Cherno

You can check out the sail-making tutorial here and some ships with custom sails I made here :)

I think both cannonball effects are very well done. Overall a great battle scene. I especially like the small details like spongebob and patrick dueling off and the pirate trying to get away from the shark. These sort of things always add to the fun, for sure. Cool!

My fleet and additional components currently sits stored above in the attic, waiting for the signal to prowl the seven seas again ;) The big problem i have is how to design an engaging scenario for me and two friends which utilises the strengths of ESPG, namely quick, fun ship-to-ship battles and being able to buy new crew members, ship, cannons etc. But with the amount of islands and bases i have, i also would want to include some land-bases battles, for example assaulting the native village (enchanted island) to raid it for mystical treasure, or rescuing a prisoner from eldorado fortress. I have tons of ideas for small scenarios (as described above), but can't seem to make them work, because i wouldn't know what to make the players (with me as a sort of GM, controlling the navy and npc merchants) do in between missions. The biggest issue here is the pre-plotting movement mechanic, which i find to be quite cumbersome. For short naval battles it may be fine, but not for long scenarios. If a player just wants to move to a faraway port, he shouldn't be required to plot each of his moves, and the same goes for merchant ships who may be around but not in the immediate vincinity of a player, i. e. not prone to being attacked. Maybe a solution could be to only use plotted movement when ships are in actual combat, and just letting them move directly when a player is active when not battling others. Another way to deal with it could be scrapping pre-plotted movement altogether, which would make having the initiative very important. Basically, it wouldn't be possible to board or get near an enemy ship if you don't have the initiative, because you have to move first and your opponent just moves away from your ship in his turn. As you can see, there possibly ARE solutions for all problems, but i would have to pre-plan everything carefully, because i a) don't have the time or motivation to test new mechanics alone and b) don't want to change things in the middle of an actual game with other players if something doesn't work... This is alway a big motivation killer. I'm sorry if this all sounds rather convoluted, but it sums up why i still haven't played the game yet Edit: On a side note, regarding the problem with my class 1 cutter which are too small mentioned in the posts above: I have corrected this by elongating these ships, so now they are still narrow, but at the same time very sleek and have enough room for nearly as much crew as their broader cousins in class 2. Actually, both ships now can be put into the same category as class 1 cutters, so i now have ships acurrately representing ESPG ship classification system again.

I too have to say that your diorama looks very realistic. Not only is the wooden house perfectly designed and built in pleasant colors, but full of small details like the wheel haning outside, the lanterns and the chain / rope above the balcony. I also love the dense vegetation creeping through the grey rocks on the right side. If it weren't for some visible studs, i would almost think i'm looking at a scene from one of the Monkey Island games. Last but not least, this small port ist one of the few that's not based on the classic bright stone/stucco design like in the Imperial Outpost. Great work!

Well, what can I say... MOC ships don't come any better than this. It's the pinnacle of ship design and ranks up there with the few other creations of this magnitude and attention to detail. A perfect example of what is possible not only with enough time and money, but creativity and enthusiasm as well. Just great! Let's hope it never gets broken down into it's bricks again ;-)

The somersaulting pirate is a nice idea! But why does the "fencing dummy/puppet"(?) have a) a halloween pumpkinghead and b) a bunch of cutlasses sticking in it's crotch?

What a great build! My favorite aspects are 1. The small church in the middle 2. the flagstone ground 3. the Minifig sitting by the water; I've never seen that idea of just putting seperate legs and torsos next to each other before. Cool!

The Pirate sitting on the porch with his Islander girlfriend is the neatest scene i've seen in a while I guess some smalltalk gets you further than the old "strip naked or taste my cutlass, young lady!"

Cute! Now make a whole fleet, shouldn't take too many bricks

I like this ship! The overall construction, the massive hull, the sterncastle, the bow, the detailed interior with little action scenes.. All very well made. Now i wanna see some sails!

Wow, what a colorful ship! The sail looks really good, did you use red felt and painted the black stripes on it? Great idea to use that combination. As for the hull, i guess there's no real alternative to the official LEGO ship hulls. Just order some on Bricklink and you will be as happy as i was when i completed my first custom ship ;) Edit: When i try to come up with ship names, i look at the ship in question and associate piratey-sounding words with the color and shape used, so a blue ship becomes the "Dolphin", a red one with sabres hanging from it's sides the "Bloody Sabre", and so on

