Rapscallion RPG

Are you a scoundrel? Does your heart contain a hidden streak of villainy? Have you ever yearned for the wild horizon at the edge of the sea? In Rapscallion, you (and your crew) sail on a magical ocean, swashbuckle atop heaving ship decks, and commit dark deeds against dangerous foes, all while contending with the vices and troubles you just can't seem to shake. With the Law on your tail, the Free at your side, and the Weird around every corner, your adventures on the Great Sea will be wondrous and frantic, desperate and strange...but never boring. Never, everboring.

In Rapscallion, you don't just play any old pirate. Your character matches the strangeness of the Great Sea itself: you might play a haunted captain possessed by a thousand ghosts, a bound djinni trapped within a magical book, a dark sea-sorcerer who made a deal with a demon, or a mysterious navigator who stole the heart of the ocean. And there is no limit to who takes to the Great Sea on the crew of such a ship—sleek selkies, cerulean cyclops, and undead skeletons all crew the ships of the Free! No matter who you are, though, you’re a rogue at heart. You’ve only got your ship and your crew to rely on, in this world of a thousand enemies.

Rapscallion is based on the Powered by the Apocalypse system used by tabletop RPGs like Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts, and other works in the Magpie Games catalog—Masks: A New Generation, Urban Shadows, and Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Games. Like these games, Rapscallion uses the basic structure of Powered by the Apocalypse to tell its stories: your pirates have specific traits, roll two six-sided dice, categorize themselves into certain archetypes called playbooks, and resolve conflict using a system of moves; it also adds unique and new mechanics like ship playbooks and reputation, compels and vices, and more. You can read more about Rapscallion's custom-built system in the Rules & Mechanics section below!

If you like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the One Piece series, Our Flag Means Death, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, any of the Sinbad stories, Peter Pan and Hook, Sea of Thieves, Treasure Island (including the Muppets version, of course), Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker, or the Monkey Island series...then Rapscallion is the perfect way to bring stories of strange pirates and their fantastic adventures to your table!