How easy is it to steal a starship in T20?

[JohnMarsh]

Hello,
First time post after lurking awhile.

Longtime RPGer here, played CT years ago, bought TNE but never played it due to its unfamiliarity and complexity. Just bought T20 via PDF and planning to run with gaming group when its my turn to GM.

Lots of great resources around thanks to everyone who posts / runs websites.

At some point they will want to steal or break into a starship. Are there any rules for this? If not does anyone have any T20 house rules they can share.
Thanks in advance.
John <><

 

[Supplement Four]

Don't know about any do-dad stinkin' rules...but, it should be extremely hard to steal a space vessel.

The ship's owners can set certain accessways to open only for certain crew persons. For example, the hatch to engineering may be set so that only the Engineer can access the drive room. The bridge hatch can be set to accept only the ship's Captain, Pilot, and Navigator. Others will be have to be allowed entrance manually.

In RL, we've had doors that open by themselves for decades. It's not a stretch to say, in an era where control over the graviton has been achieved in inertial dampners, Air/Rafts, Grav Belts, Thruster Plates, and even the Jump Drive, that it would be trivial to have door scanners capable of recognizing certain individuals.

Most ships will have an autohijack program that will further hamper the would-be thieves. Every room on the ship can be monitored from the bridge or other station. Rooms can be sealed so that exit is not possible. Some rooms may be fitted for gas (part of the autohijack system) that can be pumped into a room (but, it's also just as easy to seal some bulkheads and pipe out the air). At a minimum, the autohijack system will alert the crewers to any tampering.

Once the crew is aware of the intruders, they can do nasty things to the theives: Like seal off all doors except the airlock, and open both airlock hatches, blowing them out into space; Like watching the thieves on the monitor and turning the section of the ship they're in into zero-G over control of the G-plates. Zero-G one combat round. Max G the next combat round. Zero-G again. Max G again.

That'll pretty much incapacitate any intruders.

Should the thieves even get access to the bridge or a control panel, there will still be safties like codes that have to be entered to get ship systems working.

Let's say the thieves gain access to the ship while it is empty in port. On the bridge, the panels will be locked down. They'll have to get the panel access. Then, other codes may be needed for different sections. The engineer has a code for the drives. The navigator has a specific code for the jump computer and the sensors. The pilot has a code for the M-Drive and controls. Etc.

And, let's not forget that a ship is virtually impossible to enter from the outside unless invited. How are you going to get through a hull when giant starship lasers have a hard time doing it?

Each external hatch would have something like a key pad or some other access from the outside (and it can be argued that most ships carry a universal easy-access from the outside, like "999-999#", for access during emergencies), so a code would be needed.

Then, there's the problem of getting close enough to a ship while in space to match vectors and space walk over to the hull.

I could go on and on.

It's very, very difficult to steal a starship.

And, even if you steal it, what are you going to do with it? The ship has a hard-encoded transponder that identifies the vessel. This will have to be changed if the ship is stolen. The theives would have to (A) find an NPC with the skills to change out the transponder, (B) find a port where that type of work can be performed without being turned in to the authorities, (C) find a replacement transponder that will broadcast a code that is not new, already on the books, and will not alert authorties when the ship approaches, and (D) have the money to smooth all the hands that it requires to pull off such an operation.

Oh yeah, don't forget that bounty hunters will probably be on the lookout for the vessel (it's a sizeable investment to have lost, given a bank or some other financial backer....somebody just walked away with their "business"), and as well as the Imperial Navy, Starport Authority, and the authorities of surrounding world governments.

Naw, it's quite hard to steal a starship. It's actually easier to jump through all the hoops required to buy one.






Now, that's not to say it is impossible to steal one. It's just next to impossible. If the players are smart, they can figure ways around all these obstacles.

They've got to have contacts in the underworld, first. They'll need a shadowport where they can feel like no one will turn them in for the reward. They'll need a skilled Electronics expert to replace the transponder. And, they'll need to buy a transponder code of an existing ship.

This will be an ongoing expense for the players, as the discrepentcy in the transponder code will eventually be found (maybe leading to a raid on them by the Imperial Navy, some world authority, or bounty hunters).

If I were going to steal a ship, I'd do it when the ship was having its annual overhaul. That way, most of the autohijack system has been disengaged to allow the starport workers to do what they need to do.

Plus, most systems of the ship will need to be accessed at this time, so most codes will not be needed.

