Going Pirate

[BetterThanLife]

Just a thread to explore to possibility and profitablity of being a Pirate.

After all anyone that has run a Merchant in Traveller has found a Pirate or two.

I figure there is plenty of place to hid in a system. Especially one with alot of traffic. Others disagree. I personally don't think a "Corsair Class" of ship is a smart idea. You can't hide in plain sight in the normal traffic patterns. Though a Purpose built ship does have certain advantages. Building in surprises is an interesting concept but once the surprise isout of the bag usually it becomes useless. Given the rules, I figure you have to be on par with typical Patrol Cruisers (At worst) firepower wise and have to be able to run. I recommend at least Jump 3 capability so you can jump in, hit a target and have Jump 2 in reserve so you can geometrically expand your choices when you are running away. Obviously the "Corsair Class" concept of being able to alter your IFF becon is important so is Military grade sensors. I would also think that Pirates would need more than a ship but also a decent intelligence base.

Now if you can alter your becon that would imply that if you capture a ship once you get it to base you can replace the becon. You would definitely need a base of operations, preferably with many Class A starport facilities. That isthe real weakness to the Pirate proposition. There are only so many places to put a base. That is your choke point. It is also what the Navy will be looking for. Not the individual Pirate. If you hold all the repair facilities, all the starship parts, missile resupply and round up all the fences then you will have no piracy. (Of course if you could do all that you could also eliminate Crime as well.

If you have no where to dispose of the loot, no place to repair and re-becon the prizes then Piracy is just a mental exercise.

I believe the actual jumping of a Merchant is the easy part. (Not that it is by any means an assured thing.)

 

[savage]

I've always thought a pirate ship would need to stand up too or outrun to a couple 400t patrol ships/SDBs, or a small squad of fighters.

There are 2 ways to approach this...
1. blend in, hide in plain sight
2. be noticeably aggressive and outrun/gun everyone

Probably the safest places are the C and below starport systems. Ships that could mix in with Belter traffic (refinery ships for example) slide into a birth at the local port and do not appear different.
To this end, I came up with 2 variations (out of 11) for the 1,000t Purcell tender. A fine pirate
capable vessel that could use fighters or other ships to wound a victim and then engulf them.

http://www.angelfire.com/empire2/savage/1WorldOrder/tenders/Blood_class_Corsairs.html
http://www.angelfire.com/empire2/savage/1WorldOrder/tenders/Blood_Fast_Corsairs.html

Where and when is the question. Solar, asteriod, and ion storms surely are a few things that make a mess of active sensors.

Pirate bases would need to be very hidden. Asteroids in the belt is a common example. Probably appearing to be freelance mining colonies or manufucturing colonies. Only the worst pirates would have a base that's known to exist, Port Royale(?).
Many of those pirate sites might have started out as legitimate settlements and fell to economic distress.

Savage

 

[mike wightman]

Savage, you are dead right to suggest building pirate vessels from existing ship classes. GURPS Starships details the CT Corsair as being based on a common class - the 400t Ocklosh Class salvage ship. There is no way a Corsair manufacturer would last long unless it was sponsored and based in a rival state. Proof of this could lead to war.

Other ship classes that make for good pirate vessels, IMHO, are the 400t Fat Trader and the 600t subsidised liner. Upgrade their drives and weapons and maybe carry a few fighters to chase down merchants (and provide a rear guard if the Navy turn up).

Another problem with piracy is how you dispose of your ill gotten gains.

 

[The Oz]

Ya'll are quite right that one major concern about pirates is where do they dispose of the loot? They need someplace that has enough money/people to buy what they steal, someplace to get repairs/overhauls/supplies, and someplace for the crews to get shore leave. Those can be separate places or all rolled into one. There was an article in JTAS#19 about the "ecology of piracy" which pointed out that the best planets for pirates to use as markets/bases were A or B class starports with low governments and law levels outside direct Imperial control. If you add in the idea of having a decent population to provide enough market for your stolen goods I think you've got it. The decent population would not have be on the world where the goods are sold, but should be within jump-2 so goods purchased at the pirate fence world can easily be shipped to the purchaser's actual planet.

An important part of this article was that a given area of space can only have so many pirates operating in it or there'll be so many ships taken that other merchants will avoid the area and the Navy will move in.

As for ship types, I agree that modified commercial vessels are the best, allowing a pirate to operate in places with more merchantmen. The Fat Trader is an excellent pirate once fitted with better drives, computers and weapons.

