The role-playing game element comes in two forms. The first is the ability to hire NPC crewmen. These AI controlled non-player characters will accompany you when you are on land as an adventuring party, similar to Neverwinter Nights or Dungeon Siege. These NPC’s can also take control of ships that you capture, enabling you to control a small fleet of ships. Essential not only for huge trade profits, but for protection from Pirate fleets. The second element is the typical character progression. As you gain levels of experience you are able to purchase special abilities and increase skill levels. This allows you to spread the points around to become a well-rounded captain, or specialize your abilities for your preferred style of play. For example, I prefer to get to within grappling range and board the enemy vessel. This lets me take the ship intact and more importantly, lets me take the ships cargo/ booty intact. My character is therefore more adept at hand to hand fighting then ship-to-ship combat. If it were the other way around I would sit back and let fly the cannonballs, then scoop the cargo from the wreckage.