Oh. Crap.

Be advised. My PC is overheating or my HD is dieing or both. I may disappear from the net soon, and with out warning

PotSM: It’s a Sea Dog’s Life

Quite some time ago I talked a lot of talk about writing up Scooby’s gang as Pirates of the Spanish Main characters. Well, they’re done. There’s such a wealth of material to draw on here that the first question was where to start. As the project continued I drew inspiration from a number of sources including some of the many similar toons that followed. The most difficult thing was deciding how to interpret Velma, but in the end I like the way things turned out.

The crew of Mystery is based out of Port Royal. They all knew each other as children, but are all together for the first time at the request of Athena’s father, Zeus George Blake. It seems a “ghost” is terrorizing his sugar plantation, and “would the four of you mind looking into this for me?”

None of these characters have the Guts skill since I don’t use it. It would be easy enough to add it though.

Norville “Wyrdbeard” Rogers [WC] Novice Rank

Orphan Shipwright. Has a way with animals of all kinds. Employee of the Blake family.

Attributes: Agility: d6, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d6, Strength: d6, Vigor: d6

Skills:Boating d6, Climbing d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d8, Repair d8, Shooting d4, Throwing d4, Stealth d4, Streetwise d4

Edges: Shipwright, Beast Master (Squabbie)

Hindrances: Yellow, Garrulous, Quirk (appetite)

Pace: 6, Parry: 2, Toughness: 5

Gear: Family heirloom crossbow, 20 quarrels and quiver, Flint and Steel, Hammer, Leather Satchel, Compass, 48 pieces of eight

Languages: English, Carib Indian, Spanish

Velma Dacian [WC] Novice Rank

Childhood friend of Miss Blake. Mr. Blake recognized the young girl’s genius and paid a lot of money for her education. Also an employee of the Blake’s and frequent guest at Miss Blake’s extravagant parties. Tutor and Librarian.

Attributes: Agility: d6, Smarts: d10, Spirit: d6, Strength: d4, Vigor: d4

Skills: Investigation d10, Know. (History) d8, Know. (Science) d8, Notice d10, Repair d6

Edges: Jack of all Trades, Scholar

Hindrances: Bad Eyes, Curious, Poverty*

Pace: 6, Parry: 2, Toughness: 4

Gear:

Languages: English, Greek, Latin, French, Portuguese

Poverty and the lack of gear reflect Velma’s position as librarian of the Blake Family’s private library (and the laboratory she maintains in the basement there of) left to her own devices most of her income would go right back into the place. Fortunately Athena is more than willing to help her shop.

Athena Blake [WC] Novice Rank

Daughter of “the richest man in the colonies; perhaps you’ve heard of him?” A wild child with a desire to experience all the ups and downs of adventure that her (in)famous father did. She goes out of her way to “hide” her adventures from her father.

Attributes: Agility: d8, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d6, Strength: d4, Vigor: d6

Skills: Fighting d8, Taunt d6, Healing d4, Investigation d6, Notice d4, Persuasion d6, Riding d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d4

Edges: Ladies’ Academy, Attractive, Rich

Hindrances: Trouble Magnet (Minor), Code of Honor, Loyal

Pace: 6, Parry: 6, Toughness: 5

Gear: Rapier, Horse & Carriage, 550 pieces of eight, access to Father’s gear

Languages: English, French, Latin

Subaltern Herman Jones Friedrich [WC] Novice Rank

His father squandered the family fortune on gambling and whores after the untimely death of the Mrs. Friedrich. Herman joined the Army and was given Mystery as a gift after saving his commanding officer’s life. Frequent guest at Blake family parties and a member of the same Port Royal gentleman’s club as Athena Blake’s father.

Attributes: Agility: d6, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d6, Strength: d6, Vigor: d6

Skills: Boating d8, Climbing d4, Driving d4, Fighting d6, Intimidation d4, Investigation d4, Riding d4, Shooting d4, Swimming d4, Taunt d4, Throwing d4

Edges: Officer, Command, Captain

Hindrances: Overconfident, Quirk (Explain plans), Stubborn (HIS plans)

Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 5

Gear: Two-barrel Pistol, Saber, Mystery, Compass, Flint and Steel, Map of the Main, Whetstone, 42 pieces of eight.

