I'm looking at formatting the Cruel Fortunes list into a deck of printable cards, so I can deal them out to my group (skipping the 'copy onto 3x5 card' step). Firstly, has this been done before? Shouldn't take that much time, but there's no point in duplicating effort all the same.
Also, what are those fonts in the book? It'd be nice to match the cards' fonts to the book, but I can't identify any of them. The font used on the last page isn't particularly relevant, but it'd be nice to know the body font and the handwritten-looking font used in the titles.
Nevermind. The headers are this Treasure Map Deadhand, yes? Not sure about the body, still, but it's very very close to Warnock, so we'll go with that.
The body's Garamond.
-Vincent
Really? (Yup, looks like.) I have Garamond. Why didn't I catch that ...
Well, anyhow, I have a set pretty much done. Would you mind if I provided a public download link? It's your text, after all.
Also, a question that came to mind: Why isn't there a special place to take down the devil's bargains, as there are for God and the King (Divine Judgement and The King's Agents, respectively)? We have Abandoned to Fate, but it isn't quite built to track bargains.
It does make sense to me that the devil could simply be an NPC (though probably 'extraordinary'), since there's plenty of folk tales out there about clever people tricking the devil or beating him at his games. Just wondering if that's a specific intention, or what.
Please do post a link!
When I GM I always have a stack of 3x5 cards at hand, I just write people's bargains with the devil on one of them. Same with God, if Divine Judgment isn't in play. A GM sheet for listing NPCs and bargains with them would be a good idea, though.
-Vincent
Then here is what I've got, folks: link (http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/1818206/cruel-fortunes-pdf-march-22-2010-6-44-pm-475k?da=y).
These are transcriptions of the Cruel Fortunes, set up to be printed onto cardstock (or whatever) and cut up into a deck of Fortune cards. Additionally, those cards that you'd want to write on (to track names, Profiles, Brinksmanships, traits, or bargains) have been set up with appropriate blanks for you to pencil in the details. Lastly, I threw in a card for tracking crew stats, as well as a card for pirates/soldiers/sailors (which felt distinct from Private Persons).
There are multiples for: fortresses, ships, crews, and people.
I think this is a pretty solid draft, but it could probably use a go over ... I haven't actually printed it out yet, nor have I given it more than a basic proofing. Thing is, I probably won't do that until I get a chance to test them in play (dependent on my group's fairly irregular schedule), so if anyone uses them and thinks I should fix/change something, go right ahead and point it out.
In particular, I wonder how practical it is to track the NPC ends of bargains on those little cards. It might be more reasonable to have a single 'bargain tracking' sheet for the GM, over a couple of bargain slots on each NPC card. Or maybe it works fine - you can always start writing on the back, I suppose.