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I guess I’m a videogame developer now, too
I found a video which talks you through making a videogame in PyGame (that’s another Python library, like PySpark). Massive thanks to the author for making a really good tutorial, that’s really easy to follow.
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
A backend database developer takes a work Python course, then runs with it — building two free games from scratch: Meteor Blast (a top-down shooter with custom pixel art and powerups) and P0N6 FL1P! (a cooperative Pong twist where you work with the AI to keep a rally going). Both are available on GitHub.
Introduction
Hey folks, how’re you doing? I’m gonna go right on and pretend you answered: “Good thanks”, great to hear it. Bit of an unusual one for you today: So, I’m a backend database developer by trade, right? And if you know anything about the industry, you’ll know it’s moving in the direction of cloud computing and PySpark.
Which is all well and good, but I found myself with a rapidly aging skillset - cranking out SQL scripts triggered by BASH. So when the opportunity came up at work to do a week long crash course in Python - I thought: “yeah why not, sounds good”.
I made a thing!
After I finished the Python course I wanted to consolodate my learning. For you guys at the back, that’s just a business jargon way of saying that I wanted to put my learning into practice before I forgot it! So I found this video on youtube by Clear Code which talks you through making a videogame in PyGame (that’s another Python library, like PySpark). Massive thanks to the author for making a really good video, that’s really easy to follow.
I ended up finishing his first Pygame tutorial/project which brings you to a point where you’ve got a barebones engine for a top down, 2d meteor shooting game. Then I went a bit nuts, I replaced all the stock art with pixel GFX that appeals to me (AI gen, or derived from AI gen), added particle explosions, a splash screen, an animated background, powerups, and a persistant leaderboard. The end product is something I’m pretty proud of:
So, I made another thing!
I wanted to follow Meteor Blast up with something that I could make without such a heavy reliance on tutorials or other external resources (I still used them ofc, but less so) so I decided to remake the classic game, Pong.
About halfway through making Pong, I decided that it was an interesting tech flex, but an awful game. The issue is that the AI paddle is so dumb that beating it takes a couple of seconds at most. That’s when it hit me - what if the objective wasn’t to beat the AI, but rather it was to work with it to keep a rally going for as long as possible?
P0N6 FL1P! was born! Like Pong, but way better, and with powerups!
Conclusion
So that’s what I’ve been up to lately, and I’m hoping that I’ve got another bun in the oven too - I’ll post about that if and when it happens, so no promises.
If you’d like to play either of my games, they’re available for free (Meteor Blast & P0N6 FL1P!) from my Github as executable files (Windows and Linux only I’m afraid, Linux users like me will need to “chmod +x” the file once it’s downloaded before it runs). I’m still finding the odd bug on them too, so if you find one, drop me a comment below to let me know.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running! If you’ve still got some time to kill, Perhaps I can persuade you to click through below to another one of my other posts?
Catch you laters, alligators.
Better World building At The Table Is Easy - Quinn’s Quest Reviews Stonetop
Quinn's Quest season two covered Stonetop, a fantasy TTRPG that tackles the classic lore-gap problem where GMs know everything and players know nothing by baking collaborative world-building directly into its rules. Rather than slowly feeding players lore over many sessions, it prompts them to co-invent the world as they play. Nifty like a fox.
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
Quinn's Quest season two covered Stonetop, a fantasy TTRPG that tackles the classic lore-gap problem where GMs know everything and players know nothing by baking collaborative world-building directly into its rules. Rather than slowly feeding players lore over many sessions, it prompts them to co-invent the world as they play. Nifty like a fox.
The Juice
Sad times, Quinn's Quest season two has just wrapped up and now I've got to wait even longer than the amount of time between his regular episodes before season three is released, piecemeal.
Anyway, this episode's review was for a game called Stonetop. I'd never heard of it before and the impression that I got was that it was in the vein of a classic fantasy OSR game. That's fine, I have enough of those already, but if it weren't for the hefty price tag, I'd have probably picked it up for the sake of doing a review here.
What did catch my attention though was a section where Quinns talked about how a classic failing of fantasy TTRPGs plays out: the GM reads a book consisting of hundreds of pages worth of lore and, ideally, knows the world inside and out. The players however do not, and yet they're the people expected to make interesting decisions about how their characters would behave. This creates an awkward dissonance.
Quinns went on to say that this is typically resolved over the course of many many sessions whereby the players' cups are gradually filled with GM-fed lore snippets to the extent that they have a competent grasp of the in-game universe. But this takes time, and is therefore an imperfect solution.
It seems that Stonetop has a special design philosophy to address this though. Within its lorebook, for each area Stonetop presents the GM with some questions to ask of the players about the thing that they're experiencing. This of course is not a new idea, but rarely have I seen it put so overtly and baked into the rules.
