Cutlasses & Corsairs--Rules & Discussion
 

EDIT: If you decide to make a character, then use 4 six-sided dice and drop the lowest die roll. Roll for 7 Stats, then drop the lowest, and distribute the 6 highest to whichever Attributes you want for your character. It won't make the game much better to "fudge" rolls for a super-character, so unless the overall character would be really low you don't have to keep rolling until you get a really high character either. You should end up with 6 Attributes, each between 3-18 (or 18/00 for Strength for Cutlass class characters).

In an effort to construct a pencil & paper RPG version of PotCO, I’ve modified the OSRIC rules for a simple rule set to follow. Other important sites, to help play and understand the full rule set even parts that don’t affect play here, are the Wizards of the Coast—Archived 3.5 SRD & http://www.d20srd.org/ (this site is really just a web style presentation of the 3.5 SRD). The last site also has a tool to simulate all the different dice used in a d20 RPG; this will help those that don’t have their own dice.

This thread will be a place to put your created characters reference information, or just talk about the game out of character; we’ll play in story specific threads, where we’ll reference our characters in third person and any out of character references will be kept within “spoiler tags” and those will be removed after issues/asides are resolved. Once we get about 4-7 players, we’ll be ready to try an adventure.

I’ve made a number of changes to the material offered in the general rules. For example, every player character in this game will be human. The next big thing is that the “classes” we will be playing will be based on the main PotCO weapons. Each must use its first weapon slot to take its name weapon; this includes the Voodoo Doll.

Some things to keep in mind about this type of RPG:

Be careful where you tread, as you can quite easily get yourself in over your head. Having said that, I don’t really want to kill anyone’s character unnecessarily, so look out for cues that you might be in an especially dangerous place (sometimes you may not have much choice, and you should use as much caution as you can when you travel). There are some ways to bring your character back to life, should it die, but it’s doubtful that a low-level character’s low-level friends will have the resources to carry the corpse back to civilization let alone pay to bring it back to life. Even then, there are limits on how many times a single character can come back from death, and there is always a chance that it will fail (at that point the character is lost forever barring a miracle or wish).

Remember that things like weight/encumbrance will affect your character’s ability to move and take actions. You won’t have unlimited ammunition, and you won’t be able to teleport at the drop of a hat (at least not until much later in a character’s development).

Your characters aren’t globally important (at least not yet), most of the Non-Player Characters (NPCs) don’t care about keeping you on your quests, and the ones that do likely expect something in return. You will meet lots of helpful NPCs, but you can’t just assume that NPCs are always looking out for your best interests (they’ll have their own motives and purposes). The big thing is that your character doesn’t have to go along with a “script” like in a computer game.

Of course, the other side of that is that is that the world keeps changing. In other words, things don’t respawn in places indefinitely. If you partially wipe out an enemy and return later to finish the job, then don’t be surprised when they’ve added reinforcements; however, if you partially wipe them out again, then don’t be surprised when nothing is there when you return the third time (give it a few months maybe something else will move in).

You will have to make choices for your character, and sometimes those choices mean you are excluding other possibilities permanently. Another major difference in the p&p RPG is that you will never be able to unlock all the potential in your character because some are “either/or” offerings. The one upshot is that a live human Game Master can provide a host of NPC henchmen & hirelings (of varying quality-again, you couldn’t just assume they’d carry out orders like a computer controlled NPC would).

Player Background

Player classes
Cutlass (Fighter)-Weapon Specialization & Double Specialization available at character creation (Cutlass must be 1st choice)

Dagger (Thief)

Grenade (Ranger)-no alignment restrictions, no “bonus vs. humanoid foes” & Feats (list TBD) replace spells starting at 8th level, NO weapon specialization for Grenade class characters, only class that can take a weapon proficiency in grenades

Pistol (Assassin)-any non-good alignment, starts with 50-200gp like Cutlass & Grenade classes, better pistol/musket firing rate than any other class (improves with experience too)

Voodoo Doll (Cleric)-May not be proficient in pistol/musket or cutlass, can use daggers, spells divided into Hexes (used by all) and Wards (used by a limited group). Voodoo Doll characters must choose a side (if they were generalists, then they’d be a village houndan somewhere); good/evil doesn’t matter, but Lawful types will use Rada Loa spells, Chaotic types will use Petwo Loa spells & Neutral types will use the Guédé spells. Players start with a straw doll, but change Holy Symbol, wooden to Voodoo Doll, cloth and Holy Symbol, silver to Voodoo Doll, silk

Voodoo Staff (Magic User-May not be proficient in pistol/musket or cutlass, requires a spellbook be kept/must carry a staff, but can chose from other available weapons for initial combat proficiency slot (if so, then 2nd slot must be used for staff as a combat weapon)

Attributes
The basic 6 attributes are: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution & Charisma.

Alignment
This game will use the 9 Alignment system. First, since it is often a point of confusion for regular RPG players, the concept of alignment language provides a way to communicate a sense of shared ideals & values, not carry on fully detailed conversations. You should choose an Alignment that you can employ consistently. If it can be simply stated that morals are one’s sense of right/wrong and ethics are one’s ability to abide by one’s own moral code; then Alignment is your character’s moral code, and your future experience point (xp) awards will be affected by your character’s ethics (as acted out in game) synching up with your Alignment. Most xp comes from killing monsters and recovering gold (and lots of little things in between); but, if your character is supposed to be Lawful Good, then you wouldn’t get any xp for the gp you decided to steal from the “poor box” (in fact, you’d probably find yourself getting penalized in some way).

Weapons
Many of the weapons are NOT available in the Caribbean: Battle Axes, Heavy & Light Flails, War Hammers, Javelins, Lances, Heavy & Light Maces, Morning Stars, Heavy Picks, Pole Arms, and all Swords except the Broadsword (renamed Heavy Cutlass) & Scimitar (renamed Light Cutlass). The Heavy Crossbow is to be renamed Harpoon Launcher. The Net, Harpoon, Sap, and Whip are being added as weapons (none are open to the Voodoo classed characters).


Pistol/Musket & Grenade are completely new weapon types, so I may have to do some serious fine-tuning to these weapons after we’ve seen how they affect outcomes. The firing rates may seem low, but they are for general combat; for normal non-combat use firing rates run from 1-4 per round depending on expertise, most will get 2-3). These rules reflect relatively disorganized tactics for smaller groups; eventually, we may need to develop some rules for a 20-gun+ organized volleys (for example, a greater effective range). Pistols can have from 1-3 barrels, and each may be fired on consecutive combat rounds; however, thereafter, the normal reloading rates apply.
For now, they will work as follows:

Armors
There aren’t many physical types of armor in C&C; the following ARE available: Padded, Leather, Studded Leather, and Steel Breastplate (200gp, 30 lbs encumbrance, base AC6). Shields aren’t in common use either, but armor classes assume the purchase of a basic helm (5 lbs, 10gp); a helmet could be purchased separately for 10gp (5 lbs encumbrance), and that would provide a base AC9. So, that’s pretty much AC10 (no armor) to AC6 (Breastplate) as the whole range of worn armors; be on the look out for magic talismans and other ways to improve armor class....

Voodoo Doll-Hexes and Wards

Well, I thought I better try out making a character. I got pretty lucky with the dice, especially for 15s.