Who needs stewards anyway?

[CosmicGamer]

Skill limits. I'm not sure where they first show up, but you're not allowed to have more skill levels than your Int+Edu. So if you have Int 2, Edu 2, you can't have more than four skill levels. 'Brick stupid' is my own technical term for someone of limited mental accomplishments . 'Combat monster' is someone who's real good in a fight.

Yes, I think limiting someone's physical skills based on his mental attributes breaks reality. Hans

To me, my perception, my reality:
Certain skills are not just physical, they include tactics, the ability to process and understand things, sizing up an opponents strengths and weaknesses, knowing when to strike and not just instinctively react. People with low int + edu could have trouble learning the more technical aspects of combat. Is the opponent faking an attack, doing a rope a dope, trying to turn me so that I'm blinded by the sun...

Not sure if this will come across right, but I'll try. Is combat physical? It certainly is a factor but two people of identical physique but one has high int + edu and the others persons are low... I believe a lot of it is knowledge and studying the beast.

What are the 'physical skills'? Is gun combat one of them? Because I believe gun combat includes the ability to modify, repair and do other things.

Is the limit of 4 skills (for our example) too low? The harder thing to imagine is no skill limit and someone with low int + edu having high skill levels in a wide variety of more physical skills.

I believe the rule was added more as a game mechanic to have some realistic limit on skills after some of the new chargens came out creating characters some thought had too many skills.

 

[rancke]

I need a clarification. In our example, is the limit 4 skills or 4 skill levels? I can easily perceive a 'combat monster' if there is no limit on skill level.

It's skill levels, just as I wrote. If he has Brawling-2 and Rifle-2, he can have no other skills at more than level 0. (Note: There's no limit to the number of skills). BTW, just occurred to me: There's nothing to prevent the character from having a level of 4 in one single science, however difficult, say, Physics-4. That's impressive for someone with Int 2 and Edu 2...



Hans

 

[rancke]

Is the limit of 4 skills (for our example) too low? The harder thing to imagine is no skill limit and someone with low int + edu having 20 or more levels in various skills.

My house rule divides skills into three categories, Mental, Physical, and what I finally decided to call Mechanical for lack of a better word -- skills that are difficult to classify as either mental or physical. The skill limit is Str+Dex for Physical skill levels, Int+Edu for Mental skill levels, and Str+Dex+Int+Edu for total of skill levels.

I believe the rule was added more as a game mechanic to have some realistic limit on skills after some of the new chargens came out creating characters some thought had too many skills.

Isn't all game rules game mechanics?


Hans

 

[CosmicGamer]

I believe the rule was added more as a game mechanic to have some realistic limit on skills after some of the new chargens came out creating characters some thought had too many skills.

Isn't all game rules game mechanics? Hans

Sure. I was trying to point out the original 'cog' I thought the mechanic was working on - the high number of skill levels.

My house rule divides skills into three categories, Mental, Physical, and what I finally decided to call Mechanical for lack of a better word -- skills that are difficult to classify as either mental or physical. The skill limit is Str+Dex for Physical skill levels, Int+Edu for Mental skill levels, and Str+Dex+Int+Edu for total of skill levels.

I try to come up with interesting interpretation and reasons for the rules to work instead of tweaking them. When I tweak things in one place, I often create a problem somewhere else. I see a problem with making what you are doing work for me. But if it works for you, go for it and have fun.

It's always good to discuss different things, who knows when you might pick up something new to use.

 

[far-trader]

It's skill levels, just as I wrote. If he has Brawling-2 and Rifle-2, he can have no other skills at more than level 0.

Depending on the rule set. I'm trying to recall the first use of skill limits by Int and Edu (post CT LBB1-3 but pre-MT iirc) and seem to remember it counting zero level skills as half a skill level for the purposes of the limit. Or that might have been a house rule I'll try to hunt up the source later.

BTW, just occurred to me: There's nothing to prevent the character from having a level of 4 in one single science, however difficult, say, Physics-4. That's impressive for someone with Int 2 and Edu 2...



