Why not just be a pirate?

@ rust, you have frankly made the Vargr sound awesome to me. I really have a thing for the whole "Errol Flynn" (sp?) type adventurer (I had a Half-Elf Bard based partly on that trope in 3.5 D&D) and it sounds like the Vargr leaders are pretty similar :lol:

Also for education and inspiration;

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Quarian

After playing Mass Effect 2, I found a real love for Traveller and space adventures and I was upset that due to my slowness of action I managed to lose the lovely Quarian crewmember Tali instead of keep her alive in my attempt at the final mission (basically you may lose squadmates if you dont act with complete dilligence, I lost one - Tali). When I import my save to ME3 she shall be missed :cry:

Back on-topic, whilst IMTU I may have a Pirating Guild, it seems how far the Navy is involved is the new topic.
I again suggest the prevalence of the Navy is down to where their Bases are at, hex wise.
You could also say that High tech world hexes with neither Pirate or Navy bases have the ability of their planetary forces to quash the pirates, whilst low tech worlds with neither base will have no real presence of either.

I've noticed as I am planning a Solomani Confederation space game, that there is a lack of Navy and Scout bases, but quite a few Zhodani bases turn up. Travellermap.com doesnt show Pirate Bases so I'm going to random roll 'em (and the TAS bases) for the Orichalc subsector where the game will be (Whether as a result of a lack of Navy bases Piracy will be rife will depend on the random number god).

As an aside I'm going to treat noted Zhodani bases as Imperial Consulates but run by Zhodani.
 
"Attention merchant ship Beowolf. This is the pirate guild corsiar Blackheart. Please verify your status as paid up with the guild or we will attack."

"Blackheart this is beowolf, transmiting codes now. We have paid guild fees till the end of the year for full protection from attacks"

Beowolf, blackheart. Confirmed, you are free to continue. Have a nice day."

As soon as people started talking guild Pratchett just sprang to mind :D

Still getting back to organised pirates and privateers. A noble reacts to pirate attacks in his system buy raising a levy on all ships in the system. Any ship that refuses to pay is subject to boarding and confiscation of cargo. Protection racket, legal pirates. Did the noble even stage the first pirate attacks just to create the situation. Plus its probably all legal if its the planet or noble's ships and it doesn't involve the 3rdI since they are "maintaining the flow of trade"

Lots of types of pirates, only the stupid and soon to be dead ones go for the eye patch, parrot and random raid and board stuff.
 
@ Captain Jonah, thats exactly as I stated above and how I'll play it if my players come across them, maybe not the Guild taking taxes from them straight, but links to planetary governing structures and them attacking competition to their sponsors will be done (I dont want the players having to shell out blackmail money ontop of monthly costs as that stops all fun in the game).

@ Somebody, I agree with most of your post but I'm unsure how a False front company would work with the pirates as they would succeed more given resources from an actual company, rather than buying their gear under a false front (though both could work).
Also the whole False Front signed under an obscure Marque just makes me think of cons talking about "Ugandan Dollars" or say, a Swiss Bank account or anonymous seller from Zurich, not many people would deal with something like that with an ounce of common sense.
 
Captain Jonah said:
A noble reacts to pirate attacks in his system buy raising a levy on all ships in the system. Any ship that refuses to pay is subject to boarding and confiscation of cargo. Protection racket, legal pirates. Did the noble even stage the first pirate attacks just to create the situation. Plus its probably all legal if its the planet or noble's ships and it doesn't involve the 3rdI since they are "maintaining the flow of trade"
Click to expand...

Sounds like the beginning of all tax! :cry:

Seriously, it helps explain why there will be few pirates most of the time in stable parts of the 3I, the noble will purchase some off world tech and mercs, or gets help from the INS. Huge forces are not required, a handfull of SBDs and a squadron or two of fighters will be enough to deal with a pirate.

The second pirate to hit that system will be lucky to escape with his parrot.

Of course, in areas like District 258 and large parts of the Trojan Reaches the above don't really apply. Here be pirates.

Egil
 
@ zero:

I could imagine the daughter company of the daughter company of a le-
gitimate and well established company as a suitable False Front.

There is this well known and respected sector wide shipping line On Time
Corporation on planet Alpha. It owns 51 % of a daughter on planet Beta,
a general trading company named We Sell It. This trading company owns
51 % in another daughter company, We Make It Work, on the frontier pla-
net Gamma. We Make It Work is a false front for the On Time Corporati-
on's illegal piracy operation, which is designed to ruin its competitors.

We Make It Work supplies the pirates and buys their booty. The booty is
sold to We Get Rich, another 51 % daughter of the On Time Corporation
situated in a distant sector, where the booty is sold on the open market
and the supplies for the pirates are bought with the profits.

All the average customer sees is that he is dealing with a daughter of the
respected and perfectly legal On Time Corporation. No "Ugandan Dollars"
and Swiss bank accounts.
 
rust said:
I could imagine the daughter company of the daughter company of a le-
gitimate and well established company as a suitable False Front.

There is this well known and respected sector wide shipping line On Time
Corporation on planet Alpha. It owns 51 % of a daughter on planet Beta,
a general trading company named We Sell It. This trading company owns
51 % in another daughter company, We Make It Work, on the frontier pla-
net Gamma. We Make It Work is a false front for the On Time Corporati-
on's illegal piracy operation, which is designed to ruin its competitors.

