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You might want to think about bases (access to, availability thereof.)

The history seems to show several options.

1) full ship yard (example:WYN star system prior to the Natives deciding to nationalize the Orion assets...)
2) theoretical Orion Star base. Possible, but exceptionally rare.
3) Orion Base station. There is a published scenario, might want to consider including it, make the visit contingent on winning the scenario.
4) civilian base, SAMs or COMPL with repair pod. Write a campaign or scenario rule limiting the total number of SSD boxes that can be repaired between scenarios. (Not a hidden base, perse. Just not totally legit and will not inform the police.)
5) use published rules for self repair of damage, but limit the number of times it can be used between actual repairs at a base.

You will need to assess a price for each level of repairs, crawling to a Star base with one working impulse engine, non-tactical warp, 98% of the SSD boxes destroyed Should cost more to repair than showing up undamaged except for half the warp engines Damaged because you used the Orions special ability to hype the engines.

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 04:33 pm: Edit

Different repair mechanisms are probably unwanted detail.

The question I had about timing on Commander's Options was simply, does it happen before or after you determine the details of the next scenario?

Edited to add: I'd also be concerned that the cartel reputation may be too harsh. At least a few scenarios are ones where I'd expect to take substantial damage with a draw or loss being fairly likely (some are basically equal BPV battles), -1 for a draw and -2 for a loss with only +1 for a win means your reputation is likely to take a hit on any such scenario.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 05:35 pm: Edit

You should review things.

A Light Raider, for example, has three cargo boxes that hold only 75 points of cargo, or roughly 15% of 10 boxes of cargo. A Battle Raider has six boxes of cargo that holds only 150 points of cargo, or roughly 30% of ten boxes of cargo.

Too many of your scenarios involve multiple pirate ships, which means your legendary Pirate Captain has convinced all of the captains of the other ships to "die" for him so that he can become a legend. That is to say that the player will sacrifice other pirate ships so that his own ship survives. Trojan Shuttle 1, Race to the Base, Operation Cutthroat, Wolf in Sheep's Clothing are all low risk scenarios where you can let the other ships be expended in if necessary suicidal attacks while your ship hangs back to reap the rewards.

I am not attempting to be mean here, you have taken a chance at formulating a campaign and posting it, and it is a good effort.

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 06:25 pm: Edit

SPP:

I am confused about the goal here then, should it be the case that there are no scenarios which involve multiple pirate ships?

I can certainly work with that criteria, but I need to know that it is in fact the criteria.

Because currently only the Organised Crime scenarios involve multiple pirate ships on the player's side. That makes only 2/10 of the scenarios ones where you are cooperating with other pirates, and actually less than that since some items on the Organised Crime chart are single-ship endeavours.

What proportion of the scenarios should involve multiple pirates on the player's side? Is it zero? Is it 2/36 probability on the Organised Crime chart? 18/36 probability on that chart?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, July 17, 2020 - 09:03 am: Edit

Part of the challenge of piracy is the lack of a “national borders” with regular refueling and repair facilities. Accumulated damage WILL degrade the ships ability to perform in any set of scenarios.

I am not saying that a complicated and comprehensive system of repair procedures are needed. But there should be some accommodation for not having a BATS or a Star Base Available within range all of the time. Sometimes a pirate raider is going to be limited to just the resources aboard ship.

Those Orion Pirate captains that cripple their ship in every action hyping engines SHOULD pay a higher price than the captains that still achieve the goals without having to use the full power bonus of hyped engines.

Perhaps there should be a higher economic price for repairs during those times when there is no access to an Orion Base?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, July 17, 2020 - 03:05 pm: Edit

Shawn Gordon:

The concept of an Orion Captain's Game is that it is about the Captain and his ship. Not the captain acting as a commodore commanding a squadron of ships.

Look at the Captain's Game (U2.0). There are nine scenarios, four of which are monsters, two of which are duels, one of which is a base defense and one of which is surprise reversed. All ONLY INVOLVE THE CAPTAIN'S SHIP on the Captain's side (except base defense). There is no other ship to score damage on (other than the base in the base defense scenario).

