& PRIVATEERING PIRACY &PRIVATEERING JOSH PETERS

Sample file COPYRIGHT © 2018, 2021 STELLAGAMA PUBLISHING

3 STELLAGAMA PUBLISHING TABLE OF CONTENTS

AvastYeScurvyDogs!6 Specific System Encounter Tables: Two Examples81 PiracyandPrivateeringCampaigns8 Non-PlayerCharacters83 Piracy 101: How Does a Space Pirate Operate?10 LegalAppendix85

Privateering:AHuntingLicense13 Importantnotice85

OtherConcerns13 OpenGameLicenceVersion1.0A85

OtherConcerns14

RandomSpaceEncounters16

A.EncounterTerrain16

B. Traffic17

C. Safety17

D.TheEightSystemTypes19

E.GeneratingEncounters19

EncounterFrequencyTable20

OptionalRule:ArrivalZones21

EncounterDetection21

TheNPCReactionRoll22

F.TheSystemEncounterTables23

G.ShipEncounters26

Merchant42

H.ItemEncounters55

AnEncounterGenerationExample65

MakingMoney66

A.TheEconomicsofPiracy66

B. The Mechanics of Selling Stolen Goods 68

FencingExample70

C.TheEconomicsofPrivateering71 SamplePrivateeringSaleExample72 file D.OverheadandPayingtheCrew73

AdventureSeedsandNPCs76

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5 STELLAGAMA PUBLISHING AVAST YE SCURVY DOGS! Pirates are the scourge of the space-lanes. incident? What’s to stop a pirate crew from simply Cutthroats, bandits, and scum, their actions render commandeering a bigger, better and making off them hostis humanis generis: enemies outside of with it? Where do pirates sell off their ill-gotten humanity. Captured pirates are not entitled any due merchandise, and how much will they get for their process, they have few rights, and they can expect no booty? Where can they hole up to repair and refit mercy, only grim justice for their heinous crimes. their ship without getting harassed by the local Space Despite the risks, this book encourages science Patrol? Finally, since ship combat can be quite fiction roleplayers—Gamemasters and players alike— dangerous, how do GMs avoid multiple Total Party to embrace their inner space pirate and set forth to Kills? the stars to carve a bloody swath across the galaxy! This book sets out to answer these challenges. My goal is to provide a solid basis for piracy and privateering sandbox campaigns by furnishing GMs Let us begin by asking you two simple non-rhetorical with a set of system-neutral tools. Chapter 1 outlines questions: the answers to the above questions and more, 1. Haven’t you always wanted to be a space pirate? helping aspiring pirates, , and their GMs as they set out to plunder. Chapter 2 presents a full set 2. Why aren’t you, a roleplaying game of random encounter rules to help GMs populate player or GM, in a space pirate campaign? their systems with fat merchant to loot, Science fiction and are genres filled with bases to spend their ill-gotten gains, and pirate- pirates, privateers, and other shady characters. A hunting patrol frigates to run away from. The piracy or privateering campaign is an ideal starting encounter rules are system and setting neutral. GMs point for a grand sandbox-style sci-fi campaign: the will have to rely on whichever ruleset they are using player characters possess a small, capable armed to develop the game statistics needed for the vessel that relies on surprise, speed, and stealth to encounters generated here. Chapter 3 discusses overcome opponents. The PCs are not bound by some of the nitty-gritty mechanics of selling stolen many commitments or obligations tying them to any cargoes, ships and other ill-gotten booty. Finally, one place. Their actions, good, bad, or ugly, will have chapter 4 provides the GM with some adventure very real consequences. The PCs will have freedom of seeds, as well as NPC patrons, merchants, pirate- action, allowing them to also be merchants, hunters, and other rival pirates and privateers for use mercenaries, and explorers, as well as bandits; they in campaigns. can also become ideologically motivated, redistributing their ill-gotten gains to those in dire need—after they’ve covered their operating costs, of REQUIRED MATERIALS course. Pirate PCs might end up leading rebellions This sourcebook is generic to interstellar science- against interstellar governments. Such a feat would fiction role-playing; you can use it with a wide variety require the players to use every bit of diplomatic and of games and rulesets, from the Cepheus Engine by military cunning at their disposal; it might also Samardan Press™ to Stars Without Number by Sine necessitate having a somewhat flexible set of Nomine Publishing™ to White Star by Barrel Rider morals—a perfect fit for pirate player characters with Games™. What you need to use this book is your aspirations of grandeur. favorite interstellar sci-fi RPG ruleset, appropriate Exploration, politics, looting, conquest, and glory: dice, and some writing supplies or a computer. what’s stopping GMs from running space piracy campaigns instead of the more common tramp- merchant-adventurer campaigns we all know and love? Well, there are some issues that need to be addressed. There are several challenges inherent in a piracy or privateering campaign. First and foremost, a GM must develop a game world in which piracy is Samplefeasible: piracy must be lucrative enough to be file sustainable, and it should operate according to how space travel works in the game. How does a pirate reliably find prey? How can pirates quickly and efficiently overcome their prey without major

