Subject:
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Re: Request for Pirate Game thoughts and Player/Ship/Captain names
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.gaming
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Date:
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Tue, 17 Jul 2001 16:39:37 GMT
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Viewed:
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1774 times
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Hi,
First of all, I want to say "Thanks, Frank!" for running
the Pirate Game. It's a lot more work than it might look
(and it looks like a lot of work already!), and he brought
TONS of stuff that was critical for a good game. I had an
excellent time, and I thought it was much more successful
than last year's Game.
In lugnet.pirates, Frank Filz writes:
> Before I write my big review of the game, I thought I'd again request
> thoughts on the game. It would also be helpful for folks to post their
> ship's and captain's names (I did get most of them off the board, but
> the several folks who left early weren't up there any more). It would
> also be helpful if you could point out in an already posted picture of
> the game who you are so I can better connect you to your ship. Any
> writeups of your ship's escapades would also be welcome.
My captain was Maximilian von der Tann. My first
ship was the "Grey Death." We sallied forth, bent on
plunder and mayhem, until we found a prize of gems on
our very first wee island! Thus placated, we headed
for an Imperial base (nothing buys one into the "system"
faster than wealth!) and sold it off for a hearty 550
gold dubloons! With an exchange of 200 for our ship, we
bought ourselves a brig--now called the "Grey Poupon"--
another cannon, and 4.5 new crewmen (one was stumpy) and
headed out once more to cause mayhem...or maybe not. We
settled upon the island called "Thomas Main's Folly," where
the valiant Smitty had met his demise due to the neglect
of his craven and foul-smelling shipmates. Oh, and mummies.
Can't forget the mummies.
Arrrr! We got there, expecting to overwhelm the assembled
Mummitudes, but despite initial success, the last mummy
tapped into some Awful Evil Power and started zapping me
hearties. I lost five crewmen (Stumpy lived!) before it
was all done, but we got the treasure and the two zappy
power staves (broken in an attempt to destroy the power
of The Last Mummy). Alas, the world came to an end before
we could sail away with our prizes, but not before we mounted
severed mummy heads all about our ship and fitted our crew
with headdresses, to become The Great Mummy Slayers!
We came in third. Arrrr. That be pretty good.
> A few very quick thoughts of my own:
>
> - My schedule sucked. As a result, we didn't start until 3:00 PM or
> somesuch on Saturday
Yeh, that it did. :(
> - I was a little wiped out from my previous work schedule and driving up
> late Friday and all. This contributed to slowing the game some.
The drive doesn't help, nor does the work of loading and unloading
so quickly--I'm sure that's why we were all wiped out that morning
and on Sunday.
> - I was also less prepared than I should have been (which contributed to
> the late start and slowing the game some).
It couldn't be helped. Again, we're all happy that you even
made it to the Fest.
> - Again, I really should have had a 2nd GM. Next year I will listen to
> that advice and not feel bad about a player not being able to play. I
> will need to spend some pre-game planning time (some over the net) with
> the chosen GM to compare enough gaming pholosophy and ideas about the
> scenario islands (the large islands with something special going on on
> them).
For BrickFest, I'd be happy to do it full-time. If we do
have a PirateFest this fall (and I do hope we do), we may
not need more than one full-time GM (we may not even need
one, if we play the Fleet game).
> - We didn't have enough ports, as a result, the player who put his
> captured ship into play kept two ships in play because it was
> prohibitive to sail to a safe port (the closest port was the one the
> ship was heading too, not a good place to go, and the wind was
> unfavorable for going anywhere else for a few turns).
I'm not sure it should be against the rules to keep two ships
in play, although a primary would have to be chosen, and the
possibilty of the second ship going AWOL and sailing away
should be kept very real unless the crew is sufficiently awed
by the Captain's reputation and/or bought off with lots of
extra booty.
> - Again, I managed to make one scenario island way too tough. I need to
> think more carefully about how hard to kill undead should be. Another
> scenario island never got touched because no one wanted to tackle 20 or
> 30 islanders.
That was my plan after getting back with the Mummy treasure.
I wanted to see if I could buy Kahuka hats and the like and
a ship's boat and "divert" the Islanders with a few cannon-
fodder pirates that look like chiefs or gods. Who knows, it
could have worked, or else offended them so much that they
ran to one shore just to kill the interlopers (or ran to
the shore just to go "what the ----?"). In the confusion
perhaps I could have "snuck in" and gotten enough of a head
start to get away with the treasure.
> - I only got two merchant ships out, plus one player (well two players,
> Larry Pieniazek took the ship over later) played an imperial ship (I
> don't think this worked out too well, I won't have a player do that
> again [it was his choice, I should have thought more about the impact of
> that choice]). Larry did manage to take over a pirate base (well, not
> quite, but he was one or two turns away from doing so, with no pirates
> in sight for a rescue), but the base was probably under defended (bases
> shouldn't be able to be taken over by the 10 crew of a starting ship).
This had the potential to be very, very entertaining--Larry
might have lost his ship but gained a port, thus becoming a
merchant, and having a chance to put his economic philosophy
into practice. I know that I'd have visited! :) On the
other hand, he might also have been forced to put rowboats
into service as Pirate ships, a very odd prospect...
Perhaps we need rules for salvage of ships in the shallows--if
they're sunk within a few inches of islands or ports, to allow
for recovery of cannon, treasure, equipment, or even the ships
(if the port has some kind of crane). I know that such rules
would only come into play every so often, but it might make losing
a ship close to a port less devastating.
best
Lindsay
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