For instance, one striking feature is that when players run out of hit points, they're told that they see a magical doorway, and beyond – the Lady of Crows. The player is then asked to describe exactly what they see – thus co-inventing some of the game lore about the afterworld alongside the GM. This idea extends to everything, from locations, to NPCs and monsters, and crucially, the lorebook itself provides GMs with these question prompts – no need to rack your tired brain to come up with an interesting turn of phrase in the moment!
There's something genuinely refreshing about a game that treats lore not as a fixed canon to be downloaded into players' heads, but as something to be discovered and shaped collaboratively at the table. It sidesteps the usual slow drip of world-building entirely, and replaces it with something more immediate and personal. When your character glimpses the afterlife and you get to decide what it looks like, you’re also helping to build the world and getting a stake in it from an angle you don’t normally get to see. That's a powerful thing to put in the hands of players, and I'd love to see more games take a leaf out of Stonetop's book.
Conclusion
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running! If you’ve still got some time to kill, Perhaps I can persuade you to click through below to another one of my other posts?
Oh yeah, and if yoiu enjoy Quinn’s Quest as much as me, why not join his Patreon?
Catch you laters, alligators.
Who Was Woodes Rogers? Pirate Borg World Building
To understand Woodes Rogers is to recognise two distinct chapters of his life which without a doubt go on to change the course of history for Caribbean piracy. Since Rogers must play a pivotal part in my Pirate Borg campaign - as with Blackbeard, we’ll start with his relevant real history up until 1719 where my campaign picks up.
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
Woodes Rogers was a Bristol merchant captain turned privateer who circumnavigated the globe, captured a Manila galleon, and still ended up bankrupt and imprisoned. He later reinvented himself as Governor of the Bahamas, using pardons and force to dismantle the Pirate Republic at Nassau. By 1719, he had restored British control, but a handful of dangerous pirates still remained.
Introduction
To understand Woodes Rogers is to recognise two distinct chapters of his life which without a doubt go on to change the course of history for Caribbean piracy. Since Rogers must play a pivotal part in my Pirate Borg campaign - as with Blackbeard, we’ll start with his relevant real history up until 1719 where my campaign picks up.
Early Life
Rogers was born in 1679 in England, to a Bristol mercantile family positioned comfortably at the upper end of the middle-class. His Father, Woods (Not “Woodes”!) Rogers Snr, was a merchant sea captain. Growing up in a major Atlantic port, Rogers Jnr likely gained his seamanship through apprenticeships aboard trading vessels.
Then, when Rogers Snr died he left his ships and business to his son, this gave him a privileged foundation upon which to forge his own career as a merchant captain in the Caribbean in the early 1700s.
Also, as an aside, you might remember Blackbeard being from Bristol too. It is speculated that Thatch and Rogers may have been previously acquainted, which would indeed make for a nice twist, as their stories cross over again in 1717.
Privateering In The Pacific
In 1701 when the War of Spanish succession broke out among the European powers, governments would often issue “letters of marque” to sea captains, permitting them to engage in legal acts of piracy against the Kings enemies and keep a very substantial portion the profits. This activity was known as “privateering”.
For the young Rogers, when he was approached by the legendary explorer William Dampier in 1707 with a proposition to go privateering in the South American Pacific against the Spanish in search of a Manila galleon, the offer proved too tempting by far. And so financed by the high and mighty of the Bristol community such as Thomas Goldney II and Thomas Dover, Rogers would depart Bristol on the 1st August 1708 on a 3 year expedition, accompanied by Dampier acting as his Sailing Master on board the frigate; Duke, and it’s sister ship, the Duchess.
The journey had a mix of highs and lows for Rogers. In February 1709, the Duke spotted a campfire on Juan Fernández Island off the South West American coast which lead to the rescue of Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk would join them on their expedition as a valued seaman and his rescue became the inspiration for the story Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. These events would go on to make Rogers famous upon his return to England.
Some smaller skirmishes then happen for a few months with varying success until mid December 1709, with his crew near mutiny after disease, deaths (including his younger brother Thomas) and losses to capture, Rogers finally sighted the Manila galleon; Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y Desengaño off the coast of Cabo San Lucas. The Desengaño was a transport ship running between Mexico and the Philippines, caught unprepared for battle with her big guns stowed in the hold.
Worth roughly £150,000 - £200,000 at the time (tens of millions today) this was too much of an opportunity to refuse. As dawn broke the combat was brief, after rounds of returned volleys, and a full broadside from the Duke, the death count stood at 9 on the British side vs. 20 amongst the Spanish. The most severe wound was probably inflicted against Woodes himself, taking a musket ball to the face - shattering his jawbone, which he then (allegedly) accidentally swallowed! Nonetheless victorious, Rogers placed the Desengaño (renamed the Bachelor) under the command of Thomas Dover (It would seem that Rogers collected men called Thomas like I collect Pirate Lego…) with Alexander Selkirk as Master of Sail.
