Greetings everyone,

I just finished writing my second RPG Seafaring, Swashbuckling & Style: A Cinematic Role-Playing Game in the Age of Piracy. It was written loose and fast, and in less than a day. So, needless to say, it's probably a little raw. I don't even have it in PDF yet. The link above is in Word. Anyway, if you're feeling frisky, take a gander and tell me what you think. Thanks!

Hmm. Very nice, a good cinematic feel to it, much style in the attribute names. However, that's about all in the game that has anything to do with the genre: the attribute names. You might want to consider adding in some more piratey mechanics, such as a system for loot and booty, the benefits of drinking ale and buying whores, and something to track the fearsomeness and reputation of a pirate.

I thought about going into detail on natical combat and perhaps a more detailed dueling system with S3, but I really wanted a fast game. I decided to give some narrative control to the players and focus on what the heroes do, not the statistics of how they do it.

Does it matter what D'Artangan rolls to defeat Richfort? No. Does it matter how Jack Sparrow uses the broken compass to find Isla De Morte? Of course not! It's cool, and that's what matters. Because of this, I kept the mechanics very broad.

Also, I considered doing drinking rules, but I gave up on that idea for two reasons: 1) On a personal note every time I think about a PC getting drunk in game I think of the Dead Ale Wives skit ("Cool! Roll the dice to see if I'm getting drunk!") 2) Being drunk, in my opinion, should influence role-playing more and statistics less. If a character wants to deal with the details of being drunk, they can spend an Attribute Point to take narrative control.

But if the system doesn't have anything specific about it other than the ability names, that makes it produce piratical play, why should I play this game, and not just use FUDGE along with my copy of GURPS Swashbucklers? Or some other free light generic game, and source material from the library?

What about your game do you think makes it uniquely better than other systems for running games in this genre?

We're not saying it has to be any more complicated, just that it ought to do something to promote the sort of play we want to see. As it stands, all the system does is get out of the way. And there are about a zillion systems extant that do that just as well as yours.

Mike

Well I personally have niether played nor read Fudge or GURPS, so I know little about the details of the systems or settings. S3 was designed primarily from my own dissatisfaction from what I have in my library. This coupled with the fact that I have no money, means I must resort to writing my own games.

The_Confessor wrote: Well I personally have niether played nor read Fudge or GURPS, so I know little about the details of the systems or settings. S3 was designed primarily from my own dissatisfaction from what I have in my library. This coupled with the fact that I have no money, means I must resort to writing my own games.

One of the things I was trying to do in S3 (and yes, this has been done in other games) is add a more narrativist element into the swashbuckling genre. Even 7th Sea, the grand daddy of the swashbuckling genre, doesn't quite grant the freedom I'm looking for in a game.

Even 7th Sea, the grand daddy of the swashbuckling genre

The_Confessor wrote: One of the things I was trying to do in S3 (and yes, this has been done in other games) is add a more narrativist element into the swashbuckling genre. Even 7th Sea, the grand daddy of the swashbuckling genre, doesn't quite grant the freedom I'm looking for in a game.

Ahh, now I see what you're getting at Jeph. Not a bad idea. My fear is that by expanding and then focusing on the pirating element specificly that I will end up creating a system that becomes too complicated and loses the game's fast-paced nature.

Oh, and Valamar... as far as the "grand daddy," it's just me showing my age. ;) Besides I ment more in scope than actual age.

Well, none of the games mentioned so far have the narrative control mechanic -- but that's still not especially piratey or swashbuckling. Tho I think that color counts for a lot more than the rest of you do, it seems. ;-D

Regardless, how would y'all make it more pirate-esque or swashbuckling without increasing complexity overmuch? Add a gambling mechanic? Reward over-the-top actions in some fashion? What MAKES for a swashbuckling game, anyway?

xiombarg wrote: What MAKES for a swashbuckling game, anyway?

I made some small, but signifigant changes to S3. I added a rule that if you decide to spend two Attribute Points, you are allowed to narrate your own success.

I also did a little grammar clean up, as well as minor rules notes. (Like what to do if dice tie, etc.)

As far as making S3 a universal system and doing suppliments, I don't think that would work. A large part of S3 is the three specific attributes that fit it to the genre. The concepts and mechanics of S3 might work for other high adventure or action games (Something like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, etc), but I think in order to turn S3 into a universal system it would require the GM to sit down ahead of time and decide (What are the three focuses of this game?), and then build specifics around that. But I'm not 100% sure it would work. S3 is so rules-lite that it doesn't even have a death or combat mechanic. This could prove troublesome.

It was designed and built to be focused on high adventure and piracy. What makes it swashbuckling? I am a big believer in color helping to establish feeling, and I like to believe that the way S3 is written inspires a swashbuckling tone. Also, with a mechanic that doesn't allow for horrible, stupid, and unheroic mistakes, this immediately creates a setting ripe for swashbucklers.

