Pirate Encounter, RPG Generic Format

Sir Francis Drake

Pirates have been a favorite theme of mine in running role playing games (RPGs). I’ve used pirates in every genre of game I have run, except for espionage (but I’m working on an idea). There is a certain appeal of pirates in gaming, as a player and as a game master (GM). No matter if you are playing them as a GM against your heroes, or the heroes of your story are the privateers working under letters of marque raiding enemy ships.

Here is an encounter you can use as a side adventure, a step in a current adventure, or a hook for a larger story arc. It is presented in more of a historical setting, meaning there is no magic built into the encounter.

General Setting

There is a small tropical island out of the way of the main routes and not readily usable by ships. It is found on some charts, but not on others. There are no resources listed for the island on any maps that have charted it. This is because there is no harbor or safe beach for a ship to use. Only a longboat, or smaller vessel is able to reach the shore by crossing over the reef.

No indigenous people live on the island. Although some of the closer island’s inhabitants may be able to reach the island in their boats, there isn’t anything setting this island apart from the others to justify them to risk traveling the open waters to get there.

Hooks

1 – The ship has survived a storm, but has taken damage that must be repaired. Although the island is hard to reach, it must be attempted. The ship does not appear able to survive crossing the open waters in an attempt to reach another island. There are large enough trees to provide the lumber needed.

2 – The ship was caught in the doldrums and is dangerously low on water and food. This is the first land sighted and without fresh water there is a high probability crew members will die.

Historical Women Pirates

What Can Be Seen From the Ship

There are no visible signs of habitation. There is the normal looking detritus on the shore expected on an island without settlement.

Small to medium sized ground animals are glimpsed that could be hunted for food. They look like they might be pigs, which is a sign that at least one other ship in the past has stopped at the island.

There is fresh water. There is one large stream and several smaller ones that can be seen flowing into the sea.

The Encounter

Several years ago a survivor of a storm, Jonathon, washed up on the shore of the island. Over the months after his landing, he tried to gain the attention of passing ships to be rescued. Because there is no easy safe landing on the island, ships didn’t stop. They either didn’t see Jonathon’s signaling or chose to not attempt the reef. Eventually Jonathon gave up on being rescued and settled into his life.

Jonathon has lived alone here for several years. His mental state is deteriorating and he could be considered crazy. He’s taken to calling himself the king of the island and no longer has any desire to leave. In fact, he will only leave if forced. If the landing party tries to make him leave, he will attempt escape and hide on the island, avoiding any further contact.

Jonathon has settled into the ease of his situation. There is plenty of food and water on the island. He doesn’t have to farm and the little hunting and fishing he does is when he has a desire for some type of meat.

The climate is accommodating for Jonathon to live a life of ease. He has a crudely built hut made with local materials, along with some recovered debris from the beaches. His utensils were all made by himself. And, his bed is a gathering of grasses that he changes out regularly. There is nothing spectacular or even interesting about how he lives.

Typical Sailor

Jonathon was a deck hand. He is uneducated and cannot read, write, or navigate. He was washed overboard during a storm while working to secure the sails. His shipmates considered him lost in the storm and he was never searched for.

If Jonathon is befriended, he can provide information on a few topics depending on the needs of the GM. Here are some ideas you can use.

·        Recent knowledge of ships that passed. He can describe them by the flags they were flying and the direction they were heading.

·        Ships that regularly pass by on some level of schedule.

·        He could also know about a ritual site on the island with native markings, even though he has not seen any natives come to the island.

No matter what happens with the meeting of Jonathon, the repairs and restocking of the ship otherwise pass uneventfully, unless you choose to have something more happen.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

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Pieces of Eight, RPG Review

The high seas are a dangerous place to make a living. But, the wind at your back and the salt spray in the air is the life that suits you best. You’re on deck next to the helmsman. It’s just past four bells on dog watch when a yell comes down from the crow’s nest. The man is pointing to the East. You raise the spy glass to look at across the waves. You give the order, “Call the Captain, we have Letters on those colors.” You’ll be able to attack out of the setting sun.

