Building a World on This

This project is a system, not a setting. It ships the rules and the compendium, and stops deliberately short of a place to play.

What is intentionally left empty

• location — one type, no files. There is no gazetteer of Tortuga, Nassau, or Port Royal.
• faction — one type, no files. The seven powers are described in prose in the Dark Caribbean lore file, not modelled as records.
• npc — one type, no files. No named cast.
• game-start — a single placeholder pointing at a tavern.

That is your half of the work. The types are already shaped for it: location carries dangers, hooks, services, controlling faction, and notable figures; faction carries goals, assets, rivals, vessels, and a seat of power; npc carries a stat block, what they seem to want, what they really want, a d10 "what are they up to now" table, and a secret.

Those last three fields are the ones worth filling in properly. An NPC with a public want, a private want, and an activity table runs itself.

A workable order

1. Pick a home port and write it as a location. Give it three services, three dangers, and three hooks.
2. Write the two or three factions that actually press on that port, and point their seat at it.
3. Write four or five NPCs — a patron, a rival, a source of arcana, and someone who wants the PCs dead. Link them to the location and faction.
4. Rewrite the game start so it opens inside your port, naming your people.
5. Then add locations outward as the crew sails.

Where the seams are

• The random tables assume the Dark Caribbean. Sea Encounters has navy ships of the line and undead megalodons; Rumors assumes governors and treasure fleets. If you are moving the system to another setting, these are the files to rewrite first — they are also the easiest, because the table type is trivial.
• The bestiary assumes the Scourge. Skeletons, zombies, and ghosts are the baseline enemy. Swap the bestiary and you have changed genre without touching a rule.
• The rules and GM instructions are setting-light and should survive a reskin nearly untouched. The only setting-bound rule is the ASH economy, which lives in one lore file and one table.

Keep the GM instructions current

The gm-instructions files are loaded by the GM agent during play, and they cross-link to rules and tables by mention. If you add a subsystem, add a paragraph telling the GM when to reach for it — a mechanic the GM instructions never mention is a mechanic that will not come up at your table.