Hans

Impressive sure, but not unknown. Savantism (wiki article) is widely known. Might be about as rare as someone rolling Int 2 Edu 2 and Skill-4 for a character

 

[Hal]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, and I apologize for bringing this up, but...

Lets say for the sake of argument, every single reader of this thread were required to pretend that they themselves, live in the Third Imperium Traveller Universe as depicted by the rules in CT.

Lets assume for the sake of argument, that we're all currently on a world known as World-A, a Pop 8 world, with a TL 10, and a starport type A. Lets further suppose, that the destination world you must reach, is 3 parsecs away, and that there are no regularly scheduled voyages between your world (world A) and the destination world (World D).

Now, lets flesh out the situation further. You (the reader) are a Social Status 8 Vice President in charge of material procurement for Widgets-R-Us. A contract negotiation has broken down between 3rd World Materials and Widgets-R-Us, and your CEO decides to send a man with enough authority to make binding decisions on the spot - and that someone is you. You have two months in which to arrive at your destination, and you have an operational budget chit worth 200,000 CrImps. You're told that 100,000 must be kept for reserve for when you arrive on World D, for wining and dining purposes and for any incident expenditures such as staying at a local motel/hotel. Ideally, your company would prefer that you go middle passage all the way, but realize that if they send you with only enough money to handle middle class all the way, that at any point in time, someone who purchases a high passage ticket can bump you off the passenger manifest. So, a two way journey of 3 parsecs, utilizing a jump-1 starship the entire way, will cost a total of 60,000 CrImps. 30,000 to get there, and 30,000 to get back. Company policy is such that if you do take middle passage on company pay, you get to keep half the difference between High Passage and Middle passage.

Ok. You're the High level Business Vice President. Try and figure out what you'd do if you were there given that assignment. It seems simple right? Just book passage between the two worlds. See my next post to see what is perfectly possible in a Traveller Universe, and will be the actual astrographical situation for the travel. The only thing is...

Instead of being the Captain of the tramp freighter who goes between worlds, you're going to be one of those nameless passengers who books passage aboard tramp freighters using ONLY the random rolls provided for with the rules.

So - answer the question posed in this post first, before you look at the post with additional information. My next post after this will role play how I would expect life to be in the Third Imperium on a TL 10, Pop 8 world with a Class A starport...

 

[Hal]

If I were a VP (Vice-President) who had to book passage for a world that was 3 parsecs away, providing materials necessary for production on this world, I'd realize the following would have to occur:

A) There would have to be deliveries between that world and this one. As such, it is probably a purpose built freighter that does not carry passengers of any kind. In a pinch, I'd consider taking a freighter if no other transport could be arranged.

B) As a VP, I'd also probably call personnel department and tell them I need arrangements made to travel to World D, and tell them to make the arrangements and call me back when they are made.

Now, lets shift to the poor person who now is tasked with making arrangements for me. That person would likely tap into a computer network, and either locate a service agency that handles making arrangements, or expedites the process by acting as an intermediary between the starport denizens, and the world's population. The intermediary would know which ships were in port now, which ships were scheduled for what destinations, and what the current status is of any given available stateroom. How would that interface agency know what staterooms were available, and so on?

The only answer I can arrive at, is that the interface agency (or agencies plural) would have to be told what the ship has. Since a stateroom can be either high or middle, it would seem to me, that the only real difference would be based on the following:

Ship captains upon hitting port, would announce what their ships are capable of carrying to any given destination. For instance, a ship with 6 available staterooms, 20 low berths, and 72 dtons of empty cargo area capacity, would do so within the first 24 hours of having landed in port. Chances are too, that there are actual "laws" about mis-representing whether or not a stateroom is to be classified as High or Middle passage, which would require that the captain state up front, whether or not he has a listed steward in his crew manifest. As this can change with but a blink of an eye, a ship without a steward listed would be automatically listed as unable to carry high passengers, and a ship without a listed steward as part of its crew manifest yet carries high passengers could be targeted for violation of the laws regarding misrepresenting a cabin.

