The fate of the Erasmus in the Shogun TV series and James Clavell's book of the same name was fictional. The fate of the Rover in 1867 in Formosa was not.

But the thing is that the regional powers did not have strong navies, and there were literally thousands of pirate ships active throughout the region amonst the thousands of islets and hidden coves and bays; pirate ships involved in raiding, piracy, smuggling, espionage, formenting rebellion, civil war and other shenanigans.
I feel this is a woefully unexplored and under represented area of history, especially on RPOL.

I'd really like to play as something like  one of the crew of the the Erasmus, a  European ship that drifted ashore damaged and terribly undermanned. The few survivors find themselves embroiled in local politics and struggling to survive, let alone reclaim and refit their ship. But if they do then they control a vessel that is far superior to any other in a wild and volatile region.

System wise, anything except D&D... though the system sets the tone from flamboyant swashbuckling to grim and gritty survival.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:25, Sun 28 July.

Damn, I am super interested, was wondering how it would be as an RPG after watching it.

In reply to Ice Raven (msg # 1):

Interesting concept.

Clarifying that I understand - you'd want to play this crew stranded on Japan - working to restore their ship?

So the goal of the game would be to "end" with the ship restored?

Or, the ship gets restored quickly (ish), and the ship and crew become a bit of a regional power unto themselves?

On system, are your preferences more towards complex rules (like GURPS, Genesys) or more towards simple/lite rules (like RISUS or Lasers & Feelings)?

In reply to Gruagach (msg # 3):

I can so see 'English' and 'Nihonjin' as the two stats for a Shogun-inspired hack of Lasers And Feelings

In reply to Alyse (msg # 4):

That'd work!

Two great Lasers and Feelings hacks for Japanese themed gaming are:

Katanas & Kimonos - which also has a bunch of supplemntary material done for it.

And Ronin. Ronin, in particular, is a neat innovation for Lasers & Feelings, and I think a decent mash of up of like Game of Thrones with Shogun could be done with it. Think folks working to build power and influence during the period that Clavell's Shogun novel and the show covers.

So, time period wise more Taipan than Shogun?

Also for games how about 7th Sea instead of D&D.

The latter. However, if there is an optimal crew of thirty, and we are down to five half starved injured crewmates, this means that we can't crew the ship ourselves. We would need help to repair it and men and supplies to sail it. Which means that any local lord helping us could easily have his own men and officers aboard, so yes we would become a bit of a regional power unto ourselves but still somewhat on a leash.


I've played GURPS and like it. I haven't heard of Lasers & Feelings, Katanas & Kimonos or Ronin, but would be willing to try. Rules lite works well with RPOL I feel, so that would be my preference.

I've played 7th Sea and like the concept but like D&D I find myself banging heads with the system every ten minutes. What do you mean, a competant swordsman can't do a riposte because he didn't attend the Aldana school? A far better system in my opinion is Honor & Intrigue. But maybe that's a bit too flashy and swashbucklery anyway.


Sounds good!


I think Shogun period is better, in the Taipan era we would probably just try to find a friendly ship to rescue us. But in the time period where only the Portuguese are here, and here comes a strange crew with the same technology but are not friends with the Portuguese, well that provides interesting options for rival lords.

However, there is a huge area that is suitable, whether it's China or Japan or Formosa or Indonesia. Does it have a Chinese feel or a Japanese feel or tribal headhunters? Are there courts and politics and rival factions involved, or is it pirates keen to raid those wealthy civilizations? There are lots of possibilities.

Actually, both series are very good. Seqalu: Formosa 1867 is available on Netflix and Youtube. But that story is not about the crew of a shipwreck, but of an expedition to find out what happened to said crew.

After thinking it over, the concept is great, and not in my wheelhouse as a GM.

I hope you all find a great GM to bring it to life.

Happy gaming!

This message was deleted by the user at 20:50, Mon 19 Aug.

I might consider picking it up as a GM from next month, but it would be done using a custom system I'm creating and is in a playtest level. Would there be any takers for that?

I probably would. I'd certainly be interested to hear more.

Bump

Cool, I'll put up a players wanted around the 10-15th then. In the meantime, let's see who else is interested, but I can start with one for now if need be (it is quite faster).