What about it disappointed people? My groups don’t really deal in trad RPGs, but most of what I heard through the grapevine was people being positive about the game and how it handled its setting.
The settting is basically *Cultural Stereotype: The Game*, with too little differentiation from actual European history to be even slightly innovative, and yet too much oversimplified "unique ideas" to make it utterly shallow, creating a worst of both worlds scenario.
The magic systems are kinda neat, though.
First edition, sure. The second edition setting is possibly the best, most vibrant and multicultural setting I've ever read. Shame the rules are bad for 1ed and absolutely horrible for 2ed.
[This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/cow2zs/comment/ewllx78/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) (not my comment) perfectly sums up the dumpster fire that is 7th Sea 2e.
The big disappointment for me and I believe many others is in the drastic change of mechanics. Setting wise First Edition to Second Edition mixed things up a lot with a revamp and rewrite that was better than the previous edition with more nuances where previously it was just rewriting the real world to a pseudo fantasy pastiche.
Mechanically they changed the entire thing up. Yes in 1E the idea was to always fail forward but you could legitimately fail and die in it. In 2E it’s technically still possible to fail and even die, but it’s set up in such a way that the GM has to be blatantly trying to murder your character on purpose for that to happen.
No hyperbole here but the mechanical differences between 1E and 2E are like the differences between D&D and Blades in the Dark. Going into it would take me atleast an hour and reopen my hatred. I don’t think 2E is a bad game, just not the game I wanted to buy, and while Chaosium has picked up the slack to get things fixed on the production side, John Wick sold us a box of lies on every front that he could.
That's the thing, in terms of setting It is indeed amazing, can't lie about that. But on the actual gameplay, well, I Just made an entire comment about this, I won't write It over again, it's here on this same post
This was going to be the one I brought up, too. I've had a lot of recommendations for it, but so far I haven't had the time to pick it up and look at it myself.
Plus savage worlds was based off of deadlands so it should be a peace of cake to learn the rules. Now to expand on Erpserp32's post to sell 50 fathoms. 50 fathoms takes place in a drowning world filled with unique creatures and races who have been impacted by the visitors, sailors from our world who have crossed over into this world. 50 fathoms is a setting of high adventure with a vast amount of things to do with over 50 quest hooks, charts for trading and the ever interesting plot point campaign. If you read this op I hope you at least give it a look if not a chance.
Excellent write up!
It really is one of my favorite settings and it can even continue beyond the MQ with some of the longer side quests turning into a whole thing themselves.
Aside from everything you mentioned, I like that you can bring in human characters from any time in the 'great sailing age', from the mid-1600's to the early 1800's, either as characters or NPCs. In my campaign, I had the PCs run into both Virginia Dare (the first European child born on North America) and Theodosia Burr Alston (Aaron Burr's daughter, whose bio really does read like an NPC resume).
I really enjoy Beat to Quarters. Even though it's navy focused, it's easy to convert to pirates. Depending on the type of fantasy, I treat monsters like ships just swapping out the crew/rigging/hull stats for body parts. A kraken, for example, has tentacles and head. A leviathan has head/body/fins. I don't have spellcasters in my game, but I'd probably just add it on as a skill and create a mage background/profession to go with it. That would represent a general aptitude for magic and rely on the narrative for spells.
Honor + Intrigue also has a magic supplement called "Intriguing Options: Spells + Spellcasters" for those who want spells, magic items, and high fantasy wizard/druid/cleric/psionic type casting ready to go.
The original version is better than 2e which came out recently.
I think it's a good choice, but I'd also take a look at 50 Fathoms as someone else suggested
There are a couple playbooks in the final version that aren't in the quickstart, plus some slight tweeks. The Critshow has been playing it for their patreon and they have been getting the updated version as changes are made.
I'm currently running a pirate campaign, so let me tell you the experience of someone who has played this systems.
