Dark Fantasy Pirates

Edit: Not a real series. There's just the one story in Watchmen and an adaptation of that.

Tales of the Black Freighter is a swashbuckler anthology pirate comic book series. It was published by National Comics (which later became DC Comics).

Shying away from mainstream adventures, Tales of the Black Freighter's radical and innovative stories show a disturbing reality against metaphysical terrors and perverse comments on the human condition.

Well, I did it. I was able to come up with more than 10 posts for this arbitrarily defined genre of mine. And that's all I can find. This community can now wither into obscurity like so many ignored Lemmy communities. At least now I have someplace I can post to if I ever find more.

As one final post, here's a clip from a South Park episode with the members of KoRn explaining pirate ghosts (ghost pirates?) like it's a Scooby-Doo episode.

The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure (2022) is a Korean movie where they obviously watched a Pirates of the Caribbean movie and said "we can do that!" This movie has the same style of action and comedy as a PotC movie. And yet, there are no fantasy elements at all. While gravity (and physics in general) might only be a suggestion at times, there aren't any specific fantasy elements. No magic, no monsters. Which is a shame because otherwise this movie would've been a perfect example of what I'm looking for. Oh well, it's still a fun pirate adventure.

Here's a trailer. You can watch it on Netflix.

Ha, right as I'm running out of things to post to this community, a new board game expansion is announced with dark fantasy pirates! Yes!

Zombicide: Dead Men Tales is a new game in the Zombicide franchise. It's only just been announced and they'll be crowd-funding it on Gamefound. Of course, being a new entry in a popular board game series, I'm sure this crowd-funding will be successful.

I knew there wouldn't be many works I could post to this community when I first created it, and I'm already starting to run out of the things I can find so far.

The Flying Dutchman is basically an old ghost story from the late 1700s. It's the most famous example of a ghost ship in sailor superstitions. Most versions of the story don't include pirates (so it doesn't exactly fit this genre) but it's not like there are any hard rules with superstitions so sometimes pirates are included in this myth.

The wikipedia page for it is pretty interesting. It's basically a myth about an old ship named the Flying Dutchman that was cursed to sail the seas without ever reaching port. In the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Davy Jones is the captain, but I think they just wanted to use a famous ship name for the movie.

Anyway, I don't really have anything to say about this myth. I'm just trying to document every example of Dark Fantasy Pirates I can (because I can't find many) and this almost fits. So this is your indicator that I'm almost done posting to this community.

The Secret of Monkey Island is a point & click adventure game from 1990. It also launched a series of sequels. And it should be everything I'm looking for in this genre. It has pirates and it has ghost pirates, and that's all I should need. And yet, when I think about this genre, I'm drawn to the horror elements. I like the unique elements that sea monsters can bring to a story (as opposed to the "land" monsters of the Weird West genre). Unfortunately, this game leans into the comedy aspect and that's where it loses me. I'm not against point & click adventure games in general but this aesthetic is just too silly for me. Don't get me wrong, replacing sword combat with insult battles is a clever idea for a point & click adventure game, I'm just not here for the jokes.

The series is about a random person who starts the first game by declaring "I want to be a pirate!" and then proceeds to do just that. Along the way he crosses paths with a ghost pirate who kidnaps his girlfriend so he has to rescue her. The creators of this series have said their primary inspirations were the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland and the novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, so it should fit perfectly in this Lemmy community. And while I won't argue with anyone who loves this game or has fond memories of this series, it just isn't for me. So I felt obligated to include it here even though I've never played any of the games.

If you're curious about it though, you can play the game for free in your browser at archive.org (and plenty of less-reputable sites too).

Mark of the Deep is another video game that really scratched my itch for dark fantasy pirates. It's about a pirate crew whose ship sinks and they wake up on a cursed island full of sea monsters. And the main character is the only one who can rescue everyone and break the curse!

This game is a zelda-like in that it's a top-down action game where you explore various dungeons. There's also a bit of metroidvania in there since the map is a series of interconnected areas and you need to unlock abilities to reach the next area. And then there's the souls-like aspect where resting at checkpoints refills your health and potions but also re-spawns all defeated enemies. And the story is told through obscure pieces of lore that you can easily miss, just like in a souls-like. However, this game does a couple things to make the souls-like aspect much more bearable in my opinion (as someone who's terrible at souls-likes). First, there is no corpse run. If you die, there's no real consequence other than restarting from the last checkpoint. This also means all game state is preserved when you die. If you unlock a door or flip a switch, that door is still open and that switch is still flipped if you die. This makes everything so much easier. Also, there is no parry in this game. You can only dodge roll, but you're invincible while rolling. So you don't have to dodge to escape an enemy's reach, you only have to be rolling while they're attacking and you're safe.

