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Setting for The Governor's Daughter

The Caribbean anno 1664

July 1664 to be exact, the British have just assigned a governor to Jamaica, and it's his daughter that's kidnapped by our group of protagonists. We're thinking a fantasy version of the Golden Age of Piracy (1660-1730), much like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but without the overt humor. We want a much darker, grimmer, and (oft over-used) grittier setting, and The Burning Wheel fits perfectly.

During our third session of character burning (see the introduction) we decided that instead of making up our own fantasy world from scratch, we would stick with the Earth, but let legends be fact, especially legends concerning the seven seas.

History and Character Stocks

Since then we've taken things a bit further, Men are still the dominant species, at least when it comes to numbers. However, the natives of South and North America are Elves. The Aztecs, and other Mesoamericans, with their dark rituals, are of course Dark Elves and neither the Spaniards, nor small pox could defeat the wicked ones, and they have valiantly fought the Spanish for a century and a half. The Elvish Incan empire also lives on in South America. The Austrians, Swizz and Japanese are Dwarves. The main force of the Ottoman Empire consists of Orcs. The jungles of mid- and south America hold untold creatures, deepest, darkest Africa remains mostly a mystery, and the settlement of Australia by the British is still over a hundred years off. Lastly, the Roden exist Below everything.

Magic, Faith, and Technology

Human sorcery is rare, but definitely real. Of course they live in fear of the Pope and his Inquisitors and witch hunters. The Vatican has cornered the market when it comes to divine magic, or rather, they do their utmost to suppress all other forms of it. The fact that sorcery and divine magic is real, has impeded, or will impede, the pace of technology development.

World Burning

Okay, we decided to answer Luke Crane's World Burning Questions. We had already burned up the setting outlined above, prior to character burning. After which, I further prepared for the campaign using Chris Chinn's Flag Framing and Conflict Web techniques, as well as his great article series on Protagonist Play, but decided that the below questions would further help us get into the spirit of things.

