Pirate's Quarter: Freeport

[Captain_Bleach]

Freeport: City of Adventure




Arr, someone who claims to be a pirate and table-top gamer does not deserve the title until he tries to run a swashbuckling adventure! Well then, if you're too lazy and uncreative to make your own, then check out Green Ronin's Freeport!
Now the introduction gives its heavily biased version of the fantasy city. We get a feel of the island domain, full of dry and dusty libraries with forgotten tomes, enigmatic wizards,
dark cults, back-stabbing politicians, bureaucratic religious institutions, swashbuckling daredevils, and (my favorite part) randy sailors and lusty wenches!

Chapter One is a history of Freeport. Now, an ancient empire of serpent people ruled over an island called Valossa, who worshiped the Snake God Yig, before a fringe religion of snake-people overthrew Valossa with the help of the Unspeakable One, who, for the Lovecraft-savvy, know as Hastur. No, I'm not afraid of saying the name. I'm a pirate,
for Heironeous' sake! I have fought servants of far worse extra-dimensional entities than that poor excuse for a King! But this review is about Freeport, not about me. Let's get back to the big scene. So, the history of Freeport is inexorably entwined with the
Cthulhu Mythos and Lovecraftian Horror. I am frankly getting tired of seeing Cthulhu in my D&D. Try to be original for once.

Then, the surviving chain of Valossa was settled by pirates, adventurers, and treasure hunters seeking fame and fortune, and what better place than the ruins of an ancient empire? Of course, a city full of one-eyed Ninja-killers still had laws; if you have a grudge against your fellow booty-lover, take it outside the city. Shortly, two families, the Drac and Francisco family went to war, and Freeport nearly tore itself apart with the two organizations of aristocrats vying for ultimate power. A council was made of 12 people, and they possessed power, albeit at a limited rate, so they needed to work together to influence Freeport on the whole.

Chapter Two is about the Serpent's Teeth region, the weather, the native creatures, and the four islands. The island is very cool for a tropical region, about 70-80 degrees
Farenheit from winter to summer, respectively. Big, mid-high CR monsters give Freeport a wide berth, due to the ships sailing to Freeport being not worth it; historically, when merchant ships were attacked, the pirates would retaliate in full force against the monsters. However, locathah, merfolk, and sahuagin ply the waters nearby, hoping to profit off of Freeport's bounty. Countless meaningless wars between the three groups, mostly Sahuagin-instigated. Due to this, Sahuagin are viewed with contempt by sailors, merchants, and pirates alike.

Freeport is the only major sign of civilization (my apologies to our tribal viewers, I meant "high concentration of people") among the four islands, with other communities being hidden pirate's coves, nomadic villages both above water and under the sea, and summer villas populated by the rich and their servants.

Chapter Three is the city itself. The society is that of a cosmopolitan pseudo-capitalistic economy; the rich have the most say in affairs, regardless of their birthright, social
status, or lack thereof. The religious institutions, whether rich or poor, hold sway over the lives of both the faithful and heathens, providing hope, salvation, or in the case of cults and demon-worshipers, misery and strife. The middle class is filled with business owners, merchants, and traders who were not successful enough to make it to the top. Then, in every society, there are the laborers, those on the bottom, who barely make up for their unskilled labor with low wages, high numbers, and replacability. Such people are sailors, prostitutes, and those who work in jobs that involve little pay and punishing work. The government is represented by a Captains' Council, which is comprised of twelve members, most of which comprise the interests of business, military, nobility, religion, or the working force. However, the Sea Lord, of the Drac noble family, has yet to give a suitable heir or replacement when he died. This would cause a series of adventure products around this event known as the "succession crisis." Later in this chapter, we get a list of holidays, law enforcement (which is mostly comprised of Warriors and Fighters, making it poor against spell casting threats), and the religion of Yig and the Unspeakable One.

Chapter Four is the gazetteer, which details each of the districts and their environs: The Docks, which is full of ships, sailors, and pirates, Drac's End, which is full of the labor force which keeps the city going, the Eastern District, which is the home of the middle class, and an all-Halfling organization called the "Benevolent Association," which is just a fantasy equivalent to the Italian Mafia. Where have we heard this before? I know, the Boromer clan of Eberron. But the "Benevolent Organization" came first, so it is not a rip-off.

