Runequest Pirates of the Carribean

[atgxtg]

What we should be focusing upon here is do we feel the Runequest system is mechanically a close fit to the films. I must admit I am not convinced it is.

Well, as for MRQ, we don't know yet. It all dependis on how the new movement changes work.

As for past edtions of RQ, well there is at least one RQ inspired RPG set in that time peroid, FGU's Privateer's & Gentelmen. THe role-play rules for that game are pretty much based on RQ2. It even has SIZ (called MASS), and category modifers like RQ2. THe whole thing was modifed to fit the setting of course, but the RQ roots were obvious. Oh, and it was written by a guy who later went on to become a successful and famous writer of SciFi books.

Even FGU's Flashing Blades (loads of fun) had a few common characterstic with RQ (one of the few games that used experience checks), but it is not an RQ derative.

IMO, if you want a cincematic feel, perhaps the best RPG is the old James Bond RPG. Personally, I've found the system to be the most cinematic of any game I've played. The Hero Point system, where players can spend point to adjust thier rolls, had been adopted in some fashion by many games that have followed. Of course, the rules really were not designed with pirates in mind, and would benefit form a little expansion in covering swordplay (there are rules that cover it, but I know I'd want to add a bit more for a swashbuckling game), and sailing ships.

A lot of the game's rules would port over well though. THe game's Charisma skill would be very useful in keeping a crew in line or impressing a member of the fair sex.


As for MRQ, I think we need to see it, before we can decide how well it could work.[/i]

 

[andakitty]

Well, I suppose you could make an argument for Star Wars being sort of a 'pirates in outer space' movie, and Mongoose Matt has stated that they had the light saber duels in mind when writing up the rules.

I am not fond of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and don't really understand why anyone would want to emulate them. Boy, I feel all alone with that dislike. $135 million the first weekend! Bet we see pirate rpgs coming out in the next year, for sure. And more pirate movies.

 

[GbajiTheDeceiver]

Ouch. I’m not feeling too welcome in this thread any more.

Bottom line for me is that D&D in it's earlier incarnations was a fundamentally broken system that was nonetheless fun...

Y’know, it’s tough to carry on a decent conversation if you’re going to use phrases like “fundamentally broken system”. I mean, having played it for 30 years, saying my game is broken is almost more of an insult than a point of discussion. How about just saying you don’t like it? 8)

Just my own opinion, sorry.

Bottom line for me is that...
...that was nonetheless fun...

But I still enjoyed it all the same, even if some of it's rules/mechanics made no sense to me.

Anyway, please accept my apologies if that came across wrong - I didn't mean to have a go at you at all.

 

[Durand Durand]

I am not fond of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and don't really understand why anyone would want to emulate them. Boy, I feel all alone with that dislike. $135 million the first weekend! Bet we see pirate rpgs coming out in the next year, for sure. And more pirate movies.

Yeah, we sould ignore PotC and go back to those old classic pirate movies, Yellowbeard and Cut Throat Island... urm, ahem, sorry. Even if you are not fond of PotC, you just listed two positive effects it will have, unless of course you are one of these awful anti-pirate & pro-ninja types. Ninja go home.

Remember PotC is really for Kids. My 5yo neice loved it as much as the Harry Potter movies!

DD

 

[Utgardloki]

I suppose the gist of this thread is that we could use a game system that some people dislike to emulate a movie that these people dislike. For a more realistic pirate action, Runequest or GURPS would be prime contenders.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the 7th Sea system. I have the book, but have never tried running a game based on their d10 mechanic. Has anybody tried those rules? If so, what do you think?

 

[andakitty]

Nah, just mentioned I don't like it, personally. Not attaching any importance to the dislike.

7th Sea is a great game. The mechanic is OK, I really love the setting. And man, if you are looking for social mechanics and detailed sword fighting rules this is worth looking into. The magic is well done, with each nation having its own unique type. If it falls down anywhere, for me it was how the rules locked you in sometimes. For instance, heavy armor was only avalilable to the German analogue (I don't recall the game country). Some other stuff like that which made it look like sometimes they were sacrificing realism and playability for flavor. Easy fixes, though. Mind you, I am talking about the original game, not the D20 version. I don't know anything about it, how it was changed or anything. Some people were annoyed by the countries and culture in 7th Sea being analogues of real 17th century countries, but I liked it. It came across exotic and familiar at the same time. If I were going to play it again I would definitely use the original rules. Not because of my distaste of D20 but because the original rules suited the setting, IMO.

 

[atgxtg]

I suppose the gist of this thread is that we could use a game system that some people dislike to emulate a movie that these people dislike. For a more realistic pirate action, Runequest or GURPS would be prime contenders.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the 7th Sea system. I have the book, but have never tried running a game based on their d10 mechanic. Has anybody tried those rules? If so, what do you think?

I had a friend who ran a sucessful 7 seas campaign. Overall, it worked out good for him and his group. THe game mechanics are similar to, but still different from, AEG's other rpg, L5R.

I suspect the reason why no one has really suggested 7th Sea for a pirate camapign is that 7th Sea is set in an alterate world and not 16-18th century Earth, much the way that L6R is set in Rokugan rather than Japan. It makes it all that much more difficult to use in a historical setting.


