A guide to creating ambiance at a Savage Tide table / games room.


Savage Tide Adventure Path


I am thinking of making the STAP sessions something of a unique social event for my gamers, especially in the first few sessions as I want to re-capture their imaginations and distance this new D&D campaign from the past gloomy gothic tone of our AOWAP.

Looking at some other threads I noticed a few people saying they are going to put on a buffet of Caribbean seafood dishes and things like that, I think it’s a wonderful idea and just have to jump on the bandwagon!

I would also like to come up with play aids, props and ideas for making the feel of this campaign very real for the players, perhaps turning up the heating (so they get the sweats) and serving a platter of fresh fruit, fish, crispy seaweed, tiger prawn kebabs, coconut rum and playing sea shanties, traditional Caribbean music and maybe one of those whale song, rainforest or ocean ‘new age’ CDs on a music player underneath the table would be cool too!

I could scatter some sea or clam shells about the table, a bit of old rope on the floor, a few bits of drift wood from the beach (luckily I don’t live that far away from one) and place my old fashioned mahogany chest in the corner of the room (leaving treasures like: chocolate gold coins and weathered hand-outs: detailing any items of treasure the players characters might find inside!)

I might even roughly draw out the Isle of Dread onto some A3 paper then tea/coffee stain it and burn tear the edges/crumple it up, then leave the map lying around folded up roughly and tossed absent mindedly (yet easily findable) for a player to stumble upon or find in a book!

Best thing of all this will only take an afternoon to do (could be quite fun) wont cost me anything (apart form the price of a few bargain bin CDs) and it will look like I’ve put absolutely heaps of hard work into everything!

What a thoughtful DM! ;)

While at the supermarket last week I noticed a particular Pirates of the Caribbean toy that could be of some use to us STAP fans. Basically, it was a small black felt bag with a skull and dagger motif stamped upon it in white (with some action figure or something like that inside it) however, I thought the little bags would be perfect for a STAP flavored dice bag! Very cheap at only four pounds (even less in dollars I’m guessing).
And! the little felt bags come in a variety of different colors and designs! I may purchase one for each player and then put a set of dice and some chocolate coins inside for each person.


I think those are some great ideas. I think I am going to have to use the sounds of the ocean in the background to add atmosphere. I think that this is a great way to quickly and strongly set the feel of the game, plus everyone enjoys a party with good food. I am looking forward to hearing what other people are interested in doing as for myself this is my current menu but it may be changed and tweaked.

Supaidaa's ST Menu:

Jerk chicken
Curried Rice
Baked Okra Etoufee
Callaloo
Homebrewed Ginger-root beer
Grog (Water, rum, sugar and lime)
and few other things yet to be determinded.

Cheers,
Supaidaa


I think those are cool ideas, except for turning up the heat and making the players sweat, which doesn't sound good to me. But then I'm not sure where you are located, but I'm in Miami, and I sweat enough in daily life just walking around so I like to do my roleplaying in a nice air conditioned environment. But Caribbean seafood snacks and pirate music sound good to me.


Pick up a cheap cutlass or sabre from an internet knife dealer...a lot of them sell decorative swords and stuff for less than $20 apiece. Get some gold poker chips or faux gold coins, go to Hobby Lobby and find some cheap treasure chest replicas, silk flower palm fronds, a stuffed parrot...eyepatches....go to a costume shop and pick up some pirate hats, striped shirts.....

Here's something interesting , if kinda pricey.....


R-type wrote:
I might even roughly draw out the Isle of Dread onto some A3 paper then tea/coffee stain it and burn tear the edges/crumple it up,

Try getting a brown paper bag from the super market. No need to tea stain. Just rip it to general size and sketch away.


zoroaster100 wrote:
I think those are cool ideas, except for turning up the heat and making the players sweat, which doesn't sound good to me. But then I'm not sure where you are located, but I'm in Miami, and I sweat enough in daily life just walking around so I like to do my roleplaying in a nice air conditioned environment. But Caribbean seafood snacks and pirate music sound good to me.

I'm in West Palm Beach-same problem with the sweating.

For our first game, I came out dressed like a pirate. Being a reenactor, I had plenty of authentic looking clothing. I got a cheesy looking eye pach and plastic sword(just for comic efect) form a party supply store, as well as, a couple of bags of plastic gold coins. Also, a bag of decorative glass beads at Wal-mart for gems .

