In regards to piracy

[mith]

How's this:

Rule: Customs & Piracy
x.1 - Players may attack their target if the initial 'halt' command is ignored, but may not destroy the target before an RP demand is made.

x.2 - Non compliance with x.1 can be assumed after the demand is repeated at least three times and the target has had a reasonable chance to respond.

x.3 - If the player chooses to exercise their right to fire in x.1 the target may retaliate without engaging in RP.

x.4 - Players can only be stopped by the same individual once every three minutes.

x.5 - If the target escapes without engaging in RP, the pirate/customs agent is exempt from x.4

x.6 - Piracy is intended for Roleplay and not for Profit and so 'Rule 0.0' very much applies here.

In x.4 I chose three minutes as this is slightly longer than it takes to cross most systems using trade lanes and slighty less than it takes to cruise across most of the common smuggling systems. It's also a slightly better mechanic than scanner range, which can't really be checked for the purposes of sanction reports whereas timestamps are very easy indeed.

I deliberately excluded the rule about honouring ransoms. This is and should remain entirely at the discretion of the pirate to do so, and entirely at the discretion of the trader to trust they if they will or not. Ruling on that would in my opinion take *all* the fun out of being pirated.