Pirate Borg Factions - Blackbeard And The Scourge

By JimmiWazEre

Opinionated tabletop gaming chap

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TL;DR:

An ancient Abyss awakens the drowned dead of the Caribbean. Blackbeard rises with his will intact, commands the Scourge, and sets out to break the English, control the ASH trade, and crown himself king of the Dark Caribbean.

Introduction

Ahoy. Did you catch my post the other week about the real history of Blackbeard? I said that I’d follow up with how I’ve built upon that real history to bake Blackbeard into the fantasy lore of Pirate Borg’s Dark Caribbean setting.

Well, this is gonna be just that, so buckle down your flintlocks and secure your cutlasses. Let’s goooo.

In The Beginning

I can’t jump straight to Blackbeard without first setting the stage. Much of my lore builds directly on the official History of the Dark Caribbean from the Pirate Borg Core Rules (p.25), with my campaign beginning in “Chapter 5,” where “Blackbeard, a sorcerer, returns from the grave with an army of the dead.”

But before those events and before the timeline in the book even begins, there are a few crucial pieces of history to establish.

Pre-History

Deep beneath the Caribbean Sea lies a cosmic scar. Gods only know how long it had been there or from whence it came. It’s a rift in reality that opens into an Abyssal existence beyond mortal comprehension. Madness made geography.

In ages long forgotten, proto-Mesoan peoples encountered this rift. In attempting to understand the madness and magic emanating from it, many souls lost their sanity. Those who studied and survived came to recognise the malign intent of the forces within.

Using rituals uncovered in their desperate search for meaning, they sealed the rift and constructed an aquatic city upon it — a living capstone over the wound. That city would become Atlantis, deep in the heart of what is today known as the Bermuda Triangle.

In time, the ancient Atlantean people fractured. The splitting branch, known as the Doradians, abandoned their watery city and journeyed to the mainland Yucatán, seeking distance from the source of their horrific dreams. There, their advanced culture endured in an altered form focused around a golden city.

Recently

Against the backdrop of the Greater Antilles War (The Caribbean theatre of the War of Spanish Succession 1701 - 1714), Cultists of the Wretched (disciples of the entity that dwells within the Abyss) dispatch an agent to the jungles of the Yucatán.

Among the ruins of the ancient Doradian culture, that agent became The Sunken One, and completed a ritual to relocate the Abyssal gateway - wrenching it free from the restraining powers of Atlantis and transferring the wound to the oceanic region South of Cuba.

The Abyss was no longer sealed. The resulting upheaval shattered the region, releasing unnatural magics in its wake. Port Royal was destroyed in the resulting earthquake.

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Unintended Consequences

The Sunken One did not foresee what would follow: The Abyss is not a wound that can be exposed without consequence. When torn free from the ancient restraints of Atlantis, its corruption bled outward into the sea and to the sky alike, and the ocean began to remember its dead.

Sailors lost to storm and cannon, slaves thrown overboard, mutineers sunk in chains, entire crews swallowed by hurricane. The Caribbean now returns them all. These risen corpses became known as The Scourge, they aren’t clever or strategic, merely repeating the last violent patterns of their lives: boarding, burning, hunting, killing. They are driven by a rage which they cannot put words to.

But the Abyss does not act within boundaries. It did not take long for the corruption to reach the waters off Ocracoke Island. There, in the shallows where his body had been cast aside, one Edward Teach rose again.

Drawn by instinct deeper than memory, the corpse made its way toward Chesapeake Bay to reclaim what had been severed from it. When Blackbeard stood whole once more, something happened. Unlike the rest of the Scourge, he retained his will.

Whether this was design, accident, or selection, none can say. But the mindless dead began to gather to him. Ships crewed by the drowned altered course. The Queen Anne’s Revenge, more terrible than ever, returned. Silent decks turned toward his black flag.

The Scourge had found a king, Blackbeard found his armada, and the Caribbean found its Harbinger.

The Scourge As A Faction

I follow the Cairn 2nd ed school of thought for how to run sandbox factions. See this video by LowKeyTTRPG for more information about how that mechanically works - but in essence, you take a “faction turn” (roll some dice) between game sessions. Factions should have goals that the players can feel the affects of and their success in terms of their goals should be a product of the resources they have available to them vs the obstacles in their path.

If we look at Blackbeard’s real history it stands to reason that he’d be motivated by revenge, and a lust for power and reputation. With that in mind I’ve got three goals for the scourge under Blackbeard:

1) Break The English in the Caribbean

Humiliate and cripple the English authority at sea.

