Why not just be a pirate?

[GamerDude]

If you were as rich as a large planetary gov, why would you be a pirate?

Um... The thrill of the notoriety, the power of having that much control over a large organization AND operating outside the law, severe personality flaw/issues, truly anti-social to the point of never making sense to others, a desire to heap revenge on those who you feel wronged you so badly that you MUST destroy everything they stand for no matter the cost?

Actually, remember the move "The Incredibles"? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317705/) The bad guy "Syndrome" was dissed as a kid by Mr. Incredible because the kid wanted to be Mr. I's sidekick. (I work alone kid).

The main plot of the movie was this kid grew up to build a like super-multi-billion dollar fortune (Bill Gates, eat your heart out) and turned a pacific island into a humongous complex above & below ground, all kinds of technology etc... all to destroy Mr. Incredible and put himself in the position of "Everyone's Beloved Superhero".

THAT is how someone that rich bothers with something that crazy.

 

[rust]

THAT is how someone that rich bothers with something that crazy.

I suspect it is more what Hollywood dares to present as a story in order
to make money, but I would very much hesitate to consider it as a re-
motely plausible example of human behaviour. :wink:

 

[DFW]

Um... The thrill of the notoriety, the power of having that much control over a large organization AND operating outside the law

I just don't see real world examples. Also, it would end VERY quickly. So, a few months of notoriety and then BK & the gallows.

 

[apoc527]

If I was a pirate, I'd go whole hog and use the battle rider concept on a flying jump drive mothership. Then I'd purposefully jump WAAYYY out in the system and send my SDB-munching battle riders in to deal with the SDBs. My battle riders would then board the actual targets and because I'd have a reputation of never killing crew, they'd surrender without a fight. Then I just fly away the targets.

If you were as rich as a large planetary gov, why would you be a pirate?

Because I like pirating! Duh...

What's the point of having all that money if I can't spend being a frickin' space pirate? Arrrrrr!

 

[Captain Jonah]

Where did those pirates get the tender and battle riders. Were they deserters from some sub sector fleet or nearby pocket empire. Was it provided by that evil noble/Megacorp boss who wants the sector in chaos or his rivals out of business. Are they privateers from a "legal" war between wars who went rogue (well more rogue).

The clasic OTU corsair is described as being an old salvage ship design that just happens to be usefull as a pirate. These are around to be stolen.

The doggies build purpose corsairs but they spend all the time raiding each other, these could be made availalbe to allies or starmercs who then go rogue and pirate in the Imperium.

Any civilian ship with weapons can pirate a civilian ship without weapons.
A scout/courier may not look scary but if it has a tripple turret at optimum range and you have empty hardpoints its suddenly a lot more scary.

Something else to consider. There are lots of places pirates can strike which are not highly developed systems. Look at spinward, there are refueling worlds on the jump 1 mains that are empty and which need to be patroled by the surrounding systems. hang around here till the patrol moves on and its time for a bit o piratin....

A pirate Q-ship in a convoy, take the escort by suprise or wait till your captain is invited over for dinner and go with a boarding crew. Pop over to visit a few of the other ships in the convoy, swap goods or supply's and have your launch packed with troops.

 

[zero]

DFW hit it with the comment on having a J-Drive plus a useful Cargo hold means you wont have the armour to survive once the Battleships come a'callin'.

My own ship had enough tonnage and creds for a turret, but certainly not armour. But then, the ship is small enough to not interest pirates and can make monthly payments just fine if the players do the work, so the Navy should leave them alone too.
Basically, if the players keep their heads down and not make enemies, they'll survive.

This is easier for a self-employed freight run team (we got a Marine player, but the ship is a merchant vessel, not a combat one) when dealing with the honest freight run market and the occasional patron, if they pay in advance (or the half now, rest later method) of course. Those will be the only jobs they'd take anyway and computers can check if the creds have been wired to their account quick enough before they venture out.

The double turret would also only be used regularly as a sand caster (laser defense, pretty sure torps can be outrun) with perhaps a beam laser now and then to dissuade attackers, but its not going to take anyone out with just that. Of course, leading chasers to a starport so security can take over to take out the criminals is another option for my freight-runner players.

 

[rust]

Something else to consider. There are lots of places pirates can strike which are not highly developed systems.
[...]
A pirate Q-ship in a convoy ...

