Pirate

"Yar har, fiddle di dee, Being a pirate is all right with me, Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free, You are a pirate!"

– LazyTown

"Oi! You'z lot! You'z part of my crew now. Any problemz with dat, you talk to da complaintz department. Dat'z me gun, by da way."

– Kaptain Bluddflag

"Look at me. I'm the captain now."

– Abduwali Muse, modern pirate and exploitable meme

A pirate captain. The lack of limbs and eye just shows how hardcore he is.

Pirates are scavenging sea bandits that raid and loot anyone on their sight. Despite being the seaborn equivalent of muggers and car-jackers, they are a far more glamorous cultural icon. They were known to be pretty cool for having a ship with black skeleton flag, as well as being badass as fuck for fighting heavily armed navy on daily basis (or so the legend goes; while there were a number of impressive battles, pirates preferred easier marks like unprotected merchant convoys). Sadly, it isn't a profession with the best long-term benefits since they would most likely be hanged by the navy or died of scurvy (though there were exceptions of course). But if they did succeed, they became famous and feared by everyone, and soon that pirate's flag became something people fled as soon as they saw it.

Pirates, despite being a band of misfits, were quite varied. In real life they were cutthroats and bandits with ships or boats, while during later ages in fiction they were romanticized as something of a concept of freedom despite their infamy. In all cases, pirates are well known thanks to modern pop-culture depictions as anarchistic and anti-governmental. They opposed the oftentimes brutal authoritarian life in the navy and wanted to live out their own lives without others telling them what to do. The reasons were many and this resulted in pirates being (ironically) closer to the modern establishment. While in Europe kings and queens ruled through an absolutist system of rule, pirates had something akin to modern democracy (the crew choose a new captain from among themselves by voting). While slavery was normal and nations fought each-other, pirates did not care about racism as a whole as necessity and a desire for freedom meant a pirate crew could be multi-national and include slaves among their ranks. In fact, equality was common among pirates and slaves saw this as one of the few ways to feel free and equal. Some crews did not discriminate if you could do the job. They took in everyone who wanted to join. One particularly famous example was the Brethren of the Coast, a coalition of pirates and privateers who operated in the Caribbean. However, remember what they are; some pirates would force people to join their crew at times, had brutal punishments for those who broke their rules and some were known to trade slaves if the money was good enough.

A free(er) lifestyle is what attracted writers who presented pirates in a romanticized way, as misfits who seek out a life of freedom, portraying them as anti-heroes. This has some basis in truth, as some pirates began their careers as legitimate privateers in the service of their king until political winds changed, usually by end of a war leaving them effectively out of job. Others were genuine legends whose stories impress readers to this day.

TL;DR piracy is fucking awesome... unless you actually encounter pirates - usually in places like Burma, Nigeria, and Somalia.

Famous Real Life Pirates

• Edward Teach - THE Pirate. Also possible Edward Thatch but better known as Blackbeard, one of the original Golden Age pirates known for his intimidation tactics, which including exaggerating and weaponizing his fearsome reputation. His nom de guerre came from the fact that he had black hair with a long thick beard, put gunpowder and fuses in said beard and set it off to give himself a terrifying appearance (it helped that he was over six feet tall when most men of the time were about five and a half). He also often let his victims live to talk about their encounters with him. He was also quite smart, as he once raided a town (as in, blockaded the entirety of Charleston and held its sailors hostage) for medicine because most of his crew was riddled with diseases - sexually transmitted ones, then when some of the crew he sent to negotiate got drunk he marooned them in disgust. Another claim to fame was his flagship, a captured frigate he renamed Queen Anne's Revenge; as an actual warship, this gave him another advantage over other pirates, who mostly used captured merchant ships, slave ships or schooners. He died in battle, fighting despite five gunshot wounds and nearly 20 sword slashes before being attacked from behind and having his throat cut. And not before severing three of his killer's fingers and breaking his sword.

• Henry Avery - The most successful (and mysterious) pirate in history. How successful? He was named the king of pirates after looting the Mughal Emperor's treasure fleet, which was worth £52 million today, and seriously pissing off the East India Company. Shortly after, though, he vanished. Neither he nor his treasure was seen again. Some vidya speculate that he went on to found the pirate utopia of Libertalia in Madagascar.

• "Calico" Jack Rackham- A fairly unremarkable man by the standards of this list, who didn't do much major raiding and whose greatest act turned out to be the recruitment of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. While in life he may not have been much more than a mugger with a boat that provided a backdrop for the stories of those two women on his crew, he managed to leave his mark on history by flying one of the best Jolly Rogers out there (or maybe not, but it's still a great flag).

• Anne Bonny and Mary Read - Two of the most famous female pirates. Here they get one entry as they have fairly similar life stories and worked together for a time: born in destitution, were disguised as boys early on in their lives, moved to the Caribbean where they took up piracy, and both became the lovers of Calico Jack plus renowned pirates in their own right. When Anne and Mary first met, both were disguised as men and Anne was attracted to Mary, so Anne confessed she was a woman, leading Mary to do the same with rumors that they became lovers anyway with Calico Jack's approval. Despite their eventual capture, they only avoided execution because both were pregnant (although Mary died of a fever while in prison while Anne's fate is unknown except that she wasn't executed, with her either being released after giving birth to her child or also dying in prison), though that didn't stop them from fighting off their captors virtually alone, telling off Calico Jack for being a cowardly drunk and even shooting a few of their crewwmates for being too drunk to fight in the battle that led to their capture (don't underestimate pregnant women).

• Edward "Davies" Davis - An English pirate active in the late 1600's who made a career of raiding Spanish silver shipments. Noteworthy for his opposition to slavery; Davies and his crew hit a number of slave ships, liberating their prisoners and recruiting some into his crew. Eventually paid off the British crown for a pardon and retired; part of his haul went into founding the College of William & Mary in Virginia, the second oldest university in the Americas after Harvard. Probably discovered Rapa Nui (Easter Island) although the records are disputed since he wasn't the first to actually report it to anyone.

• Walter Raleigh - One of the first English pirates; a minor lord who decided to try multiclassing as an Adventurer-Politician. Founded Virginia and a few other less successful colonies, and was obsessed with finding the mythical golden city of El Dorado. He'd rob Spanish treasure ships as needed to fund his antics, and then brag about it in front of the Spanish ambassador in Elizabeth's royal court. Even plundered the Queen's bedchamber, marrying one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting. Eventually went from looting ships to looting Spanish settlements. The Spanish responded by telling King James that if he didn't have Raleigh executed, they would treat his attack as a sanctioned act of war. Raleigh was executed, but comported himself to the point of even chatting with and goading his executioner.

