Run Out The Guns!

This is an unofficial home page for Run Out The Guns!, an adventure kit" published by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). It is, pure and simple, a roleplaying game about 17th century piracy in the Caribbean. It blends historical accuracy with swashbuckling elements, and, despite using a stripped-down version of Rolemaster as the basic game engine, it plays quickly and cleanly. It's intended to be an easy-to-learn RPG.

There's a mailing list devoted to Run Out the Guns! You can subscribe by sending email to rotg-subscribe@silent-tower.org (or, for the digest, to rotg-digest-subscribe@silent-tower.org). There are also pre-November 2001 and post-November 2001 Web-based archives of the list.

I'm planning to add a bunch of information to this page in the near future, including links to my future campaign and the Web-based tools I'm buliding for it. I'm willing to offer up this page as an unofficial clearing house for information about the game; email me if you have anything you'd like to contribute.

• General Info
• Piracy Links
• History Links
• Recommended Reading
• Tournament Notes
• Game Material
• Campaign Links
• General Rolemaster Links

General Info

ICE's official blurb

The official Iron Crown page for the adventure kit and future supplements.

Brethren of the Coast

The official ICE ongoing campaign, through the auspices of the RPGA Network's Living Campaigns.

RPGNet review

An RPGnet review of the initial adventure kit.

My first impressions

My initial impressions of the game, originally posted to rec.games.frp.misc (embarassingly effusive, really).

My later review

My later, more detailed look at the game.

Guild Companion: All Hands On Deck!

The Guild Companion (Rolemaster fanzine) review of the All Hands on Deck! supplement.

Piracy Links

Yahoo's Pirate Links

Yahoo!'s list of pirate links. A good starting point, at least.

Web Index of Piracy

An extensive list of piracy-related websites, together with brief comments on each link.

Pirates of the Spanish Main

Another extensive list of piracy-related websites. Most of the links have brief descriptions. The concentration is more fun-and-games oriented than historical.

Isle of Tortuga

A large, high-quality site containing information on historical piracy. There is terminology, a bibliography, an explanation of letters of marque with examples, plus links. Also includes the e-text of Esquemeling's The Buccaneers of America, a primary-source account of travels with Henry Morgan, among other e-texts.

Pirates of the Caribbean - The Spanish Main

An excellent collection of basic information about the life of a pirate in the Caribbean, with a focus on material culture -- the notes are brief, but at the right level of detail to be very useful in an RPG context. The notes on weapons, money, and ships are particularly useful for ROTG players.

Pirates of the Caribbean (online game)

An online chat-based roleplaying game, set during the early 18th century. The reference material is useful: charts on the number of days it takes to sail between a variety of major cities, ships of different countries (including a cutaway ship anatomy diagram), weapons, money, common goods, and geography and culture of the Caribbean. The accompanying photographs are also very good.

No Quarter Given

The supporting website for a magazine, this site contains miscellaneous piracy-related information, including a good booklist and a movie guide.

The Pirates of New Providence

This site was designed by kids, but there are some good links to historical documents, bios, and the like. Formatting of the text documents is unfortunately weird.

Pyrates Providence

This is something of a gloss-over a variety of topics. The best bits are the notes on ships (with pictures), and a brief glossary of terms.

Seacast

This is a link to a brief bio of Henry Morgan; the site contains the bios of other privateers, ships, and related info. I cannot locate the main index page, unfortunately.

Teach's Hole: The Pyrate Shoppe

A Blackbeard-oriented exhibit, plus a shop for piratical goods. There are a handful of good pictures here, as well as a list of links, though the information is relatively thin. The shop contains lots of interesting pirate-related things, though. There's also a bulletin board for visitors, "Blackbeard's Notes".

The Buccaneer Trading Company

The focus of this site is commercial -- they sell pirate-related things -- but there's some good fragments of history, and a book list, here.

Boomerang Box: Trade Topics

A brief overview of piracy-related matters. Contains a good description of a typical pirate trick used to attack an unsuspecting vessel, as well as a list of common superstitions.

Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates (408K)

Subtitled, "Fiction, fact, and fancy concerning the buccaneers and marooners of the Spanish Main". E-text of a book containing an overview of the history and legends.

