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In lugnet.market.shopping, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
>
> "Franklin W. Cain" wrote:
>
> > In lugnet.market.shopping, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
> > >
> > > . . . But I wonder what I'm going to do
> > > with all those dang sharks...?
> >
> > Donate them to a worthy cause.
> > ("http://www.io.com/~sj/PirateGame.html")
>
> ... (And is he still doing that Pirate game?
> It sounded like a heck of a lot of fun.)
Yup. He is. :-)
This past March, in Biloxi, MS, I attended Coast Con,
where Steve was one of the guests.
I, in costume, assisted Steve in running his Pirate Game.
(As a member of the SCA, as well as being a regular attendee
of several sci-fi cons, I've got a supply of costume shirts
and props, etc. Also, as Biloxi is now "home" to several casinos,
one of which is called "Tresure Island", and has a gift shop
with -- you guessed it -- kiddie "pirate" props, one of the players
brought some "props" -- an eyepatch, pirate captain's hat, and "hook" --
she got some extra pirate people as a reward for being "in costume".)
In fact, I had set up a truly diabolical "trap"
for unwary players -- when setting up the game,
I had dumped _ALL_ of the snakes one just one island.
To be "fair", I also put some of the juicier treasures
on "Snake Island" (the "magic scroll" was in the treasure chest,
and one of the super-valuable silver bricks was on the island
also, IIRC).
With such tantalizing "bait", Snake Island proved to be irresistable
to one of the players. He landed virtually his entire crew (20+ pirates,
I'm thinking), leaving behind just one or two pirates to man his ship.
Since the snakes weren't covered in the rules, yet,
we had to "wing it": "people" attack first; if armed with cutlass
or pistol (you can't aim a rifle at something as small as a snake,
was Steve's reasoning), have a 50-50 chance of killing one snake per turn;
snakes moved as fast as people, attacked _after_ people,
but had a 50-50 chance of killing one person per turn (super nasty venom).
Unfortunately, the poor schmuck ^H^H^H^H^H^H player
forgot to _count_ the number of snakes on Snake Island.
In the first turn after landing, he killed about a dozen snakes.
Then, in the latter half, about half of the remaining snakes
swarmed his pirates, and killed _half_ of them (in just that one turn).
He didn't quite realize his error, yet.
Next turn, he stuck it out and tried to kill the rest of the snakes
(he killed about seven or eight, I think), leaving two or three . . .
_DOZEN_ . . . snakes behind. . . .
About this time, other players noticed what was happening,
and the consensus was, "What the [%@%^] are you _DOING_?!?"
About midway through this second turn, once I started rolling
for the snakes' attacks, I started suffering from
an uncontrollable fit of maniacal laughter, punctuated by the refrain
"Beware Snake Island!"
(Why, yes, I am a Game Master for a local group of PRGers...
How could you guess? :-P :-)
This episode of disturbing behaviour prompted Steve
into showing the unfortunate player some mercy --
by GM fiat, his ship and surviving crew were assumed
to have made it back to the home port safe and sound.
I've been trying to get the Staff of Coast Con into inviting Steve back
for next year's con, and to ask him to run the game again.
("Beware Snake Island! BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahaha!" >:-)
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In lugnet.market.shopping, Franklin W. Cain writes:
>
> (Why, yes, I am a Game Master for a local group of PRGers...
[grumble...]
That should read "RPGers",
as in "role-playing gamers"....
[#^#^#%& fumble fingers] >:-(
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Ha-HA! Dodge! Turn! Parry! Ha!
"Franklin W. Cain" wrote:
> In lugnet.market.shopping, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
> > ... (And is he still doing that Pirate game?
> > It sounded like a heck of a lot of fun.)
>
> Yup. He is. :-)
>
> This past March, in Biloxi, MS, I attended Coast Con,
> where Steve was one of the guests.
>
> I, in costume, assisted Steve in running his Pirate Game.
>
> (As a member of the SCA, as well as being a regular attendee
> of several sci-fi cons, I've got a supply of costume shirts
> and props, etc. Also, as Biloxi is now "home" to several casinos,
> one of which is called "Tresure Island", and has a gift shop
> with -- you guessed it -- kiddie "pirate" props, one of the players
> brought some "props" -- an eyepatch, pirate captain's hat, and "hook" --
> she got some extra pirate people as a reward for being "in costume".)
That sounds wonderful--is SJ still just "fiddling around" or is he finally
entertaining the idea of making this thing into a set of standard rules? I
really wanted to have a chance at it someday. That's what I get for being in
the Northeast. *sigh*
> In fact, I had set up a truly diabolical "trap"
> for unwary players -- when setting up the game,
> I had dumped _ALL_ of the snakes one just one island.
> To be "fair", I also put some of the juicier treasures
> on "Snake Island" (the "magic scroll" was in the treasure chest,
> and one of the super-valuable silver bricks was on the island
> also, IIRC).
You mean, to be "evil" you added "bait." ;) I almost fell out of my chair
reading the story, and when you got to the refrain I half wanted to sing
along. My life is poorer for not having been in Biloxi. (I never EVER thought
I would have said that. Ever. EVER.)
Isn't Guam covered with snakes, too? I think we have a precedent for
snake-coated islands, although at least yours had something more valuable than
guano on it.
> About midway through this second turn, once I started rolling
> for the snakes' attacks, I started suffering from
> an uncontrollable fit of maniacal laughter, punctuated by the refrain
> "Beware Snake Island!"
Arrr. Arrr. ARRR! I think I've just regressed 15 years. That's marvelous.
> (Why, yes, I am a Game Master for a local group of PRGers...
> How could you guess? :-P :-)
The frothing mouth, the maniacal laughter, the power-mad sadism...brings back
memories (pine!)...
LFB.
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Mr L F Braun wrote:
>
> Ha-HA! Dodge! Turn! Parry! Ha!
>
> "Franklin W. Cain" wrote:
>
> > In lugnet.market.shopping, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
> > > ... (And is he still doing that Pirate game?
> > > It sounded like a heck of a lot of fun.)
> >
> > Yup. He is. :-)
We really need to get the pirate master himself here...
> That sounds wonderful--is SJ still just "fiddling around" or is he finally
> entertaining the idea of making this thing into a set of standard rules? I
> really wanted to have a chance at it someday. That's what I get for being in
> the Northeast. *sigh*
Well, much of the rules are posted on his web page. All we're really
waiting for is the charts and tables. I don't expect that it will get
beyond the shareware state, though if it becomes popular enough, I could
see Steve figuring out a way to more formally publish it.
> > In fact, I had set up a truly diabolical "trap"
> > for unwary players -- when setting up the game,
> > I had dumped _ALL_ of the snakes one just one island.
> > To be "fair", I also put some of the juicier treasures
> > on "Snake Island" (the "magic scroll" was in the treasure chest,
> > and one of the super-valuable silver bricks was on the island
> > also, IIRC).
>
> You mean, to be "evil" you added "bait." ;) I almost fell out of my chair
> reading the story, and when you got to the refrain I half wanted to sing
> along. My life is poorer for not having been in Biloxi. (I never EVER thought
> I would have said that. Ever. EVER.)
Please, more stories (and pictures) of the pirate game!
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
>
> "Franklin W. Cain" wrote:
>
> > . . . To be "fair", I also put some of the juicier treasures
> > on "Snake Island" (the "magic scroll" was in the treasure chest,
> > and one of the super-valuable silver bricks was on the island
> > also, IIRC).
>
> You mean, to be "evil" you added "bait." ;)
Picky, picky, picky... :-)
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