Pirate Campaign Ideas: Seas or Skies, ahoy!

[VariSami]

All right. Since my last Eberron campaign went down with a TPK in the first real dungeon (basically everything went better than expected for the villains in the boss fight: they managed to charm the main melee combatant and drop the support with a critical hit), it is time for another one out the oven.

This time it seems we will be playing pirates. Or they (the players) will, depending on how you look at it. We have been going over this a little, and they have yet to decide whether they would like to become airship or standard seafaring pirates. The world is still Eberron, mind you. The last thing I have done is having suggested a heist style of play where they gather information, come up with a plan, execute the plan, and enjoy the spoils while they last. They would prefer the game to be less combat oriented than the last, after all. Nothing has been set to stone in this regard either, although I also suggested that the first heist could be snatching a ship in the first place.

The party will start at level 5. D&D 3.X with all core material by WotC (no Dragon or Dungeon magazines, though), except Domain Wizards (and possibly some other broken shenanigans on a case-by-case basis). Some third party material such as Dragon Compendium, The Complete Book of Eldritch Might and The Collected Book of Experimental Might will also be used, at least by me. At the moment, the players have mentioned wanting to make an Erudite, an Elven Wizard, and a Dread Pirate (using something like Factotum/Barbarian/Swashbuckler, or the like; I also pointed out Scarlet Corsair to the player).

My current plans involve using a humanoid Creature of the Mist (Eldritch Might) who is also a Stormcaster (Stormwrack) as a semi-random encounter with a plot hook or two. If they engage it, the encounter should prove interesting enough. If they do not, I have something of a story cooking inside my brainbox. Not too detailed yet, though.

The question is: What other story hooks could I come up with? Of course I have some ideas but the core idea is captivating and utilizable enough for me to want to make this campaign the best I can. And as such, I would also prefer to utilize the best ideas outside of what I can come up in a hurry.

[Vaz]

Every Pirate game is an airship one. A water based one gives you an entire new arena of battle/adventure and scope for threats, whereas Airship adventures become generic Flying adversaries/stowaways #34.

There's no saying that they cannot later become airship pirates.

[VariSami]

Yeah, I see the point. While I could envision a failed capture where the ship keels in mid-air, forcing everyone on a new side of it and causing falling damage (not to mention a sudden rush to escape - that ship will not stay on air for too long), it would probably be too much of a hassle to erase everything and redraw it (although I could probably just make a new drawing beside the original).

[unseenmage]

I was going to suggest both. I'd consider it a challenge to pit the seafarer's guild against the skyfarer's guild. And the Pirates get to either pick a side, or instigate more conflict, all while pleasantly thriving in piracy.

And start them out on a seaship and later either enchant it as an airship or let them steal one.


We had an Eberron one-shot recently where our two non-caster lvl 16 dudes stole a lightning rail. We just made a plan, bought the magics needed for it, and Gate-ed the thing onto a mountainside dotted with lightning-rail-stones (or whatever they're called).

[The_Jester]

I'm not terribly knowledgeable when it comes to the Eberron setting. But, I think I can reliably chuck in my two-cents when it comes to running a piracy themed campaign.

The best way to keep a game like this filled with excitement is establishing a consistent setting structure.

Since the PCs are planning on playing outlaws, that gives you free reign to make life incredibly hard for them.

If they're out stealing things, they're going to run afoul of both the law...and rival outlaws.

A good way to drive such a point home for them is to keep them as seafarers for quite a while.

Ocean going vessels don't have the ability to escape as fast as airships do.

Ocean going vessels also are limited to sea ports...giving them only so many places to go. That requires the Players to behave themselves. At least in certain places. It would royally suck to have wanted posters in every major port with your face on it. Or Bounty Hunters waiting for them in every sea-side inn.

Another thing you as the DM should keep in mind is what the players' acts of piracy do to effect the rest of the world.

A shipment they plunder could be a ransom being sent to buy the release of a noble that's being held captive. When that treasure doesn't make it, what happens? Do the people holding the noble simply understand, and let the hostage go? Do they continue to hold them until more money is sent? And what about the people paying that ransom? Think they'll just let it go?

Its also important to keep an eye on character alignment. Do the players just loot their targets and leave the crews alive to tell the tale? If so, word will eventually get around about them.

I've run a campaign were the players were criminals. Its really important to play up that the more that they get around, and the more jobs they pull off, the more the world shrinks.

Safe places to go get fewer and farther in between. The more jobs they pull, the more likely they are to attract a vendetta from the sort of people its not good to cross.

A life of crime might make for some fun and excitement, but in the end...well it rarely ends happily.

Just be sure to give the group plenty of friendly NPCs in order to balance out all the enemies they're bound to make.

[Tvtyrant]

Use Skywhales! They are awesome, and look cool (see my Skies over Atlantis.)

