Piracy as government policy

[Darkhstarr]

In my campaign, where most of the action is in the Beyond, The Vanguard Reaches, & parts of the Foreven subsectors, commerce to and from the Imperium & its remote client states is very important. And very expensive. Mix in anti-Imperial sentiments among the local systems (some inspired by the Zhodani, some not), Imperial clients who causes more trouble than they solve, semi-piratical pocket empires, & pirates/privateers, you have an expensive problem. What do you do? Cultivate, bribe, or create your own pirates. IMTU, that is what the Imperium has done, turning a blind eye to depredations as long as they do not conflict with Imperial commerce or policy; using them to punish enemies & unruly friends alike. The Imperial has secret agrements with the two largest pirate syndicates, Dark Goddesses (a few Imp. Naval & Intelligence personnels are members of theis group) & Webrunners. Beside being catspaws, these pirate groups also provide valuable intelligence(after vetting) & have been instrumental in destroying other, more destructive pirate bands in the region. Most importantly, they have been the Imperium's main strike against the slave trade in the region, particularly the trade in technical expertise.

There several good examples to use: The French, English, & Dutch in the Americas of the 16th & 17th centuries (Drake, Morgan, etal). Their also the issue of letters of Marque & Reprisal issued over the centuries until ended by treaty in the 19th century. In science fiction there is the Duchy of Waldegren in A. Bertram Chandler's John Grimes novels, used by the Federation to keep the Rim Worlds in their place.

There are several good adventure threads: negotiating with pirates, infilitrating a corsair band for your government or company, hiring a pirate ship for a hazardous mission, smuggling goods, documents, or people, hiring a band to do your dirty work, or even being a pirate.

 

[Zutroi]

Hmmmm, can you say 'plausible deniability' boys and girls? I knew you could!

 

[Greylond]

Ya'know, this is one of the first things I thought of when I read in MGT the Benefit of "Independent Operation"...

I can see some High Guard Navy Intelligence officer "Retiring" and going into the Piracy Business. On the other hand think about the same thing doing "Anti-piracy" along the lines of Capt Bachfisch in command of the Pirate's Bane in the Honor Harrington series.

 

[mike wightman]

This is something I've posted about piracy eta l IMTU:

Privateers and Gentlemen - piracy in proto-Traveller

In the original Library Data the first/lowest tier of Imperial government is the sub-sector Duke.
They are tasked with seeing to the economic well being of the worlds within their sub-sectors, overseeing the deployment of Imperial resources, and ensuring that worlds pay their taxes

Rivalry exists between sub-sector Dukes, they are competing for limited Naval assets, they are trying to encourage megacorp involvement within their sector, and they are constantly striving to exploit the resources the sub-sector offers.
A sub-sector Duke who can encourage the development of a couple of high pop worlds, or a nice mix of industrial, rich and agricultural worlds, will have considerably more influence at the sector level - and may even aspire one day to that lofty position.

How to stop your neighbours doing the same? What if a world just over the sub-sector border offers great trade potential?

Megacorportions are the power behind the throne of the Imperium. They exploit the resources, operate the refineries and factories, and transport the goods to market.
They conduct exploration - to find new markets and resources - they conduct research and development - to stay ahead of the competition, they found colonies, buy and sell whole worlds, and pay their taxes...

So what if a rival company is making inroads into your market share? What if a world that used to provide the raw materials for your factories decides to trade with someone else?
What if an upstart transport company starts to undercut your transport monopoly?
What if another megacorporation perceives your foothold in a particular region to be weak and ripe for takeover... hostile takeover.

Individual planets are free to govern themselves as they see fit. They are free to build their own naval ships, to subsidise trade, develop their own economies, and exploit their own resources...

So what if a rival world has ambitions to claim an uninhabited part of your system, or you want to develop the potential in another worlds system because they lack the resources?

So basically I can see how each of the above groups would sponsor raiders within the territory of their rivals.

By claiming "Trade War" you have partial immunity from the IN blowing you out of space because of your activities. The letter of marque is a natural extension of this IMHO.
This helps me to explain three things:

how the pirate career can have such a well defined structure

where Corsair class "speculative traders" come from (and why it is a standard design )

how pirates can find a ready market for their booty.

 

[epicenter00]

While it's intriguing, one thing you have to mindful of is that the question of control can get dicey with groups like that. Exactly how does the Imperium control their "pets"? Any number of modern-day governments can tell you there's definite pit-falls to arming and funding groups whom you happen to have alignment of interests with at the time; they tend to often stop having converging interests and sometimes their interests become opposed to you, and then you have the problem that they still have your guns.