A few days later as expected, the far larger galleon; Begoña arrived on the scene. With Rogers injured, his council of ships elects to tackle this second ship without the Duke and though initially staying back, the Duke soon joins in regardless. However, it was too late, they were beaten off and forced to make a retreat. One of Rogers’ commanders would later remark that ‘with the Begoña’s near impenetrable hull, it was more like they were attacking a castle than a ship’. Counting up the tally - Rogers took a further painful injury to his foot, the Duchess lost 20 men, and the Duke; a full store of ammunition. The expedition limped away.
You Could Have At Least Bought Me Dinner First
On his way home, severely wounded, low on supplies and generally not in a great place, Rogers stopped off at the Dutch port of Batavia in what is now Indonesia to have a musket ball surgically removed from the roof of his mouth, to top up on supplies, and to sell off one of the lesser prize ships in his small fleet; the Increase, to make the return journey simpler.
Unfortunately, from an English legal perspective, this area was under the lawful monopoly of the East India Company (EIC), and Rogers’ unapproved independent trading activity there constituted a major no-no. Any non-essential trade undertaken by Rogers opens him up to the EIC having a legal claim to all the proceeds from his voyage.
When he finally docked back in England on 14th October 1711, a combination of paying compensation to the EIC, paying off his loan plus interest to his Bristol backers, the Crown taking its cut, and finally losing a lawsuit brought about by his crew over unpaid shares, Rogers was only left with about £1,600 in proceeds from the venture (Roughly £300,000 today).
This was both significantly less than he would have made had he simply remained a merchant captain, and more importantly, not enough to pay the cost of his business and private debts incurred whilst he was away. As a result, “National Hero”; Woodes Rogers, ‘the legend who successfully circumnavigated the globe’ was declared bankrupt and briefly imprisoned for not paying his debts… and a year later to add insult to injury his wife left him after their fourth son died in infancy.
What should have been a glorious, if not bittersweet swan song for Rogers was turned into a nightmarish betrayal at the hands of accountants and lawyers.
Divide & Conquer
Alright, alright - I’m getting to the Golden Age of Piracy now. Calm thee sen down! I just wanted to make sure that you understood Rogers’ position. He’s financially taken a massive hit, and frankly, life has kicked him hard in the happy place - but he’s gained a strong national reputation as a man who can deliver, and as a proven sea commander.
In The Republic of Pirates, Colin Woodard describes Rogers as “courageous, selfless, and surprisingly patriotic [and as a man who would empty] his pockets in support of projects he believed would further the public good”. This is perhaps the reason that despite the hardship that befell him at the hands of the English system and life itself, he would restore his standing and fortune with a plan to rid the Caribbean of pirates on behalf of King and country.
Using his considerable fame, influence, and network, Rogers petitions parliament for an opportunity to reestablish the English colony of the Bahamas, placing himself as governor and being granted a share of any profits in exchange for ending the pirate republic at Nassau and reestablishing the fort and garrison to secure the port from the Spanish.
To say that the method he proposes for this raises some eyebrows in court would be an understatement. Rogers wants King George to offer a pardon to all and any pirates in Caribbean. He knows that this will split the pirate community and that any pirates who remain will be severely weakened by their drop in numbers.
It’s approved. Seven ships, 100 soldiers, 130 colonists, a stack of King’s Pardons, supplies, religious pamphlets, three Royal Navy escort vessels and of course - the newly appointed governor of the Bahamas; Woodes Rogers all set sail from England on 22nd April 1718 for the Caribbean.
The Pirates of Nassau had months of warning prior to Rogers turning up, indeed many had already decided which way they were going to land on the matter, and two distinct factions appeared. On one hand, those who sided with Benjamin Hornigold favoured honestly accepting the pardon - having only turned to piracy out of desperation in the first place, whereas those aligned with Charles Vane’s fundamentalist vision of being free men and women preferred to either reject the pardon outright, or accept it dishonestly, and return to a life of piracy as soon as was convenient. In this regard, even though he had not even arrived at the Caribbean yet, Rogers’ plan to split the pirates was already coming to fruition.
Why Nassau Mattered
At the height of the Golden Age of Piracy, Nassau was the closest thing pirates had to a capital. With no strong government, a sheltered harbour, and access to major shipping lanes, it became a haven where pirates could repair ships, recruit crews, and spend their plunder freely.
Whoever controlled this port effectively controlled whether piracy in the Caribbean could thrive or be strangled.
