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((Permission for this RP was granted. See page 92 of the RP Submission Thread.))

Setting:

The Caribbean, in the decades following the "Golden Age of Piracy" (America has already had its successful revolution, and the general timeframe is 1780 - 1820. Obviously any sort of weapons or ship that existed prior would be allowed, with some leniency to ship types past 1820. No ironclads though, sorry kids.)

Well, nothing like a good war between empires to boost the rate of piracy on the high seas, right? It seems England and France are at each other's throats again, with both sides issuing Letters of Marque to any sea-goers who feel compelled to take up the legal form of piracy, with a forfeit of a portion of the take as the price to pay for legal protection.

Or, why bother with legalities? Take up piracy! After all, the Caribbean is a virtual hotspot for trading, and there's a wide array of targets: the French, English, Americans, the Dutch East India trading company... there's no shortage of potential targets!

Or why not sail for king and country? Join the navy of any side you wish, and fight off those pirate scum! The seas may be awash with gunsmoke and bloodshed, but there's no better time to make one's fortune on the high seas...


Rules:

1.) No godmodding. Seriously, enough.

2.) Try to be at least REMOTELY historically accurate. Learn about your weapons, et cetera. Also? This is not Pirates of the Caribbean, or some magical RP of the Fantasy genre. No magic, no cursed amulets, and if I see anyone claim they're after Davy Jones' heart or hunting the Kraken I will throw you out so quick they'll hear the sonic boom in China. We clear?

3.) If you sign the Articles of Agreement aboard a pirate vessel (ESPECIALLY mine), you WILL accept the punishment for breaking any of the articles. If you refuse, it can be GMed upon your character by the acting Quartermaster. Quartermasters, you'd better behave as well, as you have the Captain looking over your shoulder. That, and you're as vulnerable to mutiny as anyone. Note: The ONLY exception to this rule, is if the player of the Captain and Quartermaster STATE that they will not GM the punishments out if you don't want to accept them. Odds are this will be rare though, but read carefully.

4.) Violence and gore? Fine. Feel the urge to show your affection in anything PAST making out? Do it over PMs or an IM service. Please. I *really* don't want to read through page after page full of smut, there's an entire internet full of it.

5.) If you have a ship, do everything required. Name it, say what class it is, how many guns, what type of guns, crew size, speed, etcetera. All of this stuff is actually pretty easy to find out, so it's not as hard as you think. Honest. I came up with my own ship in DETAIL in under an hour; and I knew nothing about sailing vessels (I'm in the Arizona desert for god's sake). The template for ships, as well as characters, will be posted up upon gaining approval for the RP.

6.) As host of the RP, I will not be micromanaging everything. However, I *will* be watching over you all to make sure you're not just dicking around. One of the huge pet peeves is female pirates. Did they exist? Yes. Did they flaunt the fact that they were women? Rarely. It just wasn't smart; especially since they were on a ship filled with men who hadn't SEEN a woman for months. You can figure out why that'd be bad.

7.) BIGGEST PET PEEVE OF ALL: Contrary to what's been picked up as "fact" by popular culture, all pirates were not drunks. In fact, one of the "Intolerable" behaviors aboard the ship or in port was drunkenness.

Think about it folks: These people are wanted men. They are on something as complex as a large sailing vessel, and may need to spring to action at a moments notice. Not something easy to do if you can't even walk straight. Odds are, you would be given the lash 39 times on bare back as a LENIENT punishment. A few captains did allow it though, so this isn't to say it's outlawed entirely. Just be sure to read the Articles of Agreement in full before signing onto a ship to get drunk, as it's up to the captain whether it's allowed or not.

Character Template:

((please, please, please, double space the larger categories like history, appearance, etcetera. Makes it a LOT easier to read))

Name:
Age:
Sex: (ladies, if you want a female, be warned: superstition's working against you, so you'll have to get creative with the rest of the profile. Women pirates are allowed, and did exist in notable numbers, but it's not nearly as simple to join a crew as it was for the men. SOME captains outlawed it entirely, and punished any man to bring a woman aboard with death.)

