.”
“Your last mistake will be thinking you could stand a chance against us.”
“You won’t have a grave as the ocean will be yours.”
( i’m still thinking up more… )