As was also pointed out uptopic, having good intelligence is very important. You don't want to waste time and risk taking damage to capture a subsidized merchant only to find his cargo bay full of grain.

 

[savage]

Sigg,
The gains can be broken down and sold as parts through parts remanufacturers. Other govt's might
purchase these ships from privateers and replace
the transponder.

This is a good example of my "fallen" colony suggestion. They couldn't pay the bills and
needed alternatives. We already know that manufacturing in space could be extremely effective. No reason to believe that parts could
not be passed off as re-manufactured.

My players are presently using the Vigilante class armed liner. This is a perfect example of a vessel that could be used for piracy. Heck, mercenaries in general are ready to become pirates if the tides turn the wrong direction.

As to the earlier discussion of transponders.
I believe that they would be vary effective (
per the TNE virus thread) but extremely available from being manufactured in mass quantity.

Savage

 

[BetterThanLife]

I personally like the 600T Sub-Liner conversion I did as a Q-Ship. Plenty of space and when you downgrade the jump drive to 2 and upgrade the Powerplant to TL15 and increase the size you can do all sorts of things and leave the main parts of the ship unchanged, or virtually unchanged. 3 more hardpoints with pop-up Fusion Turrets can be very nasty, especially to an unsuspecting Type T. (Under High Guard can you say 3 chances for Crits, 1 per hit.) Under T20 a different weapon mix would be better since the range of the Fusion guns is so short. (And the damage rules are so different.) It would be funny to see Type T Patrol Cruisers afraid to approach any Sub Liner they are supposed to inspect.

Most of the mods you could hide in what used to be fuel tanks.

You can even put a worthwhile boarding party aboard given the extra staterooms, you have a launch for boarding actions, (Though I would tend to modify it to the stats of the CE's Gig. And you have a good sized cargo space for bounty or fighters. (Or both.) I do think the best course for a typical pirate is to look like something that belongs. You can do lots with a 2000T cargo ship, just ask Imperial Lines.

(Under T20 rules if you are careful you could mount a Meson Bay on it and with a little surprise take down a Capital ship, if you were lucky.) Nasty!!!

Hide in plain sight, absolutely. And like a good pick pocket or any good con man you don't operate alone. Three Card Monte anyone? Or when the heat is on go quiet and make like a hole in space. Depending on which version of the rules you are using Under CT sensors only go to 150,000 KM Or if you are running silent 75,000KM. Since the distance from the center of the system to the habitable zone is around 150,000,000 KM. That is quite a bit of space to hide in without going far from the main world orbit. Under MT Active sensors are limited to 50,000KM Passives are quite a bit further though their accuracy would have to degrade as distance got bigger. Especially since they are all light speed sensors. The typical main sequence star has a 100D limit just inside orbit 3. (The middle of the habitable zone.) If the habitable world happened to be in orbit 2 lots of space to intercept a merchant.

In a busy system, get into the departure pattern
arrange for the locals to be elsewhere, through bribes, a distress call, or just happen to be patrolling in the wrong direction, jump the ships behind and/or ahead of you and jump out of the system all three of them before the locals can respond. It sucks to turn around in space with a nice high vector.

It is easier to take a ship on the way out instead of in. You have a better chance of knowing what cargo it is carrying, you know when it is leaving and they have a full load of fuel. If you have a reputation of leaving the passengers, the crews and the ship alone after taking the cargo you are also less likely to encounter resistance in taking the cargo. Beside Patrol ships tend to be more worried about what is inbound to the system they know what is leaving.

The Piracy is the easy part. The hard part is the basing. You would have to have the active cooperation of a couple of Class A Starports, (Or build one where nobody is looking and when nobody is looking.) a few good fences and a good high traffic region of space with lots of systems, so you aren't predictable. You would have to have higher than Jump-1 so when they come looking for you you have a lot of places for them to look. The nice thing about a class A starport is that if they build ships they could install transponders. After all they put them in when they build them. Having fall back bases, chop shops, (again the facilities of a Class A starport or in this case probably a class B would be enough) bolt holes for when the heat is on and perhaps a few friends in Non-Extradition territories outside of the governing area you are operating in.

Just a thought or two.

Piracy certainly isn't the one ship independent operation that most people would tend to think it was.

