Sea of Dead Men v1.1

Sea of Dead Men v1.1

Sea of Dead Men v1.1

Sea of Dead Men is a Blades hack about daring crews of pirates making their fortune in a dangerous and lawless ocean. I’ve spent the last few months putting together the rules document for it, and the initial draft is finished and ready to be sent off into the world.

It includes:

– An all-new setting, the Carrascan Sea

– A list of factions – both individual pirate crews and larger fleets and organizations

– A modified heat/entanglement system to better fit the pirate genre

– Rules for upgrading your flagship and building a fleet

– Updated crew and character playbooks

The system should be fully playable at this point, though it does rely on knowledge of the basic Blades rules. From here on out my work is going to be mostly improving layout, writing detailed faction/setting information, and fine-tuning rules and playbooks as I keep playtesting.

Rules doc: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rfq5IOzqUCkjoJnWcVOmMjEyhEzJHZR8/view

Playbooks & Faction sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J7zWVND9wAyB_JsX9LQFKnJohSWDBM7-/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rfq5IOzqUCkjoJnWcVOmMjEyhEzJHZR8/view

56 thoughts on “Sea of Dead Men v1.1”

  5. I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. and’Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

  6. So in Blades, you roll Wanted Level and read from the entanglement chart based on current Heat. But with this it seems that once you’re wanted, you roll Wanted Level and read from Wanted chart. I think that decision might have been unintentional, as Wanted Level is already accounted for with the dice roll (and would now be accounted for doubly), and heat means little once a wanted level is gained.

  7. You’re missing a small detail that I changed (which means clearly I need to draw more attention to it, it’s a little buried in the text). Instead of rolling dice equal to your Wanted Level, in Sea of Dead Men you roll your crew’s Tier – the idea is that bigger and more established crews will face different challenges than smaller ones. Wanted Level as a number isn’t really there any more; instead it’s a binary of Wanted/Not Wanted for each of the nations.

  12. Scale, Tier and Quality are a bit intermixed. Shouldn’t there be a increasing in scale&Tier going from small crew (Sloop) to larger crew (Brig, Frigate, Galleon, SoL)? And/or 2 Brigs equaling a Frigate etc? Or split Tier and Scale and Quality completely?

  15. Matthijs Krijger Good questions!

    – The cohort increase on the sheet is a typo; it should cost 2 crew upgrades to convert to a fleet.

    – Turf is indeed absent. It just didn’t make as much sense genre-wise for a pirates game, since you don’t really stake a claim to territory.

    – There aren’t any rules specifically for ship combat, except for the ship’s harm track; my thinking is that the standard Blades rules work pretty well without adding on another subsystem. I’ll probably work in a section with some guidelines in the next version (similar to the “Using Ships & Systems” section in Scum and Villainy), but the normal Blades tools of position, effect, and clocks have served me pretty well thus far.

    – I would say that Scale and Quality are both pretty tightly wrapped around Tier – as you become more well-known, you can command a larger crew or more ships, and you have access to better equipment to outfit them. There isn’t a direct relation between Scale and Quality – you can have a large fleet of crappy ships or incompetent sailors – but they both tend to grow as a crew advances. That said, Scale doesn’t have to advance – if you want to stick with a single ship and have a small but elite crew, that’s easily doable.

    In general, I’m trying to make crew advancement be about improving the ship you already have rather than jumping to a bigger one; I’m a big fan of the ship-as-character vibe that things like Firefly or Pirates of the Caribbean have, so I don’t want players to be shifting to a new ship every time they go up a Tier. That means that the Scale metrics I’ve been working with have been about numbers of ships rather than sailors, and I’ve been handling differently sized ships in fights by focusing on the difference in potency.

    I do like the idea of having a comparison between ship sizes (2 sloops make a frigate, or some such)… that could add a lot more interesting details to fleet design, and would be a nice guideline to reference when GMing. Definitely food for thought.

  16. Quality & Scale: Indeed no relation between those two should exist. And Tier should be about your ”impact” on the pirate world (imho), which but that scales with the amount of ships/cannons you sail.

    So Tier is about your total fleet size!

