On 7/24/17, Evyn MacDude <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, just to chime in, I tend to look at this sorta question from
> Population/Central Places Theorem angle. Patrols will tend to happen along
> major routes between higher population systems.

True, even with the no faster-than-travel comms, you will see at least
information sharing between friendly systems, and those couriers might
as well be armed... And possibly a merc group licensed by all
participating worlds if it's a no-3I game

> Couple that with with the modern practice of Piracy in the modern world.
> It's not the big slow moving ship with the flaky Transponder that you worry
> about but the 6 mismatched Smallcraft that happen to be in the area where
> you precipitated from jump in.
>
> The last bit is that the Jump entry into the system from a common known
> starting system can generally be worked out It's in those areas in
> unpatrolled systems Commerce raiders and pirates hang out.

Unless the system is unpatrolled, a getaway ship will be needed, or
plenty of bribes (imagine the privateer deal you can get with a planet
that's looking with envy at the income the SPA gets from their
ports... All those goods sitting there, untaxed by the locals! All you
need is an insider to tell you which ships are carrying cargo that
never hit the XT line...)
Of course, this means that pirates have to be heavily tied to the
interstellar black market, since most of them won't be stealing fully
usable jump-ships - or they get very damaged ones.

>
> The piracy question I have been pondering is more along the lines of how
> big a maneuvering unit is needed to do that leap from ship to ship,
> especially as longer ranges... Consider this said swarm of Smallcraft rush
> upon our hapless merchant, matching course and unleashing a swarm of
> Vaccsuited boarders all of which are carrying Hull breaching charges.
> Remember your average Merchantman can only engage one target at a time...

Not that big an M-Drive is needed, since you just have to hit 3G or so
to overtake most merchants. The main issue is the cargo and boarders -
you have to carry enough weapons to make the threat real, and carry
enough boarders to take the ship and jack the cargo, and have enough
cargo space left over to take something worthwhile.

> To circle around to the original question, I really don't see a need to
> revamp the basic parameters of distance required for jump. My opinion is
> more of the classic Pirate attacks should be examined and played out, in
> that the "Pirate Raid" if frequently unmentioned. Note the opining scene of
> the movie Serenity is a classic Pirate Raid which turns into a Raid by
> angry natives...

Well, at least part of my question was expanding the economic and
story resources available. Bruce's comment of
>What you end up with, I think is Traveller between systems and (depending on your TU and tastes) in-system settings are like The Expanse, Firefly or some other local setting altogether.

Seems pretty right to me. Of course, both of those are very Traveller
(seriously, I think I traced the original Firefly to a Milieu 0 game
set in Reaver's Deep).
Of course, in such a setting with intensive system development, UWP
becomes less important, and the stellar astrography becomes more
important.