Session 0

Here we will hash out the details for the campaign.

Technology:
I am leaning towards something late medieval fantasy in terms of technology (knights in plate mail, mages, cunning rogues, etc.).

Races:
In terms of races I am not sure if we should include "standard fantasy" with a twist (seafaring dwarves, aquatic elves, etc), "human only", or I could develop some setting specific races. Thoughts on this?

Big baddies:
Necromancer/Lich with a fleet of ghost ships (filled with undead, not just ghosts).
Barbarian tribal raiders with an ambitious warrior who seeks to unite them all
Others/Thoughts?

Magic systems:
Leaning towards storm callers, storm summoners, and the subtle art from the Fate System Toolkit. I am new to Fate, so I am hesitant to create my own. I am also open to just straight freeform magic. Thoughts?

Game's Scale:
Do you prefer local or global scope?
Ex. Local: You are adventurers traveling around and solving issues in various villages/cities
Ex. Global: It is up to you to stop the Lich King from spreading his corruption throughout the islands making life impossible.

Big Issues:
Undead attacks
Barbarian Raids
Sea Monsters
Etc.

Character style:
I would like to lean towards somewhat heroic characters, but they don't have to be all-good-all-the-time.
Big damn heroes, scoundrels/pirates with a heart of gold, etc.?
For example, they could be pirates who would raid a local merchant, but they wouldn't leave some village to die.

None of this is set-in-stone, these are just ideas to get the discussion started.

Re: races, I like the idea of "standard fantasy" with a twist. In that regard it could be like Evil Hat's Aether Sea (but with standard sailing ships instead of Aether Ships). See https://evilhat.itch.io/aether-sea-a-world-of-adventure-for-fate-core. Side note: I really love the 'Resources' track they have in Aether Sea to track getting paid for jobs and tracking when you're out of money :-)

Bad baddies: I like something more mundane like a Conan type world; maybe evil orc raiders are threatening the sea lanes, or an evil noble human wants to enslave the free sea peoples.

Magic systems: Aspects-as-narrative-permission is all you really need, but I find using the High Fantasy Magic rules helps reign in the 'I can do anything' issue. Here's the link: https://fate-srd.com/odds-ends/high-fantasy-magic. And stunts from Venture City can help round out a magic user pretty well.

Game's Scale: I like local scope. If you do global, you'll probably end up having fleets and such.

Big Issues: Like like sea raider, orc pirate attacks, sea monsters, competing pirate ships who are old enemies.

Character Style: I like what you mentioned; I think of it as 'Firefly' characters, you're heroic scoundrels just trying to get by. I don't prefer outright robbing innocents, maybe have a letter of marque to raid enemy ships could help with the moral justification of pirating?

I say standard fantasy races with a twist..

As for the big baddies...Given all the races to choose from there are, you can have a huge list to choose from.

In dealing with magic, I say go with what keeps it simple.

I'm not to sure about a global scale, but you can definitely have a large scale campaign and keep it simple. Like a Pirates of the Caribbean style.

Big issues could be a longest as well. I say the more the merrier.

I like the Firefly idea a lot.

Standard fantasy races with a twist is fine with me. I love playing dwarves, and a seafaring dwarf sounds fun.

I like the idea of a lich with a fleet of undead crewed ships. Is there a way we can work that into the game without ruining a Firefly type vibe that we all would so obviously enjoy?

I like most of the magic systems in the System Toolkit, as well as High Fantasy Magic. Any of those would work for me.

I think the resources rules that Dreamweaver posted combined with local scope will work really well for a firefly style game. The heroes can go from port to port trying to take on jobs to stay afloat, with the occasional heroics thrown in.

Do we want some or all of them to be wanted/hunted by some authority?

For undead would a good compromise be: there is a lich lord with a fleet of undead ships, but it is just one of many perils the heroes will face and doesn't dominate the setting/plot?

