Piratic Inquiry: What games work for Pirate Play?

[apeiron]

@ Just watch PotC:CotBP for the 3rd time, and that got me wondering.

@ What games and supplements replicate the romantic pirate life?  i've noticed someone mention a game called Gallant, i will look for that.  But i'd like to know from your experiences as players and GMs what might do the trick.

[suffusionofyellow]

I love Pirates, as a theme. I don't, however, feel that this theme need be tied down to any particular game system or setting. I'm sure others can suggest a good system or setting, but I think that the pirate theme can be employed in absolutly any game you choose. About a year ago, I played a Pirate (eyepatch, boat, hollow pegleg with a bottle of rum in it) in a Shadowrun campaign. I had an enourmous amount of fun with this character, even though he was out of place in the setting. In fact, I would say I had fun with this character because he was out of place.

Pirates have become romantic figures, idealised in the same way as Knights and Cowboys. The reality of the time has become in most ways disconnected from the ideal that those archetypes suggest. This disconnection allows you to use the archetype wherever you see fit. Even though a system does not specifically support pirates, or is so far away from the 17th century Carribean that there is no possible connection, that does not mean that a pirate character cannot thrive. I suggest that Johnny Depp was at his most 'piratical' when he was not with the other pirates in the movie. It is this contrast which makes his character all the greater.

I know this does not answer your question in the way you intended it to be answered. But I wanted to make that point.
-Josh

[DannyK]

Well, "pirates" is a genre, and I can imagine a range of play styles... but the default style is probably some degree of swashbucking and cinematic action.  (Although a dead realistic, gritty, historical founded pirate game might be a lot of fun, too.)  

I know from personal experience that Exalted,  in both setting and system, supports this kind of play.

I'd really like to play My Life With Cap'n someday, but that would be a pretty odd take on the genre.

DannyK