Pirate Borg -- any of you scurvy dogs have it?
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Just listened to the podcast version of the TLAP Day livestream. Definitely going to snag Buried in the Bahamas when it hits Noble Knight*. I don't have any experience in running *Borg games, and getting an adventure that is explicitly a DM tutorial, along with more classically pirate flavor than the Black Coral Bay stuff in the core book, sounds great to me.
* I have more than $100 in store credit and they're a member of Bits & Mortar, so this the most logical place for me to get it.
* I have more than $100 in store credit and they're a member of Bits & Mortar, so this the most logical place for me to get it.
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I just received Buried in the Bahamas and The Sinking of C'thagn in the mail and, via email, in PDF.
Reading Bahamas right now, in preparation for running a game later this month. So far, it looks pretty good, if also very basic. It looks like it'd work great at conventions, as Luke Stratton even talks about moving the climactic encounters to whatever island the players are on, if time is running out.
The Sinking of C'thagn is a large two-sided map (for oldsters, it's so large that it would be unreasonably large for a map in your car). On one side is a very nice, but simple, map of not-R'yleh. The other side has a simple adventure with rival factions (including a new one of oyster men that I wish had pre-gen stats and maybe an illustration), a Mork Borg-style set of psalms that lead up to the city sinking back beneath the waves once more, a few points of interest, and a small dungeon.
But the form factor is kind of a problem: In hard copy, flipping over this enormous map to show the players who will inevitably want to look at it periodically is going to be a pain in the butt. In PDF form, all of the different "pages" on each fold of the map are on a single jumbo PDF page that users have to scroll around to look at, instead of being broken up into eight or so long skinny "pages," which would be very easy to navigate. It's otherwise a neat product, including a Great Old One generator I can see using in other games.
I get that there are a lot of indie game types who enjoy playing with form factor -- Phillip Reed's almost monthly Kickstarter projects often have pretty eccentric presentation formats -- but sometimes, they get in the way of use at the table, IMO.
Reading Bahamas right now, in preparation for running a game later this month. So far, it looks pretty good, if also very basic. It looks like it'd work great at conventions, as Luke Stratton even talks about moving the climactic encounters to whatever island the players are on, if time is running out.
The Sinking of C'thagn is a large two-sided map (for oldsters, it's so large that it would be unreasonably large for a map in your car). On one side is a very nice, but simple, map of not-R'yleh. The other side has a simple adventure with rival factions (including a new one of oyster men that I wish had pre-gen stats and maybe an illustration), a Mork Borg-style set of psalms that lead up to the city sinking back beneath the waves once more, a few points of interest, and a small dungeon.
But the form factor is kind of a problem: In hard copy, flipping over this enormous map to show the players who will inevitably want to look at it periodically is going to be a pain in the butt. In PDF form, all of the different "pages" on each fold of the map are on a single jumbo PDF page that users have to scroll around to look at, instead of being broken up into eight or so long skinny "pages," which would be very easy to navigate. It's otherwise a neat product, including a Great Old One generator I can see using in other games.
I get that there are a lot of indie game types who enjoy playing with form factor -- Phillip Reed's almost monthly Kickstarter projects often have pretty eccentric presentation formats -- but sometimes, they get in the way of use at the table, IMO.
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schneeland
Hero
A little late, but I have finally managed to do a full read-through of Pirate Borg:
My general impression is a positive one: while following the general trend towards a wild design present in all of the Borg family, this one seems a bit more playable and most entries in the random tables didn't seem too absurd for me. Also, I had the feeling that the rules for ship combat are a addition for the scenario.
My favourite part, though, was the small pirate/horror sandbox in book. I have a bit of "Borg fatigue" at the moment, but even if I don't end up using it with the original Pirate Borg rules, there are some nice ideas in there that I might use with other systems. Similarly, I might still end up backing the Dark Carribean campaign (not sure if with OSR or Pirate Borg rules).
My general impression is a positive one: while following the general trend towards a wild design present in all of the Borg family, this one seems a bit more playable and most entries in the random tables didn't seem too absurd for me. Also, I had the feeling that the rules for ship combat are a addition for the scenario.
My favourite part, though, was the small pirate/horror sandbox in book. I have a bit of "Borg fatigue" at the moment, but even if I don't end up using it with the original Pirate Borg rules, there are some nice ideas in there that I might use with other systems. Similarly, I might still end up backing the Dark Carribean campaign (not sure if with OSR or Pirate Borg rules).
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
It would be exceptionally easy to port the standard classes over to Shadowdark, using the randomly generated abilities as a replacement set of talents for the fighter, cleric, ranger, wizard and thief. (Adapting the other two classes would be a bit harder.) And at that point, you've just got an extremely good pirate sourcebook for Shadowdark.
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RichGreen
Adventurer
What’s the Dark Caribbean campaign? Is that a new book?
schneeland
Hero
It's something Limithron, the makers of Pirate Borg, have teased on their website. It sounds like they want to fully flesh out a campaign setting based on the bits they put in Pirate Borg.
Link: The DARK CARIBBEAN | Limithron (not much there except the announcement at the moment, though).
darjr
I crit!
I’ve run the sinking of cthagin a couple times now. Your best bet is to print out the dm side in separate sheets. Me? I went the other way and printed out the player map in an even bigger paper!
The first time I ran it the escalation of doom was super fun. The factions were cool too, especially as the players discovered the pirates meant to take their stranded boat. Only too late did they realize the land was sinking.
The first time I ran it the escalation of doom was super fun. The factions were cool too, especially as the players discovered the pirates meant to take their stranded boat. Only too late did they realize the land was sinking.
RichGreen
Adventurer
Cheers! Looks great!
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Just finished Buried in the Bahamas, in preparation for running it for a surprisingly large crew of players. It's an excellent little OSR intro adventure, with just enough to give good guidance for what a DM should be doing, advice on trouble to avoid and suggestions on how to adapt it in play.
This is very much an OSR adventure in the sense that you can tell Luke Stratton feels free to make up things on the fly -- nearly all the monsters in the adventure are new ones, even when ones from the core book would probably have sufficed -- and it's written to support an improvisational style.
Very excited about running this, although I'm going to have to watch some videos between now and this weekend to help me get more comfortable with the *Borg mechanics.
This is very much an OSR adventure in the sense that you can tell Luke Stratton feels free to make up things on the fly -- nearly all the monsters in the adventure are new ones, even when ones from the core book would probably have sufficed -- and it's written to support an improvisational style.
Very excited about running this, although I'm going to have to watch some videos between now and this weekend to help me get more comfortable with the *Borg mechanics.
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