Of course, the players have to (A) take the ship when it is still in one piece (near the beginning or the end of the overhaul), and (B) have to figure a way to get the ship out of its sealed hangar and into space inside the busy starport.

As I've said. It's not easy (and probably not worth it) to steal a starship. But, nothing is impossible.



And, a smart starship captain will set the codes of his vessel to reset in 3 weeks. Expecting a two-week annual overhaul, the captain disengages all security features and codes for a three week period.

That way, if the ship is stolen by some imaginitive thieves, one week later, they're plodding along, patting themselves on the back at their new ship, when all the systems go dead (not a good thing to happen while in jump space, btw).

Frantically, they search for the reason...all the while, and internal clock is counting down from 15 minutes, at which point the ship will start broadcasting a message: "Signal GK. This is the Beowulf. This ship has been hijacked. Our coordinates are..."



I think a GM could have a lot of fun with this (maybe teach the players that stealing a ship really isn't worth it...but let them experince that.)

 

[ravells]

As far as I'm aware there are no rules about it, which means that it's as hard as the GM wants it to be! Supplement Four has given some great reasons as to challenges in the players' way which you can massage to suit.

 

[atpollard]

The ship's owners can set certain accessways to open only for certain crew persons. For example, the hatch to engineering may be set so that only the Engineer can access the drive room. The bridge hatch can be set to accept only the ship's Captain, Pilot, and Navigator. Others will be have to be allowed entrance manually.

I agree completely, but this has other consequences as well:

1. A hit to engineering kills everyone with access. The steward (with mechanical-1) must cut open the door to access engineering and attempt to get the MD operating again. (or he must first visit the Computer room and have the Captain and First Officer update his Access Clearance).

2. EMP destroys the computer - none of the doors on the ship will open as all ship defenses go into automatic maximum security alert status. The captain must personally hand-key a unique 12 diget security code for each door. The master list of door codes is well protected in the Captain's Safe in his Quarters - too bad the Captain is stuck on the Bridge.

In the end, the harder it is for bad guys to enter, the harder it will be for the crew in a crisis. It is a tradeoff.

 

[Vargas]

I think the brute force approach is pretty much a non-starter for the reasons listed above. Two possible approaches I can think of are to take hostages or replace/disable the antihijack system by uploading your own software or creating trapdoors in it. (The last is most likely tried while in for maintenance, ship crews/owners know it and will take precautions. Also, it's doubtful a repair yard of any repute will fail to make a best effort to secure the ships in its care).

Having said this, you can of course adjust the reality slider in your game to whatever degree you want.

 

[Supplement Four]

I agree completely, but this has other consequences as well:

1. A hit to engineering kills everyone with access. The steward (with mechanical-1) must cut open the door to access engineering and attempt to get the MD operating again. (or he must first visit the Computer room and have the Captain and First Officer update his Access Clearance).

2. EMP destroys the computer - none of the doors on the ship will open as all ship defenses go into automatic maximum security alert status. The captain must personally hand-key a unique 12 diget security code for each door. The master list of door codes is well protected in the Captain's Safe in his Quarters - too bad the Captain is stuck on the Bridge.

In the end, the harder it is for bad guys to enter, the harder it will be for the crew in a crisis. It is a tradeoff.

The "tradeoffs" could be the exact thing the players are looking for.

Player says: "I'm going to hang out in the starport bar...for a week or two...as long as it takes. I want to become a regular. I'll act like my ship is in port for a while. Maybe we're doing our annual refit. I'm going drink and be jovial and talk starship jargon with the customers that come in. All the while, I'm on the lookout for a good target--for a ship to steal. I'm listening for something, anything that will make a vessel a good target."

GM asks, "What's your Streetwise skill?" And, then he rolls some dice. Then he says, "OK, you've been coming in for a week and a half. People are starting to know you...get comfortable with you. You're having a beer, again, with this captain who's only in port for three days. This is his last night. He starts talking about, when he was in the Navy, some hands in engineering got radiated when the bulkhead door was hard coded. All three backups were fried, and there were three crewman on that deck with the override code. They were all killed in the initial explosion. Men died in there that shouldn't have. He just can't bring himself to live through that again. Then, he takes another swig of beer."

The player understands they've just switched into roleplaying mode. He mimes a drink of his own beer, but locks his eyes on the GM, who's playing the NPC starship captain.

"So...what do you do about your hardcodes? Certainly you use them on the Astral Sprite, don't you...?"



