Let's Talk about Pirates and Plunder

Are you ready to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats?

Welcome to my channel. I focus on tabletop role-playing games, video games, and science fiction.

H. L. Mencken said, "Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."

In 1982, Yaquinto Publications released Pirates and Plunder. Being a pirate sounds like fun. Unfortunately, Pirates and Plunder is not a very good system. One of the biggest problem is the organization of the books. Pirates and Plunder attempted to create a training system where you learns some rules with each of the initial adventures. This means the rules are scattered all over the books. This makes the game almost unplayable, you end up searching through the rulebooks for almost every little detail. The typography is awful. There are three books. In book 1, they did not use different typography to show section headings. Instead, major section heads had two asterisk, and minor section heads did not.

Another problem with Pirates and Plunder is the combat system. The combat system is quick and brutal. With a single hit, you can lose a limb. You must meticulously keep track of the location and damage of each hit.

Then, after the battle is over, you have roll again for every wound to see how it heals. If the wound does not heal, you can get an infection. They could end up amputating a limb just because you got a scratch. Your character could die from the infection. If your character does survive, they can get a nice scar. There is no magical healing in Pirates and Plunder. You cannot drink a healing potion or cast a healing spell. The medicinal system is a primitive as the setting of the game. Getting medicinal help can make your chances of surviving worse.

Once you have seen how the combat and healing system works, you try to avoid all possible combat situations. This takes away a lot of the fun at being a swashbuckler.

The game does not include any rules sailing or ship combat. Another major disappointment with the game.

I did this video because season 4 of Black Sails starts tonight. Black Sails is as brutal as Pirates and Plunder. The difference is Black Sails is a lot of fun with a good story. Pirates and Plunder was not much fun when I played it.

Thank you for watching my video.

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