Portock, Freebooter

Following on from my last post, this is the first of ‘Big Red’s support team. Portock is a Freebooter who carries a big axe!

For the most part, the ‘crew’ in Ghost Archipelago are very similar to the soldiers in Frostgrave, despite having different names in most cases. There is one large difference though. Crew are now divided into two categories: standard and specialists. Standard crewman are basically thugs from Frostgrave except the player has a few options on how they are equipped. The critical thing about standard crewmen is that they are free. In this way, even if you have a terrible game in which all of your crew are killed and you recover no treasure at all, you can still go back to your ship, get some more crewmen, and still have a full complement of fighters for the next game.

Specialists are crew that you’ve hired specifically to help you on your adventures, and tend to be warriors of various types, not sailors – such as the Freebooter here. You can only have four specialists in your warband, so you have to think pretty carefully about which ones you take. Which do you value more, long ranged firepower, or staying power? Also, specialist crewman are not so easy to replace. To hire new specialists requires a trip back to the mainland, which is an expensive proposition.

Thankfully, whenever you lose a specialist, you can replace them with a standard crewman until such time as you can make the journey home

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In the last post, a couple of people asked about a creature list for Ghost Archipelago. While I'm flattered that people want to get ready to play the game in advance, I don't think it would be right for me to give out a creature list before North Star and Osprey Games have put the official figures up for sale. While I have, and continue, to encourage players to use whatever figures they want for the game, I think it is only right that the producers that directly support the game (and it's author) get the first chance to tempt you!

More notes in the next day or two.