The Merchant District is full of successful and rich business leaders, none of which are spellcasters. For some odd reason, spellcasters in Freeport are either religious members,

owners of book shops, or in the case of the official Wizard's Guild, a pseudo-religious astrological/astronomical cult in which only the higher-ranking members get the good spells. Hit a certain level, try to start your own spell business, you better get said Guild's Permission, plus you must share their weird beliefs (hint: they worship a Chaotic Evil deity that is featured in H.P. Lovecraft's works) or you "vanish." The fact that the overwhelming majority of successful merchants are not spellcasters just doesn't sit well with me. It's like everybody's ignorant of the Wish Economy. But on with the tour! The Old City is full of Freeport's leaders and noble houses, which decides the fate of the city's denizens and that of the surrounding area. And the last bit, Scurvytown, combines all the worst aspects of Freeport into one tiny, severely over-populated district: a shanty-town. Crime and poverty abound, and anybody with so much as a copper piece and a lack of common sense will fall prey to the toughest scallywags this side of Greyhawk!

The Temple District contains the many religious institutions of Freeport. Other than the Lovecraftian deities, the main deities and churches are "campaign-generic;" we have a god of knowledge, a god of warriors, a god of the sea, and a god of pirates. I know, an entire religion focused around a demographic of people who know no other way of life than raping, pillaging, and stealing sounds doomed to failure, but since when did D&D theology and philosophy make sense anyway?

The final district, the Warehouse District, is just that; a place to store stuff. And yet, I have yet to hear of a single secure storehouse with an anti-magic field and/or a dimensional anchor to prevent theft. It's like these morons know nothing of the power of d20 Vancian Magic!

Did I mention that Freeport has a very advanced sewer system which contains its own ecosystem of squirming horrors? The Serpent People still live on, and they make their
homes sheltered from the light of day. Serpent People who still worship Yig are ruthlessly hunted down by the devotees of the Unspeakable One, and an underground civil war goes on under this fair city, with the warm-blooded denizens none the wiser.

Chapter Five is full of possible adventure ideas, as though you are unimaginative enough to not form a coherent plot in such a grand book of plot hooks.

Chapter Six gets to our most controversial part: Game Mechanics! We get presented two Prestige Classes: The Freeport Pirate and Crime Boss. The Pirate is mostly various
small bonuses on pirate and swashbuckling themed abilities, but none of them are particularly eye-popping; you gain Weapon Focus and Specialization with cutlasses and boarding pikes! You can hold your breath underwater four times as long! You get an animal companion, which it recommends either a parrot or a monkey! You deal nonlethal damage without penalty! The capstone ability, Pirate's Curse, allows the Pirate to Bestow Curse at 20th caster level on 1d4+1 people who are responsible for his death! ZOMG! Replicating a spell! How unique! The Crimeboss is not much better, with the exception of two class features; one at 7th level, which makes you immune to all mind-affecting effects, and one at 10th level which forces opponents to make a Will Save to cause the Crimeboss any harm at all. Then, you get the Cultist, an underwhelming NPC class which combines features of the Cleric and Rogue; whatever the Cultist can do, the previous classes can do better.

We get a bunch of feats that are not very impressive; let's look at Press Ganger, which gives +2 to Intimidate and +2 on attacks that deal nonlethal damage; not very awe-inspiring. We then get a bunch of magic spells and magic items, which I just don't feel like taking a look at; frankly, I am tired of all the new magical doo-dads that pop up in every book, and I don't feel like combing through them to search for potential brokenness.

We get an optional appendix for rules on firearms in Freeport! Now that's what I'm talkin' aboot, laddie! These knick-knacks deal more damage than the pistols and muskets
in the Player's Handbook, but they are a bitch to reload: Three full-round actions, two with Rapid Reload, and one with a second feat, firearms drill, which can be taken more than once, and acts just like rapid reload, but applies only to firearms. Two feats just to reload as fast as a heavy crossbow. Worth it? No. Not to mention that Firearms are
exotic, meaning that unless you dip levels in Fighter, don't expect to be a gun-monster at early levels.

Our final bit on this product is drugs of Freeport, which, for some reason, are illegal, even though there are pirates all over the place. It can't be due to moral reasons, as prostitution is perfectly legal in Freeport and regulated by the government (taxes). It is due to the "deadly effects of drug addiction." I can say the same thing about alcohol, yet I don't see the moral superiors cracking down on taverns. Overall, why are they illegal? From a mechanics perspective, the side effects are MUCH worse than the benefits, so not
too many power gamers would be going for this stuff.

