Darnok

Brilliant! You also have a very funny writing style - I just spent half an hour digging through older stories of yours, and couldn't stop laughing. I absolutely love it. The microscale ship is excellent, and the flowing waves... so awesome. An all around great display. Please, more of this!

Now if that is not an impressive first post, I do not know what could be. Your characters backstory is interesting. It offers some strong plot points, but leaves enough freedom for development in almost any direction. I really like it. Same goes for your builds. Are those parts of something bigger, or "only" the vignetttes shown? The second shot in particular catched my eye: I imagine it being part of a much larger and very impressive ship. Does that ship exist as a whole? I would love to see it. You also seem to have quite the minifig collection for this, I'm jealous! As another recently joined Corlander - I'm instantly not the youngest anymore, right? - my welcome and best wishes go to you. Ask your questions, the lot down here is friendly and supportive at all times. I hope to see more from you soon!

Oi, it seems like I have hit a nerve here. Great replies so far, I will get back to some of them later. For now, as promised, my own opinion. To be honest... it is complicated. On the one hand, I admire people who do some research and put extra effort into building something as close as possible to the original. That is a creative act of its own, and often quite a challenge. On the other hand: Lego is an obvious abstraction from reality, and I think one should embrace rather than hide this. In the end I feel being limited way too much by "historic accuracy", whatever that means in a hobby around standard sized building blocks. One of my first "big" sets was the Black Seas Barracuda. I loved it, despite all its faults (especially by todays standards). My current favourite is the Brickbeard's Bounty, and I'm sure you can see the similarities. This is the style I prefer when it comes to Lego ships, and it is quite a bit away from "realistic". For anything in the BotBS game I would happily use any regular Lego ship set, even unmodified - as long as it is for "background purposes" only. Take my characters introducton as an example: I used an (almost) unmodified Imperial Flagship, but only as "scenery" to showcase my character. The model did fit the situation I wanted to show, and to be honet I had nothing better at hand in that moment. I would never use that model "ingame" though. Same goes for my unmodified BBB - nice for some action scenes as background, but not usable as my own "content". Currently I am contemplating on what to do with some "raw material" I aquired over the last weeks: two BBB kits and a Brick Bounty (similar, but different). Both would leave me with enough parts to build a sizable merchant ship in Corrington colors. One idea is to go for a more massive "regular ship" with three or four masts, wider hull and bigger and more ornate everything. While history nuts would raise an eyebrow, I think this would be fine for almost everbody. But then there is another idea... Think about a massive two-hull ship with a structure between them. Similar to this or this (swimming, and without the steampunk elements of course), with two or even three masts per hull. It would be an absolute beast - The Beast? - completely over the top and unrealistic. But I would love it. In my opinion this would raise more than a few eyebrows, and even provoke disapproval from some - but as long as this monstrosity did not interfere in other characters storylines, it should be okay... ish. Right? I can tell you this: while I am heavily influenced by steampunk, movies like "Hook" or "Pirates of the Carribean" (the first and only!) and video game RPGs as well as action adventures from the 90ies (Final Fantasy 6-9, Secret of Mana/Evermore, Breath of Fire 2), I will respect the rules of this game. My "style" is a good bit away from history - I just named my main influences - but there will be no machines, magic shotguns or similar shenanigans in anything I bring up here. I might build The Beast though... Finally, I want to stress that I have the utmost respect for anybody striving for historical accuracy. As stated above, this is a real creative challenge, and I respect the effort going into it. It is just not the cup of tea I would like to have on my personal shelf. That will not stop me from enjoing the works of others though!

While looking for something else, I stumbled across this: It is a pretty awesome MOC, and features round walls you could use. Using different greys could get you the irregular stone pattern you are looking for.

We are not talking about any official Lego instructions, correct? As far as I know these are all available for free, at different places of the internet. There are instructions for the Flying Dutchman from the PotC movies available for sale, but again I do not think that is what you are looking for. I have no Pinterest account, so can not verify the usefulness of these: check this and this link. Finally: if you find something useful: please share! I would be most interested.

Awesome display! I absolutely love the skelleton, and that vulture build is impressive, yet simple. Same goes for the overgrown walls: not a difficult build, but effective. The whole thing tells a lot of stories, and just oozes character.

