Pirates!, Considering running a pirate campaign, ideas? Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Switch to: Outline Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Hound]

For my next campaign, which is going to be starting soon, I'm thinking of having the players be pirates in some kind of crew or whatever, probably starting in the Pacific Ocean, as I've got an idea for a campaign that involves the Ring of Fire.

I'd like the players to be the "leaders" of the crew/gang, because I want them to have a fair amount of control over what they do, I'm tired of running campaigns that basically amount to having some kind of "boss" tell you what to do, even though you have to decide how to do it yourself. But I was thinking of maybe giving them the option to create an NPC crew, like using the method for creating contacts or something? And perhaps giving them some kind of like "communal BP" that they could use to buy ships/hideouts/supplies. I am little worried because some of players are inexperienced, so possibly dropping too much customization on them could be overwhelming, but at the same time I think it could be cool.

So anyways, does anyone have experience doing something similar? Can anyone think of some method for simplifying something like this, without making it too cookie cutter? I guess I may also make the first few sessions about them gathering up crew members or something too, maybe that would be simpler. What do you think?

Also, if anyone has some ideas about just general interesting things that could happen to a pirate crew in the Pacific, that would be nice too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Paul]

We found it was a lot simpler to keep the crew limited to the PC's-as most craft in 207x can be automated to a certain point. If they get successful enough then let them worry about recruiting a crew, and the troubles that come with it. I'd work real hard with the PC's in making some solid hooks-reasons why they need to make money, or be out on the seas, or gain notoriety.

[Ol' Scratch]

You definitely want to try to find a copy of Cyberpirates!. Even though the rules are outdated, there's a lot of good (and fun) information in there for a sea-faring Shadowrun game.

Rules for buying and upgrading ships are already a part of the game, with Arsenal carrying the brunt of the material. There's no reason to come up with a set of convoluted house rules to take care of something that's already built into the system unless for some reason you're not particularly fond of those rules. Besides, chances are they'll be scavenging and stealing other vessels rather than upgrading them (beyond their initial ship design). The main thing you'll want to do is help them decide on their initial set-up in that regard, if not outright design it yourself and then let them look for something better after the game begins. The movie Waterworld, while pretty lame all around, does has a lot of ideas you can borrow, too. The use of gyrocopters and waterskis in addition to a main vessel being one of the big ones.

For the crew, you can just make it a Group Contact (Runner's Companion) that they all get for free, making them only pay for the Loyalty rating. That's really the easiest way to handle it, I'd say.

[Paul]

I'd also put some serious consideration to your locale. Obviously the source book Ol' Scratc mentioned-CyberPirates is a good start,but you can really use any source-book you choose. Any place with access to a large body of water could work. In another vein, sky pirates is a possibility-obviously that can get a lot more expensive and dangerous. (Falling out of the sky has some different ramifications as opposed to falling out a boat right?)

[Stalag]

For my next campaign, which is going to be starting soon, I'm thinking of having the players be pirates in some kind of crew or whatever, probably starting in the Pacific Ocean, as I've got an idea for a campaign that involves the Ring of Fire.

I'd like the players to be the "leaders" of the crew/gang, because I want them to have a fair amount of control over what they do, I'm tired of running campaigns that basically amount to having some kind of "boss" tell you what to do, even though you have to decide how to do it yourself. But I was thinking of maybe giving them the option to create an NPC crew, like using the method for creating contacts or something? And perhaps giving them some kind of like "communal BP" that they could use to buy ships/hideouts/supplies. I am little worried because some of players are inexperienced, so possibly dropping too much customization on them could be overwhelming, but at the same time I think it could be cool.

So anyways, does anyone have experience doing something similar? Can anyone think of some method for simplifying something like this, without making it too cookie cutter? I guess I may also make the first few sessions about them gathering up crew members or something too, maybe that would be simpler. What do you think?

Also, if anyone has some ideas about just general interesting things that could happen to a pirate crew in the Pacific, that would be nice too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The NPC crew is fine as long as you remember to roleplay them as actual people and not just automaton's that will do whatever the players say (depending on your players, a mutiny might be in their future)

I would suggest "just in case" the group have the skills "Pilot Watercraft", "Nautical Mechanic", and "Navigation" with a specialization in "Ocean" somewhere in it... you never know when all that wonderful technology is going to suddenly not work. Also make sure at least one if them has a decent "Leadership" score (really, mutinies do kind of suck)

Finally, they can all be "over" the crew, but they can't all be in charge... one of them (ideally the one with the highest Leadership) will need to be Captain and another will be First Officer - the rest will be under the First Officer and each should be in charge of one section of the ship Chief Engineer, Head of Security, Chief Steward (in charge of living conditions), etc

If that all seems a bit much then skip the crew and automate as much as possible, but they'll still need to make sure all the main ship functions are covered (engineering, navigation, etc) and one of them should be the Captain.