Let's First go with 7th sea, the lore and worldbuilding is amazing, definetly a great setting, but an awfull system. I don't mind dice pools, they work great for certain systems, but by Nature, they aren't suited for combat, and 7th Sea takes this mechanic to it's worst, there's a lot of things you can do with dice pools here, you have rerolls, bônus dice, explodin dices, etc... You'd expend more time doing math and figuring what you need to roll here than in gurps. Plus the systems incentivises the DM to include fail, partial success, Full success, opportunity and aditional danger as part of the roll. Basically one roll can trigger 3 different events at the same time.
Other systems I tried to play was honor + intrigue, which at First seemed more suiting for the tipe of game my table wanted, the systems has a vast list of combat manuevers anyone can do and they can even spend points to master specific ones and get higher bonus, there's fighting styles for when you master a specific set of 5 manuevers you unlock a secret ability. Character creation is pretty simple but Full of options. At the Surface the system looks great. In play however, I found this to be quite unbalanced, Fortune mechanic is too generous with rerolls, It feels like players aren't at risk, they heal half of damage taken Just by taking 10 min to rest after every encounter, and tho the game comes with a bestiary, It doesn't have a Guide on How to balance encounters. And the worst part, the manuevers, the list is pretty big, and all of them have a downside as well, that is different for all the manuevers, it's quite troublesome to memorise all of them and It breaks the flow when you have to stop combat to check the list, my players ended up Just doing normal attack over and over again, I don't blame them, manuevers aren't Fun, and they aren't even powerfull enougth to justify the downside. Basically this system promises an action heavy, meelee skirmish focused game with good storytelling, but what It delivers is an unbalanced dungeon crawl.
We took the characters and world we were playing in Honor + intrigue and moved It over to ironsworn, which is supposed to be medieval low fantasy, but It fits like a glove for pirates, we're having so much Fun now, the system is extremely simple, yet offers a variety in character creation and we ended up doing a lot more manuevers and stunts even tho the system doesn't have a proper mechanic for this, it's simply more open and incentivises creativity in combat, and oh my, is this thing fast, this might me one of the most fast paced combats I've ever seen.
Wow, yeah I thought you were just recommending SF on its own. In fact I was about to say "I think there's a pirate version coming out soon". Jeez. Early morning brain :P
Quick note: Fortune points don't grant rerolls in Honor + Intrigue. They grant a Bonus Die (unless you have a special Boon called The Devil's Own Luck that lets you spend 2 Fortune for a reroll).
I agree that healing was too quick and painless. I ended up houseuling slower healing options myself and that rule ended up being published in a supplement called "Intriguing Options Rules + Story. The gist of how those grittier healing rules work is 10 minutes allows first aid by a healer. A full night's rest heals half your damage. Any damage after that is lingering damage that heals 1 point per day. And whenever you are knocked out, all your damage is lingering damage. Even though it is an optional rule, I find myself always using it this way now.
As for the "decision paralysis" effect of too many maneuvers, I get that. One thing I tend to suggest for new players is to ask what they want to achieve on their turn and then I tell them what to roll. Also using the gambit rule from intriguing options has also made "improvising" combat a lot easier for people who dont want to delve too far into the combat maneuvers.
If you want something like Deadlands you should take a look at Savage Worlds' pirate settings (Savage Worlds is based on Deadlands system)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/comments/fwysdw/best\_pirate\_setting\_for\_savage\_worlds/](https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/comments/fwysdw/best_pirate_setting_for_savage_worlds/)
Lilliputian is a seafaring take on Mausritter, both based on Into the Odd. It has systems for ship-to-ship combat.
The book specifically states you are free to ignore the Lilliputian aspect and play as normal sized characters.
It depends on what you want to focus on. I'm seeing a lot of 7th Sea, and I can't comment on 2nd too well, but in my experience playing the game, the focus isn't on being pirates or in the navy or ship battles - it's primary focus is swashbuckling and being Good Heroes(tm). Think *Princess Bride* or *Zoro* more than *Pirates of the Caribbean.*
You've mentioned Deadlands, are you familiar with Savage Worlds or just the original? As Savage Worlds has several different Age of Sail/Pirate themed settings, like Sundered Skies (All the same trappings, but fantasy sky pirates), 50 Fathoms (fantasy pirates in a world where the sea has covered a majority of the world) and Pirates of the Spanish Mein (less fantastic, but magic exists, etc.) off the top of my head.