Affiliation: (Pirate? British Navy? Merchant? Spanish Navy? You get the idea.)
Crew Position: (uh, this should be real easy to understand. Also, if you're a captain and own your own vessel, list the name of the ship and also post up a Ship template. For regular crewmen, you don't need to post up anything about the ship, of course.)

Personality: (What's the character like? How do they act around others? Any particular phobias we need to know about? What are they most skilled with? You get the idea. 6 lines at the very, very least. Not hard to do.)

Appearance: (What do they look like? Any scars? Piercings? They missing any limbs or eyes? How do they carry themselves, with pride or do they just scurry around trying not to draw attention to themselves? Eye color? Hair color? Clothing? Note: keep the clothing at least believable. Nobody had a pair of Nike sneakers back then, and you can probably rule out sunglasses and a trenchcoat. As sad is this is, I've seen people do it before -.-;; ...)

History: (How'd they get involved in Piracy? Or are they a privateer? What sparked their decision? Did they maybe join the navy? Are they still there? Maybe they're just a merchant? You don't need to put up your character's life story in detail, but it's nice to have one so that we at least know what made your character who he or she is. Also, for those of you who decide to get lazy and claim they have amnesia: you still have to write a history for them, whether they know it or not.)

Weapons: (Self-explanatory. Guns? Swords? Most pirates carry both, and sometimes several guns. It'd be nice to describe what they have, and I'd also recommend you at least read up on it so you know how the blasted thing works.)


Ship Template:

Name: (of the ship. As stupid as it sounds, people have screwed this up in the past...)
Class: (...well, what class of ship? There's a huge difference between a Spanish Galleon and an American Schooner, so it's real nice to know.)
Crew: (How many crew are aboard? Please research the ship type so you don't get this wrong. A schooner can't hold a couple hundred people, and a galleon can't possibly operate with just six people)

Top Speed: (most of the time, you can find this included with a ship class)
Cannons: (How many, and what type and size? PLEASE research this carefully, as it can and in all likelihood WILL mean the difference between sailing home and taking a nice warm dip in the Caribbean. With those oh-so-friendly fish with big teeth swimming toward you.)

Other Characteristics: (How maneuverable is it? More often than not, this is also included with a description of the ship class if you're looking it up online. Also, the type of sails it has is important, but due to the strategic part of this game, I won't tell you why . How'd your character get it? Was he one of the rare breed of pirates that could afford a ship, or did he just "acquire" it? This should be fairly detailed as...well, other people will depend on this to RP decently. You know, your crew.)


Once there's at least 2 seperate ships out there, I'll begin the RP.

(well goody, seems I get to put my profiles up first >.&gt

Name: Nathaniel Drakken
Age: 34
Sex: Male

Affiliation: Pirate

Crew Position: Captain and owner of the False Hope

Personality:
He's usually rather quiet and is not one for casual conversation, and always appears to be somewhat moody or deep in thought ... which one of course, depends on whether or not the observer is at all fond of him. His niche in life appears to be suited most to anything at all that involves some form of strategy or planning; more often than not he's usually running over drills with his crew about how to best go about the next raid on local shipping. Usually only a couple weeks in advance, though when times are rougher he'll often put the crew through the drills a few months ahead of time; to do his best to ensure absolutely nothing goes wrong when the time comes.

Most new additions to his crew may find him a little too callous for their standards, though over time chances are they'll grow to appreciate him like the veteran crewmen do. He may not show it openly, but the truth is he'd go to most any length for those under his command. Occasionally out of respect and friendship, but more often than not its because he believes every member of the crew is irreplacable; as no matter how unbearable they may be, they're already familiar with the usual practices aboard his ship and have proven their competence already.

Anyone he deems to be incompetent or not worth the gunpowder they use in battle is either beaten into shape or promptly and unceremoneously dumped off without a second thought at the soonest possible opportunity. Those who prove to be dangerous to those around them, and a hazard to keep aboard, are either marooned or simply tossed overboard if land is nowhere nearby.

