Letters of Marque by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Cepheus Engine. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 19 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explain the war has come to the Sonora sector – the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – after years of proxy wars and skirmishes between the Olonsean Empire and the Ilsuni Directorate and the Olonseans have issued Letters of Marque.
Letter of Marque is the one issued by the Olonseans.
A Little Bit of History gives some historical details on letters of marque and privateers; essentially, mercenaries fighting naval wars that were generally considered to be pirates by those attacked, and that the sample above is a genuine one that has been modified.
Complications are all the things that can go wrong, and there are many.
Encounter Tables has encounter tables for various different regions, specs for Ilsuni ships and lists of neutral parties who may have ships and other raiders.
Duration of the War has tables for determining how long the war lasts, from a day to several years, and how long it will take to find out it has ended. Continuing to raid ships after the war has officially ended can cause problems.
Interventions and Allies is used to determine whether or not the other powers in the sector join in, how many do, who and when.
Conclusion explains that this gives the GM a framework for running a privateer campaign.
Letters of Marque in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. Bar the covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.
As it states, this is a framework for a privateer campaign; the GM will probably need to do some more work to turn it into a fully-fledged campaign. Assuming the players are interested of course. It does provide details for running a different kind of campaign, being legal, depending on various factors, piracy, though rather dangerous piracy at that. Letters of Marque can be found by clicking here.
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