Glen Allen Mcinnes
SOC-12
in earlier editions of trav their was no real reason for a player merchant to run a J2 or higher ship it was just not economical unless you where operating in a "scatters" environment and needed J2 capability just to get any where, infact supplement 7 "traders & gunboats" pointed out that the owner of a A2 far trader with a morgage was going backwards fast, without a healthy amount of speculative trade going on.
in-fact their where no economically viable J2+ merchant vessels ,apart from the type M subsided liner a ship too large for a party of 3-5 to handle on their own, up until the release of the Alien Modules?
This had bothered me and some others I have talked to at cons and in stores, how do we get workable J2+ ships for our merchant and freebooter types? The awencers that most communally came up where
1. make the characters fat with cash then let them stumble across a far trader going cheap (just a little Deis Ex-Machina/ Monty Hall for my tastes)
2. just declare that the Impirum has the same designs as the XT's (or something functionally equleavant) and leave it at that (a popular option that to me seamed to much of an easy way out)
3. Get together with some gear-heads and finance boffins (Boffin, English, Australian slang, someone who is expert and or talented in a field) and work up a few ships that suit the economic and gaming needs (the ideal choice if you have access to the talent pool and time)
4. Play with the economics (the scariest and most dangerous)
5. Mix and march the above.
I would like to look at option 4. as it looks like the one with the biggest FUBAR factor if done wrong. the simplest way is to change the prices that a merchant can charge from a per jump rate (as in the traveller rules) to a per parsec rate, but doing so would change the trade balance of the game re-drawing trade and communications routs as well as resource and finished goods markets also the demand for ships like the type A would drastically change, this would change the feel of the game to much.
So if a direct rate change dose not work? Try base price plus Addisonal charge per extra parsec, but at what rate? If we try 50% per Addisonal parsec the A2 brakes even and has a tad to spare but larger ships with longer jump legs gain to much of an cost to income advantage, and it brakes the image of the far trader doing charter work and speculative trade to brake even, also this has nilly but not quite the same effect as going for a per parsec rate. Going for a lesser percentage say 25% per Addison parsec keeps the market from going J2+ mad and gives the J2+ operators around the same margins as their J1 counterparts (actually a bit less) now loosen the price fixing regs to say that “you may charge from the listed standard rates (as you would find under ship revenues) up to an Addisonal charge of 25% per Addisonal parsec” and market forces will push the priced down to base price +10% in most market places, You could even allow players to negotiate ticket and freight prices using broker (or equleivant skills).
Thoughts and opinions, also any suggestions welcomed.
in-fact their where no economically viable J2+ merchant vessels ,apart from the type M subsided liner a ship too large for a party of 3-5 to handle on their own, up until the release of the Alien Modules?
This had bothered me and some others I have talked to at cons and in stores, how do we get workable J2+ ships for our merchant and freebooter types? The awencers that most communally came up where
1. make the characters fat with cash then let them stumble across a far trader going cheap (just a little Deis Ex-Machina/ Monty Hall for my tastes)
2. just declare that the Impirum has the same designs as the XT's (or something functionally equleavant) and leave it at that (a popular option that to me seamed to much of an easy way out)
3. Get together with some gear-heads and finance boffins (Boffin, English, Australian slang, someone who is expert and or talented in a field) and work up a few ships that suit the economic and gaming needs (the ideal choice if you have access to the talent pool and time)
4. Play with the economics (the scariest and most dangerous)
5. Mix and march the above.
I would like to look at option 4. as it looks like the one with the biggest FUBAR factor if done wrong. the simplest way is to change the prices that a merchant can charge from a per jump rate (as in the traveller rules) to a per parsec rate, but doing so would change the trade balance of the game re-drawing trade and communications routs as well as resource and finished goods markets also the demand for ships like the type A would drastically change, this would change the feel of the game to much.
So if a direct rate change dose not work? Try base price plus Addisonal charge per extra parsec, but at what rate? If we try 50% per Addisonal parsec the A2 brakes even and has a tad to spare but larger ships with longer jump legs gain to much of an cost to income advantage, and it brakes the image of the far trader doing charter work and speculative trade to brake even, also this has nilly but not quite the same effect as going for a per parsec rate. Going for a lesser percentage say 25% per Addison parsec keeps the market from going J2+ mad and gives the J2+ operators around the same margins as their J1 counterparts (actually a bit less) now loosen the price fixing regs to say that “you may charge from the listed standard rates (as you would find under ship revenues) up to an Addisonal charge of 25% per Addisonal parsec” and market forces will push the priced down to base price +10% in most market places, You could even allow players to negotiate ticket and freight prices using broker (or equleivant skills).
Thoughts and opinions, also any suggestions welcomed.
