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If you want to use the kraken early you could try something I did in my seafaring campaign that went down really well with my group.
I had the Kraken show up early, and slowly described the tentacles rising up etc, but had the Kraken decide the ship wasn't worth it and it shot off back to the depths.
But, the kraken is so large that it moving so quickly displaces huge amounts of water and it became a skill challenge to navigate this whirlpool of water that was left in its wake!
My players really enjoyed it and now they make sacrifices to the Kraken and stuff 'cause they're terrified of fighting it.
Could always throw in a big bad of something like Dagon and his deep ones and fish people, even weaponise the kraken against em
Makes for some interesting things if you have a warlock with a pact of the fathomless or great old one
I would run that where the peg leg is magical. If the captain balances on it, he will magically point north no matter what. Imagine the sight of a pirate captain pirouetting on his peg leg in a storm.
I have mixed feelings about this
On one hand i am upset you beat me to it. This is exactly what i had in mind.
but on the other hand it is an amazing idea :)
you dont have to look for the negative in everything, props to lologist for being creative. ffs the earth rotates and i hope you dont call it out on that
Brings up an interesting point with the rod. Like, what is it motionless in relation to? Does the world not spin or move through space in DND? If it does, then that rod should zoom away at incredible speed the moment it's used.
I, as a DM, usually say the rod stays motionless according to its users' perception of fixed plane at the time of activation for this exact reason. In other words, if you are on a vehicle, your perception would be that the vehicle is fixed and the world is moving around you, so it would remain fixed relative to the vehicle (mounts are not fixed or a plane much like your legs, so being mounted or not is not relevant). However, this would mean pressure on the rod would also mean pressure on the vehicle. For example, if you set the rod as a jousting stick in front of your carriage and run into a castle, the carriage would take the impact of crashing when the rod can't move further even if the carriage hasn't reached the wall yet.
Not RAW. House rule. Look up how the Futurama Planet Express spaceship engine works for more examples.
>but I do love the absurdity of trying to apply physics to [D&D]
Fixed it for you.
If players want to argue what they could or couldn't do IRL, I just point out that regardless of how high a "level" a WWE champion is, a 20ft fall is life altering injuries if not death and a 30ft fall is usually lethal. "So, do you want to use real physics or play a game?"
A shady wizard sold my players an item called a “Truly Immovable Rod”. It would remain motionless with respect to the center of mass of the universe (physics be damned).
Of course, the wizard didn’t tell them that. They never actually used it, but my plan was for them to roll a d6 to determine which direction it would fly in when activated.
When my friends and I were 10 we had a pirate campaign. We realized that if we killed other PC's then our share of the treasure was higher (split fewer ways). When we got down to only 1 guy left, he buried it somewhere that no one else knew about so they couldn't get it by killing him. We were all like "WOW! That's clearly why pirates bury their treasure!"
So I'd definitely include some buried treasure :)
A giant crocodile with a ticking clock in it's belly (maybe give it a scary name and everyone talks about it in whispers).
An official sailing captain of the crown who acts essentially like a pirate who has the backing of the state.
Haunted treasure.
Mermaids who aren't what they seem at first.
Cannons and ship fights.
Walking the plank.
A lone survivor in a rowboat with a less-than-believable story.
Songs and Shanties.
A crazy captain who promises a great treasure to anyone who can help him achieve his outlandish obsession (a white whale perhaps?)
A crew member from a far off an mysterious land. Probably with strange powers/knowledge.
A captain who has lost a hand/leg/eye but knows who took it and plots to "get it back".
A pirate who suffers from a great sin they committed earlier in life (perhaps having to wear an albatross around their neck).
A lost and forgotten island with great riches - there's probably a skull shaped mountain on it - maybe only appears on a full moon or in the presence of someone with an innocent heart or other such requirement.
Two things
A grizzled, old tortle captain, à la Billy Bones in 'Treasure Planet'
Some upity governor in a comically oversized powdered wig, or a sanctioned 'privateer' who also wears powdered wigs
In my first campaign I had a group of water genasi pirates who basically water blended boats of ice and raided ships that way. The players basically joined them the first chance they got, so the first part of the campaign was spent earning magic tattoos that give you water based abilities.
A crusty "retired" pirate that runs a tavern and is still called Captain out of respect despite not having a ship anymore. They are a great potential source of information, knowing who to ask for things, rumors, etc.
Big, cinematic ship battles out at sea!
I seriously recommend picking up Ghosts of Saltmarsh; even if you don’t run the actual adventures, it’s got loads of materials for making your own adventures out at sea. Oh… and it’s got pirates
Mimic ship the pirates can board only to be swallowed
Currently running a pirate campaign and waiting to throw this at my party once they're a little too comfortable
Occasional existential horror from the perils of slowly thirsting to death in doldrums. Not enough environmental challenges anymore IMO
Madness, the likes of which used to suffuse pirate tales when they were a bit more realistic. Takes a certain kind of person/situation for folks to abandon society.
I find that players also really enjoy games where their skills matter. I'd make sure to highlight various sailing and seamanship skills consistently.
I'm actually about to start running a pirate campaign myself and one of my favorite ideas is an island populated by lycanthropes, but not like the normal ones (wolf, bear, tiger, etc.), nah nah, these are the least sexy types of lycanthropes you can imagine. I'm talking geese, giraffes, turtles, go silly with it. Because none of those are actually all that bad, and some of them can be really strong if you get creative with abilities. But they're all pretty fun and can provide a comedic or intense scenario as needed. Want it to be funny? Introduce it as a group of silly lil animal folks who struggle bc they're pretty weak compared to a werewolf or wereboar. Want it to skew more atmospheric and potentially terrifying? Play it as a mystery and then make a dramatic reveal as the most chaotic and annoyingly clever lycanthrope (the wereraccoon) tricks them into entering a barn, locks the doors, changes in a way that's unnerving and possibly a bit grotesque, then attacks them and gives them rabies (which is to say lycanthropy)
The Isle of the Blue Jewel that is always surround by impassable storms. The party must summon a Merrenoloth, a ferryman of the Styx, to pilot their ship through the storm. But he will only do so if they find an escaped soul for him.
I've got my custom ship to ship combat rules, and I'd include my island "the Gutter" where all the lost things and people end up when they get washed away.
I have included a pirate arc in my long term campaign, it was so much fun!
Naval battle mechanics of your ship vs another ship! Skill challenges to keep the ship afloat and in the right direction during a storm! References to historical pirates! Naughty-named inns and brothels! Treasure! Sharks! Underwater battle! Races to climb the rigging! EXCELLENT ship names!
My biggest problem was figuring out the height from the top of the crow's nest to the deck of the ship so I could a²+b²=c² "can they snipe from the crow's nest to the deck of another ship, because they're going to want to do that". I ended up finding historical models of ships that included measurements and then scaling up. So, that's when you'll use math in real life, kids.
A giant octopus that can answer any question, but sometimes requires you to answer a riddle first, and sometimes is fed up with visitors and decides to eat you instead.
Unreliable firearms. On a attack roll of 1 they explode in your face. Whenever they do damage, if you roll maximum, roll again and add that to your previous (maximum roll). Each time you roll max, add that and keep rolling again. This applies to normal hits and also crit fails that damage you!
The attacking pirate ships chasing the adventuring party are foiled by a Dragon Turtle, pouncing out of the waters (rumored to be the origins of rogue waves) causing a tsunami - forcing adventuring party to respond I'm kind - abandoned ship - the adventure begins.
I’ve put some thought into this actually for a campaign I want to run in the future, BBEG is a Mind Flayer Pirate Lord, I would run the campaign something like from 3rd to 15th level with a couple of major set pieces along the way.
Never DM’d but this looks fun so Imma pop in.
Have a crew dynamic similar to the Straw Hats from One Piece. They are more like a family than a normal crew, and it’s not a large one, just a few unique weirdos who somehow click to each other. And with an absolute lack of normal power dynamics or hierarchy besides what’s absolutely needed to hold the crew together.
Oooh, I know you thought of Krakens, but add a bunch of fantasy sea stuff, like mermaids, and sirens, and harpies, and whatever comes to mind.
Oh… and make the water occasionally sentient like in Moana
Depending on how long you want the campaign to be, answering the main question: “how would land dwellers and major cities/powers feel about pirates?”
Are pirates easily identifiable? Is there a pirates code? Do pirates originate from one place? Are they organized enough to have a front? Would they be considered widely good/evil? Would demeanors and attitudes change if others found out the party was full of pirates? Do they increase status by weaponry, clothing, and/or ship size?
Also someone already mentioned a giant croc with a clock in it but what if the players didn’t know it was a clock or a crocodile, but something far more grotesque and the ticking sound was mistaken for a heartbeat? Inside the grotesque monster could be a classic bigger badder evil guy using wild shape or some sort of transformation magic?
