Sartosa

Hey Styro when will your website but up and available? Last I heard it seemed to be coming along well and so I hope that it has continued to go well for you.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the latest (final?) draft of the rules for Sartosa. I'd love to get my gaming group to start a Sartosa campaign but it might be an uphill battle.

I was just reading through the Empire and Flames rulebook again and I noticed that it mentions cargo when talking about vehicles and boats of the empire and says that cargo will be covered in greater detail in the scenario section... which it isn't. Now that rules for cargo have been created for Sartosa I look forward to using them in some new Empire in Flames type scenarios to take advantage of wagons and barges and whatever.

I am flattered. As far as selling point for your group, show them the Pirate Warband by Tim Huckelbery . If they like it, tell them that the Sartosa Campaign is basically a collection of 9 warbands based off them, with rules for Swabbies, Pirate Equipment, and more types of Pistols.

As far as Cargo, I stole the rules used by the Ryn Build for 'Gunpowder Plot' scenario, (except for the blowing up part.) This means that it's no longer light and easy Wyrdstone, which a Possessed Hero with Cloven hooves and sprint can grab three of in first turns of the game. It's heavy as hell. But also, you can discard a Cargo in the post game to get Booty, giving you a chanc at fabulous items.

Progress: Well, I MEANT to have it up earlier this month.... but I also started a challenge to write a Novel in 30 days, so the website kinda fell through. I'm planning to take the website back to basics and start again more effeciently, but it should be done in the first or second weekend of December. If your campaign is starting right now and you can't possibly wait, send me an email djoriaATsu.edu (replace the AT with @) and I'll send it to you. It's about three emails worth of attachments, so make sure your inbox can take a few Megs.

Empire in Flames: I actually don't use any of the EiF cart rules, but there are plenty of raft scenarios. Also, if you get the chance to build a huge boat (ex. mine is 22" long), there are scenarios for that too.

You MIGHT want to check out the Luncheim & other Sartosa threads by Warboss Kurgan & the Flame On Lads to see what a TRULY GREAT CLUB has done with the Sartosa Campaign.

StyrofoamKing wrote:

I am flattered. As far as selling point for your group, show them the Pirate Warband by Tim Huckelbery . If they like it, tell them that the Sartosa Campaign is basically a collection of 9 warbands based off them, with rules for Swabbies, Pirate Equipment, and more types of Pistols.

I know one of my group likes the pirate warband so that's a start.

StyrofoamKing wrote:

Progress: Well, I MEANT to have it up earlier this month.... but I also started a challenge to write a Novel in 30 days, so the website kinda fell through. I'm planning to take the website back to basics and start again more effeciently, but it should be done in the first or second weekend of December. If your campaign is starting right now and you can't possibly wait, send me an email djoriaATsu.edu (replace the AT with @) and I'll send it to you. It's about three emails worth of attachments, so make sure your inbox can take a few Megs.

Did you try your hand at NaNoWriMo? Cool! I hope that it went well or at least that you had a fun time.

You don't need to bother sending the rules through to me as my gaming group has pretty much stopped due to the looming presence of Christmas. I can wait until you get your site up.

DeafNala wrote:

You MIGHT want to check out the Luncheim & other Sartosa threads by Warboss Kurgan & the Flame On Lads to see what a TRULY GREAT CLUB has done with the Sartosa Campaign.

Thanks DeafNala. I'll have to do that.

PHEW! A long day of Christmas Tree-ing and html building, and the site is finally up.

http://sites.google.com/site/styroheim/

Only the first three PDFs are up at the moment, but the rest will follow soon. Scenarios will probably be last, that one needs a bit of an overhaul.

NaNo: Yep! Although I hit 50k words, I'm still barely over halfway through the story arc in my head, so I'll try to finish it before the End of December. It's a romantic comedy/action story based on teenage superheroes.

Oh, and to find them, look for the Sartosa page on the navigator bar. The three files are at the bottom. I'm sorry for the horrendous looking webpage, I'll try to tweak it later.