Appearance:
Nathaniel stands at 5'11" in height, is of medium build, and weighs in at close to 187 pounds. He usually leaves the job of overseeing the crew directly to his quartermaster; preferring instead to stay in his quarters keeping track of the charts and trying to plot out where the ship's next hunting grounds should be. He's also careful to keep track of the whereabouts of any "unfriendly" fleets in the area (British Navy, Spanish Navy, etc). His black hair extends down past his shoulders, and not surprisingly it's usually unkempt. More often than not he's clean-shaven (or at least as close as one can get using a dagger and water), and the area around his eyes is darkened with charcoal (not for vanity reasons; this actually cuts down on glare from the sun reflecting off the water).

He's managed to escape serious injury so far, though a few scars from pieces of debris sent flying from cannon and small arms fire are scattered about over his arms and upper body. His skin has darkened to a moderate tan after so many years out at sea, and rings are already beginning to form under his brown eyes from the stress that comes with a life of piracy...

History:
Nathaniel started out as a man that made an honest living as the captain of a trading ship that ferried supplies to and from Britain and her colonies throughout the world. Well, at least until England and France decided a good war was long overdue and promptly went at each other's throats.

Not long after, he and his ship were under threat of being taken over by the Navy, and by this point even Nathaniel had lost track of which cluster of people had managed to royally piss off Mother England, and had to be told just who they were at war with. He managed to avoid losing his ship by instead offering to take up privateering (in other words, legally-sanctioned piracy against shipping from a particular nation in a time of war). It took some getting used to, but after two or three failures he and his crew eventually met with success; more of which followed as their experience began to grow. Nathaniel began to develop a knack for every variety of tactics, under-handed and otherwise, and his men weren't faring so bad themselves. It all came to an end when the cost of war began to grow, and more and more of what was captured by Nathaniel and his crew in battle was to be set aside for the government.

Problem was, he'd grown quite fond of what he did; especially the pay-off.

He stepped down as captain and handed over the ship to the Royal Navy as any good man should; though the primary reason was because the large, bulky cargo carrier wasn't all that fit for piracy on the high seas. Instead he used what money he'd obtained from his privateering ventures to purchase a far smaller ship; a Sloop that would soon become known as the False Hope. Ever since, he's been doing nothing but cause trouble for former king and country...not to mention any other ship that looks to be carrying anything of value...

Weapons:
Nathaniel carries one cutlass, a small dagger as a weapon of last resort, and a total of six flintlock pistols kept holstered and ready-to-fire. He knows full well how to operate a musket and any other firearm found on the ship however, so his options are hardly limited; these are simply the ones he keeps on his person whenever possible.

Name: The False Hope, occasionally referred to as just the Hope by the crew.

Class: Sloop

Top Speed: 11 knots

Cannons: 12 culverins, 20-pound. 4 swivel-guns can also be mounted on either side to fire upon a ship's particularly violent crew during a boarding attempt or a close-range battle.

Other Characteristics: The bane of any trading ship without escort, the False Hope is almost impossible to outrun due to its impressive top speed of 11 knots. Larger ships that opt to use square sails often find it even more troubling; as it's capable of sailing into the wind due to its triangular sails (something square-sails can't quite pull off). Incredibly maneuverable and quick to boot, the ship also gives any pursuers and unending amount of frustration due to yet another feature: with a low draft of only 8 feet, it's capable of sailing through the shallows and heading inland with little trouble, while most pursuers (especially those with larger craft) are left stomping on the deck in frustration out at sea.

While Nathaniel wisely prefers to catch a ship and board it as quickly as possible rather than blow the ever-loving hell out of it, the False Hope is not something to be ignored in a naval engagement. Should a full-fledged fight erupt, one particular advantage of the ship (aside from the maneuverability, speed, and ability to sail into the wind) becomes apparent: due to it's incredibly low profile, relatively narrow hull, and short length of only sixty feet, the False Hope is horrendously difficult to hit with cannonfire (at least anywhere that would cause significant damage). Larger ships would have an even harder time, as their usual tactic of blasting the enemy to pieces with their broadsides would be completely useless at anything other than incredibly long range, as the majority of the ship doesn't even reach up to the lowest gun deck.

