Using a system agnostic campaign setting

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Not sure where this would go. But I’ve started to the the Pirates Guide to Freeport by Green Ronin. It’s a great book that’s system agnostic which would be perfect for an OL game. My only question what archetypes can you make apart from the “classic pirate”, weather witch/wizard, bard, swashbuckler types? Any ideas would be great. Think of Freeport has Cthulhu/fantasy pirate

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  • Every good ship would have had a physician; a real sawbones type who knows exactly how to heal or harm with the limited tools available on the sea.
  • You might also find high-society explorers, hiring passage on ships to visit far off lands in search of adventure and carrying all kinds of wondrous devices.
  • There would be mercenaries of every speciality available to hire somewhere in the port: sword-fighters, rogues, archers, mages or warlocks who are looking to earn some gold by assisting or defending against raids.
  • Even the “classic pirate” isn’t just a single archetype: you have swashbucklers, powder monkeys, dread pirates, sharpshooters, brawlers, and even the occasional inspiring captain.

Let your imagination loose! As long as you can come up with an idea for a character I’m sure you can fit it somewhere into the world; it’s all made up to begin with anyway.

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There’s a few Swashbuckling archetypes on this site:

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You could have a privateer, A pirate in service of the government.

You could use a cannoneer.

You could run a sea mage.

Pyromancer-destroy ships

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Thanks for the ideas guys, though is it just me or are extraordinary attributes for this sort of campaign really only suited for the ‘caster’ type of characters? i.e. mages, witches, seers, clerics etc. Guess that means that extraordinary items will be in high demand :stuck_out_tongue:

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Like the Cat pregen on the list provided by Brycelor, Extraordinary attributes can be also…attributed to an animal’s acute senses, an ancient curse/blessing bestowed by a higher power or raw luck.
Each setting handles the extraordinary differently, and since i don’t see yours particularly tech oriented magic in one shape or another would likely be the main way to represent Extraordinary stats in your game.

PS: You can also see extra archetypes here:

You might find to give you inspiration and convert it to your setting :slight_smile:

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Not necessarily. You could have a gunpowder specialist who uses Energy, an Alchemist who uses Alteration, a Dread Pirate might have a few points in Entropy (or attribute sub: Presence>Entropy). There’s always ways you can justify it.

Some general advice; don’t make assumptions like that about the kind of characters that can be created beforehand, and definitely don’t say that to your group, because your players always have the ability to surprise you.

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I’m definitely not making the characters for them. Just want to get a feel of potential ideas because I know 2 of my players are still stuck in the building a character from a class concept. And I can only think of so many characters

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I’ll just give a few examples that my players have come up in my current campaign:

  • Energy for a weapons and explosives master

  • Entropy for a poisoner

  • Movement for someone who injects himself with adrenalin to move and react faster (haste and resistance)

  • Creation for an inventor/Inspector Gadget type character

These concepts come with certain limitations (the adrenalin inject character probably won’t start teleporting around), but I think most interesting builds come with a certain set of limitations and not everything is just explained by “it’s magic”.

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good to know thanks :smiley: maybe that should be another thread thats started up? Cause Im sure I am not the only one wrapping my head around it still

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you mean like:

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Hey yeah, cool :grin: thanks