The Shackles
The Shackles are an island chain directly to the south of a never ending hurricane known as the Eye of Abendego. The region is controlled by the Free Captains, the most powerful of whom are Pirate Lords who control the regions major ports and sit on the Pirate Council lead by the Hurricane King. The population of the Shackles are mostly criminals, runaway slaves and traders of illicit goods.
The campaign
Your characters will find themselves shanghaied into a pirate crew where they will spend some time as lowly deck hands. Over the course of the AP they will gradually establish themselves as infamous pirates in their own right.
Whether a thief, sailor, explorer, extortionist, smuggler, freedom fighter or other ne’er do-well the characters should be willing pirates. Piracy plays a significant role in the AP, so best not to be opposed to that idea.
Building your pirate
The first 7 pages of the Skull and Shackle’s Player’s Guide (PDF) are recommended reading for advice on building a thematic/AP appropriate character – though it mostly boils down to recommending you have a character who, for whatever reason, wants to be a pirate (it also recommends against playing a Paladin). The Pirates of the Inner Sea supplement is a good, short (36 pages) introduction to pirates in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, as well as providing some thematic mechanics.
I’ve no intention of restricting the books in use, as character management will fall to the players. However I will enforce a rule from the GCP that each character should be built from the core + 2 books. Though for this game core includes the CRB, Pirates of the Inner Sea, Pathfinder Unchained and of course the Player’s Guide.
- 15 point buy
- No ability score lower than 7 or higher than 16 (before racial ability modifiers are applied)
- 2 traits (the campaign traits are worth a look)
- Begin with average wealth (as listed in the source book for the class)
- Max HP at first level, average thereafter
- All CRB races. The Shackles is mostly populated by humans with a strong half-orc and half-elf presence. Reach out if you have something else in mind (some of the races are massively unbalanced).
- Pirate Familiars, for those who need them
Thematic classes
I stumbled upon another GM’s player’s guide and he (clearly being much more Pathfinder savvy than I) included a list of thematic classes:
- Combat:- Barbarian: Sea Reaver, Fighter: Cad, Corsair, Ranger: Freebooter
- Arcane:- Bard: Sea Singer, Sorcerer: Elemental (Water), Aquatic, Stormborn Bloodlines, Witch: Sea Witch, Wizard: Air Elementalist, Water Elementalist
- Divine:- Druid: Aquatic Druid, Shark Shaman, Storm Druid
- Skills:- Bard: Daredevil, Buccaneer, Rogue: Rake, Swashbuckler, Thug, Smuggler
This list almost certainly pre-dates the Advanced Class Guide and the Swashbuckler class (as well as any other material released after 2014), but if you’re struggling for ideas might help.
Inspirational media
There is plenty of piratical media out there. I’ve found Black Sails (available on Prime) provides excellent insight into how the melting pot of alignments, personalities and goals of a pirate community can mix in a productive fashion.
Fin.
The Archives of Nethys are the official online Pathfinder reference document. Buy some books and use the archives, anything else is for lubbers.