It is the "Captain's Game," not the "Commodore's Game" with multiple ships commanded by the captain.

So, an Orion Captain's Game should not involve him commanding multiple pirate ships.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, July 17, 2020 - 04:22 pm: Edit

NOTE: I do not think an Orion Captain's Game should involve any monster scenarios per se. The only terms under which an Orion Captain can be expected to engage a Monster are basically "Tough Luck" (the situation does not allow the Orion any means of escaping the monster without fighting), Mercenary Contract (probably not to stop the monster, but when he took the contract there was not a monster on the scanners, now that a monster has shown up, honoring the contract to defend the location is a problem), or he has a chance to gather scientific information to sell without necessarily taking a risk.

We are talking about Orions here.

So scenarios come down to:

Basic Piracy.

Raiding a mining planet.

You can do race for the base adjusting for one pirate ship and the pirate ship's size.

You can duel a police forces ship.

You can duel an Orion ship (question of franchise)

You can do base defense (attackers are Orions from a neighboring cartel or law enforcement).

Again, adjust for size of your ship in all cases, and so on.

By Matthew Cicero (Maldus) on Friday, July 17, 2020 - 08:58 pm: Edit

What about steal technology? Must board and successfully "raid" a particular box or two on a ship and escape/not die. Could be a convoy so you need to find the right freighter.

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Saturday, July 18, 2020 - 10:49 am: Edit

SPP:

Thank you very much for your feedback and clarity.

I'll rework what I posted to align with what you've specified here.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, July 18, 2020 - 01:35 pm: Edit

Shawn Gordon:

Please do not take what I said as "dictating what must be." It was basically stream of consciousness getting to a point. It is just that Orion Pirates operated within a cartel system, and some (not all) ships are owned by the Cartel, and some ships are independent operators. A given Orion Captain can be ordered by the Cartel to perform certain tasks (which might include ganging up to raid a well defended target, or operating with fellow Orions as a Mercenary Squadron in support of an empire's lawful forces, or for any of a number of other missions).

But an Orion "Captain's Game" should just be the Orion Captain and his ship.

Okay, I looked at it and said the outcome should be promotion, but that was just me. You should not feel bound by that, it was just spit balling ideas. I said 15 scenarios, but the Captain's Game had only nine, which shows I did not check at the time (and, again, I do not see Orions fighting monsters per se).

So, what does a "Day in the Life" of an Orion look like?

When it comes to size classes, I thought that the Campaign should have multiple options. Play with a Light Raider, play with a Raider Cruiser (with obvious increased defenses), but the game has been greatly expanded since then. (DW, BR, DCR, BC, BCH, to name just a few), and I thought the campaign should be expanded to allow the player the option of starting with any ship. (But the concept of starting with a Light Raider and working your way up to the Cartel Enforcer should be an option, but perhaps that it too difficult).

But really, the ONLY thing I was being specific about is that a Captain's Game should just be about the captain and his ship.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, July 18, 2020 - 04:06 pm: Edit

The other thing about an Orion Captain's Game is that the scenarios by their very nature have to be situations where "something went wrong."

Orions, by their very nature, are "risk adverse." They are not in it for the Glory. They are in it for the Cash. The Filthy Lucre. So, yes, rolling up on a Freighter traveling alone and screaming "Stand and deliver!" is the Orion way. Does not get the spiffy paint job on his pirate ship scratched. The Freighter by itself knows no one is coming to rescue him and just transferring the cargo is a good idea so he will not get killed and it is what insurance is for.

Same for a mining planet.

So, no reason to play.

So the scenarios have to be where "something went wrong (tm)."

The Police showed up early. The 508th Marine Battalion was in transit and dropped off on the planet with the mines and you did not find out until you had landed.

And so on.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Saturday, July 18, 2020 - 06:37 pm: Edit

So around 10 sceneries were things went wrong. The
Navy ship showed up or were did that Monster come from. Wait we were not pouching on that other Cartel? were we?