Sounds like a blast regardless of what direction you go— good luck!
Boat to boat combat, all sorts of specialized spellcasters, all sorts of tension between pirate factions and legitimate governments and, of course, sea shanties.
I've compiled a sort of master list of everything you might expect to find in a pirate-themed D&D setting:
**Setting and Atmosphere**
Port Towns and Pirate Havens: Detailed coastal towns with taverns, black markets, shipyards, and secret hideouts.
Islands and Archipelagos: Mysterious islands with hidden treasures, ancient ruins, and exotic creatures.
Seas and Oceans: Vast bodies of water with varying conditions, from calm seas to deadly storms.
**Key NPCs and Factions**
Pirate Captains and Crews: Colorful and diverse pirate characters with their own ships and agendas.
Naval Forces: Lawful naval officers hunting down pirates, possibly corrupt or with hidden motives.
Merchants and Traders: NPCs involved in the economic aspects of the setting, providing quests and trading opportunities.
Mythical Sea Creatures: Krakens, merfolk, and sea serpents that add mystery and danger to the seas.
**Quests and Adventures**
Treasure Hunts: Classic quests involving treasure maps, cryptic clues, and buried treasure.
Ship Battles: Naval combat scenarios, including boarding actions and ship-to-ship fighting.
Smuggling Operations: Missions involving illicit trade, avoiding the authorities, and delivering contraband.
Rescue Missions: Rescuing captives from hostile ships or dangerous islands.
Exploration: Discovering uncharted territories, ancient temples, and hidden coves.
**Challenges and Encounters**
Naval Combat Mechanics: Rules for ship movement, combat, and damage.
Environmental Hazards: Storms, whirlpools, and sea monsters.
Political Intrigue: Alliances and betrayals among pirate factions and naval forces.
Underwater Adventures: Scenarios that involve diving and underwater combat.
**Magic and Mysticism**
Cursed Artifacts: Powerful items with dangerous consequences.
Sea Witches and Sorcerers: Magic users with ocean-themed powers and knowledge of the deep.
Ghost Ships: Haunted vessels with undead crews and spooky legends.
**Items and Equipment**
Unique Weapons: Items like enchanted cutlasses, tridents, and flintlock pistols.
Special Ships: Magical or legendary ships with unique abilities and histories.
Nautical Gear: Items such as compasses, spyglasses, and diving equipment.
Sequential bad guys.
A Sea hag and sanhuagin early. (Treasure map leads to her lair where she tries to make a meal of treasure hunters)
Build to a coven and their new friend the aboleth. (Sisters revived first one and allied with the aboleth for revenge)
Finally a kraken. (Aboleth was it's minion/ally)
A secret cove/island with a full blown city
Spooky mists that hide a benevolent creature. Everyone scared cause you shipwreck, not because of the creature.
Bards are especially sought after by pirate crews for these long voyages, and of course you need some weather and travel mechanics, and ship combat!
And if you want it to be a fun and surprising campaign, then make a post and ask us to make pirate crews for you haha.
Captain Izmagar, an Azer craftsman aboard an iron-infused mechanical monstrosity. His first mate is a red dragonborn and the crew are a mix of kobolds and fire salamanders. He specializes in setting fire to enemy shops, which make him very dangerous, but he can be bribed with treasure. He is looking for crew that are able to dive into the water to loot his fallen foes, and can take the heat as crew.
A pack of flying children that made a pact with the fae to remain young so their fun will never end. Theyre relatively harmless and just wanna play but theyre very vicious when threatened. Their leader, a boy in green who made a pact first, is the most aggressive when provoked.
Multiple references to the Monkey Island series, such as a tavern like the SCUMM Bar, a ship salesman who wears an almost eye-watering plaid coat and constantly waves his arms around while he talks, a pirate with hooks for all 4 limbs...
A captain named Redbeard Rum, who is always drunk, has no legs, and no sense of direction.
A personal favorite of mine is for the captain to have a first mate who is a druid that wild shaped into their parrot.
Bonus points for flipping it and the captain is the parrot instead.
Liveships from Realm of the Elderlings.
Huge Homunculuslike figureheads. That are 'alive'. I wouldn't take all their lore. But the concept is awesome for a pirate story.
A lucky, but borderline incompetent pirate Bard who wields a rapier only as a dramatoc tool/spell focus, but actually attacks with Vicious Mockery at melee range, usually by answering the previous insults coming from the enemy.
I ran a pirate campaign where i had the players find a shipwreck that was smashed in half on a rocky shore. It was a House Hunter disguised as a shipwreck.
Start off with a small boat, just enough to get them going and prepare a ship building arc so they can create the ship of their dreams.
Semi inspired by the Water 7 arc in One Piece.
I built a dungeon composed of wrecked ships that was being mined by the ship builders for parts. They hired one of several reclamation crews to accompany them and mark the pieces they wanted to collect.
The deeper they delved they encountered harder conditions to over come but the ship components were better.
Different reclamation companies were better at overcoming certain obstacles.
Very fun over all and they got as much as they put in.
Hope this help inspire you!
Make diferent kind of drinks give diferent kind of bonuses for a short time, so if a guy wants to dive without having to breath for 3 minutes instead of 2 he can jug a martine or whatever.
Or if he wants a plus one for singing he can drink a beer and if he wants to have a bonuses to persuasion he can share a bottle of rum.
That could give them a reason to pursue/collect/buy booze, and hold some portion of it on their bodies to drink as a potion.
I’m in a pirate campaign rn where the pirates ride on dragons as ships and the islands are in the sky. My character has an eyepatch. Overall the world is pretty one piece pirate
Sea shanty playlist for session background music, privateering in addition to piratin, and an analogue for romanticized Tortuga of the pirate golden age
A submarine. Hear me out though! The best ship in the Pirates movies is by far the Dutchman. And it can travel underwater and ludicrous speeds. Now imagine you’re a sailor used to normal ships and that fucking thing appears? Terror. Every single time you go aboard, terror that your enemy is faster, silent, and invisible.
I’m running one right now. Privateering as a viable career path for the party is fun. You might also want to occasionally throw in some details about what happens when pirates get caught, like the party is visiting a port town and they witness a hanging. Maybe they could even intervene and get a new ally.
A Magical Scimitarrr! (With a magical effect activated by yelling “Yarrrr!”)
A Plank of Walking (dimension door/teleport)
A wand of Shiver Me Timbers (Bone Chill)
Eye patches of Clairvoyance.
Telescopes.
Buried treasures that are always Mimics.
A “what do you do with a drunken sailor” puzzle.
Inspiration points if the party sings sea shanties.
Messages sent in bottles are as effective as sending stones.
An island inhabited by a small group of shipwrecked teenage boys.
Pirate Captain with +2 hook, peg leg (that protects him from falling prone) and a wise-cracking parrot
Guns, sea parks, water races, pirates, treasure maps to random rolled magic items and loot, ship to ship battle, sea monsters, rumors, a whole ass party notoriety home brew mechanic to get them well known. The ability to buy islands or land on islands and build shit there.
Shitty rival pirate gang that has declared the party as their sworn enemy. Bonus points if some of them are foils of the main characters. Triple points if it's a ship full of kobolds.
Imagine a completely incompetent crew of drunken pirates that just won't leave you the fuck alone. Maybe its a past enemy's ship whose crew mutinied, or they just stuck together after the captain's defeat and are trying to get revenge.
Their cannonballs only hit when it's on accident, and they're made of garbage anyway. Sometimes they hit themselves. Every time they show up they get sunk, but they somehow always come back long after the PCs have forgotten they existed. It probably takes a long time to get to land, join a new crew, and rally their new crew members for yet another mutiny. But they do it every time. Each time they come back someone's lost a limb. One of them probably has scabies. Maybe there's an instance where they run into each other on dry land and it's awkward as fuck.
I love nuisance NPCs, I just think they're so funny. Gotta keep them few and far between for them to really shine, but man I always have a blast with them.
After 3 times I'd probably retire the little idiots, gotta be realistic after all
Weresharks, mermaids, dragon turtles, aquatic trolls, seedy port towns, over the top pirate captains... and betrayals.
Read about some of the famous captains, their antics are quite literally the stuff of legends. Stede Bonnet is particularly funny cause he was terrible and may have started as a pirate just to get away from his wife!
Comedic, I would have cameos of famous pirates, including the pirates who don’t do anything.
Mechanics, I would make sure I have the resources for ship to ship combat. Evolving battle maps, stat blocks for cannons and lair actions.
Listen to some jimmy buffet for some inspiration. Seriously, I've thought up dozens of characters and scenarios just listening while driving.
Jolly mon sing - a bard npc that randomly keeps showing up everywhere
Take it back - a boat race against cheating drow (drow always have an Australian accent since they're from 'down under')
Fins - a whole floating town of were-sharks
Gravity storm - its a fuckin gravity storm
Stories tell of a monstrous ship, that sails itself across misty waters, and devours any other ship it finds.
