What You Need To Play

Rules? Oh, well, they can be. But you see, they're much more of a guideline, my friend...

- Diego “The Black” Salvador, Captain of the Last Doubloon

Hoist the Colors, like any Forged in the Dark role playing game, requires a few items to play.

A copy of these rules as a reference.

Typically two to five players and one game master. This isn’t to say one player and one game master cannot play. They can with some rule adjustments. These are covered later under Game Masters and [b]Running the Game.

At least 6, six-sided dice. Either a set per player or a set to share! See Rolling The Dice for more about how to roll!

Copies of the character professions.

Blank paper, notebook, or index cards along with a pen or pencil... or World Anvil!

For the game master, reference sheets and maps will probably help as well along with some dice for yourself! Though, you might not need them as often as the players Now, that said, let’s dive in with both players and characters!

The Players

Each player creates and portrays a player character, or PC. A daring privateer, driven by their goals, aspirations, vices, and more while they make their way through the world. Players are the lifeblood of their characters. They breathe life into them while exploring the character’s motivations, goals, and ambitions.

As a result, players are rewarded for good roleplaying with experience and more. This is the fuel that helps the character grow and develop in the course of their adventures. That growth also helps the entire crew as they progress through their adventures.

In this game, the players work together, with the game master’s guidance, to determine tone and style of the game. Such as, is the game about bounty hunters? Explorers of ancient ruins and new continents? Perhaps it’s adventures about salvage specialists sent to recover ghost ships? The possibilities are endless.

During play, decisions by each player can affect the story. Choices that shape the adventure and alter the flow of the story. This affects judgment calls about dice and mechanics. It even can affect the consequences of character actions. It lets players act as co-authors with the game master. Where they work together to shape the story for the current and any future adventure.

The Characters

Characters work to develop themselves and their ship. Starting off as a rough, ramshackle crew that can barely sail the coast, they become a crew of serious, professional adventurers. Privateers with a reputation known from Port Royal to the Afalon coast and beyond. They do this by taking exploration and other jobs from organizations, noble houses, and other patrons.

Every warrant they get for work as a privateer is an opportunity. A chance to chart their own course, crafting alliances and enemies along the way. Helping those who need it, while perhaps smuggling a little cargo on the side.

There are several broad character types, called professions, to choose from when making a character:

Corsairs are swashbuckling masters or mistresses of swordplay and hand-to-hand combat.

Engineers are brilliant mechanics and makers of clockwork and arcane mechanical devices.

Envoys are smooth-talking diplomats and infiltrators skilled in manipulating social situations with ease.

Wavebinders are masters of the mysterious arts. Guardians of lost relics and ancient knowledge.

Navigators are experts in geography and cartography, crucial for any land or sea adventure.

Scoundrels are quick-witted rogues thriving on cunning, charm, and the element of surprise.

Sharpshooters are precision experts with an eye for detail, striking from a distance or up close with unparalleled accuracy.

Surgeons are masters of medicine, melding the arts of science and magic to mend and defend.

Characters are unique but character types are not. You can always mix and match, or have a crew that is all one type. The choice is up to you.

But, characters are more than just a profession. Besides professions, there are four species, called ‘Ancestries’, each with their own cultures to choose from for a character.

Humans are masters of innovation yet bound by their own complexities. Struggling to adapt in a world where magic and myth have intertwined with reality.

Thayans are a people of magic, mystery and determination. Ones who are looking to make a new home and future without sacrificing who they are and where they're from.

Morasu are enigmatic warriors of order. A people bound by traditions and conquest who are as much at war with themselves as they are with neighboring nations.

Grimlings are the calm, logical folk from the Otherworld. Craft-minded with a tie to magic down to their natural metallic tattoos, their quiet wisdom makes them the calm to the Otherworld storm of cultures and people.

The combination of character type with ancestry offers a rich ground to grow a character’s backstory. It’s an opportunity to develop their history and dive into their motivations. Why they chose their path in life. What drives them as a Privateer. It could be personal, cultural, or even both.

... and isn't variety another of those spices of life?

- Doctor Pedro Sangre de Alejandro del Rio