About Pirates of Mystara
The Pirates of Mystara campaign started of as a "normal" Mystara campaign (is there such as thing a normal Mystara?) but then we played War Rafts of Kron. The opening section on the boat was extended because we enjoyed it so much. Sailing the high seas. The rest of the module? Yeah it was okay, but nothing compared to the opening.
So we get to Ierendi to return that Princess? Remember her? the adventure kind of forgot about her. So as a bit of a bonus for saving her, as I figured she would be qutie important to the royal family, they offered a massive discount on one of their sailing ships. Really I just wanted my players to spend some of the their cash they had horded. See I made a mistake at the start of the campaign. It was ran using 5e but using BECMI mystara modules and I forgot in BECMI gold was used to level up...so my players had piles of it. So much I was worried about Smaug coming down to claim it. This was my way to make them use a large chunk of it. (I would later have to come up with another similar plan to get them to spend the rest - but that is another story)
Then I told them it would be a few months before the ship was ready. In reality this was to give me time to physically build a model of it (the Big Ship build on the channel) and plot and plan. This plotting and planning has since evolved. In the mean time my players who had their own Thieves Guild in Port Blacksand talk about becoming pirates. This made sense. Then we talked black powder weapons. As what is a pirate without a pistol? I knew black powder existing in the world, in The Savage Coast but it had limitations and well rules to prevent it from leaving.
I broke that. So what is Pirates of Mystara? A reimagined Mystara moving the world from late medieval/renaissance to the golden age of pirates. Everything else is the same. Theres still Bargle being Bargle, the gonzo world is still there, theres still vikings and all that good Mystara stuff. We just have pirates and we sail the high seas.