Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

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Spearmint
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Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#1 Post by Spearmint »

Parley?? I hear you say, what you horrible little goblins got summat to say?

This is the forum for any out of character chat and discussions that the party need to make. From agreeing actions, questioning rolls, clarifying descriptions, dividing the plunder to debating who walks the plank. It is also your place to ask the DM any questions relating to the game.

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Zhym
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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#2 Post by Zhym »

Woot! Excited to get this rolling. Er, sailing.

Maybe you'll post this soon (in which case, sorry for jumping the gun), but are there any special rules to make the game more piratey? For example, it's hard to imaging pirates in heavy armor. Swabbies in armor tend to sink. Likewise, the traditional pirate non-shooting weapon is something like short sword, cutlass, or rapier. Are there any special rules on those, or should we just treat all of the above as short swords? And are there any mechanical bonuses to them (or drawbacks to the long sword)?

And I think you'd mentioned something about guns?
Last edited by Zhym on Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#3 Post by onlyme »

Looking forward to it.
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC
Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL


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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#4 Post by Zhym »

Also, what is your position on piratey assassins?

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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#5 Post by Spearmint »

wow, put the forum up and then went to have dinner, two responses already. :)

Okay Zhym I am going to post up some information regarding the races that in presently inhabit the Carib. It will have stuff regarding native races and colonialists who have settled on the islands. Certain choices will give you bonus or penalties to either ability stats or adventuring skills. Some nations have a particular vogue for certain weapons. I have tried to create some cultural differences between the races and nations involved to add a bit of spice and flavour to the game. As heroes you will benefit from these boons and hopefully the party will be a nice cross section of characters. So for example the colonial Gauloise fighters or rogues have a +1 to hit bonus when using rapiers or pistols, whereas native Elven mages from the western Carib port of Vera Cruz gain an additional language proficiency in a native Olmaic dialect and also have a bonus 1st level spell taken from the cleric list due to familiarity with tribal shamanism.

So as the Templar knight said to Indiana Jones....Choose wisely.

As for your second questions. Assassins...? I am not against them though they tend to be best for a singular focused adventure and may not work so well on a boat if you are part of the crew. Assassins really work for a guild and specialize in targeted sanctions rather than just 'kill the guard by the door'. I would want more than 'here's 50gp, go kill Fred the Bartender'. That said when in port for a few days, while the crew is living it up, there could be side missions the captain or governors envoy wants a likely lad to do. And of course success will increase your notoriety though that might go down to the 'Grey Banshee' strikes again instead of wee Jimmy the gunners mate.

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#6 Post by Zhym »

Reasonable enough. I've already jumped in and rolled a half-orc fighter/thief. Hopefully that will work with the races you'll be using. :)

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#7 Post by Spearmint »

Looks a good set of rolls too. I will put more info up as I progress through the night so you might add and adjust notes as necessary.

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#8 Post by OGRE MAGE »

I'm here too!!! :D

I was thinking about playing the ships wizard but I am more than willing to play any class/race that will round out the group.

I too am very much looking forward to shoving off. :D

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#9 Post by Spearmint »

Mage or clerical classes are fine and well used. :)

I will be creating extra spells for people to learn. Certain races or nations have boons for these classes so read through the notes as I put them up. I am not sure I ever liked the class limits and restrictions on races. But for the moment I will go by the book for class limits and restrictions.

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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#10 Post by onlyme »

I'm assuming we will be against all flags to some degree, where each pirate doesnt in the party isnt actively against the other PCs due to original country affiliation?
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC
Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL


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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#11 Post by Spearmint »

The colonial powers are at war with each other and their respective naval fleets will battle with each other. To some degree all governments are against the pirates unless they sail under 'Letters of Marque' or have agreed truces.

The player characters could be from different backgrounds and races, this is reflective of most independent pirate crew. Some 'privateers' work solely for one power and recruit from solely those nations ports. On the whole, most individuals are not at war with each other, relying on trade to prosper. An NPC Iberian pirate Captain might get the luckless Breton mage to swab the decks with his toothbrush but that mage helping to navigate through dangerous shallows, spotting chasing frigates or taking a wound for the captain is likely to go quicker up the pirate hierachy than a homeboy.

The first ship you are sailing on is already a mixed crew so you should have no identity problems. My only concern would be when the party have lots gold, magic and arms and some want to do one objective and some in the party another. Mutiny is never out of the question though I would hope the party develop a 'Musketeer' approach of 'one for all and all for one'.

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#12 Post by Zhym »

I'm thinking Zoggrot will have a fairly typical "oppressed indigenous people" story. Orcs in the new world were hunted for sport, their men enslaved and their women used for what men of privilege and power use women for. Let's just say that's how Zoggrot came into the world; no need to go into the dark specifics. Raised in poverty and squalor...

...and I really have got Hamilton on the brain, haven't I? :lol: Okay, but Zoggrot isn't nearly as smart as Hamilton and didn't really grow up to be a scholar (although he's reasonably intelligent). Hero? That's yet to be seen.

Anyway, those are the outlines. I'll fill in the details when some other characters come out; I don't want him to be hating other characters off the bat, but he'd probably get along better with natives than colonials.

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#13 Post by Zhym »

It's fun to watch the rules get posted.

