Onno Meyer wrote:
Regarding the piracy debate (Rupert):
No piracy debate, please.
I don't want to restart the TRAVELLER piracy debate. What I
had in mind is supposed to be different.
Regarding multiple empires (Roger and Jon):
I wanted to think about the technical side of things, without
accidents of history. There may be universes which encourage
big empires or scattered systems, but I can't think of a way
to encourage several big empires with convoluted borders :-)
In my setting, I have powerful empires outside the main
'playground area' of the frontier SagDEG dwarf galaxy - All of
these powerful empires are more interested in strengthening
their positions in the Milky Way galaxy and feel threatened by
the other Milky Way superpowers (cold war situation for the
most part), thus they do not want to 'overexpand' into
neighboring dwarf galaxies. SagDEG frontier factions OTOH
are basically all small pocket empires at best and are mostly
just interested in defending and holding their own main worlds,
leaving only very few capships for merchant convoy escort or
anti-piracy duties - This means that if pirates operate around
and between the main solar systems in the frontier, the risk
of having to fight an actual warship is fairly low - If the
pirates suddenly find themselves fighting a pocket empire's flagship
battlecruiser, they have propably done something very, very
stupid to deserve that.
Regarding stealth and sensor countermeasures:
If 'stealth' means the same as today, the highest levels will
be hard or impossible to refit to merchant hulls. So maybe it
would be useful to simply ban stealth technology, for a level
playing field. "An unobtainium drive signature is impossible
to hide, so why bother with radar stealth?"
Another option would be to make stealth easy to refit, but at
a substantial weight/performance cost. That means a converted
pirate could mount stealth, while a legitimate merchant would
not.
Yet another idea might be to introduce powerful and expensive
'military' engines and power plants which are hard to stealth,
and less powerful 'commercial' systems which can be hidden. A
navy would consists of 'battle line' and 'pursuit' ships with
those powerful engines and a few 'lurkers' with less powerful
engines. The pirate could fight lurkers at even terms, and
detect real combat units a long way off.
I allow the TL10+ Deceptive Jammer to affect passive sensors
and radscanners as well (but jammers or stealth have no effect
on the external hyperspace entry and exit point FTL signatures).
With this small rules change, basic stealth with fairly modest
jammers can allow pirates to take civilian transports or small
freighters by surprise. Powerful sensors are expensive and
civilian craft often cannot justify the expense of fitting in
enhanced or advanced sensor systems.
Regarding boarding and disabling (Johannes, Pauli, Jon):
Reminds me of the ion cannon of Star Wars fame. UTT had stats
for an EMP gun with an armor divisor of (20), but the game
mechanics are hard to translate from handheld guns to ship
guns.
Yep, the Neural Blast Cannon was mostly inspired by Star Wars
ion cannons, but I wanted a somewhat less-lethal weapon system
for the starships. As an added bonus it is now also possible to
stun/knock out android or cyborg characters without having to
kill them. Same rules in this case work equally well for handheld
beam weapons and starship cannons.
This hyperspace interdiction thingy is another interesting
factor. What is the best FTL option for a pirate setting?
Not sure about that, but hyperdrive seems to work quite well
for me. STL space combat/action, with hyperdrive to skip the
vast distances at more reasonable speeds.
Interdictor in my setting is basically the opposite of
a hyperdrive (It has the same weight, cost, volume and maintenance
power requirement as a hyperdrive of 20000+ tons shunt, but no
large startup energy cost) - while active it maintains
a disruptive vortex in hyperspace (10+ AU draw-in diameter), which
sucks in ships in hyperspace and forces them to exit hyperspace
1000-2000 kilometers away from the interdicting ship (which must
be in realspace). Re-entering hyperspace is not possible within
2000 kilometer radius around the interdictor, and even beyond
that range it is only possible to jump directly away from
the interdictor. Since hyperships move so quickly (ranging from
2 to 70 parsecs per day, with time dilation of 1/FTL speed),
the FTL scan ratings of typical civilian ships are not sufficient
to detect an interdiction field before it is already too late.
Also, I limit hyperdrives with strong gravity wells - Flying
in hyperspace over the coordinates of a gravity well will force
the ship back into realspace somewhere in the vicinity of the
object causing the gravity well, usually near the outer edge of the
gravity well.
* Few jump points (the classic GURPS jump drive) are easy to
to patrol. This could help the pirates, but it helps the
pirate hunters even more.
Precisely. I find that more flexible FTL works better for
the pirates, I only limit hyperdrives by preventing them from
passing through gravity wells or hyperspace interdiction
fields. Some uncertainty in the form of random deviation from
the (targeted) exit point spices up things a little - I use
(2d6-1)x1000km as usual deviation (critical astrogation and/or
pilot skill roll successes can improve accuracy a lot).
* GURPS Space gives choices for the ease of hyperspace entry,
but almost by definition a ship that can jump to hyperspace
has escaped. The Traveller jumpdrive is a variant of GURPS
hyperdrive with fairly restrictive entry/exit conditions.
IMHO the Traveller hyperdrive restrictions prettymuch cripple
any freely moving pirate ships, severely limiting their tactical
options and adding lots of logistical problems (fuel).
