Are they any good Age of Sail RPGs for someone in a Master & Commander/Aubery & Maturin or Sid Meier's Pirates! kind of mood?
I know 7th Sea exists, but I've heard it features remarkably little seafaring. What other games are out there, if any?
Spelljammer
>>48270630
>implyingRogue Traderdoesn't do it better
>>48270831
I'm not gonna say Sci-Fi kills the Age of Sail vibe, but it certainly stifles it.
>>48270854
If all else fails, GURPS. GURPS Swashbucklers in this case.
>>48270630
>>48270831
Sorry guys, I want actual tall ships. Doesn't have to be historically correct, but sci-fi and spelljammer level fantasy isn't really what I'm after.
>>48271006
Don't like GURPS either, I'm probably screwed, hah.
>>48271020
7th Sea, sort of? But by all reports, the sailing and naval combat are the worst parts of the system (I wouldn't know, all of my campaigns have been almost completely land-bound; the bits that weren't had nothing to do with me other than as a passenger at most).
>>48271020
Refluff the magic boats to look like normal boats instead of like fish?
Hell. some of the magic boats already look like sort of like normal boats.
You could try in /hwg/, I think one or two of the classic old age of sail wargames are quite crunchy and focus on small actions and ships in detail, you'd just need to add a character layer.
I think 7th Sea 1st Edition could work. Try to find some of the (many) homebrews that improve naval combat.
Rogue Trader!
I'd love a game set on this period or similar but there aren't many sources of inspiration.
There is also Savage Worlds: 50 Fathoms, with a bit more focus on seafaring.
>>48271622
GURPS Swashbucklers lists this.
I've read A General History of the Pyrates recently, makes for a nice read. Not much historical apparently, but, still a nice read.
>>48271020
GURPS dose this remarkably well. In many ways the 17th century is the best period for it, with guns that are brutal but logically limited and decent rules for the operation and crewing of ships.
I had a GURPs game where we started out in Dublin with a disgraced British naval officer and an Irish doctor hired to deliver a French aristocrat to New Orleans for marriage and managing a plantation.
Hiring a crew proved a challenge, the British officer as master wasn't really the sort of thing to encourage the sailors looking to hire on in an Irish port. A bit of subterfuge with the good Doctor playing the role of the ship owner made it possible to get the crew hired while the third of the player characters proved aristocrats aren't useless by arranging to carry some mail and wine to the new world so the ship would have a cargo.
A whole session was spent buying provisions, weapons and equipment for the trip before setting out. A storm to teach everyone the mechanics of running the ship in bad weather, then off the Azores an attack by a English pirate nearly ended in disaster.
The survivors that didn't want to take their chances with the Portagease authorities and a prize crew took the pirate's ship with them to the new world, where the Governor of New Orleans gave them a commendation for their work and a letter of marque to interdict British shipping for the duration of the war. By then there was no chance the French aristocrat was going to agree to stay on the farm.
>>48269174
Beat To Quarters
http://www.mediafire.com/download/jocks3057t55m95/Beat+To+Quarters.pdf
>>48272349
>Beat to quarters
I'll be in my bunk.
>>48272399
All hands on deck, seaman.
Savage Worlds, Pirates of the Spanish Main is what you're looking for.
>>48269174
I am honestly waiting for the Pirate nations book for 7th Sea second edition to be released before I say no to it for naval combat.
So far what they've released for 2nd edition (only the core rules) is more narrative than tactical so, although I like it, I don't think the naval combat will be all that tactical.
>>48274994
The creator practically scoffed at the idea of making naval combat a highlight, something like "Seriously? what would a naval book even include? the difference between 12 pound gun and an 18 pound gun? come on."
This was in the same AMA where he said they threw out dueling because it was boring -- safely after he'd raised his million dollars.
>>48275736
Let us hope. Even if Wick is a moron, perhaps one of his underlings manages to sneak something in.
>>48271693
Oh... never expected this to be so simple as a fucking list in an image.
>>48278218
Just grab the appropriate GURPS books.
Usually there's a list like that at the end.
>>48269174
Privateers and gentlemen RPG maybe. Heart of oak that comes with the game is a miniature historical war game that is described in reviews as "a sailing simulator with fighting rules attached". This might be something to check out.
>>48272349
>>48280862
Wow, never expected the thread to still be here after sleep/work.
I'll check these out, thanks.
>>48271622
Check out Master and Commander, the first (and one of the best, IMO) of the Aubery and Maturin series (20 books + 1 unfinished) by Patrick O'Brian. Its is amazing.
Don't worry if you don't know all the nautical lingo (cause there is shittons of it). Dr. Maturin doesn't know all that shit either, so anything critically important gets explained to him, and the rest is like an immersive language course, you'll suddenly find yourself comprehending it eventually.
Alternatively, there is a movie (which is a mashup up the first book and a later one) but its not as good (still entertaining though).
>>48275736
>Wick threw out dueling because it was boring
What the fuck I used to vaguely tolerate that guy
Glad I didn't back 7th Sea.
>>48282734
Horatio Hornblower is damn fine too, especially the first books.
If you like books intended for tween girls, Bloody Jack and Under the Jolly Rodger are fun, but play fast and loose with history. (Those are the most pirate of the books. In the Belly of the Bloodhound is good too. The rest are worth reading if you ask me, but aren't as good.)
>>48282849
It's actually still there, just not as its own mini game.
>>48273100
+1
Book wise, the Alan Lewrie series by Dewey Lambdin are great fun. They start a little earlier than most Age of Sail stuff, during the American Revolution, and the main character is, well...
Starts off with him caught in bed with his half-sister, and so he gets bundled off to the Royal Navy to avoid a scandal. Sometime later he realizes he has a talent for the navy, and says to himself, "I shall have to start taking this shit seriously."
RPG wise, you might check out Furry Pirates. They put a lot of attention to the different ship types and clearly love the genre.
