I'm running a sandbox pirate game, and it's been pretty good so far (8 sessions).
Tell me about your pirate campaigns and ideas you might want to share: plots, encounters, NPCs, anything will do.
Also, ships and pirates art.
I never played a pirate, sorry.
>>46252924
>>46250385
Just steal shit wholesale from Sinbad.
And anything you can crib off of Surcouf is excellent.
Let the ship be below average quality when they begin. Let it be there base and stronghold during the game. Remind them once to take supplies and let them run scarce.
Remember the 'Articles', pirate crews were some of the most democratic groups at the time with all the crew getting a cut of the takings and a vote on their future.
Oh my OP, my friend really wants to play pirates, please share some of your ideas!
>>46255141
P-please respond
For example, where/how did you start? Already on a ship, landlocked and desperate.....?
>>46252968
>>46252924
>mfw there won't be another great pirate videogame for a long-ass time
>>46255141
>>46255239
The start was very hard mode, low level, no crew, no ship, almost no equipment and on hostile ground. In time, they managed to get things running by keeping a low profile and disguising as privateers. They worked on a couple ships (swashbuckler, arquebusier and medic) and then found one particular crew about to mutiny. They threw the captain overboard, high-cha guy proposed himself as new captain and votes were on his favour.
They currently sail on a brig, crew is 30-40 people, not much but they know how to dodge overwhelming dangers.
>>46254420
My setting has a big Pirate Republic with a Lawful Something governor and a whole council of backstabbing-but-sometimes-cooperating captains. Players picked the richest one, which turned out to be the perfect choice for now.
>>46255282
Well hold on
>>46253662
Since players are leveling relatively smoothy and sacking-intriguing quest lines piled up very quickly, I was wondering if there was some classic swashbuckler clichè to throw in and blow their PCs mind a bit. Ideas so far:
>White whale
>generic huge shiny animals
>Indian temple dungeon with traps and curses
Treasures quests are everyday business by now.
>>46255239
i just started an exalted piracy game last week! totally ripped off a lot wholesale from One Piece but all my players HATE one piece so it's perfect, they won't even know i hit them with good things i didn't even design
it started with a merchant queen getting robbed by having the players burst out of barrels after being assumed as salvageable flotsam. They took the skeleton crew ship over quickly, and since the players wanted an existing connection at the start, we worked out a thing where they're all looking into missing tribals thanks to an upstart slaver ring in the area. So they find a few missing tribals, one player socials up the merchant until they get Stockholm Syndrome despite the death threats just hours earlier, and now the crew's looking to retrofit guns and armor onto a simple trade caravel.
right now, though, another player joined so we're doing their intro where they have a floating seaside restaurant and are being threatened by a union of golden-plated self-proclaimed great pirates who extort the weak by acting like it's in their common interest.
shit ain't gonna fly, and it's been very exciting.
my big goal is that they will be full one piece by going through all this. this is their divine punishment for hating my straight-out favorite series of all time, because by the end of this, they'll be huge fans of the series without even knowing. seriously, there's more direct allusion than i can even fucking acknowledge at this point.
>>46250385
We're doing a pirates game right now, but using airships. The only way this really makes a difference vs. a normal ship is it can fly over land and it adds a third dimension to ship based combat, which took a while to figure out mechanics for.
We started out on a cruise liner, all for different reasons. It was attacked by pirates, we repelled them, boarded, and captured their ship. We have a human crew of 5, but a number of lizardmen that live aboard the ship supplement the crew for basic operation.
There are five nations, and so far we've been bumping around doing minor quests in the various lands. More importantly, as we visit new places we're figuring out market prices for trade goods. We just recently solved a tobacco blight, which will open up a new trade route for us. We've recently commissioned the construction of a new vessel as well, and are gathering materials from all around for it.
>>46250385
>sandbox
What do you mean by this?
>>46255755
it means "do whatever, i'm not forcing your hand" which also means "if you run out of food it's on your head. make sure you manage your supplies."
>>46255755
Open world with players able to freely travel throughout it, with random encounters and plot hooks scattered here and there.
>>46255450
Internal plot by one of the pirate governor's rivals that involves military support from a near by anti-pirate kingdom's navy. The governor can't move against the upstart without enough evidence, the upstart can't overthrow the governor without relying too much on the outside military (so far), and the outside military can't storm the pirate haven yet either. The players get caught up in the mess by pirating a shipment of arms meant for the upstart, or finding I pirate/privateer 'naval consultant' on a military vessel, or being scouted to be brought into the fold by one of the interested parties.