So, as part of the admin duties of the captain, when he finalizes his debarkation proceedure, must have a listed Crew Manifest including any working passage crew, and must be able to prove he has a steward if he has a listed manifest carrying high passengers.

But that leaves us with the issues of how one knows when a cabin is available or unavailable. The best I can suggest, is that a central agency holds the data, and licensed travel agencies can broker sales of available stateroom and/or cargo space on a first come first serve basis. The ship's captain automatically constitutes a licensed individual able to broker space aboard the ship. Such a central authority would also require that once a "bid" is emplaced for potential sales, that the captain has to ratify the bid before it is listed within the system as being "sold" and subsequently, no longer available.

Now, the clerk from Widgets-R-Us probably has to check, or already knows, what worlds are required to be travelled to for the Vice President of Procurement to arrive at his destination. Due to the rules emplaced with BOOK 2 STARSHIPS however, no one knows at any given time, when a ship will arrive, and no ship may book passage to a destination further than one jump away. So the clerk knows that in order to secure passage for his boss, he has to no only secure passage on a ship outbound from World A, but he also has to make arrangements via some proxy organization, to secure tickets even if the boss is not physically present on the world at the time.

Example? Monday of Week 1, the boss buys a ticket for ship outbound to World B, but it won't leave until Wednesday of week 1. It won't arrive in-system of World B until Tuesday of Week 2 at the earliest, or Thursday of Week 2 at the latest. If a ship arrives at World B on Thursday of Week 1, but expects to leave Thursday of Week 2, a proxy agent could secure a ticket by buying on behalf of Widgets-R-Us on Monday of Week 2 in expectation that the passenger will arrive in-system in time to leave by Thursay.

So how might this proxy agent be made aware of this information? If mail is sent out on Monday night's outbound ship heading towards planet B - some 2 days ahead of when the Boss's (ie your) ship leaves.

Now, how might this proxy agent operate? NO REFUNDS! If you make arrangments to purchase a ticket, it is purchased whether you show up or not.

Now, do this for each and every world that you have to transit through. Toss in the fact that you may have a layover that is a week or longer as you wait patiently for a ship to arrive that will be heading out towards your final destination. The "one jump" at a time limitation for generating potential passengers and freight/cargo will run into problems however...

 

[Hal]

Now for the problem. I'm going to give you a concrete example of four worlds such that they fall along a main.

World A: Pop 8 world, TL 10, Starport A
World B: Pop 2 world, TL 5, Starport C
World C: Pop 3 world, TL 7, Starport D
World D: Pop 8 world, TL 12, Starport B


Using only the rules from Book 2: Starships, is it possible for a player character Vice President in charge of Material Procurement, to start off from World A and reach World B using the concept that the ship transporting the VP just "Happens" to be travelling from World A to World B to World C to World D? When I say "using the rules", I mean...

The Captain is using the Player character rules for finding passengers, and the VP is the "High Passenger" that the captain is trying to find.

We know of the NEED for the VP to get to World D from World A, but can the captain of the Festering Hole be able to find the VP if he goes from World A, to World B, to World C, and finally to World D using strictly the rolls from the book itself?

The answer is - No.

Why? Because once the VP makes it to world B, the roll for the PC captain to find the Vice President as a passenger requires that he roll 1d6-1d6 for a pop 2 world. There, the player character captain, must subtract a -3 because the destination world has a pop less than 4, and then must subtract an additional -2 for the tech level differences. The best roll for a 1d6 is 6. The lowest roll for the -1d6 is a 1. 6 Max high passengers, minus 1 for the second die roll, minus 3 for the low pop destination world of World C, -2 for the TL differences, results in 6-1-3-2 or 6-6, which equals 0. Poor VP can't ever, using the Tramp passenger rules, make it from World A to World C, let alone World D.

 

[far-trader]

Easy answer...

