Set Sail… For Adventure!
UPDATE THINGY:
Back Grounds:
Chosen by players during character construction. These reflect generally your character's up bringing. They give a certain set of skills to start with and in some cases talents, if it doesn't list talents then they are rolled randomly.
Society Born: You were born in one of the major powers, England, France, Spain, or the Holy Roman Empire. This reflects someone brought up in a "proper" setting.
Skills: Speak Language - Whatever matches your country of origin, Common Knowledge your country, Common Knowledge Special: For England, France, etc, pick one of the other countries or religion. For Spain and the Holy Roman Empire it is religion, Common Knowledge Pick one.
Talents: 2 Random
Native (Africa, Islander, etc): Taken from your home as a slave, you have freed yourself and now are part of the crew.
Skills: Speak Language - Native tonuge, Speak Language - Choose any, Survival.
Talents: Resistant to Disease or Strong Willed, One Random
Arabic: A traveler form a distant land.
Skills: Speak Language - An Arabic one, I'm not looking these up, Speak Language - Any one, Common Knowledge Arabic, Common Knowledge: Choose a major power.
Talents: 2 Random
Port Born: A bastard child of semi-globalization.
Skills: Speak Language - Any 2, Common Knowledge - Any one
Talents: 2 Random
Chinese: You come form half-away across the world, just what happened to make you a pirate? A pirate crew makes you feel much more at ease then being in these white devils' cities.
Skills: Speak Language - Chinese (either dialect), Speak Language - Any one besides tribal, Sailing, Acadmic Knowledge: Asia.
Talents: Seasoned Traveler, 1 Random
Stats: People will throw pennies into the air, about 100, for each stat and call "heads" or "tails". The character's stat will be equal to how many coins come up with what the player called. Pennies may not be dropped, they must be thrown up at least 3 feet.
The Occult: It exisits, spells and what not. It is not very common but enough that people will buy trinkets and what not. The further away from civilzation the better magic tends to work.
I'm not really sure how widespread I want general occult crayness to be as I fear it make take away from the flavor. I at least want to put in stuff like ancient treasures, undead, giant sea monsters, stuff like that. I think the idea is that the world is not yet defined, and is becoming defined by those currently exploring it.
Expect the Catholic Church to be very active.
Rules: Up for grabs.
Action Points: So far what I have in mind for this idea is as follows... You can use all your re-rolls for the evening to perform a feat of Swashbuckling... Swashbucklery? Anyway, you can spend all your re-rolls and whatever the action you take, you perform it. I'm not sure about this yet, as I don't know if we want these amazing things happening everytime, part of being a pirate is failing, and it makes for a good story. But I WILL put in a system to allow auto-success actions.
Reason for this is, while failing is good for a story, sometimes it makes for a great story if a character does something he has been building up to. I'm thinking of putting in a rule where the said action must be great, it must be witnessed by a number of people, this way it can't just be used for some mundane action. Again this is something I'm playing around with.
FATE:
A pirate’s life is about freedom, movement, unrestrained life. However there are some binds that not even these free and easy souls can escape. The stars. While a pirate might say they do not believe in the laws of man, that land living is decadent and full of meaningless gestures and courts, one would be hard pressed to find a pirate who did not believe that the stars hold sway over man.
Fate, which seems too many to be an avoidable string of events or event. But, this is not quite the case. Rather it is an event that will trigger specific things to happen. It is up to each person to decide what to do when the moment arrives. The choices made can make the difference between a pirate hero, and a monster pirate.
So this game mechanic I thought up today, then realized it is a bit like the one in place in our current fantasy game. There will be times when the characters are presented with a choice, and depending on what they do, will shape the way the world turns so to speak. Before such choices I will let the players know that this is a “Fate Event”. I will not, however, tell the characters what will happen, or even hint at, the results of their choice or choices.
Story and Background
Story: The characters will start out under the command of one Captain Phillip the Bold. A gentleman pirate who is known for his daring raids, flamboyant swordsmanship, heavy drinking, and fine dress. The name of his ship, and the players’, is The Red Rover (yes named after the child’s game), and it is well known for breaking through blockades due to her speed.
Phillip being the way he is, of course has his own rival, and that would be Sir Joseph Keenly. He has had a number of run-ins with Phillip and has made it his personal vow to capture Phillip then return with his head.
Pirates of Note:
Borus the Boar – Friend and ally of Phillip, he uses a large mace in combat and is known to break through his opponents’ weapons with his swings. His ship’s name is “Wild Thing”.
Mark: A red skull with a crack in it.
Von Rictenhous – A pirate of German descent. He is known to be very active around the English Channel as well as Northern America. He has a reputation of being no nonsense and is rumored to have broadsided one of his own ships that resisted his orders. His quarter master is a odd fellow who is rumored to dabble in the dark arts. His ship’s name is “whatever the German word for King is”.
Mark: A skeleton wearing a crown and holding a sword in each hand.
Ruthless John – A younger pirate whose name pretty much sums him up. He is nasty in combat, he curses and swears more then any other pirate, he has numerous scars, and it’s once said he cast anchor just to burn down a village because a passing resident looked at him wrong. Many other pirates say his bark is far worst then his bite.
Mark: A skeleton riding a shark.
Bahir – A Muslim pirate who is very active in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. He is known for wearing very flashy clothes laced with jewels and gems. He also has an impressive fleet of 3 ships. His personal ship is called “The Gem Hunter” and has 65 guns. The other 2 ships are called “Last Resort” and “Star Taker”. He is known for being overly dramatic.
Mark: An overly complicated tapistry.
Other Personalities of Note
Lady Elda - One of the few powerful female members of the Catholic Church. She seeks out and destroys any pirates… and sometimes those accused of piracy against the Church’s interests. She is known for being overly cruel and is sad to have a sadistic streak. She commands three ships.
