Out at sea there's a certain level of monotony that plagues the minds of even the most hardened of sailors. Day in and day out the horizon stays the same as it was the day before, with your daily tasks as cyclical as the sun rising over the sea. It takes a special kind of person to not to go mad out here where boredom feasts on the mind, and hunger chews on sunburnt flesh.
As an enemy of the law this reality is not one just born of simple greed, but necessity. You must be vigilant as the world does its best to grind you beneath its heal and drown you within its hallowed waters. Be careful of those you wrong, for there are many, and keep track of the nights before your stores run out. All of this suffering and more sustained in the name of one thing:
Freedom.
You are over half a decade into this life when a peculiar sound closes in around you. Is it the savage and desperate rumblings of revenge? The secretive whispers of tender alliances? Or, perhaps, it's the crazed mutterings of new discoveries.
Change is coming. Perform your duties as a first mate to one of the most famed pirate crews of the era and stretch your reach out to keep a crew of over three dozen people - your family - safe.
Because without them you won't survive what comes next.
The Cost of Freedom is a character-driven and story-focused dark adventure novel inspired by works like Dredge and Uncharted. Filled with harrowing decisions, blossoming relationships, and inescapable mystery, this novel is one that is best enjoyed with multiple playthroughs to experience the entire story.
Warnings for suspense with heavy depictions of violence, blood, and gore. Includes explicit language, sexually suggestive scenes, and drug and alcohol use. Contains scenes with instances of sexism, queerphobia and racism. Rated 18+. While inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy, The Cost of Freedom makes no claims over being entirely historically accurate.
FEATURES
Play as male, female, or nonbinary; trans or cis. Be straight, gay, or bi, with an ace option.
Customize Quartermaster Darsena's first name, appearance, experience, and personality. Choose one of four backgrounds that affect your stats and gain traits that change how you look at the world, or how the world looks at you.
Continue the longstanding relationships with the members of the Ademaro Crew and your captain, Domenico Ademaro, a man whom you've known as a brother for the majority of your life.
Choose between one of four romance routes and find love despite the threats closing in around you.
Explore a world rife with mystery, drama, and danger. There are things yet to be discovered, even with all of your years out at sea.
Have an adventure that will be spoken of long after the last true pirates dock their ships. The type of story that will be passed down through generations with everchanging details and exaggerations but even those will never be more interesting than the real thing.
THE CREW
The Quartermaster, Darsena (MC)
Darsena's been the right hand of their brother's captaincy since its conception, providing both support and opposition to his decisions. In charge of the provisions, equipment, and morale, Darsena holds the line between a successful venture and a disastrous one.
The Captain, Domenico Ademaro (M)
The captain of La Dulcina before that was even her name, Domenico is a natural-born leader with a strong magnetic personality and even stronger penchant for aggravating those around him. Rumors about his never-ending luck and inability to die follow wherever he goes; some people are even calling him "God's Favored Son".
♥ The Boatswain, Evrim Ergeshov/Ergeshova (M or F)
The quiet bosun in charge of the myriad of ropes holding La Dulcina together. Their silence should not be mistaken for reservation, but instead as a precautionary measure for the fire that burns hot inside. There's not much they don't know about the goings on of the ship, even if they don't always want to involve themselves in whatever shenanigans are occurring.
♥♥ The Navigator, Lovell Barnett (M)
An undeniable genius, Lovell is responsible for getting La Dulcina from one destination to the other, though this work does not come without its hiccups. Professionalism and results are his strong suit, not companionship and niceties. Not that Lovell has ever advertised at possessing the latter.
♥♥ The Helmsman, Celestin Chassur (Genderqueer)
A chance addition when La Dulcina was first marked traitor that has paid back in spades. Celestin is disarming and polite in all the right ways, with a wealth of patience that never seems to end. Their cool head in stressful situations has saved the crew in countless scenarios.
♥ The Surgeon, Seshen (M)
A skilled flirt and an even more skilled medic, Seshen keeps the crew of La Dulcina alive through buckshot, steel, and illness. His roguish demeanor often begets doubt, but it's a confidence backed up by results. People say he's always willing to help, but others only believe that only to be true for the people he likes.
♥ The Cook, Rosario de Torres (F)
As the newest addition to the crew, Rosario was not so foolish to think that a life filled with piracy would be an easy one. It's her determination that has allowed herself to slot into the lives of La Dulcina's crew, even if there is a certain loneliness to being the only stranger in a ship filled with family.
