Ideas are easy to get. What I need are some opinions.
I am thinking that my proposed 17th Century Pathfinder campaign needs one or maybe more pirate queens -- women who ruthlessly rule the seven seas.
But how many should I have? One? Two or three? A few? There probably should not be very many; after all, how many women would even WANT to become a pirate AND have the ruthlessness to run a pirate ship? Also sometime after meeting the 4th or 5th pirate queen, the concept no longer seems quite so exotic.
Given that there are very few pirate queens out there, who are they? It is easy to come up with ideas, so I'll need to select the best ones.
I think that there has to be an Irish pirate queen.
I also like the idea of an Asian female ship captain, perhaps with an all female crew, perhaps the daughter of an Asian woman and a Portuguese sailor. Maybe instead of being a pirate, she hunts pirates. Perhaps she is even chasing a pirate ship through the seven seas, seeking revenge for her father's death.
Any other ideas are welcome.
Concerning how many you should include I'd probably think of it like this...
1 - She is the Pirate Queen. Probably so scary that the thought of encountering such a character would be like a normal campaign party meeting a dragon.
2 - This can create the dynamic of two women fighting for control over the seas. Introduces the thought that one could hire the party to fight the other.
3 - Women pirates become more common, but are still feared as ruthless leaders. Other pirates fear the thought of a woman rising to power (if women pirates are all ruthless).
4+ - Women are evil :p
Honestly I'd avoid 4+ because then it'd be like finding a hydra hiding along every road in a campaign. I think the concept works very well with a small number.
If you ever owned the old Mystera setting for BECMI D&D then you might want to pay tribute to it by having one of your pirate queens be a halfling.
The dread pirate Roberta.
No, wait... The dread pirate Buttercup. The very name causes sailors the world over to tremble in fear.
She's rumored to have a lot of magic, and horrifying minions.
Personally, I'd go with various dread pirates with "ship captain" prestige classes (there were a booty-load in 3.X) that gave them loyal crews and various flavors. They tended to be bard-rogue-fighter types with good bonuses IRT their crews.
That way, you have level-appropriate challenges whenever you want them. If they don't get used, save them for another game. Every campaign deserves some high-seas action. ;)
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Historical female pirates is a good place to start. You'll never get better inspiration than from actual female pirates. Some awesome stories there.
If it's a 17th century game, then limit the number. 4-5 at most, and make sure that they run into more male pirate captains than female.
How about 4. One for each of the directions. Or 4 pirate royals and one is the pirate queen and the others kings.
For I am a pirate queen (You are, hurrah for a pirate queen).
And it is, it is a glorious thing to be the Pirate Queen.
I am a Pirate Queen (You are, hurrah for a Pirate Queen).
And it is, it is a glorious thing to be the Pirate Queen.
(It is, hurrah for a pirate queen, hurrah for the Pirate Queen)
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The 7th Sea roleplaying game had a petite, blonde haired, Scandanavian pirate queen. She was interesting as a character because she didn't subscribe to the standard femme fatale pirate queen persona she was more of an ice queen type.
You might get some other ideas here.
Lots of good ideas.
@MaxBarton, I like the idea "She is the Pirate Queen." Maybe I'll make a vampire pirate queen who is quite ancient, having practiced piracy since the early middle ages. People might think that she is dead, but they thought that before...
I also agree that normally it is a good idea to minimize the number of active female pirates, especially since the 1650s is only one slice of time in a history that spans centuries. But still,
The 17th Century was a time of flux and social change. In a way, things were more radically in flux then than they are now, because in the 20th Century, people could at least see what direction society was heading, and the only real surprise was the Third Wave. In the 17th Century, they could have gone backwards or forwards or sideways.
With that being said, I am thinking of an idea that female pirates are a lot more common in the 1650s than they are in other times. Perhaps there is even some voodoo at work, loa that are inspiring caribean females to take up a life of piracy. Thus, inhabitants of the world would be noticing the growing number of female pirates.
This provides an opening for Benicio Del Espada's idea of "The Dread Pirate Buttercup." Just because a woman is not a likely candidate for piracy does not mean that some loa won't inspire her.
I also like the idea of an Asian female ship captain, perhaps with an all female crew, perhaps the daughter of an Asian woman and a Portuguese sailor. Maybe instead of being a pirate, she hunts pirates. Perhaps she is even chasing a pirate ship through the seven seas, seeking revenge for her father's death.Any other ideas are welcome.
I ran a campaign where the main foes were female gnoll pirates.
But there should be one pirate queen. She is THE Queen of the Pirates!!!
But that's not to say there shouldn't be others lusting after her crown...
Belit was Conan's pirate queen, right?