In my view the main problem is not to steal something (although this can
be difficult enough) but to sell the stolen goods. Few merchant ships will be
so pirate friendly to transport cargoes of high value density which can ea-
sily be sold on the black market. The pirates are just as likely to have ris-
ked their lives for dozens of dtons of spare parts for the vanadium mine
on Adam I, with no other mine which could use the parts in the entire sec-
tor, or for a cargo hold full of frozen Ugly Shrimps from Vomit IV, impos-
sible to sell except on the planet Mortal Danger with the naval base on it.
If you take a look at the trade goods in Merchant Prince, there are hardly
any Spanish treasure galleons, but lots and lots of stuff no pirate would
be happy to have to deal with.

And then there are the law abiding business people of the region. There
are not that many ship movements in a frontier region that it would be
impossible for a merchant to know the general picture of the trade, and
if a cargo of Aslan Left Paw Slippers is lost to pirates in System A and a
short time later someone begins to sell Aslan Left Paw Slippers in System
B, even Grandpa Greedy with his mild dementia will understand what is
going on, and will be tempted to tell the navy to take a closer look at the
people behind this special offer.

 

[Captain Jonah]

As rust says.

That is why there are bold pirates and old pirates but no old bold pirates.

Half the job of a pirate has nothing to do with raiding ships and everything to do with spys and agents.

Randomly hitting passing cargo ships may be bold but it also leads to a short career and a quick painfull end.

Your old pirates will have agents and spysat the ship yards and brokerages. A few bribes to those underpaid clerks at the system traffic or customs offices to see who has the nice cargo and who has the rubbish.
Your actual raider sits of at a refueling point along the main. You have a scout or two running messages and a frieghter or two doing legal runs to pick up the cargos.

Plus a decent forger, a legit broker and more bribed customs agents and clerks.

You find a few ships with long range cargos, jump out with your scout before them and alert the corsair so it knows who to hit. Taking the ship could bring in a lot of money but its also hard to sell as has been mentioned.

On the other hand hit a ship with a decent cargo you can resell a few parsecs away and you can get less money but more quickly. A merchant buys 100Dtons of trade goods and makes the long run to its market. At the mid point refueling stop it is hit by the pirates who grab the trade goods and documents. These are sent on to the intended market where the documents are forged to the "new" owners and sold on the market. Take the cash and leave again.

TO make "piracy" work requires a great deal of planning and a big widespread oranisation. Your bold pirate crew may be the fear of the space lanes for a few weeks and may grab a hot merchant or two but then they are dead.

The best pirates are the ones you don't even know are out there. Take a ship so quietly everyone thinks it is a miss jump or accident. From spinward or corridor sell them cheap to the doggies with a suggestion that they take them deeper into doggie space and never visit the imperium.

 

[rust]

Well, the colonies in North America where quite willing to trade with pirats as long as the prices where good.

True, but this was an economy where one could sell almost every cargo
at almost every port, because there were few specialized goods, and whe-
re the tax system made legally imported goods hideously expensive - or
simply unavailable because of some navigation act and European conflict
interrupting the trade routes.

Besides, there was not much of a permanent navy presence, because the
fleets had to return to Europe before the hurricane season in the West In-
dies, where most of their bases were, because the West Indies were both
much more valuable and much more difficult to protect from the many "in-
terested" neighbours there.

All in all, I see only very few parallels between the situation in the North
American colonies and the situation in the Third Imperium.

 

[GamerDude]

THAT is how someone that rich bothers with something that crazy.

I suspect it is more what Hollywood dares to present as a story in order
to make money, but I would very much hesitate to consider it as a remotely (re-motely) plausible example of human behaviour (behavior). :wink:

*ensures spelling checker is on, forced line breaks off, good**

Thanks for the wink, and I am quite confident you were aware I was using an artificial extreme from a cartoon to make a point, that is: If someone is nuts enough, they WILL spend insane amounts of money towards a goal.

 

[spinwardpirate]

Um... The thrill of the notoriety, the power of having that much control over a large organization AND operating outside the law

I just don't see real world examples. Also, it would end VERY quickly. So, a few months of notoriety and then BK & the gallows.

I'm trying to think of one. Given time, I probably can. One did that come to mind doesn't exactly fit the model you are citing, i.e., Captain Kidd. The circumstances of his acts of "piracy", translated to space, would make for an interesting rpg campaign.