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR STELLAGAMA PUBLISHING Josh Peters is a high school math and history teacher, Stellagama Publishing is an interna�onal role-playing an accomplished drummer, and avid tabletop RPG game publisher focused on science fic�on and sword gamer. Josh has a Master’s Degree in history, and & sorcery gaming, founded in January 2016. We resides in Montreal, Canada, with his beau�ful, publish gaming material for the Cepheus Engine, 2D6 pa�ent wife and two deviously adorable children. Sci-Fi OGL, Stars Without Number, and White Star RPGs. Our goals are primarily to publish enjoyable and immediately playable supplements, se�ngs, rulesets, and adventures for our fellow players and referees. Our flagship se�ng is These Stars Are Ours! a high-ac�on space-opera universe in which Terra only recently gained its freedom from the mighty Re�culan Empire. Our flagship ruleset isCepheus Light, an old-school 2D6 sci-fi role-playing game. We also published a sword & sorcery 2D6 ruleset, Sword of Cepheus, in 2020.

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7 STELLAGAMA PUBLISHING PIRACY AND PRIVATEERING CAMPAIGNS

You have taken the plunge and are ready to run a trade make piracy viable because o�en there will be campaign where the player characters are pirates or no one who can come to the aid of a vessel beset privateers. Your players hunger for adventure, they upon by pirates. However, there are many factors thirst for gold, and they were talking like pirates for that can affect that basic viability. Fundamentally, the en�re character genera�on session. Now what? pirates are extor�ng more legi�mate traders by As GM, you have a few things to do before your forcing them to give up a percentage of their overall players can run roughshod over the galaxy. incomes to avoid being killed by the pirate ship’s guns. Piracy is just one of the myriad overhead costs of interstellar commerce. This means that, in most STEP 1: GENERATE YOUR SETTING cases, no one has to die when a pirate ship captures prey. There are several science fic�on roleplaying games available that have built-in world genera�on rules Of course, things might not be so simple. Pirates which allow GMs to develop their own game universe might also act as raiders, a�acking isolated worlds specific to their needs. Other games have pre- where the locals are unable to match the firepower of generated se�ngs, which are licensed from other the pirates. Like the of old, these sorts of intellectual proper�es, or are long-standing gaming pirates will plunder, pillage, and leave, only to return universes. a few months later to do it all again. Paying off raiders is a �me-honored tradi�on, but that only encourages There are benefits to developing your own se�ng, more extor�on, and the arrival of new raiders looking such as being able to play god, and to be the final for easy money. Other pirates might also carry off arbiter in all things rela�ng to your game world. It is cap�ves to serve as