[TSOY] Near's Pirate Isles: Pere-di-Fey

[shadowcourt]

size=12pt][b]Time Before Tide[/b][/size]
The truth of Pere-di-Fey is a bizarre one, but one which has protected the fledgling pirate nation from destruction by other powers. Pere-di-Fey was once little more than a trading port used by Ammeni, used to restock ship provisions and let sailors blow off steam, a chain of islands in the Great Eastern Sea. Generally a raucous series of port towns, the fear of the discipline of the pre-Shadow Ammenite Houses were sufficient to keep their sailors in line, though licentiousness, rum, and poiture were frequent vices among the population.

Maritime Ammenites and Zaru slaves were not the only denizens of the Feyan islands, however. The bulk of the population were farmers who worked the rocky and sandy islands, and the division between Zaru field-hands and the minimal wealth of local plantation owners made the normally stark contrast between master and servant in Ammeni more blurry in Pere-di-Fey. Complicating this further were the elusive Kairakau, dusky-skinned island folk who lived a simple subsistence lifestyle, alternately trading with or raiding Ammenite farms. The Kairakau possessed an eerie ability to disappear from Ammenite scouting sloops, as if they sank into the islands themselves.

As the Skyfire loomed in the heavens above Near, many of the Ammenite naval detatchments were withdrawn to consolidate power in Ammeni, dealing with unrest among Zaru and the common folks. The Year of Shadow brought tsunamis and fierce winds to the Feyan islands, which had already been all but abandoned by authority figures from the Houses. Feyan settlers died in great numbers, despite the small size of the colonies, and as the skies grew dark, the islands themselves began to shake, seeming to shrug and break apart.

Surely the collected Feyan settlers would have perished were it not for the sudden emergence of the Kairakau. Their priests, the land-speakers<Out of The Belly of the Whalehalatu<talalag<talalag as both children and brothers to the leviathans, and had learned that the talalag could bond with men as they bonded with the halatu<halatu, the living islands of Pere-di-Fey. Now navigators in symbiotic relationships could find the slow drifting island-leviathans, charting unfamiliar waters to make it back home. When Ammenite and Maldorite ships eventually became ambitious enough to pursue these pirates back to their home ports, they found only empty waters.

The New Age of PiracyA Nation of Foreignersmascot<Time Before Tide
The truth of Pere-di-Fey is a bizarre one, but one which has protected the fledgling pirate nation from destruction by other powers. Pere-di-Fey was once little more than a trading port used by Ammeni, used to restock ship provisions and let sailors blow off steam, a chain of islands in the Great Eastern Sea. Generally a raucous series of port towns, the fear of the discipline of the pre-Shadow Ammenite Houses were sufficient to keep their sailors in line, though licentiousness, rum, and poiture were frequent vices among the population.

Maritime Ammenites and Zaru slaves were not the only denizens of the Feyan islands, however. The bulk of the population were farmers who worked the rocky and sandy islands, and the division between Zaru field-hands and the minimal wealth of local plantation owners made the normally stark contrast between master and servant in Ammeni more blurry in Pere-di-Fey. Complicating this further were the elusive Kairakau, dusky-skinned island folk who lived a simple subsistence lifestyle, alternately trading with or raiding Ammenite farms. The Kairakau possessed an eerie ability to disappear from Ammenite scouting sloops, as if they sank into the islands themselves.

As the Skyfire loomed in the heavens above Near, many of the Ammenite naval detatchments were withdrawn to consolidate power in Ammeni, dealing with unrest among Zaru and the common folks. The Year of Shadow brought tsunamis and fierce winds to the Feyan islands, which had already been all but abandoned by authority figures from the Houses. Feyan settlers died in great numbers, despite the small size of the colonies, and as the skies grew dark, the islands themselves began to shake, seeming to shrug and break apart.

