Choice of Broadsides

A rollicking naval adventure on the high seas explicitly in the vein of C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower or Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (sitting on the back of a simple RPG engine) allows the player to define their character's strengths and weaknesses through their choices of options presented, then direct that character through a long career rising through the ranks of the Royal Navy on the ships H.M.S. Courageous, Defender, and Dauntless. The seas presented are those contested between fictionalized European imperial states Albion and Gaul, and over the course of the game players will experience intrigue and rivalry with their counterpart from the other side, Villeneuve, as well as an optional Jane Austen interlude during peacetime of finding a suitable spouse.

The skills that make a ship's Captain include Sailing, Gunnery, Leadership and Patronage, and though the RPG engine will factor in the character's calculated abilities in these fields, players may benefit from some research to successfully put their characters through their paces.

Genre conventions are adhered to sufficiently to retain the feel of the sources while being open to radical tweaking based on players' narrative preferences: in additional to same-sex romances (surely unknown among sailors!) one has the option of playing in a gender-swapped world, where bold women command tall ships in the service of gentlemen safe at home.