Pieces of Eight is a pirate role-playing game (RPG) written by Alan Bahr and published by Gallant Knight Games (website and Facebook). I was given a copy of the rulebook by Gallant Knight Games for review purposes.

The Game

Pieces of Eight is an RPG focused more on the narrative aspects of role-playing. Each player creates and plays a member of a pirate crew. The Narrator prepares the adventures and manages the game. The players can also take on the task of having the rest of the crew to manage when sea battles are engaged with ship-to-ship combat. Although, the characters they create could be a major part of sailing the ship for those situations.

The focus isn’t the strategic aspects of combat, it is more about how the characters play out and create the story based around the encounters the Narrator presents. And, the emphasis is on creating a story worthy of the characters. Think of Pirate movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Sea Hawk, and Cutthroat Island.

The Characters

Each player creates a character based on what they want to develop, or they can use a system of random determination presented in the rulebook. Each character has one major trait to define their character, cunning, dashing, noble, or stalwart. Each trait in turn has a set of skills to choose or determine randomly from. Each character has three skills from the set of their trait, and one from another trait’s skill set.

Traits and skills provide a basic framework for the player to develop a personality for their character. Characters of different abilities will look at tasks from a different angle on how to address the issue, giving the players, as a group, interactions when they have to determine how to overcome problems and address the tasks they are confronted with. The character’s trait also influences how the character fights.

Each trait has a particular advantage to be used in combat. Again, this means a cunning character approaches a fight differently than the character who’s dashing. This becomes important in a pirate setting because it would be a poor pirate story without swordplay.

Everyone has the Fencing skill. It is not just having the ability to fight with a sword, but includes a particular fencing style. Bahr has done a nice summary of five major fencing styles and how each provides a different “advantage” when the character is in a fight. These advantages combine with how the character’s trait influences their approach to combat, which provides another level of individuality between the pirates of your crew.

Game Mechanics

Pieces of Eight is designed using eight-sided dice. The number of dice used when determining success of a task is a comparison of a character’s trait and skill against the difficulty of the task. A small pool of dice (no more than eight) are rolled to determine if the needed number of successes has been rolled. This method is applied for all tasks.

Because Pieces of Eight is focused on narrative there is no need for rules for character level advancement. Characters advance through game play, as the story unfolds. This means there is no need to track a bunch of statistics. The Narrator has more flexibility and can allow a player to have their character gain a new skill if the pirate puts forth the effort to learn it.

Pieces of Eightalso contains information for basic ship sizes to allow the ship-to-ship battles to occur. This information fits in well with the rest of the setting. It is just as easy to determine the success of maneuvering a ship as it is to find if you were able to climb into the rigging.

The mechanics are straight forward and easy to learn. They give an outline for the event, determining success or failure. But, Pieces of Eight is about the story. Players, or the Narrator, use the outcome of the dice to help in the narration of events.

The adventures the Narrator can be based in other stories or from their own creation. How the players add to the story will make it uniquely theirs.

The Rulebook

Pieces of Eight is eighteen half pages, or PDF. I reviewed the printed copy. It includes character and ship sheets. The rulebook can be quickly read so you can have a game started within minutes of introducing this to your gaming group.

Art

Pieces of Eight is illustrated by Chris Yarbrough. His work focuses on providing the feel of a cinematic pirate adventure.

Overall

Pieces of Eight is a quick to learn RPG that has the ability to provide multiple gaming sessions. If you are looking for a historically accurate setting, there are a lot of details you could add. But, for a fun evening of creative storytelling Pieces of Eight provides the needed components to get a group to dive in.

I have enjoyed Pieces of Eight and expect to see future adventures at our gaming table themed with pirates.

You’ve watched as the ships steadily made their way closer to each other. You were spotted. But they haven’t tried to make a run for it. Instead, the ships have been riding the winds working for a strategic advantage. You are almost in range of the ship’s guns when Captain Leeson give the order to strike colors. A clamor runs through the crew on the deck as everyone sees the other ship does the same. Another privatneer. This looks to be a serious endeavor.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

You can also join Guild Master Gaming on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter (@GuildMstrGmng).

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