This has already been posted in the forum, but occasionally I plan to convert larger posts of mine there into general posts as well.
Lately I’ve been going through Pirates of the Epic Seas and doing one game piece per faction (or UT/etc) at a time. I’ve gotten down to the SE’s again, and there are so many “unreleased” that I like, it’s tough to know what to reveal! XD I made some more fantasy customs today, some of which are rather amusing. For today, I’m in the mood to go out of order and reveal something I just created today. I’ve wanted to make something with a “Ring of Fire” theme for a while now, somewhat based on the real life volcano chain.
Ring of Fire (Islands)
Place these 5 Mysterious Islands in a circle during setup. These islands cannot be chosen as home islands, and should be placed 2L or 3L apart. When a ship docks at this island, roll a d6.
1 – Catastrophic Eruption: All ships docked at this island have all of their masts (including eliminated ones) replaced with fire masts. All ships within 3L of this island receive 3 fire masts; this effect can sink ships. Eliminate all crew and forts on this island.
2 – Violent Eruption: All ships docked at this island receive 3 fire masts. Ships within 2L of this island receive 2 fire masts. Eliminate all crew and forts on this island.
3/4 – Eruption: All ships docked at this island receive 2 fire masts. Ships within L of this island receive 1 fire mast. Eliminate all crew on this island.
5/6 – No effect.
*Game pieces that are submerged are not subject to receiving fire masts.
Ring of Fire (Canoes)
Faction Affiliation: Mercenary
Rarity: U
Type: Ship
Point Value: 14
Number of Masts: 1
Cargo Space: 1
Base Move: S+S+S
Cannons: 3L
Ability: Mercenary. Native Canoe. Captain. Fire Shot.
Flavor text: Hailing from the most volcanic region in the world, these tribal natives have preyed on worried sailors for centuries. They have learned to detect when an eruption is imminent, and then use the chaos and death of such a cataclysmic event to pillage both victims and survivors. Named after the devastating region they sail around, there have been reports of canoe”rings” surrounding enemy ships and lighting the sails and rigging on fire with flaming arrows, watching from afar as the crew are burned alive and the ship is burnt to the waterline. They are known as perhaps the most clever and secretly evil tribe in the Pacific, and use the speed and agility of their canoes to avoid being wiped out by the frequent eruptions.
Kinda overdid the flavor text, but it really helps give context to their background and the fleshing out of the “Ring of Fire” concept, especially with Epic Seas having a more Mercenary/tribal/Pacific slant the past few months.
The last piece of the “saga”, at least for now….
Ring of Fire
Unique Treasure
Ability: When discovered, assign this game piece to a named crew on this ship. If this ship isn’t assigned a named crew, place this treasure face down on a random wild island without revealing the treasure to any players. Once this treasure is assigned to a named crew, it is treated as equipment and cannot be removed from this ship unless the crew is removed. If the assigned crew is eliminated, eliminate this game piece. When this ship shoots, up to 3 hits may be fire hits instead of regular hits (you must declare which cannons are shooting fire shot before rolling). If this ship is within L of a Volcano island, you may eliminate one crew on this ship – if so, one enemy ship within L of this ship cannot move on their next turn.
Flavor text: This mysterious ring bears an inscription that starts with a “V”… many scholars have attempted to decode what the name means, but they always end up murdered for the ring’s power. Multiple “giants” have been seen wielding the ring for evil purposes in the Pacific, leaving a trail of smoke in their wake….
So there you have it. Pretty convoluted already, and it might get more wordy and complicated if I add things to the concept. Funny enough I already have an epic volcano-based 10 master with linked crew combo, so if I get them involved… yikes…. O_O
Man, sometimes I find it surprisingly easy to create a lot of fantasy customs. So many things to draw inspiration from, either just a simple word like “dove” or some complex convoluted backstory of chaos. XD Just looking up “cursed art” in google images gives me plenty of random ideas! Epic Seas is about to reach 700 total game pieces, and it’s inevitable that someday I will break 1,000 on that set, and eventually many more I hope. In times like this I have to consciously try to stop staring at what I’ve created or plan to create, just so I don’t spend many hours a day doing it! XD
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Historical Custom of the Day #248
John Watling
Pirate
Crew
3 points
Ability: Captain. This ship gets +1 to her d6 rolls against ships with the Chieftain keyword aboard. This ship gets -1 to her d6 rolls against forts.
Link: Bartholomew Sharp
Strange abilities, but read his brief and strange story for why I gave them to him. Almost some weird parallels with Captain Jack Sparrow.
You can find my custom sets here: Pirates of the Age of Sail and Pirates of the Epic Seas