(EDIT - one of us had the TL mods backwards, could be me, I've never managed to be able to tell which way one time to the next - it changes the specifics but not the general problem)

...totally LBB2. I creatively "cheat" at your little Kobayashi Maru scenario

I go down to the starport (or have my assistant go) and locate a small ship, for sake of argument let's take the obvious, a standard Type A Free-Trader (I could do much better with a Detached Duty Type S Scout but... ).

I engage the ship in a charter contract for Cr145,800 per 2 week block/jump.

For the first jump:

World A to World B I take one stateroom for myself (as Middle Pax, and pocket Cr1000). I book the other 5 staterooms, with a little luck I get 2 High Pax and 2 Mid Pax and recoup Cr36,000. With a little luck I also fill 8 lowberths for another Cr8,000. With average luck I easily fill the cargo hold with 80tons of freight and recoup another Cr80,000. The other 2tons is the High Pax baggage. So far (1st jump) the trip has cost the company Cr21,800 and I've made Cr1000 myself

Second jump:

World B to World C I again take one stateroom for myself (as Middle Pax, and pocket another Cr1000). I book the other 5 staterooms, and again with a little luck I get 1 High Pax and 2 Mid Pax and recoup just Cr26,000. With a little luck I fill 7 lowberths for another Cr7,000. With good luck I manage to scrape up 75tons of freight and recoup another Cr75,000. Maybe I'll speculate and fill 6tons for my own profit. The other 1ton is the High Pax baggage. This leg (2nd jump) has cost the company Cr37,800 (59,600 total) and I've made Cr2000 myself or more on the speculative trade.

Last jump:

World C to World D I again take one stateroom for myself (as Middle Pax, and pocket another Cr1000). With average luck I book the other 5 staterooms as High Pax and recoup a decent Cr50,000. With the same average luck I fill 11 lowberths for another Cr11,000. I easily fill up 75tons of freight and recoup another Cr75,000. Maybe I'll speculate with the 2tons left after the 5tons for the High Pax baggage. This leg (3nd jump) has cost the company only Cr9,800 (69,400 total) and I've made Cr3000 myself or more on the speculative trade.

Yes, I'm over my budgeted allowance but that's the way it has to be if the company actually wants me to get there and back on time and there are no regular scheduled subsidized liners.* The only way to insure passage is to charter, much like some places just can't be got to on regular airlines but can be by chartering at higher cost. At least at this rate (I won't bother checking the return trip, it should be about the same, go ahead and run the numbers yourself) the original Cr200,000 might actually allow the trip, though not with as much (maybe half, say Cr50,000) wining and dining. Of course with more luck, or the company doing more speculating of it's own with the cargo space, the trip might even turn a profit instead.

* which by the way this route sounds desperately in need of

How's that work for you?

Yes, I also think the charter rules are broken as written but hey :smirk:

 

[aramis]

I go make a Patron of myself... I offer full LS+Fuel +KCr40 on completion to a Type A, A2, or S going my way, and agree to put the KCr50 in an escrow with the local high port.

I inform them that I don't even mind if they take cargo, but I need to be there in under 4 weeks, I just need to get there, and back, no questions asked, and post haste. If they have a Type S or A2, that means a leisurely 2 jumps. Type A, a bit tight.

If they really press, I imply that the boss is gonna hurt my family if I don't succeed. (If I can work out that he'll confirm this before hand, all the better, and I'll start with Fuel, LS, and KCr30

 

[the angle]

In terms of "who needs a steward?" there's a question of reputation involved, too.

If you're a world off the beaten track with no regularly scheduled service, you might see two or three commercial ships in a good week. Even though they operate on irregular schedules, odds are they'll be the same 10-20 ships over and over; most people don't travel endlessly from one end of the galaxy to another the way adventurers do. So after a few trips, a ship and its captain pick up a reputation for good or bad service, like any business. If everyone who jumps in-system on your leaky, creaky old ship complains about the powdered food and dirty sheets, potential passengers are going to delay their trips for a few days to see what other options become available. If there is a ticketing agent, the situation is worse. He has a reputation to protect, too, so he's going to warn people away from ships or stewards that have a bad record. He might even warn people away from ships that arrive without any previous record unless he makes a satisfactory inspection first -- who knows what you're getting into with those?