I keep hoping each one will tell us the rules for guns and how much they cost, though. :D

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#14 Post by Spearmint »

have posted some stuff in weapons and armour section, no news on price yet. Due to being deadly at short range and maybe only available to leaders and captains I might stick the price high like 41gp ;)

I have this issue with one thing in that I am convinced that the most effective way of stopping you hitting me is me having a sword or shield in my hand, not what armour I wear. If I was completely starkers running around with a sword it would still be more difficult to hit me than if I stood still in platemail. I am mulling over that armour types should really lessen damage taken as well as making it harder for you to be hit. So light armour such as leather, hide, furs should give you d3 hp protection, medium type armour ring, chainmail, banded, etc should give d4 protection and heavy armour give d6. So at the end of every combat round the player rolls to see what damage was soaked up by the armour he wears.

This can be balanced by the armour having to make a saving throw vs normal blow or crushing blow if you take a critical hit or are caught in a cannon blast. If the armour fails its' save it is no longer useful and goes down the armour type. light armour failing a save is ripped apart, medium armour effectively becomes light armour and so forth. Enhanced armour gets an extra 'life' for each + it has so a +2 chain mail shirt could take three failed critical hits before it is made useless.

Any thoughts from a professional US DM?

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#15 Post by Zhym »

Personally, I'm reluctant to mess with the standard armor and AC mechanisms too much, especially with rules that haven't been play-tested. What you describe, where your weapon is more of a defensive factor than your armor, sounds a like a radical departure from AD&D. Which can be cool, but I'd sort of like to see how it changes things. Plus, the ships and guns are already layering enough on top of AD&D. No need to make it even more complicated IMO.

Also, I'm really leery of rules that would lead to armor or weapon destruction. It usually happens much more often than the DM thinks it will and almost always hurts PCs more than it hurts their enemies.

Firearms and armor co-existed for a while IIRC. The muskets and pistols of the time period you're talking about didn't pack that much of a punch—a good crossbow or longbow probably has better range and stopping power. They're just less portable.

So I'd leave the basic mechanics of armor alone.

But of course the next question is how to make the game more "piratey," which means not many people in armor. And I think it has more to do with armor being a spectacularly bad idea on a ship. People go overboard. If you go overboard in leather or cloth armor, you've got a chance of getting back on board. If you fall over in metal armor, it's Davy Jones's Locker for ye. Plus, it's hard to climb the rigging in plate mail. Apply some game mechanics to those factors. For example:
  • Any shipboard task performed in armor heavier than studded leather is at a penalty of something like at least +4 or an extra d6 on a skill check or such.
  • Anyone who ends up in the drink in metal armor sinks and drowns unless he can cut the armor off. Cutting armor off takes 1d2 rounds if you have a bladed weapon in hand when you go over and manage to hold on to it (DEX check). Drowning happens in 1d3 rounds. Do you feel lucky? :twisted:
Bascially, I think we're fine if metal armor is a bad idea on the high seas. It's something for land lubbing nobles and wealthier soldiers, not pirates.

ETA: If you wanted, you could add something like "half armor"—i.e., just a chain vest or a breastplate that would add some protection but not be as weighty as full-on armor. A chain vest would be AC 6 (basically the same as scale mail) and a breastplate alone could be AC 5, for example, and have reduced penalties for being metal armor.
Last edited by Zhym on Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#16 Post by Zhym »

Oh, just to clarify: half-orcs don't get bonuses with any particular weapons?

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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#17 Post by Spearmint »

Native ½ orcs receive a +1 sailing skill and +1 notoriety.
so if you are born and bred from your grandad and beyond in the Carib then you receive the above bonus. If you wish your character to have come from one of the colonial powers then you receive the bonus that colonial power so known for, so Breton fighters would be +1 with longbows and longswords.

Iberians musketeers usually have the half plate cuirass so front facing armour but nothing on the rear. I will introduce that sort of thing. As for going overboard and swimming I will be doing it by armour type so along the lines of light armour gives you no penalties, your ability to swim will be strength or constitution based and adjusted by the seas being calm or rough. Medium armour types have a penalty and heavy armour means you sink almost immediately. More to follow as I get time to write it up.

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#18 Post by Zhym »

Gotcha.

BTW, a pirate adventure might be just the place to use the weapon speed and length/space (and even, dare I say, the to-hit vs. AC?) rules almost no one pays attention to. The close quarters of shipboard fighting would give an incentive to use traditional pirate weapons like cutlasses, daggers, dirks, and boarding axes instead of long swords, pole-arms, etc. Sure, the latter do more damage, but only if you have the room for them. It'd actually go a long way to balancing the AD&D weapons table, I think.

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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#19 Post by onlyme »

About when do you think the house rules, etc will be final? I would rather wait till then before building my pirate, but dont want to delay the game...
Dandelion - female half-orc beautyqueen in training (The Lone City in the Wildlands) OSRIC
Halfpint - female halfling badgirl wannabe (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL
Mark'd - charismatic human fighter (Lab Lord- The North Marches) LL


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Re: Parley...OOC chat and questions for player characters.

#20 Post by OGRE MAGE »

I think a lot of us feel the same way as onlyme.

But obviously not all of us. :shock: :lol:

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