The Space Pirate's Code

[Dannyalcatraz]

In response your latest question, 39 lashes is *a lot*. A dozen or two is generally enough to reduce someone to a bloody, raw-meat mess.

When done by someone who knows what they're doing, 7 is a lot. More than a dozen can leave permanent scarring. Over 20, you could be looking at removal of flesh down to the bone and death by blood loss.

 

[MarkB]

For marooning, I guess the Traveller equivalent would be being abandoned on an asteroid in an emergency vacc suit, with a day's life-support and a snub pistol.

And I don't know that busting out a whip in the relatively close quarters of a Traveller spaceship makes a lot of sense. Anyone got a good idea of what replace whip lashings with?

How about 39 seconds' exposure to radiation from the reactor core?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Radiation? Ouch!

As for marooning in Traveller, leaving someone on an asteroid like that would be tantamount to a death sentence. Leaving them on an abandoned base or in some kind of derelict or plundered ship, OTOH, seems more in keeping with the spirit of the punishment. The guy at least has a chance of living for a while.

...all alone...

...without real hope...

...prey to despair & insanity...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I wonder what 30 seconds of vacuum, handcuffed inside the airlock, would do. It'd probably be just barely survivable, but certainly nothing anyone would volunteer for.

 

[jonesy]

I wonder what 30 seconds of vacuum, handcuffed inside the airlock, would do. It'd probably be just barely survivable, but certainly nothing anyone would volunteer for.

Human Body in a Vacuum

 

[Random Axe]

And I don't know that busting out a whip in the relatively close quarters of a Traveller spaceship makes a lot of sense. Anyone got a good idea of what replace whip lashings with?

Don't confuse "whip" (as in, an Indiana Jones bullwhip that requires several feet of radius to extend), with a more practical (and likely) cat'o'9'tails.

But if that is still too old-earthy for a space crew (and I apologize for not knowing the Traveller system), then simply replace with a lash from a regular leather strap, or the Captain's belt, or a stroke from a stun rod (as opposed to a Taser shot).

(excellent thread BTW -- I can steal this for my Star Wars campaigns)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Human Body in a Vacuum

So definitely survivable, but definitely scary -- despite a first paragraph that tries to say it isn't that bad -- someone passing out within 15 seconds after feeling their saliva starting to boil sounds pretty damned scary to me. I suspect the in-game effects of a vacuum are listed in the rulebook and I just have to find them.

EDIT: The Mongoose Traveller core book just says that a breach of a vacc suit is a death sentence. So we'll go with science and Douglas Adams instead.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy says that if you hold a lungful of air you can survive in the total vacuum of space for about thirty seconds. However it goes on to say that what with space being the mind boggling size it is the chances of getting picked up by another ship within those thirty seconds are two to the power of two hundred and sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and nine to one against. By a totally staggering coincidence that is also the telephone number of an Islington flat where Arthur once went to a very good party and met a very nice girl whom he totally failed to get off with - she went off with a gatecrasher.

So, death sentence after 30 seconds seems like a good guideline, with the pirate code sentence just being a few seconds short of instant death, with little wiggle room for an offender to get back inside in time.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Don't confuse "whip" (as in, an Indiana Jones bullwhip that requires several feet of radius to extend), with a more practical (and likely) cat'o'9'tails.

But if that is still too old-earthy for a space crew (and I apologize for not knowing the Traveller system), then simply replace with a lash from a regular leather strap, or the Captain's belt, or a stroke from a stun rod (as opposed to a Taser shot).

It's not too earthy, really -- Traveller has lots of people using cutlasses and sabers, and energy weapons are more the exception than the rule -- but I want to avoid what I call the "Firefly problem," where making your thematic elements TOO obvious risks jarring the audience/players out of the world.

In Firefly, it was "I know this is a Western in space, but wouldn't some of these problems be solved with the technology they obviously have?" I'm definitely up for including lots of Caribbean pirate elements -- hence these two threads -- but I don't want this to feel too cutesy, but rather have this stuff inform the game world in a more organic way.

NOTE: I love Firefly, but I'm talking about the response some viewers and critics had. It wasn't a response I felt personally, but it's also something I don't want happening in my game.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

[*]If you lose an arm below the elbow or a leg below the knee, you will receive $400; if you lose an arm above the elbow or a leg above the knee, you will receive $800.

Looking at the Mongoose Traveller rulebook, prosthetic parts apparently cost about 5,000 credits for a hand or a foot and 10,000 for a whole limb (basically, it costs 5k to fix one penalty point for an injury acquired on the injury table and 10k for two points). That would completely replace the injured body part with a mix of cybernetics and cloned flesh.

For a proper piratical feel, though, I'd want pirates using obvious prosthetics -- and the pirates probably feel like idiots who get injured should be responsible for some of the costs of fixing their own mistakes -- so I think the code for the Brethren of the Void should probably say 4,000 credits and 8,000 credits, respectively. Either they end up paying out of pocket, or (more likely) they get an obviously mechanical hand or foot.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not to mention that an obvious prosthetic might also serve as a "Here there be a moron" sign...