Tides of Gold v1.0
A pirate fantasy game
https://www.casskdesigns.com/tides-of-gold.html
This hack started as a “how would I make ship combat more unique but still in the spirit of FitD?” and became an 80-page fleshed out world with some specific seafaring rules.
With 9 detailed ports, 50 factions, 5 new playbooks, 4 ship types, and 3 unique crew types, this hack focuses heavily on creating a world groups can pick up and play. It is also Blades compatible if people want to cross playbooks between settings.
I also went a little crazy and made a sea monster bestiary with 22 unique sea monsters.
Setting Introduction
The game takes place in the subtropical region of the Desideria Sea. This sea is the central heartbeat of transport, trade, and cultural exchange between all three continents of the world.
Two generations ago, the region was invaded by mysterious Sea Raiders, not-quite human creatures who introduced Renaissance technology to an Iron Age world. It has been fifty years since humans fought back these creatures, and in that time they have unlocked numerous secrets of their advanced technology, catapulting a mystical world into a mechanical future.
This period of peace and invention spurred on a new level of trade and exploration. The sea offers the promise of endless wealth for those with martial power, and constant threat of abduction and ransom for those without a patron’s protection. As the wealthiest merchant houses rise in power, they began to push against the confines of the treaties made to defeat the Sea Raiders. While most still hide behind hiring privateers, some fear a new age of piracy is on
the horizon.
The mark of the supernatural has not receded completely from the region. Deadly monsters live in the deep, and even the most advanced weaponry will not save an unprepared crew.
You play to find out if you can thrive amidst the teeming threats of the ocean: competing pirate fleets, corrupt government patrols, marine cults, lost islands, and lethal sea creatures, all while the crew members are torn between their vices and ambitious drives.
This is really well done! I love the pseudo-action-ratings for the different ships, and the Odyssey Score rules are a very clever way to handle travel.
The full book file and the playbooks file crash my adobe reader, while all the other files work just fine. And they look damn good.
Mario Croner Yeah, my software seems to be having problem with image compression on export, so those documents are bloated. I’m going to take another look tonight to see if I can get it fixed.
Snagged this to check out later. Looks rad on first glance.
Mario Croner So it turns out its a software bug with no good solution. Short term: they open in Microsoft Edge and Chrome. Longer term, I went ahead and got Indesign and I’m going to switch over because I’ve never had a problem with that software.
“Sharks of the Sea” strikes me as odd as sharks are already of the sea. Perhaps “Hounds of the Sea”?
Anyway, this looks freaking awesome! I mean, pirates, right?
Ben Liepis I thought I responded earlier, but guess not? Thanks for pointing the redundancy out. Maybe “Blood in the Water” will be the new name. Because…I’m addicted to shark week.
Cass K, no problem! “Blood in the Water” is perfect, in my humblest of opinions!
A very small thing.The Captain’s ability Parry should really be called Riposte – parry makes it sound like it helps with resisting the harm. Riposte corresponds better with the chance to land a hit after you’ve already successfully resisted.
Otherwise, looks really neat. The Old Timer in particular is really evocative.
Will Adkisson You know, I think it was called Riposte at one point….thanks for the catch!
Old Timer and Mystic are probably closest to what I want with playbooks. I will probably continue to look at the others for ways to bring out the flavor/viewpoint of their design more.
Any progress?
Matthijs Krijger Not really. I’ve been focused on getting Karma in the Dark done. Now that it’s been released, I plan on coming back to this project in a few weeks.