 March 4, 2008 - 12:47am | Okay, I want to include a section in the Traders and Freighters Guidebook on Pirates and Privateers, and I want to know what you all want to see there. I couldn't justify a full book on the subject, but I can definitely see making a pretty substantially sized section in this book on the subject. The Traders and Freighters Guidebook covers commerce and trade in the Frontier as it affects your game and will even provide rules for a boardgame of corporate conquest (yet to be designed). While the section on pirates and privateers will cover the rules and tricks of their trade, it will not give much in the way of equipment, vehicles, or warships of these scallywags. It merely covers their background, code, conduct, reputations, societal structure, raiding procedures, and way of life. However, in line with the theme of the book, there will be ships. If there is anything specific you would like to see, or if there is existing material on pirates that you would like me to know about, let me know here or over at the Traders and Freighters Guidebook project. I may provide a handful of notorious pirates and their ships in that section, so if there's anyone you want to see and perhaps have their stats, let me know. Because, if I produce stuff that you don't like, it won't be my fault that any particular person didn't speak up. In a community like this, the effort you give is the quality you get. |
 March 4, 2008 - 10:11am | I'd love to see stats and info on Hatzyck Naar, the infamous pirate described in the Zeb's Guide chronology. |
March 4, 2008 - 3:04pm | Excellent catch. I've always glossed over that. |
 March 4, 2008 - 5:14pm | I once ran a game where the player characters found an old cache of Hatzyck Naar, where he hid some of his loot. The loot was in the internal confines/nooks of a large asteroid. They stumbled on it while fleeing Star Law haha... anyway, there were sufficient defenses on the asteroid (robots and fixed/mounted robotic weapons) that they weren't able to take away anything, especially because they were afraid the mounted weapon fire would alert their pursuers... so they marked the location on their starmaps and fled. They came back later and the place was empty... a mysterious letter was left for them: "Cursed be ye who messes with the loot o' dead men!" and it was signed H.N. hehe - they were paranoid for months of gameplay!! 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
 March 6, 2008 - 3:00pm | i find the idea of a boardgame interesting; I immediately thought of a Star Frontiers version of Talisman. However this would be a huge project in itself. Here's a link for Talisman |
March 6, 2008 - 3:26pm | Moving your statement to the Coming Releases thread, since this is for discussing pirates. GOTO> |
March 6, 2008 - 3:27pm | I once ran a game where the player characters found an old cache of Hatzyck Naar, where he hid some of his loot. The loot was in the internal confines/nooks of a large asteroid. They stumbled on it while fleeing Star Law haha... anyway, there were sufficient defenses on the asteroid (robots and fixed/mounted robotic weapons) that they weren't able to take away anything, especially because they were afraid the mounted weapon fire would alert their pursuers... so they marked the location on their starmaps and fled. Great stuff. :)They came back later and the place was empty... a mysterious letter was left for them: "Cursed be ye who messes with the loot o' dead men!" and it was signed H.N. hehe - they were paranoid for months of gameplay!! |
 March 14, 2008 - 11:37am | Well, the Star Devils (and the Star Devil himself) need a decent treatment. Something I would really like to see developed is some material that helps to build campaigns where the PC's take on the role of Pirate... You know, where pirates congregate, social structures, maybe some XP expenditure on Pirate ranks or specialized Spaceship Skills like Boarding/Repelling (off the top of my head), or rules to cover fencing goods (similar to trade rules). Inspirationally, any of the various d20 pirate (3rd party stuff) books will work to help fill in details, because I think the SF Pirate really mirrors the historical pirate mold, and not necessarily what a real-life-modern-style pirate might be like. <insert witty comment here> |
March 14, 2008 - 12:21pm | I don't think it's a big stretch from modern pirates to pirates of old. Modern pirates are still a new breed and very rare in comparison to the pirates of old. I guarantee that if modern pirates were as common as the old pirates, we would be seeing more color and individuality among their ranks. Modern pirates are also missing the aspect of chasing glory, and I think that has to do with the region. Modern pirates inhabit the waters of the gulf stream and the South Pacific where drug smugglers and refugees are also found. There's going to be no major presence of anything resembling scrupples or pseudo-gentlemanly behaviors in a third world region. But in the space lanes of the far future, where pirates likely have some kind of societal familiarity, social graces, and at the very least some amount of respect, as well as seeking fame in their own right are likely to be present to some degree, so I think a similarity to the pirates of old could indeed exist, but as to whether much color would exist among them, that's debatable, and since it is debatable, we'll just go with what has been established, but I think we can modernize it some. For instance, I don't think pirates of the future would actually dress as they are depicted in Crash on Volturnus, but would dawn the remnants of modified albedo and skein suites, perhaps painted, with mementos attached to them. Can you all point me to the materials that have the pirates of which you speak? |
March 14, 2008 - 12:31pm | I have seen several in passing, but it might take me a bit to come up with exact names of materials... I will work on it. <insert witty comment here> |
March 14, 2008 - 1:52pm | Well, the Star Devils (and the Star Devil himself) need a decent treatment. My goal is definitely to make Pirate Campaigns viable and fun.Something I would really like to see developed is some material that helps to build campaigns where the PC's take on the role of Pirate... You know, where pirates congregate, social structures, maybe some XP expenditure on Pirate ranks or specialized Spaceship Skills like Boarding/Repelling (off the top of my head), or rules to cover fencing goods (similar to trade rules). Inspirationally, any of the various d20 pirate (3rd party stuff) books will work to help fill in details, because I think the SF Pirate really mirrors the historical pirate mold, and not necessarily what a real-life-modern-style pirate might be like. Here's what I have so far. You'll have to join to see the documents: Traders & Freighters: Organizations: Pirates It's not very filled out at the moment, but the structure is there. I used the Star Wars d6 Pirates & Privateers book for basing the subjects from. I plan on covering Boarding Actions in AER, but it's still up in the air. I don't have any d20 pirate materials, so if you have links to free online pirate materials, I'd appreciate it. I will look for some myself in the meantime. |