 

[Richard Saunders]

Hello.
Piracy works in the real world because either the people or one level of government condones it.
How many people on this site have bought something that fell of the back of a truck, or have turned someone in for what they thought was stollen goods.
All pirates down through the ages have had the active help of at least one level of government, As in the English gov against the Spanish and French, Or the wreckers on the south coast of England (cornwall??), the first was at the highest level (the Queen) the second was the lowest (the mayor).
Unless the ship is carrying a very expensive cargo its the ship itself thats the target. No cargo is going to be worth 50% of the worth of a ship.
Lets face it getting real transponder codes would not be hard (100000Cr for each from 10 systems scattered through the sector)
You rebadge the ship, fly it to any system with a market for second hand ships land and sell it (when you sell it you leave a varying amount outstanding on the loan on the ship and this is payed by the buyer back to the bank), this would be the bank with which you have a company set up (Galaxy loan and investment corp) your add is a branch in every system, and because its a legit company the bank has no reason to not pass on the money.
You also now have a front company to launder the other money.
If you dont get greedy and only pirate one or two ships a month from anywhere in four subsectors the merchants probably wont notice, and the navy wont care.
On average you will only make about 1.5 billion creds a year clear.
For the navy to have a fair chance of catching you they need to station ships at all refueling points and check all ships, you could get around that by changing the beacon as soon as you take the ship (during the first jump).
If you become to sucessful someone will turn you in (generaly the competition).
Bye.

 

[savage]

I do think the best course for a typical pirate is to look like something that belongs. You can do lots with a 2000T cargo ship, just ask Imperial Lines.

Your an ambitious pirate! Bottom feeders will live longer and be more profitable. What's a couple missing sub merchants the a sector duke...notta.

If you have a reputation of leaving the passengers, the crews and the ship alone after taking the cargo you are also less likely to encounter resistance in taking the cargo.

Your more likely to get caught. Its safer to be unknown and sell them into slavery, have a psionic wipe their memories, or get new recruits from the crew.

There is no reason to assume a class A starport is behind it. Actually its unlikely. Smaller starports may have the ability to repair or build vessels on a small scale but don't advertise it because they don't want anyone to know, its unreliable, or they cannot handle the demand.

There are a lot of manufacturers, parts refitters in the imperium to support that much commerce. They could be on asteroid belts, .... anywhere.
Buying, selling, and stealing.

While we're on the topic. Who's to suggest there isn't an active slave trade from the piracy market.

Savage

 

[BetterThanLife]

Well a 2000T freighter has several advantages. First you can actually arm it with something that can deal with DE's and still carry cargo. (Especially in T20 where you can fit it with a Meson Bay.) They may not be quite as common as a 200T Free Trader or Fat Trader but there is plenty of evidence that they are fairly common. If you approach a Free Trader Subbie or Liner you are likely to get them to surrender faster. If you damage your target to the point where it can't jump you could always store it aboard. And cut it up for parts while you are in jump.)

What worries me most about the Piracy end of it, as opposed to the disposal end of it, is time. If it takes too long to take your target you will have the locals after you. And a Converted Merchie is likely to get pretty badly shot up by a squadron of FH or even FL for that matter. And you won't out run them without jumping. Arming the Jumpship from Sup 9 is another interesting choice. You can tow the fragger.

As far as a slave trade goes, I doubt there is an active slave trade in the Imperium, but I can't help but think it would increase a Vargr's Charisma.

Speed in the capture end is important. You can't give the locals lots of time to react.

 

[mike wightman]

Piracy could also be a tool for rival shipping lines to diguise the opening moves of a trade war. Come to think of it, if Tukera, say, were to sponsor pirate activity through a third party just outside of Imperial borders then the disposal of goods problem gets a whole lot easier.

Semi-legitimate merchants working hand in hand with the pirates give a means to gain intel on shipping and to transport stolen goods. All you need is a corrupt broker to generate the paper work or alternatively rely on forged documents and the stolen goods may well be traded inside the Imperium. There has to be a black marcket for such goods.

 

[Ran Targas]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Piracy could also be a tool for rival shipping lines to diguise the opening moves of a trade war.

I have used this one Sigg; a small, but growing, shipping line is sponsoring privateers to attack it's ships (10% of total loss) and it's rivals (90% of loss). The ships and cargo taken from sponsor are exchanged for access to intel, repair facilities, and supplies of fuel and ammo. Plus the shipper gets the insurance money.

This has given him a considerable edge over his larger competitors, especially when his freight gets through to places the others can't. Because of his losses, he can claim himself a victim as well.

As an ex-smuggler turned merchant, it made sense for this NPC to maintain his contacts with the underworld and develop a scam like this. The backstory is he has managed to combine numerous small shipping companies into a mid-sized, sector-wide combine. His apparent ability to avoid the majority of pirate attacks has also "encouraged" more small shippers to partner with him.