slaves, concubines, or even food, also fun to use random tools to generate worlds and depending on the se�ng. Those sorts of pirates are then figure out how they actually work. However, far worse than the ones that can be considered many GMs find the task of se�ng genera�on quite “overhead,” and anyone who values stability and daun�ng and �me-consuming. Others worry that the human life will oppose them whenever possible. se�ng might not make sense and could lack the verisimilitude needed for players to really engage How piracy will work in your se�ng will also depend with the se�ng. Making a coherent se�ng that is fun on what sort of poli�cs exist in your se�ng. There are to play in is a difficult skill to master, and we at three main types of se�ngs that I will address here. Stellagama Publishing encourage GMs to develop this The first se�ng has a large galac�c empire; the skill as much as possible. second has several smaller interstellar states; and the third is a se�ng with almost no interstellar poli�es. Using a pre-exis�ng se�ng might be more frui�ul for a GM who is strapped for �me and would just like to Large interstellar empires require large navies to get the ball rolling on a campaign. There are plenty of keep the empire poli�cally stable and safe for great games out there with well-developed se�ngs commerce. Inside the empire, ci�zens feel safe based on IPs from movies, books, and TV shows. enough to ship enormous amounts of freight, and These piracy and privateering rules are designed to there is regular traffic along well-established shipping work with them, with minimal effort to adjust their lanes. These trade routes are patrolled by the mechanics. The only drawback to using a pre-exis�ng empire’s navy. This means that piracy, when it occurs, game universe—even Stellagama Publishing’s These exists on the fringes of the empire, on the fron�ers, Stars Are Ours! se�ng—is that the specifics of the far away from naval bases and regular patrols. On the se�ng might not meet your needs as a pirate GM. fron�er, there may be regular shipping lanes, but they are not travelled by the enormous mega- freighters owned by interstellar corpora�ons. STEP 2: HOW DOES PIRACY WORK IN YOUR Instead, smaller freight companies, and even SETTING? independent merchants, ply the stars between the Regardless of which op�on you choose, you will have more developed worlds that sell manufactured goods to figure out how piracy works in your game. Here are to the fron�er, and the less developed worlds that some basic premises that you can work with as you buy those goods. Moreover, the fron�er has flesh out your se�ng: resources to extract and ship back to developed Sampleworlds where they are processed file into manufactured Piracy exists because of interstellar trade. There will goods. Not all raw materials make ideal cargoes for always be those who are willing to ambush ships and pirates to steal, but some do. rob them of their cargoes to sell later the . The sheer distances involved in interstellar