For instance, if your pirate band(s) are loose coalitions of pirate captains who share intelligence, use common facilities, and plan raids together to tackle "scores" that are too big for them alone, there's little control the Imperium would have if a segment of these captains decide to go rapine and pillaging and slaving on worlds the Imperium doesn't want them to.

If the pirate band is led by a single individual or a small coterie of individuals, people like this tend to be rather devious, cut-throat, and charismatic to get where they are. It's only a matter of time before they realize that the Imperium's reach is long, their grip is very weak indeed:

* Intelligence agents can be identified and meet "accidents" in extreme cases, it's more likely they can simply be turned through bribes ("forty slavegirls and this ship says you will."), blackmail and/threats (often in the "o playa o plombo" or "silver or lead" or "take the bribe or we kill you" vein), or simply the slippery slope of rationalization ("hey, none of these people we're doing this stuff are real Imperial citizens...I'm still okay" then "no decent Imperial citizen is out here out of choice, these are probably scum who deserve it" to "eh, whatever."). The last is likely to happen to naval officer agents on extended leave.

* If the leaders aren't Imperial agents, you have to remember that the Zhodani. Aren't. Stupid. They'll want to cause the Imperium trouble or have their own fingers in the piracy pie. They have extremely socially maladjusted individuals who have been trained to lie and deceive and have psionics. Such men and women are going to be just like Imperial intelligence people...except better. It's easy to ferret out an Imperial agent in your staff when the Zhodani guy can read the guy's mind. Mind you, the Zhodani might have as much trouble keeping the loyalty of their agents as the Imperium. Now you have the really unpalatable situation of rogue Imperial AND Zhodani agents who know where the bodies are buried running with a bunch of bloodthirsty men who have no problems killing women and children first.

* If the Imperium isn't supplying these pirates, why should they listen to the Imperium, given the above?

* If the Imperium is supplying these pirates, it's only a matter of time before there's a "leadership change" or the existing leaders realize, "You know, we'll keep doing this, but you have to pay a few million credits...every month on top of letting us keep our take" (then they might go to the Zhodani and demand the same thing).

There's also the question of affiliation. How do they keep it secret? In any group of people, there's going to be people who can put two and two together. The more ties (control) the Imperium has over a group, the more likely it will be that it becomes openly known some group of pirates are the Imperium's catspaws. When a group supported by the Imperium may not slave, but goes around rapine and pillaging, the PR effect in the area is usually nothing short of disastrous and will create more enemies than friends for the Imeprium. The more support you put into such groups, the more money it costs, and the more it's just easier to have your regular navy patrol the area.

One more thing: Slaving, besides being morally reprehensible, also tends to be very lucrative. Strong backs can be used for mine labor but really aren't where the money is. The money is in attractive young members of either sex and people (of either sex) with specialized skills like accountants, blacksmiths, technicians, and so on. Such "quality flesh" can pull in large amounts of money due to the demand. The leaders of slaving rings tend to have lots of money. Due to the corruption of spirit that slaving tends to have on such people, they also place a low value on human life in general. And the money they have is like mass in physics - they often have enough so that it has a kind of gravitational pull of its own, and the things that wealthy slavers can offer to turn lonely, embittered Imperial Agents far from home is like a black hole - the agents will get sucked in and will never be seen again.

 

[robject]

Exactly how does the Imperium control their "pets"? Any number of modern-day governments can tell you there's definite pit-falls to arming and funding groups whom you happen to have alignment of interests with at the time; they tend to often stop having converging interests and sometimes their interests become opposed to you, and then you have the problem that they still have your guns.

That's an asset to the referee, and often potential great fun for players (if the referee isn't a sadist).

There's a pecking order in the universe. The pirates act like the vultures; worlds trump pirates; megacorps trump worlds; the Imperium trumps megacorps. Maybe this is the difference between piracy, "good war", "tradewar", and "bad war": piracy is where you're doing a limited sequence of single engagements; a good war is where your world is duking it out with another world; tradewar is where your world (or corporation) is tangling with a corporation; a bad war is where your world is fighting the Imperium (i.e. you lose).

I imagine that the Imperium does not fund pirates as a rule; they may provide tickets for mercenary units. Individual worlds might "inadvertently" fund piracy, but your caveats come into play. I suppose the sequence might go like this:

(1) underworld contracts pirates
(2) pirates go a bit too far
(3) world "cracks down" and pirates go elsewhere


I also imagine the Zhodani see all this as utter chaos.

 

[stealth]

I know you can use this.

robject, in our campaign the Imperium issues Letters of Mark and Reprisal. This is just like funding a good war though some coorporate front.

On the frontier, it is the only way to keep elements like my players in your pocket.

And that is very important....

 

[Darkhstarr]

Very good points that add a lot of spice & challenge to the game.

