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Some photographs of my games of Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG.
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Setup for Pirates of the Barbary Coast
My table setup for my first adventure ("Pirates of the Barbary Coast") on Friday afternoon at Necronomicon 2007 in Tampa, Florida. I ran three 6-hour slots of "Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG" (or "Pirates RPG" for short), each slot broken up into two 3-hour segments, with a half-hour "intermission" that I used to put away minis and such from the first half and set the table for the next. On the table, I had two plastic sheets I had spraypainted a mottled blue/white scheme, with a clear coat finish, to represent the water; I kept them slightly separated so that one board would represent the "naval scale" view (with little PotSM CSG ships and homemade foam-and-plastic-and-Ultracal-30 islands), while the other would represent a "zoom-in" view of the PCs' ship, with miniatures to represent their individual characters - and to aid in keeping track of who is assigned to which cannon (or other station). (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Pirates of the Caribbean Cards for Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG
A closeup of one corner of the game table setup. Savage Worlds uses a deck of cards to handle PC initiative, a holdover from classic Deadlands. I found these decks at a Disney store while I was stuck at the airport, and picked up two to support the "pirate" theme. In the larger picture, there's also a closer peek at one of the islands, the character sheets (with mini-illustrations), and an extra copy of the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition (highly recommended). (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Savage Worlds Explorers Edition with Tabs
I highly recommend getting index tabs for the rule books - even the little Explorer's Editions - to mark frequently-used areas. For the convention, I also had a bag of "communal dice" - a collection of uniformly grey dice donated by a friend (Dan) for just such a purpose. Since the dice all look alike, it's easier to pick out any dice accidentally left by players at the table. (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Crew of the Lady Faire!
Finally, players! Things got off to a slow start on Friday, with only one person signed up initially, but once we got a second, and we got past the rules overview and into some ship combat, things picked up and more people joined in (and we were packed by the second segment). |
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Coastal City and Galleys
A close-up of my (grossly out of scale) model for a coastal city made from an old Aladdin toy with some extraneous features removed, cracks filled in with putty, and given some paint touch-up work. The galleys are cardstock-and-foam constructions (with toothpicks backing the masts). I've had too many mishaps with snapping plastic masts (including one at this convention) and thus I've gone to the step of scanning cards, printing onto cardstock, cutting out, and gluing together model ships. I use a piece of cut insulation foam for the body of the hull, and I split toothpicks down the middle and glue the flat sides to the cardstock masts - and put the toothpick points into the foam. I could just glue in the masts, but the toothpicks and foam let me remove them to represent damage. Plus, I can manipulate the scanned image in Photoshop - renaming ships, tweaking ship designs, changing colors, etc. (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Lady Faire vs. Corsairs
Our heroes fend off an attack by corsairs in the Mediterranean! (In the background left, you can see the smaller version of the two ships, where they've run into each other.) The Lady Faire is represented by a Megabloks "Captain Cutlass's Stormstalker (3620)" ship with mat board (scored to represent planking) used for a flat, miniatures-friendly deck, and with "target cannons" from Pressman's "Weapons & Warriors Pirate Battle Game" as onboard weaponry. (My version of the Lady Faire is an Overgunned sloop, with 6 cannons.) The corsair ship is made of cut foam, with decking from Hirst Arts planking castings, originally built as a High Elf Destroyer for a Warcraft RPG campaign - now turned into a dhow with some modifications. I didn't bother to attach the oars, since half of them had already been sheered off in battle anyway by this point. The Stormstalker is out of production, though it can occasionally be found on eBay. (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Corsair Battle - Sans Masts
Same ships, but with the masts removed. The Megabloks ships have masts that pop out quite easily for storage/transportation - and for easy access to minis during game play. I accomplished a similar feature on the dhow by having wooden dowel lateen-rigging masts that plugged into pvc base "sockets" glued to the deck. (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Corsair Battle - Closeup
Most of the privateer and corsair figures are Reaper Miniatures - or else (for some privateers), Games Workshop Warhammer Empire Militia. (The one with the whip in the lower right corner is actually a Heroclix "Hawkman" mini, heavily modified.) (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Corsair Battle - Front View
Another view of the ships (with sails), front-on. (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Egyptian Ruin Exploration
Friday evening, I ran the second segment of my "Pirates of the Barbary Coast" adventures, this time with a full crew for the Lady Faire. Our intrepid captain rescued several galley slaves - and recruited a few new members for his crew. They moved on toward investigating an ancient Egyptian temple ruin reputed to hold a hidden treasure cache. The small dhow, skiff, and the palm trees are from Pressman's "Weapons & Warriors Pirate Battle Game" - and I made some alterations to the dhow as inspired by a miniatures gaming web site - though the scale for my games is a bit different. I reused my "coastline" piece - at a different scale - and represented the Egyptian ruins with some Egyptian tomb pieces cast from molds from Hirst Arts. (Once again, I have Chris to thank for loaning me the molds to make the castings.) (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Egyptian Ruin Exploration - Pirate Style!