Resources

• Queen Anne’s Revenge.

• Undead crews and ghost ships.

• Fear and reputation.

Notable impacts as goals completed

• Major English ports fall into chaos (martial law, burned docks, naval retreat).

• English Naval presence reduces.

Obstacles

• Royal Navy patrols.

• Pirate captains unwilling to fight England directly.

• English spies inside pirate ports.

2) Control the ASH trade

Weaponise ASH as leverage and corruption tool.

Resources

• Unending ASH Reserves.

• Contact with Governor Claude Barlette.

• Smuggler Networks from his old life.

Notable impacts as goals completed

• ASH price doubles.

Obstacles

• Pirates!

3) Crown himself king of the Dark Caribbean

Resources

• Undead Crews.

• Fear & Reputation.

• Abyssal Necromancy.

Notable impacts as goals completed

• Nassau-style pirate councils dissolve or are slaughtered.

• Pirate captains must swear loyalty or be hunted.

Obstacles

• Charismatic rival captains.

• Internal dissent from living allies.

Conclusion

Let me know in the comments if you want me to do a real history and lore for any of the other factions!

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running! If you’ve still got some time to kill, Perhaps I can persuade you to click through below to another one of my other posts?

Catch you laters, alligators.

I Took the Temperature of r/RPG on Reddit - I Found a Fever!

By JimmiWazEre

Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Person

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Hey there, I’ve been dabbling on Reddit quite a bit lately, mainly as a vehicle for syndicating my blog posts (since organic Google searching is literally the pits), and I’ve noticed that they’re quite the opinionated bunch.

So I figured that it might be fun and informative to go to r/RPG, the largest TTRPG community and ask them for their ‘hot takes’, so that I could write an article about the ones that stood out to me.

Reddit did not disappoint.

Before I start sharing these takes, I want to make it very clear that they’re not my own words, or any in many cases, not even my shared opinions. I will be offering a commentary against each one so you can see what I actually think, but since this is The Internet, just bear all this in mind before you get the pitchforks out if you read something inflammatory!

Trigger warning - May Contain Spicy Opinions!

Seriously, this post is literally analysing the hot takes of people on Reddit. If you don’t want to be exposed to that, please head over to my homepage and read a different article. Last warning!

OK, you ready for some fun? Just so you know, this isn’t a dogpile, or doxing exercise so I’ll not be showing the author’s screen names or linking to the original post. I will however be [beep]ing out any naughty words, but otherwise I’ll be reposting their comments as is, typos and all. Alrighty, without further ado - enjoy!

Hot Take 1) Indie Games Should be Released with Adventures

If a game doesn't have any modules, be that created by the author/s or by the community, then it doesn't matter whether or not it contains "everything you need to run the game“ because I won't know how it is intended to be run and I don't have spare table time to [beep] around trying to work it out.

Modules are the first thing I check for, even if I don't intend to use them, because if there aren't any that's a red flag. If the author can't (or can't be bothered to) write an example adventure for their game then I'm not going to waste time trying to work out how I should run it, I'll just find something else.

Gosh, internet people are so angry! I think there’s two points here to unpack. Firstly - the value of an ecosystem of adventures for your indie game system. The poster is quite right to point out that having included or at least available adventures communicates the games tone and sets out a very literal example of how the game author expects their game to be played. When this is missing, it does indeed create a barrier to entry.

Indie developers take note.

Second point though, I know it’s a hot take, but the language of this post comes across so badly as to almost undermine the good point being made. Indie game makers are often working solo for months or years on passion projects to create things that they heartbreakingly and realistically expect to be ignored by the community at large. This displays an incredible and admirable dedication to their craft and fans. To suggest that either they’re lazy, or have some kind of a servile obligation to create your vision, rather than their own is fairly problematic to say the least.

I’m going to go on and assume that this poster is actually a really nice guy, and maybe he’s just having a really crappy day. You should do the same.

Hot Take 2) Modern D&D Play Style Expectations Are Bad

character backstory should be short

balance is overrated, unbalanced gameplay or abilities inspire cool moments in a story

stats are unnecessary, a sword+1 is boring. The items should always be something cool like a sword that extends into a whip

D&D (and a lot alike) is just a tactical board game in a roleplay costume

I recognise a lot of typical OSR sentiment here.

