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Old 09-01-2018, 10:54 PM   #8
tanksoldier
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Default Re: Bounties for pirates

Quote:
If you dig a bit into history of privateers, you'll find an engagement in which two privateer ships attacked three pirate ships in harbor in a sheltered cove.
If you dig a bit you can find an example of just about anything. Doesn't mean it was usual... and "pirates" were often as not the other side's "privateers".

Quote:
Which in fact does not mean they cannot be in Traveller.
In any given Traveller campaign anything can happen... but in MY Traveller campaigns if it doesn't make economic sense it's tough to suspend disbelief.

For example: "...Gee, we just risked a MCr200 ship to win Cr50,000 in bounties. Sure we did."

Another problem with pirate hunting in Traveller is that in MOST Traveller universes civilians can have military grade weaponry, drives and hulls. The military only gains an advantage when it gets to hull sizes civilians just can't afford.

Age of Sail pirates rarely had true warships, they used captured merchant vessels which even when up-gunned couldn't bear the weight and recoil of military grade armament and were generally slower due to merchant hull shapes... so military ships had an advantage, and civilian ships weren't at that much of a disadvantage.

Most pirates captured their prey by ruse or intimidation... not by sailing up and shooting.
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