Aug 4, 2013

Pirates!



Review #2 - Free RPG

Pirates!

Ok, so this is the second week, and this is the second review. For this one I wanted to talk about a pen and paper RPG, given that this and video games are going to be the focus of this blog and I already talked about a video game last week.

The chosen one today is "Pirates!", a single d6 system about, you guessed it, pirates. This isn't a game for realistic simulation or lots of tactical combat, so unless you are looking for improvisational and cinematic fun you are losing your time reading this review.

The system is simple, you have six stats with values from 0 to 5, 0 being the minimum and 5 the maximum. When you want to do something, roll a d6 and try to get less than your relevant stat. Rolled less? Then you were successful. I'd say it's great but given that you are a pirate, most probably someone is going to suffer/be robbed/be set on fire, so I won’t. If you roll more than your stat, then you are hurt and out of the scene, unless you use a luck point, which are shared by the party and charged by drinking and partying.

It's a great game for a tired GM that doesn’t want to work too much.  As GM you don't roll a single dice, because players hurt themselves. NPCs are as simple as a name and as little description as possible, given that they a bound to die at the hands of crazed PCs. All you have to do is set them on the ocean and give them treasure every once in a while.

I could keep talking about the Taboo system that encourages chaos and mayhem (one of the taboos is "thinking before acting") or the Dead Man Chest, a gold bonus triggered by rolling a 5 (so players will keep rolling the dice, believe me) but that's what the manual is for. Download this PDF and enjoy a crazy adventure. There also a French version!

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of viruses and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.



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