Noodling/Pirate RPG
Random bits for a pirate thing.
Sailing Skills
There are different rules for major and minor characters here. For major characters, everyone can do all the tasks on a ship or smaller boat if they want - navigating, rigging, shooting, repair, etc. 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. For minor characters, there are specific skills for the various tasks, and particular characters might have them at different levels or not at all.
Ships
Ships are primarily distinguished by scale, which corresponds to maximum crew size thusly:
- Tiny: Max crew of 10; generally not ocean-going (that is, they have to hug the coast)
- 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 speed, +1 scale for maneuverability, -1 scale for firepower, -1 scale for boarding
- Merchant: -1 scale for speed, -1 scale for firepower, -1 scale for boarding, +2 scale for cargo
References
Sailing
Normal sailing from point A to point B (where point B might be a pretty specific spot or a vague direction) doesn't require skill rolls to succeed or anything. Instead, you first determine how long it'll take (based on the actual distance, the navigator's familiarity with the route (or the quality of any map being used), whether you're sticking to coastlines or crossing open ocean, and the scale of the ship). After doing that, you roll repeatedly on the sailing events table - note that each roll consumes a unit of supplies - until you accumulate enough distance to reach your destination.
Sailing Events
The sailing events table is something like this. Note that character skills don't affect the roll, but they do come into play in determining how the events play out.
- Normal sailing day, +1 distance
- Becalmed, +0 distance
- Big storm, +2 distance but chance for ship to be damaged
- Crazy sargasso sea, +1 distance but then ship trapped
- Possible mutiny, +1 distance but then deal with that
- Something spotted off in the distance, +1 distance (can head over instead of rolling but it still costs a day of supplies)
- Island
- Merchant ship
- Military ship
- Pirate ship
- Lobster whale
(Note that if you see another ship and one of the parties doesn't want to get closer, then you're in a chase, see that section)
Ship vs Ship
Chases
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.
Firing and Closing
Once two ships are in firing range, if either chooses to fire, that's resolved before any further movement. 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.
After firing, ships maneuver to adjust their range. Each ship picks a desired new range - chasing range, firing range, or boarding range. If both ships choose the same range it just happens, otherwise there's a maneuvering skill roll and the winner gets their desired range. Larger scale applies a penalty, so big boats may find it advantageous to launch little boats to do the actual closing to boarding range.
Ships always maneuver, but they can choose not to fire; if they do, the other ship gets a bonus when firing at them, but they get a bonus when maneuvering.
Boarding
When two 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.
If the defenders repulse the attackers, the ships move back to firing range automatically.
Trading and Cargo
(Adaptation of the rules in Uncharted Worlds)
Ships have some number of cargo slots, based on their scale. Cargo slots can hold provisions (there's some rule where you consume a unit of provisions every X days after the first Y days, so for trips where you're not going from port to port, you need to carry provisions), people (passengers for pay or marines for boarding), or trade goods. Each unit of trade goods has a type and a value ranging from 1-4 (and there is some standard cost mapping of these values to actual currency).
When you go to buy trade goods in a port (using currency), you roll contacting/empathy/haggling and see what you get (the max amount is based on the port size or the ship's cargo capacity or something; buying is always at face value unless specified):
- Advanced: As the full result, plus choose one:
- Buy up to half the max amount of some type of value 2 goods for the cost of value 1 goods
- This port can permanently supply goods of one type purchased
- Full: Buy up to the max amount of some type of value 1 goods (or if you prefer, multiple types)
- Partial: You can buy up to the max amount of some type of value 1 goods, but there's some associated issue (extra taxes, a delay, the goods aren't quite as specified, they're illegal, somebody wants a bribe/favor, etc)
- Failure: You can buy up to the max amount of some type of value 1 goods, but for the cost of value 2 goods
When you go to sell trade goods in a port (either for currency or for other trade goods), roll as above (note that you can only sell one type at a time, and note that not all ports support selling for currency):
- Advanced: As the full result, plus choose one:
- Sell up to half the max amount for currency at the next higher value (max 4)
- Gain two two additional units of trade goods of the kind traded for (if you traded for any)
- This port can permanently buy goods of the type sold
- Full: Choose one or both:
- Sell up to the max amount for currency at face value
- Sell up to the max amount for trade goods of some type with one higher value (max 4)
- Partial: Choose one or both:
- Sell up to the max amount for currency as if the value was one lower (min 1)
- Sell up to half the max amount for trade goods of some type with one higher value (max 4)
- Failure: Some of the goods are lost/impounded/destroyed, or they can only be exchanged for lower-value goods; in any case none can be sold for currency
If you want to buy from a permanent source or sell at a permanent sink, you can get the Full result without rolling (there is probably a limit on how many units can be done this way how often). If you develop two ports where one permanently supplies a good and another permanently buys it, and you map out the navigation between them, you can do something to set up a trade route between them and pocket some cash for it without having to do all the ferrying.
Fates
Fates In-World
When you create your character, you pick a fate for them. A fate, for this purpose, is basically an epilogue - "married the governor's daughter", "found the treasure of the pirate king", "did not die by the hand of man". Also note the omen at birth indicating that the character would have a fate (born under a weird star, wrapped in the caul, strange visitor dropped in, etc).
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).
Sometimes fates are obscure at birth - it's clear that this person has a fate but not what it is - and don't make sense until later (it's possible the fate about getting revenge on your brother doesn't show up until your brother betrays you; then again, maybe it shows up earlier and that's why he does it).
Fates in Play
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).
Curses are fates that other people choose when to invoke, and pay you hero points when it happens.
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.
Questions
Along with a fate, also pick a question. This is non-diagetic and is intended as further guidance for the GM - "found the treasure he sought, but did he live to enjoy it?", "married the governor's daughter, but did he ever get revenge on his brother?".
Manipulating Fates
Human magic in the setting revolves around fate. Stuff you can do with fate (with varying degrees of difficulty):
- See what somebody's fate is
- Hide what somebody's fate is (make a person with fate look like someone without, or make someone look like they have a different fate)
- Temporarily give someone a new fate, either overriding or additional to their current (this is a curse or a blessing, depending)
- Temporarily entangle two people's fates
- Protect someone's fate from being manipulated (this might be considered a geas or oath)
- Protect someone from being directly manipulated by fates ("direct" is pretty tricky here)
- Do similar things to things other than humans (typical things people do are cause items to break, or encourage crops to grow better, or change the weather - none of these are easy and generally they take a long time to take effect)
- Do any of these by binding into an item, like make a portrait that gives a fate to anyone who looks at it of marrying the subject (note that doing something via an item is more difficult and less accurate, and you can't make a permanent item - that's reserved for artifacts)
(I think this fate system is roughly what the in-fiction 7th sea fate witches can do, although obviously it's different from what they can do mechanically)
Artifacts
There are artifacts (ie, significant items with magic powers). Artifacts are tied into the fate stuff in some nebulous way - maybe they're items with fates in the same way that some characters have fates. Artifacts can't be created intentionally, but they can form spontaneously, and they can be destroyed (with difficulty) but not hidden or lost forever - throw it into the ocean and it washes up on a beach and is found by a beachcomber, etc. Artifacts can do things human magic can't, like permanently change someone's fate, or change the weather instantly.
Setting
It seems like the setting premise has to include a couple (more than two) countries that are somewhat at odds politically (actually at war if you want to allow for privateers). Furthermore there have to be trade routes so the pirates have something to prey on, and ideally also treasure ships, which implies some kind of new world area, or at least some newly-discovered gold sources.
