When I think "pirate" game, I'm thinking of a dark, gritty, unrated, evil type game. I'm not thinking of the happy guy swinging on a rope saying "tally-ho". I think a show like Black Sails for pirates.
It's like someone saying they want to play a "carjacker game", but they mean an "car racing game"
I mean, D&D characters are usually the protagonists, which in pirate media usually means they’re the “good pirates” - the Robbins Hood of the high seas, with the Royal Navy as the corrupt Sheriffs of Nottingham and the “evil pirates” who may or may not be undead as an additional antagonist. It’s certainly possible that they did mean they wanted to play an “evil campaign” where they raid and pillage innocent traders, but if Pirates of the Caribbean was the one example they gave you of what they were looking for, I think that’s unlikely. You should ask them though, I’m only guessing.
The problem is I like and want a long, long "rags to riches" style game that is HARD. And I'm not a Buddy DM that is a fan of the players. They get no help from me during the game. And I expect a huge level of simulation.
Ok, well your players seem to want a cool secret agent or pirate game, so chances are
someone is going to be having a bad time unless a compromise can be reached.
Now my Spelljammer game is made up of players like them. The big difference is that they really, really, really wanted to play in a Spelljammer game(and still do). So in game one they get into a ship fight...and loose badly with half the characters dying. What is left of their ship crashes on a moon and they have near nothing. Now THIS is the point where a lot of casual players will storm out of my game: they "lost" so they will take their dice and go home.
They try and fix their ship enough to take off, with two new 'moon' characters...but I run a hard core resource game. And it's a wild moon with no magic shops. Then their foes come after them and they are captured. They escape...and get the clever idea to take the foes ship. Lots of fighting...but they win and scrap the other ship to just barley make their ship spaceworthy. And spend the next game limping around space, hiding and trying to fix the ship.
Few casual gamers would stick with the above game. As soon as they lost the fight they would have just complained, told me i'm a bad dm and ran away. But my Spelljammer group stuck with it as they WANTED to...so they could take the good and bad. This group does not have that drive.
Do you know they don’t have that drive because you’ve actually asked them if they would be interested in such a game and they told you no? If so, you already know they don’t want to play in that kind of game, so unless you’re willing to run a different kind of game for them, you and they will probably both be better off looking for other people to play with who’s interests are better aligned with each others’. If not, you should ask them. Maybe they’ll surprise you, and if not, at least you’ll know.
My point is more they said they wanted a "pirate game" not a "swashbuckling treasure hunt".
Is this the part where you start calling them clueless or liars? You seem to be the only one who’s confused about what “pirate game” typically means to people.
That sounds like a show to check out....that I've never heard of.
Yeah, check it out. Though, heads up, there’s a good chance your reaction is going to be “should have been called swashbucklers of dark water.”
That sounds like Swashbucklers of the Caribbean to me.......
Ok, well the title is Pirates of the Caribbean, it’s solidly within the “pirate movie” genre, and it’s the one example your players have given you of what “cool, fun pirate stuff” looks like to them. So, you should probably watch it (again, at least the first three, more if you’re so inclined) if you want to understand where their interests lie. You can grumble about the title all you want, it won’t change the fact that, that’s the kind of thing your players meant when they said “pirate game.”
