Run Out the Guns! is an adventure kit produced by Iron Crown Enterprises. In this self-contained game, the players take on the role of pirates, plying the high seas of the Caribbean in search for Spanish gold.

For a Run Out the Guns! game to work, the character need to end up in the possession of a ship in the first game session. How this happens can be a difficult series of events for the gamemaster to handle.

The purpose of this article is to give the GM ideas for various way to cause the ship to end up in the players hands. Once this happens, then the environment will take care of the rest. This initial story idea can be very difficult for some GMs.

The Mutineers

"This one looks promising. A real bookish type, but strong. Ye, got your clubs, mates? Al'ight, on the count a three, we move. Ya know the plan: break into `is room real quick like. If ya can, go straight for the head. No need damagin' the merchandise if he don' have ta. If he fight's, tho, we give him a couple a lumps. Make sure `e regrets it in the mornin'.

The Moor is looking for new recruits. Unfortunately, their reputation as a brutal ship has preceded them. They have fallen on their standard practice of sending out press gangs into Barbados to gather crew members.

The PCS should be impressed into service in the first part of the game. The rest of the initial game session should be designed to slowly escalate them into a state of mutiny. The floggings should be sudden and brutal. 36+ lashes should not be unusual. The game session should climax with the mutiny.

A mutiny is a difficult adventure to run. The GM needs to be certain that he doesn't abuse the players as he is abusing their characters. By the time the characters figure out how to break into the arms locker, they should be feeling good about themselves, not bad.

It was typical for ships that were about to mutiny to be called "shot rolling ships." This is because the crews would roll round shot at the officers on deck in the dark. This is just a symptom of the general discontent of the crew. The GM should build the tension of the ship throughout the session, showing the attitude of the ship build until the crew is certain to mutiny, and are just looking for someone to lead them.

A GM needs to know his player (or at least get to know them very quickly) to pull this off. Some players, raised in their posh modern surroundings, will want to mutiny the first time someone is flogged. Others, who know more about the 17th century Caribbean, will hardly blink, and blithely ask the person next to them whether their going to eat the weevils in their ship's biscuit.

Therefore, the GM must make the conditions unpleasant enough that the men mutiny, but not so bad that the players are soured on the game. The trick is, to push the characters just to the point of mutiny, and then let the pace of the events overwhelm them. Once the mutiny begins, less attention can be paid to the unpleasantness that started it all, and more attention can go to the excitement of the adventure.

The Blood Feud

"We'll get `em ,laddies. The last I saw that shop there was gatherin' their supplies. I say we jus' break in there tonight and teach them to get our captain arrested. We'll fix `em. We'll fix `em good."

The Sea Lilly is currently in a feud with a rival ship, The Bucket of Blood. This has built up over time, but it has recently escalate and gotten out of hand.

Within the last month, the Bucket's crew managed to trap all of the Lilly's junior officers in a bar. They then burned it to the ground. In retaliation, the crew of the Lilly managed to get the captain of the Bucket arrested. Now the Bucket's crew is retaliating.

They have secretly poisoned the stores of the Sea Lilly. Most notably, they have poisoned the Captain's stores. There was enough poison to lightly dose the main stores as well, though not as heavily.

The PC's are hired on as junior officers to replace those that died. They find the Sea Lilly in a terrible state. The captain is a fop, most of the officers his relatives. The bosun is hiding in his quarters because members of the Bucket's crew (who are in the harbor) sometimes take pot shots at officers on the Lilly's deck. The doctor likes to amputate. He really likes to amputate.

The PC's should be worried about the state of the ship right off. The first night at sea, the captain will have dinner with his officers (but not the PC's). Since his stores are in the worst shape, all the officers are dead by morning. The rest of the crew is just in really sick.

The next morning the Bucket of Blood, led by their Lieutenant (the captain is still in prison), overtakes the Sea Lilly. The PC's, weak from the poison, with a sick and nearly useless crew, should have no option other than to hand over their cargo.

This will leave the PC's in charge of a ship is a good rivalry to show for it. The size of the ship should depend on the GM's intentions, but the Bucket of Blood should be larger, in case the PCS start getting ideas.

The Ghost Ship

"I don't like it maties. I don't like this one bit. This ship is cursed, maties. I tell ya, it's crused. Are we gonna stand for this? Are we? Alright, then, what are we gonna do about it maties?"

The crew of the Wilson's Dream has a problem brewing. One of the men smuggled absinthe on board, and during his hallucinatory bought, imagined that the ship was haunted. Now rumors are running rampant through the ship.

This is a very difficult story to run. The GM needs to slowly build the suspicion level of the crew while building the disdain of the officers. Eventually, the situation should come to blows, as the officers become more and more harsh in an attempt to instill discipline.

When the smoke clears, the officers should be dead, leaving the PCS in charge. Whether the PCS sided with the officers or the crew depends on the characters and how the situation plays out. When the dust settles, the players will have to deal with the superstition somehow.

This is an intense roleplaying situation. The GM must have a good feel for his players and the situation. This can be an intense character story, and the players must think fast and hard to keep abreast of the situation. This is not recommended for a novice group.

With these starts, the GM should be able to begin a Run Out the Guns! campaign filled with action-charged emotion. The players should be a closely knit group and have a great time, and when it comes down to it, that is the foundation for a good and long-standing campaign.

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