The Laws of the Handwave

[Sirrocco]

For the Boskonians, it's actually pretty easy. Just remember - the Boskonians are in it for the money. Most of the time they don't attack ships in order to kill people - they attack ships in order to take slaves and steal stuff. Up close to pretty much the very end, they wouldn't have any desire or use for a weapon system that would cost significant money to use and utterly destroy the target. It's counterproductive for them to hit large civilian targets destructively, particularly large mundane civilian targets. It upsets people, and doesn't give they any more money. There are potential exceptions - like protecting their thionite production and/or doing a hit hired out by some wealthy organization - but on the whole, just doing damage just isn't worth it.
Also, I woud like to propose "Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean." as one of the Rule 0s.
Also, one that's just come up - I think it was pretty much acepted earlier, but by all means discuss it if you disagree - "Handwavium conserves mass, energy, and momentum. The handwave conservation of energy is a bit loose. Generators of the 'It's getting energy from *somewhere* - I'm just not sure *where* exactly.' school are explicitly permitted. The conservation of momentum is pretty much just a technicality, given that the most common form of speed drive functions by surfing on grav waves. Still, they're all there, and you should be able to give some sort of vague justification about how any suspicious-looking devices avoid breaking them."