What do you offer to an interdicted world?

[rancke]

You're a smuggler running cargoes to an interdicted TL6 world. Evading the patrols is difficult, but doable, maybe twice a year. Still, you'd like to keep the profits on each run as high as possible so as to minimize the number of runs you have to risk. You're in contact with a smuggling ring on the world that keeps the "imports" secret from the rulers. What sort of goods do you carry in order to maximize profits?

What about the goods you accept in exchange for yours? No CrImps to be had, it's strictly barter.


Hans

 

[navanod]

Drugs!

Drugs are the first thing that come to mind, esp higher tech medical drugs if they're not available on-planet. Pound for pound likely very high value, and the ruling class is probably your best customer on the black market. As for what to accept in exchange, that's going to vary with what they've got. Precious metals, gemstones, and radioactives seem likely - high value, low mass/space.

 

[aramis]

CBR munitions for the resistance. Gouging the hell out of them, too. (Chemichal-Biological-Radiological).

Small fusion plants.

Faked local currency - pay with 2-3 times the going rate, in exchange for local goods. If caught, "I had no idea it was a forgery!"

 

[Icosahedron]

Power.
The power over life and death - high tech drugs and weapons are the most likely imports - to keep the ruling faction in charge.
Radioactives are perhaps the most likely exports as they may be more readily available here than under the red tape of the Imperium at large, allowing the smuggler to peddle power outward, too.

 

[rancke]

Power.
The power over life and death - high tech drugs and weapons are the most likely imports - to keep the ruling faction in charge.

The ruling faction is unaware of the existence of the smugglers. Not directly your problem, but it does affect what goods your customers will want.

Also, this is an interdicted world. You don't want the Scouts to realize that you exist -- they might start beefing up the patrols.


Hans

 

[rancke]

Faked local currency - pay with 2-3 times the going rate, in exchange for local goods. If caught, "I had no idea it was a forgery!"

That's a lovely idea. The forgeries are perfect, only way to detect them is to find two bills with the same serial number. When detected, the local authorities will hunt for domestic counterfeiters and Scout observers won't automatically assume "offworld contamination" when hearing about it (though a particularily astute one may suspect).

Thanks, Wil. I'm definitely going to use this one. But keep the ideas coming, everyone. I'd like several rival smuggling operations to muddy the waters.


Hans

 

[shield]

mobile communicators (that operate without infrastructure) would be useful to both rebels and any govt

what about expert computer systems - a stockbroker would love them

Cheers
Richard

 

[McPerth]

I guess this will mostly depend on the reasons that make this world interdicted. Their needs won't be the same if the IISS interdicted it to allow a civilization grow than in a prision planet (and both may be TL 6 interdicted planets).

More or less the same about what should I ask them in exchange, it would deppend mostly on what do they produce and the worlds arround. If, as an example, there is near it a HiPop planet without biosfere, probably simple agricultural products may be luxury items well worth to be asked in exchange, as may local licuors, etc...

CBR munitions for the resistance. Gouging the hell out of them, too. (Chemichal-Biological-Radiological).

mobile communicators (that operate without infrastructure) would be useful to both rebels and any govt

Excuse me, did I miss the entry where Hans tells us there's an active resistence or war on that planet?

For what I've readed it may well be a very paceful people just being allowed to develop by themselves by the IISS, and, if so, your weapons or other war matherial may well not be wellcome, or even you may be denounced by the same people you want to sell it...

 

[aramis]

There is almost always a resistance group to any strong government.

The more authoritarian, the more likely the group is to be militant.


Which reminds me (by a chain of associations that break board rules, so they are remaining nondisclosed): off world literature. Just plain simple literary works in locally readable formats.

 

[rancke]

I guess this will mostly depend on the reasons that make this world interdicted. Their needs won't be the same if the IISS interdicted it to allow a civilization grow than in a prision planet (and both may be TL 6 interdicted planets).

This is the same world (in Year 1000) that I'm posting about in Year 300 in another thread. Basically it was interdicted by the Scouts to protect the TL2-3 population, but transferred from Scout control to a powerful academic institution (The Imperial Academy of the Arts and Sciences). The Academy has since become moribund and hasn't done a whole lot about this world lately, which is why it has advanced to TL6 over the last couple of centuries without being recontacted by the Scouts. I referred to Scouts above to avoid muddying the waters, but it's actually the odd Academy observer that might notice off-world influences.