None of that is specifically reflected in "roll 1d-2 for high passengers," but it's the sort of detail that a GM provides, not a generic table. Just because that roll comes up 0 doesn't mean there are no passengers awaiting passage. It could just as easily mean there are half a dozen but the travel agent is waving them off your ship because he doesn't trust you or doesn't think your steward is up to snuff (or is taking kickbacks from your competitor).

Steve

 

[far-trader]

Actually 'the angle' reminds me (most eloquently I might add) above of a point I've made myself before that applies to Hal's problem of the traveller on the previous page. The rolls for passengers and freight in LBB2 is really intended for the likes of the Type A Free-Trader run by player characters. Any ship operating routinely between certain worlds, either on a scheduled route (like the Subbies) or even unscheduled will indeed earn a reputation and may even have contacts that would provide bonuses to those rolls. Subbies would likely have an office on each world that would guarantee bookings ahead of time and allow the ship to simply arrive, unload, load, and depart without losing a week in port hunting up pax and freight. Even regulars would be able to conduct their business quicker than the foreign "new to these parts" typical PC Free-Trader.

 

[Hal]

(EDIT - one of us had the TL mods backwards, could be me, I've never managed to be able to tell which way one time to the next - it changes the specifics but not the general problem)

<snipped stuff>

How's that work for you?

Yes, I also think the charter rules are broken as written but hey :smirk:

Hi far-trader,
I'm always open to creativity when it comes to solving problems. I have not forgotten to this day, a tale told to me by a teacher (I can't recall the teacher darn it!) where it was stated that scientists attempted to measure an Ape's intelligence by creating a room with only two possible ways out. In reality, the Ape was testing the human's intelligence when it ripped the door's hinges off and then exited the room - a method proving that the humans had actually given the ape not two methods of exit, but at least three.

I digress however. I've posted in the other thread, why I gave the TL modifiers the value I did in the math equation. I'll post it here as well in case someone reads this thread months from now, but doesn't realize that there is another thread discussing how to apply the TL modifiers from Book 2: Starships.

Page 11 of book 2 states under the PASSENGERS table:

"Tech Level: Add (or subtract) difference between origin and destination."

In math word problems, when it is stated to be "a difference between", the general pattern is to follow the wording such that you subtract the second quantity listed from the first quantity listed in order to get the difference between them. Since the wording above is Difference between Origin and Destination, to me, that means, that you subtract the TL of the destination from the TL of the origin.

Now, lets see how the entire formula works out (and I'm showing all work so you know how I got there, and be able to say "But Hal, this is where you goofed up". I, having lived with a sibling who was always certain they were right, and as I disagreed with them, must certainly be wrong - I am only too aware that I should accept the possibility I might be wrong!

So, that having been said...

Situation: A ship's captain is currently at a world with a pop value of 6. The world's tech level is 10. The ship's captain wishes to journey to a neighboring world whose pop value is 7 and whose tech level is TL 15. How does one determine the passenger manifest as far as potential High Passengers available?

Assuming that the roll for 3d6 = 10, and that the roll for 2d6 = 7, it would unfold like this:

At a Pop 6 or Pop 7 world, you roll 3d6 and subtract 2d6 to determine the number of possible high passengers who want to travel aboard your ship bound to its stated destination. Rolling 3d6 and subtracting 2d6 gives us a total of 3 passengers who wish to go the route stated. But, modifiers are involved, so we need to modify that initial resulting roll of 3 High Passengers.

Is the destination world one where the population value is 4 or less? No. No -3 modifier involved. Is the destination world one where the pop value is 8+? No. So no +3 modifier is involved.

