Pirates features a gorgeous cover by Clyde Caldwell of an equally gorgeous, and improbable, female pirate. Something tells me that if the real scourges of the seas looked anything like this, sailors wouldn’t have objected to being boarded! The interior art, by Don Maitz, Rinaldo Santana, and Marcio Fiorito also impresses. Fiorito’s work, in particular, stands out for its consistent excellence.

Relatively little time is spent upon laying the historical foundation for piracy. Beyond a brief glossary of nautical terms, there’s a mere six-pages devoted to elements of the pirate’s life: dividing the prize, crew makeup, code of conduct, and so forth. It’s a useful primer, but perhaps a bit less involved than desirable for helping GMs present piracy in their campaigns.

A full half of the book, a total of 53 pages, consists of NPC profiles and accompanying prestige classes. The characters include a few historical figures (such as Captain William Kidd), but are mostly fictional in nature. An eclectic bunch, it’s safe to say a GM will never run out of sea-scourges with which to harass his players. The writing throughout is excellent, and the characters crackle with all the buckle-swashing one would expect. However, if one was to have a complaint it’s that the backgrounds to these characters are too long and detailed. Several are two full pages in length, and needlessly so. In truth, such a level of detail hinders instead of promotes use in game play because there is simply too much information to read, let alone digest, at a moments notice as is so often necessary.

There are some fifteen prestige classes detailed herein, covering almost every conceivable aspect of piracy. They include: the Gentleman Pirate, Sea Chosen (those with a supernatural affinity for water, able to conjure storms and raise favorable winds), Eldritch Captains, Brethren (a brotherhood known for night attacks and marksmanship), J’Kurosgch Salt Eaters (orc raiders), Jali (witch-doctors), Salvagers, Lookouts, Marauder (whose goal is not so much treasure by the subjugation through terror of coastal areas), dwarven Reckless Boarders, tribal Island Protector, and Smugglers. Some are clearly more interesting than others, but all fill a definite niche and are well presented.

Of interest to any running a nautical campaign, pirate or otherwise, are the excellent rules governing the business of running a ship. A break down of standard operational costs---everything from crew salaries to provisions--- provides the bar by which a player measures his success, and ultimately whether he turns a profit. Building upon this is chart detailing various trade goods, everything from pigs and tobacco to wood, slaves and fish. Each entry is described in terms of cargo space, wholesale purchase price, and wholesale sale price. This is the primary determinant of whether a cruise is successful, but there are also numerous price modifiers (size and location of port, demand, etc.) that affect the outcome.

In short, the system is detailed enough to be useful and fun, but not so rules heavy as to bog down a game in number crunching and minutia.

The same can be said of the rules on custom ship design. At only six-pages in length, it still manages to do cover the subject in about as much depth as the average gamer, I suspect, would require. It’s clear that the system builds upon the rules presented in Broadsides, Living Imaginations sourcebook on naval warfare, and you’ll obviously need it---or a similar sourcebook---to run a successful pirate campaign.

Less successful is the six-page description of the pirate haven, known as Kronor’s Folly. While there is some great background information herein, the section is simply too short to do the subject justice and make it useful in any meaningful way. Only one location is detailed, the map is overly simple with only four quarters highlighted, and no suggestions are offered as to how a GM might build upon this foundation on his own.

To the authors’ credit, Pirates includes two short ready-to-play adventures. Swimmers, designed for a party of levels 6-9, is ten pages in length and sees the PCs hired to rout out a pirate gang consisting of merfolk. To be successful, they’ll have to contend with a metallic shark golem and infiltrate an underwater lair. Bloodsong, for levels 7-10, is a mere five pages in length and amounts to little more than a typical quest for buried treasure. It embraces the pirate clichés and makes for a surprisingly fun side-trek, culminating in a showdown with the undead captain guarding his horde.

Rounding out the book is a brief chapter on equipment, including both mundane items (astrolabes, firearms, chronometers) and some 25 magic items, and templates for Undead Captain and Undead Crewmen. Something tells me that this book will be overshadowed by Green Ronin’s much-anticipated Skull and Crossbones. That would be unfortunate, because Pirates indeed has much to offer….more prestige classes than you can shake a yardarm at, a fine selection of useful magic items, a pair of decent adventures, and enough fully-fleshed out swashbuckler NPCs that one could sail around the Spanish Main several times and still not encounter them all.

Needless to say, if you have no intention of running a campaign that features aquatic adventures in any prominence, than spend you gaming allowance elsewhere.

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