The crew of the Black Promise last night got into some great pirating for the game last night. We had a couple of encounters to deal with as well as some great role playing. I did forget my hat again which annoyed the hell out of me and I was battling a major headache through the game but still had a ball.
 |
| The 3D printed mini-ships at work! |
The players were quite excited to finally be in control of their own destiny. The Captain decided to head for the deep blue water and hunt merchants for their inaugural act of piracy but on first night the ship was boarded by strange humanoid fish creatures. Luckily they were not too much of a challenge and the creatures were repelled by Claude the summoner, Major his Eidolon Captain Lem, Skye the fighter/rogue and Daranis the necromancer. They found strange puffer fish amongst their belongings but turfed them over the side (although Kroop salvaged a body for the next day stew).
 |
| The big boats come out! |
The next day or so was uneventful as they began to wonder if they would ever see another sail to take out but as evening fell on the 3rd day at sea the call came from the crows nest that a sail had been spotted. The chase was on and the Black Promise had all hands on deck! We turned to the newly learnt naval combat rules (from the Skull and Shackles player guide) which all the players had actually done their homework on and ran the mini-game that the article details. I rolled the die to see how long the chase was going to take and reduced the roll by one as the ship they were chasing had a lower top speed. The roll was a maximum though so the chase lasted 4 days of hard sailing!
On this chase Captain Lem, assisted by each of the other players one at a time, closed the space by succeeding at every roll, although two of them were very, very close. So, from that point we moved to the more tactical version of the mini-game and I brought out the 3D printed pirate ships and cleared the table. After getting a quick handle of these rules we had a ball going hard to port, full ahead and the like! In fact this was one of the highlights of my night. I was beginning to perk up although the headache was still killing me.
 |
| The battle on board the fishing vessel 🙂 |
They managed to out manoeuvre the Captain of the other ship with a massive advantage roll after a few rounds of slick mini-gaming and it was time to break out the big ship props! We had a short battle as the crew on board this ship were a bit green around the edges. In fact the Black Promise had just run down a fishing boat! There was much laughter at that when they realised that there was actually no plunder on board, just a few barrels of herring and mullet!
Still, they replenished some of the crew and sent the rest off after looting the fish. They put enough holes in the hull so the survivors would make sight of land but the ship would sink before reaching a port and they sailed on. We left it there for the night but it was a great game. The players have taken well to their roles and they are working hard to build their disrepute and infamy before they even think about cracking the rock! I have included some photos from the game that I hope you enjoy! Until next time, keep rolling!