And, boom, the players are off to the races. Plus, the GM has total control over the circumstances of the theft itself.

There are other ways to play it. Get creative with it.

 

[Supplement Four]

I think the brute force approach is pretty much a non-starter for the reasons listed above.

There is one brute force way that I think is still effective--probably the most effective.

But, it requires another ship.

I'm talking about a pirate attack.

You'll have to find an appropriate system for this to take place. Asteroid fields are great for this. But, some less populated systems will do as well. Even if the Players see the pirate coming, there's little they can do.

The players can either stand down and be borded, or the pirate vessel will open fire. Play a starship combat enounter. After some major damage to the PC's vessels, they are given a chance to stand down again.

When/if the PCs finally stand down, the pirate vessel will dock. Make sure you order the crew of the PCs ship to board the pirate vessel--don't send troops over there first. You'll (1) weaking their resistance if they kept somebody aboard to ambuse boarders, and (2) the pirates will have hostages to do dirty things to should characters still on the PC's ship resisst.

Then, people can be tortured, thrown out into space, whatever, until the correct codes to the vessel are provided ("Is this ship worth your life?")

And, if the PCs are lucky, they'll not be killed, but either marooned or left in a survival bubble (which means certain death unless another ship is near by).

A great way to run this encounter is with another ship coming to the rescue. The rescue ship is on scanners, but its 1G drive can't get it there for several hours. So, it actually watches the whole thing. Sees the pirate attack, and is able to pick up the survivors after the pirates leave with both ships.









Another thing we forget to do in Traveller is remember how long it takes a ship to slow down. Take, for instance, a ship making a run, in-system, to a moon or other planet. Let's say it's destination is 6 hours away.

What will happen? The ship will accelerate at maximum G for 3 hours and then decelerate for the last 3 hour leg of the trip.

Well, wouldn't it be neat to set an encounter where the ship sees a pirate raid at about 2 hours into its deceleration? The ship is already decelerating at maximum G. There's nothing it can do but float by at high speed.

And, there will be a little window in there--maybe 10 minutes--maybe two space combat rounds--where the ship will witness the raid but be unable to do anything about it. It's moving too fast.

I did this once in my last Traveller campaign. The players needed help desperately. They got a call from a ship. They thought help was on the way. But, the ship was moving too fast! It would be hours and hours before the ship could change its vector enough to approach the PCs and help out.

What happened was the ship was in rage for combat for two combat rounds (30 minutes). I allowed it to particiapate for those two rounds. It's vector, though, was written in stone because it was decelerating on a long trip. So, the ship moved in a line, fired its weapons for two rounds, and was gone.

We even had a cool role playing moment as the player captain and the captain of the decelerating ship exchanged a few words.

"I've sent over a packet detailing who we are and who we think our attackers are. Please, send help at earliest."

"Will do. And, God be with you."

It was something else. The thought of coming across people in need but being unable to do anything about it.

Heck, that needs to be in a sci fi story somewhere.

 

[MR TEK]

Another Take (pun taken too...)

Better tactic all around.

Scope out a tramp, or free trader.Preferably one that is desperate for work. Hire on a crew member or two.

With enough street wise, bluff and acting skills, you can gently pull the access codes, or with enough computer skills, crack them and disable the anti-hijack. We are all crew, all working together, right? One big happy family?

Even better, get your inside man hired, BECAUSE the ship is short comp skills.

These strategies all would take a week or two to get hired onto a suitable vessel, if you start in a popular port. Give 2-3 jumps to set everything up and spring the takeover in a back water system.

You would have to not be sqemish about spacing the crew. Any witnesses that turned up challenging your story would be a problem.

Then any time you port and someone gets suspicious, " Captain jack and his crew where down on their luck. They had no choice but to sell out...". Name some jerk water system far enough from the mains to discourage verifying the story, and 'shazam' you have a pirated ship.

Worst case, a skip tracer gets you for the unpaid loan. "The old Capn didn't tell us about any loans. What will it take to settle new terms?"

Short of that, you are just another gypsy, and no one pays any more attention to you than the 4000 others that were in and out of port that week.

No expensive repairs to make, no tricky and dangerous maneuvering to mach course in combat, and the only casualties are the old crew.

You have a ship that is virtually untraceable, and the only cost was a little time and patience. Good god, you even get to sell the cargo at a profit.

Do this twice or three times, and you have a flotilla that you can afford to risk in those tricky hit and runs where you do need to board under fire.

