Cherno

Another Update. As promised, I made some photos of the stuff I built this week. Small islands for shipwrecked pirates A bunch of small islands "deep in the caribbean" where shipwrecked pirates wait for passing ships. Note that all these guys have yellow pants (or none at all?!?). I color-code my minifigs by pants color; shipwrecked, recruitable pirates have yellow pants, pirates in a player's crew have blue, gray or red, most neutral NPCs (traders, harbor personell etc.) have white, and NPC Pirates have black. Of course, there are also ghost/skeleton pirates, but these can be distinguished easily by their skulls and white (bone) hands. The one on the small rock outcropping is my favorite "island". The poor soul on this tiny, jagged archipelago doesn't even get to enjoy the companionship of the parrot who sits on an even smaller rock apart from the main island Talk about social animals... --- --- Mmmh, fish! --- "Damn my coconut allergy!" --- This island is so small the pirate couldn't even start a fire on the beach. At least there's a palmtree protecting him from the hot, tropical sun. This is probably the classic "shipwrecked-person-stranded-on-an-island-with-palmtree image known from comics, films and so on. Let's hope he at least has a piece of paper, something to write and a bottle with cap! --- Flag Island All three flags would actually mean that a hurricane is raging! --- A neutral port As long as you don't start any trouble in the port itself or the waters surrounding it, you're free to dock here and trade. Detail shot: A grumpy-looking merchant is just leaving the harbor master's office. Maybe he got his fishing license revoked, who knows... In the background, you can see a port employee standing behind his desk with a pot of ink. Maybe he checks freight papers or something. Every docked ship's owner has to register at the dock master and pay a small fee. "How about three pieced of eight, and you don't have to know my name?" The harbor master's office, currently empty. Some affluent lady standing on the balcony overlooking the port. The Voodoo Lady's swamp residence I didn't have any steering wheels to spare, so I used small chariot/buggy wheels. Also, I didn't have another blue base plate, so I had to made do with several normal blue plates. This was actually a good thing, because it gave me the idea of putting sea roses on the surface in order to help holding the plates together. Necessity is the mother of invention... Note that the tall torches are glowing in an otherworldly greenish tinge. I think this creates a suitable atmosphere for that whole swamp-voodoo-mystery-thing Now, who could hide behind that scary looking skull-shaped hut hidden deep in the swamps? Why of course, it's the Voodoo Lady from Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge ! Actually, she also appears in the other MI parts as well, but at least the skull is exclusive to this game. On the next shot, you can see her sitting on her voodoo throne, voodoo wand in hand, surrounded by mysterious jars, bottles and containers filled with the ingredients for her voodoo spells. A shot from the other side. Her throne is mounted on a turntable, of course, to be faithful to the MI game. --- That's all for now. Have fun watching and reading!

Yes, terrain is still an issue. I built some small islands today for shipwrecked pirates to appear on during the game, and yesterday I built a trading post similar in style to the official Imperial one from LEGO, only slightly smaller. I plan to have two "friendly" pirate ports (Forbidden Island and Rock Island Refuge, already on my cupboard), two neutral ports (the one mentioned above plus the IMP which I still have to buy), and one enemy port (Eldorado Fortress, also on my cupboard). This could possibly be supplanted by another enemy port if I ever get arount to buy the 2009 Soldier's Fort. With these ports on the gaming surface, NPC and players have a lot of different choices of where to sail next to trade and/or do quests. Along with the handful of small islands which often contain nothing more than a palmtree and some rocks, there is "Flag Island", with a mast and flags showing wind direction and speed during the game. Other islands will include prisons (broadside's brig etc.) for captured pirates to rot in or possibly be freed by their comrades, Skull Island, where some treasure and/or special items guarded by evil skeletons can be found, Enchanted Island for the Villagers, and various smaller Imperial structures defending certain parts of the "carribean" (Imperial Outpost, harbour sentry,...). I also plan to build the swamp residence of the Voodoo Lady from Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's Revenge... Since apparently there are some people interested in this project, I will add pictures of the stuff I built so far tomorrow. Happy pirating, Cherno

If I may be so bold to answer your question instead: This is the often-copied design of the small cutter/brig from the Imperial Trading Post. You can find the instructions here: http://www.peeron.com/scans/6277-1/3