Smaller plots could be the remains of a sailor entombed in the bilge of their ship haunting everything who needs to be freed or placated by giving the ghost its murderer who is part of the crew. Only problem there is that the crew isn't going to like that.
Finding a life boat with two haggard survivors who are very grateful for rescue, but seem to have been throwing bones and remains overboard as you found them.
>>46255282
sunless sea is a pretty dope stopgap tho
Are there any prewritten rulesets for pirate themed adventures or would I have to make them up? Stuff like classes, ship mechanics, etc.
>>46255804
How can there be plot hood of the players can freely move about the land? What is to keep them from dropping it halfway through
>>46255972
depends on the system, my guy.
>>46256167
hopefully being engaged and wanting to follow up. maybe threats that leaving this hook unchecked would be disastrous for them (like the anti-pirate government thing >>46255838 mentioned.
>>46256167
In the game I'm running, they're chasing a man who doesn't want to be found. Winds up feeling kinda like global detective work.
>>46256167
Nothing. You need good players to have sandbox campaigns work.One day ;_;
Also, what are good systems for pirates? ive been reading pirates and privateers, but it may be too crunch heavy for my newtoroleplay friend.
>>46255720
Is exalted crunchy?
I was thinking about reflavoringmouse guardto keep things rules-lite.im also a new GM
>>46255838
I like these, but the ghost one sounds perfect since their next assignment will bring a new ship as a reward: their boss is called The Trader, owns hundred of ships and some of them aren't exactly new. Wouldn't be surprising if one of those ships actually brings a curse within.
Plus: one of the PCs is a doctor - totally evil, not the kind of doctor you might want to patch you up, but very competent at his job, also the party speaker since the captain is a man of action. He recently stumbled upon a book written by some ancient settler about healing magic performed by the local tribes. One of these shamans is actually a representative in the Council, and he's also close with a loyal member of the crew: their tribe dropped said rituals long time ago, but the character is so interested in the possibility of learning magic I'm actually thinking to give the player some bait to follow. Maybe more books? Even some Indian artifacts and/or spoopy places would do.
>>46256443
it's this weird fucked up mix of stupid crunchy and stupid fluffy at the same time
i guess it's like eating drywall in that way?
but yes there's naval combat rules in exalted and they're -obtuse- but also fit well with the other systems in the game.
basically every form of combat has it's own rules and spins on the already-complicated base system. and they can all be happening at once.
>>46256390
You also need a lot of prep, fucktons of time to build the setting and a a fetish for fast-thinking.
Sandbox is uncompromising: if they dare too much, they get slaps in the face, so be prepared to give them as many slaps as they called. Same thing with rewards.
>>46256698
I have a dream of running a campaign tgat culminates in a large navel battle and then playing monowar or modified battlefleet gothic
posting literally the one image i have that could work as a naval campaign setting piece, and probably won't work outside of weird fantasy type games....
>>46256807
exalted's naval rules can mesh with mass war rules so you can command an entire fleet using signal-sending and orders. there's homebrew for boats so big they're literally islands of themselves that operate as war fortresses. the stats in the game are open-ended and support things like this. but if you're a fan of hard numbers, that's where the game fails. all the numbers are representative in an obtuse way and are married more to the idea that fluff presents than hard calculation. So while you're doing damage, what's really happening is the ship is taking hull penalties to staying afloat...
it's cool but if you're a fan of battlefleet and war games in themselves then you might be better pressed on another game.
>>46256912
Works good for me anon!
>>46257021
That sounds interesting, i never thought about signal flags. But i mean literally halting the rpg rules and playing a straight tabletop man'owar game(while rping commands and such) and then picking up with the rpg after that resolves
>>46257228
well if you're playing as one person, you don't have a hivemind over your fleet. you need a signal ship and trained readers with good visibility or else they're basically gonna act to the gist of what they're trying to accomplish, realistically.
exalted puts this out by having you roll stratagems (usually intelligence + war) to communicate proper signals so your officers know what to do with their units. being under attack or having dense cover (smoke/fog/sea monster between you two) would penalize it, and failing means Captain Fuck over there is gonna just do what he considers the best thing to do. Even if you realize something about the enemy's movements and want to warn them about a forward assault being a trap.