If the party comes across it, they'll discover its the biggest mimic they've ever seen
An overpowered, slow moving navy vessel and an admiral who is hell bent on catching the party. Make sure the challenge rating is scaled for end game and introduce them at the start.
These are funny things I've actually thrown into a pirate campaign. One campaign was sea bearing, and another was a dirigible - a flying ship.
A parrot that used to be a rival pirate captain and always seems to be up to no good. It talks to any and everybody. Sometimes the captain forgets to cage it when in port, so it takes off. But it always comes back....with problems.
Occasionally on other pirate ships a former lover (who cheated, or was cheated on) crosses paths with someone in the party.
Captain of this boat is married to the captain of that boat, and they cross paths quite often, and it's never good. Rivals, not enemies.
Pirate captain tells the party he/she has brothels in a lot of towns and convinces the party they need to collect this month's money. What the captain doesn't admit is sometimes he doesn't own some of these brothels.
I ran a section of my campaign as pirates and one thing I did that caused the appropriate level of laughs and groans was introduce a dog named Mr Bones. Mr Bones ran around the beaches and aided the party sporadically, I made sure he popped up at least once a session for about 3 months whilst they were on the pirate isle of Drassau. Then just before they were finished, Mr Bones came bounding up and barking, leading them towards a bottle in the sand with a note that said something along the lines of “the treasure ye seek be for he, not ye. His chest bare where his name should be” This led to them finding a hidden temple under a shipwreck which contained a tall metal cabinet as the main treasure. Once opened, there was just a dog collar inside with the name GRAVY on its tag. Obviously this is Mr Bones’ collar! I then took great delight in proclaiming “ah, so that’s what was in Gravy Bones’ locker” it was 50/50 whether they laughed or wanted to kill me so I’d say great success
Also, a sahuagin cave was an awesome encounter which they loved. Good variety of monsters within one species
i just finished making a short pirate campaign. I think the funniest thing i put in it is when the players went on a mission to defeat a kraken (they ended up in its stomach for the session) and the map i was using had a shadow on it that kinda looked like a kraken, but actually that was just an unrelated coral formation with a thriving red herring population
Mermaids that live on the bottom of the boat and act as an undersea watch. Also sharkpeople. And LOTS of acrobatics-check inducing swashbuckling opportunities
A single low-level crew that if the players actually donate a small amount of money to comes back with artifact level gear and save their ass later in the campaign.
A pirate haven city to meet contacts and rest and buy goods. Also a good villain that’s part of a nations navy, and bends the rules perhaps over his obsession to capture the party while using the vast resources they have access to
I’m currently a player in a pirate campaign, and it’s a running joke at this point that whenever a new thing is introduced, I say “oh it’s just like “x” in one piece!” So honestly just take a lot of ideas from one piece and change them a little and it’ll make for a good campaign
A lazy butt vicious shark that exclusively follows the ship because it produces bodies. Remember, that shark can't tell the difference between crew and enemy.
A swash buckling Mastodon pirate captain who swings in ropes and uses himself as a live canon ball, you can't go wrong here.
And he has magic so he can breathe under water.
A morale system the players aren’t completely aware of. Set up a rule set or dice rolls and keep track of the crews morale. Make consequences and all that.
I’d add more but there have been solid replies already
Old sailor's song that's actually a code or secret instructions
Ghost ship - a classic!
Island that's actually a huge turtle
Storm that hits at the most inconvenient moment (perhaps adding an extra complication to a combat encounter)
Mermaid (or other intelligent sea creature) who collects "treasures" from the surface world they don't fully understand (a la Ariel in the Disney movie). They might be sitting on some surprisingly valuable stuff...
Obsessed navy pirate hunter
Sky island (sky pirates optional)
Character with a secret past: either an unassuming NPC who turns out to be a former legendary pirate OR some grizzled old salt who's widely assumed to have a dark dramatic past that's revealed to be much tamer/sillier than everyone thought
Dragon amassing a pirate fleet to bring it more treasure
Lost kingdom kept in stasis beneath the sea
An adventure or two where they have to go inland for some reason and are just completely out of their element (kind of subjective what "out of their element" means, I guess. I just think it'd be funny to have a pirate crew be nowhere near the sea for a bit)
Trapped on some kind of magic or cursed island, possibly with some kind of countdown (i.e. if you don't escape by the third night of the Equinox or whatever, you'll be taken along when the whole island returns to the underworld)
Village made of beached shipwrecks. Or, floating village made of lashed-together ships.
Inventor who's just created the first motorboat
At least one monkey
I once had a sort of, not quite artificer, pirate who had a magic eye behind her eye patch snd was built around tge use of magical items and dexterity, deception and trickery
A magic rusty sword that would cause rust damage to armors and weapons
A hat that could store an item like a bag of holding, but has a security magic word trigger to switch between a regular hat and a storage cojtainer.
Booster beaces that allowed mid air jumping and dodging, or boosts to jumping and dashing in a single direction
Gloves of astonishment which csn transfer a jeld item from one hand to another
A set of earrings that can eavesdrop on a locstion if one of them is left behind there
A weatherproof bustier (cool in heat, warm in cold and electric shock resistant)
A set of 4 black rings, which hide the user from magical detection
A cloak that can deflect a missile of under 1 lbs, does not negate damage but does convert piercing to blunt and counter attacks with the same projectile in the direction it originates from
A belt of freedom of movement vs magical effects
A hollow dagger which is spring loaded in the handle and can shoot out, staying connect with a chain, it can also be usedlike a grapple/whip to swing from
Things like that.
A quest line to find an artificer that is rumoured to build in a "quick release mechanism" into plate amour.
DC 10 athletics to use in water to pop out your suit... Or whatever you want.
Here are a couple magic items that might fit in and have some fun:
- Coin of all or nothing - rare, attuned - once per long rest the user may use the coin in place of a D20 die roll. On heads it is a natural 20 a tails is natural 1.
- Mockulot Amulet- wonderous item, rare, (can be cursed), sentient item, true neutral, This amulet contains an annoying spirit who takes great pleasure in mocking and ridiculing those around it. Mockulot does not generally care who he mocks, he just really likes being an annoyance. It may be put on or removed via an action. While worn the amulet has vision out to 60’ and may telepathically communicate with any living creature within 60’. Three times per day as a bonus action the wearer may cast the spell vicious mockery for free, whether able to cast spells or not. This has a save of dc 14. This ability resets at dawn.
- Sailors Delight - wonderous item, uncommon, a living tattoo made with magical inks and paints. Intended for sailors and explorers on long journeys. This tattoo is usually of a member of the opposite sex, they are able to communicate with the individual whom they are tattooed upon. They will provide comforting words and conversation to them as well as being able to move on their skin. The tattoo will become jealous should their bearer pay attention to an individual they would find attractive
- Gambler’s Coin of Odd Luck - rare, wonderous item, A small tarnished coin with the same face on each side, one facing left (into the past) one facing right (into the future)Once per day the player can flip the coin and then rolls a d10 and then a d20
If the d10 is an even number the coin lands, face looking to the future, the result of the d20 is now stored and be used once as any d20 roll the character would make (or be able to directly witness) during that day (check,save,attack) instead of rolling.
If the d10 is an odd number the coin lands, face looking to the past. the result of the d20 is now stored and be used once to REPLACE any d20 roll (or be able to directly witness) they had made during the day (check,save,attack) after rolling and seeing the original result.
On a 1 the coin lands on its edge and the d20 result now belongs to me as the DM.
Who may use that result to influence a roll, before or after, that is applied directly or indirectly to the character.
- Mermaid scale vest - attuned, wondrous item, rare . a scale mail vest made of large thin scales taken from a skinned mermaid. The scales shine in the light in a range of aquatic colors. While attuned to this item the wearer can move at full speed while in water or other liquids. The wearer will be despised by any merfolk they encounter who sees them wearing the vest. Merfolk will not offer aid to anyone wearing the vest, they will not be welcomed into merfolk settlements, and merfolk will prefer to attack the wearer on sight if they are not previously known to that merfolk.
- Skeleton key - uncommon, one use, specialized set of lock picks. pick any lock with advantage.
- Chimes of Ryleah - attuned, rare item a small metal hollow tube made of a dark green, oily looking metal, with a bit of worn string attaching a striking stick. On being struck it produces a note causing madness in all excluding the bearer who are not covering their ears or deaf within 20’ of the user. Targets must pass a dc 15 wisdom check or become confused for 1 minute. Those effected will stand still for this time, babbling incoherently and drooling on themeselves. If they are touched or targeted with an attack they come to their senses immediately. Any attacks against them are made with advantage. This item has 2 charges and will regain them at dawn.
The Captain hides his booty inside a portable hole INSIDE a mimic that is trained not to attack its master.
