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21:57, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure.

Posted by Hatteras
Hatteras
member, 9 posts
Fri 13 Jul 2018
at 22:27
  • msg #1

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure


Anyone up to join an adventurous crew of pirates on the rusty, scrappy steampunk airship Unsinkable II? The setting is mainly industrial fantasy, with plenty of cyberpunk, western, and post-apocalyptic flavor.


Gameplay
Encounters will mostly focus on fighting monsters, airships, and cultists, looting merchant ships, and exploring ruins and wrecks. Depending on player decisions/interests they may also get wrapped up in prison breaks, political intrigue, burglary, gambling, and cunning schemes for a big con. Combat is streamlined and not as common as in a dungeon crawl so posting stays fast. As gameplay progresses, new information about the goal of their quest will raise important ethical dilemmas – even for scum mercenary pirates.


System
Planning to use the simple, lite STaRS (Simple Tabletop Roleplaying System) in a homebrew setting. Players unfamiliar with the system are always welcome! Random char gen is available. Open to alternate suggestions for the system. I've run RL versions of this game before using Tephra, Scarlet Heroes, 7th Sea 2e hacks, etc but want a squishier, faster system for PbP.


Premise
As the crew of a fast stealth ship, we offen sell our services as swashbuckling mercenary privateers to several of the many warring city-states. On our last mission, our Captain overheard top-secret plans for a largescale operation by the military of the Aerie, a collective of high-tech city-states, to go after the cargo of an enemy fleet that's crashed under mysterious circumstances.

Our pirate airship is much smaller and faster than the Aerie military's juggernauts, so our Captain's decided to quietly go after the crashed cargo and scavenge the juiciest parts before the cavalry arrives. It'll be grand if we can beat the big Aerian military fleet to the punch, while fooling or waylaying their nimble scouts. But the Aerie's enemies shipwrecked far from the nearest human settlement. We'll have to loot a lotta supplies to last the journey and prepare ourselves for some nasty mutated monsters and high-tech mechasoldiers in this dangerous wilderness. And who knows what we'll find when we get there…

This message was last edited by the user at 22:48, Fri 13 July 2018.
dnich1123
member, 38 posts
Fri 13 Jul 2018
at 22:32
  • msg #2

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

I would be interested! I'm not familiar with the system, but it sounds like it would be easy enough to pick up, if that's alright?
Hatteras
member, 10 posts
Fri 13 Jul 2018
at 22:47
  • msg #3

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

Thanks dnich! You're right, STaRS is cake, so players new to the system are always welcome.
ShadoPrism
member, 1227 posts
OCGD-Obsessive-Compulsive
Gamer-Disorder
Fri 13 Jul 2018
at 22:51
  • msg #4

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

I am curious - what sort of classes / races are allowed in your game.
Also any supernatural types ? (werecritters, vampires, mages, etc)
Hatteras
member, 11 posts
Fri 13 Jul 2018
at 23:38
  • msg #5

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

Thanks for asking, ShadoPrism. Flavor as you wish, but influencing stats or game mechanics needs GM approval to keep things balanced. Also, the PCs are scavenger pirates, not aristocrats, so (at least at the start) they mostly won't be able to afford super fancy gadgets. That's the joy of stealing em!


Classes - No set classes. I'll provide optional starting skillsets to choose from – thief, fighter, ranger, scientist, witch, socialite, cultist – but players can create their own skillset.

Races - (1) humans (by far the most common), (2) humanoids descended from mutated humans, (3) AI/robots, (4) cyborgs, and (5) sentient creatures/humanoids resulting from scientific experiments

Magic - No, but there are a lot of hi-tech remnants from the pre-apocalypse era (or mutations from after) that could function like magic. There are cults that worship technology. There's some hedge magic, like charms and reading entrails, that most regular folk believe in, but its authority is disputed by scientists.

Supernatural - Yes and no
  • Yes - A big theme is that the post-apocalyptic world has much higher amounts of radioactive contamination and pollution than it did before, so rumors abound of people or settlements who have mutations resembling beasts of folklore. Ghosts are real, but rare, created by hi-tech design or accident.
  • No - Stuff like telepathy, psionics, or outright superhero superpowers won't be in play. Items and weapons aren't inherently supernatural, but again there are hi-tech artifacts.

This message was last edited by the user at 23:43, Fri 13 July 2018.
Tezaris
member, 5 posts
Sat 14 Jul 2018
at 01:56
  • msg #6

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

Not familiar with the system but you had me at Steampunk.  Also Airship. Aaaaaand pirate...
Hatteras
member, 13 posts
Sat 14 Jul 2018
at 02:46
  • msg #7

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

Hooray! Thanks Tezaris, that's great news. If we can get 1 or 2 more interested players, we'll be ready to take this show on the road.
Plonk
member, 3 posts
Sat 14 Jul 2018
at 02:55
  • msg #8

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

I'm interested.
Hatteras
member, 14 posts
Sat 14 Jul 2018
at 03:04
  • msg #9

Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

Cool beans. I'll put a link up tomorrow Edit: Sunday.
This message was last edited by the user at 16:19, Sat 14 July 2018.
Yaztromo
member, 195 posts
Sat 14 Jul 2018
at 04:12
  • msg #10

Re: Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

Hatteras:
System
Planning to use the simple, lite STaRS (Simple Tabletop Roleplaying System) in a homebrew setting. Players unfamiliar with the system are always welcome! Random char gen is available. Open to alternate suggestions for the system. I've run RL versions of this game before using Tephra, Scarlet Heroes, 7th Sea 2e hacks, etc but want a squishier, faster system for PbP.

Any chance you could consider Advanced Fighting Fantasy as a system?
Its Quickstart version is available free (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/pr...src=hottest_filtered) and what is missing from it is, fundamentally, character creation (that is a point buy system) and some styles of magic.
It is a quick 2d6 system that is very easy to adapt to various settings and allows a very quick character generation.
12th Doctor
member, 7 posts
I've got new kidneys!
I don't like the colour.
Sat 14 Jul 2018
at 15:21
  • msg #11

Re: Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

This looks great! Mark me down as interested!
Hatteras
member, 15 posts
Sat 14 Jul 2018
at 16:19
  • msg #12

Re: Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

Thanks Yaztromo, that's a really good point. I've gotten a few more suggestions for mechanics, so I'm gonna take another day to fine-tune them and put a link up tomorrow (Sunday) instead.

Thanks Doctor! Always great news to have plenty of players at the start due to attrition.
thattripletguy
member, 22 posts
Sat 14 Jul 2018
at 16:48
  • msg #13

Re: Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

I might be interested
Hatteras
member, 16 posts
Tue 24 Jul 2018
at 18:36
  • msg #14

Re: Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

My sincere apologies to all the engaged players who have shown interest. A serious RL issue has come up, and I'll have to postpone this game until January. I'll let everyone know when it's back!
engine
member, 645 posts
Tue 24 Jul 2018
at 18:48
  • msg #15

Re: Interest check - Steampunk airship pirate adventure

In reply to Hatteras (msg # 14):

Sorry to hear that. I will keep an eye out for the eventual posting.
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