BLACK SHARK ENTERPRISES

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

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

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

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

April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. There is no better time to ask you to support a fantastic charity that helps people in U.S. every day. Click on the picture above or the banner below to be taken to DriveThruRPG where you can view the RAINN charity bundles. There is a comics bundle, a fiction bundle, and two RPG bundles to choose from. Help out a great cause and get a great deal at the same time. Everybody wins that way. Thanks always for your time and s

To end the week and our look at the thieves, today we will examine some "special services" that, for a cost, could be provided by the local thieves guild. This is not meant to be a full list of services, nor is it meant to be a general core list that all such institutions might provide. It is just a list of possibilities to get you thinking about the types of "special services" that your thieves guilds might provide. Keep in mind that thieves guilds are not usually limited to

Pickpocket by Felicia Cano - Check out all her artwork here This is another post on the thief theme. Today, we're going to examine picking pockets, or rather cutting purses. In most fantasy RPG campaigns, the setting is reminiscent of the middle ages in terms of both clothing and attitudes. Few pieces of clothing in the medieval period had pockets sewn into them at all and most people chose to carry their valuables in a bag, pouch, or purse tied to their belt. Thus, most "pic

To keep with the thief theme started with Monday's post, today we will talk about some thieves tools that aren't lockpicks or a pry bar. Whether you use these tools to equip your NPC rogues, or just provide them to the PC's as additional tools they might carry, I hope that you enjoy them. I also hope that they get you thinking about other tools the merchants of midnight might use. Without further ado, here are 20 Thieves Tools Beyond Lockpicks. Until next time, Happy Gaming!

As a wrap up to our discussion on guilds, today we will discuss the nature of the "thieves guild". During this series, I have emphasized how guilds are all about getting as much gold as they can. While this is the primary goal of any trade organization, normal guilds put a portion (often a large portion) of their money back into the community through public works projects. Most thieves guilds clearly do not follow this practice. Additionally, since thievery isn't truly a guil

I apologize for my poor health this week, but we've managed to make it to the weekend, even if we aren't all healthy and happy. This week we've been looking at guilds. We're going to end that examination with 2 tables - one with potential adventures and a second with influential NPC's. As it is always, I hope that you can find some use for these tables in your own games. Before we get to the tables though, let's talk just a little about the influences of guilds upon towns. As

As I said yesterday, guilds are all about the gold. That's only appropriate since they are trade organizations. Unfortunately for the guilds, there are many others that are also out to get that same gold. Below is a table for helping to determine the quarterly profits and losses for a guild or business expressed by a percentage of the working capital for the entity. Additional tables below flesh out the events responsible for the downturn, levelling out, or upswing in profits

This week we'll be looking at guilds. Guilds were first established in the early middle ages (10th-12th Century) as a protection against the unfair treatment and over taxation rampant throughout the feudal system. They continued to exist within the medieval world as a strange mix of trade unions, training schools, cartels, and civic-minded secret societies until well into the Industrial Age. As a matter of fact, over 100 modern corporations within the city of London have desc

Well, we've made it once again to Friday. Today, we conclude our crime and punishment theme with a collection of prisons. In story-telling, there are generally two types of prisons. The type that might appear as part of a character history, i.e., no matter how tough its reputation, it is ultimately the type that you come back from. The prisons listed below are decidedly of the second type. The type that no one is ever meant to visit or return from. Listed below is a collectio

This is the next step in our legal series this week. We've looked at Laws and we've looked at Law Trials. Now we will turn our attention to punishments. Below I have listed some minor (in the medieval sense of crime and punishment) punishments that might be levied against law breakers in a fantasy realm. You know your world the best so if 1000 Gold is far too much for a minor crime, then change it to a better number. In fact, all of these are just suggestions to get you think

Today, we will continue the legal theme with a look at law trials. Law is defined as a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. Individual laws might be endlessly disputed, but the concept of Law is basically the same to everyone. If you do something wrong and you get caught, then you are going to be made to pay for it in some way. Different societies and cultures may have vastly different laws and courts from those that your PC's migh

All cultures have some form of law; some system by which the actions of individual members of the culture can be judged. All cultures use laws to isolate themselves from behaviors that they do not approve of; unfortunately cultures often differ greatly, making what is perfectly acceptable in one place, absolute taboo in another. When travelling, even in your own country, one can forget that different people do things differently. A traveller might sometimes run afoul of local

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

At first glance it may not seem like today's post follows the theme we began on tuesday of this week, but it does. Sometimes when the battle goes your way, you cannot just slay the evil monsters outright; you are forced to take prisoners. Such is often the case with bandits and river pirates. These vile outlaws must be brought to justice in front of the populace, if you truly hope to curtail the spread of their vile kind across the growing frontier. Bringing them to justice m

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

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