RainOfSteel
SOC-14 1K
This is one of the key issues that has always sent me into loops about Trade & Commerce in Traveller in general.
Personally, I recognized the difference between mass and volume from the first time I read through Book 2.
However, it did not clearly (IMO, anyway) state whether the cargo shipping rules were dealing in mass or volume. I sort of figured that each shipping ton was a dTon, and that the actual mass contents were a vague handwave. It also caused me to forget to convert on numerous occasions. I once went through an elaborate cost/efficiency model for shipping low-cost grains (there seeemed to be no reason to ship them, too cheap to make a profit), until some kindly soul here pointed out I'd forgotten that a dTon of grain was actually many metric tons, and I'd been blandly assuming only a single metric ton in the actualy dTon of space.
Worse, there were misleading words here and there, especially that in Bk2 High Passengers were given an alotment of exactly 1000kg (yes, kilograms, not a dTon).
Given the costs of shipping between the stars, I think handwaving some problems away based on packing materials less than ideal. When packing for interstellar shipment, in a system based on volume and not mass, it is highly advantageous for the shipper to see to it that the packaging is as efficient and dense as possible. This raises profit margins. And given that the Rule of 1 (from GT:Far Trader) flatens out any potential trade advantages from jumping between ideal trade code worlds (because everyone else will also be trying to do it because it looks advantageous), as soon as one shipper starts earning extra money for shipping denser loads, everyone else will start, too.
This leads us to ask, how much of any particular material fits into any particular and quasi-mythical "shipping-dTon"? And how much money can be made from it in order to fix a speculative trade value? (A ways back up-thread, someone mentioned the content of wheat per dTon; I actually found a website a while back that listed volumes for various grains by weight, but it also noted that this was influenced by humidity/water content; so the above values can be variable for some subtances based on factors which aren't normally considered.)
It's a question I spend time thinking about, and I haven't yet come up with any final answers.
I sort of like the TNE trade and commerce system, which seems to be a development of Bk7. However, it's entirely geared to the post-apocalyptic world after the virus strikes.
I also like the Bk2 rules, but that's mostly nostalgia, and they are hideously flawed in many ways if used for anything other than kicking off the occasional adventure (for which they are quite good, I think).
So, what we really need is some great and genius Traveller fan, with vast and lofty knowledge of the shipping industry to invent some cool mechanics for the rest of us . . . whoops, wishful thinking there . . . <bad Chris, bad!>
Personally, I recognized the difference between mass and volume from the first time I read through Book 2.
However, it did not clearly (IMO, anyway) state whether the cargo shipping rules were dealing in mass or volume. I sort of figured that each shipping ton was a dTon, and that the actual mass contents were a vague handwave. It also caused me to forget to convert on numerous occasions. I once went through an elaborate cost/efficiency model for shipping low-cost grains (there seeemed to be no reason to ship them, too cheap to make a profit), until some kindly soul here pointed out I'd forgotten that a dTon of grain was actually many metric tons, and I'd been blandly assuming only a single metric ton in the actualy dTon of space.
Worse, there were misleading words here and there, especially that in Bk2 High Passengers were given an alotment of exactly 1000kg (yes, kilograms, not a dTon).
Given the costs of shipping between the stars, I think handwaving some problems away based on packing materials less than ideal. When packing for interstellar shipment, in a system based on volume and not mass, it is highly advantageous for the shipper to see to it that the packaging is as efficient and dense as possible. This raises profit margins. And given that the Rule of 1 (from GT:Far Trader) flatens out any potential trade advantages from jumping between ideal trade code worlds (because everyone else will also be trying to do it because it looks advantageous), as soon as one shipper starts earning extra money for shipping denser loads, everyone else will start, too.
This leads us to ask, how much of any particular material fits into any particular and quasi-mythical "shipping-dTon"? And how much money can be made from it in order to fix a speculative trade value? (A ways back up-thread, someone mentioned the content of wheat per dTon; I actually found a website a while back that listed volumes for various grains by weight, but it also noted that this was influenced by humidity/water content; so the above values can be variable for some subtances based on factors which aren't normally considered.)
It's a question I spend time thinking about, and I haven't yet come up with any final answers.
I sort of like the TNE trade and commerce system, which seems to be a development of Bk7. However, it's entirely geared to the post-apocalyptic world after the virus strikes.
I also like the Bk2 rules, but that's mostly nostalgia, and they are hideously flawed in many ways if used for anything other than kicking off the occasional adventure (for which they are quite good, I think).
So, what we really need is some great and genius Traveller fan, with vast and lofty knowledge of the shipping industry to invent some cool mechanics for the rest of us . . . whoops, wishful thinking there . . . <bad Chris, bad!>