Languages: English, French, Latin

Mystery

Type: Sloop
Acceleration: 2
Travel Speed: 2
Top Speed: 5
Handling: +1
Toughness: 13 (2)
Crew: 3+6
Cargo Space: 2
Guns: 2

Edges: Fast, Swift Top-sails, Shallow Draft

Hindrances: Small Hold, Undergunned

Squabbie

I think Squabbie should be a parrot (236). I wanted something that could “talk,” with out being a talking dog or car or shark. I also wanted to emphasize the humans and not make their pet an NPC, or worse yet, a PC. Just didn’t seem to fit the tone of the game to me. If you don’t like the parrot angle you could always make Squabbie an Alligator (221), Wild Boar (222), Dog (224), Trained Monkey (234), or even a Snake (242). Making him any kind of cat feels almost sacreligious to me so I wouldn’t go there, but hey, it’s your game.

Actually… I’m kind of liking that Alligator idea…

ONO: Cosmological Bugbears

I am absolutely amazed by my ability to over think the cosmological and theological aspects of world-building. Seriously, what you don’t see on this blog (particularly since I only update the features monthly, rather than weekly or gods forbid, daily * shudder *) are my struggles to write a background that makes sense of the divine spell-casting classes of the older editions or retro-clones.

I’m going to say this one last time, and then, I AM GOING TO MOVE ON, “it’s not important.” Hell, it is exactly the sort of thing I would rather leave up to the player of the Cleric, or Druid, or Paladin, or Ranger… It’s not mechanically important. It isn’t relevant to my dungeon design. It is only barely relevant to the design of the world (given I don’t imagine the gods getting directly involved).

But, it makes me twitch not having it fleshed out in my head. I could amuse myself for hours coming up with pantheons and genesis myths for 3.5 mechanics for days and days. But, older editions didn’t have the built-in, out of the book, mechanical level of customization that 3.5 does. I find it a little disturbing that I became such a slave to the mechanics over the years. “It’s not important.” It is time I broke myself of this bugbear. Right. Now.

Clerics: The Church of the Thousand Saints of the Sun God Ascendant (technically, many more saints, but only the Church knows for sure). A Fantasy Catholicism undergoing a period of growing sectarianism.

Paladins: Holy Warrior Exemplars of the above faith. If a “protestant” movement was to begin, I imagine it would begin with these guys. Additionally, it doesn’t require a lot of tweaking to imagine these guys as war priests of The Church or an entirely different faith.

Druids: I love the BFRPG Druid. I really, really do. It’s easy for me to imagine a character inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi who is a member of the Church of the Thousand Saints. Or it could be a native shaman. I would change the mistletoe element often to represent different orders and even different faiths entirely. I can envision the class representing all manner of holy men. I’ll allow the ability to turn animals to be substituted for undead turning (and vice versa) to further customize each of the classes. Probably allow other tweaks, but if a player doesn’t want to play a Cleric, this Druid could almost be a generic priest class. Particularly if one allows substitutions of spells here and there, or the turning ability.

Rangers: I’ve never understood the notion of Rangers as spell casters. But, as written they could be holy warriors of nearly any faith.

And, that’s it. As near as I can tell that’s all one really needs to know, right? The world has many gods (not clerics), but one church is very much on the rise (clerics). Done. The creation myth isn’t really important at this phase, and I really need to let it go. And, I think this post has finally exorcised the demon. Now, if I get the urge to build a pantheon, I’ll pull up the SRD or get my PHB down off the shelf and make one, but it won’t be for this project. If this project needs more gods it will get them on the fly as needed. I want this to be about the game and the dungeon.

MOVING ON!