This game is still difficult though, mostly in figuring out where to go next. The only map available is an overworld map showing you which regions are connected to which other regions. But within any given region, it's a labyrinth and there is no map. Sometimes it's very difficult to remember where you were when you last died after being thrown all the way back to a checkpoint. The game does a good job of unlocking shortcuts along the way so you don't have to backtrack too much after a death, you just have to remember where you were.

Because each region is a labyrinth, there are a lot of branching paths. And there are some paths you can't access immediately. This means after unlocking a new ability you have to figure which path led to (what you thought at the time was) a dead end. This is the most frustrating part of the game to me. And it's compounded by the fact that this game isn't very popular so there aren't any walkthroughs. Well, there are video walkthroughs on youtube but those are impossible to use when you just want to figure out where to go next. Fortunately, the few times I actually got stuck, the Discussions page on Steam always had someone explaining what I needed. Without that, I probably would've given up on this game because it just isn't worth exploring every branch in an area, especially when some are hidden and non-obvious.

Overall though, I fully enjoyed this game. The gameplay was fun enough to keep me going and the aesthetic was exactly what I was looking for. I really think it's worth playing and I wish it was more popular (so someone could write a decent walkthrough).
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1933370/Mark_of_the_Deep/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/39950657

I love the idea of vampire pirates, that's such a fun premise. I just wish there was a more "mature" version of this series where there's actually blood and death, rather than a couple 12-year olds on an adventure. Of course, being interested in vampire pirates in the first place probably means I have a 12-year old's opinion of what's cool...

I'll admit I've never read this series and I should probably give it a chance anyway. Maybe borrow them from the library or something since I really don't need to be spending money on these. Here's an amazon link in case anyone else is interested though.

Also, I tried checking steam to see if there were any vampire pirate video games (since that'd probably scratch my itch just as well) but all I found was an upcoming game called Vampirates which is decidedly not what I'm looking for. It looks more like a social game like R.E.P.O. than vampire pirates hunting at night. Oh well, I guess I'm stuck reading a book series intended for 12-year olds.

Have any of you read this series? Does it still hold up if you aren't 12 years old but apparently seem to be 12 years old at heart?

Dead Men Tell No Tales (and its expansion, The Kraken) are two cooperative Dark Fantasy Pirate board games. As I've mentioned before, even though I love Dark Fantasy Pirate stories, I don't actually care for the nautical/sailing aspect. I just like pirates as an archetype. Also, and this is just me, but I personally prefer co-op board games. Dead Men Tell No Tales delivers on both fronts.

This is a co-op game where the players are on a pirate crew who have captured a haunted ship. The ship is on fire, is populated by a crew of skeletons, and your goal is to steal as much treasure as you can before the fire consumes it. So the gameplay is about managing the burning rooms, fighting off skeletons, and carrying treasure back to your ship.

Here's the official synopsis:

Skelit's Revenge....the most feared ship on the high seas....and you've finally taken it. Captain Fromm and his skeleton crew have amassed a massive treasure, and now is your chance to take it all. Players take on the role of Pirates who are boarding Skelit's Revenge for one purpose....to take the loot. They must battle the flames, the skeleton crew, and their own fatigue if they hope to make it out alive.

The Kraken expansion takes the base game and adds an attacking Kraken to the ship. Now you have to manage the burning rooms, fight off the skeletons, carry treasure back to your ship, and kill the Kraken to win the game. It's really fun.

Here are the boardgamegeek links for Dead Men Tell No Tales and the Kraken expansion. If you know about Tabletop Simulator in Steam, you can play the game in Tabletop Simulator's Workshop.

I'll admit I don't know much about board games, so if you know any other board games with a Dark Fantasy Pirate aesthetic definitely let me know. Bonus points if it's co-op!

Davy x Jones is currently in Early Access and I can't wait for the full release to come out. This is exactly the type of game I want from this Dark Fantasy Pirates genre. It takes place in a dark fantasy limbo full of undead pirates and sea monsters. You play Davy Jones' headless body while his wise-cracking head floats around talking to you. You can also grab the tentacle coming out of his floating head and use it as a grappling hook.

And the headless body groans like the Headless Body of Agnew from Futurama. Love it.

Anyway, here's a trailer for Davy x Jones. And here's the Steam page.

