HOIST THE COLOURS

Another hack arrives the port! Like I said at the previous post, 1800s it's a fairly interesting century. It is estimated that the pirate age ended at the beginning of that century. Since I'm already adding fantastic elements to 18XX, changing a little the years here and there sure won't do much harm. So, it's pirate time!

Like the first two, Muramasa and Outlaw, I searched through Beeple's portoflio for a image I came to this.

Of course the first reference my mind caught up was the Pirates of Caribbean franchise (which I like). The ship doesn't display a pirate flag (and this time I don't think I would be able to alter such good image properly) but people will probably even notice because of tentacles around the vessel.

The kraken made me think about Davy Jones and I didn't want the game to be replay of films. *Spark* What if the pirate were working for Davy Jones? (I will use DJ for now on). Maybe, because navy is taking over control of the sea, DJ started losing power over it's locker. And then I started wondering what should be inside...

I really like the type of fantasy that seems to happen between the pages of a history book, like the blank space between two black lines is also a line itself. The type of fantasy that might have happened but somehow it just got diluted, lost, hidden. Muramasa is really strong on that part, Outlaw a little less so but at least the most 'extreme' stuff are a little far between.

 Going back to what is locked in fantastical being, guardian of the sea. Treasure would make sense to the pirate theme but I wanted something that would be hard to trace. *Spark* Just like jack escaped in the movies, what about powerful entities escaped the locker, making DJ weak in the process? Weak enough so he would need the assistance of strong pirate crew? NICE. That's the game. 

Why would the players accept the task (beside the fact that the adventure looks super cool)? Fiddler's green is known as the seamen paradise, accessible only to those that sailed for at least 50 years or other criteria, there seems to be some. The pirate era is ending and this pirate wont probably make it in time, so that seems like a good offer from DJ.

This time I wanted the magic be really integrated to the characters because the sessions probably would be a little Colossusesque. Thinking about piracy and magic instantly takes to two sources: 7th Sea and One Piece.

For the powers stolen by the escapees, I was  mainly inspired by one piece devil fruit powers, since they are wildy varied and can have some interesting uses for the GM

7th sea has an AWESOME magic system by the simple fact that it has 10 magic systems related to the culture of every 'country' of the core rulebook. I used those as inspiration for the 10 gifts that DJ gives at character creation. Since they can be a lot OP and 7th sea uses a 'level' mechanic to balance that i created the Locker's Debt. Which is basically a mechanic that says 'you can do your magic in almost any scale, BUT the bigger the scale the longer and harsher will be so you can use it again'

The only main part missing now is escapees. Early on I decide to go with half monsters and half enhanced real life pirates. RESEARCH TIME. I guess most of the readers can name at east half dozen mythic sea monsters and famous pirates. The creatures were fantastical in itself but I wanted to make the pirates more magical. I'm really into historical fun facts and it was a really interesting read. Hope You liked them and super encourage you to learn more about the men and women who ruled the sea.

Like always, let's roll one mission!

An escapee seems to have escaped to a region close to the Arei'as Empire, which is located near a river delta.. Sandstorms occurring from time to time. 

The escapee there is a group of sirens, attractive to anyone who sees them, hypnotizing anyone who hear them sing. 

What the players don't know is: they have stolen the power to attract or repel anything. Since it's share among the group each individual has a lesser version and only works strongly when all the group is focused

Also, they're a searching for a powerful relic. Maybe something that could allow then to walk on land?

Hope you enjoy it! Click here to get your copy