More or less the same about what should I ask them in exchange, it would deppend mostly on what do they produce and the worlds arround. If, as an example, there is near it a HiPop planet without biosfere, probably simple agricultural products may be luxury items well worth to be asked in exchange, as may local licuors, etc...

I can always make up something like a powerful drug (Blood-hype!) of some kind, but I was hoping for some ideas that avoided something that clichéd.

For what I've readed it may well be a very paceful people just being allowed to develop by themselves by the IISS, and, if so, your weapons or other war matherial may well not be wellcome, or even you may be denounced by the same people you want to sell it...

Balkanized TL6 world. Politically think of it as a pseudo-Earth around 1900 or 1930. Maybe even 1950, although without the world wars.


Hans

 

[rancke]

Which reminds me (by a chain of associations that break board rules, so they are remaining nondisclosed): off world literature. Just plain simple literary works in locally readable formats.

The main problem is that if anyone in the Imperium finds out about the off-world contact, the result may be that the Scouts take over and either open the world or at the very least tighten patrols. So dead giveaways like off-world literature and gauss rifles are contra-indicated. (That's why I liked your idea of counterfeit currency so much -- I'm going to mine the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis for ideas).


Hans

 

[aramis]

If those off-world books are in literal TL2-3 books... Perhaps not literature, but, say, public health manuals?

High quality swords... said by locals to be magical... (really just really high quality TL13 metalwork...)

High yield sterile variant crops of local species. Sure, they only live one season... but they produce 4x as much as an equivalent loss to seedstock would, so charging 50% more isn't a big deal... (Requires a special enzyme to have root growth, and can't manufacture, but each seedling is imbedded with a pellet of it prior to packaging...)

 

[Enoki]

Depends on the planet. One desperately short of food... food. One in a civil war: Arms. One that is already home to criminals etc., materials and technology to further their activities. A penal colony, escape or illicit materials the inmates or guards would want.

Going out you might, depending on how much of a sleeze you are take: Slaves (workers, sex etc. if you know of a market), exotic animals, plants etc. (sellable to the rich for big dollars), some rare resource that is locally available (drugs, minerals, gems, etc.).

It really depends on the particular world you are dealing with and why it is interdicted.

 

[McPerth]

This is the same world (in Year 1000) that I'm posting about in Year 300 in another thread. Basically it was interdicted by the Scouts to protect the TL2-3 population, but transferred from Scout control to a powerful academic institution (The Imperial Academy of the Arts and Sciences). The Academy has since become moribund and hasn't done a whole lot about this world lately, which is why it has advanced to TL6 over the last couple of centuries without being recontacted by the Scouts. I referred to Scouts above to avoid muddying the waters, but it's actually the odd Academy observer that might notice off-world influences.

(...)

Balkanized TL6 world. Politically think of it as a pseudo-Earth around 1900 or 1930. Maybe even 1950, although without the world wars.


Hans

And I guess the same world you were looking for in the thread 'looking for a world'.

The fact of being the Accademy who interdicts the world can make things easy it someone finds about the experiemnts done by them and can backmail them... Perhaps the IISS would be interested on than, and this could be the final nail in Accademy's coffin...

Of course, the Accademy wouldn't be happy to be backmailed...

I'm sure you don't need more ideas

The main problem is that if anyone in the Imperium finds out about the off-world contact, the result may be that the Scouts take over and either open the world or at the very least tighten patrols. So dead giveaways like off-world literature and gauss rifles are contra-indicated. (That's why I liked your idea of counterfeit currency so much -- I'm going to mine the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis for ideas).

Hans

This may also happen if some product produced only in that world is found sold outside it 'hey, where in the hell have you found this rum? it's only produced on that interdicted planet...'

This will surely put things more difficult

 

[samuelvss]

I would say that a package of technological literature, aimed at moving the industry to the next tech level in a discrete area. Just a few copies, to a government, probably for a weapons program. These would be kept secrete byt he government, and could even be reprinted on local stock, with local ink. It would not be an obvious off-world,as it is just a 1 TL jump.

 

[Enoki]

And I guess the same world you were looking for in the thread 'looking for a world'.

The fact of being the Accademy who interdicts the world can make things easy it someone finds about the experiemnts done by them and can backmail them... Perhaps the IISS would be interested on than, and this could be the final nail in Accademy's coffin...

