CaptainRED
Landlubber
Hey gents,
i finally made up my mind. I'd like to make a pirate tabletop myself. My friends & me are tired of normal games, time for some plundering arrrr !
I had the idea some time ago, but i hardly had any cool ideas, no knowledge what materials to use and not enough time. Now that the situation has improved, i'm getting back on it.
What i'd like to use this thread for, is to collect suggestions, ideas, constructive critism (once something useful has been posted) and experiences from past pirate games (gameplay wise and what materials would be best).
I think it would be best to split up that whole game into typical parts (gameplay and material wise) every tabletop game has. Then we collect suggestions for that part and discuss what method for that part would be best. I'll keep the 1st post here updated for ease of reference. So everyone may see the sum of all discussions so far without having to read thru (hopefully) lots of pages.
When all parts of the tabletop have been discussed then we try to combine everything to a (hopefully) working game system that:
- supports different situations even for experienced tabletop players
- provides every player with fair chances for over 1 half of the gametime
- is fun & piratish (evil) <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/urgh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":urgh" border="0" alt="urgh.gif" />
RIGHT !
I'll start with the parts that i think would be needed for a tabletop and what i think would be a good method to handle them (if you have ideas for other parts plz check first if a part of that sort is already in the list):
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>THE SETTING</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - All players are pirates, Spain is main enemy, all other nations (England, Holland, France) may be enemies, neutral or allies.
- I chose this because i think it's impossible to get a feeling how things worked during the golden age of piracy, when the settings doesn't follow historical facts: <i>"Spain became the major power in caribbean waters when it started to ship treasure and gold over the Atlantic to Europe. It also declared the whole new world as its territory and claimed to be the only european power to legally trade with all caribbean ports. By building up its recources with caribbean gold, Spain eventually would've become the main power in Europe, so France, England and Holland reacted to the threat. French corsair attacks dealed serious blows to treasure convoys and crippled the spanish gold supplies for Europe. Official complains about 'piratas' died away unheard. When it became clear that their governments turned a blind eye on what was going on in the new world, more and more french, english and dutch pirates set course for the Caribbean. The race for spanish gold had begun."</i> (correct me if i'm wrong on anything)
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>POINT OF THE GAME</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - Semi-Cooperative play, with 1 winner
- All players don't fight each other directly (following the pirate's code), it's all about who is at the right place at the right time. This doesn't bring up harsh feelings against the leading player and might encourage cooperative operations or some sort of deals among the other players.
- The player that reaches all goals / the goal first, wins the game.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>THE BOARD SETTING</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - parts of the Caribbean are known (major islands and big ports), other parts are hidden/random (small islands, villages, unexplored areas)
- A mixture of historically accurate and random parts should suit most players. The random parts are fun to explore, boost the luck element of the game and enhances the feeling that each game session plays a bit different. The historic parts add to the realistic feeling - 'what it was really like back then'. ( You could tell a friend:'yesterday i commandeered a merchant, added the men to my crew and plundered Havanna' )
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>PIRATISH & FUNNY ACTIONS</span>
(what would you like to do in the game ?)
<b>Suggestion 1</b>
- attack & plunder ships and ports
- collect & deal with goods (gold, men, food, rum, wood & cotton, whatever...)
- explore unknown territory (sea, land, islands)
- find hidden treasures
- build up my status (experience, score, respect/fame, rank, equipment, crew specialists ...)
- build up my ship (speed, attack, defense, damage, loading space, ...)
- make deals / work cooperativly with other players
- avoid cursed gold / being attacked by ghostship
- choose allied nations by buying a letter of marque
- change tactics to suit / pay attention to dynamic global situation (war in europe, spanish operations,weather catastrophies, ...)
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>GAME ROUNDS</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - colored chips are drawn from bag to find out whose turn it is
- Each player chooses a color. (# of players x 4) chips go into a bag. At roundstart a drawn chip color defines which player takes action. After last chip is drawn from bag, it's refilled.
(This is a houserule from the BlackBeard game. While still fair for everyone, it also simulates the fact that in a typical pirate life there were random periods of extreme loneliness or extreme action.)
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>BOARD LAYOUT</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - Typical hex layout
- Hex fields define where you can go and how far. City hexes represent the colors of the governor in charge. Unexplored areas are hidden with extra hex counters that are flipped when someone reaches them. Blue counters reveal sea objects (small islands, reefs, wreckages), orange counters reveal beach objects (fortresses, hidden bays, small villages) and green counters reveal jungle objects (villages, temple ruins, swamps).
<img src="http://doc.yegods-community.co.uk/ttop/hexmap.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Suggestion 2</b> - fixed positions
- Points define where you can go and how far. Like hex fields, every point (of same color) can be reached by any of his neighbors. City counters represent the colors of the governor in charge. Unexplored areas have question marks on them. A counter of same color is drawn by the player that reaches a question mark and placed on that position.
<img src="http://doc.yegods-community.co.uk/ttop/pointmap.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Thx for reading & awaiting your suggestions ! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/type_1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":nk" border="0" alt="type_1.gif" />
i finally made up my mind. I'd like to make a pirate tabletop myself. My friends & me are tired of normal games, time for some plundering arrrr !