• Sir Francis Drake - The best illustration that the line between regular merchant, pirate, privateer and genuine military officer could be very tenuous at times. A full account of his long career can be found elsewhere, but let us just say that he started his career as a regular merchant occasionally getting rowdy with the Portuguese and the Spanish, then realized looting them for silver and gold was profitable and he became a full-fledged (and endorsed) raider. He was so good at liberating riches from them that he was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth, then later offered the post of vice-Admiral of the Navy when the Spaniards became fed up with the Anglos raiding them and spectacularly failed at trying to get even. Drake earned his warm reception in England (avoiding Raleigh's fate) by sharing the wealth to a spectacular degree and being a major contributor to the destruction of the Spanish Armada, cementing England's naval supremacy in Europe. One time he put into port, the share of plunder he donated to Elizabeth was so vast that it was the largest revenue gain on the crown's balance sheet for that year. He was also the first person to circumnavigate the Earth (technically this was done by Ferdinand Magellan, but he didn't survive the trip).

• William Adams - Served under Drake for long enough to get the title. More famous for going to Japan and becoming one of the few foreign-born Samurai. How's that for Multiclassing?

• Miguel Enriquez - Miguel Enríquez was a privateer from San Juan, Puerto Rico who operated during the early 18th century. A mulato born out of wedlock, Enríquez was a shoemaker by occupation before becoming a pirate. After working for the governor as a salesman he was recruited to defend the colonies of Spain, and commanded a fleet that intercepted foreign merchant ships and vessels dedicated to contraband. He was considered a pirate by Spain's enemies and became one of the richest men in the Spanish Caribbean. High points in his military career include his fleets defense of the antilles in the war of spanish succession and the expulsion of british occupation in the island of vieques. Under the order of King Philip V he was awarded the gold medal of the royal effigy and a royal auxiliary identification document allowing him to request aid from the council of indies. The fact he was commercially successful despite being lowborn irked local nobility.

• Amaro Pargo - His full real name is much longer, Amaro Rodríguez-Felipe y Tejera Machado but people called him Pargo as a nickname, so it stuck. He was born in Tenerife, an island province of Spain that is part of the Canary Islands. Before becoming a pirate, he joined the Spanish rush to the Americas and helped develop trade networks between Spanish colonies and Europe through his employment in the Company of Honduras. His career as a pirate began with the capture of the English vessel Saint Joseph. He was accused of piracy by the lawyer Agustin Francisco Ceferino the defendant of captain Alexander Webster, but the Spanish court declared it a legitimate act of defense against a hostile country, so he got off the hook. He would later associate with many corsairs from the Canary Islands, with whom he collaborated directly. By 1740 he, along with the corsair Nicolás María Bignoni would send letters insisting that other captains  such as Bartolomé Sánchez Carta attack English vessels. His areas of operation shifted across the entire Caribbean, going wherever the company needed him and raiding disruptive vessels, but he worked mostly between the cities of Havana and Caracas when in America and his home in Tenerife. After retirement, he would become known to the people of the Canary Islands as a devout Catholic and a philanthropist for his donations to both religious and municipal organizations.

• Roberto Cofresí - He was born into a Spanish noble family, but political and economic difficulties forced them into exile to Puerto Rico he became a pirate in the end of the 18th century meaning he became massively infamous due to the emergence of international trade treaties. He was hunted down by a coalition of American & Spanish police.

• Kanhoji Angre - An Indian privateer who spent 30 years forcing England and Portugal to pay him taxes. Probably the closest thing the world has seen to a pirate admiral, and considered today the ancestor of the Indian Navy. At the height of his career his armada had ten warships, over fifty gunboats, and controlled Mumbai as their home port. His sponsor, the Maratha empire, basically just wanted him to crush European shipping into submission.

• Abduwali Muse - A well-known modern pirate and the only one on this list who's actually still alive. Isn't as charming and heroic as previous but he's the youngest pirate on the list and got media coverage of his actions. Abduwali led small gang of teenage pirates from Somalia (he was 16-19 at the time and the oldest among them) hijacking the ship Maersk Alabama, an unarmed container ship, from the Port of Salalah in Oman with orders to sail through the Guardafui Channel to Mombasa, Kenya. Like almost every Somali pirate, he didn't have a good childhood due to living in extreme poverty, with food and work being scarce and poor quality; he turned to piracy to pay off a local warlord. When navy ships got involved, the gang took the captain hostage and fled onto a lifeboat, resulting in Phillips' rescue and the deaths of every pirate save Abduwali himself, who got a 33+ year prison sentence in the US (still a serious upgrade in life standards compared to the hellhole of his home country, he even got a GED). Despite having no achievements that compare with historical pirates, his story did help create the film "Captain Phillips" - named for the Captain of the ship Muse tried to take - and a meme. (Look at him. He's the captain now.)

• Ching Shih/Cheng I Sao - Chinese Pirate Queen who not only led one of the biggest pirate fleets but also managed to successfully retire. She got her fleet through marrying a pirate, who gave her half his fleet. And when he died she got all of it by way of political maneuvering with her husband's family. The Chinese government tried to take her down, but she was so good that she stole their ships until they were forced to use fishing boats. She even created a set of pirating laws, including one that made rape of female captives punishable by beheading. She eventually beat the empire so hard that the Chinese Government had to sue for peace. She negotiated for amnesty for herself and any of her pirates that wanted to quit the life, so she retired from piracy to set up a gambling den and brothel.

• Cheung Po Tsai - Cheng I Sao's step-son and second husband, succeeding his stepfather's role and expanded the fleet. As with Cheng I Sao was granted amnesty and became a navy colonel. Often depicted in dramas and movies.

• Wang Zhi / Wu Feng - a famous Wokou pirate who plagued the coast of Ming Dynasty China. He was originally a salt merchant before becoming head of a pirate syndicate that stretched from the East to South China Sea after deciding the Ming can fuck off with their prohibition on private maritime trade. He got acquainted with Dutch merchants after they seized Malacca and is credited to spreading European firearms across East Asia (most famously to daimyo Tanegashima Tokitaka). Seeing how Japan was undergoing the strife of the Warring States Era, he made a hefty profit selling saltpeter to them from China and Siam at a premium. Eventually he got fed up with the corrupt Ming administration’s bureaucracy and their lack of recognition of him before he took over some islands off the coast of southern Japan, rained riches on the locals to win them over, and then raided the coasts off China and Korea to make them take him seriously so they can make him an admiral or professional naval merchant. Unfortunately, his sympathizers in the local Ming administration got caught up in corruption scandals and politics before he got captured and beheaded while trying to negotiate. Post mortem, China and Korea blame him as a symbol of the ills from the Wokou piracy era; his interactions with Japan making him even more of an opportunistic target. He’s more fondly remembered in Japan as the source of the firearm technology imported from the Portuguese and identified in their documents as a Confucian scholar.