[VariSami]

Just so that you know, I will not be making the choice over craft for the players. Whether they want to plunder the seas or the skies is up to them. Both unseenmage's idea and The_Jester's suggestions sound fine, although I will likely not implement the guilds since the players have made it clear that they would prefer to be independent entrepreneurs on the pirating business.

Oh, and regarding skywhales: While the players will likely use other forms of transportation, those would likely create a fine (harmless) random encounter which might even turn into a plot hook.

[Ansem]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TToIdkWOl80
Adapt to D&D, storyline done!

[avr]

Heist style games are easier on characters who nova than your standard dungeon crawl is, as they'll likely get 1-2 encounters per adventuring day. You may wish to adjust CRs with this in mind.

An airship does let you go anywhere for good or ill. There's a wider range of targets and few excuses to block access short of permanent storms.

Falling overboard tends to be painful for non-flying characters on an airship. Feather fall tokens may not be useful if they're at all high up.

Note that Eberron airships are not in fact the fastest things around. Elemental galleons travel over sea about twice as fast IIRC and could carry news ahead of the PCs in some situations. (Edit: to say nothing of House Sivis message stations)

[Immabozo]

What's a pirate's favorite letter?

[VariSami]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TToIdkWOl80
Adapt to D&D, storyline done!
Watched a bit of the beginning (for now) and already it is helping with the idea of Warforged pirates and how they should be. Thanks.



What's a pirate's favorite letter?
(Ya)RRRRRRRRRRrrrrRRR.

Edit: Running a bit slow. Of course it is C.

Hmmm, avr does have a point. Luckily (for good or bad in general), I have no intentions of making it easy for the characters. Also, the party is only a 3-man cell (plus whatever NPC crew they can amass, and one of them will take Leadership but I will create the cohort). As such, I also need to tread carefully. My track record of TPKs is impressive, sadly.

[Immabozo]

(Ya)RRRRRRRRRRrrrrRRR.

Edit: Running a bit slow. Of course it is C.

Hmmm, avr does have a point. Luckily (for good or bad in general), I have no intentions of making it easy for the characters. Also, the party is only a 3-man cell (plus whatever NPC crew they can amass, and one of them will take Leadership but I will create the cohort). As such, I also need to tread carefully. My track record of TPKs is impressive, sadly.

Ya sink it'd be an ARRRRRRRRR, but its really a SEA

You sound like my friend Arthur. He tries to kill his players. while gaming with him, we had a TPK, or near it, almost every week. It forced us to play viable builds from level 5 (our start point) on. We loved it, was a real challenge. Good story line too. Like when we got captured by slave traders, it would have been a PITA to get out of there, had not the guy we were working for, come to save us.

[Envyus]

Having recently read this plot hook in Fiendish codex 1. I think this is a good idea for an villain group in your game.


The Waverazer. Captain Herask was a terror in his time. In addition to being a sorcerer of great power, he was also the captain of a ship of well-trained and loyal gnoll thugs. Herask’s greed for power outstripped his skill,
however. When he used greater planar binding to conjure a sibriex, the demon escaped the bonds of the spell and used its feeblemind spell-like ability to reduce the captain to a simpering idiot.

The sibriex claimed the Waverazer as its own, charmed the gnoll crew and enhanced them with grafts, and now uses the ship to haunt trade routes. When they capture a ship, the gnoll pirates are allowed to loot as they will. The sibriex retains the claim on a captured ship’s crew, though—it uses charm monster to make the crew members yield to its experiments. Rumor holds that the Waverazer has built a fleet of a half-dozen ships of deformed pirates, but as of yet, no one suspects the true nature of her demonic captain.

The Sibriex along with this plot hook can be found in Fiendish Codex 1, while grafts can be found in Fiend Folio if your interested in this.

I posted this in a another thread about a campaign like this, but did not think another thread would pop up right away.

[VariSami]

Actually, I do not try to kill the player characters. That makes it sad. I only attempt to challenge them, and occasionally their own actions might bring about a semi-random encounter which often proves fatal (such as an angry mob when they kill a villager in view of another and do not pursue the witness). I play with a DM that attempts to kill a character each encounter and his track record is actually worse than mine.

@Envyus: I actually saw that in the other thread. I own both the Fiendish Codex and the Fiend Folio (well, actually: I own basically all generic books other than Weapons of Legacy and Epic Level Handbook).

I already had a "possessing" villain in the last campaign I ran for these players so that is somewhat déjà vu. Otherwise, 'tis a fine suggestion which might be alluded to as a story in a tavern. If the players wish to grab that hook - well, clearly there is still something to be seen inside that trope.

Oh, and while I am unsure whether or not it is relevant for the discussion here, I also got another player. He will at least try the campaign out with a pre-made character for the first session. After that, he will either continue with that character, make one himself or quit, depending on his enthusiasm for the character and the campaign.

[Envyus]

Actually, I do not try to kill the player characters. That makes it sad. I only attempt to challenge them, and occasionally their own actions might bring about a semi-random encounter which often proves fatal (such as an angry mob when they kill a villager in view of another and do not pursue the witness). I play with a DM that attempts to kill a character each encounter and his track record is actually worse than mine.