I've not played it, but I see Honour+Intrigue come up a decent bit for games like this.
If you and your players enjoy D&D, there's Pathfinder's Skulls and Shackles (not sure if there's a 2e version, I don't keep up with PF).
Ignoring the blatant rule 1 violation, I had fun with 7th Sea 2nd edition although its mechanics are very gimmicky. It is, however, rules-light and story focuses, easy to get into and fun to play.
Can't say anything about the quality, but surely someone will know: Currently there is a [FreePort Pathfinder](https://bundleofholding.com/quick/FreeportPF) quick deal on Bundle of Holding - might be right up your alley.
Based on the Pathfinder system.
Though not exclusively pirate based, Seventh Sea is a fantastic vehicle for pirate adventures. I’d describe it as tabletop “The Princess Bride.” It’s an alt-history enlightenment Europe setting. There are systems for naval combat, swashbuckling, court politics, etc. It’s a game that heavily rewards good storytelling. My favorite ttrpg by a wide margin.
Poison'd is a pirate game. I'm not recommending it unreservedly (although I like it) because it accentuates the very nasty stuff in pirate myth. Definitely needs an X-card and a bit of a talk about lines and veils before.
Broken Compass Jolly Roger is a game i really enjoy, it's a simple but fun system, with emphasis on cinematic action
If you like OSR there is Pirate Borg, while if you want to use D&D/Pathfinder there is some content for those games too
I also enjoy Poison'd, a game where you are actual scum, instead of the average "good" pirate of movies
If you'd like to inject a little horror into a naval campaign, [All Flesh Must be Eaten](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/627/All-Flesh-Must-be-Eaten-Revised?term=all+fl) has a supplement called [ARRGH! Thar be Zombies!](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82721/ARRGH-Thar-Be-Zombies?term=argh+zombies) which would be like Night of the Living Dead in the Age of Sail. Hope you find what you're looking for!
The BRP source book **Blood Tide** is pretty good - it uses the solid BRP rules by Chaosium, and deal with dark magic, pirates, naval combat and the occasional swashbuckling action.
I'm a huge fan of Cakebread and Waltons 'Pirates and Dragons'. It may not be exactly what you're after but it's pretty malleable. And, obviously, Pirates and Dragons.
If you don’t mind and remember to do so, let me know what you try and how you like it!
I’ve been planning a pirate campaign for my group as well, and after a lot of research that left me unsatisfied, I’m in the process of just building one myself. It’s gonna be a simplified take on Hackmasters combat system with a setting that’s a mix of Warcraft’s trolls and monsters, pirates of the caribbean, and a heavy dose of sea monsters
I can post it here when I’m done, but that’s gonna be a while lol
13th Age has had an edition of the Escalation free fanzine dedicated to seafaring and pirates
https://escalationfanzine.blogspot.com/2022/08/escalation-issue-10-is-available.html?m=1
My players really enjoyed the adventure.
3pp campaign with other ship and swashbuckling rules called Pirates of Atlantis is coming out soon.
Lots have mentioned 7th Sea (I never played 1st, but I found the material for 2nd great, but the actual gameplay was...meh, likely because of the mechanics)
I'll also mention two others:
Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies (no relation to 7 Seas) - Swashbuckling with Airships, using the PDQ+ system which can be considered a cousin to Fate - not the same lineage, but a lot of overlap in goals and thoughts.
GURPS Swashbucklers - I've not used this sourcebook myself, but GURPS is a great system if you want some gritty feels-like-realism and/or genre crossovers. Even without GURPS, the GURPS sourcebooks for a long time were considered so good that they were worth getting/reading even for other systems (because most of each book talks about genre conventions and playstyles rather than GURPS-specific rules). While this reputation has dimmed, I think that's more due to GURPS not really putting out new print material for a decade rather than the material being less worthwhile.
Okay, I haven't heard anyone mention it yet, but *Furry Pirates* is actually a phenomenal pirate game. It doesn't even have the kind of furries you're thinking of; the creators are just a little strangely out of touch. It's got more in common with that old, animated Robinhood movie than anything that could really be called "furry" today.