Surely the collected Feyan settlers would have perished were it not for the sudden emergence of the Kairakau. Their priests, the land-speakers<Out of The Belly of the Whalehalatu<talalag<talalag as both children and brothers to the leviathans, and had learned that the talalag could bond with men as they bonded with the halatu<halatu, the living islands of Pere-di-Fey. Now navigators in symbiotic relationships could find the slow drifting island-leviathans, charting unfamiliar waters to make it back home. When Ammenite and Maldorite ships eventually became ambitious enough to pursue these pirates back to their home ports, they found only empty waters.

The New Age of PiracyA Nation of Foreignersmascot

[shadowcourt]

(ran out of space in my first post to include this stuff, so I'm just attaching it as a reply...)

Life in the Pirate Islestalalag themselves, found independently or in swarms in and on the bodies of the leviathans. Those Feyans who have successfully bonded in symbiotic relationships have some insight into these creatures, but their minds are alien in the extreme. It is not uncommon to see a Feyan with a creature like a starfish, lamprey, or crab bonded to their body somewhere, a gently pulsing symbiont which shares life fluids and strengths with its host, both benefiting from the exchange. However, some Feyan communities have been attacked repeatedly by angry swarms of skittering insect-like talalag<land-speakers serve as symbiotic shamans, whose trances and mastery over the talalag are frequently seen as having special insight into the leviathans. Nonetheless, they seem reluctant to divulge the thoughts of their god-brothers to outsiders; many of the shamans are as slow-moving and taciturn as the islands themselves, though stories are told in Feyan ports of a Kairakau shaman whose accidental murder resulted in a leviathan diving beneath the waves in revenge (or was it mourning?), drowning the entire colony that dwelt on its back.

---

In Part 2, I'll get crunchy, including Cultural Abilities, Secrets, and Keys, particularly giving some note to the Symbiont Secrets, and my own take on how to handle Ship Secrets on Near, but I figured I'd start out fluffy, and go from there.

A Postscript, on Part 1
Pere-di-Fey in its current incarnation may not suit everyone's tastes. There's stuff going on in here, such as living islands and creepy symbionts, which might bend or break some people's tolerances, particularly around TSOY's old "No gods, no monsters, just people" inscription. For me, this is just the sort of thing that fits in an interesting place in that kind of "pumpkin fantasy" beautifully. I've always viewed that caveat as referring to the fact that we're getting rid of the notion of directionless, ambitionless "monsters" who exist solely to inhabit a dungeon and go "RAWR!" at the appropriate moment, and ditto for gods who are there to dictate plot and swoop down and tell people who to behave when things get ethically or emotionally complicated. I say boo to both of those, the same as Clinton did way back when. We do have things in TSOY which would be seen as "monsters" in another setting--goblins and ratkin spring to mind immediately, but consider zombie crocodiles and the like--but the difference comes from them having some emotional weight to them. In TSOY, these things don't lurk in a dungeon with no more plot relevance than to see themselves fulfilled by jumping out at adventurer types. The same is true of the leviathans and symbionts above. They interact with the plot in a more complex way, hopefully prompting harder questions than just "What gets around the gorgon's Damage Reduction again?" or "Should we use a healing spell to hurt that wight, or would it be better used to heal my players?"

Hopefully, the leviathans and symbionts are going to be real things with their own motivations, complicating the lives of the people they interact with, and having a soul and a poetry to them all their own, if treated right. Entering into symbiosis should ideally prompt questions about identity, the self, control, and what it means to be bonded to someone or something else. The leviathans are a reason to make islands move around and be a little more mysterious, but they could just as easily be "we don't know why these islands drift; we live in a magical world" scenarios. I just chose to make the organic nature of the place a factor that could be played with. Hopefully, that takes care of the "no monsters" aspect.

As to the "no gods", I should be clear that the leviathans are big fish-turtles (and symbiotic bugs that exist in a mutualistic relationship with life around them); just because the Kairakau worship them and call them gods doesn't mean they're any more god-like than the trees the Khaleans venerate or the sun which Maldorites keep worshiping. The fact that these are active big things which can theoretically be pushed around, or push other people around, hopefully becomes a fresh element to TSOY, not a mood-breaker.