If you do take too much damage, abandon the hulk or pawn it off to some other loser willing to cobble the repairs.

As long as you are careful and the ship stays out of open raiding, you never even need to touch the transponder.

EVERYONE wins, (except the old crew, but they are dead anyway, so why do they matter?)

The whole argument about the economics of piracy get turned on their head.

You don't even need much of a pirate base, as long as you stay low profile. Just a home port, some warehouse space, and a couple of brokers willing to look the other way for dodgey manifests.

You can build a fleet and operate independently, in much less time and expense than building that super secret, super defended pirate base that the IN will eventually blow up for you anyway.

Actually once you have a few ships captured this way, you have the resources and contacts established to transition to the traditional pirate route.

Just some thoughts. Thanks for playing...

Mr Tek

 

[Icosahedron]

Then any time you port and someone gets suspicious, " Captain jack and his crew where down on their luck. They had no choice but to sell out...". Name some jerk water system far enough from the mains to discourage verifying the story, and 'shazam' you have a pirated ship.

This wouldn't work IMTU. All starship transfers have to be registered via the subsector capital and from there, down to every SPA and up to the sector capital. Within weeks, the ship's transponder ID and provenance would be out of sync with SPA records - at any and every port it visits.

Worst case, a skip tracer gets you for the unpaid loan. "The old Capn didn't tell us about any loans. What will it take to settle new terms?"

The skip tracer's first question will be about the 'change of ownership' and nothing is going to 'discourage' a skip tracer from checking your story - that's her job.

Short of that, you are just another gypsy, and no one pays any more attention to you than the 4000 others that were in and out of port that week.

Unfortunately, IMTU that's quite a bit of attention, electronic verification, surveillance and record keeping.

If you do take too much damage, abandon the hulk or pawn it off to some other loser willing to cobble the repairs.

Abandon, yes, but you lose any advantage you gained, and if you don't remove every cell of DNA...
Sell? You just doubled your record verification problems.

:devil:

 

[castiglione]

Considering how expensive ships are, you'd imagine they'd be pretty hard to steal and the penalties for theft would be pretty severe.

 

[casquilho]

As far as I'm aware there are no rules about it, which means that it's as hard as the GM wants it to be! Supplement Four has given some great reasons as to challenges in the players' way which you can massage to suit.

With all due respect to S4 and his wonderful list of fun ideas, I think this is the real answer. It is as hard as the GM wants it to be.

Daniel

 

[Supplement Four]

Even better, get your inside man hired...

Meaning that, in any halfway realistic universe, starships will be hard to steal (and hard to keep even after the theft).

It's not impossible to steal a starship, but it should be something that will require a tricky, smart, elaborate plan in order to accomplish the theft.

I think an entire adventure can be set around the goal of stealing a ship: Making the contacts; finding a shadowport; staking out the "right" ship to steal.

Even then, I'd keep the game lively by telling the players that there's a chance (maybe a very small chance, like rolling 18+ on 3D) each an every time they make port at worlds that the real ID of the ship will be discovered--especially if the vessel spends any time at the downport (because of the usual customs inspections, Starport Autority procedures, checked serial numbers, etc).

If the ship docks for their annual maintenence, I'd add a few modifiers to make the throw a bit easier (maybe influenced by Starport Class, Pop, and Law Level).

I would never allow players to steal a ship and think they're out of the danger woods automatically. I wouldn't even tell the players that my throw to catch them is 18+ on 3D. I'd just let them sweat it (even though, chances are, they'll never get caught during the entire campaign...I wouldn't want them knowing they have that kind of "security").

 

[casquilho]

Of course we have been talking about the players doing the stealing because the original post spoke about it that way, but there is the other angle as well. Players who have a merchant ship having someone try and take their ship.

I ran one group who were all part owners in a nice merchant ship. I did not think of a "hijack" at that time, but it would have made for a great adventure.

One other adventure I was a player in had us, the PCs, buy passage on a large ship where people tried to hijack the large ship and the players found themselves caught between the hijackers and the crew. Made for some real fun.

Daniel

 

[aramis]

Fundamentally, if there is a place to either re-register (validate) or sell a stolen ship, then there will be people who atempt stealing them. No matter how hard, someone will be trying. given enough attempts, some will succeed.

Heck, someone nearly stole a container ship in 05 or 06...

