Pirates of the Archipelago | 4th Level | D&D 2024
You've arrived in the tropical city of Port Pelican. Prove yourself to the city and become a privateer and fight back the pirate scourge!
$20.00
/ Session
Details
4 players following this game
Weekly / Sunday - 9:00 PM UTC
Jul 19 / Session 1
Session Duration / 3 hours
Campaign Length / 6+ Sessions
4 / 6 Seats Filled
Report Adventure
StartPlaying Money Back Guarantee
If your game doesn't happen, we guarantee a refund. Just reach out to StartPlaying Support. Refund Policy
Schedule
Meet your party members
4/6
About the adventure
The Archipelago is a tropical island chain bursting with natural resource. Rich in trade goods of coffee, dire shrimp, rum, and above all Pineapple. But Pirates plague the trade routes and sea monsters rise in the oceans. It is a dangerous place, but with much gold to be made for those who want to work the land earnestly, or those who want to pillage and steal. My games are whimsical but also can be dark. Its fun to sometimes swing between the two, especially when exploring mythical creatures and monsters. This setting is influenced by literature like Shakespeare's Tempest, Greek mythology, and so much pirate media, as well as many hidden jokes and references to pop culture and real world history. These games are intended for people who have 'a little bit' of experience in Dungeons and Dragons. Basically an understanding of the rules enough that you could build a character yourself. You do not need to be a combat whiz or a roleplay virtuoso. Just be game to have some fun, and maybe try slipping into an interesting person you made up for a couple hours. Our goal is fun and community. Ultimately, you aren't just picking this game for what I as the DM can bring. But you are also picking it for the other people who will be in the game. You'll shape the experience just like they will, and I will. This game has never been about what one person can do, its always been about coming together as a group and making something together. So please come ready, not just to engage with story and combat and cool NPCS (all of which WILL be present) but also to engage with the other people who each are bringing their own original story and character to the table. Now, I should say. If you are a veteran player and a rules expert who loves an intense tactical combat. I am excited to have you! I tune my combats to the skills and engagement of my players. Some aren't as excited about combat, others much moreso. Personally, I adore an intense combat that pushes everyone to creative and risky ventures. Risk of death makes an intense fight a delight. Come at me with your brilliant plans, as long as they are within the rules. Finally, this is intended as a first adventure in this setting. I am interested in running this as a long term campaign that will be ongoing and open world. Please take this campaign as my audition to you to be your longer term Gamemaster.
Game style
Dungeon Crawl
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Sandbox / Open World
Tactical / Crunchy
Roleplay Heavy
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(14)
4 years on StartPlaying
5 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Visual Aid, Inclusive
Average response time: 2 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
I've played D&D since I was a kid and it was in it's 2nd Edition, but I love the new editions as they come out and have explored all sorts of game systems. I enjoy making detailed worlds as a sandbox for players to explore. I design my own maps and love creating detailed dungeons, cities, and natural spaces. But I’m also a prolific writer and enjoy populating my games with unique NPCs, strange creatures, and above all funny little shops and restaurants. I'm a SAG Eligible actor with over two decades of experience on stage and screen. I've done over a hundred theatrical productions, films, television shows, and commercials. My training includes theater styles like Commedia Dell'Arte, Kabuki, Shakespeare, and Improv with Second City. I'm an experienced comedic performer and you can expect at least one or two fun voices in any session. My academic background is in biology. I've worked in biomedical research, veterinary medicine, and was a Docent at the Los Angeles Zoo. I've got a healthy adoration of nature and ecology that will make its way into almost all of my games. I'll introduce actual zoology and ecology into the setting and will always be glad to dig into the biology behind how the world works. My other professional experience is in the education field. Previously I was a Teaching Artist with Imagination Stage in Bethesda where I taught middle school students storytelling, film production, and puppetry. As a video editor and filmmaker I produced graduate and undergraduate level educational video content for an academic publisher. My films and documentaries have screened at festivals around the country. If you'd like to see me in action as a Dungeon Master here are a few livestreams I did with Perception Studio on twitch: The Werewolves of Carcassonne: https://youtu.be/r0EH7-y8QUY?t=19 Birds of a Feather Heist Together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeKlfZN0oXI
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
