[TML] Space Piracy (was: Scientific realism)

[Richard Aiken]

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 5:52 PM, Kelly St.Clair <kellys at efn.org> wrote:
> Here's the thing, though:  in historical piracy, was the ship itself worth
> hundreds or even thousands of times more than the average cargo?  Because
> that's the case with your typical Traveller starship.
>
> It seems to me that the most profit for space pirates would come from
> taking and selling the /ship/, with the cargo to cover repairs to both
> vessels, resupply, and beer.

Well, historical pirates *did* keep any ship that was better than
their own, for the task of piracy.  Most pirates started out with long
boats - or even just rowboats/canoes - and worked their way up.  Most
stopped with a small to medium sized coastal vessel, because these
could cross shallow sandbars that heavy warships couldn't.  Later
pirates moved out onto the real ocean - because the Caribbean became
too "hot" for them - and then they started keeping bigger ships.

But *selling* a captured ship of any appreciable size is a problem.
Both historically and in Traveller.  If you want to sell it at
anything even close to it's value, you'll have to get some sort of
paperwork made up.  Without it, you're looking - at best - at getting
scrap value for the ship.  Many historical pirates got around this by
claiming the ships as war prizes - assuming they could scare up a
Letter of Marque and Reprisal - but that won't work in Traveller.

If you go for papers, it's best to get actual real paperwork from a
locality with flexible morals.  The only downside there is that
paperwork from such a place would be known to be iffy.  So reputable
purchasers would hardly buy such ships, afraid of law suits and jail
time.  You're left with marginal dealers and customers.  Knowing your
situation, these aren't going to offer you anywhere near full value,
either.  I'd say - after deducting for all bribes and other payments -
you'd be lucky to clear 5% of actual value.  Maybe 10% if you're
really lucky.

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein