What This System Gives You
You have cloned a complete implementation of the Pirate Borg ruleset. This chapter is a map of what is here so you know what to reuse and what to replace.
The twenty file types
The types divide into four groups:
Rules content — rule, lore, gm-instructions (all markdown), and table. These carry
the system's prose and its sixty-one random tables. The table type is deliberately generic: a
die string, a category, usage text, and an array of roll/result rows rendered through a
computed 2D array.
Character-facing — character (the PC sheet), class, and npc. The character type is
the one to study before you extend anything, because it is where the references and computed
fields converge.
Compendium — weapon, armor, gear, relic, ritual, prayer, spell, shanty,
monster, ship. Flat, referenceable stat records.
World scaffolding — location, faction, game-start. These ship almost empty on
purpose; see the last chapter.
What is deliberately absent
There is no setting gazetteer, no adventure module, and no map. The Dark Caribbean is described
in three lore files — enough that the mechanics make sense — and nothing more. That is the
line between this system and a world built on it.
There are also no images. The art direction is set in project settings, so anything you generate will come out in the same woodcut-on-parchment register without you repeating a style prompt.
The invariants
Whatever you add, these hold:
- Everything resolves as d20 + ability vs a DR. Do not add a second resolution mechanic.
- Players roll to attack and to defend. Enemies never roll. Any new mechanic that has the GM rolling against a player is wrong for this system.
- Abilities live in -3 to +6, and DR12 is normal. A new test at DR15 is a mistake; the ladder moves in twos.
- Damage is a die expression, not a number. Armor is a die you subtract, not a threshold.
- Black powder ignores armor. This is load-bearing — it is why nobody wears armor and why muskets are frightening.