My plan is to first run a couple of oneshot adventures to showcase different aspects of play, rules systems and settings. There's a big group of potential players, so first I want them to get their bearings; then we can zoom in on a system and setting to dig our teeth into.
In this first oneshot the players join a pirate crew, get mutinied, navigate the Merabaha islands and a nearby office X-mas party, get pulled by conflicting secret missions and finally retake their ship. We didn't get to the dungeon at the end (a reskinned Hand of Dominion), but the trip was worthwile nonetheless.
And all that thanks to wonky spy gas.
THE OPENING
The New World is full of potential for those willing to risk life and limb; dangerous, sure, but here there is still freedom from the Old World powers and their grasping fleets. We find ourselves in the Merabaha islands, a vaguely Caribbean-esque archipelago in a sort-of 1600s time period: colonists, traders, pirates and just a whiff of the weird and strange.The five player characters wake up out at sea with splitting headaches and a confused voice crying out for the captain. Said Jean-Marc Traneuille is slowly succombing to his wounds after being shot in the chest.
How did you get here? Flashback!
In the hurricane-struck settlement of Crimsontown, the Ranstead are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. The Valois captain Traneuille of La Belle Poule is holding court and hiring on crew in the Lusty Limpet tavern. The players make their way to the Limpet and into the back room. Here they introduce themselves to their captain and his mountain-of-muscle first mate, the quartermaster Silas Winch. Last one in is the artillerist Mark Brandzaam, who has spotted a bunch of customs men sneaking around the tavern and hurries in to sign his name to adventure on the high seas.
THE CREW
I'm using my Jar of Dirt ruleset and discovering that it still takes quite some time to build premade characters in it. Hence, I rolled up one character for each class and let the players choose. I also handed out personal secrets and missions to give the players some extra motivation. Sadly noone drew the "you're a vampire" background. Next time!- Fiorest Gump - Tarracon Sawbones: opium-addled ship doctor looking for money and drugs. Due to a typo on his character sheet, he is the confused owner of "wonky spygass". Waste not a good opportunity: we decide this is an experimental spyglass that uses a strange hallucinatory gas to increase range. Fiorest is secretly working for the Tarracon Inquisition and hunts for foul and unnatural things.
- Nicholomir Candlano - Tarracon thief: a smooth operator and sneak thief who wants to get rich off the fabulous treasure that's being whispered about. Nicholomir is smuggling a jar of the dangerous and illegal Red Honey drug.
- Claartje Gerritsen - Ranstead brawler: Claartje is here to break heads and hearts. She's muscle with a dangerous secret: nine months ago, she signed an old blacksmith's contract to get a knife that can cut through anything. (Sadly not explored in-game.) In return, she has to find 100 idiots to sign over their soul to the blacksmith for a year, or she'll have to serve for eternity.
- Mark Brandzaam - Ranstead artillerist: an ex-miner looking for MOAR CANNONS. Has a huge arquebus and packs of gunpowder to play with. Mark is secretly working to get back into the Ranstead's good graces and wants valuable information on piracy in the region.
- Fakse Zandbergen - head of the Wexlish/Ranstead Crew: Fakse is a gambling addict (and secretly a spy for the Ranstead) who leads an oafish group of 12 Ranstead religious separatists. This mass of buffoons acts as one regular character, sharing hit points, inventory etc.
A SECRET MAP
As the quartermaster sets out ship rules to the new crew, captain Traneuille confides in his new ship's doctor Fiorest Gump: "it's not just gold we're going for, doctor - there's far more interesting finds in these waters! See this map? It belonged to the great pirate Jonas Booth. They say he owned a devil's toy, the Casket of Ys - with that casket, he was everywhere and nowhere at once. And I know where to find his stash."The map indeed shows a small island off the main Merabaha islands and a riddle besides it. The captain even proudly presents Jonas Booth's own pet monkey as a sign of good fortune. The little flea bag screeches, too late, as a small serving boy snatches Traneuille's map and makes a run for it. At the same time, constables and customs men with muskets kick in the door!
