February 1660: Out To Sea
The weekend being full of distractions and other things, I was forced to run this turn by myself using a bunch of pre-rolls that I got using an online die roller and about a zillion batches of 20 dice at a time. My lil' Cub has a sad about not being able to help, but there's always March 1660.
Needless to say my luck with the dice holds true, and our first roll as the Lily of Anjou sets out to sea from the no-longer-quite-as-welcoming settlements of the Moros, comes up doubles to ensure that I will suffer a Random Event. It could be worse because the '6' gives a result of Storms At Sea, which is only 'active' from June to November. Saved by the calendar!
Movement, alas, is from port to sea, and so I must remain in Area 3. Since one can hardly increase Fame, Reputation, and one's fortune whilst mucking about aimlessly, I choose to have an Encounter this turn. For this, we roll 2d6 and compare each to the Area Activity Level of 3 and...4,6. Nothing but open water as far as the eye can see.
This is sort of good: Aledys is a Privateer, not a Pirate, and the Dutch aren't presently at war with anybody, so unless I'm ready to make her go full scallywag, I don't really want to run into a nice, fat Treasure Fleet or something right now. Getting jumped by pirates that I then proceed to whallop? That's more like it!
On the down side, she loses another 3 points of Fame (now at -5) because not rampaging across Colonial Lemuria means that she's not mentioned in dispatches home, and that means she'll have to work that much harder to get her likeness in the history books. If her fame hits -20, her Reputation drops to 4 and restarts at zero. Fortunately Rep cannot drop lower than 4 until she start slowing down from age! Living that long tends to be the difficult part. (Yes, if it rises to +20, her Rep would go up to 6...which is the maximum possible score.)
The Personal Loyalty test passes well enough (two out of a possible three successes), so the crew isn't too unhappy with me yet. Aledys should recruit a Cook. A good Cook.
And thus on to March 1660, when I think moving to Area 6 with that nice fat AAL of 5 will no doubt bring plenty of dangerous opportunities and increase the odds of having an exciting sea battle to report next time. The Lily of Anjou sets her course south along the Lemurian coast, and the lookouts keep their eyes peeled for black flags on the horizon.
+ + +
One of the funny little glitches with Ed's rules is that until the most recent generation of rules you had to roll 2d6 and score a 7 to have an encounter on any given campaign turn. Having somehow managed to go for years' worth of campaign time without anything happening to my characters due to strings of rolls that were anything but a 7, I'm inclined to enjoy the new rules a bit more. Probability defying weirdness still hits in my presence, but at least now I don't feel like my heroes would see more action if they became Encyclopedia Salesmen or something. (Which, in 5150 New Beginnings, is a possible career if I read the Job Tables correctly...probably a variation on the Law-Abiding Working Class job entry "Blue Service 3, Sales Clerk".)
+ + +
As an aside, one of the three coolest games I've yet to be able to really launch is a little thing called Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies. I tried to get Steph interested, but she kept saying it was (quote) too tactical (unquote). Given the rather cinematic nature of the rules, I must scratch my head in confusion at this...and she did finally consent to give it a go after I pitched a setting idea to her that was Avatar: the Last Airbender with touches of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom and a hint of Pirates of the Caribbean along the way. It was a rollicking good time while it lasted, and I can honestly say that Green Martians make very appropriate Masters of Arms (in charge of boarding parties, dontcha know).
I shall probably get around to posting the Frisian tomboy as a PDQ# character here in the near future.
Needless to say my luck with the dice holds true, and our first roll as the Lily of Anjou sets out to sea from the no-longer-quite-as-welcoming settlements of the Moros, comes up doubles to ensure that I will suffer a Random Event. It could be worse because the '6' gives a result of Storms At Sea, which is only 'active' from June to November. Saved by the calendar!
Movement, alas, is from port to sea, and so I must remain in Area 3. Since one can hardly increase Fame, Reputation, and one's fortune whilst mucking about aimlessly, I choose to have an Encounter this turn. For this, we roll 2d6 and compare each to the Area Activity Level of 3 and...4,6. Nothing but open water as far as the eye can see.
This is sort of good: Aledys is a Privateer, not a Pirate, and the Dutch aren't presently at war with anybody, so unless I'm ready to make her go full scallywag, I don't really want to run into a nice, fat Treasure Fleet or something right now. Getting jumped by pirates that I then proceed to whallop? That's more like it!
On the down side, she loses another 3 points of Fame (now at -5) because not rampaging across Colonial Lemuria means that she's not mentioned in dispatches home, and that means she'll have to work that much harder to get her likeness in the history books. If her fame hits -20, her Reputation drops to 4 and restarts at zero. Fortunately Rep cannot drop lower than 4 until she start slowing down from age! Living that long tends to be the difficult part. (Yes, if it rises to +20, her Rep would go up to 6...which is the maximum possible score.)
The Personal Loyalty test passes well enough (two out of a possible three successes), so the crew isn't too unhappy with me yet. Aledys should recruit a Cook. A good Cook.
And thus on to March 1660, when I think moving to Area 6 with that nice fat AAL of 5 will no doubt bring plenty of dangerous opportunities and increase the odds of having an exciting sea battle to report next time. The Lily of Anjou sets her course south along the Lemurian coast, and the lookouts keep their eyes peeled for black flags on the horizon.
+ + +
One of the funny little glitches with Ed's rules is that until the most recent generation of rules you had to roll 2d6 and score a 7 to have an encounter on any given campaign turn. Having somehow managed to go for years' worth of campaign time without anything happening to my characters due to strings of rolls that were anything but a 7, I'm inclined to enjoy the new rules a bit more. Probability defying weirdness still hits in my presence, but at least now I don't feel like my heroes would see more action if they became Encyclopedia Salesmen or something. (Which, in 5150 New Beginnings, is a possible career if I read the Job Tables correctly...probably a variation on the Law-Abiding Working Class job entry "Blue Service 3, Sales Clerk".)
+ + +
As an aside, one of the three coolest games I've yet to be able to really launch is a little thing called Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies. I tried to get Steph interested, but she kept saying it was (quote) too tactical (unquote). Given the rather cinematic nature of the rules, I must scratch my head in confusion at this...and she did finally consent to give it a go after I pitched a setting idea to her that was Avatar: the Last Airbender with touches of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom and a hint of Pirates of the Caribbean along the way. It was a rollicking good time while it lasted, and I can honestly say that Green Martians make very appropriate Masters of Arms (in charge of boarding parties, dontcha know).
I shall probably get around to posting the Frisian tomboy as a PDQ# character here in the near future.
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