Thanks a lot for your tutorial Willy. One other thing I'd like to add regarding making sails: If you want to print a logo (crossed sabres, skulls & crossbones, the imperial trading symbol etc.) on the main sail, a good way to do this is to just cut out a piece of suitable fabric slightly smaller than A4 size and apply a mixture of white glue/elmer's glue and water onto the whole piece on both sides, then hang it up to dry for a few hours. Iron it flat, and temporarily fix it to an sheet of normal A4 paper with tape. Fire up your preferred graphics editing program and just print out the symbol you have chosen, choosing "center image" in the printing dialogue. You may have to use your printer's secondary paper intake in order for your printer to accept the paper with fabric on it. Additionally, you may have to put an additional piece of paper just under the spot where the image would appear on the fabric, because otherwise a mirrored "ghost image" may appear just under the original spot on the fabric (this is probably because fabric doesn't take ink as good as paper, so some ink gets stuck on the printing roll). After you successfully printed a picture on your piece of fabric, just mark the outline of the required sail and cut it out. Punch out the holes (I happen to have a special kind of tool for that which is for applying rivets to clothing) and voilà: Your printed sail is finally ready to put up on your ship! I guess it would even be possible to just print on the colorful stripes directly on your sail if you have a color printer and enough cartridges. I used thinned down acrylic paint and lots of patience for this step ;) If you just want to make a normal sail without a picture on it, do as explained in the sail making tutorial. However, I found that it's better to apply the glue-mixture to the whole sail instead of just the edges, as you won't have any ugly differences in lightness on your sails, and the fabric as a whole gets stronger and takes paint better.

Thanks for your comments. I think i might have just enough to man every ship with a "skeleton crew", but for a historically accurate heavy manning I need additional pirates and sailors :) Ebay, here I come! I've made another photo to show how some colors are present in every ship class: One other thing I'd like to add regarding making sails: If you want to print a logo (crossed sabres, skulls & crossbones, the imperial trading symbol etc.) on the main sail, a good way to do this is to just cut out a piece of suitable fabric slightly smaller than A4 size and apply a mixture of white glue/elmer's glue and water onto the whole piece on both sides, then hang it up to dry for a few hours. Iron it flat, and temporarily fix it to an sheet of normal A4 paper with tape. Fire up your preferred graphics editing program and just print out the symbol you have chosen, choosing "center image" in the printing dialogue. You may have to use your printer's secondary paper intake in order for your printer to accept the paper with fabric on it. Additionally, you may have to put an additional piece of paper just under the spot where the image would appear on the fabric, because otherwise a mirrored "ghost image" may appear just under the original spot on the fabric (this is probably because fabric doesn't take ink as good as paper, so some ink gets stuck on the printing roll). After you successfully printed a picture on your piece of fabric, just mark the outline of the required sail and cut it out. Punch out the holes (I happen to have a special kind of tool for that which is for applying rivets to clothing) and voilà: Your printed sail is finally ready to put up on your ship! I guess it would even be possible to just print on the colorful stripes directly on your sail if you have a color printer and enough cartridges. I used thinned down acrylic paint and lots of patience for this step ;) If you just want to make a normal sail without a picture on it, do as explained in the sail making tutorial. However, I found that it's better to apply the glue-mixture to the whole sail instead of just the edges, as you won't have any ugly differences in lightness on your sails, and the fabric as a whole gets stronger and takes paint better.

