How can we make pirates scary again?

>>54226848
bring back gangrene and abscessed teeth.

>>54226848
They stopped being scary? Keep in mind, fear is fun, fear fades, fun can last forever.

Provide temporary stat bonuses for graphic murders and rape.

Truly only good things will come of this.

>>54227367

Apropos of nothing, have you ever played Vincent Baker's Poison'd?

>>54226848

The easiest way to make them scary is to make them reasonably unreasonable. By that I mean in the vast majority of situations in your setting most "bad guys" are incentivized to behave reasonably: theft of abandoned property isn't as bad as pickpocketing isn't as bad as robbery by threat of beating isn't as bad as robbery by beating isn't as bad as killing someone in the commision of the robbery. So while highway bandits might black the eye of a nobleman "protecting" his girlfriend (especially if he slips them a $20 while she's not looking) the basic transaction is hand over the jewels and loose coinage and be about your way. No reason to draw heat from the authorities you don't have to.

Fictional pirates, however, flip this upside down. There's no way to target them exactly so any ship's as wanted as any other and they don't expect to be taken alive and even if they were they would be hung without trial almost immediately. Now they have no incentive to do anything other than what sounds amusing at the time. So if they wanted to amuse themselves by taking a prisoner, breaking their hands, tying a rope around their waist, and dragging them behind the ship to watch them die of exposure and/or get eaten by something there's no reason not to other than pity. And after years of being forced to the far outside of humanity they probably have none of that left.

Now, all that's a-historical bullshit but it's a-historical bullshit that works, narratively speaking.

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>>54226848
Use the modern day variety.

>>54228583
I was going to suggest this.

>>54228708
That's pretty hilarious though.

>>54226848
> Destroy the 'pirates that don't do anything' trope.
> Somali pirates
> Listen to Alestorm, play with that sort of theme.

>>54229853
>Alestorm

Me brother o' dark skin

>>54228769
Yes, down to having modern weapons and vessels. What is a worn out tanker and speedboats today is a state of the art ironclad during the golden age of sail.

>>54228708
>LawfulGoodRogues.jpg

>>54226848
Like they did it with Pirates of the Carebeean? No thanks.

>>54231483

Don't blame us for this bullshit.

t. Lawful Good Rogue player

>>54226873
>They stopped being scary?

Pirates stopped being scary around the time Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "Treasure Island." That was the novel that romanticized the pirate, and later led to Pirates of the Caribbean.

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>>54228708

>>54226848
By portraying them accurately?
Y'know with the whole murder and steal and rape the innocent en masse stuff?
Pirates are scum.

>>54226848
Somali Pirates.

No one thinks they are fun.

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>>54228708

>>54232827

Disney. Literally.

>>54232633
It can work as a creed. Never steal from individuals, but corporations are not people.

>>54232784
Depends on a ship. In quite a few ships trying to rape a woman was punished by death.

And if you were in china, you had to marry that woman and not cheat on her or she on you or both of you will end up dead

>>54233184
Which when you think about could be great way to make sure players are in check

>>54226848
Ass rape.

>>54233184
>In quite a few ships trying to rape a woman was punished
yup, hence popularity of cabin boys

>>54226848
A sexually transmitted disease that cannot be cured and that weakens your immune system so you are permanently more susceptible to dying from ALL other diseases! Then when pirates raid everyone will be scared of outbreaks!

>>54233119
the american supreme court begs to differ

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/28/335288388/when-did-companies-become-people-excavating-the-legal-evolution

americans are crazy

>>54234436
So, everyone has aids and shit?

>>54234494
Yes. AIDS is scary. Give all pirates AIDS and pirates are scary. Make sure to roleplay all rape/sexual encounters in extreme detail as well, to make it scarier.

>>54234487
This has nothing to do with the thread you fucking retard.

>>54234952
yes it does

>>54228708
>A good pirate never takes another person's property
>>54233119
>Never steal from individuals, but corporations are not people.
>>54234487
>the american supreme court begs to differ

>>54232610
The novel in which pirates were a constant threat and hijacking and mutiny were presented as the enemy within so that even with a planned voyage and a screened crew you could never be sure the pirate wasn't the smiling man you'd grown to trust who one night will murder your fellows and begin his piracy?

