The Rum-Runners - a new Faction focused on Sailing, Speed, and Agility

  • BodhiSlam

    This was an old idea I had posted, and I have since retooled it based on post-launch gameplay. Enjoy!

    The Rum-Runners

    The Rum-Runners are a faction of NPC's that work tirelessly to move rum around the Sea of Thieves. Unfortunately, everyone knows Pirates can sense that sweet Rum miles away, and that makes retrieving the Rum and returning it to the Rum-Runners a dangerous job! The Rum-Runners, therefore, enlist the aid of brave Privateers to help retrieve their goods.

    Rum-Runner Voyages are a combination of Gold Hoarders chest retrieval, with Merchant Alliance delivery. They focus on finding and retrieving Rum Barrels from one location and delivering to a specific destination within a short time frame. To add to the difficulty of this, other pirates are alerted to the presence of Rum on your ship and will work to intercept you on your voyage. In this way, Rum-Runner voyages introduce the pirating career of "smuggling".

    Key Attributes

    • Utilizes navigation, speed, and agility
    • Better transparency of potential treasure aboard enemy ships
    • Gives players who enjoy the sailing aspect of the game a large chunk of content
    • Combines voyage types and mechanics players are already familiar with into a new package

    Rum-Runners
    The Rum-Runners quest UI

    Purchase

    Rum-Runner voyages are straight-forward. The player selects a voyage in the same way they would purchase a voyage from any other NPC. They place this quest on their Captains table, the Crew votes, and once accepted everyone in the Crew receives a map or a clue to the Rum Collection Point.

    Rum-Runner Representatives could very easily be the Barkeep in the Taverns.

    The Retrieval - Dig

    When players find the spot the Rum is buried they dig it up as per digging up a chest. However, instead of a chest, they find a Rum Barrel. After finding the crate, the Crew receives a drop-off point 'map' - this is similar to a Merchant Alliance delivery form, but instead of a list of goods it just has a location and a time. Because Rum-Runners missions are about speed and agility, the drop-off point is quite far away from the retrieval point and the timeframe is shorter.

    Variant Retrieval - Shipwrecks

    Based on some excellent feedback from @Mad-Pigme, there is another potentially option of where you could find Rum Barrels - Shipwrecks!

    Instead of the map leading Players to an island where they dig, they would instead be given clues to a shipwreck where the Rum Barrel is located. This would add more utility to shipwrecks, offer a new type of "find the thing" quest, and give shipwrecks a bit more fluff;

    "We were expecting a shipment of 3 barrels of rum on the Santa Clarita yesterday but she hasn't arrived. We need that rum before June 23rd at 5pm or there's likely to be a riot. She was supposed to be sailing from Golden Sands to here with it. Go see what you can bring back will you?"

    The Voyage

    Once a Rum Barrel is found a glow, column of light, or beacon appears above the Barrel. This represents the ability of other Pirates to sense the Rum aboard your ship! Because of the potentially high value of these Rum Barrels, enemy Crews will surely be on the lookout for them! It's important to keep it safe and move quickly towards your destination. Smuggling isn't an easy trade, and given the distance to your destination, it's important to be swift!

    The Rum Signal
    The Rum Signal as seen through a spyglass from another ship.

    Enemy crews will be able to return the Rum Barrel it to the Rum-Runners Representative for a portion of its value! Once a barrel is sold off it immediately cancels the voyage of the original crew.

    Delivery

    When the Players reach the delivery island, they bring the Rum Barrel to the Rum-Runner's representative. Crews carrying a Rum Barrel must be careful, for other crews will surely notice them heading to an outpost due to the Rum-Barrel-Signal. Successfully delivering the Barrel rewards the Players handsomely for their efforts.

    As always I am interested to hear peoples thoughts, and thank you for reading!

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  • PunkJr
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    Oooh, I like it! Especially the speed aspect.

    What if the contacts are in the taverns at the outposts?

  • BodhiSlam

    @punkjr I'm all for putting more content in the taverns, and the Rum-Runner voyage vendor could be the barkeep!

  • PunkJr
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @bodhislam I was thinking the same thing!

  • xHowllx
    Seafarer
    Insider

    That was sweet I like it I wish I was a game designer My thoughts would make the greatest game.

  • Mad Pigme
    Master
    Insider

    I like this idea. I'm not so sure on the necessity of digging though, i feel like it would blur the lines to much with the Gold Hoarders.

    Would you have skeletons spawn when you dig it up like they do when you dig up chests?

    I like the idea of the beacon as well, sort of like the way skulls glow, but just more intense. I like that better than a marker or something. That way it incentives the necessity of putting it below decks. If the glow is obnoxious enough though you would still be able to tell if you were close enough or through a spyglass.

  • BodhiSlam

    @mad-pigme Thanks for your feedback! I had an varient idea where the NPC would just give you the Crate o' Rum (much like the Merchant Alliance voyages) but there were a few issues:

    • Many people somewhat muck around on the Outpost and only view "leaving port" as the start of their adventure. If the Crate o' Rum was to immediately broadcast it's position when it spawned, it would create a new shift on the Outpost dynamic, and everyone near an outpost would know the instant you have loot.
    • Related to this, since the Crate o' Rum is valuable people could just return the Rum for profit or grief people coming to the Rum-Runner Representative.
    • Having the Crate be dug up made it so your crew would be in the 'adventure' mindset by the time the beacon was lit ablaze, far away from an outpost.

    As a variant, the Crate o' Rum could spawn on an island somewhere right when you accept the voyage and you just have to find it rather than digging it up. However then other players might find your Rum before you get to it - which might be okay? It would certainly stress the need to move fast!

