So, again, we might want to be careful about how we are thinking about crime.
Theft is depriving someone of their property without their permission.
Robbery is theft with violence or threat of violence.
Piracy is thus basically robbery, not theft.
Piracy And Other Malfeasance
So, again, we might want to be careful about how we are thinking about crime.
Theft is depriving someone of their property without their permission.
Robbery is theft with violence or threat of violence.
Piracy is thus basically robbery, not theft.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
To follow up this pointless nitpick with another one.
If theft is depriving someone of their property without their permission:
Piracy is robbery AS a method of theft. It IS theft.
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Imaculata
Hero
The Hollywood depiction of epic pirate battles, with much cannon fire, explosions and gore, were not a common affair. Most pirates preferred not to lose life and limb for a few coins. Which is why several pirates, such as Black Beard, are said to have relied more on intimidation. A peaceful surrender is a lot easier than half your crew being wounded. Also, when word gets out how awful you treat your prisoners, expect a lot less of those peaceful surrenders when they see your flag.
That said, there were a few pirates in history who were truly rotten to the core. Who engaged in cruelty just because they felt like it. Such as the infamous Roche Braziliano.
Imaculata
Hero
You are both right.
That said, this is certainly something to discuss during a session 0. And I would recommend leaning more towards a positive flavor of pirates; good guys with shades of grey. You don't want to deal with your players commiting atrocities.
Are they Robin Hood on a boat, Han Solo where the falcon is a caravel, Jack Sparrow, Hector Barbossa, or a spaghetti western villain at sea? It feels like there is a continuum and it makes a difference where they are at on it.
Is there any way to make Francois l'Olonnais not be "evil" in the old style alignment system, even if the Spanish government at the time was also really bad? Is there any point in trying to make him not evil?
Is there any way to make Francois l'Olonnais not be "evil" in the old style alignment system, even if the Spanish government at the time was also really bad? Is there any point in trying to make him not evil?
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payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
I dont do the Pirates of the Caribbean routine with good guy pirates having a jolly good time with a ho hum bottle of rum or whatever. I think that is fine its just not the type of game im interested in. Often, pirates are antagonists or mercenaries and other unpleasant types. This is my fantasy take.
There is a Traveller sandbox campaign called Pirates of Drinax which actually is very interesting along the pirate line. The PCs are given a powerful ship (for the region) and tasked with restoring power to a former empire that has fallen into the shadow of two giant empires. The space they live in is a buffer between the two giants. The folks in the middle often suffer from indifferent empires that take and give little, or mega corporations that promise development at the cost of contracts that are essentially indentured slavery. The PCs are tasked with empire building as the campaign goal.
Now, how the Travellers decide to proceed is a wide and varied choice you would expect from a sandbox campaign. They are indeed encouraged to pirate and disrupt the trade routes as a primary mode of operation, letter of marque and all. Though, the Travellers can, of course, choose to be diplomats instead building alliances in neutral space to push back on the empires. Or, they can pit the empires against one another in clandestined efforts. There are, also, a few bands of established pirates in the region and the Travellers can choose to rival them for biggest pirate fleet if they choose.
I have run this campaign a few times and the players have always leaned more into the diplomat and/or spy route. A few theories I have is that it actually takes a lot of time and effort to become a pirate; well a successful one that lives longer than a handful of prizes. The other is that often the targets are simply merchants trying to make a living. While disrupting trade does give it good to the enemy empires, it also feels bad because ordinary folks are bearing that brunt. Basically, forcing the small fry to screw the small guy. The players often choose a path of revolutionary resistance, as opposed to one of ambitious piracy.
That is the rub of piracy. It is often an inherently political situation that can be much too messy for some tables to work through. You need a sort of black and white morality play that can be easy enough enforced by the narrative, but does it feel realistic? Does it need to? That is the the real question players and groups need to answer when it comes to playing pirates.
There is a Traveller sandbox campaign called Pirates of Drinax which actually is very interesting along the pirate line. The PCs are given a powerful ship (for the region) and tasked with restoring power to a former empire that has fallen into the shadow of two giant empires. The space they live in is a buffer between the two giants. The folks in the middle often suffer from indifferent empires that take and give little, or mega corporations that promise development at the cost of contracts that are essentially indentured slavery. The PCs are tasked with empire building as the campaign goal.
Now, how the Travellers decide to proceed is a wide and varied choice you would expect from a sandbox campaign. They are indeed encouraged to pirate and disrupt the trade routes as a primary mode of operation, letter of marque and all. Though, the Travellers can, of course, choose to be diplomats instead building alliances in neutral space to push back on the empires. Or, they can pit the empires against one another in clandestined efforts. There are, also, a few bands of established pirates in the region and the Travellers can choose to rival them for biggest pirate fleet if they choose.