Then give the pirate player a set amount of cash
/credits or what have you from the raid that did come out right. If He/She can survive the OH OH battles and maybe even get some cash/credit or what have you. Then the player moves up or buys a bigger ship. Or has to use the basic cash/Credit to fix the ship and well.

win is can you advance or at least break even

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - 01:35 am: Edit

I’ve incorporated some of the feedback, and removed the scenarios that involve more than one ship.

Here’s version 2:

UX.X The Orion Pirate Captain’s Game

This is a campaign intended to be run multiple times with the same captain, and possibly the same ship. Running the ten scenarios takes five years of time. The campaign represents the career of an Orion pirate in five-year intervals. Some features carry over from five-year run to five-year run. Stop running the campaign when the Orion pirate loses, or accumulates enough wealth to retire on a pleasure colony somewhere out of the prying eyes of the law.

First, a year should be selected. The campaign can plausibly be set as early as Y130 and as late as the SFB setting goes with some adaptation, although it was designed to serve the period of Y140-Y180. Pick a year divisible by 5. Each time the Orion Pirate’s Game is run, it covers a five-year period.

Second, and only once during the entire Orion Pirate Captain’s Game (not a five-year run, the whole thing), the Orion pirate identifies his home cartel and three zones that he operates in. These operating zones must be within the territory of the cartel (for example; Lion Cartel, one zone within Kzinti territory, two within Federation territory. Another example; Hamilcar Cartel, one zone within Hydran territory, one within Klingon territory, and one within Federation territory). These operating zones form the basis of all piracy scenarios.

Third, the Orion Captain should select his starting ship. The intended progression of this campaign is to start as an LR, then purchase a CR and so on. For added challenge an Orion pirate captain could start with a weaker ship. For a player looking for more oomph from the get-go, they can pick a stronger ship.

The following scenarios comprise the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game:

Scenario Number	Scenario Name
UX1.0	"Piracy"
UX1.0	"Piracy"
UXX	Organised Crime Chart
UXX	Adventuring Chart
UX1.0	"Piracy"
UX1.0	"Piracy"
UXX	Organised Crime Chart
UXX	Adventuring Chart
UX1.0	"Piracy"
UX1.0	"Piracy"

Organised Crime Chart

Die Roll	Scenario Number	Scenario Name
2	SG1.0	"Duel" (vs Orion of same class)
3	SG4.0	"Basic Piracy" (Capture Q-Ship)
4	SG3.0	"Base Defense" (Orions)
5	SG3.0	"Base Defense" (Police)
6	SG1.0	"Duel" (vs Police)
7	SG85.0	"False Economics"
8	SG52.0	"Raid on a Mining Planet"
9	SH131.0	"Hijacked!"
10	SH58.0	"Starhunt"
11	SH35.0	"Into the Rings"
12	SH67.0	"Diplomatic Immunity"

Adventuring Chart

Die Roll	Scenario Number	Scenario Name
2	SG1.0	"Duel" (vs Orion of same class)
3	SG35.0	"A Question of Franchise" (vs Orion of same class)
4	SG6.0	"Pursuit Into the Asteroids"
5	SH191.0	"Returning to the Scene of the Crime"
6	SG28.0	"Raid on a Survey Camp"
7	SH47.0	"The Stasis Box"
8	SG52.0	"Raid on a Mining Planet"
9	UXSX	"Rob a Space Bank"
10	SG1.0	"Duel" (as a merc against a navy ship of similar BPV)
11	SH2.0	"The Surprise Reversed" (as a merc)
12	SMX	Monster Scenario

There are three components of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game. Piracy and adventuring are the two ways that the Orion Pirate makes his money. Organised crime represents the duties, commitments, and risks attendant to belonging to an Orion Cartel.

There are two scores that the Orion Pirate player must keep track of during his career as an Orion Pirate. The first is cash, which represents his liquid assets. The second is his cartel reputation. Every operating zone also has the property of “heat.”

