Places and Campaign Tools

Use these tools to calculate voyages, describe the coast between ports and start a campaign. Nassau and Port Royal have dedicated chapters; Other Ports covers Charles Town, Havana, Bermuda and the remaining harbours. The locations here lie outside those ports, without attempting an atlas.

Part One: Sea Travel at the Table

A Day's Run

Distances

Distances use nautical miles, with 15% added for sailing routes and coastal variation. A tilde (~ ) identifies this book's estimates rather than direct map measurements. Passage times assume Speed 3 at 100 nautical miles daily in fair wind.

Allow six to nine weeks for a merchant Atlantic crossing. This book's estimate (~) accounts for likely sailing conditions.

Seasons and Weather

• Hurricane season runs from June to November, worst in August and September. The great example is the plate fleet: a hurricane wrecked the combined Spanish fleets off the east coast of Florida on 31 July 1715.
• The trades blow from the east across the islands the year round, and a ship working north meets the Gulf Stream along Florida, which carries it north and east.
• The dry months (December to May) are the cruising months; a Company that wants to careen picks one.

Stores and Water

How News Travels

The next arriving ship carries the news. Use the table for a story's age on arrival.

Part Two: Places Between the Ports

Harbour Island

Harbour Island lies off Eleuthera, one day's sail from Nassau. For play it has a landing, wrecking trade, rusted battery guns and about thirty families. Its fictional Governor, Sir Edmund Haldane, represents the Crown here without governing the Bahamas or serving as anyone's deputy (Adversaries; Era Cast). Companies seek pardons, pilots, flags of truce or bribes. Records describe pirates with a battery and 50 guards in May 1717, thirty families in July 1717 (Powers of the Caribbean), and Rogers placing pilots here in February 1719.

Ocracoke and Bath

Teach favoured Ocracoke Inlet, the narrow opening in North Carolina's long offshore sand bar, usually anchoring inside its southern tip. In June 1718 he took at least twenty crew through to Bath, fifty-odd miles up the Pamlico River, and accepted Eden's pardon. Virginia's Spotswood sent naval Lieutenant Maynard against him. Teach died fighting hand to hand on 22 November 1718, either at the inlet or some 17 miles across the sound; accounts disagree.

In play: use the inlet as a refuge without a Base. Hulls of Scale 4 or more risk the bar: crossing requires Hard Operate (Sail), with failure grounding the vessel.

The Florida Wreck Coast

Spanish salvors from Havana began working the plate fleet's Florida east-coast wrecks at the end of August 1715. Jennings and Vane learned the camp's location from a mail ship captured that December and attacked in early 1716.

In play: treasure makes the camp a Great prize; stores make a Poor one (Era Rules). About 60 soldiers under Salmón defend it with a longboat and sloop (Powers of the Caribbean, Spain). Rumour 7's six defenders are false. Capturing the camp earns Spanish hostility and Port Royal's admiration.

The Logwood Coast

Cutters harvest logwood dye on the Campeche and Honduras coasts. Recorded prices run about £3 per ton bought and £6 sold at Port Royal, with half the profit paid to the sloop's master (Gear and Prices, What the Record Gives). Use Boucaniers for a cutters' camp (Adversaries): a few workers, rum stores and a visiting sloop.

The Mosquito Coast

Miskito seafarers control this coast and serve as English allies aboard English ships, valued as marksmen, harpooners and pilots. They belong to its maritime life. Companies seeking water, turtle, guides or safe landings negotiate with the Miskito and pay.

The Salt Cays

Bermuda's salt rakers worked Turks Island colonies from the 1670s. During March to November 1716, 65 Bermudian vessels visited (Trade and Shipping). Their governor voiced concern for the rakers in 1719.

A Careening Beach

Choose a steep, secluded shore for a careening beach, with water nearby and a hilltop lookout: lagoon, cay or river mouth. Roberts's crew cleaned vessels in about a week at Granadillos lagoon and six weeks at Sierra Leone. They also used Old Calabar, where a bar no deeper than 15 feet excluded warships. Rogers's crew cleaned a small bark in roughly a day.

In play: define Watch (lookout, boat and signal), Water (spring or none), Cover (trees or bar) and Neighbour (nearest settlement and its knowledge). Careening takes about a week, reduced to five days by a successful Craft check (Era Rules, Careening and Repair). Two hands on Watch keep it safe.

Part Three: Campaign Tools

The Campaign Frame

Follow the table's Company through its working life (Era Rules, Crew and Articles). Choose one of three ready campaign frames.

Frame	Years	The Company	Its problem
The Beach at Nassau	1716 to 1717	A sloop's Company in a pirate port, with Calloway's tavern, the Governor's absence and the plate fleet's wrecks	Prizes, fences and the Vote; the navy has not yet come in force
The Pardon	1717 to 1718	A Company with a proclamation to read	Take the pardon, refuse it, or take it and turn; Rogers is on the way
The Closing Net	1718 to 1722	A Company in a world that has closed on it: Rogers at Nassau, the navy at sea, the trials at Cape Coast	Where is a Base now?

Start with Beach at Nassau, opened by the Starter Adventure, unless the table selects another frame.

Dates to Use

Consult Historical Reference for the complete timeline. Campaign frames cover 1716, the map year and Beach at Nassau; 1717 to 1718, the proclamation and pardon; and 1718 to 1722, the Closing Net. Material outside 1660 to 1730 requires an explicit date and is never the default.

Rumours

When characters listen in taverns, on quays or in captured cabins, roll d12. The GM determines truth: a useful mix is three true, four partly true and five false rumours.

Encounters at Sea

Roll d12 every two days at sea in open water. Within 100 miles of a hub, replace 12 with 8. During Atlantic crossings, replace 3 to 8 with 1.

Complications in Port

When the Company lands, roll d10 for a complication.

Two Journey Outlines

Journey: Prize Wine to Havana

Captured merchant wine needs a discreet buyer. From Nassau, Havana lies about 410 miles away: 4 fair-wind days at Speed 3.

• Day 1. Weigh in the dry season; a Calm slows the passage. The Sailing Master makes the Operate (Sail) check for the day's run (Day's Run).
• Day 2. The Gulf Stream sets the sloop north. A Survival (navigation) check, Average (Skills and Talents), keeps the course.
• Day 3. A guardacosta sights the sloop: a Chase at Medium Distance (Sail Combat). The Company votes on fighting, bargaining or running (Era Rules, The Vote).
• Day 4. The Havana chain: a bribe, a smuggler's pilot or a refusal. The Prejudice rule sets the port's Attitude toward an English Company at war or at peace (Era Rules).
• Reward. The fence's rate is Hard in a foreign port: 25 in 100, 45 with 2 net Successes.

Journey: A Pardon from Harbour Island

After voting to seek a local pardon, the Company sails for Harbour Island: 60 miles from Nassau, one day away.

• The Approach. A watch of two hands on the beach and a boat of Sir Edmund Haldane's. A Negotiation check, Average, to land.
• The Interview. Haldane delays, writes to London and waits for the party to need him (Adversaries). The Negotiation check is Hard outside the pardon window (Era Rules, Rewards and the Pardon).
• The Catch. A pardon taken is turned by any act of plunder (Era Rules, Rewards and the Pardon). The Governor knows it and so does Whitcombe.
• Reward. Infamy 0 for acts done before; a clean name, or a trap.

Hooks Keyed to the Cast and the Powers