Slavery can be very lucrative, both in my Beyond campaign most is controlled by one crime syndicate (Tuablin, Ltd & its many front companies) or by pocket empires in need of bodies and/or brains; both which are fed by small-time operators.

The two largest, most powerful pirate syndicates in the Beyond(Dark Goddesses & Webrunners) have long running against the slavers. With the matriarchal Dark Goddesses, most of their recruits outside of heredity clans come from the Liberty Hall & Metchi'Alagwa subsectors where due to raiding the average age is 25 & predominately female. With the more gender mixed Webrunners, they are a cooperative of Free Traders where trade shares equal time with illegal activities. Webrunners, like most Free Traders in the region have suffered from slave raids & kidnapping of trained shipcrews.

You are quite correct about corruption. Many the personnel of the Imperial scoutbases near Tuablin's base of power have come under subversion by Tuablin. It is an ongoing problem that causes a constant turnover of scouts.

While it's intriguing, one thing you have to mindful of is that the question of control can get dicey with groups like that. Exactly how does the Imperium control their "pets"? Any number of modern-day governments can tell you there's definite pit-falls to arming and funding groups whom you happen to have alignment of interests with at the time; they tend to often stop having converging interests and sometimes their interests become opposed to you, and then you have the problem that they still have your guns.

For instance, if your pirate band(s) are loose coalitions of pirate captains who share intelligence, use common facilities, and plan raids together to tackle "scores" that are too big for them alone, there's little control the Imperium would have if a segment of these captains decide to go rapine and pillaging and slaving on worlds the Imperium doesn't want them to.

If the pirate band is led by a single individual or a small coterie of individuals, people like this tend to be rather devious, cut-throat, and charismatic to get where they are. It's only a matter of time before they realize that the Imperium's reach is long, their grip is very weak indeed:

* Intelligence agents can be identified and meet "accidents" in extreme cases, it's more likely they can simply be turned through bribes ("forty slavegirls and this ship says you will."), blackmail and/threats (often in the "o playa o plombo" or "silver or lead" or "take the bribe or we kill you" vein), or simply the slippery slope of rationalization ("hey, none of these people we're doing this stuff are real Imperial citizens...I'm still okay" then "no decent Imperial citizen is out here out of choice, these are probably scum who deserve it" to "eh, whatever."). The last is likely to happen to naval officer agents on extended leave.

* If the leaders aren't Imperial agents, you have to remember that the Zhodani. Aren't. Stupid. They'll want to cause the Imperium trouble or have their own fingers in the piracy pie. They have extremely socially maladjusted individuals who have been trained to lie and deceive and have psionics. Such men and women are going to be just like Imperial intelligence people...except better. It's easy to ferret out an Imperial agent in your staff when the Zhodani guy can read the guy's mind. Mind you, the Zhodani might have as much trouble keeping the loyalty of their agents as the Imperium. Now you have the really unpalatable situation of rogue Imperial AND Zhodani agents who know where the bodies are buried running with a bunch of bloodthirsty men who have no problems killing women and children first.

* If the Imperium isn't supplying these pirates, why should they listen to the Imperium, given the above?

* If the Imperium is supplying these pirates, it's only a matter of time before there's a "leadership change" or the existing leaders realize, "You know, we'll keep doing this, but you have to pay a few million credits...every month on top of letting us keep our take" (then they might go to the Zhodani and demand the same thing).

There's also the question of affiliation. How do they keep it secret? In any group of people, there's going to be people who can put two and two together. The more ties (control) the Imperium has over a group, the more likely it will be that it becomes openly known some group of pirates are the Imperium's catspaws. When a group supported by the Imperium may not slave, but goes around rapine and pillaging, the PR effect in the area is usually nothing short of disastrous and will create more enemies than friends for the Imeprium. The more support you put into such groups, the more money it costs, and the more it's just easier to have your regular navy patrol the area.

One more thing: Slaving, besides being morally reprehensible, also tends to be very lucrative. Strong backs can be used for mine labor but really aren't where the money is. The money is in attractive young members of either sex and people (of either sex) with specialized skills like accountants, blacksmiths, technicians, and so on. Such "quality flesh" can pull in large amounts of money due to the demand. The leaders of slaving rings tend to have lots of money. Due to the corruption of spirit that slaving tends to have on such people, they also place a low value on human life in general. And the money they have is like mass in physics - they often have enough so that it has a kind of gravitational pull of its own, and the things that wealthy slavers can offer to turn lonely, embittered Imperial Agents far from home is like a black hole - the agents will get sucked in and will never be seen again.