Shenanigans ensue as the characters try to escape. Nicholomir escapes via the roofs, others play drunkard or claim to be the bouncer who's taking a pirate to jail. Half of The Crew get taken to jail; the wonders of this class mean that the rest can just leave them behind and keep on adventuring. After running away from the Lusty Limpet, Fakse needs to feed his gambling addiction. He manages to scrounge some silver off a pair of cargo haulers by using his deck of marked cards.
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| The complete and true map of the pirate Jonas Booth - archipelago and settlements by Skerples, this layout and Booth's island (top right) by me |
TO THE SHIP
Eventually everyone makes their way to La Belle Poule. Captain Traneuille and his gang turn out to be a wonderful distraction, chased as they are in the background through market squares, church processions and a pig sty; the merry band makes it to the docks, customs guards in hot pursuit.While La Poule is already casting off, Fiorest and Nicholomir spot the map-stealing serving boy peering out of an alley and run over. Nicholomir almost manages to knock the kid out, and then it's just a snick of doctor Fiorest's trusty scalpel before the wadded-up map is theirs again. Claartje tosses a rope and hauls the pair aboard. The ship heads out to sea.
Quartermaster Silas Winch is first at the scene to chew them out for being late. His eyes bulge when Fiorest waves the map in his face - "results, dear man!" No-one notices that the quartermaster swaps one wadded up map for another, more basic one. The captain is unperturbed; he knows the riddle and location by heart.
The characters are told to go asleep and take the day shift. Hours later, they wake to gunpowder and swordplay: a mutiny! Silas has the true map of Jonas Booth and is taking control of La Belle Poule. Half the crew and officers are behind him. Captain Traneuille is shot in the chest, the player characters are thrown in a longboat with him and his sketchy monkey, and they watch helplessly as La Belle Poule sails away.
It's about this time that the first scientists from the physics x-mas party across the hall wander in; apparantly the x-mas tree in the astronomy wing is a site to behold and needs to be photographed. They seem surprised at finding a roleplaying game in progress at the coffee table. We smile, wave and roll more dice.
THE WRECKS
Now what? The captain is dying and there's no food aboard. While the group discusses if they should eat the monkey - or the captain - the group discovers a tattoo below the luxurious fur of the beast. Drugging it with Fiorist's etheric vapours, Nicholomir shaves the poor animal. He discovers a map to the unnamed isle of Jonas Booth, with four lines of verse that seem to spell out a way to find the captain's treasure:Follow the maiden's turnings three
Where Matthew met a sudden drop
Follow the stream till swimmer's stop
Thrice hold your breath and come to me
New map in hand, Claartje manages to find a bottle of rum hidden in the longboat. This is promptly used to sedate the captain while Fiorest does his best to stabilize the man. A few days of haphazard navigating leads the crew to The Wrecks, a shantytown of stranded sailors who hide from law and taxes in the shadow of Shipkiller Rock.
Bargains are made for food and other supplies, and Claartje builds up capital by going toe to toe with the Wrecks' best in their makeshift fighting ring. She wins enough favor and silver to resupply the group's longboat, buy a war canoe and sign on some new crew.
Literally sign, that is, as she whips out a little booklet and has each new crewmember sign their name under a contract to The Old Blacksmith. Five more souls for hell! The rest of the players seem quite perturbed at this little cult being formed under their noses.
Nicholomir, after some dealmaking with shady characters, turns up with a big wheel of cheese and concentrated rat poison.
It's at this point that Fiorist's player starts to gun for the Nicholomir; trying to poison the cheese or steal it. I could've nixed that - seems to be an out-of-game thing between the two that's being brought into the game - but the pair seem ok with it and it's not really disruptive. I'll regret that later on.