    More pirates (with their ship) simply join your fleet as you go up and Tier. No need to have that as upgrade. But that means you must decouple Tier from Quality.

    You have the following assets:

    Your private ship [Size and give size it’s Quality]

    Private Crew Quality

    Private Crew size [but this should match Ship Size, give or take]

    Fleet Size

    Fleet Crew Quality

    Tier

    For ease, you can assume

    Fleet Crew Quality = Private Crew Quality

    Private Crew size = Private Ship Size

    Tier = Fleet Size

    So that leaves

    Private Ship Size

    Crew Quality

    Tier

    Each should be completely independent from the other two.

    (I would add as a private ship option: Oversized crew)

    Capturing a larger ship is a major motivation and so perhaps should not be handled by XP or advances but by story.

    Total amount of cannons aboard ship is a good indication of fleet strength.

  18. I noticed that you mention that 3 masts vs 2 masts for pirate ships. Most pirate ships were single masted (sloops)… A larger ships would be a Brig (two-masts).. the only known (imho) 3 masted pirate ship is the Frigate from Teach. I would not give such large ship to starting crew.

  19. I would need to refind my old notes, but a Sloop (one mast) can carry 12guns, a Brig (two masts) 24 guns, a Frigate (three masts) 32-48, and a ship of the line 100+ (depending class, but no SoL sailed in the Caribeans).

    So if you start with a Sloop as Tier 1, then a Brig or 2 Sloops would be Tier 2, 2 Brigs, 4 Sloops or 1 Frigate Tier 3, then 4 Brigs, 8 Sloops, 2 Frigates or 1 Small SoL would be Tier 4

    [Tier 1: 12 guns, Tier 2: 24 guns, Tier 3: 48 Guns, Tier 4: 96 guns]

    Fleets larger than 8 Sloops were pretty unknown. Teach or Blackbeard (kinda one of the most famous pirates) had a Frigate and 2 other ships.. if those were Brigs he would be Tier 4…

  20. Matthijs Krijger

    I agree that it makes sense for more crew and more ships to naturally join a fleet as you go up in Tier; the reason that I’ve kept the crew –> fleet upgrade optional is that I want players to have the option of keeping their crew small. Think of a high-tier crew of Bravos who cover lots of turf and have a huge organization, vs a high-tier crew of Shadows who never got any gangs and take on daring heists with only a four-person crew: both are good ways to play the game, and I want to allow that sort of range in Sea of Dead Men. The difference with a pirate-themed game is that you need at least one ship’s worth of crew at a bare minimum; I wanted to let crews stay with just that ship if they were so minded.

    I think you’re right to want to keep the crew’s flagship (or private ship, as you call it) separate from the cohort mechanics. I do like the distinction between single-ship cohorts and full fleets; my current group of playtesters got a lot of mileage out of taking a ship and declaring “I think I’ll keep this one”, assembling a fleet bit-by-bit with individual ships rather than having a capital-F Fleet.

    I was pretty sure I’d read that pirate ships were mostly 2-masted, but I could be wrong on that. Time to do some more research, I guess…

    (As for the vices, I’m flattered, but they’re pretty much straight out of Blades, so I can’t really take credit for them.)

  21. For movies they make the ships too big, so that a camera crew can walk around the action. Historically they were much smaller 🙂

    Part of my confusion comes from Crew (= Flagship) and Crew (=Cohort). I would call Crew (in Crew creation) (Flag)Ship instead.

    I think indeed that keeping all the main (Tier/Quality) rules about the private/flag ship, and just add cohort rules for a few additional ships.

    A fleet of 3 ships was already impressive.

    I would (just like BitD) increase the size of cohort Crew to more ships by default, depending Tier. [p44 BitD]

    In my experience every PC eventually wants their own ship+crew. How to handle that? Allow a Ship to split into 2 Ships but with same total upgrades/advances?

    I would make shipScale a separate attribute for Ships (you mention scale in Ship Flaws, but not in Edges).

