what you to know to run a pirate campaign

Ahoy matey! Arrrrre y'all ready to plunder some booty, uncover cached treasure, and have some seafaring swashbuckling scurvy-ridden shenanigans? If then, great! If non… you lot probably clicked on the wrong article my dude.

Today I'll cover xi different plot hook ideas for D&D campaigns that are centered around piracy and sailing the high seas!

• Cached Treasure Map
• Identity Theft
• Cursed Artifact
• Get Wrecked
• Fishing Charter
• Rise of an Empire
• Ghost Ships
• Wanted Criminals
• Mist of Madness
• Elixir of the Gods
• Message in a Bottle

Each plot claw likewise includes a few questions to get you thinking creatively and to make the adventure your very own.

one. Buried Treasure Map

The first pirate plot claw may be a bit cliché, but that doesn't mean you lot shouldn't employ it. At that place's no meliorate mode to ensure that your players feel like pirates than by having them search for buried treasure! The map (and the chase itself) can exist every bit complicated or as elementary every bit you'd like it to be. Yous might consider giving the party a single piece of the map. This makes it easy and natural to work in other pirate crews who are also searching for the remaining pieces. Bonus points for actually making a map and giving it to your players!

Questions to Consider

• Where is the treasure located?
• What is the treasure?
• Who all is searching for the treasure?
• Why hasn't anyone been able to find the treasure yet?

2. Identity Theft

While traveling on the loftier seas the party comes across another pirate transport. From a distance this doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. However, every bit the send gets closer information technology becomes obvious that something foreign is happening: the opposing pirate ship is manned by a crew who looks exactly similar your political party members. The opposing pirates claim to exist "the real ones" and the party members are imposters. You could foreshadow this plothook with an NPC making comments/claims most something the political party members didn't do (only the imposters did).

Questions to Consider

• What is the identity of the imposters?
• Why accept they targeted the political party specifically?
• What have the imposters done while posing as the party?

3. Cursed Artifact

The party (unknowingly) acquires an ancient antiquity that brings about a terrible expletive. "Merely await a minute… isn't that just the storyline for Pirates of the Caribbean area?" Yes. Yeah it is. Just considering an idea isn't completely unique doesn't mean that it can't or won't be fun for players. Besides, y'all should feel free to put a unique spin onto the curse. It certainly doesn't have to do with becoming undead. In fact, you don't have to brand information technology obvious that the curse originated with the artifact. Attempt starting off subtle and slowly ramping up the effects.

Questions to Consider

• What are the furnishings of the curse?
• How can the curse be concluded?
• Is information technology a single artifact or many?

iv. Get Wrecked

In the midst of a specially rough tempest at that place is a loud CRASH as the transport comes to a sudden halt. The party finds themselves shipwrecked on a large (seemingly) deserted island. Together they must fend off vicious creatures and explore ancient ruins in order to effigy out how to get off this island. If someone in the party has access to a high level teleportation spell and so this plot hook is essentially pointless. The specifics of how the party might escape are completely up to y'all! I'd encourage y'all to support any creative ideas/solutions that the political party comes up with.

Questions to Consider

• How damaged is the party's ship?
• What inhabitants lurk on this island?
• Was information technology a fluke that the party concluded up here or were external forces involved?

5. Angling Charter

A mysterious stranger approaches the party and offers a large amount of gold in exchange for chartering their transport and coiffure for a fishing trek. The catch (heh…) is that the stranger is not simply seeking a trophy fish, merely rather a devastatingly powerful sea monster! I would run the stranger in one of two ways. They are either: A) a crusty old angler who is seeking revenge on the creature for their ain lost crew, or B) an eccentric and wealthy lord who has grown bored with their civic duty and wants an heady chance.

Questions to Consider

• Who is the stranger and what are their motivations?
• What sort of sea beast is the stranger pursuing?
• Practise any local legends exist about the sea creature?

half dozen. Rise of an Empire

For ages, pirates have told stories of a sunken urban center brimming with powerful artifacts and riches. Most people assumed this city was merely a legend that was told to help boost morale and inspire a sense of risk. Virtually people were wrong. The city (whose proper noun may or may non rhyme with 'At Land, Hiss') not only exists just has recently risen dorsum to the surface. Reports have started flooding in detailing the location of these ruins, likewise as the foreign creatures that inhabit them. Which pirate crew will be the first to uncover the secrets of this forgotten civilization and return safely?

