Yo ho ho

I was up in the attic a few days ago when I came across a box I knew contained my Peter Pig pirate ships. It had literally been chucked up there during the final chaotic days of Operation Dynamo, our very stressful evacuation from France. The box rattled alarmingly when I picked it up and a quick peek inside confirmed there’d been a lot of damage done to the contents during the move. 

The two Chinese junks I’d scratch built were write offs, but a little super glue and a few dabs of paint returned the majority of those that were left to at least “playable” status.

Now I had a lot of fun with my East Indies pirate campaign last year, using the Galleys and Galleons rule set, but I was never entirely happy with my method of battle generation. It was very much put to sea, meet a randomly determined number of ships, hopefully win a battle, then automatically come back to port with someone else’s valuables.

Perhaps mulling over opportunities missed I was idly painting more WOTR billmen the other evening when I suddenly recalled Peter over at Grid Based Gaming - but not always had experimented with using a snakes and ladders format for a campaign engine. 

A little light bulb icon appeared above my head. I got my pencil out and began scribbling.

After a few alterations I came up with the JBM Pirate Campaign Generator GLX as shown below (the GLX bit was just put in to make it sound a bit sexier).

A player (or players), starts the campaign in the anchor square and rolls 1D6 to leave. With multiple players a 6 is required to actually leave port, followed by a roll to determine the number of squares travelled. I shall be digitally moving a counter to reflect progress but ship markers would be needed if this was ever printed out.

After leaving port the player taking their turn must declare if they intend to move forward or backwards on the track before rolling 1D6 and moving that number of spaces. Note the exact number is needed in order to land on the squares at either end of the ladder. E.g. a vessel 2 squares from port that threw a 6 would move 2 squares onto the anchor icon then 4 squares back out to sea.

Before I describe the other icons I must point out the mutiny and the grog o’ meter that are tucked away within the track. 

The grog meter is a generalised overview of the victuals carried by a players vessel. It naturally bears no resemblance to reality. For every turn out at sea (on the game track) one box is ticked as the crew consumes a portion of their rations. If you’ve run out of boxes and not made it back to port it will not do much for general morale, which brings me to the mutiny meter. (By the way the tiny ship icon indicates the grog carrying capacity for ships of less that 60 points in the Galleys and Galleons rules).

Every turn you are out at sea and do not capture something of value (ship or cargo) you tick off one of the boxes on the mutiny meter. When you run out of boxes the crew will mutiny and you must roll on the Galleys and Galleons mutiny table. In addition to this countdown a further box must be ticked off on the mutiny meter for every turn that the crew is without Grog. The “takeaway” from this is don’t stay at sea too long and don’t be unsuccessful for any length of time or you’ll wind up on your tod in an open boat with nowt but a leaky bucket and a few ships biscuits. 

It is important to note that any success in battle or arrival at an island resets the grog and mutiny meters to their pre cruise departure levels.

Now to other icons.

The galleon. This a square where a players vessel encounters opposing ships and an actual game is played to determine the outcome. I have several ship data cards for each vessel I’ve made (with different names and capabilities for each hull). The player  landing on the galleon icon chooses 1, 2 or 3 of these ship data cards at random, not knowing if he will get merchants, regular navy or pirates in his selection.

Note if two or more players end up on the same square at the end of the turn the game becomes an encounter battle between their vessels wherever they are on the game track.

Furled sails. Becalmed! The owner of a vessel that ends its turn on this square is stuck in the doldrums without a breath of wind. The player rolls 1D6 and has to remain in that square, counting down on his grog and mutiny meters for every turn spent there.

The island. A square where grog levels are returned to their pre cruise heights. It’s also a square where a captain may choose to bank (bury) any valuables secured on the cruise. If his ship is sunk in a later encounter this buried treasure is still available. Not sure of the effects on overall gameplay but it might be a spot where accumulated ship damage could be fixed as well.

The kraken. An encounter with a hideous monster from the depths - and an excuse to play a game of ship v creature. If a player escapes its clutches, or even kills it, the mutiny meter is returned to its pre cruise level.

Blowin’ a gale.  A player rolls 1D6 and moves this number of squares back down the track.

Storm. Vessel suffers 1 point of damage. Exchanging 1 white activation dice for 1 red activation dice as per the G&G rule book. (Each ship only has three activation dice and if all three are red it is crippled).

Ships wheel. The affected vessel becomes hopelessly lost. Roll 1D6. If the result is an odd number move this number of squares backwards, if even move this number of squares forward.

The barrel. Oh bugger the grog barrels are leaking. A ship landing on this square uses up three of its grog ration in addition to the usual turn depletion.

The treasure map. A copy of Black Pete’s treasure map falls into the players hands. Unfortunately it has also been acquired by other interested parties. Treat as the treasure island scenario in Galleys and Galleons with 3 other randomly selected ships from the ship data card pile as competition.

I’ll be doing a little more testing of this set up over the coming weeks and I’ll post up any issues I encounter. I shall also elaborate how I converted Galleys and Galleons to hexes and show a few examples of my ship data cards for anyone that wants to use them.

Right then... back to those billmen.