Running a pirate campaign!

[FuryOfMetal]

So i'm running a pirate campaign for my friend and younger brother, both fairly competant roleplayers. Playing gestalt for added options with only 2 players. My friend is playing a Barb/Fist of the Forest/Bear Warrior//DFA. My brother will probably play Druid//Something (what's a good gestalt for druid?)

So i ask you playground, what would be some awesome things for a pirate campaign?

• It'll be a fairly light hearted fun campaign with a semi-serious plot-line.
• It's set in the Lhazaar Principalities of Eberron.
• Staring 6th level.
• I intend for them to earn the rights to a ship via Battle Royale style arena fighting, arranged by "probably" a BBEG type.
• Possible interactions with the Dragon lich Vol to the north in later levels?.

So playground...run wild!

[DaMullet]

If you have access to the supplement Stormwrack, it has rules for ship-to-ship combat, which you may find useful.

If you're starting at 6th level, you could do a PotC-inspired plot arch wherein the BBEG has a pet Kraken that they need to kill.

[FuryOfMetal]

I didn't even think about stormwrack! doh

[unosarta]

As for the Druid gestalt, Druids are pretty powerful in their own right, but I imagine that a Tashalatora Monk2/PsyWar 18 wouldn't be terrible. Wisdom to Armor Class, fun times with PsyWar powers. Can you use powers while Wildshaped? Because I imagine that would also bring up the power level quite a bit.

As for the Barbarian/Fist of the Forest/Bear Warrior//DFA; "is that a giant brown bear breathing flames?" could start to be a recurring line for your NPC's.

[LOTRfan]

Dragon #318 was a list of pirate loot and their conversions into standard treasure. It also has a couple of weapons commonly featured in pirate stories (and prosthetic hooks! )

EDIT: You might also want to check out DualShadow's Pirate Base Class.

Also, have you checked out the Swashbuckler from Complete Warrior?

[FuryOfMetal]

Yeah I decided that crew members on their piratey ship would be swashbucklers and rogues and the like, just that the class in itself isn't that great. Luckily neither wanted to play it so i didn't have to advise them otherwise. DFA is nice CON synergy. The bear warrior is gonna grab dragon wings aswell for getting to other ships, then turn into a bear and kill things!

The druid's most pressing issues regarding the rule of cool is wildshaping and animal companions. Good ideas are sharks and octupi, for awesomeness!

I'm interested in creating a port for less...legal individuals. Any ideas for this?

[Seffbasilisk]

Tortuga!

I'd probably have the port be on an island surrounded by thick reefs, or rocks. Have a hidden cove, so you have to have the knowledge of it, or super-sailing skills to get in.

A few cannons could easily defend it then.

...or a Water Wu Jen.


One thing I'd caution with a pirate campaign, is be sure that the players know limitations, and don't try tackling something ridiculously out of their league. Not a lot of ways to fudge around a fifty-cannon broadside.

[cooperflood]

Green Ronin's Freeport setting is a very good resource for those running a Pirate Campaign. Most of the setting material can be ported straight into Eberron or you can just pick and choose elements. There have also been a fair number of adventures written for this setting which might prove helpful.

Druid Gestalt Options:

Cloistered Cleric: Double WIS casting, 3 Domains, 6 Skill Points
Wizard: Concentrate on Self Buffing Spells and suddenly your Wildshape gets silly good.
Totemist: This another very, very good way to boost your Wildshape. A large number of ways to increase your AC, Natural Attack, and grappling.
Rogue: 3 Good Saves, Sneak Attack (Works while wild shaped and easy to get flanking with Animal Companion), 8 Skill Points. Not as strong as double casting, but still has good synergies.

[Gavinfoxx]

I posted some stuff about piracy on Brilliant, so let me copy and paste what I posted there...

"...How is piracy, or at least privateering, different than a normal D&D campaign? Seriously. You kill people and take their stuff. D&D characters are LAND PIRATES anyway! Just get a letter of Marque.

'We, the Lawful Good Human kingdom of Heironeousia, hereby give you a Letter of Marque authorizing you to legally raid the shipping of the Lawful Evil Hobgoblin kingdom of Baneia.'"

"Okay... what's involved in piracy?

Killing or cowing people and taking their stuff.

THUS,

EVERY D&D class is great at piracy! The entire game is BASED on pirates!

If you are talking about folk who use, 'small, fast, well armed ships to steal from big slow merchant ships on the high seas', well, there are lots of ways to do that with D&D characters.

There are a few relevant skills all over D&D, including...