Thanks mate! That was quicker than I expected.

I've also started the process of swaying my Mordheim group to giving it a try.

YAAAAAAAAAARRRR!!! Great stuff!

Ah, finally the site arrived! Great stuff!

I hope you will upload all the other files soon

YAY! What else is their going to be? (I've got my fingers crossed for a gallery full of pirates )

Styro, I have a question concerning the "Man Overboard" rules. Do you test each turn, no matter the number of models on the boat, or only from the time there's overcapacity?

EDIT: And Kurgan now has to make up some rules for his Orc Pirates! I just noticed that there are not even Orc and Goblin swabbies who can join up your crew

Wow, I didn't even know there was a Sartosa setting in development. This is really exciting. Perhaps now I have a reason to purchase Long Drong's Slayer Pirates after all. Keep up the good work!

Warbos, Eliziar, Chad: Thanks!

Eliazar: I actually mentioned to Kurgan previously the idea of an Orc Pirate Warband, and he felt he didn't need one. So, I there are two options:
1. Hire the "Orc Captain with Goblin Swabbie" Hired Sword pair, and/or
2. The leader learns the 'Pressganger' Pirate skill, which lets non-Pirate warbands take swabbies. Willing people join the Orc Boyz, unwilling join the Goblins.

Man Overboard: You test when boat reaches overcapacity, AND at the beginning of the controller's turn (the controller being the person with the majority of un-injured models on board.) To be perfectly honest, my group has never TESTED for overcapacity, it's one of those extra rules, like 'All Alone' Tests, that's kinda optional.

As far as what's coming next, expect some new warbands: Slayer Pirates being one of them.

Gallery of Images: Well, that is going to be one of them. Sadly, I wish I had a digital camera, because I really wanted to include my figures and the terrain I built Some cool conversations too, like making Slayer Pirates out of 'Battle for Skull Pass" Dwarves.

EDIT: Just added Human Pirates, Cathayan Pirates, & Slayer Pirates to the site. Will probably have a few more warbands up by the end of the week.

I don't know how much photographers charge in Wherever-You-Are, but a digital image (ie. on CD) here (Portugal) is about ten cents per-picture plus the disk (2-4 euros). Which fpr super-high-quality pictures is very little compared with starting a website in the first place.

Well, I don't have a good film camera either.

Although, the website is from google, for free.

I meant the photographer takes the picture (using their camera), puts the picture on a CD, and gives you the CD. So all you need is disk-drive.

Yay, new warbands! Thanks a lo, Styro, now you can take your time, because you sent me the rest of the files already (perhaps they are not up-to-date, but that's not too problematic).

Hm, concerning the Orc pirates, I suppose I will just give them access to some black powder weapons and pirate skills.

StyrofoamKing wrote:

To be perfectly honest, my group has never TESTED for overcapacity, it's one of those extra rules, like 'All Alone' Tests, that's kinda optional.

Hopefully, I manage to paint some pirates around Christmas (yeah, a civilian service forced labourer has holidays, too) and I will take nice pics of them and send them to you/post them here. There is also a ship in the making (don't know if you have seen it already) and some (very) WIP Pirate Orcs.

Eliziar: Most of the changes are spelling errors, but every document so far has been changed at least once. Most of the changes add new equipment or new bonuses, so you don't want to miss out

Overcapcity: A good sign; when the warriors do not physically FIT in the boat, test for Man Overboard.

I'm mostly dissappointed about not showing my terrain. We play on a blue table, so I built 1'x1' tiles, that can stack and be layered, to create an entire city on the water. They can be stacked up too, so that some streets are on hills and highe than the others. Really amazing looking, easy to customize, and pretty cheap to make.

StyrofoamKing wrote:

I'm mostly dissappointed about not showing my terrain. We play on a blue table, so I built 1'x1' tiles, that can stack and be layered, to create an entire city on the water. They can be stacked up too, so that some streets are on hills and highe than the others. Really amazing looking, easy to customize, and pretty cheap to make.

