Pirates! Part Two - The Goals

Before we get to the goals, in part one of the post, I gave a little backstory on the town of Donat. Now, let me tell you why our pirates were there! Our two bands of pirates where part of a ship’s crew that just lost their captain. In electing a new captain, the crew was divided into two factions, each supporting a different candidate for captain. So the two factions decided that the best candidate would be determined by the outcome of a raid on Donat. Each candidate would lead a shore party. Surely the best pirate would rise to the occasion and prove his worth of the captaincy!

Lastly, let’s talk just a tad about “Flashing Steel”. The rules are keyed to act on a system of activating models or groups of models – and – they do put an emphasis on leaders. Having leaders nearby is a great benefit in activating models. Once you know how many actions a model or group has (zero to three) you can conduct activities with those models such as moving, aiming, shooting, reloading, etc.

Also, the Song of Drums and Shakos rules (by Ganesha Games) utilize a selection of “special rules” to add flavor to the models for a particular period. The special rules for pirates are pretty sweet. Including such gems as “One Leg”, “Parrot or Monkey” and “Panache”.

In addition, they have a nice section on “Swashbuckling Maneuvers” and “Skill Checks” for activities that may require a difficulty resolution die roll (picking locks, climbing a rope, whatever weird stuff pops up in games).

As you may gather from the above, there is a lot going on and each model may have different statistics and special rules. Rosters are handy. I would say that a single player with some experience with the rules can efficiently manage a dozen or so models (maybe more). Fortunately, a pirate game is not one with hundreds of models on the table.

OK, onto the goals of the game! Here is the entire list of goals. OK, it is big and maybe readers don’t care to read the whole thing, that’s cool. You’ll get the gist of things pretty quickly. For me, I’d just like to have it documented here for the future enjoyment and recollection of Matt and me.

You will see some goals duplicated. This is because both Matt and I came up with the same idea. We just figured that goals on the list twice just have a greater chance of becoming player goals since the concept was so obvious.

Where goals have less definition, we thought we’d just figure out the details when and if it happened.