Totally legit, no pirates here.

• John Paul Jones - An angry Scotsman who sided with the colonists in the American Revolution so he could go on a big piracy spree up and down the English coast. At one point he showed up in the Netherlands and the Dutch were like "you need a flag or we have to arrest you as a pirate" (also the ship was very obviously not his). But they didn't like the English either so they looked the other way while Jones found someone to quickly sew a new flag (suspiciously like a Dutch flag cut up and sewn back together) and he was free to go. He kicked so much ass and was so popular that one of the places that he raided actually gave him an official pardon in 1999.

• Gertrude Walton - A real life ghost pirate! The RIAA claimed that she uploaded pirated copies of over 700 songs despite her being dead. Immortalized in a Weird Al song.

• Stede Bonnet - The "Gentleman Pirate," Steve was a former plantation owner from Barbados who got fed up with always being in debt and his nagging wife, so he decided to become a pirate. Bonnet is supposedly one of the pirates who originated "Walking the Plank." Despite his gross inexperience, he was able to attract a crew by promising a guaranteed wage as opposed to a share of plunder. Things went relatively well until he got bamboozled by Blackbeard (yes THAT Blackbeard) into giving up command of his ship and effectively became a hostage. He was later bamboozled again by Blackbeard and swore revenge, in which he surprisingly became a more competent pirate. But he was captured before he had the chance. Dramatic Reenactment now included!

• Felix von Luckner - Nicknamed "The Sea Devil", he is the best example of a Lawful pirate (okay, privateer) in RPG terms. Commissioned as an officer in the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine during WWI, he was given command of a three-master (at a time where most boats had switched to steam) with orders to do some commerce raiding and make himself a pain in the hindquarters of the Allies. And he did so. Beautifully. In less than one year, Luckner captured and sank no less than fifteen ships through guile and superior seamanship. And the best part? he did so barely ever firing a shot. Over his entire career, he and his crew killed only a single enemy soldier (a poor soul unlucky enough to be right next to a steam line that ruptured when Luckner ordered the enemy's radio shot). For the rest, he made sure everyone was safe and sound before sending his prizes to the bottom. And when he just became overburdened with prisoners, he ordered the latest his prizes to throw the cargo overboard and bring all his prisoners to a neutral country, and then they'd all be free. A pirate and and gentleman indeed, and a bizarre counterpoint to the way in which submarine warfare, the more modern way to attack shipping, was conducted in the 20th century.

• Klaus/Johann Stoertebeker: One of the rare examples of pirates that predate the colonial era considerably and whose story survived the times. A German pirate captain hailing from Wismar, about whom barely anything is known other than that he entered public consciousness in the Hanseatic Cities Scandinavia and Northern Germany around the 1390s, when his gang was driven out of Gotland in the Baltic Sea and soon became a feared legend for Hanseatic seafarers that sailed the routes between Hamburg and Riga. According to legend, he was captured in 1401 by a Hamburgian fleet when a traitor aboard his flag ship disabled the rudder by pouring molten lead into its chains. When the Hamburgians dismantled his ship, they found that the three masts had been cast from Gold, Copper and Silver respectively and they used the metal to form the tip of the St Catherines Church in Hamburg from it. Stoertebeker himself was sentenced to death along with his crew of 77 men and his skull remains on display in Hamburg to this very day.

Famous Fictional Pirates

(For the sake of keeping things brief, we'll ignore Vidya pirates, and try keep it to Movie and Book pirates that your parents or nephews/nieces are likely to have heard of, depending on your age.)

• Long John Silver, from Treasure Island. The most realistic depiction of a pirate in media, in a book set years after the Golden Age of Piracy.
• Captain Hook, from Peter Pan. One of the most cartoony examples of one, since he was based on the caricatures of pirates at the time.
• Jack Sparrow (Captain Jack Sparrow, if you please), Hector Barbarossa and Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean; the saga that both revived and killed the pirate genre in Cinema. A fantasy series with hardcore fans who will fight you if you call their trilogy average. It is mindfuck levels of weird for what was initially a fun swashbuckling adventure movie about undead pirates. Is definetely very fun and very bizarre.
  • For that matter, the ride Pirates are of interest. Though the original version has a much lighter tone and was meant to be an historical although amusing outlook on how pirates were actually like. A vision that is now outdated and contested by historians, although it still has charm and an a certain "Old Hollywood" flair to it. Although now it has been botched by egregious attempts at tying them to the films.
• Captain Blood, from the book series and movie of the same name.
• Captain Harlock, space pirate. More of a righteous vigilante who takes on the appearance of a pirate, given his personal drip and that his ship has a cool looking sailship stern in the back, on top of being designed like a naval wWWII Warship. From the mind of Leiji Matsumoto. We personally recommend "Arcadia of my Youth" as the definitive Space Pirate movie.
• One Piece has a quite a few. We'll not list them, as it would take forever, just like the manga. Though for a series about a guy wanting to become the King of Pirates, they never partake in actual pirates... Ever.
• Captain Nemo, from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.
• Pirate Jenny, from the song of the same name. Nemo and Jenny were then linked, as well as Captain Mors and Captain Robur in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics.
• One-Eyed Willy, from The Goonies.
• The Dread Pirate Roberts, from The Princess Bride.
• Many, many advertising pirates.
• Luthor Harkon, from Warhammer Fantasy.
• House Greyjoy and their Iron Islanders from Game of Thrones.

Types of Pirate

Why do we bury our treasure? Why don't we spend it? On nice things? Or things we like?