Cash is used for everything. There are no free repairs between scenarios. Repairs conducted during a scenario are temporary (as per G17.1313). In between every scenario the Orion Pirate Captain can repair any system for its value on Annex 9 at a rate of 1 repair point per 1 unit of cash. Cash is also used to buy new ships in between five-year runs of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game.

Piracy

This is the mainstay of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game (and the Orion Pirate Captain’s lifestyle generally), and the main way that cash is generated.

The scenario is simple. The target ship is placed in hex 2215, and if the target is multiple ships, the additional ships are placed within two hexes of the target, but not in a hex containing another ship. On a turn (which turn is decided secretly) help in the form of a police ship (or ships) will arrive.

The determination of the target is done at random from a pre-arranged pool of ships.

This is how the pool of ships is generated:

At the beginning of the current five-year run of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game the Orion player, and the player running the campaign each select a number of ships based on the BPV of the pirate player’s ship.

Pirate Ship BPV	Number of Ships Selected by Each Player	Expected Freighters per Raid
less than 90	5	1
90-100	10	2
Over 100	15	3+

Skids and Ducktails

Year	Skids?	Ducktails?
<Y140	No Skids	No Ducktails
Y140-Y145	1 Skid or Ducktail
Y145-Y-150	1 Skid	1 Ducktail
Y150-Y160	1 Skid	and 1 more Skid or Ducktail
Y165-Y170	2 Skids	1 Ducktail
Y170-Y175	4 Skids	2 Ducktails
Y175-Y180	6 Skids	3 Ducktails
Y180+	12 Skids	6 Ducktails

These ships can be any type of civilian ship that is capable of long-range spaceflight and that is available for entirety of the 5-year span. After the players make their choices add in an amount of basic F-S equal to the number of choices made by each player (five at pirate BPVs under 90). Then add a number of F-L equal to one fifth of that number. These ships (16 at BPVs under 90, 32 at BPVs between 90-100, 48 at BPVs over 100) form the pool from which the targets of piracy are pulled from.

Every time that the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game calls for a piracy mission, follow this procedure:

First, the Orion Pirate player identifies how many freighters he would like to raid in each of his operating zones (without knowledge of specifically which freighters he will be raiding). For example (and recommended for LR, OFT, DW and other small raiders) “one freighter in every operating zone.”

Second, the players then randomly select the required freighters from the freighter pool established earlier for this five-year period. These are revealed to all players. The method of random selection is up to the players, but here are some suggestions: Write the ships on pieces of paper and draw them from a hat, associate each ship with a playing card and deal the necessary number of cards, use a random number generator and a list.

Third, the pirate player then selects which of the three possible raids he would like to embark upon.

Fourth, the scenario is set up, the counters are put on the hex map, and the player operating the freighter(s) decides if this (or these) freighter(s) have skids, ducktails, or both. Consult the chart to determine how many skids and ducktails are available over the entirety of the five year period. Although with mutual consent any skid or ducktail combination could be chosen, to avoid every skid being an SDS1, it is recommended that for every SDS1 chosen in a given five-year period, one SDS2 must first be chosen, and for every SDS2, one SDS3 must first be chosen.

Fifth, deal a playing card for every level of heat (see below) in that operating zone. The playing cards indicate on which turn a police ship (appropriate to the local empire) will arrive. The police ship arrives on the opposite map edge that the pirate ship deployed on at the beginning of the scenario, speed 15, WS-III (unless it is an ace), heading the freighter player’s choice. The playing card is kept secret from the pirate player, and is revealed when its secrecy is no longer of consequence. A face card means “Turn 10,” and an ace means that the police ship arrives at turn 1 WS-II. The Jokers mean that the freighter is actually a Q-ship of the appropriate type (if that type of freighter doesn’t have a Q-ship version, or if the Q-ship version of that ship is not available yet due to the scenario year, then instead draw another card).

