Noodling/Pirate RPG
Random bits for a pirate thing.
Fates
When you create your character, you pick a fate for them. A fate, for this purpose, is basically an epilogue plus an open question - "retired and running a small inn, but did he ever find the treasure he sought?" or "found the treasure he sought, but did he live to enjoy it?" or "married the governor's daughter, but did he ever get revenge on his brother?" or "got revenge on his brother, but did it consume everything in his life?" Also note the omen (occurring sometime between birth and puberty) indicating that the character would have a fate.
When stuff happens that contradicts your fate, you can invoke it (though at most only once per scene) to change what's happening (eg, if you've been lethally poisoned and are going to die without reaching your fate, you could say the villain has a change of heart and decides to give you the antidote to spare you for some worse fate, or you could say your body is thrown on the ground only to be stumbled across by a passing doctor, or that you've spent the last years developing an immunity to etc). Invocation costs zero or more hero points, depending on how directly the event is contradicted (ie, saying you're just immune to the poison and suffer no ill effects is a major contradiction; saying the poison still takes you out but the villain decides to kill you some other way is a minor one).
Note that fates are diagetic - it's possible for fortune teller types to identify people with fates (major characters all do but not everyone in the world has one) and figure out what they are. Some schemer-types probably specialize in finding people with fates that accomplish things that would be useful to them and pointing them in the right direction (not everyone with a fate accomplishes it, but they've got a better shot than the average person). Curses are fates that the GM invokes (which pays the cursed one hero points).
Fates are also a guideline to the GM as to overall story direction, although obviously with multiple players the game isn't going to be a straight drive towards anyone's fate.
Sailing
This is the sort of game where everyone can do all the tasks on a ship or smaller boat if they want - navigating, rigging, shooting, repair, etc. Every PC, that is; regular sailors might not be able to handle all the tasks equally well. Furthermore, there's no dedicated skill for them, you just use whatever's appropriate - like if you're doing a hasty repair maybe it's a physique roll, whereas navigating through complex reefs is resolve.
Ships
Ships are primarily distinguished by scale, which corresponds to maximum crew size thusly:
- Tiny: Max crew of 10; generally not ocean-going
- Small: Max crew of 50
- Medium: Max crew of 125
- Large: Max crew of 250
- Giant: Max crew of 500
The minimum crew to run a ship is 10% of the maximum crew.
Ships of lesser scale are slower, have less firepower, have smaller capacity, cost less, and are more manueverable than ships of greater scale. Within a scale level, ships can have bonuses or penalties in particular areas ("unusually large cargo hold", "no firepower"). Bonuses can be paid for with penalties and/or extra cash. Additionally, ships can have a single archetype applied:
- Smuggler/Explorer: +1 scale for maneuverability, -1 scale for firepower
- Merchant: -1 scale for speed, -1 scale for firepower, +2 scale for cargo
References
Pursuits and Boarding
In general, if two ships are in a chase, and they're of the same scale, then bonus/penalties relating to speed are considered and a skill roll is done (bonuses aren't an automatic victory, they just affect the skill roll). Ships can do situational things to get a bonus, like jettison a bunch of extra weight. If they're different scales, the higher-scale ship always wins. The winner gets to choose whether the ships enter firing range, or whether the chasee escapes.
Once the ships are in firing range, they can choose whether to try to close and/or fire. Doing just one of the two gives a bonus, but it is possible to do both.
If either's firing, that gets resolved first. Firing is a skill roll as usual (normally based on crew leadership if a PC's rolling it), taking into account any bonuses or penalties (it's possible to carry over a bonus from the pursuit roll). Firing is directed against one of three areas: crew, sails, or hull integrity (damaging the crew reduces boarding resistance; damaging the sails reduces maneuverability and speed; damaging the hull does nothing initially but sinks the ship eventually). Damage done is always a little random - it could be cosmetic, minor damage, or major damage. There's also the chance of starting a fire on the ship. Scale affects the damage result - higher scale vs lower scale moves cosmetic to minor, minor to major, etc.
Closing is also a skill roll, based on relative maneuverability. Larger scale applies a penalty, so big boats may find it advantageous to launch little boats to do the actual closing. The winner decides whether the ships close to boarding range, or stay at firing range.
Once the ships are in boarding range, folks can start swinging across to the other ship or climbing up the hull or whatever. To actually take over the ship (without the action of individual PCs) requires two rolls, one where the defenders attempt to keep the attackers from boarding, and another where successful boarders seize control of the ship. The former roll benefits from earlier firing on the crew, but the latter doesn't (on the other hand, successful firing can also lead to a surrender). Ships of higher scale get bonuses to these rolls as usual.
