CT Only: Chance for Obtaining Working/High/Middle/Low Passage

[nathanbibb]

I am thinking of having my characters starting out without a ship, and I am wondering how people work out when characters can obtain working/high/middle/low passage on a ship at a given planet. I know it makes sense to just have it follow whatever story I am putting together, but I would like to find some roll characters can make to determine if they find passage to a given destination.

There is so much cool randomly generated content on worlds, commerce, etc. in CT, but I am seeing nothing about obtaining passage. Am I missing something?

 

[rancke]

I am thinking of having my characters starting out without a ship, and I am wondering how people work out when characters can obtain working/high/middle/low passage on a ship at a given planet. I know it makes sense to just have it follow whatever story I am putting together, but I would like to find some roll characters can make to determine if they find passage to a given destination.

There is so much cool randomly generated content on worlds, commerce, etc. in CT, but I am seeing nothing about obtaining passage. Am I missing something?

You're on your own, I'm afraid. First you should calculate/guesstimate/guess how often the planet is visited by regular passenger liners. Once you have that, just roll a die to determine how long until the next one will arrive (i.e. if there's a ship every 20 days, generate a number between 0 and 19 to see how many days until the next one).

On top of that, you should establish a roll for how likely it is that an unsheduled free trader will put in an appearence (e.g. 'on a 2D roll of 12 a free trader arrives. If a 12 is rolled, roll again to see if one more free trader shows up'.

On top of that, there's the question of whether there are empty staterooms on the ships. IMTU, for example, quite a few ships visit Knorbes, but most passengers are going from Regina to Efate or vice versa, so there are rarely any staterooms freed up by passengers leaving the ship at Knorbes.


Hans

 

[Selandia]

if you are looking for working passage, you should also consider the skills of your PC. Not every ship want the skill you offer. Note that skill needed are not only the navy/merchant skills, but also body guard or personnal servant/clerk/whatever, courrier or card shark a ticket. but those option are gaming option, not roll generated options.

have fun

Selandia

 

[BillDowns]

You can have a lot of fun w/o a starship. Of course the players have to get the money for paid passage which can lead to adventures. Check 76 Patrons for scenarios, or LGBT for random adventures, or make up your own.

 

[rancke]

Here's a quick and dirty way to get a die roll for whether a free trader shows up on the world you're on this week:

Assumption: The average person living at TL12 generates 0.05 dT of interstellar trade per year.

(Note that this figure can vary considerably. The referee can adjust the actual figure based on the actual world.)

Every 1000 inhabitants generate enough interstellar trade goods (and import a similar amount of trade goods) to fill one small ship per year.

If the world has no regular ship traffic, all of the trade is conveyed by free traders.

If the world does have regular ship traffic, 10% of the goods is conveyed by free traders.

Number of free trader loads per year/Roll X or less on 2D for trader to appear this week

1-2/2
3-5/3
6-9/4
10-15/5
16-22/6
23-31/7
32-40/8
41-44/9
45-48/10
49-51/11​

52 loads represent an average of 1 free trader per week, but free traders usually don't work to a shedule, so there could be none in one week and two in another. With hundreds of loads you can expect several free traders per week.

Number of free traders should probably be capped for high population worlds. I'm not sure how, though.​

Comments welcome.


Hans

 

[nathanbibb]

Interesting assumptions here. Bringing this out to create a table based on population, I came up with this table:

[TABLE][TR][TD]Pop[/TD]   [TD]FT per Yr [/TD][TD]Avg FT per week  [/TD][TD]Free Traders per week roll[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]0[/TD]  [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]-[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]1[/TD]  [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]-[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]2[/TD]  [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]-[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]3[/TD]  [TD]1[/TD]          [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]1 on 12+[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]4[/TD]  [TD]10[/TD]         [TD]0[/TD]         [TD]1 on 9+[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]5[/TD]  [TD]100[/TD]        [TD]2[/TD]        [TD]1D3 - 1[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]6[/TD]  [TD]1,000[/TD]      [TD]20[/TD]      [TD]1D * 5[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]7[/TD]  [TD]10,000[/TD]     [TD]200[/TD]     [TD]1D * 50[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]8[/TD]  [TD]100,000[/TD]    [TD]2,000[/TD]    [TD]1D * 500[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]9[/TD]  [TD]1,000,000[/TD]  [TD]20,000[/TD]  [TD]1D * 5,000[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]A[/TD]  [TD]10,000,000[/TD] [TD]200,000[/TD] [TD]1D * 50,000[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]

I think this kind of straight exponential table is probably a little misleading, though. I would imagine as population increases the formula would level out more, and there would be more intra-world trade.

I like the idea of using the 10% rule (for planets that have regular ship traffic), but only on higher population worlds, where larger commercial shipping makes more commercial sense. Maybe 20% at Population 6, 10% at Population 7, then reduce it further with larger worlds:

[TABLE][TR][TD]Pop[/TD]   [TD]FT per Yr [/TD][TD]Avg FT per wk  [/TD][TD]Pct GPT traded[/TD][TD]FT per wk roll[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]0[/TD]  [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]0[/TD]     [TD]100%[/TD]     [TD]-[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]1[/TD]  [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]0[/TD]     [TD]100%[/TD]     [TD]-[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]2[/TD]  [TD]0[/TD]          [TD]0[/TD]     [TD]100%[/TD]     [TD]-[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]3[/TD]  [TD]1[/TD]          [TD]0[/TD]     [TD]100%[/TD]     [TD]1 on 12+[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]4[/TD]  [TD]10[/TD]         [TD]0[/TD]     [TD]100%[/TD]     [TD]1 on 9+[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]5[/TD]  [TD]100[/TD]        [TD]2[/TD]     [TD]100%[/TD]     [TD]1D3 - 1[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]6[/TD]  [TD]1,000[/TD]      [TD]4[/TD]     [TD]20%[/TD]     [TD]1D[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]7[/TD]  [TD]10,000[/TD]     [TD]20[/TD]    [TD]10%[/TD]     [TD]1D * 5[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]8[/TD]  [TD]100,000[/TD]    [TD]100[/TD]   [TD]5%[/TD]     [TD]3D * 10[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]9[/TD]  [TD]1,000,000[/TD]  [TD]500[/TD]   [TD]2.5%[/TD]     [TD]3D * 50[/TD][/TR]
[TR][TD]A[/TD]  [TD]10,000,000[/TD] [TD]2,500[/TD] [TD]1.25%[/TD]     [TD]6D * 100[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]

