“The Code is more what you call guidelines than actual rules.”
Pirates of the Caribbean

In our latest installment in our Warriors series, we give you guidelines on how to play pirates or give your non-pirate characters a dash of piracy. Our discussion focuses on the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean, including privateers, survival and injuries, the pirate’s code, and punishment.

The subject of pirate ships was too much to cram into this episode, so we cover it in our next one.

All of these topics can apply to any RPG setting, whether you are sailing the sevens seas or your ships battle among the stars. So get inspired for your next tabletop session and try to avoid scurvy. Or space scurvy, if that is a thing.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot
Drink up, me ‘earties, yo ho
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot
We definitely give a hoot about our players’ comfort levels at the table
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho (If you want to drink. No pressure.)
– “Yo Ho (A 21st-century Pirate’s Life for Me)”

In the second part of our discussion of Dungeons and Dragons 5e and our pirate campaign, we talk about how to play pirates in a fantasy roleplaying setting. We also discuss our collaborative world-building session.

Avast ye! Here be piratey accents. Yuv bin warrn’d. Arrrrrr!