Why not just be a pirate?

[spinwardpirate]

Also, note that during the Age of Sail, it wasn't as if the pirate problem was so huge that it created massive impediments to trade. It sucked only if your ship was the unlucky one.

The same is true today. The Somali pirates aren't even a drop in the bucket, and they are no where near as powerful as the Barbary Pirates were.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I've been studying pirates for decades now. Last year I had the good fortune to get my employer to send me to the U.S. Naval Institute history conference titled Piracy on the High Seas: Can History Help Defeat Present-Day Pirates?.

As the keynote speaker pointed out:

Barbary pirates represented a real threat to general commerce in their region of operation; successfully pirated a significant amount of merchant tonnage working in that area and every single merchantman was vulnerable to attack by Barbary pirates. Somali pirates by contrast have attacked less than one third of one percent of traffic in their area of operation, and most ships of the type that carry international commerce are actually not vulnerable to Somali pirates at all. Therefore from a system effect perspective, Barbary pirates represented a true international threat to general economic well being and trade as well as the lives millions, ashore and at sea. For the Somalia case, international trade proceeds apace uninhibited by Somali pirates and therefore piracy has as yet not had a system wide impact. I think this is an important point to emphasize. I am not saying there have not been significant effects on individual businesses. Have some smaller or thinly capitalized companies been hurt or even gone out of business because of costs associated with a pirate incident? Yes. Has the overall system been impaired in any way? NO.

Extrapolate that into the 3I, and in my opinion that solidifies the position of those who believe the Imperial forces don't generally care.

One of the best things that came out of that conference was Dr. Virginia Lunford's six points of piracy. She theorized that, in order for pirates to flourish, the following are needed:

• An available population of potential recruits
  A secure base of operations
  A sophisticated organization
  Some degree of outside support
  Cultural bonds that engender vibrant group solidarity
  Access to goods or materials

A clever gm who wants to add pirates to his game would be wise to follow that model.

 

[zero]

A Pirate Base as noted if near a populated planet has a place to recruit from, the base would be secure and the Pirates would be organised in said base (perhaps a Pirate Guild would fir overall?).

Cultural bonds will depend on the world, a less tyrannical, democratic type world would probably fit for that.
The planet would also be where they get goods and materials to function. This gives me the idea that Pirates would function in a solidified Guild-type organisation rather than a bunch of individuals in their own ships (Pirate Bases kinda solidify that).

Outside support could be unwilling with businesses selling equipment to people they dont know are "Pirate Guild" (note the marks to show I'm going off-canon with this) members. Or... they gain support from other "Pirate Guild factions" from nearby systems. Now Pirate Bases are pretty rare compared to other bases, which would lead me to believe that Pirates may have access to J6 ships if their world's TL can handle it (again nearby Pirates could probably just Jump over and trade J-tech to them...).

The Pirate Rogue career in the Core has a ranking system, so there is a chain of command type of organisation canonically in place. It would be figuring out how a Pirate Guild would function thats a main point.

Going away from Trav for a second, in the anime Tenchi Muyo! there is a Pirate Guild where with powerful ships better than anyone elses, they got so rich some factions went into legimate ventures and one set up a colony on a planet and their ruler started the royal family there. This Royalty even sends black sheep members to the still functioning Pirate Guild where they can fuel the coffers whilst having zero public connection to the now 1000s of years set royal family of that world.

YMMV on how you would use this in YTU of course.

 

[SSWarlock]

<thread hijack>

"na NAH nah nah, na NAH nah nah, a pirate's life for me, Yo Ho!"
- Cap'n Jack Sparrow

(Apologies. Pirates of the Caribbean was on TV and I just had to get it out of my system. I now return you to the regularly scheduled discussion.)

</thread hijack>

 

[GamerDude]

For me any discussion about Traveller is always OTU/3 Imperium since I do not care about other settings.

Using the 3I also gives us a frame of reference that we can all work from.

Exactly! Any discussion needs a framework, a frame of reference so all parties involved actually do understand what each other means.

Also, when you say "in Traveller" what does that mean? Withing the mechanics no setting influence at all? Look again, the OTU, the 3I totally influenced the mechanics (how FTL works, FTL comm not existing, etc.) They may have originally not been tied together so closely as far as how everything was published, but it's like trying to say Gary Gygax's world of Greyhawk had ZERO influence on D&D when the deities and culture was core to the D&D mechanics until 4th ed.

I guess, as I've pointed out a few times, we have a few who only see 'there TU' and that's their "canon" and every post is really them "no this is how my TU is, and it's right otherwise I'm wrong I can't be wrong so you must agree"... but the funny thing is, the biggest "no I don't use the OTU" has been crying out about taxation abuse and demands of protection from the 3I, which brings this all back full circle.