Governor Of The Bahamas
On the 24th July 1718 Woodes Rogers in the Delicia and his company of vessels sailed into the region of Nassau. The Captain of the Rose, Thomas (ofcourse!) Whitney was sent to recon the harbour. There he met a warning shot from one Captain Charles Vane in a captured French Brigantine. Whitney deployed a flag of parley, and approached Vane with some trepidation to demand why he had fired upon His Majesties ships.
Vane’s response was a letter to be delivered to Woodes Rogers, in which he threatened to violently defend himself, unless the King’s Pardon also came with a guarantee that Vane’s ill-gotten gains would not be seized, and that his attempts to fence them off would not be interfered with.
In truth, Vane was only buying time. He was effectively trapped in Nassau’s harbour with his French brig and his loot, and he needed to formulate a plan to escape. At 2am on the morning of the 25th July 1718 Captain Vane’s French Brig was launched towards the English ships blockading the harbour, fully aflame, cannons double-loaded. As the last pirates on board jumped over the side, the Royal Navy was in full panic, crew were being scrambled, anchors hauled, and sails loosed. The Navy ships under Rogers broke ranks to avoid what was essentially a floating bomb making its steady way towards them.
Free to make rapid preparations for departure, Captain Vane was greatly amused several hours later as the Navy returned just in time to witness his escape alongside his crew of some 90 men, and booty in a nimble sloop (according to Colin Woodard) called the Katherine - slipping directly through their fingers.
Despite the escape, Nassau was lost. Rogers took control of the island, repaired the fort, and re-established it as a British military outpost. Pardons were issued. Some, like Benjamin Hornigold, accepted and even turned pirate hunter in service of the Crown.
By 1719, the Pirate Republic was finished, but piracy itself was not.
A handful of key figures still remained at large:
The defiant and unrepentant Charles Vane
A newly risen, and already unstable Calico Jack Rackham
The soon to become infamous Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Woodes Rogers Timeline
1679 | Born in Bristol, son of a merchant captain
Early 1700s | Inherits family business, becomes merchant captain operating out of Caribbean
Aug 1708 | Departs Bristol with William Dampier on privateering excursion, circumnavigating the globe to the Pacific South America to capture a Manila galleon
Feb 1709 | Rescues Alexander Selkirk from Juan Fernández Island. Inspires story of Robinson Crusoe
Dec 1709 | Captures Manila galleon; The Desengaño worth £200,000. Severely injured in battle via gunshot to the face
Dec 1709 | Retreats from combat against Manila galleon; The Begoña and decides to return home
1710 | Makes port at Batavia for facial surgery, and to sell ‘the Increase’ in affront to the monopoly of the East India Company
Oct 1711 | Docks at the Thames, London, England. Is quickly faced with legal disputes, robbing him of the proceeds from his privateering excursion.
1712 - 1713 | Imprisoned for debts, and released
1717 | Makes plans to restore control of Nassau from the grip of the Pirate Republic by issuing King’s Pardons
Apr 1718 | Sets sail for Nassau with retinue of Naval warships and transports
Jul 1718 | Arrives in Nassau, allows Charles Vane to escape, but brings many pirates to heel including Benjamin Hornigold
1719 | Restores fort and garrison at Nassau
Conclusion
For my Pirate Borg campaign, Rogers represents order clawing its way back into a lawless sea, backed by merchants, soldiers, and the Crown. But his victory is incomplete. The pirates who remain are more desperate, more dangerous, and with fewer places left to run.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running! If you’ve still got some time to kill, Perhaps I can persuade you to click through below to another one of my other posts?
Catch you laters, alligators.
Pirate Borg Factions - Blackbeard And The Scourge
Drawn by instinct deeper than memory, the corpse made its way toward Chesapeake Bay to reclaim what had been severed from it. When Blackbeard stood whole once more, something happened. Unlike the rest of the Scourge, he retained his will.
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
An ancient Abyss awakens the drowned dead of the Caribbean. Blackbeard rises with his will intact, commands the Scourge, and sets out to break the English, control the ASH trade, and crown himself king of the Dark Caribbean.
Introduction
Ahoy. Did you catch my post the other week about the real history of Blackbeard? I said that I’d follow up with how I’ve built upon that real history to bake Blackbeard into the fantasy lore of Pirate Borg’s Dark Caribbean setting.
Well, this is gonna be just that, so buckle down your flintlocks and secure your cutlasses. Let’s goooo.
In The Beginning
I can’t jump straight to Blackbeard without first setting the stage. Much of my lore builds directly on the official History of the Dark Caribbean from the Pirate Borg Core Rules (p.25), with my campaign beginning in “Chapter 5,” where “Blackbeard, a sorcerer, returns from the grave with an army of the dead.”