 

[Drakon]

2. EMP destroys the computer - none of the doors on the ship will open as all ship defenses go into automatic maximum security alert status. The captain must personally hand-key a unique 12 diget security code for each door. The master list of door codes is well protected in the Captain's Safe in his Quarters - too bad the Captain is stuck on the Bridge.

In the end, the harder it is for bad guys to enter, the harder it will be for the crew in a crisis. It is a tradeoff.

Umm. If you EMP'd the ship, you've fried all the electronics in such electronic locks. Mechanical keys would serve better, and you just have the master keys on one big key ring. The key ring gets passed down with each watch. Yes it will make things harder, but mechanical locks won't get fried, and the captain does not have to remember a bunch of random numbers, or look them up from the safe.

 

[Supplement Four]

A New Thought

I'm watching Mission Impossible III (Great Freakin' Movie!! - One of the best spy-action films of all time, imo!), and in the scene where the drone attacks Hunt & Co. on the bridge, the bad guys rescue the mastermind gun runner out of an armored truck by spraying some foam looking stuff that eats through the metal in seconds. They spray it on, let it harden, then hit it with a sledge hammer. The side of the armored truck shatters and falls. Out comes the bad guy, and bye-bye they go in a chopper.

As I was watching this, I thought about this thread. The foam-stuff didn't seem too far fetched to me given all the like chemicals we have in the real world (like the incindary grenades the Rangers used to use to melt the barrels of the German 88s in WWII). And that was over 60 years ago.

In the future of Traveller's universe, it doesn't seem to much of a stretch to think they might have something similar that will burn through starport hulls (or the exterior hatches--which might be easier).

There might be some type of problem in delivering this foam in a weapon (like in the warhead of a missile). Maybe explosives are more efficient and less costly.

But, this stuff may be used by the Imperial Marines when they board starships. Maybe pirates and corsairs can get their hands on it, too.

Make it expensive to keep it balanced in the game. And, you could have a tool that the players could get their hands upon to help them steal a starship. Well, they'll have one of the tools they need. This foam will help them gain entry. It won't help them deal with the issues they'll face once inside the other vessel.

Just a thought.

Bring a new piece of equipment into the game.

 

[aramis]

EMP doesn't always destroy computers; many can be restarted after. Only if the EMP generates enough current and/or heat to damage the chips, solder, or wires. Otherwise, reset, reboot, and away you go.

Most EMP will shut down or cause malfunction; heck, even sunspot & solar flare EMP does that.

 

[Icosahedron]

In the future of Traveller's universe, it doesn't seem to much of a stretch to think they might have something similar that will burn through starport hulls (or the exterior hatches--which might be easier).

There might be some type of problem in delivering this foam in a weapon (like in the warhead of a missile). Maybe explosives are more efficient and less costly.

But, this stuff may be used by the Imperial Marines when they board starships. Maybe pirates and corsairs can get their hands on it, too.

My take on armour is that penetration and armour values relate to a single attack in a single game turn.

A FGMP will not damage a hull if you pop a couple of shots at it, but if you stand there pumping shot after shot in the same place until you run out of backpack fuel, you may ablate the armour sufficiently to make a hole.

Of course, this might not be the best game plan if you intend to steal the ship; the prize crew start clutching their throats after the first couple of miles straight up.

 

[aramis]

At an average of 49 points per shot, FGMP's under CT could hit the 500 points of damage needed to breach the hull large enough to let a man through in only 10... shots. The Iris valve only needs 100... two shots...

They are less effective in later editions.

 

[Icosahedron]

Fundamentally, if there is a place to either re-register (validate) or sell a stolen ship, then there will be people who atempt stealing them. No matter how hard, someone will be trying. given enough attempts, some will succeed.

Heck, someone nearly stole a container ship in 05 or 06...

Yep, stealing a ship ain't impossible IMTU, just very, very difficult. And it's not the sort of thing that will be pulled off by a motley bunch of ex-forces drifters who have a 'why don't we...' brainwave after the barmaid brings the tenth round of beers.

Ship theft is carried out by rival corporations as a commercial espionage/sabotage operation. Of course, the players may be members of the grab team, and may even be the prize crew, but they won't get free title to the ship - and these are not the sort of people to skip out on!

A free trader is worth 40 million. How difficult should it be to steal 40 million?

And if you stole 40 million, would you take it with you into wild and lawless places, through customs and dodgy police patrols, gangsters, mercenaries, pirates and bandits?

Or would you liquidize your assets and live like a king in a beachfront penthouse for the rest of your natural?