Merchants and Prizes

[Swift Nic]

I do feel Pirates ought to be more about boarding, robbing and capturing ships than just wrecking and sinking them.
How's all this gold get on the wild islands in the first place ?
We need wealthy merchants to rob!


If we have merchants, then we also need a mechanism to make it worthwhile playing a merchant.

One idea I'm trying to develop...

Merchant
Any ship (Except Sea monsters, submarines, ghost ships, ...) may be a Merchant. It's starting point cost is the face value of it's cargo.
A Merchant ship may not use any special abilities. A merchant may not be given Shoot actions, but may defend itself in a boarding action (+1 per mast).

Merchant ships start off table with their holds filled with cargo (Gold coins). Each cargo a merchant unloads at their home island is worth twice it's face value to the merchant player. Each Cargo unloaded by the Merchant player at other islands is worth it's face value +1. (Merchants can always strike a bargain). Stolen cargoes unloaded by other players are worth their face value ( -1 due to smoke, fire and water damage ?).

Any crew placed on a merchant take up cargo space as usual but may not use their special abilities while aboard the Merchant. They may be worth their point value as passengers/ransom. (Scenario dependent).

Merchants can buy cargo at any island for it's face value. If they unload this cargo back at 'the Mainland' it's worth twice its face value. Cargo unloaded at other islands is worth it's face value. (Local produce is not as valuable as continental trade.)

Insurance
Merchants may choose to insure all their cargo on each ship for 1 gold paid at start. If the cargo is lost at sea, Lloyds of London will pay the face value of the cargo to the merchant.

Pirates obviously attempt to plunder and or capture merchant ships... Naval vessels will attempt to sink or capture enemy merchant ships while protecting their own.

[marhawkman]

Here's a question: How do they get there?

[cannonfury]

this all seems rather confusing, but i see where you are getting at

[Swift Nic]

Sept 21, 2009 11:50:10 GMT -5 marhawkman said:

Here's a question: How do they get there?

Who or what get where ?

The idea is that Merchant ships replace Wild Islands as a source of gold. Also Merchant Players have something to do and have a chance of winning, they are not just sailing around like big fat geese for the Pirates to pick off.

I'm assuming the Islands represent a staging point between the Old World and the New World e.g. the Carribean. The Home Islands are established colonies.

The table edges represent the sea lanes and trade routes to The Continent. Somewhere off table are Europe, N & S America and Africa i.e. The Continent.

Valuable cargoes e.g. Manufactured Goods, Gold, Slaves, etc are brought in Merchant ships from the Continent for sale in the Islands.
Locally produced goods such as sugar, spices, cotton, etc are shipped from the Islands to the Continent where they will fetch a better price.

All this trade requires Merchant ships.

Pirates try to rob merchants.
Navies try to protect their Merchants and destroy enemy shipping.
Merchants try to stay afloat long enough to turn a profit.

Starting Merchants off table means they have to sail some distance to their Home Island, but gives Merchants some choice where they sail from, so Pirates aren't just sat waiting for them.

This is very much a work in progress, Any comments or play tests are welcome.

[marhawkman]

! Interesting... would you be allowed to use a 10-master as your merchant vessel?

[cannonfury]

are there privateers included? that would seem fun

[Swift Nic]

Sept 22, 2009 13:30:16 GMT -5 marhawkman said:

! Interesting... would you be allowed to use a 10-master as your merchant vessel?

Yes. I suspect you would become the most obvious target for every other Pirate and scoundrel in the Caribbean.
You would be putting all your eggs in one basket!
;D

Remember that your ten master or any crew aboard cannot use any special abilities or cannon. But enemies can use their SA's against you.

[ Merchants do keep their ship type keywords, e.g. Schooner, Junk, Galley, etc. ]

A ten master would be very hard to board, at first.
If two or more ships (on the same side) attempt to board in the same action, should their masts be totaled and added to a single roll ?