From the Golden Age of Piracy

• Buccaneers - Before being a football team, Buccaneers were English and French mercenaries who decided to make a living in the colonies. They were employed by anyone who had enough money to afford them, and acted as a remote local army who could besieged any fort or city. They were so effective at that they had a fearsome reputation. They are commonly referred to as the ancestors of the pirates, but the truth is that pirates wished they were as good as them. For one thing, they had all the necessities and means of a proper good army; cavalry, artillery, armor, weapons and FUNDS to carry on their duty. They also had the experience of the battlefield since most of them were pretty much veterans.
  • The Brethren of the Coast - a loose coalition of french buccaners in the Americas, who pretty much knew one another and often came to each other's aid. It's hard to tell today how united they really were, though given how much local officials refer to them as a professional lot, they might have had enough organizing power to be considered a legitimate force in their time.
• Red Sea Men - Operating in the Red Sea, these were the guys with the most means. They carried out the biggest operations and attacks in the history of piracy. Arguably, they were the ones most likely to have the most successful careers with the biggest ships. It was often told that going to the red sea was a venture to take when one sought to make quick illegal cash. Primarily because of all the expensive shit that gets traded there, and the frequent civil wars that occurred. Henry Every was among those Red Sea Men, and he inspired an entire generation to turn to piracy.
• Filibusters - Where the line gets blurry. Filibusters were French former-buccaneers who still wanted to practice their jobs even after the French colonies in the Americas were already well established. The French really didn't like the Spanish, so the King of France gave Buccaneers the go to ravage and pillage across South America and loot everything they can as long as they gave a certain percentage of the loot to the French Crown and respected some articles. This didn't last for long however, as soon some French investigators found out that such respect of those terms was as rare as a bloodless filibuster rampage. They were especially feared in those waters because of a needlessly cruel they were. They'd treat you well unless you didn't give them what they want. They could harass one city for months and didn't leave until they had their cargo filled. Unlike the Buccaneers, they used their ships a lot more, and not just for general transportation.
• Corsairs - This term either refers to the pirates of the Barbary Coast, or to French privateers who were directly employed under and by the King to plunder specific targets. Their contracts were the famous Lettre de Marque which, broadly speaking, allowed them to attack specific nations but under some conditions. Captains were selected for their reliance and the men were already part of the military, and so good at receiving and respecting orders.
• Pirates - The creme of the crop. Mostly English, these guys are those you know the best. In general, they were young, averagely experienced sailor men who partook in piracy to make a quick buck. Some of them did this for a living and spent all their money to drink, party or get laid. Others considered their time as pirates as a concession to make in their career. Some used it to fulfill their political goals. Preferring intimidation above needless violence, they were more prone to make hostages or hold ransoms. That being said, they preferred to attack in groups and thus worked in companies of three or four ships. Rare were those who were successful, rarer still are those who were successful and lived to tell the tale.

Much like the Red Sea Men mentioned above, Pirates worked in companies of three or four ships of varying sizes. Better to work together than working alone and getting your ship blasted away and then disposed of like a dirty tissue. They relied on intimidation and threats of needless violence to get their way. That, plus planning their attacks days if not weeks in advance by basing their strategy around hearsay and rumors. Once their plunder was done, they'd share their loot accordingly - depending on their role and importance to the crew, the pay would be different. That being said, we almost have no info about how they really organized, as most of the paperwork they've done (if there was any) was immediately burned along with their flags, as these could be used as proof of their acts of piracy.

In the Caribbean, they were far from the great and spectacular lot we often imagine them to be; mostly in the ship department. As most of them preferred piraguas, sloops and brigs over large frigates. Point of their operations was to loot and be fast about it. Frigates just didn't cut it unless they were hired as mercenaries and/or operated as a gang. Though this usually has more to do with the fact that frigates were hard to come by around these parts and the waters were usually very shallow. In Africa though, that was a whole other story, for there they definitely had bigger ships. - Other than that, they were an especially theatrical lot, for most of their tactics consisted of wildly shooting at a merchant, dance and chant to impress them, and board them without too many casualties. The Jolly Roger itself - a mark of death that only came around by the end of the Golden Age - was a pretty striking symbol for its use was on par with shock value as today's Nazi swastikas.

Pirates often approached their "profession"" as a necessary point in their career as naval officers or local officials - Most even regarded it as a getaway into a world of very amoral possibilities. Sure, many were in for the money (matter of fact, most), but some had a certain grudge to settle and piracy was the only way. Many of them paraded as "privateers" both because of the prestige of the title and also because they perceived their acts of piracy as a quasi-nationalistic tribute to their home and country. This usually worked in the early days, but when piracy became severely outlawed and the crown went to crackdown on it; most pirates would say they were coerced into doing it. Which wouldn't be that much of a stretch considering that coming across doctors who willingly partook in piracy was about as likely as a friendly encounter with the Coasta Guarda.

• • The Flying Gang ; an even looser association of captains and quartermasters who knew each other and had contacts all across the New and Old world to get ships and funds to go around pillaging the Caribbean, that being said, it's often exaggerated how organized they really were. Since all they did was mostly given each other legitimacy by associating themselves between successful pirates entrepreneurs.
• La Coasta Guarda - the Spanish Navy who pirates were more likely to encounter in their early years besides English Pirate Hunters and the actual British Navy. Doesn't mean they'd do their jobs right - as many English merchants reported incidents with the Guard who had taken their honest merchant ships for a pirate fleet. While they weren't necessarily wrong all the time, as the means of obtaining their goods and their methods of bargaining in the colonies often crossed similar lines as that of smugglers - the Guard made it a past-time hobby to just plunder anyone who was English or French. Ask a Spaniard today if the Guard were piratas, and you'd get a swat of his chancla fast, so don't tempt destiny.
• Rogues - Piracy is just this darn easy in the colonies, at least in a time where the law was hardly respected and enforced by an actual arbitrator of the law. So most of the justice done there was by local authorities. So say you were hired by a company to trade goods and transport shit from place to place. Say there's like, oh I don't know - a Spanish ship just right around the corner and it just looks very full of silver and cargo, and it just so happens that your country is at war with Spain. Well, what's an Englishman to do? Not a whole lot of honest captains went rogue, and if they did, it wouldn't take long until they organize a mutiny upon realizing that they made a lot more money plundering innocents.
• Lumbermen - They lived in the thick of the woods and spent their day lumbering great quality wood to smuggle it into Europe. What's more, they were petty criminals who knew about their surroundings in the New World.
• Poachers - Really, really petty pirate gangs. Seen usually pestering locals in more minute ways - but that's hardly saying anything. While they do not have the theatrics and the big ships of their cousins, they still have the highway man panoply and won't hesitate to point guns at you and force you into giving you shit. John Rackam could be considered one of those since most of his catches were - generally speaking - fishing boats.
• Smugglers - Operating in secret, they scalped every cargo they could get their hands on and resell it on the black market. Found in caves, dark alleyways and the not-so-hot parts of England, France or the Netherlands.

