Legality of ship weapons

[Captain Jonah]

Having armour is fine, but too many multiple layers and/or bonded superdense is probably a no-no.

Being defensive in nature I don't see armour as an issue.

It raises the suspicions of those security types who spend all day asking questions.

So tell me Mr Merchant captain. Just why do you think it a good idea to turn a full 10% of your ships volume into armour. Don’t you like carrying cargo, all that armour is 20Dtons of cargo you cannot load.

Protection from pirates you say. So do you meet many pirates that you need so much armour to defend yourself. Is there a reason why you spend so much time away from the areas protected by his Imperial Majesties navy, not to mention the sector fleet, the sub sector fleet, the system defence fleet, planetary security and customs patrols etc.

Do you not find it odd that your ship is well enough armoured to be all but immune to any weapon carried by any of the local security ships less powerful than a Particle beam. Do you feel being immune to the security services to be a good thing.

Now if you were a registered star merc, convoy protector or planetary, sub sector or sector auxiliary it would be a little different. But you are a tramp trader.

You don’t mind if these people have a quick look inside your ship, oh and we will be flushing your fuel tanks and using very good densitometers plus our expert engineers will be opening every panel on the ship. We will also be cutting through the floors, walls or ceilings anywhere we cannot get a 110% clear scan.

This probably will not take more than 3 or maybe 4 days. Reimbursement of costs can be obtained by submitting form IGCR-168392-14a. Your case will be looked at as soon as possible and I’m told the queue is down to nearly three years waiting at present. :twisted:

 

[zero]

^ Ha, very fair point.

Heres my current statblock for an orbital cargo liner used mainly to ferry people and cargo between Earth, where it is based, and Mercury (where orbital transport shuttles collect and deliver over the passengers and cargo). Its from the Chthonian Stars setting.

As you can see, it has an ok amount of armour for a cargo liner and ferry, but also it has a Railgun barbette! :mrgreen: (Though it never actually goes dirtside, instead getting maintenance from Earth's Highport facilities).

Zero-class Orbital Cargo Liner

Hull (standard) - 100 tons. Hull 2, Structure 2 - 2,000,000 credits
Armour - Titanium Steel - Protection 2. 5 tons. 100,000 credits
Self-sealing armour - 1,000,000 credits
Manouevring Drive - Reaction A, Thrust 2. 2 tons. 4,000,000 credits
Manouevring Fuel - 2G Thrust Hours. 5 tons.
Power Plant - Fusion A. 4 tons. 8,000,000 credits
Power Plant Fuel - 1 week of operation. 1 ton.
Transit Drive - 12 tons. 5,000,000 credits
Bridge (Holographic Controls) - 10 tons. 625,000 credits
Computer - Model-2 (Hardened Systems) Rating 10. 240,000 credits
Electronics - Basic Military - 0 DM. 2 tons. 1,000,000 credits
Weapon - Hardpoint #1 - Railgun Barbette. 5 tons. 4,000,000 credits
Cargo - 38 tons
Staterooms - One stateroom. 4 tons. 500,000 credits
16 x Long-Term Grav-Couches. 8 tons. 56,000 credits
Extras
Ship's Locker
Briefing Room. 4 tons. 500,000 credits
Software
Manoeuvre/0
Transit Control/1 - 100,000 credits
Evade/1 - 1,000,000 credits
Fire Control/1 - 2,000,000 credits
Library

Total Tonnage = 100
Total Cost = 30,121,000 credits

Maintenance Cost (rounded up to nearest credit) = 2,511 credits per month

This does come from a setting that denies the use of lasers and such (torps are ok though) and I'd rather have a ship that can defend itself when its a 100dton ship going against potential privateers.

 

[Imeanunoharm]

Having armour is fine, but too many multiple layers and/or bonded superdense is probably a no-no.

Being defensive in nature I don't see armour as an issue.

Protection from pirates you say. So do you meet many pirates that you need so much armour to defend yourself. Is there a reason why you spend so much time away from the areas protected by his Imperial Majesties navy, not to mention the sector fleet, the sub sector fleet, the system defence fleet, planetary security and customs patrols etc.

Do you not find it odd that your ship is well enough armoured to be all but immune to any weapon carried by any of the local security ships less powerful than a Particle beam. Do you feel being immune to the security services to be a good thing.

Good question Commander (inflate his rank, it works wonders), Well I was born in {insert roughest of the frontier planets a little outside the imperium} and out there *spit tobaccy in nearby sputum vessel kept adjacent to ships airlock* a little armour comes in handy when you're carting high value medical supplies needed to stop kiddies dying of the Blathkrakkian flu. Lot's of degenerates want to get their hands on our hard bought stuff out there I tells ya.

 

[RichardP]

Worlds control their surface, and airspace out to about 10D from memory, space is under direct imperial control. Starports and bases are also imperial territory so imperial law applies. Based on adventures etc. it seems fairly lax on weapons etc.

I always understood it that the 3I allowed civilian vessels to carry weapons to defend vs pirates. The 3I or local duke etc. would grant that permission based upon the applicants reputation and the need. Its more likely you get a permit if you are a former IN captain than a dubious trader. Its also more likely you get a permit on a frontier like the marches than somewhere much safer like the Imperial Core.

As shipyards are part of the starport and run by the Imperial starport authority, so they will detect if your trader has military aspects like heavy armour and ask pointed questions. So screens, heavy armour, bay weapons are military and will be investigated / confiscated. Traders and private vessels get turrets a bit of armour and screens if you can justify it.

