[PoD] Planetary attitudes

cunningrat

Banded Mongoose
The mainworld attitudes in the Pirates of Drinax campaign (Haven, Hostile, etc) reflect the world's attitude both towards piracy and towards the Kingdom of Drinax. This works well for the default PoD campaign.

My players, wanting to make my life very difficult, are bending over backwards to keep the two separate. In 11 sessions, they themselves haven't pirated a single ship. Piracy is only done by NPCs, only used to keep Oleb happy and pressure the Imperium, and never involves the Harrier. They are not likely to be able to distance themselves 100% -- NPCs do talk, and secrets have a way of coming out -- but the connections will be tenuous.

Any suggestions on how to deal with the attitudes part of the campaign? Keeping track of two sets of attitudes would be a pain in the neck. I could almost get by with keeping track only of the attitudes towards the Kingdom, since piracy is never done on-screen. Question is, where would those attitudes start?
 
the attitudes of the nearby planets to drinax are listed in the campaign itself, specifically the Trojan Reach book iirc.

the only attitude vis a vis piracy is the imperium and heirate, as written the campaign itself does not track individual planets attitude towards piracy.

although one would expect them to get upset if they recognize the same pirates attacking trade to their planet repeatedly...
 
adzling said:
the attitudes of the nearby planets to drinax are listed in the campaign itself, specifically the Trojan Reach book iirc.
the only attitude vis a vis piracy is the imperium and heirate, as written the campaign itself does not track individual planets attitude towards piracy.
I'm sorry, you're mistaken. Book 1, page 9:
"In this campaign, starports are classified not only by their letter rating (A-E), but also by their relationship with the pirates. Ports can be Havens, Friendly, Tolerant, Neutral, Suspicious, Unfriendly or Hostile.
Haven ports are either part of the pirate’s organisation, or count the pirates as their own ships....
Friendly ports are willing accomplices in the piratical trade....
Tolerant ports are willing to turn a blind eye to fencing goods... but are otherwise not involved in piracy..."
and so on.
 
If you want to keep it REALLY simple then you can treat the planet's disposition toward the PCs (and Drinax) as being 1+ levels higher than its 'actual' status, depending on how well they've kept their involvement in piracy secret, at least from the local authorities in that system. Or (slightly more variable), bump them up by half the difference between the planet's disposition and 'haven', since cutting the negative in half is the standard when dealing with Imperium/Hierate negotiations later on.

I think that the situation will also depend heavily on whether the piratical activities that they're overseeing are readily tied back to Drinax. If they are then the planet's disposition can more or less be used as-is. If Drinax is not being implicated then the planet's relationship to Drinax matters to reforming the kingdom, so you'd be better off to track for that and not really worry about its views on piracy unless that barrier is broken, in which case the planet's vs-pirates attitude will assert itself (maybe one or two levels improved because hey, Drinax has been doing them good in other ways).
 
Garran said:
If Drinax is not being implicated then the planet's relationship to Drinax matters to reforming the kingdom, so you'd be better off to track for that and not really worry about its views on piracy

That's what I'm leaning towards.
Here's what I think the standings would look like before the characters get involved, and before we consider policies. If you'd like to offer comments, I would appreciate it.

Most planets not mentioned below: Neutral. (Drinax who?)
Aslan and Imperial ports: Unfriendly. (Why would we trade the status quo for an upstart Kingdom?)

Vorito: Hostile. (duh)
Hilfer: Unfriendly. (The scars of the old Kingdom's policies are still very much in evidence.)
Clarke: Suspicious. (Same reason.)
Paal: Friendly, because they want Drinax's Stuff.
Byrni: Suspicious (because they doubt Oleb is a fitting heir to the Sindalian throne.)
Camoran: Tolerant, moving to Friendly as 1108 looms closer.
Oghma: Unfriendly. (I don't think Makergod thinks in terms of alliances and trade: if it did, there'd be easier ways to take care of Oghmans than raiding. paltrysum may disagree and I would go with his opinion :) )
Marduk, Borite: Friendly (for the purpose of protection from Oghmans).
Acrid, Argona: Unfriendly while PRQ is in charge.
Pourne: Suspicious because of general xenophobia.
Noricum: likely Unfriendly. Non-charismatic dictatorship over 80 million people in a TL1 society probably looks a lot like the Roman Empire, with the accompanying pride. They'd be unlikely to bend knee to anyone.

Grand Duchy of Requille: probably Suspicious, since Drinax's rise would disrupt their precious status quo. But I don't really understand how the GDR thinks. (Yes, I know, the GDR is not a planetary government, but they have one hell of a war fleet, including a capital ship. They're a player, planetary government or no.)

Ideas? Comments? Thrown fish?
 
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