Sky galleons of Mars by Flavio Bolla
- Inspirations: Black Sails, Spelljammer, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, Master and Commander.
- Mashup of Steampunk, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and so forth. To wit: sailing ships, airships and seagoing vessels of various types are able to, via a complex mashup of magic and technology, take to space with crews. By the same token, there is flintlock technology and cannons, but also magic swords and spells.
- Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Dragons, etc. Not much has been fleshed of this, because it's better to let players do that in the process of creating a character.
- Characters will be ship's crew, having been enslaved in service to a horrible entity named Lord Korzbubathul, a dimensional horror. The crew just overthrew their master...though aren't sure if he's dead.
- They have just arrived in the great Space Pirate Republic, headquartered on the ancient space station of Quattryn, a lawless place where there is freedom and danger, rife with thieves, killers, anarchists. It smells of gold and gems, fancy perfume and a whiff of death at all times.
- Ship is not named or even described yet, pending player input. Only exception: The ship's cat Waldo is a black, fey beast with strange powers, like a friendly, playful sphinx. Besides what we have up above, there is no setting stuff done.
- Crew runs according to a pirate code of democracy where quartermasters and captains are voted in and actions are subject to referendum. That means characters get a vote, get to argue, and implement conflicting beliefs. It means politics!
- People should be cool with the concept of on-the-fly brainstorming and setting lore that is not really set up ahead of time.
- Discord Chat!
In Character Info
They took freedom at the point of a blade; metaphoricaly anyway. There were lots of ways that the crew killed of the minions of Lord Korzbubathul, a slobbering thing of slimy flesh, one or many eyes depending on what time of day. It, no gender, definitely no gender, don't even think about how its kind reproduces, had enslaved crew running its ship, plundering and serving as mind-blanked killers on its behalf, serving its agenda.
No one is quite sure who, what or how it happened that they were able to break free from the narcotic control of Lord Korzbubathul, but it was flushed out into the cold vacuum of space by a series of events. As the haze wore off on the slave crew, its dedicated servants, the overseers and officers that did little work besides give the orders, tried to fight back, but the slaves found that they were soft, easy prey.
They woke from their mind-slumber with little knowledge of each other, and a head full of memories and trauma aboard a ship. Somehow, they limped into the Free Port of Quattryn with their prize, the only place that would have them. To stay alive and prosperous in the Space Pirate's Republic, they had to work. They had a ship; they had a crew and they had common cause. The Spheres, as space was known, was a cold, uncaring place for those on their own...
Out of Character Info
So there are obviously things not even yet described, such as the operation of the ships and so forth in space. We will be leaning on the magitech to describe a lot of the functions, a fusion of mystic power and 19th century, at best, machinery. In some cases, we're looking at wildly different tech within the overlapping types of motiffs we are invoking here.
The ideal player thrives on brainstorming and enjoys themes of rebellion, like the Pirate's Republic in the Caribbean. I am intentionally not drawing on Spelljammer, besides getting a slight boost to start with, so I am not apologizing for any accidental duplication, nor am I claiming originality. Most of my thought processes came from a DVD set of Black Sails, a couple other books on the Spanish Armada and privateering and thoughts on what the power dynamics could look like in space with fantasy races.
That is to say, I had a couple brainwaves and then I wrote this stuff down. But I want to find good partners to work with on this.
Izurich,
Atalanta,
Byrd Man,
Jamesyco,
Sanity43217,
Lord Shaxx,
Hos,
TokyoPewPew,
FourtyTwo,
JDolan
