CAMPAIGN RULES

Updated 28 September 2004

Pirate crews | Troop Types | Limitations | Costs | Profits | Skills | Characteristics | Special Rules

See also the Background Page

‘Space Pirate’ Crews

The crew of the ‘independent traders’ – rather unfairly known as space pirates are organised on a sort of functional basis.

Obviously, the Captain is the most influential member of the crew, but each of the officers has their own set of loyalists.

• Captain: In charge. Usually also a skilled astronaut (that is someone who knows how to fly a starship)
• First Officer: Second in command. Generally accepted as the person to take over if anything should happen to the Captain. Also usually a trained astronaut.
• Technical Officer: The main task of a Tech Officer is to assist with things like repairs and maintenance. This keeps the ship flying.
• Combat Officers: More than just armed thugs, combat officers are leaders of armed thugs.

All Officers are represented by players, so a typical crew will be composed of 4 to 6 Officers.

Troop Types

For a more detailed explanation of equipment, see the accompanying rules; Starship Marine which explain the weapons and equipment in use.

Officer: This is the player’s personal figure. They are always equipped as combat crewman (see below). The only officers are players – so if you want more officers on the team, you must somehow recruit more players. Transfers of officers between pirate crews are not unheard of.

Combat Crewman: A civilian crewman with some military training or experience capable of using ex-marine armour and weaponry. The standard kit on all combat crewmen consists of

• Armour
• SCA2
• 4 grenades
• 2 demo charges

Astronaut: These are the technical types needed to operate a starship. Each starship requires a minimum number of these to be able to work safely. Pirate crews often have additional astronauts to act as ‘prize crews’ should they happen to come across another ship in need of some ‘help’.

Standard equipment for an astronaut would be just a Spacesuit and SCA1.

Technicians (of various sorts): A specialist in their field (Armourer, Robot Tec, Medic etc). Standard equipment is a spacesuit and no weapon (all the suit’s hard points being taken up with equipment etc).

Shuttle Pilot: Actually flies a shuttle. Only pilots can fly shuttles. This is different to the Astronaut who are starship systems technicians - the Pilots are more hands-on flyers and can do things like planetary landing and take-off (PLATO) etc.

Standard equipment for a shuttle pilot would be just a Spacesuit and SCA1.

Combat Robots, TRUCs, and Close Support Robots are explained in the main rules.

Limitations

The Modified Class 5000 Merchant Class of starship used by most of the independent traders has a maximum crew capacity of 60.

This includes all specialists and combat crew.

The total does not include robots or other equipment (which are stored in the cargo grid during travel, and hence does not drain life support capability).

Costs

The costs for equipment are for a completely equipped individual as described above.

Close Support Robots come with a full load of APGW.

Item	Black Market		Legitimate purchase with license and EUC
	Poor quality	Good quality
One shot of MAD	n.a.	1000	500
Space Combat Armour	300	600	400
SCA1	-	40	20
SCA3	-	100	80
Combat Robot + SCA1	600	750	500
Close Support Robot + 10 APGW	900	1200	800
Grenade/ Demo charge Reloads (Per combat crewman, complete sets only)	40	40	10
Manpack APGW system (6 APGW)	900	1200	800
6 x APGW Reload (per manpack)	60	60	30
10 x APGW Reload (per CSR)	100	100	50
Multi-Cannon fit for a shuttle or ship	-	10,000	2000
Multi-Cannon Ammo Pod (10 shots)	-	500	200
SCA3 Turret fit for a shuttle or ship	-	2,500	1000
Robot spares unit	-	10	5
Armour spares unit	-	15	10
Microgrenades (teargas / radiation / HE)	50	75	50
GF Armour	3,600	5,000	1,800
GF Armour support, maintenace and diagnostic kit.	1,200	2,500	600
SLA2	200	400	120
SLA3			200
Grenade/ ammo Reloads (Per GF Armour unit, complete sets only)	80	80	40
Ceramic gun	250	500	200
Man-pack LRGM Launcher Unit (no missiles	-	2,500	250
LRGM (per missile)	-	1,000	500
Man-pack ATGW Launcher (no missiles)	-	2,500	250
ATGW (per missile)	-	400	200
Wirepod (per unit)	-	-	not available
Spacefoam (per unit)	-	-	not available
Supercharge	-	-	not available
Available legitimately on the Open Market
'Safety Vest' (light armour)	50	80
AutoDoc Medic Unit	-	250,000
Light Shuttle (10 PAX)	20,000	35,000
Medium Shuttle (25 PAX)	40,000	60,000
Large Shuttle (40 PAX)	75,000	100,000
Decent suit of clothes	25	300
Spacesuit	-	100
TRUC Robot	50	100
Maint Robot	75	150
Portable Air-Lock	-	250
Personal Transport Vehicle (planetside)	3000	20,000

Profits

Being traders, you will want to know what items are likely to be of value to you.

Equipment listed above can be resold to the totally dishonest traders back at Freeport for half their purchase value (this doesn't include personnel, whom you may not sell to traders).

Other things might be valuable: 

Description	Est.Resale Value (credits)
Destroyed combat robot (scrap value)	50
Destroyed maintenance robot (scrap value)	20
Plasmatic boring device (PBD)	350
Portable power unit	200
Portable MediKit	150
Hostages ransomed	Variable according to rank - minimum of 100
Recovery value of weapons and equipment	Half the purchase cost (see list above)

Skills:

Each officer can have two skills. It is recommended that 'Combat' is one of them.
For all skills, 1d6+3 score for how skillful you are to start with.

