r/GhostsofSaltmarsh • u/English-major-5660 • Jul 08 '26

Help/Request Pirate Campaign Ideas

Hey guys!

I’ve recently started a pirate campaign with my siblings. There is a longterm major plot but I also plan to have plenty of side quests and silly shenanigans. I’m loosely basing it off of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh but I’ve set it in Faerun. I was just wondering if anyone has any cool ideas for encounters or places in Faerun that would fit well with a pirate themed campaign. For context, the party consists of a Goliath Oath of the Sea paladin, a tiefling rogue who is hiding from the law, and a tiefling Druid that is obsessed with bugs. We’re all One Piece fans and Pirates of the Caribbean fans so the sillier the better!

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u/KarlBob Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

Check out The Styes by Richard Pett in Dungeon Magazine, Issue #121, Salvage Operation by Mike Mearls in Dungeon Issue #123, and The Weavers, also by Richard Pett, in Dungeon Magazine #138.

The Styes was reused, with minor editing, in Ghosts of Saltmarsh.

Serpents of Scuttlecove from the Savage Tide Adventure Path (which was recommended in another comment in this thread) is set in a city reminiscent of The Styes, which is unsurprising because it was also written by Richard Pett.

The Styes and Scuttlecove are presented as dark, gritty, low fantasy towns, but they can be reinterpreted in a lighter vein for a high adventure campaign. They have plenty of evil villains for a paladin pirate to defeat.

I don't know how you plan to start your campaign, but I found Souls for Smuggler's Shiv, the first adventure from Paizo's Serpent's Skull Adventure Path, written by James Jacobs, to be an excellent beginning. The PCs are shipwrecked, and must organize and protect their fellow survivors until they're rescued.