Anything other than a heavily armed and armored naval vessel would have something to fear if it chose to meet the False Hope in battle as well, as it has a total of 12 20-pound culverines that can send a projectile smashing through the ship's hull from a safe distance, outside the range of most naval cannons.

All in all, the False Hope is something to be dreaded by sea-going merchants and traders foolish enough to take anything other than a dreadfully large and heavily armed ship into it's hunting grounds...

((You have my undivided attention, this description took me two hours to finalyze and you have rekindled my love for the 'Golden-Age'.
I always used to scratch-build ships from this era and sometimes drew them... now that my skill in drawing is far superior, the Lady Orleans looks quite spectactular after an hour of scribbling I'll see if I can post her tonight !! ))


THE MAN:

Name: Captain Luc Tibou Livi'nion (Former French Admiral
Age: 47
Sex: Male
Affiliation: Former French Navy Admiral, assigned with a privateer's license after Retiring, Has strong connections and loyalties owed to him amoung many higher-ups in the Navy.

Crew Position: Le' Capitan...

Personality: A traditional sea-dog, carries with him the 'Born on a ship, die on a ship' ideaology with him. He's gruff at heart and isn't easily intimidated, he believes that Loyalty from his men can only happen if he is loyal to them in return, earning him a perfect record of compliance with his men. He is strict yet lenient, enforcing a set code of rules and punishments that include no measure of embarassment. The majority of his crew have served with him for nearly twenty years.

Appearance: A French High-Officer's hat (Much like Napoleon's) with a thick woolen black ex-English officer's Great-coat liberated from a defeated captain's shoulders.
A brace of three loaded pistols on his hips, one left with his Rapier and two on his right alongside an extendable brass and crystal telescope. A pair of Folded brown-leather boots adorn his feet and half way to his knee, a black pair of thick baggy pants with dark blue Vertical stripes on his legs.
His face is worn with age and experience, his entire body covered with numerous scars and callouses from the wear and tear of Sea-life.
Around his neck sits a gold picture-pendant of his sweetheart back home, though this is well-covered by his long, matted greyish-black beard and bushy hair past his collar, Only he knows that he's married, the men just think he's too dedicated to the life than to worry about the opposite sex...

History: As with his mindset, Luc was actually born on a galleon, during the crossing to the Caribbean. For many years he stayed out at sea, never finding himself one for land... On his twenty-second birthday, Luc was granted his first command of the light frigate, the 'Savignion' where he earned an excellent reputation for command, instilling a perfect record of loyalty from his men. When he was thirty-one, his ship ran afoul of a heavier-classed English tradeship and was sunk, though most of his men survived being able to swim, those that weren't able perished.

Upon his eventual return to the French colonies, almost two years later of bartering passage in the hopes of getting home, he was promoted to the rank of Admiral for his upstanding leadership as not one of the surviving crewmembers abandoned him, adding up to a total of nearly fifty men. As part of his promotion, the Lady Orleans was given to him during trades with the Yankees, she was built according to french design with a few modern 'upgrades' on request by Luc, granting it powers over ship normally twice the class of the 38-gunned Corvette.
At the age of forty-six, Luc retired from the service and took up Privateering on request by the high-command; he was given all of his old crewmates as well as many more veteran Navymen as well as full ownership of the Lady Orleans.


Weapons: A set of three pistols and a special custom-made Rapier, fashioned in an Italian-edge style with a tempered blade that is the equivalent or near enough to modern spring-steel, offering a deadly, yet graceful blade that is almost immune to damage.


THE SHIP:

Name: Lady Orleans (Not pronounced like the Amreican region, the French way: Lay-DEE Awe-LEE-Ohn)

Class: Corvette (Yankee-Built, French Design)

Crew: 67 Alive of a 130 Capacity after a run-in with an English Migrant fleet who were using Grape-Shot= The five Sloops were destroyed, leaving a limping Light Frigate and a sinking Galleon.

Top Speed: 12 knots (Fast eh? the yankee-built French ships used an incredible design that partially lifted the ship up out of the water as she sped up, much like the Acheron from Master & Commander; the far side of the world, twelve knots is quite bloody fast for something of this size...)

