17th Century Pirates anyone?

[MongooseMatt]

Proposal for a new Traveller book - comments welcomed...

A setting/supplement bringing Traveller to the 17th Century Caribbean. New careers, and ships of course, complete with a thorough gazetteer of all the towns and ports in the Caribbean.

You would create characters who have grown up in the Caribbean or have travelled from the Old World, and existing Traveller systems would be used for trading, encounters, and so forth.

The idea would be to create a living, breathing Caribbean that groups can easily slot into, whether they want to be pirates, privateers, navy men, politicans or explorers. Combined with the Patrons system, this could be a very easy place to run games in.

And, at the end of the day, everyone loves a pirate...

Would this be something people are interested in?

 

[Old timer]

Yes, low tech stuff for traveller is a great idea, and pirates, oh yes please!

 

[Wil Mireu]

Not in the slightest. Stick to SF.

 

[Greg Smith]

Sounds like it should be Pirates of Legend.

 

[Boneguard]

That would be interesting.

And since a lot of Pirate came from various background -plantation owner, Navy sailor, merchant, etc- and were thrust into a life of piracy, the Travellors Career approch for character generation works quite well.

 

[crazy_cat]

Would this be something people are interested in?

No. I'd use Savage Worlds - PotSM

 

[Nathan Brazil]

I would love any expanded low-tech supplement! Cowboys and Xenomorphs helped along with TL 4. 17th Century is around TL 2-3.

More melee weapons and combat techniques please (like dueling). Not absolutely necessary but oh so fun to have.

Revise the trade system to work more in tune with a TL 2-3 setting. Some goods may not be available, like vehicles, computers, that sort of thing.

Modify Scouts for a non-altruistic exploration.

Ooh, change Dynasty to address shorter time periods with specific realms (Just what are the stats for Spain, England and Portugal and so on 17th century)and watch those Empires rise and fall!

Yaar!

 

[dragoner]

It is one of my least favorite memes; however, go ahead and make it if you feel you must, I will probably pass on the purchase.

 

[Greg Smith]

No. I'd use Savage Worlds - PotSM

There is also the forthcoming Pirates and Dragons. Although I don't think it will be historically accurate. :lol:

 

[Prime_Evil]

I like the idea and I suspect that some of the material may be useful on low TL worlds. However, I don't think this project should be given priority over more traditional Traveller products - it's nice, but not essential.

 

[alex_greene]

But of course. Didn't GDW once present a writeup on wet vessel TL 3 piracy for Classic Traveller in one of the JTAS? Part of the technology is already there - I like the idea of the low-tech life, and apart from the writeups on the stats for black powder cannons (something which could be used for land-based TL 3 battle scenarios as well) the player characters might enjoy a scenario where they forsake all their fancy toys for a time and find themselves sailing the Seven Seas or raiding colonies on the Spanish Main.

Even if you have to fudge the story intro or exit - "And then the characters woke up, and realised that they had had some weird collective dream caused by their Misjump" - to get them on board.

Until you do release the supplement (would it be a Supplement, an Adventure or even a Book?) I'd use the non-crunch elements of Pirates of Legend and my historical research notes for the flavour.

 

[Prime_Evil]

I also think that this could be useful if you want to run a story similar to Jack Vance's "Planet of Adventure" series with characters from an advanced technological society stranded on a lost colony world that has fallen back to a pre-industrial TL. I suppose that Leigh Brackett's Skaith series could also be used for inspiration. Simply file off the serial numbers and add a few SF tropes and you've got yourself an interesting setting that can support several adventures with a pulp SF flavour. (eg: piracy beneath three moons! Our intrepid heroes seek the parts necessary to repair their starship and leave the ocean planet where a lost human colony defends itself against savage alien pirates!)

Alternatively, you can use the character generation tables to create a pirate from a backwards planet who somehow manages to leave his homeworld - Captain Jack Sparrow meets the Third Imperium! The trope of characters from lost colonies who seek adventure amongst the stars has a very long history in SF...

 

[GypsyComet]

The Mongoose Traveller character generation system is already well suited to the age of pirates, though I might consider shortening the Term. Many pirates didn't last four years...

 

[Prime_Evil]

The Mongoose Traveller character generation system is already well suited to the age of pirates, though I might consider shortening the Term. Many pirates didn't last four years...

That can be a bit mean if you're using the Iron Man character generation option...

Certainly the Traveller character generation system can handle characters from low-tech backgrounds, but it won't hurt to add some additional options for those who desire extra detail.

 

[GypsyComet]

I was thinking more the capability to start as something else, get press-ganged at 14, have your ship mutiny and turn pirate by the time you were 20, and be captured and tossed into prison by 22. That has Events and Mishaps written ALL over it.

 

[Prime_Evil]

I was thinking more the capability to start as something else, get press-ganged at 14, have your ship mutiny and turn pirate by the time you were 20, and be captured and tossed into prison by 22. That has Events and Mishaps written ALL over it.

Very true..

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Add tropical diseases
Combine/adapt Mercenary for press gangs, or a 2D naval engagement system.

 

[Jame Rowe]

Yes, low tech stuff for traveller is a great idea, and pirates, oh yes please!

Yes, if they also do medieval, which Matt has told me they won't. So I suppose my response is, "nah, stick to sci-fi."

Doubly, since I'm not interested in pirates.

 

[IanBruntlett]

Proposal for a new Traveller book - comments welcomed...

Would this be something people are interested in?

Other people have suggested using this supplement as an ideal low-tech forgotten colony kind of setting. I think I could get a couple of months of play out of it, especially on an interdicted system Would appreciate it if a couple of scenarios were provided in the book because I have yet to crack the art of scenario writing (working on it).

 

[Jame Rowe]

Proposal for a new Traveller book - comments welcomed...

Would this be something people are interested in?

Other people have suggested using this supplement as an ideal low-tech forgotten colony kind of setting. I think I could get a couple of months of play out of it, especially on an interdicted system Would appreciate it if a couple of scenarios were provided in the book because I have yet to crack the art of scenario writing (working on it).

And I could help with low-tech careers!