I recently had a character come up with a way to make money off of it. When I created several outlying colony worlds for a game I am running several of them were struggling colonies where fresh fruit and veggies were in high demand due to the planets not supporting terrestrial plants. Both worlds were life supporting worlds which had been sterilized in some great catastrophe.
The crew of the ship were happy to make repeated runs exploiting the shortage, and the lack of regularly scheduled service to the planets. Since they were small colonies, and had very low populations the big shipping companies would not schedule large scale shipments to the two worlds. I had tweaked the situation to induce the group to venture to this area and discover a breadcrumb trail I had laid out.
Well, one of my players had some Planetology, and biology, skills and discovered that the soil was devoid of the organic compounds, enzymes, and microbes needed for healthy plant growth due to massive Gamma radiation exposure at some point. While his merchant buddies were off doing the grocery run, he sat down and did a thorough study of the world.
He then, with a grin asked, the captain to skip a grocery run. Instead he talked them into loading the hold with shipping containers filled with top soil from the garden world they were picking up veggies on. When it arrived he rounded up a group of farmers and set them to work cultivating..Mud. He mixed the top soil with local soil, and let it cook feeding in various other ingredients.
When his recipe was finished he then presented the locals with a proposition. He would give them all the dirt they needed, bring in farmers, and seed, if he got a thin slice off of the local sales. He also pointed out that since the world was devoid of any local pests, or diseases they could probably start supplying the other worlds with fresh veggies in a few years.
Between the scientist, and the merchant, the group managed to set up a thriving business in supplying the locals with soil, compost, and other materials to give their fledgling farms a boost. Of course I made sure all sorts of problems cropped up to keep them hopping while they were ignoring my breadcrumbs and the epic adventure I had planned...oh well they had fun.
The crew of the ship were happy to make repeated runs exploiting the shortage, and the lack of regularly scheduled service to the planets. Since they were small colonies, and had very low populations the big shipping companies would not schedule large scale shipments to the two worlds. I had tweaked the situation to induce the group to venture to this area and discover a breadcrumb trail I had laid out.
Well, one of my players had some Planetology, and biology, skills and discovered that the soil was devoid of the organic compounds, enzymes, and microbes needed for healthy plant growth due to massive Gamma radiation exposure at some point. While his merchant buddies were off doing the grocery run, he sat down and did a thorough study of the world.
He then, with a grin asked, the captain to skip a grocery run. Instead he talked them into loading the hold with shipping containers filled with top soil from the garden world they were picking up veggies on. When it arrived he rounded up a group of farmers and set them to work cultivating..Mud. He mixed the top soil with local soil, and let it cook feeding in various other ingredients.
When his recipe was finished he then presented the locals with a proposition. He would give them all the dirt they needed, bring in farmers, and seed, if he got a thin slice off of the local sales. He also pointed out that since the world was devoid of any local pests, or diseases they could probably start supplying the other worlds with fresh veggies in a few years.
Between the scientist, and the merchant, the group managed to set up a thriving business in supplying the locals with soil, compost, and other materials to give their fledgling farms a boost. Of course I made sure all sorts of problems cropped up to keep them hopping while they were ignoring my breadcrumbs and the epic adventure I had planned...oh well they had fun.
