#pirates

20 Sounds You Might Hear Just Before the Shipwreck

Mark S. Cookman

Aug 17, 2017
3 min

20 Sounds You Might Hear Just Before the Shipwreck

This is the third and last post in the series on shipwrecks. If you like this, then you should check out 20 Sailing Hazards that Could Wreck the Ship and 20 Treasures to Find in a Shipwreck. A shipwreck can occur for many different reasons, but the one characteristic that many shipwrecks have in common is a lack of visibility. When you can't see, sailing a ship becomes quite dangerous. There are numerous items that a good captain and crew keep watch for. Some include a chang

311 views0 comments

Mark S. Cookman

Aug 10, 2017
4 min

20 Treasures to Find in a Shipwreck

This week's list continues the nautical theme of shipwrecks that began last week. A shipwreck of your own vessel can be compared to the death of a close friend or family member. The captain and crew experience, albeit in a hurried manner, the five stages of grief. For those of you who are not familiar with these, they are: 1) Denial, 2) Anger, 3) Bargaining, 4) Depression, and finally 5) Acceptance. In the case of a shipwreck or a sinking vessel, the first three stages repres

8,188 views0 comments

20 Sailing Hazards that Could Wreck the Ship

Mark S. Cookman

Aug 3, 2017
8 min

20 Sailing Hazards that Could Wreck the Ship

Sailing can be a great deal of fun, but even in our modern world, it can also be quite dangerous. Ships are lost in storms, attacked by pirates, and run aground every day. Insuring a vessel that is capable of cruising the world, when you intend to take her into blue water (i.e. across an ocean), is quite expensive for just this reason. All that any good captain and crew can do is make every preparation for what might be encountered before leaving port. Even then, it might not

1,710 views0 comments

Mark S. Cookman

Jan 12, 2017
4 min

20 Ways to Work Boats into Your Game

First things first, happy 2017 to everyone. I'm sorry that it has been so long between posts, but a couple of bouts of bad health, plus the stress of the holidays, pretty much put me out of action for the last quarter of 2016. I'm hoping 2017 will be a better year and to that end, here's a new list. Today's list is a collection of sneaky ways that DM's can use to introduce a nautical section to their game, even when the game is set far from any coastline. A couple of the item

643 views0 comments

20 Rumored Shipwrecks for Treasure Hunters

Mark S. Cookman

Jul 5, 2016
6 min

20 Rumored Shipwrecks for Treasure Hunters

Today's post will conclude our recent nautical series. Here you will find adventure fodder galore or perhaps nothing but nasty bilge water. That's left for the GM to decide. What is certain is that below you'll find 20 different ships with 20 different captains and crews that all suffered the same sad fate. You'll also find rumors of fantastic cargoes lost to depths the sea. Cargoes so fantastic that they'd lure brave treasure hunters to sail deep into unexplored and/or dang

479 views0 comments

20 Positions on a Ship Besides the Captain

Mark S. Cookman

Jun 23, 2016
3 min

20 Positions on a Ship Besides the Captain

This is another post following our nautical theme and it includes one of my oldest tables. The table is a simple one and is honestly little more than a nautical vocabulary list, but it was the result of a hard won lesson. My hope is to help novice GM's learn this lesson in a less painful manner than I did. Let me tell you a story. It is the late '80's and I am in college. I have a job and am a full time (15 credit hours) student of organic chemistry with a B average. For some

169 views0 comments

Mark S. Cookman

Jun 21, 2016
3 min

20 Bits of Flotsam and Jetsam

In keeping with the theme that I started last week, today's post is also nautical in nature. This time around we will be looking at objects found floating in the water. Floating debris (as it is defined in the Random Encounters at Sea table on p. 118 of the 5e DMG) actually comes in two types - flotsam and jetsam. Flotsam is the wreckage of a ship or its cargo found floating on or washed up by the sea. Jetsam is unwanted material or goods that have been thrown overboard from

376 views0 comments

32 Marooners, Castaways or Survivors in the Water

Mark S. Cookman

Jun 16, 2016
6 min

32 Marooners, Castaways or Survivors in the Water

It's time to return to the sea. This week, the blog will feature nautical topics and today's post is all about NPC's that your players might find adrift on the waves. When sailing, one of the cries from the lookout above (as well as #19 on the Random Encounters at Sea table 5E DMG p. 118) is "Survivors in the water!" If your players are anything like mine, then when they hear this cry they become IMMEDIATELY SUSPICIOUS about what the DM is trying to DO to them, unless they KN

110 views0 comments

Mark S. Cookman

May 4, 2016
4 min

20 Tattoos That Might Adorn Monks

Monks and martial artists are often depicted in artwork with tattoos or brands. There is no real historical precedent for any monastic institution giving or requiring tattoos from their disciples. In fact, throughout history in China, tattoos indicated a turn from normal society rather than a social rank within it. Monks who turned from their religious duties to practice martial arts exclusively sometimes became wandering mercenary warriors. These mercenaries were known to pr

1,241 views0 comments

20 Books to Find in a Ship Captain's Library

Mark S. Cookman

Apr 22, 2016
2 min

20 Books to Find in a Ship Captain's Library

This week we've been looking over some sailing topics. Sailing can honestly be pretty boring if nothing's going wrong, especially if you are only a passenger. In well-protected shipping lanes, a ship might go a week, or more, between significant encounters. What was there to do on a ship before there were Carnival Cruises? - A whole lot of nothing, basically. The ship moves too fast for casual fishing, there are no large open spaces for Zumba classes, and closest thing that m