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Perhaps one of the most important aspects of large might be able to catch a big prize when it ventures empires is that commerce is well-developed enough beyond a government’s borders. However, pirates to support insurance on most cargoes and vessels. should be cau�ous: powerful military vessels escort The importance of insured cargoes and ships is these lucra�ve convoys. discussed below. If your se�ng is one with few or no interstellar Pirates opera�ng on the fringes and fron�ers of large poli�es to speak of, where each system is poli�cally empires must keep a few things in mind. Firstly, and independent from the rest, then piracy is o�en the most importantly, they should never a�ract too much default ac�vity for many crews. There simply a�en�on to themselves. Large empires have the aren’t any navies large enough to enforce the law and means to aggressively hunt down the worst criminals. deter pirates from preying upon whatever shipping The trick, then, is to not be the worst criminal in the there is. However, this doesn’t mean that piracy is empire. That means that pirates should take care to easy. In these sorts of wild-and-woolly se�ngs, avoid inflic�ng casual�es and should certainly not merchant captains are so cu�hroat and desperate commit atroci�es. That would force the government that they will readily engage in piracy, raiding, and to act and send a few patrol frigates, or even a cruiser slaving as a sideline to their more legi�mate business or two to hunt down the offending pirate crew. ac�vi�es. Pirates are as much entrepreneurs as they Dovetailing with this first edict is the second: pirates are criminals, because everyone in space is opera�ng should focus on capturing cargoes, not ships. under the same business model: do unto others Depending on the se�ng, commercial vessels can be before they do unto you. This situa�on also works for vastly more expensive than the cargoes they haul, many post-apocalyp�c science fic�on games, where a and both cargoes and ships are insured. The large empire experienced a major collapse. Now, insurance corpora�ons would much rather some �me later, individual socie�es have managed to occasionally pay a trader the value of goods lost to regain the technology to reach the stars and start piratesthantohavetopayoutthevalueofaninsured again. New space explorers and merchants will be the vessel. Stealing vessels will irk powerful economic first to encounter strange new worlds and new interests in the empire, who will lobby for increased civiliza�ons—and rob them blind. patrols to hunt down the pirates in ques�on. Pirates Finally, when developing your se�ng for piracy should only seize a vessel if it truly is worth the campaigns, make sure to consider where the closest trouble such an act would bring down on their heads. free port is located. This is where the majority of the Thirdly, pirates should not stand in the way of PCs’ loot will be sold. It need not be a massive pirate progress. This means that as the fron�er develops den run by criminals—though that can be fun. It just economically, it will be �me for the pirate ship to needs to have at least one morally flexible customs move on to the new fringe of the empire and start all inspector, some dockworkers who can be induced to over again. Finally, pirates should generally remain look the other way, and at least one contact that will apoli�cal in ideology. Robbing traders will bring the connect the PCs with the local black market where inevitable patrol frigate by; however, robbing traders they can fence their captured cargoes. A free port can and using the proceeds to declare that a system is serve as something of a home base for the PCs as now a poli�cally independent pirate kingdom is an they begin their pirate careers, and it should be affront that invites the arrival of a ba�legroup located close enough to the trade lanes to make carrying a large detachment of marines. piracy and travel viable, but not too close as to be on In a se�ng with several smaller interstellar poli�es, a patrol frigate’s regular route. Neither the players much of what was described above for a large empire nor the GM should get too a�ached to any free port. s�ll applies. Unless an interstellar state has a Players being players, their characters will likely par�cularly weak navy, much of its peace�me a�ract too much a�en�on, forcing them to move on ac�vi�es will involve securing trade routes and space to another world. lanes. This means that pirates are s�ll forced to operate on the fringes of these governments’ territories. However, this fringe will be larger, and o�en will be contested territory between two or more states. This means that pirates will have greater opportuni�es to prey on very lucra�ve merchant traffic that passes through independent territory. It Samplewillalsobemoredifficultforanypolitytosendalarge file pirate hun�ng force beyond its borders: that could be read as prelude to an invasion of another state, a�er all. Trade between interstellar states may be common, or it may be rare. In the la�er case, pirates