Things to help you catch the ship (anything that improves the speed of your ship or gives you some control of the weather)
Things that help you damage the ship without sinking it (anything that does damage, to their ship FROM your ship, really, there's lots of stuff!)
Things that help you cow the enemy crew into surrendering (lots of intimidate stuff, reputation, any charm things, stacking fear)
Things that help you board an enemy ship successfully to fight them man to man (high mobility type melee characters)
Things that help your side survive with fewest supplies, so you have more room for loot, and can repair your ship (certain types of spellcasting and crafting and creating things with magic instead of taking a bunch of supplies of your own)
Things that replace crew that needs to eat and such (unseen servant, undead, constructs, etc.)"

So, in general, no need to focus on swashbucklers... historically, pirate crews used Cutlasses, ie, swords that were REALLY SIMPLE to train people in. The stats of really simple slashing weapons in D&D are "Sickles", because it assumes that agricultural weapons are often shared cultural sorts of stuff, and people will use them often. Basically, reflavor Sickles as Cutlasses if you want to model "really easy to learn slashing weapons". Rapiers and Smallswords were less common on pirate ships than you might expect... oh and give the SwashBUCKLER proficiency in BUCKLERS.

[Da Beast]

Yeah I decided that crew members on their piratey ship would be swashbucklers and rogues and the like, just that the class in itself isn't that great. Luckily neither wanted to play it so i didn't have to advise them otherwise. DFA is nice CON synergy. The bear warrior is gonna grab dragon wings aswell for getting to other ships, then turn into a bear and kill things!

The druid's most pressing issues regarding the rule of cool is wildshaping and animal companions. Good ideas are sharks and octupi, for awesomeness!

I'm interested in creating a port for less...legal individuals. Any ideas for this?

I'd think most of the ports in the Lhazaar Principalities would cater to less legal individuals. Monk is actually a decent gestalt for druid and it opens up the possibility of a kung fu octopus. Only problem is he'd have to be lawful neutral. I suppose you could have them fight house Lyrandar, although I don't know why anyone would want to fight the most bad ass of the dragonmarked houses.

[Dust]

The following isn't particularily relevant, I just was reminded suddenly of it and think someone might be able to take some use out of it.

One of my fondest gaming memories ever is from a short-lived pbp streampunk game, where we were dropped into the action by our airship pirate leader telling us to board the other ship.

The 'boss' of the encounter was a french dandy type with a monocle and a flower in his cap and a rapier, and his trained minotaur pet that kept trying to bullrush us over the sides. It set the tone for a pirate game brilliantly, as we instantly hated the fellow and it was an incredibly fun fight, having the feeling of danger without it REALLY being there.

[FuryOfMetal]

Lots of nice tips here Thanks everybody.

The druid player likes the buffing side of the druid for cool things like flame weapon, not necesserily static stat bonuses. Also loves crowd control like entangle. So i'll be pointing him towards spells in that vein, especially ones that could also aid in sailing involving wind and water manipulation (i may even move some sorc/wiz spells to his spell list if appropriate, things that a piratey spellcaster should have that aren't on the druid list.)

The gestalt ideas are very helpful, i hadn't thought about rogue and that'll probably really interest him. He won't want access to another spell list, it'll be too much, but i was considering options such as swordsage as it's tied to wisdom. But rogue seems better for simplicity and keeping a more average balance. (Both players were both recently taught the system by me, so even playing Gestalt is a big leap in options.) Would you still get sneak attack whilst in a whildshape form? I assume so...

@Dust: I really love the idea of bullrushing people around the ship, adds a nice tactical element

@Da Beast: Yeah i assume most Lhazaar Ports would be open to pirate trade, atleast in a black market type way. I don't want House politics to play a major role in the plot line. The plot is more centred around them building up a pirate fleet and making connections/gaining power in the Principalities to maybe hold some sway in the area. Though i do intend for either a House or a nation in Khovaire to finally have "had enough" with the piracy in the Principalities (probably whichever country borders with it) and invade or otherwise try to take over. However that's a long way off as just getting a fleet and local power will take long enough.

[Gavinfoxx]

There are a TON of useful spells on the Druid's list for shipboard combat and shipboard utility... remember you often need long range for ship to ship combat... here are some examples...

Wind's Favor, Wake Trailing, Sleet Storm, Ice Storm, Control Currents, Call Lightning Storm, Boreal Wind... summoning Sharks, Sea Cats, Giant Octopuses, Orcas, Giant Crocodiles, Polar Bears, Elasmosauruses, or Air Elementals, Water elementals, or Storm Elementals...