@Envyus: I actually saw that in the other thread. I own both the Fiendish Codex and the Fiend Folio (well, actually: I own basically all generic books other than Weapons of Legacy and Epic Level Handbook).

I already had a "possessing" villain in the last campaign I ran for these players so that is somewhat déjà vu. Otherwise, 'tis a fine suggestion which might be alluded to as a story in a tavern. If the players wish to grab that hook - well, clearly there is still something to be seen inside that trope.

Oh, and while I am unsure whether or not it is relevant for the discussion here, I also got another player. He will at least try the campaign out with a pre-made character for the first session. After that, he will either continue with that character, make one himself or quit, depending on his enthusiasm for the character and the campaign.

It's not a possessing villain. The Sibriex just turned the captain in to a vegetable, charmed the crew modified the hell out of them and became a pirate captain. Sibriex are not capable of possessing anything.

[VariSami]

It's not a possessing villain. The Sibriex just turned the captain in to a vegetable, charmed the crew modified the hell out of them and became a pirate captain. Sibriex are not capable of possessing anything.

Hence the quotation marks I used - a better word might have been dominating, but I wanted to emphasize the utter removal of personal motivations and the substitution of your own. For example, the villain of the last game was not a possessor either, but he implanted people with mutant Kython (Half-Illithid) central nervous systems to make them into re-fluffed Thoon Infiltrators, which in turn made others into Thoon Thralls. With this bodily aspect of mind-control in place, it is actually extremely close to what you suggested.

However, as I said: it makes for a nice possibility, nevertheless. I merely doubt whether or not pirates would fancy an encounter with such a situation which hardly caters to the players' expectations for this campaign.

[Envyus]

Hence the quotation marks I used - a better word might have been dominating, but I wanted to emphasize the utter removal of personal motivations and the substitution of your own. For example, the villain of the last game was not a possessor either, but he implanted people with mutant Kython (Half-Illithid) central nervous systems to make them into re-fluffed Thoon Infiltrators, which in turn made others into Thoon Thralls. With this bodily aspect of mind-control in place, it is actually extremely close to what you suggested.

However, as I said: it makes for a nice possibility, nevertheless. I merely doubt whether or not pirates would fancy an encounter with such a situation which hardly caters to the players' expectations for this campaign.

Oh ok. Well it is a demon pirate which is why I brought it up.

Anyway hoping some other people give you some other idea's and also hopefully you can tell use what happens.

[Kol Korran]

Hmmmm... I'm crappy with builds and mechanics, but how aboutthis idea for Fluff:
- There is some new (or old) resource found in Xen'dric, which dragonamrked houses and other interested parties seek to gain from the lost continent. Usually Stormreach was the way to go, but now new ports are starting to open on Xendric's shores, perhaps of Khorvaire inhabitants, but perhaps even of Xen'dric ones. The party are pirates trying to steal these loads of the resources, and other things to boot, and they get entnagled with the machinations of quite a few groups:
- The dragonmarked houses (I'd imagine Lyrandar ships, Deneith merceneries, with Cannith equipment to start with)
- Possibly drow, giants, or other people who see the resource as "rightly theirs".
- The Brelish crown, and possibly the lords of Stormreach?
- Dragons? Lords of Dust? The Aurum? Realy, everyone might have a piece!
- The Sahuagin in the middle of the Khorvaire- Xen'dric route, possibly with other underwater creatures interested (Aboleths?)

The idea is to make the resource INCREDIBLY luxurious, but incredibly dangerous to hold unto, and have a web of people trying to fight for it.

Stormreach can function VERY well as a pirate haven, (I read a 3.5 book of it which was very decent). You can easily throw ANY kind of magical treasure in the hoards coming from it.

Sharn may be a great place to visit and indulge in splendor and bit time politics. And hey- it got a book too!

As to what resource? You can go with Syberis shards, but I suggest something more interesting, new, not fully understood.

Good luck!

[VariSami]

Hey, great stuff! Actually, the last campaign was about Warforged teams being sent to more or less unexplored parts of Xen'Drik as frontier settlers by Cannith South. At least one player has voiced a wish that this campaign would take place a few years afterwards, at a point where there is semi-regular trafficking between these points and Stormreach/Khorvaire.

The Storm Lords seem like a given since they are both the historical pirate rulers of Stormreach and its current protectors since their monopoly has merely changed appearances. If I remember correctly, at least one of them is also a member of the Aurum, although I will probably make the club's involvement subtle (the characters were in an open conflict with them in the campaign before the last).

I agree with making the resources they steal hot. This does indeed result in a style of play I hope to advocate. Thanks for articulating it, since this confirms the earlier suggestion that ridding yourself of whatever you took before it is tracked to you would be in a pirate's best interests. In the case of particularly steaming booty, it should provide a mission in itself. Fences are not idiots, after all, although video games would have you think that.