Help roleplaying this character?

[Sajiri]

So for a while now, I've been setting up a character for a solo campaign the dm is putting on for me while our usual campaign is on hiatus, pirates of the caribbean style.

What he's told me is that the whole game will be about my character building up her own crew, I get to recruit and and assign various npcs to different roles and play as the captain.

I came up with a background for my character, but when I asked the DM for more info on the campaign itself, I was told that's going to depend on my character and what I want to do, which is great but..now I don't really know what to do.

I decided to base her loosely off Grace O'Malley. Minor nobility from a family with questionable seafaring taxing practices, married off at a young age for typical noble alliance, had a few children. 10ish years later a rival family attacks, kills her husband and sons to claim the character's land as their own, took her and her young daughter captive and eventually threw her in prison (I was told the campaign would start off with a jailbreak and building a crew).

So now, beyond this, the first thing I was asked are 'what are her goals as a pirate?' I imagine revenge and potentially finding her last child if she's still alive are up there, but I'm not sure what would happen after that, or before. There's potentially going to be quite a few timeskips with the game taking place over several years- I originally had her be in her 30s and was told to change her to late 20s so she wouldnt be too old by the end.

Some extra info- pathfinder, bard (dervish dancer, so more about solo buffing and combat), chaotic neutral, good social skills and a rather intelligent woman.

I'm a little short on time atm so I apologise if this seems rushed or I made anything confusing.

[Lorsa]

It is very hard to give roleplaying advice to other people as noone would know your character better than yourself. As for the age thing, I think 5 years won't really matter in any campaign but noble women sometimes married really early and she could easily be 24 and still have had 3 kids.

You could perhaps consider that apart from revenge, maybe her (possibly idealistic) views of the world has now been shattered and while before she thought people were civilized and being a noble meant something she now believes it is every woman for herself and if the nobles don't even follow laws why should she? It's time to get a-robbin'.

It seems as though you are very passionate about this character which is good, and I think it is a very interesting story. But as the DM said, if you can't come up with a motivation why she would form a crew and start pirating then you might have to rethink as that is the premise for the campaign. Or maybe you will simply start out with revenge and see where it leads you!

[Sajiri]

Revenge and see where it leads is kinda what I was leaning towards anyway, with that being the original goal. He said that it will be in 2 main parts though, and the second part is meant to be a larger goal I havent really thought that far ahead yet. Some options he gave me as examples were become a pirate queen, build a base/city, things like that.

[Lorsa]

I don't think you should stress yourself with that. Part of the fun of roleplaying is see how a character will develop over the course of play. If you've already decided all goals she will have for the next 10 years then why do you need to play? I think you should tell your DM that you will start out this way and then see what happens.

[Mnemophage]

Your character comes from a place of wealth, and had that all yanked away from her. Furthermore, she's been wealthy during childhood and adolescence, long enough to get used to it, to think she deserves it, and to miss it when it's gone. While revenge is an excellent motivator, it's one that disappears once the object of that revenge has been dispatched. Greed, especially the miserly sort that comes after a time of great scarcity and suffering, is the kind of thing that doesn't really fade.

I can easily see her wanting not only to set herself up in the circumstances she was once familiar with, but to safeguard that wealth and stash contingency money in banks all around the world. Just in case. You never do know. The daughter could be an extra bit of motivation there - she's not just being miserly for her own sake, but to ensure that her girl never has to endure the same situation, or have to take up the pirate mantle once her mother retires.

[elliott20]

I have no advice mostly because I think Lorsa's right on all counts. You should just play the revenge angle, and then, who knows, you might decide at the end that there's not a whole lot of money in revenge, and that the world will always need a dread pirate roberts. (Or in her case, dread pirate roberta)

I will say though, I would totally want to play in that game.

[Kol Korran]

A few possible ideas: as you sped some Tim "unprivileged" you see that the poor/ common people are treated unjustly, and see nobility as corrupt and seek to change that.
Or...
You see the poor state the common people are, and seek to better thirty lot, like educating them and what not.
Or if these two may seem too goody two doesn't, how about your husband's family kept some treasure, or a great secret, and you seek to gain it (treasure hunt) or he may have held to some values (good or bad) and you wish to live by them, and rebuild your house?

[Sajiri]

This has given me some good things to think about :) I guess I could see her just wanting more out of greed even after finishes what she set out to do. I could also imagine her just developing a bit of a vendetta against nobility in general, or at least the allies of her enemy even if they haven't wronged her directly themselves.

[kyoryu]

Maybe take a tip from Burning Wheel and ask yourself what she believes in most deeply.

Or a tip from Fate, and backstory a few adventures, and ask what she would have taken away from them - in terms of opinions, goals, etc.

Or, combine the two, and have the backstory influence the beliefs :)