Hello Folks,

In the Star Trek campaign I am running the players have baan given a mission by Starfleet command to come up with a plan to defeat or lessen purate activity between Starbase 11 and Starbase 24.

So ...they can assign at least 5 other Starfleet ships to help them and there are least six impounded Civilian Merchant vessels that could be used as part of the task force.

Any suggestions on what The Orion Pirates or other pirates should do? What they might do? What would be their tactics to get around or get the best of Starfleet?

The year is 2262 - halfway between the "Pike" area and the kirk episopdes era.

Yes, I'm using GURPS ...and their uniforms and equipment look closer to what we see on "ST Strange New Worlds".

- Ed C

Have factions of the Orion Pirates be hired by both the Klingons and the Romulans separately to act as distractions to the Federation while the Klingons and Romulans work out a technology exchange for Klingon (something) and Romulan cloaking technology. That would fit fairly well into the timeline, I think.

EDIT: There are 6 years between 2262 and "The Enterprise Incident" episode, which gives a decent amount of time for the Klingons and Romulans to negotiate and hammer out the technical difficulties of cloaking technology in an exchange for the D-7 cruiser.

Jeff - Interesting suggestion.

However, I am trying to hold off having amy Romulan interaction happen because I am trying to stay within the continuity of the Prime timeline.

Unlike like the last time that I ran a "USS Cochise" RPG campaign - this one is in the Prime timeline or universe and Not the "Kelvin Timeline".

I had already been thinking of having a rogue Klingon house be pulling the strings on the Orion Pirate attacks or they are more simply the 'power behind the power'.

At least two of the Player characters have a Klingon enemy named Captaoin Kotok on their chaqr5acter sheets as a disadbvantage and I need to bring him into the action at some point.

The death of a very creative player back in January slowed things down a bit. Originally we should have had 4 more game sessions by now. Just very glad to have the one we had back on Feb 24th and looking foward to our Next game session on March 17th.

-Ed C.

SFB has a ton of info on the Orions. I don't know how relevant most of it would be to your game but the way pirate tech works defines their tactics and methods. Hit-and-run, and even a small Orion ship can take on a capital ship from the major fleets for a bit before they need to run away. Also, green slave women...

Idea: have one of the merchant ships be a Q-ship. Let the PCs be in charge/on deck of that ship. Bait the Orions into attacking it under the guise that it's just a lone merchant shipping some valuable goods.

The "SFB" stuff is never relevant in my campaigns. They are very 'non-canon' and had a copyright permission that was always very tenuous from the beginning.

The only 'loose' connection I have to that is I that to make my game characters I am use the GCA 4 version of "Prime Directive" templates - and 'Prime Directive' was connected to the SFB silliness.

Really just using the Prime Directive templates only because the Star Trek terminology and slang is already in there - but I am dropping ALL reference to the BS alien races from the SFB foolishness. It Not canon, it does not belong in the Prime Timeline universe

Apologies, I am mildly passionate about this cr...er, stuff.

- Ed C.

FASA Trek had a ton of info on the Orions as well as the Triangle area.

Some things to remember.
Orion ships are FAST.
Their weapons are powerful for the generally small size of ships.
Misdirection is key.
They're sure to know the Rules of Engagement as well as the SF taskforce and use it to their advantage.

Quote from: Koltar on March 05, 2023, 03:37:39 PM
The "SFB" stuff is never relevant in my campaigns. They are very 'non-canon' and had a copyright permission that was always very tenuous from the beginning.

The only 'loose' connection I have to that is I that to make my game characters I am use the GCA 4 version of "Prime Directive" templates - and 'Prime Directive' was connected to the SFB silliness.

Really just using the Prime Directive templates only because the Star Trek terminology and slang is already in there - but I am dropping ALL reference to the BS alien races from the SFB foolishness. It Not canon, it does not belong in the Prime Timeline universe

Apologies, I am mildly passionate about this cr...er, stuff.

- Ed C.

I think SFB lore actually makes more sense if you consider TOS and the cartoon as the extent of Star Trek canon, but if you're not gonna use SFB then alright. That said, I still think the Q-ship idea is fun.

Brainstorming.

A powerful pirate person is managing to unite all the disparate clans/factions in the area and create a mini-crime empire. Starfleet is concerned about the shift in power that this will cause in the sector, and the PC crew is assigned to break it up.

Complications-
This is Starfleet. They are going to prefer a cold-war style sabotage. All out war (Ahem, "armed incident") will likely involve a lot of collateral damage, and Starfleet wants to avoid this.
Maybe the pirate person is not that bad, and is putting together the pirate coalition to fight a greater threat. Once dealt with, the coalition will disperse.
Maybe the pirate person has a personal issue (Missing family member, disease, alien influence) that, if solved, will cause them to retire or back down.
Maybe the pirate person really is a hard core villian, and has to be dealt with via violence, or manipulating their underlings to rise up.

Stuff just off the top of my head.

Mmm. Maybe the Orion Syndicate are the "big bad" either the antagnoists, or puppet masters who are helping the pirates and will take over when they've established themselves.

Quote from: Koltar on March 05, 2023, 01:06:37 PM
In the Star Trek campaign I am running the players have baan given a mission by Starfleet command to come up with a plan to defeat or lessen purate activity between Starbase 11 and Starbase 24.

So ...they can assign at least 5 other Starfleet ships to help them and there are least six impounded Civilian Merchant vessels that could be used as part of the task force.