The piracy scenarios are not scored in the normal sense. The pirate player’s goal is to accumulate as many cargo units as possible (see G25.0). Cargo is converted into cash at a rate of 1:1 (cargo:cash) from most freighters. Any ships of the “Priority Transport,” “Free Trader,” “Prime Trader,” and “Fast Naval Transport” varieties have their cargo converted to cash at a rate of 1:2, and any ships of the “Federation Express” variety have their cargo converted to cash at a rate of 1:3. Armed Freighters, and any other ships capable of disengagement by acceleration, have their cargo converted to cash at the rate of 2:3.

If the pirate player is bold enough to actually capture a ship and successfully disengage with it, multiply that ship’s Economic BPV by five, and then convert that number into cash. Subtract from this the cost to repair every damaged box on the captured ship. Then, increase the heat level of that operating zone by 1 permanently (this does not go away at the end of a five year run).

Organised Crime

Participating in organised crime is (part) of the price of living a life of crime protected by a cartel. These scenarios do not pay any cash (so don’t bother capturing cargo, that’s someone else’s cargo to steal). They represent raids and such organised by higher-ranking Orion Pirates that you are obliged to participate in. The goal of these missions is to survive while expending the least amount of personal effort possible to secure victory. A successful scenario (defined by any level of victory) gives the player +1 cartel reputation (max 3). A scenario that ends in a draw gives the player -1 cartel reputation. A scenario that ends in a loss gives the player -2 cartel reputation. If a player’s cartel reputation ever reaches -3, the Orion cartel ejects him from the cartel, probably through an airlock.

Organised Crime scenarios take place in one of your operating zones at random. This can increase your heat level in that zone (if a ship is captured), and it will determine your opponent’s empire in many cases.

Do not draw cards from the deck to randomise police ship arrival or Q-ship presence for organised crime scenarios.

SG1.0 "Duel" (vs Orion of same class)
Play SG1.0 against a ship of your class. The enforcer is busy, and this pirate has been marked for death.

SG4.0 "Basic Piracy" (Capture Q-Ship)
Play SG4.0 with a target convoy of two F-S, and one F-L. Your ship has 10 additional boarding parties, two of which are commando teams. One of the F-S is a Q-Ship, and success is determined by whether or not you can capture and escape with it for the cartel’s future use. If your ship is worth 70 or under BPV there is no escort. For ships between 70 and 90 BPV the escort is a police ship. For ships worth 90 BPV and up, use two police ships.

SG3.0 "Base Defense" (Orions)
Play SG3.0 as the ship arriving to protect the base. Use this formula for the attacking ships’ BPV = ([total pirate BPV for base and ship]/255)x225. The attacking force must be composed of Orions from a neighbouring cartel.

SG3.0 "Base Defense" (Police)
Play SG3.0 as the ship arriving to protect the base. Use this formula for the attacking ships’ BPV = ([total pirate BPV for base and ship]/255)x225. The attacking force are police or naval forces from the empire of the operating territory.

SG1.0 "Duel" (vs Police)
Play SG1.0 against a ship of equivalent BPV. Select a police ship, national guard ship, internal security ship, or other appropriate opponent. The cartel has decided that this ship must be destroyed, and that it is your job to do it.

SG85.0 "False Economics"
Play SG85.0. If the year is before the defending empire acquires workboats, use the suggested variant in SG85.61. For ships under 70 BPV delete both local defence freighters, and do not use SG85.47, instead have the colony start at WS-0. For ships under 90 BPV delete the local defence freighters. For ships under 150 BPV delete one of the two local defence freighters at random. Use the following formula to determine the amount of cargo needed to secure victory once SG85.49 is determined: Cargo required = ([total pirate BPV]/150)xCargo specified in SG85.49. If SG85.49 results in a “5” being chosen, instead capture 1 workboat/skiff/modular courier for every 50 BPV the pirate ship is worth. Achieving half of the required goal in SG85.49 is considered a “draw.”