Cannons:
Port/Starboard- 32 Demi-Cannons, 32 Pound, range-1620 paces.
Forward- 2 Culverin, 20 Pound, range- 1830 paces.
Reverse (Nicknamed 'Royal Backside')- 4 English Cannon-Royal, 48 Pound, range- 1850 paces.


Other Characteristics: The captain is a veteran of war and a master of menuvering his ship, tactics involve dragging extendable weights to create drag on one side, offering a 15-degree turning arc per eight seconds. The Lady Orleans is equipped with additional defenses on eithe side that cover the top-deck cannon-crews, they are made of thick redwoods and offer a 58% chance against Grapeshot and a 24% chance against anything up to 20 Pound ammunition. The masts have splinted sheets of Iron extending around the first 24 feet up the masts to increase protection against chain-shot as well as general high-shooting to slow her down.
Her hull is fashioned with American shaping trademarks, giving her a 2 knots of an advantage over most Corvettes with the addition of Heavy canvassed-sails with cross-rigging to prevent tearing when under fire, creating slits in the sails instead of gouges or larger holes when a cannonball passes through them.

With all the plundering and looting that comes with the trade of Privateering, the Lady Orleans has a large store of spare plank and light sail cloth, though no spare masts as they already lost one in the recent engagement. In the event that a mast is destroyed or shoals are encountered, the ship can Deploy up to 48 sweeps (Oars), unfortunately, with the large loss of life in their most recent battle, not all of these can be operated.

((hope you like it Might draw Luc later ))

Ok, she's not finished... ended up with a concept 'feel' to it

If anyone else would like their ships or characters drawn, I need more practice, don't hesitate to ask

Heh, nice ^^

I'd always had an interest in the Corvettes, but finding enough info on the design proved too difficult (speed, crew size, and armament) proved to be too difficult, so I opted for a sloop *nod*

And o'course the Yankee built ships had some advanced features, they were tools of war. It's our tradition to make such things faster, stronger, and able to make more people dead in less time

Definitely won't be havin' the same problems with you as I did people in the past. Only real reason research is allowed is because the last person I encountered not only failed to describe any part of his ship (for all I knew, it could have been a Ship of the Line or a raft with two falconets and a single sail >.&lt, but when he was finally forced to he said "it's like the Black Pearl."

And I hope yer French captain fares better than the only famous French Privateer I know of (...he was literally torn limb from limb by some unfriendly natives .___. )

Or, since you already have two ships, would you prefer me to be a crew member, since y'all have a lot more about your ships than I do.

We have a Pirate, A Privateer and we need an English Navy... I'm sure there's no problem... Our descriptions were done this long out of choice, yours is fairly descriptive and more than most people would write

I'll see about drawing the Intrepid for you

Originally posted by Aliies
We have a Pirate, A Privateer and we need an English Navy... I'm sure there's no problem... Our descriptions were done this long out of choice, yours is fairly descriptive and more than most people would write

I'll see about drawing the Intrepid for you

Mmk, thanks.

Mine was also done long because I was planning a raid onto a pirate RP full of people sorely in need of a good ass-kicking IC, but that's a story for another time >.>

Didn't quite expect everyone to hop for their own ship so soon o.o ... a lot of the times the usual trend seemed to be "Screw it, I'll join that person's crew ... and if anything bad happens, I can blame him/her!"

I'm off to work in a bit, but since now we've at least got some conflicting sides, I'll go open up the RP thread.

EDIT: Oooh, also, to avoid confusion; since only one thread's being used, include your location at the top of the post itself in brackets. "," etc.

Add-on to the setting: The one exemption from the set timeline, is the locales. Yes, America exists. But in this timeframe, there's a problem: almost every last pirate haven was either wiped out entirely, or outright dangerous for a pirate to set foot in (damn you, London!)

So the one exception to the setting timeframe is that the locales, such as Tortuga, Port Royale, New Providence, et cetera; will exist as they had in the Golden Age of piracy. Unless visitting outright hostile ports or half-submerged cities with rampant epidemics of various diseases is your idea of fun >.> ...

