Recent content by Imaculata

While I agree in principal... in practice having the players play evil characters is something I have rarely seen end well. I try to encourage my players to play characters that would work well as the main cast of a movie or tv show. They don't have to be lawful good, but they should have...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the 3e book Stormwrack. It contains stats for ships and rules for ship to ship combat, plus all you need for running sea-campaigns. For big naval battles between multiple ships, I would advise looking into Pathfinders Mass Combat rules. If you are planning to...

And to echo Umbran's other point, I also have no interest in having my players play villainous pirates who commit atrocities. Realism serves only to help make the setting feel more believable, but ends where the fun does. Anything that I do not consider fun content, no matter how realistic, I...

And apparently it is believed Queen Anne's Revenge used to be a French slaver ship, before being captured by Teach (Black Beard). That would have almost been a good act, were it not for the fact that he then sold the slaves, and used the money to upgrade the ship with more cannons. Sure, there...

You are both right. That said, this is certainly something to discuss during a session 0. And I would recommend leaning more towards a positive flavor of pirates; good guys with shades of grey. You don't want to deal with your players commiting atrocities.

The Hollywood depiction of epic pirate battles, with much cannon fire, explosions and gore, were not a common affair. Most pirates preferred not to lose life and limb for a few coins. Which is why several pirates, such as Black Beard, are said to have relied more on intimidation. A peaceful...

Piracy is basically just a form of theft. It can involve violence, but it doesn't have to, and often didn't (many preferred not to be mortally wounded, what a surprise). After all, many pirates preferred their victims to surrender without a fight. Atrocities are not a requirement for piracy at...

It should be noted that there were historically also plenty of pirates who were decent people. Just because a person lives a life of crime, does not make them a villain. And under certain conditions, pirates could even commit their acts of piracy "legally" on behalf of a nation. I've ran a...

I usually have one binder for the campaign, and one for maps. I also keep a more general third binder for equipment (for many campaign settings), which the players can look into. The campaign binder contains: -The campaign outline -Quest descriptions -Character descriptions -Location...

When I run social situations in D&D, I always start with the idea that each npc has: -things they already know -things they care strongly about -things they want -things they don't want -things they don't care about at all With that information, it is relatively easy to make rulings when...

That is usually a sign of a troubled production.

I kept thinking of the movie Dragonslayer.

I thought it was fun. The effects look fine, given the Netflix budget. It's a shame the marketing spoils the big twist of the movie. I liked the second act a lot, with Elody surviving in the lair. The third act felt a bit weak. And although the ending is predictable, it also gives the audience...

Not a very high bar to clear.

The line from the trailer, "He was studying spiders in the Amazon with my mother, right before she died" has become a hilarious meme online. But apparently the line isn't even in the movie! I'm so disappointed.