I have run this campaign a few times and the players have always leaned more into the diplomat and/or spy route. A few theories I have is that it actually takes a lot of time and effort to become a pirate; well a successful one that lives longer than a handful of prizes. The other is that often the targets are simply merchants trying to make a living. While disrupting trade does give it good to the enemy empires, it also feels bad because ordinary folks are bearing that brunt. Basically, forcing the small fry to screw the small guy. The players often choose a path of revolutionary resistance, as opposed to one of ambitious piracy.
That is the rub of piracy. It is often an inherently political situation that can be much too messy for some tables to work through. You need a sort of black and white morality play that can be easy enough enforced by the narrative, but does it feel realistic? Does it need to? That is the the real question players and groups need to answer when it comes to playing pirates.
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
Lawful is only one-third of the alignment matrix.
There's no squaring necessary, unless you're drawing a matrix (see above), or there's some requirement that protagonists must be benevolent.
Celebrim
Legend
Villainy is villainy even if you are telling the story from the perspective of the villain.
When I'm playing a villainous character as a player, I try to adhere to "I'm a bad guy, but I'm a bad guy with standards". I try to allow for the character to be somewhat sympathetic, both for my own benefit and because it's a social game and you need to give reasons why the other players if they aren't at least as villainous as you don't just kill you outright or at least disassociate themselves from you. That is to say I try to play an anti-villain.
As a GM, 80-90% of the PC's in the game regardless of genre are villainous. I try not to let my distaste for that bias my adjudication, but I do try to have society realistically deal with the problem using the resources it has available. This doesn't mean necessarily fanatically opposing the player characters. Most members of society are generally neutral apathetic, and they do what they think needs to happen to stay alive and get the maximum benefit. So if they are faced with a villain they can't fight safely, they'll simply try to cozen up to them and get on their good side. Players sometimes mistake this behavior for loyalty rather than self-interest.
In general, no society can survive long without some protection against crime and villainy or at minimum some sort of monopoly over it by the ruling class. So if you are a villain and you can't work inside the system, expect the full force of society to come down on you eventually. If you aren't high level, this likely to be very lethal. You don't want to become some NPC party's quest.
Yep. If nothing else, you can't claim the vessel itself if you've filled it full of holes.
But intimidation only works if the threat is credible. That generally means actually using violence on occasion to establish that you mean it. Blackbeard took the ship he later renamed the Queen Anne's Revenge by force only after firing a couple of broadsides and killing several men upon it.
"I only sometimes murder people," isn't a ringing moral endorsement.
As an aside. One of my favorite poems is Whitman's Song of Myself #36.
Stretch'd and still lies the midnight,
Two great hulls motionless on the breast of the darkness,
Our vessel riddled and slowly sinking, preparations to pass to the one we had conquer'd,
The captain on the quarter-deck coldly giving his orders through a countenance white as a sheet,
Near by the corpse of the child that serv'd in the cabin,
The dead face of an old salt with long white hair and carefully curl'd whiskers,
The flames spite of all that can be done flickering aloft and below,
The husky voices of the two or three officers yet fit for duty,
Formless stacks of bodies and bodies by themselves, dabs of flesh upon the masts and spars,
Cut of cordage, dangle of rigging, slight shock of the soothe of waves,
Black and impassive guns, litter of powder-parcels, strong scent,
A few large stars overhead, silent and mournful shining,
Delicate sniffs of sea-breeze, smells of sedgy grass and fields by the shore, death-messages given in charge to survivors,
The hiss of the surgeon's knife, the gnawing teeth of his saw,
Wheeze, cluck, swash of falling blood, short wild scream, and long, dull, tapering groan,
These so, these irretrievable.
Stretch'd and still lies the midnight,
Two great hulls motionless on the breast of the darkness,
Our vessel riddled and slowly sinking, preparations to pass to the one we had conquer'd,
The captain on the quarter-deck coldly giving his orders through a countenance white as a sheet,
Near by the corpse of the child that serv'd in the cabin,
The dead face of an old salt with long white hair and carefully curl'd whiskers,
The flames spite of all that can be done flickering aloft and below,
The husky voices of the two or three officers yet fit for duty,
Formless stacks of bodies and bodies by themselves, dabs of flesh upon the masts and spars,
Cut of cordage, dangle of rigging, slight shock of the soothe of waves,
Black and impassive guns, litter of powder-parcels, strong scent,
A few large stars overhead, silent and mournful shining,
Delicate sniffs of sea-breeze, smells of sedgy grass and fields by the shore, death-messages given in charge to survivors,
The hiss of the surgeon's knife, the gnawing teeth of his saw,
Wheeze, cluck, swash of falling blood, short wild scream, and long, dull, tapering groan,
These so, these irretrievable.
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