Ok, attached is the Intrepid in her sketch-form... I'm going to be getting loads of practice in my drawing lately... I might do the False Hope next

Oh, by the way, if you wish to use my pictures for anything else, then you MUST credit me on www.aliies.deviantart.com , art theft is one of the worst things on the net as I poured my heart and soul into these drawings, they're all done in pencil and pen

Looks great!

And don't worry, only evil people do sh!t like that, and I'd like to think I'm not one of them.

Lady Orleans, Additional information...

Firstly, I came across a 3-d building program and am going to build my ship, then I'll do yours though it might take a while!
The Lady Orleans has the 16 32 pounders on either side (Port and Starboard) spread across the single deck, as Johns Mannequin's captain plan to raid my ship, I thought it wise to explain the layout before he does so, to make it more realistic and therefore he can plan his method of attack.

The reason for the guns being only on the one deck is that it ensures that anyone trying to board has to focus on the one deck. the cannons are divided by solid redwood 'plating' that is reinforced to the main deck to provide additional protection to the cannons and their crew - this also impedes direct passage between ships during either broadside or boarding actions.
On the wall of the Captain's cabin, a large storage cabinet houses the military rifles and shot. every crewman is instructed to carry a pistol and sharpened french-navy cutlass on them at all times, improving the readiness of every man and make the Lady Orleans a force to be reckoned with. The hull is made into a reinforced section that is very heavy, ensuring that all but the most volatile of storms could damage her and improving resistance to damage caused by both cannon-fire and reefs/shollow rocks.
Although she is sizably smaller than ships such as the English ship Victory, a First-rate, hundred gun ship, the Lady Orleans falls under the third-rate category due to the armor modifications and the heavy caliber shot of her cannons. She outclasses anything else her size and borders between Second and third-rate, although her size declares the Lady Orleans a Third class ship of the line.

The ship herself can be piloted by just eight or so men though for full operation and to cut down on additioonal weight for speed, her maximum is one hundred and thirty odd crew. Although the recent losses have dampened her maximum abilities, there is enough crewmen to operate the entire ship and one whole half of the guns at any one time, meaning that she is as effective if against only one vessel, if another comes then Even the Lady Orleans runs the risk of falling.

Luc-Tibou is a proud man though his tactical mind acknoledges the advantage of a tactical retreat, he preaches a 'hold the line' Ideal though will make haste if the need arises and are outclassed, falling back on her impressive speed and the amazingly heavy 48-pound guns on her rear to ward off pursuers.

Since this naval engagement is going to occur between myself and Johns Mannequin, I took the liberty of doodling what it might look like if Luc-Tibou decided to run (However unlikely)
The foreground is the Lady Orleans, the little set of sails on the horizon is the Intrepid bearing full power of the Weathergauge!

Damn, I wish I could draw like that.

Anyway, another great pic!

I found there's already a very simple 3D building program out there:

"Pirates of the Caribbean," made by Bethesda (same people who make Elder Scrolls, so you know where this is going )

It's got more bugs than a cheap hotel in the New York slums, but holy mother of god does it put a lot of effort into everything that takes place at sea. You can even direct the battles in a first-person view whilst pacing across the deck. They put a good deal of effort into the ships themselves too, so you could figure out just how hard it is to move around in a Galleon versus something like a Corvette or Sloop (have both). It's the lazy-mans way to get ship info and pics (info being how many cannons, number of masts, crew size is fairly accurate, etc).

There's a good deal of strategy involved too >> ... protect your goddamn sails. And for the love of god if you get caught in a storm at sea, pull the sails up, turn into the wind, and just wait it out >> ...

Also, there's a website called The Pirate's Realm for good ship stuff, as well as info on the various strongholds, famous captains, etc

got the game... finished it... I get my info from other places

Of course, not too useful for info.

I use The Pirates Realm, Wiki, Google (when desperate), and two books I have on the topic of pirates. One detailing specifically the Golden Age of Piracy (even givin' me a map of the times, and a spiffy Jolly Roger )