Conclusion: Freeport is more suitable to a lower-powered game at levels 1-6; at mid-high levels, there is not really many powerful people in Freeport (other than the Wizard's Guild) that can smack down troublesome adventurers, and at high levels, there is no real point in pirating when you can just Wish for loot and booty. I love the setting, but I do not believe that Core D&D is the best fit; FUDGE or E6 would be better. And don't get me started on the Wish Economy's potential effects!

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

[Crissa]

Could you cut out the hard returns and just use paragraph breaks like a normal person, please?

We haven't needed hard returns since we moved to this new thing called 'computers' which wrap the text to the display. Heck, we even call it a display instead of 'page' now.

-Crissa

[Captain_Bleach]

I did it because I wanted the text to be readable, as there was a large amount of it, plus I could not find out how to Double-space automatically on message boards.

[MrWaeseL]

Formatting is annoying;

These threads are surprisingly useful considering the quality of your other posts.

[Captain_Bleach]

I appreciate your responses, Crissa and Mr. Weasel.

[shau]

1198036243[/unixtime]]Formatting is annoying;

These threads are surprisingly useful considering the quality of your other posts.

Wow, what an amazingly backhanded compliment.

These are pretty good, but I miss the reviews from people like Frank and Lago. You know, the type in which the reviewer would explain not only how it was a bad game but also why the person who wrote it was the worst person ever and how we should all rise up and set fire to their house.

[Captain_Bleach]

1198075430[/unixtime]]
These are pretty good, but I miss the reviews from people like Frank and Lago. You know, the type in which the reviewer would explain not only how it was a bad game but also why the person who wrote it was the worst person ever and how we should all rise up and set fire to their house.

That's because I don't personally know the people who make the books that I read. Besides, I have a different writing style than Frank and Lago. However, thank you Shau for your critique!

[RandomCasualty]

1198016152[/unixtime]]We get an optional appendix for rules on firearms in Freeport! Now that's what I'm talkin' aboot, laddie! These knick-knacks deal more damage than the pistols and muskets
in the Player's Handbook, but they are a bitch to reload: Three full-round actions, two with Rapid Reload, and one with a second feat, firearms drill, which can be taken more than once, and acts just like rapid reload, but applies only to firearms. Two feats just to reload as fast as a heavy crossbow. Worth it? No. Not to mention that Firearms are
exotic, meaning that unless you dip levels in Fighter, don't expect to be a gun-monster at early levels.

Nothing makes me cry more than seeing exotic firearms. The whole concept is fucking stupid. The main advantage to firearms is that they were easier to train people in than using longbows. They are not exotic weapons by any means.

[Captain_Bleach]

In Ravenloft, they were made as Simple Weapons for Pistols in Domains that utilized gunpowder technology, and Martial Weapons for Rifles. Domains with an Medieval level or lower treated them as exotic, due to the extreme rarity and lack of knowledge about guns smaller than cannons that could be carried around. I still don't agree with it, as when you become proficient, you gained a level. I just use Frank's Tome rules on proficiency.

[tzor]

I could probably argue for hours about the whole notion of gunpower in a game system and how it should or should not be treated and if I were to do so I guarentee I would be at one point or the other arguing both sides of the issue. This is especially true when you roll back the weaponry to eariler and eariler ages.

Should a powder weapon be an exotic weapon? Well, what does that mean? "A character who uses a weapon with which he or she is not proficient takes a -4 penalty on attack rolls." I think the answer is a clear and obvious "no" to that one. Attacking with a powder weapon should be easy ...

But we come up with a very odd problem in the d20 system. This argument really does apply to every so called "exotic" ranged weapon out there, hand crossbows, repeating crossbows both have a WTF reaction on the area of aiming and firing. Therefore extension of stupid design is insisting that they should be, in fact, exotic weapons. (At least from a design point of view since it's probably rude to sell a supplement that would insist that the SRD is STUPID.)

So instead we need to use the stupid SRD rule and find the wiggle room. The exotic crossbows are such because they are rare, so use the same logic. If powder weapons are "rare" they are "exotic" if not they are not, even though that really has no relationship to how hard a weapon is to fire at a target.

Reloading is a strange subject. I'm more familiar with 18th century weapons because they are easier to research. There are two types of weapons in the late 18th century; the musket is easy to load but because it is easy to load the bullet is not as snug in the barrel and thus has a reduced accuracy, while the rifle has a longer narrower barrel which took longer to load but was vastly more accurate. Roll back the history and the trend was more towards the musket.

