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Entry tags:
Setting
Port Royal was a commercial shipping port in Jamaica, with its heyday in the mid to late 17th century. Somewhere around then is where we're setting things. It's the Caribbean in the height of the pirate era, and Port Royal was known as "the Wickedest City on Earth". Pirates from as far as Madagascar flocked to take shelter in its well protected harbor and take advantage of the booming slave and gold trades, along with other high demand goods. It was the most important merchant center in the western hemisphere at that time, and frequently came under attack by raids.
It's everything you saw in Pirates of the Caribbean and more-- a bustling city filled with taverns and the amoral, merchants and artisans, gorgeous white sand beaches and lush tropical forest along coastal cliffs, pirates battling privateers, tropical storms and a hint of the supernatural. The English are nominally in control, and try to keep a lid on things against both criminals and the Spanish, but have mixed success. The city is rife with political intrigue.
A period accurate map that you are free to ignore or use as you wish is available here. It is a peninsula covered in harbors, and heavily defended by resident military in the forts. The streets were probably frankly disgusting, with the poorer houses packed in together like sardine cans, only the occasional yard between them. This was extreme population density, and people lived elbow to elbow.
You are not limited to just the city in play! Have characters sail the high seas, own their own ships, take trips out across to Europe (though I don't envy them the months-long voyage). Go nuts.
For more historical information, there is the PotC wikia entry, the Port Royal Project, and of course Wikipedia. So how much are we using PotC and historical accuracy? As much as we feel like it.
Some pictoral references are listed below:
http://images.wikia.com/pirates/images/3/3f/Port_Royal_Edinburgh.jpg
http://www.chrisbourassa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/NewTown-Public-Docks-V1d.jpg
http://www.chrisbourassa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/PR_001a.jpg
http://www.chrisbourassa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/CB_ENV_001.jpg
http://nautarch.tamu.edu/portroyal/archives/images/newstreet2.jpg
It's everything you saw in Pirates of the Caribbean and more-- a bustling city filled with taverns and the amoral, merchants and artisans, gorgeous white sand beaches and lush tropical forest along coastal cliffs, pirates battling privateers, tropical storms and a hint of the supernatural. The English are nominally in control, and try to keep a lid on things against both criminals and the Spanish, but have mixed success. The city is rife with political intrigue.
A period accurate map that you are free to ignore or use as you wish is available here. It is a peninsula covered in harbors, and heavily defended by resident military in the forts. The streets were probably frankly disgusting, with the poorer houses packed in together like sardine cans, only the occasional yard between them. This was extreme population density, and people lived elbow to elbow.
You are not limited to just the city in play! Have characters sail the high seas, own their own ships, take trips out across to Europe (though I don't envy them the months-long voyage). Go nuts.
For more historical information, there is the PotC wikia entry, the Port Royal Project, and of course Wikipedia. So how much are we using PotC and historical accuracy? As much as we feel like it.
Some pictoral references are listed below:
http://images.wikia.com/pirates/images/3/3f/Port_Royal_Edinburgh.jpg
http://www.chrisbourassa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/NewTown-Public-Docks-V1d.jpg
http://www.chrisbourassa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/PR_001a.jpg
http://www.chrisbourassa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/CB_ENV_001.jpg
http://nautarch.tamu.edu/portroyal/archives/images/newstreet2.jpg
