It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day and once again, I am issuing my reminder to celebrate “Play Like a Pirate Day” rather than participate in “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” Since 2008, I’ve been regularly posting recommendations of things to do other than half-heartedly making piratical references that might annoy your coworkers. The posts all contain similar information, but each year I update it with some minor differences to make sure that the links stay up to date and that it provides at least one new way to play.
My contention was that one of the most irritating things you can hear your co-workers say is, “Aaaargh, Avast, Ye Mateys” a couple times an hour in some half-hearted participation in a day of international live action roleplaying. Even worse are the inconsistent uses of “Yar!”
What makes it most irritating is the fact that these small offerings of participation are lackadaisical at best. It isn’t talking like a pirate that’s annoying, it’s the ironic detachment or lack of commitment that’s annoying.
I would rather my co-worker show up dressed in full “Age of Sail” apparel, blunderbuss and cutlass in hand, and charge into the office while staying in character as much as is possible for the day. A wholehearted celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day, I can get behind. It would be fun, in the “employees showing up to work in costumes on Halloween” kind of way. You know... like when a person comes to work in their full blown Optimus Prime costume -- one where they can actually “transform” from robot to big rig. Things like that create moments where you are truly impressed with your co-workers’ commitment. On the other hand, when your other co-worker shows up with only a pair of “cat ears” on and a mild scowl on their face, it’s annoying.
Most participation in International Talk Like a Pirate Day is of the cat ear type, and not the Optimus Prime type. That’s why I still believe that it is time for the phenomenon to die. That doesn’t mean that we should no longer have a day “celebrating” piracy and the outlaw attitude, or as Mark Summers, the co-founder of Talk Like a Pirate Day, called it “Pirattitude.” Pirates are still awesome (though not as awesome as Transforming Psionic Robot Pirate Ninja Dinosaur Mutant Demon Hunting Vampires), it’s just that inserting random “arrrrs” like a pirate is lame. I think gamers, and geeks of all kinds, should lay claim to the holiday and re-cast it as “International Play Like a Pirate Day.” That way the costume role players can cosplay pirate and other people can play pirate themed games, read pirate themed novels, or watch pirate themed films.
As I wrote a couple of years ago, “from now on September 19th will be a day when families and friends get together and enjoy some form of Piratical Recreation. Such recreation can include celebrating by talking like pirates, certainly role play (in the traditional sense) is play. Our celebration is inclusive, not exclusive. But families and friends will no longer be limited to listening to the ‘yars’ and ‘aaarghs’ of everyone around them. Some might choose more formal ludographic participation -- that’s game play.”
Here is a list of recommended activities for this year’s festivities:
Play a Pirate Themed Roleplaying Game
Play a pirate themed roleplaying game. In the past, DriveThruRPG would have a sale to coincide with Talk Like a Pirate Day, and I’d comment on the great bargains you can get on some of the games, but it looks like there is no such sale in 2026.
I highly recommend Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s excellent PIRATES OF THE SPANISH MAIN. It’s a fast, furious, and fun system that perfectly captures the feel of the pirate films of yore.
Playing a pirate themed roleplaying game is great for those who want to talk like a pirate. It encourages engaging in Piratical behavior in an appropriate venue. Besides, by roleplaying (in the game sense) participants can act far more Piratical than is allowed under modern mores and laws. Your coworkers might object to you stealing their stuff and flying off to Tortuga to sell it in exchange for Rum!
If you want a more heroic bent with some really interesting mystical aspects, you can always play Pinnacle’s 50 Fathoms instead. If you aren’t a fan of the Savage Worlds system, but still want to play an excellent pirate and swashbuckling roleplaying game you should check out 7th Sea!
If “Neo-Old School” is your bag, why don’t you check out Pirate Borg? It’s a recent pirate adaptation of the doom art-punk RPG Mörk Borg. The mechanics are easy to learn and the combination of piracy and supernatural horror is a match made in…well Disneyland rides.
If you are looking for an easy to learn and quick to play pirate themed game, you can’t do better than the Tiny d6 game Tiny Pirates. Like all of the games Alan Bahr works on, this is a true labor of love and the game is easy to play and can be run with almost no prep.
Since September is Solo RPG Month (aka Solo September), I thought I’d highlight Sundered Isles from Tomkin Press (2024). Sundered Isles is Shawn Tomkin’s seafaring expansion for the excellent Ironsworn: Starforged roleplaying game. With Ironsworn and its sequels Tomkin continues pushing the edge of what I considered to be the limits of solo roleplaying. Sundered Isles is a wonderfully rich expansion to Starforged and it is a compelling solo pirate game.
In Sundered Isles, Tomkin has shifted players away from the Traveller-esque spacefaring frontier and into a world of wind and tide and of science and magic. It combines fantasy and science fiction, allowing you to create adventures as rich as, if not richer than, those I experienced playing Sid Meier’s Pirates! (the greatest video game of all time). I’ve already spent some time marauding the seas and expanding my armada of great ships and loyal crews.
In a recent post discussing how important the solo Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks were to me as a roleplayer, I mentioned that Tomkin’s design made it so that “You, and the dice, are the Dungeon Master and not an unseen author.” You can see how Tomkin describes the process in his Starforged rulebook. The mechanics interact with what you envision (hope) the narrative to be and resolve it into a real outcome that feeds into a new narrative situation.
This is a deep game, but it is an expansion so it does require the Starforged rules and printing everything out (or buying the hard copies) can get a bit pricey. Personally, I think taking the time to print out your own personal spiral bound copies is worth it. Just make sure you are printing out files you purchased. It may be fun to play a pirate, but Tomkin can’t keep making as many great games if too many of us are real pirates. There’s no finer way to spend Talk Like a Pirate Day than charting a defiant course across a haunted sea. It’s how I’ll be spending mine.
Play a Pirate Themed Board Game
There are a number of excellent Pirate themed board games, but my own tastes tend a little towards the older games. If you own a copy, and not many do, play an exciting session of the classic Broadsides and Boarding Parties. I remember when my friend Sean and I stopped using the official rules for combat and exchanged the Basic D&D rules for them. It wasn’t long before his copy of Broadsides and Boarding Parties became the prop for a pirate themed D&D campaign that I still think of as our Dungeons & Boarding Parties campaign. The game started as an inexpensive paper chit and map wargame from The Citadel, but the Milton Bradley version (both by Larry Harris of Axis and Allies fame) is a wonder to behold. Track one down. You won’t regret it.
If you don’t own a copy of Broadsides, try one of these two excellent pirate games from GMT Games. Blackbeard: The Golden Age of Piracy. The game is a redesign of Avalon Hill’s classic game of the same name. The new version is suitable for 1 to 5 players and has less “down time” for players who aren’t in their current turn.
Winds of Plunder is a quick and fun game that is more in the style of the “Eurogame” than Blackbeard or Broadsides.
Watch a Pirate Themed Movie
Lastly, I recommend watching one of your favorite pirate films. I am a fan of a number of the recent Pirate television series, but you can only watch so much in a single day and a movie fits nicely in that time frame. Some classics in the genre include Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk with Errol Flynn, The Pirates of Penzance for those of a musical bent, and the more recent Pirates of the Caribbean films. There is a long list of wonderful films filled with pirattitude, give one of them a play today.
Or if You Are Hell Bent on Irking Your Co-Workers…
You can lean into the ridiculous and belt out your best version of the greatest Pirate Song Ever Written “For I am a Pirate King!“