Of course, the Accademy wouldn't be happy to be backmailed...

I'm sure you don't need more ideas



This may also happen if some product produced only in that world is found sold outside it 'hey, where in the hell have you found this rum? it's only produced on that interdicted planet...'

This will surely put things more difficult

On that note a nastier one would be that someone at the Academy wants someone else's research ruined for various reasons (funding, revenge, personal spite, academic fraud, etc.). That might pay better than blackmail.

 

[E.D.Quibell]

That's a lovely idea. The forgeries are perfect, only way to detect them is to find two bills with the same serial number. When detected, the local authorities will hunt for domestic counterfeiters and Scout observers won't automatically assume "offworld contamination" when hearing about it (though a particularily astute one may suspect).

Thanks, Wil. I'm definitely going to use this one. But keep the ideas coming, everyone. I'd like several rival smuggling operations to muddy the waters.


Hans

You would also be able to brute force the serial numbers to find out what the sequence was, guess at how many are printed every year and print numbers above them. Much like the Germans did to Sterling during WWII. Chances are small that it would be found out.

Best regards,

Ewan

 

[rancke]

You would also be able to brute force the serial numbers to find out what the sequence was, guess at how many are printed every year and print numbers above them. Much like the Germans did to Sterling during WWII. Chances are small that it would be found out.

I would have thought it would guarantee the authorities would be able to detect a forgery the moment they laid hands on it[*]. Don't they keep lists of the numbers they use?

If you duplicate numbers, OTOH, someone will have to find two bills with identical numbers before they can be sure. (That's how they finally found proof in the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis. They took a bank vault full of money and sorted the bills by numbers. By hand!).

[*] Note that I'm not saying anyone would detect it, since you'd have to be suspicious enough to check the number. But if you did check, you'd find out right away.​

 

[E.D.Quibell]

I would say that a package of technological literature, aimed at moving the industry to the next tech level in a discrete area. Just a few copies, to a government, probably for a weapons program. These would be kept secrete byt he government, and could even be reprinted on local stock, with local ink. It would not be an obvious off-world,as it is just a 1 TL jump.

Tailoured Patents.

Take what the world does now and run 4,000 years of inovation past it. Then work out the innovation over the last 6 TLs that they have missed. Pick a likley candidate and sell them the patent taylored for their world/economy.

(If you are a trekie think of the Vulcan female from Enterprise selling velcro on Earth in the 50s to raise some money).

You give them one so they know it works and make money, then you sell them the rest (or split the profits somehow).

As long as you are just inovating in their TL it will just look like it came from within. No outside interferance.

Payment is the problem. What you want to look for is a high value "waist" product. Or rather something that they think is a wasit product. Something that they won't think about losing large quantities of.

If you take gold for example, you could put all the gold ever mined here on Eath in the last 200 years (or ever probably) into the hold of a far trader, same with platinum. Not sure about gems, but it's likley the same. Not only is there not much of it they will notice if it goes missing.

It's fare easier to invest the profits on planets via corporations, trusts, stockholdings, land etc. Picking up areas of bedrock that you could purchase for a pitance but would make excelent starport spots, and the land around them. Mineral rites for vast areas of land with stuff in it that they don't even know is valauble yet. The ocean floor. Their moon. etc etc etc. And then go lobby the Imperium/Scouts/Academicas to lift the interdiction.

Hope this helps,

Best regards,

Ewan

 

[E.D.Quibell]

I would have thought it would guarantee the authorities would be able to detect a forgery the moment they laid hands on it[*]. Don't they keep lists of the numbers they use?

If you duplicate numbers, OTOH, someone will have to find two bills with identical numbers before they can be sure. (That's how they finally found proof in the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis. They took a bank vault full of money and sorted the bills by numbers. By hand!).

[*] Note that I'm not saying anyone would detect it, since you'd have to be suspicious enough to check the number. But if you did check, you'd find out right away.​

Your right. You would want to duplicate the numbers of notes that will be produced in the future and pay for goods and services with these new notes at the time (or just before) the real ones go into circulation.

They found out about the Sterling forgery because they matched numbers. Someone in the Back of England noted all the serial numbers of all the notes payed back in and they matched. The problem was they couldn't tell which was the forgery.

Best regards,

Ewan