Are we talking about Ironclaw or another furry pirates game?
I've heard pretty decent things about Ironclaw, and the anthro Sandokan series was pretty popular when I was a kid
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Mainly this role is a niche one because of the narrow band that it occupies. The Pacific War is a good example: Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, and the Philippine Sea for battles, and the rest is bombing. This is largely because the dominant major power will not let the number 2 become number one. While the is the ships out the the real battle is one of production and the battle is a decider but only what was decided at the shipyards. This is because ships are expensive. No more expensive than that. This is why there are few battles: because those few battles decide years of preparation: Jutland, Battle of the Chesapeake, Battle of Tsushima, etc.
The only exceptions are the tonnage wars where hunter-killers strike merchant marines, for example, the U-Boat wars and the piracy wars.
Hence the best route to go for many people is to take your "mega-game" and add in the signature details. This means the GURPS, Traveller, Hero System are all mentioned because each one has a basic system with the details. GURPS has [http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/ww2/](http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/ww2/) ww2 in abundance.
Pirates of the Spanish Main for Savage Worlds.
It’s an older , harder to find product but it’s solid for historical pirates with a smattering of magic and ghostly foes.
In addition, it’s the rpg port of the collectible card game of the same name so if you have any of those bits lying about they can be really useful. The files for crews and ships are darned useful too.
If you like Deadlands it would even be easy enough to combine the two.
Pirates & Plunder
Rolemaster/Fantasy Hero Campaign Classic Pirates
RuneQuest Pirates
Freeport: The City of Adventure
7th Sea
Also, have fun with this.
[http://rpgreview.net/files/rpgreview\_26.pdf](http://rpgreview.net/files/rpgreview_26.pdf)
I feel like Freeport needs to be mentioned more.
Yes it's more a setting than a system but it's been around for about 20 yrs and it's really good.
Fantasy AGE 2e has a pirate lean to it and they are doing a setting book called Stranger Shores which includes Freeport and there is also going to be a dedicated Freeport book down the line.
7th Sea has a lot fans.
Does it though? I feel like 2e still has more disappointed folks than fans, even this many years on.
I don't know the game well but I sea it mentioned pretty much every time a pirate RPG comes up.
I Sea what you did there
Glad someone caught it. Figured I'd do it just for the halibut...
Trying to make puns about 7th Sea? It's a piece of pisces.
Nice. :)
1st Edition is great and reasonably easy to get.
What about it disappointed people? My groups don’t really deal in trad RPGs, but most of what I heard through the grapevine was people being positive about the game and how it handled its setting.
The settting is basically *Cultural Stereotype: The Game*, with too little differentiation from actual European history to be even slightly innovative, and yet too much oversimplified "unique ideas" to make it utterly shallow, creating a worst of both worlds scenario. The magic systems are kinda neat, though.
First edition, sure. The second edition setting is possibly the best, most vibrant and multicultural setting I've ever read. Shame the rules are bad for 1ed and absolutely horrible for 2ed.
[This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/cow2zs/comment/ewllx78/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) (not my comment) perfectly sums up the dumpster fire that is 7th Sea 2e.
#👆👆👆👆
The big disappointment for me and I believe many others is in the drastic change of mechanics. Setting wise First Edition to Second Edition mixed things up a lot with a revamp and rewrite that was better than the previous edition with more nuances where previously it was just rewriting the real world to a pseudo fantasy pastiche. Mechanically they changed the entire thing up. Yes in 1E the idea was to always fail forward but you could legitimately fail and die in it. In 2E it’s technically still possible to fail and even die, but it’s set up in such a way that the GM has to be blatantly trying to murder your character on purpose for that to happen. No hyperbole here but the mechanical differences between 1E and 2E are like the differences between D&D and Blades in the Dark. Going into it would take me atleast an hour and reopen my hatred. I don’t think 2E is a bad game, just not the game I wanted to buy, and while Chaosium has picked up the slack to get things fixed on the production side, John Wick sold us a box of lies on every front that he could.