Long end short? Yeah. there's too much character focus for what you're looking for there.
a place where buried goods might go
>>46255676
>Deep Sea lifeforms (Lovecraft Old Ones, prehistoric Lizard Men, beguiling merfolk, intelligent mastermind Kraken, whatever you prefer) are awakening from the deep and want to wipe out the surface goers for whatever reason you can think of. The opening move of their plan is to gain total dominance of the sea by dragging down any ship that crosses their territory, which coincidently lets them harvest land resources (gold with which to operate surface spy rings, humans to breed with, whatever makes sense) while spreading terror of this sea. The sea lanes are becoming sparse, which is bad for everyone, merchants are losing money, the military has lost ships and tactical maneuverability, and the pirates have nothing steal, so in a desperate effort to put together powerful experts, the governments are willing to recruit pirates in the name of stopping this underwater terror.
>>46250385
Using the Razor Coast pathfinder adventure for heavy inspiration in my 5e game, would highly recommend.
>>46256167
They're not long-term campaign spanning plot hooks, just litter intrigues that will react a certain way when the characters interact with them. Quests and such.
"Black Sails" is a great show that covers a lot of great plot hooks that can be explored in a pirate campaign.
>>pic very related
Pro tip: There's a lot of good naval art in the public domain from the 18th- and 19th-Century.
my pirate links pasta
http://www.mediafire.com/download/qo7e3pd7qnmqtmt/Pirates+and+Privateers+of+the+Carribean.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/bc42or81xv36qp3/Flashing+Steel+%2817th+C.+Skirmish%29.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/0gcmj43xvamp4fb/On+the+Seven+Seas+%28Pirate+Skirmish%29.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/2c1cqc3854sni25/Gloire+-+Under+the+Black+Flag.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/94hde2006k67kmk/Daily+Life+In+The+Age+Of+Sail.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ab11jweu582sn9v/The+Seafarers+-+The+Pirates.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/8n2ctwlzgvz7ici/Osprey+-+ELI+067+-+Pirates+1660-1730.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ibmbmyes004d7bh/Osprey+-+ELI+069+-+Buccaneers+.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/g5rf6xtd1z38pfi/Osprey+-+ELI+074+-+Privateers+and+Pirates+1730-1830.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/7a7xd3gl43vxx64/Osprey+-+FOR+049+-+The+Spanish+Main+1492-1800.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/46cghkvr5zp9ba2/Osprey+-+RAID+037+-+Blackbeard%27s+Last+Fight+1718.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/fd38d5r5cymzy41/Osprey+-+VAN+070+-+The+Pirate+Ship+1660-1730.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/nzlk5gk10qn7u11/Osprey+-+NVA+096+-+Spanish+Galleon+1530-1690.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/download/kudk64m47znv0w7/Osprey+-+WAR+158+-+Pirate+-+The+Golden+Age.pdf
>>46255282
I know wanting ubisoft to make more games is an unpopular opinion right now, but I do want a pirate game that learn't from both Black Flag and Rouge.
>>46256176
Ok, well what are some good systems to use? I'm very familiar with 5e and could get used to GURPS, if either of those work
The Pirate genre, much like cyberpunk, suffers from inclusion of countless unconnected tropes. So in order to make it good you have to make perfectly clear what it is about.
Privateers as pawns in political scheming?
Jilted sailors fed up with class strata keeping them enslaved.
Opportunistic criminals taking advantage of exposed riches during transit?
Freedom fighters in a struggle to keep world powers out of their region?
Misunderstood individualists fighting the world for justice over something only they remember?
Pick one and nail it down hard. Discourage any excursion from this main theme and bring every plot back to it in the end.
If you don't it will be a hodgepodge kitchen sink only limited to a vague era where every player goes off on their own tangent and nobody knows or cares what the others might be all about.
>>46265515
7th Sea
Captain "Lonesome" Jackie Timbers of the pirate vessel 'The Nooseman'.
>Named after an attempted hanging with a trick rope, after all the others had died Ol' Jackie-Boy still struggled for air alone.
First "Rated" Mate Davie O'Mally.
Quartermaster "Fuckin' Blackjack"
>Named because his Christian name is Jack... And he is black.
Master "Shackle'n'sheckles" Solomon Ben Beckett
>Captured during the plunder of a roual treasury ship, Shackles or Sheckles was 'concinced' to join the crew and work the ledger and oversee the taking, of Jewish decent and is terror-stricken by the sight of the sea.