[Shortstraw]

Please its all about sky pirates sail powered zepplins ftw!

[Paul]

Please its all about sky pirates sail powered zepplins ftw!

We had a fun game that revolved around the PC's trying to rob a Zeppelin cargo herd.

[Hound]

@Paul: yeah, that makes sense, I may just have them start off on their own, I am going to have a good sized group (well, 6, but I'm used to like 3 or 4.) Part of the reason I wanted a crew actually was so that they'd have to pay them and buy food for them and such. I don't know, I guess I haven't yet thought of any good money making hooks, besides "You are hungry and shit." Well and the ever present "You would like better stuff."

@Ol' Scratch: Thanks, I'll definitely try and dig up a copy of that! I wasn't planning on completely revamping the ability to buy stuff, but I would like to give them the option to get a larger boat, without having one character spend all their BP on it or something. So I was thinking of setting aside a certain amount of BP that could only be used on gear, but could be used by all of them. I don't really remember Waterworld, but gyrocopters and such do sound useful. By waterskis did you mean Jetskis? I can't really see how either of those would be all that useful lol. I may end up doing the group contact thing too, in some way or another.

Please its all about sky pirates sail powered zepplins ftw!

lol sky pirates are awesome, but they seem a little impractical (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sarcastic.gif)

Thanks for the replies (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Shortstraw]

One thing I would do is look up the old prize system with how many shares each person has etc so you can work out how much loot everyone gets. (also if they decide to change the amounts of loot thats when the mutiny builds (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif) )

Edit: please post logs so we can read how it goes

[Ol' Scratch]

Oops, I did mean jetskis, and think of them using them like a biker gang of the sea. Throw a really nice weapon or two onboard, like a minigun or something, and they can do a pretty mean job of attacking other vessels.

[CanRay]

lol sky pirates are awesome, but they seem a little impractical (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sarcastic.gif)

Really?

[Shortstraw]

Dammit CanRay now I have to buy that.

[CanRay]

It's worth it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) And the novel comes out soon as well.

And the three albums that are directly related and came out before. And the albums before that, before the major songwriter for the group even realized he was edging towards this storyline... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

They also do a nice cover of "White Wedding".

And, more Shadowrun-realated...

[Manunancy]

Note : if you whish to itroduce some varierty and lower risk scenarios, the difference between smuglers and pirates is a thin one and can be crossed easily - if the heat goes up, a pirate crew may well change waters to smuggle goods elsewhere until itcalms down.

An important point will be what sort of pirates the players will : will they be of the high-tech persuasion, using furtive railgun-and-missile toting speedboats with drone support to take on high value corporate targets, or a bunch of lowlives from some dirt poor corner of coast using an canoe, a rusty outboard motor and a crate of late XXth century chines army castoffs to try their luck on whatever easy looking target they bump into ? Odds are you'll settle for something in-between, but you'd better decide.

Not : it's easier to aim a bit low and let a the PCs move up the tech chain, and less frustrating than blowing their high-tech toys to bit and force them to make do with an antique. And from the player's point, the challenge of turning a worn 2012 philipine navy patrol boat into a ship to be reconned with though upgrades, new gadgets, scrounging and general mcgyvering can be a lot of fun.

The tech level involved will also have an impact on where the landward action happens and influence the sea location too. A high tech boat will need a better infrastrcture than most pirate havens can provide for a reasonable price (you can probably get the high tech goodies, but delays and markups will tend to pile up).

Another point that may be raised firsthand is the moral level involved : are they professional going after cargo (and maybe the ship itself) and operating on a low-kill variety, or a bunch of maniacs who loot, torture and rape and leave behind flaming wrecks for the fun of it once they' pulled out what they want like water going barbarians ?

That sort of decisions will have a major impact on what the PCs will be and what the scenarios will feel like. The examples i've give are deliberatly picked at the extremes of the spectrum to better illustrate what difference it can make.

[Hound]

wow I somehow skipped several posts when I made that first response, did not even see Stalag's post, which is ridiculous because it's the biggest one.

