Under The Black Flag

Under The Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
By: David Cordingly

Great historic account of actual Pirates. Strips the myth from them and uses actual eye witness acounts for some of the stories. David Cordingly had a Pirate museum exhibit in London for about three years - the guy really knows his stuff.

It's a fast engaging read. It would be awesome to have a Pirate adventure based on facts such as these.

Check it out.

I got it; it's a real cover-to-cover type book.
I steal snippets here and there for my games, any time I can.

Like, every time a really tough pirate captain gets killed, he gets beheaded and swims nine times around the boat.

I'd say it's a must have for our kind of people.

I just finished "A History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas" which sounds similar, but I'll check out that one.

Man, I saw the thread title, and figured this was a mustering point for Henry Rollins fans. Man, is my face red...

I picked it up while I was running a pirate campaign but I have not read it yet.

I find it amusing you mention a pirate campaign based on historical accounts. One of my frustrations when I was running the game was that all piratical RPG material assumes you are running D&D with boats.

If you ever run a pirate campaign, I suggest G.U.R.P.S. Swashbucklers, New Dimension Games Pirates series, Green Ronin's Skull & Bones and, of course, Paizo's ship flip mat.

Oops, I forgot Adamant Entertainment's Buccaneers & Bokor.

One of the most interesting things in this book was that, allegedly, Blackbeard was beheaded by a sword-wielding Highlander.

I wonder why the TV series never made that episode. It would explain how in all the accounts that Blackbeard continued to fight depsite multiple bullet-wounds.

Suppresses urge to break into solo...with difficulty.

Man, I saw the thread title, and figured this was a mustering point for Henry Rollins fans. Man, is my face red...

Yeah, same here...