IndianaJoe3 Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean Maybe include a "special capability" or two' date=' for the PCs' benefit - nothing game-breaking, just something to make them think they have an advantage.[/quote'] I saw something on the History Channel a few weeks ago on pirate tech. Pirates would frequently modify their own ships. They'd chop bits off to reduce weight, add sails for extra speed, and add cannons for extra firepower. There was an interesting aside on how cannon weren't standardized, so pirate ships might have trouble when their cannonballs didn't match their cannons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted July 26, 2009 Report Share Posted July 26, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean There was an interesting aside on how cannon weren't standardized' date=' so pirate ships might have trouble when their cannonballs didn't match their cannons.[/quote'] Not necessarily a problem solely for pirate ships. The better-organized fleets (such as the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy) usually managed to avoid the worst of this problem, but even they had to be careful. Weapons standardization tended to be rather hard to nail down until the Industrial era. At the other end of the scale was the Spanish Armada - on top of all its other problems, the matter of weapon ammo calibres there was just plain ridiculous. There were ships within that fleet with maybe a dozen-plus different sizes of cannon. Various nobles apparently equated quantity of guns with manhood / ranking, and set about grabbing anything that could shoot (often from other lesser ships within the Armada) and cramming said weapons on board their own ships. For all the good it did them .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianaJoe3 Posted July 26, 2009 Report Share Posted July 26, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean Not necessarily a problem solely for pirate ships. The better-organized fleets (such as the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy) usually managed to avoid the worst of this problem' date=' but even they had to be careful. Weapons standardization tended to be rather hard to nail down until the Industrial era.[/quote'] Pirates might also have cannons from several different nationalities, which would compound the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted July 27, 2009 Report Share Posted July 27, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean Pirates might also have cannons from several different nationalities' date=' which would compound the problem.[/quote'] And, indeed, cannon of different quality, which compounded it further - what might be a suitable load for a high quality casting could turn a poor quality casting into a lethal bomb. A master of gonne had to not only know about cannons in general, he had to know the capacities of his own particular cannons - which is why so many of them got blown up using new cannon. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ockham's Spoon Posted July 30, 2009 Report Share Posted July 30, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean This may not be quite what you are looking for, but there is a fun card game called Skallywags where you try to create a pirate crew. The various crewmembers/characters have unique abilities that affect your crew or voyage, and there are a number of special cards that reflect possible events in the pirate world. And of each card comes with a bit of pirate trivia or a verse to a sea shanty. The game is worth having even if you don't get any RPG inspiration out of it. You can find it at: http://www.bentcastle.com/skally.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted July 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean Neat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenbriar Posted August 2, 2009 Report Share Posted August 2, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean I'm surprised noboby mentioned 3 old movies, you want cinematic, The Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, and The Crimson Pirate. first two star Errol Flynn and the third stars Burt Lancaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowsoul Posted August 2, 2009 Report Share Posted August 2, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean A bit off the wall, but if you're looking for some original piratical material you might want to check out the the work of a Weird Tales writer called William Hope Hodgson. He wrote at the very beginning of the 20th century so his stuff is rather formal and not the easiest read for a modern gamer. But it has plenty of action and some surprisingly bizarre monsters in it. Giant sea-creatures, slug-men, malevolent beings out of mythology. (Bear in mind that he predates H. P. Lovecraft). The reason I mention Mr Hodgson is that he spent some years at sea and wrote at least two stories filled with a great deal of maritime language and the realities of seagoing life, (as well as hordes of horrors that dare not speak their name). These stories are 'The Ships of Glen-Carrig' and 'The Ghost Pirates'. They're both in the Fantasy Masterworks anthology of his work. No films that I know of, I'm afraid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted August 3, 2009 Report Share Posted August 3, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean For less than 20 years. TNT did Treasure Island remake starring Charlton Heston as Silver, and a teenage Chistian Bale as Hawkins. circa 1990 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowsoul Posted August 5, 2009 Report Share Posted August 5, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean Another potential resource. High Seas Cthulhu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted August 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean Very cool stuff, guys. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted August 11, 2009 Report Share Posted August 11, 2009 Re: Pirates of not Freeport or the Caribbean You can't go wrong by having an Errol Flynn weekend. I don't know where you can find them all anymore, but The Adventures of Captain Fabian, Against All Flags, The Master of Ballantrae, The Sea Hawk, and of course Captain Blood, which may well be the best pirate movie ever made. I especially recommend Against All Flags, for its storyline. Flynn plays a loyal British sailor sent as a spy to infiltrate an infamous pirate lair. Great stuff to base a game on. Then there's Douglas Fairbanks. If you can find a copy of The Black Pirate, do so. Its a silent film, but well worth the watching. And its got one of the best cinematic swordfights in the history of history. Oh, and Robert Newton! This is the guy who basically invented the idea of "talking like a pirate", based on his performance of Long John Silver! He played Long John Silver in the Disney version of Treasure Island (well-worth getting), but he was also in Long John Silver and Blackbeard the Pirate (which co-starred Irene Ryan... Granny Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies). And last but not least, you have to try Yellowbeard, starring Graham Chapman in his last role before his death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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