Quote from: Christopher Brady;910358As for having a Pirate Hunter game...  Technically, every game I've ever run of Pirates of The Spanish Main has been one.  Even the Privateer game, in which the players had Letters of Marque that allowed them to pillage Spanish ships, they went and hunted down Spanish Privateers and other pirates.

It's been a really weird thing with my campaigns there.  I pretty much let my players do what they want, drive the game their way, but every single time, they claim t'be wantin' a pirate-y game, they be th'ones huntin' them bastards down.

I am not surprised. Many players like to think that they're the good guys
FWIW I am rather clueless about the intricacies of different D&D editions, but I don't think it would be my first choice for a swashbuckling game. The times I played AD&D it seemed too abstract to really get into the thrust-and-parry of things.

Huh. Someone actually made a full size (51 m/ 170 ft) modern replica of a 17th century Spanish galleon called El Galeon Andalucia. Pretty cool.

That's nice. Info and more photos here.

Great pics!

Awesome replica work!

As for armor and pirate games, one of the major problems armor has is that it weighs you down and makes you less effective at swimming. 50 Fathoms has a rule where leather armor (15 lbs. normal armor, legs, torso protection) doubles its weight when you are in the water and has the same effective weight as metal ones like chainmail hauberk (25 lbs for arms, legs, torso), and plate corselet (30 lbs. for torso protection only) as a result. This effectively makes armor weigh 25-30 lbs. in the water which means characters with d4 strength just can't wear armor and swim without an encumbrance penalty of -1 and d6 characters can't carry much else or be encumbered as well.  So you have a lot of NPC characters and some PCs simply eschewing armor because it can kill you if you fall into the ocean which is more of a daily threat to life than cannons and swords when you live on a ship. And if you do need to go swimming and wear armor regularly, you need to take it off to swim effectively which takes quite a bit of time (usually three rounds or more unless you have help).  

Its been forever since I played D&D 3.5 (2010 is my guess), but I remember there being a doubled Encumbrance penalty on Swim checks. So heavy armor and/or lots of gear really punished swimming. So for my Bard/Rogue it was light armor, leather armor with no armor check penalty and small arcane spell failure chance which got upgraded to a mithral chain shirt later before the campaign ended.  The real problem with heavy armor is a massive penalty to Swim checks which can lead to the heavily armored character being awesome in a fight on ship but drowning in his massive tin can if he falls in the water.

I second 50 Fathoms. A cool pirate setting with a spin. I have my reservations about my system. But the setting is awesome and it's easy to dive in and start playing as is with most SW settings.

Ooh, armoured pirates falling overboard and having to swim, what fun! There are videos on Youtube showing that it is possible to swim in armour. Generally you can go about as far as you can hold your breath while swimming in plate, lifting one's face far enough out of the water to breathe being the difficulty.

This may or may not be relevant as I doubt most pirates could swim. Many of the ocean fishermen I know can't swim. They figure that they will freeze before they drown if they fall overboard. Given the temperature of ocean waters, I don't think they are much wrong. Add to this that the ship would have to notice that Mr Bones had fallen overboard, think him valuable enough to rescue, come about to sail back to where he was, throw him a line or launch a boat, and his chances of rescue even if he can swim are looking pretty slim.  And don'tforget the sharks! In a proper pirate RPG there are always hungry sharks in the water.

Actually sharks don't like the taste of human flesh.  It's why they usually take a huge chunk of the victim (who is often dead or missing a limb at the very least) and swim away.

Yes, I know. Most shark bites on humans are exploratory. "What is this? I think I'll bite it and see if it's good to eat. Yuck!" Unfortunately for us these nibbles still cause massive traumatic tissue loss.  But don't tell my players that...

Quote from: DavetheLost;912682This may or may not be relevant as I doubt most pirates could swim. Many of the ocean fishermen I know can't swim.

Historically, the vast majority of sailors did not know how to swim.  Swimming was a pretty rare skill for a very long time.  This only seems weird to us today, because most of us took swimming lessons as little kids.

Quote from: Trond;905826The 7th sea thread made me wonder about this. With or without magic are both ok in this thread but not space pirates (it has to have, say, a 16-18th century feel)

I like Pirates of Legend, it has excellent atmosphere and the rules just work and fit the setting very well.

The Vasa mueum holds an actual 17th century warship for anyone interested.   I was lucky enough to see it in person.  

It's a little obscure but the is also a Pirates of Dark Water rpg that may fit your needs.

Quote from: Bunch;915872The Vasa mueum holds an actual 17th century warship for anyone interested.   I was lucky enough to see it in person.  

The Vasa ship museum is cool. But the Vasa ship, like the Mary Rose before her, had some nautical design difficulties. The museum had a cute computer program that let you try out different variables like gun weight and sail area for your theoretical ship design. Then the computer would show you how your ship performed in different winds.

Quote from: Bren;916144The Vasa ship museum is cool. But the Vasa ship, like the Mary Rose before her, had some nautical design difficulties. The museum had a cute computer program that let you try out different variables like gun weight and sail area for your theoretical ship design. Then the computer would show you how your ship performed in different winds.

That's a very practical tool!

Quote from: RPGPundit;917186That's a very practical tool!

And fun to watch your 100 gun man-o-war tip over and sink in a strong breeze, too!