History Links

The Era of the Spanish Galleons

Subtitled "The Story of the Spanish Treasure Fleets", this site contains lots of useful material, including life at sea, gunnery, ship construction, and naval tactics, with a particular emphasis on the Spanish. Also contains some material on piracy.

HMS Rose

Home page of the tallship HMS Rose, an 18th-century British gunship. Contains photographs, historical information, and many links.

Latitude: The Art and Science of Fifteenth-Century Navigation

This is before the ROTG time period, but it contains immensely useful explanations of navigation, ocean currents and weather, maps, coastal piloting, and more.

Ye Olde Booke O' Seadogs

This is 16th, rather than 17th, century material, but it still contains relevant information, including pictures of ships, details on people, places, terminology, etc.

The Buffalo Maritime Society

A site devoted to the Sea Lion, a reproduction of an early 17th century English merchant vessel. There are pictures, and a glossary of nautical terms, among other things.

Broadside

Subtitled, "The Royal Navy in the 18th Century", this postdates the ROTG time period, but nonetheless contains information of interest, as long as one keeps the possible anachronisms in mind. There is also a good links section.

Sailing Vessels of the 18th Century

A glossary of related naval terms.

Luminarium

Subtitled, "English literature of the early 17th century (1603-1660)". Authors and their works. Good for getting some sense of the literature of the period.

The Museum of Costume

Pictures of a collection of historical English costumes, from the 17th century on. Good for a quick look at how the wealthy dressed.

The Written Word

Pictures of calligraphy, books, etc. from the 12th to 17th century. Useful for getting an idea of how such things were done during the ROTG period.

Recommended Reading

The Pirate's Library

Booklists and reviews of individual books, as well as links to useful etexts related to piracy. Direct online ordering is also possible.

John's Nautical Literature Page

The centerpiece of this site is a massive book list, including books available as e-text; there are also links to other book lists.

Ye Bibliographic Buccaneer

This is a SCAdian's list of maritime reference books, including piracy and relevant material-culture information.

The Mariner's Museum Pirate Bibliography

Brief but descriptive list of references, including primary sources.

Tournament Notes

Origins '97

First ROTG tournament (that I know of).

Origins '98

Pre-release of the boxed set, and two bonus character archetypes (the Former Officer, and the Barber-Surgeon). The tournament culminated in a semi-historical battle, Henry Morgan's attempted attack on Cartagena in January 1669. In the real world, Morgan's flagship, the Oxford, exploded during the pre-battle celebration, killing virtually all of its crew and seriously weakening the fleet's strength, Morgan decided to go raid Maracaibo (in what is modern-day Venezuela) instead. In the game, Morgan (and the player characters' ships) successfully raided Cartagena, sacking the fortresses and defeating the Spanish galleons protecting the city.

GenCon '98

Release of the boxed set to the general public. Tournament under the auspices of the RPGA.

ICEBREAKERS 2

Anyone got a report on this?

Origins '99

Steve Hess wrote a report on the ROTG mailing list.

GenCon '99

Forthcoming.

Origins '00

Steve Hess wrote a report on the ROTG mailing list.

GenCon '00 Forthcoming.

Game Material

Naval Combat Tactics

Todd McGovern's mailing list post explains the basics of the naval combat tactics of the era: using the wind and the three basic passes.

Basic Ship Combat Procedures

Todd McGovern's mailing list post explains the procedures undertaken before ships enter combat.

Steve Hess's Page

Unofficial additional character archetyptes and backgrounds.

At Rapier's Point

If you can find it, this out-of-print genre book for Rolemaster covers the 17th century. The focus is musketeers and the English/French conflict of the time, but the historical background is still useful, as are the Rolemaster tables for black powder weapons, fencing, and swashbuckling.

GURPS Swashbucklers

Back in print, in a third edition, this genre book describes the 17th-century era and the swashbuckling era; included is a significant chunk of material on pirates.

Campaign Links

Connie Bechtel's Tribute

Notes on the Origins '98 tournament. Also includes links to two character archetypes, and a list of surnames.

General Rolemaster Links

The Rolemaster Webring

The webring contains links to over a hundred Rolemaster-related sites, together with brief descriptions.

Jonas Persson's Rolemaster Resources

A moderately extensive set of links to Rolemaster-related sites, as well as some personal material.

William Barr's Rolemaster Resources

An index to Rolemaster-related information on the Internet. Contains links only, no descriptions.