"Accuracy of the Brown Bess was, as with most other muskets, low, primarily due to the lack of sights and the use of undersized military ammunition meant for ease of loading. The effective range is often quoted as 100 yards (meters) but was often fired en masse at 50 m to inflict the greatest damage upon the enemy. The combination of large caliber of the projectile, the heavy weight of its lead construction contributed to its low effective range. Military tactics of the period stressed mass volleys and massed bayonet charges, instead of individual sniping. The large soft projectile could inflict a great deal of damage when accurate. The great length of the weapon allowed longer reach in bayonet engagements."

"The colonial long rifle was a slower, more-accurate version of the musket. It was a small caliber weapon known for being rugged, dependable, and lightweight. As the name suggests, the barrel of the rifle possessed a grooved, 'rifled' bore. In conjunction with the longer barrel, the rifling greatly improved the effective range and accuracy of the rifle in comparison to the musket. However, the longer barrel made reloading more difficult, requiring the rifleman to spend more time reloading than would be necessary for the musketeer. In addition, the rifle was never modified to accept a bayonet, making the rifleman a vulnerable target at close range. During the American Revolution, American riflemen served the role of the modern-day sniper, as they were able to effectively single out their targets from long range."

As for the Brown Bess, "Estimations of rate of fire ranged from 'one shot every fifteen seconds' to 'two to two and a half shots per minute.'"

"Each round represents 6 seconds in the game world." This means that including the actual firing the weapon it would take 5 rounds (4 rounds reload) to 2 rounds (1 round reload) to use. The real point is how you should get to those times. You also have to consider first and foremost how it integrates with the game world, because if you really want to play with time you can always make a weapon easier to load at the expense of range.

[RandomCasualty]

Long loading times dont' work well in RPGs because ti just means that you carry 8 rifles on your back and use the draw'n'drop method.

[tzor]

There are ways to avoid that problem, but there is an even simplier problem that the idea of multiple round reloads causes: Why spend your time doing 1dX every Y rounds (and act like a target for Y-1 rounds) when you can do 1dZ every round and not act like a target for Y-1 out of Y rounds?

Note multiple round reloads might make sense with realy large canons or seige weapons. Even here, with a proper crew this doesn't happen in 3.5E "It takes four full-round actions to reaim a heavy catapult (multiple crew members can perform these full-round actions in the same round, so it would take a crew of four only 1 round to reaim the catapult)."

Game logic would demand that for powder weapons we should stick to three types of reload. Move actions (as used by light crossbows), Standard actions (not used in crossbows), and full round actions (used in heavy crossbows). Obviously making it longer to load a powder weapon than it would be for a crew to load a catapult is dead wrong.

My gut feel would be that muskets should take a standard action to load. This allows a one shot per every other round while not forcing the person to only make 5' moves every other round. A rifle should take a full round to load.

Having Repid Reload should make the musket a free action and the rifle a move action as per the crossbow rules and allow multiple musket firings per round if you have a high enough BAB.

Realistic? Heck no, but this isn't a simulation game.

[Maxus]

Considering you have the beardies being teh l33t at crafting stuff, maybe someone clever could find a better design rather than historically accurate stuff.

There's a Terry Pratchett novel that centers around the first firearm on the Disc.

It had a flintlock, powder-and-slug design, but it could be fired very quickly, because the genius who'd made it came up with a design for, basically, a clip.

Six or so short lengths of pipe, each with a hole for the flintlock to strike into, with some teeth on the bottom. The 'gonne' had a lever that you could work that would present a new pipe each time you did it. And it'd be possible to walk around with a pocketful of the clips.

Point is, If you can come up with a semi-plausible explanation or design, I'd be willing to let you do some anachronism. I mean, it's fantasy, and as long you're not breaking the game by cruising around in a Howitzer and running over people, then some leeway with what technology can do should be fine.

[Captain_Bleach]

Fortunately, in the DMG, it is much quicker. In Ravenloft, pistols and rifles are as fast to reload as light and heavy crossbows, respectively.

[Neeek]

I seem to recall 7th Sea having fire arm reloading rules that worked something like "reloading takes X actions, -2 for each point of the Reload skill the character has". IIRC, the hard limit for speed reloading on the low end was around one and a half rounds. This would essentially be someone who was a Master in a sword school that raise the stat that granted actions, and had a background that allowed him to exceed the nominal max stat in the same trait, plus max ranks in reload. Such a character would almost certainly be better off not bothering to reload if he could close to the enemy.