 

[rust]

I guess, as I've pointed out a few times, we have a few who only see 'there TU' and that's their "canon" and every post is really them "no this is how my TU is, and it's right otherwise I'm wrong I can't be wrong so you must agree"... but the funny thing is, the biggest "no I don't use the OTU" has been crying out about taxation abuse and demands of protection from the 3I, which brings this all back full circle.

I am only responsible for what I write into my posts, not for what you ma-
nage to read into them - if you did read them. :roll:

 

[rust]

If one wants pirats in the 3I and "some plausibility" a few controls are:

I would add a "non-monolithic" political situation, preferably with many
small independent or semi-independent interstellar states which are mo-
re or less hostile to each other and tend to either ignore or even support
piracy which preys on other states. This creates "sanctuaries" for the pi-
rates, regions where at least one navy is highly unlikely to attack them,
and where at least one state's law enforcement cannot operate openly.

 

[DFW]

If one wants pirats in the 3I and "some plausibility" a few controls are:

I would add a "non-monolithic" political situation, preferably with many
small independent or semi-independent interstellar states which are mo-
re or less hostile to each other and tend to either ignore or even support
piracy which preys on other states. This creates "sanctuaries" for the pi-
rates, regions where at least one navy is highly unlikely to attack them,
and where at least one state's law enforcement cannot operate openly.

I think this is critical. Privateering (official or unofficial) was probably more prevalent, over all, in the Age of Sail than actual pirating. Because of the situation you mention.

 

[GamerDude]

Ultimately it is a GM/group decision...

Bingo, the most true statement in all of this.. Cheers!

If one wants pirats in the 3I and "some plausibility" a few controls are:

• Planetary "navies" at least in lesser systems are restricted to 10D from their world. This is supported by COAAC and keeps the "local" SDB force small and away from the 100D
• The navy uses a "patrol" concept where ships are shifting from system to system on a regular base and operate in groups of 2-6. That way there are windows where a system has no imperial presence. This will require smart pirats and maybe corrupt officials (selling the patrol plan)
• The Imperium is relatively corrupt. Think mid-late Imperial Rome ("A good shepherd shears his sheep, he doesn't flay them", Tiberius). This can result in anything from sold patrol plans to differences between reported and real strength (The original reason for parades was to give monarchs a chance to count the soldiers)
• Use a part of the universe that has trade routes passing through uninhabited and/or very low tech systems, forcing "frontier refuelling" and adding potential ambush locations
• A certain amount off "internal problems" and the occasional "mutineer navy ship" add to the mix

I like this, although I'm not sure which '10d' limit you would be talking about... seriously the sun's? the primary habited planet? the location of the base/colony on the orbit farthest from the sun? I can't recall at the moment seeing anything in any of the books limiting local system forces to a mere 10d, which to me wouldn't make sense since all ships would be dropping out of JumpSpace at 100d. That's 90d of space for them to be attacked in.

If I may offer a different thought on that point... That systems are most likely responsible for/limited to the outer edge of the system as defined by the orbit of the outermost planet/planetoid of the system, and 100d above and below the "plane of the ecliptic" for that system. It is a much larger volume but could make much more sense in covering all the operations and settlements within the system.

If it is a poorer system, the population etc limited pretty much to the planet and it's moons, then the 10d limit could be easily sensible.

I went to Wikipedia, and got the Mean Diameter of Earth, and the average orbital distance of the Moon from Earth.


Earth has a mean radius of 6,371km or a mean diameter of 12,742km. A 10d limit would mean 127,420km from Earth.
The Moon has an average orbital distance of 384,000km, or approximately 3 times that of the 10d limit. Any planetary gov't that wasn't permitted to go even a third of the distance to their own moon would be severely hampered in any efforts to protect anything, and why bother establishing settlements elsewhere in the system with these constraints.

Now this is food for thought, using the physical stats for Earth/the Moon as a way to illustrate a viewpoint. A 100d makes (to me) more sense, but it is a matter of how the GM sees things in their universe.

 

[rust]

I like this, although I'm not sure which '10d' limit you would be talking about...

It is explained in COACC. Basically, the planetary forces are responsible
for the defence out to the 10d limit of their planet, and beyond that the
Imperium's responsibility begins. However, this is handled differently in
different versions of Traveller, and there are even obvious contradictions
within the different versions.

 

[DFW]

If one wants pirats in the 3I and "some plausibility" a few controls are:

• Planetary "navies" at least in lesser systems are restricted to 10D from their world. This is supported by COAAC and keeps the "local" SDB force small and away from the 100D

• 
  
  Except, there is PLENTY of 3I Cannon that states SDBs patrol out to the GG's.
  So, that doesn't work.

 

[GamerDude]

I like this, although I'm not sure which '10d' limit you would be talking about...

It is explained in COAAC.

