Introduction To Pirates: Pirate Ships

Introduction to Pirates: Pirate Ships

The exact design of ships changes by the time and place of their manufacturing, but they had common builds and terminology.

Directions on a ship are:

bow or prow (front)

starboard (right, as seen when standing on the ship facing prow)

port (left, as seen when standing on the ship facing prow)

aft or stern (rear)

amidship (in the middle of the ship)

windward (the direction the wind is blowing)

leeward (the opposite of windward, sheltered from the wind or downwind)

Important places on a ship are:

bilge (the lowest part of the ship, the part most likely to leak and be filthy)

crow’s nest (a small platform near the top of the mast for lookouts)

fo'cs'le or forecastle (the section of the upper deck in front of the foremast)

helm (the steering wheel. contains the bittacle/bitacola/binnacle, a box which holds the compass)

hold (storage space in the lower part of the ship)

hull (the body of the ship)

keel (the underside of the ship)

mizzenmast (the largest mast. on a ship with three or more masts, the mast aft of a mainmast)

poop deck (the highest deck, usually above the captain’s quarters)

main (the longest mast)

quarterdeck (the aft part of the upperdeck)

Depending on the size of the ship, it may have one or multiple decks and masts. The flagship of Blackbeard, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, was an English-built frigate. It was a 200-ton, 103 foot long vessel with three masts (the fore, the mizzen, and the main). It allegedly had 40 cannons, though only 30 have since been found (far more than most of the ships it attacked) and as many of four anchors, which could weigh up to 3,100lb and take over an hour to raise.

Vessels such as pirate ships cannot accurately be called boats, this is a pet peeve of many nautical workers.

i have very normal human reactions to reading something written well (it makes me so overwhelmed by emotions i get nauseous and feel like im going to throw up)

Places you should add to your little town/city in your fantasy world!!

Post offices. Wild, I know. But give me the unhinged kind. Pingeons and little postal dragons all over the place. You enter. The most disgusting smell fucking assaults your nostrils. You know what it is. Letter in hand, you go up to the counter. The postal worker is just a slightly bigger pigeon. You shed a tear.

PLAYGROUNDS!! Create the most dangerous kinds of playgrounds, the ones suburban moms would TRIP if they ever saw one. Monkey bars that are way too tall, swings that go full circle... The metal slide stays the same, it's already painful enough.

PARKS!! MAKE IT ALIVE!! Show people going on walks, reading beneath trees. C'mon most of them are already hundred years old (And are going to die after that CR 15 creature wrecks the town) anyways!! Show couples and picnics, show a family enjoying the sunday, give me someone picking flowers for their loved ones.

A bakery! Do you know how much these places are underrated? And do you know how much plot potential they have? Every good story starts with food poisoning or granny's recipe! Give me a place your players/readers are going to treat like home and, for once, it's not a tavern or a guild.

Government buildings! Give me a town hall that has a kilometric line in front of it. Give me a registry that is as old as this town. Give me police stations! Give me courtrooms! Make one of your players get arrested and now all of the party has to go through burocracy like a bunch of normal people!

(Who am I kidding? You don't need to make them get arrested. They are going to do that for you.)

Touristic attractions! Give me a full-on statue of the country's leader! Give me museums! Give me streets, ruins and whatnot that attract thousands of tourists everyday! Give me an annoying city guide that tries to get the party's attention everytime!

Magazine stands! Magazines don't exist? Newspaper stands! From the Queen's Journal to the most questionable new piece of Fox's Tailtracker, you have it all! Make your players doubt what's actually happening, sprinkle a little fake news... Or is it fake at all?

...Toy stores. OK HEAR ME OUT. Make magic toys; miniature skyships that actually fly, metal toy dragons that expel fire, little wands that make little light spells, wooden creatures that can move and make noises... Make children happy! And your players too because they will waste their money on these stuff.

Instrument store!! Make your bards happy with special instruments or just weird ones! Give me a battle in one of those that is just filled with funny noises and the worst battle soundtrack ever!!

Not exactly a place but... Cleaning carts!!! Show me people cleaning the streets, picking up the trash, cutting trees!! Make the town look clean!! Give me an old man that is really proud of his work!!!

(or ways to make your players feel even worse when the villain destroys the town later on :) )

Lemongrass and Peppermint for the ask game? @writingonesdreamss

Hey! Thank you for the ask

lemongrass: favorite genre to read?

probably fantasy. there's something about the escapism into a magical world. i love the impossibility and the foreignness of something unlike our own world. spells and enchantments and dragons and folklore. it's such a classic for me and brings me so much joy

peppermint: what's your favorite way to overcome writer's block?

hmm... the best way i've found to continue writing when i can't write is to find something completely self indulgent. i write something without substance, just using elements i like and make me go slightly insane. it's easier to do something if you love it, so i'll give whatever is giving me trouble some space and do something else

Having ADHD is fucked up because I cannot understand audiobooks unless I can play them on 200% speed so the narrator sounds like @#@O$@#$#@*$)(@#!!!!

Look in all seriousness you can't redeem a character without showing them being pathetic, deep loser energy. There are no cool redemption arcs. They have to be in the trenches. They have to hate themselves for the mistakes they made. They have to apologize and take whatever is given be it forgiveness or a punch to the jaw. ONLY then will the redemption arc be actually good because it will be cathartic. And then they get to see the good things, they get to be touched gently and held while they sleep.

These things can overlap, even into a circle but without the pathetic loser boy saga your redemption arc will feel hollow.