* Only warpdrive allows a FTL chase, which would go to the
faster ship rather than the first one to press the 'FTL'
button. Unfortunately, Vehicles doesn't allow combat of
any kind at warp speed -- the FTL beam rules are way to
short-ranged, and the missile rules don't work with warp
engines.
The new Spaceships helps in this regard, and I'm tempted
to try a few warp-capable pirates, merchants and warships
with the 4E rules.
Actually, with FTL sensors and slowly fading FTL entry and
exit signatures, a faster hypership equipped with an interdictor
can shadow the target vessel in realspace, analyze the hyperspace
entry point for direction and speed and then jump after
the target ship, overtake the target ship, exit hyperspace in
front of the target ship's route and deploy the interdiction
field - forcing the target ship out from hyperspace and keeping
it in realspace for the duration of the space combat.
What Pauli wrote regarding different types of pirates and
codes of honor, that is very much a social factor. But he
has a point: If a pirate transmits "surrender or die", it
helps if the victims believe that surrender means life.
The pirate basically communicates "resistance means you die
and I waste time and a missile, a loss for both of us but
worse for you, surrender means I get the goods and you get
to live, a gain for both of us." Not exactly a fair deal,
but it would be even worse if the victims must fear to end
up as lobotomized slaves.
Regarding captives (Pauli):
Both cinematic and present-day pirates take some of their
victims for ransom. That makes them a valuable commodity,
at least as long as the trouble of keeping them does not
exceed the expected rewards.
Historically some pirates sold their victims into slavery,
but that requires societies with markets for slaves (like
galley slaves in the 16th century Med). While there is
slavery even in this (supposedly enlightened) age, the
overtly illegal forms cannot be applied to skilled
professionals like ship crews.
Agreed. However, in my setting the frontier area is a fertile
breeding ground for all kinds of non-mainstream fringe cultures
human and non-human alike - Some of the frontier pocket empires
actually trade openly in slaves, while others closer to our
own mainstream western culture are strongly opposed to the whole
concept of slavery.
For a cinematic setting, maybe there is a reason why the
unobtainium mines must be operated with unwilling workers.
Perhaps unrefined unobtainium emits radiation which leads
to a slow, lingering dead and at the same time disrupts
electronics.
Or the pirates have a social system which requires slaves
for status. They'd be more like vikings/raiders if they
have a sustainable society. Think 'Klingon' -- a real
warrior doesn't work if he (rarely she) can possibly make
someone else do the degrading work ...
Also possible, but going out of their way raiding for slaves
would be rarer if the demand was lower, only to supply
the pirates with slaves. Slaveraiding becomes more of a problem
if the pirates can sell whole lots of slaves to some other
more official entity (like a pocket empire) they have trade
relations with.
Regarding fighter swarms (Pauli, Jon):
I dislike the idea of pirate/raider starfighters, at least for
some definitions of 'fighter'. The cinematic concept requires
all pirates on the same ship, so there can be intrigues, love
affairs, mutinies, etc.
Well, in my setting the light starfighters are strictly
short-occupancy vehicles with limited endurances/range - They
require a larger ship or a base for refueling, refilling air
tanks, maintenance and pilot accomodations. Think of them
simply as additional helpers for the main pirate ship, cannon
fodder to draw in (and hopefully dodge) fire so that the main
ship takes less overall damage in a fight.. Losing a fighter or
two every now and then sucks, sure, but losing a vital key system
on the main ship could mean losing the battle.
Carried fighters are a good option if you have several
players who want to directly participate in the space combat
action at once. And if you don't want manned starfighters, then
remote controlled fighter drones might be a better option.
I don't think that a hangar bay and a few fighters onboard
in any way prevents drama, intrigue, love affairs or mutinies from
happening on the main pirate ship. Stereotypical pirates are
a rowdy bunch who dislike rules, regulations and authorities.
Regarding ship endurance (Johannes):
What you propose would simulate 17th century ships - no fuel
is required, supplies like food, powder, sails, ropes are
fully interchangeable, cannon balls can be reused if you
get the matching cannon ...
Ships could include a MiniFac bay to recycle and/or
manufacture their own spare parts or repurpose loot items.
Even if the ship is not totally self sufficient, even a little
MiniFac capability could help to offset operating costs and
speed up field repairs.
For my setting, I came up with several different more optimized
refineries/small factories which can be used in addition to
MiniFacs (For example, at TL10, some TL8 items like Powercells
and short-range liquid-fuel rocket missiles can be fabricated swiftly
and very cheaply).
-Pauli
--
"Our ship is made out of darkness, she mocks the laws of nature.
With cables, ropes, tackle and sails, she moves on the waves
of the void. On her decks a red crew, dark as if painted with
blood. From among the hooded cloaks of crimson, eyes of
silver gleam darkly.. Oldest of all is Hiram of Malta, the Red
Commander. He knows the secrets of Schwarzchild Radii, of Neutron
Stars and Cepheids. His hidden paths we follow, like ghosts from
space we strike deep, only to disappear again soon, sometimes even
the fear itself is afraid of us.."
-CMX, Punainen Komentaja
(Translated from the Finnish song 'Red Commander' by CMX)
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