Wow, that sounds great! I'd love to see that. You somehow have to take pictures of it!


One thing I noticed, is that Bretonnians have very little advantages when you already play without -1 to hit for weapons under or equal range 10"

Hmm. Is that an official rule, or a house rule? If it's the latter, than give them +1 to hit at close range (meaning a Pistol within 3" gets +1 to hit, a Dueling Pistol within 5" gets +2). Another possible bonus is to give the Heroes Eagle Eye for free, but only with Pistols/Dueling.

While the obvious inspiration for the three pirates were Middenheim, Reikland, and Marienburg, I also wanted them to be broken into 'Melee/Long Range/Medium Range.'

EDIT: 12/7
Added the rest of the warbands; Khorne Raiders, Araby Smugglers, Ghost Pirates and Lothern Sea Patrol. Let me know what you think!

I've really liked it so far so I look forward to investigating the remainder of the warbands.

Added DFs 5 (Pirate Skills, Hired Swords, DPs), & PDF 7 (Random Events). All that's left is #6 (Scenarios), which may take me a while. Before the end of the month, I swear.

StyrofoamKing- The Sartosa setting is shaping up to be quite wonderful. I downloaded the first several PDFs you posted earlier this month, and now that Christmas is over, I am reading through the rest of the setting. I have found the setting to be very rewarding and appreciate the effort. Further, I am now actively hunting for Long Drong's Slayer Pirates on ebay and bartertown.

Keep up the good work,
Eric

Yay! Glad you like... I'll also pass the complements on to Master, my partner in crime.

As far as Slayer Pirates, I'm too cheap to buy my own, so I converted some using the Dwarves from Battle for Skull pass. Here's how:

1. Take any model without a shield. Thunderers and the cannon crew work best, but if you have some experience with putty, you can use the Miners too.
2. Cut and file down the helmet to a perfect round bowl on top. Close to the skull, but doesn't have to be perfect. Don't worry about the ear flaps on the thunderers: merely carve a dwarf rune in them, and paint them up as gold earrings! Also file down any cloth wrinkles between the wrist-band and the shoulder (this way, it looks like bare arms instead of sleeves... making them half naked is near impossible, but it's not hard to make 'em look like they're wearing vests.
3. Add a little bit of putty to the brow of the helmet, and a small 'knot' in the back/side, so it looks like a bandanna on their head. Add some vertical wrinkles here and there, and it looks like cloth... a snap, really.

3B. If you want to get REAL adventureous, add some putty anywhere you see chain mail. Add a few small creases/stretch marks, to make it look like like leather, and add a few (2-3) tiny holes near the edges, to look like punched sewing holes in the leather. The GW site USED to have a guide of making leather with green stuff, but it's probably gone.

*EXTRA CREDIT* Turning Miners into Slayers. Suggest you have a normal Slayer for reference.
4. Do all of the above, except the bandanna. Trip the candle close to the helmet (and disconnected from the axe), but it doesn't have to be perfect.
5. Add a large Rectangular block of Green Stuff on his head, covering/engulfing the helmet. Also include the back lip of the helmet too (yes, this will give them mullets... unfashionable NOW, but in sync with the past Slayer designs, and covers the back of the helmet nicely.
6. Shape the block so that it is slightly wider at the top, and thinner at the bottom. Finally, using a shaping tool, add a slight wedge/indent in the very top of the block, running front to back down the length of the top. (This is a slight 'part' in the hair, not a complete separation).
7. Using a tool, toothpick, or knife, style the hair itself onto the block. Side of the 'block': Long strokes, top to bottom. Mullet: long strokes, front to back, can be a little wavy if you want. Top: pin prick indentations, over and over.
8. Add a small 'ring' to the bottom of the pick handle: instead of wielding a pick axe, you have a Slayer Pirate hefting a heavy anchor! And there you have it!

Do you have any photos of your conversions?