When defining this genre, I had said the stories take place during the golden age of piracy. But this show takes place on a distant fantasy planet. I had also said the protagonists would be pirates. But this is your standard 90s kids show with "good guys" as the protagonists. Sure, they call themselves "pirates" but they also spend every episode trying to help people. Despite that, this show really feels like it belongs in the Dark Fantasy Pirate genre. And no one cares about my arbitrary definitions anyway.

This show takes place on a fantasy planet that is being taken over by a sentient oil spill (basically). This "dark water" attacks anyone who gets close, and it's growing larger and larger. The main character (who learns he's a prince) is trying to collect "The 13 Treasures of Ruul" to destroy the Dark Water. In the first 6 episodes, he collects one treasure per episode. Then the writers must've realized "oh shit, we're ending the series too quickly" and he never finds another treasure after that. Every episode ends up being a random adventure to help some people he just met. Still, the character designs are awesome and there are a bunch of fantasy monsters they have to fight off. It's actually a pretty fun show.

The show lasted 21 episodes before being cancelled. You can watch the entire series on Tubi. Here's the intro to the show, which shows all the characters and explains the plot if you've never seen it. There was also a SNES game and Genesis/MegaDrive game which were totally unrelated to each other (one is a beat 'em up, the other is a platformer).

Maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but I always enjoyed this show. I don't think it was ever very popular though so I don't know how well-known it is. But I'm trying to list every Dark Fantasy Pirate work I know for this community and I think this one fits.

In my first post to this community, I mentioned there was a video game that I really enjoyed and wanted to find more games with a similar aesthetic. This is the game I was referring to. It's about a cursed pirate ship and its undead crew. I realized that when I think about stories with Dark Fantasy Pirates, I don't actually care about the nautical/sailing aspect. I just like the ruthless outlaws in a world of monsters. And that's what this game delivers. The cursed ship is nothing more than a home base; you never actually steer the ship or engage in naval battles.

As far as gameplay, this is a squad-based stealth action game. Each undead crewmember has their own special ability and you choose which crewmembers to take before each mission. The levels are designed really well such that any single crewmember can succeed in any mission, but certain crewmembers will make things easier depending on who you choose. Also, for stealth-based game mechanics, this game gives you every advantage it can. You can pick a spot on the map and it'll tell you which guards can see it, you can view any single guard's vision cone (but not all guards at once!), and you can pause time to coordinate multiple crewmembers to perform simultaneous tasks. The game even reminds you to quicksave every 5 minutes (can be disabled). The levels are still difficult, but the game gives you every tool you could need to succeed.

If you like pirate games set in a dark fantasy world, I think this game is fantastic. It perfectly scratched my itch and made me want to find more games like it (if not in gameplay, then aesthetic). I created this community and started searching for more Dark Fantasy Pirate stories thanks to this game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/Shadow_Gambit_The_Cursed_Crew/

When discussing the creation of a genre in my post about Pirates of the Caribbean, I said there's usually an early work that arguably invented the genre but wasn't influential enough to set the template for that genre. For this Dark Fantasy Pirates genre, that was 1987's On Stranger Tides. It takes place during the golden age of piracy (it has Blackbeard as a character!) and has a bunch of ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural creatures. But prior to the PotC movie of the same name, I'd never heard of this book. And PotC really only kept the concept of the Fountain of Youth for the movie and ignored everything else in the novel (Disney only bought the rights for the name).

This genre is admittedly very small, so it's hard to determine which work had the larger influence. On Stranger Tides was influenced by the PotC ride at Disneyland, but that ride doesn't have any supernatural elements. And the PotC movie was influenced by On Stranger Tides, so it's all somewhat self-referential. The creator of the Monkey Island series of video games said his inspirations were both the PotC ride and On Stranger Tides. So while I can't dismiss the influence of On Stranger Tides entirely, I still think if you asked a random person to name a story with pirates and ghosts/zombies they'd say Pirates of the Caribbean. So there's a question of "which came first" versus "which was the most popular".

It's hard to say which work influenced the most later works since there are so few works in this genre to begin with; neither work led to an explosion of imitators. I do think it's strange that I can't find any other novels in this genre though. There are plenty of books about pirates, but I can't find any others with dark fantasy elements. In my search, I found some fantasy novels that had pirates but they weren't dark fantasy. Maybe I have too narrow of focus here but I like the horror elements dark fantasy brings. I'm not interested in Captain Hook dealing with mermaids or fairies in Peter Pan. And I'm not looking for a story set in a fantasy world where magic exists that also happens to have pirates. I like pirates being the protagonists facing darker forces. So maybe the issue is with me.

