Bardicheart
Mongoose
A bit of premise first...
Lately I've been going over the trade rules from Merchant Prince and tweaking my house rules. In Traveller games I've played in or refereed, piracy is often very difficult or impossible to pull off. In my experience a ship leaving a planet and approaching the 100D limit can generally jump out before a pirate attack can succeed in disabling the ship. Ships arriving generally jump in somewhere just beyond the 100D limit and move in from there which also makes them a difficult target. So for piracy to work, the target ship needs to be further away from the main world / starport. It also means non jump capable craft moving in the outer system are more likely pirate targets.
This got me to thinking, where exactly do ships normally arrive and why? What are reasons they might jump in to the outer system instead of the main world?
Thought it might be interesting / fun to discuss that.
For example maybe they have a cargo marked for deliver to an outpost in the outer system. So the players have a choice, either jump in to the main world and refuel then travel out. Or jump in to the outer system, make their delivery and then head in.
In some systems, for example under developed or low tech worlds, the outer system might be where you'd normally head (trading with belters for example).
If they're carrying something "questionable" maybe they choose to jump into the outer system with the intent of refueling at a smaller outpost or station to avoid customs checks (maybe the outer system has a lower law level than the inner system / main world... the cargo is legal at the out post but not on the main world).
Pirates set up the trader, part of the cargo they picked up is to be delivered to an outpost 2 parsecs away. Turns out there is no outpost, just a few pirate ships waiting for them to make their delivery. The pirates intend to attack them, take their cargo and get away before any Navy patrols can respond (being further out and much larger distances, this has much better odds of working).
Any other ideas?
Another thought, though I can't think of a justification for it, what if most traffic normally did jump in further out for some reason? That would certainly give pirates more of a chance. Creates more work for the Navy as well. Might start straining the life support for many ships though.
Lately I've been going over the trade rules from Merchant Prince and tweaking my house rules. In Traveller games I've played in or refereed, piracy is often very difficult or impossible to pull off. In my experience a ship leaving a planet and approaching the 100D limit can generally jump out before a pirate attack can succeed in disabling the ship. Ships arriving generally jump in somewhere just beyond the 100D limit and move in from there which also makes them a difficult target. So for piracy to work, the target ship needs to be further away from the main world / starport. It also means non jump capable craft moving in the outer system are more likely pirate targets.
This got me to thinking, where exactly do ships normally arrive and why? What are reasons they might jump in to the outer system instead of the main world?
Thought it might be interesting / fun to discuss that.
For example maybe they have a cargo marked for deliver to an outpost in the outer system. So the players have a choice, either jump in to the main world and refuel then travel out. Or jump in to the outer system, make their delivery and then head in.
In some systems, for example under developed or low tech worlds, the outer system might be where you'd normally head (trading with belters for example).
If they're carrying something "questionable" maybe they choose to jump into the outer system with the intent of refueling at a smaller outpost or station to avoid customs checks (maybe the outer system has a lower law level than the inner system / main world... the cargo is legal at the out post but not on the main world).
Pirates set up the trader, part of the cargo they picked up is to be delivered to an outpost 2 parsecs away. Turns out there is no outpost, just a few pirate ships waiting for them to make their delivery. The pirates intend to attack them, take their cargo and get away before any Navy patrols can respond (being further out and much larger distances, this has much better odds of working).
Any other ideas?
Another thought, though I can't think of a justification for it, what if most traffic normally did jump in further out for some reason? That would certainly give pirates more of a chance. Creates more work for the Navy as well. Might start straining the life support for many ships though.