Also in both, are there only 3 characters to choose from? Peter Blood, Diego and Ian Stance?
Yes, City of Ships is a replica of the original City of Abandoned Ships game and only has the 3 characters. Whoever made the GOF 2.5 mod for COAS did not add characters. GOF 1.2 and ERAS II have more; ERAS II has almost 150 different characters for the player to choose.