    Canoe (Scale 1), Boat (Scale2), Sloop(Scale3, 1 mast), Brig(Scale4, 2 mast), Frigate (Scale5, 3mast), SoL/Galleon (Scale6,3+mast)

    [Most can be upgrades a scale by being slightly bigger, extra guns and crew, and be called xx-of-war]

    Turf: I just realized that Black Sails had a huge turf war between pirate factions (the harbor, Fort, Wharf, beaches).

    How about creating a Turf-map for the Pirate base, for those people that want a bit more Black Sails?

    And/Or make a Turf-map of different Sea areas. It makes fiction-wise sense to gain faster Rep when you roam a certain Turf/Sea-area more often (just like BitD).

    Or you could combine the two (part Turfs on Base and part Turfs on sea) for maximum flexibility.

    I would make a separate Crew sheet for Privateers, given the strong difference with their country-first vs the Mauraders self-interest. Their home-grown contacts/options allow quite different advancements.

    Pirate genre has its own little quirks. As such the default BitD Planning might be too limited as you now also have large ships and unknown oceans to deal with. Transport should likely be removed with roaming the sea for random prey

    Travelling long distance could be downtime action.

    Tables: Some tables are needed for random Naval encounters, Enemy Ship Edges/Flaws [eg Merchant often had less guns for their scale].

  22. I think I’m much more cynical about privateers than you are. I’m currently representing them through the Letter of Marque crew upgrade (and the functionally-identical Royal Covenant for Phantoms) — the idea with that is that being a privateer is something anybody can do, making it a political move rather than a patriotic statement. I’m considering adding a playbook for the crew of a navy ship, which would have a lot of the nationalism and ties to a specific homeland, but I’m waiting for Bluecoats to come out so I can shamelessly steal — uh, I mean take inspiration from it.

    As far as Turf goes, I’m not sure how well it fits; I guess I could see certain crews having dibs on plundering various trade routes or islands, but it doesn’t have quite the right vibe to me. I feel like the business model of piracy is a little too opportunistic and transient to really have lasting Claims – what’s to stop someone from grabbing your fort or pulling scores on your turf when you’re half an ocean away doing your own stuff? (Plus, I need that space on the character sheet for flagship stuff, and sheet real estate is super limited.)

    And yeah, I’ve got several tables in the works – island descriptors, enemy ships, various types of cargo, etc.

  23. Privateers: being Dutch, we are raised on the national Hero of Piet Heijn (Privateer who captured the Spanish Silverfleet for the Dutch government). These kind of privateers were privately outfitted (West Indisch Company) and you could invest in (and was seen as patriotic).

    Just a letter of marque does not describe them. They had access to extra facilities, information from government, etc…

    Turf: I would make it a separate sheet, and it’s same as in BitD. It’s not the physical presence with which you make the claim, but the implied threat of violence [eg fence].

    Willing to share the tables already?

  25. Had a quick throw at Turfs, strongly influenced by Black Sails series. Added a row so that it can be used by all Crews. Turf represent an area of ocean/sea where you chase of other Pirates (and all other ships fear you). Hence this tends to not sit well with other Pirate factions. This turf map is thus mostly for inter-pirate faction warfare [aka Black Sails].

    dropbox.com – sea_of_dead_men_turf_1-1_rev0.pdf

    Final version should of course be drawn on ”pirate map” 🙂

    What do you think?

  26. pretty sweet!

    Small criticisms: with “Dungeons” you could consort, but sway or command might be better. And the claims maps is arranged and linked to indicate natural progression from claim to claim, rather than geographical positioning. Though it’s a neat way to do (all the Turf being connected in a line like that) the Turf might be better spread around, to indicate how certain claims make claiming those waters easier (like how having City Hall and Plantations would put them in position to seize the Turf “Crown Bay” or whatever).

    Either way, a pirate map graphic would be neato. Cheers

  27. Good point on Dungeons 🙂

    Since we are missing a map of Pirate Cove/Base like Doskvol, how cool I though if the Turf map can act as map as well 🙂

    The outside Turf I consider regions of ”far” ocean, and thus are not linked at all with the Pirate Cove buildings, allowing for two games to be played. Either grabbing buildings in the Cove [for a true inter-pirate game] or Turf on the Ocean [for a more roaming around game].