We Make It Work supplies the pirates and buys their booty. The booty is
sold to We Get Rich, another 51 % daughter of the On Time Corporation
situated in a distant sector, where the booty is sold on the open market
and the supplies for the pirates are bought with the profits.

All the average customer sees is that he is dealing with a daughter of the
respected and perfectly legal On Time Corporation. No "Ugandan Dollars"
and Swiss bank accounts.
Click to expand...

Is there not some provision in Imperial High Law for trade wars? Ok, privateers rather than pirates, but that could fit the bill, if in YTU the High Law allows that. (Certainly in IMTU it looks rather dubious, problems on that scale between planets and corporations surely are what the Imperial Nobility were created to solve, without destabilising conflict).

Egil
 
zero said:
Pirate Guilds being set up so the local Navy has something to do? Local powers pulling protection rackets on worlds with their own Pirate agents?

Tbh, I dont care if either are OTU as I'm a bit tired of making posts in this thread here that get ignored. So whatever :?
Click to expand...

You have probably already done this, but it will be worth your while getting hold of a copy of "Scoundrel", which has a chapter on piracy, as well as chapter about other illegal activities that you might find begin to interest your players. Some interesting ideas about fencing goods and how much profit you might be able to make from piracy (and a few pointers as to how to avoid being blown away on your first illegal enterprise)

Egil
 
Hmmm ... I am just beginning to wonder whether Maersk has a daughter
company in Ethiopia which has a daughter company in Somalia ... :shock:

Edit.:
Maersk indeed has an African daughter, named Safmarine ... :lol:
 
Egil Skallagrimsson said:
You have probably already done this, but it will be worth your while getting hold of a copy of "Scoundrel", which has a chapter on piracy, as well as chapter about other illegal activities that you might find begin to interest your players. Some interesting ideas about fencing goods and how much profit you might be able to make from piracy (and a few pointers as to how to avoid being blown away on your first illegal enterprise)

Egil
Click to expand...
And most people either forget or don't realize it also has an excellent section on barbarian characters and dealing with "Lost World" situations by PCs who find themselves on a populated, extremely low-tech/no-tech world. Ever wonder how good that TL15 Imperial Marine sniper is after replacing his rifle with a sword, shield, and plate armor? :twisted:
 
Somebody said:
+ What is the armor factor of a tank-top and a miniskirt?
+ What is the add-on armor for being char description "well build blond"?
Click to expand...
This is UA (Ultimate Armour), no sane male will even consider to damage it. :lol:
 
@ rust, thanks for the explanation, makes more sense now. :)

Also, I dont have Scoundrel, but also I wouldnt really have my players doing space piracy etc just because it wouldnt work in the ship theyd have (a v. small unarmoured one).

The landing on Lost worlds does interest me with a world in my old sector that was basically Fuedal Japan that happily trade with the "Star men" :) However, I just use normal Traveller rules and ban the NPCs anything over a certain TL :roll: The rest kinda falls into place alright.

... and lol at rust for the UA :lol:
 
As a random side note, something I have done bfore and will again since it was never noticed.

A big starship weapons maker was publicly sponsoring a heroic Tri-D series involving the said hero's being starmercs hunting down pirates through out the sector and doing a pirate of the week thing. There was also sector wide PR company openly running adds for the Tre-D but behind the scenes staging events, running stories from "the next sub sector" etc to highlight how many pirates there were in the sector and how dangerous it was for unarmed ships.

With the odd staged pirate raid where pirates attacked a merchant and were driven off by a patrol cruiser that looked a lot like the show's one everyone was buzing about pirates and how a friend of a friend had seen/heard/been in a pirate attack.

Insurance rates went up, the sector fleet was forced to deploy extra forces. The players spend a bundle on triple turrets and weapons. The Weapons maker make Billions.

Total number of real pirate attacks in the area for the year. Zero.
The pirates stayed well clear because everyone had maximum weapons loads and the sector fleet was everywhere. :twisted:
 
If anyone's interested, I've posted a MSWord 2003 copy of a Letter of Marque I drafted for a GM 'way back when GDW debuted the Fifth Frontier War. It's based on a conglomeration of some actual Letters of Marque from the 1600-1700s. It can be found in the Adventures folder at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/MGT-Aids
 
SSWarlock said:
If anyone's interested, I've posted a MSWord 2003 copy of a Letter of Marque I drafted for a GM 'way back when GDW debuted the Fifth Frontier War. It's based on a conglomeration of some actual Letters of Marque from the 1600-1700s. It can be found in the Adventures folder at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/MGT-Aids
Click to expand...
And go over to the MGT-Aids thread here for more info and a follow up. http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=47027
 
Captain Jonah said:
Its a very narrow line and I'm a big bloke, I cover both sides at the same time :D
Click to expand...
"a big bloke"? My wife says I'm the same, except she uses the term "fat ass" *grin*
 
GamerDude said:
Captain Jonah said:
Its a very narrow line and I'm a big bloke, I cover both sides at the same time :D
Click to expand...
"a big bloke"? My wife says I'm the same, except she uses the term "fat ass" *grin*
Click to expand...

My wife prefers to use the term "traditionally shaped gamer" :)
 
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