To start with the TL/DR version: how realistic do you consider the BotBS setting to be, and how realistic should it be in your opinion? Now for the wall of text... It is obvious that the BotBS setting is roughly based on a 16th to 19th century era of exploration, colonisation and seafaring (usually referred to as the "Age of Sail"). Overall, it seems like the romantic aspects are emphacised - especially in relation to piracy - but it is a RPG in the end, so that is only fair. I do wonder though how much realism is integral to the games setting, and what its players expect or are willing to accept. I will try to draw two sketches from the oppsoing end of the spectrum to illustrate what I am talking about: The setting is deeply rooted in realism and historical accuracy, mostly based around earths history of a given timeframe. In game terms nothing that would not be historically plausible is acceptable. In terms of roleplaying and Lego builds you would have to strictly go by historical examples. Ever ship built needs to meet the standards of a specific timeframe, any building has to mirror the architecture of a certain period. Some might even go as far as restrict what minifigures (depending on clothing style) are accepted or not. The setting is, at best, loosely based on any historical precedents. There are heavy influences from fantasy and/or sci-fi - take any "Final Fantasy" as a good example. Anything goes, as long as it is even somewhat plausible. Your roleplaying and any builds you come up with can be crazy, as long as you don't get downright silly. From what I have gathered so far, the BotBS setting is much farther from "2" than it is from "1", but obviously not close to the first example. Historical accuracy is appreciated by most current players, but not strictly enforced, I would describe it as "Pirates of the Carribean Light - without the zombie pirates". To further illustrate my point: think about Lego ship sets and their place in the BotBS setting. Anybody with even the slightest bit of knowledge of shipbuilding history is aware of the historical inaccuracy of any and all existing Lego Pirates ships. There is nothing wrong with that, they obviously have to take play features and the restrictions of a "kids toy" into account. All Lego sets are an abstraction of their real world counterparts, and those sets are no different. They are loosely based on historical examples, but not more. So the question is: are you happy with using those exact sets in a game like this? Or would you object to them - either by claiming "MOC one yourself" or by "please be more historically accurate"? The guidelines are clear: this is about the "Age of Sail", steampunk and dragonriders are obviously out of the picture. There is lots of wiggle room with this though, and everybody has his or her own red lines not to be crossed. Having said that: how do people feel about this? What do you expect from this, and what are you (not) willing to accept? Where do you draw the line? P.S.: I will state my own opinion on the matter at a later point, for now I do not want to force the discussion one way or the other.

I wonder if there is in-universe background for the Oktoberfest? Of course the reference is with the Bavarian (not German!) festivity known as Oktoberfest, but why is it part of the BotBS? There must be a nation/region/town where this version of the Oktoberfest originated, and I... would like to know more.

I'm jealous again - what a great set of minifigs! Is there a chance you could give us details about what parts (and their sources) you have used? Thanks in advance.

I think you captured that tension perfectly. As I have a scientific background myself: those can indeed be quite the grumpy cats. As for using the RSMS description: of course you are free to use it. I would suggest building on my few lines rather than taking them as is though - I consider them to be more random thoughts than coherent description.

I would decide that depending on what you as a person have a greater interest in, what you would like to do with your character, and what you want to do as a builder. With what little I know so far, I would describe both - or: more the questions that come up and which you have to answer for yourself - as follows: Royal Society of Military Sciences You have a strong interest in the military history of the 15th to 19th century? Then this might be for you. Things like military ships and their development, fortress design and military strategy (on land or on sea) are of primary interest. There are other things to take into account though. How does the everyday soldier live - and how could it be improved? What weapons are available - and what could be done to enhance them? What possibilities does the military give to a person - and in what way can the military improve society apart from fighting its wars? A character associated with the RSMS should have at least some ties to the military, either in their background or by current adventures. You might want to support a military expedition, or act - temporarily or for a longer period - as an advisor to the army or navy. Maybe your character has a past experience that motivates it to support the military development? For builds this is as simple or complex as any other field. You better have a good selection of "military parts" to build with, from soldier minifigs to weapons and other appropriate things. Maybe you enjoy building navy ships, or fortresses, or "scenes from the regular soldiers life"? What scenes do you envision where this has an important part to play? Royal Society of Natural Philosophy This one has a broader fields of interests, with anything from natural sciences (mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy), all fields of philosophy, social sciences, religious studies, and of course things like alchemy. A complete list of aspects that you could bring into the game from this would require a book of its own. A character in the RSNP should have some sort of scientific background, together with the motivation - in terms of sciences and philosophy - to explore the new and to build on the old. Any expedition into unknown lands would be a good way to play on this - but scientific studies can be done on virtually anything. Maybe your character is interested in the social life of different New World settlements? Maybe a detailed description of the sea life near his home? Again: the options are manyfold. For builds I see even less restrictions than for the RSMS. Virtually every aspect of life is worth the "scientific approach", and so virtually every build imaginable could be useful too. I'm not sure this helps, but I felt like it could be useful. P.S.: Usually a scientist is a member in multiple scientific societies. In my opinion you do not have to go for one or the other, you could join both. But that is just my opinion.

