Favorite Pirate city: Freeport vs. Five Fingers vs. Sasserine

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

However, that's only one element of the setting. And honestly, Yig, the Crawling Chaos and the Yellow Sign are old favorites, but they're kinda cliched.

IMC, I'm swapping them all out for Ptolus-style chaos cults and the worship of Dagon (the D&D Dagon, not the Lovecraft one). I think it fits pretty well.

And Five Fingers is from the Iron Kingdoms.

 

[Tumbler]

My freeport has always been pretty dark. when Scuttlecove came along, I just rolled most of it into Freeport.

I haven't used five fingers yet.

I don't think Sasserine is really dominated by pirates.

 

[catsclaw227]

And I have to admit, the name Five Fingers is not ringing a bell. Source?

Five Fingers, Port of Deceit is an Iron Kingdoms sourcebook. It won 4 Ennies this past GenCon, garnering two Silver Ennies for Best d20/OGL Product and Besrt Setting, and two Gold Ennies for Best Cover Art and Best Writing.

It's quite good, but for me, it's still Freeport.

How is Kalamar's Loona, Port of Intrigue? And Scuttlecove, while only really in Dungeon magazine is a good dark, sleazy city.

What other good Pirate/Coastal cities do others know about? Bluffside wasn't really a pirate city, but its a good coastal city, for sure.

 

[ragnarok77]

Freeport is too classic!
Too many sweet memories...

 

[Desdichado]

IMC, I'm swapping them all out for Ptolus-style chaos cults and the worship of Dagon (the D&D Dagon, not the Lovecraft one). I think it fits pretty well.

I'm thinking of using Eric Mona's idea (from Armies of the Abyss) of having the entire pantheon of gods simply be the demon lords. I might make a few updates, like add Dagon in place of Vepar or something like that, but that'll automatically darken it up without too much trouble. Secret cults of Shax running around kidnapping people to dissect them alive in the name of their faith, etc. Great stuff. Eric Mona seriously kicks ass.

I don't know if this is just a personal thing with me or not, but the rather vehement refutation of slavery by the authors struck me as a bit of a fourth wall breaker because it seems like a nod towards current sensibilities rather than classic pirate tropes. I'm looking back at some of the classic pirate stories (such as Captain Blood and others) where slavery is so integral to the story that I can't imagine it without it. I can imagine that possibly slavery is confined to prisoners of war and sentenced criminals, but the idea of the city of pirates being dramatically anti-slavery somehow seems to immediately shine a bright light on it where I'd rather have it linger in the shadows. So I'll almost certainly axe that idea too.

Steal a few good ideas from stuff like Scuttlecove and even Marienburg (hell, skaven in the sewers is always a good idea) and I've got a Freeport that I could be excited to run.

I do also like the idea of it being a systemless sourcebook. Even though it seems pretty rife with D&Disms, I've considered possibly running it in True20, d20 Modern, D&D, WFRP, CoC, and even other more esoteric systems depending on the audience.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think it'd even work better with a system that's designed from the get-go with horror in mind. Maybe d20 Modern + d20 Past using the Shadow Stalkers campaign model is my favorite option at the moment.

 

[Morrow]

I've been running a Freeport campaign for more than two years, so my loyalties are clearly there. I can't help but agree with the criticism of Freeports sillier aspects, but I've never had any trouble ignoring them. (I too, look forward to getting my hands on the Pirates's Guide.)

As an aside I've had a lot of success dropping some of the creepier Dungeon adventures from recent years into Freeport, including Porphyry House Horror, The Styes, and The Weavers.

 

[johnnype]

Five Fingers FTW!

I suspect that most people who voted for Freeport or Sasserine have not read Five Fingers. If they had they'd realize that it's in a league all it's own.

 

[Desdichado]

I think that Five Fingers suffers in the polls for 1) being less generic and therefore less well-known, and 2) being percieved as intimately tied with Iron Kingdoms, which is not as applicable to just any old campaign setting.

I also think Sasserine suffers from 1) being spread out rather than concentrated in a single sourcebook, and 2) being too intimately tied to the Adventure Path rather than presented as a generic port city that you could use.

I think someone earlier pointed out that although it's kinda sorta billed as such, it's not really so strongly pirate-themed as Freeport and Five Fingers are.

 

[Wik]

Whoa, am I the only one that loves Sasserine?

Some have claimed it's too tied to the AP - How!? Sasserine features in only the first couple of adventures of the AP. And a recent Dungeon adventure (with no ties to the AP) is set entirely within Sasserine.

Sasserine is just a cool city, hands down. My players really loved the place, and I think they would have been perfectly fine with the entire STAP taking place within the city. In any case, it's going to be ported over to my new campaign world, although how I'll do it still remains a mystery.

 

[Desdichado]

Whoa, am I the only one that loves Sasserine?

Apparently not. Ten votes so far.