The year is 1778...

...and a letter of marque has come from the King to a

small one-masted sloop, currently moored in Halifax,
Nova Scotia. Captain Elcid Barrett is making his way
into town as we speak, to find himself a privateer crew
with which to roam the seas for American gold.
You are one of the local fishermen or -women who
are brave, naïve or desperate enough to be persuaded
by promises of adventure on the high seas.
 How to play
This is a game to be played alone or with friends. The
goal of the game is to write a journal of your voyage,
starting with the promises captain Barrett makes and
your own private hopes and dreams, through the trials
and hardship at sea all the way to the – quite possibly
– bitter end.
Be warned, this will more than likely end badly
for you.
To play, you will need a copy of the journal template
found in this game, writing implements, some tokens
– coins are especially appropriate – and a six-sided die.
For every section of the journey you will be presented
with some prompts to help you write your journal.
You will be faced with some questions and asked to
answer them with a positive or negative answer. Use
the examples given, or come up with your own details
and events, then describe what happens in your own
words in the journal.
When you are done with a section, if you have more
negative answers than positive ones for that section,
collect one token and advance to the next section. If
you had more positive answers, or the same amount
of positives as negatives, collect no token but advance
to the next section all the same.
 Promises and wishes
In the first section, The Captain Cries the Town, the
captain will make three promises to his crew about
the expedition. These, along with a private wish of
your own, are recorded, and in the final section, The
Aftermath, you can spend your tokens to help you
reach those goals. For each promise or wish, roll 1D6
and add any tokens spent one-for-one to the roll.

The results are:

1-3 The promise or wish turns to ashes in your
mouth, with tragic results.
4-5 You get what you want, but at a terrible cost.
6+ Fate smiles on you, sailor! This wish has
come true for you.
 Example of play
Astrid is playing a strapping youngster lured to the
privateer’s life. They’ve been promised Gold and riches,
heroic victories and fame and glory. Secretly, they just
wish to prove themselves worthy to their father.
The ship they are sailing on is The Undaunted, which
is ironic, because she handles like a barn and leaks like
a sieve. Astrid collects a token for the sorry state the
ship is in.
Once at sea, The Undaunted is caught in a storm.
Astrid describes how a wave sweeps two men overboard,
but the crew is fast on the lines and manage to haul
them back onboard. This act of bravery means Astrid
doesn’t get a token for this section.
At long last, a sail is sighted. After a long chase the
prey runs agound on a shoal, The Undaunted runs her
down and is just about to board her as a navy frigate
shows up, ready to blow The Undaunted to smithereens.
For this, Astrid takes a token.
Now it’s time for The Aftermath, and Astrid looks at
the promises and wishes they have for this jouney. They
hold two tokens that they can spend to boost their roll,
and after thinking it over, they decide to spend one on
heroic victories and one on proving themselves worthy.
 Example of play (cont.)
Listing all their promises and their secret wish, Astrid
ends up with this:
• Gold and riches
• Heroic victories (+1)
• Fame and glory
• Prove themself worthy (+1)
Astrid hopes for the best and rolls a six-sided die four
times. They get 5, 2, 3 and 4. The two and the four are
bumped up by one on account of the tokens, for a final
result of 5, 3, 3, 5.
This means that they do get some gold and they do
manage to prove themselves worthy, but at a terrible
cost. They definitely do not win any heroic victories or
gain any fame and glory.
Astrid looks at the results and decides they are
pocketing a purse of gold, jumping in the water as
marines shoot their shipmates down like dogs and
swimming to a nearby island.
Their tale ends with them coming back to Halifax
years later, cursed as a coward but managing to take
care of their father in their old age with gold they cached.
 The Journal
section 1
The Captain Cries the Town
Captain Elcid Barrett comes into town, looking for
twenty brave souls to make himself a privateer crew.
Choose three of the following promises he makes any
who are willing to lend him an ear. You can also make
up your own. Write down the promises in your journal.
• Gold and riches
• Enemies who are quick to surrender
• Heroic victories
• No loss of life
• Fame and glory
• Wondrous adventure
Then write down your personal wish for the expedition,
something you hold on to deep in your heart.
• To come home
• To prove yourself worthy
• To escape
• To find love

There are no tokens awarded for this section.

 section 2
The Vessel
You arrive at the docks with your crewmates and first
lay eyes on your ship. She’s called:
• The Antelope
• The Undaunted
• The Tigershark
• The Virgin Mary
• The Pride of Barbados
• The Sparrowhawk
• The Lily
• The Indefatigable
Is the name accurate?
Describe the ship. What’s her hull like? What about
the rigging and sails? And what of the crew?

