Re: Pirates - Was: Places: Dragon Rock Map

> From: "SUBSCRIBE REALMS-L tauster" <chefseehund@???.de>
> Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Places: Dragon Rock Map


>On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 20:30:55 -0000, David Shepheard
<david_shepheard@???????.com> wrote:
>>From what I understand real pirates didn't really use large ships much.
They usually used
>>smaller ships that were faster than the ships they wanted to attack.

>i don´t think it makes sense for pirates to use ships significantly smaller
>than the ones of merchants: where would you stuff the loot?

Well, I didn't say significantly smaller I said smaller. They might be one or two classes
down from a merchant ship and still be faster.

However, spelljammer pirates don't need to obey the same rules that real ships do because
helmsmen rather than sails and the wind power the ships.

As for where to stuff the loot, you have two choices:

1) Take the best stuff and leave the ship with the rest or
2) Take the entire ship.

The first choice would probably be what "good" pirates would do. They would stop merchant
ships and impose their idea of tax.

The second choice solves all of the problems. You don't even need to move the cargo. You
could either force the crew onto your old ship and abandon them (after bringing your helm
onto their ship of course), toss them overboard or sell them as slaves.

>the purpose of
>piracy is (most often, at least) to capture booty, and this stuff must be
>hauled off to someone. here pirates and merchants both have to obey to
>the "rules of cargo space" (couldn´t find a better term...). sure, pirates
>might only chose the most valuable things or the cargo with the
>highest "value per ton"- ratio, but on the other hand, they might prefer
>taking things that are easiest to sell, or can not be traced back to them,
>or...

Oddly enough, Spelljammer pirates and merchants, unlike their real world counterparts do
not always need to obey the "rules of cargo space" as they could have access to magic such
as portable holes.

Don't forget that in a Spelljammer game the things being transported though wildspace are
not likely to be goods that could be found locally. It wouldn't be logical to export
things like lemons from Toril to Anadia. A ship that travels through The Flow will
probably have even more expensive goods. If you think about the cost of the crew's food
and wages you have to make money to break even. Given the risks of wildspace a ship owner
is going to want to more than make back their money.

>i think i "typical" pirate ship should have approximately in the same size
>than an average merchant ship. ...or do i miss something?

You are looking at the end result, but don't forget the *means* to the end.

A pirate ship has to defeat its prey before it can haul off the goods.

And it has to catch its prey before it can fight it.

And it has to find it before it can chase it.

So while a pirate ship needs to be able to cram in stolen goods, that might not be the
most important factor in picking a ship.

I would think that fighting capability would definitely be the number one thing a pirate
captain would think about.

Most spelljamming ships have much less weapons that real life ships. Their sides were full
of guns, but spelljammer ships tend to have a tiny number of siege weapons that point
forward or back. If a pirate could increase the number of weapons on their ship, that
could give them an edge during the fight.

Second to fighting capability is speed. If you can't catch your prey they will escape
every time. And don't forget that you might want to turn tail and run when you realise
that the "merchant" ship you have ambushed is actually full of Paladins that have been
waiting for you to fall into their trap.

Finding ships to attack mostly comes down to knowing where ships will be. So before you
can decide where to put your pirates you need to plan some trade routes.

If you think about this coldly you could compare piracy to fishing. Do too much fishing
and the food supply gets endangered. Pirates would not want to attack every ship going
into Bral for example. If they did that then ships would stop going to Bral. (The people
of Bral would also notice if a lot of their shipping got cut off and a large force would
come out from Bral to hunt you down.)

I think you would be better off sailing on the trade routes and choosing easy targets that
are unlikely to be missed. School bullies pick easy targets and so do muggers. Pirates
would almost certainly do the same. While greedy enough to steal from other people, they
don't want to take on someone that can beat them.

In a spelljammer setting if I was a pirate I would clean up my ship and disguise it as a
merchant ship. Given that spelljamming ships are powered by magic, I've probably got one
or two spellcasters on board. I might even be able to make my boarding party or weapons
invisible. I'd then look out for groundling ships and ships without weapons on them. I'd
sail up looking all friendly and attack from close range. If I could, I'd overload the
crew complement and make visit to planets to top up my atmosphere.

I'd go in as hard as possible and try to eliminate opposition as quickly as I could. I'd
only worry about where to put the stolen cargo *if* I won. If necessary I'd fill up my
crews quarters and make them sleep on deck.

But getting back to the subject of relative ship size, lets pick the perfect ship for
piracy. It should have the maximum number of weapons and look like it *might* be friendly.
I'd also rule out groundling ships as they perform badly and also make you a target for
other pirates. I just looked through the ships in The Concordance and decided that I'd use
a Squidship. Then I read in the description of the Squidship that they *are* used by
pirates!

:-)

I even think that a Squidship could beat a Hammership if the crew was clever. Squidships
have a crew of 12-45 and Hammerships have a crew of 24/60. Both have 3 weapons so combat
comes down to who has the best deck crew if you grapple. Sail up to a Hammership looking
friendly and you can make an instant attack decision. If they put a small crew on deck as
you approach you can make a judgement that you will probably win. If they put a big crew
on deck you can sail past looking innocent and wave hello to them.

If you did fight and win you might not have space to take all their cargo, but you could
take over two thirds of it. Isn't 45 tons of free stuff enough?

Even if their cargo wasn't worth much or was too awkward or fragile to steal 45 tons of
it, you could rip out their spelljamming helm (or helms). As each minor helm has a retail
price of 100,000 gold pieces I think that pirates would be able to make a profit a lot of
the time. Run a squidship with double the safe crew (90 pirates), steal a minor helm (and
nothing else) and sell it for half price and you still get 555 gold pieces per crew member
per victory.

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/