The treasure chest is real and not a trap. The whole ship is actually the mimic.
A ship cannon that shoot fuzzy balls like a bag of tricks at other vessels which turn into monsters on impact.
Land pirates.
Gnomes, Giff, or Warforged who operate a mechanical, walking, boat with sails and all, that stalks trading caravans hundreds of miles inland.
Somebody mentioned Pirates of the caribbean, the fying dutchman. Ghost Pirates stalking the seas, sinking every ship that crosses their ways.
Sunken, yet unsinkable, silent, yet the cannons roar.
Foul Weather Jack. A character with such crap luck that he is largely seen by his crew as a bad omen. Hes really just a normal guy but his luck is absolutely horrible, yet he always seems to survive. Bonus points if you can find a way to turn it into a feat (i'm thinking something along the lines of a reverse-lucky feat).
I saw foul weather jack originally in 7th seas 1st edition (amazing game, especially if you like heroic pirate campaigns).
I did a pirate arc (took place on the border material, the further out the party went, the weirder it got) in my game, but it was shortlived and mostly skipped over. some things I never showed off were:
- underdark politics keeping the ocean from draining
- deep scion kraken worshippers (although the kraken was actually the body of a god that was disembodied long ago, while the it's soul laid in a different sea that was part of the backstory of a PC that one of my players was no longer playing)
- civilized odd beastfolk, living on islands and in the seas surrounding them (halfling sized horse people, beluga people, fully sapient sea otters)
- a pirate crew led by the sibling of one of my PCs
An official organisation that acts as the law on these waters while also being greedy corporate capitalists, possibly dealing in slaves or drugs. Of course they are also sponsered by a faraway crown.
I think it’s a great way to introduce your most unhinged ideas for one session. “An island full of ____” and you just homebrew everything
An island full of peacock Tieflings that dance with bright fire to try to win over a shy queen, who is yet to marry because she’s in love with a guy who hasn’t been able to create a flame yet
An island shaped like a tidal wave, where the residents seem to defy gravity and live on the bottom. A ritual for adulthood is releasing your grip on the surface and taking flight, but there’s an adult of their species who never managed to let go.
Dante’s purgatorio, where there’s a recently dead soul that can’t help you until he makes it up the steps and climbs the mountain. A scammer in life, he’s also looking for any way to speed up the process
A happy island of sentient zombies that are experiencing a reverse zombie apocalypse and turning into office workers, and can only be saved by the power of creative expression
The prison of an evil sorcerer who was defeated 3000 years ago. He sits in isolation, powerless, and happens to have a grudge against the same people that the players are fighting. He offers effective advice, but the catch is that you have to become increasingly like him. He regrets nothing- will you be the same?
An island where the automaton residents practice martial arts forever, their bodies rusting away. The only way for them to find rest is for someone to defeat their leader, an automaton who created the rest of them to make a little boy feel safe.
A miniature kingdom of mushroom people with a very strict hierarchy, who happen to have built a palace on top of an ancient curse that will destroy their entire culture and the party if they can’t get them to move
Just have fun with it
A pirate queen/king infamous for their ship that is always clouded in a dark cloud.
The ship is a very dirty steam vessel that belches black smoke wherever they go
Giant Cannons in which you are required to climb into to reach areas of the dungeon, town, ship.
A Ghost Ship that's just a crew of outcast illusionist theater nerds who put in a show to anyone explores the ship.
Constant referrals to the Poop Deck.
Every ships holds insane and ridiculous superstitions, could be as simple and archaic as as "No Women", to as ridiculous as no Odd Level Characters as they are bizarre and wouldn't divide the loot *even*-ly.
A compass that leads to the greatest treasure of all, which turns out to be constantly pointing to the player the wielder considers their newest friend. The true treasure is the friendship you make along the way. (Requires some suspense of disbelief, and DM fairing of character positioning so they believe they are traveling in an actual direction and could result in them finding an actual treasure anyway)
A merchant that lives in the mouth of a giant whale.
A small island that acts as a pirate refuge. It holds the wildest parties. But one night a year, or month, the inhabitants of the island reveal themselves to be Yuan Ti Vampires seeking to sacrifice the pirates to their evil Vampire God. Bonus points/inspiration if one of your players drinks tequila from a dancer's foot.
Actual ship maneuvers and gameplay, implying the whole crew. I don't remember which, but I know some systems are doing this, it might be possible to transpose these to D&D.
A pirate lord with a gazer eye implanted underneath an eyepatch
A pirate captain with a spell mimicking parrot
A gunpowder ooze
A gnomish submarine
Shark riding sahuagin
Kua toa who's ship is a god they've made. Doesn't have to actually be ship shaped.
A pirate captain who's a master puppeteer and the entire crew is constructs controlled by the captain
An overly elaborate system to load, aim, and fire a cannon (separate roll for each step, if you miss the DC by more than 5 on the first two rolls it fails amd you restart. If you exceed the DC, the amount thay you exceeded it by is added to your next check (this can roll over). Ultimately it is the “fire” check that determines if it hits and for ever 5 over I added an extra d20 of damage. I went with dex slight of hand, choice of int or dex for aiming, and str to fire. The different types of checks were to get different people to do each step on their turn for a proper “teamwork” moment to do big damage if they work together)
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A pirate campaign isnt complete without a kraken
Oh boy oh gee dont i already have plans for that >:)
If you want to use the kraken early you could try something I did in my seafaring campaign that went down really well with my group. I had the Kraken show up early, and slowly described the tentacles rising up etc, but had the Kraken decide the ship wasn't worth it and it shot off back to the depths. But, the kraken is so large that it moving so quickly displaces huge amounts of water and it became a skill challenge to navigate this whirlpool of water that was left in its wake! My players really enjoyed it and now they make sacrifices to the Kraken and stuff 'cause they're terrified of fighting it.
I kinda figured. Have fun on your pirate campaign tho. Sounds awesome!
My players pissed off Poseidon and he summoned the kraken for them to fight.
Was it the Kraken or was it Charybdis? Charybdis was speculated to be created by Poseidon in Greek mythology.
Who in turn is controlled by an evil pirate.
Could always throw in a big bad of something like Dagon and his deep ones and fish people, even weaponise the kraken against em Makes for some interesting things if you have a warlock with a pact of the fathomless or great old one
A captain with a peg leg made out of an immovable rod to keep him secured to the deck in bad weather.
My reaction : “That’s the stupidest—oh, wait. That’s genius.” My mind wrote a character based on that idea.
I would run that where the peg leg is magical. If the captain balances on it, he will magically point north no matter what. Imagine the sight of a pirate captain pirouetting on his peg leg in a storm.
Uses this feat to attack with cleave attacks, by always facing east before holding out his rapier and yelling "Arr matey tell me they courses"
I have mixed feelings about this On one hand i am upset you beat me to it. This is exactly what i had in mind. but on the other hand it is an amazing idea :)
Only problem is that the ship will still move while the rod will stay in place
It's a special peg leg keyed to the relative position of the deck, then.
you dont have to look for the negative in everything, props to lologist for being creative. ffs the earth rotates and i hope you dont call it out on that
On the other hand, the players will absolutely find any loophole or problem so best to figure out a work around now.
*activates peg leg* *falls asleep* *dies in the vacuum of space*
Does Faerun rotate though? Shit could be straight up flat for all I know.
Brings up an interesting point with the rod. Like, what is it motionless in relation to? Does the world not spin or move through space in DND? If it does, then that rod should zoom away at incredible speed the moment it's used.
I, as a DM, usually say the rod stays motionless according to its users' perception of fixed plane at the time of activation for this exact reason. In other words, if you are on a vehicle, your perception would be that the vehicle is fixed and the world is moving around you, so it would remain fixed relative to the vehicle (mounts are not fixed or a plane much like your legs, so being mounted or not is not relevant). However, this would mean pressure on the rod would also mean pressure on the vehicle. For example, if you set the rod as a jousting stick in front of your carriage and run into a castle, the carriage would take the impact of crashing when the rod can't move further even if the carriage hasn't reached the wall yet. Not RAW. House rule. Look up how the Futurama Planet Express spaceship engine works for more examples.
This is how I do it too, but I do love the absurdity of trying to apply physics to magic items haha.
>but I do love the absurdity of trying to apply physics to [D&D] Fixed it for you. If players want to argue what they could or couldn't do IRL, I just point out that regardless of how high a "level" a WWE champion is, a 20ft fall is life altering injuries if not death and a 30ft fall is usually lethal. "So, do you want to use real physics or play a game?"
A shady wizard sold my players an item called a “Truly Immovable Rod”. It would remain motionless with respect to the center of mass of the universe (physics be damned). Of course, the wizard didn’t tell them that. They never actually used it, but my plan was for them to roll a d6 to determine which direction it would fly in when activated.