If you use your anti-piracy weapons on other ships. worlds etc. then you are a pirate and the IN is after you.

One of the old MegaTraveller mags had an article on starmercs. They can buy warships upto about 5ktn, but have to pass more stringent background checks, have the cash etc. They can't have black globes, meson weapons, or batteries bigger than Factor 7.

Again violate the conditions and they take away your licence or send the navy after you.

I always thought the nukes rule was a general one. Only the 3I or responsible planetary govts operating with imperial permission can have nukes. The rules of war also limit chemical and bio-weapons. It gets a bit hazy for these. The original rule books had missiles being HE. TNE messed that up with the nuke pumped laser warheads on their missiles

 

[locarno24]

It raises the suspicions of those security types who spend all day asking questions.

So tell me Mr Merchant captain. Just why do you think it a good idea to turn a full 10% of your ships volume into armour. Don’t you like carrying cargo, all that armour is 20Dtons of cargo you cannot load.

Protection from pirates you say. So do you meet many pirates that you need so much armour to defend yourself. Is there a reason why you spend so much time away from the areas protected by his Imperial Majesties navy, not to mention the sector fleet, the sub sector fleet, the system defence fleet, planetary security and customs patrols etc.

Good question Commander (inflate his rank, it works wonders), Well I was born in {insert roughest of the frontier planets a little outside the imperium} and out there *spit tobaccy in nearby sputum vessel kept adjacent to ships airlock* a little armour comes in handy when you're carting high value medical supplies needed to stop kiddies dying of the Blathkrakkian flu. Lot's of degenerates want to get their hands on our hard bought stuff out there I tells ya.

Agree - this is what I was saying above - it depends on circumstances. If you are operating close in to Capitol and the core worlds, you're not going to get far with your argument. If, however, you can respond by pointing at your properly documented shipping charter taking you back and forth across the trojan reach several times a year, then you are perfectly entitled to decide the customs inspector is being a bit of an idiot...

 

[jwpacker]

I can totally see RPing in some additional scrutiny on the part of the customs people and others that the PCs interact with if they fly in with a pair of particle beam turrets mounted to their Empress Marava class trader. A lot more "let's see your manifests" and "what brings you here today" sort of conversations until the paperwork is completed.

 

[nats]

I can totally see RPing in some additional scrutiny on the part of the customs people and others that the PCs interact with if they fly in with a pair of particle beam turrets mounted to their Empress Marava class trader. A lot more "let's see your manifests" and "what brings you here today" sort of conversations until the paperwork is completed.

Sort of demands that bounty hunters and the like employ pop-up turrets or weapons hidden in compartments like the Millennium Falcon/Slave 1 if they regularly visit popular starports.

 

[Marchand]

The interesting question seems to arise over low-worth settlements (so no motivation / capacity to invest in defences), particularly on less-than-garden worlds, where a heavily armed small ship might damage life support.

I don't imagine a lot of dome worlds around precisely because of the hazards to survival - psycho PCs and meteorites spring to mind. I picture more worlds like Aramis - dug into bedrock. So really I am picturing this question as about low-TL garden worlds.

Anyway, at the end of the day, if the subsector duke doesn't give a damn about some D-starport TL4 backwater on his patch, and so doesn't invest in defences, and then somebody flies over and shoots the place up, well, that's what's going to happen.

However there's a word for people like that - pirates (at best; psychopaths at worst). If some sort of ID can be got on their ship (seems likely - even a skinflint duke would prob get leaned on to throw a few micro-satellites and drones around the system), then they are, as we used to say at school, so dead. Bounties everywhere and a promotion for the first navy captain to nail them.

If the world is outside the imperium, then IMTU there are probably still going to be bounties on the heads of anyone evil enough to bomb defenceless civilians from interested / humanitarian (xenitarian?) parties.

An armed society is a polite society!

 

[rust]

An armed society is a polite society!

Yes, indeed, just take a look at Japan and Somalia ... :roll:

 

[Marchand]

Yes, indeed, just take a look at Japan and Somalia ... :roll:

I was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the more I think about it, the more I think you've raised a useful parallel. Japan is a very homogeneous society. All these slightly odd traveller types running around in heavily-armed spaceships are going to be much more like [my image of] Somalia as a society than Japan.

Which reminds me of something I was reading about Puntland, a bit of Somalia that has given up on the central government and kind of got its own act together, including apparently doing something about piracy. In particular:

"In May 2010, construction also began on a new naval base in the town of Bandar Siyada... The facility is funded by Puntland's regional government in conjunction with Saracen International, a UK-based security company." - my bold. Quite a ticket!

Anyway, don't want to drag off topic - my point is just, at least IMTU, there are going to be things dissuading rational people from shooting up even defenceless settlements.

 

[Darzoni]

IMTU, it is legal to have a starship with weapons. After all, piracy is a bit easier when warp travel is involved.

It is not legal, however, to shoot them at a planet or other settlement. That tends to get the Imperial Navy involved. And IMTU where FTL communication exists between major naval bases, it's a pretty stupid thing to do.

 

[Solomani666]

IMTU Civilian ships are only allowed turreted weapons or their equivalent in fixed mounts.

So:

Beam lasers.
Pulse lasers.
Standard Missiles.
Small Particle Accelerators.
Sand Casters.