[Spinward Marches Again!] Suggest me ANOTHER subsector!

[RainOfSteel]

Low pop isn't a bad thing. In fact, in certain ways, it's better, as they can have more of an effect on things in lower pop places. The trade issue isn't a big on either, as I want them to take on nasty jobs for "gas money", so to speak. So that works out just fine.

Just watch out for frustration levels from players expecting to do actual trading. Being thwarted at every turn can produce issues. You'll have to let them do it sometimes.

You can, of course, ignore the actual trade systems and just arbitrarily determine cargoes available for independent traders whenever you feel you need it, but players have a strong ability to determine GM fiat, and tend to react better, IMO, when the GM is being "fair" by following some established rules, i.e. using one of the available trade systems.

Book 2 is by far the easiest to use. It is also subject to horrible abuse. You may want to official house rule some restrictions on its use; otherwise players may angle to produce a Broker-4 character which will, over the long run, produce oodles of money for the players.

Book 7 is more complicated, but "better" from a technical point of view in that it is not subject to the same abuses as Book 2 (namely, Broker driven manipulation of prices for speculative trade; if the player has it, there is no commission to pay to a "third party").

GURPS: Far Trader is excellent, but written entirely in the GURPS system and is not, IMO, easy to translate (because GURPS doesn't use the UWP at all, doesn't use the metric system, and credits in-game are not on the same "scale" as they are in other Traveller systems).

T20 is a balance between Book 2 and Book 7. If I had to go with a system, I would use it. More character skills have an effect on this system than in others. It is easier to convert it back to CT/MT style rules because only the skill thresholds for die roll modifiers and targets need to be changed from D20 scale to 2D6 scale. You still need d00 for the speculative cargo table. I suppose d00 sacrilege may be committed during an otherwise 2D6 game.

I haven't dug into MT, TNE, or T4 products to review their trade systems (I just realized that I specifically don't even know if they had trade systems, how embarrassing).

 

[aramis]

Just watch out for frustration levels from players expecting to do actual trading. Being thwarted at every turn can produce issues. You'll have to let them do it sometimes.

You can, of course, ignore the actual trade systems and just arbitrarily determine cargoes available for independent traders whenever you feel you need it, but players have a strong ability to determine GM fiat, and tend to react better, IMO, when the GM is being "fair" by following some established rules, i.e. using one of the available trade systems.

Book 2 is by far the easiest to use. It is also subject to horrible abuse. You may want to official house rule some restrictions on its use; otherwise players may angle to produce a Broker-4 character which will, over the long run, produce oodles of money for the players.

Book 7 is more complicated, but "better" from a technical point of view in that it is not subject to the same abuses as Book 2 (namely, Broker driven manipulation of prices for speculative trade; if the player has it, there is no commission to pay to a "third party").

Not true...

Player-characters may use their own broker skill (if they have it) to assist in the sale of goods. If they do, they receive the standard brokerage fee for doing so, but they are assumed to spend half of that fee in arranging the sale. Maximum Broker skill usable is Broker-4.
(Bk 7, p. 42. Emphasis mine)​

GURPS: Far Trader is excellent, but written entirely in the GURPS system and is not, IMO, easy to translate (because GURPS doesn't use the UWP at all, doesn't use the metric system, and credits in-game are not on the same "scale" as they are in other Traveller systems).

T20 is a balance between Book 2 and Book 7. If I had to go with a system, I would use it. More character skills have an effect on this system than in others. It is easier to convert it back to CT/MT style rules because only the skill thresholds for die roll modifiers and targets need to be changed from D20 scale to 2D6 scale. You still need d00 for the speculative cargo table. I suppose d00 sacrilege may be committed during an otherwise 2D6 game.

I haven't dug into MT, TNE, or T4 products to review their trade systems (I just realized that I specifically don't even know if they had trade systems, how embarrassing).

MT is Bk7, as are TNE and T4.

MGT is its own system for T&C, closer to Bk2 than B7

 

[RainOfSteel]

Not true...

Player-characters may use their own broker skill (if they have it) to assist in the sale of goods. If they do, they receive the standard brokerage fee for doing so, but they are assumed to spend half of that fee in arranging the sale. Maximum Broker skill usable is Broker-4.​

I think you may have interpreted my statement as meaning that Broker wasn't involved in Book 7; I didn't mean that.

 

[aramis]

I think you may have interpreted my statement as meaning that Broker wasn't involved in Book 7; I didn't mean that.

No, it' was just the line:

Book 7 is more complicated, but "better" from a technical point of view in that it is not subject to the same abuses as Book 2 (namely, Broker driven manipulation of prices for speculative trade; if the player has it, there is no commission to pay to a "third party").

(Emphasis mine)

to which I have quoth the relevant section of Bk7, which states a player broker has expenses of half the costs of hiring a broker.

(A not unrealistic 100% markup over expenses is thus established as normative - which matches bk2-77 op costs for pure merchant ships.)

 

[77topaz]

In the Marches: District 268.

The Domain of Gateway.

Far Frontiers.

The Rimward States (rimward of Solomani Confederation).

Zhodani Consulate coreward edge & Core Route.

(There's very little canon information on those last two regions - all the more freedom for the referee.)