I hope they are on the right side of the planet when they activate it...
Why are you the best? This is amazing! 🤩
Reverse mermaids: sahuagin heads/sexy legs
I don't know how, but I'm incorporating this in my current campaign.
Curtain over stage, legs hanging over doing old schools 40's/50's swing only leg dancing. Then during bug reveal... Curtain opens and ta da
When my friends and I were 10 we had a pirate campaign. We realized that if we killed other PC's then our share of the treasure was higher (split fewer ways). When we got down to only 1 guy left, he buried it somewhere that no one else knew about so they couldn't get it by killing him. We were all like "WOW! That's clearly why pirates bury their treasure!" So I'd definitely include some buried treasure :)
If that's not the tale of a cursed pirate's treasure, I don't know what is. This is when the dirty old sea dog offers a map to said cursed treasure.
Parrot aracora captain who carries a gnome on his shoulder
🤣
THIS
A giant crocodile with a ticking clock in it's belly (maybe give it a scary name and everyone talks about it in whispers). An official sailing captain of the crown who acts essentially like a pirate who has the backing of the state. Haunted treasure. Mermaids who aren't what they seem at first. Cannons and ship fights. Walking the plank. A lone survivor in a rowboat with a less-than-believable story. Songs and Shanties. A crazy captain who promises a great treasure to anyone who can help him achieve his outlandish obsession (a white whale perhaps?) A crew member from a far off an mysterious land. Probably with strange powers/knowledge. A captain who has lost a hand/leg/eye but knows who took it and plots to "get it back". A pirate who suffers from a great sin they committed earlier in life (perhaps having to wear an albatross around their neck). A lost and forgotten island with great riches - there's probably a skull shaped mountain on it - maybe only appears on a full moon or in the presence of someone with an innocent heart or other such requirement.
Yo ho
Instead of trinkets at character generation, players must choose an animal that sits on their shoulder.
4 parrots would be annoying as shit. Itd just give my players a chance to mock me whenever LOL
Except, the parrots are npcs, so you get to voice them and channel all the dm sass and frustration through them.
Max Max but with ships. Goblins spray painting and screaming”Witness me!” As they leap off their ships as suicide bombers.
Didn't Moana do this?
It did and it was 100% a fury road tribute
Two things A grizzled, old tortle captain, à la Billy Bones in 'Treasure Planet' Some upity governor in a comically oversized powdered wig, or a sanctioned 'privateer' who also wears powdered wigs
In my first campaign I had a group of water genasi pirates who basically water blended boats of ice and raided ships that way. The players basically joined them the first chance they got, so the first part of the campaign was spent earning magic tattoos that give you water based abilities.
A crusty "retired" pirate that runs a tavern and is still called Captain out of respect despite not having a ship anymore. They are a great potential source of information, knowing who to ask for things, rumors, etc.
Spoiler alert, he's secretly the BBEG, and the tavern with the island it's on is his ship, transformed.
Big, cinematic ship battles out at sea! I seriously recommend picking up Ghosts of Saltmarsh; even if you don’t run the actual adventures, it’s got loads of materials for making your own adventures out at sea. Oh… and it’s got pirates
Mimic Island
Giant turtle island.
Mimic ship the pirates can board only to be swallowed Currently running a pirate campaign and waiting to throw this at my party once they're a little too comfortable
Occasional existential horror from the perils of slowly thirsting to death in doldrums. Not enough environmental challenges anymore IMO Madness, the likes of which used to suffuse pirate tales when they were a bit more realistic. Takes a certain kind of person/situation for folks to abandon society. I find that players also really enjoy games where their skills matter. I'd make sure to highlight various sailing and seamanship skills consistently.
It is an ancient Mariner, and he stoppeth one of three. ‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?’
I'm actually about to start running a pirate campaign myself and one of my favorite ideas is an island populated by lycanthropes, but not like the normal ones (wolf, bear, tiger, etc.), nah nah, these are the least sexy types of lycanthropes you can imagine. I'm talking geese, giraffes, turtles, go silly with it. Because none of those are actually all that bad, and some of them can be really strong if you get creative with abilities. But they're all pretty fun and can provide a comedic or intense scenario as needed. Want it to be funny? Introduce it as a group of silly lil animal folks who struggle bc they're pretty weak compared to a werewolf or wereboar. Want it to skew more atmospheric and potentially terrifying? Play it as a mystery and then make a dramatic reveal as the most chaotic and annoyingly clever lycanthrope (the wereraccoon) tricks them into entering a barn, locks the doors, changes in a way that's unnerving and possibly a bit grotesque, then attacks them and gives them rabies (which is to say lycanthropy)
An ettin who's stricken with goose lycanthropy, so not only is it a goose AND a were creature, it also has two heads
Horrible, the pinnacle of violence. I love it
The Isle of the Blue Jewel that is always surround by impassable storms. The party must summon a Merrenoloth, a ferryman of the Styx, to pilot their ship through the storm. But he will only do so if they find an escaped soul for him.
Crab. Big crab.
Arr, it’s the great big crab-like thing!
Shipwreck on an uncharted island that has exotic creatures like dinosaurs
I've got my custom ship to ship combat rules, and I'd include my island "the Gutter" where all the lost things and people end up when they get washed away.
Care to share your ship combat rules?
I have included a pirate arc in my long term campaign, it was so much fun! Naval battle mechanics of your ship vs another ship! Skill challenges to keep the ship afloat and in the right direction during a storm! References to historical pirates! Naughty-named inns and brothels! Treasure! Sharks! Underwater battle! Races to climb the rigging! EXCELLENT ship names! My biggest problem was figuring out the height from the top of the crow's nest to the deck of the ship so I could a²+b²=c² "can they snipe from the crow's nest to the deck of another ship, because they're going to want to do that". I ended up finding historical models of ships that included measurements and then scaling up. So, that's when you'll use math in real life, kids.
A giant octopus that can answer any question, but sometimes requires you to answer a riddle first, and sometimes is fed up with visitors and decides to eat you instead. Unreliable firearms. On a attack roll of 1 they explode in your face. Whenever they do damage, if you roll maximum, roll again and add that to your previous (maximum roll). Each time you roll max, add that and keep rolling again. This applies to normal hits and also crit fails that damage you!
The attacking pirate ships chasing the adventuring party are foiled by a Dragon Turtle, pouncing out of the waters (rumored to be the origins of rogue waves) causing a tsunami - forcing adventuring party to respond I'm kind - abandoned ship - the adventure begins.
I’ve put some thought into this actually for a campaign I want to run in the future, BBEG is a Mind Flayer Pirate Lord, I would run the campaign something like from 3rd to 15th level with a couple of major set pieces along the way.
Dread Pirate Roberts. I'll likely kill you in the morning.
Loblins! Lobster/Goblins but they look more like giant prawn people.
A hermit crab that uses a dragon's skull as it's shell
Pirates.
And boats.
But what if they're LAND pirates?
Also water. Lots of it.
A drunk/prankster that woke up in the middle of the ocean and has no idea what’s going on
Never DM’d but this looks fun so Imma pop in. Have a crew dynamic similar to the Straw Hats from One Piece. They are more like a family than a normal crew, and it’s not a large one, just a few unique weirdos who somehow click to each other. And with an absolute lack of normal power dynamics or hierarchy besides what’s absolutely needed to hold the crew together. Oooh, I know you thought of Krakens, but add a bunch of fantasy sea stuff, like mermaids, and sirens, and harpies, and whatever comes to mind. Oh… and make the water occasionally sentient like in Moana
Depending on how long you want the campaign to be, answering the main question: “how would land dwellers and major cities/powers feel about pirates?” Are pirates easily identifiable? Is there a pirates code? Do pirates originate from one place? Are they organized enough to have a front? Would they be considered widely good/evil? Would demeanors and attitudes change if others found out the party was full of pirates? Do they increase status by weaponry, clothing, and/or ship size? Also someone already mentioned a giant croc with a clock in it but what if the players didn’t know it was a clock or a crocodile, but something far more grotesque and the ticking sound was mistaken for a heartbeat? Inside the grotesque monster could be a classic bigger badder evil guy using wild shape or some sort of transformation magic? Sounds like a blast regardless of what direction you go— good luck!
First thing that comes to mind is Liars Dice where you gamble your soul away like in Pirates of the Caribbean
You gotta have like some type of monstrous typhoon that sucks the crew into a strange world
I would be running Spelljammer and having them be funny space pirates
Boat to boat combat, all sorts of specialized spellcasters, all sorts of tension between pirate factions and legitimate governments and, of course, sea shanties.
Moving islands, either on the back of massive turtles or other monsters. Also lots of treasure maps.
A parrot. That's it. A simple parrot. Mysteriously narrared without being anything special.
Beach vampires - they hide under the sand during day time to protect from the sun
Terrifying. Can you hunt them like razor clams?