*goes to his PDF of COAAC*

C.O.A.C.C = CLOSE ORBIT AND AIRSPACE CONTROL COMMAND

Ok, *sighs* read the definition.. CLOSE ORBIT (near planet) and AIR SPACE (INSIDE the atmosphere). This is for planetary air forces, not the space navy/system defense. The diagram showing the 10d limit clearly labels it as "ARMY"

THE COACC MISSION
The Close Orbit and Airspace Control Command has the basic mission of atmospheric combat This mission is further defined as

• The achievement of air combat superiority over rival air commands.
• The attack of enemy forces and resources by air.
• The provision of air combat support to friendly ground commands and nautical commands
• The operation of air transportation support to friendly ground commands and nautical commands.

This is a book that, since I've never been interested in building detailed planetary air force commands or planes/dirigibles, I had just put off to the side and forgetting it.

My 20 years in the USAF serves me well here, 20 years of having to study the history of air power, of air tactics, etc to test for promotion and such. This entire book is just that, a manual on creating a planetary defense force built around AIR craft and ground/wet naval forces. IMNSHO, to use this as a blueprint for what a planetary gov't is limited to do in defense of an entire solar system, is like using the laws governing the operations of say, our FBI, to guide and restrict what the US Military can do/where it can go.

 

[zero]

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 :?

 

[rust]

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 :?

Sorry, I did not ignore it, I just forgot to post an answer.

A pirate guild could well be built upon the various historical models of the
Age of Sail, from the more informal Brotherhood of Buccaneers to the
very well organized commercial Dutch West Indies Company, which paid
shares of its profits from attacks on Spanish treasure ships to its share-
holders in Holland. I almost suspect that the second, commercial model
would be more common in a Traveller setting, it could provide the finan-
cial backing for the purchase and outfitting of corsairs and the organiza-
tion for the sale of the booty. Of course, it would most probably have to
stay under the radar, more like the mafia than like a public company as
the Dutch West Indies Company - except in Vargr space, of course.

 

[zero]

^ Cool, thanks for the response rust :wink: I dont really know much about the Vargr (I only have the Core and havent dabbled much in OTU before this week), but I agree an organised Guild with connections to other organisations (that will target specific ships) would be how Pirates function IMTU at least.

They would be more like counter-trade agents than pure hit'em and keep the booty pirates, but their methods would be the same (except my Pirates would have to use their profits to gain their ships and gear, thus making a little trading game for a campaign right there! :lol: )

 

[GamerDude]

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 :?

Zero I don't know why you feel that way. I know my posts have been focused on the um... delusions... of a few, but you have made quite a bit of sense.

 

[rust]

I dont really know much about the Vargr ...

As they are usually described, "going corsair" is both an honourable pro-
fession and an acceptable business model for Vargr. It may be a bit im-
polite, but I think their mentality is not much different from that of the
English "merchant adventurers" and seadogs of the Francis Drake kind.

 

[zero]

@ Gamerdude, the comment wasnt aimed at anyone, just a little annoyed my previous post at page's top was ignored completely.

@ rust, cheers for the info. A little like how the Quarians (Tali's race) are seen in Mass Effect then? But with the point that the Vargr actually do go around and steal stuff?

 

[rust]

A little like how the Quarians (Tali's race) are seen in Mass Effect then? But with the point that the Vargr actually do go around and steal stuff?

I have to pass on this one, I do not know Mass Effect.

The Vargr have a society based upon the charisma of their leaders, and
so a lucky guy with high charisma can easily find followers and lead them
into adventure, which more often than not means an "expedition" into the
Imperial frontier space to capture a few ships or to raid a small colony -
whatever promises success and booty with minimal risk.

 

[rust]

The 10D limit would be that of the world, easily enough for a world up to TL8 since they can't do much more.

I tend to agree, at least there has to be a point in space where the res-
ponsibility of the planetary government ends and the responsibility of the
Imperial navy begins.

However, I think this would depend on the local situation, a planet able to
finance and operate a system navy would probably have control over the
entire system, while on a low population and low technology planet with
an Imperial starport the airspace and low orbit may be under the control
of the Imperial navy.

In the end I would imagine something like a "default system", where the
planetary government controls whatever it is able to reliably control, and
the Imperial navy controls "by default" what the planetary government
is unable to control. Of course, whether this navy control is in the form
of an actual navy presence or just a legal fiction depends on the way one
views the Third Imperium.

 

[rust]

I am not quite sure how the nobles' "housecarls", their private forces,
could fit into this.

I would imagine that a rich, well trusted noble could be allowed quite
a substantial force, including spaceships and perhaps even starships,
for example a yacht and a few escorts, while a poor, unreliable noble
would have to do with a couple of bodyguards.

Some of the bigger "housecarl" forces could either be a part of the pla-
netary forces, or at least cooperate with them whenever needed, inclu-
ding perhaps anti-piracy duty within the system - or the noble could
use them as his "private pirates" in a conflict with another system's no-
ble or a megacorporation.

Unfortunately there seem to be very few official informations about the
"housecarls" of the Third Imperium nobles, their capabilities and legal
obligations, so it is hard to tell what their role might be, if any.