I had the idea some time ago, but i hardly had any cool ideas, no knowledge what materials to use and not enough time. Now that the situation has improved, i'm getting back on it.
What i'd like to use this thread for, is to collect suggestions, ideas, constructive critism (once something useful has been posted) and experiences from past pirate games (gameplay wise and what materials would be best).
I think it would be best to split up that whole game into typical parts (gameplay and material wise) every tabletop game has. Then we collect suggestions for that part and discuss what method for that part would be best. I'll keep the 1st post here updated for ease of reference. So everyone may see the sum of all discussions so far without having to read thru (hopefully) lots of pages.
When all parts of the tabletop have been discussed then we try to combine everything to a (hopefully) working game system that:
- supports different situations even for experienced tabletop players
- provides every player with fair chances for over 1 half of the gametime
- is fun & piratish (evil) <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/urgh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":urgh" border="0" alt="urgh.gif" />
RIGHT !
I'll start with the parts that i think would be needed for a tabletop and what i think would be a good method to handle them (if you have ideas for other parts plz check first if a part of that sort is already in the list):
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>THE SETTING</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - All players are pirates, Spain is main enemy, all other nations (England, Holland, France) may be enemies, neutral or allies.
- I chose this because i think it's impossible to get a feeling how things worked during the golden age of piracy, when the settings doesn't follow historical facts: <i>"Spain became the major power in caribbean waters when it started to ship treasure and gold over the Atlantic to Europe. It also declared the whole new world as its territory and claimed to be the only european power to legally trade with all caribbean ports. By building up its recources with caribbean gold, Spain eventually would've become the main power in Europe, so France, England and Holland reacted to the threat. French corsair attacks dealed serious blows to treasure convoys and crippled the spanish gold supplies for Europe. Official complains about 'piratas' died away unheard. When it became clear that their governments turned a blind eye on what was going on in the new world, more and more french, english and dutch pirates set course for the Caribbean. The race for spanish gold had begun."</i> (correct me if i'm wrong on anything)
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>POINT OF THE GAME</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - Semi-Cooperative play, with 1 winner
- All players don't fight each other directly (following the pirate's code), it's all about who is at the right place at the right time. This doesn't bring up harsh feelings against the leading player and might encourage cooperative operations or some sort of deals among the other players.
- The player that reaches all goals / the goal first, wins the game.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>THE BOARD SETTING</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - parts of the Caribbean are known (major islands and big ports), other parts are hidden/random (small islands, villages, unexplored areas)
- A mixture of historically accurate and random parts should suit most players. The random parts are fun to explore, boost the luck element of the game and enhances the feeling that each game session plays a bit different. The historic parts add to the realistic feeling - 'what it was really like back then'. ( You could tell a friend:'yesterday i commandeered a merchant, added the men to my crew and plundered Havanna' )
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>PIRATISH & FUNNY ACTIONS</span>
(what would you like to do in the game ?)
<b>Suggestion 1</b>
- attack & plunder ships and ports
- collect & deal with goods (gold, men, food, rum, wood & cotton, whatever...)
- explore unknown territory (sea, land, islands)
- find hidden treasures
- build up my status (experience, score, respect/fame, rank, equipment, crew specialists ...)
- build up my ship (speed, attack, defense, damage, loading space, ...)
- make deals / work cooperativly with other players
- avoid cursed gold / being attacked by ghostship
- choose allied nations by buying a letter of marque
- change tactics to suit / pay attention to dynamic global situation (war in europe, spanish operations,weather catastrophies, ...)
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>GAME ROUNDS</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - colored chips are drawn from bag to find out whose turn it is
- Each player chooses a color. (# of players x 4) chips go into a bag. At roundstart a drawn chip color defines which player takes action. After last chip is drawn from bag, it's refilled.
(This is a houserule from the BlackBeard game. While still fair for everyone, it also simulates the fact that in a typical pirate life there were random periods of extreme loneliness or extreme action.)
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>BOARD LAYOUT</span>
<b>Suggestion 1</b> - Typical hex layout
- Hex fields define where you can go and how far. City hexes represent the colors of the governor in charge. Unexplored areas are hidden with extra hex counters that are flipped when someone reaches them. Blue counters reveal sea objects (small islands, reefs, wreckages), orange counters reveal beach objects (fortresses, hidden bays, small villages) and green counters reveal jungle objects (villages, temple ruins, swamps).
<img src="http://doc.yegods-community.co.uk/ttop/hexmap.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Suggestion 2</b> - fixed positions
- Points define where you can go and how far. Like hex fields, every point (of same color) can be reached by any of his neighbors. City counters represent the colors of the governor in charge. Unexplored areas have question marks on them. A counter of same color is drawn by the player that reaches a question mark and placed on that position.
<img src="http://doc.yegods-community.co.uk/ttop/pointmap.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Thx for reading & awaiting your suggestions ! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/type_1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":nk" border="0" alt="type_1.gif" />
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