Finally, the time has come for my first session of Evil Steve's Pirate Game. In my previous threads, you were able to see some of the stuff i built so far: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=47266 http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=49275 Here's a quick rundown of the sets and MOCs that will be available for the game: Lots of ships of various sizes Lots of boats (sails and/or oars) A mountain of pirate minifigs: Pirates, merchants/traders, harbor personell, sailors, soldiers (bluecoats) with officers, marines (redcoats) with officers, skeletons, skeleton pirates, islanders. various sea and land animals: Sharks (including two white ones), manta ray, octopi, sawfish, Kraken/giant squid, monkeys, alligators. one free trading post, two pirate ports, eldorado fortress, enchanted Island, plus more small and medium sized sets (broadsides brig, imperial outpost and so on) Enough small and medium sized islands to fill my little carpet-caribbean Marooned pirates to rescue Treasure chests, barrels, various other cargo items Cold coins So with all that stuff in storage, practically every scenario imaginable is possible. Now the question: What do you think would make for an interesting, appropriate introductory scenario? The two other players have no ESPG experience, but regularly play complex boardgames like Axis&Allies, (Advanced) Heroquest, etc., so rules complexity shouldn't be a problem. Please consider the following aspects when stating your ideas: Three players, including me One ship per player, with the option of upgrading it in the game through raiding of other ships or buying a better one in a port Playing time not too long (3 hours would be cool, including some rules explanations in the beginning) No big sea battles which "would be cool" but are inappropriate for new players Player interaction of some sort: Wether it be straight combat, trading, or a mix of both; It should be one game with three players instead of three games with one player each ;) "Coop-mode" against me as a GM would also be a possibility No player elemination, i. e. if a player's ship gets sunk, he shouldn't be out of the game, likewise he shouldn't be too disadvantaged to make it impossible and pointless for him to try to play and longer Action-oriented: Less role-playing, more sail-and-shoot Too many NPCs (if present at all) slow the game down tremendously and have to behave without needing a game master A way to keep score of some sort; The game should ideally have a goal and/or a clear winner in the end Not too many things to do/explore/experience at once = gameplay shouldn't be too overwhelming KISS: Keep it simple, stupid! ;) Phew. As you can see, there are quite a few things to consider for a simple scenario. Anyway, please feel free to post whatever floats your mind. Every idea can be elaborated on! As a big THANK YOU for your input, i promise to write a detailed after-action-report with pictures.

In a GM-less scenario, i don't think i'll allow taking over ports. That would probably make the invading player too powerful as the port would be blocked for other players, and i don't plan on having more than one or two ports. Maybe raiding would be an option as an additional way to gain income, but that has to be structured by special rules, too. So at the moment, i guess ports, if they're there at all, are just for buying and selling stuff and quickly reparing a damaged ship. In a GM-guided game, however, ports have greater importance; NPC traders could start and end their tours here, contacts may give the players quests, etc. Anyway, thanks a lot for the idea of raiding/taking over ports, i think i'll gie this one a try sometime. In an actual game, i think it wouldn't be too much of a difference if a ship is sunk or stripped of it's crew, as a player can only safely command a second ship without the chance of mutiny if he has the special character "Completely Loyal Henchman". As special characters are pretty rare, most players won't be commanding more than one ship, and those that do are probably a prime target for the others. If a ship without crew can't be repaired and crewed by the winner of a sea battle, he has the choice to haul it back to a near port in order to sell it. If a port is too far away or he doesn't want to do it anyway, the ship will maybe sit there for a few turns, getting moved around by the wind, until it is taken off the map in order to avoid cluttering and to always have enough spare ships to give out. At least, that's the way i'll probably handling this. Thanks you very much for bringing this up! Better to make rules beforehand instead of having to decide ad-hoc in the middle of a game when the issue does come up suddenly. One other thing i might change is the way pistol and musket fire is handled. As per the ESPG rules, volleys of projectile weapons can be pretty devastating, so actual boarding actions are rare. I'd like to give players a reason to jump over to the enemy's ship and start attacking with cutlasses, while at the same time keeping it simple, i. e. no ammo rules or similar. I'm not sure how to do this, or if it's possible at all without breaking the games inherent simplicity. @Francis Dampierre: As you have obviously tinkered around with the rules a bit, do you have any idea/advice on how to handle cannon, pistol and musket ranges? Is there a maximum range? I couldn't find anything like that in the official rules, so i assume it would theoretically be possible to fire weapons at a very long range, until the modifier gets too high. 36" for a cannon, 6" for pistols and 18" for muskets sounds about right. Also, a cannon has a no-modifier-zone of 6" to 18" (instead of 6" to 24"), with -1 per 6" after that. That's the way most players in the past seem to have done this.

Regarding my upcoming ESPG game: I practically have everything i need for a game, and i'll have 2 players and me. For the first game, i'll set up a simple sail-and-shoot game without the need for a referee/GM, so i will be a regular player while also explaining rules and such. That makes three players total. Scenario will probably be just "Everybody starts at one edge of the map, some small islands get scattered around with treasure and marooned sailors to pick up, and whoever has the most treasure at the end (after two hours or whatever) wins. I'm not sure how to handle player interaction, though, and what happens when a ship gets sunk or captures. I guess i'll just give the losing player another brig to start with. As for your question regarding the Trading Post flag, i just took a scanned copy of the ITP brig's sail from peeron and edited it in photoshop until i had a nice white background clear outlines, then i adjusted it's size and printed it on regular paper. I did the same for red and blue coat flags and different jolly roger flags. Edit: Here is a picture of three of the islands. I made them out of orange/yellowish and green felt. works really well i think.