But before those events and before the timeline in the book even begins, there are a few crucial pieces of history to establish.
Pre-History
Deep beneath the Caribbean Sea lies a cosmic scar. Gods only know how long it had been there or from whence it came. It’s a rift in reality that opens into an Abyssal existence beyond mortal comprehension. Madness made geography.
In ages long forgotten, proto-Mesoan peoples encountered this rift. In attempting to understand the madness and magic emanating from it, many souls lost their sanity. Those who studied and survived came to recognise the malign intent of the forces within.
Using rituals uncovered in their desperate search for meaning, they sealed the rift and constructed an aquatic city upon it — a living capstone over the wound. That city would become Atlantis, deep in the heart of what is today known as the Bermuda Triangle.
In time, the ancient Atlantean people fractured. The splitting branch, known as the Doradians, abandoned their watery city and journeyed to the mainland Yucatán, seeking distance from the source of their horrific dreams. There, their advanced culture endured in an altered form focused around a golden city.
Recently
Against the backdrop of the Greater Antilles War (The Caribbean theatre of the War of Spanish Succession 1701 - 1714), Cultists of the Wretched (disciples of the entity that dwells within the Abyss) dispatch an agent to the jungles of the Yucatán.
Among the ruins of the ancient Doradian culture, that agent became The Sunken One, and completed a ritual to relocate the Abyssal gateway - wrenching it free from the restraining powers of Atlantis and transferring the wound to the oceanic region South of Cuba.
The Abyss was no longer sealed. The resulting upheaval shattered the region, releasing unnatural magics in its wake. Port Royal was destroyed in the resulting earthquake.
Unintended Consequences
The Sunken One did not foresee what would follow: The Abyss is not a wound that can be exposed without consequence. When torn free from the ancient restraints of Atlantis, its corruption bled outward into the sea and to the sky alike, and the ocean began to remember its dead.
Sailors lost to storm and cannon, slaves thrown overboard, mutineers sunk in chains, entire crews swallowed by hurricane. The Caribbean now returns them all. These risen corpses became known as The Scourge, they aren’t clever or strategic, merely repeating the last violent patterns of their lives: boarding, burning, hunting, killing. They are driven by a rage which they cannot put words to.
But the Abyss does not act within boundaries. It did not take long for the corruption to reach the waters off Ocracoke Island. There, in the shallows where his body had been cast aside, one Edward Teach rose again.
Drawn by instinct deeper than memory, the corpse made its way toward Chesapeake Bay to reclaim what had been severed from it. When Blackbeard stood whole once more, something happened. Unlike the rest of the Scourge, he retained his will.
Whether this was design, accident, or selection, none can say. But the mindless dead began to gather to him. Ships crewed by the drowned altered course. The Queen Anne’s Revenge, more terrible than ever, returned. Silent decks turned toward his black flag.
The Scourge had found a king, Blackbeard found his armada, and the Caribbean found its Harbinger.
The Scourge As A Faction
I follow the Cairn 2nd ed school of thought for how to run sandbox factions. See this video by LowKeyTTRPG for more information about how that mechanically works - but in essence, you take a “faction turn” (roll some dice) between game sessions. Factions should have goals that the players can feel the affects of and their success in terms of their goals should be a product of the resources they have available to them vs the obstacles in their path.
If we look at Blackbeard’s real history it stands to reason that he’d be motivated by revenge, and a lust for power and reputation. With that in mind I’ve got three goals for the scourge under Blackbeard:
1) Break The English in the Caribbean
Humiliate and cripple the English authority at sea.
Resources
Queen Anne’s Revenge.
Undead crews and ghost ships.
Fear and reputation.
Notable impacts as goals completed
Major English ports fall into chaos (martial law, burned docks, naval retreat).
English Naval presence reduces.
Obstacles
Royal Navy patrols.
Pirate captains unwilling to fight England directly.
English spies inside pirate ports.
2) Control the ASH trade
Weaponise ASH as leverage and corruption tool.
Resources
Unending ASH Reserves.
Contact with Governor Claude Barlette.
Smuggler Networks from his old life.
Notable impacts as goals completed
ASH price doubles.
Obstacles
Pirates!
3) Crown himself king of the Dark Caribbean
Resources
Undead Crews.
Fear & Reputation.
Abyssal Necromancy.
Notable impacts as goals completed
Nassau-style pirate councils dissolve or are slaughtered.
Pirate captains must swear loyalty or be hunted.
Obstacles
Charismatic rival captains.
Internal dissent from living allies.
Conclusion
Let me know in the comments if you want me to do a real history and lore for any of the other factions!
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running! If you’ve still got some time to kill, Perhaps I can persuade you to click through below to another one of my other posts?
