Pirates and Swashbuckling

[Usekh]

It doesn't have to be about travel, although that can be a big part of it. Set it in a place like Freiburg where almost any concept works, and maybe have a bit of handwaviem if folks want to sail the seas or whatever.

[Miss Demeanor]

@WTFE said:

Would they get a shave there?

Is a Burma shave anything like a Glasgow smile? Because I could get behind that.

[Pyrephox]

@Cobaltasaurus said:

@Usekh said:

I would kill you all for a 7th Sea MU*. Well save for those running and coding it of course

If I could ever figure out how to make one work, I'd do it. Fuck world of darkness. Fuck Mage 2E. But I always circle back to: Isn't 7th Sea supposed to be about travel?

I mean. I suppose we could set it on some gigantic galleon thing ala star trek games being set on a ship-- but how would people be from different nations then? AUGH!!! pulls out her hair

Actually, one of the quirks of 7th Sea is that the worldbuilding makes it /vastly more likely/ to have adventures on land, or - at worst - on coastal ships rather than the "high seas". All the major nations are continental, and there isn't any India or Americas trade equivalent to create the long-distance, poorly-guarded routes that made piracy so very appealing.

Your best bet, however, is just privateer ships, if you want ship-based play. Someone with a marque from a country doesn't necessarily have to be all of that country, nor does their crew have to be. And if you steal from pirate culture to make the ships more democratic than, say, official navies, it's more suited towards PCs. Of course, then you do run the Firefly Problem, where ships and crews become the main vector of play, and if you can't find one, well, screw you.

My suggestion would likely be to have it set in a capital city (I really like the Montaigne capital for this), as both a hub for player interaction, and a branching off point for different adventures - rather than ship-captains, characters could sign up as crew for plots (basically "signing on" for an abbreviated and cinematic tour, rather than a five year haul), either on the sea, in the surrounding country (Three Musketeers style), political intrigue in the courts of the city, or adventures in the dangerous, magical dungeons beneath the city (which are a thing that exists!).

For pure swashbuckling, you CAN set it in the Pirate Nations, but you wouldn't get the breadth of opportunities a setting on the continent would provide, IMO.

[Cobalt]

@Pyrephox said:

@Cobaltasaurus said:

@Usekh said:

I would kill you all for a 7th Sea MU*. Well save for those running and coding it of course

If I could ever figure out how to make one work, I'd do it. Fuck world of darkness. Fuck Mage 2E. But I always circle back to: Isn't 7th Sea supposed to be about travel?

I mean. I suppose we could set it on some gigantic galleon thing ala star trek games being set on a ship-- but how would people be from different nations then? AUGH!!! pulls out her hair

Actually, one of the quirks of 7th Sea is that the worldbuilding makes it /vastly more likely/ to have adventures on land, or - at worst - on coastal ships rather than the "high seas".

I didn't say "high seas" I said travel! The games I've played in all of the adventuring was done on land, but they've always been 'travel to this place have adventures' and then 'travel to the next place have adventures' etc.

Suppose what one could do is set up a large privateer ship that docks in different places for different story arcs (e.g. The ship docs somewhere close enough to Freiberg that the crew travels to said area for a plotline once its done they return to the ship to move onto the next place). Apps at the beginning of the game would probably all be crew members or passengers. Then after landing somewhere people could app in as natives who hire on as a crew or buy passage on the ship to the next place.

[Pyrephox]

@Cobaltasaurus said:

@Pyrephox said:

@Cobaltasaurus said:

@Usekh said:

I would kill you all for a 7th Sea MU*. Well save for those running and coding it of course

If I could ever figure out how to make one work, I'd do it. Fuck world of darkness. Fuck Mage 2E. But I always circle back to: Isn't 7th Sea supposed to be about travel?

I mean. I suppose we could set it on some gigantic galleon thing ala star trek games being set on a ship-- but how would people be from different nations then? AUGH!!! pulls out her hair

Actually, one of the quirks of 7th Sea is that the worldbuilding makes it /vastly more likely/ to have adventures on land, or - at worst - on coastal ships rather than the "high seas".