Anyway, if you have any interest in a Dark Fantasy Pirates genre like I do, check out On Stranger Tides. And if you can find any other novels that fit my (possibly too narrow) criteria, definitely let me know.

I saw a comment online awhile ago which I'm going to paraphrase here (and most likely butcher it). When discussing the creation of a new genre, you can usually argue which work was the first to embody most of the elements but there's always some definitive work that achieves widespread success and it's impossible to argue anything invented the genre after that work. For example, you can argue punk rock existed prior to The Clash but once The Clash hit the scene, you can't argue punk rock was invented after them. Similarly, you can argue cyberpunk existed prior to Neuromancer but you can't argue cyberpunk was invented after Neuromancer. When creating a new genre, there's always some work that sets the template for all others to follow and after that, the genre simply exists.

That's how I view Pirates of the Caribbean. There might have been some earlier works that were close but the PotC series defined the template for what this genre means. It's pirate protagonists in a world with supernatural elements. If the Weird West genre is the Wild West with supernatural elements, this is the pirate equivalent. I'm calling this genre "Dark Fantasy Pirates" for lack of a better name. See my first post in this community for more of a rant on that topic.

I'm not going to pretend PotC is the greatest movie franchise ever; each movie in the series is worse than the one before. But it's easily the most well-known example of this genre. And it's still crazy to me that Disney invented this genre in 2003. How had this not been done prior to 2003?? But that's why I created this community; I want to find more works like this. And maybe a better name for it.

Awhile back, I played a video game about pirates that was set in a dark fantasy world and I really enjoyed it. I had previously created !weirdwest@lemmy.zip so this video game got me thinking about how there's probably a genre similar to Weird West but with pirates. A "weird pirates" genre. Weird West is when you take the Wild West setting and add supernatural elements to it, so there's no reason you can't just take a pirate setting and add supernatural elements to it too. After all, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies did exactly that.

So I tried looking for more movies and games in this genre... and found nothing. I tried to find if this genre had a name that I mistakenly wasn't including in my search... and found nothing. It seemed like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies invented this genre, but surely that can't be right... can it??

I made a post on asklemmy asking that question. And yeah, it seems this genre doesn't have a name and Pirates of the Caribbean basically invented it. This is crazy to me because pirate stories have been around longer than Wild West stories; how is it possible that nobody ever added dark fantasy elements to these stories? Pirates (and sailors) were extremely superstitious so it seems like this would've been a natural combination.

I had a great conversation with someone in that post who helped clarify my thoughts and made some great points of their own too. First of all, pirate movies are extremely expensive to make. At the very least, you need a ship as a set. Whereas for a Western, you typically just needed to drive over to the studio's back lot. Also, during the Hays Code days you couldn't have a pirate as a protagonist (you couldn't show "sympathy for criminals"). This made it hard for movies to be made with pirates unless those pirates were specifically the villains. Yet it was very easy to make a Western with a noble hero sheriff. With fewer pirate movies being made in general, you were less likely to see directors playing with the formula/tropes. Conversely, there were so many cheap Westerns being churned out that you eventually needed to play with the tropes to stand out.

I also think there's some element of a feedback loop where making so many Westerns kept them in the cultural zeitgeist which meant more people wanted to make more Westerns and the cycle just kept perpetuating. Yet with so few pirate movies being made, no one wanted to make more pirate movies (there wasn't a demand/audience for them). I know the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie had an uphill battle to be made at all because the studio didn't think people would show up for a pirate movie (Cutthroat Island famously ended the pirate movie genre for years). But even if that was true of movies, why weren't there any "weird pirate" books being written, where the budget doesn't matter? To that, I have no answer other than there truly must not be much interest in pirates to the general public. Nobody cares.

And yet, I keep thinking about this niche-within-a-niche. I made a Weird West community on Lemmy knowing there weren't that all that many works in the genre, and it was fun to document the ones I did find. So I figure I'll do that here too... although there are fewer than ten works I can find in this genre so far. This community likely won't have many posts and will probably be sitting idle very soon. Still, I'd like to have a place I can post to when I do find something.

Finally, while I kept referring to the genre as "weird pirates" in this post, I know that's a terrible name. "Weird West" has some fun alliteration and rhymes with "Wild West" so it makes sense. "Weird Pirates" just sounds like I'm calling a group of pirates "weird". So I'm calling this community "Dark Fantasy Pirates" because that's specifically what I'm looking for. I don't want "fantasy pirates" like Peter Pan or One Piece, I want dark fantasy elements with skeletons, ghosts, zombies, and the kraken.

And if anyone other than me ever posts to this community I'll be very pleasantly surprised. Welcome!