Quote from: Bluddworth;936574"Jettison your cargo or lose your ship!" . . . Ransoms were always honored, otherwise no one would ever surrender their cargo and you would often get less from their salvage than from what they'd hand over.

I'm forever amazed at gamers who don't get this.

Wow, how did this four year old thread come back to life?

I never did end up doing anything with the space pirate concept but re-reading this thread now, it is so crammed with good ideas I really feel I should! Thanks everyone who contributed and by all means keep the conversation going.

Quote from: Soylent Green;936621Wow, how did this four year old thread come back to life?

I never did end up doing anything with the space pirate concept but re-reading this thread now, it is so crammed with good ideas I really feel I should! Thanks everyone who contributed and by all means keep the conversation going.

Looking at real history what really helps is having a lot of wealth flowing (stuff for pirates to raid), a crazy quilt of jurisdictions (what really helped pirates is so many countries having land in the Caribbean with lots of local governments not really caring so much about pirates if they mostly stuck to raiding other countries) and being far away from the main centers of power.

Also piracy is generally high risk enough that MOST people don't do it by choice. What you get a lot is mutineers turning pirate because "well we're wanted already so why not?" or really desperate people (bankrupt mining barges converted to pirates?).

Quote from: Daztur;936647Looking at real history what really helps is having a lot of wealth flowing (stuff for pirates to raid), a crazy quilt of jurisdictions (what really helped pirates is so many countries having land in the Caribbean with lots of local governments not really caring so much about pirates if they mostly stuck to raiding other countries) and being far away from the main centers of power.

Also piracy is generally high risk enough that MOST people don't do it by choice. What you get a lot is mutineers turning pirate because "well we're wanted already so why not?" or really desperate people (bankrupt mining barges converted to pirates?).

Caribbean pirates also often came from crews who were press-ganged into serving onboard national navy vessels and decided to mutiny. The practice of impressment during that era contributed greatly to the creation of pirates.

Quote from: Bluddworth;936574In EvE Online, space piracy worked precisely because the alternative to not turning over your cargo was getting blasted into the frozen vastness of space.  We would gate camp a stystem gate, tackle the target ship (prevent it from warping away), take it down to about 25% hull strength, and then make the demand....  "Jettison your cargo or lose your ship!"  It almost always worked, if the tackle worked.  Ransoms were always honored, otherwise no one would ever surrender their cargo and you would often get less from their salvage than from what they'd hand over.

This works the same in Classic Traveller as well. The point of piracy ins't to board... it's to threaten MILLIONS IN CREDITS of damage.

The Players have to make a decision: Risk taking on damage to keep the cargo intact, or giving up the cargo and not risk the damage.

Again, MILLIONS IN CREDITS of damage.

There is not "right" answer, only decisions for the Players. Which makes it awesome for RPG play.

You can't do space pirates without having a robot parrot that shoots lasers.

Quote from: Doctor Jest;5889351.) Watch Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, and The Buccaneer
2.) replace wooden ships with space ships.
3.) stir

Exactly. Go watch as many Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power movies as possible. I stole the basic premise from Captain Blood for a Star Wars D6 game and it really took on a life of its own. You might also add elements from various war movies, especially POW flicks like The Great Escape and Von Ryan's Express -as well as seafaring yarns like Damn the Defiant!.

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the phrase "Space Pirates!" is Star Frontiers.

I'm still quite a fan of the concept of privateers. That way you can have a rag tag crew of misfits that aren't beholden to a rigid militaristic naval structure while still doing cool stuff for a cause.

Was there ever a Captain Harlock game? or sourcebook or whatever?
If not, that's a big gap in the RPG world.

Quote from: RPGPundit;939924Was there ever a Captain Harlock game? or sourcebook or whatever?
If not, that's a big gap in the RPG world.

I think "Big gap" is a matter of perspective. On the other hand I'm kind of surprised that Guardians of Order didn't go after that back in the day. Or perhaps they did and it was too much money. Or as I understand like a lot of anime/manga the IP, or bits of IP scattered about multiple people so its hard to nail down into a license.

Quote from: RPGPundit;939924Was there ever a Captain Harlock game? or sourcebook or whatever?
If not, that's a big gap in the RPG world.

Crap, another homebrew project added to my pile!

MOngoose put out the Pirates of Drinax free campaign adventure. They even finished, which I was starting to think they'd never do.  It is, imagine this, about being pirates from the Drinax sector, sorta like it says on the tin.  The later chapters felt a little thin to me, but the opening salvos were all piratey type stuff.

You got a ship, a letter of Marque that you can't actually use unless you 'win the campaign', a fake um... brain shutdown... pirate town? I know the damn name, but my brain keeps overwriting it with Barbados for some reason... anyway, great powers (the IMperium and the Aslan Hierate), treasure ships to steal from, pirates and pirate hunters to fight...

And if you want to follow the rest of the campaign... lots of small world politics, treaties and shit like that. Also, you know, Ihatei.

But if that's not your bag, you still have lost princes hiding in disguise trying to get their kingdoms back... sure, its a nine foot lion-dude, but this is Space Pirates.


Boom. There is your space pirates game in a box.

Don't like traveller? Don't use traveller. Betcha 90% of it is still useful to you, and the 10% that's not is shit that is easy as hell to swap out... like starship stats... from your spacy game of choice.

Yer welcome..

Quote from: Spike;940553a fake um... brain shutdown... pirate town? I know the damn name, but my brain keeps overwriting it with Barbados for some reason...

Blacksand

Quote from: Panzerkraken;940859Blacksand

Not helping.