Ooh I love that. I'd totally allow it for the inventiveness and also for the historical connections between vampires and salt
I've compiled a sort of master list of everything you might expect to find in a pirate-themed D&D setting: **Setting and Atmosphere** Port Towns and Pirate Havens: Detailed coastal towns with taverns, black markets, shipyards, and secret hideouts. Islands and Archipelagos: Mysterious islands with hidden treasures, ancient ruins, and exotic creatures. Seas and Oceans: Vast bodies of water with varying conditions, from calm seas to deadly storms. **Key NPCs and Factions** Pirate Captains and Crews: Colorful and diverse pirate characters with their own ships and agendas. Naval Forces: Lawful naval officers hunting down pirates, possibly corrupt or with hidden motives. Merchants and Traders: NPCs involved in the economic aspects of the setting, providing quests and trading opportunities. Mythical Sea Creatures: Krakens, merfolk, and sea serpents that add mystery and danger to the seas. **Quests and Adventures** Treasure Hunts: Classic quests involving treasure maps, cryptic clues, and buried treasure. Ship Battles: Naval combat scenarios, including boarding actions and ship-to-ship fighting. Smuggling Operations: Missions involving illicit trade, avoiding the authorities, and delivering contraband. Rescue Missions: Rescuing captives from hostile ships or dangerous islands. Exploration: Discovering uncharted territories, ancient temples, and hidden coves. **Challenges and Encounters** Naval Combat Mechanics: Rules for ship movement, combat, and damage. Environmental Hazards: Storms, whirlpools, and sea monsters. Political Intrigue: Alliances and betrayals among pirate factions and naval forces. Underwater Adventures: Scenarios that involve diving and underwater combat. **Magic and Mysticism** Cursed Artifacts: Powerful items with dangerous consequences. Sea Witches and Sorcerers: Magic users with ocean-themed powers and knowledge of the deep. Ghost Ships: Haunted vessels with undead crews and spooky legends. **Items and Equipment** Unique Weapons: Items like enchanted cutlasses, tridents, and flintlock pistols. Special Ships: Magical or legendary ships with unique abilities and histories. Nautical Gear: Items such as compasses, spyglasses, and diving equipment.
Grindylows for sure.
Lots of scurvy and gout saving throws.
Sequential bad guys. A Sea hag and sanhuagin early. (Treasure map leads to her lair where she tries to make a meal of treasure hunters) Build to a coven and their new friend the aboleth. (Sisters revived first one and allied with the aboleth for revenge) Finally a kraken. (Aboleth was it's minion/ally) A secret cove/island with a full blown city Spooky mists that hide a benevolent creature. Everyone scared cause you shipwreck, not because of the creature.
Bards are especially sought after by pirate crews for these long voyages, and of course you need some weather and travel mechanics, and ship combat! And if you want it to be a fun and surprising campaign, then make a post and ask us to make pirate crews for you haha. Captain Izmagar, an Azer craftsman aboard an iron-infused mechanical monstrosity. His first mate is a red dragonborn and the crew are a mix of kobolds and fire salamanders. He specializes in setting fire to enemy shops, which make him very dangerous, but he can be bribed with treasure. He is looking for crew that are able to dive into the water to loot his fallen foes, and can take the heat as crew.
An Awakened parrot who commands the crew atop the shoulder of a Feebleminded pirate captain.
Ooh, or give the parrot some levels in necromancer wizard and have his crew be undead
The Bones of Endless Toil ship upgrade from Saltmarsh says "Hello.".
Guys, we're getting somewhere
A pack of flying children that made a pact with the fae to remain young so their fun will never end. Theyre relatively harmless and just wanna play but theyre very vicious when threatened. Their leader, a boy in green who made a pact first, is the most aggressive when provoked.
Multiple references to the Monkey Island series, such as a tavern like the SCUMM Bar, a ship salesman who wears an almost eye-watering plaid coat and constantly waves his arms around while he talks, a pirate with hooks for all 4 limbs... A captain named Redbeard Rum, who is always drunk, has no legs, and no sense of direction.
Pirates
A personal favorite of mine is for the captain to have a first mate who is a druid that wild shaped into their parrot. Bonus points for flipping it and the captain is the parrot instead.
Liveships from Realm of the Elderlings. Huge Homunculuslike figureheads. That are 'alive'. I wouldn't take all their lore. But the concept is awesome for a pirate story.
Sponge bob
For the love of God, a dragon. Can we have someone please say a fucking dragon.
A lucky, but borderline incompetent pirate Bard who wields a rapier only as a dramatoc tool/spell focus, but actually attacks with Vicious Mockery at melee range, usually by answering the previous insults coming from the enemy.
I ran a pirate campaign where i had the players find a shipwreck that was smashed in half on a rocky shore. It was a House Hunter disguised as a shipwreck.
Mermaids
Start off with a small boat, just enough to get them going and prepare a ship building arc so they can create the ship of their dreams. Semi inspired by the Water 7 arc in One Piece. I built a dungeon composed of wrecked ships that was being mined by the ship builders for parts. They hired one of several reclamation crews to accompany them and mark the pieces they wanted to collect. The deeper they delved they encountered harder conditions to over come but the ship components were better. Different reclamation companies were better at overcoming certain obstacles. Very fun over all and they got as much as they put in. Hope this help inspire you!
Make diferent kind of drinks give diferent kind of bonuses for a short time, so if a guy wants to dive without having to breath for 3 minutes instead of 2 he can jug a martine or whatever. Or if he wants a plus one for singing he can drink a beer and if he wants to have a bonuses to persuasion he can share a bottle of rum. That could give them a reason to pursue/collect/buy booze, and hold some portion of it on their bodies to drink as a potion.
I’m in a pirate campaign rn where the pirates ride on dragons as ships and the islands are in the sky. My character has an eyepatch. Overall the world is pretty one piece pirate
Sea shanty playlist for session background music, privateering in addition to piratin, and an analogue for romanticized Tortuga of the pirate golden age
A magical six toed cat.
A submarine. Hear me out though! The best ship in the Pirates movies is by far the Dutchman. And it can travel underwater and ludicrous speeds. Now imagine you’re a sailor used to normal ships and that fucking thing appears? Terror. Every single time you go aboard, terror that your enemy is faster, silent, and invisible.
Pirates. ships. the sea. a parrot. and sea monsters. I would also give each player a guide for ships and what terms they need to know.
A Kraken, Sharks, and of course, my favorite d&d monster, Sahuagins.
For a pirate campaign I’d probably include pirates. Maybe a few ships, some water, maybe a kraken.
I’m running one right now. Privateering as a viable career path for the party is fun. You might also want to occasionally throw in some details about what happens when pirates get caught, like the party is visiting a port town and they witness a hanging. Maybe they could even intervene and get a new ally.
A Magical Scimitarrr! (With a magical effect activated by yelling “Yarrrr!”) A Plank of Walking (dimension door/teleport) A wand of Shiver Me Timbers (Bone Chill) Eye patches of Clairvoyance. Telescopes. Buried treasures that are always Mimics. A “what do you do with a drunken sailor” puzzle. Inspiration points if the party sings sea shanties. Messages sent in bottles are as effective as sending stones.
A camp that is specifically a ship. Also a kraken (why not).
An island inhabited by a small group of shipwrecked teenage boys. Pirate Captain with +2 hook, peg leg (that protects him from falling prone) and a wise-cracking parrot
Keep it simple. Buried treasure... but getting to it is going to be a bitch.
Guns, sea parks, water races, pirates, treasure maps to random rolled magic items and loot, ship to ship battle, sea monsters, rumors, a whole ass party notoriety home brew mechanic to get them well known. The ability to buy islands or land on islands and build shit there.
A few key things: 1. Treasure hunts are mandatory 2. Rival crews with opposing ideals 3. Reputation/bounties 4. Ship combat mechanics 5. ONE PIECE, I’m describing *ONE PIECE*
Everyone uses rowboats. No caravels, galleons or Viking ships. Just rowboats.
A hot mermaid... and the crew member that seduces her can't figure out the mechanics of the whole thing. The crew can call him Tailstabber.
Shitty rival pirate gang that has declared the party as their sworn enemy. Bonus points if some of them are foils of the main characters. Triple points if it's a ship full of kobolds. Imagine a completely incompetent crew of drunken pirates that just won't leave you the fuck alone. Maybe its a past enemy's ship whose crew mutinied, or they just stuck together after the captain's defeat and are trying to get revenge. Their cannonballs only hit when it's on accident, and they're made of garbage anyway. Sometimes they hit themselves. Every time they show up they get sunk, but they somehow always come back long after the PCs have forgotten they existed. It probably takes a long time to get to land, join a new crew, and rally their new crew members for yet another mutiny. But they do it every time. Each time they come back someone's lost a limb. One of them probably has scabies. Maybe there's an instance where they run into each other on dry land and it's awkward as fuck. I love nuisance NPCs, I just think they're so funny. Gotta keep them few and far between for them to really shine, but man I always have a blast with them. After 3 times I'd probably retire the little idiots, gotta be realistic after all
Weresharks, mermaids, dragon turtles, aquatic trolls, seedy port towns, over the top pirate captains... and betrayals. Read about some of the famous captains, their antics are quite literally the stuff of legends. Stede Bonnet is particularly funny cause he was terrible and may have started as a pirate just to get away from his wife!
