Pirate Adventures in 5e Dungeons & Dragons - Web DM
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- čas přidán 13. 02. 2018
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You guys should check out team four star at the table, they're doing a pirate dnd campaign. It's pretty entertaining.
come on guys this was a prefect chance to talk a bit about Rogue trader.
I would say that Sword Coast Adventures is a nice sourcebook. But not for your typical romp from Ten Towns to Calimshan,; but the often overlooked isles out to sea. Ruathym, with it's very nordic barbarian theme. The Moonshaes, five large islands each with their own distinct cultures and history. The Nelanthers are a chain of pirate run islands. There are at least three major Merfolk/Aquatic Elf cities underwater.
To take a page from Critical Role, you forgot to mention all the dirty dirty seamen. Hilarious and informative video.
podcast? Sweeeet! I had no idea.
Now I'm imagining a beholder with an eyepatch.
Just one?
@@WebDM can't tell of you mean one beholder or one eye patch
@@Reyrocksall Yes
Web DM Only one busted eye
Antimagic smell?
Soooo... About those Spelljammer encounter tables...
A pirate walks into a tavern with a ship's wheel attached to the front of his pants. The barkeep asks
"What's with the wheel?"
The pirate responds
"Yaaarrr, it's drivin' me nuts!"
:-D
Goddamnit take my like
I want to not like this but I can't.
Suzy Cyanide the smile makes this joke 😂
This is a fine example of a joke so bad its good again
I have to steal this and use it in my campaign now 😂
Developing that ship is the main draw for me! My table and I could spend hours going through like "and this is the wizard's quarters and it looks like this and here's what our flag looks like and we all have matching tattoos!"
That way the ship becomes like its own character you wanna protect!
Hi, bit late to respond, but there are tonnes of stories where a ship has it a spirit of some sort, making it a living creature. It could very well be possible to even make the ship an npc that players could get attached to. In a space setting it could be an on board AI, or whatever.
One Piece has a story arc where getting a new ship nearly breaks up the crew. Developing your ship is super cool.
Don't forget the piracy eras on the Mediterranean. Pirates during the era of the Crusades were rampant, preying on all sides, acting as freebooters or mercenaries. Or go even further back and dip into the piracy that plagued Rome and Egypt.
Even pre-roman Greece had some piracy
Oh yeah, there's something evocative about a Bronze Age pirate game. You ARE the Sea People. It's you.
In DnD, you can even _literally_ be sea people. Play a Triton or four, have your pirate base be an underwater cave. Go around raiding the land-dwellers, taking their stuff. It'd be great.
not like they can dive deep enough to get it back
It is all fun and games, and everybody gangsta...
Until Gnaeus Pompeius comes along...
I mean to be fair that type of piracy is less “fun romantic swashbuckling where you pirates with codes of honor take aboard any discontent sailors who have dealt with long mistreatment by distant imperial masters” and more “perpetuating the Mediterranean slave trade as prisoners are taken to be sold on one of the slave markets of the era.”
Extra curvey driftwood?
Out of place Rick & Morty reference
Any port in a storm, friend.
Lol if you think that's a Rick and Morty reference you need to get out more
What?
That joke existed long before Rick and Morty existed though. I think I'm being a pretentious hipster though since it's not a big deal
Sid Meier's PIRATES! is another great game to go to for inspiration.
I played the first edition on the PC XT...
Take a small and very maneuverable boat and stay behind and upwind of the big lumbering hulks. Long battles but you can take over or sink anything.
Sell the big hulks that you capture ASAP.
You can also alter land-based creatures to fit the style of the campaign. I was in a swashbuckling campaign that had palm tree treants. :)
In classical times there were entire nations devoted to piracy that were eventually put down by the Romans. They sailed around in fleets of small mobile Hemiolia extorting tribute from coastal towns and trade fleets. Namely the Illyrians and Sardinians. Imagine a pirate capital city would be an excellent hub for trade in rear magical items, exotic creatures, meeting strange alien foreigners and many unusual quests for competing pirate factions.