From anywhen else

• The "Sea People" - Terrorizing Greece, Pheonicia, Egypt and even freaking Rome for a while, they came from the sea, pillaged and killed everyone they met and... We have no fucking clue who they might be.
• Vikings - We often use that term to define the "Norse people", which itself is an even broader term to define everyone who used longships and did raids in the north sea. To be a "Viking" was a job, to "vikingr" was the verb. Sagas tell that being a viking was a popular job and brought pride to the family. Given that it was a reliable way to get wealth for the Norse and the Danes, it was quite understable. That is until they figured out how to trade and found new ways to make and produce stuff instead of stealing it. They definetely left their mark though, as viking raids were so frequent that it became a massive issue to everyone, including the Church who thought it was necessary to intervene. Not only were the Norse and the Danes doing it, but so were the Baltic Slavic Pirates and the Normans, who would later conquer all of England with their methods. Needless to say, they are especially iconic with their longships, often called "Drakkars", proudly displaying a dragon's or serpent's head, with large sails that were also used as banners, protected by their colorful shield striking images of terror. Vikings perfected the theatrics that pirates used centuries later.
• Wokou - Japanese Pirates. Born off of the Mongol Invasion of Japan, they offered their services to defend the coasts of the land of the rising sun. This eventually escalated to the point that they'd try their luck at being small sea warlords. Often spotted across the coasts of China or Korea. Pesky buggers with katanas or other sorts of Japanese blades only a weeaboo would know about. While not as iconic as Golden Age pirates, they definitely left their mark on the Asian world, since they ravaged and pillaged from the 13th century up to the 17th! Three times as long as western pirates did ! Their raids were also especially impressive, since they carried massive operations to pillage entire cities and heavily guarded ports with army sized fleets. It took a considerable amount of effort by the Ming Dynasty to get rid of them permanently, as even some captains were bold enough to attempt full on invasions.
• Sea Dogs - A name given to pirates privateers piratas, puta madre the greatest servants of Her Majesty at sea corsairs authorized by Queen Elizabeth the First to explore the world and Neutralize the enemies of England. They came way before buccaneers did, and these guys would be, shall we say, an appetizer of what's to come for the Spanish. They still remain the subject of skub to this very day as neither the English or the Spanish agree on what they even were. Needless to say, they did discover a ton of shit in the New World, and they sure did leave a whole trail of blood wherever they went, though that's a given in Pre-Early Modern Period Europe.
• Sea Beggars - The polar opposite of the Sea Dogs, since they were Dutch nobles who opposed the Spanish rule of the Netherlands in the late 1500s. A small resistance mostly composed of a somewhat solid coalition of ships. They weren't that prominent though.
• The Dutch East Indian Company - [ THE FOLLOWING ENTRY WAS REDACTED COURTESY OF THE EAST INDIAN COMPANY. THE VOC HAS NEVER, EVER PARTOOK IN CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES OR ENTERPRISES THAT LOOKED LIKE PIRACY, WITH OR WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION OR APPROVAL. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING ]

The "Pirate Accent"

We all know and love pirate-speak, what with all its "YAAAAR!"s and "YO-HO-HO!"s and all, but something to keep in mind, at least as far as historical pirates are concerned; most scholars agree that there is no universal "pirate accent," and that most of today's perceptions of it stems from the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island, and the incredibly overdone and scenery-chewing Dorset accent of Robert Newton's Long John Silver. While the West Country of England certainly has a long maritime history, keep in mind that pirates came from just about any sea-faring society, so you're more likely to see a blend of accents and even languages around busy trade routes and other piracy hotspots, such as the Caribbean or the East Indies. If you're doing voices for characters, the "pirate accent" is a good standby, but work up a few more English-speaking accents and throw in a little Spanish, French, West African, etc.

Fictional Pirates

Because of how spectacularly iconic the Golden Age pirates are, literally everyone tried to put them into their own settings at least once or twice. Generally, this isn't done without shoving in a bunch of elements from the naval world from other periods (most notably the tricorn or some vocabulary that pirates never actually used). Pirates in media are usually inherently anachronistic. Jack Sparrow, Captain Hook and the likes are all mumbo-jumbo of different tropes and stereotypes not necessarily originating from piracy, but that got attached to them due to years of misinformation and just general public myopa. Hell, pirates were visually defined to the public thanks to the paintings by Howard Pyle, who draw inspiration from Gypsy communities, their customs and their fashion. Y'know, when every single pirate of the Golden Age was either French, English or Dutch and definitely did not wear the same shit as a community that wasn't even close to look like how they did when Pyle painted them.

The general stereotype of the pirate is that of a guy stuck at sea, who is deathly afraid of old sea-fearer folklore and legends, a raging alcoholic and a greedy, opportunistic thief. When he's not that, he's a dashing rogue who fights, plunders and loot in defiance to his local government or the crown, or for the heart of a lady for some reason. Fact that most pirates were usually former naval officers or ship owners who turned to it for a quick buck or to escape the burden of a boring, repetitive lifestyle on the high seas. Or wanna-be warlords who wanted to be seen as national heroes back home. Can't have social commentary in a story that has thieves and entire communities forming around the act of looting! They're also usually depicted with ships like frigates, ship-of-the-lines and dutch indiamen. Nevermind that the Caribbeans are mostly full of shallow waters and local pirates were likely to use sloops, piraguas and brigs. To be fair, the Red Sea Men used larger ships but apparently people forget pirates raided the Indian Ocean... Y'know, despite the biggest heist ever done by a pirate occured there.

Either way, there are a few ways other ways pirates are depicted. In Fantasy media, it is not rare to see pirates being depicted with ties to Dark Magic. Y'all can thank Tim Powers for this, as if it were not for On Stranger Tides (the book, dumbass), we would not have had Ghost Pirates... Er - technically Zombie Pirates, but he technically started this whole thing. Most of the time, these type of pirates are in-the-know about Voodooism - much less the religion and more of the token dark-magic voodoo deal - or have touched something they shouldn't have and they find themselves cursed. Ghost ships being floating carcasses of shipwrecks are usually a pretty kino sight, so having pirate skeletons on board is one cool way of making the seas just ever more so dangerous. Rarely, you might come across a sea-faring vampires; given that they usually can take the role of social pariahs with a somewhat high status, a privateering vampire wouldn't be too out of the loop.

And if the sea isn't too much to your liking, there's always the sky or - even better - SPACE! Spess pirates are an all-time classic of Sci-Fi, and for some reason they're always depicted as talking just like old sailors - nevermind the fact that space faring is a lot finnecky than sea faring.

