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Casinos and flamethrowers

I

Icosahedron

SOC-14 1K
Hi all (and Omer in particular)

As a newbie, I'm not sure if this query is in the right place, but I just downloaded the CT rules addenda Omer compiled and I had a couple of questions.

If a casino is included on a large vessel, it should generate income for the ship, right? So how much? Assuming you don't want to role-play every card game, to what extent will it help your mortgage repayments?

When using flamethrowers, what are the chances of it setting nearby brush/buildings alight? and how long will they burn for?

Looks like a good site, is it still on the ropes as recent discussions suggest?
 
Looks like the site is still viable for the forseeable future. The Laughing Policeman and his deputies are on the job, so let's have no more talk of flamethrowering the casino.
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Welcome aboard, Icosahedron! You might have wanted to split your post in two and put the casino question in 'The Fleet' and the flamethrower one in the 'Ship's Locker', but don't worry about it - these threads soon lose all knowledge of their origins.

Right, I'll get out now and let somebody actually answer your questions ...
 
I think in both cases it's "how long is a piece of string?"

For some games, casinos can tweak the odds, plus they can set min and max stakes. It also depends on how many gamblers, and how rich/good they are.

Pulling numbers out of my head...

Casino: 8dt, MCr0.8, supports up to 32 gamblers. Mid passengers generate Cr100/day, High Cr250/day.

Flamers depend on the fuel and what you're trying to ignite.
 
Casino earnings on a shipboard casino.
Low passengers - They get the Low sweepstake based on the number of Low passage survivors.
Mid Passage - Per jump will generate {2D6-6}10Cr. Avg 110Cr
High Passage - Per jump will generate {2D6-6}1000Cr. Avg 11000Cr
A negative means the passenger won more than he lost and left the ship with it. It gives the house an edge, but appears to be fair to the passengers so they will not cry foul. Who wants to bet if they don't have a fair chance to win.
The averages take into account the passengers who will not bet and those who are high rollers.

Vegas odds on slots are usually around 98% payback on the slot machines, yet they take in huge ammounts of cash daily.
 
Originally posted by the Bromgrev:
[QB] Looks like the site is still viable for the forseeable future. The Laughing Policeman and his deputies are on the job, so let's have no more talk of flamethrowering the casino. :smirk
Click to expand...
Good news.

No, no, PLEASE don't go giving my players ideas like that!
 
Good answers on the Casino guys! The House always has the edge, its how they make money.

On the flamethrower question-duration of fuel burned/ burning afterwards...

The TL5 WW1 Flammenwerfer carried enough fuel (5gallons) for 10-20 bursts (trigger squeeze problems and gunners varied). TL-6 WW2 models had some improvements, but about 20 bursts were all they were good for.

TNE-traveller figured the fuel alone burned melee 3rds, but of course flammables touched burned on (clothes, brush, flesh).

CT/T20/HG TA-1 supplementplaces the same 3rd duration, and uses 20 "Shots/Bursts" as these weapons maximums.
The TL9 Flame rifle (ala Aliens-2) holds enough napalm-fuel for 10 shots before having to replace the tank/magazine.

helpfully yours...

Pyromaniac of 1248
Liam Devlin
 
There are stats for flame weapons in the Traveller's Players Book, which has finished playtest IIRC.

The playtest files are still available to Moot subscribers...
 
Casinos are social settings, which means you need either a few people with a closed game (usually poker or blackjack) or lots of people playing open games. Unless you have hundreds of passengers, with dozens expected to be in the casino at any time, the atmosphere will be dead.

For smaller operations you'd probably go with a number of single-player electronic stations of some type: slots, poker, roulette, bingo, whatever.

I imagine a third-party certification would be necessary to gain the trust of the passengers. Maybe TAS (more for high stakes operations on megacorp liners), maybe an arm of the Imperial bureau overseeing starports for general gaming.
 
The amount of money a casino can generate would be heavily dependent on the passenger mix, though as jump space is singularly boring, any entertainment on a ship will do fairly well.

As the stateroom stats include 2 dtons of common area per stateroom, I would just assume that entertainment areas are an aspect of common areas on larger ships, and not stat them out explicitly.
 
