Dark Caribbean Preview 5

Ahoy! Here’s a big update from the Ship of the Dead.

There is a lot of Dark Caribbean content in progress right now (see below), and today we’re sharing the new Coral Reef Generator, a die-drop generator you can use for game prep or live at the table. I tested it this week with my Dark Caribbean playtest group and the results were very fun. The PDF is available to all patrons, and the Foundry Module update is coming soon.

Quartermaster $3

Captain $5

Admiral $10+ & Foundry Module

A WILD MONTH AT SEA

This month has been very busy. Some highlights:

• My Dark Caribbean playtest group just took a WILD turn. Things are going great, and we've all proved to ourselves that Pirate Borg is a great system for long term campaign play, as we are moving into our 4th month of the campaign.

•  I was a special guest at Game On Expo in Pheonix, AZ. I spoke on 4 panels alongside my colleagues Diogo “Old Skull” Nogueira (Primal Quest, Old School Essentials), Andrew Gaska (ALIEN RPG, Terminator RPG), and John Wick (Legend of the Five Rings, 7th Sea). We hung out at the Free League booth with the amazing Doug Shute, and on Saturday I ran a hilarious game of Pirate Borg for charity, with a crew of pirate cosplay shanty singers on call to sing on demand.

• I recorded a new podcast episode with Andrew Gaska. It should be out next week. ALIEN fans get ready!

• I attended Gary Con, which is an amazing convention and I hope to see many of you there next year. I hung out with some amazing Harbourmasters and saw not one but two custom Pirate Borg flags. I played games with Gavin Norman (Old School Essentials, Dolenwood), Ben Milton (Questing Beast), and Jacob Hurst & Donnie Garcia (Swordfish Islands). I ran Pirate Borg games for Todd Stashwick (Star Trek: Picard, 12 Monkeys), the Legends of Avantris cast, Luke from DM’s Lair on YouTube, the folks that made Ragnaborg, and ‘Hos’ from Dungeon Scribe. I chatted with John “Hambone” McGuire and David Hoskins (Old School Essentials). I hung with my buddy DM Dave. I recorded a short podcast episode with Andrew and Steve from Epic Levels and the Mad Dungeon podcast. I made lots of new friends and memories. And I blessed my dice on the Gary Gygax memorial stone in downtown Lake Geneva. It was a wild week and I can’t wait for next year.

• We learned the ICv2 has reported Pirate Borg is in the top ten selling TTRPGs of 2023!!!

Source: ICv2 and Morrus via ENWorld.

The Dark Caribbean Progress Update

• Illustrations for 49 of the 54 major NPCs in the Dark Caribbean are complete. I should have the final five done early next week. I’m not sharing all the files as of yet and I want to release them once they are written with their faction pages.

• A “Renown” system is under development. This will be equivalent to “group level”, and will provide rules and guidelines for growing the party’s reputation via spending (or burying) treasure, taking prizes, attacking forts, raiding ports, meeting major NPCs, and exploring islands. This system will be a simple add-on and/or replacement to the Pirate Borg “gain experience” system, and will include “GM Dial” guidelines so you can easily tweak your campaign to get the desired playstyle you and your group are after.

• I’ve begun writing and playtesting a subsystem for “going on the account”, and abstracted way to go to sea for an extended period of time with the purpose of plundering ships. Black Bart Roberts, the most successful of the real world pirates, took almost 400 prizes in his career. Accomplishing this in an RPG would take a very long time so I’m exploring ways to have a sort of mini game so your players can actually get rich by pirating without having to grind out 100 low level naval combats.

• Outlines for Havana and The Dark Yucatan have begun.

Some Big News

But there is really big news, some of which might be a bummer, but most of which I think you’ll all find very exciting.

• The Dark Caribbean Kickstarter has been pushed back. After Pirate Borg, I really don’t want to go to Kickstarter until the book is mostly, if not completely, finished. I don’t want to rush this book - it means too much to me. Over the past few months I just realized there is no way I can have it done by this September, which is when we planed to do the Kickstarter. As of now, I’m not sure when the Kickstarter will launch, but it’s looking like sometime in 2025. Of course, progress will be shared with you all monthly.

• That being said, I’m very excited to share with you all that we are launching a different Kickstarter instead, with the working title of DOWN AMONG THE DEAD, which is already about 50% complete.

DOWN AMONG THE DEAD:

• A5 Hardcover, probably over 100 pages, bookmark ribbons, printed endpapers, etc.

• VENOM IN THE VEINS, a snake themed jungle temple (a draft of which is already available to Patrons under the name SHRINE OF THE SERPENT).

• INTO THE MAELSTROM, a vampirate adventure inside a massive ship of the line infested with undead creatures and Deep One vampires.

• LOST IN THE LOCKER, a post-TPK adventure that takes place in Davy Jones’ Locker.

• The Dark Fantasy Island generator (already available to Patrons).

• The Coral Reef Generator (see above).

• Potentially one to three more die-drop location generators.

• A section on house rules for your Pirate Borg game.

• At least one—but potentially up to three—new player classes.

This Kickstarter will also feature the following (subject to change):

• A five panel A5 Pirate Borg GM screen with all new art.

• Metal d2/Devil’s Luck coins.

• Official Pirate Borg dice.

• 36”x36” Neoprene ocean hex mat.

• A double-sided large format folding battlemap with a the Venom in the Veins map on one side and the Into The Maelstrom map on the other.

• A pack of cardboard punchout naval combat ship tokens, double sided.

• Two spiral bound battlemap books, probably 17” x 22” when fully open. 

I really don’t want to push the Dark Caribbean Kickstarter, but a lot of the content for it has been moved to Down Among The Dead, and I think this will get more useable content into everyone's hands quicker while making TDC the best possible setting book it can be.

Even more news:

• We have near term plans for a Pirate Borg third party content jam and contest, and the official launch of the West Marches campaign.

• The Pirate Borg character sheet for Roll20 is complete and it, as well as the Pirate Borg and Pirate Borg 5e modules, will launch soon on that platform.

• The first wave of the Dark Caribbean West Marches campaign is also still in the works, and will launch sometime this year.

Remember, when you can't raise the black, raise the dead!