I am wondering if a Merchant ship's cargo value should be tied to it's point cost. e.g. Cargo upto the value of the ships point cost.

A Merchant ship should start the game with a cargo or passenger for each hold. Merchants don't get wealthy be sailing empty ships.

[Swift Nic]

Sept 22, 2009 19:12:54 GMT -5 cannonfury said:

are there privateers included? that would seem fun

Yes, If you mean Privateers as state licensed Pirates.
There were a few suggestions for Privateer keywords on other threads. There are also Letter of Mark UT's in F&S.

Privateers should get immunity from attacks by their sponsoring Nation's ships in exchange for free reign to attack the shipping of hostile nations. If they attack friendly ships, then they lose their Privateer status and revert to Pirates.

Privateer's main motive is Prize Money, which they earn by selling captured ships at their home island. For Prize taking to work, you have to be able to capture ships, preferably without destroying them first. This would bring us back to boarding rules...

[marhawkman]

Hmm... that sounds amusing...

[Swift Nic]

Further thoughts on point cost for Merchants.

Any ship (Except Sea monsters, submarines, ghost ships, ...) may be a Merchant. It's starting point cost is the face value of it's cargo.
Merchants are bought at their face point cost same as any other ship. (You buy the ship and the gold comes free )

A Merchant ship may not use any special abilities. A merchant may not be given Shoot actions, but may defend itself in a boarding action (+1 per mast).

A Merchant starts the game with it's hold loaded with cargo (or passengers) up to it's point value. Any crew placed on a merchant take up cargo space as usual but may not use their special abilities while aboard the Merchant. They may be worth their point value as passengers/ransom. (Scenario dependent).

e.g. Edinburgh Trader = 11 Points, Hull/Holds = 5
Starts with five pieces of cargo totalling up to 11 gold.

Zeus = 23 points , Hull/Holds= 7
Starts with seven pieces of cargo totalling up to 23 gold.

Merchant ships start off table with their holds filled with cargo (Gold coins).
Merchants start off table and have to travel to your Home Island [ or start at your home island and have to sail to The Continent ]

Each cargo a merchant unloads at their home island [or The Continent] is worth twice it's face value to the merchant player.

Each Cargo unloaded by the Merchant player at other islands is worth it's face value +1. (Merchants can always strike a bargain).
Each stolen cargo unloaded by other players at their home island is worth their face value -1 (due to smoke, fire and water damage).

Merchants can buy cargo at any island their home island for it's face value. If they unload this cargo back at 'the Mainland' it's worth twice its face value +1. Cargo unloaded at other islands is worth it's face value. (Local produce is not as valuable as continental trade.)

[Swift Nic]

Please could someone try running a merchant or two in a regular game and let us know how it goes ? I suspect that the economics will need a lot of fixing to make it worthwhile playing merchants without breaking the game.

[marhawkman]

Hmm... yeah, merchant = sitting duck.

[Swift Nic]

Sept 23, 2009 19:54:50 GMT -5 marhawkman said:

Hmm... yeah, merchant = sitting duck.

Yes, but the other players should have merchants too.
If you are the only Merchant in the game, then you're in trouble.

If Merchants were treated like Wild Islands, each player would provide a small fleet of Merchant ships with their treasure on in addition to their regular fleet and crew.
e.g. Each Player gets a 40 point fleet and 20 gold in cargo plus Merchant ships to carry the gold.

Merchants can also carry UT's as cargo...

There's a bit more work to do on this idea yet...



Maybe Merchants should get Parley as a free ability ?

[woelf]

I hope you're intending this as scenario or a sort of house rule option, because this is getting way too cumbersome and complicated to ever work as an "official" rule unless you redesigned the whole game around it.

You've got a decent set of basics going so far, but there are lot of interactions with other rules and abilities that need to be taken into account, so a lot of playtesting would be required.

[marhawkman]

Parley doesn't really sound good. too much cash required. but a scenario that uses Merchant ships as a replacement for wild islands does sound nice.