You will be creating your characters in Foundry. We are using 2024 Players Handbook Rules, which are purchased and loaded into the program for easy addition to your sheet. You should plan out what you want your character to be, selecting a Class, Species, Background, and relevant Subclass. Characters will start at 4th level. You may select your Ability Scores through a 33 point buy method, or you may roll for them in Foundry (I give some bonus dice to people who take the risk of rolling) The foundry server will be available for you to log into at least 90 minutes before the game. However, it is often available at other times and I'll give you a heads up if you'd like to build your character ahead of time. I will help guide you through building a character in Foundry if you are unfamiliar with it. Once the mechanical homework of character building is done, I've got some questions for you about your character. You'll be starting with 1000gp of trade goods, fine arts, or jewelry which you are bringing to market in Port Pelican. What goods does your character bring, and why do they have it? Your character can come somewhere deeper inland on Copperhold Island and be a local Peligan. Your character could come from somewhere on the mainland, having accomplished great deeds or running from past failings, either way now getting a fresh start on the islands as a Mainlander. Peligans can start with a free proficiency in the Primordial language. They speak a local dialect called 'Phoenix Tongue' Mainlanders had an arduous journey at sea to arrive here and may gain a free proficiency in either Navigator's Tools or Water Vehicles.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
We will be playing over Discord and Forge/Foundry. You'll need to have a free Discord account and a microphone/headset so you can play over voice. I will provide you a link to my Discord server ahead of the game. Please be sure to be in a quiet place or be able to mute your mic as needed. https://discord.com/ You will also need an account on Forge. This is also free. This account will allow you to log into the game and maintain your sheet. It will also allow you to upload a limited amount of art for your own tokens, character art, or journals to share with other players. https://forge-vtt.com/
What Steve brings to the table
We're going to be playing through Foundry. One of the reasons I like this platform is that it lets me share with you a multimedia way to engage with the game. I am happy to run a session in theater of the mind, and will make sure to give you verbal descriptions and character voices and interactions so that even if you had your eyes closed, you'd be going on this adventure. But with Foundry I'm able to pour my overpreparing heart out into building maps and handouts that give you visuals, sounds, and even videos to help explore the world and paint a clearer more immersive picture. By managing gameplay through Foundry we can streamline the boring parts of combat and get to the action. I'm going to help you to be able to do your turn in under a minute so we can keep the flow of combat going. That way we can fit in either more story and exploration, or maybe more combats into any singular session. The setting is detailed and ready to be explored. I provide a kind of game I'd best describe as a Sandbox in a Funnel. The game is primarily a sandbox, your characters are free to pursue your interests and its impossible to truly go 'off the rails'. But, as characters make decisions and explore, the interesting part of the world gets narrower and narrower. No matter where in the sandbox the players want to go, it can still lead down the funnel to a story and plot advancing climax. Each session is intended to feel like a whole adventure. We start at rest, gather together, encounter and then solve a problem. With the natural plot twists and challenges of any game. By the end of the session you will have your victory, or defeat. And next week we'll be ready to go at it again, moving closer to bigger goals and character desires. I'm going to be interested in your interests. This way I can seed those into the setting. I'm constantly updating and writing new content for these adventures. Motivations from players like you are exciting to me and spur me onto creating custom adventures that are suited to rewarding them. Let me know what excites you about adventuring in the tropics or fighting pirates!
Homebrew rules
For the most part we will be using the 2024 Dungeons and Dragons ruleset. It is wired into Foundry and allows for us to automate a lot of processes in combat that otherwise would slow us down. I will introduce you to house rules when you play, but none of them regard the rules as written.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Steve creates a safe table
Within the game you'll find a complete and constantly updated Lines and Veils document outlining what topics will be fully avoided and what will be a fade to black. But you are also invited to tell me if you have specific lines you'd like to preserve for your character. Because of the nature of the game, there is some content I fully expect to include or believe is likely to come up. Here's some common and less common content. Common Content Violence - this is a game with combat interwoven into it, there will be violence and associated descriptions and imagery Kidnapping - Its a common trope, and often a tactic used to crew ships in the historical time period this setting is based on Discrimination - There are people with different views and communities in the setting separated by culture or ability to breathe water. Religions of the setting similarly may think poorly of one another or treat their adherents differently. However, this does not include real world racism, homophobia, transphobia, or sexism. Natural Disasters - Islands without storms? Not on my watch. Expect to see devastation of weather and the danger storms and seas can bring. Romance - NPCs can and will flirt. If character development and circumstances are right, some NPCs can be romanced. However, Players determine for themselves if they want to personally involve in romance either with NPCs or other PCs. Intoxicants and Substance Use - Major trade goods of tropical islands like these are coffee and rum. Alcohol and stimulants like caffiene are extremely common but other substances like mushrooms, herbs, and arcane concoctions will appear throughout the game setting. Because my games pull from real world biology for many creatures and environments there will be real world toxins and mind altering substances reflected in the setting. Less Common Content This isn't going to come up all the time, but it's in the setting and if you play here long enough there is a good chance you'll eventually run into it. Claustrophobia, Bugs, Blood, Demons, Rats, Spiders, Snakes, Torture (minor)
Content warnings
Safety tools used