Agriphal Albion I will screenshot this and put it in my campaign, thanks haha
Mick Boontjes I wrote "rear" when I meant "rare", lol. So if you can get screenshots of that I wouldn't mind taking a look. Purely for educational reasons, honest.
Yeah, that sounds like a cool campaign backdrop. The players could either be pirates or heroes who need to break up the pirate empire. Maybe the PC pirates have the goal of usurping the pirate leadership in the city and eventually taking over. 😈
They could also work to track the rise of a nearby empire whose ethos would mean that they will eventually seek to curtail and then end the freedom the pirates enjoy. Missions involving espionage, raiding coin ships full of soldiers pay, kidnapping influential persons aboard their pleasure barges. Or maybe working to awaken an ancient sea deity thus making it too dangerous for hostile fleets to reach the pirate home.
Young Julius Caesar was taken for ransom by pirates. He laughed when heard their ransom demands and insisted they double it. Then he hung out and drank with the crew, and when they mocked his poetry he joked that he'd have them all crucified. Then his friends came and paid his ransom, and he immediately gathered a bunch of ships, chased the pirates down, and crucified them all to a man.
I basically ran a one piece campaign, taking inspiration from all the situations and Islands, but not the characters. It worked because none of my players knew about one piece and I basically took them from Alabasta to Enies Lobby before someone outside the group recognized the names when she was sitting in for a session and almost ruined the end of the current storyline and we stopped after that one.
Drewmanian :P did they get devil fruits or what?
Thomas Dahlberg , I literally ran a one piece campaign. It was set in an alternate universe that way the people who had watched one piece couldn't spoil things for other players and would have surprises of their own. We had about 7 people playing, half the party with devil fruits by the end of it, and we made it through the first half of the grand line. By then they were are all pretty strong (lvl 15) so we wrapped it up there. Plus the second half of the grand line is just too powerful. It was a great campaign setting, plenty of serious, emotional parts mixed in with lots of hilarious, weird, and fantastical elements.
It was a good opportunity to build a lot of custom elements too. Haki for instance, was a particular challenge. I had to add another custom haki that was based on stealth and suppression to balance things out. We ended the whole thing in an epic battle against one of the seven Warlords. I did a very anime esque final sequence where everybody received a once in a lifetime power ups. To this day I still have a couple friends who will ask me questions about the campaign.
Running a one piece campaign called the era of dreams check it out on my channel and see what yall think, its an organized heavy rp campaign thats railroaded with the consent of every single player. If you want to see the essence of one piece check it out on my channel.
So apparently Matt Colville just announced a pirate ship stronghold as a stretch goal for his Strongholds and Streaming kickstarter. Could be a 5e resource to use, once it's out.
I was going to post exactly that until I saw your comment. Though Matt posted about his after this video came out. Glad I wasn't the only one who saw the coincidence.
Already a backer. But I think the important thing about that Kickstarter is that it's goal of 50,000 dollars has brought in over One Million!!!!! In about 4 days!!!!!!
Don't forget pirate ships were some of the most democratic societies to have ever graced the earth. Captains were actually only fully in charge in times of pitched battle. I'm not even talking small skirmishes between say a party of crew vs a different crew but full on huge fights. For the most part everything decision wise was put to a vote and that vote was upheld and followed.
awesome Insight. I am about to run a starfinder game with some of my own weird homebrew ideas to the setting and this eases my mind I think my group will go for this method. thank you.
The golden age of pirates crews voted for captains. In most other pirate type groups this was not the case. For Vikings it was usually the person that owned the boat. Arab and Asian pirates were often clan leadership or societial level based captains.
Andrew Sokolovic please don't say that pirate ships graced the earth
"Graced the earth"? They literally r*ped and killed innocent people. It can be fun to roleplay evil, but to pretend that they were benevolent or good is wrong
My idea for the leadership system is that the player characters would make up the officers including the captain, but I would treat it like actually pirates historically did. All plans are made democratically, and the captain is only fully in charge and must be obeyed during a combat situation. The other players would make up the master of arms, the quartermaster, first mate, etc.
So happy to see a WebDM upload, but I just finished the hardest shift of the year (Valentine's at a fine dining restaurant). Can't wait to listen to this at work tomorrow. I can't give you guys the attention you deserve tonight. Thanks for the video guys.