Edit: I just noticed I put this in the wrong forum, sorry. Hello, fellow buccaneers, some of you may have read my last thread about the start of my fleet for Evil Steve's Pirate Game, which includes small cutters and brigs. After countless hours constructing, designing, redesigning, testing, and a LOT of orders from Bricklink, I have the pleasure to hereby present you with my completed (yeah, sure) fleet, ready for some pirate gaming on my blue ocean carpet :) As usual, special thanks got out to Matteo1130 for his Simple cannon design and, of course, Evil Willy for his Tutorial on making sails. Class 3 These ships are all based on either the Renegade Runner or the Cross Bone Clipper. Class 4 These ships are based on the old Imperial Flagship, with the exception of the last one: This is a trading ship basically copied from Kerntechniker's Tradingship. So thank you for your great design! Class 5 The first two ships are based on the Carribean Clipper, elongated to a length of two middle sections and given a proper second mast. The last one is obviously the Red Beard Runner, modified to put away with the stupid action features, able to mount three cannons on it's broadside, and given some proper rigging. Special thanks to whoever it was who inspired me with his idea of using a red horse-helmet-thingy (?) for the red ship's figurehead. Looks really spiffy. My whole fleet In the background, you can see the Skull's Eye Schooner I got as a kid. I modified it slightly so the four cannons now actually stick out from the hull, which looks far better in my opinion. Well, I guess you can't really see it on the picture I hope I can get some people inspired to do a similar project; it has been loads of fun spending time on the floor sorting bricks and building ships.

From what I can see, these small ships all seem to be "palette swaps" of the standard Imperial Trading Post set ship, so you can just head over to peeron and check the instructions and parts there :)

Just awesome. What's up with the minifig hands stored on the wheelbarrow, though?

Alright, I just gave your rules a try. I played a few turns, testing the rules regarding maneuvering and cannon firing. I took three crews of pirates, each with 4 men and one cutter. I used the cutter profile from your rules, but gave it two max cannons instead of one. These are the things I noticed (maybe some aspects only occur when playing with smaller ships). 1. With smaller ships and therefore smaller crews, it would be good to disregard the need for having a navigator/captain on board in order to move the ship. Otherwise, the corresponding figure gets killed far too easy and the ship can't move anymore. As a house rule, I would suggest that a navigator is only needed in ships above cutter size (cutters typically having about 4 to 6 men onboard). 2. Again regarding smaller ships with higher maneuvre stats (3 or higher), the movement loss through rigging hits is too small if the rigging isn't "halved". On a ship with maneuvre 4 and rigging 4, the first and third hit would only cost 0.25 inches, which basically is too small to be taken into account when moving. Maybe rigging hits should instead just cost 1 inch of speed and 1 maneuvre to a minimum of 1? 3. A rule for setting wind speed and direction for turn 1 is missing. Of course, this is purely cosmetical. I just threw an 8-sided dice for direction and set the strength to normal. 4. The firring modifier when the target ship has moved I quite difficult to use. It reminds me of BattleTech, where one has to remember/write down the number of hexes each unit has moved every turn. Also, it isn't clear what is meant by "target ships moved/didn't move it's full movement allowance", since the speed changes according to wind strength and direction, as wel as rigging hits taken. Suggestion: If ship speed should be taken into account, a simple modifier for the absolute number of inches a ship has moved could be used, i. e. "1-20 inches: -1, 21-40 inches: -2" and so on. An additional modifier for firing at small ships is also possible. 5. The crew can get decimated very quickly through cannon fire, and in smaller crews the chance is very high that someone important (like the navigator, see above) is killed outright without any chance of reviving him or her. 6. The movement speed when sailing "against the wind" seems to be pretty high, often times three quarters of full frontal speed. I guess this is in order to lessen the impact of wind direction, so players sailing against the wind don't havw to be sitting ducks. Also, a stronger wind would actually slow the ship down when it sails against the wind's direction instead of making it faster, but this was probably omitted to keep it simple :) I hope I can help you with my observations so far. What I especially like about your rules is the simplicity of just sailing around and shooting at the enemy. Very quick to learn.

Nice setup, I can already see the port bustling with merchants and lesser noble gentlemen and ladies ;) Do I see an aircraft carrier in the background?

Update: In the last few weeks, i managed to build and complete my fleet of cutters and brigs. The sails are all custom-made. Standing on my cupboard are several larger ships which still need sails, so that will take another week or two until they're ready for the high seas. Stay tuned for more updates soon(ish). Edit: Almost forgot, special thanks go out to Matteo1130 for his Simple cannon design and, of course, Evil Willy for his Tutorial on making sails. Arrr! Bonus picture: KRAKEN ATTACK! ("It just wants to play...!")

Great looking ships you got there. The game looks cool as well. I'm also interested in the ruleset you were using :]

Thanks for the info! I'll be sure to change my bookmarks.

