Set Sail… For Adventure!
UPDATE THINGY:
INPUT REQUESTED!
So the more I think about pirates, the more I'm thinking we should perhaps adopted a level up system more like WHRP40K. This means you have a much bigger list to choose from. We COULD even use that system, but this would take some playing around with the system. 40k has some nice improvements such as INT and perception being seperate, you can dodge untrained, and can dodge firearms (which actually makes less sense in a future game but oh well).
Or we could just stick with stright up WHFRP.
What say you all, use the talk page ya sea dogs!
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: 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.
I will let the players choose where they start.
Other personalities 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.
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.
Legends:
Selin the Sea Witch – A mere myth? Most who have spent very little or no time on the sea would say so. But no pirate with an ounce of experience would dare say she doesn’t exist. Stories of her seem to be over a hundred years old. If you believe the tales of her, her ship is made entirely of seaweed and she commands a host of strange creatures and men. On top of this an eerie thick fog is always said to come right before her ship makes an appearance.
It is said that she seeks out those she wants something from, or appears when someone is looking for her and she knows they have something she may want. If her name is mentioned in the Caribbean on certain islands, the speaker of the words, and all his crewmates, will find themselves at spear point and told to get off the island.
Her ship is known as the Siren’s Kiss.
Storm Demon - Although called a demon, Storm does not look like one. He is a very large man who commands the ship "Infinite Thunder". Nobody is sure where he came from, or how old he is, or even when he first started sailing.
But, the day he first made a name for himself is a legend. Apparently he was on a ship, the “Gallant Lad”. The ship was a pirate ship but was fairly low key. It would take from here and there but was never considered a major threat.
One day another pirate took a fancy to The Gallant Lad and decided the ship should be part of his newly budding fleet. He attacked the Gallant Lad whose captain made it very clear that he would never surrender his fleet. During the attack a sudden storm spread over the battle.
The crew of the Gallant Lad fought bravely but it was a loosing fight. Their opponents’ where too many, too strong, and had too many cannons. Storm Demon had not been known to be a fighter. But after the captain fell from a broadside of grapeshot he made an appearance on deck. He wore nothing but some tattered pants and held no weapons in his hands.
The attacking captain found this fairly amusing and ordered a cannon on deck to fire directly at Demon.
There are a number of different stories about what happened next. But most all of them have these following parts. There was a booming thunder and lightening arcs across the entire sky as far as the eye could see. Strom Demon did not blink and is reported as taking a step towards the oncoming cannon ball. The cannonball impacted him and made a violent explosion. But Strom Demon stood. All was silent after that as he continued towards the attackers’ ship. The crew of both ships could say nothing. Once Storm Demon found his way onto the other ship the attacking captain ordered his crew to attack.
The stories for the most part end here. Any crew of Demon’s that are still alive said they swore never to speak the other captain’s name. It is said Demon wanted him erased from history.
Now he is known to surface from time to time. His goals are unclear, but any who see his mark would be wise to run.
Mark: A broken hourglass.