I've read these Traveller piracy threads for decades now, and one thing that always mystifies me is the fact that some many people play in a 3I that is... one big happy family. In my 3I, there's plenty of intrigue between worlds in a subsector, enough to justify the occasional act of piracy as one noble plots against another, or turns a blind eye when a crime committed in another system works in his favor.

 

[spinwardpirate]

Besides, there was not much of a permanent navy presence, because the fleets had to return to Europe before the hurricane season in the West Indies, where most of their bases were, because the West Indies were both much more valuable and much more difficult to protect from the many "interested" neighbours there.

Do you have a reference for this? If so, I'd like to read it. I've spent far more time than I care to admit studying piracy in the so-called Golden Age, and this is the first time I recall reading this.

All in all, I see only very few parallels between the situation in the North American colonies and the situation in the Third Imperium.

One of the big differences is the fact that you can't pull your starship into a secluded cove and careen her, though I suppose you rule that it would be possible with shipboard fabricators of a sufficiently high TL.

 

[R Arceneaux]

Why is ownership of the ship even needed.

The situation could be delt out that an Non Player Character agrees to take the party somewhere if they perform a task for them.

The situation could be delt out that a government or military agency could loan them the use of the ship--to be returned in whatever condition at the completion of mission.

 

[Beastttt]

1 way I would set up an Approach Control Station
this would be a 5000 ton armed space station just inside the 100d limit(say 2d from the limit)
this station is marked as a safe transit point on all star maps

the idea is you jump to the point just outside the 100d limit near the ACS and shelter under it's weapons(once in range and while parked no active targeting sensor may be used)
the station would carry out inspections and transit fees
SDB's would escort ships to the planet

the ACS would have limited repair and extra fuel for the SDBs

a fleet of 6 400 ton SDBs should do it
1 support for the station
2 on escort duty
1 patrolling the gas giants
2 on planet for repairs/training/etc

3 extra crews

 

[Vile]

How accurately can the Jump emergence point be calculated? If there is a reasonable volume of traffic around such a station, would there be a risk of "collision" from vessels jumping in?

 

[Beastttt]

I'd say 10 a day as a max limit
time of arrival would have been long set ahead of time
pretty much everybody knows who is coming in and where
unscheduled traffic would have a note to come in from farther out

 

[GamerDude]

How accurately can the Jump emergence point be calculated? If there is a reasonable volume of traffic around such a station, would there be a risk of "collision" from vessels jumping in?

what are you trying to do, exit jump in planetary orbit?

Can't happen, 100d rule prevents anyone from jumping in that close.

Now if the station you are aiming for is outside of the 100d limit.. now you have a shot at exiting JS in the middle of a mess.

 

[GamerDude]

Why is ownership of the ship even needed.

The situation could be delt out that an Non Player Character agrees to take the party somewhere if they perform a task for them.

The situation could be delt out that a government or military agency could loan them the use of the ship--to be returned in whatever condition at the completion of mission.

CT adventure 'Signal SK'... the players are "loaned" a Type-S scout ship even if they have one.

 

[GamerDude]

I've read these Traveller piracy threads for decades now, and one thing that always mystifies me is the fact that some many people play in a 3I that is... one big happy family. In my 3I, there's plenty of intrigue between worlds in a subsector, enough to justify the occasional act of piracy as one noble plots against another, or turns a blind eye when a crime committed in another system works in his favor.

Um.. Read the CT adventure "Divine Intervention"

The planet you are on is in a diplomatic and espionage battle over Pavabid, a theocracy run planet.
The planet you are on can't be found out it is trying to manipulate the Pavabid leadership, since that would seriously hurt their application to join the Imperium

And as I've pointed out before, "Signal SK" which has tensions between the Imperium and the Solomani Confederation.

Signal SK also has, in the third part, pirates attacking and boarding the ship the players are travelling on (not the scout ship from earlier).

 

[Beastttt]

the station is at 98d a short hop get to a safe habor

How accurately can the Jump emergence point be calculated? If there is a reasonable volume of traffic around such a station, would there be a risk of "collision" from vessels jumping in?

what are you trying to do, exit jump in planetary orbit?

Can't happen, 100d rule prevents anyone from jumping in that close.

Now if the station you are aiming for is outside of the 100d limit.. now you have a shot at exiting JS in the middle of a mess.