The privateer crew wasted little time with niceties when exploring the trap-laden ruin. First off, they blew the door open with a cannon from aboard the ship. They then off-loaded one of the cannons from the ship's deck to a makeshift sled made from the gangplank, and used a couple of camels to haul the cannon across the sand to the entrance, and proceeded to blast their way through the ruin, setting off what traps there were, destroying some of the treasure, but liberating the remainder in short order. I can't help but think that D&D dungeon excursions would be a lot more interesting with cannons. Forget that "check for traps"/"listen at door"/"pick the lock" routine for rogues/thieves. Just invest in whatever ranks you need for setting off gunpowder without losing a limb. (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Pirate Expeditions Shipwreck Scenery
A closeup of a scenery piece I picked up from a pirate-themed toy set at the local Toy Liquidators outlet store (K-B Toys outlet). The line of figures is called "Pirate Expeditions," and some of their toys come with plastic "treasure pile" scenery pieces. The figures are nowhere near the scale with 28-32mm "heroic scale" minis, but this plastic figurehead piece was close enough, and after a little touch-up paint work, I thought it looked reasonably nice. The sets also came with some "netting" I could use for decoration, and some critters I could use as giant versions of same (giant spider, giant "roc" bird, etc.). Come to think of it, I wonder if Wizkids will ever come out with a "Sindbad"-themed set? Pirates of 1001 Nights? I mean, he's Sindbad the sailor, after all, and somehow they got away with Norse longboats for "Pirates of the Frozen North." (5 Oct 2007.) |
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Ghost Ship Battle
On Saturday, my adventure slot was called "Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse." The first scenario involved a battle against the ghost of pirate Mary Reade, and a ghost ship of the Treasure - one of Captain Calico Jack's prizes before he was executed for piracy. The pirate ship is another Megabloks toy - "Dread Eye's Phantom (3660)" - that I got, used. (It was missing quite a few parts, but I wrote to Megabloks and managed to get a few spare pieces.) (6 Oct 2007.) |
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Ghost Ship Battle - Sans Masts
The same scene, but with masts removed for miniatures access. Most of the undead pirates (the ones on the round bases) are Warmachine undead pirates on loan from Chris. (I paint them, he lets me borrow them. Considering how much it would cost for me to buy the same minis, how rarely I would use them, and the fact that I'd have to paint my own minis anyway, it's a pretty good deal.) The ghost is from Reaper Miniatures. Other undead minis are Games Workshop conversions. (6 Oct 2007.) |
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Graveyard Landing
For the second segment on Saturday, the crew reunited to defend an island against an onslaught of undead pirates aiming to "resurrect" their executed leader (buried in the graveyard). The PCs set up a defense, setting up several cannons, and taking up defensive positions. The tower visible on the left was another piece from "Weapons and Warriors Pirate Battle Game." Most of the graveyard consists of pieces put together from Hirst Arts castings, plus a fence made of toothpicks and cardboard. (6 Oct 2007.) |
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Pirate Ducky Attack
Everyone was surprised when this latest pirate assault commenced! ... Just kidding. One of the players had a few of these and set them on the table for a "photo op," just to be silly. (6 Oct 2007.) |
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Captain Gwendel
Arrr! I had me own pirate along at the convention! (And she sewed and embroidered the shirt, vest, cravat, coat and boot-tops herself. The hat was something I spotted at a Halloween store and thought it'd match the coat on account of the gold trim.) (6 Oct 2007.) |
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Iceberg Wreck
On Sunday, the adventure was "Pirates at Ocean's Edge," featuring a journey through uncharted waters, and a series of increasingly strange hazards. First off, our heroes had to navigate a treacherous (and randomly shifting) area of icebergs. They decided to make their way toward a ship stuck on one of the bergs, to investigate. (6 Oct 2007.) |
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Salvage Mission (Black Pearl)
I used the Megabloks "Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest - Black Pearl" toy to represent the "Night Hunter," a former ship owned by (and ultimately abandoned by) the famous Captain Jack Hawkins. This ship is suitable for use as a 3-master, though I still prefer the "Stormstalker" for shipdeck miniatures battles - and for ease of transportation. (So many parts fall off so easily from the "Black Pearl.") (7 Oct 2007.) |
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Sea Monster Attack!
The heroes eventually had an encounter with sea monsters ... not both at once, but I decided to put both in for this "photo op" at the table. The "dramatic highlight" definitely had to be when Philippe Gujon the Frenchman (played by Tim) was caught up by the sea monster's pincer, and, with a battle cry of, "You tore my SHIRT!" managed to twist around and fire his musketoon at the fuse of a cannon that was pointed right at the face of the giant lobster ... and succeeded in not only setting off the cannon, but also scoring a raise when hitting the oversized crustaceon. (This involved rolling several sixes on a d6 in a row. I guess it made up for all the unlucky rolls he got the rest of the time.) Another moment: Captain Isaiah Kestrel's "taunt" (playing out his Cocky hindrance) - "All right, men ... bring up the butter!" (7 Oct 2007.) |
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