We're almost to 200 followers, so it's only right to celebrate with a sneak peek from the prologue! even as kids, Darsena and Domenico have many things on their mind
Hi! I noticed you included a content warning for queerphobia, and I was curious if you could talk a little bit about what the general vibe will be like for trans/nb MCs? Are there any other trans crew members, to what degree are they out, is it like a completely stealth outside of a few trusted people situation, things like that. Thanks! :)
Absolutely! so I want to preface this by saying that for people who are afraid by the warning, i'm not interested in using historical accuracy as a justification for constant trans or queer suffering. while you may face inquisitive questions or minor confusion with some of the minor characters in the crew, there's freedom of expression on la dulcina and it's taken very seriously. the moments that will have any type queerphobia will for the most part be strangers/outsiders/enemies and can range from misgendering (whether accidental or purposeful) to disgust (which is treated as the horrible thing that it is)
my approach comes from the fact that i really value reactivity from being trans/queer in IFs being both trans and queer myself. that reactivity includes having the good moments, the neutral moments, the awkward moments, and the bad moments
in the game you'll be able to choose whether or not you are dressing with the goal to pass as your chosen gender, dressing to be as androgynous as possible (which grants its own type of dialogue), or dressing how your assigned gender "should" dress (which could look like a transman still wearing clothing that is deemed more feminine by society just because he wants to). cis people get to do this too, by dressing outside of the binary and exploring gender expression that way
there's several trans crew members including Rosario who's a transwoman and Celestin who is genderqueer (though they don't explicitly use that term). there are also other crewmates that are trans or go through journeys with gender/gender expression that might not lead explicitly to being trans or nonbinary but should still be included in the conversation
Rosario is stealth outside of a couple of people, Celestin is out and is clear about it if you ask, the others you'll find out in the future :] i hope this answered your questions! and if not, you're more than welcome to shoot me another ask
Today's morning comes with similar fanfare. It's always the quietest at this hour, when those who worked throughout the night are at their most tired and the remainder of the crew is still sleeping soundly below deck.
Evrim's legs dangle over the edge of the forecastle's deck, legs slotted between the railing and heels tapping a gentle rhythm against the wood. Next to them, a spot is kept purposefully empty.
Yes, they think as they pull the gifted pipe away from their mouth, the last vestiges of smoke sliding down their chin and chest like water, the sunrise is quite pretty today. I agree.
Evrim's experience is shown in the scars of their hands and the bumps of poorly healed bones. They hold the ship together in an iron grip with bare knuckles, refusing to let any part of it go until their last breath.
Once sweethearts when times were different, Evrim and Darsena's relationship has long since fractured apart. It's civil now, if not friendly,
though history has not disappeared from the context entirely. At least, not if you let it.
Personality: Quiet, impatient, and with humor as dry as a desert. Evrim is much like a candle, a comforting item to have in the dark, certainly, but one that can quickly explode into a house fire without care.
Appearance: Brown hair pulled away from their face with tawny skin decorated with moles, freckles, scars, and tattoos. Practical clothing, with only one touch of actual color from their vest. They're just above average height and toned from their work. Evrim's appearance changes very little depending whether they're a man or woman.
Heya! I was wondering how the morality works in your game (or if there is one)? So many other games have it as just "good vs evil" and Im super curious how everything works!
Excited to see the prologue when it comes out! :)
I got a couple semi-related asks about this and I'm always, always up for talking about my thought process and intentions for mechanics and story in this game
there's something like a morality system in tcof but it's a little more complicated than having a meter that goes up when you do good things and go down when you're doing bad things, i.e. choosing to be a Robin Hood vs. a Dr. Evil-ini
for starters, you already can't be a virtuous, perfect pirate. la dulcina's crew (including darsena) has stolen, has killed, has lied, etc.. you'll be incredibly hard pressed to find someone on this crew that finds murder/theft completely morally reprehensible
on the other hand, this isn't the story of a deplorable piece of shit with no morals either! you're going to be faced with a lot of choices in this game, and how the game reads your morals is a combination of the following:
your stated values
what you actually do in situations & how you respond to pushback
how consistent you are when it comes to what you value
tl:dr, there are levels to your "goodness" and "badness" in the game but if you're looking for something where you can solely play as a do-no-wrong pirate OR cosplay as the literal devil, you're probably not going to find it here
thank you for the ask! and apologies for long the answer ended up being, woops!
There has been a distinct lack of pirate ifs in this community so thank you for your service. I am currently frothing at the mouth and jumping up and down in my seat waiting for September now (my birth month too!)
ME TOO!! I'm so fascinated by their hold on pop culture and I was so shocked/disappointed to learn when i was first thinking of IF ideas that there's like... ZERO pirate content. where's the high seas adventuring! the mystery! the adventure! we're at a critically low level of dashing rogues on ships y'all.
the demo should, unless a meteor strikes the earth and/or my brain shuts down, be released sometime in september, yes! especially considering the prologues already 100% written and just needs to be coded. I would technically like to release it earlier, but I wanted to give myself some breathing room just in case, plus I'm trying to see if I can manage to squeeze out more content for the first release with the first part of chapter one
AYE AYE CA'PN FIRST MATE REPORTING FOR DUTY CA'PN SHALL I SING US A SHANTY
OOOOOOHHHH THERE SHE RISES OOOOOH THERE SHE RISES ERLA IN THE MOOOORNIN WHATCHA GONNA DO WITH A RUSTY NAILLLLLLL 🌊🚢🦜🏴☠️
LAND AHEAD!!!! DRAW THE THE THE MASTS!! THE SAILS!! ROW LADS ROW! LOAD THE CANNONS!!!!!!!
All of this to say I am very much looking forward to your IF ehehe!
AYE AYE! thank you so much! I'm so happy with the good reception the lovely pirates have seemingly been getting and I'm soooo excited to get into it. there's many sea shanties to be had in this story :]
