As an example of a different (but not necessarily better) trade system, here
is a brief overview of Star Trek RPG trade system. There are 8 basic
catagories into which all trade items fall. These are:
Foodstuffs and Agricultural Goods Cr700 100 SCU
Normal Minerals and Raw Materials Cr1000 70 SCU
Radioactives and Special Minerals Cr1500 30 SCU
Drugs and Refined Medicinal Agents Cr2000 50 SCU
Low Tech Manufactured Goods Cr1200 90 SCU
Medium Tech Manufactured Goods Cr2000 70 SCU
High Tech Manufactured Goods Cr2200 50 SCU
Luxury Items Cr250 x d10 10 SCU x d10
The number following each catagory represent the base price/scu and the
base consumption/planet. The SCU is Standard Cargo Unit (ie a ton in MT).
Each planet is given a rating in each catagory to represent its interest in
those items. Low ratings imply an abundance of the items (like they're made
or grown there) a high rating implys a low supply and a great demand. There
are 8 ratings starting at 0.25 and increasing by 0.25 up to 2.00. The trick
then is to buy on a planet with a low rating in a catagory and transport the
cargo to a planet with a high rating. For example buying iron on a planet
with a rating of 0.75 would cost Cr750/ton, selling it on a planet with a
rating of 1.5 would get you Cr1500/ton. While you can buy as much as you
like how much you can sell depends on the base consumption. In the example
above you could sell 70 tons to the planet at Cr1500/ton the next 70 tons or
part thereof would by sold at one step lower (1.25) or Cr1250/ton, the next 70
tons would be at Cr1000/ton and so on. This is to reflect saturation of the
market. Population comes into play as a multiplier of the base consumption.
Very high pop planets multiply consumption by 4, high pop by 2, moderate pop
by 1, low by 0.5, very low by 0.25, and colony or station by 0.1.
Player skills are used to adjust the "apparent" interest a planet has in a
given catagory. During purchase a successful roll would decrease the rating
by one step, a extreme failure would increase it by one. On the selling planet
success would increase the rating by one and extreme failure would decrease it
by one. Other skills could adjust the demand (successful marketing strategy).
As an example of how to translate MT trade clases into this system consider:
MT Trade Class UTP (Universal Trade Profile)
Agriculturial 1 2 1 4 4 5 6 5 (Moderate)
Industrial 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 6 (Very High)
where 1 = 0.25 5 = 1.25
2 = 0.50 6 = 1.50
3 = 0.75 7 = 1.75
4 = 1.00 8 = 2.00
Ag planets would have low interest in ag products since they are readily
available. Similarly they would have a relatively low interest in raw
materials (since they don't do manufacturing extensively). Drugs and low
tech items would have normal interests while medium and high tech items and
luxury items would by in demand. The moderate pop is used to modify the
base consumption.
The industrial planet would have a normal demand for food (it produces some
or most of what it needs but imports other types that can't be grown there
plus some to suppliment its own crops) and drugs (most planets will). A
reduced demand for manufactured goods and an increased demand for raw materials
(but not greatly increased because, obviously, most of the material must be
present to support cheap manufacturing).
These numbers are pulled out of thin air. Careful thought could set up a
better set of numbers and modify them for things like tech level and
multiple trade classifications.
I've been toying with the idea of using this type of system (modified of
course) in my Traveller game but I have been waiting to see what comes out of
the TDR trade system. If some (ie more than 1 or 2) of you are interested, I
could flesh this out and recast it in MT terms. Using this as a basis, you
could use tables to determine the actual cargo type and limit the available
tonnage. Moreover, there could be some modifiers for certain cargos. This
was not done in Star Trek RPG to minimize bookkeeping and because there is
no way to list every possible cargo type anyway.
Comments???
TLH
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T.L.Hayes |
MIT/Lincoln Laboratory |
Lexington, MA |