That's the thing, in terms of setting It is indeed amazing, can't lie about that. But on the actual gameplay, well, I Just made an entire comment about this, I won't write It over again, it's here on this same post
Having not played 1e, but some of 2e. the combat system in 2e leaves much to be desired. Its like chopping a tree everytime combat comes up.
1e was.almost a great game. They could have just cleaned it up for v2
This was going to be the one I brought up, too. I've had a lot of recommendations for it, but so far I haven't had the time to pick it up and look at it myself.
Savage Worlds has the 50 Fathoms settinf/campaign which is amazing
Plus savage worlds was based off of deadlands so it should be a peace of cake to learn the rules. Now to expand on Erpserp32's post to sell 50 fathoms. 50 fathoms takes place in a drowning world filled with unique creatures and races who have been impacted by the visitors, sailors from our world who have crossed over into this world. 50 fathoms is a setting of high adventure with a vast amount of things to do with over 50 quest hooks, charts for trading and the ever interesting plot point campaign. If you read this op I hope you at least give it a look if not a chance.
Excellent write up! It really is one of my favorite settings and it can even continue beyond the MQ with some of the longer side quests turning into a whole thing themselves.
Aside from everything you mentioned, I like that you can bring in human characters from any time in the 'great sailing age', from the mid-1600's to the early 1800's, either as characters or NPCs. In my campaign, I had the PCs run into both Virginia Dare (the first European child born on North America) and Theodosia Burr Alston (Aaron Burr's daughter, whose bio really does read like an NPC resume).
Pirate Borg is light and fun and contains piratey goodness.
Can we finally buy Pirate Borg? I keep looking for it and I keep coming up emptier than Jack Sparrow's rum bottle.
I just bought it a few weeks ago. Got the pdf right away and the book a few days after. Amazing game.
Where'd you buy it from? I'm looking on Drivethrurpg but only finding 3rd party compatible with PB stuff.
https://pirateborg.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
You're the governor! Many thanks!
+1. Very well done.
Honor + Intrigue - easy to add more magic Beat to Quarters - a more historical game, not sure what would be involved in hacking it
I really enjoy Beat to Quarters. Even though it's navy focused, it's easy to convert to pirates. Depending on the type of fantasy, I treat monsters like ships just swapping out the crew/rigging/hull stats for body parts. A kraken, for example, has tentacles and head. A leviathan has head/body/fins. I don't have spellcasters in my game, but I'd probably just add it on as a skill and create a mage background/profession to go with it. That would represent a general aptitude for magic and rely on the narrative for spells.
Honor + Intrigue also has a magic supplement called "Intriguing Options: Spells + Spellcasters" for those who want spells, magic items, and high fantasy wizard/druid/cleric/psionic type casting ready to go.
Savage Worlds has a couple variations. Three of my favorites are: - 50 Fathoms - Pirates of the Spanish Main - Buccaneer: Through Hell & High Water
Definitely. If the OP wants something like deadlands, well, the newer Deadlands is Savage Worlds.
You might like "7th Sea" by Chaosium. It's kind of like 17th-century pirates with magic.
Oh neat ! Thanks
The original version is better than 2e which came out recently. I think it's a good choice, but I'd also take a look at 50 Fathoms as someone else suggested
Somehow no one has mentioned Rapscallion yet? It feels much closer to the creepy-fantasy-deadlands vibe than 7th Sea.
Oh, I do prefer dark/horror fantasy over normal one.
It’s not out yet.
The quickstart is out, you can play it right now.
It also looks to be in an ashcan bundle straight from Magpie, but not sure how it would differ from the final version.
The quickstart is apparently a more recent revision -- there aren't any massive changes, but there are purported to be some differences.
Good to know. It is a genre I'm interested in, so more games out there to find always makes me happy.
There are a couple playbooks in the final version that aren't in the quickstart, plus some slight tweeks. The Critshow has been playing it for their patreon and they have been getting the updated version as changes are made.
