[Suggestion] "Piracy" — a Sailing/Thieving Minigame

Now that Sailing's had time to settle in, I've been reflecting on the various Sailing Activities that have been introduced to the game, and thinking of what other activities could possibly exist (while I stick to my grind of almost exclusively salvaging).

How about Pirates? There are so many pirate NPCs in OSRS, and I think it'd be really interesting to explore what activities could engage with some of that existing content.

So, here's my half-baked pitch for Piracy: The Sailing Minigame

(Other names for consideration: Freebooting, Buccaneering, etc.)

The Gameplay Loop

You spot a target ship (Charter Ships, Delivery Boats, other Pirates, etc.) and have to catch it. This is the Sailing half — the target actively tries to lose you, so you're managing sails, wind, and positioning to close the gap without overshooting. Get within grappling range and you throw a boarding line to lock the two hulls together.

Once you're locked on, it flips to a Thieving activity. You jump across, and now you're pickpocketing crates, prying open lockboxes, and lifting cargo off the deck. There could also be some kind of objective/item being pursued.

Getting spotted = you take damage and the crew starts actively hunting you, so there's a stealth/timing layer on a moving deck. Bail back to your own boat before the target ship breaks free (or sinks) to bank your haul.

Implementation - Instanced raids

Enter from a pirate hub (Brimhaven / Mos Le'Harmless / Pirate's Cove / Buccaneers' Haven), where you get a repeatable boat chase against a tougher, faster ship carrying better loot. Higher skill floor, better xp/hr and reward density. If this occurred in one location, you could choose different boat targets or paths. If multiple pirate hubs existed across the map varying in difficulty, it could also allow for experiencing different oceans and introducing additional mechanics on the sailing side of things.

Group Minigame Mechanics

Instanced Piracy scales to a small crew with actual roles:

• Helmsman — pilots your boat, manages the chase, keeps you locked alongside. Gets the bulk of Sailing xp.
• Boarders / raiders — jump across and do the Thieving. Gets more Thieving xp + maybe higher chances at bigger rewards.
• Fighters — cross over to tie up the NPC crew so the raiders can work uninterrupted. Gets more combat xp. Maybe there's a unique CLOG reward that can be gained in this experience.

Nobody can solo the hard version efficiently, so it's a reason to actually group up — think a mini Tempoross/Wintertodt social loop but for Sailing, where coordination beats brute force.

Rewards / why you'd do it

• Shared Sailing + Thieving xp (rates scale with target difficulty and how clean your raid is — no-alarm bonus)
• Stolen cargo: raw resources, coins, and gems, so it feeds into your economy rather than being a dead-end. This could also be a great spot to add an alternate source for some of the rarer existing Sailing resources (sailing fish, etc.), so there's more than one way to obtain certain items.
• A currency (doubloons?) for a small reward shop — unsure what the unique reward items might look like, but everybody likes minigame rewards!
• Ironman-friendly since the loot is resources you'd want anyway, not just alch fodder

Anticipated objections

• Thieving is already fast — the point isn't to be the meta Thieving method, it's a Sailing method that happens to share xp, but allows you to train Sailing by actively Sailing, rather than just following a path or stopping at a destination.

Would love thoughts on the idea, especially on the chase mechanic — I think that's the make-or-break for whether this feels like Sailing or just Thieving with extra steps.