But, everyone knows what will and work best for their own games. Caveat emptor.

As I said at the front, comments, suggestions, questions, criticisms, and the like are all quite welcome.

-shadowcourt (aka Josh)

[oliof]

I'm actually interested in crunch that bends TSoY's assumptions, as I still struggle with stuff like monsters etc. for Solar System.

[shadowcourt]

Harald,

I'm actually interested in crunch that bends TSoY's assumptions, as I still struggle with stuff like monsters etc. for Solar System.

Would you be willing to talk about the nature of this struggle, and the problems therein? Is it about how to make them more than cardboard cutouts in the system, or increase challenge? I may have faced some of the same problems, as may some of the other Storyguides and players around the forum.

-shadowcourt (aka Josh)

[oliof]

Yes, I would. Is it well-placed here, or do you want another thread for that?

[shadowcourt]

Let's do a separate thread... I bet it's relevant to any number of genres, for instance, and I suspect we'll whirl away into all sorts of interesting digressions and innovations which are only marginally relevant to wacky Near pirate islands.

Harald, perhaps you could get us rolling, quoting this thread if you want to, just so I (and others) have a sense of what sort of questions and concerns you're thinking about?

Thanks,

-shadowcourt (aka Josh)

[Eero Tuovinen]

Josh: I'm reading, this is the third thread I'll need to comment in about your work. Good going. One of these days when I'm not feeling so tired I'll engage in some discussion in these threads, I promise.

[Paul T]

I just wanted to say this very good stuff. I like how extensively you've covered all the bases: not only culture, religion, customs, but also the logistics of hierarchy, rulership, food production, etc...

It all seems very coherent and well thought-out. Kudos!

[shadowcourt]

Well, lovely then. As people are excited, I'll start getting crunchy about things. As I might've said before, there are two major rules-sets which are beyond the ordinary Cultural Abilities and Secrets, so I'll start with the more obvious of the two, which is all about ships.

Sailing the Seas of NearVessel PoolsStructure and Morale<

• Any time a crew can beach a ship and work on it for a day, they can make a Crew ability check to heal Structure-based Harm equal to the Success Level of the check.
<

Of course, you can take a ship to Bloodied or Broken through either Harm track, or both. An attack designed to capture a ship might open with volleys of armaments, if both ships possess them, and then close to short-range weapons like bows and thrown items, and finally end in boarding actions. This could easily begin as Structure-based Harm and finish the crew with Morale-based Harm. A ship which is seized by dealing entirely Morale Harm is in pristine condition, and could very well be grounds for someone buying a new Secret of the Vessel and taking command himself. A ship which is destroyed via Structure-based Harm is sunk, and what happens to its crew is determined through follow-up contests or the stakes set in the conflict.

Basic Vessel AbilitiesConstruction (Structure):<Crew (Morale):<Maneuver (Structure): Some ships sleek and hard to pin down, nimbly avoiding others and slipping through difficult areas. This ability represents the maneuverability of the vessel, and its capacity to turn to face foes, slip past them, and navigate under pressure. It serves as the Stealth ability for a vessel, and also serves for many feats which on the personal level would represent nimbleness.
Speed (Structure):<Vessel Secrets
Secret of the Vessel<

Secret of the Officer<Prerequisite: You may not have the Secret of the Vessel and this Secret at the same time. Special: You can technically challenge a character for authority over a vessel, forcing them to yield the Secret of the Vessel to you, in which case you lose this Secret and gain the Secret of the Vessel in its place. The character who loses the contest gains either this Secret or another free Advance, as determined by that player and the Storyguide, and the appropriate circumstances.