    What font did you use for titles?

  30. I hope I am not stepping on anyone’s toes, but I did come up with a turf map of my own. There is no actual ‘turf’ per se, because I find the turf mechanical benefit uninspired. This is a fairly generic map, good for all situations and crews. Any comments or suggestions are extremely welcome. If needed, I can also provide the source file for further editing.

    dropbox.com – sea_of_dead_men_turf_1-1_rev1.pdf

  31. No toes are stepped 🙂

    Please share source file, perhaps more people come up with turf maps and we can have a collection of turf maps for different people tastes?

  34. That’s entirely possible. With so may pdfs floating around, it’s hard to keep track. It’s also entirely possible that I miread or misremembeted one of the rules. What made you think I had an old ruleset, spevifically ?

  36. You’re right. i must have dreamt of it… 🙂

    I changed up the map a bit to reflect that. Now it includes a quality update for all 4 flagship parts, in a way that (hopefully) makes sense.

  40. No real updates on the ruleset just yet. I’ve been mostly working on the prose sections (faction/playbook/ability descriptions, setting fluff, all that jazz), but it’s slow progress. I haven’t had too much time to sit down and think about rules stuff; there are a few things I know I want to fix for 1.2, but I don’t have things fully hammered out yet.

  44. Lex Permann Flotsam is a floating city made of lashed-together ships; it’s basically a mobile pirate base, which provides a fair bit of security since none of the official powers really know where it is at any given time.

    And yeah, I’m definitely considering something along the lines of a privateer crew type. I’m pretty committed to having Letter of Marque as a crew upgrade that any crew type can take, so you wouldn’t have to choose that crew type to be privateers, but I’m thinking about something named along the lines of ‘Loyalists’, which could encompass both navy ships indulging in a little piracy in their free time and privateers who work especially closely with their home nation.

  46. Have you considered doing some example Scores or a Score generator? I love this game, but I’m still not so sure what these pirates and scoundrels actually do.

  47. Anyone clear on what the new attribute “Vault” is? It looks like Finesse was moved to Insight, Study and Survey were combined into Scan, and Vault was added to Prowess, but the rules don’t call out what that’s intended to be.

  48. Yeah, I forgot to put in the descriptions for the different actions – below is the list as I have it right now. Vault is the action for swashbucklery acrobatics, eg swinging to another ship with your cutlass clenched in your teeth; thinking of it as changes from the standard Blades list, I basically split off the climbing/jumping/running aspects of Prowl into their own action.

    Attune to the ocean’s currents and the dark forces beneath the sea; perceive supernatural entities; read the winds and the tides.

    Blast your enemies with cannon-fire, guns, or explosives; break through an obstacle with chaos and force.

    Brawl with an opponent in close quarters; assault or defend a position; hold your own in a melee.

    Command obedience with your force of personality; intimidate or threaten; lead your crew on a mission.

    Consort with connections from your heritage, background, friends, or rivals to gain access to resources, information, people, or places.

    Finesse an item from someone’s pocket; employ subtle misdirection or sleight-of-hand; formally duel an opponent.

    Navigate your vessel across the high seas; keep your sense of direction in unfamiliar areas; maneuver your ship in combat and pursue fleeing enemies.

    Patch up a sail or rigging; keep the ship running despite damage.

    Skulk around unseen and undetected; ambush with close violence; get the jump on an unsuspecting foe.

    Scan your surroundings for danger; perceive a threat before it strikes; study a document, person or situation.

    Sway someone with charm, logic, deception, disguise, or bluff; change attitudes or behavior with manipulation or seduction.

    Vault over obstacles; swing across ropes and climb riggings; perform great athletic feats.

  50. It’s coming, I promise…surely, but also slowly. My hope was to have 1.2 be a full rules document as opposed to a quickstart, but that meant a lot more work than I really expected.

    I’ve got a playtest of the updated rules set to start in a few weeks, which should force me to have everything in a vaguely presentable state by then; I might just release what I’ve got at that point as a v1.2 doc and save the full overhaul for a 2.0 somewhere down the line.

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