RPG REVIEW Issue #26-#27, December-March 2014-2015 Pirates and Swashbucklers Double Issue Mark Pettigrew Interview … Pirates of Middle Earth … Many Pirate RPG Reviews … Belly of the Beast Adventure … The Ivory Tower Adventure … Pirates for Multiple Systems… Pirate Encounters for Gulliver's Trading Company … Nautical Races for D&D 5th Ed … Shab i Hiri Roach … City of Freiburg … The Pirates Band of Misfits and Noah Movie Reviews 1 RPG REVIEW ISSUE 26-27 December-March 2014-2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Administrivia, Editorial, Letters many contributors p1-8 Hot Gossip : Industry News by Mingshi Wu p9-11 Mark Pettigrew Interview with Mark Pettigrew p12-14 Pirates and Swashbuckler RPGs by Lev Lafayette p15-44 Crew of the Damned: Piratical Pregens by Karl David Brown p45-50 Belly of the Beast by Nicholas Moll p51-55 Pirates of Middle Earth by Michael Cole p56-73 Pirate Encounters for Gulliver©s Trading Company by Karl David Brown p74-82 Nautical Races for D&D 5th Edition by Karl David Brown p83-90 Deep in the Ivory Tower by Lev Lafayette p91-96 Pirate Shab al Hiri Roach by Lev Lafayette p97-101 Freiburg: Review and Elaboration by Lev Lafayette p102-108 Life As A Pyrate by Jake the Peg p109-111 Thai Influences in Gamandria by Brendan Davies p112-114 Some Thoughts on ªThe Wheel of Timeº by Nick Langdon p115-129 Movie Review: The Pirates Band of Misfits by Andrew Moshos p120-121 Movie Review: Noah by Andrew Moshos p122-124 Movie Review: Jupiter Ascending by Andrew Moshos p125-127 Next Issue : The Undead! by many people p128 ADMINISTRIVIA RPG Review is a quarterly online magazine which will be available in print version at some stage. All material remains copyright to the authors except for the reprinting as noted in the first sentence. Various trademarks and images have been used in this magazine of review and criticism. Any use of images, material etc, is not to be construed as a challenge to any intellectual property and is under "fair use" as review. Any use of images, material etc, is not to be construed as a challenge to any intellectual property and is used under "fair use". Text is in Nimbus Roman, headings in Nimbus Sans, front page in Utopia. Any errors or omissions are unintentional. This includes by is not exclusive to references to Middle Earth owned by the Tolkien Estate, Dungeons & Dragons by Wizards of the Coast, Freiburg and 7th Sea by Alderac Enterainment Group. Noah is distributed by Paramount Pictures, The Pirates Band of Misfits by Columbia Pictures, and Jupiter Ascending by Warner Bros. EDITORIAL Welcome to a double issue of pirates and swashbuckling adventures for RPG Review, an unexpected double issue which started short, had some large articles provided and then followed up with another two months or so struggling to get the page count up. The horrible result is that this big issue is epically late, leaving less than a month for the deadline for the next issue. This is what happens when one tries to be old fashioned in the production style and provide a consistent page count. Gaming ©bloggers can just put the material up and to hell with the word count! Which is, of course, a very tempting path to take. As it is, this is a shorter issue than usual for a double ± it is supposed to be a massive 128 pages [EDIT No, we made it!]. Well we made the tonne as they say in the old language, but we©ve still fallen a little short. But on topic there is a great deal that fascinates contemporary people about the ªage of piracy and swashbucklingº. In part it is the escapism and danger of the high seas, free (more or less) from the constraints of civilisation. In part it is the sense of adventure and danger, not to mention a fair bit of fantastic superstition that characterised the times. Doubtless there are many others who are excited by the cinematic portrayal of the fashions of the time, or almost certainly the swordplay. Whether it the classic pirate or musketeer films of the past to contemporary viewing such as 2 RPG REVIEW ISSUE 26-27 December-March 2014-2015 the successful Pirates of the Caribbean series, the combination of adventure, romance and flourish is something that excites and involves. This is all a very far cry from real piracy which, for the purposes of consideration, also includes privateers. It is reasonable to assume that ever since since water-borne vessels were used for commerce that there were those who took to the sea (or even river and lake) to raid such vessels. The first historical records refer to the ©Sea Peoples©, a nebulous term for raiders in the east Mediterranean, who were first mentioned in Egyptian records dating back to 1275 BCE. Indeed there were a multitude of sea-borne raiders who were given this collective name by more contemporary writers, of which the Lukka of south-western