Secret of Armament
Most ships who engage enemy vessels have no choice but to outrun them, outmaneuver them, or when desperate ram them. Your ship is fitted with long-range weapons appropriate for the standard of technology which designed your ship or of most sea-faring cultures around you, whichever is lower. In many situations, this means catapults and mangonels, but a particularly advanced culture might have cannons in some game settings. Your sailors can use their Crew ability to make long-range attacks against enemy vessels (though they take the normal penalty for this unless they have a Secret like the Secret of the Fighting Crew). Alternately, a PC or other named character can use their Aim ability to make these attacks, provided they have the appropriate training and crew members supporting them. Cost: 1 Morale per scene where Armament is used. Special: You can take the Secret of Imbuement to improve the harm done, as normal.

Secret of Bulk
Your vessel is larger than others of its kind, making it more durable and its crew larger, but not as maneuverable as some smaller craft. You can take this Secret multiple times. The first time you take it, you add an additional Broken Harm Level to your vessel, below your last Broken Harm Level. If you take this Secret an additional time, you add an additional Bloodied Harm Level below your lowest Bloodied Level (and move all your Broken Harm Levels down one rating). If you take this Secret a third time, you add an additional Bruised Harm Level, in the same fashion. Special: You cannot take this Secret more times than the numerical rating of your Construction Ability (i.e. a ship must have at least Constructon at Competent (1) just to take this Secret once. Additionally, your vessel takes penalty dice equal to the difference in total Harm levels you have on any Maneuver check against a vessel which has fewer total Harm Levels than you.

Secret of the Capable Crew<Cost: 2 Morale.

Secret of the Diverse Crew
This Secret expands the options of the Secret of the Capable Crew. When you use that Secret, you can now access Abilities other than Open Abilities, such as Species abilities and those specific abilities which are closed to everyone but members of a certain Culture. Prerequisite: Secret of the Capable Crew and justification in the narrative for the diversity of your crew members. It is impossible that a ship crewed entirely by ratkin could use the elven Past-Lives ability for instance, nor would a crew of entirely Ammenite naval troops know a Three-Corner Magic ability.

Secret of the Famous Vessel
Your ship has an impressive reputation. Perhaps it is known as a terror, or is the pride of its fleet. You can use it to make appropriate social Ability checks at a distance, even if you cannot yourself be seen; the sight of your ship and its colors or insignia is enough to cow foes or inspire allies. You can Intimidate opponents into surrendering or rally allied ships with an Orate check even if they cannot see or hear you, so long as they can see your ship. This can be used to produce Effects at range, as well, bolstering allies by your appearance over the horizon or striking dread into your foes.

Secret of the Fighting Crew
Your crew is ready and able to fight, capable of repelling attackers or even boarding another ship and seizing it. You can make Crew checks to represent their fighting, and take no penalty on such checks.

Secret of Loyal Crew
Your crew are faithful and ready to perform almost any act you ask of them. They have +2 imbued defense against attempts to shake their morale or coerce them into betraying you. During any mutiny amongst your crew, inspired either from within or without, you can take this +2 defensive bonus on to yourself for the purposes of resisting the mutineers in social combat.

Secret of Luxuries<Cost: 1 Structure.
   
Secret of Impressment
You can deal with dead or wounded crew by forming press-gangs in a port and abducting other people to serve as your crew. Naturally, such unwilling crew members are a drain on your resources (represented in the 1 Morale cost) but can allow you to overcome serious deficiencies in the amount of help you have on board. Spend 1 Morale and make a Crew check to heal any Morale-based Harm you have taken. This action can be taken once a day in addition to a normal check to heal Morale-based Harm, but it requires you to be in some place where you could abduct new crew members. Cost: 1 Morale.

Secret of Provisions
Your ship carries provisions and cargo for all sorts of situations, such as weaponry designed to arm your crew, gear for special situations such as hacking your way through a jungle island or trekking over frozen lands, or anything else justified by the game fiction. You can spend 1 Structure to call on these provisions, making a Construction check to either produce Effect Dice equal to the SL of your check, or else establish a special feature as an Effect, like a hidden hold for smuggling illicit goods (in which case anyone looking for the hidden cargo must beat the Construction check with an ability check of their own). Effect dice from this Secret can also be used to provide temporary weapon ratings in appropriate situations. Cost: 1 Structure.

