Re: Speculative Trade; Trading Campaigns

	Mark Power ([email removed]) writes....
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	Another problem I see with a trade-centered campaign is that most
	of the players don't get to do anything.  Now that I'm running
	MegaTraveller, I've got something for the engineer(s) to do (check the
	rules for entering jump drive under the Engineer skill in the Player's
	Manual), but what about everyone else.  Once my NPC generator is
	completed, I can generate NPC passengers, and let the purser assign the
	staterooms.  This will also make it a little less obvious when I slip in
	a prepared NPC encounter.  I'm also considering, since I have 15mm scale
	floor plans for their ship, to each time they prepare to leave port,
	hand them scale cargo containers and let them arrange the cargo bay.
	That way I can make use of a corrollary (sp?) of Murphy's Law - the
	freight loaded furthest from the door belongs to the man who needs it
	first.  Does any one have any further ideas?
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Just a suggestion.  Just because you're running a trade-centered
campaign doesn't mean it has to be in some docile, well-established
trading environment.  Give it a little bit of an adversarial edge,
maybe a lot of one.  Adversaries could include rival traders trying
to establish or keep the route for their own profit (both small-scale
operations and mega-corps who are for all practical purposes above
the law -- especially in the shattered imperium), pirates,  navies
of various political factions trying to disrupt enemy trade and
supply lines,  local politicians on various planets who might
not WANT outside trade (remember what political power the traders
wielded in the early parts of Asimov's Foundation series??),  law
enforcement agencies (let's face it, some laws are just not
economically practical!!),  technological problems  (how does
one transport four megatons of ice to a desert world, especially
with a fleet of jump-1 ships on a route that frequently has four-parsec
gaps in it??),  logistical problems, even adversaries from the
inside who are unhappy with the way the company is run and want
to either shut it down or usurp control of it.  Furthermore, any
company that manages to be successful under these conditions is
going to attract the attention of major political powers and
become embroiled in universal politics, like it or not. I'm sure you can
add many more of your own ideas.  The point is that in an
environment as unstable as the shattered imperium,  there's going
to be a lot more to worry about than where to put the cargo.
("Ensign, retrieve Baron Von Aushter's cargo from the bay, and
what was that you said about being boarded?...")

Happy gaming!
- ---
Ed "Captain Jordan Moray" Driscoll
The University of Michigan
[email removed]