Blood, Plunder and D&D

  "Well you have to admit, this town lives up to expectations." said Dakhir. "There is a skull. There is a river. There is a bay. And there certainly seem to be pirates." The remainder of the voyage to the Northern Reaches had been pleasantly uneventful.  There had been a brief moment of terror when a pair of pirate ships had appeared over the horizon, on an intercept course, and it had looked like a battle was imminent. Fortunately the commander of the squadron,  a halfling by the name of "Diamond Joe" was actually hunting pirates of his own.  "Strange that such an anarchist profession supports any rules at all" Whisperleaf commented, staring in fascination at the two pirate ships escorting the convoy into the port. "Evidentially they are serious when they say "Don't shit where you live", especially with regards to their Pirate Havens. "Difficult to be a pirate if there is nowhere to sell your loot" Ricmo commented. ...

  The convoy glided over the sea like a flock of gulls. Ricmo had to admit it was a pretty sight, with white billowing sails and colorful banners fluttering every direction he looked. The massive galleon "Queen of the Seas" had a great vantage point, as flagship and centerpiece of the convoy, and also as the largest vessel, she had the perfect view. "I could get to the like the nautical life" the Halfling said to Dakhir, luxuriously stretching in the makeshift hammock he'd rigged in the bowsprit. "It's nice getting a chance to just lie back and enjoy it for a change  without the burden of command weighing me down" Dakhir snorted, then nodded in agreement, sailing certainly had it's moments and this was one of them. The seas were calm, the breeze balmy, the sun warm on his shoulders, the mystery of the purple cliffs of distant Bonny Isle off the port bow hanging like a painting, a pod of Orcas cavorting off the starboard. "Life spent on wat...

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.  In the first post I decomposed what a pirate adventure IS into its core themes, what kind of gaming style and campaign world best sui...