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.