"What should space pirates look like?" Topic

Alrighty folks, so it's time to open up another can of worms.

What do you think "space pirates" should look like?

The answer to this is surely going to vary greatly depending on the universe they travel in.

-Eli

Rent the classic "Ice Pirates".

Yep.

In one of my universes they wear sportcoats and slacks, and no ties on friday.

But in general they should wear what every other spacer wears. I Traveller games I have played in that generally was Hawaiian print shirts, shorts and high tech flip-flops.

Rent the classic "Ice Pirates".

Quoted for truth !

Aha and avast ye earth-lubbers …Captain Peg leg Jake, the scourge o' the spacelanes do order ye to heave to or suffer the dire consequences ! Ah-Ha-Ah HA !

I always rather imagined them to be something like an oversized hermit crab without the hijacked shell, maybe with a couple of guns or an equipment harness.

Yes but you have heard of me.

Vargr looks like Don Carnage.

I was thinking Firefly also. Live under the radar to avoid detection. Then pounce.

Check out Outlaw Star

Tricorn hats and cyber-parrots?

Damon.

"SQUAWK! Polly Wants a D-Cell! Polly Wants a D-Cell!"

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Easy one that

ARRRRRRmani

Ice Pirates came to mind first, of course. I also considered the clasic, "hard" sic-fi spacers look with a bit more individuality and grit.

@Impala, that is freaky because I've always had an idea for a hermit crab alien race. Even had one that wore a power armor version of a shell.

Traditional pirates in space is always a way to go. As are roughkneck looking space savages, etc.

-Eli

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Kayl you win 50,000 Awesome points! that's from one of the Metroid Prime games I made for Nintendo!

Eli,

Pirates and mercenaries in the past have always picked and chosen from the better bits of clothing, equipment and weapons of their enemies.

So, you must first visualize what their foes would have, and then select different bits and pieces that would have been used by individuals who value speed and individual fighting styles.

Next, they would have wanted to use jewelry and flashy colors to impress each other and their enemies.

The idea that Space Pirates would look like 17th and 18th century pirates is silly to me. The pirates of the past spent very little energy in manufacturing their own weapons, clothing and equipment. They would have used mostly what they could plunder from enemy troops and civilians. The same would be expected of pirates and mercenaries at any point in history.

Take Somali pirates as an example. Though they may wear a lot of their traditional clothing, but the more successful or pretentious ones will show off the caps, shirts and weapons they plundered from their Western victims or obtained by trade.

If the Space Pirates of the same culture (and species*) as their victims, then there would not be a traditional garb element.

Dan
* See TMP link

A mixture of military and civilian clothing. Introducing "Captain " Jack Sparrow(Klingon[OS]-romulan mix), Orion Pirate, a Fed Starfleet Academy ring hanging from a dreadlock, mix various star trek clothing from Wrath of Khan fed jacket to 'Leo Walsh'(Mudd) getup, three types of pistols(Phaser II, Klingon Disruptor and one unidentified), light saber, a Klingon E4 ex-penal frigate the 'Black Pearl', working out of 'Perfidious Albion', a large powered asteroid used by various Orion Cartels as a base. A crew of mixed race renegades, a ship jury rigged with various alien tech to keep running. Open scene, he being slapped by a Orion Slave girl.
Trek needs Naughty Captains.

Aye!

Thar be truth t' what you say me bucko. It be t' action that makes a pirate not t' clothes.

Avast ye mates!

pirate talk translators link link

*****

Porkie's link didn't work for me so here it is in another format YouTube link

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Amen, Brother 28mmMan!

However, the Firefly crew didn't have that many clashes with troops, or plundered equipment and gear when they did have their few skirmishes.

Contraband is mostly about laying low, so as not to bring to much attention. If they subsisted mostly off raids and plunder, but generally kept away from areas the authorities controlled, they would have cared little if they blended or not with the average civilian or merchant. They would have plundered and used government weapons and armor from the enemy dead.

