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What morphs would pirates use?

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Sun, 2015-03-15 19:31
#1
geckopirateship geckopirateship's picture
What morphs would pirates use?
I've always wanted to play an EP campaign about space pirates, so I'm wondering what kinds of morphs they'd be likely to use and how they'd modify them. One idea I had was a cross between a Hibernoid, a Bouncer, and a Fury- a morph adapted to long-term space travel that could also handle itself in a fight.
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23 Liminal Blossom Punctures the Heart of the Unrepentant, Deliciously
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Sun, 2015-03-15 20:21
UnitOmega UnitOmega's picture
Well, you can load anything
Well, you can load anything with combat mods aftermarket, that's fairly common for role alterations - especially given expense and/or scarcity of morphs. Bouncers or Hibernoids are probably common, along with some poor souls still in Flats or Splicers who either wear vacsuits or have gotten vacuum adaptations. If they can afford them, space-type synths would be appropriate, Slitheroids (they have a very similar stat profile to the Bouncer), Arachnoids, that kind of thing. vacuum rated pods would also be good. Not just the actual vacuum pod, but the Space Marine variant of the Security Pod and Novacrabs to. In fact, depending on where your pirates are from and what their main ports of call are, expect scum level bodymods, augmentation level and morphologies. Actual acquisition of a Fury or related genelines (or some of the other top-tier morph lines) is unlikely, unless stolen. Pirates are also unlikely to have the genehacking skills and medical equipment to design their own morphs. If they had the tech and the skill, why would they need to steal things?
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Sun, 2015-03-15 20:53
geckopirateship geckopirateship's picture
I imagine a lot of overlap
I imagine a lot of overlap between pirates and scum- they prowl some of the same territory and would likely share a lot of values, so I could imagine scum pirates bringing their fabrication and genehacking skills onboard- it would probably be a highly sought-after job, to the point where I could imagine pirates forknapping skilled egos the way Golden Age pirates would kidnap surgeons. And about the "but why would they become pirates if they could that", keep in mind that some pirates, especially Scum and Ultimates, would be willing to turn to piracy in search of stimulation and ideological fulfillment rather than pure material gain. Also, high-stakes piracy would likely target kidnappable egos and rare materials rather than morphs.
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23 Liminal Blossom Punctures the Heart of the Unrepentant, Deliciously
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Mon, 2015-03-16 00:08
Googleshng Googleshng's picture
I'd think pirates, being in
I'd think pirates, being in the business of hijacking valuables and approaching under cover, would be fairly into stealing the morphs of their victims when they can manage.
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Mon, 2015-03-16 15:56
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
I'm with Googleshng.
I'm with Googleshng. Really, toe-to-toe combat is probably the last concern. First is finding the target, then closing in, then disabling it, then taking over the network, then springing whatever awful trap they might have, THEN disabling any survivors, then stealing the cargo, then escaping, then flipping the cargo, all with a backup plan for every step along the way. In other words, the morphs need to be disposable, and they're a distant second to having a plan and the equipment to execute that plan. Honestly, having run Dust to Dust a few times, spares are dangerously effective for something like this, and cheap enough for sending swarms of forks.
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Thu, 2015-03-19 08:26
Rallan Rallan's picture
I imagine most of them would
I imagine most of them would have pretty damn cheap morphs because really, who in their right mind is going to be a pirate? In a setting where it's virtually impossible to hide what you're doing (especially if what you're doing involves occasionally making spaceships go missing and then turning up months later with everything that was on those ships' manifests), piracy would basically be the career choice of the deranged and desperate who've got nothing to lose. Although now that I think of it, you might be able to turn gatecrashing raids into a viable business model. Some of the Hypercorps already hire mercenaries to trash each others' more isolated holdings, and it's a short step from that sort of work to going independent and finding a back way into colonies that only get gate access to Earth's solar system once every few months.
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Fri, 2015-03-20 15:04
Sandras Prime Sandras Prime's picture
My boarding party would
My boarding party would consist of up-armored cases, very little extra added on outside of guns and armor. They're a cleaning crew for actually hostage taking and removing resistance. Once you have control of the ship you can send in specialized morphs, repair crews, etc. Cases mean very easy repair, and in the event they get totally slagged you can also find them openly anywhere you stop. Immune to vac or gaseous antipersonnel countermeasures. It would be a 2000 credit investment per morph, plus the cost of a gun. I'd suggest SMGs loaded with hollow point since you'd want cheap, low AP, FA weapons. Everyone needs bandoleers for CS / Overload grenades. For 35,000 Creds and an Ego Bridge you've got yourself a 10-morph kill squad full of Betas that if used properly will work pretty damn well against most targets. Scale up as needed.
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Thu, 2015-03-26 16:17
Wayfinder Wayfinder's picture
To make your pirates
To make your pirates believable, try to shoot for cheaper morphs rather than the more expensive. Like in the Age of Sail, pirates back then were using weapons that they generally didn't have much of a problem losing to the open sea; they were cheap and readily available. Give certain leaders and specialists better morphs, to kind of indicate their rank, so to speak, among the crew and your players. As tempting as it might be to have everyone decked out in Synths or even certain Pods, again I'd really keep it to a minimum if I could. I tend to go with the maxim outlined in the core book that resleeving is not easy, nor should it be. Further, I tend to start with the essentials for space travel anyway; what does it take for flats to simply exist and function as space pirates, and you'll find that, in the long run, just having a bunch of guys in flats or splicers is cheaper to keep, maintain, and equip. Then you build on from there.
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Mon, 2015-03-30 13:41
Jim_Callahan Jim_Callahan's picture
Obviously, bouncers.
Obviously, bouncers. Because those are the only ones where you can do the bit where instead it's a bouncearrrrrrrrrrrr. Seriously, though, what distinguishes pirates from general robbers and criminals is basically the boarding parties, start with the most zero-gee compatible mod and buy up further augmentation from tharrrrrrrrr.
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Sounds legit.
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Mon, 2015-03-30 14:21
templariomaster templariomaster's picture
I think it... depends on the
I think it... depends on the pirates we're talking about. If they're hackers they will prefer swarmanoids or simple infomorphs, if they're more physical they will probably use bodies but cibermorphs because they can be easily converted into small ships and if those pirates are station/habitat raiders, they will use biomorphs to blend in and those zones are usually more fit for such bodies. But since bodies are now tools, it really depends on the pirates.
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