On Corsairs, Pirates, Smugglers and Privateers.

[wbyrd]

Not all pirates are dirty, ill educated, and impoverished. there are enough of those to justify the stereotype, but in a significant number of cases pirates were not desperate men living by their daring, and ruthlessness.

some pirates are just professional criminals. In cases where communications are limited, and you have lots of empty space to duck into if your being chased by the law, criminal activity is an attractive option at times. Early pirates and the professional outlaws of the "old west", and 20s are a case in point.
They could rob a bank or train in one area then make a run across a state line to a location where they we're seen as folk heroes, or sheltered by corrupt individuals for a cut of the profits.
Since there was no rapid way for law enforcement or military to know of their crimes before they made good their getaway, a life of crime was a good way to make money, and live the good life for a while....followed by another robbery to refill the coffers when the money ran out.

More than one pirate started out as a common sailor who had a chance to make some 'easy money', others were drawn into the trade when their luck went south.
A merchant captain, and his crew, might decide to risk taking down a foreign ship, or an easy target to supplement his income after a bad turn of events, or a serious miscalculation on his part. after all it's not like they are friends, or family, and if the ship belongs to an enemy nation all the better.

Then there were the pirates who were pirates because they were able to raid shipping, then duck back to a friendly port where the trade was tolerated. Piracy might even be supported due to the political situation. the English,French, other assorted pirate/privateer/freebooters of the days of sail, the Barbary corsairs,even modern pirates operating in various regions, could spend a few years as a pirate. retire, and return to a civilized life...if one is available.
In some cases the piracy trade is viewed as a legitimate trade, once again see the Barbary corsairs, and Privateers such as Drake, and Kidd. They might even be viewed as heroes by the group that supports them.

All in all you have as many brands of pirate as there are ships on the sea, it really depends on the individual, the situation, and the motivations that lead to taking up the trade.

 

[Silverhawk]

Reading this thread reminded me of C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union series of novels. Part of that universe was that the Earth Company had built a fleet to bring the Colonials back in line. However as the war dragged on they refused to support the fleet of Mazian to requisition personnel and equipment from merchant ships by force.

Thus for a number of the novels the "Mazianni" are a definite set of pirates that are well known and feared in the merchant ship community.

 

[Kaeto]

I have a group of pirates in MTU the insignia on their ships use a spiderweb design and each pirate has that same symbol tattooed on their arms.

They do have a nemisis in one star system where they fear to tread. His symbol is a skull.

 

[BillDowns]

I hav a group of pirates in MTU the insignia on their ships use a spiderweb design and each pirate has that same symbol tattooed on their arms.

They do have a nemisis in one star system where they fear to tread. His symbol is a skull.

An this nemesis has an uplifted dog and an uplifted horse as side-kicks? And a Space Patrol in the subsector that really doesn't know he is the Commander?

:file_21:

 

[Kaeto]

An this nemesis has an uplifted dog and an uplifted horse as side-kicks? And a Space Patrol in the subsector that really doesn't know he is the Commander?

:file_21:

Yep. You'd be surprised how few players get the in joke.

 

[atpollard]

Yep. You'd be surprised how few players get the in joke.

Count me among the 'I don't get it' crowd. o:

 

[rancke]

Count me among the 'I don't get it' crowd. o:

That could be because Kaeto omitted to mention two 'Phin and an Ythri crewmates. Not to mention his family and crew of MHR humans.


Hans

 

[Carlobrand]

... Well, one of the posters mention that one might create a TU where the Navy was everywhere and thus there were no pirates or smugglers and that made me wonder, why would some people not like such a TU? ...

I'm a nasty one for liking to follow things through to their logical conclusion. I neither like nor dislike the idea of pirates. I simply observe that an Imperium that can afford multiple million-megacredit batrons of dreadnoughts in a given sector can also afford enough thousand-megacredit destroyer escorts to patrol the 273 Imperial worlds of the Marches, or pick your sector. One can put a couple of destroyer escorts in every Imperial system for less than the cost of a single batron. If you're feeling stingy, you can put a couple of Gazelles or Police Cruisers in each system for a bit more than the price of a single dreadnought.

That doesn't leave much room for piracy around the primary world. Off the beaten track, yes, but not at the primary world of any system. Which leaves me with two options.

1) The Imperium does prevent piracy and there are therefore no pirates beneath about a thousand dTons or so (which pretty well means the player should cut drives and wait to see which side wins rather than risk attracting fire as the raider and police duel). This means the "pirates" are semi-official warships playing "Klingon" (or maybe "Ferengi," in the case of the Vargr) to the Imperials' "Federation," heading out for glory and to make life difficult for the hated Imperium and quickly disavowed when caught. Either that or they're very well organized; see below.