Dan

Eyepatches with built-in lasers!

Yeah, this really comes down to how you view the universe at large.

In a soft, schlocky setting you could do classic pirates but space them up a bit like they did in Ice Pirates.

Most space pirates, as Dan pointed out, mirror the universe they live in. So a gritty universe is going to have gritty pirates.

-Eli

Eyepatches with built in tricorders

And tricorns with tricorders?

LOL

Dan

A cyberoptic or perhaps even multi-optic mono lense in place of the traditional eye patch.

I have to say it. Treasure Planet. It had an interesting visual.

Pirate, privateer, corsair, buccaneer, picaroon, etc.

The motivation and the politics are deciding factors to be sure.

And I agree with Justin picture picture picture picture Treasure Planet hit it if you are seeking to put image on the iconic space pirate.

Vaccsuits for boarding actions, get creative with emblems and coloration.

Pirates that specialize in raiding surface sites from orbit could wear just about anything but I would assume some uniformity even if it is only an armband. My pirates all wear balaclvas they don't want their pictures taken by security cameras.

Then just call them Star Vikings:

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Or Space Vikings:

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Dan

In one of my universes they wear sportcoats and slacks, and no ties on friday.

Excellent That sounds like a campaign I'd like to play in (except on Fridays which sounds far too lax).

Doug

This is the master
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All others are obviously "Johhny come Latelys" (or perhaps "Harry come Latelys"…)

John T

You cannot deny Captain Harlock:

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Though Harry Mudd definitely gets a nod for style and audacity, he's more a scoundrel (or maybe Nerf herder) than a real pirate.

A space pirate pic I did for a friend.

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Ok, Artraccoon wins. :)

In the 1500s, roving companies picked for themselves the best outfits and weapons from their prey:

YouTube link

Dan
PS. WARNING: Might not be work-safe.

Artracoon, you forgot the fur and bunny ears :beer:

It depends what species they are, how long they have been pirates, what motivates them to plunder, be it war, greed, beliefs, xenophobia/racism, biological need, megalomania, or just plain psychosis, and what techniques they use.
I'm thinking something dark, thick, sealed, armoured and heavy, with internal life support, for "flatliners" (crew of vessels which appear to be dead wrecks but suddenly power up when it's too late and anyone who got close enough to investigate the derelict is wasted and their stuff nicked) which would require shutdown of ships life support during a job, as it would show the ship as "alive".
For pirates who run up to vessels and either hit their propulsion or disable their electronics definitely an armoured spacesuit, preferably dark in colour, as they are likely to float up to helpless vessels and blow holes in the pressure hull with set charges, which would obviously kill everyone on board so the ship is ripe for plunder.
Those who prefer fighting to extermination can simply have personalised armour, and otherwise would look like a civilian/merc crew eg Firefly or Star Wars if they were more like wreckers, leading ships to destruction and looting the bits.
Perhaps a race of minimally clad hotties with psychically enhanced beauty capable of leading men towards them like sirens- or psychic bug monsters which can fake such things.
Cyborg cults or biomechanical monsters may be looking for organic components to convert into more things like themselves, perhaps the Druuchi(SF zombies in space jumpsuits with some larger biomechanical zomborgs) from Hasslefree could put in an appearance, Perhaps some pirates have a gang-like theme, eg Space Bikies, some may be forgotten, dilapidated robots programmed by a long extinct or departed pirate gang to continue collecting loot any way it can, or some could even be military, looting enemy ships, and therefore would be in full uniform.
I have been looking at some new Dark Eldar troops not for 40k but for space operatic D20, I think if painted anything like what's on the box, they would certainly look the part of an easily identifiable space pirate.
If like in Velocity Trap, though, they just wear whatever suits the occasion. Though if you think about the premise of Velocity Trap you get to thinking they should look like wild West outlaws but with energy weapons….
Or even spacerangers- "Bail up! Your 80 million credits of organic computer cores or your lives!"