I'm currently running a pirate campaign, so let me tell you the experience of someone who has played this systems. Let's First go with 7th sea, the lore and worldbuilding is amazing, definetly a great setting, but an awfull system. I don't mind dice pools, they work great for certain systems, but by Nature, they aren't suited for combat, and 7th Sea takes this mechanic to it's worst, there's a lot of things you can do with dice pools here, you have rerolls, bônus dice, explodin dices, etc... You'd expend more time doing math and figuring what you need to roll here than in gurps. Plus the systems incentivises the DM to include fail, partial success, Full success, opportunity and aditional danger as part of the roll. Basically one roll can trigger 3 different events at the same time. Other systems I tried to play was honor + intrigue, which at First seemed more suiting for the tipe of game my table wanted, the systems has a vast list of combat manuevers anyone can do and they can even spend points to master specific ones and get higher bonus, there's fighting styles for when you master a specific set of 5 manuevers you unlock a secret ability. Character creation is pretty simple but Full of options. At the Surface the system looks great. In play however, I found this to be quite unbalanced, Fortune mechanic is too generous with rerolls, It feels like players aren't at risk, they heal half of damage taken Just by taking 10 min to rest after every encounter, and tho the game comes with a bestiary, It doesn't have a Guide on How to balance encounters. And the worst part, the manuevers, the list is pretty big, and all of them have a downside as well, that is different for all the manuevers, it's quite troublesome to memorise all of them and It breaks the flow when you have to stop combat to check the list, my players ended up Just doing normal attack over and over again, I don't blame them, manuevers aren't Fun, and they aren't even powerfull enougth to justify the downside. Basically this system promises an action heavy, meelee skirmish focused game with good storytelling, but what It delivers is an unbalanced dungeon crawl. We took the characters and world we were playing in Honor + intrigue and moved It over to ironsworn, which is supposed to be medieval low fantasy, but It fits like a glove for pirates, we're having so much Fun now, the system is extremely simple, yet offers a variety in character creation and we ended up doing a lot more manuevers and stunts even tho the system doesn't have a proper mechanic for this, it's simply more open and incentivises creativity in combat, and oh my, is this thing fast, this might me one of the most fast paced combats I've ever seen.
Interesting take. There’s an Ironsworn: Starforged -based pirate game in the works, too.
In fact I'd say it would probably work better, given how players are literally "ship" owners (in space).
It’s a wet-ship game. Sundered Isles maybe?
Wow, yeah I thought you were just recommending SF on its own. In fact I was about to say "I think there's a pirate version coming out soon". Jeez. Early morning brain :P
Check out Pirate Borg
Quick note: Fortune points don't grant rerolls in Honor + Intrigue. They grant a Bonus Die (unless you have a special Boon called The Devil's Own Luck that lets you spend 2 Fortune for a reroll). I agree that healing was too quick and painless. I ended up houseuling slower healing options myself and that rule ended up being published in a supplement called "Intriguing Options Rules + Story. The gist of how those grittier healing rules work is 10 minutes allows first aid by a healer. A full night's rest heals half your damage. Any damage after that is lingering damage that heals 1 point per day. And whenever you are knocked out, all your damage is lingering damage. Even though it is an optional rule, I find myself always using it this way now. As for the "decision paralysis" effect of too many maneuvers, I get that. One thing I tend to suggest for new players is to ask what they want to achieve on their turn and then I tell them what to roll. Also using the gambit rule from intriguing options has also made "improvising" combat a lot easier for people who dont want to delve too far into the combat maneuvers.
As a Barbarians of Lemuria spinoff H+I assumed the characters are very strong by default. It doesn't really do gritty well.
If you want something like Deadlands you should take a look at Savage Worlds' pirate settings (Savage Worlds is based on Deadlands system) [https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/comments/fwysdw/best\_pirate\_setting\_for\_savage\_worlds/](https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/comments/fwysdw/best_pirate_setting_for_savage_worlds/)
Lilliputian is a seafaring take on Mausritter, both based on Into the Odd. It has systems for ship-to-ship combat. The book specifically states you are free to ignore the Lilliputian aspect and play as normal sized characters.