2) The Imperium, for whatever reason, does NOT prevent piracy. Its ships are there to defend against military-level threats, but it leaves to the starport authority the responsibility to maintain the peace between armed civilian vessels - and leaves the civilian vessels to arm and protect themselves if they wish to go where such protection is inadequate. Why they would do that, and why a system would agree to become subject to the Imperium when the only thing they got from it was the right to not be subject to someone else's interstellar empire, that one stymies me.

In my view the pirates fall into three camps: opportunists (the odd scout running a protection racket in orbit around some hinterworld, corrupt police cruisers who are supposed to be protecting the world but instead demand a hefty fee under cover of their authority to let you pass), organized crime (the Corsairs, operating in conjunction with a network of operatives who tell them what targets to hit and who bribe or distract any police forces), and state-sponsored (some Vargr and Sword Worlds based pirates, operating out of police cruisers or Broadswords for cover - the Broadsword being particularly useful since it means they can also send troops down to extort payments from small poorly defended colonies). An effective prevention effort by the Imperium partly eliminates the first class (one still has the problem of policing the police), but bribery, a well-developed intelligence network and careful strategy can keep the second and third class in play.

One or two bribed or blackmailed radio operators or sensor operators, and you've turned an effective defense into one shot through with holes.

 

[Ulsyus]

All in all you have as many brands of pirate as there are ships on the sea, it really depends on the individual, the situation, and the motivations that lead to taking up the trade.

I get what you wrote, but am considering the aspect that this is in space, and the level of technical training is considerably more demanding than on an ironclad. I'm not saying that criminals can't have that. Plenty of meth cooks and computer hackers and corporate fraudsters have considerable technical skills in their fields. That sort of behaviour and lifestyle has, in what I've seen, led to limited professional lifespans in most participants.

Reading this thread reminded me of C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union series of novels.

That's an excellent example of interstellar pirates. There is of course the difference between Alliance-Union Space & the 3I, where in the latter there's an effective Imperial Navy, while in the former they were one of the two navies.

An this nemesis has an uplifted dog and an uplifted horse as side-kicks? And a Space Patrol in the subsector that really doesn't know he is the Commander?

:file_21:

Or was one of the sidekicks an insane albino K'kree who teamed up with a human?

 

[Kaeto]

I get what you wrote, but am considering the aspect that this is in space, and the level of technical training is considerably more demanding than on an ironclad. I'm not saying that criminals can't have that. Plenty of meth cooks and computer hackers and corporate fraudsters have considerable technical skills in their fields. That sort of behaviour and lifestyle has, in what I've seen, led to limited professional lifespans in most participants.



That's an excellent example of interstellar pirates. There is of course the difference between Alliance-Union Space & the 3I, where in the latter there's an effective Imperial Navy, while in the former they were one of the two navies.



Or was one of the sidekicks an insane albino K'kree who teamed up with a human?

I do have one ship in a Sub-sector fleet that make pirates rue the day they crossed her path. The ISS Norway. The albino K'Kree was teamed up with a different masked man who used silver coated gauss needles in his gauss pistols.

 

[Timerover51]

Yep. You'd be surprised how few players get the in joke.

I am with atpollard, I do not get the joke either.

 

[Kaeto]

The joke is that the Pirate hunter is also known as The Phantom, or 'The Ghost Who Walks' and his family line has been hunting pirates since 1536 (on the old Terran calendar)

The Skull Ring, used to mark evil

The Ring of Good, all those who bear this mark are under The Phantom's protection. Never harm someone with this mark if you value your life.

I have the replicas they made of both these rings back when the movie with Billy Zane came out.

 

[wbyrd]

Sometimes pirates aren't the ones doing the hunting....turns out pirates also make good prey for the right group of people.

In a game many years ago, my players were getting a bit over confident after a few successful trips, so I hit them with a modified far trader with guns and armor...and a particle beam just to make sure the group was aware they were in for a fight.... Their fat trader was not at all up to a fight, so they decided to lay a little ambush for the boarding party

while the non-combat types were locked in on the bridge with their guns ready. the two marines in combat armor went EVA, and the Rouge/engineer got them in through an airlock on the other side of the ship....

the sneaky guy made it to the bridge of the pirate ship, tossed in a couple of grenades. Of course he had purchased a radio jammer, and some other tools to make sure the pirates aboard the freighter never knew there was trouble.

Turns out two marines with guass rifles and ACRs in Combat armor made short work of the pirates aboard the pirate vessel, then met the returning boarding party...let just say that folks in EVA suits do not fair well against military grade small arms, grenades, and other nastiness in the confines of an airlock.

after repairing the bridge controls, and some minor damage to the interior...like the mess on the walls of the airlock...they captured a heavily modified far trade, stripped it's guns, and electronics, then sold it off for a nice profit.

