Keep'n the Scurvey Dogs off the Lawn.

The Arms race in the Caribbean is heating up faster than a peg-legged sprint through a termite mound. Seen here the British are drilling their bombardiers for accuracy, speed and fashion.
Not to be out gunned or under dressed the French and Dutch are sporting their own ship shattering mortars this season.

The Basic Mechanics

Fist Full of Seamen has been under development for about two years now. We've play tested it, modified, and rewritten parts of it. I'm posting a few things here for those curious about the rules we use. The hardest thing to grasp for long time gamers is there is no target number to roll. For a success you just need to roll a number that isn't blocked by an opposing roll. It really makes combat deadly and decisive. This is why the best captains avoid combat till a clear advantage presents itself. When we started writing we looked at many games out there and most made Piracy into a war-game. Piracy is more about survival and risk evaluation so we developed a pretty simple convention game that really runs itself, a solo game, and a campaign and character system. This game is not for the simu-holics out there who crave immersion in minutia but a smooth game with acceptable results by all players. Be warned battles have been known to last as long as 5 minutes with reasonable results.

The Idea here is to post some of the rules so our players at Fall Recruits can look over the mechanics in advanced.
The Focus of the convention game treats the ships like a skirmish unit. The captain and crew are integrated into the statistics for the ship. We have separate skirmish rules for miniature figure combat but only use them when dueling in the convention game.
On the example ships below the movement distances are modified for a 24ft by 24ft playing area. Scale is adaptable to both table size and scale. We increased movement rates to keep the game moving.

Ainsty Castings casting off.

I wanted to post these three together to show a compare and contrast of these fantastic ships.

The Armed Merchant "Douche Doree"

After months of persistent interdiction from pirates the merchants of Fort Nicanville have turned to heavily armed trade vessels to bring commodities to their bare shelves. Seen above the Douche Doree a 26 gun Indiamen packed to the gun walls, is delivering relief to the market's dry goods predicament. " Look We have needs out here on the edge of his majesties' glorious empire and if the Golden Shower can provide what we need we will pay. Our butter needs churned, our melons need to be placed in the hands of our customers, we have nuts rotting on the dock. We're taking a real soaking out here and we need relief." Quoted a frustrated stall vendor.

Ahoy Recruits!

Recruits September 15^th at Lee’s Summit, MO. USA

The next installment for the largest pirate game in the USA is now officially registered with the organizers of Recruits. (link) Our crew has been granted an exclusive suite at the school to host our event and the accommodations are very generous. As a bit of a preview we haven’t changed much about the game this year except we are adding at least two more ships and there have been negotiations with a local group in Missouri to expand the table area and add 9 more ships. That will bring the game to around 30 Ships and the possibility of as many 1^st mate characters. You must be 16 or older to captain a ship and 15 or younger to play a character in the game. Anyone interested in bringing their own ship is encouraged to contact our crew before the 14^{th of September} about a ship’s play log. Captains who do bring their own ship are granted a spot in the game but they need the following items to play:

1) an official playable log sheet made by our crew.

2) A yard stick.

3) A 25mm reasonably 17^th century period painted ship, captain,

and at least 12 crew members for a shore party.

4) A small treasure chest or velvet bag for doubloons.

5) A clip board.

Anyone not bringing a ship will be provided these material but will have to sign up to play on a who traveled farthest, got here first, dressed most like a Pirate, bribed/threatened the right judge, or any other 17^th century jockeying they can win favor in the royal courts with.

More Pictures from Recruits 2012

Spring Recruits 2012 pictures from the Gallery. The Photographer did such a great job I wanted to show them off.

White Meat is much Healthier.

There is too much Squid in the Sushi

Only once has there been a more Reached hive of scum and Villainy, But our heroes shoot first.

This is what it looks like when you use different scale Pirates in your game.

That Ship wont Float.

I think it was a French film, It was shot at strange angles and every one seemed tragically Parisian.

The Dutch, stacking more paper than Gutenberg

SEND IN THE CANNIBALS! (always worked on Johnny Quest)

Safe anchorage.

Aft Quarter, Titan Uranus

Fleet Week.

Several requests have been sent to me for pictures of all the ships in one picture. Finding a place for that to be shot presents two challenges. One the space the ships take up in continuity. the second the loss of detail from the wide agle of the shot. We set these up durring the clean up at Recruits to give the audience a glimpse at the fleet.

The Old Glory Foam Kits.

Front to back: Old Glory Ghost ship, Galleon from Hand Crafted Model Ships, East Indiamen, Frigate and Pirate hunter from Old Glory