Port City Adventuring in Freeports

[evangineer]

So one thing that jumped out at me while poring over the Pirates & Dragons book were the size and detail of the gazeeteer entries for the Freeports like Safehaven.

This signaled to me that the Freeports could be used as homebases and adventure locales in their own right.

So I'm wondering what others have done with this. 

I'm currently considering reskinning Estarion - City of Knives to serve as the basis for my take on Safehaven.

Also looking at 25 Port City Adventure Seeds (already created a D12 random table to go with the first seed).

What ideas and resources have you used or considered for running adventures in and around Freeports?

[Firebird01]

I am using Safehaven as a base for my characters (see Pirates and Dragons Ye Legacy thread) as this gives good rationale for having a variety of different nationalities and factions being in the same place. Historically even if some nations are nominally at war trading and contact could take place at Freeports and in neutral territories to ensure that life's necessities continued to reach those who could afford it.

Haven't actually gone to the bother of fleshing out the port or drawing any maps for it as yet because I tend to run a loose style of campaign with a framework plot with some set pieces but where a lot is made up on the spur of the moment (mainly by the players - I just nick their ideas). I just tend to have a load of NPC ideas with a name, profession/faction, reason for being in the Dragon Isles and picture (I use a lot of 17th/18th century portraits etc. to provide a period feel (see example attached), then develop full stats etc. as needed.

I have also found that Heroic Maps on DriveThru have a good selection of pirate/sea/coast/ship themed battle maps etc.

As background reading into the whole pirate thing (I like using historical references as they provide period flavour and detail but also give me some ideas for settings etc. real life can be weirder than anything I can make up) the following I found quite good -

Pirate Nation (Elizabeth I and her Royal Sea Rovers) by David Childs - Earlier period but does give a good insight into the development of pirates and buccaneers along with clue to their tactics and explains why the English Navy was so rubbish until the 18th century.

Spanish Gold by David Cordingly - Gives a good history of the Golden Age of Piracy and its major players.

The Pirate Hunter by Richard Zacks - Though the writing is a bit hit and miss gives an insight into the life and times of Captain Kidd and shows how fine the line is between pirate and privateer and how this line moves according to politics and profit margins.

Dramatis Personae Richport.pdf

[evangineer]

14 hours ago, Firebird01 said:

As background reading into the whole pirate thing (I like using historical references as they provide period flavour and detail but also give me some ideas for settings etc. real life can be weirder than anything I can make up) the following I found quite good -

Pirate Nation (Elizabeth I and her Royal Sea Rovers) by David Childs - Earlier period but does give a good insight into the development of pirates and buccaneers along with clue to their tactics and explains why the English Navy was so rubbish until the 18th century.

Spanish Gold by David Cordingly - Gives a good history of the Golden Age of Piracy and its major players.

The Pirate Hunter by Richard Zacks - Though the writing is a bit hit and miss gives an insight into the life and times of Captain Kidd and shows how fine the line is between pirate and privateer and how this line moves according to politics and profit margins.

I liked your Dramatis Personae pdf.  I shall try to follow your example and source appropriate period imagery.

Regarding background reading, I have the following:

• David Cordingly's Life Among the Pirates: The Romance and the Reality which has a chapter on Pirate Havens such as Port Royal.
• Linebaugh & Rediker's The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic.
• Gene Wolfe's Pirate Freedom.

 

[Firebird01]

Thanks for that will check them out.

[evangineer]

For further inspiration, I picked up a copy of On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers last weekend.