I think the High Fantasy Magic system in Fate Core looks good. I haven't looked over the other book yet.

How do we want magic to look in the setting? Rare, somewhat common, common?

I'd be happy to be wanted by the authorities. And I think magic should be more rare than common.

I'm down for having a bounty on my character as well.

Everything everyone said works for me. Low/rare magic with an elemental bent, bounty on our head sounds fun, fantasy races with a twist, Firefly = woot woot.

Alright, I'm liking how this is shaping up. I tend to agree with keeping it low-magic and focused locally, perhaps with the possibility of more of the world opening up later on. If we want to do outlaw heroes, one way is to have the ruling authorities in the area be corrupt/tyrannical and have the heroes fighting for the common man—Robin Hood style.

I'm okay with standard fantasy races, although maybe with a bias towards aquatic races, e.g. merfolk, fishmen/lizardmen, sea sprites—that kind of thing. Or any of those mixed with human (Imagine if the couple in The Shape of Water had a kid!)

And I like the idea of undead ships. Having an organized fleet of them might be too much though. Maybe it could be like, "If a ship goes down in this one specific part of the ocean, sometimes they come back undead. Nobody knows why it happens."

I’d enjoy both bucking the despotic authority and occasionally fighting the strange undead menace. Shall we be pirates that only prey on the naval fleet?

Could fight the navy or raid other government ships. Or even vessels of regime collaborators. I imagine that in an archipelago world pretty much every prominent figure has a ship or two.

The way a letter of marque worked was it was any ship affiliated with the enemy government. I like the "Patriotism and Profit" line in this article which describes the letter of marque: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque

That being said, I'd be uncomfortable stealing from women who have children and other marginalized or poor or helpless folks in the setting (a female pirate captain is OK to steal from though). I like being a 'noble' pirate. So if we overtook such a ship I'd be selective on who we stole from.

That sounds fair.

This sounds exciting, I've put together an update based your thoughts so far, and this is what I have.

Game Summary:
Embark on an adventure on the high seas. Welcome to the land of Amorisk. The archipelago lands filled with monsters, evil empires, orc raiders, where pirates and privateers are the fee peoples' last line of defense against death and tyranny.

The alchemists of the Malicine Empire created a powerful extract called "alchemists fire" that burns uncontrollably when mixed with water. They've used this power to conquer the surrounding territories. Alchemist fire has made their fleets nearly indestructible in naval warfare. But still, there are those who resist. The free ports of Amorisk have recruited scoundrels and warriors into fleets of privateers to raid the ships of Malicine. Only through plundering the merchant fleets and treasuries can they keep the empire at bay.

Still there are other dangers that the seafarers of Amorisk must be wary of. Gnollish raiding ships, Merfolk tridents, wandering sea monsters, and ghost ships. For some unknown reason, when some ships drift to far out-to-sea, they return with a crew of the walking dead.

Sail out into the waters, if you dare!

Technology:
Late medieval fantasy (no gunpowder/cannons)

Races:
Fantasy Races with a Twist

Big issues:
The Malicine Empire. Despotic rulers of the islands
Monstrous humaniod raiders (orcs, goblins, gnolls, etc)
Hostile Sea Peoples (Merfolk)
Monsters all around
Just keeping the ship in working order (resources)
When ships drift too far out-to-sea, they sometimes return as walking dead. No one knows the cause.

Magic systems:
High Fantasy Magic System from Fate Core
Magic is rare, so your high concept should justify its use

Game's Scale:
Local: You are adventurers traveling around and solving issues in various villages/cities

Character style:
Heroic Outlaws
Noble pirates, smugglers with a heart of gold, scoundrels with limits, etc.

Perfect!

Looks awesome! Are we building characters collectively or independently?

That all sounds good. Do we want to tweak the default skill list at all? Replacing "Drive" with "Sail" seems like a no-brainer. If we're going to be around water a lot perhaps a "Swim" skill distinct from "Athletics" might be desirable?

