[Spaceships] GURPS EVE, and related ideas . . .

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by SuedodeuS

I'm only moderately familiar with the setting, but from the other comments I suspect the lack of pod-killing doesn't have much to do with honor. The fact of the matter is, you gain nothing by destroying someone's pod - all you do is cost them money. An action that does nothing but cost someone else money (and might cost you a little bit, on account of ammo) is not economically feasible and is senseless beyond feeding your own bloodlust. Thus, pod-killing is looked down upon because, if it were not, it would simply cause everyone to burn through more money. Destroying an enemy ship insures it will not bother you again, and also yields some salvage that can be used to pay off repairs and restocking (and probably have some more besides). Destroying an enemy pod? No gain there.

That said, some EVE-style spaceships in GURPS might make for a rather interesting setting/campaign.

EDIT: So far as war goes, I suspect the policy on pod-killing will depend on how long the concept has had to become corrupted. Assuming the concept was originally purely economic (not abhoring pod-killing leads to an all-around loss of money), it would be dropped in times of war. This is because part of the strategy for winning a war is to deplete your foe of resources - and making them constantly replace clones and cybernetic enhancements would help on this front. However, if the concept has had enough time to become corrupted (into a sort of Gentleman's Code of Honor, or "What seperates us from the murdering pirates"), it would probably be maintained during time of war. The fact that it's perfectly legal (or at least was the last I read) to pod-kill sufficiently abhorred pirates indicates that the policy maintains its economic roots, thus meaning it would likely be abandoned in war time. The exception made for dread pirates may instead be due to it being considered part of a gentleman's code of honor - it does not apply to those who are not gentlemen (thus it doesn't apply to pirates). If the default assumption is that the individuals on each side of a war are, in fact, gentlemen, the ban on pod-killing would remain.

Well, I wonder how to make it a cultural thing, much like paroles of the napoleonic era.

This is even more important if the setting doesn't have mind-transfer clones.

And it's even more interesting when most pirates consider themselves honorable enough to avoid podkilling - and aren't podkilled in exchange.