Even though i don't know what's going on, i'll just answer the question regardless. The sails you can see on the pictures are just cut out from fabric after measuring the required size. As of now, however, i use self-made copies of the small sails from the ITP Brig and Raft Raiders set. That also means i don't have to use as much fiddly string as the sails are designed to go straight over the (cross)masts.

I reconstructed the Dolphin with Lego Digital Designer, here is the model file: http://rapidshare.com/files/431812376/cutter_1_dolphin.lxf Note that it already has the changed color scheme i talked about earlier in this thread (white instead of black), and i designed new masts which are closer to the original Imperial Trading Post Brig's mast. Also, since i couldn't find three parts at the ship's bow, here are the part numbers that are missing from the model in the LDD file: 6104 Wing 8 x 8 with 3 x 4 Cutout 4276b Hinge Plate 1 x 2 with 2 Fingers and Hollow Studs 4319 Hinge Bar 8 with Split Bar Holder (new mast, differs from the photos in this thread) Have fun and feel free to ask any questions!

Alright, the last point does make a lot more sense, now. It didn't occur to me that minifigs could try to bandage the wounded in the middle of a battle. Thank you for answering my questions! Alas, I have another one: Do you see any possibility of posting the rules regarding ship values in the near future? The ships in my fleet are all constructed to be in a certain class, as is the case in the ESPG rules. That means I have several ships of Class 2, class 3 etc., with each class having a fixed number of sails, cannons and crew. so I would only need a general guideline of figuring out a ship's cost/value based on it's class. On the other hand, I could just give each player one ship of every class, but then again I wouldn't know what to charge if a player wants to purchase a new ship in a longer, RPG-style game :) Edit: And just another thought: It might be a good thing to divide the rules into basic rules for combat-only-scenarios and optional/aditional rules concerning campaign aspects like dividing booty, reputation, recruiting...

I would guess that the snakes in the tree would "get a drop on them" (the monkeys), soon :) My second choice would be the grilled chickens.

Hi Khaine, first of all, let me thank you for putting up these rules, it must have been a lot of work. After reading the newest version, I have two comments/questions to make: 1. The procedure for computing movement loss through rigging hits seems to be quiet complicated, does this affect actual gameplay, i.e. does it occur often enough to be a nuisance? 2. Does a ship which docks at a port/another (friendly) ship automatically counts as having dropped it's anchor? 3. From what I understand, the rule for fellow sailors to heal/revive their knocked down comrades after battle seems to be superfluous, as wounded minifigs get a chance to heal themselves on a roll of 6, anyway. I might try out your ruleset in a few weeks when my fleet is ready, as it looks to be a lot less of a daunting task than ESPG :)

The ships are not for sale, sorry. I might post some better pictures showing a detailed construction analysis in the future, though. Currently the "Dolphin" isn't my fleet's ugly duckling anymore, as I changed the black bricks with white, and it's looking a lot better now! As a side note, my fleet has been expanded massively, with one additional clipper, six Brigs based on the Imperial Trading Post's ship/boat and no less than ten bigger ships of different sizes. I am currently making sails for them all. Stay tuned for loads of picture soon :)

Thank you all for the kind words. I will be adding some bigger ships in the near future. Oh, and sorry about the mediocre picture quality. I saw that thread about making better photos one day too late

