Surrender

[Spud]

Long, long ago, in this galaxy far, far away... It was 1977 or 8, and having mucked about a bit with D&D, we were now mucking about with Traveller. Sci-fi was much more interesting to my (milvet-heavy) group, and we were stumbling around The Spinward Marches in what now seems a profoundly clueless fog. I was the ref because no one else had the experience or confidence, and I was the one who had bought the LBBs.

So, one day while inbound to ________ (what, I should remember the name of every backwater planet after 26 years? Hell, I still smoked in those days!) the PC's were beset by pirates. Said pirates blew out their weaponry in no time, and were closing to board. The PCs were frantic not to lose their ship or their (characters) lives, and scratching for some further means of resistance. Being an inexperienced, soft-hearted ref, I allowed some ridiculous die-rolls and allowed the PCs to hot wire a reload missile so as to fire from the cargo deck. As the BGs approached to within (I forget the numbers; ridiculously close) the PCs opened the cargo doors and fired! Kazango-ed the pirate ship big-time, and the launch full of boarding party surrendered under threat of eating the (pure bluff) next one. Course, all their cargo got beat up pretty bad, what with the decompression and then the exhaust gasses(?!), but hey the BGs had rewards on 'em, and the new (former) pirate ship was _much_ bigger...

So lately that one came to mind again (?!) and I have been wondering... The next time the PCs get overly creative while under the gun, how should I resolve the effect of fire from whatever they put out the cargo door this time? Some examples:

4mm VRFGG - say, an Astrin?

2.3GJ Heavy Fusion Gun - like, an Intrepid

My personal favorite - 10 GJ meson gun/Terrapin meson sled! :-o


This has further led me to wonder, what is the etiquette for being boarded by pirates? As opposed to say, boarding by a revenue cutter (real or fake), IN interdiction check, SPA Medical Team (There's been an outbreak of...), or whatever.

If piracy gains an automatic death sentence, there's an incentive not to leave witnesses, which is an incentive not to surrender, etc.

If (as seems to me) the PCs' ship is the most valuable thing they own (why bother getting all sweaty shifting their cargo of fertilizer?), can't the PCs use their ship as a 'Polish hostage' (Blazing Saddles: "Don't nobody move or [Cleavon Little] gets it!")? "You'll take my ship when you pry it from my cold dead fingers!" "Your offer is accepted. Whahaagh!" MIB
Just how do we persuade the PCs that they don't have to die today? But they _could_.

So, how close does the BG mother ship need to approach, how good are BG sensors at reading battle damage? Can we 'lie doggo' and pretend they got us? I figure even the dumbest pirates aren't going to dock their main vessel to a (would-be) prize? I also figure even Jayne was never dumb enough to cross over to a target ship in just a vacc suit.
Runequest was a lot better organized for things like ransom. For years, I had a character who could say "My ransom is a thousand Lunars" in twenty-three languages!

So, I repeat, what are the mechanics of surrendering one's ship and surviving?

 

[trader jim]

OOOOOOOO...you opened a bucket of Worms.....


NEVER!!!! NEVER!!!! NEVER!!! SURRENDER!!!

Winston Churchill 1940??

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Spud:
Long, long ago, in this galaxy far, far away... It was 1977 or 8, and having mucked about a bit with D&D, we were now mucking about with Traveller.

<copied from my reply to the same on JTAS>

A long, long time ago I can still remember how that gamin' used to make me smile... It was about the same time for our little group and much the same, just no milvets, too young

but some considering and some cadeting.

I ref'ed a similar scenario at least once, can't recall some of the details but basically...

It was a little distraction for a single player character of a friend and myself one night. He had a Type S he was solo operating, trying to make ends meet and had picked up a few passengers.

Anyway the ship was minding its own business until I rolled a random pirate encounter. After the pirates closed to optimal range under the ruse of "routine inspection of cargo for contraband" (it was that or fake a Signal GK which would have had the player suspicious right off) the pirates opened fire and in one attack (two turrets) blew out the ship's power plant (and some minor something else) and ordered them to surrender for mercy.

Naturally the Captain (player) didn't want to lose his ship but I figured he had little choice, until he asked to speak shipwide to his passengers. So he gets on the secure ship comms and says something like he'd like a unanimous vote to fight the boarding party but will surrender if even one soul aboard thinks they have a better chance with the offer of mercy. So, not anticipating this, I quickly roll the basics for the passengers and end up with a motely assortment of heros, talk about luck. I think it was an ex-Marine cum Merc, a career retired Navy officer and an Army reservist/part time Merc. Well fine I think, but will they want to fight for someone else's ship?

I roll, and they are all for the fight, emphatically so. So after signalling surrender the Navy officer takes command of the npc's as tactician and organizes the stand. The player suggests maybe going eva to the pirate ship while the pirates board his crippled ship. The Marine and PC don the heavy vacc-suits (like combat armor) from the engineering locker after the Marine gets his weapons from the cargo hold (laser rifle and such). They go out the small forward cargo hold while the pirates approach the aft main lock. Waiting at the main lock are the Navy man pretending to be the sole operator and the Army reservist armed to the teeth with the ship's locker weapons of shotguns and such. They coordinate the attack to take out the boarding party just as the Marine and PC blow the aft engineering lock off the pirate ship with the emergency rescue patch (peel and stick explosive entry hole making things, standard ship's locker issue) and enter the ship from there and take over the engineering section of the pirate ship and demand its immediate surrender.

-------

So to your questions...

You can't really plan what a PC will think of, I'm sure we've both played and ref'ed enough to have learned that lesson, and we also know how to adapt and wing it.

