Traders, opinions from a pirate

[Janus]

Ahh! Now we get the ball rolling after a sketchy start.

You were bound to get off to a sketchy start when you try to dictate other people's RP. Carrying spaceship crew is entirely at a players discretion, not carrying them makes me neither a powertrader or a bad rper. Neither does not putting food in my hold for my crew.

That said... I've considered carrying "bribe" cargo for pirates, food, consumer good or whatever but came to the conclusion on the routes I run it wasn't worth it. From an RP perspective, it's insurance, carry something more attractive for the pirates in the hope they'll take it and leave your real cargo alone. I don't get pirated enough to make it worthwhile, and when I do, it's usually by the kind that want cash or a pretty explosion. In that sense, carrying a full load everytime acts as insurance for when I have to pay a tax for my safe passage.

There are some Ifs.. there. If I ran in the Omega's, which is the perspective you're coming at this from, maybe I'd be inclined to carry food, as the Corsairs are apparently in need of this. However If I did so, would I need to carry a counterbalancing cargo that would interest the Red Hessians for fear otherwise they'd brand me a friend of the Corsairs? It comes down to knowing your "enemy" and in my case, they mostly want credits. My routes run from Liberty to either Bretonia or Kusari. I very rarely meet pirates in Bret or Kusari, and as yet, I have no idea what they might want as an alternative to credits, if anything. I mostly meet Outcasts in Liberty and I'm certainly not carrying Cardamine to buy them off with. How I choose to RP my trader is up to me.

My main trader, indeed main character, is a former LN Engineeer. He's been on the front line against Rheinland. He's experienced fear. After that, pirates just don't have it. He knows he's helpless and considers pirates a pest. A well armed pest yes, but still a pest. He sees no reason to be afraid of them, once they've extorted their pound of flesh, he's off on his merry way. Depending on my mood, the RP of the pirate and any other influencing circumstances, that can be anything from the length of time it takes to type /givecash to half an hour or more.

Criticise people for RPing sure, traders and pirates alike. Critcise blatently stupid RP. Don't criticise people for decent RP just because it's different to how you'd like it to be done.