My campaign group is about to become quite involved with infiltrating and then fighting Pirates that are operating out of the Sword Worlds subsector.  The Corsairs and pirate ships that I've described to them have mixed crews of Vargr and Sword Worlders.

 Anyone know of a website that has some pre-generated Vargr cosair characters? Sword-Worlders?

 Any suggestions about those two groups?

 Should I provide more details?

- E.W.C.

SignalGK will generate a buncha buncha pie-rates for you lickety-split, but it can't so Vargr or Sword-Wolrlders specifically.

Sword Worlders?  Not necessarily pirates, but just the other day I stumbled across something I wrote for an adventure I was setting in the Sword Worlds and Darrian Confederation, post-Fifth Frontier War.  I think it may apply fairly well for your purposes.

QuoteThere is no restriction on making port at Colada, though the Amber Zone travel advisory suggests that interaction with the planet's residents outside of the port itself is strongly cautioned.  The fiercely independent nature of the Sword Worlds is showcased on Colada, where the local government is currently protesting its participation in the Confederation in the wake of the Fifth Frontier War, which turned out to be rather a political and fiscal debacle for the Sword Worlds.  Colada saw considerable Imperial bombardment of its planetary naval bases, and financial assistance for reconstruction has been slow in the coming. Dissatisfaction with the handling of the war and antebellum reconstruction has left the local citizenry increasingly discontent with the Confederation, including sporadic violent protests and occasional commerce raiding.

On the bright side of things, Colada was one of the earliest settled planets of the Sword Worlds group, with a strong cultural background recognised throughout the subsector for its artistic heritage.  Given the disruption in the local political scene, there are always opportunities to obtain "rare" items of interest.

It might prove a good rationale for an increase in piracy in the region.  Ironically, I wrote this years before I ever saw Firefly, and I realise now that it's a perfect backdrop for that sort of disillusioned antebellum adventure.

!i!

Colada huh?
That might stretch out my loose story plan by 6 more sessions...

 Right now their investigations have pointed them to two star systems :
Gunn/Sword Worlds (1429) and Caliburn/Sword Worlds (1430). Even tho both worlds are portrayed as "Imperium-loyal" the rumor mill in my campaign universe has a secret pirate base working out of one of those two star systems.
 My players have sort of elected themselves as the "Defenders of Merchant shipping" in District 268. They even set up a coalition of Merchants to defend against pirates in the area.

- E.W.C.

Oh, I believe I chose Colada totally at random.  The real gist of it was setting the tone for the campaign -- that the Sword Words were on the short end of the stick after the Fifth Frontier War, that the Confederation was severely weakened, and that fortunes could be made either taking advantage of that weakness or by helping reforge its former strength.  Unintentionally, the setting reflected a lot of the elements seen in the Outer Moons from Firefly -- discontent with the central government, resentment at government oppression, lingering shame and grudges at having lost the war, the importance of bootstrap self-reliance.  From the sound of things, I think your group of "Defenders of Merchant shipping" might be able to make something of this, for good or ill.  I take it they're Imperial?

!i!

Imperial ? Um not really.

 Sort of an independent bunch of merchants.

 Though their crew did get to go to a fancy dress ball at Glisten/Glisten that was hostred by the Duchess of Glisten and the ship's navigator had a dance with Archduke Norris. (she blushed when he said something nice to her - it was pretty cute)

 But no...I wouldn't really consider them to be "Imperial". Heck, they even habe a Zhodani crewmember now - since one of them got married to her Zhodani fiancee NPC.

- E.W.C.

Oh, you're golden, then.  The Sword Worlds need your group of adventurers.

!i!

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!SignalGK will generate a buncha buncha pie-rates for you lickety-split, but it can't so Vargr or Sword-Wolrlders specifically.

 Hey Doc Rotwang, - thanks!!
 That resource is a real help.

 Even though I am using the GURPS version of TRAVELLER , converting from CT isn't really a problem.  I've had to do it before and I'm likely to convert again in the future.

Any other suggestions about Pirates in the rimward part of the Sword Worlds subsecter or the Coreward part of District 268 ?

-E.W.C.

Rogue Darrian pirates with a TL 16 cruiser could be fun.  Especially if they were only rogue for political reasons and secretly still getting backing from their government.

I once did a Traveller comic that featured a group of pirates who wore business suits and had a very professional command structure including a CEO instead of a captain.

A rogue Zhodani noble with a few pirate teleporters would be a really rough encounter.  Especially if they waited until the ships were connected before teleporting in behind the defenders.

You could also have pirates as historical recreationists doing their damndest to talk like pirates.  They could even have a parrot or a parrot monkey.  All would have cutlasses, must be ex-marines...

We've got a Zhodani couple onboard ship as crew ...so using them as "Villians" is out for a little while.

 Besides - the ship's engineer already thinks the Zhodani are behind every plot already. It makes his paranoia amusing now that he has to work with a Zhodani as  his Assistant Engineer.  ("OH he's alright, but I still can't stand the bloody Zho!" - actual quote from him during a game session)

 I like the Darrian angle.

 Damn you really got me mulling that one over.

- E.W.C.

Sword World corsairs...one band of them should have a Miniphant mascot as they're rather common on Sword Worlds and a bit of change of pace from the stereotypical parrot or monkey.

If you don't have GT: Sword Worlds you may want to take a look at it. One of the better Traveller setting books and it includes some NPCs. Can't recall if the GT or CT Vargr books had many NPCs statted out, GT: Star Mercs had at least one Vargr merc group.

Avenger Enterprises has set some CT pdfs in or near District 268 IIRC which you may not be aware of. They may be related to QLI's Golden Age EPIC adventures (note I would not suggest purchasing directly from QLI at this time, but their PDFs are available through DTRPG/RPGNow).

Casey777,

 I have that GURPS:TRAVELLER book (Sword Worlds). Also, because of recent events I now have copes of all the  G:T books that were  made.
 That includes Behind the Claw and First In.  (thank you Sir Pudding!)


 However the two planets I mentioned....are not covered in the Sword Worlds book.

I am making up stuff based on the details in "Behind The Claw" and the scant info in the old supplement Spinward Marches.



- E.W.C.