Piracy Campaign

[rcarter]

Originally Posted by Langy

If spaceships are too expensive, which seems likely given a realistic universe, then pirates won't exist because the pirates could just sell their spaceship and all of the pirates will suddenly be multimillionaire rich.

Never thought about that. My first response was .

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

But then after i started to type this out i thought. Yeah pretty much but all it does is force pirates to have a reason. Political refugees. Mercenaries out of work. Maybe they are all wanted criminals and they need mobility to run from the law and selling their ship would suddenly trap them planetside.

Then of course the most important trait of a good smuggler is faking passport/id/ship's log/records or whatever it takes get a criminal ship into a civilian port. No reason Pirates wont do this too.

[Phantasm]

The way I see it, pirates need a few things:

1) A safe haven to operate from. This could be a small asteroid base or a friendly colony world. This haven will have places for the pirates to sell goods and restock supplies, as well as places to relax.

2) A reason to perpetuate their crimes. Greed and politics are often the two big ones, and quite often go hand in hand. This also helps narrow down their targets; greedy pirates will board passenger liners for the upper-class cash, while politically-motivated pirates may just destroy other ships without taking much in the way of booty. Sometimes, though, they'll just take what they need, be it food, fuel, or ammunition.

3) A ship to operate with. Sometimes, the "ship" is a fighter or light freighter from which to blow up merchant vessels; light freighters are useful for pulling in cargo from the wreckage. Other times, the ship is a larger vessel.

Fulfill those three requirements, and pirates become useful parts of the game world, either as protagonists or antagonists.

[rcarter]

I want to be space pirate.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by rcarter

I want to be space pirate.

Wing Commander: Privateer. 'Nuff said. ;)

[Langy]

If your space travel is in-system, piracy is impossible without a superscience invisibility cloak.

Not true. Even if the authorities know where the pirates are at all times, if the pirates can escape to a safe port in time before the authorities can get a ship there then piracy can still exist.

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by Langy

If spaceships are too expensive, which seems likely given a realistic universe, then pirates won't exist because the pirates could just sell their spaceship and all of the pirates will suddenly be multimillionaire rich.

The solution to this is actually pretty easy. Consider the way a lot of Golden Age pirates worked. They hit a big score, cash in, then blow all the money on alcohol and women. Once they're out of money, they get back on the ship and go out looking for another big score so they can do it all over again. If the pirates sold the ship, they'd end up spending all of the money on various forms of entertainment and be back to where they started, but without a means of regaining such funds. By keeping the ship and robbing others, they can keep the money flowing in and feel free to blow all of it in one go if they feel like it.

Having the pirates actually be privateers and/or working out of a ship that belongs to a patron can also work.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Langy

Not true. Even if the authorities know where the pirates are at all times, if the pirates can escape to a safe port in time before the authorities can get a ship there then piracy can still exist.

At that point, it isn't really piracy; it's a simple act of war by the 'safe port'.

[weby]

Originally Posted by Anthony

At that point, it isn't really piracy; it's a simple act of war by the 'safe port'.

Yes, quite so, but that does not mean you can treat it as a act of war, for example if that safe port has backers that are more powerfull than you are or you are unwilling to go after it for other reasons.

For example take current pirates in Somalia. The towns they operate from are fairly well known and thus in the past (say 1800s) there would have been few warships outside them by now bombarding them to pieces.. But that is impossible to do now due to public outcry if they did that.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

If your space travel is in-system, piracy is impossible without a superscience invisibility cloak.

So that's how the Somalis are doing it...

Seriously, if piracy can still exist against the power of modern day radar technology, I'm sure enough tech assumptions can be postulated to make in-system piracy possible without requiring superscience.

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

"Fixed" jump points, permanent choke points are a little too easy for the authorities to control. Pirates don't hang out at navigation canals or straits. Never did. They'd hang out on coastlines and islands that were controlled by friendly rulers or disorganised ones that couldn't control that commercial ships would have to pass by on the way from choke point to choke point.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "hang out", but piracy is certainly prevalent in the Malacca Strait. Given, there are 900kms of small islands and river outlets for pirates to hide in so it's difficult to exert government control, but it's nonetheless a dangerous choke point.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Langy

If spaceships are too expensive, which seems likely given a realistic universe, then pirates won't exist because the pirates could just sell their spaceship and all of the pirates will suddenly be multimillionaire rich.

I think if you're postulating a setting where piracy occurs, then you're postulating a fairly high volume of trade-carrying ships to be targets, suggesting that a range of cheap to expensive ships are available, which means you'd have to bend your idea of what is realistic in the first place.

edit: Also, following this line of reasoning would lead you to conclude that the Mafia shouldn't exist.