[dgnslyr]

Will there be vikings or knights involved?

[FuryOfMetal]

Well yes there is an astonishing amount of win on the druids list. There might be some useful gem somewhere though.

I think i'll give the barbarian player the 900gp at will prestidigitation type item, maybe a mage hand one too. That way he can have fun with magic too in an entirely fun and out-side-the-box-useful way to.

And there will be no viking or knightly groups. Maybe there could be one opposing ship captain who holds viking ideals at some point for some added variety, but vikings are not a theme here sadly.

[Tyndmyr]

You need to purchase Stormwrack asap.

Then, find as many 7th Sea materials as you can, and crib from them shamelessly.

For added awesomeness, build actual ships for terrain. If you're not a fan of building stuff, lego ships are acceptable.

[Gavinfoxx]

Well yes there is an astonishing amount of win on the druids list. There might be some useful gem somewhere though.

I think i'll give the barbarian player the 900gp at will prestidigitation type item, maybe a mage hand one too. That way he can have fun with magic too in an entirely fun and out-side-the-box-useful way to.

And there will be no viking or knightly groups. Maybe there could be one opposing ship captain who holds viking ideals at some point for some added variety, but vikings are not a theme here sadly.

Consider giving him a bunch of minor utility cantrips, at will, in an item. Mage Hand. Dancing Lights. Light. Prestidigitation. Launch Bolt. Launch Item. Low Light Vision. Message. Minor Disguise. No Light. Open/Close. Conjurer's Toolbelt. Know Direction. Mending. Open/Close. Styptic.

Just go here, select the option of level 0 spells or lower, and come up with a good list of cantrips to put on an at will item.

http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndlive/SearchList.php

You'll want Stormwrack, Arms and Equipment Guide, Frostburn, Spell Compendium, Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, etc.

[imp_fireball]

If you're starting at 6th level, you could do a PotC-inspired plot arch wherein the BBEG has a pet Kraken that they need to kill.

Would be interesting if you played out an encounter like this -

Helmsman (the ship's pilot) rolls initiative.

The ship is much like a vehicle (taking from modern's vehicle rules) but with much less maneuvering (it's a friggen ship that sails; albeit it could be pretty strong, with some hardness from the wood and lots of Hp reflected by compartments that keep it afloat even after holes have been created... typical of a ship built for war).

The kraken grapples with the ship - when it does so, it devotes a number of its tentacles. Characters that aren't the helmsmen can run to hack off the tentacles that are within their line of sight (each tentacle has hp and natural armor, etc.; but hacking off a tentacle doesn't damage the kraken's total hp - it just disables it and maybe causes some DoT), etc. Sometimes a tentacle that appears in a character's space automatically overruns and damages that character.

Other characters can make profession checks (aiding one another) each round of combat to man the ship's on-board weaponry (essentially using turret rules from modern; each actual rolled profession check applies to each weapon). These include ballistas and cannons, etc. A higher profession check improves the reload time and can save the turret from getting damaged if a tentacle happens to slam into it or whatever.

The actual man that mans each turret makes the attack roll against the kraken. Note that the kraken might have it's main body underwater most of the time.

In the final rounds of the encounter (say most of the kraken's tentacles are gone), it may attempt to hoist itself on top of the ship. It's entire mouth will then appear to swallow whole multiple crew members. This is where it's pretty much free game to attack the kraken out right - a kraken will most likely use its 'smaller tentacles' (the ones surrounding its mouth; that's right, it's that ugly) to grab crew members with improved grab and swallow them whole. If it's a smart creature, it can wield weapons with each tentacle equivalent to the tentacle's size.

Some ship-bound turrets can be rotated to target the kraken but misses could result in a fumble chart to see if the ship is hit instead.

The kraken itself would have thousands of Hp (and possibly be collossal). It's main weapon is its tentacles and mouth - it also has a slam attack and it can capsize the ship with an overrun but it's strength score (applying to the main body) isn't very high (otherwise, it'd be much higher CR).

The encounter itself could be EL 6 - 9 as there is a certain approach to slaying the creature (any other approach would of course be like facing the actual creature no-holds barred in a cage match; where the creature has 1000s of hp all you have are swords and some shoddy magic - pfft, fireball 10d6?).
----

Other details

Since the Kraken's body is submerged, it can be targeted but it has improved cover for typically being 40ft. or more underwater (which might even give it concealment or cause turrets to deal less damage against it via some kind of water based hardness ruling).