That brig looks really good, and it has realistic colors, too. Good job! Good idea about the hull hits, too. I was thinking about the same, as one game report on lugnet stated that no one was able to sink anyone else the whole game :D I think it really is about capturing a ship by killing it's crew rather than just destroying it for fun. Slowing a ship with rigging hits seems to be too cumbersome, too.

Maybe you could remove the 1x2x4 reverse slopes and put some 1x3x1 and 1x2x1 reverse slopes in the same place. That way that stern would be more "gently flowing" upwards and to the back

Looks great, especially from the front. Interior detail is also very good. The two-level stern has some serious "overhang" for lack of a better word... I think i could use some support back there, or you just move the upper level to the front 4 or 6 studs.

Good question, and i see that you read the official ESPG rules very carefully! It is true that i didn't follow the class system as laid out in the rules too strictly. I tried to keep it simple while at the same time having a broad selection of different classes. The ship classes i will probably be using: Class 1 - I call these cutters. They are built using the 4-stud-wide aircraft (?) bodies. Class 2 - These are brigs in my game. IMP style. Class 3 - Narrow ship hull, no center sections. Cross Bone Clipper, Renegade Runner. Class 4 - Narrow hull, one center section. Old Imperial Flagship. Class 5 - Wide hull, two center sections (no or only one section looks really weird to me). Red Beard Runner. Class 6 - Wide hull, three center sections. The "Big" LEGO ships like Skull's Eye Schooner. I completely ignored all "secondary" classes like shorter, wider ships which are slower but can hold more cargo. As you may notice, i essentially added another Class of ships before the official class system (what i call cutters). That of course means that all following ship sizes are moved one class up. This gives me six ship classes instead of five i would otherwise have. In order to still being faithful to ESPG regaring number of cannons, i just added a small custom-built cannon in the "anchor-holes" of a ship's front section from class 3 and up. You can see this on the pictures. The IMP brig luckily has these small cannons already built-in as part of it's design, although in this case, the cannons are located in the ship's stern. You also mentioned the problem i see too when using my own class 1 cutters... They really are too small to hold any sizeable crew, let alone any treasure. For this reason, players will start with Class 2 brigs crewed by 8 pirates plus their captain, so that's a good base for buccaneering. Now, this still leaves me with six small cutters too small to be of any use, and essentially i still have only 5 classes if class 1 can't be used effectively . For NPC merchants meant as easy prey, these ships are great, however, as NPC won't have as many men onboard. Maybe i'll get back to using the ESPG classes as written in the rules and make my cutters a special ship class apart from that, but i feel that players really should start with two cannons on their ships in order to make the game more action-oriented and lessen the impact of a cannon loss. Edit: Some additional background information: The issue i know have with my lovely but too small cutters is due to a) them being the only ships i was able to build when i started with this project, as i had no other ship hulls of any size at all and b) not foreseeing how many crew members a player typically starts with in a straight combat scenario.

I used a thin but densely-webbed fabric apparently made as a simple cloth for larger tables. Just look in the fabric section of your local department store or whatever. I'm sure you will find something suitable in a nice white or brownish color. When soaked in the glue-water-solution, it will become fairly stiff after drying, ready for printing on. I actually got the idea of printing directly onto the fabric far too late and in fact only printed one symbol on my sails; the other ones where painted using self-made stencils, which was quite time consuming. Ah well, i guess others don't have to make the same mistake now Edit: On a side note, i think the official LEGO sails are polyester or something like that, and not real cotton. At least it looks and feels like it, and would make sense from a cost and production point of view.

Good use of the "racing flags". Looks very interesting. The angled lanterns onthe stern looks kinda weird to me, though

Nice diorama with lots of details. I especially like the small fortress out in the water. Good stuff! No pirate will ever dare to attack this base bristling with cannons and heavily manned by the governor's finest!

Maybe you can get some inspiration from the trading post I have built. You can see more pictures here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=49275&st=15

Outstanding work! The bright red color is a real eyecatcher. Is any interior accessible? I'd love to see pictures of the cabin etc. It might be due to the perspective, but the sails look kinda small, don't they?

I just found another shot by accident, I hope I don't spoil anyone's christmas! The calendar costs 21,95 EUR at Amazon Germany which is a pretty good price for what you get. Maybe I'll get one even cheaper in January :)

Just MASSIVE. Looks like another 100+ hours project... 100+ hours of fun, of course! I sincerely hope you don't drop the ship once it is ready This ship truly dwarfs other "normal" ships, in size AND in the amount of firepower on it's broadside. It would be a shame to store it in a basement room, I hope you have enough space to put it somewhere visitors can see it. I'd even go so far and say it belongs in a museum. Great work!