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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9780727" data-attributes="member: 7035894">I just wrapped a 4 month long pirate arc in my home campaign, and here's how I handled it:1. The PCs were crew but it was obvious pretty quickly that they had special skills, so the captain basically used them as a kind of strike team, which dovetailed nicely with the PC's own motivations for being on a pirate ship (they were trying to learn more about and ultimately defeat an upstart pirate king with devilish alliances).2. The rest of the crew, aside from the captain and mate, became "lair actions" on the PC's side when we did shipboard combat, which was fun and kept things relatively simple.3. The party had to split the treasure with the rest of the crew, but I planned the loot accordingly (and they had the opportunity to nab any special items).4. There was, of course, a pirate town because that's fun. It was on an isolated island surrounded by a perpetual storm (which was the party's first clue that the upstart pirate king was, in fact, a storm giant who had made a devilish pact). The pirate town gave opportunities for lots of shenanigans and side quests.5. I planned the arc so that, by the end, it was a natural point of departure for not only the PC's, but much of the crew, including the captain (basically, things had gotten too hot). So the party left the crew on amicable terms.6. This was "fun pirates" (at least, the crew the party joined). I wasn't going for hardcore pirate brutality or realism - that's just not the kind of game we enjoy.There was shipboard combat, rival factions, a zombie-infested island, three different underwater adventures, including the use of the Apparatus of Kwalish, an ancient temple repurposed to be the pirate king's lair, and they finished by running through White Plume Mountain, totally redesigned as White Plume Island.</blockquote>

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