Catch you laters, alligators.
Who Was Blackbeard? Pirate Borg World Building
I’ve bit the bullet and and I’ve agreed to run a couple of one shots for Pirate Borg. One’s for my regular group, and the other is a group of people I met in a local online community. This is all well and good, but it got me thinking more about Pirate Borg lore.
By JimmiWazEre
Avast, ye scurvy opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
Blackbeard’s career lasted barely two years, but in that time he captured a slave ship, blockaded Charleston, outplayed governors, accepted a royal pardon, and died in a last stand at Ocracoke.
Introduction
I’ve bitten the bullet and and I’ve agreed to run a couple of one shots for Pirate Borg. One’s for my regular group, and the other is a group of people I met in a local online community. This is all well and good, but it got me thinking more about Pirate Borg lore.
Not a problem, when it comes to thinking about things - pirates are definitely up there for me as hot property.
So in this post I’m going to cover the known real history of Blackbeard, complete with some reasonable assumptions. Next time, I’ll take that timeline and append my Pirate Borg nonsense to it so you can see how this all fits in with the Dark Caribbean setting.
Enjoy.
The Real History of Blackbeard
Surprisingly, there’s not actually much known about the life of Blackbeard, and much of his early life is genuinely unknown, whilst that which is well documented only covers his brief but legendary career during the golden age of piracy.
Early, And Somewhat Sketchy ‘Facts’
Real Name
The first question we have to ask is who actually was this dude? Well, based on surviving legal documents, maritime reports, and inter-colony correspondences; Blackbeard’s actual name was Edward Thatch. Or maybe Edward Teach. (Or maybe Barry).
Hang on Jimmi, we’ve only just started - why are we uncertain already? Well chum, because we don’t actually have any recorded signature from Blackbeard, and all the records are from some third party writing about him, and he didn’t exactly go around the place signing up for membership cards and leaving a nice first hand paper trail for us. Rather, he’d have introduced himself verbally. Probably whilst on the deck of a ship on a windy day with some juicily broad South Western British accent, delivered to people who were far too terrified to be paying too much attention to detail.
Under those circumstances it’d be easy for someone to mishear his name. Not to mention that the common sailors he’d have been talking to were unlikely to speak English fluently, or be literate. And then even, the semi literate ones who did hear his name correctly, and could understand him - there’s every chance that they wrote his name out phonetically, and spelled it wrong, or that the reporting Clerks did so later on after hearing weeks old verbal accounts.
And it gets even more unreliable, I’m afraid. Typically Pirates don’t give away their real names because they didn’t want to bring trouble for Mummy and Daddy Blackbeard back at home. So both Thatch and Teach - it’s entirely possible that Blackbeard used them both as aliases, and maybe his real name was Barry. But - I don’t like that. It’s a dead end. So to sound informed, I’ll just acknowledge that it’s a possibility, and then move forward with the historical best guesses. ‘Blackbeard’ was already his alias, and it was cooler than a penguin’s arse - he didn’t need any more.
Place of Birth
In a 1724 book called “A General History of the Pyrates” is published by someone calling themselves ‘Captain Charles Johnson’. Alas, this was a pen name, and the real author’s name is again, hotly debated. Anyway, the book profiles various 18th century pirates, including Blackbeard, and it names him as being from the major Atlantic port town of Bristol, UK. If we skip forwards to today, historians have found records of the surname “Thatch” appearing in British parish records around 1680. “Teach” is nowhere to be seen.
This all fits: the name, and a link to a maritime location. Then the date; circa 1680 puts him around his thirties and forties which is reasonable. I’m happy so far.
Pre-Piracy Career
This part is almost entirely speculative. You see, Blackbeard was renowned as a skilled pirate. That’s a command of sailing, of combat, and psychological intimidation. It therefore makes sense that he picked these skills up somewhere in advance of his piracy career, and the most obvious place to do so would have been through operating as a Caribbean privateer in the era 1701 - 1714.
Privateers were seamen operating with the explicit written permission of the state to do pirate things, as long as they were only acting against the state’s enemies. At this time, that was the Spanish and the French as a result of the War of Spanish Succession.
Interestingly though, we’ve got two ingredients for our next piece of educated speculation. The first: Blackbeard was a skilled pirate - as above, and the second: “Edward Thatch/Teach” is not mentioned in any records as being a captain on any privateering expedition. If he was a captain, he absolutely would have been mentioned because these are official letters of marque.
Logically then, if we accept that he indeed gained his seamanship experience as a privateer sometime between 1701 and 1714 - that then likely places him as mid-tier crew. Senior enough to get command and tactical experience, but not senior enough for anyone to write his name down.
It’s Piracy Time!
