Possible historical change points during the Golden Age of Piracy? - Page 5

Icelander · 05-25-2009, 09:17 PM

I'm planning a quick mini-campaign that will allow my players to experience a variety of pre-TL5 adventuring situations with the same characters.* Naturally, I thought of Infinite Worlds, normally not a concept that attracts me, but perfect for this.

I'm thinking about starting them on a mission somewhere in the Pacific or Carribean (I'm not particular, if there are pistols, cutlasses and yarrr!darms). I'll need a plausible reason for island stop-offs (with potential adventure-generating natives), boarding actions with hostile pirates/privateers and at least one major port with potentially more 'civilised' encounters.

Now, I turn to the hive mind as to what Centrum (or someone else, I'm open to suggestions) would want to change in an 'echo' during this time. What could shift a world towards a quanta closer to them? Are there obscure, but interesting, historical voyages that I should look into? If you were going to play ISWAT agents during the Age of Sail, what would you think was a cool place and time to do it?

Also, I'm wondering what precisely an ISWAT operative would learn in his training. He's recruited from a world that's very different from Homeline, maybe for his special skills and maybe due to a confluence of circumstances. I assume he learns English, at least to Accented level, but what else? Does he go through several weeks of targeted training to ensure that he's minimally competent at a couple of vital skills before being thrown in the grinder or is he educated and moulded by top instructors for two years before he's allowed into the field? Something in between?

One player has expressed a desire to play an honest-to-goodness ninja. Said ninja would probably have been recruited from an alternate Edo-period (or earlier,during the unification, perhaps) Japan where chambara reality held sway, but in Homeline (and most echoes), he'd just be a really competent infiltrator and melee combatant. What else would Infinity teach him? Would he acquire the skills of a TL8 commando or would Infinity be content to just use him in low TL worlds?

*Astute readers will recognise this as being due to the Low-Tech playtest.

05-25-2009, 09:17 PM	#1
Icelander Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Iceland*	Possible historical change points during the Golden Age of Piracy? I'm planning a quick mini-campaign that will allow my players to experience a variety of pre-TL5 adventuring situations with the same characters.* Naturally, I thought of Infinite Worlds, normally not a concept that attracts me, but perfect for this. I'm thinking about starting them on a mission somewhere in the Pacific or Carribean (I'm not particular, if there are pistols, cutlasses and yarrr!darms). I'll need a plausible reason for island stop-offs (with potential adventure-generating natives), boarding actions with hostile pirates/privateers and at least one major port with potentially more 'civilised' encounters. Now, I turn to the hive mind as to what Centrum (or someone else, I'm open to suggestions) would want to change in an 'echo' during this time. What could shift a world towards a quanta closer to them? Are there obscure, but interesting, historical voyages that I should look into? If you were going to play ISWAT agents during the Age of Sail, what would you think was a cool place and time to do it? Also, I'm wondering what precisely an ISWAT operative would learn in his training. He's recruited from a world that's very different from Homeline, maybe for his special skills and maybe due to a confluence of circumstances. I assume he learns English, at least to Accented level, but what else? Does he go through several weeks of targeted training to ensure that he's minimally competent at a couple of vital skills before being thrown in the grinder or is he educated and moulded by top instructors for two years before he's allowed into the field? Something in between? One player has expressed a desire to play an honest-to-goodness ninja. Said ninja would probably have been recruited from an alternate Edo-period (or earlier,during the unification, perhaps) Japan where chambara reality held sway, but in Homeline (and most echoes), he'd just be a really competent infiltrator and melee combatant. What else would Infinity teach him? Would he acquire the skills of a TL8 commando or would Infinity be content to just use him in low TL worlds? Astute readers will recognise this as being due to the Low-Tech* playtest. __________________ Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!