Swashbuckling on the High Seas
Clearly what we need more of are cutlasses, slides down convenient
ropes, duels in the crow's nest with the loser falling to the sharks,
cursed emeralds as big as a man's fist, and so on. Conveniently I also
have some rules-light RPG systems I am interested in trying out, so I
will be running a pirate-themed one-shot, the weekend of April
22nd/23rd, 1pm-6pm EDT (aiming to finish up at 5pm, with possible
slopover).
Saturday players: katre, lno, Ghogg
Sunday players: Emily, Iain, Storme,
Jota, Jon
I'll be providing character writeups for you to pick from. The current
set of choices is the following:
- Felden Blackbone, a
mighty-thewed barbarian warrior whose axe
and great strength make him a terror in boarding parties. Though his
lack of civilized education shows from time to time, don't be fooled
into thinking there's no brain beneath the brawn.
- 'Lady Darla', an urbane
swordswoman with a mysterious
past. Rumors swirl about her, but two are heard more often than
most: she's got a boy in every port, and she's never lost a
swordfight.
- Shanks Wilson, a one-eyed
pirate with a hook for his left
hand. A skillful captain and navigator, people still talk about the
time when, pursued by six ships, he lured two onto the shoals, holed
another two with his cannons, and slew the captains of the last two
single-handedly (literally) with his cutlass.
- Mother West Wind —
they call her a voodoo woman, say her gaze can freeze you in your
tracks, claim she can whistle up storms and talk to spirits. Some
people even say her monkey, Charles, is
all that remains of her last husband.
- Smoky Pete, a strapping and
fearless ex-navy man. When he
charges into battle with his brace of pistols, few crews will stand
their ground against him, and there's nobody better for getting the
cannon-crews in shape.
- Kit Leeds, able to climb any rope,
pick any lock, con any mark,
and if all else fails she has a surprising number of knives on her
person. At sea she's a prize in the crow's nest, with the sharpest
eyes in the ocean.
- 'Professor' Roberts, whose
whip is unorthodox but surprisingly
effective at swinging him to a neighboring ship or tripping up a
pack of soldiers. His nickname comes from an uncanny knowledge of
ancient history and artifacts, the origin of which he refuses to
discuss.
- Ennis O'Malley, a startlingly
ingenious brawler who scorns
swords but can do more damage with a rope, oar, or whatever else is
handy than most can do with a cutlass and a pistol.
System-wise, this is going to be extremely No Myth. To get an idea of the kind of
genre tropes we're talking about here, it might be useful to look at
Sean Barrett's pirate page.
The specific rules set will be Wushu.
As usual, feel free to read in advance, but I'll explain the system on
the day-of too.