Mentorship under Benjamin Hornigold
In 1716, A General History of Pyrates places Blackbeard in the ex-British port town of Nassau, New Providence (our first real solid historical record of Mr. B.Beard actually). There he serves under the legendary pirate captain; Benjamin Hornigold who obviously sees enough in him to eventually bequeath him command of a small sloop by the start of 1717.
The name of the sloop is lost to history, and Blackbeard’s role as captain here is still subordinate to Hornigold, whom you might consider to be a pirate admiral at this stage. However, the partnership was fruitful and they captured ships off Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Bahamas trade routes.
Given he was in command of a sloop, we can deduce that Blackbeard’s role in these escapades was to utilise the speed of his vessel for intercepting lightly armed ships and taking shock-style boarding actions rather than trading broadside cannon fire. An active raider, if you like - rather than a commanding overseer.
Glorious Piratey Independence
By mid 1717 however, Hornigold is starting to lose the confidence of his crew. You see, Hornigold would describe himself as a British patriot, and as such, refused to engage against British vessels. His crew though, they were distinctly less picky and eager to crack on, and this friction was starting to show. In fact Hornigold’s waning authority might have been a key factor in Blackbeard’s bold move that came next. In November 1717 Blackbeard (still in his sloop, but probably with additional ships in tow) intercepted a large French slave ship off the coast of Martinique called La Concorde.
Now, La Concorde was chonky my dudes. ‘Baby got back’. 200+ tons of it in fact, and built for Atlantic crossings. Indeed, on this occasion it was at the tail end of such a voyage and was carrying West African slaves to Martinique. It was heavily crewed, but was by no means a ship kitted out for war.
According to French reports, the crew was already weakened by dysentery and fever and were probably very much looking forward to making port soon. That’s when Blackbeard took chase. With his nimbler sloop he was able to close the distance rapidly.
There ensued a brief engagement which involved limited cannon fire and musket volleys. La Concorde was not heavily armed at all, and the reports indicate that the French Captain, Pierre Dosset surrendered quickly, which is a testament to Blackbeard’s famously intimidating tactics.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge
Alrighty - now we’re cooking! Blackbeard claimed La Concorde for himself, and fitted it out with forty cannon to make it one of the beefiest pirate ships of the era. This thing was a major escalation in power projection for him, and enabled him to take on larger merchant vessels.
He chose to rename La Concorde to Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), and as is sadly typical by now - we don’t have concrete proof as to why. Though we can infer it; Queen Anne was the British Monarch from 1702 - 1714, and her reign ending coincided with the end of privateering work which was something of a sore spot for many pirates, as it fundamentally took their jobs away and forced them into true crime. It’s likely that the name ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’ was both a nostalgic nod to those privateering years and likely an ‘up yours’ to King George the 1st, the first British monarch from the controversial house of Hanover.
Needless to say, we’ve entered the period now where Blackbeard is gaining fame and fortune, using his pirate armada to terrorise the Caribbean seas. Tactically speaking, Blackbeard wasn’t known to be gratuitously murderous, but rather he carefully cultivated an image and reputation of terror. Preferring his prey to voluntarily give up without a fight out of sheer terror, than to put himself at unnecessary risk. Having a massive ship that everyone’s scared of certainly helps in that regard!
Peak Piracy
The Charleston Blockade
On 22nd May 1718 Blackbeard pulls off his most daring move to date. Aware that there’s no navy presence in the vicinity, Blackbeard takes the QAR alongside 3 other ships and probably more than 200 men, and parks them outside the harbour at Charleston, South Carolina. Over the next week he proceeds to capture around 10 vessels, and stop all incoming and outgoing traffic. The ships he caught were stripped of all valuables, including prominent passengers such as members of the provincial council, and well connected colonists.
He then issues a demand to Governor Robert Johnson. Not for gold, not for crew, weapons, or more ships. No, Blackbeard demands a chest of medical supplies. You see the Caribbean in the 18th century was a hotbed of disease, and nowhere more so than the tight confines of a boat - dysentery, syphilis, fever, all manner of tropical diseases and Blackbeard is not immune to this.
Unfortunately for Johnson, he’s got no real choice but to comply - the blockade is causing severe economic damage and political embarrassment. Isolated, and with the British Navy stretched too thin, he’s in no position to address the situation militarily. Consequently, the demands are met and the chest is dispatched. Blackbeard disburdens them of their valuables, then releases the last of his hostages and peacefully sails away having metaphorically pulled Johnson’s pants down, and blown a raspberry at him for all to see.
The End Times
The King’s Pardon
Not long after Charleston, in June 1718 at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina - Blackbeard heads to shore to careen his ships. Unfortunately, or maybe intentionally, he manages to run both QAR and one of his support sloops called The Adventure aground against a sandbar.