 

[Darkhstarr]

My wife says I'm sadistic as a GM. But she smiles when she says it. I think I am getting mixed signals

One of my uses for pirates is based on real life crime on the sea. Corporation has ship that no longer makes money, too expense to run or fix, or has gotten the attention of the legal system. Solution. Hire pirates to steal ship. Ship disappears. Owners bemoan loss of ship and ransom (real or bogus) paid for crew. Or crew replaced with pirates & disappears. In any case both sides win. The owners get the insurance money. The pirates get a ship they can use, strip down, or use as a parts store. The drawback is if the owners have planted a bomb aboard.

One of the background history I built involving piracy/commerce raiding is the ongoing wars between the Eslyat Magistry & the Trelyn Domain in the Vanguard Reaches. There has been four wars. On naval power, the sides are even. The Eslyat are lower tech than the Trelyn navy but have more ships & better officer corps. On the other hand IMTU, the Eslyat have a cultural aversion to treating trading vessels as legitimate targets of war.
Net result, the Eslyat usually sue for peace because their commerce is decimated while the Trelyn trade fleets prosper. The last war, the Eslyat wised up & hired mercs, issued letters of marque. The result was, the largely unprotected Trelyn freighters suffered even greater losses than the Eslyat merchant fleet.

That's an asset to the referee, and often potential great fun for players (if the referee isn't a sadist).

There's a pecking order in the universe. The pirates act like the vultures; worlds trump pirates; megacorps trump worlds; the Imperium trumps megacorps. Maybe this is the difference between piracy, "good war", "tradewar", and "bad war": piracy is where you're doing a limited sequence of single engagements; a good war is where your world is duking it out with another world; tradewar is where your world (or corporation) is tangling with a corporation; a bad war is where your world is fighting the Imperium (i.e. you lose).

I imagine that the Imperium does not fund pirates as a rule; they may provide tickets for mercenary units. Individual worlds might "inadvertently" fund piracy, but your caveats come into play. I suppose the sequence might go like this:

(1) underworld contracts pirates
(2) pirates go a bit too far
(3) world "cracks down" and pirates go elsewhere


I also imagine the Zhodani see all this as utter chaos.

 

[jatay3]

In my campaign, where most of the action is in the Beyond, The Vanguard Reaches, & parts of the Foreven subsectors, commerce to and from the Imperium & its remote client states is very important. And very expensive. Mix in anti-Imperial sentiments among the local systems (some inspired by the Zhodani, some not), Imperial clients who causes more trouble than they solve, semi-piratical pocket empires, & pirates/privateers, you have an expensive problem. What do you do? Cultivate, bribe, or create your own pirates. IMTU, that is what the Imperium has done, turning a blind eye to depredations as long as they do not conflict with Imperial commerce or policy; using them to punish enemies & unruly friends alike. The Imperial has secret agrements with the two largest pirate syndicates, Dark Goddesses (a few Imp. Naval & Intelligence personnels are members of theis group) & Webrunners. Beside being catspaws, these pirate groups also provide valuable intelligence(after vetting) & have been instrumental in destroying other, more destructive pirate bands in the region. Most importantly, they have been the Imperium's main strike against the slave trade in the region, particularly the trade in technical expertise.

There several good examples to use: The French, English, & Dutch in the Americas of the 16th & 17th centuries (Drake, Morgan, etal). Their also the issue of letters of Marque & Reprisal issued over the centuries until ended by treaty in the 19th century. In science fiction there is the Duchy of Waldegren in A. Bertram Chandler's John Grimes novels, used by the Federation to keep the Rim Worlds in their place.

There are several good adventure threads: negotiating with pirates, infilitrating a corsair band for your government or company, hiring a pirate ship for a hazardous mission, smuggling goods, documents, or people, hiring a band to do your dirty work, or even being a pirate.

Privateering is a bad example. A lot of privateers were reasonably well regulated, acknowledged by their govenment and the only real difference between them and naval forces was paperwork.
What you seem to be thinking of is a secret alliance between a respectable state or corporation or whatever and a pirate band- a relationship equivilant to a Daimyo hiring Ninjas and never admitting it. It probably happens quite a bit actually.

I once thought that a good campaign might be made out of Terran officers making contact with the Vargr corsairs during the ISW.

 

[Tellon]

Yeah -- governments having mercenaries doing the dirty work and having privateers destroy enermy shipping to do economic damage to an 'threat' is always going on

thus -- say planet a has a beef with planet b. planet a hires a intel team to start wreaking havoc on the trading markets/financial markets and banking system. It also hires a privateer group to hunt down and destroy shipping -- and fund a "terrorist" group (aka mercenaries) to kill innocents & put the blame on planet c.

so it is a multi-level way of attacking a planet and its economy & shipping -- and we see it here on earth between countries all the time.