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PIRACY 101: HOW DOES A SPACE point where it is safe to ac�vate the FTL drive. PIRATE OPERATE? As you can readily see, the “wait and lurk” approach to piracy is for rank amateurs. The second and more Interstellar piracy depends on the ability of pirate effec�ve way of conduc�ng piracy opera�ons is to vessels to reliably locate a merchant vessel, overtake gather as much intelligence about merchant traffic it, force it to surrender, dock with it, board it, and going in and out of a given system as possible and then transfer valuables from the merchant over to combine this intelligence with social engineering the pirate ship. All this must happen before the local techniques to maximize chances of successful piracy. authori�es arrive. Let’s examine each step in turn to The results of these efforts should provide at least help you, the GM and players, to understand how to one target worth chasing down and robbing. So how run the specifics of a piracy campaign. exactly does this work? Merchant traders will only visit worlds that have something to trade. For pirates, this means loca�ng a TARGET ACQUISITION world that is eager to export a product that is worth Finding a ship for a pirate to prey on easily is the most stealing. Usually, this will mean some sort of finished, important part of successful piracy opera�ons. There processed, or manufactured good, but a good pirate are fundamentally two ways to go about acquiring a will not neglect a world that has rare raw materials target. The first, and least efficient, method is to lurk like gemstones, radioac�ves, or esoteric life forms. in ambush on a trade lane. This requires there to be Once a suitable world is located, the savvy pirate will some sort of arrival zone for faster-than-light vessels send an agent or two onto the planet incognito to do to appear in when they enter a system. Some science field work. This entails tasks like learning about the fic�on games put their arrival zones at the edge of local starport, cargo facili�es, customs agents, the system, others at some distance from the defense forces, and even local criminal elements. The des�na�on world. Travel from the edge of a solar goal is to find “friends” among the right well- system to a des�na�on within the system is o�en connected locals to pass on informa�on about the �me consuming, and could take days, if not hours. If comings and goings of merchant ships laden with rich an FTL arrival zone is closer to the des�na�on, like cargoes. These “portwatchers” should be well-paid, say, one hundred planetary diameters away from a bribed, extorted, or otherwise leveraged to ensure given planet, then pirates will have only a few hours that they discreetly transmit reliable informa�on to to capture a ship and offload its cargo. the pirates in a �mely manner. Thus, suitably armed with informa�on about schedules, ships, defenses, There are many problems associated with simply and (hopefully) cargoes, a pirate vessel can now lying in ambush on a trade lane. The pirates will have properly lurk and wait, knowing that a fat, juicy, to sit and wait, which consumes expensive life merchant is headed right into its clutches. support and food supplies. Remaining undetected is a challenging priority and might require the pirate In addi�on to making successful, lucra�ve piracy vessel to power down most of its systems. Wai�ng for more likely, this approach also brings addi�onal long periods of �me, in the dark, with only basic life benefits to the gaming group as a whole. support and sensors opera�ng, hoping for a target to Encouraging the players to plan, use reconnaissance, pass into range is hardly the glamorous life most and think before they take decisive ac�on is never a pirate crews sign on for. Furthermore, if they do bad thing. It also lets players to engage in roleplaying detect a merchant ship in range, the pirates will have as they talk to NPCs. As well, this sort of legwork next-to-no idea what cargo, if any, is in its hold. Every enables characters who concentrated on social skills pirate hopes to be offloading a plum cargo of illegal at the expense of starship combat skills to recrea�onal drugs, but without knowing what’s in the meaningfully engage in piracy opera�ons: the con cargo hold of a target beforehand, a pirate crew will ar�st PC, the sneak thief PC, and the diplomat PC all most likely be offloading xeno-cows and bo�le cap have important roles to play in planning and making machines to a grey market fence at their next execu�ng a successful pirate job. port of call. This lack of intelligence also extends beyond the cargo hold contents: nothing is known about the ship’s overall disposi�on. Is the merchant part of a convoy that is running only hours behind? Is Sampleit a decoy, or worse, a Q-ship armed to the teeth with file hidden weapons? Once the prey is detected, the pirates might have very li�le �me to spring into ac�on before the merchant engages its FTL drive and leaves the system, or before it makes port. This is especially the case if it only takes hours to reach a