Here's an exhaustive list of other types of pirates in media; Warhammer 40K Pirates - Ranging from chaos worshiper, sadistic spiky ear slave trader, cunning spiky ear glass cannon and the fucking orks, they are all badasses. Rogue Traders probably count as pirates too (corsairs would be the most accurate term), but they are first and foremost explorers of the Imperium (otherwise is HERESY and would probably be anally raped by inquisitions ship's nova cannon, or an cyclonic torpedo) but of course, unless they were pillage and plunder a Xeno ship, is fine lol. For /tg/ brewed 40K pirates, see Black Locks who are both pirates and Space Marines. There is also at least one known loyalist chapter that does pirate things like abducting the entire population of a loyalist planet to bolster the ranks of their recruits and chapter serfs, but they work far from the Imperium, and don't really have the opportunity for easily recruited manpower. Desperate times...

One Piece - As the pirate king, Gold Roger, was executed, he told everyone that he hid his treasure at the ass-end of the world, kickstarting a golden age of piracy! Some are using this chance to amass riches or oppress the weak, others just want to be free from the dictatorial World Government. The world is vast and uncharted, people get anime superpowers by eating cursed fruit or training really hard, and there exist sea monsters that are bigger than your ship. Have fun!

Space Pirates from the Metroid Series - while not being human and lacking the Caribbean pirate stereotype, they are aliens that like to raid and destroy vessels while trying to be the biggest of dicks to every other species, especially the Federation. They are led by Mother Brain with Ridley, a species of cyborg/gargoyle/dragon alien being their military commander. They all got shit on by Samus unfortunately...non-stop.

Worldbuilding And Moral Considerations

Morality

How evil a Pirate in a given setting defaults to has a few inputs that are worth considering:

• Slavery is a big one. If the people they're raiding practice slavery and the pirates don't, that's a very serious point in the favor of the Pirate (in fact, it was exactly this moral ambiguity that gave the Buccaneers what good press they had) especially if they free slaves. If it's the other way around (slave raiders on free peoples), the resulting pirates are probably evil villains, full stop.
  • Keep in mind that many people adore Jack Sparrow for simply saying "People aren't cargo, mate!", which was Jack Sparrow's entire descent into piracy to begin with.
• How badly they treat captured crews. If they let them go once they've robbed the cargo holds, they probably are considered more "moral" than if they kill or enslave anybody who sees them. (Hostage taking may or may not count for this purpose; if it's purely for ransom, it's in a gray area, with the shade depending on how well the hostage is treated.)
  • Enforced enrollment in the pirate crew is on the evil side, and also somewhat on the stupid side: having a bunch of people who don't want to be there as crew on a ship is usually a bad idea when mutiny is a problem. However even proper navies were known to do (and in some cases infamous for abusing) exactly that: the war of 1812 began in part over the British going overboard with forced enrollment. (Look up 'impressment', you'll get the idea.)
• How badly non-pirate sailors are treated by their captains: when the Navy press-gangs their crew into service and keelhauls/flogs wrongdoers around the fleet; a pirate ship is easily seen as a bastion of freedom in contrast.
• Pirates who don't do anything are a thing in media. As they don't do the pirate thing, they usually don't count as pirates.
• How prone they are to mutiny is also a consideration; although any pirate crew is liable to mutiny, the causes of said mutiny can be important in determining morality. If you're sailing under Bill the Bastard has random crewmen flogged and branded for looking at him funny, stealing his hat while he's wearing it and original sin while never giving out a fair cut of the pay and hogging all the Grog from himself, mutiny is an extreme if understandable response.
• What do they spend their plunder on. Most pirates spend their booty on upkeep of their ship, cannons, guns, swords, booze, food, fancy things and, well, booty. But some will also spend it on their families while others decide to give some of it to an orphanage or school or something in their home port.
• Privateers, mentioned above, are usually considered more "moral" than their freelancing counterparts. Usually.

Note that multiple kinds of Pirates can exist in a given setting, each with their own niche in the Alignment Chart (Even Lawful Good, Neutral Good and Lawful Neutral depending on where you draw the line between lawful navy executing 'commerce raiding' and piracy), although given the nature of Piracy, only a few Privateers will be Lawful of any kind.

Worldbuilding Considerations

The big one: Piracy is never a safe job, even when you're in port, and every action has a degree of risk to it. Pirates are criminals who endanger shipping, which makes people with money and power annoyed, which in turn leads to a good deal of energy being expended in getting rid of any pirate that causes too much trouble. Unless they're being backed up by another, similar power, or have decided to transition from just stealing shit to forming a functional republic with a navy and laws and borders, a pirate port is not stable. Even then it's not particularly stable either, although it's got a start on the climb to being a nation. Always remember: piracy comes with danger and is affected by politics much bigger than little ships with black flags. You'll present a more engaging setting if there's more to a pirate's life than you can see at Disney World.

With that in mind, pirates still need a safe port of some kind to operate. Ships require a lot of maintenance that can only be done when at rest, and the pirates need to be able to sell or trade their captured goods. This has many subtle implications, with a few possibilities:

• The Pirates are effectively sponsored by some port. This implies either full state sponsorship of some kind, or a state that effectively doesn't care about their raiding, usually because the Pirates in question only target the enemies of whoever owns the port. French Tortuga and Dutch Curacao were like this, being effectively surrounded by a target rich environment full of Spanish and ruled by governors who simply did not give a flip about what happened at sea. In particular, Curacao's natural harbor with a tight channel overlooked by a fort on a ridge made it practically impossible to raid from sea, so the Dutch DID NOT care how angry the Spanish got with them over piracy because nothing short of an invasion would dislodge them. Tortuga otoh got raided by the Spanish repeatedly, but there were just too many French and English on the island to suppress.
• The Pirates are disguising where their goods are coming from. This is harder then it sounds, as ships are usually easily identified, and any port that cares about contraband will almost certainly be interested in the origins of whatever goods are coming into it. This will be complicated and will probably require a reliable fence who can move the goods quietly and with the illusion of legitimacy.
• The Pirates are operating on a frontier, like the boucaniers did. Small colonies and settlements are usually much less concerned about the legitimacy of cargo if its something they can use. They may not be able to pay very much for it, but they often can pay in other ways such as provisions and repairs.
• Pirates who figure they can operate their own port are usually faced with the fact that most of the people who engage in piracy are not exactly reliable sorts, which is what is desperately needed in order to have a functioning port.

