Pirate, Why Do You Plunder?

If you are enjoying reading Neverland Fantasy Role-Playing or Neverland - The Impossible Island and want to run the setting like I do, your mind might turn to pirates. Or maybe you have another sea or space based pirate RPG you enjoy. We know what pirates do, but why do pirates plunder? Why flout the law and risk a hanging? Here are d6 ideas why your player character might choose to say, “A pirate life for me.” While these ideas are written with the high seas in mind, they can easily be ported into space as well.

picture courtesy of Pixabay​

1. Revenge​

Someone did you wrong. Maybe you were made to walk the plank but managed to swim to shore or were marooned on a desert island. Once you make it back to another crew you likely want to work your way up the ranks and plot to extract your revenge one day. Revenge may be something that drives you or it might be in the back of your mind waiting for the right time to be brought to fruition.

2. Rum-Soaked Dreams​

You drink a lot. Life seems to blend seamlessly between rum-fueled dreaming and real life. You talk to the unseen, you never walk in a straight line, and your crew never knows exactly what you may do next. However, you always come through in a fight or when sailing the high seas. You are chaos incarnate and dangerous as hell when swords cross.

3. Press Gang​

Piracy was not a choice because you were press ganged into it. Then you found out you were good at fighting, drinking, and raiding. And your old life seemed dull by comparison. You have taken to the pirate life, but you remember those who forced you into it. Whether you want them to pay for kidnapping you remains a choice you haven’t made just yet. Until then you will sail and loot and live your new life.

4. Ruthless​

You might have been kicked out of the Royal Marines for brawling, just avoiding the hangman. Or the merchant marine cashiered you for drunkenness. You are just too mean and too rough for legal work on the seas. But as a pirate those violent skills and lack of impulse control can take you far, if you avoid angering the officers. And if they cause you too much grief, well, mutiny can always lead to a brand new command if needed.

5. Wanderlust​

You kill when needed and take what you need. But what you really enjoy are new port towns to visit, hearing a new foreign language, and smelling salt spray from many different seas. Maybe you collect seashells or take notes on what you’ve seen or you only feel truly alive while at sea. You want to sail and keep sailing and you’re willing to kill to keep enjoying the privilege.

6. Buried Treasure​

You’re in it for the gold. You want to be rich or maybe you just want piles of loot. You know you have to be careful if you aren’t the captain to keep your greed hidden. Dead men tell no tales may be a cliché, but it is a cliché for a good reason. If you discover the location of buried treasure you have be very careful who you share that secret with.

Next time you decide to play a pirate, pause for a moment and consider how your pirate joined the life and why he stays. Then hoist the Jolly Roger and sail off to unearth buried treasure and take to a life of skullduggery on the high seas. Or pick up a blaster, board a beat up starship, and head for the Outer Rim as a pirate in search of merchant prey.

 

[MGibster]

It was Treasure Island, which was a monster hit in the 19th century. And those pirates aren't great people, by any means, but Long John Silver's charisma and moral waffling goes a long way.

I read Treasure Island as an adult when I had to write an paper for my English Lit class about the influence Johnson's A General History... had on fiction. I consider Silver to be one of the great all time villains of fiction. He's a cold blooded murderer with a fever for treasure but the dude is charming as all get out and genuinely shows affection for Jim.

 

[MGibster]

I'm reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with my 13 year old currently. I think there's a lot more acceptance of students doing justifiable violence and even homicide when necessary today. The people who object get a lot of attention, but they're not winning the battle.

I think it's a bit different though. I think we're a bit more accepting of fantasy violence with spells and even swords than we are of a 13 year old kid with a gun.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it's a bit different though. I think we're a bit more accepting of fantasy violence with spells and even swords than we are of a 13 year old kid with a gun.

PG-13 is now the standard for "family fare," and it's pretty damned violent. I think popular culture has moved on from where we think of it as being.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Only in fiction.

I think folks are focused on pirates as a fun element of fictional games here.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I think folks are focused on pirates as a fun element of fictional games here.

I got that. But the subject of real life was raised as well.

I also find it odd that there is a great deal of effort to twist logic so as a play a reprehensible role on sea as a PC, but little effort to base campaigns on banditry and road murder. Yet both are identical occupations.

 

[MGibster]

I also find it odd that there is a great deal of effort to twist logic so as a play a reprehensible role on sea as a PC, but little effort to base campaigns on banditry and road murder. Yet both are identical occupations.

I don't think of swords as weapons. Which is silly because swords are totally weapons. But if I got on the subway and saw a guy with a sword I wouldn't feel the least bit alarmed until he started threatening someone with it. If I see a dude with a rifle, I'm going to be a little nervous. It's just that a sword being used as a weapon is so far outside of my life experience that I don't think of them as being weapons.

It's similar with pirates. While I don't have a lot of experience with banditry or road murder, these things happen on a regular basis. I've been on the receiving end of attempted burglaries and one attempted mugging so these things seem very real to me. But piracy? That's about as far removed from my life as knights and ninjas. I can play a fantasy version of a pirate just as easily as I can a knight or a samurai.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I don't think of swords as weapons. Which is silly because swords are totally weapons. But if I got on the subway and saw a guy with a sword I wouldn't feel the least bit alarmed until he started threatening someone with it. If I see a dude with a rifle, I'm going to be a little nervous. It's just that a sword being used as a weapon is so far outside of my life experience that I don't think of them as being weapons.

It's similar with pirates. While I don't have a lot of experience with banditry or road murder, these things happen on a regular basis. I've been on the receiving end of attempted burglaries and one attempted mugging so these things seem very real to me. But piracy? That's about as far removed from my life as knights and ninjas. I can play a fantasy version of a pirate just as easily as I can a knight or a samurai.

Interesting and detailed viewpoint. Makes sense.

I've cleaned up countless disputes involving recent immigrants who settled their issues with brush hooks, cane knives, and machetes, plus the locals who use box cutters and lock blades, so anything with an edge gets my attention fast, but I see your point.

 

[MGibster]

I've cleaned up countless disputes involving recent immigrants who settled their issues with brush hooks, cane knives, and machetes, plus the locals who use box cutters and lock blades, so anything with an edge gets my attention fast, but I see your point.

Ha! I was thinking to myself how I might react to someone with a Kaiser blade on the bus. Cane knives, Kaiser blades, machetes, etc., etc. I typically think of as tools rather than weapons. But I admit I'd be suspicious if I observed someone carrying a Kaiser blade outside of the proper context. That context being working or hanging in the tool shed. If some dude stepped onto the subway carrying one I'd be mighty suspicious.

The first time I ever saw a Kaiser blade it was hanging in my father-in-laws work shed. I pointed to it and asked my wife, "What the #^$@ is that?" Yes, I'm a city boy. Though I did judge the Kaiser blade to be an acceptable weapon in a pinch were I to find myself imperiled by zombies.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I got that. But the subject of real life was raised as well.

I also find it odd that there is a great deal of effort to twist logic so as a play a reprehensible role on sea as a PC, but little effort to base campaigns on banditry and road murder. Yet both are identical occupations.

I think as soon as the thief with backstab was introduced into D&D we started the trend of playing violent criminals as PCs. And the assassin followed. And both are still in the PHB 5E today.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I think as soon as the thief with backstab was introduced into D&D we started the trend of playing violent criminals as PCs. And the assassin followed. And both are still in the PHB 5E today.

What is this 'we' of which you speak?