There are several fair to decent to good pirate rpgs out there, I've bought several.

 

[Utgardloki]

I mentioned again about doing a Runequest pirates game, but I've found in my own experience, that a pirates game can be tricky, no matter what system you use.

The worst risk, is that the players will hate the captain. I've watched a Star Trek game fall apart and a pirates game fall apart, both times because the players thought the captain was a #!$!#$!#@ who needed the left side of his body separated from the right side of his body.

So where I would like to direct the thread is how to run a successful pirates campaign, no matter what the game system or the exact setting (PotC Caribbean, historical 17th Century, Glorantha, 7th Sea, etc.)

My thought was to have a pirate-hunter campaign rather than a pirate campaign. Some players have trouble with evil characters, but there is no reason why pirate hunters could not be as noble as a player wished, or no better than the pirate scum he hunts.

 

[Turloigh]

The worst risk, is that the players will hate the captain. I've watched a Star Trek game fall apart and a pirates game fall apart, both times because the players thought the captain was a #!$!#$!#@ who needed the left side of his body separated from the right side of his body.

:lol: That's a good one!

Was the captain a PC? If not, maybe that's the solution.

 

[atgxtg]

I've run quite a bit of Star Trek, and what it seems to be is that most gamers seem to have a problem with someone else being able to tell them what do do. Most of my TREK campaigns had to deal with players who didn't like being bossed around, but on the other hand the same players didn't care for it when the shoe was on the other foot, either.


A realstic pirate campaign shouldn't have this problem. Real pirate crews were actually very similar to RPG groups. In fact, the dynmmaics of a pirate group probaby are about as close to you trypical group of gamers as you can get. Most everything was decided by majority, and the capatain had very lettile authoity outside of combat (in a fight, his authoirty was near absolute). So if the majoirty of the pirategroup thinks the captain needed to have his left and right sides aepareated, that is probably what would happen to him.

 

[frobisher]

I've run quite a bit of Star Trek, and what it seems to be is that most gamers seem to have a problem with someone else being able to tell them what do do. Most of my TREK campaigns had to deal with players who didn't like being bossed around, but on the other hand the same players didn't care for it when the shoe was on the other foot, either.

I've never had much a problem with this in the games we played - people just accepted the situation, by and large. In the cases where they didn't, it was normally appropriate (Klingon vessels...).

A realstic pirate campaign shouldn't have this problem. Real pirate crews were actually very similar to RPG groups. In fact, the dynmmaics of a pirate group probaby are about as close to you trypical group of gamers as you can get. Most everything was decided by majority, and the capatain had very lettile authoity outside of combat (in a fight, his authoirty was near absolute). So if the majoirty of the pirategroup thinks the captain needed to have his left and right sides aepareated, that is probably what would happen to him.

That's my experience on the whole with the pirate games I've played in. Part of the roleplaying experience is trying to stay in charge of a bunch of bolshi players and NPCs - it's great fun.

The answer is to command personal loyalty from as many of them as possible and dangle enough carrots in front of those who aren't as personaly loyal. And making sure they get said carrots when they're available

 

[wartorn]

I'm astonished that people wouldn't automatically make one of the players the Captain, with the others serving as equally prestigious characters: Navigator, Doctor, First Mate, Imperial Spy etc..

Well, thinking about it, I would want to start a pirate campaign by having the entire group serving some other Captain. This would be so I could illustrate exactly what a Captain does, and introduce any game mechanics related to naval warfare without requiring the players to have a good command of it.

 

[atgxtg]

I'm astonished that people wouldn't automatically make one of the players the Captain, with the others serving as equally prestigious characters: Navigator, Doctor, First Mate, Imperial Spy etc..

Some groupd do. The whole "we hate the captain bossing us around thing" is usually WORSE with a PC capatain. Most groups are used to a patron NPC who can exert a little influence over the PCs. But put a PC in charge of other PCs and may groups have trouble.

NPC captains and such also make sense depending on the skills of the characters. Not much sense in makeing a PC captain if his highest ship realted skill is at 35%. FOr instance, in the High Seas supplement for Flashing Blades, there were qualifications that a character needed to fill a postion on a ship. Failry reasonable ones, too. Like to be "sail master " on a ship your character had to have mastered the sailing skill, similar situation with the the "master gunner" position. Begining characters simply could not start with the qualifications for these duties, so they couldn't start the game in these positions. It worked out fine too, they just needed to spend a couple of years aboard ship learing the skills of thier trade, then they could move up in the ranks.

Well, thinking about it, I would want to start a pirate campaign by having the entire group serving some other Captain. This would be so I could illustrate exactly what a Captain does, and introduce any game mechanics related to naval warfare without requiring the players to have a good command of it.

Yeah, one of the things about starting a differenet RPG is that the whole command rank structure is very useful in teaching the players about the rules during play. For example, if the NPC Captain decided that the new recuits need practice time with the cannons, the players can learn how the nacval combat works without stopping play.

 

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

I note from the Companion preview that they have a Mariner background in it. This combined with civilised which implies a renaissance background- sounds usable for pirates/privateers.

Regards