> I don't really think the simple pirate-jumpship setup can work in 
> traveller. Repair and maintance depend too much on facilities that can be 
> watched too easily by the Navy. 

Hello Johannes,

just how much do you need for the annual maintenance of a jump
ship? A landing site and a competent chief engineer, or a full
starport? Traveller supports both concepts.

> Jump-Ships that don't have a papertrail of
> legitimate business, are too suspicious. 

* According to some Traveller incarnations, the Imperium really
  doesn't rule the worlds, just the space between them. You can
  do lots of business on non-Imperial local ports.

* Operate in border areas like the Spinward Marches or the 
  Solomani Rim.

* Get asteroid prospecting/mining gear. "Bad luck" is no 
  crime.

> What could work is steal, hijack or otherwise comandeer a vessel, use it 
> for 2 or 3 hits, and then loose the ship before the navy gets into gears.

Say a pirate in an armed Free Trader has a 20% chance of taking
an operational prize, a 60% chance of crippling it to loot it,
and a 20% chance of being crippled itself. 

Pirate gangs will run through a lot of ships in a short time.

> I could also see a setup with a trade ship equipped to transport small non
> jump ships (fighters, modular cutters ect). 

A privately-owned fighter is much more suspicious than a
merchant armed for self-defense.

> Such ships have legitimate 
> reasons to exist, as non-jump ships still need their annual maintanence 
> and they are not always in systems with starports equipped for it. 

Annual maintenance is most critical for jumpships.

> Then 
> use such ships for your raids. You can bring them into the system and take
> them out at some time difference from the actual attacks. You can disguise
> them as owned by a goverment, where you have bribed some official, when 
> you need to have them repaired. And there will be way more such vehicles 
> then armed jumpships, so all hiding will work easier.

Sure? A FTL craft can explain weapons with fear of pirates, a
STL craft has it harder.

Regards,
Onno
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