Right. If a Mars were a 2nd populated world of millions, ships would probably be jumping directly there from out-system rather than jumping to Earth then transiting in real space to Mars.
On Corsairs, Pirates, Smugglers and Privateers.
- Thread starter Magnus von Thornwood
- Start date
Right. If a Mars were a 2nd populated world of millions, ships would probably be jumping directly there from out-system rather than jumping to Earth then transiting in real space to Mars.
At what point does a RPG descend into a game of Accountants and Auditors, where beancounting becomes the high adventure? I know these concepts need to be covered to create the framework within which the game takes place, and those things, given the nature of Traveller, should be based on hard facts. Has anyone done any modelling of that sort of thing before in CotI?
Traveller traditionally tends to ignore most features of a system, such as jump shadows and secondary worlds. A campaign "descends" into a game of greater complexity when a referee and his players want greater detail to their game world and is willing to do the work involved in developing it.
(Problems do arise when referee and players want different levels of detail. )
Hans
no but it is a good pattern to use as a pattern
Yes, and if the system is on alert, or has had problems before the tactic would have to be changed.
Human nature is to slide to the lowest level of alert as they can get away with....and systems with overworked, underpaid, lazy or poorly trained personnel are not always as alert as they should be. Not every system will have crack professionals on the payroll.
ad from experience dealing with coast Guard, wile on my brothers Work boat...if you call in a mechanical break down, the usual exchange is roughly......"We have a mechanical problem, our starboard engine is down....Do you require assistance?...No, we'll have it fixed in a couple of hours...Okay, alert us if you need assistance..."
see above. Even if the ship is detected it may not be considered a threat.... if it has a plausible reason for lurking outside the 100d limit, around a gas giant, or take a very leisurely course in system... a patrol might angle to be closer if something goes wrong...but not streak in at full thrust, weapons primed.
No system can run at optimum efficiency constantly if it could ships would cruise at action stations, weapons primed, reacting to every unusual situation as as a potential threat at all times....no military or security force can or is willing to operate at that level of alert for any length of time.
I've had to deal with coast guard, and customs working int he gulf of mexico for an oil company support boat.... in the Gulf during a very active period of smuggling...and piracy....small scale, pleasure boats robbed, vacationers roughed up...people going missing off of their boats... boats being stolen and used for drug smuggling etc...
On some of our runs my brother-in-laws boat was on Diver Support, or helping place seismic charges for exploration...We would sometimes be loitering in an area where smugglers and good old fashioned thugs with guns might be around ( the 12 gauge, and four pistols we had on board were there for a damn good reason)
Of the times My brothers boat was "inspected" most of the time the ship just came along, asked our business, why we were loitering in an area. Now, when they were serious...Whoa Nelly don't scratch yer butt without telling the guy holding the M-16.
History and probability says otherwise...
Just because hardware has the capability to pick up and register the presence of a ships signature does not mean the software, and operators will come to the conclusion it is a ship, or a threat....and the busier/more cluttered a system is the more likely it is for a contact to slip through the cracks.
Ask the poor slob who phoned in the radar contact off the coast of Hawaii, and was told not to worry about it. Or better yet the Destroyer that fired on a suspected sub called it in and got ignored.
Or pick up a few shady cargoes, ship a few people off the books, or worse get a legitimate cargo...
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to answer your question it Depends on how close to the target it is, If it's half as far away it will be cutting it's close at thrust 3, for a by the book corsair, if it's been upgraded it might have an hour or two of breathing room...
The bad guy has the advantage of being able to jump away before the boat gets within weapons range, it can scoop up a few cargo containers and jump.
I can run a hundred potential ways to defend a system, and each one of them has drawbacks and advantages...and all of them depend on how well trained, professional, corrupt, and well supported the defenses are...
A single SDB or cutter would be a deterrent...but not an ironclad defense...ten or more boats..a more solid screen vs piracy... but even twenty SDBs would still have to cover a LOT of space....with at least one third down for maintenance crew R&R, refueling, etc....
Of the remaining ships, some would be on static patrols around gas giants etc... Some would be on the other side of the system, others would be Hours, if not days, from a potential attack.