Short backstories encourage ‘playing to find out’ and unconstrained improvised roleplay at the table, conversely, long back stories tend to create a GM Conflict of Interest - that desire to ensure that the character who has this lovingly crafted novel about how he is the chosen one, isn’t killed in the first encounters with goblins because of their poor tactical choices!

Magic items that don’t simply provide a stat boost is a similar ideal - they prompt creative improvised gameplay.

Ooh that’s naughty! “D&D is just a tactical boardgame in a roleplay costume”! I mean, I kinda, sorta, almost agree. Let’s say I can see where the poster is coming from. 5e’s ruleset is predominantly concerned with tactical combat and the intricacies of how abilities work, with enough detail to supposedly maintain consistency and balance. The other pillars; social and exploration, do not get much more than a cursory nod in comparison.

Hot Take 3) 5e is a Better Computer Game than TTRPG

5e is not a good TTRPG. It is, however, a wonderful computer game.

Baldur's Gate proves this decisively.

I’m showing my own ‘Rulings over Rules’ philosophy here but this one get’s my total agreement. Baldurs Gate 3 remains one of my favourite computer games, and despite being modded for the conversion (no more so than any GM’s standard house rules though) 5e just has too much focus on resolving conflict by players picking ready made special abilities from a menu (aka character sheet), just like you would with a video game.

Hot Take 4) RNG is Still RNG No Matter How You Achieve It

The specific "dice system" a TTRPG uses is meaningless.

My time playing war games and board games has opened my eyes to the fact that every RNG based mechanic can run on pure D6s just fine.

I don’t quite agree with this one. From a mathematical perspective, different dice have different odds of getting any given number, which means that the bigger the dice, the more granular you outcomes can be. Some games thrive on that granularity.

Additionally, for some reason I can’t quite explain, rolling dice is fun! So different ways to roll dice means different and varied ways to have that fun.

Hot Take 5) GM Experience is Nothing like the Player Experience

HOT: balance should be 'by player', not by character

DAMN HOT:Backstory is your first five levels

NUCLEAR:The GM and the players aren't playing the same game

Some more OSR sensibilities here again I suspect. I’ve written quite extensively about game balance before, though I’m not sure what this poster means by “by player, not by character”, unless he means that he balances his players at the table by their skill at playing TTRPGs?

Backstories, yeah this is similar to the one on Hot Take number 2 - play to find out.

“The GM and the players aren’t playing the same game” - Now this IS interesting. I think this is fairly on point to be honest, The experiences of being a GM versus being a player are pretty irreconcilable. Other than potentially sharing the same room and sitting at the same table, each group is wholly focused on different things. I suppose a good analogy might be the experiences of orchestral violinists as opposed to conductors.

Conclusion

I found that quite an interesting foray into the psyche of r/RPG, and I am quite surprised that D&D 5e gets so little love in such a large community! I’d like to thank everybody that responded to my call out for hot takes, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Special thanks to peb on itch.io for sharing his character portraits on cc 4.0!

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things for monthly updates from DMT straight to your inbox! Either way, catch you later.

GOZR: The Wacky, Wild, Weird, and W’excellent TTRPG You’ve Been Sleeping On

Angry sky bleeds upon a fallen world.

Sky Wyrms hunt meat.

Fallen towers radiate fading spells.

Pretty ones rot in the dirt. Lost.

The Gooz rise.

S’up dawgs. Today’s post is about GOZR. If you follow me on Bluesky, you’ve probably seen me post about it a few times already, including some of my fan art. If you love the OSR, gonzo post-apocalyptic settings, or still have that subscription to Heavy Metal magazine, you’ll love GOZR.

GOZR (presumably a portmanteau of Gooz & OSR) was released in 2022 after a successful Kickstarter, so you might be forgiven for asking why the hell I’m dredging it up now in 2025? Well, because it’s my blog and I like GOZR, and I feel like it’s massively been ignored by the world and that’s a damned shame. If little old me can make a smidgen of a difference and highlight the worthwhile work of an artist, and maybe persuade a couple of you good folks to part with a few pennies of your hard earned pocket money, then all’s the better I say.

If you like the look of GOZR and decide to pick it up using one of my affiliate links, I may take a small cutback from the sale (at no extra cost to you) which helps me to keep the light on around here.

What in the name of sweet baby medusa is GOZR?

