Here is the testimony (through PF2) of how a pirate suddenly came to my life. This photo is from some days ago, yet I am already extremely fond of it. For most people it depicts some pencils in a row, some dice and a pair glasses to which a paper is attached. Role players know it’s not just that. Role players know that behind each element there is much more and that this photo is not the memory of a moment, but of an entire story.

Let me explain it to you.

The creation of a pirate in PF2

Between one series and another of Household, we decide to try Pathfinder 2 (by the way, promoted with flying colors), convinced by the enthusiastic review of Andy, who is the master. Two evenings, two one-shots connected by the same characters and some plot elements. One-shots are often an opportunity to indulge in attempts and experiments that perhaps would not be undertaken in a campaign… And so it was. And it was also the occasion to take some liberties.

Such as creating a group consisting of a halfling monk with less patience than centimeters in height, a druid gnome with a dinosaur as an animal companion, a barbarian goblin who hears “voices” and a dwarf warrior. I was the dwarf warrior.

What are you saying? Where the experimentation is in the dwarf warrior? First of all for a master accustomed to playing the most abstruse possibilities, the classic of classics is still an experiment. After that, my PF2 dwarf warrior was special, because in addition to always thinking about eating, he wanted to become a pirate. And so: suddenly, a pirate. Too bad we were in a plain light years away from the nearest navigable waters. But piracy is not a profession, it is a lifestyle. And so lived the dwarf pirate Greybeard, among other things one of the first dwarves to be the tallest of his group.

The narrative context

I’m not here to tell you the whole session (although it would also be worth it!) And I jump directly to the final fight.

We had to stop a petty tax collector from arriving in the village and pick up a prisoner, which was important for us to carry out our purposes. We knew where and when he would arrive. Do you hear the word “ambush” ringing in your head? Perfect, we are on the same wavelength.

Now, in such a one shot, could the ambush be normal? Certainly not. Here’s how it was designed.

How a pirate walks in the scene in PF2

The tax collector Hubert (red d20) and his right arm (red d10), accompanied by an archer (red d4) and two guards (red d6s) met a dwarf with an axe in his hands, still, in front of a pirate flag depicting two bones that make up the letter “L” and a skull. In the normalcy of the most classic of fantasy plains, suddenly a pirate. Dwarf. But not just any dwarf.

Captain Greybeard of the “L” crew. Don’t you know the “L” crew? Not even the “L” law? Unfortunately, neither we nor that law were very well known in those lands. Too bad, otherwise a group where the average height is 72 centimeters would have made a very good impression.
The dwarf presents the rest of the crew to the strange company. The three dark red d6s (moreover Cthulhu themed… You see that the call of the sea was in the air?) are a pig, the Quartermaster, a cow, the steward and a chicken, the ship’s boy.
Why? How come a cow, a pig and a chicken? Because it was a one-shot, but above all because yes.

Behind the rubber/bush on the left you can see the halfling monk and the barbarian goblin.

You will always remember this as the day you almost caught Captain Greybeard!

Obviously a fight started, and we didn’t wait for anything else. At the time agreed, when the men began to lose patience for the mockery they had to hear, Greybeard indicated behind them screaming: “Be careful! There is a dinosaur charging you!”.

They didn’t turn their heads, but the dinosaur was really there. Hidden in a small hole on the sides of the road, with a simple Enlarge spell, it started to sow panic from the rear. For the rest, alchemical objects launched in a burst and axe strikes completed the picture.

Thanks to the rather lucky dice (Captain Greybeard didn’t roll less than 15) the fight ended with a disarming victory. The group, not accustomed to large sums of money but rather to the powerful pangs of hunger, can thus return to the village to collect the reward: a 24-hour meal.

End of the story, not of the emotions

There are the maximum systems, there are the eternal diatribes on the zero sessions, the zero rules, the behaviors at the table, lists of strengths and weaknesses of lists of games followed by lists of comments. In short, sometimes there are many words, sometimes important, sometimes useless, and little play.

And then there is this. An evening with friends, a one-shot without any pretense. Then, suddenly, a pirate. Many jokes, a few dice, too many laughs. A part of you in another world, in another time and another part absolutely present to itself to enjoy the awareness that, thanks to our game, even today is a beautiful day.

And a photo to make it last forever.

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