It would be hugely dangerous for an organized pirate just lurking without a definite target, or plan...but it would be possible for a pirate with a definite plan and a specific target to get in hit it's target, and get away....it wouldn't be happening every month, or on any sort of regular pattern, but it would be possible....
Only if the analogy is sound.
I'm guessing work boats do not tend to attack passing merchant ships.
It doesn't have to. It just has to get there fast enough to cut down the pirate's window of opportunity. And since traffic correlates to population and military taxes correlates to population, a system where ships arrive every few hours will have more defenses than a system where ships arrive bi-weekly.
It doesn't have to be on high alert. Ordinary leisurely system control activity is sufficient.
Boats are harder to spot and assets cover proportionally less territory than space vessels. That's why maritime analogies are inexact.
But your pirate needs two low-probability events to coincide. First it has to slip through a crack and then a suitable prey has to appear within range.
During which time it's unable to lurk.
And he has the disadvantage of the prey being able to move towards the approaching patrol vessel.
Yes, going after a specific target is better than lurking and hoping for the best, but one major problem with that scheme is that jump variation means the pirate can't time his own arrival to coincide with the arrival of the target.
Hans
Who here is talking about accounting and beancounting?????????o:
Yeah, yeah. I was just interested in whether any modelling had been done and the outcomes, not doing the work myself, and it was sole for medicinal purposes, uh, to better design the setting...
If one understand Newtonian movement point to point, the distances involved, G ratings of the ships, weapon ranges, etc, you can do it in your head basically. It is very simple as it is empty space. The variables are few and very defined.
In short, a pirate using something like the Corsair vs. systems with a single 400t SDB of typical design watching the 100D limit, has a short career that ends in death or capture if they are trying to prey on interstellar ships going to/from the home world.
It's as good a patern as any, often all the logistics of a starport, is the same as a seaport....ships have to move in deposit cargo, and pick up cargo, and navigation has to be kept reasonable secure, and safe... the only difference would be that traffic is three dimensional not two dimensional
No but a few of them were running drugs, and other less than legit activities.... my example was to point out that not every patrol will be as thurough, as it could be. and not every pirate flies a purpose built pirate ship that LOOK like a pirate ship...at a few million miles all you are looking at is a rough idea of tonnage, power output, location, heading...if it's trasnponder says it's a freighter, and it's not on a watch list...if ithas a plausible reason to be where it is...the local controllers might not be as suspicous of it as they could/should be.
yes, it will...which means what your going to deal with is opportunistic "Jumpcusser" types,which will run...or miraculously become a legitimate cargo vessel if a patrol comes sniffing....The real threat would be deliberate, well planned, and executed targeted attacks....
fair point..but it is close enough to make some rough guestimates on what sort of situations and responses will rise...
All crimes require opportunity, and means. a full time pirate would be hard pressed to make enough money to keep the crew aboard...but a ship that was part time, or spots an opportunity could make a nice bonus off a single unlucky merchant.
true, but while it's cruising in system it can keep an eye out for a Vulnerable target, or pick up leads on possible targets jump ahead of them and wait. outside a patrolled system if at all possible.
When I talk about lurking I'm not thinking that this is all the ship does... if it's a system that is not very well protected, where it might get lucky a ship may lurk about for a while before moving on to pick up a cargo etc...
yes, it has that drawback. and without setting up the situation exactly and running a simulation its a hmmm well iffffffffff....I am not saying I am right, or wrong...it's a tricky situation to tell who would be at the advantage.
Yep, exactly...to be successfu a pirate would need to have a solid plan, and a bit of luck, or take advantage of a serious mistake by system patrols...
Btw, love tohave you pointing out this stuff...makes me think about the subject which leads to me improving my scenarios.
Personally I don't often have pirates operate in patrolled systems... unless they have a serious edge, a plan, and a specific target in mind...Usually having someone on the inside supply them with routes, patrol schemes, and maybe some sort of distraction to draw off the patrols.
I also assume that entropy,and Murphy are drawn to military operations like flies to...ummm well you get the point. I love to have a group get relaxed in a system that has a patrol...they do it often enough and I toss in a bit of a curve by having someone with a plan, and a reason to force them to scramble in a nice "safe" system...
I usually expect a pirate to succeed one attack in four or five, and most of the time the groups ship being able to get to safety ahead of the bad guys....