Topical, considering Sea of Thieves release is just around the corner! Always love D&D pirate stories.
GoldDaniel don’t you mean “tropical” :)
I'm creating a pirate campaign on D&D 'cause i played Sea Of Thieves beta and i'm so pumped for the game haha
Also, Matt Colville's Kickstarter as of today has a stretch goal of creating rules for a pirate ship as a stronghold for your players, to add to the Strongholds and Followers book.
I can't explain how perfect this is.
I've been playing for years and I've always wanted to set sail on a campaign but never got the chance. I'm in a new campaign that a friend is dming for his first time and it's amazing so far. We just got a folding boat last week and now you release this epsiode.
Yes yes yes yes
Not enough seamen jokes!
Jubes those come too easier.
Jester would be ashamed
I was JUST about to post a Jester reply xD
Oh my gosh, you guys are actually doing it! THANK YOU!
Damn... Matt just added pirate ships to his kick starter. Good job guys!
Jason S that's why they got the requests
great video as always. so much of this went into my onenote for my own setting.
Loved the nerdarchy shoutout I listen to those guys too. Thanks for all the great content.
The only video on D&D seafaring in the top results of my search... Thank you very much!
Hey I was a boatswain for twenty years in the navy it's a very highly honored position.
Boats? Didn't think you'd be the type to play DnD, its nice to know that table top is universal. Much love from goose creek, South carolina, hooyah nuke power.
A new WebDM? Ahhh who needs to do coursework anyway? XD
at the very least it can wait 30 minutes haha
This was uploaded the day I started writing my new campaign for when my current one comes to an end. It's a heavily naval exploration themed campaign, dozens of small islands with a few settlements, different pirate factions, and an overarching mystery. Really nice timing on that :D
I love the fact that WebDM's community is big enough that no matter what subject they talk about, there's always at least one comment saying "This is perfect timing because this is exactly what I'm working on right now!"
It's a beautiful thing, and proof of how diverse the gaming community is.
That sounds like a cool campaign backdrop. Will the players be pirates themselves or good guys?
They're talking about it amongst themselves, there's only 2 players I know for definite who have an idea of what they want to do. Triton Twins named Cali and Mari who show up a few sessions in when the party gets shipwrecked
1:51 The second one is amazing, and good for DMs to learn from. There's like 7 different factions that all want, and I kid you not, A JAR OF DIRT... and it's interesting and easy to follow. It was very well written.
I agree - they're missing out! The only movie that was disappointing really was the last one and even it has some interesting ideas and fun moments
So WOTC just announced the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book, and from the looks of it it'll be a rehash of all the old saltmarsh modules, and a long list of rules and tables for running nautical campaigns where your party is either a pirate crew or the defenders of ships pirates would attack.
Really hoping the books contains some of the broader points covered in this video.
Just in time for my pirate campaign I'm DMing!
same
One of my players is going to start DMing a pirate-themed adventure this summer while I take a break. Looking forward to it! 😀
Same here
Awwwwww yeeeeeah. New Web DM.
Plus this overlaps nicely with Matt Colville announcing the possible pirate ship add on to his Strongholds and Followers supplement!
“"Nyarrggh!" 🐱 🏴☠️”- my tabaxi pirate captain, 2021
My friend played as litteral cat... with a rapier. That he held and somehow stowed away.
Feckin furries.
This is excellent timing. We're going to be starting a pirate campaign soon, and I can really use some ideas! Thanks for the tips.
This was uploaded on my birthday! Thanks, guys!
Fuuuuuck, that was a long wait, but now it's over. Good to see you boys, great episode.
Matt Colville's kickstarter JUST broke a million...and one of the things he said he'd add to the already large list is a Pirate Ship as a stronghold, so your video choice is very well timed.
I've run a sea faring campaign in a steampunk setting. For those who want to expand the definitions of "pirates", a submarine that assails surface vessels for plunder is 100% in line with the concept, and could then bleed over into "dieselpunk" or WW2 settings.