UPDATE 11-26-2010: See more, newer pictures below! Greetings, fellow buccaneers. I recently got gripped by the Lego pirate fever (again, after storing all the sets in the attic as a teenager, some 15 years ago) and decided to build a fleet to play the famous Evil Steve's Pirate Game (ESPG). I started with some smaller ships, so-called cutters, because they are fairly easy to build and don't need too many parts. In ESPG, every ship has a certain class which determines the damage it can take and the number of cannons it can mount. The classes are (copied from the ESPG site): 0 - Boat (a canoe, rowboat or sailboat, or longboat) 1 - Cutter 2 - Brig 3 - Regular ship with 1 center section, or wide ship with no center sections. 4 - Regular ship with 2 center sections, or wide ship with 1 center section. 5 - Regular ship with 3 center sections. 6 - Wide ship with 2 center sections. 7 - Wide ship with 3 center sections. 8 - Wide ship with 4 center sections. Players will start with a Class 2 Ship (Brigs, of which I have only one built so far; think of the brilliantly designed merchant vessel that is inluded in the Imperial Outpost Set). The smaller Class 1 Ships (Cutters) will be used as cheap Mission-Runners and maybe attack vessels if they can swarm the enemy. I have built five Class 1 Cutters so far. All five where made from parts a had in my big pile of Lego parts, so I didn't have to buy any special parts. From a design standpoint, I had three goals in mind: 1. An overall rugged construction, so that the ship doesn't break in half when handled roughly while in the heat of battle 2. A color scheme which sets the ship apart from others in it's class and makes it easily identifiably on the wide, blue "carpet ocean" ;) 3. A certain eyecatcher at the ship's bow, so that the stern section (which, of course, is always bigger, higher and has an overall more complex construction than the rest of the ship) doesn't dominate the whole vessel from a viewing standpoint. That being that, I present you my five custom-built little Cutters. Note that I currently don't have any special masts, so I had to made due with substitutes, and three of the cutters have no rudder and flag. Also, cannons of any sort are missing. I will probably add those once I have constructed enough, as the proper Lego pirate cannons look far too big on these smallish ships, even though they can only mount 1 per their class. A big "thank you!" goes out to Evil Willy for his "Making Sails" tutorial. Bigger pictures are available by clicking on the photos. 1. The "Stinger" This is the first cutter I built. The hull is constructed from white parts of a jetliner fuselage (a very old Lego set, most likely from around 1990). The Color white is very prominent here, with black for the deck, masts and railing. It is one of the two smaller cutters I constructed, being relatively short and with a low deck and stern. The "bow gimmick" here are two lance-like ramming devices pointing to the Stinger's front. I'm not sure which function these would have, but I thought they looked cool. 2. The "Golden Crown" A majestic name for a majestic ship. The "Golden Crown" is longer and higher than the "Stinger", partially due to it's two-level deck.The yellow elements and especially the ornamental railings invoke a feeling of certain royalty. To the ship's front are two black outward-facing handles acting as a special kind of railing as well as two small yellow torches. A perfect luxury vessel for the governour's spoiled son Sir Eric la Douche, seen standing on the ship's stern with a goblet of fine french wine in his hand. Pity the captain of the Admiral's Guard who has to keep a watchful eye on that brat. 3. The "Bloody Sabre" A sleek, agressive-looking raider of the crimson seas. Because it has four portholes on each sides, the "Bloody Sabre" looks very long for a ship of it's class, even though it's only one stud longer than the "Golden Crown". The cutter's name derives from two stern-mounted sabres pointing upwards (you can't ever have enough sabres!). The stern also has two tall torches acting as a kind of deterrent to would-be buccaneers trying to attack this fearsome ship at night. I plan on mounting two forward-facing sabres on the ship's bow, where at the moment only two "devil's horns" feature somewhat prominently. 4. The "Swansong" This ship's long, flowing lines and the purity of it's color scheme (everything apart from the masts, the railing and the decks, as with the "Stinger", is white) reminded me of a mystic ship commandeered by benevolent spirits of long forgotten seafarers. Anyway, the "Stinger"'s bigger brother is the longest cutter I have built thus far; The triple-piece bow adds another three studs over the "Bloody Sabre"'s 21. Mounted on the stern is a rearward-facing, hinged flagpole which makes the "Swansong" even longer. I am a little perplexed about the bow, though; two torches are mounted dangerously close to the ship's main sail! I sure hope they brought the fireproof canvas from Port Brick... 5. The "Dolphin" Similar in size to the "Stinger", I only chose the somewhat uncreative name "Dolphin" because "Little Blue Ship" sounded even worse. The "Dolphin is the weakest design I have come up with thus far, partly because blue just isn't the nicest color to have for a ship. Also, it isn't really gimmicky; a (unsurprisingly blue) ladder is hung from either side below the sterncastle, and to the front we have a weird, blocky piece from who-knows-which-set. Overall, I think the design is acceptable if it weren't for the dominant blue. I might rebuilt the "Dolphin" (which of course would need a new name, then) in another, more pleasant color. My Cutter Fleet So this concludes my latest building session. Please feel free to post your comments. Happy pirating, Robert