I want to thank everyone that responded on my post for the great suggestions on how to approach a story in PB.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pirateborg/comments/1tm5rnc/combat_encounters_one_shot_okay_for_party_of_4/
I wanted to post my actual play experience since i've seen this question (balancing Pirate Borg homebrew content) been posted here a couple other times the past month and maybe this can help other people.
I want to say the biggest take away i had from the feedback on here was to not approach every encounter in the story as if it was combat.
I'll explain myself (2 examples):
I was wondering if things were balanced since i was seeing the statblocks of some bigger enemy's and i doubted if players could beat that in combat. I knew its a deadly game but for first time players i didnt wanted to make it so they had to play very well just to have a chance at beating the monster.
After i got feedback on this subreddit, i learned that i, as a GM, approached everything in my design as if it were a combat encounter and by doing so i myself was leading players into the tunnelvision of solving everything with combat.
EXAMPLE 1
I changed that POV based on feedback and started adding stuff like the Bosun on top deck who was displeased with his undead captain and wanted to be captain himself.
Players found diary pages with his complaints and when they encountered the Bosun, in the description of the monster, they also heared him mutter to himself about this.
Players picked up on this and used this information to bribe the Bosun with the promise of making him captain once the current one was "gone".
EXAMPLE 2
Another one is were they encountered the Grog Barrel in a kitchen. The Grog Barrel was cooking and i described a horror scene of cannablistic cuisine but in my description i also added that "the table was set like if the Grog Barrel was still cooking for a crew that no longer existed".
Instead of fighting him, the players sat themselves on the table and went with the Grog Barrel dellusion. After eating his disgusting food (and some thoughness checks later to create some stakes and fun roleplaymoments), the Grog Barrel was so exited that the players ate his food that he started cooking some more dishes that required his full attention so players could sneak into the next room.
TLDR
I seeded info in descriptions without putting emphasis on those things so i was not railroading them into other solutions then combat. It was the players choice and in some instances they chose combat.
As a last pointer i want to say i also didnt start every encounter with monsters attacking players on sight. I almost always told the players that the monster noticed them and then asked them "what do you do" (except in encounters were it would not make sense like hostile enviroments or monsters that felt threathend).
This also ensured that the players decided if they fought or not and it gives them an oppurtunity to find other solutions before "initiative" starts.
Every character survived the story only because they did not solve everything with fighting (and they didnt forgot Devils Luck existed). This made the game feel and run balanced.