Savaged Eberron on The Immaterial Plane

http://immaterialplane.blogspot.com/search/label/Eberron

I like what I’m seeing so far. A person could have a lot of fun with this and this:

http://savage-ik.wikispaces.com/

I’m thinking my next Savage World’s fantasy venture will have a lower “powerz” level and count than either of those two settings, but they’re food for thought.

Fear Koan: PETA

PETA.

I could just leave it at that, couldn’t I? Terrorist funding organization that places a higher value on animal life than human life? That’s pretty scary and non-sensical. Sadly, I have a specific news item in mind today. Again.

I’m going to give those of you reading this on the main page a chance to turn back and NOT see this link.

You were warned.

I need direction

I was going to post a poll, but I think I’ve worked it out for myself.

My right brain works like a food processor with no lid. Sure, stuff gets blended and the recipe is usually, eventually completed, but the kitchen is a mess. Or something like that. I’ve had difficulty following through and finishing anything since gremlins ate that early draft of From Scratch and I had to start over… from scratch. The latest shiny thing to grab and hold my creativity for longer than it takes to make these posts is a prequel to From Scratch. It’s its own thing independent of From Scratch; From Scratch is going to be retro-fitted to be the sequel. Eventually.

Now, I find myself distracted by my brain’s sword and sorcery rumblings and ramblings. Maybe I need to lay off the old school blogs for a while, eliminate the distraction. I could also reorganize the game shelf again… Hmmm… I would still have the problem of a co-worker who plays 3.5. We constantly get to chattering about this old module or that, what we think of Pathfinder, and on and on like that. I review my notes, go to work, get thoroughly and completely distracted, and come home thinking of sword and sorcery. Not the early to mid twentieth century, flying aces, and two-fisted troubleshooters; that’s what I really want to finish. For a change.

But, I get back here to the old keyboard and all I can think about is Moldvay-Cook versus BFRPG versus Labyrinth Lord. Old fantasy worlds I’ve tinkered with in the past keep churning around in my brain…

And, I need to set aside an hour or two a week just for my Wednesday game. I owe the players that. It isn’t that I’m not having fun, it’s that I’m just so goldurned easily distract… OOO! SHINY!

Addendum: Inspiration struck this past “workend” and I can’t wait to get back to the Wednesday Necessary Evil game!

Mark of the Movie 10: The Sea Lion

The Sea Lion (1921)

Comments

Aside from a nautical theme? No, this movie has nothing to do with pirates of any kind. It’s about a whaler.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012657/

I think the review at IMDB is a little harsh, but I wouldn’t give it much more than 3 out of 5 myself. Some good camera work, but there is a fair amount of wooden acting from the supporting cast. Also, I think I could have used a line or two more spelled out for me. Unlike The Black Pirate from last month there were a couple of moments where the dialogue, while clear, wasn’t as clear as I would have liked it. This one also suffered from a completely inappropriate score in a couple of places. But, one can forgive most of these minor foibles. The only thing that I felt really detracted from this one was the complete abandonment of one of the subplots that much was made of in the beginning. There’s a character introduced early that we never learn the fate of, and I found that kind of annoying.

Oh! And, the costuming of the film is all over the map. When was this story supposed to be taking place?

Gaming Hooks

Funny that I should be watching this one for review when I did, as Unclebear just bumped an old post about whaling and Pirates of the Spanish Main to the front page of his site. Check out his “Brimstone & Gall” tag for more pirate goodness.

The captain would make a fine NPC (Pirate Captain stats do just fine, page 238) and I could easily see his need for new crew at the beginning of the film sparking a campaign. Players might choose to be loyal to him in spite of his flaws or join in a mutiny. Either way, the ship presented would make a pretty ideal first ship for a PotSM game that lacked any one with the appropriate starting edges.

The new crew man recruited at the beginning – a child of privilege disowned and cut of from the family fortune to fend for himself – has a lot of potential as well. As a n NPC I would use the stats for the Courtier on page 235 and add the Major Hindrance Seasick. As a PC he gets over that one pretty quick, but for an NPC it could be used for great comedic effect.

Next Month: Mutiny of the Elsinor (1939)