In the 1690s, Piracy in the Caribbean was a world of mystery, dangers, adventures and opportunities. The Caribbean winds whispered tales of audacity and betrayals.
Some pirates were once privateers with royal charters but in search of gold and glory, they sailed into the lawless waters of the Caribbean. A pirate not only had to fight rivals but also the very nature of a pirate's life. A friend today could be tomorrow's executioner. Their ship which was once their lifeblood might become their prison. The glorious freedom of the sea became a chain dragging them towards their inevitable end— hanging from the gibbet as a warning to all who dared to defy the rules of pirate life.
Port Royal was considered a notorious pirate port at that time. It was the epicentre of all pirate activity—a city where a tavern was in every corner, where gold sometimes sprinkled like water. A city where the difference between right and wrong was not based on the pirates' deeds but on their changing fortunes.
Things were going great for pirates until the deadly earthquake in 1692 shattered the city. Pirates no longer had a place to rest, enjoy and shine after a successful raid. The surviving pirates of the Port Royal scattered like seeds and found new harbours, alliances and enemies, they looked for new adventures. The Indian Ocean with its rich Mughal ships and vast unpatrolled waters looked juicy for the exploits and adventures.
Thomas Tew and Henry Every became legendary names in these new exploits. Their name was whispered in every tavern, even on the distant shores of Madagascar. Henry's capture of 'Ganj-i-Swai', an Indian treasure ship made him the most notorious pirate of the time.
The pirate ships were not just vessels to travel and raid other ships but a fortress for them, a place where democracy thrived in the form of ship articles. Pirates lived by the pirate code. The captain elected by the crew, held power as long as there was victory and plunder.
Pirate ships were designed to outmanoeuvre larger and more heavily armed naval ships. Speed and agility were their greatest weapon, allowing them to raid swiftly and disappear.
Life at sea means you could be in a brutal dance of canon fire, surrounded by roars of guns and cries of men fighting for their lives around you. Victory means you will survive and get a hand in the spoils of war, while defeat means capture, prison and execution.
Despite the chaos, pirates lived with a code of honour— a shared understanding that even though their life was filled with dangers and unpredictable betrayals, it was preferable to the harsh tyranny of naval life. Crews equally shared the spoils of a successful raid. A vote could depose the captain if they failed to deliver spoils and victory.
Pirates were a brotherhood of the dammed, bound by the code that they valued gold, freedom and glory above everything else.
Pirate Saga Game
Pirate Saga was a small interactive discord game on the Hive-Drip discord server. After the recent updates, you can buy packs and own pirate and ship cards. The website of the game is thepiratesaga.com
Some Existing Mechanics in the Game
One of the basic command of the game is: "!setsail"
Players can embark on adventures using the setsail command.
The outcomes are determined based on a random event system.
Here are the outcomes:
Other mechanics include buying and opening chests. Players can find resources, fish and loot tokens in the chests. Upgrade their ship to use !barrelman and !irondefense command to gain better rewards.
Upcoming Updates
In the upcoming updates, roles will be added to add depth and strategy to the gameplay mechanics. Every role will have associated powers and missions.
Build Ships and recruit Crew
You can build four types of ships: Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.
Based on the rarity of the ship, you can assign different roles and play different missions.
For example, the common ship will have less number of roles and missions to play, whereas the legendary ships will have more roles, crew, missions and powers.
Legendary Ship
Common Ship
Assigning the roles
Based on the rarity of the ship, there will be a bunch of roles like captain, quartermaster, cook, lookout etc. Each role will come with some missions that will reward players with loot coins, strengthening their ships for a while, or a chance to raid other players' ships.
For example, the Captain role will give players access to !boost_morale. Based on the crew size and ship rarity, players will get rewards for this mission.
The cook role will give players access to the !hearty_meals command. Using small/medium/large fish, the cook of the ship will boost crew morale and stamina by providing them with nutritious and filling food.
Apart from these roles and missions, there will be negative effects that will be introduced to the ships, such as mutiny risk, hunger and starvation, increased attack risk.
Mutiny risk: low crew morale, unfair distribution of loot and some other things will trigger this effect leading to player losing control of ship and not being able to run any mission for some time, losing their raid rewards, or resources.
Hunger and Starvation: Lack of food and poor resource management will trigger this effect. If the hunger meter depletes, the performance of roles like Captain for strategic decision-making, and boosting morale or navigator for navigation etc, will drop drastically. Different roles won't be able to perform properly on empty stomachs. Cooks would need to cook fish and use other resources to provide food to the crew from time to time.
Increased attack risks: because of lack of lookout. An attack risk meter will show the chance of an attack on your ship.
