My friends have asked me if I can try to create a pirate themed campaign for them and I could use some help. I don't want the campaign to be:
>you sail across water to a town
>stuff happens in town
>you sail across more water to a new town
>more stuff happens
>rinse and repeat
I'd like to have things happen while they are sailing along but I'm coming up with nothing. Anyone have any experience or advice on how what I could try doing?
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>Whole world is sea
>towns are fleets of ships holded togheger by ropes
Other pirates.
Merchant ships loaded with booty.
Sea monsters.
Jesus Christ this isn't hard.
In my experience Pirate is one of those campaign themes which doesn't really give you much to do by itself. You're better off if your group can decide what they want the main conflict to be, do they want to be perpetually on the run from authority, dealing with ship politics from ambitious or greedy crew members, exploring ancient or secretive parts of the world and getting its valuables before others, competing with other pirates for territory and reputation, or whatever else you can think of.
>I'd like to have things happen while they are sailing along but I'm coming up with nothing.
Raiding merchant vessels. Being pursued by naval vessels cause they're fucking pirates. Horrible storms. Mutinies. Mysterious stowaways with dark secrets.
Water World sucks
>dealing with ship politics from ambitious or greedy crew members
>exploring ancient or secretive parts of the world
This guy gets it. Sailing a wood and canvas ship was an intensely isolated by also intensely social experience. Fuck, sailing still is, but it was even more so when charts are shit at best and non-existent at worst and provisions and fresh water are scarce.
And when you have a group of neer-do-wells all together in the same place for the sake of pillage and plunder, crew politics are gonna be hugely important.
Exploration is also a really good theme. Sailing ships were fucking state of the art technology up until the 1800s and were also the cutting edge of exploration. Set up bases on isolated islands, meet savage local tribes, cut deep inshore in search of tails of loot.
Meeting new civilizations with no way of communicating, and either raising to be gods, or end up having your heart raised from your chest to the gods.
Run it in MAID
no seriously
Have the pirates get caught in a war between big powers.
The party has to avoid large armadas, they can potentially get contracted to raid enemy supply lines, their former employers can hang them out to dry once it becomes politically wise to do so, etc.
Putting them in any sort of war really opens up the options. They can join a side or a rebellion, they can play both sides, or they can just sail around causing havoc. And while doing this you can throw in all the normal pirate stuff like krakens, ghost ships, and hunts for buried treasure.
Yes, but it entirely depends on your and your group. In fact, you can do so many things I cannot be bothered to make an exhaustive list.
As a meager attempt to inspire you, have a few:
Have you actually thought about what is necessary to traverse the sea? A ship! Maintaining a ship is a complicated chore, one that has many pitfalls for the unwary and inexperienced. Improvisation, learning and improvements are some of the many experiences when travelling by ship. How will your group fare?
Next: Pirates are a menace that mainly sustain themselves on trade vessels. To do so, you have to be able to successfully fight the vessels into submission. How will your group do this? Trickery, fast ships, supreme weaponry? How long can they stay in a region before they attract major attention?
Ask your friends to be more specific and you're good to go.
Ghost ship, hidden islands, giant whirlpools
These are literally just different types of combat encounters. Unless you're a murderhobo that will get stale quickly
On the other hand
All have really good ideas
Poison'd is uniroinically a good system. Just don't include rape if your group can't handle it. Not difficult.
What's the setting?
now make it about space pirates please.
seriously tho, are there any good game/setting for space opera pirates?
Rations spoil, bad weather, foul water, rumors of mutiny, disease breaks out, a monstorus stowaway.
Loadsa plots.
Allow them to attack a flag ship from the setting's main Empire, and find in it's hold an unconscious girl in strange clothes that the ship was transporting to the capitol. If they seize the obvious plot hook, then she's a member of an ancient civilization seeking out a set of ancient mystical mcguffins to be returned to her 'wise elders'. If they don't bite immediately, then you have this Empire's main fleet follow the path of the ship back to port and attempt this girl's recapture, and see where things go for there...
Hey.
You know that overrated TV show that spawned the "brown coat" fags? It's the narrative version of someone's campaign using a certain well-known system.
Clue yourself into TTRPGs other than D&D, you uneducated faggot.
Have the main setting be a sunken continent that once housed a great civilization. Prates and other naval adventurers congregate to loot the ruins as well as scholars and archeologists with hired mercenaries.
Because of the nature of the magical disaster/divine retribution/ whatever, sections of the submerged landmass rise as islands and sink back down seemingly randomly. The main towns could be remnants of the continent that did not sink or static pieces that new settlers have colonized.
This could create for some cool encounters as looting the island ruins are races against time before it sinks again. Encounters with other crews could also happen as people camp out valuable island locations that rise on regular intervals.
This is all very Atlantis of course but I think you could have some fun with it.
Traveller has a campaign where King Brian Blessed hires you to play spacepirates in a star cluster, scare the other one-system-minors into restoring an old alliance/federation with him, and then offers you his daughter's hand in marriage should you succeed.
This. I've been in sailing games where only one member of the crew had any personality and didn't really want much to do with us, and this meant that the journey we were on was happening in real time, with no sense of where we'd come from, where we were headed or how much time had passed.
There was a deeper plot going on, but it reared its head too sparsely and seemed to be composed mostly of "le ebin 80s pop culture rafrans ecks dee" moments kludged together.
calm down buddy
Can this be a One Piece thread now?
Where do you think you are.
>en.wikipedia.org
Your ship suddenly is struck by a nasty case of St. Elmo's fire. It could end up causing mayhem as the fire takes the form of mischievous sprites OR could serve as a good slice of life situation where the light is so constant and bright its hard for anyone to sleep. The light naturally starts bringing in all kinds of sea life that follow the ship constantly while the phenomena is in effect.
youtube.com
The ship comes across a massive reef with even more massive sponges that is being pushed to the surface, filled with twisting passages just waiting to be explored and Eusocial intelligent Dire Pistol Shrimp to be befriended.
This.
For fuck's sake, even if the players are aimless, the Romantic era was one of the few times in history that rulers and kings would give random parties of adventurers tasks and goals, with wealth/treasure/land as rewards:
>Hark, you random sailors with a knack for survival: Your king and country need a team to chart uncharted lands and waters that may very well be dangerous/spoopy, so that we may claim them and the treasures therein in the name of our kingdom before those other shit kingdoms do! We'll let you keep 20% of what you find if you make it back alive. We'll give you a decent (or indecent) boat and adequate (or inadequate) funds to equip yourselves. What say you?
>Lo, you sailors/explorers - your king requests your audience upon the matter of the recent string of pirate attacks upon our country's trade routes. Your cooperation would include a letter of marque (entitling you to legally enact "counter-piracy" measures within our country's waters), and claim to 30% of plunder. His majesty would also like to compliment your frugality, given the quality of your newly-acquired purchases compared to the less-than-ideal returns of your last venture. He would also like to humbly remind you to report all profits and acquisitions of your encounters to the crown first and foremost.
>Hear ye, sailors/explorers/privateers: War is at hand, and your king requests your aid in the coming naval and possibly land battles. Each of your commanding officers will be given royal battleships and crews, and the rest of your crew shall serve under you on a truly majestic vessel. Provided adequate combat results and showing of valour, you may be rewarded with many acres of land and an annul income for the rest of your time living within our borders. The king would only kindly request that you please report all appropriate taxes on your ownings and remind you to treat royal officials and inspectors with proper legal respect and courtesy.
Make them somolian pirates in shadowrun or GURPS.