RETAKE THE SHIP
There's a brief debate about where to go next. Retake La Belle Poule, ignore those bastards and win Jonas Booth's treasure, or set out into the unknown? An old sailor tells Mark and Nicholomir of a place where you can get a proper boat. Siren's Point, he sketches in the sand, is just a day's sailing away. The name is foreboding, and the offer is politely declined.It's time to end those bastard mutineers.
On the way to Booth's island is the Wretched Reef - La Belle Poule would have had to go around it, but the players' smaller longboat might just slip across. And it does, although the group sails into a dreadful storm that sets the crews on edge and makes morale plummet.
Two more days of sailing, and there's landsign: clouds and birds on the horizon, then a dark strip of island and the profile of a familiar ship. Planning time, while Mark starts making makeshift bomme's to throw.
Doctor Fiorist whips out his wonky spy gas and, drug vapours leaking in his face, makes out an undercrewed La Belle Poule. The rowing boat is headed to the island, and the ship is ripe for the picking. Making sure to stay out of the arc of it's prow cannon, our pirates slip close, ...
(We interrupt the game for a minute to chat with a not-too-sober physicist from across the hall, who explains that there's beer left and would we like to come over? Tempting, but the dice beckon. We game on.)
..., and then make a mad dash to get in boarding range of La Belle Poule before they're spotted. Wondrous stealth checks by the players and lousy spot checks by the lookout combine with a disastrous sailing check by Fakse's crew. It seems that "more sail" is a maneuvre his crew knows by heart, while "brake, brake, for gods' sake we'll smash right into it" was only in the advanced class.
We slip into bullet time as the longboat smashes into the side of La Belle Poule at break-neck speed. Fiorist, Fakse and Claartje all manage to jump for a rope; Mark takes a bit more time to clamber up, and Nicholomir discus-throws his wheel of cheese into one of the enemy pirates.
A big fight flares up on deck! There's gunplay, furious stabbing, rope-swinging and vein-cutting (that sawbones class is a killer) before most of the mutineers lie on the ground.
WRAP-UP
Only the guy in the crow's nest is left. As he takes pot shots at the group below, Fiorist lays into Nicholomir with his scalpel. We ask why, and get a spiel about the secret mission I gave (inquisitor) - now, Nicholomir definitely has shady things going on, but he's not demon spawn. It turns out to be a rivalry over a game of chess finding its way into the game - almost all players are new to roleplaying, so they don't automatically . Both Nicholomir and Fiorist kick the bucket.I could've paused the game here - and should have, in hindsight - but it's getting late and a full run of the island would easily take another hour, so I let the fight play out, then wrap up the game.
There's winding paths on the island, riddles to be solved and even a little dungeon to explore. At the end of it all is the secret treasure of Captain Jonas Booth. A casket of ivory and ebony, just big enough to fit a man inside. Crawl in, and your shadow duplicate steps out for a couple of hours. You can ride them from inside the casket, or make a deal and both go on your way. A wondrous treasure for the right buyer - or the group themselves.
Update: Because we didn't explore Booth's tomb, we didn't get to the part where the players have to crack a safe to get to the treasure. The prize would've been Booth's casket, but also one free reroll in the next game for everyone who managed to make it to the end.
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| Safe by Ugears |
CLOSING THOUGHTS
A nice evening's worth of play with lots of piratical tropes; players had fun, I had fun, and I got to field test my Jar of Dirt system (needs work ;). I'm still happy with my idea to introduce the players via a flashback, then work back to the 'present' of the opening scen. Good way to set the mood, although I could've kept this tighter - it spiralled into over an hour of finding tavern, spotting guards, introductions, theft and escape and finding map and casting off and mutiny.My three resolutions for the next game:
- spend less time on character introduction;
- perhaps don't give out secret missions that can derail play, or prove hard to impossible to achieve;
- most importantly: explain at the start of play that I won't allow out-of-character beef at the table. What happened wasn't vicious or agressive, but it did come out of nowhere and dragged out scenes so that we couldn't make it to the "planned" end of the adventure in one go.
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