Oh yeah, fun times.

>>54234487
There's nothing crazy about it. If I'm entitled to 1/100000th of a company and you stole from that company, you stole from me and the rest of the owners. Crimes committed against a corporation are crimes committed against people.

>>54235202
No you retard, what they're ruling means is the corp. itself is a person with the same rights you have.

It's not about investors it's about bestowing rights on an entity to justify that entity bribing (I mean "giving unlimited speech") to politicians

>>54235202
But the corporation itself is not a person, it's an agreement between people. Granting the contract rights as if it were a person itself is insane and actually helps to undermine the rights of the individuals that make up a corporation. It gives the paper rights against the wishes of the people that make it. It's as stupid as granting rights to the machine you're using to talk to me right now, or granting rights to a book for the same reasons. It's as scary and totalitarian as every Living State idea, the Living Corporation.

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Give them a necromantic edge? Maybe they're from THE MOON?

Maybe they bring back fallen foes as skeletons with cannons in their rib cages. Spook their way behind enemy lines and kaboom away. Or maybe they're giant lice on a whale and guide it toward ships they can attack!

>>54226848
I like them being both rogues that would go for ships that are filled with gold and loot, as well as rebels/anarchists that fight against oppressive absolutist systems.

>>54235485
Angry drunken misfits who hate authority and hate being told what to do by people they don't respect.

>>54235673
Aye. And singing shanties after a good battle. Not to mention taking in everyone no matter race, nationality and beliefs. Pirates are a extremely varied bunch.

Hell, back then for a black slave to become equal, the only option was to become a pirate. Pirates didn't give a damn except if you had guts to fight.

Watch the pirates of darkwater. Emulate bad guys not good guys.

/thread

>>54228583

Aside from the fact that Poison'd rocks, the bonus for muder is kinda of a myth.

I mean, you DO gain Xs from winning rolls, but this might mean that you sneak a character to steal his shit or to save him. Even considering brutality vs soul winning isn't "improved" by having more edgy actions

>>54234429

nope

Pirates aren't stupid anon

Fucking around on a ship was a bad idea so plenty of ship had a code against it

>>54235311
>Or maybe they're giant lice on a whale and guide it toward ships they can attack!

I think I'm stealing this, thanks anon

>>54235245
Did it ever occur to you that he was talking about the subject of the discussion (stealing from corporations) instead of your petty politics

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>>54235939
Aye. The code exists for a lot of reasons.

>>54226848
Remind people that they come and steal your shit by force and you're powerless to stop it.

At best you'll get captured and sold into slavery. At worse you'll be shark bait.

You cannot even begin to attempt to stop them unless you're part of a military ship actively hunting pirates.

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nobody wants to fuck with cap'n Faaruq

>>54235834

I would say it isn't a myth so much as people who haven't played it misunderstand how the flashback mechanics work.

>>54226848
>How can we make pirates scary again?

Ching Shih:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

Imagine what it would be like if Mara Salvatrucha or the Bloods had armor and air support.

>>54238343
>She was a Cantonese prostitute who worked in a small brothel in Guangzhou
>She personally commanded over 300 junks

>>54238377
>what the fuck did you just say about me, you little bitch?

The joke writes itself.

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>>54238377
I want to see a full on HBO series of her life. Or her life only IN SPAAAAACE. Either one would make GoT look like shit tbqh.

>>54242488
GoT is shit anon, but the normies love it because of that.
Let SciFi take it. They did good with The Expanse.

>>54226848

cannibalism and rape, leprosy?

>>54233119
Or only hut treasure from sea wrecks, and that which was buried. You aren't taking someones property if they discarded it.

>>54242881
>rape, leprosy?
gives whole new meaning to "keep the tip"

>>54242907
that's grave robbing and/or archeology

>>54236611
The Merchant Marines did. Sent Cap'n Faaruq crying back to land, and his boats full of holes and his men were struck with a surprise case a high velocity lead poisoning.

>>54242940
Grave Robbing, treasure hunting, and bending the legal definition of discarded property. Digging up someone else buried treasure before they come back....could be a legal work around for that code.

>>54238343
>fucked her way to the top
>raised her stepson to rule
>solidified that rule with sex
>he died at 36, probably from overexertion

Am I reading about a hentai doujin?