So, the movies make it seem like pirates just appear out of nowhere in the middle of an ocean, far from any landmarks, attack a ship, and then just sail off in a random direction. And they just circle around endlessly in the water, never going ashore except to raid a town or look for buried treasure. But they gotta have hideouts and stuff, right? I mean, there's always pirate hideouts and stuff in D&D, and in Pirates of the Caribbean there was that one grubby 'pirate town' they always went to. I guess my question is, where's the best place to hide these lairs? Would they be near the shipping lanes, or far away as possible? Could they even be on the same coast as the towns they're raiding, just further down, in a secret cove?
Near shipping lanes would be vulnerable to the navies that protect said shipping lanes. If you find a place away from the shipping lanes, then the navies have to split their resources between protecting merchant ships and hunting the pirates in (possibly) unknown waters.
A few options exist that I can think of off the top of my head:
1. Small, uncharted islands. Build a few crude shelters. A cave system is a plus.
2. Have a mobile base of operations! They can plunder an out-of-the-way town, take what supplies they need and make repairs. Then they can move on before the fuzz gets there and raid another town when needed.
3. They could find safe harbor in a specific territory (small country, small kingdom, city-state, etc.). They give the government of this territory a cut of whatever they plunder and the promise to never attack any of their ships or settlements; in return, they can dock at designated cities or towns governed by that territory for re-supplying, repairing, and other needs. This is an option if you have a non-good government that views itself at odds with its neighbors.
In a fantasy game, this territory could also be a powerful entity such as a dragon or maybe an elemental that lets them slip in and out of their elemental plane.
Thier lair is generally their ship. When they go to land, it isn't just to raid a town, but sometimes to lay low for a while, as was the case with Long John Silver and a few other pirates in Treasure Island.
Generally low level pirates would stay on their ship. Higher level ones will being claiming land. Typically just a keep or so. The problem with pirates though is they are a dishonest folk. And you can always trust a dishonest person to be dishonest. So either you are leaving people in your fort, or you are leaving people on your ship.
Also, Pirates don't just look for buried treasure. They also do the burying.
Historically, there were usuallymajor ports somewhere not too far away with a government that would be nice and let the pirates sell stuff. The classic example is Port Royal in Jamaica, but (say) the French privateers based out of Dunkirk, or the Barbary pirates operating out of Algiers and Tripoli, would be other examples.
Yes, this usually means there is some kind of semi-sorta-government semi-behind them, but they DO need a place to sell the loot, have a wild party, etc., etc. There are some other cases, like Drake's voyage around the world, but those are exceptions to the general course of events.
And for GMs, it's nice to have some other types of adventure from time to time than just "You see another galleon against the horizon. What do you do?"
secret hideout in cave of small islands with fake volcano, you only live twice style.
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I like the idea of having a free-standing structure somewhere in the ocean, sort of like an oil derrick. The viability of this depends on how magicky you want these pirates to be.
Like other posters have said, piracy was mostly possible because of legal disputes among countries. Pirates were sort of like mercenaries, in that they could be hired to only go after, say, French and Dutch ships and let the Spanish ones go. Then they could dock at any port in Spain, where they're not considered criminals. In Pathfinder, perhaps the "backing government" is the merfolk, looking to sow discord among the land-dwelling races? Depends on how much politics you want to play.
Other pirates might make their ship their fort, the better to evade the law. I'm reminded of the old show Pirates of Dark Water, where Bloth's ship The Maelstrom was big enough to have a sewer system and a fleet of smaller vessels within it, like a modern-day aircraft carrier. This would mean a pirate crew of hundreds, easily. A smaller, less well-funded gang of pirates would likely get a little cramped on a single boat, which would encourage them to commandeer other ships and start a fleet. Perhaps an evil wizard or oracle could raise the bodies of the sailors they slay to create extra crewhands, or aquatic druids could swim alongside the boat if circumstances required it?
The town of Shipwreck in the bay of Shipwreck on Shipwreck Island.
Take Tortuga or modern pirates in Somalia. They return to cities that are not under complete control by the authorities and spend their money. This not only makes for a welcome port, but the money they spend is a boon to the locals so they have allies. When the law tries to clamp down the people who are normally too far out to get help from the capital would rather side with the pirates who are a huge help to the local economy.
Pirates also go to towns to trade/sell their plunder.
Ultimately, pirates are thieves, and thieves need a reliable fence who won't rat them out... a fence who can move things as big as ships. Or piles of crates containing trade goods like textiles or spices.