Skill	Use
Astronavigation	Flying starships from place to place.
Armoury	Repair and maintenance of armour, spacesuits and personal weapons
Drive Tech	Repair and maint of HSD and thrusters
Power Tech	Repair and maint of power systems
Medic	Treating wounded and sick
Ship System Tech	Repair and maint of internal systems - doors, internal comms, cabling etc.
Combat	Able to use combat armour and weaponry
Pilot	Flying shuttles, pacifiers etc
Interrogation	Asking important questions
Nutrition	Preparing and cooking food
Communications Tech	Repair and maint of ship to ship and long range communications systems
Entertainer	Expert at keeping people amused on long journeys
Ship Weapons Tech	Repair and maint of ship to ship weapon systems (must be ex-Navy or shipyard worker)
Robot Tech	Repair and maint of robots

Skills tend only to be improved after long practice or training - periods of years are normally required. Remind the GM when you've spent more than 200 days doing the same skill-related job.

In general to pass a skill roll, roll 1d12 and score under the skill rating for success (unless otherwise stated by the GM)

Characteristics:

Characteristic	Description	Value
Charisma	The number of followers you can attract and keep (Starting score 1d6). You cannot attract more followers than you have charisma. Charisma can be increased by making successful grandstanding actions, or by have a long standing record of success (at GM's discretion or by acclaimation of your peers).	1-10
Leadership	Bonus to morale when leading an attack Starting score d6: 1 = -1 2 = 0 3-4 = +1 5 = +2 6 = +3 Improved by combat experience.	Between -1 and +3
Dread	The degree to which you are feared by others. Starting score = 2d6 The higher your dread, the more people fear you. This may be a disadvantage when wanting people to help you rather than run away screaming. To make a dread test, roll percentage die and score current dread of less to be feared.	Any number
Reputation	How famous you are. Starting score = 2d6. Typical Reputation scores - Who? <20 known in same city / port 21+ Known in same system 40+ Wanted in same polity 80+ Infamous throughout the quadrant 160+ Infamous in 2 quadrants 320+ Wanted throughout human space 640+ Go into politics 1280+	Any number

Special Rules for This Game (Additional to Starship Marine)

Astronaut

In order for the pirate's starship itself to be operated safely, a minimum number of astronauts are required.

This varies with the class of ship

Class	Minimum Astronauts
1000	2
2000	3
3000	3
4000	4
5000	4

If the minimum crew level is not met, dire things can happen when you try and fly the ship (especially on entering hyperspace).

Medic

May assess the condition of any downed combat crew, and increase the chance of them being fit to continue fighting.

Roll 1d6, score 5 or 6 and the individual is fit to fight once more.

Roll once per figure only. Repeat rolls are not permitted.

However, the armour will need repair before they can go on (see Armourer)

If the individual is deemed not fit, they can still be returned to an AutoDoc for further treatment (See below AutoDoc Medical Unit).

It takes an entire turn to assess and/or recover one figure.

Robot Tech

May repair downed robots and make them operational again.

Roll 1d6: A damaged combat robot can be made operational again on a 5 or 6

A wrecked robot of any type can be repaired on a 6.

You may roll repeatedly for any given robot, on subsequent turns ( the time taken to get a 6 reflecting variable repair time).

Successful repair also includes any weapons fitted.

It takes an entire turn to assess and/or repair one figure.

This does not apply to repairing alien robot types - consult Game Control should you want to attempt to work on alien equipment.

Armourer

Assesses and repairs the armour and weapons of downed combat crew.

Roll 1d6: A damaged suit of combat armour can be made operational again on a roll of 6

Obviously, the crew inside will need medical attention before they can operate the repaired suit. (See Medic)

You may roll repeatedly for any given suit of armour on subsequent turns (reflecting variable repair time).

It takes an entire turn to assess and/or repair one figure.

Successful repair also includes any weapons fitted.

AutoDoc Medical Unit

This is an expensive piece of kit that must be installed in the Pirate Ship itself.

Any casualty brought back to the AMU has a chance of recovering, even if a medic tried and failed to revive them earlier.

The AMU is represented by a flowchart, and the figure being treated is moved around the chart until deemed recovered or unsavable by the Virtual Doctor™ software.

A standard AutoDoc can treat 2 casualties at once.

Identification Friend or Foe (IFF)

The armour and weaponry used by the combat crew is of a basic military specification. The military have systems built-in to the weaponry and armour that detects friendly troops and the weapon refuses to fire if targeted at a friend.

The IFF system uses a variable coding algorithm, which can be selected at the start of an action. Once selected, it can be switched off, but not altered (the re-coding process takes a while and needs an armourer).

The IFF system means that you may not fire on friendly troops with SCA or APGW. This isn't a choice - the weapons will simply not fire, no matter how hard or often you pull the trigger.

Grenades, on the other hand, are indiscriminate and are not limited by IFF.

The IFF is also used in the suit's retinal display system to tell the occupant who is a friend or not (since most fights are in the dark using radar and IR to 'see' and are usually very confused). If a friend turns off his or her IFF in action, their display icon changes immediately - in game terms this means you must announce the fact if you turn off your IFF. Once turned off, it cannot be restarted.

In the case of co-operative actions like this mission, teams may agree to have a common IFF algorithm - thus making 'accidental' kills from friendly fire less likely. Normally, all the crew of the same ship will have the same IFF code.

If it becomes necessary, crews may specify the code algorithm by selecting a number between 1 and 10,000, writing it down and handing it to an umpire.

© Jim Wallman 2003-4