Book 7: Broker and Trader skills

[Marchand]

I've never really liked Broker and Trader. The sharp cut-off in usefulness between Trader-2 and Trader-3 grates.

If I think about what real-world shipping brokers do, they deal in shipping capacity, acting as middlemen between the shipping firms and the companies that want to move stuff.

Instead of having freight be a straight Cr1000/ton, instead I'd port in the MGT Merchant Prince system where the PC bids to ship a lot. Rate starts at Cr500 and you roll Broker to raise it. Higher-traffic systems have more freight to shift - you probably won't lift with an empty hold - but the target number to raise the rate is harder (because there's more competition).

Trader would then apply to speculative trade, acting as a mod on the actual value table as normal.

 

[Supplement Four]

Yeah, if you're making deals at the starport, putting lots together, working with Free Trader Captains and the red tape of MegaCorps, then you are using the Broker skill.

If you're on a backwards world haggling with the local Mayor about his export of a load of ju-ju beads, then you are using Trader.

Like the Spot and Listen skills in d20 games, you've got two different skills that are related in their function. The Pathfinder version of the d20 rules put those two skills together and called the new one Perception. Move Silently and Hide were combined to make the Stealth skill.

There is precedent in Classic Traveller, too. There's the AutoPistol skill. Then, there's the Pistol skill that includes pistol type skills sans snubs. And, then there's the Handgun skill, which includes all pistol type skills plus snubs.

Plus, the Traveller book has notes on Refs making their own skills.

If the two skills bother you, then why not combine them with a combination skill? Call it the Commerce skill. And, like Combat Rifleman and ACR, the two skills can be used interchangeably.

That way, a character with Trader uses it for its function, and a character with Broker uses it for its function. But, a character with Commerce (or Dealer skill? or Agent skill?) can use the single skill for either function.

The other way to go about it would be akin to the Pilot and Ship's Boat skills. If a character has the Pilot skill, then that skill will serve as Ship's Boat at one level lower. So, you could say that a character with Commerce skill and use the skill in place of Broker or Trader at one level lower (but then, what is Commerce at its full level used for? I like my first idea better.)

 

[Jame]

If the two skills bother you, then why not combine them with a combination skill? Call it the Commerce skill. And, like Combat Rifleman and ACR, the two skills can be used interchangeably.

That way, a character with Trader uses it for its function, and a character with Broker uses it for its function. But, a character with Commerce (or Dealer skill? or Agent skill?) can use the single skill for either function.

I believe that this is what MGT does with the Broker skill - uses one for both. I myself like it this way, though your skill-uses is well done.

 

[Marchand]

Having the 2 skills doesn't bother me at all - it helps make Merchant characters more differentiated and interesting - I just don't like the implementation in Bk7.