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CATCHING PREY boarding opera�ons, should a merchant ship not willingly open its airlocks. Specialized cu�ng torches, Once a suitable target has been found, it’s �me for explosive charges, or black-market security override the pirate ship to chase it down! This is where good rou�nes can get pirate crews into their prizes. The sensors, pilo�ng, naviga�on, and engineering skills drawback to using these sorts of devices is that they come in handy. A solid set of engines and consume valuable loo�ng �me and require maneuvering thrusters will also be necessary. crewmembers to don space suits and get onto the Whoever is plo�ng the courses and minding the exterior of the merchant ship. Once aboard, the crew engines should be expected to make some skill rolls. must be policed and restrained. One never knows There is very li�le opportunity for stealth and what to expect from a merchant crew: a hotheaded surprise once the engines are fired up and the crewmember willing to stand up to pirates can cause intercept course is laid in. What other business than major headaches for a captain engaged in an piracy would an unknown ship have as it burns otherwise simple robbery. Any passengers aboard towards a merchant heading to or from port? At this should be similarly restrained. The bridge and point, the clock is �cking, because the prey will be engineering sec�on must be secured to prevent any making for the closest point at which it can engage its mischief. Once all this is accomplished, the loo�ng FTL drive, or land at a starport. In some se�ngs, can begin. where FTL drives can operate only at the edge of a system, this means that pirates will have more opportuni�es to catch their prey. In other se�ngs, PILLAGE AND PLUNDER where FTL drives can be engaged much sooner, this means that the pirate crew must have perfect �ming. Pirates look for high-density loot. This means that If the pirate vessel is a�acking a ship that is heading they are more interested in cargoes that are portable, towards port, then the clock is s�ll �cking. The pirates small, and highly valuable. A bearer bond worth will have a small window of opportunity to catch, 50,000 credits is more valuable to a pirate than ten board, and offload cargo before coming into range of tons of merchandise worth 5,000 credits per ton. The the local patrol ships that will be accelera�ng out bearer bond takes up less space, is easier to conceal, from the world, or from their patrol route, to prevent and its value is less subject to arbitrary market forces an honest pirate from making a few credits. than any physical cargo. This means that pirates have loo�ng priori�es that might seem a bit counter- intui�ve. Savvy pirates who have boarded a merchant SURRENDER, DOCKING AND BOARDING will make a bee-line for the ship’s safe and the ship’s computer. The safe might contain all sorts of small If the pirate ship can catch its prey, then it must force and highly valuable items. Cracking it open might take it to stop accelera�ng, surrender, and allow boarders. �me, but that is a perfect opportunity for a specialist Pirate gunners should be capable of reliably targe�ng PC to have an opportunity to shine. Hacking the ship’s the engines or fuel reserves of their prey if a well- computer is useful for finding passenger lists and placed warning shot doesn’t do the job. This will cargo manifests, as well as any strange discrepancies prevent prey from escaping, one way or another. It is that might point to illegal items hidden away in impera�ve that pirates do not destroy their prey. This obscure loca�ons aboard ship. There also might be is disastrous from an economic perspec�ve, and it valuable informa�on in the ship’s computer that can gives the pirates a reputa�on for being murderers, later be sold for a premium to the highest bidder. which will make future targets less likely to surrender. Hacking the computer and cracking the safe might be A�er engines and fuel tanks, pirate gunners will try to difficult and �me consuming, so in�mida�ng the disable any ac�ve weapon systems that could harm crew into unlocking both is o�en the quickest means their vessel. However, once the engines are shot out, to success. it makes li�le sense for a crippled merchant ship to resist. Of course, there are always excep�ons to this rule. Gaining the surrender of the prey is important, though one can never be too trus�ng of merchant ship captains and their so-called surrenders. A canny pirate captain will keep the ship’s guns locked on the Sampleprey un�l the merchant crew has been properly file restrained. Once the prey has surrendered, docking and boarding can proceed smoothly, albeit with great cau�on. The goal is to get the prey to open its airlocks and allow boarders to enter with li�le effort. Many pirate vessels carry specialized equipment for

