Thank you, fellow nerd! Concerning the "Evil" pirates, only two of the pirate crew are actually Evil-aligned. And yes those two are the captain and first mate, but they still might decide to take on refugees to appease the rest of the crew. Or even to appease the adventurers - Three Earrings is supposed to be very cunning, after all. It's likely she would have noticed the party spending the last few minutes on Palma Flora saving as many people as possible (assuming they do) and could have decided that transporting a few refugees was a small price to pay for the chance to recruit an effective fighting force for the next stage of her plan. Altruism can be an effective mask for self-interest. More generally, "pirates" are just sea-going thieves - and the way it works out, often murderers as well. Despite the romanticization of them in popular culture, it's certainly not a line of work that should appeal to Good-aligned characters, and even most Neutrals would likely be put off when they realize what it really entails. So yes, I would expect a pirate crew to be mostly (if not entirely) composed of Evil characters.
I know what pirates are and how they operate. This is my field of research. I teach and publish on that topic. And that's why simplified narratives like this bother me so much because historically speaking it's much more complicated than sea-going thieves vs romanticised subjects of fiction. The British Navy and the Spanish Crown would have agreed with your assessment, though.
Tanja we miss you and I have some ideas and questions for videos. First, I hope you are well and safe and getting to play some DND yourself. I would love to see a video with your rapiers or even you using them, a video on how you giving us tips and tricks on pronouncing names / races etc if working in the history/museum has helped. Update us soon! ✌️
Tanja, hope you are well. Miss hearing something new from you.
Thank you, fellow nerd!
Concerning the "Evil" pirates, only two of the pirate crew are actually Evil-aligned. And yes those two are the captain and first mate, but they still might decide to take on refugees to appease the rest of the crew. Or even to appease the adventurers - Three Earrings is supposed to be very cunning, after all. It's likely she would have noticed the party spending the last few minutes on Palma Flora saving as many people as possible (assuming they do) and could have decided that transporting a few refugees was a small price to pay for the chance to recruit an effective fighting force for the next stage of her plan. Altruism can be an effective mask for self-interest.
More generally, "pirates" are just sea-going thieves - and the way it works out, often murderers as well. Despite the romanticization of them in popular culture, it's certainly not a line of work that should appeal to Good-aligned characters, and even most Neutrals would likely be put off when they realize what it really entails. So yes, I would expect a pirate crew to be mostly (if not entirely) composed of Evil characters.
I know what pirates are and how they operate. This is my field of research. I teach and publish on that topic.
And that's why simplified narratives like this bother me so much because historically speaking it's much more complicated than sea-going thieves vs romanticised subjects of fiction. The British Navy and the Spanish Crown would have agreed with your assessment, though.
Tanja we miss you and I have some ideas and questions for videos. First, I hope you are well and safe and getting to play some DND yourself. I would love to see a video with your rapiers or even you using them, a video on how you giving us tips and tricks on pronouncing names / races etc if working in the history/museum has helped. Update us soon! ✌️