Each tentacle isn't very prehensile - so it can't actually grab or constrict unless two or more tentacles target the creature (additional tentacles might count as 'multiple creatures grappling a single creature'). Each tentacle may or may not be barbed, allowing it to do piercing in addition to bludgeoning damage with its slam.

Of course, this isn't the same as this one, which is a derivative smaller species with prehensile limbs that can also swim very fast (the kraken I described has to use its tentacles to swim (meaning it swims like a humanoid creature that uses its arms - and is rather slow).

The actual kraken I described could be an aquatic aberration instead of a magical beast.

[Dr.Epic]

It's talk like a Pirate Day and you want to run a pirate campaign. Connection?

[Jack_Simth]

So i'm running a pirate campaign for my friend and younger brother, both fairly competant roleplayers. Playing gestalt for added options with only 2 players. My friend is playing a Barb/Fist of the Forest/Bear Warrior//DFA. My brother will probably play Druid//Something (what's a good gestalt for druid?)

Ninja (Complete Adventurer: Wis to AC, Wis-based Swift-action invisibility, and Sudden Strike to go with the massive number of natural attacks. Oh yes, and a good reflex save, 6 skill points/level, a nice skill list, and trapfinding) or Swordsage (Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords: Wis to AC, Wis-based manuevers [many of which are swift actions - focus on those], and several other nifties). Both are also quite compatible with Druid alignments.

So i ask you playground, what would be some awesome things for a pirate campaign?

• It'll be a fairly light hearted fun campaign with a semi-serious plot-line.
• It's set in the Lhazaar Principalities of Eberron.
• Staring 6th level.
• I intend for them to earn the rights to a ship via Battle Royale style arena fighting, arranged by "probably" a BBEG type.
• Possible interactions with the Dragon lich Vol to the north in later levels?.

So playground...run wild!

Let's see....

Politics:
Get a letter of marquee from someone who's at war, and... oh, look: You've got license to go steal from merchant ships from the opposing side, as you're part of the war effort (for fun, get a letter of Marquee from each side in the war, and present it to the appropriate people as required ... just make sure to arrange a way to quickly swap out your ship's identification based on who you're attacking).

Start a war for the purposes of getting letters of marquee.

[Ilmryn]

The gestalt ideas are very helpful, i hadn't thought about rogue and that'll probably really interest him. He won't want access to another spell list, it'll be too much, but i was considering options such as swordsage as it's tied to wisdom. But rogue seems better for simplicity and keeping a more average balance. (Both players were both recently taught the system by me, so even playing Gestalt is a big leap in options.) Would you still get sneak attack whilst in a whildshape form? I assume so...

Yes, they keep sneak attack.
However, swordsage is a pretty good idea. I'm currently playing a Druid//Swordsage, and it works really well. It also has great flaver, thought there is slight unrealism. How the **** can a flaming dinosaur have a penalty to intimidate?! I wildshape into a Deinochys for the multiple attacks. Coumbined with the flaming weapons maneuver, that can be quite nasty. Since you easily get an insane jump modifier wiht the deinochys, tiger claw is also useful. With 60 ft speed, holocaust cloak is an effective way of dealing with mooks. Just run around and provoke AoOs, and they take 5 damage for every hit, cleared out 20 kobolds with this before the DM got wise...

[Ranger Mattos]

Arrr, how fittin' seein' as it be talk like a pirate day!

I be surprised tha' nobody mention'd one o' my fav'rite PrC's, tha Dread Captain from Complete Adventurer!

And make sure tha' ye make all yer mateys talk in pirate, too!

[FuryOfMetal]

Well i play Guild Wars (MMORPG) and they had Talk Like A Pirate Day scheduled as a weekend event....now i loved it last year so i decided to run the campaign i was planning as a pirate themed one! Pirate day has gone now i think but oh well.

Ninja does sound like a much better option than rogue when you put it that way....Hmm i'll discuss with the player what they want.

Thanks for the indepth kraken break down. It'd definitely have LOTS AND LOTS of HP, probably I'll fiat it dead after 2 or 3 rounds of finally mounting the ship. That'd be an epic encounter though, thanks for the tips.

I already have Stormwrack, Frostburn, Arms and Equip guide (It's a 3.0 book isn't it? Not that it matters.) But i really want stronghold builers guide, don't want to pay too much though so it's something to look into.