They soon adapted the technique as their standard operating procedure....you do not want to know how bad it got for the pirates when one of them saved up enough to buy some second hand Battle Dress.

 

[rancke]

while the non-combat types were locked in on the bridge with their guns ready. the two marines in combat armor went EVA, and the Rouge/engineer got them in through an airlock on the other side of the ship....

Lucky for them they were up against incompetent pirates that didn't even keep their sensors manned.

They soon adapted the technique as their standard operating procedure....you do not want to know how bad it got for the pirates when one of them saved up enough to buy some second hand Battle Dress.

So they kept on meeting incompetent pirates?


Hans

 

[sabredog]

Lucky for them they were up against incompetent pirates that didn't even keep their sensors manned.


So they kept on meeting incompetent pirates?


Hans

You know...you really have to suspend disbelief sometimes to make the game work - or at least have players coming back for more. If you don't throw the players some raw meat once in a while they get bored and start chewing on your furniture.

 

[rancke]

You know...you really have to suspend disbelief sometimes to make the game work - or at least have players coming back for more. If you don't throw the players some raw meat once in a while they get bored and start chewing on your furniture.

You have a good point there. But... the whole point of a piracy encounter is that the PCs have a way to survive. So, fair enough, they come up with a plan that has a few holes, but the ref gives them a break. As you say, sometimes you have to suspend disbelief.

But allowing them to go hunting for pirates based on flawed tactics? I might have shot them down in the first place, which I admit would have been wrong of me. But if I had been quick enough to let them get away with it, I would at least have followed up by letting them know how incredibly lucky they'de been and... discouraged... them from turning it into a lifestyle.


Hans

 

[Ulsyus]

Well, people have to be able to enjoy their game. Not everyone's going to be an expert in the sensor element of star/spaceship ops. Nor are there a lot of experts in CQB in zero-G. You've got to admit, how many years have we run games where the level and cost of servicing starships is a fraction of what's devoted to modern aircraft? This is not a CT exercise involving tactical operators, technical specialists, analysts, DVI teams, airmobility support and negotiators only doing what they're specially trained to do; this is storytelling and we want our players to have fun!

 

[rancke]

Well, people have to be able to enjoy their game. Not everyone's going to be an expert in the sensor element of star/spaceship ops. Nor are there a lot of experts in CQB in zero-G. You've got to admit, how many years have we run games where the level and cost of servicing starships is a fraction of what's devoted to modern aircraft? This is not a CT exercise involving tactical operators, technical specialists, analysts, DVI teams, airmobility support and negotiators only doing what they're specially trained to do; this is storytelling and we want our players to have fun!

The question I would ask is what the players would say if pirates in battledress managed to approach their ship without being detected by the ship's sensors.


Hans

 

[wbyrd]

Lucky for them they were up against incompetent pirates that didn't even keep their sensors manned.

No, the bridge was manned.....My reasoning was as follows.
1) the ships sensors have gaps when you are walking across the hull.
2) the ships themselves would be interfering with long range sensors.
3) Since the ship was a common type. The engineer aboard the ship, could give the marines a good idea of where the sensors were, so they could avoid them.
4)since it was a refitted Far trader, internal sensors would be minimal. and once again the engineer could tell them where they were.
5) the marines were Star marines, Ship take down techniques are part of their stock and trade.

So they kept on meeting incompetent pirates?

No, not incompetent. just not expecting the crew of a civilian ship that had meekly surrendered to execute a take down. The next time they tried that trick they had polished their technique, and prepared far more thoroughly.


Of the six times they tried this stunt they pulled it off without a hitch only two times. The rest of the attempts they had to scramble to keep it from blowing up in there face.


and as for how players would react if they were boarded by battle dress pirates getting aboard their ship without warning....death threats against the Referee followed by ..."When can you run again"
At least one attempt nearly went south when the pirates sent a boarding team around the other side of the ship to make sure the crew wasn't setting up an ambush in the airlock they were using.
The result was a pretty brutal short range gun fight between the two crews.... and a long cold ride back to port in low berth, and a new arm for one of the party.....long with a new liver, a new, kidney, and a doctors bill that caused the group penny pincer to bleed out the ears....seems Gauss rifles in the hands of pirates work against players just as well.

 

[Ulsyus]

No, not incompetent. just not expecting the crew of a civilian ship that had meekly surrendered to execute a take down. The next time they tried that trick they had polished their technique, and prepared far more thoroughly.

Even pirates would eventually notice some of their numbers going missing. The authorities would be claiming credit for a drop in local crime, while the sale of the captures hulls could likely be observed by corsair associates. At some point the PC's would be discovered, and their next trick would be to survive being suckered by ambushing corsairs themselves.

Law of diminishing returns and all that.