SG52.0 "Raid on a Mining Planet"
Play SG52.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the planet’s defences according to the BPV of the Orion ship. For ships under 70 BPV delete two of the planet’s DEFSATs and replace the GBD1s with GBD2s. For ships under 90 BPV delete two of the planet’s DEFSATs. For ships over 100 BPV add either an empire-appropriate ground-based heavy weapon on two opposite sides of the planet, or remove three of the GBD1s and add an FGB-S with a compliment of six class-I fighters. Securing two crystals is considered a draw, and securing three or more crystals is considered a victory, otherwise it is a loss.

SH131.0 "Hijacked!"
Play SH131.0. Adjust the defending ships according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the police ships’ BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/140)x100. The number of terrorists in SH131.45 are determined by the pirate’s BPV according to the following formula: Terrorists = (180/[total pirate BPV]/)x4.

SH58.0 "Starhunt"
Play SH58.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the police ships according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the police ships’ BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/68)x100.

SH35.0 "Into the Rings"
Play SH35.0. Adjust the police ships according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the police ships’ BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/68)x116. Only one police ship starts on-map, all others arrive as reinforcements.

SH67.0 "Diplomatic Immunity"
Play SH67.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the navy ship according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the navy ship’s BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/92)x137.


Adventuring

Adventuring is a catch-all term for the sorts of business opportunities, good-luck, bad luck, high-risk ventures, and general swashbuckling that pirates get up to that don’t easily fit into the categories of piracy or organised crime.

Adventures don’t cause you to gain heat.

Adventures don’t cause you to lose or gain cartel reputation unless specified in the descriptions below.

Some adventures can lead to you earning mountains of cash, others are merely losing propositions.

SG1.0 "Duel" (vs Orion of same class)
Play SG1.0 against a ship of your class. This pirate is a rival of yours, and is poaching your territory. Disengagement is an option, but it will cause you to gain -1 cartel reputation. There’s little to gain here, maybe you can capture and sell his ship?

SG35.0 "A Question of Franchise" (vs Orion of same class)
Play SG35.0 against a ship of your class. This pirate is a rival of yours, and is poaching your territory. Disengagement is an option, but it will cause you to gain -1 cartel reputation. The freighter and its cargo are up for grabs.

SG6.0 "Pursuit Into the Asteroids"
Play SG6.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the navy ship according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the navy ship’s BPV = ([pirate ship BPV]/92)x125. Disengagement is not an option. There’s little to gain here, maybe you can capture and sell his ship?

SH191.0 "Returning to the Scene of the Crime"
Play SH191.0. You’re the pirate ship. If you’re flying a CR or something stronger add a second POL within 3 hexes of 2215 heading at the navy player’s option, WS-II.

SG28.0 "Raid on a Survey Camp"
Play SG28.0. You’re the attacking ship. The survey site has ten cargo boxes that can be robbed (ie: more than you’ll need). If it’s prior to Y160 then replace the F-ES with a F-L. Use the card mechanic from the piracy missions to determine when a police ship arrives to save the day, only instead draw three cards and use the highest number. Ignore jokers. Ignore the normal victory conditions, the goal here is to steal cargo and make money.

SH47.0 "The Stasis Box"
Play SH47.0. The opposing ship is any ship of equivalent BPV that is either Orion or of an empire within the entire cartel’s operating territory. Each stasis box recovered is worth 100 cash. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.

SG52.0 "Raid on a Mining Planet"
Play SG52.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the planet’s defences according to the BPV of the Orion ship. For ships under 70 BPV delete two of the planet’s DEFSATs and replace the GBD1s with GBD2s. For ships under 90 BPV delete two of the planet’s DEFSATs. For ships over 100 BPV add either an empire-appropriate ground-based heavy weapon on two opposite sides of the planet, or remove three of the GBD1s and add an FGB-S with a compliment of six class-I fighters. Every recovered crystal nets the pirate player 50 cash. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.

UXSX "Rob a Space Bank"
A class M planet is in hex 2215. On facing A there is a “space bank” that is an unlimited store of cargo boxes that payout at the rate of FDXs. Facing A also has a GBD2. Use the card mechanic from the piracy scenarios to determine when police ships will arrive. Ignore Jokers. Treat this as a Heat 3 operating zone.