Anatolia and the Sherden, of whose origins are still under fascinating dispute. In the Hellenic age, it seems that everyone ± Greeks, Romans, Illyrians Tyrrhenians, Phoenicians, Goths - all engaged in piracy. Indeed, piracy was so common that major cities were built slightly inland to provide protection against coastal raiders (who depended on speed rather than numbers) with paired harbour-side fortifications (e.g., Rome and Ostia, Athens and Piraeus). Piracy was so profitable that by the 1st century BCE that small pirate states were being established along the Anatolian coast, with Julius Caesar captured and held prisoner for a time. Even on the other side of the Roman Empire, hundreds of years later, as it well known St Patrick was captured by Irish pirates ± but that©s certainly another story in its own right. Into the medieval period, the Vikings were the most well-known piracy group, ranging from the well-known coastlines of northern Europe but less well-known even raiding the north African and Italian shoreline and, in the other direction, along the rivers of Eastern Europe into the Black Sea. During the same time, Moorish pirates established themselves along the coastline of southern France and the Baleric Islands, even sacking Rome and controlling the passes in the Alps - rather inland of them. Yes, there were conflicts between Moorish pirates and Viking pirates. On the other side of Rome, the Narentines established themselves on the Illyrian coast and engaged in significant piracy in the Adriatic Sea, even invading southern Italy for a time but mostly causing great suffering among the Venetians. The other side of the world has had its share of piracy as well, with the Yellow Sea between China and Korea being particularly subject to such preditations in the ninth century, eventually leading to an enormous garrison being established known as the Cheonghae Garrison. Some time later, the Wokou established themselves in Japan and outlying islands and for the next three hundred years (yes, that©s right) would raid the coast of China. There is enormous dispute of the ethnicity of these pirates inevitably tied to national pride. Contemporary accounts suggest that they were multi-ethnic, rather like early modern pirates of the west. Further south it is a surprise to nobody that piracy in the Indian ocean and Malay archipelago has been common with the Buginese sailors of South Sulawesi and the Moro pirates of the southern Philippines being particularly notable. Among the Chinese Zheng Yi Sao formed a pirate coalition in the early 19th century that consisted of over ten thousand individuals, a serious challenge to the Qing navy. The most famous pirate period - and the one where almost all the film and gaming periods are set - is the "golden age" from around 1600 to 1750. The Barbary corsairs must receive first mention here for being active from the crusader period onwards, launching their attacks on shipping in the western Mediterranean Sea, raiding coastal regions of Italy and Spain in particular and even reaching as far ast Iceland. It is estimated that over a million Europeans were captured by Barbary corsairs and sold as slaves 16th and 19th centuries. Among the European powers it wasn©t a very far step from official imperialism to unofficial piracy, many finding their home in places as far away as Madgascar, site of the "probably fictional" pirate utopia "Libertatia" which receives an interesting coverage by William S. Burroughs© novel "Cities of the Red Night". But it is the Caribbean where the historical pirates are most famous. As France, England, and the United Provinces sought to acquire land and possessions there was a great deal of opportunity for blatant robbery even under the guide of official legitimacy from one power to another. Indeed it was this offical recruitment that brought the period of piracy to its peak, especially through recruitment by the English and French of those based at Port Royal. As the Spanish power declined and Franch and England returned to conflict, piracy shifted from the Caribbean to the Indian ocean and further afield into the Atlantic, especially the "triangular trade" of Europe (export manufactured good, import raw materials), 3 RPG REVIEW ISSUE 26-27 December-March 2014-2015 Africa (import manufactured goods, export slaves) and the Caribbean and American coast (import slaves, export raw materials). In contemporary times there is still impressive levels of piracy, with estimated worldwide losses of US$16 billion per year especially in the Red Sea, off the Somali coast, and in the South China Sea. As merchant navies have a convention against carrying heavy weapons in peacetime, there is an increasing practise of using private security guards with light arms as a means to deter the typical small pirate vessels.