 

[salochin999]

Personally I use the star port class to represent the amount of trade through the system

A high
B medium
C low
D very low
E minimal

with the the actual star port following from that. (Obviously this leads to some odd situations but I like those as they provide an incentive for dreaming up odd solutions.)

Then as these things in Traveller tend to follow orders of magnitude I thought something similar to that for ship arrivals might be:

A: 1-6 per day (any size)
B: 1-6 per week (any size)
C: 1-6 per month (subsidized merchants and free traders)
D: 1-6 per year (free traders)
E: 0-1 per year (free traders)

These are the ships *to* that system. A C star port system in between an A and a B might have (1-6 per day) + (1-6 per week) ships simply passing through and refueling plus (1-6 per month) destined for the system itself.

 

[rancke]

Personally I use the star port class to represent the amount of trade through the system

A high
B medium
C low
D very low
E minimal

with the the actual star port following from that. (Obviously this leads to some odd situations but I like those as they provide an incentive for dreaming up odd solutions.)

I don't think having Pixie (population 90) have the same amount of trade as Boughene (600,000) and Efate (9,000,000,000) or Whanga (20) have the same amount of trade as Yurst (8,000,000) and Rethe (26,000,000,000) really works.

GT: Far Trader changes the World Trade Number according to the starport type.


Hans

 

[flykiller]

I would like to find some roll characters can make to determine if they find passage to a given destination.

just a short suggestion. all the answers so far have concerned commercial transport, but scouts, medical missionaries, and prospectors could be passing through anywhere at any time and might be interested in making a little money on the side selling lowberth seats.

 

[salochin999]

I don't think having Pixie (population 90) have the same amount of trade as Boughene (600,000) and Efate (9,000,000,000) or Whanga (20) have the same amount of trade as Yurst (8,000,000) and Rethe (26,000,000,000) really works.

GT: Far Trader changes the World Trade Number according to the starport type.


Hans

Using the star port only does require accepting the premise of systems not operating like modern nations or even individual planets i.e. they can get most of the raw materials they need from in-system and at a pinch can grow as much food as they need in a vat so trade mostly revolves around exceptional and/or preferential items.

This leads to the conclusion trade would mostly revolve around the high tech worlds selling tech to systems around them in exchange for whatever exceptional commodities a lower tech planet has that the high tech planet might want (and occasionally also for preferred common items like meat from close by systems).

If that premise doesn't apply then I agree the population (modified by TL) should be what drives trade.

If that premise does apply IYTU then it's easy - particularly when you consider trade amount is volume x value.

For example
- 100,000 dtons of Boughene Bantha meat at 4,000 cr a dton to Efate
- 10,000 dtons of various Efate spare parts at 40,000 cr a dton to Boughene

#

Pixie is a difficult one for a number of reasons but because of the naval base I have it IMTU that Vargr ships aren't allowed in Imperial space unless they go through a customs process in designated systems of which Pixie is one so the high trade code is passing through.

The other option I considered was simply that the Pixie naval base was huge requiring massive amounts of food etc brought by contractors out of Efate.

#

Using the population + TL does make sense. I prefer using the star port alone because it creates quirky worlds.

 

[rancke]

Using the star port only does require accepting the premise of systems not operating like modern nations or even individual planets i.e. they can get most of the raw materials they need from in-system and at a pinch can grow as much food as they need in a vat so trade mostly revolves around exceptional and/or preferential items.

In other words, luxury items. That's fine by me. The trade figures implied by the trade rules are minuscule compared to the trade that takes place between countries on Earth, so I already assume that most trade is luxury items (the CT trade tables to the contrary notwithstanding). Thing is, 10 billion people will buy more luxury items than 10.

Mind you, the concept of comparative advantage implies that considerable trade in more mundane items would be more plausible, but I don't mind stretching a point there.



Hans

 

[salochin999]

In other words, luxury items. That's fine by me. The trade figures implied by the trade rules are minuscule compared to the trade that takes place between countries on Earth, so I already assume that most trade is luxury items (the CT trade tables to the contrary notwithstanding). Thing is, 10 billion people will buy more luxury items than 10.

Mind you, the concept of comparative advantage implies that considerable trade in more mundane items would be more plausible, but I don't mind stretching a point there.



Hans

Yes it's age-of-sail-ish in the sense it's the equivalent of metal pots for the equivalent of sugar, spices, coffee etc and once you make most trade luxury / exceptional / preferential it leads to interesting possibilities - instead of half a dozen systems all producing computer parts you have one system producing computer parts in exchange for Whanga Berries, Boughene Bantha meat, Alell Shimmer Diamonds or whatever.

Thing is, 10 billion people will buy more luxury items than 10.

True, partly taken into account by having the long distance alpha-alpha trade on top of the short distance alpha-hinterland trade.


Agree also on the comparative advantage - for example an abundance of a rare raw material might lead to manufacturing mid tech sub-components on a system and shipping them to the local high tech system for further assembly. I like that as a solution to high population / exotic atmosphere type worlds.