Is the destination either a red zone or an amber zone? No. So no zone modifier is involved either.

Now for the TL modifier. Subtracting the destination TL value from the Origin TL value, we get 10-15, or -5.

The rules state that you add the difference between origin and destination (with the added proviso of "or subtract" without really saying why or when you do the or subtract right?)

In this case, when adding a negative to a value, you are really subtracting (hence the "or subtract") and the result of 3 plus negative 5 ends up being 3 minus 5, or -2. Since you can't have a negative 2 value, this becomes a zero.

Now, try it the other way around...

Destination TL minus the origin TL.

15-10 = 5

You can add a +5 as a modifier - no problem.

However, had the origin TL been say, 10, and the destination TL been 5, the results would have been:

5 - 10 = -5

So again, we're in the position where you have to add a negative value, which is functionally the same as "subtracting".

The key here is that in word problems, when they ask for the difference between quantity A and quantity B, the usual order of progression is to subtract the second quantity from the first.

Had book 2: starships worded it as:

Tech Level: Add (or subtract) difference between destination and origin.

Then I would have done as you do, and subtracted the origin's TL from the Destination's TL. That however, is just a habit from my earlier days of converting word problems into the actual mathematical order of operations.

Again, my showing of all work was done so that if I did make a mistake, my errors could be pointed out so I can correct them.

 

[far-trader]

Yes that would seem to be the correct math solution. It just never seemed clear that was the intent. One wonders why they bothered to make it a convoluted word problem and so curiously worded when a simple formula would have been clear beyond any doubt and have taken up less space to boot Were they writing a game rule or a math/intelligence test

If:

"Tech Level DM = (Origin TL) - (Destination TL)"

was what they intended why muddy it with:

"Tech Level: add (or subtract) difference between origin and destination."

But that's just my little blind spot in it I guess

 

[Hal]

Yes that would seem to be the correct math solution. It just never seemed clear that was the intent. One wonders why they bothered to make it a convoluted word problem and so curiously worded when a simple formula would have been clear beyond any doubt and have taken up less space to boot Were they writing a game rule or a math/intelligence test

If:

"Tech Level DM = (Origin TL) - (Destination TL)"

was what they intended why muddy it with:

"Tech Level: add (or subtract) difference between origin and destination."

But that's just my little blind spot in it I guess

I fully agree with you there. As it turns out, one of the problems many writers have, is that they KNOW what they are thinking, and they think they are writing what they are thinking, but fail to realize that what they thought they wrote isn't what we the readers think they mean. If that makes sense *snicker*

Truth is, I am highly critical of my own ability to write things simply because I know just how easy it is to screw up, and I tend to view my own writings as dull and often TOO wordy. But as with many things in game rule books - an example to illustrate technical points is often worth its weight in gold (so to speak) for the readers.

As for myself? I think I'll open up a thread discussing the effects of that little table on page 11 of Book 2, so as not to hijack (any further), this thread discussing the need for stewards, and why things are as they are. My initial desire when I responded to this thread, was to mention that while the book is geared towards the viewpoint of what a captain sees when he's looking for passengers and/or freight and/or speculative cargo on any given world, the tables do not take into consideration what it is to be a passenger in a Traveller Universe. The closest I've ever seen to the viewpoint of simulating arrivals and departures of ships on a given WORLD from the passenger and/or planetbound speculator, is the article in JTAS on speculating without a Starship. More on this in the other thread.

 

[Maccat]

Freeloader:
"shipless merchant" with steward skill (well, say carousing, it's more fun!), paying medium passage for a stewardless ship, -8k, 100kg cargo. Buys an additional 8 medium passage on this hunkajunk -64k, 800kg cargo. Rousts up 8 high passengers... +80k, 8t cargo (or does that come free?!).

net 8k, per jump. (or say need the 7.1t cargo, then net 900Cr/jump)
maybe save some money, charge the crew 2k for high passenger service for the jump, save the mid passage purchase? (hey sailor, bored from these long jump travels, have I got a deal for you!) Assume no cargo costs, and all he needs is 4 high passengers to get a free ride!