175 views0 comments

20 Things the Lookout Spots from High Above

Mark S. Cookman

Apr 21, 2016
4 min

20 Things the Lookout Spots from High Above

We continue our week focused on sailing with a look at the lookout high in the crows nest. We're going to examine how far the lookout can actually see, what he does besides just looking ahead for the ship, and why he's often a target of the enemy. Oh, and of course there will be a list of 20 things at the end, as promised by the title. Let's get started. First of all, a lookout can only see as far as the visibility of the air will let her/him see. If there is a mist or a ligh

129 views0 comments

Mark S. Cookman

Apr 20, 2016
6 min

20 Days of Sailing on the Ocean Blue

This week we will discuss various topics of a nautical nature. We will start off with a collection of really boring encounters at sea. Now you might be thinking, "why would I want a collection of really boring encounters?" There are numerous reasons that you might want to use these encounters; listed below are three good motives to do so. First, it is unlikely that all of the characters in your group already have sailing experience. In fact, it is more likely that you will ha

88 views0 comments

20 Items to Find in a Dockside Pawn Shop

Mark S. Cookman

Apr 13, 2016
5 min

20 Items to Find in a Dockside Pawn Shop

This is yet another post in the dockside series. Today we will be examining pawn shops and how they might be used in your fantasy campaign. We will look briefly at the history of pawn shops around the world and demonstrate the working relationship between sailors and pawn shops, before presenting the list itself. First, let's define what a pawn shop really is. A pawn shop is a poor man's bank. A pawnbroker is a businessman who makes money by charging interest on short term lo

925 views0 comments

20 Things to Find in the River Pirate's Hideout

Mark S. Cookman

Mar 18, 2016
4 min

20 Things to Find in the River Pirate's Hideout

Well, against all odds we've made it once again to Friday. Before finishing off this week's river theme, I'd like to take a moment to discuss today's pictures. This place is named Cave-In-Rock and it is located on the northern side of the Ohio River at Cave-In-Rock, Illonois. It has a fascinating history and if you ever get the chance to visit there, I highly recommend it. Cave-In-Rock was once the temporary home to a number of river pirates and stories say that the Harpe Bro

278 views0 comments

Mark S. Cookman

Mar 16, 2016
3 min

Encounters While Sailing on a River

Following the theme of river pirates, today's tables are a small collection of tools for creating river encounters. No matter whether your PC's are exploring some vast river in an undiscovered country or just travelling a few days up-river to another town in their own country, this set of tools should be useful to you. The small toolset presented below has options for weather, time, terrain, animals, monsters, and people to dress out the basic events also listed below. The to

2,946 views0 comments

20 Things to Find on a River Pirate's Ship

Mark S. Cookman

Mar 15, 2016
4 min

20 Things to Find on a River Pirate's Ship

Today's subject matter is river pirates. River pirates are usually much different than their seaborne bretheren. The main reason for this is the difference in terrain. Seaborne pirates primarily live on their ship, but river pirate ships are rarely big enough for the crew to live on. Usually these vessels are little more than a barge or a large, flat-bottom canoe. River pirates routinely live more like bandits, hiding away in secret camps or inside concealed caves near the ri

288 views0 comments

Mark S. Cookman

Mar 14, 2016
6 min

10 Diabolically Cursed Magic Items

Welcome back to One-Armed Sal's Nautical Trade Emporium and Pawn Shop. Today's magical items do not identify as cursed because they do provide a positive magical effect, yet the cost to access the magic is far higher than most care to pay. Sal openly admits that these are some pretty shady pawned items that are now available for sale because their loans are in default. His prices are low, but he ain't a charity. Sal doesn't do buy-backs or returns so if you don't like what yo

1,207 views0 comments

Mark S. Cookman

Feb 25, 2016
4 min

10 Minor Magic Items That Rock

Honestly, this post should be entitled "10 Minor Magic Items That Are Rocks", but I shortened it for at least 2/3 of a pun on today's content. Not all magical items are flashy and powerful, some are just simple items that help out in minor ways. Today, One-Armed Sal is having a sale on some cold, hard magic items that you or your PC's might like. Take a look and let Sal know if anything strikes your fancy. Soup Rock -- A roundish common looking stone approximately 2" in diame

1,019 views0 comments

Bard College of the Shanty Master for 5e

Mark S. Cookman

Feb 19, 2016
2 min

Bard College of the Shanty Master for 5e

Today, I decided to post a link back to a piece that I did for Tribality a while back. There are two reasons for this. First, I think that you should be aware of ALL of the great gaming resources on Tribality and second, because I am working on something special. So, if you have a 5e Bard character and you are looking for a different college, then you might like the link below. However, I encourage you to check out Tribality, even if you don't give one song about sea-faring B

380 views0 comments

One-Armed Sal's Nautical Trade Emporium and Pawn Shop

Mark S. Cookman

Feb 16, 2016
3 min

One-Armed Sal's Nautical Trade Emporium and Pawn Shop

Do your PC's need a (reasonably) trustworthy place to buy spell components, potions, and minor magic items? Do they need a fence to sell arcane items to? Perhaps they just need a person to cast spells (like identify) for them. Maybe they need a contact into the seedy underworld of the docks or maybe they need a low-level quest giver or a place to learn of rumors or arcane lore. Perhaps they could use a 30 day loan on some magic item that they possess. You could also use Sal a

73 views0 comments

BLACK SHARK ENTERPRISES