SG1.0 "Duel" (as a merc against a navy ship of similar BPV)
Play SG1.0 against a any ship of equivalent BPV that is either Orion or of an empire within the entire cartel’s operating territory. This is a paid hit. You get paid 150 cash for killing your target. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.

SH2.0 "The Surprise Reversed" (as a merc)
Play SH2.0 as the attacker against a fleet of no more than five ships totalling 420 BPV that are either Orion or of an empire within the entire cartel’s operating territory. This is a paid hit. You get paid 100 cash for killing each target. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.

SMX Monster Scenario
Roll a die. Play the corresponding scenario:

1 = SM2.0 “The Space Amoeba”
2 = SM4.0 “The Cosmic Cloud”
3 = SM5.0 “The Sunsnake”
4 = SM6.0 “The Mind Monster”
5 = SM7.0 “Space Dragon”
6 = SM11.0 “Escape from the Energy Monster”

You are under contract to observe the monster and collect scientific information. Every point of scientific information is worth 1 point of cash, but you will not be paid if you collect less than 50 points. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.

Cash
Cash is used for many things. Any purchases can be made between scenarios with the exception of purchasing a new ship, which happens at the end of a five-year run, and commander’s options, which happen just before a scenario starts at the normal time for determining commander’s options. Cash is persistent across every five year run of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game. These are what the uses for cash are:
Repairing your ship: 1 cash is worth 1 point of repair in Annex 9 between scenarios. This is the only way that your ship can be repaired.
Buying weapons: Orion ships have option mounts, and weapons for these mounts are purchased in cash. Use the value of the weapon in Annex 9, this is how much it costs in cash to buy. If the weapon is native to the home territory of the cartel, there is no modifier. If it is native to the operating zone of the cartel, then it costs twice as much as the listed value. A weapon neither from the home territory, nor from the operating zone of the cartel costs five times this price. You are not restricted by the normal limits of (G15.44), instead your bank account determines what’s available.
Refits: A refit becomes available in the year that it is normally available, and costs ten times its BPV
Crew: 2 cash replaces one lost crew unit.
Boarding parties: 2 cash replaces one lost boarding party.
Deck crew: 2 cash replaces one lost deck crew, this does not allow a ship that could not otherwise purchase deck crew to purchase deck crew.
Upgrading your ship: A new ship costs ten times its Economic BPV in cash (or ten times its BPV if the ship doesn’t have a listed Economic BPV)
Trading in ships: Your old ship (or captured ships) are worth five times their Economic BPV (or five times its BPV if the ship doesn’t have a listed Economic BPV) Subtract from this the cost to repair every damaged box on the ship first.
Shuttles, fighters, and PFs: These cost five times their Economic BPV in cash.
Drones, Plasma-Ds, Plasma-Fs and other ammo: these are worth their BPV cost in cash. Since this is a campaign, and special drone percentages are designed to represent availability of drones over time, ignore the limits imposed by drone availability, and instead multiply the cost of restricted drones by two, and limited drones by five.
Commander’s Options: these are worth their BPV cost in cash. If something is purchased as a commander’s option, but has a higher price listed elsewhere in the above list, then it is purchased at the higher price.


Cartel Reputation
Your cartel reputation starts at zero. Every Organised Crime scenario that you win increases your cartel reputation by +1. Every Organised Crime scenario that ends in a draw causes you to gain -1 cartel reputation. Every Organised Crime scenario that ends in a loss causes you to gain -2 cartel reputation. Some Adventuring scenarios affect your reputation as well. The maximum cartel reputation you can ever have at any time is +3, and when it reaches -3 your Orion Pirate Captain’s Game ends in a loss. Cartel Reputation is persistent across every five year run of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game.

