08-09-2018, 06:17 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Bounties for pirates
I am thinking my PCs may get a bounty on pirates they kill or capture. What are plausible rates? ICr500 each, 2000 for officers? That’s dead. Alive and interrogatible is double.
Salvage or prize money on captured ships is separate. As is the bounty of destroyed pirate ships. I don't want to give them too much money, but I don't want the numbers so low no one would bother with chasing pirates because it is a losing deal. (But the kicker is that it is only redeemable at a Naval Base. Or you can sell the voucher to a discounter.)
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08-09-2018, 06:49 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Bounties for pirates
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That's how the players in my Pirates of Drinax campaign have been operating. Instead of being pirates themselves and the setting assumes, they have operated as officers of the Royal Dirinaxi Navy capturing or destroying pirates and smuggelers in the old Drinaxi dominion... and either selling the ships, salvaging the remains or using them for their expanding interstellar navy. Any surviving pirates are tried and executed on Drinax. |
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08-09-2018, 07:08 PM | #3 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Bounties for pirates
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08-31-2018, 01:24 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Bounties for pirates
The English Royal Navy did pay what amounted to a blood bounty on enemy ships sunk or captured (although the prize money for a captured ship tended to be higher than the blood bounty).
So, if you want to introduce something like that, I'd say you'd be well within your rights to do so. The things you may have to consider however... If the Imperium permits the ability for private individuals to field military grade space craft crewed by mercenaries, they're not likely to cause any real waves with privateer based ships that actively hunt pirates. If planetary governments are permitted to issue letters of the Marque - I'd be largely surprised that they wouldn't be permitted to issue bounties against known pirate ships. In all - were I to include something like this in my own campaigns, I think I'd go along the lines of this: Bounty is worth 10% of the hull that is "sunk" by the pirate hunters. While it isn't a whole heck of a lot for actively hunting such pirates (ie, you couldn't pay your payroll of your own crew, ship maintenance etc) it might be useful for those ships that go up against a pirate and either destroy it entirely or are able to capture their foe. Now for the cons of all of this... Actively hunting for conflicts that could damage your ship, result in death, etc - may very well double or treble insurance premiums for the ship in question. Chances are too, that no self-respecting bank is going to foot any kind of loan for ships that actively go hunting for conflict - so unless someone purchases a merchant ship initially, then attempt to go hunting with it later on, the bank is not likely to process any loans for a ship. It might be argued that a pirate hunter in a Q-Ship, might be paid by corporations who run freighters in the troubled area and treat the ship as a mercenary ship - but corporations are ALWAYS concerned about the bottom line. Even something as simple as not making the projected earnings can cause a corporation's stock owners to vote "Sell the company to the corporation that wants to buy it out cheap". So corporations are always sensitive to the bottom line in a major way. Then again? *teasing grin* That may be WHY they're hiring an outfit to put an end to piracy - if they don't, their higher insurance premiums coupled with a depressed shipping environment may be hitting their bottom line so badly that this is a "hail Mary" style attempt to save their company. Up to you. Let us know how it went for your campaign - as that sounds like an interesting premise. |
09-01-2018, 07:57 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Bounties for pirates
Historically letters of marique weren’t really used against pirates, they were used during war to expand a nations commerce raider fleet.
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09-01-2018, 09:48 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Bounties for pirates
Which in fact does not mean they cannot be in Traveller.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
09-01-2018, 09:48 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Bounties for pirates
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Think about that for a moment. If hunting pirates wasn't profitable, do you think the two ships would have taken on the three pirate ships lying in a cove? To point you in the right direction, search under Stede Bonnet or Gentleman Pirate to see how he met his end. So - while the letters were not specifically intended to be used only against pirates per se, they still had the effect of authorizing pirate hunting. Which brings me back to the original point: Britain did not only pay out on captured ships, but also paid blood money on ships sunk. There is nothing to keep the Third Imperium member worlds from doing the same. |
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09-01-2018, 10:54 PM | #8 | ||
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Bounties for pirates
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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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09-02-2018, 08:57 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Bounties for pirates
Now the fun part in your response is that if the money isn't worth the end result, then chances are, the bounty value for capturing a pirate or destroying a pirate would have to be upped to be worth the game (so to speak).
As for how the analogy of Age of Sail relates to the Traveller Universe - yes, it is true, they are not always good for each other. None the less - what kinds of prey will pirates generally go after? How might pirates work towards their goals? Then flip the question and ask "What ships might a privateer go after? How might privateers work towards their goals? In a Traveller Universe, whether large ship or small ship as far as philosophy is concerned (basically pre or post High Guard) - Pirates will be built on... Wait for it... Civilian ship platforms. Ditto on the privateer. So, analogy wise, we're still in Age of Sail mentality here. Who are the likely targets? Those ships that are under-gunned (which by definition, are either fewer guns, or no guns). Both the Privateer and the Pirate want to engage the enemy with the least amount of damage to their own hull as possible. Now, given a choice (assuming you were a pirate), which would you prefer to do - engage a larger hull ship with a smaller hull, or engage it with multiple hulls? If the answer is the latter, that's oddly what some pirates did do, they ganged up to get temporary superiority where possible. This is how the Galleons would be taken down despite their firepower during the age of sail. So, ruses - yup. What would be the Traveller equivalent to the ruse of a ship suddenly appearing from a cove or around an island unexpectedly? Staying behind a moon would mimic that right? But so would starting on the surface of a world on the other side of where the star port is (assuming a low population small starport type I or II type situation). Taking off from a size 7 world with a 4G armed pinnace would take shorter time than would a freighter with 1 G. Being in an atmosphere would degrade sensor acuity to some extent by lowering the sensor rating of the ship by a set value. So, back to the original poster's comment. In a universe where the local authorities may very well HIRE a security force (read that as mercenaries for hire) to protect their shipping interests, said authorities may very well take a page from the Royal English Navy and try to offer incentives to make their forces more aggressive. |
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