Didn't the writeup for the 600 Tn Subsidized Liner have stats for the casino? It might also have given revenue as well...???

SIGG?????
 
'Fraid not, no casino revenues that I can find for the 600t liner. Someone else may be able to find them...

Didn't the FASA King Richard have something like this...?
 
Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Didn't the FASA King Richard have something like this...?
Click to expand...
I'll have a look - just hang on until ... September?
 
As the stateroom stats include 2 dtons of common area per stateroom, I would just assume that entertainment areas are an aspect of common areas on larger ships, and not stat them out explicitly.
Click to expand...
Normally, yes, but it's useful to know what's there for deckplans, and if they raise a revenue...
 
I'm in two mind about including things like casinos (and cinemas, theatres, swimming pools, etc.) in the staterom tonnage. Admittedly, on large liners they could be absorbed by the 2 spare dtons.

However, I prefer to use those 2 dtons for corridors galleys and passenger lounges (which includes dining rooms on passenger ships). Extra facilities which are not found on every ship I take out of cargo.
 
Originally posted by the Bromgrev:
I'm in two mind about including things like casinos (and cinemas, theatres, swimming pools, etc.) in the staterom tonnage. Admittedly, on large liners they could be absorbed by the 2 spare dtons.

However, I prefer to use those 2 dtons for corridors galleys and passenger lounges (which includes dining rooms on passenger ships). Extra facilities which are not found on every ship I take out of cargo.
Click to expand...
For me, cargo is cargo. When I've used up all the 2T slack from the existing staterooms, I add some more 'staterooms' and use 2 or 3 Tons of the space for the required facility instead of passenger berthing. I made a houserule that the 2T slack was half communal facilities and half access and incidentals, so I could use up to 3T out of 4 for the proposed facility (since you already have enough galleys and lounges for the number of passengers) leaving 1T for access to and around the facility.
Of course, adding more accommodation may reduce cargo space indirectly, so the end result might be the same.
 
Originally posted by the Bromgrev:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Didn't the FASA King Richard have something like this...?
Click to expand...
I'll have a look - just hang on until ... September?
</font>[/QUOTE]Indeed it did, and to save us all the anticipa


tion
I'll provide it sooner than September.

Firstly passage is much better than on some Free-Trader, and you pay for it.

Starting at Cr50,000 for the basic trip (all meals, standard entertainment, ship services included, plus Cr1000 in casino chips). This gets you a stateroom double the usual size. So 4tons of actual room, and of course that doubles the common spaces too.

Above that are the suites. They are double the size again and include personalized services above that of regular passage. They run Cr150,000 to Cr300,000 depending on the level of pampering desired.

It really doesn't go into specifics on the casino. The ship runs an honest game (i.e. they win more than they lose) in accordance with accepted rules (i.e. they let you think you have a chance of beating the house by catering to games with close odds).

Based on the scant info given I'd say a legit run casino would take in something like 2.5% of the cost of passage in casino revenue. To use a Free-Trader running a game in the lounge with a full load of 6 high passage gamblers the "house" will make Cr1500 (2.5% x Cr10,000 x 6 passengers) on the trip. Maybe more if the crew gets to play too (probably based on half thier salary). I'd probably then roll a check on the actual value table from CT applying the "house" gambling skill (in place of broker) vs the passengers. Or just roll a +/- 10-60% of the Cr1500 average.

The average house take for the King Richard with those numbers would look to be about half a million credits per trip if everyone plays. Of course that's only about Cr100,000 after the credits bonus every passenger gets.

As for size, well you only make money on the passengers actually in the casino, so you want it big enough to accomodate all who will play. Again you could just roll some percentage funciton for how many passengers will actually gamble.
 
If your high/mid passengers are up for a high stakes game the casino could make 1% of the stakes, which could run much higher than 60k. A steward with gambling skills would have an eye for spotting and recruiting such passengers.

"Sure, she's only J2 and you're going to such-and-such, but does that boring J4 liner have a private game?"

Getting the captain or other crew into such a game could make for interesting jump adventures...
 
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