    I would imagine skeletons would spawn as that is the expected result of digging things up currently - I would want to stay on parity with the knowledge the players already possess about the game mechanics - although there may be a lore reason for skeletons spawning around chests that we don't know about yet! Only time will tell!

    @Okiiee Thank you very much! :)

    @PunkJr Added it to the original post :)

  • TeeGee82

    I like the idea!

    I dunno how it would work as a new faction. It seems more fitting as an limited time event (similar to Skelly Forts). Each ship in your instance would get instructions to where the cache was hidden, then it would become a race against time?

    I definitely think it would be a good addition if all the kinks were worked out. What's a pirate without their Rum?!

  • Hey Peter Man
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    good idea. It would be a nice way to just announce to everyone.."We're ready for some PvP, come get us..."

  • Mad Pigme
    Master
    Insider

    I thought about this some more and the reasoning you had for burying it vs an NPC.

    What if instead of it being just rum running its rum saving? Don't go to an island, go to a sunken ship. You can get vague area where it is and its in the stop underwater. No other faction currently uses that area for voyages. Yes it can still be found by other pirates first giving you the pull to hurry. Even if it didn't spawn on the wreck until you were within a certain radius of it and on the voyage. That way the glow is still subdued until its retrieved as well.

    I dunno, just an idea. Maybe I haven't had enough coffee yet, so sorry in advance if this makes no sense.

    "We were expecting a shipment of 3 crates of rum on the Santa Clarita yesterday but she hasn't arrived. We need that rum before June 23rd at 5pm or there's likely to be a riot. She was supposed to be sailing from Golden Sands to here with it. Go see what you can bring back will you?"

  • Darklordky99

    @bodhislam although the representive nust giving you the Crate O’ Rum would not be good, what if it was hidden on the Outpost?

  • HeyItsBooch
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @mad-pigme
    This. I really like this idea! ^^

  • Reptilio2288
    Ship Mate

    @BodhiSlam Great idea! I'd love them to add something like this to the game.
    PVP with more purpose.

    However, I think Crates O’ Rum should be found inside sunken ships, as @Mad-Pigme said. It would make more sense and it would be more differentiated from Gold Hoarders.

    I also think it could work without needing a faction in between (although the Rum-Runners/Rum-saviors faction doesn't bother me). It could be that Crates O’ Rum are simply there and when someone picks it up, the event is activated. Or it could work as limited time events (like Skeleton Forts, as @TeeGee82 already said). Anyway, all these ideas work for me.

  • BodhiSlam

    @teegee82 Oooo I like the idea of having limited time events where everyone rushes to do something (especially if it involves sailing and tricky maneuvers!)

    @Hey-Peter-Man Totally - I would love if this game had more avenues in which players can broadcast "I'm looking for a fight!"

    @Mad-Pigme @ReptiIio I love the idea of putting them on ships! It gives shipwrecks a secondary purpose and I really like the narrative you put behind finding them. I've added a new Variant Retrieval to the original post, and changed some language across the rest of the idea so it doesn't focus entirely on the digging / gold hoarders aspects! Teamwork, huzzah! Thanks! :D

  • Rainesom

    @BodhiSlam I really like the idea of having the barkeep be the NPC Voyage giver, and love that these types of voyages encourage / advertise to other players that you want to PvP.

  • SavageTwinky
    Master
    Insider

    This is the best "pvp" trader that has been proposed.

  • BodhiSlam

    @savagetwinky Thank you! I sincerely appreciate that!

  • Admiral RRRSole

    @bodhislam Great to see your cogs are still turning out some great new ideas. lol :)
    Yes, I like this idea too. But please, "crate o rum"? Barrel mate, barrel.

    As soon as I started reading I thought of this being something for the barkeep to whisper on the sly. I'm glad you later included the obvious.
    Perhaps it could be activated after you get a refill. You know, just to be sure that you appreciate the importance of rum. ;) ;)

    I would also suggest that the rum barrels are found in caves, both on islands and under water, not buried under the ground surface. Keep it different to treasure chests.
    And have the occasional random rum barrel floating in the ocean.

  • BodhiSlam

    @admiral-rrrsole Ha! How could I be so foolish - all references to Crates o' Rum have now been changed into Rum Barrels - good lookin' out.

  • Admiral RRRSole

    Sweet, I'll drink to that. :)

  • AK HarLeyHaVok
    Castaway

    This sounds like a very fantastic idea. I would love this to be a faction in game. But, idk about the digging thing for rum. I propose we utilize ship wrecks for this so as to keep the beacon stowed away (pun intended) until you retrieved the rum. The whole dialogue from the voyage giver in regards to the rum not being delivered on time is also a nice touch. I'm down for this. I guess, if they absolutely HAD to maybe also use islands for the rum, it should at least be that the beacon isn't responsive until after first handled by you or your crew. That way it isn't lighting up to enemy ships and pirates who may be nearby or on that island before you can even get there.

  • BodhiSlam

    @ak-harleyhavok Thanks! There has been some discussion about where you might find the Rum Barrels - on shipwrecks, in caves, floating in the ocean - I agree that there is an opportunity to put them somewhere other than in the ground (to be dug up) - or maybe it's all of the above and the 'map' you receive has varying locations!

    I agree about having the beacon not lit up until your crew first picks up a Rum Barrel - Player's should be able to choose 'when' the beacon starts in that sense.

  • AnimatedCol
    Master

    I was readin' through yer idea here matey. I was thinkin' it was an awesome idea and I hope that someday I can sail the high seas as a Rum-Runner!

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