pirate's life 4 me

[dog_eat_dog]

A PIRATE BREACH FOR ME

Jan 5th - Jan 11th

PREMISE

Attempts to get rid of pirates have failed time and time again. Jail, hanging and social ostracism have done little to stem the tides, and not even the threat of damnation has stopped some 2000 souls from terrorizing trade routes around the Caribbean sea.

The only thing that has made a dent in their numbers is the issuance of letters of marque, a government license to capture or eliminate pirates. Many pirates now serve as privateers, sailing under the Queen’s banners and attacking other ships with royal permission, but the difference between pirate and privateer is questionable at best, and many doubt they have changed their ways at all.

Like dogs to their vomits, they say, a pirate will always return to his old ways.

This is a week where many residents of the barge will find themselves in lives of piracy, competing to attack merchant ships and each other in the pursuit of adventure, wealth and fame.

SHIPS & SETTING

No, not that kind of ship.

There are four ships featured in this event. Characters may be on any of these ships, or live in port, or have some other role.

THE PIRATES | The Adventure, a slim pirate sloop meant for moving cargo between Caribbean. A quick and agile vessel with cannons, and a crew united in their goals. With merchant ships heading for Cinco Torres with a cargo full of goods, they intend to find one, steal its goods and sink it. Seeking ne'er-do-wells, adventurers, and ambitious people seeking fame and fortune.

THE PRIVATEERS | The Revenge, a ship in the service of Her Majesty. An impressive vessel with fifty guns. What she has in speed and size she lacks in maneuverability, but the expansive cargo hold begs to be filled.
 They have their eyes set on pirate ships; attacking them, stealing their ill-gotten gains and sinking them is both revenge and profit, all under the Queen's flag. Seeking former pirates willing to retrieve hostages and kill or arrest pirates for great rewards.

THE MERCHANTS | The Toison d'Or, belonging to the Merchants of Pemberly Trading. Large and statuesque, and mostly unarmed. This month's haul is a hundred bags of cocoa and two hundreds barrels of refined sugar, due to be delivered in the Port of Cinco Torres. Life on the sea is an adventure, but an allegedly moral one. Without them, people all over the Caribbean would go without goods and trade. Seeking folks willing to risk being taken hostage or killed in the name of goods and profit.

THE MUTINEERS | The Rose Emelye, a pirate ship that was quite famed years ago, but recent strife and poor maintenance has tarnished her reputation. Things are getting tense, too. After months of hard labour, fleeing the navy and privateers alike and attempting to make ends meet, the promised pay has not materialized, and the captain has refused to turn over the helm in a proper pirate election. So what is there to do but put the old bastard on the rowboat and put him out to sea, and claim his treasure map to seek their own fortune? Seeking determined pirates ready to overthrow their captain and reestablish their place in the history books, and find some treasure while they're at it.

and also featuring

THE GOOD PEOPLE OF PORT CINCO TORRES | Cinco Torres is home to a great number of folks making a living on land: shopkeepers, blacksmiths, labourers, cooks, doctors, tailors, prostitutes, bureaucrats, the list goes on. There are also a great number of sailors on leave, and people waiting to answer the call of adventure.

That said, there is a deep contempt for pirates in this place, and privateers still bear the brunt of some of that contempt. The lieutenant governor has declared that all making port must hand over their arms to a justice of the peace, and may not associate in numbers larger than three. Those who engage in such riotous concourse will be conduced swiftly to jail... in theory, anyway. It can be hard to convince people to put their lives on the line to suppress such a gang, but it does happen.

STORY

Welcome to a little slice of the Caribbean around an island called Guarma. Its main city, Cinco Torres, is a major trading hub. It's a beautiful region with crystalline blue waters, white sand beaches with massive palms and dense, mountainous jungles. Sailing ships tend to blend in with the fluffy white clouds on the horizon. It is a picture of paradise.

Day One, Jan 1st
On this particular day, a lot is going on. People in Cinco Torres are going about their lives, preparing for another busy week after a restful Sunday. Privateers are preparing to make sail from Cinco Torres' port. Merchants are nearing their destination with a cargo full of goods. Pirates are... well, pirates are about to raid the merchant ship, and on another ship, a mutiny is starting.

Oops. Not quite paradise.

Day Three, Jan 3rd
All parties meet in port. (Those that lived, anyway; tough luck to anyone headed down to Davy Jones' Locker.) Pirates sneak ashore to covertly sell their goods, merchants regroup, mutineers resupply, and privateers prepare to hunt down the pirates responsible.

Day Five, Jan 5th
The privateers hunt down the pirates. The mutineers set out in search of treasure.

SCHEDULE & ROLES

The event is structured with multiple event posts. There are two actions at the start, a regrouping in port in the middle, and two actions at the end. Most of these posts will be player-directed; play out individual fights, hostage-taking, overboarding, theft and other nastiness in the midst of ship battles, or gather a few people for group decisions like making someone walk the plank. Get up to shit in port, like getting thrown out of taverns or cavorting with folks of the night, get thrown into jail, get tried and hung for piracy, go shopping, whatever you want.

Because in the middle all characters will be in port, characters can then "change tracks" — maybe they start as a merchant in port who gets kidnapped into piracy, or as a pirate giving up the life to settle in town, or a privateer who can’t resist the call of wealth and goes back to piracy. This also allows players to choose how busy characters will be.

The only event-runner-led event post will be the mutineers' treasure hunt. Characters will be separated into twos and threes in the caves, and each team will have a puzzle to complete. Characters' ability to solve the puzzle will determine whether the treasure is unlocked.

The pirate vs privateer battle's victor will be determined with a coin flip on the date of the event. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose!

Event Logs:

Day 1 - Jan 1st | pirates raid the merchants, mutineers overthrow the captain
Day 3 - Jan 3rd | all parties meet in port
Day 5 - Jan 5th | privateers hunt down the pirates, mutineers find treasure

We're also looking to fill a number of story roles. It is entirely up to you how these roles are accomplished or how they play out; they just facilitate the flow of events. Some of these can have multiple people in the role.

A captain who falls to mutiny, and ends up stranded or dead
Surviving merchants who inform privateers of the pirate ship that attacked them
A mutineer to hold the treasure map
BLAH BLAH BLAH FINISH THIS STUFF

Q&A

What about the communicators?
There are no communicators here, but there are bulletin boards, newspapers, some mail, and messages in bottles hurled into the sea.

Powers?
Functionally everyone has been humanized and depowered, but superstition and folk magic are widely believed to be real in this time. Think Pirates of the Caribbean; it's a very relaxed sort of mysticism where sailors genuinely believe in curses, ghost ships, mermaids, and any number of other fantastical things. If you'd like to play with supernatural stuff or make your character a mermaid or victim of an Aztec curse or be a sea goddess traveling in human form, go for it!

Is this Earth?
This is Earthesque, but it's not 1:1 with ours. It's the early 1700s, and they live in the midst of some variation of the Caribbean islands, though with different names and mildly different geography and roughly adjacent politics. Don't worry about it too much, it's Crime Time.

What happens if you die?
Join the Flying Dutchman or something, maybe the lot of you can be doomed to sail the oceans forever and never make port again and maybe grow a lot of barnacles on your face.

Wait, everything's on event posts?
Just about! If you want to do something wild, like have a dead people party on the Flying Dutchman, or have a few people stranded on a deserted island together, or set out on your own adventure on a little stolen ship, have at. But otherwise, we're looking to keep people together. For this event, top levels count for more AC credit. [Pretty please, mods, pretty pleaseeeee.]

CODE BY TESSISAMESS