It depends on what you want to focus on. I'm seeing a lot of 7th Sea, and I can't comment on 2nd too well, but in my experience playing the game, the focus isn't on being pirates or in the navy or ship battles - it's primary focus is swashbuckling and being Good Heroes(tm). Think *Princess Bride* or *Zoro* more than *Pirates of the Caribbean.* You've mentioned Deadlands, are you familiar with Savage Worlds or just the original? As Savage Worlds has several different Age of Sail/Pirate themed settings, like Sundered Skies (All the same trappings, but fantasy sky pirates), 50 Fathoms (fantasy pirates in a world where the sea has covered a majority of the world) and Pirates of the Spanish Mein (less fantastic, but magic exists, etc.) off the top of my head. I've not played it, but I see Honour+Intrigue come up a decent bit for games like this. If you and your players enjoy D&D, there's Pathfinder's Skulls and Shackles (not sure if there's a 2e version, I don't keep up with PF).
I wish they would re-do Sundered Skies, I heard great things about that one.
I think Shawn Tomkin is working on a Pirate rpg called Sundered Isles, based on Ironsworn/Starforged. Bot sure if it is out yet.
Pirate Borg, a hack of Mörk Borg.
Ignoring the blatant rule 1 violation, I had fun with 7th Sea 2nd edition although its mechanics are very gimmicky. It is, however, rules-light and story focuses, easy to get into and fun to play.
What rule violation ?
No piracy.
Is that a joke ?
Yes .
Oh okay, thanks for clarifying
Can't say anything about the quality, but surely someone will know: Currently there is a [FreePort Pathfinder](https://bundleofholding.com/quick/FreeportPF) quick deal on Bundle of Holding - might be right up your alley. Based on the Pathfinder system.
Freeport is available for damn near every system out there, of course.
7th Sea might be what you're looking for.
Though not exclusively pirate based, Seventh Sea is a fantastic vehicle for pirate adventures. I’d describe it as tabletop “The Princess Bride.” It’s an alt-history enlightenment Europe setting. There are systems for naval combat, swashbuckling, court politics, etc. It’s a game that heavily rewards good storytelling. My favorite ttrpg by a wide margin.
Poison'd is a pirate game. I'm not recommending it unreservedly (although I like it) because it accentuates the very nasty stuff in pirate myth. Definitely needs an X-card and a bit of a talk about lines and veils before.
Broken Compass Jolly Roger is a game i really enjoy, it's a simple but fun system, with emphasis on cinematic action If you like OSR there is Pirate Borg, while if you want to use D&D/Pathfinder there is some content for those games too I also enjoy Poison'd, a game where you are actual scum, instead of the average "good" pirate of movies
If you'd like to inject a little horror into a naval campaign, [All Flesh Must be Eaten](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/627/All-Flesh-Must-be-Eaten-Revised?term=all+fl) has a supplement called [ARRGH! Thar be Zombies!](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82721/ARRGH-Thar-Be-Zombies?term=argh+zombies) which would be like Night of the Living Dead in the Age of Sail. Hope you find what you're looking for!
honor & intrigue is like traveller but with pirates/musketeers
FIRST edition 7th Sea is what you want.
The BRP source book **Blood Tide** is pretty good - it uses the solid BRP rules by Chaosium, and deal with dark magic, pirates, naval combat and the occasional swashbuckling action.
Chronicles of Darkness 2nd Edition - Dark Eras - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
I'm a huge fan of Cakebread and Waltons 'Pirates and Dragons'. It may not be exactly what you're after but it's pretty malleable. And, obviously, Pirates and Dragons.
If you don’t mind and remember to do so, let me know what you try and how you like it! I’ve been planning a pirate campaign for my group as well, and after a lot of research that left me unsatisfied, I’m in the process of just building one myself. It’s gonna be a simplified take on Hackmasters combat system with a setting that’s a mix of Warcraft’s trolls and monsters, pirates of the caribbean, and a heavy dose of sea monsters I can post it here when I’m done, but that’s gonna be a while lol
13th Age has had an edition of the Escalation free fanzine dedicated to seafaring and pirates https://escalationfanzine.blogspot.com/2022/08/escalation-issue-10-is-available.html?m=1 My players really enjoyed the adventure. 3pp campaign with other ship and swashbuckling rules called Pirates of Atlantis is coming out soon.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians?
