Tell Us About Your Pirate Campaign(s)

[corwyn77]

Anyone interested in a pirate campaign should find a copy of Sid Meier's Pirates! that will play on a device that they own.

It's not only a lot of fun, but also generally pretty good historically, down to when and where wealthy ships were in the Caribbean on any given date.

One of the things that becomes clear very quickly is that you want to be a privateer, not a pirate, because otherwise, finding a place to make port becomes extremely difficult. And you want to make port regularly, because you'll need food and water, to repair your ship, to let your crew blow off steam and to get new recruits.

Pretty sure Pirates is on both Steam and GOG. I played it not that long ago on the former.

 

[TheSword]

If only the Bastion rules were in the SRD,a 3PP could do that...

Wow I didn’t realize they weren’t. That is some cunning stuff right there.

 

[TheSword]

For what it’s worth, I really got into Sea of Thieves at the first half of this year. The combat is ferocious, particularly if you’re in a two man sloop.

 

[GM Lent]

I run a DCC campaign on Tuesday evenings at a local goblin-themed coffee shop/chocolatier. The campaign is loosely pirate themed inasmuch as one of the PCs is a kobold pirate. The group has a ship (which became a flying/hovering ship after one of the adventures) which is mostly a plot device to transport them around - think the red travel lines in the Indiana Jones films.

All of the modules I have run so far have been islands/nautical in nature or adapted to such by me, and the group is almost entirely Chaotic so it all works. I started by using Bob Brinkman's Skull & Crossbones Classics, but wandered pretty far afield.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

a local goblin-themed coffee shop/chocolatier

Well, I know what city I'm moving to next. This is amazing.

I started by using Bob Brinkman's Skull & Crossbones Classics, but wandered pretty far afield.

I remember this being announced and a first release being published (which I sort of thought was a beta release) and then never heard about it again. Was there just the one release?

DCC always seemed like a good platform to build on, although Pirate Borg has probably eaten up a lot of the same chaos monster pirate space since then.

EDIT: Ha, just Googled the coffee shop. I actually turned down a job in your city earlier this year. (It seems like a lovely city, but they wanted me to move during the school year, which I won't do.)

 

[aramis erak]

So... no pirates?

Pirates are a Mantis , Crab, & Crane issue.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

The best I remember was a 1e Seventh Sea campaign. It was a combination of their setting with the old cartoon show Pirates of Dark Water.

I was a pirate from Avalon (English), who was also a member of the Merchants Guild - so when we weren't robbing ships, we were delivering cargo and protecting it from other pirates. I realize now my character gave off serious Jack Sparrow vibes, but it was before the Pirates movies.

Some interesting things about the game was he had a nemesis/former lover, who would always show up and rob him right after he robbed someone (backstory). She, however, did give him cold iron shot to shoot his father and escape (also backstory). Being part fae DID raise some interesting roleplay when as a group we realized there was a very high likelihood my character's father was also another PC's MOTHER (other PC was also from Avalon and half-fae).

 

[CarlZog]

I ran a few iterations of a short campaign in d20 Skull & Bones mixed with some elements from d20 7th Sea (Swashbuckling Adventures).

It was set in a relatively historical Caribbean of the early 18th century, with some very limited elements of low magic mixed in. The logistics and sailing details were a big part of the challenge to success in real life, so I kept them relatively accurate, while trying not to get too deep in the weeds of it.

The first episode was always a mutiny on board a ship the PCs are individually sailing on (all for their own individual reasons). As it unfolds, they have to choose sides, shaping the campaign as one of either becoming pirates, or becoming privateers hunting pirates. One group managed to avoid either entanglement and instead became successful smugglers, building a politically charged power presence at either end of the trade. That ended up being more Mafia than piracy!

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned 50 Fathoms for Savage Worlds. It's a great setup for a fantasy seafaring campaign, piracy included, and the old Pirates of the Spanish Main works nicely as a supplement for it too. Ship combat, cargo & trade tables, an interesting setting, and some larger mysteries to uncover make for a really cool game.

I played in a long game where we finished the plot point campaign and everyone was pretty happy with it.

 

[GM Lent]

Well, I know what city I'm moving to next. This is amazing.

It's a pretty cool store. Everything they make is vegan, and they show a ton of support to local artists, in various ways. Their hours are kind of weird (and keep changing) but the owners are great.

I remember this being announced and a first release being published (which I sort of thought was a beta release) and then never heard about it again. Was there just the one release?

What I have is Skull & Bones Classics #1; I don't think there was ever any more of them.

EDIT: Ha, just Googled the coffee shop. I actually turned down a job in your city earlier this year. (It seems like a lovely city, but they wanted me to move during the school year, which I won't do.)

I really like it here. Of course, I moved here from Massachusetts to marry my high school sweetheart, so YMMV. But it's an interesting city in an interesting area, and I vastly prefer it to anywhere else I've lived.