Brandon replied to Roger: > > Though actually I think it's more social than technical. > > What pirates > > have historically always needed is somewhere to sell their > > loot. (I'm > > counting political acts, like the Sea Shepherd raids or the > > PLF attack > > on the Achille Lauro, as a different sort of animal.)
Hello Roger, I believe there are different brands of pirates, and some very technical factors. Take mostly technical factors like * slow, low-bandwidth communication, * ships which can be maintained by the skills of the crew, and * relatively minor differences between warships and merchants, including weapons on merchant ships that can be turned to illegal use. That gives you swashbuckling pirates with the jolly roger. Two years ago I wrote starships for a TL10 setting which recreates those conditions as far as possible. On the other hand, take mostly social factors like * a political sanctuary close to the shipping lanes, * major differences between warships and merchants, and * inability or unwillingness of major naval powers to step in and clean house. That gives you modern-day pirates with speedboats and assault rifles. > I've seen (and supported) a social angle, but more along the lines of: > high ranking nobles and powerful megacorporations allow piracy to exist, > mostly towards their own financial ends. Pirates a noble.megacorp supports are > his "off the books" navy. The pirates are "used" to attack rivals shipping > (sometimes they attack your shipping but that's just the cost of doing > business). Hello Brandon, according to some Traveller canon, attacks on rival shipping may be allowed by the Imperial "brushfire war" doctrine, and conducted by "legitimate" mercenaries. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
