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** TRADE & COMMERCE DIGEST: Cargo, freight, and passenger issues. **
** **
** All followups on this topic should be sent to **
** [email removed]. They will be edited for clarity **
** and resent to the Traveller Mailing List in a following digest. **
** For my benefit, if you would include the word TRADE or COMMERCE in **
** your SUBJECT: this will help me track these articles for inclusion **
** in this digest. Thanks, Greg Givler [email removed] **
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TRAVELLER MAILING LIST TRADE AND COMMERCE DIGEST VOL.4
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Here it is the 4th installment of the T&C digest. We have some real good
articles this time and I think that it is about time for us to roll up our
sleeves and get down to the nitty-gritty. So I am throwing down the gauntlet,
if anybody out there has a system, on trade and commerce, even a half-started
one, let's see it and let us comment on it. I will be brave and get the really
bad one that I have been working on up online ASAP, but that may not be for
about a week. So if there is a brave soul that isn't afraid of some
constructive criticism, send me your system and let us take a look at what
you got.
Thanks, Greg
BTW, I have separated the articles by a line of "="'s so if you want to
search thru the article with your editor, then you can use the "="'s to
pull individual articles out.
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CONTENTS - VOLUME NO. 4 <5/1/89>
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1. Subject: Re: TRADE & COMMERCE DIGEST VOL.3 - Matt Goldman
2. Subject: Re: Trade & Commerce system - Matt Goldman
3. Subject: A few foulups - Scott Sellsworth
4. Subject: Economics in the Trav/MT universe - Nick Christenson
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1. From: Matt Goldman [email removed]
Subject: Re: TRADE & COMMERCE DIGEST VOL.3
> Before my detailed response, I'd like to say one of my biggest
> complaints with both the Book 2 and Merchant Prince/MegaTraveller
> systems is the that both are exercises in rolling dice -- there is not
> much call for role-playing in the process.
> Mark
As a player and a referee, I don't like to roll dice. I like to play very
"fast and loose" games where the object is not who can roll the best dice,
but who can role play the most interesting characters. I see the various
tables as a starting place for an adventure, not the adventure.
Too much line noise at this end. So I'm going to jack-out now.
Matt
[ After reading this I got intrigued, so I sent a personal plea to Matt to
pray continue... below is my request! - Greg]
Hi Matt, this is Greg from the Trade and Commerce Digest, I was wandering if
you were planning to expound some more on your starting statement. If you could
I think that it would make some interesting points and lead to some good
discussions. I would like to see some more of your thoughts, if you have the
time. I promise that I won't use to much red ink on them. Basically the point
of your letter is something that I have felt strongly about, for some time.
I have seen gaming sessions grind to a halt because the ship owners needed to
find out what cargo was available. This meant that the rest of the players
sat around and got board. I realize now that I should have cargos pregenerated,
but I never think of that until it is too late. Also then even if I have
pregenerated cargos, then the spend time deciding what cargos they want to buy.
Let me know what you think on the subject, also what might be done to
aleviate this problem.
Thanks for your time,
Greg
[ Matt, was gracious enough to give more input on the subject ]
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2. From: [email removed] (Matt Goldman)
Subject: Re: Trade & Commerce system
Hello! It's late at night and the lines to work are quiet now.
I believe that the *most* important aspect of a game is having fun. I
do not like spend evenings rolling dice and consulting charts. I do not
like to run groups of people who like to have everything determined by "The
Great Charts." Life is more random than that.
Charts and tables are a good starting place for a DM (or whatever the
"official" term is :-) ) When I plan an adventure I only sketch out rough
plot suggestions. Players almost never do exactly what I want. I have a
very heavily populated universe. Most of my NPC's are player characters of
former adventurers, ex-PC have backgrounds and desires all of their own. I
try to set a mood for the players that they are involved in a real
universe, populated by real people. Sure there is the bellhop or checkout
lane person who is lucky to have a name, but there is a lot of dressing.
Most of the people don't want to do boring things. Player's for the
most part are not interested in carrying "FARMING IMPLEMENTS, 25 TONS."
However, when one of the "FARMING IMPLEMENTS" has a 5 kiloton/second rate
of fire, things can get interesting. Rolling the dice can make very rich
characters while role playing can result in characters who are both rich
and interesting.
My favorate 'setup' to run has been dubbed _Hotel_of_Death_ by the
players. The senario's initial conditions are the same each time; however,
no two games have ended remotly alike. A couple of groups never even made
it to the hotel. They got wrapped up in local politics. Eventually I hope
to get the senario typed into my system at home. Currently it lives on
about 200 pages of handwritten notes. (The names "Hotel of Death", "Hotel of
Death II", and "Hotel of Death III" are copyright Matt Goldman.)