Anyways:

@Stalag, I definitely intend to roleplay the NPC crew, that's half the reason I want them to have a crew in the first place! I was thinking that they'd be the most badass in the crew, and thus the de-facto leaders, and then let them decide if they want to have ranks and such among themselves. I agree that the crew will probably react more easily if there is an established chain of command, but as long as the players don't go around openly contradicting each other, it should be fine. So I'll probably let them figure it out, with the addendum that I will be considering the effects upon the crew. Definitely going to encourage some redundancy among essential Boat Skills, would be pretty sad if they got stranded at see because their only engine guy got geeked. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

@Shortstraw prize system? I don't know what you're referring to... I'll definitely try to post some logs up, though there is a chance I'll forget. Would actually be quite useful, having a place to gather a synopsis of the happenings. Is there an accepted form of doing that? I guess I'll probably just make a thread, reserve the first several posts and edit it as I go, if that's acceptable?

@Ol' Scratch, I could kinda see that, but isn't a jetski pretty slow compared to a boat? I haven't actually looked it up I guess.

@CanRay, lol, I meant in Shadowrun-reality, okay? Sky Pirates are totally legit, and could be fun in a slightly different setting, but they're a bit too tongue-in-cheek for what I want here.

@Manumancy, good plan with the smuggling, by "Pirates" I did really just mean "General Criminals + Boat" lol. I just couldn't think of other crime that involves a boat, but smuggling totally makes sense, dunno how I missed it. I'm going to leave it up to them what kind of "Style" they want to have, but I'm not likely to give them enough points to make super high tech a possibility. I have no idea what to expect from the group as they seem quite varied in approach and I've never played with this group together before. I definitely want to have their reputation have a significant effect on them and such.

Thanks a lot for all the input, I'll post a writeup of the players soon, we should have the characters made and such on Tuesday!

[Shortstraw]

With the prize shares I was talking about this sort of stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_code

[Brainpiercing7.6...]

I ran a very successful SR3 campaign which totally ripped off the anime Black Lagoon. Luckily none of the players knew it.

For a real, independant pirate campaign I would do the following:

You need a map. Make it big, either buy a large map of, for instance, SEA, or the gulf of mexico, eastern Africa, or whatever, or print one to make a large map covering the entire game table. Then paint in some shipping lanes, ports of interest, pirate havens, etc.

IMHO for pirating to be interesting and self-motivated, you need a gamey mechanic to locate and pick the quarry they could conceivable target. So you can't just go ahead and cruise about while looking for ships ripe for the picking, because that just results in random fights and then looting stuff. I would very precisely locate the current position of the PC boat on the map (using a pin, for instance), and also other boats within radar range, or that they have knowledge of. I would also keep track of - hidden from the players - any serious opposition they might be meeting up with, keeping in mind distances, speeds, locations, headings, response times, etc. Using pseudo-naval tools - for instance a compass to track radar range, travel legs, etc., will keep things visually tangible.

The PCs might use the matrix to find out about cargo ships or convoys which are about to take a shipping lane in their vicinity. Or they get hints from paid off harbor officials, etc, which ships might be lightly guarded, carry a valuable cargo, etc.

You also might want a game clock, after every increment of which you update positions. That way you can have real chases. Keep in mind that at sea there are few places to hide, and the distances at which people come aware of each other are rather large. So a chase could take place at several hundred miles distance.

Another interesting angle is always competitors: If the PCs start out as the new kids on the block, then likely as not there are established pirate gangs in place who will brush with them. This might provide more adequate challenges initially, before they come in contact with an Ares cruiser looking for a kidnapped ship.

And finally, you need to work out a convenient mechanic of dealing with income and costs. The spoils of piracy might be quite large, but the running costs could also be high - in the 6th world at least, where companies don't easily pay pirates, because human resources are a much cheaper asset than nowadays. I've had to deal with the problem that the runners ransomed a ship off for 2 million or so (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , which is a quite a hefty sum, but you need to deal with that in some way. This is what modern pirates do, so simply saying "no" probably won't satisfy them. There must be high running costs - bribes to authorities, appeasement money to local warlords, equipment, fuel, supplies, information, etc. Also, I would do away with static availabilities - you probably want the common AK or RPG-launcher to be easy to come by, but ship-mounted railguns rather less so. Perhaps it's a good idea to assign availability and price mods to certain groups of goods per port - that also makes for a good smuggling opportunity - if at one port an item is easily available, but scarce at another, you suddenly have a hook. Obviously you need to revise the buying and selling mechanics a bit - if it's impossible to sell stuff for profit, then it makes no sense to try.

Then there even considerations that come first: Where do the PCs get their ship, and what kind is it? Do they just buy a rubber dingy and then capture a ship to use as their mothership (like current pirates would)? Or do they buy a mothership? Do they attack with that, or do they use small boats? What is their threat possibility? Most small arms can't harm a large cargo ship, but of course in SR it might be easier to enter one while under way. A crew of runners might do so without even getting noticed. Etc...

These are my thoughts, considerations and suggestions on this, so far. By no means complete, obviously.