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Merchant vessels are designed to haul large amounts cargo losses have become par�cularly egregious will of cargo. A similarly sized pirate vessel will have a the government be forced to step in and send a patrol much smaller cargo hold. This means that pirates will to hunt down the overly hard-working pirate crew. have to pick and choose the most lucra�ve cargoes to Steal a ship, however, and a pirate captain is signalling steal from a large variety of cargoes present in a to insurance firms in more civilized regions of space merchant’s hold. Having the ship’s cargo manifest will that they are not abiding by the unspoken rules of the certainly help locate good plunder, but an game. The corpora�ons involved will ruthlessly press experienced pirate crew will have specialists on for government interven�on against the pirate ship in board who have learned how to find the good stuff in ques�on. Pirate hun�ng fleets will be dispatched, and a prey’s cargo hold. Here, the same principle holds: punishment will be swi� and merciless. small, high value cargoes are more worthwhile than In se�ngs where there are no interstellar freight larger, bulkier cargoes. This is not only a space-saving companies with ships large enough to warrant measure in the pirate ship’s cargo hold. It will also insuring, there are no unspoken rules. Players might take less �me to offload smaller cargoes than larger, decide that they are be�er off stealing the ship they bulkier ones. This is crucial because of the ever- are loo�ng and selling it off to the highest bidder. Or present chance that a local patrol ship is coming to they may transfer their belongings over and the merchant’s aid. Every second counts. appropriate the prize as their new ship. As a GM, you The ship itself can also serve as plunder. By this we should embrace this boldness on the part of your mean the parts and components of a spacecra� are players and develop the in-game consequences of themselves quite valuable. If there is enough �me such a brazen act. We will address the mechanics of remaining, the pirate crew can begin salvaging as selling captured ships in chapter 3. The important much as possible from the ship: wiring, electronics, thing for the players to remember is that the NPC spares, fuel, food supplies, and anything else that can prize crew being detached must be sufficiently be of use to a busy pirate ship on the go. skilled, and above all, trustworthy, to assign to their new prize. If the players have been abusing their NPC crew members, they might discover that they have “WHAT ABOUT JUST TAKING THE SHIP?” lost their prize to a new pirate crew that knows the disposi�on of the PCs’ current vessel inside and out. This is a valid concern among GMs who are otherwise eager to run a space pirate campaign. There is nothing stopping a pirate captain from dispatching a EXPEDITIOUS RETREAT prize crew to take a merchant ship to the nearest open port. However, this is not as simple as it seems. Once the loo�ng has been completed, or the clock Firstly, the captured ship might have been damaged has run out and a patrol gunship is closing in—or in the encounter or sabotaged by its crew to prevent both—it is �me for the pirates to leave, and quickly. just such an occurrence. As well, each ship has its Pirates who wish to avoid entanglements with be�er- own quirks and idiosyncrasies that make it more armed and faster ships designed to hunt them down difficult for an unfamiliar crew to pilot. This can be had be�er know exactly how long they have once reflected in die roll penal�es to perform even the they’ve detected a patrol ship on an intercept course. simplest tasks un�l the prize crew acclima�zes itself Crewmembers that dilly-dally are liable to be le� to the ship. behind to face harsh jus�ce. This is all well and good, but players are nothing if not FENCING STOLEN CARGO determined. GMs should embrace the fact that they With their hold filled with loot and plunder, the are running a piracy campaign, and by stealing a ship pirates must now find a port open enough to allow the players have just decided to join the big leagues them to land, and a fence that is willing to buy their and face the consequences: they’ve become stolen cargo. The specific mechanics of fencing stolen insurance liabili�es. This sounds laughable, un�l one goods is discussed in chapter 3. Many ports outside realizes just how expensive ships might be. A small the jurisdic�on of a large interstellar government will independent merchant trader may or may not have have no qualms handling stolen goods, though some its cargo insured against acts of piracy. But if the dockmasters may need their palms greased. Inside a vessel is owned in part by a bank, and the ship’s state’s territory, if bribing dockmasters is out of the captain is paying off a forty-year mortgage, you can ques�on, it will be necessary for pirates to have direct rest assured that the bank has taken out an insurance contacts with criminal organiza�ons that can handle Samplepolicy on its investment! A large interstellar file illegal cargoes quickly and discreetly. Like the pre- corpora�on will certainly have its freighter fleet and planning of the ini�al pirate a�ack, se�ng up a the cargo contained on those ships insured. Loss of network for disposing of ill-go�en gains is another cargoes to pirates, as men�oned above, is considered area ripe with role-playing opportuni�es. an overhead cost of interstellar trade. Only when

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