I love coming up with pirate crews.
>>46267091
Gunner Banga
>After shot ruined his hearing, Banga is utterly deaf and constantly says Bang over and over. His large size and violent disposition ensures the guns keep up a good rate of fire.
The Barber-Surgeon
>Keeps a small surgery on the ship, predates all of the current crew and rarely speaks save with Solomon The Jew.
>>46267091
Bootsy
>Ship's cat and Senior Ratter, given a full and half share after ripping the face off a would be arsonist 3 days from port.
>>46255972
Paizo did an AP called Skulls and Shackles. No idea if it will be usefully to you.
How about watching Pirates of Dark Water? That setting was awesome
GM: you are in the middle of the ocean and
Player 1: lol we go right
Player 2: pretty sure you mean right..
Player 4: why aren't we playing as air pirates? Like Baloo and that Disney show?
GM:... Aaaaand the ocean turns midnightblack, forms a mouth and try to bite your ship
Player 3: ... Like Dark Water? Cooool
>>46260579
I heard it has a lot of aimless plots and bland stock archetype characters.
>>46257743
This neatly describes the campaign I'm running.
Was going pretty well until one guy decided to be a complete flake and the other two PCs refuse to play without him.
>>46270201
it's a show on HBO, did you expect much more? What's important is that people get pirate hype, then there can be better adaptations of things. Like how GoT was riding LotR's coattails when it got greenlit to show what made the books good.
>>46272710
It's on Starz. HBO hires better writers.
>>46250385
If not 7thSea, is shit
>>46255282
Check out Naval Action.
;^)
Say I want to create a high fantasy pirate setting. I can handle the magical bits, but what sets up the world for piracy to thrive? I'm thinking of having the world made of lots of little islands, would that affect it?
>>46279617
Not just lots of islands, but lots of islands with valuable resources, and/or along the trade routes of valuable resources that are also remote from the home of the powers who trade/have colonized the islands.
Basically, the Caribbean. Lots of stuff being produced and passing through and far from home so there couldn't be an all-dominating military presence.
Of course, you'd want any military vessel to be something completely out of the league of the party. At least until they get to high levels.
You don't want them to see a huge ship of the line and start drooling. They should be pissing themselves at even a 6th-rate cutter.
>>46279617
Piracy is the result of a controlling authority that is weak or distant. In this case, you want distant - it's more evocative of the pirate feel.
Look at areas with strong traditions of piracy - the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, etc. They have things in common - colonial governments supported by distant militaries and rich plunder in the local area. Additionally, communications and so on were not advanced enough to summon aid quickly or coordinate effective eradication of piracy. These distant powers might be saddled with domestic issues or more important shit to worry about, like wars. In this context, as long as you don't grow to be a big enough threat to justify the resource, you can get away with skimming a wealthy transport here or there.
>>46257743
>>46271672
So did you both decide to steal a Doctor Who serial wholesale, or did one of you do it and the other ripped then off?
>>46272710
>it's a show on HBO
retard
I set up a pirate theme campaign that wasn't designed to go very long.
I had the players infested with a bug/curse that would kill them in 3 weeks unless they gathered 1 million dubloons for the pirate king in a newly discovered archipeligo.
I had it infested with everything pirate related from pygmy dwarfs to cannibals to surfing vampires. I even had a day by day table to see what they found while sailing.
It definitely needed more work but we had a lot of fun.
If you're using a semi-real or real setting, steal shamelessly from history.
A personal example:
My players were starting in Trinidad, after the first few intro sessions and they acquired their own ship they decided to sail to Margarita.
(one surreptitious wiki browse later - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Margarita)
From just that, we have
>Spanish fort town
>captured by Red Legs Greaves, an honorable Scottish pirate
>Red legs "captured a fleet of Spanish ships off port, before turning the guns on the forts which he stormed and claimed a large booty of pearls and gold."
Boom, 10 seconds of googling and we have a new NPC, a questline and a location.
Almost every island in the Caribbean has something interesting going on you can work off.
All you need to do is employ some handwavium and declare it an alternate history. In fact, encourage your players to take part in this - upon hearing this, one of my players promptly rewrote his backstory so his character inadvertently set off Guy Fawke's explosives, decimating the British parliament and majorly screwing up the power balance. The character fled the country to a life of piracy in the Caribbean.