The incident is fatal to QAR, the main sail is cracked, and many timbers are shattered. In response, he transfers all valuables onto a smaller vessel and leaves the scene - abandoning both the wreckage and a large proportion of his crew behind.
There is some debate about whether this was intentional. Whilst blockading Charleston, Blackbeard learns that the British have dispatched a fleet of man-o-war led by Woodes Rogers to deal with the pirate problem in the Caribbean, and not only does the QAR draw unwanted attention, it’s no match for the might of the British Navy. In addition to this, evidence suggests that the QAR was severely damaged prior to the grounding, and in combination with having a massive crew to upkeep and share spoils with, Blackbeard may have decided it was best to kill two birds with one stone and simply abandon them.
Whatever the cause of the grounding, not long after and having heard that the King’s Pardon was being offered to all pirates who surrendered before the 5th September 1718, Blackbeard and his collaborator Stede Bonnet decide that this is probably a good time to bow out. Of course, Bonnet is sent first alone to North Carolina’s Governor Charles Eden, so that Blackbeard can be satisfied that the offer is genuine!
Indeed it is, and both pirates take the King’s Pardon and vow to end their piratical ways. And Blackbeard does, for a couple of months at least. He settled in a town called Bath, and generally plodded around the place for July and August, before Governor Eden presented Blackbeard with a letter of marque granting him the right to take up privateering again in his remaining sloop; Adventure. Shortly after that, temptation must have proved too great as Blackbeard is right back at it.
Death At Ocracoke
The Governor of Virginia is a fellow called Alexander Spotswood, and he is most dischuffed that Governor Eden has granted Blackbeard his pardon, believing that the freebooter is taking liberties. Indeed, this dischuffedness is further compounded when he learns that Blackbeard has moored up off Ocracoke island, North Carolina and taken to partying with well known pirates such as Charles Vane with absolute impunity.
Spotswood decides to take matters into his own hands, and personally finances two sloops (Jane and Ranger) lead by Lieutenant Robert Maynard to bring Blackbeard to justice. They find him anchored on the inner side of Ocracoke, only 25 men carousing aboard the Adventure and decide to remain hidden, waiting until morning when they could take advantage of the pirates inevitable hungover state, and better navigate the shallows in the daylight.
At daybreak on 22nd November 1718, Maynard struck! Not for nought though was Blackbeard the most reputed pirate of his time, and after a devastating broadside from the Adventure, Maynard had lost a third of his forces.
Now, in poker there’s a phrase “You have to play the hand you’re dealt” and Maynard did this brilliantly here. He orders his remaining men to split, a handful remain with him up top and the remainder hide below deck to give Blackbeard the impression that there’s few remaining. The pirate takes the bait! He boards the Jane and engages against Maynard’s visible crew in hand to hand combat. At this time, the hidden crew below deck burst forwards and surround Blackbeard’s men, and a bloody battle ensues.
It is reported that Blackbeard took 20 cuts from bladed weapons, and 5 wounds from small arms fire before he eventually fell. Maybe he felt that he needed to make sure then, as Maynard decapitated his corpse and cast Blackbeard’s headless body into the sea. The head was then strung up on display as he made sail back to Virginia where it then found a new home atop a pike at Chesapeake Bay to act as a warning to other pirates.
Sometime later it was removed, and history has forgotten where it ended up.
Blackbeard Timeline
circa 1680 | Born in Bristol as Edward Thatch
circa 1701-1714 | Suspected Caribbean privateering
Late 1716 | First recorded piracy as mentee under Benjamin Hornigold
Nov 1717 | Captures La Concorde and renames her Queen Anne’s Revenge
1717 - 1718 | Generally kicks ass and takes names
May 1718 | Blockade at Charleston
Jun 1718 | Loses Queen Anne’s Revenge running aground at Beaufort inlet
Mid 1718 | Accepts Kings Pardon from Governor Eden
Jul - Aug 1718 | Plans return to piracy
Nov 1718 | Slain at Ocracoke Island by Robert Maynard
Conclusion
What a dude! It’s amazing how he became the world’s most famous pirate, even to this day whilst only really operating for about two years. If any of you are history buffs, feel free to comment below anything you think that I’ve missed or got wrong. I promise I’ll read them all.
Also whilst I’ve got you, I want to apologise for the delay in posts at the minute. My laptop broke in January and I’m battling the retailer to accept responsibility for it, so I’m sharing a PC with Mrs. WazEre. Additionally, I’ve managed to pick up a nasty disease which has knocked me out a bit. But all’s being well, I’m hoping to compliment this piece soon with my own fiction regarding how I’m baking Blackbeard into my Pirate Borg world building.
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