Blood, Plunder and D&D

  In our previous post on D&D and Pirating ( What is a pirate adventure? ), I decomposed the pirate narrative into it's core thematic elements, talked about what success looks like in a pirate campaign and walked through some of the obstacles that I needed to overcome to do achieve that success. In this post I will discuss key world building elements that foster the emergent thematic properties I want, then make specific suggestions around 5E game mechanics, specifically managing the magic system and ship combat.   Pirate Worldbuilding  The goal of this section is to provide a generic world building recipe that, if applied, should result in a realistic and internally consistent fantasy world that supports the key pirate themes I identified in the previous article. As I have discussed before, this is by no means the only way to include Pirates in your game. It's also not the only to generate a detailed and internally consistent fantasy world. It is however a ...

  Dungeons and Dragons and Pirates! What could possibly go better together? It's like peanut butter and chocolate right? Well, as scores of failed supplements have shown, it's actually a trickier mashup then you would think. While the spirit and style of the pirating in the age of sail is a natural and additive match to Dungeons and Dragons genre, there are a number of complications that can easily wreck or divert such a campaign. Unless you as a dungeon master are aware and proactive in your world building and scenario generation, you are likely to miss the mark of your expectations. The purpose of this series of three posts is to share some of the learning from running such a campaign (now entering it's second year of continuous play) and provide a basic storytelling framework and toolkit for navigating the choices and trade offs presented.  First I will decompose what a pirate adventure IS into its core themes, what kind of gaming style and campaign world best suits it, ...

  "Jean Pierre had been very helpful," thought Dakhir. "We put in beer and information comes out."  The  McCaffeety network had been helpful as well, the extended clan of the owners of Black Alice's Brew seemed to be involved in virtually every mercantile activity in Haven Towne, through some cousin twice removed or aunt's second son's wife. They had even been able to produce a genuine houngan, a voodoo priest who was even now drinking beer and affirming that Black Alice might still have followers among the voodoo community in the city. Followers that conceivable could have special knowledge of her whereabouts.  Jean Pierre leaned over the table in their room on the upper floor of Black's Alice's Brew , setting down his empty flagon. an intense look on his dark, aquiline, face. Below, Fantastic Freddy really had the crowd whipped up, the cheering and music were making the floor vibrate. Jean Pierre had to almost shout to make himself heard. You V...