LongTom

I suppose, to be fair to WizKids, that their distribution is fine for someone who is starting out with this series, or for those who collect whole sets; otherwise the PoDJC distribution would be too heavy on the monsters when considered as a whole. I just happen to be that particular type of purchaser for whom additional series become a case of diminishing returns. Since each series has to be balanced by itself, that makes it less and less likely that purchases in the later series will contain something that isn't essentially redundant to what I already own. We already own more ships than can be easily stored, and that's ignoring the duplicates, which thankfully are still unbuilt. I bought 8 packs of PoDJC yesterday, opened 4, no sea monsters. I'm saving the other packs for my son. Maybe he will score a couple in his packs, which will cause him no end of delight; in which case it's for the best that I opened the "duds". Failing that, it's either trading or making something out of Fimo. (Scratch-build modeling adds another fun dimension. Aside from 3D islands, I've also been fiddling with tiny wooden ships, and noodling with rules for Storms, including how to model them on the gameboard.)

The Davy Jones Curse card packs finally showed up at my local game store. Blast it, it appears that all the sea monsters are Rares! I have more than enough of pretty much all the ship form factors that interest me -- I'm not a collector, and the junks and the arab galleys just didn't ring my bell -- so I have no intention of dropping monstrous amounts of moolah in hopes of scoring a few tentacle-ish bits of plastic. WizKids, this particular consumer is getting fed up. I'm sorely tempted to go check out the Z-Cardz display and see what might answer from their collection. Beware the Giant Crawdad!

I assume you want something a little less obvious than Robert Louis Stevenson and Patrick O'Brian (Both excellent reads, by the way. Treasure Island is a good read-out-loud book, if you have a youngster to be your audience.) I read an interesting one recently: "The Pirate's Son" by Geraldine McCaughrean. Reasonable plot, though the writing was aimed at 11 and up I was going to read it to my kid, but for some reason that didn't happen. Anyway, here's a copy on amazon though the one I read came from the local library.

Here's another seller: The Barrel Mill

Is it the surprised look on their faces that gives it away, the thunk of their bag of loot as it slips from their grasp to the deck, or the sudden sag of their full weight onto your cutlass?

Sometime in the future, that quote is going to come back to haunt you...

What's your batting average?

I want to see this approach modeled in the "You In Yer Garb" thread. No, really. I'm not kidding.

Hey, you know Alice? Alice Right?

That's not necessarily true. One of the ways a site can be "visited" is by receiving an email with html content. You may be getting cookies just from getting a piece of spam in your email. That's the reason why privacy filter software blocks the downloading of pictures in emails, because the images get downloaded as a result of an embedded http request to some arbitrary web server (which can then do things like drop a cookie on you).

Well, I, for one, am never, ever, going to stand in front of Captain Bob in the chow line. Ya just never know when something is gonna snap.

The bone is just the handle. Think of it like a Popsicle. A hot, juicy, salty Popsicle. ... okay, uh ... bad metaphor. Hmmm. Can't abide bones or gristle, but does not mind intestines? (Should I not have mentioned that sausage casing is intestines?)

Bacon is a gateway meat. Before long you'll have graduated to far viler, forbidden proteins -- and bacon will have been the enabler. Why do you think they call the hard stuff "Long Pig"? Consider yourself warned.

Be that an Irish jig, Merry? I'll rise, if you grind... (Now, how does that derned step go again...) After that, we'll dance "Strip the Willow." I guess you must be Willow.

Another inexpensive kiddie giveaway could be a treasure map (if that's not too obvious and cheesy). Some enterprising and artistic sort could whomp up a convincing pen and ink island map, then photocopy it onto Astroparche. Go after the edges of the ream of paper with a blowtorch and maybe spill some weak coffee into the edges, and there ya be.

Coins? Like these? replica coins from DeadMenTellNoTales At 29 cents apiece, they are maybe within range. Next trick would be to find the manufacturer or wholesaler, so that a purchase of a couple thousand of them doesn't break the bank. (Who knows, maybe the folks at DeadMenTellNoTales might be willing to work a deal?) I'm not affiliated with them, btw. I did buy a couple fistfuls of these for my son's pirate birthday party. The cheaper option is plastic coins, like these ($3.95 a gross): Plastic coins from OrientalTrading.com I've used these in the past for Halloween. (Hey, they're cheaper than candy, and they don't rot your teeth.)

Now, now, milady. Just because you are a bombshell doesn't mean that you have to act like one!

I also like the idea of developing your own set of rules. Could turn it into a stealth learning exercise. :)

The family and I are fond of Dread Pirate by Front Porch Classics: Link to the Dread Pirate Bookshelf edition page Pricey, but fun, and well made. The bookshelf edition is half the cost of the one in the treasure chest. We also like Pirates of the Spanish Main, as Philip mentioned. Here's the Link One downside about this one is the ships are a little fragile, so as a school item they are not likely to hold up. On the other hand, it is inexpensive to get started (at least before you get addicted to the card collecting, heheheh) and the kids are likely to get into the collecting/trading aspect. You can also have a lot of fun tweaking the rules: adding wind, weather, etc. messing with the combat, There are also more detailed rules for miniatures gaming, such as Admiralty You supply your own minis. Haven't actually played it, but the rules look interesting.

Let's not leave out "The Adventures of Long John Silver." Picked up a DVD with half a dozen episodes at ToysRUs the other day. Way, way corny, but in a good way. Especially the Christmas special!

Sorry to hear of the loss of your longtime companion.

For a square sail, by way of example, you might have 7 lines: one halyard, two topping lifts, two braces, and two sheets. The three latter types would be divided, one to port and one to starboard of each type. The halyard would be a thicker gauge rope than the braces or sheets. For your purposes, a realistic arrangement of such lines assumes you will have balusters/rail/belaying pins on two sides of your space. Also, braces for a given sail are probably going to be belayed to a point much different from the sheets for that same sail; however, you probably would see the different lines from several different sails grouped together in a given set of belaying pins. I suspect the real answer is going to be "whatever looks good." Bottom line is, there probably are way more lines on a ship than you will want in your recreational space. If you have the money, don't be afraid to put in a few extra pins and leave some without rope. Oh, one other thing. The belaying pins might go in a "pin rail" mounted down low, rather than directly in holes in the cap rail. Though you might see some in both places on a ship, I think pin rails would be more realistic.

Psssssssssssssst. Pssssssssssssssst. Hair In a Can! Hey, this stuff works!

Obviously it's all in your technique. You clearly do a lot better when you start out by kissing some guy on Pyracy. Then you end up with a dedicated conversation buddy! Kidding aside, Silkie, I'm sorry you had to run into such a psycho loser.

Dratted athlete's mouth! (I was just goofing around with the "pssst" thing. But thanks for the advice! I hope I don't ever need it!)