Questions to Consider

• What prompted the city to sink in the first identify?
• Why did the city all of a sudden rise to the surface afterward so long?
• What legendary artifacts can exist found within the ruins?

7. Ghost Ships

While sailing dorsum to port from a particularly successful plundering, a rickety ship is seen in the altitude. This ship suddenly changes course and begins sailing towards the party. As the ship gets closer ii things become apparent: 1) this send shouldn't exist able to bladder based on the structural damage, and ii) nobody is aboard the ship. At this point, the party is free to investigate and bargain with this ship however they see fit. Afterwards, when the political party gets closer to the port they spot an entire armada of ghost ships headed for the city.

Questions to Consider

• Where did the ghost ships come from?
• What magic is keeping them afloat?
• Is somebody/something decision-making the ships?

8. Wanted Criminals

As moderately successful pirates the members of your party have started to proceeds infamy. Although this may have been accompanied past some perks while in criminal areas (respect, discounts, etc), their infamy has also attracted the attention of those who seek to bring about law and social club. The swift hand of justice is a'comin I tell ya! The severity of the party's crimes will dictate who or what is coming for them. If the entrada is simply starting out, consider throwing a unmarried bounty hunter towards them. As they go on to flee the law and level up, a nation may decide to send an entire fleet after them.

Questions to Consider

• Is the constabulary-bringer seeking to capture the party or kill them?
• Who (or what entity) is seeking to cease their pirating spree?
• How much gold is the political party currently worth in the eyes of the law?

ix. Mist of Madness

While looting and plundering, a dense fog suddenly rolls in and causes heavily obscured vision. The fog persists and doesn't dissipate with daybreak. Party members who are exposed to the fog for an extended elapsing might be required to brand a saving throw (probably Wisdom or Constitution, depending on how yous want to run this), and suffer from furnishings of madness on a failure. If yous don't feel like subjecting the players to this yous can e'er have an NPC (bold they have one) get absolutely bonkers from the fog. Later on a few days of sailing in the fog, players experience increasingly vivid hallucinations and dissociation from reality. The fog finally clears and the players find themselves tied up to the dock which the initially left from. At this point yous could run this plot claw in a million unlike ways. Honestly, who knows what is real and what has been conjured by an afflicted mind. Allow the players take the lead if you choose this plot claw.

Questions to Consider

• What is the source of this maddening mist?
• Why did this mist show up in the offset identify?
• What are the logistics of the players' hallucinations?
  • Did they actually have place, and they were somehow teleported back to port or…
  • Did they never leave port at all and – as the poet and philosopher Nelly once said – it was only just a dream?

10. Elixir of the Gods

The local alchemist has found a recipe for a powerful elixir that supposedly cures all diseases and grants immeasurable power to whoever drinks it. They take been able to gather all of the ingredients except for a single one – a rare magical fruit. The party has been recruited to find this fruit and have even been given a map detailing its location. Withal, in order to get to this fruit they must sail through the nigh dangerous part of the sea (a la Bermuda Triangle).Nobody who has attempted to canvas through it has made information technology dorsum live. The expanse is supposedly filled with body of water monsters, never-catastrophe storms, and gigantic maelstroms.

Questions to Consider

• Has the alchemist recruited other crews to search for this fruit?
• What do they intend to do with the elixir once it'southward created?
• What horrors volition the party confront in the middle of the danger zone?

11. Message in a Bottle

The party spots a message in a bottle floating in the bounding main and is hands able to scoop it up. They are hands able to read the message and quickly discover that it was written to them from a trusted acquaintance. Within the message, the sender apologizes for betraying them and implores the party to put an end to the coming apocalypse. 2 things strike the political party as peculiar. They recently saw this acquaintance and everything was hunky dory, and the letter is dated l days into the hereafter. In a race against the clock, volition the party exist able to put together the pieces of this mystery and end the end-of-days?

Questions to Consider

• Is the letter of the alphabet 18-carat or counterfeit?
• What are the details of the coming apocalypse?
• Is the acquaintance currently planning to beguile the party?

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Source: https://thealpinedm.com/11-plot-hooks-for-pirates/

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