Pirates also use things like caves or remote islands and such to store their plunder. They do this for a few reasons, such as to hide it and lay low, until things have died down enough to discreetly liquidate it... or to simply unload it temporarily (as it may take weeks or months to sell it all off) so they can go out and get some more. These storage areas sometimes end up being secondary bases if it's big enough, hidden and defensible.
As for a true "base" ... some claim not to need one. They live on their ship. Staying mobile prevents them from becoming someone's property.
However, many live like Andostre says.
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When I think of "pirates", I admit I do not think of the California/Oregon coast, but the waters north of San Francisco up into Canada had huge pirate activity. They worked the many, many bays and knew which areas were natural harbors. They also worked the land, trading with the natives of the area.
If you feel inclined, jump on google earth or maps and just zoom in and work your way up the coast to see the amazing geography of the area and let you Pirate bay imaginations flow.
Places I can think of off hand to look for:
Eureka CA
The mouth of the Klamath
Crescent City CA
Brookings OR
Bandon OR
Coos Bay OR
Astoria OR
The columbia river
Even today there are immense stretches of cliffs coves and beaches without any modern infrastructure mucking things up.
Just a thought to throw into the mix.
Oh I forgot Gold Beach OR
If you think I am nuts, think Goonies for inspiration as this is the area it was filmed
So, the movies make it seem like pirates just appear out of nowhere in the middle of an ocean, far from any landmarks, attack a ship, and then just sail off in a random direction. And they just circle around endlessly in the water, never going ashore except to raid a town or look for buried treasure. But they gotta have hideouts and stuff, right? I mean, there's always pirate hideouts and stuff in D&D, and in Pirates of the Caribbean there was that one grubby 'pirate town' they always went to. I guess my question is, where's the best place to hide these lairs? Would they be near the shipping lanes, or far away as possible? Could they even be on the same coast as the towns they're raiding, just further down, in a secret cove?
Well the whole point of pirating is to make money.(and satiate some bloodlust) Which means spending a good deal of time on shore spending the plunder.
Historically there are numerous great stories of pirates spending their money as crazily as they got said money. There were many towns in the carribean that grew so fast due to the sudden influx of pirate money that they literally collapsed under their own weight.(They built directly on sand in a mad rush for land. You can imagine how well that worked out)
Most small island towns will accept dirty money/goods because hey, it's a lot of money.
SO really pirates will probably have several small towns they port at to revel with all their loot. Other than that they stay on their ships as a mobile target is harder to find than a stationary one.
Historically speaking, pirates were usually working with some government. (sometimes officially and sometimes unofficially.) So their base would be where ever the govenrment wanted them to go when they needed to hunker down for a while.
3. They could find safe harbor in a specific territory (small country, small kingdom, city-state, etc.). They give the government of this territory a cut of whatever they plunder and the promise to never attack any of their ships or settlements; in return, they can dock at designated cities or towns governed by that territory for re-supplying, repairing, and other needs. This is an option if you have a non-good government that views itself at odds with its neighbors.
Actually, a lot of pirates were actually privateers. They were comissioned by a specific government to prey on that the merchant vessals of that government's enemies. This was generally considered a win/win for the government and the privateers. The privateers got ports of safe harbor and comission on the vessals they captured. The government go a small private army they didn't have to pay. this practice was actually pretty common during the colonial period.
Some less than loyal privateers would play the governments against each other. If they raided a spanish ship, they would take refuge with the english, but it they came across an english merchant ship, they would switch it around. The key was to leave no witnesses to rat you out.
What everyone else said, plus, not for nothing, but....
Pirates are really just a really big adventuring party who's dungeon is the ocean.
They lair the same places PC's lair. Taverns at low level, a stronghold someplace at high level.
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I'll add in on this. The main places where piracy thrives are waters that are uncontrolled due to the prey nations' inability to project power into the region. The prime example of this is the Caribbean during the 16th through early 18th centuries. There was simply too much ocean and too many uncharted islands, barrier islands, etc. to control all of it. So you could basically pick anywhere reasonably close to the shipping lanes, and since you would know the waters around your local islands better than anyone else, you could outrun anyone through better navigation.
Therefore, when it comes to fantasy, the answer is anywhere that the local powers don't have full control. I'm pretty sure the idea of any pirate base would be temporary at best, but basically any island that was off of the main shipping lane enough to hole up for a short amount of time without detection would be a great base.
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Freeport, right?