For piracy to really catch on somewhere, there needs to be cargo worth capturing. A lot of stuff that gets shipped is very hard to sell, not just because it is the proverbial "hot goods", but because it is effectively worth money only to the right buyer (who is usually in one of those ports that care about contraband). You need something that is both valuable, and a commodity. Historically, sugar qualified, as did tobacco and other luxury goods; of particular interest here is exotic pets, such as monkeys and, yes, parrots (really any large feathered birds, since feather quills were used as pens). Whale oil (used in lamps) was another hot item, with whaling ships often making easy targets returning from hunts. But whatever the cargo, there is a fine line of intersecting interests, between the risks of accepting stolen goods, the risks of stealing them in the first place, and the potential profit. Of course, there's always robbing payroll ships, but if they were easy to hit everyone would do it.

For a nation whose government is fairly loose and rudimentary, the distinction between "Pirate", "Honest Trader" and "Navy" is sometimes difficult to make. Many pirates would prefer to go after foreign prey rather than people from their home ports. A down on his luck merchant captain might try to steal the stuff from a rival ship from a rival country if the choice is "make a profit, pay the crew, eliminate some of the competition and live to sail another day" or "starve to death/have a mutiny for unpaid wages/have the ship founder for disrepair/go bankrupt". Privateer work was common in times of war when said actions got sanctioned and sometimes a merchantman could have a few extra guns put on her and be made into a ghetto warship.

To complicate matters even further, even powerful and well-organized nations like France and England had 'prize money' laws in place that made capturing enemy vessels and their cargo a very attractive prospect: any ship captured at sea and its cargo became de jure property of the crown, but the king would generously compensate the crews with money/valuables once the prize was brought in. On top of that it wasn't uncommon at all for the winner of a naval engagement to quietly enroll any surviving sailor to replace losses and/or keep manning their now captured ship (the defeated sailors were generally down with this since the alternative was usually sitting in the hold in chains), no matter their nationality; so even a 'national' crew from an 'official' Navy ship could sound like a weird mix of freebooters hauling their capture in when coming into port.

If you get enough pirates in an area, they might come together and found a town. It starts off in some place with a natural harbor to shelter in storms and repair their ships between fights. Then crews begin swapping stuff if one of them has a surplus of gunpowder and the other has a surplus of food and similar. A couple of guys are left behind from each crew (as well as captives who could not be ransomed off) to collect timber, first when it's expected that there will be some damage taken in the near future and latter more regularly around a growing logging camp. A couple of docks go up to make things go more smoothly, as does a forge or two and a couple of vegetable gardens. It was fairly common for ships to keep livestock onboard as living larders, which might find a cozy home being fed scraps in a new chicken coop or pig pen. If there are native peoples in the area they start showing up to trade, or occasionally raid necessitating some basic defences. And natives might know where to find bat dung and sulphur, meaning free gunpowder.

Then some enterprising pirate cobbles together a pub, selling plundered Beer, Grog and Rum to passing pirates and shore-side workers at first and soon enough is brewing there own, especially when a few full fledged farms get going to provide produce. A still is not far behind. Soon enough the pub has some prostitutes and by extension some bastards. Those pirates which had lost limbs to the job may settle down with their compensation package for an easier and steadier life ashore. Tents and lean-tos are replaced by shacks and shanties, then small cottages and after that houses. Workshops gradually come together and more and more of the population becomes permanent, and more specialized. Between which will be a market square where people will sell not only stolen wares and imported trinkets, but local handicrafts. A Buccaneer on shore leave with some gold could get his flintlock fixed, pick up a new boarding and scabbard, have his jacket properly patched and have a hot meal and a lot of booze with his crew-mates.

Soon you get a thriving and lively if disorderly and dangerous new settlement, which attracts the attention of whatever state power claims control over the area. A governor and garrison will be dispatched who start keeping out the roughest sorts, and things settle down into a more quiet and businesslike place much to the chagrin of old timers who miss the gold old days of loose women, hearty songs, exciting brawls and the odd knifings which made things dangerous and interesting. Although occasionally a pirate captain will approach the state FIRST asking "Can I haz govnuh hat?"; this happened with Tortuga (Jean Le Vasseur).

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition offers many class options for those pursuing a pirate-y path. Base Classes such as the Swashbuckler, Mariner, and the Corsair (a Variant Fighter). Prestige Classes like: Dread Pirate, Legendary Captain, and Scarlet Corsair.

Pathfinder Second Edition

This article related to Dungeons & Dragons is a stub. You can help 1d6chan by expanding it.

An archetype where you master the ins and outs of fighting on ships. It was originally a rather limited archetype that appeared on the 2018 playtest before vanishing. It would show up again in the Advanced Player's Guide, looking just as small when compared to other archetypes. This is likely because it's already relying on two other skills with feats that would otherwise overlap with it: Athletics (which helps with rope climbing) and Intimidation.

The prerequisites for entry pretty much boil down to "look scary" (read: trained in Intimidation) and in exchange, you can walk on boats without issue, learn lore about sailing and gain a special action that pretty much lets you go Errol Flynn and swing your sword while swinging on a rope. see more

Mordheim Pirate Warbands

One of the more popular "semi-official" Mordheim warbands, pirate warbands are based on the simple facts that a) there have always been pirates in the Empire, b) the Empire relies heavily on river-conducted trade, and c) this meant the titular city was a big port before the warpstone meteor hit. So now you have plenty of bold and/or crazy pirates sailing up to the ruined dock and daring to launch raids into the city.

As a warband, Pirates of Mordheim have the special rules Ship-Based (if you hire both elf and dwarf Hired Swords simultaneously, increase their upkeep by +20 gold pieces, as the tight confines of the ship exacerbate their racial animosity) and Shanghai. This is their mainstay special rule, and what it means is that pirates can actually swell their own ranks by recruiting captured enemies or even the random survivors of Mordheim. Because there are several situations where a pirate crew can successfully shanghai a person, this rule gets complicated...