Airship piracy is another great concept, with lots of great fan art (just google it. It's amazing). There's an Out of the Box article on Nerdarchy.com called "Aces High" where a gang of goblins riding giant bats raid airships. Totally in the theme. (rather proud of that one too.)
All in all, great video and always fun to watch. Thanks guys!
AT least you guys beat Matt Colville to THAT particular topic.
I've been thinking of running one of these for a while, thanks for the advice!
I was part of a pirate campaign a year ago. It was awesome! Ship to ship combat with a very caster heavy party was super fun. It frustrated the DM to no end. Realizing one Sorcerer could outperform a phanlax of cannons... I also used a DM given Wish to bypass an entire story arc by wishing for our dream ship. :)
Our group is currently running a sea game based on a central island with rotating DMs. Each DM has their own ship, captain, and crew which the players can sign up with to play 4-6 session arcs. It has been a really fun way to work in some collaborative storytelling, as the events of each DMs games resonate throughout the others.
A great source of inspiration for fantasy pirates is Pirate of the dark water.
Giant shp made of the bones of sea monster.
Semi flooded cave network with a underdark sea feel.
Flying beast rider for ship to ship combat.
It's a cool tv show with a surprising amount of personality, a really alien world and one of the rare example of pirate fantasy on screen.
Great Info I will be using for my upcoming session! Thank You!
The most important thing in any pirate adventure is the chaos and the romance/reality of piracy, freedom, loneliness and depravity.
I've been prepping a Pulp Space Fantasy game that takes heavy influence from Flash Gordon, Futurama, Red Dwarf, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and some Spelljammer for good measure (I've also been modeling it around a West Marches style of campaign). This was a *fantastically* helpful video for helping me get into the proper mindset of a "Nautical" style game.
Keep up the great work, guys.
As someone who played (plays? We'll come back to it some day!) in Doug's campaign, I have to say it's my favorite game to date. Love the mention here in it haha.
Nautical campaigns are some of the most fun I've ever had with rpgs. Great ideas in this video
Oh do I miss P. Terry's. Y'all hit every mark on this one! I'll be watching this video several times for certain. Stoked about dat shoutout! Even the kitchen sink found its way into my game ;)
YAARRR!! It be good ta see ya scuhrvy seadogs after such a long toime at sea!!
I see Pirate games as combining exploration and following treasure maps to long forgotten islands shrouded in magical fog, and as you said, underwater adventures. With D&D you have this great opportunity to go underwater that's so rarely explored. Finally, you can do lots of great urban adventures with pirates. It's that assassin's creed thing again, running through chaotic and vibrant streets meeting shady contacts, fleecing nobles and avoiding the law. And occasionally, wooing the ladies. Preferably in a roguish manner involving hiding from their husbands.
So much stuff to do with pirate adventures, it's just such a cool theme.
Inspiration for game setting:
Stardust: lightning catchers.
Loved the aesthetic.
I think the best watchmen character would be a druid. Always knows the weather, can alert anyone and everyone to coming hurricanes, has the best passive perception score in the world.
I'm a player in Doug's campaign! great to hear the mention here; it's been a very fun game.
Say what you will but a beholder with a Pirate's hat would look adorable.
Good supplement is Captains & Cannons. Defines all the rules for ships, movement, cannons, etc. Using it now for my pirate campaign.
How did you know I was just about to start building a pirate campaign?? Love you guys ❤❤
Thanks for some ideas I've been wanting to run a pirate campaign I'll be adding this to my favourites list.
I get to play my Barbary Corsair Dragonborn this Saturday, perfect timing!
Remember lads and lasses, lemons are botanical berries. So a "goodberry" a day keeps the scurvy away.
Supposedly, certain pirate ships led by consensus until they went into battle, where the captain was king, because in battle someone needed to be in charge
Green Ronin's Freeport setting has an amazing Pirates setting for D&D, etc. Also Lovecraftian mysteries in there too!
The episodic idea is GENIUS. I DM for a bunch of Nerd Dads, so trying to nail down play times is a nightmare.