On the top of building a ship for terrain....I actually own so much lego i could build lots of ships They'll probbaly be upgrading their own ship a few times to a larger model, so I'd wack out the model once they have their final big ship, definitely by the kraken encounter

Oh and i just remembered the cantrips issue. Yeah it's great fun to have access to lots of cantrips. The Barbarian player said they'd like to get an Artificer crew member to have fun with so he can make hoardes of little rings and pendants containing at will cantrips.

[Gavinfoxx]

The artificer crew member can *make the goddamn ship*!

A better one even! That doesn't need a crew, and can go underwater, and fly, and be made of iron, and have invisible iron windows, and be painted in alchemical whatsits to not rust, or be enchanted to not rust, and have trap cannon things, etc. etc.

Look at one I designed for a 2 player party...

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boa...php?topic=9278

Remember, the only reason that people didn't have metal Destroyers earlier is that they didn't have appropriate large scale metallurgy!

And consider these Wizard spells:

Wall of Iron (SRD)
Fabricate (SRD)
Metal Melt (Spell Compendium)
Shape Metal (Races of Faerun)

A Wizard or Artificer could make, essentially, a Modern Destroyer, no sweat...

[FuryOfMetal]

Without opening that link i assume it's to the star destroyer? Funny stuff

By giving them an artificer crew member they can pimp their ship all they like. I'll try to restrict their access to specialised crew members until they have they've bought (read=stolen) a bigger ship. After a while they could have a whole fleet of flying monstrosities

[Gavinfoxx]

Without opening that link i assume it's to the star destroyer? Funny stuff

By giving them an artificer crew member they can pimp their ship all they like. I'll try to restrict their access to specialised crew members until they have they've bought (read=stolen) a bigger ship. After a while they could have a whole fleet of flying monstrosities

No its not the star destroyer... it's me trying to figure out the most *economical* way to make a SMALL but totally awesome ship, after looking at both the star destroyer thread, and all the other airship threads I could find!

Anyway, if you don't want to GREATLY customize stuff, figure out a way to combine that gnomish submersible (A&EG) and that magically propelled ship in Stormwrack. That'd probably be the ultimate normal ship... But yea. Crafting a ship with walls of iron, putting a bunch of schema in the thing for some effects, a few wondrous items for some others, and figuring out how many stronghold spaces it is, and then enchanting those per stronghold builder's guide, is probably the best way to do it...

[Emmerask]

For added awesomeness, build actual ships for terrain. If you're not a fan of building stuff, lego ships are acceptable.

Yep to have an actual ship would indeed be pretty awesome

Spoiler

Show

here the one I´ve found which looks pretty playable

and the pdf you need to print out etc
http://www.dungeoncrawlers.com/download/17/


alternatively if you own descent sea of blood you could just use those 2d ships

[FuryOfMetal]

Ah that'll teach me for assuming. Pretty useful stuff, if i eventually give them a list of useful spells for doing stuff with i'm sure they can finangle something fun and useful. They'll enjoy making their own Ballista's and such, even if after their creation I "create some stats" which are lifted from books.

[Gavinfoxx]

Make their own ballistas? Make sure the artificer gets Craft Construct! And make sure to read up on constructs that DON'T sink in water...

Here's an animated ballista I wrote up... it's specifically the smaller, anti personnel, sniping type ballista... not the type to damage the actual enemy ships, but the sorts to kill officers and things... be sure to make it bane against whatever sorts of foes you tend to fight!

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boa...p?topic=9001.0

[Dairun Cates]

Always gotta do this when people bring it up, but *points to signature*. That is, of course, if you're willing to learn a fairly simple system real quick. The rest is just using the Eberron setting and limiting your players to pirate and wanderer factions.

Of course, if you don't want over the top antics mixed with a bit of seriousness...

As for the rest, I've actually been considering ship combat recently and personally think that the best approach really is to give the ship its own character creation and treat it like a character. It's how Star Wars and a couple of other newer systems handle it, but it hasn't been done to the full extent of character creation yet.

Mostly, the secret to Pirate campaigns is theme and flavor. You can get a lot of things in there that you wouldn't expect. Personally, I don't think the spell caster thing really fits flavor-wise with most pirate campaign, but a lot of people recommend it and are willing to look past it. You cleric's god is sea, that's fine.

Something a lot of people actually miss about Pirates is its also a LOT of politics. Bargaining with governor's for safe passage and a room for a little bit of under the table dealing. Gaining the alliance of other pirates while back-stabbing the others. These are all things you'll have to do if you want to stay alive. Even enough level 1 mooks will eventually take you down at level 6.

Also, try to track down a copy of Seventh Sea for some ideas. Not the same system, but they cover the mild fantasy pirate stuff REALLY well.