Not on this occasion, but I have responded to similar arguments in the past. Essentially, the conditions that apply for surface ships on surface seas are not analogous to the conditions that prevail for starships in the Traveller universe . If they were, ships would teleport from 3 miles seawards of one harbor to 3 miles seawards of another harbor.
Hans
Here's my response from my "Civvies with guns" thread;
I posted a real pirate incident that happened five years ago in the Indian Ocean region near Yemen. That kind of stuff happens more often than not. In the Carribean and off of the west coast of Africa it's more a case of swimmers heading out to yachts and looting money, TVs, computers and the like.
When I think of Traveller, I think of a close cousin to Star Wars where you get the occasional Millennium Falcon type captain who's slapped some AAA on his ship for "self defense". Maybe the guy and his crew walk around armed, maybe not. It depends on the world and other circumstances. But, the ship is capable of repelling the casual thief/pirate.
I read a post by a yachtsman on another BBS who told of some cannibal pirates in the Phillipenes, and how he and his buddy had to gun their engines to escape a souped up barge sporting something like an M-60 or SAW on the front nose. Another account told of two yachts that were being attacked by pirates armed with AK-47s. The yacht owners returned fire with shotguns using Buck-00 to keep the heads down of the pirates. This let one of the yachts maneuver for a ram, which nearly sank the pirate vessel. All these incidents happened within the last five years, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
So, piracy on the high seas still happens. *snip*
I think the problem here, as you pointed out, is the intensity and magnitude. It would appear that from listening to the more worldly travelled, that piracy, on a low key status, is still very much active. So how often do you encounter a pirate with a Phalanx CIWS mounted on the prow, or even a five inch autoloading gun? Never. However, if we were still in a time with lawless oceans like the 15th to 19th centuries, then there might be a possibility of it.
I think the Imperium, as discussed in other threads, is full of possibilities. I'll grant that there are some real practical considerations here; i.e. where do you dock, where do you ge spare parts for that gimble that absorbs shock that might've been translated to the power plant, or that rare special fit bleeder hose that kicks excess moisture out the hull, rare batteries, how do you keep from being IDeed when you go near civilized space, and how do you explain that you were gone for six months without a flight plan or setting down on any world with any kind of traffic monitoring?
You could chalk it up to adventure, or, if you're a real hard-@$$ of a REF, just put the bureaucratic wheels to your players, then call in those TL-15 marines that happen to be acting as starport security for that day, and then watch your players sweat as they try to double talk their way out of how they got their hands on a ship that fired off a mayday three weeks ago,
So, yeah, you're right. It's not all "let's attack and rob a ship blind, then see if we can hock the plunder at some seedy world", but that doesn't make for fun adventuring... if you're of a pirate mindset.
Just me.