They could be Pirates, OR privateers. Either way that means conflict, role playing opportunity, and sea based combat with dire consequences if the ship takes heavy damage. Anything that can put that ship on the bottom, means everyone on board better be rolling high for their saving rolls. If you can get close enough to throw grappling hooks onto another ship then you have close quarters combat on a moving object. All kinds of shenanigans can follow.
such an entertaining episode, well done guys....arrrrrr
21:05 That "Jim Davis Powerwalk' is amazing. Looks like he owns the floor.
Great ideas, guys! 👍Now you got me interested in running a pirate/naval-themed campaign! LOL 😀😀😀
If I was to pirate it up right now, I think I'd actually go for WotC's mtg mini setting Ixalan which just released a short while ago, at least to kick things off.
It looks fun! Three merfolk factions fighting, vampire conquistadores, secret cities, a lock on the whole plane which occasionally traps badass plane hopping outsiders - oh, and dinosaurs on top of it all.
The map is super gorgeous too.
Loved your video as usual!
Pru-Pruh do you know where to find this?
This channel is some good shit 👍
Also, in a magical world, no-one's gonna invent guns - they'll use magical boomsticks. Wands or rods or whatever of scorching ray, etc.
good timing, matt colville's strongholds and followers kickstarter just added a pirate ship stretch goal
Everything about this intro. Just, all the yes
Jim has some swagger in his step. woah
In my current campaing in d&d 5e i had pirate capitan who lost his ship. This video give my many tips for encounters. Thanks guys😁
I was the Bosun for our crew, it was great everyone respected and feared Morgan Ironhand. He was this Big, Half-Giant Barbarian who was really jolly and was everyone on the crew's friend until you were due for punishment. Then he'd fireman carry you below deck them beat the tar out of that guy.
VIKINGS!!! I ran a fun Viking campaign replete with court intrigue and hostage negotiations and sea hags and mermaids. Don't forget about the pimped out ship.
A new webdm episode?! My Wednesday night just got better.
Perfect timing, I've just started running a sea faring campaign, and need some references for rules.
The Shackles on Golarion is the best setting I've ever seen for a pirate campaign. It's basically the Caribbean Sea, ruled by a pirate lord called the Hurricane King, with a perpetual hurricane going on off the coast. Lawless ports, unexplored islands, cyclopean ruins, backstabbing smugglers, murderous sahuagin, unpredictable weather, an Asmodeus worshiping Queen's Navy to beware of, and DINOSAURS. If that's not reason enough to at least give Pathfinder a try, nothing is.
Great video, guys! Honestly, most of the advice you gave today are a perfect fit not only for a medieval-ish fantasy maritime pirates, but sci-fi (or space fantasy, for those drawing the line between them) as well.
Also, may I suggest turning off the image stabilization feature and auto-focus on the cameras? The jitters on the frame edges are a giveaway of those being on and it's kinda annoying, although definitely not a big deal with the overall quality.
I am putting together a waterworld type game. Floating towns and underwater kingdoms
Awesome topic! I would much more want to PLAY in an adventure / campaign like this rather than DM one! It sounds like a bunch of fun!
The Cilician Pirates from the southern coast of modern day Turkey raided Roman Era ships for a couple centuries. It was common for the locals to raid “part time” and also could easily blend in with the rest of the community if they started feeling the heat. They looked just like the locals to the Roman officials because they were locals.
OH! Other campaign settings! Savage Worlds has some great ones!
50 Fathoms and Pirates of the Spanish Main.
Regime Diabolique is a 3 Musketeers vs. Monsters type of setting and they have some great rules for firearms and such too!
This is so very fortunately timed with Matt Colvilles latest update.
Christopher Handy-Honeycutt Right?! Isn’t it awesome about his kickstarter?!
Goochburg ALL HAIL THE KING OF KICKSTARTER
The four S's of Pirate Campaigns: Ships, Seas, Sharks, Swashbuckling
Love me more pirate and sea life for me! I've had a Pirate Monk Coyouin in the works. Every game is funner with sharks.
Also playing a Drunken Master with a dip into Rogue or Gunslinger would be pretty sweet.
Could we see you guys discuss the pros and cons of Troupe-style gameplay over the now normal style of play?