• Firstly: a Pirate Captain can only attempt to shanghai normal human warband members; nonhumans refuse to obey or are too dangerous even for pirates to keep, whilst Hired Swords and Special Characters have no interest in the pirate life.
• When an enemy Hero is Captured, instead of exchanging/ransoming them or selling them, the Pirate Captain can attempt to convince them to join the crew. Roll 2d6 and add the Leadership of the Captain, then do the same for the captured Hero, adding +1 to he roll of whichever side won the fight. If the Captain wins, then the Hero defects and joins his crew, becoming a normal Crewman - this includes resetting his ability scores and skills if necessary and swapping all his gear for stuff from the Pirate Equipment list. If the Hero wins, then the Captain simply pressgangs him; the Hero retains his original skills and stats, but loses all his gear for stuff from the Swabbie list and can be deployed as a Swabbie in subsequent battles. Presumably, if the Pirates Rout against a shanghaied Hero-turned-Swabbie's former warband, he rejoins them.
• When the Pirates win a battle against an enemy warband, roll a d6 for each enemy Henchman that was killed (1-2 on their post-game roll after being taken Out of Action); on a 4+, they actually weren't killed, but were instead dragged back to the pirate ship and patched up. The Pirate Captain can attempt to shanghai them in the same manner as a captured hero, as described above.
• If the Pirates discover a Straggler when exploring Mordheim, the Pirate Captain can attempt to shanghai the half-crazed survivor instead of the other options. This requires making a simple Leadership check for the Captain; if he passes, then you gain a free Swabbie (the Straggler is too bonkers to make it as a crewman).
• Similarly, if the pirates discover Survivors when exploring Mordheim, the Pirate Captain can attempt to recruit them. Roll a d3 to see how many survivors there are, then make a Leadership check for the Captain for each Survivor. If successful, the survivor eagerly joins and becomes a Crewman; they can either start a new unit as a basic Crewman, or be added to an existing unit, whereupon their Exp and Stats match their brethren. If the check fails, however, the Suvivor is reluctantly pressganged, and so becomes a Swabbie.

Like all Mordheim warbands, you start with 500 gold pieces to outfit your Pirate Crew, which can be no larger than 15 models.

A Pirate Warband's leader is, of course, the Pirate Captain - you must start with one of these guys! They start with 20 EXP and can gain special skills from all of the standard skill tables (Combat, Shooting, Academic, Strength, Speed) as well as the Pirate Skills table. They cost 60 gold, have the Leader rule, and start with M4, WS4, BS3, S3, T3, W1, I3, A1 and LD8.

Ship's Mates are your standard secondary hero; you can have 0-2 of these in your crew. Ship's Mates cost 35 gold to hire and start with 8 experience as well as M4, WS4, BS3, S3, T3, W1, I2, A1 and LD7. They have the Inheritor special rule; if your Captain gets killed, then one of the Mates will take over the warband, just like how the standard Mercenary warband uses Champions to take over. They can learn Combat, Shooting, Strength and Pirate skills.

Cabin Boys are the obligatory "bare-faced recruit" type hero. 0-2 of these guys, who cost 15 gold to hire and start with 0 EXP and M4, WS2, BS2, S3, T3, W1, I3, A1 and LD6. They can learn Combat, Shooting, Speed and Pirate skills.

Now, for Henchman... your standard henchmen are, of course, the humble Crew or "Crewmen". 25 gold to hire, and statted up with M4, WS3, BS3, S3, T3, W1, I2, A1 and LD7. You can have any number of crewmen you like.

Gunners are the ship's cannoneers and marksmen; you can only have 0-2 of these guys, and they have the same stats and cost as the Crew, but they get access to some more firearms - blunderbusses, handguns and swivel guns (aka miniature cannons), specifically, alongside the pistol and duelist pistols that regular crewmen and Heroes ca take. They technically have a special rule in "Swivel Guns is Dangerous, Matey!" but that's more a rule about the Swivel Gun - namely, you can only take 1 Swivel Gun in your warband, and the bearer splits off to form an independent unit, because nobody's stupid enough to stand too close to somebody carrying a miniature cannon that could go off like a bomb at any moment.

Boatswains are the ship's riggers, and make excellent scouts in Mordheim. They cost 32 gold, have the same stats as a Crewman, and you can only take 0-5 of them. They start play with a Rope & Hook and will never, ever part with it. They also have the special rule Expert Riggers, which lets them reroll failed Initiative tests made to climb a rope, leap a gap, jump down, or perform a diving charge.

Finally, there are the Swabbies. You can have 0-5 of these, and you can only recruit them via the aforementioned Shanghai rule, though in a one-off game you get 2 Swabbies for free. Statwise, they have M4, WS2, BS2, S3, T3, W1, I3, A1 and LD6. They also have the largest amount of special rules of any model in the warband:

• Not Hired: You don't pay for Swabbies, you Shanghai them.
• Never Gain Experience
• Rabble: You can give a unit of Swabbies any mixture of weapons that you like. Swabbies gained by capturing heroes do not benefit from spellcasting ablities or skills they had before.
• "Blimey, they got away!": If the Pirates Rout, all Swabbies who had left the table on previous turns successfully escape; remove them from the warband roster.
• "Don't mind them mates, they ain't true pirates!": Swabbies who run or get taken out of action don't count for the purposes of taking a Rout test.

The Pirate skill table consists of:

1. Sea Shanty Singer: At the start of Close Combat, the Hero can burst into song, forcing one opponent in base contact to pass an LD test or lose 1 attack for the turn. Doesn't work on non-living targets.

   Sea Legs: If the Hero Falls, roll a d3; on a 4+, ignore all hits caused by falling. Additionally, if the hero is knocked down or stunned when within 1" of a precipice, they can reroll their Initiate test to avoid falling.

   Cutlass Master: If the Hero is both equipped with a sword and in closed quarters (in cover, in a building, within 2" of a terrain feature, etc), then the Hero can Parry by rolling equal to the To Hit roll, as well as by rolling higher.

   Booming Voice: Only Captains can have this skill; reroll for other characters. Once per turn, if on his feet and not engaged in close combat, the Captain can target a single pirate within 8" who has either faileds their test to see if they will flee combat or who failed their test to stop fleeing. The targeted pirate can immediately reroll their test.

   Hardy Constitution: When the Hero takes a Critical Hit, roll a d6; on a 5+, the Critical Hit is downgraded to just a normal hit.

   Swashbuckler: At the end of any Hand-to-Hand phase in which he is in base contact with an enemy model, his own or the opponent's, the Hero can make an LD test. If successful, the Hero can immediately make a normal movement away from the enemy without taking any hits.

Gallery

• 
• 
• 
  Abduwali Muse, a modern somali pirate, as portrayed by Somali-American actor Barkhad Abdi in film. Also a meme, apparently.
• 
  The actual Abduwali Muse. Currently serving a 33+ years in U.S. federal prison.
• 
  The Adventure Galley, an archetypical pirate ship.

See Also

• Dreadfleet
• Man O' War
• Poison'd