Heat
Heat is a property of each of your three operating zones and each operating zone tracks its heat separately. Heat cannot drop below 1, and is persistent across every five year run of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game. It never goes down.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - 07:24 am: Edit

UXSX “Rob a Space Bank.”

If I may make a suggestion:

A “Space Bank”, as a concept makes little sense. Cargo are tangible items or commodities, not money. There is no particular reason to stockpile commodities Or stored drones, crated shuttles, spare parts, mines, etc.

However, a depot, or shipping distribution hub might be a reasonable thing to establish. In the Federation, after year 155, there was no longer a single civilian freight system. (See the Federation Express Corporation article in Captains Log or GURPS PD.)

Such a depot would be where smaller/regional freighters or shipping companies deliver cargo, pick up cargo that was shipped from outside of their operating regions to be delivered to a customer inside their region (or vice versa).

All empires (except the Andromedans) would use these depots. At a guess, each empire would have one near (well, nearish) to a star base. In the case of the Federation, that means 13 shipping depots/cargo transit hubs. Other empires fewer.

Think of them as sort of like a cooperative system funded by the various freight companies. Means they use “jobbers” to distribute cargos. ((Sort of like a Dispatcher. These people handle the contracts between the shippers and the end receiver of cargos.). Another example is how real world railroads work. The rail roads own the rail cars (box cars, flat cars, tanker cars etc.). Manufacturer A sells 25 cargo boxes of liquid “obtainium” to be picked up for shipment by regional freight company Alpha. Alpha loads a small freighter, from the manufacturer facility on Mars, in the Terran star system. The purchaser (and the party that pays the shipping costs) is a different manufacturer called B. B is located on a planet near the Fed Kzinti neutral zone.

Since Alpha freight company only operates in or near The Fed home worlds, it delivers the cargo to a depot at a near a star base closer to the destination, and pockets a portion of the shipping fees.

This depot (call it depot Aquarius.) receives the cargo at its “space bank” and Freight company Beta picks up the cargo pod (25 cargo box capacity) and delivers it to the next depot closer to the destination. Let’s call it Depot Taurus.

And so forth.

There are real world examples of these kind of depots.

Farm cooperatives buy grain from farmers. Store the gran in silos (think really big grain bins.) often these are located near railroad tracks or on rivers that barges can operate. (Some times, grain trucks are used to ship the grain to a loading dock at a rail head or river loading Dock.)

Or tank farms. Pipelines are used to send petroleum or natural gas to a storage depot, that loads the material on to tank cars for railroads, or tank barges for river shipping, or Tanker truck trailers for shipping via roads.

Sometimes, delivery in the real world goes to foreign nations. So the tankers (rail, river, truck) sent to a sea port where real world ships ship the product.

But as a concept,not all cargos are fungible, so the idea of a “space bank” doesn’t really work to the extent that all cargos are the same. Think about a buyer needing apple computers that only run apple proprietary software. Delivering windows 3 software computers with Russian keyboards is not an acceptable substitute.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - 12:53 pm: Edit

One real world history thing.

During the Ardennes offensive (battle of the bulge, December 1944.) one of the tactical objectives was to “liberate” gas and diesel fuel from the Allied supply system. The Germans were short of the total amount of fuel to realize all of the tactical objectives, which if they could secure, would extend the war perhaps another year, if not gain a negotiated settlement. (Remember German leadership was delusional by that time. There is little chance of a strategic German victory.)

In the case of the Star fleet Universe, logistical distribution networks, such as I suggested above, represent opportunities for Star empires to plunder their neighbor empires of all manner of commodities, equipment, spare parts fuel etc.

Perhaps one of the hidden Klingon goals of the General war was to balance decades of trade deficits by stealing every thing not nailed down, (and a few that were firmly nailed down...) including merchant freighters, cargo pods, ground and orbital bases (SAMs, Commercial platforms, ) APT, FT, PT etc.

Just a thought....

Think of it as the Russians did during and after WW2 when the carried away whole factories from Germany back to Russia. Heck, the Russians towed an incomplete aircraft carrier Filled with plunder back to Russian port.