Older versions of d&d as well as games like Ars Magica used this style of play, and I for one enjoy it far more than the now normal style of having one player character to one plus multiple extras.
Great video! Take to tha sea!
“Hoist the main shaft... thing.”
“Yes.”
Omg I'm in the middle of preparing a pirate campaign. The timing is fucking fantastic.
What would be fun for a nautical campaign is the party/crew is chasing after an iron ship (for reasons) and the last time it was seen it simply disappeared (like in treasure planet). But what that ship is doing is plane shifting like it occasionally plane shifts to the fire plane in an ocean of lava (magical ship with elemental resistances) or to the water plane to hide treasure. Just a thought that could be interesting.
So, most actual pirate ships (I know, we're talking about the movie type but indulge me) most pirate ships were actually democracies where the crew would vote on what to do. The captain had a lot less power than, say, a royal navy captain. That'd be a good way to play the ship so nobody is above the rest, the captain is an NPC who goes with what the crew decides. He'll get lines on jobs to pull but then, when the real decisions need to be made, he leaves it up to the crew.
Love the series, guys! Keep up the good work!
Pirates is D&D just be the theme of the day. Matt Colville just announced he was adding Pirate Ships to his Strongholds of they hit his final stretch goal on Kickstarter.
Beholder pirate captain with a huge eye patch over his giant eye and he relies on his eye stalks to be able to see... I like it.
This came at a perfect time I'm DMing a sea fairing campaign soon
love the strut cam
I like Pirates of the US Civil War because it was the transition point for Wooden Sailing ships to Steam Driven, Steel Warship. Imagine a pirates in a Pre-Dreadnought Battleship. Heck if you need the party to be on land for awhile, you can just tie their ship up in drydock with condenser troubles or they inflict it upon themselves with a refit. Technique they'd be called "Commerce Raiders" instead of Pirates, but that's just semantics.
Or You go the _Nantucket_ Video game route and have your Pirates' Ship be a converted Whaling Ship and they're still doing Whaling on the side. Even have A Moby Dick like Boss to fight.
And don't Forget to sing Shanties Regardless.
im considering running a pirates campaing and this video really helped
Its on hiatus at the moment but i have a pirate campaign up and running. I had them all shipwrecked at the start on a deserted island that wasnt so deserted, being other factions were also shipwrecked their. and when it became known that there was an abandoned ship hidden in an underground cove, it be came a race to get to the ship. Alliances were made and broken, but our characters found the ship first, though some kua-toa had moved in. I ended the first part with them sailing off with their new ship, that was a bit run down and smells horribly of fish. They will never get rid of that smell by the way. When we take it up again they will be sailing on the account looking for plunder. As for the captain, I had them settle it in true pirate fashion, they voted on who was to be captain.
I'm currently running the Savage Tide campaign that Dungeon Magazine created for 3.5. It has pirates, demons, demon pirates, sea adventures, jungle exploration, all of it. Its fantastic! I've done a ton of research on pirates, ships, and while I'm no expert, my group seems to be having as much fun playing as I am running it. Anyone want a great campaign, I thoroughly recommend it! I play sea shanties for my players every so often, they seem to dig it.
Return of the Obra Dinn has a detailed crew manifest with all kinds of roles and 5 or 6 mates in addition to the Captain. I think it was a trade ship or something but something similar could be adapted to a fantasy pirate ship.
A solution to one person having to be the captain is that large ships had a bunch of officers, called "Lieutenants" who were in chain of command and commanded away parties, prize crews etc. Have the party members be the lieutenants, under the NPC captain, who almost always stays on the ship but, in ship-board combat, is a bit of a badass (and can come save the party if they get into too much trouble). Then, at about level 3-5, the captain dies...
Real talk, am I the only one that finds this show adorable in the nerdiest way possible?
That's very funny because i started AC Black Flag 3 days ago... Gotta say they really nailed the naval battles ! Boring story and useless "go fetch" content but you know... AAA...
Also the sailor chanting is the cherry on top
Oh! Do, my Johnny Boker,
The skipper is a rover.
Do! My Johnny Boker, do!