What do you offer to an interdicted world?
- Thread starter rancke
- Start date
Seriously?
Just in this thread suggestions have included precious metals, gemstones, radioactives, luxury argicultural products, local liquors, jewelry, and local drugs.
What's in it for a free trader who buys a speculative cargo? Goods that can be sold at a profit, that's what. Except in the case of our smuggler, the base value of the cargo is going to be a lot higher than the average speculative cargo.
I'm not sure about jewelry. Generic jewelry would be OK, but not ethnic. The smart smuggler will eschew anything that isn't anonymous (but if offered a crate of the local equivalent of Fabergé Eggs he might be tempted...)
Hans
It's quite a long thread now so apologies if this has been mentioned before:
..(ignoring the immediate problem of how to get paid for long-term profit)..
Land every few months and pick up children. Ship them to a high-tech world where they can get a decent education, bring some of them back when they graduate, the others join the Imperial economy.
It worked for Japan - not against a blockade admittedly. Google has failed me, but iirc there was a generation of "bright boys and machine girls" who toured Europe, visiting steelworks, factories, shipyards, places such as Krupp, etc.
Hopefully, this would raise the TL of the interdicted world while building up an ex-pat community.
And handling a bunch of intelligent children would be a fun challenge for the PCs. With whole world to choose from, the kids they do send will be very bright and resourceful - and might have their own plans.
..(ignoring the immediate problem of how to get paid for long-term profit)..
Land every few months and pick up children. Ship them to a high-tech world where they can get a decent education, bring some of them back when they graduate, the others join the Imperial economy.
It worked for Japan - not against a blockade admittedly. Google has failed me, but iirc there was a generation of "bright boys and machine girls" who toured Europe, visiting steelworks, factories, shipyards, places such as Krupp, etc.
Hopefully, this would raise the TL of the interdicted world while building up an ex-pat community.
And handling a bunch of intelligent children would be a fun challenge for the PCs. With whole world to choose from, the kids they do send will be very bright and resourceful - and might have their own plans.
So they are just dying for some fruit...literally. And a TL6 world that can make nuclear ICBM's but doesn't know what cash is...
sounds uh yeah.
We're not talking here about knowing what cash is, but about giving credit to some specific cash. For each side, the money may be as valuable as wuld be to you or me money script from the Spanish Republic or the Confederation.
They would know what it's value is.
What is even more valuable to them would be the ship, anyway they could get it down there then take it. But if they are TL6, which is nuclear missile tech level, the blockading ships can be nibbled to death by hamsters if the interdiction force doesn't take action, otherwise they have to go in, if nothing else, to bomb them, or stand way off.
Hear is a novel idea. Nothing, initially. Do a survey of the system Grand Survey stile. Then sell the report to a mega-corp or other major merchant player. If they like it, the PCs can be the 1st contact unit while the big wigs proceed to "buy" the system.
The survey should take several weeks if not a couple of months setting up a base, dodging patrols and sneaking in and out of the system for supplies. 1st contact trade might have the same TL of stuff but built cheaper and better quality as an enticement to open trade.
Still, no guarantee to buy :devil:
The survey should take several weeks if not a couple of months setting up a base, dodging patrols and sneaking in and out of the system for supplies. 1st contact trade might have the same TL of stuff but built cheaper and better quality as an enticement to open trade.
Still, no guarantee to buy :devil:
You know what cash is, right? If someone came up to you and offered you 10,000 Lubans in crisp Star Empire of Orion bills for your computer, would you accept the offer? After all, as he can tell you, it's a pretty good offer. For 10,000 Lubans you can buy a better replacement and still have cash left over. All you have to do is to get your Lubans exchanged for local cash, or visit the nearest Orion Armed Forces Surplus Outlet.
Hans
Sure, if somebody from outer space landed and wanted my computer, I'd take the money and I could sell them on ebay for 5 bucks a piece. That would not be the issue though, the issue would be the government taking me and my space money away.
I shall refrain from arguing any more. What would be the point? Feel free to imagine you have said something valid.[*]
Hans
[*] Actually, the ebay thing was pretty clever. Completely missing the point, but amusing.
If I were that guys from outer space, you'd have gotten lubans worth close to what I'd said. I'd then sell the computer to one of my cronies who would then learn the protocols, and probably come back to collapse your economy with rapid virii that delete all the tenths in online transactions, setting them to 8, submitted via various links through unsecured wi-fi hubs. 'Cause I know people who are like that, and, given lower tech hardware would gleefully tear it apart in order to prep for the inevitable invasion.
