Merchants weapons

[phavoc]

Who needs nukes from orbit when you have physics (i.e. rods from the gods) to do all the F=M*A? I think players are nuke happy when good ol kinetic energy strikes will be more than enough.

Rather than worry about people randomly nuking a city I'd think most planetary authorities would be far more worried about a broken down piece of junk (i.e a poorly maintained ship) falling out of orbit.

 

[Vormaerin]

As always, this argument fails to resolve the initial condition. What does piracy look like in the area in question? In the Imperial Core, it's probably entirely hijackings, barratry, and opportunistic merchant in the backwaters. Very unlikely most merchants would actually be armed at all, because they are jumping from high end location to high end location.

Piracy in the Trojan Reach is quite different. And you'll need to consider whether the pirate is going to take the ship and space the crew or not even if you surrender. The significantly reduced level of safety means merchants will have to invest more in being safe, including weapons and possibly armor.

What a merchant is armed with, if anything, is going to be determined by what they can expect the other likely threats to be armed with. If the other guy has a high likelihood of particle barbettes that's gonna be quite different from if the have pulse lasers.

And so on.

 

[rinku]

Yeah. and it's worth remembering that the original Traveller default is adventure on the wild frontier, with a powerful but distant government.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Part of the problem a pirate has is that the Merchant doesn't care how much damage or what type they do to the Pirate so long as it stops the attack BUT the pirate DOES care about the damage to the merchant. Too much damage to the merchant and the cargo will be destroyed in whole or in part or will be scattered in space needing recovery and possibly taking more damage from exposure. No profit in the destroyed cargo.

The real piracy that works? Taking passage on the ship, being concealed in the cargo, having members of the crew be among the pirate or sabotage while in port. Much more effective as you don't fight and damage the ship, if it works you have the ship as part of your plunder as well.

 

[rinku]

Ehhh. It's all overall profit and loss. Making an example of a feisty merchant who puts up a fight may result in easier encounters later on.

You're correct that a pirate will aim to minimise damage to the victim, but if they expend MCr1 in ordnance and repairs in order to loot MCr2 of cargo, belongings, salvage and fittings, it's still a win. Heck, a single beam laser is worth Cr500,000!

Historically, if they fight, they die.