Are There Pirate Airships In VSF Gaming?

[Cacique Caribe]

In VSF games that use airships, are there any factions that could be called pirates?

Inquiring minds want to know.  Thanks.

Dan

[Sinewgrab]

You can certainly create them.  My personal faction is Free Norway, who have definitely taken their Viking heritage to heart, and have no qualms about stealing British, German, or other technology and vessels to add to their own.

[shadowbeast]

Abney Park actually had Terror of the Skies available once, which was a board game on world maps in which you out-plundered the other airship pirates. I don't know if it's still available though.

[Pijlie]

There are even miniatures for them.

https://pulpfigures.com/products/view/29

[Captain Blood]

The SF in VSF surely tells you that you can have whatever you like.
Although the V part would rule out golden age of Caribbean / Atlantic piracy types. Their era is 200 years Pre-V.

Piracy at sea in the historical Victorian era (say, broadly, second half of the C19th) was probably limited to places like the South China Seas and the East Indies. The Royal Navy and other major powers proved pretty efficient at eradicating nests of pirates by then (see Shores of Tripoli, etc).

Wouldn’t have thought primitive pirate-like cultures like Dyaks would translate too well to aeronefs. But late C19th Chinese pirates in junk-style nefs? That would probably work. And there are plenty of figures for that setting which could adapt easily enough for VSF.

[warwell]

They had them in Space 1889

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/59102/Space-1889--Cloud-Captains-of-Mars?src=also_purchased

[commissarmoody]

Of course there is!

[Cat]

Pirates in Imperial Skies/Aeronef heavily favour the Cutlass class spar torpedo ship, pus whatever other prizes they can claim from other fleets.
http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Aeronef/Pirates/VAN-4001.html

[warrenpeace]

In VSF games that use airships, are there any factions that could be called pirates?

Well, as long as Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series is VSF... In The Gods of Mars, chapter VI, "The Black Pirates of Barsoom" we have such a faction:

http://www.telelib.com/authors/B/BurroughsEdgarRice/prose/godsofmars/gom_chapter_6.html

[MaleGriffin]

Seeing as we still have Somali pirates today, I'm sure you can have pirates in a VSF game on Mars! Whether Martian or European, anyone who attacks airships for plunder would be pirates!

[Dining Room Battles]

Here are my pirates but now I'm going to do another crew:

Following the destruction of the Weldon Institutes dirigible Go-Ahead by Robur the Conqueror and his airship the Albatross, the small aerial fleet of the United States engaged the Albatross near Philadelphia, PA.  Though the Albatross was defeated and severely damaged, it escaped and the ship responsible for the victory was the American privateer USS Audacity, under letters of marque, commanded my Captain J. T. Kirk of Iowa.  The Audacity itself was severely damaged and Kirk now lacks the financial means to repair his ship.



https://toysoldiersanddiningroombattles.blogspot.com/2018/05/ihmn-crew-without-ship.html

[Cacique Caribe]

Seeing as we still have Somali pirates today, I'm sure you can have pirates in a VSF game on Mars! Whether Martian or European, anyone who attacks airships for plunder would be pirates!

Perhaps even a motley mix of Martian and Europeans types then?

Dan
PS.  Dining Room Battles, those figures look amazing!

[Dining Room Battles]

Dan - Thanks!
Neil

[The_Beast]

I favor the occasional tricorne hat-ed character as a longing-for-the-Golden-age nutter.

On the other hand, while Abney Park is a very adjusted timeline to the future, instead of running as a world, parts would work as an exotic kingdom, either in the vast expanses of ocean or distant moon.

Easy peasy.

Doug

[Bloggard]

umm yes. Given the 'fiction' bit and playing with toys, as we do, why worry about historical accuracy / precedent too much, much less the determination to express those in predicatable stereotypes, and, instead, go with whatever you want?
After all you can very quickly / easily get into looking at Victorian era colonialism as the largest scale piracy imaginable etc, etc ... if you want ...

so ... 'let the wind blow free' , so to speak. I try to, at all times