It is ment to lend itself to a swashbuckling tone, but in the end I think what determines whether a game is anything (swashbuckling, gothic-punk, high fantasy, paranoid conspiracy, etc) is the effort placed into the game by both the players and the GM.

It is ment to lend itself to a swashbuckling tone, but in the end I think what determines whether a game is anything (swashbuckling, gothic-punk, high fantasy, paranoid conspiracy, etc) is the effort placed into the game by both the players and the GM.

So, what you're saying is that system doesn't matter?

Hasn't it been pretty well-established, though, that there's very little in the Vampire/Storyteller system that supports the goals stated and implied in the text?

Lxndr wrote: Hasn't it been pretty well-established, though, that there's very little in the Vampire/Storyteller system that supports the goals stated and implied in the text?

Just a note. This is a longstanding itch and it has yet to be scratched, but: surely if you aim to produce a game that occurs on the high seas, some rules and mechanisms should be aimed at portraying said high seas? Weather effects, sailing, getting stranded, how and when to de-barnacle your hull, the power of ropes, yada yada yada.

The_Confessor wrote:

So, what you're saying is that system doesn't matter?

Not exactly.

What I'm saying is that while system can assist or detract from establishing the tone and theme of a game, in the end it the players (including the GM) who finalize exactly what that tone is.

For example, I've played in more than one Vampire game that had tone destroyed because none of the other players seemed interested in playing in a "World of Darkness" or a "Gothic-Punk" environment.

System can influence, but does not determine, tone, genre, and mood.

However, for some players these just get in the way and all they need is a good idea of the setting/mood of the game and they will play it as it should be. They get annoyed at the 'fiddly bits' in the game design - its almost like someone is getting them 'in-line' with what they are supposed to do in a game, rather than just letting them get on with it.

A few suggestions:

I don't see why in-depth seafaring mechanics are at all needed. As it appears to me, this game, as well as the fiction/stories it is based on, is NOT about ships, the time period, the act of piracy, but about the Pirates themselves. So I'd personally recommend mechanics which emphasize the situation a pirate is in or the behaviors that one has.

I think the fact that players are not actually in danger of losing their character is a good example, as it promotes dangerous and foolhardy actions, but what about if the players recieved some sort of reward in the lines of more narrative currency for putting themself inside of risky and deadly situations?

Another issue is that two things which define Pirates are greed and the enthuasim to express ideas or style. Now, to avoid making any blanket statements about our swanky sea-friends, there hit me as being two kinds of pirate heroes, the pirate by circumstance and the born pirate.

The traditionial pirate character is the born pirate. He is greedy towards everything. Wine, women(or men, for the slinky gender or persuasion), treasure, a ship, pride, everything, he's just a naturally wanting individual, and will usually stop at very few bounds to get it. It's in the nature of a person that risks life, limb, and sociol outcasting to have suffiencent motivation to do so. He's also rather expressive. This just seems to always be a constant of pirates. They express themselves strongly, they act in style, to kill with blood curdling yells, to insult with a standing ovation. Heck, they'd get into fights alot more if they wern't dancing half of the time.

And then there is the pirate by circumstance, which usually ends up as the "main" protagonist, gets the girl, etc etc... even though he wasn't really the main character, let's use, uh, that english guy, from pirates of the carribean(even though it was all about Johnny depp's Jack). He -doesn't- want everything. He is not into expressing -everything- he does. Instead, he takes up the life of a pirate because of his much more focused desires. He wants something in paticular, that uh, vaguely english woman's wellbeing. Simarily, pirates by circumstance usually have a facet which they express adamantly, such as chivalry, anger, confidence, etc.

This isn't to say that born pirates do not have specific wants and expressions. just that it usually plays less of a part in their lives than the pirate by circumstance. Unless ofcourse, if their more specific want was "to be selfless" and their more speicfic expression was "brooding" or "disintereasted". In this case, the born pirate wouldn't act on general motivations as they are trumped by that anthithesis to them, and rather play their unusual charistics to the hilt.

So a system that would encourage verve or desire in it's mechanics would qualify what many others call for "something better suited to the theme than freeform.". But that's just what -I- think are important about pirates. You'd be well suited to find out what exactly it is about the the setting that intrigues you and make your mechanics nessicitate those factors coming into play.

Not that the opinion of a text-based thoughtform holds much sway, but I'd be more inclined to play a setting that encouraged a specific playstyle than one that just lay in the security of not having tried to be something more. As is always the case, it's absolutely your call. Just keep in mind that a game system's style isn't always in its mechanics. Simply saying "hey, S3 characters can't die unless it's dramatically appropriate" is something. While an invisible system can't hurt, it can't do much of anything else either.