I think we could start off collectively and then split off on our own.

Sounds good to me. I'm all over the map with what I want to play. I'm thinking an orc with a secret past tied into the leadership of his tribes. He's a pirate and a reaver because he's been exiled from his people, many of whom want him dead, some of whom think he's the leader fortold to unite the tribes. I know that's a lot for small scale play, but I'm thinking of keeping his background firmly in the background unless we decide to make this a more global, less local story.

Also I'd be careful about adding too many skills. One or two is fine. If you start to add more we need to adjust our skill pyramid to compensate for the growing list.

I like replacing drive with sail. I think I prefer leaving athletics alone and assuming all characters know how to swim. Then roll athletics when performing a difficult swimming feat (swimming in a storm, in heavy armor, for a long distance, etc).

Agreed. We should have some kind of notion of what all the others are playing so we don't step on each other's toes too much, but we don't need to collaborate on all the details.

That sounds good to me.

How does everyone feel about the weapon and armor ratings optional rule?

I don't need weapon and armor ratings, but I'm fine playing with it if that's what we decide.

I like the idea of keeping it small. Like 1 shift for having the guts to wear armor on a ship. And 1 shift for using any weapon. Maybe 2 shifts for a magical weapon. I’ve never used them so no strong opinions on my part.

I don't think it would add much, especially if the numbers are small. Everyone who might need a weapon would presumably have one, so it would likely just be a flat +1 across the board—not very interesting. And if we get magic weapons or armor, modeling that as an aspect or stunt seems more appropriate.

On the subject of weapons, how set are we against cannons? It seems like if we assume that ships have artillery, that adds more options in ship-to-ship combat beyond boarding and fighting hand to hand.

But maybe the idea is that alchemist's fire is meant to take that role in this world.

Ships could also have mangonels to damage each other and ballista to kill opposing forces.

That's possible. Although those are ancient-era weapons. Not the sort of thing I associate with Age of Sail, you know?

I like that idea.

I think they're on my mind because I'm playing in a Starjammer game, and that's what's used in that setting.

We can leave-out weapon and armor ratings. To avoid penalizing characters who wear armor, I might rule that in this setting swimming in armor is not that difficult (could be compelled in difficult swimming situations, but in general you can swim in platemail). How does that sound?

Is everyone reading to start creating characters?

I like the concept, I don't think it's too much for local play. It would make things interesting by having various warlords want him dead.

No weapon and armor ratings sounds fine. I'd like to go with the orc character I described. Do you think he fits in the setting?

I like the character idea.

I think we posted at the same time there.

I'm struggling with my High Concept and Trouble. I want him to have a temper, but I don't know if I want that to be his Trouble. I also don't think I want his heritage to be his Trouble because that would make it more prevalent in the game. I want his High Concept to integrate his noble savage background.

Everything so far sounds good and I'm ready! Will post later this morning with some high concept / character ideas.

Proposed character concept.

Erik "Stormcaller" Drake

High concept: "Vengeful Ex-Slave Stormcaller"

Mechanics: A magic user using the ‘Air’ discipline from the High Fantasy Magic Fate Core rules.

Background: Captured as child by corsairs, Erik saw his parents put to the sword before he was forced into a life of slavery aboard a pirate ship. As he grew older, a kindly fellow-slave named Tobit saw in Erik the spark of magic, and helped Erik kindle the nascent powers. In time, Erik became a wind mage, helpful to speed the travel of ships. In a ship battle, Erik turned on his slave owners and sided with the victim ship, finally finding a path to freedom. Today, Erik sails the seas, his vengeance sworn against all slavers on the high seas.

@Dreamweaver Awesome sauce!

Maybe something like:

High Concept: Exiled Orc Chieftain turned Pirate
Trouble: Hunted or Wrathful

@Dreamweaver I like the character concept!