The idea here being that stewards, regardless of requirements for them, DO provide a service, worth 2k per person per jump. The situation facing a captain would be would he rather pay the 3k salary and 2k life support to get 11k extra, or just lose 2k LS by doing a working passage and net 14k, or not even bother and let the freeloader get 8k.

A different approach is someone with broker skills, getting their own speculative cargoes, paying standard freight, and then paying for passage from the proceeds. There was some mention of that in subsidized merchants as a means for captains to keep more proceeds under the subsidized merchant terms (traders and gunboats as I recall).

 

[far-trader]

...Rousts up 8 high passengers... +80k, 8t cargo (or does that come free?!).

Nope, your "Freeloader" would have to book the 8t of freight at Cr1000 per.

Interesting idea though

Of course you're presuming the Captain of the ship doesn't get any High Pax on his own with his own Steward. Seems like a low chance given the revenue potential if the High Pax are available. After all, he only needs Steward-0. Just about anybody can do that

...A different approach is someone with broker skills, getting their own speculative cargoes, paying standard freight, and then paying for passage from the proceeds. There was some mention of that in subsidized merchants as a means for captains to keep more proceeds under the subsidized merchant terms (traders and gunboats as I recall).

Ugh. Travelling Brokers. Don't get me started :smirk:

But by all means, it can be a fun idea for a PC. Run with it if it works for you

 

[samuelvss]

Steward-bots is all you need.

If anything the role of starship steward/stewardess is perfectly suited for limited-AI robots. Get rid of the fleshy (overpaid) humanoid workers. Give the job to the bots! Save money for the megacorporation. More profits for the CEO!

Well, it depends what you want from your "steward." Under LBB8 IIRC (ducks to avoid collective disdain of CotI), building a robo-engineer or robo-medic is much cheaper than a robo-steward; the requirements to affect emotional interaction is a CPU hog. I assume custodial bots, who may even nuke your T-rat and fetch so you don't have to get out of your bunk, are a standard on a Type A; they will throw your laundry in the small fresher combo washer/dryer, make your bunk, and clean up messes. They do what humans are not needed for, and are too expensive to do. They will not attend to passengers like a steward: a robot can bring a drink, but it takes a bar tender to laugh convincingly at your jokes. I would assume that custodial bots may be the norm to make Middle passage both bearable for passengers, and minimally distacting for the crew.

True HP would require some sophant, or a pricey approximation, to scrape and quiver for His Grace, when his Grace explodes about the Earl Grey tasting like "it came from a machine," to keep His Grace's nephew occupied enough to avoid irritating His Grace or being spaced by the gunner from turret 2.

As MAJ Matsuda, now in a fairly warm part of Afghanistan, said of his civilian employ, "People want I guy in a tie to yell at when they're pissed off. I'm that guy, and so that's why I wear a tie to work." Now, we've all screamed at machines: it's not satisfying. We've also been paid automatic compliments by machines; likewise, unsatisfying. It takes a sophant to fake sincerity to the point where, though unconvinced, the customer at least appreciates the deference and effort.

 

[Whipsnade]

Ugh. Travelling Brokers. Don't get me started.

Dan,

Tell me about it.

I think our group had LBB:7 Merchant Prince for about 4.07 nanoseconds when a player came up with that particular dodge. It didn't take me long to nip that in the bud.

A broker's job implies significant and varied local contacts. While a trader can determine the possibility of demand for certain goods, a broker is the fellow who knows where to sell those goods and to whom. A trader has the idea about the market while a broker has the details about the market.

All this means a broker operates in a limited region, a single system or maybe a small cluster, nothing more.

No travelling brokers then.


Regards,
Bill

 

[Maccat]

To make your J2 Trader be able to run profitably
Can 'bots add to your high passengers like a 'regular' steward can I wonder?

LBB2 J2 trader LINK
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?p=318132#post318132