Lazy Monday Link Dump

Rough night last night, and I'm wiped tonight. Going a night without sleep wasn't a problem when I was younger; now, I'm wrecked the next day.

Nate at d20 Pirates has a simple set of system-free rules for handling dehydration and starvation - being marooned on a desert island gets nastier, more brutal, and much, much shorter.

DHBoggs at Hidden in Shadows explores the similarities between D&D magic and the magic found in Shakespeare. I really enjoyed this post.

Eric Treasure at The Dragon's Flagon has a great post on the diverse interpretation of reaction rolls - another great random tool.

And last, at Bayuca, the blog I want RBE to be when it grows up, is a (p)review of A Field in England, a combination historical thriller and psychodelic movie set during the English Civil War. Any further explanation would be wasted - just click the link and check out the trailer.

Galleon Ho!

Nate at d20 Pirates continues to post all sorts of wonderful resources for pirate campaigns, for which I am always grateful, but his galleon deckplans are sure to get a workout at some point in my own campaign.

Seriously, scroll around there a bit and you'll find all sorts of maritime gaming goodness. I know I do.

Of Corsairs and Conquistadors

Beyond the glittering palaces and perfumed nobles of Europe lies a far-flung frontier for swashbucklers to explore.

Nate at d20 Pirates continues to write about Mediterranean corsairs; unfortunately the posts aren't grouped by a tag, but they're easy enough to find using the post list on the blog. My favorite so far is a mini-gazetteer of the Med.

Meanwhile Bill at The Crown and the Ring is tossing around some ideas for a fantastic conquistadors setting; who doesn't love warriors dressed in jaguar skins carrying obsidian-edged swords?

Both bloggers include lots of historical tidbits and ideas for roleplaying along with their game stats, so even if I can't use the latter, I'm getting lots of good stuff from the former. Enjoy!

Saturday Night Link Dump

Sharing the love from around the blogosphere . . .

Vintage Wargaming has a novel idea for a randomizer: a roulette wheel.

Lurking Rythmically, by way of How to Succeed in RPGs or Die Trying has a post on Julie D'Aubigny, a real-life woman duelist among her many other talents.

d20 Pirates has a Mediterranean galley with stats and deck plans for your d20 gaming pleasure.

By way of Original Edition Fantasy, CLANG a 'revolutionary' fencing video game Kickstarter by author Neal Stephenson.

Enjoy.

Pirates of the Middle Sea

Nate at d20 Pirates posted the first in a series on corsairs, the pirates of the Mediterranean.

The story of the corsairs fascinates me, and in fact I started reading a book, Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants: A Maritime History of the Mediterranean by Princeton professor Molly Greene, this weekend, one of a number of books on the subject on my shelves.

With the inspiration for my Flashing Blades campaign coming from a story about the Ottoman siege of Vienna, and with books like The Sea-Hawk and Pirates of the Levant in my Appendix N, you can be sure corsairs lie in wait just over the horizon should the adventurers set sail across the Mediterranean or visit its ports.

I'm looking forward to the rest of Nate's posts.

Take It On the Run

Nate at d20 Pirates has a great post detailing some hazards during chases, inspired in part, he explains, by the classic random city encounter tables in the 1e AD&D DMG. I fully intend to use these next time a chase situation develops in my campaign

If you're running a pirates campaign, or thinking about running one, or just like reading about pirates and roleplaying games, d20 Pirates has all kinds of fun stuff.