What's the Big Picture? What's going on in this setting that makes it ripe for adventure? What's changing, evolving, declining?
We start playing in the Caribbean, in July 1664. Charles II, king of England, has just appointed His Lordship, Sir Brennan Hotchkins as the British Governor of Jamaica. The main conflict concerns the control of Jamaica, along with the Caribbean shipping lanes, and the valuable sugar plantations. It also concerns Spains fall from grace as the world's supreme superpower, and how they try to recapture Jamaica in an attempt to grasp at former glory.
What's the world's culture? What are the cultural analogs? Analogs can be taken from historical earth, current events or fantasy works.
Our own world, anno 1664. See the introduction on this page for more details.
What's the conflict in which the characters are involved? What are the sides? What's wrong?
Britain have taken control of Jamaica from the Spaniards. The Spaniards are currently licking their wounds in Cuba, planning revenge. The Dutch and the French are for the time allies of the British, while pirates work all sides. Privateering is still in its infancy, but about to get very popular when the British governor starts forcing pirates out of Port Royal, or recruit them as British privateers to battle the Spaniards.
What physical place does this conflict take place in? What ecology, environment, location?
The Caribbean. A lot of time will be spent on deck at sea, but we want equal time in various ports, on remote islands, in steamy jungles, sneaking through Governorial estates, attending fancy dress balls, etc.
What's the name of the most important place in this setting? Not the capital or any dumb shit like that, but The Place where all the action goes down?
"The Fate of the Damned," Captain Barnacle's ship, or whatever new ship the protagonists might find themselves on. It is our very own Battlestar Galactica, taking us from port to port, and adventure to adventure.
What's the name of a faraway place that folks talk about, dream about or mutter under their breath about?
The indies, meaning India. Sea captains talk of circumventing Cape Horn and going further west.
Who are the antagonists? Who is opposing the goals of the characters?
The British as led by Governor Hotchkins, the Spaniards led by Don Tomas Vargas, the former Jamaican governor, the Maroons on Jamaica and other remote islands (where they've turned to savages), other pirates and privateers.
Imagine all of the characters are standing in a room/ruin/field with the antagonists or their minions. What do the antagonists want from that meeting? What do the protagonists want from that meeting? That's where your game begins.
The antagonists all want Governor Hotchkin's kidnapped daughter, Her Lordship, Lady Abbygail Hotchkins to use as a pawn in their power struggle. The game's real antagoist will become clear once we see what the protagonists do with the kidnapped Lady. The protagonists want different things, First Mate Patric McGregor wants bucket-loads of gold first and foremost, while both Marcel den Ouden and Phillip Lacorte want Lady Abbygail for themselves, but for different purposes.
Alternately, imagine the characters standing at the scene of some great disaster or calamity clearly caused by one of the antagonists. What's the disaster? How did it happen? What are the characters going to do about it right now?
  • The British drive the pirates out of Port Royal by force, offering Letters of Marque to those that are willing to be recruited as privateers, death to all others! Lots of cool potential for betrayals, and the protagonists will have to decide with whom to side.
  • The Spaniards slaughter the buccaneers of Hispaniola, driving them to seek refuge on the island of Tortuga. Have the protagonists taken refuge in Hispaniola, or perhaps Tortuga, after being driven out of Port Royal, how will they react?
  • The Maroons have struck and destroyed a British settlement on Jamaica. Will the protagonists side with the British in enslaving the Maroons, or support the Maroons' guerilla warfare?
  • The Dutch and French broke their alliance with the British, and we now have open war in the Caribbean! How will the protagonists' cultural backgrounds affect their relations? What sides will they pick?
What type of magic exists in this world? Pick one or two of the magic systems: Faith (and Blasphemous Hatred), Sorcery (and Abstraction), Natural Magic, Spirit Binding, Summoning, or Enchanting.
We are open to all sorts of magic, see the introduction above, but have decided not to include any until we get more comfortable with the system.
What character stocks are in play in this world? Which are restricted and why?
Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs are all available in the world (see above), as are Trolls, Spiders (the Amazon), and Great Wolves can probably be found in some Eastern European forests. However, for the game at hand, we decided to stick with only human characters, until we get a better handle of the game.
What Cultural Traits apply to the characters of this game world? Pick three Character Traits for each culture.
I've included a general religious Trait for the region. A player may replace this with Agnostic or Atheist, but must provide a reason for this choice. The second Trait is an attempt at capturing the essence of the nation of the listed culture. The third and final Trait is a cultural stereotype to provide color in the greater conflict, geared to create further drama when possible.
  • Dutch (including Brabant): Catholic or Protestant (Calvinist, Anabaptist, or Lutheran), Trader, Frank
  • English: Anglican or Puritan Protestant, Colonist, Extremely Polite
  • French: Catholic or Huguenot (Protestant), Colonist, Highly Implicit
  • Maroons: African Fugitive, Raider, Vengeful
  • Scots: Presbyterian (Protestant), Independent, Honorable
  • Spaniards: Catholic, Retrospective, Hot Blooded
What's your Resources Cycle? 1 month, seasonal, 6 months, annual?
We're using a Seasonal Resources Cycle. We want desperate characters, and rather frequent Lifestyle Maintenance Tests, but not too often, to ensure it takes a long time to earn the Resources to buy a mighty pirate ship.
What's the game world's currency?
The currency used is actual historical currency prevalent in the 17th century. For more details, see our House Rules section.
Who collects the taxes?
Taxes are collected by the local governors' henchmen, but as we're playing pirates, they will mostly be hit through poor exchange rates when selling booty, bribes that must be paid, extortion, and harbor fees.
What do people do for work?
Trading, managing or slaving at the plantations, mining in the Americas, pearl diving, with all the hard work done by slaves or indebted servants.
What's the major economy?
Slave trading to supporting the large plantations, and of course the sugar plantations themselves. The Spanish do their best stealing precious metals from the native Elves of Central and South America.
What's the black market economy?
The black market we're mostly concerned with will be ransoms of kidnapped people, and captured prizes. In our setting even slave trading is a legit trade!
Material world: What weapons and armor are available? Are some weapons and armor restricted to certain cultures or character stocks? What property is available? Are resources and gear otherwise restricted?
We want guns to be more prevalent, as they were historically at the time, and have created a number of new guns and modifications for the era, along with their rps costs. For more details, see our House Rules section. As relates to armor, this is the end of the breastplate era, with mostly breastplates and helmets in use, while quilted padding or in some instances soft leathers are the duelists choices. Specific ships will be added to our Resources list.
For power fantasy heroic games, start your players with a larger pool of Artha. For tighter, longer term, truly epic games, start your players with a tight leash on Artha.
One Persona Point, and two Fate Points per protagonist and major antagonist.

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