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

[funkysnunkulator]

beware the king in yellow sails

 

[Patrick O'Duffy]

I'm kinda taking my time with the latest Freeport book (although I'm already fairly familiar with the Freeport concept, so a lot of it is "review" for me) but one thing strikes me. It's a pirate themed city, but it's missing a lot of the classic tropes of pirating movies and stories. The setting is written on the assumption that you're going to be spending a lot of time in the city, or the surrounding islands. It could really use, say, some rules for ship to ship combat, or other typical "piratey" things, and some section of the sourcebook would be well spent with adventure hooks of things that you can do while you're at sea.

There's a pretty long chapter at the end of the Pirate's Guide about the Serpent's Teeth region, which has more on piratical activities and plot hooks; the GMing chapter also has more on this.

The other issue, though, is that a piratical campaign is only one option for Freeport games, and we didn't want to promote it head-and-shoulders above the alternatives. There are plenty of valid campaign ideas that involve little or no seafaring or piracy - fighting the Brotherhood, being involved in gang wars, playing merchants caught up in Council intrigue - and those shouldn't fall by the wayside just because none of the PCs has a parrot on her shoulder.

So no, Freeport isn't all piracy, all the time. But I see that as a strength rather than a weakness.

 

[Patrick O'Duffy]

beware the king in yellow sails

...oh, I like that.

 

[Dog Moon]

beware the king in yellow sails

Wait, is the king in yellow sailing or is the king in yellow wearing sails?

Or is it just a normal kind wearing yellow sails?


I don't really get how anyone can like Sasserine. Nothing against the city, but you leave after like 1 adventure and the only reason we stop back is to buy and sell stuff now that we have teleport. COULD be cool, but not enough of the AP stayed there to MAKE it cool.

 

[catsclaw227]

I don't really get how anyone can like Sasserine. Nothing against the city, but you leave after like 1 adventure and the only reason we stop back is to buy and sell stuff now that we have teleport. COULD be cool, but not enough of the AP stayed there to MAKE it cool.

As far as the AP goes, there wasn't much relative adventure time spent there, but the write-ups and history oozed flavor and coolness. It would have made a great homebase for a number of homebrew Greyhawk campaign adventures. There are a lot of interesting marked/unknown locations in the vicinity, the Scarlet Brotherhood and the Sea Princes, as well as digging up some Olman history by bringing some aztec like adventure seeds in.

 

[Dog Moon]

As far as the AP goes, there wasn't much relative adventure time spent there, but the write-ups and history oozed flavor and coolness. It would have made a great homebase for a number of homebrew Greyhawk campaign adventures. There are a lot of interesting marked/unknown locations in the vicinity, the Scarlet Brotherhood and the Sea Princes, as well as digging up some Olman history by bringing some aztec like adventure seeds in.

Ah, so maybe as players, my group just didn't cover much of the city then. I'll blame my DM.

 

[jdrakeh]

Does Stormwrack have anything? And if I recall, there was a really good Bastion Press book about seafaring stuff (or was it Mongoose?).

Mongoose had a 3.0 supplement (Seas of Blood, I think). It oozed 'neat' but was ugly as all get out and didn't actually end up being of much use for my group (at the time) in actual play. Still, it covered an aspect of d20 that many companies simply haven't (i.e., nautical adventure).

 

[The Human Target]

Out of those options, Freeport.

But all in all, I prefer Armada from China Miéville's novel The Scar.

 

[funkysnunkulator]

...oh, I like that.

you are welcome......

 

[funkysnunkulator]

Wait, is the king in yellow sailing or is the king in yellow wearing sails?

Or is it just a normal kind wearing yellow sails?


I don't really get how anyone can like Sasserine. Nothing against the city, but you leave after like 1 adventure and the only reason we stop back is to buy and sell stuff now that we have teleport. COULD be cool, but not enough of the AP stayed there to MAKE it cool.

as written... wearing sails.

and no, there is nothing normal about a king wearing sails. especially yellow ones.

but the reference was to the king in yellow. in sasserine. yeah, we went there. you should have seen the players filling thier pants when they heard the question...

"have you seen the yellow sign?"

piracy, insanity, tentacles.... nirvana.....