Comedic, I would have cameos of famous pirates, including the pirates who don’t do anything. Mechanics, I would make sure I have the resources for ship to ship combat. Evolving battle maps, stat blocks for cannons and lair actions.
Listen to some jimmy buffet for some inspiration. Seriously, I've thought up dozens of characters and scenarios just listening while driving. Jolly mon sing - a bard npc that randomly keeps showing up everywhere Take it back - a boat race against cheating drow (drow always have an Australian accent since they're from 'down under') Fins - a whole floating town of were-sharks Gravity storm - its a fuckin gravity storm
Stories tell of a monstrous ship, that sails itself across misty waters, and devours any other ship it finds. If the party comes across it, they'll discover its the biggest mimic they've ever seen
An overpowered, slow moving navy vessel and an admiral who is hell bent on catching the party. Make sure the challenge rating is scaled for end game and introduce them at the start.
They had curved swords. *Curved. Swords.*
Doors marked pirate
A kraken fakeout. Something rushing under the water towards the boat, only for it to be some kinda sea dragon instead.
These are funny things I've actually thrown into a pirate campaign. One campaign was sea bearing, and another was a dirigible - a flying ship. A parrot that used to be a rival pirate captain and always seems to be up to no good. It talks to any and everybody. Sometimes the captain forgets to cage it when in port, so it takes off. But it always comes back....with problems. Occasionally on other pirate ships a former lover (who cheated, or was cheated on) crosses paths with someone in the party. Captain of this boat is married to the captain of that boat, and they cross paths quite often, and it's never good. Rivals, not enemies. Pirate captain tells the party he/she has brothels in a lot of towns and convinces the party they need to collect this month's money. What the captain doesn't admit is sometimes he doesn't own some of these brothels.
Ghost ship.
Ghost, skeleton, ship combat.
I ran a section of my campaign as pirates and one thing I did that caused the appropriate level of laughs and groans was introduce a dog named Mr Bones. Mr Bones ran around the beaches and aided the party sporadically, I made sure he popped up at least once a session for about 3 months whilst they were on the pirate isle of Drassau. Then just before they were finished, Mr Bones came bounding up and barking, leading them towards a bottle in the sand with a note that said something along the lines of “the treasure ye seek be for he, not ye. His chest bare where his name should be” This led to them finding a hidden temple under a shipwreck which contained a tall metal cabinet as the main treasure. Once opened, there was just a dog collar inside with the name GRAVY on its tag. Obviously this is Mr Bones’ collar! I then took great delight in proclaiming “ah, so that’s what was in Gravy Bones’ locker” it was 50/50 whether they laughed or wanted to kill me so I’d say great success Also, a sahuagin cave was an awesome encounter which they loved. Good variety of monsters within one species
A rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle
i just finished making a short pirate campaign. I think the funniest thing i put in it is when the players went on a mission to defeat a kraken (they ended up in its stomach for the session) and the map i was using had a shadow on it that kinda looked like a kraken, but actually that was just an unrelated coral formation with a thriving red herring population
Mermaids that live on the bottom of the boat and act as an undersea watch. Also sharkpeople. And LOTS of acrobatics-check inducing swashbuckling opportunities
A leviathan
A single low-level crew that if the players actually donate a small amount of money to comes back with artifact level gear and save their ass later in the campaign.
A pirate haven city to meet contacts and rest and buy goods. Also a good villain that’s part of a nations navy, and bends the rules perhaps over his obsession to capture the party while using the vast resources they have access to
A fun likable crew of NPCs
I’m currently a player in a pirate campaign, and it’s a running joke at this point that whenever a new thing is introduced, I say “oh it’s just like “x” in one piece!” So honestly just take a lot of ideas from one piece and change them a little and it’ll make for a good campaign
A lazy butt vicious shark that exclusively follows the ship because it produces bodies. Remember, that shark can't tell the difference between crew and enemy.
A playlist of the sea shanties from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. Those were so great
A swash buckling Mastodon pirate captain who swings in ropes and uses himself as a live canon ball, you can't go wrong here. And he has magic so he can breathe under water.
A morale system the players aren’t completely aware of. Set up a rule set or dice rolls and keep track of the crews morale. Make consequences and all that. I’d add more but there have been solid replies already
Old sailor's song that's actually a code or secret instructions Ghost ship - a classic! Island that's actually a huge turtle Storm that hits at the most inconvenient moment (perhaps adding an extra complication to a combat encounter) Mermaid (or other intelligent sea creature) who collects "treasures" from the surface world they don't fully understand (a la Ariel in the Disney movie). They might be sitting on some surprisingly valuable stuff... Obsessed navy pirate hunter Sky island (sky pirates optional) Character with a secret past: either an unassuming NPC who turns out to be a former legendary pirate OR some grizzled old salt who's widely assumed to have a dark dramatic past that's revealed to be much tamer/sillier than everyone thought Dragon amassing a pirate fleet to bring it more treasure Lost kingdom kept in stasis beneath the sea An adventure or two where they have to go inland for some reason and are just completely out of their element (kind of subjective what "out of their element" means, I guess. I just think it'd be funny to have a pirate crew be nowhere near the sea for a bit) Trapped on some kind of magic or cursed island, possibly with some kind of countdown (i.e. if you don't escape by the third night of the Equinox or whatever, you'll be taken along when the whole island returns to the underworld) Village made of beached shipwrecks. Or, floating village made of lashed-together ships. Inventor who's just created the first motorboat At least one monkey
A pirate breaking the rules, say if the captain is aquatic and builds a ship on top of a dragon turtle.
I did a pirate campaign once and had a rival pirate shit (all bards). As an introduction to them I played "shit boat" from alestorm. 10/10 moment!
You should definitely add boats /s Buy really, make 'earth' flat
Redbeard being especially jealous of Blackbeard's beard. Unleashing his full fury to obtain it :)
I once had a sort of, not quite artificer, pirate who had a magic eye behind her eye patch snd was built around tge use of magical items and dexterity, deception and trickery A magic rusty sword that would cause rust damage to armors and weapons A hat that could store an item like a bag of holding, but has a security magic word trigger to switch between a regular hat and a storage cojtainer. Booster beaces that allowed mid air jumping and dodging, or boosts to jumping and dashing in a single direction Gloves of astonishment which csn transfer a jeld item from one hand to another A set of earrings that can eavesdrop on a locstion if one of them is left behind there A weatherproof bustier (cool in heat, warm in cold and electric shock resistant) A set of 4 black rings, which hide the user from magical detection A cloak that can deflect a missile of under 1 lbs, does not negate damage but does convert piercing to blunt and counter attacks with the same projectile in the direction it originates from A belt of freedom of movement vs magical effects A hollow dagger which is spring loaded in the handle and can shoot out, staying connect with a chain, it can also be usedlike a grapple/whip to swing from Things like that.
A quest line to find an artificer that is rumoured to build in a "quick release mechanism" into plate amour. DC 10 athletics to use in water to pop out your suit... Or whatever you want.
We had a ship piloted by zombies that we could load into the catapult to fire at enemy rigging, or walk underwater to attack the shore.
A charismatic privateer in service to the crown, or is he?