If it were my acquaintance known as Twisted, they be photocopies... because he's that kind of guy... and he'd laugh, sell your computer to some other local for a crate of local produce and fabrics, and have repeated that until he'd filled his holds or had just the expected shelf life plus a week left on the produce.
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Not really the point, Wil. The computer was simply the example of something valuable that could be sold that came to me first when I was making up the supposition.
The point I was trying to make was that lubans would be worthless to someone living on Earth today, no matter what they were worth elsewhere. You can't spend them at Home Depot, you can't exchange them in the bank, and you can't reach any place where they're accepted as cash.
In view of Dragoner's clever eBay suggestion, I'm going to amend that to lubans being worthless unless they can be disposed of for profit in some way other than as cash. Since the claim I was refuting was that Imperial credits would be valuable as cash, their potential value as curiosities are besides the point.
Hans
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Given that a key underlying assumption of the thread was that Imperial currency was not available to the locals, and that - despite this - just about everything that can be said about the currency issue has been said, might I respectfully point out -again - that the thread topic was finding things to trade in when, as declared in the initial post, there are "No CrImps to be had, it's strictly barter," and then suggest - ever-so-politely - that perhaps this endless discussion of Imperial credits might represent ever-so-slight a drift off-topic? Might I then suggest, without meaning to cause the slightest offense, that those obsessed with the notion of - oops, I mean, skillfully presenting arguments in favor of - having the natives flout the thread's declared limitations and somehow obtain and trade in masses of artfully decorated paper/plastic/whatever from places light-years away on the promise of total strangers that the paper/plastic/whatever had value, should perhaps start their own thread where they can freely debate without further aggravating the original poster?
As the original poster, I do think that if there had been some irrefutable logical argument for the original claim that there would be no CrImps available being impossible, it would be perfectly legitimate to point that out. However, as no such logical argument exists (or at least it is impossible to convince the majority of the contributors to this thread that it exists), I agree that it would be nice to get back to the original question.
Hans
You can't spend illegal money either, you would still get caught. But organized crime will still take cash and then sit on it.
Better yet shoot or capture the crew and take the ship, that's what idiots get for landing on the planet. Especially if they try to rip off the locals, which actually does happen enough, people think they are smart and then get shot in the face for it.
They wouldn't though, not for a case of fruit, not running a 'shoot on sight' blockade, nobody would unless it was for a big payoff, such as pay off the ship and never have to work again. Nothing on the world would be that valuable, Faberge Eggs are valuable because they are Faberge Eggs, their intrinsic value would be low.
Then they get stiches from my AK and now I got a ship.
There would be no barter, it is complete fantasy to think it.
I know from experience that we're not going to convince you of anything[*] and I can tell you that you're not going to convince the rest of us of this one. So what say we agree to disagree and you either embrace the fantasy or leave the rest of us in peace to embrace it?
[*] Though I find it very hard to refrain from trying.
Hans
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E.D.Quibell
SOC-13
snip good stuff about organised crime
Good point. Well made.
The organised crime network, if it deals in some sort of drugs, is going to have a distribution network as well to move the snuggled goods. The only issue with that is that the smuggled goods are going to fall into the governmet's hands when the organised crime distribution chain get's turned over. Which would expose the reality of off world contact.
So you want to smuggle smothing that is only of use to high level crime bosses, that is only going to be used by them, and you want to get paid in high value non idnetifiable gems or precoius metals, or some material that the indiginous population thinks is a waist product or is just lying around but is actually worth a fortune in the Imperium, rare eath elements? Lathium?
The smuggeler will probably need to disguise the fact that they are from off world in some way, and never expose their ship to the crime bosses otherwise they will lose it.
So what would be worth smuggeling to a crime boss that would be worth the trouble of running an indiction?
Best regards,
Ewan
Good point. Well made.
The organised crime network, if it deals in some sort of drugs, is going to have a distribution network as well to move the snuggled goods. The only issue with that is that the smuggled goods are going to fall into the governmet's hands when the organised crime distribution chain get's turned over. Which would expose the reality of off world contact.
So you want to smuggle smothing that is only of use to high level crime bosses, that is only going to be used by them, and you want to get paid in high value non idnetifiable gems or precoius metals, or some material that the indiginous population thinks is a waist product or is just lying around but is actually worth a fortune in the Imperium, rare eath elements? Lathium?
The smuggeler will probably need to disguise the fact that they are from off world in some way, and never expose their ship to the crime bosses otherwise they will lose it.
So what would be worth smuggeling to a crime boss that would be worth the trouble of running an indiction?
Best regards,
Ewan