If it’s mostly a fine and sea-worthy ship, you gain no

token. If it’s a sorry sight, barely afloat, take a token.
 section 3
We Put to Sea
Setting sail at the King’s birthday, you head for Montego
Bay in Jamaica.
The voyage is not an easy one, you are faced with
(choose one and then describe how bad it gets):
• A storm
• Seas becalmed for weeks on end
• Man overboard
• Run aground
• Mutinous crewmembers
• Cruel punishments
Describe how the ship and crew pulls through the
crisis. Do you weather it and succeed or are you battered
and beaten?

If it’s a tragic or dismal tale, take a token. If it’s a heroic

tale, don’t.
 section 4
We Make to Fight
Sighting a sail on the horizon, we begin to stalk our
prey.
Describe how you catch up with the merchant ship,
and how the battle seems to be going. Pause the action
before you narrate the end of the fight, on a cliffhanger,
because the next section will determine what the end
result of the fight will be.

If the fight is mostly going your way, you don’t get a

token. If you are being battered, shot or stand the risk
of immediate capture, you gain a token.
 section 5
The Aftermath
Look at the promises and your personal wish. Spend
your tokens on any of the promises or wishes to give a
bonus to you roll, then roll 1D6 + tokens spent to see
what happened.
Use the results to help you describe the aftermath
of the expedition.

The results are:

1-3 The promise or wish turns to ashes in your
mouth, with tragic results.
4-5 You get what you want, but at a terrible cost.
6+ Fate smiles on you, sailor! This wish has
come true for you.
 Appendices
Hacking the game
God Damn Them All is a game about great expectations
crashing against a harsh reality. It’s about hard choices,
choosing a goal and sticking to it, and about how fate
can mess up all your wishes.
This theme coupled with the archetype of a journey
as structure means the game can readily be adapted
for a lot of different types of story. One could easily do
a version of soldiers going out to fight in World War I,
for instance. Moby Dick, Treasure Island, The Hobbit
– all of these could be used as starting points for new
journaling games.
 God Damn Them All PbtA Hack
This is an abbreviated version of the game, which you
can play without the journal sheet. It assumes familiarity
with Meguey and Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World.
Choose a player to be a privateer and a player to be
the MC. It can be the same player.

The privateer move

When you set sail on a privateer vessel, roll 2D6.
On a 10+, all three. On a 7–9, choose one:
• cruise the seas for American gold
• fire no guns
• shed no tears
On a miss, prepare for the worst.

MC Agenda
•Make the world salty and harsh
•Make promises, but put your bloody fingerprints
on them
•Sometimes, give the privateers hope and something
they’ve been fighting for
 The journal worksheet for this game can be found on:
https://lari-assmuth.itch.io/god-damn-them-all
Feel free to download it and print it out for your
journaling needs!

This game is CC-BY-SA

God Damn Them All by Lari Assmuth
lari-assmuth.itch.io
@LariAssmuth / lari@rocketsurgeongames.com
rocketsurgeongames.com

Based on Stan Roger’s song Barrett’s Privateers (1976).

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/ZIwzRkjn86w

This game would not exist if it weren’t for the games

Gentleman Bandit by Allison Arth and Apocalypse
World by Meguey and Vincent Baker.

Cover art: “A Ship on the High Seas Caught by a

Squall, Known as ‘The Gust’”, Willem van de Velde
(II) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Journal background: Oberholster Venita / Pixabay
Fonts used: IM Fell English, Minion Pro