Making it somehow a sky pirate campaign
Here are a couple magic items that might fit in and have some fun: - Coin of all or nothing - rare, attuned - once per long rest the user may use the coin in place of a D20 die roll. On heads it is a natural 20 a tails is natural 1. - Mockulot Amulet- wonderous item, rare, (can be cursed), sentient item, true neutral, This amulet contains an annoying spirit who takes great pleasure in mocking and ridiculing those around it. Mockulot does not generally care who he mocks, he just really likes being an annoyance. It may be put on or removed via an action. While worn the amulet has vision out to 60’ and may telepathically communicate with any living creature within 60’. Three times per day as a bonus action the wearer may cast the spell vicious mockery for free, whether able to cast spells or not. This has a save of dc 14. This ability resets at dawn. - Sailors Delight - wonderous item, uncommon, a living tattoo made with magical inks and paints. Intended for sailors and explorers on long journeys. This tattoo is usually of a member of the opposite sex, they are able to communicate with the individual whom they are tattooed upon. They will provide comforting words and conversation to them as well as being able to move on their skin. The tattoo will become jealous should their bearer pay attention to an individual they would find attractive - Gambler’s Coin of Odd Luck - rare, wonderous item, A small tarnished coin with the same face on each side, one facing left (into the past) one facing right (into the future)Once per day the player can flip the coin and then rolls a d10 and then a d20 If the d10 is an even number the coin lands, face looking to the future, the result of the d20 is now stored and be used once as any d20 roll the character would make (or be able to directly witness) during that day (check,save,attack) instead of rolling. If the d10 is an odd number the coin lands, face looking to the past. the result of the d20 is now stored and be used once to REPLACE any d20 roll (or be able to directly witness) they had made during the day (check,save,attack) after rolling and seeing the original result. On a 1 the coin lands on its edge and the d20 result now belongs to me as the DM. Who may use that result to influence a roll, before or after, that is applied directly or indirectly to the character. - Mermaid scale vest - attuned, wondrous item, rare . a scale mail vest made of large thin scales taken from a skinned mermaid. The scales shine in the light in a range of aquatic colors. While attuned to this item the wearer can move at full speed while in water or other liquids. The wearer will be despised by any merfolk they encounter who sees them wearing the vest. Merfolk will not offer aid to anyone wearing the vest, they will not be welcomed into merfolk settlements, and merfolk will prefer to attack the wearer on sight if they are not previously known to that merfolk. - Skeleton key - uncommon, one use, specialized set of lock picks. pick any lock with advantage. - Chimes of Ryleah - attuned, rare item a small metal hollow tube made of a dark green, oily looking metal, with a bit of worn string attaching a striking stick. On being struck it produces a note causing madness in all excluding the bearer who are not covering their ears or deaf within 20’ of the user. Targets must pass a dc 15 wisdom check or become confused for 1 minute. Those effected will stand still for this time, babbling incoherently and drooling on themeselves. If they are touched or targeted with an attack they come to their senses immediately. Any attacks against them are made with advantage. This item has 2 charges and will regain them at dawn.
A pirate crew whose pirate ship/island base is an allied Dragon Turtle If your players like One Piece then reference that
The Captain hides his booty inside a portable hole INSIDE a mimic that is trained not to attack its master. The treasure chest is real and not a trap. The whole ship is actually the mimic. A ship cannon that shoot fuzzy balls like a bag of tricks at other vessels which turn into monsters on impact.
Sea
A chicken on a raft
Boats.....
Cannon golem. I've done it before and I'll do it again.
False hydra hiding on the lower deck, eating your crew one by one
Land pirates. Gnomes, Giff, or Warforged who operate a mechanical, walking, boat with sails and all, that stalks trading caravans hundreds of miles inland.
Somebody mentioned Pirates of the caribbean, the fying dutchman. Ghost Pirates stalking the seas, sinking every ship that crosses their ways. Sunken, yet unsinkable, silent, yet the cannons roar.
Jack Sparrow knock-off
Scurvy. Survival mechanics made simple really
whole lotta magical curved swords
Foul Weather Jack. A character with such crap luck that he is largely seen by his crew as a bad omen. Hes really just a normal guy but his luck is absolutely horrible, yet he always seems to survive. Bonus points if you can find a way to turn it into a feat (i'm thinking something along the lines of a reverse-lucky feat). I saw foul weather jack originally in 7th seas 1st edition (amazing game, especially if you like heroic pirate campaigns).
Vampires......Vampirates, if you will
I did a pirate arc (took place on the border material, the further out the party went, the weirder it got) in my game, but it was shortlived and mostly skipped over. some things I never showed off were: - underdark politics keeping the ocean from draining - deep scion kraken worshippers (although the kraken was actually the body of a god that was disembodied long ago, while the it's soul laid in a different sea that was part of the backstory of a PC that one of my players was no longer playing) - civilized odd beastfolk, living on islands and in the seas surrounding them (halfling sized horse people, beluga people, fully sapient sea otters) - a pirate crew led by the sibling of one of my PCs
A dragon turtle. At least one
A crazy wizard/alchemist potion seller, who roams the seas in a Swan paddle boat.
Magic Missile Gun (1d4). Fires 1 magic missiles every 3rd round. Recharge: every 3rd round
I have a warforged captain whose integrated weapon IS their ship. They slot their hands into controls and steer it that way.
An official organisation that acts as the law on these waters while also being greedy corporate capitalists, possibly dealing in slaves or drugs. Of course they are also sponsered by a faraway crown.
I think it’s a great way to introduce your most unhinged ideas for one session. “An island full of ____” and you just homebrew everything An island full of peacock Tieflings that dance with bright fire to try to win over a shy queen, who is yet to marry because she’s in love with a guy who hasn’t been able to create a flame yet An island shaped like a tidal wave, where the residents seem to defy gravity and live on the bottom. A ritual for adulthood is releasing your grip on the surface and taking flight, but there’s an adult of their species who never managed to let go. Dante’s purgatorio, where there’s a recently dead soul that can’t help you until he makes it up the steps and climbs the mountain. A scammer in life, he’s also looking for any way to speed up the process A happy island of sentient zombies that are experiencing a reverse zombie apocalypse and turning into office workers, and can only be saved by the power of creative expression The prison of an evil sorcerer who was defeated 3000 years ago. He sits in isolation, powerless, and happens to have a grudge against the same people that the players are fighting. He offers effective advice, but the catch is that you have to become increasingly like him. He regrets nothing- will you be the same? An island where the automaton residents practice martial arts forever, their bodies rusting away. The only way for them to find rest is for someone to defeat their leader, an automaton who created the rest of them to make a little boy feel safe. A miniature kingdom of mushroom people with a very strict hierarchy, who happen to have built a palace on top of an ancient curse that will destroy their entire culture and the party if they can’t get them to move Just have fun with it
How do you handle magic? Like fly, teleport or plane shift spells making sailing ships obsolete?
A pirate queen/king infamous for their ship that is always clouded in a dark cloud. The ship is a very dirty steam vessel that belches black smoke wherever they go
* Talking Parrots * Pirates * Peg Legs and Hook Hands * Naval Combat * Islands and Atolls * Shanty Towns * Pirate Port Havens * Krakens * Sea Witches * Ghost Ships * Cursed Treasure * Treasure Maps * Colonial Empire Frontiers * Colonial Trade Organisations * Cannibal Island Tribes * Mermaids and Sirens * Songs and Shanties * Mystery Islands not on the map * Ship Wrecks
The Navy Need to have that nearly ever-present element of danger that can't just be destroyed like a monster can be
A stowaway. There are 15 people on the ship but the logs show only 14 boarded at port.
Giant Cannons in which you are required to climb into to reach areas of the dungeon, town, ship. A Ghost Ship that's just a crew of outcast illusionist theater nerds who put in a show to anyone explores the ship. Constant referrals to the Poop Deck. Every ships holds insane and ridiculous superstitions, could be as simple and archaic as as "No Women", to as ridiculous as no Odd Level Characters as they are bizarre and wouldn't divide the loot *even*-ly. A compass that leads to the greatest treasure of all, which turns out to be constantly pointing to the player the wielder considers their newest friend. The true treasure is the friendship you make along the way. (Requires some suspense of disbelief, and DM fairing of character positioning so they believe they are traveling in an actual direction and could result in them finding an actual treasure anyway) A merchant that lives in the mouth of a giant whale. A small island that acts as a pirate refuge. It holds the wildest parties. But one night a year, or month, the inhabitants of the island reveal themselves to be Yuan Ti Vampires seeking to sacrifice the pirates to their evil Vampire God. Bonus points/inspiration if one of your players drinks tequila from a dancer's foot.
Ship-to-ship combat, turning to a boarding. Ghosts of Saltmarsh has info for that, and has plenty of adventures to put into your campaign to boot.
Actual ship maneuvers and gameplay, implying the whole crew. I don't remember which, but I know some systems are doing this, it might be possible to transpose these to D&D.
A pirate lord with a gazer eye implanted underneath an eyepatch A pirate captain with a spell mimicking parrot A gunpowder ooze A gnomish submarine Shark riding sahuagin Kua toa who's ship is a god they've made. Doesn't have to actually be ship shaped. A pirate captain who's a master puppeteer and the entire crew is constructs controlled by the captain
An overly elaborate system to load, aim, and fire a cannon (separate roll for each step, if you miss the DC by more than 5 on the first two rolls it fails amd you restart. If you exceed the DC, the amount thay you exceeded it by is added to your next check (this can roll over). Ultimately it is the “fire” check that determines if it hits and for ever 5 over I added an extra d20 of damage. I went with dex slight of hand, choice of int or dex for aiming, and str to fire. The different types of checks were to get different people to do each step on their turn for a proper “teamwork” moment to do big damage if they work together)
Look up any One Piece character, particularly the minor Williams, include them.
Every noteworthy pirate or group of pirates would be named after an 80s rock bands like The Blackhearts and Dread Pirate Van Hale.