It’s a bold, handwritten (as in, no fonts) TTRPG by JV West, of Black Pudding infamy, set in a totally wacky post apocalyptic world. Tongues are firmly in cheeks with this setting and it’s inhabitants, which makes for a nice lighthearted game at the table. As of right now, there’s only the rulebook, and a fill-in-the-blanks one page adventure that have been released officially, the rulebook is both available as a physical book and as a PDF, and the adventure is a free download from JV’s website.

The general style of the game is OSR (which means rules-lite, fast, creative, and clever play), which is nice because it frees up player imagination and means that the GM doesn’t have to carry a small library’s worth of books around with them. Some people might prefer a much chonkier game that has explicit bespoke mechanics designed for various scenarios that barely arise, and a number of video-game like character abilities baked into a class system, but GOZR ain’t that, and that’s A-OK with me.

More than anything though, GOZR is a work of art, dude. It’s heavy on vibes, heavy on inspirational GM content (like tables), and very very heavy on illustrations.

Like seriously, if I had to guess, I’d say it was weighted at about 70% tables & improvisation cues, 20% art, and 10% rules!

You goad me wizard, I would have you speak of the setting, plain and true!

Much of the official cannon of the setting is left to the GMs imagination, but piecing together the snippets of text and other clues, this is what I like to think:

In the near future, humanity manages to create an extinction event for itself via screwing around directly with the Sun. This triggers erratic behavior in Sol, unleashing freakish meteorological events that scar the world.

Years later, in the wake of Humanity’s passing, a new humanoid species comes to dominate the planet. The Gooz: at first glance, an unworthy race—slightly diminutive, superstitious, Sol-worshipping, ingenious yet adventurous. They have the cunning of goblins and the foolhardy curiosity of a feline. Yet somehow, the Gooz have built a flourishing civilization. Many brave souls tread beyond the boundaries of GOZR City, seeking treasure, answers, or both among the ruins of strange 'magical' towers left behind by 'the pretty ones'.

This world is a dangerous place, not least because of the ever changing whims of Sol, but all the Robots, Sky Wyrms, M’rons, Ickmucks and more have spread unchecked, and would make a tasty treat of a hapless Gooz.

Does it play as well as Slash on a skateboard, casually rolling down the road outside a bar & grill?

The game engine is based on a familiar d20 roll over AC system, but unlike D&D, there are only 3 stats and all rolls are player facing. This is nice because the players get to roll more, and everyone loves rolling bones!

Additionally, the core engine also has a system built into it which codifies degrees of success, and failing forwards. This means that flat “no” is a rare occurrence, and instead we’re much more likely to see “No, but…”, “Yes, but…”, and “Yes and…” which are integral components of modern improvisation techniques, and more games would benefit from the same emphasis.

Gameplay is simultaneously very deadly and very forgiving. Damage dice explode and HP is low, but this is actually my favourite rule: When a Gooz “dies” (at zero HP) the player can make a choice between “Death or Debasement”. The latter means your Gooz survives, but at a cost to their stats or abilities. The former means that your Gooz did indeed die, but you get a bonus to the stats of your next Gooz!

Plus, rolling up a Gooz is such a joy, following JV’s step by step guide you end up creating this wonderfully weird little Jim Henson meets Heavy Metal crossover!

A flawed gem

It’s only fair for me to point out the two flaws I see with GOZR (albeit ones with solutions) - it’s not all love and sunshine. Firstly, while it’s a joy to behold as a work of art, the book isn’t the easiest to use as a rules reference. There’s just so much going on all over the place that you could spend a long time simply enjoying a single page without finding the rule you were looking for.

Luckily, your old buddy Jimmi has you covered, I’ve created a free comprehensive cheat sheet for you to print out at home. I’m too good to you all, I really am.

The other niggle I have with the game is that it lacks examples of play, or an included introductory adventure.

This is a shame in my view, as such things can be really valuable as tools to manage a GMs expectations and set them up running straight away. JV did write an adventure which is published on his website, but for me, it leans too strongly on the idea that GM’s can make adventures their own, and I’d have preferred it, as a starter adventure, to have had more specifics to save me some brain juice. For example, a more structured adventure might include a specific room layout, or pre-written NPCs.

This is not a show stopper by any means though, as there are many adventures out there on the internet that can be adapted quite easily to suit the game or you might even enjoy making up your own using the game’s innumerable world generation tables.

Conclusion

Go buy GOZR right now.

It ticks all the boxes - It’s made with indie love, packed with art, not expensive, easy to learn, fun to play, and a joy to read. Honestly I’d love to see more people playing this game, giving it the love it deserves.

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.

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