Any suggestions on what The Orion Pirates or other pirates should do? What they might do? What would be their tactics to get around or get the best of Starfleet?

Here's my Star-Trek-y type take. My rule of thumb with Star Trek adventures is to try have both (1) a science fiction hook like genetic engineering, astronomical phenomena, etc.; as well as (2) a moral/ethical issue involved.

As I used them in my old campaign, the Orions are a small and unscrupulous independent set of worlds who didn't want to join the Federation -- especially because the Federation is opposed to their use of genetically-engineered slave races. The slave races are genetically programmed to be loyal to the Orions. Not all Orions are pirates, but most Orions see the pirates as fighting against the aggressive Federation.

My suggestion would be to have the pirates try to use the Federation's ethics against them. They draw the task force to moving in force, by engage in some raids and some terrorist-like attacks to goad the Federation, even hitting personal target(s) to one of the Federation commanders. Then as the Federation moves in, they then conduct a false flag attack on an Orion outpost posing as Federation. Getting to the site of the false flag attack, the PCs find a lot of dead bodies and some slave race survivors whom they need to care for. The Orions will claim the Federation destroyed their outpost and kidnapped their people, putting them in an ethical dilemma.

There should be a hot headed Federation captain in their task force, whom they might suspect of doing the attack. The Orions will demand to put that captain on trial, and the return of the "prisoners".

Put yourself in the position of the Orions: what threat does Starfleet and the Federation represent to their piracy practices?

1. The cessation of slave trading.
2. The cessation of outright piracy
3. The loss of markets as nearby worlds join the Federation and adopt its economic policies.
4. The loss of assets as a result of direct action by Starfleet against pirate vessels.
5. Loss of prestige among various pirate faction leaders as their wealth and efforts are eroded / embarrassed by Federation interference.

Now, what do the Orions need to do about it? Possibilities include:

A 'high end' slave trading ring among the political leadership of undecided planets in order to influence and perhaps control their leadership, swaying them away from the Federation. Perhaps even tempting or turning the leadership of nearby Federation member worlds or colonies and then using them as an example to embarrass Federation leadership and subvert their influence. Furthermore, nearby 'neutral' worlds my be forced into paying protection money to the various Orion syndicates in return for having their populations spared from slave raids, etc. Such worlds might even be coerced into providing sanctuary to various pirate groups- a serious problem for non-member worlds that still fall within the UFP Treaty Exploration Territory, aka 'Federation Space.'

Baiting traps for Starfleet ships to destroy them in direct action engagements, or baiting traps ashore on 'shore leave' planets to capture, kill, and or enslave starfleet personnel, reducing their efficacy in the campaign setting.

Pirate factions attempting to use the Federation and Starfleet to kill off their own competition through information brokering, timely tips on raids, and general double-agent style douchebaggery and field craft. This is an area where the Klingons could come pee in Federation cornflakes as well, using the Orions as proxies in exchange for weapons and tech.

There's a few ideas, anyway. How useful they might be will depend on the type of game you and your players want to have.

Quote from: Koltar on March 05, 2023, 01:06:37 PMAny suggestions on what The Orion Pirates or other pirates should do? What they might do? What would be their tactics to get around or get the best of Starfleet?

Well, the three economic conditions you need for large-scale piracy to be a viable occupation are as follows:

- High economic prevalence of a material commodity valuable enough that it's worth stealing in transport and reselling somewhere else at a price that undercuts the "official" market price, but still makes a profit for the pirates. Dilithium crystals are the obvious candidate, but one assumes that dilithium cargo ships would be very heavily protected by Starfleet or other official navies, so you might need to invent something else. Slaves are a good example of a commodity the Federation can't sell, but making a habit of capturing Federation citizens to sell into slavery would be a good way to meet the fate of the Barbary corsairs once Starfleet proved it was happening, so such attacks would more likely be raids on far distant, out of touch or very fledgeling colony settlements rather than on starships.

- A gray-to-black market base for that commodity, both geographic and cultural. Where is the Port Royal or Tortuga of the Orion pirates? (A wandering planetoid in a nebula whose gases conveniently muck up most Federation long-range sensors is a likely candidate, or possibly a "free world" operated under Ferengi charter if you want to look far enough ahead.) Who will you meet there that you wouldn't meet at your typical Starbase?

- Transport logistics that make intercepting and stealing such cargos feasible. This includes not only the ability to overhaul and incapacitate most merchant ships, but to outrun or outfight warships pursuing you or defending the cargo, as well as shipping routes consistent and predictable enough you don't just have to wander around in deep interstellar space hoping to get lucky. (If a ship can't be intercepted while in warp and forced to drop to sublight somehow, the vast majority of pirate attacks are probably surprise attacks on ships that have just emerged from warp near their destination -- warp in, take out the target's warp drive with the first few shots, lock on with a tractor beam, batter down the shields, get the commandeering crew aboard via transporter or shuttle, take control of the ship and warp out with the ship to strip it at leisure later.)

- At the level of warp-capable starships, a fourth requirement would most likely be some form of governmental support, so in practice most Orion "pirates" are actually privateers, independently-owned vessels operating under the charter of the Orion government (such as that is). The market base locations for selling pirated goods may also be the shipyards for repairing damaged vessels, and tracking the credit flows that keep such places up and running would lend a "detective story" strain to the anti-pirate campaign.