Pirates 'Sub-Genres'/Games

[Ian Hannam]

Hi all, hoping this is the relevant part of the forum to ask this. I’m doing a bit of research into different games systems for pirates – specifically skirmish/warband level gaming (not ships).

I’m just wondering what type of pirate games people are playing? As I see it, there seems to be quite a few sub-genres under the flag of ‘pirate games’. From ‘pure historical’ at one end of the spectrum to ‘fantasy’ at the other and I’m imagining many games also fall in between; perhaps using human pirates from our world but incorporating some of the legends.

So where do you fall on the scale and what games systems support your interest? Does fantasy put you off or interest you?

Thanks,

[Paul]

Funny, I watched Black Sails last night and, as I tend to do when seeing something on TV for the first time, I thought about how it would be as a game. I also happened to be painting the Dreadfleet boxed set at the same time, so I was thinking that it would be cool to combine Dreadfleet with THWs “And a Bottle of Rum” for a fantasy pirate campaign. Probably a non-starter for me though, as I have too many current projects and others planned out for the near future.

Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let's go kill them!

[Pijlie]

As Fate will have it we are playing a lot of Legends of the High Seas lately. While OOP (and pretty costly because of that) it remains the most pleasant pirate system around. It has campaign rules, crew lists and ship rules and even simulates sailing to a pleasant degree (if not very realistic).

We did try On the Seven Seas for a short spell but found it lacking. To flat and simple to be interesting.

Cutlass is being contemplated.

http://pijlieblog.blogspot.nl

[Patrice]

I use my own rules  « Argad ! »

It’s an unusual system, it’s nearly as much a RPG than a skirmish game, it’s a toolbox it’s not complete rules, it’s often under rewriting, it has lots of unfinished extensions, and it really works better with a game master/referee than without.

Apparently, most people think that it’s too many drawbacks for a practical game.

Ian Hannam wrote:

Does fantasy put you off or interest you?

My gaming group likes historical contexts (no zombies running around erywhere) but there can be some legends or weird things in very remote areas of the game table; for example we sometimes include a Black witch with very basic powers (change weather/make fog; cure; etc) living in the hills; or man-eating giant sea-snails (made from real sea snail shells!) on a hidden beach. The sort of things that people of the time could have believed but did not see in their everyday life.

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

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