Traditions

> Rules only do any good if both sides stick to them.

Yes and no.

  One side breaks
> them,
> and out the door they go.

Not necessarily.  Even when part of ones army violate the "rules" most
of the army will generally follow them (there are numerous historical
examples of this, as well as capable commanders who violated the rules
coming to be despised by their own people).

> So in spelljamming, you could have rules between civilized enemies,
> like
> maybe the Shou and the elves,

And that's really the point isn't it?  Every civilization has its own
rules of warfare.  There's only an issue when you run into a
civilization that has had no previous contact (like the Europeans and
Americans) so the rules are unrelated to each other or a group/nations
rejects the rules of civilized warfare.  Of course, doing that usually
tends to bring doen everyone else on you (speaking historically,
post-WWII things have become very do-whatever-you-want).

 but I really doubt the unhumans would
> honor or
> stick to any rules.

That depends.  The scro are against everyone else so they don't care if
they offend a "neutral" group, to them there are no "neutrals" to
offend (your campaing may vary).  The hadozee, lizard men, and so on,
however, are going to stick to the rules lest they end up becoming as
despised as the neogi (in my campaign the illithids usually follow the
rules and so are accepted, even though they aren't really liked or
trusted).

  Unless they had to for some reason, asn as soon
> as that
> reason was gone they'd throw the rules to the wind.

The "rules" are there because you want the other guy to folow them and
you don't want to be labeled as "rogue", "pirate", or whatever.  Why do
armies take prisoners when its a huge pain in the ass?  Because they
want their surrender to be accepted when they have to give it one day.
Why treat prisoners well?  Because you've got friends who're prisoners.
 Why always pass another ship on the right with three red pennons
flying on the ends of boarding pikes?  So the other side won't mistake
you for hostile and start a shooting war between your two nations on
accident (which is another good reason why your own government will be
happy to hang you if you can't follow common courtesies).

  Maybe some rules
> of
> conflict between elven ships and dwarven ships, according to
> tradition or
> treaty, and among human ships.

I'm not talking about specific treaties, I'm talking the "civilized
norm" every nation recognizes similar to the way the European powers
operated for centuries.

> I'd imagine the rules about showing your colors and passing on a
> certain
> side were European rules created by the English, French,Spanish, et
> al.
> They probably did not hold in Asian seas during the same time frame.

Sure they did.  For European ships.  As the Europeans influenced the
Asians no doubt each side learned the other's traditions and some
respect (not necessarily a lot but some) respect was paid to them.  In
some cases Asians no doubt made sure they followed all the European
traditions when encountering Europeans.  And the Asians certainly had
their own traditions that they follwed in wartime.

Ultimately my point is:  what traditions would/should there be in SJ?
If a DM chooses not to use them (or apply them in certain cases or
whatever) that's their choice, but I'd like to see what the list can
come up with for me to pick and choose from for adoption IMC (certainly
soem of you have generated soem of this in your campiangs, right?).

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