Piracy And Other Malfeasance

[Reynard]

I am currently listening to a book about Sir Frances Drake (El Draque), who is among the most famous adventurers and pirates in English history. He is a quintessential model for a TTRPG adventurer -- but he is also a monster by modern standards (and even a bit by standards of his day).

But I don't really want to talk about Drake. Rather, I want to talk about things likes pirates, gunslingers, mercenaries, outlaws and thieves: all are well represented in TTRPGs as the protagonists, as well as inspirational media. As with movies like Pirates of the Carribean or The Expendables, the rough edges are often filed off these characters in TTRPGs. Even so, we know that they are bad people doing bad things, usually for money. Even the classic dungeon delver is essentially a tomb robber.

How do you -- if you do at all -- square protagonists who would be the villains in a different genre? What do you do with the crimes they commit? Are all your criminal heroes "thieves with hearts of gold" like Han Solo, or do you indulge in the grittier side of these stories? And if your "heroes" are rough, how do you make the villains stand out?

Just a reminder that we can talk about this without getting into the gory details. I also think we should take care not to make light of real world atrocities. Thanks.

 

[Krachek]

To avoid usual caricature, create npc as a character.
Background, actual motivations, hope or plans for the future.
Those informations can help roleplay unusual situation of bargain, hostage, share loot, cooperation, etc.
All pirates come from somewhere, and have hope to get a better life.
Even if you state that a npc always been a pirate, and want to die as a pirate, it makes a character to deal with.

 

[Imaculata]

It should be noted that there were historically also plenty of pirates who were decent people. Just because a person lives a life of crime, does not make them a villain. And under certain conditions, pirates could even commit their acts of piracy "legally" on behalf of a nation.

I've ran a pirate campaign for many years. The first thing I told my players as they were rolling their characters was: You may be pirates, but at the end of the day, you are also heroes. Not perfect people, but generally the good guys. Like Han Solo; a smuggler, swindler, gambler, scoundrel. But when it really matters, he does the right thing.

 

[Reynard]

It should be noted that there were historically also plenty of pirates who were decent people. Just because a person lives a life of crime, does not make them a villain. And under certain conditions, pirates could even commit their acts of piracy "legally" on behalf of a nation.

Sanction to turn your atrocities against a rival nation doesn't make them less atrocious.

I've ran a pirate campaign for many years. The first thing I told my players as they were rolling their characters was: You may be pirates, but at the end of the day, you are also heroes. Not perfect people, but generally the good guys. Like Han Solo; a smuggler, swindler, gambler, scoundrel. But when it really matters, he does the right thing.

Did they actually pirate?

 

[billd91]

How do you -- if you do at all -- square protagonists who would be the villains in a different genre? What do you do with the crimes they commit? Are all your criminal heroes "thieves with hearts of gold" like Han Solo, or do you indulge in the grittier side of these stories? And if your "heroes" are rough, how do you make the villains stand out?

Doesn't this apply far wider than just piracy and other criminal enterprises? Many pirates entered that life to escape ones they found worse in the legal navies they were pressed into joining or abused in while they served, to say nothing about the rampant human rights abuses those navies were put to.
I'd put the same question to anyone playing law enforcement in an RPG given the history (and current behavior) of those institutions. Or knights in any feudal society. It's no secret a lot of Western Europeans were grateful the church contrived a reason to send knights eastward to pick on Muslims and Jews in the Holy Land (and Italians and Byzantines on the route there) rather than keep their mayhem confined to home.
There are skeletons in pretty much everybody's closet.

 

[Reynard]

Doesn't this apply far wider than just piracy and other criminal enterprises? Many pirates entered that life to escape ones they found worse in the legal navies they were pressed into joining or abused in while they served, to say nothing about the rampant human rights abuses those navies were put to.
I'd put the same question to anyone playing law enforcement in an RPG given the history (and current behavior) of those institutions. Or knights in any feudal society. It's no secret a lot of Western Europeans were grateful the church contrived a reason to send knights eastward to pick on Muslims and Jews in the Holy Land (and Italians and Byzantines on the route there) rather than keep their mayhem confined to home.
There are skeletons in pretty much everybody's closet.