Maybe he has a claim to the throne for a particular orc tribe and the leader wants him dead? We could modify it later if the game turns more global in scope.

What all books do we need to get our characters going?

Fate condensed is all you need unless you make a mage. It is available as pay-what-you-want.
https://evilhat.com/product/fate-condensed/

The magic rules can be found at the Fate Core SRD: https://fate-srd.com/odds-ends/high-fantasy-magic

Thanks!

I'm thinking of a Human Fighter or Duelist

He was the melee instructor of a noble house. Everything was fine until he killed the first born son of a rival noble house.

Now he's on the run and plying his skills on the high seas.

How many Aspects are we starting with? 3? 5? 7?

3 in addition to the high concept and trouble.

Cool.

Darrok Bonebreaker
High Concept Exiled Orc Chieftain turned Pirate
Trouble A Mighty Temper
Aspect Last Son of High Chief Barrek Bonebreaker

Sorry if I wasn’t clear. 5 total aspects. High concept, trouble, and 3 more.

You were clear. I just don't have the other two aspects yet. :-)

Okay, here we go...

Bailin Rohmner
High Concept: Weapon master without a home
Trouble: Quick to defend women or children
Aspect: Former Weapon master to the Van Brunt noble house.

@Squadfather44 I'm totally picturing the "Dancing Master" from the first book/season of Game of Thrones.

LOL! I hadn't thought of him, but that's basically the idea. I love the scene where he's fighting the guards with a wooden training sword.

Yes exactly!

Are we using the skill pyramid as written in Fate Condensed? And 3 free stunts?

Yes, standard character creation. Standard skill pyramid and 3 free stunts (can buy 2 more with the cost of refresh).

Who wants to be tied to the angry orc?

You want to be friends with a Weapon Master that's on the run?

Sure. How do we know each other? Did we join forces in a tavern brawl? Serve on the same ship together?

One could've helped the other in a classic tavern brawl. Then they signed onto a ship together...been allies/friends ever since.

You can't go wrong with the classics. Do you want your character to have helped mine? A few guys could've been trying to collect the bounty on my character.

Sounds good to me. Who saved whom?

Do you want your character to have helped mine? A few guys could've been trying to collect the bounty on my character.

Sure.

Relationship Saved Ballin Rohmner’s Nuts From The Fire

Perfect!

I love it!

How much do you want us to post in Character Cast? A full Character work up?

That’s what I was thinking. Unless it’s easier to use character sheets. Then I can delete the thread. I am new to this site.

It depends, if we submit characters to you, it'll allow us to post in our character avatar.

If you prefer, you can submit the characters to me then. I deleted the thread.

What character sheet is everyone using?

I was going to use the sheet provided here on the site. If you all have a different custom sheet you think is better I'd be happy to use that.

Okay, here's what I'm thinking:

Name: Elwood Watley

High Concept: Mild-mannered shipwright
Trouble: Too cautious for his own good
Background: Has a passion for engineering and invention. Used to run a successful business designing and building innovative new ships. But when the empire conquered his home island, they took over his business and stole his designs, leaving him destitute. With a vendetta against the empire and nothing more to lose, he turned to a life of piracy.

As a Relationship, I’d like to make a connection to Erik. Based on their differing life histories, I don't think they would have met before joining the same crew, but what if say that Elwood is a bit on the older side and was a friend of Erik’s parents before they died? Does that make sense to you @Dreamweaver?

Still need to think of my free aspects, stunts, etc.

Still working on a couple things, but I've almost go Darrok wrapped up. I'll submit him in the next twelve hours.

@callan Nice character concept!

Thanks!

We should create a "character" for our ship as well. Or at least choose a name and some aspects.

So the Fate Accelerated or Fate Core sheet? I'll have mine completed by the end of the weekend.

The Fate Core sheet looks like it's got everything we need.

I present Darrok Bonebreaker, last son of high chieftain Barrek Bonebreaker.