Sigh, this is getting long and off track. I like games where the
adventure happens to the players. I dislike games where there is only one
correct solution.
Later.
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3. From: [email removed]
Subject: A few foulups
[Stuff Deleted - Greg]
2. I approve of the trade journal. The only comment I have is related to
tech level. There needs to be some alterations in how tech level works for
equipment availability and such. See the rest of the post for general ideas.
4. Equipment rules are flawed in many of the same ways. The econmic system
makes next to no sense. Given that he wanted to create trade between various
tech levels, an unlikely proposition at best, he should have dealt with tech
level changes better. I therefore propose the following ground rules for
technology.
- ------------------------
The typical credit referred to is the official currency of the Imperium,
backed by the TAS and the banking megacorporations. This allows it to be a
good stable currency. To convert to local currency, use the tables in Striker
or TCS. I can type these in if needed. Local currency _ONLY_ matters if one
wants to figure out how the standard of living relates to the standard of
living among the interstellar culture. All transactions are usually carried
out in Imperial credits.
Equipment will get cheaper by approx. 10% per tech level. Thus, making a
TL 5 car at TL 9 should cost you .9^4 or 63% or the TL 9 cost. Note that this
makes TL 12 merchant ships dirt cheap by TL 15. Why are the space lanes not
full of these critters? Because the TL 15 starport is swamped with offers to
build TL 15 craft at full price.
Now, as TL rises, the functionality will increase by about 10-20% per tech
level. In some cases, such as space technology or computers, the rise is much,
much more. For these, I use about an order of magnitude for each 1-3 tech
levels depending on the effects I want to get out of the equipment.
Finally, these two effects will compete, requiring me to replace the single
prices with a tech level matrix that give functionality and price at any given
tech level.
Ilustrative example: The pocket computer. It becomes available at TL 11
TL
|
Type--+-- 1 1/bis 2 2/bis 3
|
11 1000
12 900 1000
13 810 900 1000
14 720 810 900 1000
15 630 720 810 900 1000
Where type is the type of computer that it will duplicate.
By the way, for ship computers, I allow a volume drop of about a factor of 2
or 3 per tech level. Thus, at TL 15, one may have a big, expensive, power
hungry model 9, or a small, inexpensive model three that the ships engineer can
carry on his belt.
As I said above, TL 15 starports are FAR to busy making mailitary and large
craft to make many free traders, thus the average free trader is about TL 12 or
so. One can still run a free trader off a 1/bis, but it is not as tempting.
Scott
[email removed]
[email removed]
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4. From: "Nick Christenson @ St. Olaf College" [email removed]
Subject: Economics in the Trav/MT universe
Scott Sellsworth ([email removed]) raises some good point
in his article, but I think some are inaccurate. I aim to provide counter-
examples on our planet.
First, he suggests that high tech levels wouldn't want to trade with low
tech levels. This is simply not true. The USA is probably two TL's higher
than several African nations which we are more than happy to trade with.
Low TL worlds provide: 1) cheap raw materials, and 2) cheap labor. When
a country gets a higher standard of living, the comparable cost one has
to pay people to work goes up. Labor is dirt cheap in, say, Zaire but
expensive in the US. It's even more expensive where the standard of living
is higher, like Beverly Hills. A TL 15 fast food restaraunt with *live*
workers in it (rather than automation) would be incredibly expensive to
operate.
Also, he asks why don't TL 15 starports put out TL 12 ships which should
be a heckuva lot cheaper. I don't know a good answer to this, but in the
"real world" I could ask why doesn't McDonnel/Douglass still make the
DC 3? I wold say for the same reason that merchant lines buy TL 15 rather
than TL 12 ships. What the system doesn't explicitly say (but probably
should) is that if one has the money, the higher tech ship will almost
always provide a return on investment. Part of this should be due to
the fact that as TL goes up, Jump Drive space and maybe fuel requirement
should go down. Scott brings this up in his letter; a good point.
When dealing with complicated socio/economic questions I find the most
productive thing to do is to compare the Traveller situation with a similar
situation (if one exists) on Earth. Last year's technology is usually
plentiful and cheap. Earlier technology is usually not available. Lower
tech worlds *will* have high tech equipment if they trade with High tech
worlds, but they can't produce it themselves. People in "3rd world"
countries can still have Corvette's, but the country doesn't have the
TL to produce them (or maintain them.)
Hope this helps some people. Let's keep up the good discussion on
economics in the Trav/MT universe.
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TRADE AND COMMERCE DIGEST | ****This*SPACE*intentionally*left****
Greg Givler, Editor | *************************************
James Perkins, List Administrator | ************FULL*OF*STARS************
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