The Last Voyage of the Albatross | A Pirate Mystery Campaign
You've been left a ship in a will from a man you've never heard of. It has holes, cannons, and a past nobody wants you to uncover.
$25.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Saturday - 1:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 3–3.5 hours
Campaign Length / 30–1000 Sessions
1 / 6 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
1/6
About the adventure
One day a letter arrives for you. Inside, there is an invitation to a lawyer’s office with a name you don’t recognize, and the news that someone you’ve never met has died. You're mentioned in his will, and he's left you something. Not a house. Not a fortune. Not even a chest of gold. He left you an old beaten down merchant ship full of holes that is barely surviving. And apparently, you’re not the only one. When you arrive at the lawyer’s office, you find strangers waiting for you. Each of you received the same letter. Each of you has been named in the same will. And each of you has inherited an equal share of the same vessel. The lawyer explains to you that the previous owner was a retired pirate captain that stole the ship decades ago. Each of your fathers served aboard that ship as members of the captain’s original crew. None of you knew that the others existed. None of you knew your fathers had sailed together on this ship. In fact, you barely knew your fathers at all. But the captain remembered them, and according to his will, when he finally passed on, the ship was to be given to the descendants of his long-gone crewmates. That makes all of you the heirs. She’s an old merchant vessel named The Albatross. Her name has been painted over dozens of times it seems and she's patched together with mismatched planks and refitted with cannons. She's a ship that has clearly spent more time running from trouble than delivering cargo. Her former captain is dead, her crew is gone, and now she belongs to you. Well... part of her does anyway. You'll have to decide what to do with her amongst yourselves. You can sell her, repair her, become merchants, even become pirates. You can sail wherever the wind takes you. The choice is yours, but before you decide what to do with your inheritance, you should probably find out what your fathers were doing aboard this ship all those years ago, because there are secrets hidden on this vessel that someone went to great lengths to keep hidden. Where has this ship been... and what happened to its crew?
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Puzzle / Mystery Focused
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Sandbox / Open World
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(7)
1 year on StartPlaying
21 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Voices, Inclusive
About me
I’ve been playing D&D since 2nd Edition, and storytelling has been a major part of my life for just as long. My background is in theatre. I’ve worked as an actor, director, and a playwright, winning awards in all 3. I’m also well known for my voices and voice acting and radio work, which is something I bring heavily into my games. Creativity and imagination are at the center of what I do. I love building worlds, creating characters, and finding unexpected ways for a story to develop. My theatre background also means I’m comfortable improvising and adapting when players inevitably take things in directions I didn’t anticipate. My extensive use of accents and dialects help me create NPCs that feel individual and unique. Most importantly, I put a lot of effort into making players’ characters feel like they belong in the campaign. Their personalities, histories, relationships, goals, and choices become part of the world rather than simply existing on a character sheet. I love it when my own characters are involved directly in the plot of a campaign, so I make sure to do the same for my players. I never want anyone to feel like it didn't matter what character they played. Your character's story, their choices should matter most. I love seeing what happens when a great character gets dropped into a world and given room to become a hero.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
We will all get together and have a Free Session Zero before the campaign launches and the party can discuss what they would like to play. Players are allowed to use any official content. No homebrew-I just don't have the time to playtest it, sorry. Any class/subclass-race/species is fine but try to keep it reasonable. This campaign obviously isn't suited for a Thri-Kreen. But if you can flavor it and make it believable.... Start at 3rd Level. I personally roll my dice for stats, 4d6drop the lowest, but if your personal preference is a different method, you do you. Take starting equipment AND starting gold. You're level 3, you've earned some scratch over the last few years.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
You will need to make free accounts for the following- Discord Roll20 If you prefer DnDBeyond for character generation (as do I), please download this link- https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/beyond-20/pdjnkppffhaiimjopdpdkdaddgcmnbpp?hl=en-US Make yourself a player icon however you wish, if you don't know how or can't be bothered, I'll make one for you if you tell me. Test your microphone before we play. Make sure there isn't background noise or interference that could bother your fellow players. Give your character a glance before we play. You might be forgetting something important from last game.
What TheChaosShaman brings to the table
I use animated battlemaps from Patreon artists that I support. Many of my icons (not all, to be fair) are STL files from minis I have in real life I have purchased from artists. Music, Sound Effects and Ambience provided by an Opus Account that players are given access to. Players can decided their own volumes levels, and if you want, add your own sound effects for combat, spells, and such. I have years of theatre experience and voice acting work, so you can expect a wide variety of accents and personalities. I make it a point that every NPC is unique. I would say this is my strongest strength.
Homebrew rules
DM Inspiration is called a Cool Point (name pending) and can do way more than just advantage. It's treated like a bargaining chip with the DM. You can save them between games and when you need to pull off something crazy and say, "Wouldn't it be cool if I....." THAT is when you spend your cool points. You can automatically pass a death save, give yourself another d6 damage, give your ally advantage, etc. Rule of Cool. We didn't sign-up to play lawyers simulator. I like to let players make rules based on their own games as well. As you can tell by now, I'm pretty laid back. We do Chris Perkins Critical Hits. I also work with the players to figure out what their long term plans are for their characters and we develop a strategy for making that happen. Flavor is always free. Minor tweaks are fine (Ice bolt instead of Firebolt). I want you to create a character you will love playing and I plan on helping you make it happen.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How TheChaosShaman creates a safe table
Open door policy at all times. We'll all have a talk together during Session Zero about safety and respect for one another. I offer breaks during games, I'm available afterwards if anyone wants to discuss things, we use stars and wishes, players are asked if they have any extremes to stay away from, you can message me during a game to change if needed. Whatever makes you feel comfortable, just tell me and I'll make a GM note on your profile and make it a point to be known.
Content warnings
Safety tools used