pirate

Ahoy, tis’ talk like a pirate day. Gar, Where can I find a bottle o’rum?  So get a talkin’ matey. Ye’ll ne’er get me buried booty!

I think I’ll just go to Number one for Lily “You. Pants off. Now.”

Like all of their 7th Sea Products, this books contains well presented background material for that system. Although I do not use the 7th Sea world, this material is still useful in that the countries in the 7th Sea world are stand-ins for real countries (for example Avalon is England, Castille is Spain, etc.) Therefore it is easy to extrapolate from the information provided.

There were four key aspects to this book that I was looking for when I picked it up: (1) ship information; (2) cargo information; (3) locations/ports of call; and (4) fleet combat.

Of these four items I was really pleased with the cargo information. The text contains good information and descriptions about the cargo. Also, the book contains handy charts to allow you to easily and randomly determine the cargo on a particular ship. In my eyes, this was the best part of the book.

I was disappointed in the ship information provided. I must caution you that I am comparing the ship information in this book to that found in Broadsides! Broadsides! contains an unbelievable amount of ship descriptions. The disappointment that I had with Ships and Sea Battles was that there was nothing in there that I did not already have with Broadsides!

If you currently have no other ship resource, Ships and Sea Battles will work fine for you. It contains information for 12 different ships. If, however, you already have Broadsides, don’t buy this book for the ship information.

With respect to the towns/ports of call information, that is quite good here as well. AEG typically does an excellant job providing background information. They do so here again with respect to the ports of call. This section includes several pages of descriptions of different drinking, gambling, and other establishments with names and a textual description. These would be useful in almost any pirate setting.

The book also includes detailed information on two cities. The information includes maps, descriptions of important buildings in the city, and the important people who can be found in the city. Although these were written for a 7th Sea background, as I noted above, they can be easily modified for other settings.
The fleet combat information  provides a handy  system for resolving a mass combat. The system looks like it will work well. However, it is a little too abstract for my tastes. I can’t really fault AEG for this, however, because for mass combat to be effective at all, it must be mostly abstract. After reviewing the fleet combat rules, I think I will stick to having my players deal with specific aspects of a large battle and use the fleet combat rules as a gauge to determine how the rest of the battle is going.

If you are thinking about a pirate adventure and do not already have good source material for ships or cargo, then I would recommend this book. The information on the cargo is excellant and the port of call information is very good. Also, the ship information will provide you with everything that you need to outfit your players and create suitable opponents.

In 2002 Alderac Entertainment Group published a booked called Swashbuckling Adventures. That book is a great resource for anyone running a d20 fantasy game.

I originally purchased the book as a resource for my Pirates! campaign. It has a picture of a pirate on the front and was called Swashbuckling Adventures. Perfect for a pirate campaign. Right?

Yes, the book was perfect for my pirates campaign. Additionally, however, it was so much more. The book contains a richly detailed world background. Although I did not use that background in my campaign, it was well written, interesting background material (even if it was a thinly disguised mask of Europe).

Aside from the world background, the book is simply a great resource. It contains innumerable classes and prestige classes that were particularly useful in my pirates campaign. Many of the classes would be equally useful in other fantasy settings as well.

Additionally, the book contains one of the best collection of new feats that I have seen. For the most part, the feats are well written and well balanced. Since I picked up this book, everyone else in my gaming group has picked it up as well. Further, at least one, if not more, people have used something from this book in each of our subsequent campaigns (including both a modern and future campaign).

I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a good resource for classes and feats.

As a consequence, the Governor of Barbados granted your new captain, Juan Miguel del Toro Jimenez de Aragon, a new ship “The Barbados Defender.” The Defender is a Large Carrack. The Governor also granted a Letter of Marque.

As a consequence, the alliances between your ship and the various countries has changed. The original alliances can be seen in the following chart:

After the Battle of Barbados, your Alliance Chart now looks like this:

The Alliance continuum is as follows:

• Allied-You are allies and will generally help each other. These ports welcome you and generally provide favorable trade terms.
• Friendly-You are on good terms. The ports welcome you.
• Neutral-These countries don’t care about you. As long as you are not hostile, you are welcome in the ports.
• Hostile-The countries don’t like you. They may allow you in port, however, they will likely charge you extra for anything you try to purchase. They will probably attack you in most situations.
• War-These countries don’t like you at all and will likely attack you if given the chance.

Also, in addition to the countries that don’t like you, the Inza family does not like it that you killed their brother Todor.

• Stealth Hide and move silently are a single skill “Stealth.”
• Balance A relatively important skill in this setting
• Navigation The skill of being able to navigate a ship (plot a course, figure out where the ship is, etc.) Knowledge (Mathematics) is a complimentary skill
• Pilot The ability to “drive” a ship
• Sailing is the skill needed to be a sailor. Use Rope and Balance are complementary skills.
• Use Rope A good skill to have to swing from ship to ship on a rope, net, etc.

Feat modifications

• Cannons Allows you to fire a cannon. All members of the cannon crew must have this feat to suffer a -4 to hit
• Firearms The ability to fire muskets and pistols

Starting characters get

• 89 Attribute Points (Yes, I know that a lot. Leave me alone.)
• 6,000 XP
• 1 mastercraft item
• Equipment appropriate for your class and level

Other Rules modifications

• You receive a defense bonus equal to your base attack bonus
• Everyone speaks their native language plus Spanish
• You get a bonus language if you INT modifier is +1 or +2. You get an additional bonus language if you INT modifier is +3 or +4
• No magical class except alchemist
• Caribbean natives are illiterate. They an remove this limitation at the cost of 1skill point
• Additional languages cost a total of 3 skill points (you can speak, read, and write) all languages you learn
• Setting is the Caribbean
• Beginning year is 1703

The history will be relatively accurate (to start with). The last major event to have occurred before the campaign started was that the British drove the French from St. Kitts. The major players in the area are the Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and the Spanish. The Spanish are the most powerful followed closely by the English. The Dutch and French are relatively equal in power. The Portuguese are the least powerful and they have no real colonies in the area. Portugal’s main colony is Brazil. A war (the War of Spanish Succession or Queen Anne’s War) is currently being waged.