Piracy Campaign

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

The whole reason why the "Pirates are cool" idea took hold in the first place was because Britain was playing that role back at the start of the Golden Age of Piracy because they were mostly a problem for the Spaniards.

I'm highly interested in how to put that sort of setup into a space game.

I'm considering the idea that 'neutral space' isn't legally regulated, and thus there is no reason not to sell stolen goods at any nearest spaceport - aside from risking retribution just as you leave the spaceport's legally protected area, that is.

Something along the lines no-sec zones in EVE, where CONCORD rules do not apply.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Molokh

I'm considering the idea that 'neutral space' isn't legally regulated, and thus there is no reason not to sell stolen goods at any nearest spaceport - aside from risking retribution just as you leave the spaceport's legally protected area, that is.

Then you have to ask yourself why neutral space isn't regulated, because that's not a stable state of affairs.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Then you have to ask yourself why neutral space isn't regulated, because that's not a stable state of affairs.

Well, it's not like there was much in the way of international treaties about law in neutral waters in the past. In fact, the idea that ships must carry flags is, IIRC, less than a millenium old.

In a setting that differs from our world significantly, especially with a low 'cultural TL' (from our PoV), it is possible that in neutral space might makes right, and the mightiest can't be everywhere all the time.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Molokh

I'm highly interested in how to put that sort of setup into a space game.

I'm considering the idea that 'neutral space' isn't legally regulated, and thus there is no reason not to sell stolen goods at any nearest spaceport - aside from risking retribution just as you leave the spaceport's legally protected area, that is.

Something along the lines no-sec zones in EVE, where CONCORD rules do not apply.

My concept for a piracy rich campaign involved star nations in a Cold War spreading out much more quickly than their military could expand because they are in a colonization race to grab as much of the galaxy as they can. Their actual military is concentrated in core stars to defend them against weapons of planetary destruction. Meanwhile there are gigantic mostly unpoliced expanses of fringe space where it is common for commercial vessels to be armed and to turn pirate any time they see what looks like a soft target belonging to their rivals. Sometimes when a commercial vessel is particularly strapped, they'll turn on their own people, and then either defect to the other side, or make sure nobody can identify them.

Colony ships are hijacked, their occupants sold to colonies eager to expand quickly enough that they'll be able to build defenses against raiding and maybe even rebel against their neglectful mother worlds. Sometimes particularly daring and well-equipped pirates briefly take a cruise into corespace, to raid undefended commercial ships and installations, hoping to make it back out again before the navy catches them. When so provoked the navies will send a retaliatory expedition out, and the fringe ships scatter or play innocent, but it increases tension between the nations, threatening a war that comes close to mutually assured destruction, so the expeditions almost always return before accomplishing anything. Usually if you make it back to the Fringe, you are home free. Might be a good idea to change your ship's distinctive features before you go near any of the ports belong to the people you just raided. Covertly, all sides provide private citizens with military hardware to raid each other so that they can slow the rival expansion while fueling your own side's development of their colonies.

[Kenny]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Just a couple of more notes I've found that might be useful:

• The pirates could be spacefaring bandits, so research on bandits could be useful.
• There could be two (or more) types of FTL travel, the slower one could be more effecient allowing cargo ships to be slower and easier to be targeted. Smaller ships have faster FTL. Think of ships and aircraft of today. (Yes some express cargo can to transported via the smaller craft.)
• No FTL communications could also make the game more interesting.

[Jasonft]

A potential big problem for the pirate side of things is that the targeted ship(s) can get off messages to any law enforcement in the area giving critical information for identifying which specific ships were involved in the attack. Once the authorities know exactly which ships were involved, they know exactly who to send the hitmen after.

Sure you could blanket radio comms with static, but inside star systems darn near every ship would have comm lasers as a backup, and that would be damn near impossible to jam.

David Weber's 'Path of the Fury' deals with this problem for piracy on a large scale. One of the recurring problems for the 'pirates' therein is that they absolutely cannot afford to have their ships IDs getting to the Imperial Navy. Once the Imps get this info they can target the people *behind* the pirates - with fleets.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Jasonft

A potential big problem for the pirate side of things is that the targeted ship(s) can get off messages to any law enforcement in the area giving critical information for identifying which specific ships were involved in the attack. Once the authorities know exactly which ships were involved, they know exactly who to send the hitmen after.

Sure you could blanket radio comms with static, but inside star systems darn near every ship would have comm lasers as a backup, and that would be damn near impossible to jam.

David Weber's 'Path of the Fury' deals with this problem for piracy on a large scale. One of the recurring problems for the 'pirates' therein is that they absolutely cannot afford to have their ships IDs getting to the Imperial Navy. Once the Imps get this info they can target the people *behind* the pirates - with fleets.

I'm not sure it's the proper setup for a 'retro' spacebuckling game, though. I mean, it's not like in the Golden Age of Piracy navies would be able to identify pirate ships and come after them.

Another reason for using 'Babylonian' hyperspace: supposedly, in hyperspace, communication systems and sensors are near-useless, to the point of the Mk.I Eyeball being the primary detector and identifier.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Langy

How so? The mafia doesn't have enough money for every single person in it to instantly become a multimillionaire if they sell what they use to commit their crimes. Considering the likely cost of a spaceship, that's unlikely for a group of space pirates.

No, true, I was oversimplifying, but you don't see Mafia bosses all heading into retirement as soon as they pull in $25 mill from a drug shipment.

This brings up another point to consider- what type of organisation do the pirates have? Each crew is essentially autonomous, or do they answer to someone further up the feeding chain?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

No, true, I was oversimplifying, but you don't see Mafia bosses all heading into retirement as soon as they pull in $25 mill from a drug shipment.

This brings up another point to consider- what type of organisation ot the pirates have? Each crew is essentially autonomous, or do they answer to someone further up the feeding chain?

Well, making them answer to someone up the food chain just ruins the architypal anarchistic society that is sometimes described when talking about pirates. Not that this society is very realistic for humans . . .

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Kenny

Thanks for all the help guys.

Just a couple of more notes I've found that might be useful:

• The pirates could be spacefaring bandits, so research on bandits could be useful.
• There could be two (or more) types of FTL travel, the slower one could be more effecient allowing cargo ships to be slower and easier to be targeted. Smaller ships have faster FTL. Think of ships and aircraft of today. (Yes some express cargo can to transported via the smaller craft.)
• No FTL communications could also make the game more interesting.

Well the consequence of the two FTL type model is it means that pirates will have to hijack every ship they attack because they'll be in "speedboats" with no cargo capacity worth mentioning. And yes, a lack of long range ftlcom makes life easier for pirates.