As for specifics that's trickier. I once wanted to surrender a cargo load of radioactives to some pirates, rigged with a timer to blow once they had it inside

Can't remember how that plan turned out.

As for using vehicle guns against a ship T20 has a plan for that (-5 dice damage iirc), CT I'd probably just say no effect. Other systems I dunno. Of course the meson sled is gonna ignore the hull so that'll play merry hell with its internal explosions, and you don't even need line of sight for it.

I think Vilani Pirates (who prefer to be called Agressive Independant Marketing Agents) will have a reputation of being fair and bound by any agreements made. They will also usually be operating as Licensed Commercer Raiders for one mega-corp against another(s) and have repatriation bonds and other legal writs. So they will only prey on legitimate targets and will usually offer mercy. Passengers will be taken to a safe world near their destination while crew will be held for ransom/repatriation and the ship and cargo taken as spoils or destroyed, whichever is most expedient. Vilani Pirates who cross the line and attack innocent ships will likely face a long stay on an Imperial Prison Planet.

Solomani Pirates will probably look at the flag of the ship the attack, being kind to the point of generosity to Solomani ships and citizens, and much less so to Imperial ships and citizens, but they will no doubt consider ransoming hostages or holding them (maybe in low berths) as bargaining chips if caught by the Imperials who would be just as likely to kill them outright as go to the bother of a trial before killing them. This will make most Solomani Pirates a little more ruthless, at least in Imperial space.

Vargr Pirates are going to be equal oppurtunity plunderers, and the treatment of the prize will depend on the individual pack leader. In dealing with them the Imperium will likely shoot first and save asking any questions at all. Vargr are likely to take surrender as a sign of weakness and just take what they want and space the weaklings. Offers to follow the pack on the other hand may be met with interest, if the candidate speaks reasonable Vargr and makes a good show of resistance first.

I don't think you'd have Aslan or Zhodani Pirates so no worries there, well not of piracy anyway

Of course there are still going to be the odd Free Pirate, the ones with no allegiance except to thier own. These are the most dangerous as they'll murder you in cold blood, even or especially after offering and/or accepting peaceful surrender for mercy, just so there's no witnesses.

As for boarding etiquette that only applies to the genuine item, not a pirate trying to pretend they are something else. Of course they will follow the protocol to a point to better effect the ruse.

I think it'd begin with the ship being stopped ordered to come to a relative stop and idle its power plants ("heave to") and ("run in its weapons") point any armed turets away from the approaching authority.

Once the authority has matched vector, usually close but not boarding range, the ship being stopped would be asked to send over its representitive(s), usually the First Officer and an aide on larger ships. They will be expected to bring the ship's manifest and not be armed. Once and while they are aboard any inspection team will board their ship, effectively each being hostage for the other, less effectively for the ship being boarded since the inspection team will be bigger and usually armed (lightly).

The actual boarding will depend on the respective ships. Small craft being preferential to docking and docking being preferential to eva.

Now assuming everything goes well the inspection team will return and then the representitives will be allowed to return and the ship may go on its way. But of course we are talking about pirates sooo...

The longer the ruse can be kept up the better. If the representitives can be held and believe the ruse all the better. The "inspection team" can play their role to the hilt while secretly looking the ship over and if it looks good take it over once they have a good oppurtunity. If something looks off, or they just don't think it worth the risk they can play the role out and make their getaway with none the wiser till later, or maybe never.

As for the "Polish hostage" (the term's a new one on me but not the idea, especially like your references, lol) that could work if played right. Yet another reason for having a small craft, or lifeboats imo, which are more common imtu that the otu. The captain would probably bargain to allow the boats to make safe distance while he stayed on the deadman trigger. Once the boats are safe he trades his ship intact for safe passage and/or ransom to the pirates. Most ship captains would have the funds for a fair ransom and most pirates could come to some seeming safe exchange scenario.

I like the Runequest reference too, a good reason for all travellers to have a healthy contingency fund squirreled away and learning a couple extra languages or at least a few phrases.

That's my tu take on some of it anyway, at least in brief. Of course there are those here who are convinced pirates are just a figment of the media and can't possibly exist, arrr

 

[Badbru]

Alot of the answers to your questions depend on what rules set you are using and what things are really like IYTU. From my reading of other peoples assesments of the various rules sets CT will leave you with problems re vrf gg in the airlock, grav tank in the cargo bay, improvised weapons and mixing personal combat with vehicle combat with starship combat etc. MT is better and from experience TNE has a fully integrated combat tasks system. I could tell you exactly what you needed to accomplish the questions you asked wrt combat

As to surrender and pirates, it depends on the level of law and order and control IYTU. As you say if Piracy attracts a death sentence then pirates will feel they have more to loose "potentially" than gain by leaving people alive. But if hostage taking and ransoming is a popular method of "Freedom Fighter" armies to finace war efforts, then Pirates might just make this yet another aspect of thier money making venture that is piracy. It may even be as detailed as selling captives to a third party who then does the negotiations (the Ine Givar perhaps??).If the passengers on a Jayhawk included a regional manager for Sternmetal Horizons LIC and one or two of that mega corps top local scientists who knows what they might pay.... or then again who knows who they might hire

Also you need to consider just what brand of pirates you have there. Are they the bloodthirsty killcrazed type? Are they the romanticised noble warrior with honour type? Are they a one time merc band who turned pirate after doing it ligit via letter of marque during the most recent war, and now find they just can't get out of it type?

As TJ said "a bucket of worms there"