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The other thing you have to remember is that the Golden Age of Piracy wasn't the Information Age. Quite often, individual pirates didn't get wanted posters because nobody ever saw their face and lived to tell about it unless they joined the crew. And a common pirate trick was to fly the sails and flags of another nation's navy in order to lure potential victims in, or simply abandon their pirate ship when it got too old or damaged and make their victim's ship their own. The lucky marks who escaped alive would go the rest of their lives never knowing who exactly attacked them. The exceptions are notorious pirates who would have some sort of signature image that they would only reveal once it was too late for their victims to escape. The Jolly Roger was one such insignia, and the pirates who used it would be careful nobody saw them switching between it and their other flags.
As a result, pirates frequently enjoyed a "secret identity". As long as they could evade watch between the site of their most recent battle and arriving at port, nobody knew they were pirates as long as they acted nonchalant. They used the Jolly Roger in much the same way Batman uses his cowl-- never changing into or out of it where anyone can see so his deeds while wearing it aren't associated with him. Pathfinder pirates could pull this off too, with Disguise checks made to alter the look of their own boat or a working knowledge of Illusion spells.
OP:
First off, you need to realize that conventional Pathfinder has no room for pirates, because expensive stuff isn't shipped by boat anyway, it's shipped by "teleporting mage with a portable hole," at fantastically quicker speeds. If you want to have "pirates" in your DND game, then you have to systematically nerf several elements of the magic system to make oceanic travel necessary again. The two biggest, being "teleport" and "scry."
My game, for instance, we set a boundary for both teleport and scry at the edge of each island chain, so that the only way to travel between each one is by boat. Hence, pirates.
To address your question directly, you should turn to history. History says that pirates typically attacked in large flotillas of smaller boats, set out from shore near the coast as shipping lanes passed near hidden coves or inlets. In fact, that's exactly what the Somalians are still doing today. The whole idea of pirates setting upon other vessels deep to sea is Hollywood poppycock. The sea's big.
I don't think any mage that is powerful enough to teleport large amounts of gold is going to waste his time becoming Golarion Express (when it absolutely, positively needs to get their NOW.) Any society with developed trade will have valuables moving by sea.
I completely disagree. There are really only three ways in PF to make the kind of very large stacks of cash it takes to equip yourself at the top end.
1) Bash Monsters
2) Trade
3) Become a king and take it in taxes
You think an NPC mage would prefer to slay monsters to feed his crafting habit? Slaying monsters is dangerous. So is being a king, to put a fine point on it.
It's really pretty simple - put yourself in the position of an insurer of the Dutch East India Company. (historically this was where "insurance policies" were invented, did yall know that?) Add up all the costs of an ocean voyage, cost of the boat, cost of the crew, and the chance that the boat sinks or is taken by pirates or mermen or eaten by a kraken. The cost is high. On the order of 20k or more, and the voyage will take months, maybe a year. You think a mage wouldn't happiliy take that 20k+ for a simple casting of a few spells? Hell, the 'spell casting charge' in the rulebook is only like 500 gp. What wizard wouldn't set up shop in the Dutch East India Company and circumvent their entire industry with a few spells?
I don't think any mage that is powerful enough to teleport large amounts of gold is going to waste his time becoming Golarion Express (when it absolutely, positively needs to get their NOW.) Any society with developed trade will have valuables moving by sea.I completely disagree. There are really only three ways in PF to make the kind of very large stacks of cash it takes to equip yourself at the top end.
1) Bash Monsters
2) Trade
3) Become a king and take it in taxesYou think an NPC mage would prefer to slay monsters to feed his crafting habit? Slaying monsters is dangerous. So is being a king, to put a fine point on it.
It's really pretty simple - put yourself in the position of an insurer of the Dutch East India Company. (historically this was where "insurance policies" were invented, did yall know that?) Add up all the costs of an ocean voyage, cost of the boat, cost of the crew, and the chance that the boat sinks or is taken by pirates or mermen or eaten by a kraken. The cost is high. On the order of 20k or more, and the voyage will take months, maybe a year. You think a mage wouldn't happiliy take that 20k+ for a simple casting of a few spells? Hell, the 'spell casting charge' in the rulebook is only like 500 gp. What wizard wouldn't set up shop in the Dutch East India Company and circumvent their entire industry with a few spells?
I can so see a adventuring pirate party knock out/ Kill the merchant spell caster to replace him with their caster to teleport the treasure directly into the groups coffers