Secret of Second-in-Command<Secret of Secondary Propulsion
Your vessel has some form of secondary propulsion that it can rely on; perhaps it is normally a sailing vessel, but can switch to oar power when it must. Alternately, it might even have some sort of supernatural or high technology form of propulsion. Activating this secondary form (or mobilizing the people necessary to make this secondary form work) costs 1 Morale for a scene. This allows you to escape situations where the work of opposing crews or outside stakes would deny you the ability to get where you need to go, such as dealing with a becalmed ship or when many of your crew have been captured. Cost: 1 Morale per scene.

Secret of the Shady Crew

[shadowcourt]

I should add that I remain a little conflicted about the relationship of the Crew ability to things like Maneuver and Speed. That is to say, there are moments I really like how it's a limiting factor sometimes, and there are moments where it makes me anxious about how it would work in play, and whether it becomes frustrating for a PC sometimes. That said, if you've got an awesome ship and a mediocre crew, maybe it's time to invest the Advances necessary to bolster them a bit, or do it through the narrative, prompting the Storyguide to increase their Ability score accordingly, as they're still Storyguide Characters in many respects.

It all prompts me thinking that a Secret like the following might be appropriate:

Secret of Shipboard Discipline
Your crew are used to following your orders, and you know their foibles well, so that you can keep an eye on their deficiencies and put them working harder on tasks whey there show weaknesses. When you generate an effect pool through a Captain check (or other appropriate Ability), you can spend one of those effect dice to shift the direction of a Crew ability check chain so that it's more favorable. So, if you have a Crew rating of 1 and a Speed rating of 3, you can spend an effect die to have your chain go Crew to Speed, rather than always finishing with the lower rated of the two abilities. Effectively, this means you can also coax more speed out of a vessel by working your men harder. Cost: 1 pool point, appropriate to the effect generated. Additionally, the ship itself loses 1 Morale per day if this Secret is used on its crew, due to exhaustion and intense supervision.

...but perhaps it's only making a wonky rule wonkier. I'm not sure, and figure I should consult with my fellow gamers.

-shadowcourt (aka Josh)

[Eero Tuovinen]

Ah, I'm stuck on the computer and finally have some time to consider these things. Sorry I took so long to get around to this, I've been working hard to get my ducks in a row concerning my eventual TSoY book.

I like the material here. You're right that it's a bit high fantasy, but I can swallow much of it. I like the symbionts, and the living islands are fine as well; nothing says that they have to start stomping around, after all. If you don't mind, I'll grab and run with this in my book-making process. They'll make a fine companion to my own island nation of Inselburg.

It seems to me that the Pere-di-Fey might need a bit more internal substance to their culture. Some conflict, perhaps. A powerful governor trying to impose order on them, for example? Something to make them a less monolithic force of pirates and more peopley with varied interests.

Mechanics-wise, we'll need something for the symbionts, if only to get this Secret:

Secret of the Living Island (specify)
The character has something of a connection to the island he lives on. So much so, in fact, that the island usually goes where the character wants it to, in the long term. Treat this as a scene framing thing more than a tactical Ability, the island-colossi are not very quick. Getting your island to park a stone's throw from the Zaru delta is more than possible, though. Cost: 3 Instinct

Your approach to ship mechanics is quite interesting! You all but convince me about giving ships Pools and a Harm track, which is something I've not been too fond of. Abilities might be too much for me, I like it that Abilities are always directly tied to individual characters; that's what makes the game heroic. A minor gripe, of course. And I have to confess that I do like the possibilities, such as the Secret of Capable Crew. I'll have to wrangle with this seriously at some point.

In truth I'll have to get back to rewriting Ammeni poison rules, but I'll surface again at some point to think more about the Pere-di-Fey and ships - Inselburg pretty much has to use the same basic ship mechanics, so I want to get it right at once.