D&D General What's your view on a pirate-driven campaign?

[Zardnaar]

Has some naval combat does not make it Pirates or not Pirates. Nor does it make it Naval. It's just something that might happen (and can be handwaved around if your ruleset doesn't support it). The Pirates genre stems entirely from Treasure Island, which does not include any naval combat or piracy. The Naval genre stems largely from Hornblower, and will involve themes like rank, position, responsibility and duty (naval combat often plays a larger role, and pirates are always evil).

Spelljammer, for example. You might run a Pirate themed campaign, with treasure hunts, lawless frontiers and a hostile lawful stupid navy. Or you might run a Naval themed campaign, with PCs as dutiful officers in said lawful stupid navy (notably, protagonists in this genre are never enlisted men). Or you might do a planet-of-the-week exploration themed campaign. Also, it has terrible ship combat (in any edition), which is best avoided whatever your campaign's theme is.

I included a list of stuff a bit more up to date than Treasure Island.

Most of the major pirate games and pop culture stuff last 20 years.

Its like youre incapable of even comprehending other people's views or why people may indeed expect naval combat in a pirate game lol.

Its very common in modern pirate pop culture is why.

 

[Lanefan]

The main features of a pirate campaign are hunting treasure, defying authorities (especially colonials), mutinous crews, speaking with a Westcountry accent, and ham night.

Those can be - and very often are - the main features of any campaign. Doesn't need to be maritime.

 

[Lanefan]

The issue is Naval campaign =/= Pirate campaign. You are talking about very different things with very different parameters for success. Pirates work fine in D&D, but Naval does not, and is better served by different rulesets.

Maritime campaign in general, then; neither pirate nor naval necessarily, just focused on the sea, the ships on it and the conflicts between them, and the people on those ships.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Maritime campaign in general, then; neither pirate nor naval necessarily, just focused on the sea, the ships on it and the conflicts between them, and the people on those ships.

The OP asked about Pirates, not maritime in general, which makes a huge difference, since one works well in D&D, and the other is terrible.

And in particular, they asked about adventures, which we have done little to address - I can think of a couple which I don’t think have been mentioned yet, but need to check titles (will edit later).

Edit: The NWN adventure Pirates of the Sword Coast is archetypical Pirates in D&D, with all tropes present and correct. No need to buy it, there are plot summaries to be found online. It borrows some ideas from the 2nd edition Ravenloft adventure Ship of Horror, which, whilst not specifically piratey, has some stuff that could be dropped into a pirate sandbox. Talking of Ravenloft, the VGR take on the Sea of Lost Souls is quite piratey (although only a short section). For the purists, the original owed more to The Flying Dutchman, Moby Dick and The Terror.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I included a list of stuff a bit more up to date than Treasure Island.

Most of the major pirate games and pop culture stuff last 20 years.

Its like youre incapable of even comprehending other people's views or why people may indeed expect naval combat in a pirate game lol.

Its very common in modern pirate pop culture is why.

Pirates is an old genre. That's why it features in Peter Pan for example. Treasure Island (and The Coral Island etc) where huge in children's literature in the late 19th and early 20th century. There are a lot more pirate movies made in the 1930s*-1950s than in the last 20 years. Not that the tropes aren't present in the modern stuff (the addition of more fantasy elements is the biggest change). There are no realistic naval engagements (which might last days) in Pirates of the Caribbean.


*There was a very popular movie version of Treasure Island released in 1934 - two years before REH wrote Queen of the Black Coast.

 

[GrimCo]

For many people, playing pirates without ships and maritime shenanigans isn't playing pirates. I will be first one to tell people if they run it in d&d to try to minimize that part and find creative ways and house rules to make it fun, but it's important ingredient.

 

[Zardnaar]

Pirates is an old genre. That's why it features in Peter Pan for example. Treasure Island (and The Coral Island etc) where huge in children's literature in the late 19th and early 20th century. There are a lot more pirate movies made in the 1930s*-1950s than in the last 20 years. Not that the tropes aren't present in the modern stuff (the addition of more fantasy elements is the biggest change). There are no realistic naval engagements (which might last days) in Pirates of the Caribbean.


*There was a very popular movie version of Treasure Island released in 1934 - two years before REH wrote Queen of the Black Coast.

And how many people have watched those old movies?

What's more culturally relevant right now in pop culture?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And how many people have watched those old movies?

Me, probably REH, and the other people who made modern pop culture. Pirates of the Caribbean was based on a 1967 Disneyland ride which was based on a 1950 movie version of the 1883 novel Treasure Island. But as I said, apart from having more fantasy it isn't much different. No realistic naval combat. The only recent movie to attempt that was the not-a-pirate-movie Master and Commander. And Greyhound I suppose. The Battle of the River Plate (1956) is a pretty authentic naval engagement movie. It's set in 1939, but a lot of the age of sail parameters were still in place. It was the battle of Midway in 1942 that changed all that.

 

[GrimCo]

Pirates of Caribbean are, by today's standard, old movie franchise. First one is 22 years old, last one is 8 years old. Black Sails are 11 years old tv show. One Piece started in 1999. Those tree are probably most influential pices of modern pop culture for most of current D&D player base. And no, there is no "realistic" naval combat in them. But in Pirates of Caribbean, it's cinematic, it's iconic, and it's quite prominent core feature of franchise. Same with Black sails, only it's more grounded in reality (no fantasy elements).

When you mention pirates to players in their 20-30s, first association is usually - Pirates of Caribbean. They don't necessary want realistic in RPG either. They want fun and cinematic. Broadsides thundering, swinging on ropes for boarding, that kind of stuff.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Broadsides thundering,

Handle this through narration.

swinging on ropes for boarding

Works fine in D&D if you break it into a series of shorter fights. Ship of Horror has a deck battle.