Pirate Isles

Welcome to the Pirate Isles, a rules supplement for the Conan RPG.

Within this book you will find dozens of carefully crafted ideas, hung up for your barbaric pleasures. Fine wenches dance forbidden dances, a river of yellow gold flows from callused hands, pirates leap from deck to deck, staining their spears red with blood. Night will soon fall on the Hyborian Age, but not before its' greatest hero sails the seas on a path of blood and ruin.

That road runs from the flame of the furthest south to the bright cold land of Vanaheim in the north. A savage echo of it beats a crimson stain into the shores of the Vilayet Sea, fuelled by mad hate, unleashed from the cruel shackles forged by Turan masters. Along them flows the wealth of nations, bodily ripped from the soft hands of civilized men.

Out on the seas men and women find an exhilarating freedom unlike anything in the known world. Civilized folk cast aside the barriers imposed upon them by the decaying influences of civilization. Free to act as they would without such petty influences they rise to a level almost equal to that of the untamed strength born in the wildest places of the world. Those brave souls weaned in the uncharted wilderness of the world find a ready home among the wild folk of the seas, although even they cannot imagine the unfettered life of the sea.

Pirate Isles contains rules for integrating sea-based adventures into your Hyborian Age game. Although pirates and their kin certainly receive the most focus, characters of all persuasions can find something of value within.

The book starts off with Seas of Blood, detailing the cultures and lifestyles of various pirate bands. This chapter focuses on the four known pirate brotherhoods, their host cultures, and their various activities. It includes new feats for pirate characters, a system for leveraging Leadership and reputation to rule a pirate ship. This chapter finishes with a description of the myths and legends surrounding pirate life, providing a system to quickly generate similar stories for in game use.

Where Land Meets Sea addresses the thorny game problem of building suitable settlements for pillaging. It starts with a discussion of various coastal targets then moves on to outline what kind of loot they might contain. After having found the loot, characters will need to dispose of it using the rules contained in the fencing subsection. The last two sections provide rules for seeding in islands and for various complications that could occur during sea travel.

In the next two chapters (Secrets of the Sea and Ships of the Sea) we get into the details of building a character and ship. The first chapter deals with the complexities of pirate feats; the second provides a simple system for building Hyborian Age ships.

In Seas of Steel, the book finally gets to the details all Conan readers were waiting for: rules for standing thew-deep in your enemies' gore. The chapter a contested system for closing with the target, including rules for launching withering arrow fire. The actual red work of boarding and conquering a ship comes next, with attention paid not only to fighting, but also to inciting mutinies and looting the ships cargo.

In order to give players people to loot and Games Masters opponents for his players the book then addresses the People and Beasts of the Sea. This chapter outlines various named personalities as well as creatures, necromancy raised threats, and various demons summoned to dominate the deep places of the world.

The will to summon the later two types of creatures is the focus of Powers of the Sea. This chapter outlines a variety of new spells. Some of these spells settle into the sorcery styles presented in the main rulebook. Others fill out the list for the two new sorcery styles: Sea Witchery and Weather Witching. The chapter ends with a short discussion of specific kinds of sea based herbs, alchemical preparations, and magical items.

The book comes to an end with the Call of the Sea. This chapter provides Games Masters with various adventure seeds, both for one evening affairs and entire campaigns of bloody piracy. Players can use this section to "fill in" their character's downtime, borrowing seeds to explain any gaps in their chronology.

Welcome to the wild world of Hyborian Age pirates. They are rogues and murderers, revolutionaries and escaped slaves. Regardless of their background and motives, each pirate has a gift that no other Hyborian can claim: they are free.