This week everyone is heading to the party stores to grab some cheap pirate costume stuff(eccept our Sucubus who's been doing her best to dress like a hooker) and we've been tosing around food ideas. We have to be a little careful, we have two people with seafood allergies.


Sir Dave wrote:
We have to be a little careful, we have two people with seafood allergies.

Try poultry of some kind (chicken, turkey). These are easy to keep on ship, not to mention you get eggs as well. Preserved meats, like salami, were also popular on-ship as well.


Serve em rum. That should make them quite swaggery.

Scarab Sages

Smack 'em in the face with a squid!

Scarab Sages

Seriously though, all the above are good ideas. The tea-treatment for maps is always nice and adds flavor and as F2K said, Hobby Lobby (or Ben Franklin, or, worst case scenario, Michaels, or whatever you equivalent crafty person type store is) is your friend.

If you do Hero Points or anything like that, you could let the players draw them out of the treasure chest. At an online Mardi Gras store like - http://www.mardigrasoutlet.com you can get a few hundred 'generic gold coins' for under $10...


Lilith wrote:
Try poultry of some kind (chicken, turkey). These are easy to keep on ship, not to mention you get eggs as well. Preserved meats, like salami, were also popular on-ship as well.

Trivia, from the currently-unavailable "b-v-i.com" (cached by Google):

http://www.b-v-i.com/Dining/cuisine.htm wrote:
(T)he term buccaneer, a 17th century adventurer or sea robber, comes from the technique, called "boucan" (meaning barbecue), of curing meat by smoking it slowly over a fire, its French practitioners being called "boucaniers."

Goat was popular (or at least common -- many Caribbean islands were "seeded" with a handful of goats each, which then produced a self-sustaining population), though probably difficult to find in the U.S. Maybe the Exotic Meats store in Bellevue (WA).


Is the Succubus a good looking hooker re-enactor?

LOL

RPJ

Scarab Sages

Suddenly Bobby McFerrin's song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" invades my mind. I think I'll play that as the Stone rolls over their head on Parrot Island...


Thanks for the feedback!

I found a ceramic ‘pirate’ skull at a little shambles shop where I live and a ton of cheap (tacky) ornaments for a pittance this morning! There were things like skeleton-hand-candlesticks and fake glass pearls, gaudy fake jewels. I got a skull and a bag of the glass jewels, now I just have to find a place to stash all these ‘props’ so it’s a surprise for the first game.

I’ve also found that old rolls of plain ‘backing paper’ wallpaper makes for a great piece of parchment or scroll!

Thank you all for the food suggestions I might try my hand at a real Caribbean dish but feel like I should stick to something simple at first. One member of our group does indeed have a quite serious sea food allergy also so I must be careful! Making the grog sounds fun.

I would love to serve them something truly weird that sailors may have eaten at sea but fear the grub on ships back then may not be pleasing to my players’ picky palates.

Must remember to buy some citrus fruits so we don’t get scurvy!

Thanks again all!

Liberty's Edge

I had an old skull candle from the Disney "Pirates of the Carribean" ride which I hope to use. The top of the skull comes off and the candle is inside the skull which is very cool. I also have one of those fake "fire in a kettle" lights from Halloween that I intend to set out.

I found a cheap bottle of wine with a nicely shaped bottle and removed the label. I melted several candles down to give it that artificially aged/used look. I wouldn't recommend an open flame at the gaming table though.

And lastly, If you peel and carve a fresh apple in the shape of a skull or face and let it dry in the sunlight for several days it turns brown and wrinkled looking like a shrunken head with the skin still on. Creepy but short lived.


Halloween is coming (my favorite holiday!) and a great many interesting decor could be had for a STAP table.

The Exchange

Lilith wrote:
Halloween is coming (my favorite holiday!) and a great many interesting decor could be had for a STAP table.

Agreed, I have been trolling the Halloween themed stores for accessories every chance I get. I still need to hit a party store for some plastic "gold" coins and I need to find a chest (or get off my arse and make one).

FH
P.S. A 1" wooden closet rod 3'-4' long drill a 3/8" hole in the end, insert a 3'-4' long 3/8" wood dowel rod and make a barbed tip out of cardboard or aluminum foil. Paint it and you have a Harpoon to prop up in the corner. Throw a decorative fishing net over it and some plastic starfish and *Poof*. Instant ambiance. And next week on "Fake Carpentry" we will tackle how to suspend a live Octopus tank above your game table. Stay tuned.

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