I didn't say "high seas" I said travel! The games I've played in all of the adventuring was done on land, but they've always been 'travel to this place have adventures' and then 'travel to the next place have adventures' etc.

Suppose what one could do is set up a large privateer ship that docks in different places for different story arcs (e.g. The ship docs somewhere close enough to Freiberg that the crew travels to said area for a plotline once its done they return to the ship to move onto the next place). Apps at the beginning of the game would probably all be crew members or passengers. Then after landing somewhere people could app in as natives who hire on as a crew or buy passage on the ship to the next place.

Hmm.

That seems like it would be pretty confining as far as both character concepts and Things To Do, and it doesn't give the PCs much agency or tangible influence in the world - considering how much players tend to like being able to stake a claim on the grid and have some space/assets that are theirs, I wonder how that would look in that kind of setting. I can't help but feel it would be a very small, very niche sort of game. Although it'd make a very fun OTT.

[Cobalt]

It seemed to work fine on Star Trek games which were ship-based. Granted, spaceships are a gigantic number larger than a galleon. I imagine there aren't as many private quarters on a galleon as they are on a space ship. >_>

[Gwynn]

Code wise things seem to be going well. I think I might have working c-gen by the end of the weekend.

While speaking about setting...I think, were I part of such a game, I'd push for it to have a core set piece of some big city that allows for a number of PC types but also have it near the water for more adventurous types. Allow pirating as one type of allowable RP (Pirate Sphere?).

[Thenomain]

@Gwynn said:

Code wise things seem to be going well. I think I might have working c-gen by the end of the weekend.

Please link to your repository for people to steal good ideas and set up new games from hint hint.

[Glitch]

@Cobaltasaurus You could perhaps go with a flotilla concept. A main galleon type with smaller ships as part of a grand pirate fleet. With some rules for what it means to be part of the flotilla, you could get your individual crews, or just members of the "main" galleon and the opportunity for smaller boats to head to a port and catch up later, or go off on resource gathering, raiding, defense, etc, etc.

This would, of course, force a narrower theme and wouldn't cater to /all/ play styles, but I think it'd be broad enough to give people niches and a bit of exploration and freedom while still sticking to the theme of the high seas.

[peasoupling]

Is it possible for a Tortuga-like place to exist? Or the Barbary pirates? It could be a place where pirates and privateers are protected by the local powers-that-be (or are, themselves, in control of the local powers-that-be) and serve as a wretched hive of scum and villainy / RP hub.

Given this setup, you can still have crews that often work together on a particular ship (for those who are after that sort of RP) but you can also have a pool of people getting drunk around town. Then you can have an enterprising captain with a ship, who recruits a crew of unemployed seadogs to go on a specific mission. They go out, raid this and plunder that, and once that's over, they divvy up the booty and waste it on drinking and whoring around. So you can have your ongoing tavern soap opera broken up by plots of variable length, or vice-versa.

[Lithium]

@peasoupling said:

Is it possible for a Tortuga-like place to exist? Or the Barbary pirates? It could be a place where pirates and privateers are protected by the local powers-that-be (or are, themselves, in control of the local powers-that-be) and serve as a wretched hive of scum and villainy / RP hub.

Given this setup, you can still have crews that often work together on a particular ship (for those who are after that sort of RP) but you can also have a pool of people getting drunk around town. Then you can have an enterprising captain with a ship, who recruits a crew of unemployed seadogs to go on a specific mission. They go out, raid this and plunder that, and once that's over, they divvy up the booty and waste it on drinking and whoring around. So you can have your ongoing tavern soap opera broken up by plots of variable length, or vice-versa.

If I had the time, I would totally code up that...

[Thenomain]

@Lithium

@Thenomain said:

https://github.com/thenomain/7sea-mux

Now Muxify-Ready.

I understand not having the time to learn someone else's code to make it work, mind you. Momentum is a fickle beast.

[Lithium]

@Thenomain

Hehe I meant 'code up' as in 'create a game around' but, what little time I have is pretty much invested.