[thorya]

The NPC crew is fine as long as you remember to roleplay them as actual people and not just automaton's that will do whatever the players say (depending on your players, a mutiny might be in their future)

I don't know. A crew of pirate drones could be fun.


Hound
Also, you must require that at least one player have a cyber hand with interchangeable attachments that can be screwed into it, (hooks, corkscrews, etc.) and a cyber leg. Also, the rigger should have a small brightly colored drone that he carries around on his shoulder.

[Mardrax]

Hound
Also, you must require that at least one player have a cyber hand with interchangeable attachments that can be screwed into it, (hooks, corkscrews, etc.) and a cyber leg. Also, the rigger should have a small brightly colored drone that he carries around on his shoulder.

Modular Cyberhand package deal: The Pirate Package!

[sunnyside]

I like my world to "make sense" as much as possible. So one thing I'd encourage you to consider is how exactly your players survive in a world or spotter drones.

Sadly, I think this makes a large ship flying the jolly roger basically a no-go. You'd be hunted down far too easily.

I did some stuff for a while with a sub, and I think that can work very well, as you can credibly be a lot of places and still get out.

Using small craft from a old commercial (and importantly expendable) mother ship could work well.

Also if you're looking for a more futuristic feel, I think you could pull off shorter ranged raids using a T-bird or something like that. Maybe something with the asthetics of the Reavers from firefly (though hopefully better temperments from your crew!)

[Paul]

To me a larger crew equates to-in my mind as a GM:

• Significant Lifestyle Costs: You have to feed and house these people. Sure you can hand-wave some of that stuff.
• You have to account for these people. Every time you get into a fire fight or just day to day living you kind of have to have a basic idea where they are, or your GM does. That's a lot of extra work.
• You have to equip these people. Larger crews need larger and more boats, and guns. And armor.
• You have to trust these people. Good luck in a Pirate crew. (I'm someone will suggest, with a straight face, how it's totally plausible that you can trust every criminal you run the shadows with, or every Somalian with an RPG on a boat. I hope you ignore those idiots.) At least once as a GM I'd have you deal with ambitious crew members. Maybe more than once.
• Ask yourself why exactly are you starting with a large crew? Most people work long years and hard hours to build a team, crew or employee base that they can trust. To me skipping that is like skipping some of the funner chapters in the book.
• A bigger crew equals bigger boats, and that means-generally speaking-less ability to maneuver, and an increased need for smaller vessels. All of that costs a lot of cred chummer.

Anyways don't let that damper your idea, instead use questions like those to tamper it, and make it better.

[Mardrax]

Sadly, I think this makes a large ship flying the jolly roger basically a no-go. You'd be hunted down far too easily.

I did some stuff for a while with a sub, and I think that can work very well, as you can credibly be a lot of places and still get out.

Well good thing that ever since War! all warships come with Ballast Tanks for instant submarine action!

• Ask yourself why exactly are you starting with a large crew? Most people work long years and hard hours to build a team, crew or employee base that they can trust. To me skipping that is like skipping some of the funner chapters in the book.
• A bigger crew equals bigger boats, and that means-generally speaking-less ability to maneuver, and an increased need for smaller vessels. All of that costs a lot of cred chummer.

The same holds true for working your gunslinging skill. Yet nary an aspiring sammie starts out with Automatics 2.
Also, pirates, paying for things? The thought is funny, yet nothing more. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Ascalaphus]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it yet, but have you watched Black Lagoon? It's an anime series about pirates/smugglers/general criminals in the Pacific, which is often brought up because it's so shadowrunny. Dozens of adventure ideas to be found there.

[sunnyside]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it yet, but have you watched Black Lagoon? It's an anime series about pirates/smugglers/general criminals in the Pacific, which is often brought up because it's so shadowrunny. Dozens of adventure ideas to be found there.

Actually it was mentioned a while ago, otherwise I'd have brought it up too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) It gives you the option of avoiding the crew business. But I think the crew might be part of what the OP wants to play with.

I haven't read War! (Is it even out yet?) but if all ships can become u-boats after a little welding that does open up a lot of options.

[Paul]

The same holds true for working your gunslinging skill. Yet nary an aspiring sammie starts out with Automatics 2.

At my table it's a question we ask. Every single time. For any character that's more than a normal person.

Also, pirates, paying for things? The thought is funny, yet nothing more. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

You clearly play a different style of game than me. Sure you can pirate a lot of stuff but eventually you'll need to buy some things, build some things maybe even plant some things. People who make everyone their enemies end up dead pretty quick. (And yes I get your answer was an off the cuff one-my answer is not meant to be a smack down, but rather just a counterpoint.)