Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
Swashbuckling and Sword & Sorcery goes very well together. I think it can be very much described as swashbuckling with dark magic.

Hunting for a treasure sounds like a reasonably solid campaign goal. However, I would try to make each step towards that goal an adventure that can stand on its own leg. Getting the map is an adventure. Finding a ship and leaving the port is an adventure. Making a quick stop in a port is an adventure, because it just happens that half the crew goes missing and the PCs have to rescue them from something before the journey can continue. In a "classic" campaign, these would often be just two or three connected encounters. In Sword & Sorcery, I think they should each be a full Adventure!

Another thing I would recommend is not getting too attached to the idea of finding that treasure as GM. It's a good goal to get the party going, but it's quite likely that the players will latch on to something random they had a run in with, which has them a lot more excited than finding that treasure. Finding that treasure is the excuse to get on a wackey journey over the high seas. It is not really the purpose of the journey.
Awesome advice- as a huge fan of Aboleth, I'm particularly fond of the part where sailors get sacrificed to a squid-monster. I also really like the "one more thing" sort of mentality of it- what at first appears to be an easy task spirals out of control into something, well, exciting.

I can already see the shifty pirate captain pinned to a wall by a furious PC as he shrugs, "Eyyyyy, let's calm down a bit. I didn't lie to you exactly, but it might've slipped my mind to mention that the ship is, well, confiscated. That's not a problem, is it?"