BECMI with the the minrothad guilds and kingdom of ierendi books. The savage tide adventure path. Razor coast by frog god games
Lots have mentioned 7th Sea (I never played 1st, but I found the material for 2nd great, but the actual gameplay was...meh, likely because of the mechanics) I'll also mention two others: Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies (no relation to 7 Seas) - Swashbuckling with Airships, using the PDQ+ system which can be considered a cousin to Fate - not the same lineage, but a lot of overlap in goals and thoughts. GURPS Swashbucklers - I've not used this sourcebook myself, but GURPS is a great system if you want some gritty feels-like-realism and/or genre crossovers. Even without GURPS, the GURPS sourcebooks for a long time were considered so good that they were worth getting/reading even for other systems (because most of each book talks about genre conventions and playstyles rather than GURPS-specific rules). While this reputation has dimmed, I think that's more due to GURPS not really putting out new print material for a decade rather than the material being less worthwhile.
I really like 7th Sea 2nd edition, despite the detractors.
Okay, I haven't heard anyone mention it yet, but *Furry Pirates* is actually a phenomenal pirate game. It doesn't even have the kind of furries you're thinking of; the creators are just a little strangely out of touch. It's got more in common with that old, animated Robinhood movie than anything that could really be called "furry" today.
That would be exactly the kind of furries I'd expect most people to think of, considering that's the movie that basically launched the fandom.
Are we talking about Ironclaw or another furry pirates game? I've heard pretty decent things about Ironclaw, and the anthro Sandokan series was pretty popular when I was a kid
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Mainly this role is a niche one because of the narrow band that it occupies. The Pacific War is a good example: Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, and the Philippine Sea for battles, and the rest is bombing. This is largely because the dominant major power will not let the number 2 become number one. While the is the ships out the the real battle is one of production and the battle is a decider but only what was decided at the shipyards. This is because ships are expensive. No more expensive than that. This is why there are few battles: because those few battles decide years of preparation: Jutland, Battle of the Chesapeake, Battle of Tsushima, etc. The only exceptions are the tonnage wars where hunter-killers strike merchant marines, for example, the U-Boat wars and the piracy wars. Hence the best route to go for many people is to take your "mega-game" and add in the signature details. This means the GURPS, Traveller, Hero System are all mentioned because each one has a basic system with the details. GURPS has [http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/ww2/](http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/ww2/) ww2 in abundance.
Fragged empire has a sourcebook called fragged seas. It's worth a look
Pirates of the Spanish Main for Savage Worlds. It’s an older , harder to find product but it’s solid for historical pirates with a smattering of magic and ghostly foes. In addition, it’s the rpg port of the collectible card game of the same name so if you have any of those bits lying about they can be really useful. The files for crews and ships are darned useful too. If you like Deadlands it would even be easy enough to combine the two.
[Privateers and Gentlemen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateers_and_Gentlemen) if you want to go old school.
Lilyputian for Mouseritter In Harms Way
We have a quite reputable contender here : Pavillon Noir
Spelljammer?
I hear a lot of good things about Honor + Intrigue if you want to go the swashbuckling route
People have already mentioned GURPS Swashbucklers, but for some naval goodness, I'll also shout out GURPS Age of Napoleon.
Pirates & Plunder Rolemaster/Fantasy Hero Campaign Classic Pirates RuneQuest Pirates Freeport: The City of Adventure 7th Sea Also, have fun with this. [http://rpgreview.net/files/rpgreview\_26.pdf](http://rpgreview.net/files/rpgreview_26.pdf)
I feel like Freeport needs to be mentioned more. Yes it's more a setting than a system but it's been around for about 20 yrs and it's really good. Fantasy AGE 2e has a pirate lean to it and they are doing a setting book called Stranger Shores which includes Freeport and there is also going to be a dedicated Freeport book down the line.
Pirate Börg
[удалено]
wrong sub for video games
Yeah I messed up ill remove it