 

[mike wightman]

What a fiendishly good idea

I hope you don't mind if I borrow that one.

 

[Maspy]

I've found some articles on Piracy. (Of the Traveller variety)

http://users.hartwick.edu/smithw/pirate_economics.htm

http://users.hartwick.edu/smithw/piracyIMTU.htm

 

[BetterThanLife]

At least I am not the only one that thinks Piracy is a real threat in the 3rd Imperium.

You guys have even almost solved the how to get away with fencing the goods. I still worry about disposing with starships. the biggest worry I have in dumping goods is that if you hold them too long then the news will be out as to what is missing. Personally I would rather be long gone before the hot sheet reaches the market.

 

[Ran Targas]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
What a fiendishly good idea

I hope you don't mind if I borrow that one.

I let my PC's uncover the plot over a couple of seemingly unconnected adventures.

First was being approached by a representative of this new shipping co-op where "profits go to the crews not a suit". There was only a small upfront membership fee, which would be waived if a percentage of the ship was signed over instead. They said "no" and were ear marked for a future attack.

For color; they received a bunch of official and word-of-mouth warnings about pirate activity in the sub-sector.

Second was unintentionally rescuing the son of a shipping magnate and his consort who got to close to a pulsar in his yacht. This got them invited to a social event where the upstart made a scene, insulting and threatening the guy they just rescued.

More warnings. A crew they know are murdered and their ship found shot up and gutted.

Third, they hire some merc's and go hunting. During the encounter they manage to repel and counter-board a pirate. They also get to his nav comp before the crew can destroy the database and locate a hidden base on a small moon. On the pirate ship they also notice a lot of new equipment and spare parts still in the box. After penetrating some security measures, they land on the moon and find containers full of supplies labelled with the upstarts logo.

They took the evidence to the shipping magnate they know and he decided to set up an ambush with a convoy of Q-ships (I used Tanuki's). It was a great finale.

 

[Ran Targas]

If you have a large number of pirates IYTU, then I can only assume there's also a healthy number of chop yards waiting for pirated vessels. Making any money off the parts is still all profit when you paid nothing for the spacecraft. Plus, when all the valuables have been stripped from the hull, the evidence disappears in the smelter.

Modern ships are reduced to raw materials in such ways just as hot Cadillacs and Mercedes are.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Hal:
Take a look at Ianic in hex 1924. It has NO spaceport worth mentioning as well as no space faring technological base. Using GURPS FAR TRADER, I've pegged the weekly traffic at IANIC at roughly 50 ships per week. What makes Ianic so interesting is that it has no on-world wilderness refueling capabilities (only gas giant) and the fact that the mainworld is within 100 diameters of its sun. Those two facts combined mean that the merchant ships *HAVE* to go through a predictable path between the gas giant and the main world - as well as spend a fair amount of time in "normal" space instead of a quick journey in normal space and be able to hop into Jump space.

No, it means that someone can make a profit from selling fuel at the starport, even if he has to import it from outside. Alternatively it will be economically sound for a ship to use inflatable fuel tanks to carry an extra load of fuel along. The loss of revenue from having less cargo space is offset by the saving in time from not having to spend days travelling in real space to or from the gas giant.

50 ships per week? That spells regularly scheduled freight lines and it also means that a couple of 'route protectors' would be economic.


Hans


Hans

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by rancke:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Hal:
Take a look at Ianic in hex 1924.

No, it means that someone can make a profit from selling fuel at the starport, even if he has to import it from outside.</font>[/QUOTE]No, what it means is that ships will jump directly to the gas giant and not visit Ianic itself. Very little of the traffic you mention is actually headed for Ianic.

Also, I'd peg the traffic at roughly 0 ships per week. The major trade route in the area is Lunion to Abadicci, and that will be handled pretty much exclusively by J3 ships.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Anthony:
No, what it means is that ships will jump directly to the gas giant and not visit Ianic itself. Very little of the traffic you mention is actually headed for Ianic.

Of course. I had overlooked the fact that those ships wouldn't want to visit Ianic at all.


Hans

 

[mike wightman]

Not many merchant designs carry fuel purifiers as standard; a bit silly IMHO since they pay for themselves so quickly. How many are going to run the risk of misjump?
Gas giants tend to have lots of moons, lots of places for pirates to hide to prey upon those merchants

Ianic is a rich world, so it must have something to trade.