Story
A hostile coastline, a ship that is your only home, and a sea that keeps nothing it takes.
The wrong side of the coast
The charts end where the trouble begins. Past the last safe harbour the water turns unfamiliar — pirate fleets working the lanes, storms that roll in without warning, and wrecks that were once ships like yours. Every expedition is a one-way push into that water, and the only way home is through it.
Your ship is your home
You don't respawn. You repair. The ship is a grid of modules — guns along the rails, sails overhead, a repair bay below, cargo where you can spare it — and it is the only home you have out here. Take a broadside to the wrong cell and you lose the system that lived there, until you can limp back and rebuild it.
Captains remember
Ships are replaceable. Captains are not. A captain carries what they have learned from one run to the next — the instincts, the edges, the hard-won advantages — and keeps it even when an expedition ends in wreckage. Lose the ship and you rebuild at port; the captain sails on. Each captain you command brings their own kit and their own grievances.
Survive the return
Reaching the far water is the easy half. The sea wants its loot back, and the storm is always closing behind you. Bring home enough and your next ship goes out stronger. Bring home nothing and you begin again with less. That's the twist: everything you win, you have to survive carrying home.