Everybody: thank you for your warm welcome. Thanks, but it is not a MOC of mine. This is the Imperial Flagship with only minimal alterations. I added a figurehead from the Brickbeard's Bounty (of which I have three sets - one to keep as it is, two to be combined into a "big ship" soon), changed the rigginh a bit, and added a ladder in the rear section. Some additional pictures: The Imperial Flagship was one of my first bigger Lego sets, got lost during my Dark Ages, and was high on the list of things I wanted to "get back". I understand that is not encouraged to use "standard kit builds", but for the time being I will keep it as it is, if only for nostalgias sake. As this will not be Reinhards ship. I guess it is fine to be used as it is.

Great build, and good story. I have to wonder though: is this Corringtons affinity to science at display? That captain and sergeant were just utter bullies towards the scientists. Boo!

Dear sirs and ladies, and the powers that be in Corrington. I would like to introduce to you a fellow citizen who just made it to the New World. Reinhard was born as the second son into a wealthy family in the Old World. To teach him the worth of hard work, his father sent him to become a carpenter at the age of 8. Having mastered that – including the lesson that there are much more important things in life than riches and gold - at the age of 17 Reinhard started studies of his own interest: what could be learned of the world as a whole, the lands, people and wildlife near and far. After years of theoretical studies in history, cartography and sciences, it was only at the age of 25 that Reinhard joined his first actual expedition into the „real world“. While in the beginning he was belittled by his expedition members for knowing almost nothing but books, Reinhard soon made a name for himself due to his practical skills with axe and hammer, as well as useful information about all kinds of things. Books were not so theoretical after all! Years of exploration all over the Old World followed. Then, a few months ago, the head of the Wollfson family, Reinhards father, died of old age. As is usual, the responsibilities and status were passed on to Reinhards older brother Henry. This did not bother either of them, since Henry had been prepared for this role hin entire life (in fact, he had taken over the families business over years ago), and it left Reinhard with still some considerable wealth. Reinhard had already thought about leaving for the New World for a while, and found this to be the right time to make a move: leave now, exploring a whole new world, while still expanding his families influence over in the colonies. Now, almost 48 years of age, Reinhard was about to start a new life in the New World. Sailing to Arlinsport, with enough money for a house and a ship, the head full of hopes for future discoveries, this is Reinhard Wolffson: On this last picture you can see Reinhard with two of his signature items: his trusted axe, that has done good work since the days as carpenter to all of his expeditions that came later, as well as a map of one of his discoveries. His impressive hat displays the Corrington red in form of an exotic birds feather, but apart from that the clothing is strictly practical. The monocle is a sign of age - the many books did improve Reinhards mind, but not his eyesight. Now on to new adventures! ===================================================================================================================== What to do next, both in and out of character? Is there something else I have to do to register my character? I chose Arlinsport as my "starting point", because it should be easy to find Reinhard an appropriate house there, as well as to recruit a captain and crew (plus ship of course) soon. Any suggestions concerning both that, as well as future expeditions, are appreciated. I am sure I will have a lot more questions soon.

Excellent collection - where can I get it?

That is not the pirate way. Fight!

True. Maybe this needs a solution in truly pirate style? Free rum for everybody, last man standing wins!

Nice little boat you've got there. The sails look a bit improvised to me. Are they made of paper? You could print some pattern or your coat of arms on it.

Brilliant! I had a good laugh at the boat scenes, and that monstrous whale is just awesome.

Thanks, that did clear some (not all) of my confusion. Since licensing comes with a cost, as a starter I would be restricted to one entry (of the 25DB/month categories) or 5 small residencies, aye? Are there any benefits, apart from internet fame, if I "just build stuff"?

As I am new to this - I wil get my introduction up today or tomorrow, I promise - I have a few questions. As I understand it, I can build pretty much anything that fits into the "Oktoberfest meets 18th century meets Pirates of the Carribean" theme, correct? But what does... ... mean exactly? A list of what is and what is not acceptable would be appreciated.

Nice builds indeed, from what I can see so far. Get well soon! If it is not too much hassle: a shot from each side for all three houses would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

Do we have some beef over potatoes? I challenge you to a cook-off whenever you are ready.

Umm, you sure about that? My RL self can, from scratch, prepare at least eight potatoe dishes. This does not take into account a rather large collection of cookbooks. My potatoes also have the high ground.

Excellent build. I foresee... a trip to a tavern, followed by an adventure accelerated by mysterious "hyperdrive rings". I also heard those potatoes might be... cloned.