Pretty cool. Very orc-y :)

Hoping to have mine finalized some time today.

Also, been brainstorming some possible ship names:

- The Mad Mare
- The Narwhal
- The Flying Hog
- The Vagabond
- The Windy Day
- The Sea Slugger
- The Wild Briar
- The Wicked Gale

Ship aspect idea: She's seen a lot of action

I like the Mad Mare. I also like that aspect idea.

I'm not terribly happy with any of the Fate character sheets I've seen so I'm attempting to improve and customize one for our game. What do you think?

Wow, very stylish :)

Alright, made my guy with the custom sheet.

I'm running with the idea that he was a friend of Erik Drake's father and is struggling with some survivor's guilt that manifests as feeling overly protective of Erik. I'm totally open to changing that if it doesn't mesh with what @Dreamweaver was imagining for his character though.

Everyone make sure you have the correct amount of stress boxes. I see the Fate Core sheet doesn't allow you to go past 4, and the custom sheet is always 6. If you use a custom sheet, you can just check off the excess boxes so you are left with the correct amount based on your physique/will.

I updated the game to allow custom character sheets, so you can submit your characters to the game.

I noted my Stress in the Extras portion.

I approved your character.

Cool thanks.

I like your sheet better, but each player can choose which one to use.

Thanks. Submitted.

How do we handle stunts? Just right some ideas?

Yep. GM will ask for changes if what you put down is unsuitable for any reason. Leaving them blank to be filled in later is an option too.

Yes, it is pretty freeform, but there are guidelines.
https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/skills-stunts

For quick-thinking could you choose either contest or conflicts? I think it needs to be more specific.

Okay, just Conflicts then.

I'll have my proposed character stats finished and submitted tomorrow; it's been a super busy weekend!

Running behind on getting my character done but I _did_ manage to improve my custom Fate Core / Condensed character sheet, which I'll post here. Added collapsable boxes to the stunt entries, and added an expandable rules summary at the bottom. To use the rules summary, add another spoiler tag at the end of the BBCode block to get it to collapse (you can't embed a spoiler tag inside a spoiler tag apparently).

Remind me, are we doing Fate Core or Fate Condensed? Big difference is how the stress boxes work.

We are playing Fate Condensed.

Once thing you can do when you need to embed a spoiler in a spoiler is to make one of them a "snippet" tag.

@Squadfather44 How is your character coming along. Do you have any questions?

Genius! Thanks for the tip.

Redcap, running behind on finishing my character stats, but should have it tomorrow (was a hectic last 24 hours)!

It's coming along great. I just got slowed down by my job.

I've submitted my character. I've still got a couple things to post, I just wanted to show that I'm still here.

Sounds good. We still have 3 players. I will launch session 1 as soon as your character is finished.

We could try recruiting replacements for the folks who dropped out. Unless you're really eager to get started.

I can open a recruitment thread to try to get a couple of more players. I am in no hurry.

Go for it :)

While we wait for 2 more players, we can finish creating the ship.

I've created a character for the ship.

The Mad Mare

Awesome! You have to share it to the library for us to see it, though.

Can you see it now?

All good! We can see it now.

Here is Marcos:



He used to live in and work for the Empire. He participated in production of the Alchemist Fire. He regrest it.

Seems to find academic rivals wherever he goes, as the naturalist working for the empire, or formerly working for, are many.

Open to any relationship aspects!

Sounds good so far!

Other than working on Seraphine's relationship aspect, I think I am done now.

One note with the Fate Character sheet is that Stress has changed a bit in Condensed and with a will of +4 I have 6 mental stress which I can't represent in the standard Fate Character sheet.

I had hoped that Condensed would simplify Stress by combining mental and physical and get rid of the derived stress, but apparently not.

@Dunko
I approved your character, you can figure out the last stunt and aspect during play.

You are also in the brig with Seraphine. Why are you in the brig? Post in session 1.

Awesome! Thank you!