• Steal the cow, take it off board.
• Rescue the 2 pirates on the merchant ship.
• Capture the merchant ship by having at least three pirates on board and no enemies.
• Capture and adopt the tamed monkey on the dock. He’ll come if you offer food and pass a “difficult” test. Try as often as you like, 1 action per attempt. The monkey will now give the model the “Monkey” special rule.
• It is rumored that hidden in a crate or barrel on the dock is a treasure map. To locate it you can try one “very difficult” task test per crate/barrel terrain piece at one action per attempt.
• Pillage the upper floor of the tavern. (Admittedly, we did not define what “pillage” meant other than spending some actions to possibly locate valuables).
• Pillage the lower floor of the tavern.
• Pillage the upper floor of the house.
• Pillage the lower floor of the house.
• Capture the Mayor’s daughter (upstairs in the house) for ransom. You must move into “melee contact” and spend an action on a “difficult” task test.
• Convince the prostitute to come away with you on your pirate travels. You must pass a “very difficult” task test but can only try twice! One action per try.
• Capture a wealthy businessman in town for ransom. You must move into “melee contact” and spend an action on a “difficult” task test.
• Toss a wealthy businessman into the outhouse. You must move into “melee contact” and spend an action on a “difficult” task test to subdue, then move at slow speed to the outhouse.
• Steal cabbages from the garden for our provisions. Collect at least 4 cabbages at one action per cabbage to collect.
• Steal corn for our provisions. Steal at least 3 actions worth of ears.
• Kill the crocodile and haul it off table (presumably to our ship). The skin is valuable and the meat is tasty.
• Rescue the pirate held captive by the cannibals. The guy in the pot is done for. The cannibals are friendly unless provoked and will defend their meal, so, you’ll have to attack them!
• Hijack the wagon on the roadway and take it off board, but not off board via the roadway.
• Purchase the native girl from the friendly natives near the dugout canoe on the beach.
• Pay homage to Teach’s Bones. Go to the skeletal corpse exposed in the jungle.
• Find and kill the panther that is stalking the jungle. You must “spot” the panther to be able to charge or shoot him. This takes an action as a “difficult” task test. The panther will charge attackers if the opportunity appears.
• Steal the gold cross from the monk.
• “Acquire” a fancy native shield.
• Loot the native hut. Only a single attempt can be made in the game using a “tricky” task test. If that fails then you find nothing. This goal is a failure unless you find something of value.
• “Acquire” a set of shrunken heads (many of the models of native warriors are festooned with shrunken heads on the miniatures! Awesome, thanks Old Glory!).
• “Acquire” a business man’s fancy hat, and coat, and trousers.
• Loot the captain’s quarters on the merchant ship.
• Using the powder on the dock, blow up the dock!
• Blow up the merchant ship by exploding the powder in the ship’s magazine. The ship is armed with 4 guns, surely there is powder on the ship!
• Put the Mayor’s head on a pike at the gates to the town to repay an earlier offense to you.
• Find a barrel of rum and haul it off to the ship.
• The native totem in the jungle has bejeweled eyes – climb up there and steal those jewels! Obviously, the natives will not like this. No, not one bit.
• Ensure that your gang of pirates kills a particular model in the other player’s party (randomly determine which one) to settle some score for a perceived slight against you.
• Steal the gold cross from the monk.
• Capture a snake and take the venom to the native witch doctor.
• Take the merchant ship.
• Take a rich hostage off the table.
• Rescue the crewmember from the cannibals.
• Get a panther pelt (by hunting the panther) and trade it to the natives for a “safe passage” token.
• Recruit a new cabin boy for the crew.
• Obtain a Letter of Marque from the officer at the table in the tavern.
• Obtain fresh water for our ship.
• Find the remains of the missing crewmember (the skeletal remains in the jungle).
• Rescue captured crewmembers from the merchant ship.
• Capture the wagon on the roadway and use it to sneak into town.
• Obtain the cargo manifest from the dock master and sell it to the captain with the spyglass on the beach.
• Escort the missionaries to the friendly natives on the beach.
• Convince delinquent children to steal cabbages for the crew.
• Relieve the drunken man of his pan-wielding female accoster.
• Have the smith repair your pistol.
• Obtain an incriminating rumor about a local dignitary.
• Sneak into the merchant ship captain’s cabin and steal his map.
• Rob the house.
• Rob the tavern.
• Obtain native masks and trade them to the crew of the visiting merchant ship.
• Ensure the safe passage of the wagon into the town’s gates.
• Find buried treasure in the jungle.
• Kill the Captain of the Guard, he’s rumored to be a badass.
• Kill the Mayor, he dresses funny.
• Capture a rich citizen and trade him/her to the cannibals for the captured crewman.
• Substitute a pirate for the real night watchman.
• Free the governor’s slave – he can sign aboard our ship!
• Burn the town to the ground.
• Burn the native hut.
• Kill the cannibals.
• Bribe the dock-master.
• Capture three female characters.
• Find the hidden clue in the skeletal remains and follow that clue to buried treasure on the hilltop.
• Steal a boat and take it off table.
• Obtain a weather prediction from the captain with the spyglass on the beach.
• Recruit a disgruntled sailor into our crew from the crew of the visiting merchant ship.
• Feed the Mayor to the sharks.
• Rescue the farmer’s son that has been impressed as the cabin boy on the merchant ship.
• Arrange a secret rendezvous with the Mayor’s daughter. She likes dangerous men!
• Take a chest or strongbox from town and bury it in the jungle after marking two trees as clues.
• Arrange for the missionaries to be eaten by cannibals.
• Take a chest or strongbox from town and bury it in the jungle then kill all your crew that knows of its location.
• Retrieve the barrel of run floating by the dock.

       As you can see, not all of the goals are “rooting, tooting, shooting piratey” actions – some require subtlety and perhaps the division of your little command of pirates. Some are just way out there.

We each had a minimum of three goals, but could take more. We each took five goals! We did not tell each other what the goals were until after the game. So, if we both ended up with some identical goals, then it would be harder to accomplish those and would create points of conflict amongst our model pirates!

We figured that at the end of the game we would talk about the goals we each had, their difficulty, and how we did in trying to accomplish our goals. Not there would be a “winner” necessarily. We don’t care about winning and losing – we care about the spectacle and the enjoyment and the creativity.

In the next post, the pirate bands and what happened!

Dangerous Waters

Looking for tasty pirates

The town on the sea