Sure.
How do you personally employ it in an RPG?

 

[Umbran]

How do you -- if you do at all -- square protagonists who would be the villains in a different genre? What do you do with the crimes they commit? Are all your criminal heroes "thieves with hearts of gold" like Han Solo, or do you indulge in the grittier side of these stories? And if your "heroes" are rough, how do you make the villains stand out?

It should be noted that there were historically also plenty of pirates who were decent people. Just because a person lives a life of crime, does not make them a villain.

We have to be careful about what we are calling "crime". Stealing property and money from the rich is one thing. I expect most of us don't actually care about property crime so long as you aren't leaving people starving in the process.

Violently taking another ship at sea, such that human bodies are torn asunder by cannonballs, wooden shrapnel, and cutlass wounds is another kettle of fish. Kind of hard to be considered a "decent person" when your job entails leaving a wake of fire, blood, murder and death.

A little while back, I was watching Our Flag Means Death, and having very similar questions running through my head. I'm watching a pretty cozy show... about pirates? Most of the main characters are explicitly serial murderers, and we are supposed to be empathetic to their trauma, insecurities, and emotional lives? How do you pull that off?

OFMD manages it by framing it as 1) somewhat absurdist, and 2) redemption arc. It is made mostly clear that the characters, deep down, would prefer to not be horrible people, if given an opportunity and emotional support structure. And, so long as they are on that path, we can forgive, or at least overlook, the horrible things they likely did in the past.

We see this a lot in fiction. In comic books, we have Wolverine, of the X-Men, with his "I'm very good at what I do, and what I do isn't pretty," bit. But we are embracing the character as he (mostly) leaves behind his morally questionable days, and is trying to be a hero.

Aside from the redemption arc, there's another major tool we have to allow for characters of morally questionable bent to not be bad people - make the antagonists even worse. It is pretty easy to come off looking like Han Solo when the major antagonist is up for murdering entire planets. Shooting up a few minions isn't a big deal if you are saving the galaxy in the process.

 

[payn]

Sanction to turn your atrocities against a rival nation doesn't make them less atrocious.

It does not.

Did they actually pirate?

Oh this is a good one. Yes, they did pirate, buuuuuut their letter of marque retroactively made it legal once they returned to home port. Essentially, go be a thieving bastard that we don't acknowledge for "not starting war purposes" but when you come home you are just a good citizen sailor who happens to have stuff to sell/trade.

 

[Imaculata]

Sanction to turn your atrocities against a rival nation doesn't make them less atrocious.

Piracy is basically just a form of theft. It can involve violence, but it doesn't have to, and often didn't (many preferred not to be mortally wounded, what a surprise). After all, many pirates preferred their victims to surrender without a fight. Atrocities are not a requirement for piracy at all, though a few notorious historical pirates loved commiting them all the same. There were some really cruel pirates.

But there were also plenty of decent pirates. And if one nation steals from another nation, who basically stole their goods from somewhere else, is it really a crime? Also, keep in mind that there existed entire pirate enclaves, of escaped slaves amongst others, who fought for a live of freedom, and robbed from the very nations that enslaved them. It was a time of much cruelty, where sometimes the lawless were more civil than the lawful. The word crime becomes a bit muddled in that context.

Did they actually pirate?

They did indeed. They took on enemy vessels, vessels of a rival nation, and even other pirates.

 

[billd91]

Sure.
How do you personally employ it in an RPG?

First, you listen to your players and talk about why they want to play the game they want to play (or why they'd want to play the game you're willing to run). If that ends up with them willing to play in a game that's all shades of gray, you own it and go with it. If they want something more stark with its themes, play those up as suitable motivations. If they want to play pirates who jumped ship from more oppressive navies, play that up rather than some of the more rapey portrayals of pirates. If they want to play cops who want to clean up a corrupt institution, incorporate stuff for them to clean up. If they want to be more like homicide detectives, go up with that and the mystery solving, not the routinely and blatantly racist street patrol and drug crime focus.

And for all of those situations, recognize that you're almost certainly sweeping some historical issues under the rug. You can't fix or even incorporate all of the world's problems in your entertainment. And that's fine.