Free Traders - Tramp Steamers or Semi-Trucks

[Rupert]

The repurposing of the CT Striker currency effects, equipment acquisition and maintenance especially at higher techs to affect trade and even items players may buy paints an interesting and ugly picture.

It was clearly written so merc forces had to use a high/low mix, locally supportable equipment coupled with a few judicious higher tech force multipliers, and big consequences if they are destroyed or fail maintenance.

It's also different from the currency conversion table in TCS. Striker's version is much more brutal to low TL worlds and doesn't go down as far. It's tricky to say which should be used - they were published in the same year (1981), and neither apply directly to trade, dealing with exchange rates and the costs of imported goods from the perspective of the end user.

TNE used the exchange rate table from TCS, suggesting that it's the one that GDW thought had the best general applicability (in 1993, at least), though I suspect that the steeper shift of value with TL of the Striker table is probably more reasonable for many goods (especially manufactured ones).

 

[atpollard]

IDK that I'd say 200 tons optimizes the bridge or jump drives.
It's definitely better than a 100 ton hull, but there's still room for improvement.
I think you need to get to 400 or 600 before you are starting to become optimized

Since this is not labelled "CT Only", 200 dTons is the threshold for allowing the 10dTon bridge in several rules versions, is it not? THAT would make a huge difference between a 200 dT ship with a 10 dT bridge and a 400 dT ship with a 20 dT bridge when both have the same percentage dedicated to Fuel and the 400 dTon ship will quickly start adding crew.

 

[TamsinP]

A bit of a clean-up and a paint job, and enough of a load to put her back in trim and she'd look fine. Still fairly obviously quite small, though.

I suspect the Pan Coral would need a lot more than a clean-up and paint job, given her age and state of rusting (even in photos from 2012 when she was still active); that suggests a poor overall level of maintenance.

As for the size, Assuming that the 2600 GT figure is correct*, she is small for a current world tanker but, as I noted in my earlier post in this thread, she is larger than the 600 dTon subsidised liner. The dimensions listed for her are 185m length, 73m beam (I suspect that is an error and should be feet - that would be 22.25m beam, much more reasonable) and an (empty) draft of 2.5m. The maximum draft looks to be about 5m, with a freeboard of about 1m. The forecastle and after-deck look to be about 3m more than the freeboard. Plus the accommodation block (looks to be about 22.25m x 22.5m x 8-9m and includes the funnel).


* that was an estimated GT on a photo site (I couldn't find a non-paywalled listing for her specs) - I suspect it is quite a bit higher in reality. As a rough estimate of her overall volume (length x beam x (max draft + freeboard), we get 24697.5 m^3 which is 7109 GT or 1764.1 dTons. It's probably a little larger than that estimate.

 

[kilemall]

It's also different from the currency conversion table in TCS. Striker's version is much more brutal to low TL worlds and doesn't go down as far. It's tricky to say which should be used - they were published in the same year (1981), and neither apply directly to trade, dealing with exchange rates and the costs of imported goods from the perspective of the end user.

TNE used the exchange rate table from TCS, suggesting that it's the one that GDW thought had the best general applicability (in 1993, at least), though I suspect that the steeper shift of value with TL of the Striker table is probably more reasonable for many goods (especially manufactured ones).

I went with Striker as it was geared towards equipment acquisition and maintenance as opposed to TCS which was more about general world economic production and taxation.

 

[Rupert]

I suspect the Pan Coral would need a lot more than a clean-up and paint job, given her age and state of rusting (even in photos from 2012 when she was still active); that suggests a poor overall level of maintenance.

I'm sure you're right. I did say she'd look fine. It's amazing how a bit of paint improves a ship's appearance, and how quickly even a ship in great condition's appearance can decline with a bit of sea time and some rust.

 

[aramis]

I was just wondering, the "since the beginning of time" real-world analog for a Free Trader has been the Tramp Steamer but I wonder if the better analog is actually that of a Semi-Truck? Thoughts?

I did some research on 19th C shipping manifests at NYNY and Atlanta GA... until the telegraph crossed the atlantic, most bulk items shipped from the UK are speculative. Many are sold on the docs ("Sold FOB") and often listed as owned by the shipping company.

below 4 weeks comm round trip, but above 1 week round trip, mixed speculation and freight.
Above 6 weeks, almost pure speculation save for passenger-owned freight.
Below a week comm lag, almost pure hired freight.
Ship's manifests list the owner of the items in the holds...

Note that freight can be affordably moved much farther than one might expect in CT or T20, but the long term capital tie-up makes non-vertical-integration freight inflexible and beyond most companies risk tolerance.

The issue is the locking down of funds for the duration from order to receipt, and of warehouse...
The standard mode today is to call/email/website the supplier, make payment by electronics, and it goes in the post or courier service, to be delivered usually within 14 days.
But, in the days of the telegraph, the catalog arrived via mail (up to a month after sent), and if on telegraph net, you're wire an inquiry, get a response in 0-2 days with current price and available number, and then telegraph the order, and if the local telegrapher was part of Western Union, "wire" the money, and it ships. If you were brave and could afford a couple fees, you could get the catalog and send the order and payment without prior contact. Either way, you'd know in under a week whether or not you got any.
Prior to that, ordering remotely tied up money for much longer, as without the telegraph, even checks were a problem... You basically had to send a factor/representative to go order in person, with cash, and then they often came back with the shipment...

Traveller presumes a reliable but slow comm. A single jump away, catalog by email, with a week lag from send to receive; a day or two to order, another week for the order to get there, and another week before you know if you will be getting a shipment within a week or two. If you have an inquiry, add another 15 days - 7each for jumps, and 1 for the research. If you can afford a minimum 2 week lag from order to arrival, usually 3, it's often worth it timewise.
Now, 2 jumps. Catalog is 1.7-2.3 weeks old upon arrival, A day or two to decide the order, 1.7-2.3 weeks via email back. A day for them to figure out if your order is fillable, notice 1.7-2.3 weeks later, and arrival up to 2 weeks after that (loading and layovers). so, from receipt of catalog to arrival of order is between 3.6 to 6.6 weeks, and you wont know until 3.4 to 4.6 weeks whether or not your order was fillable. If you refuse to commit funds blindly, add another 3.4-4.6 weeks... and add the warehousing expense that the supplier is likely to charge for holding it for 2 weeks. so that can be 6.8 to 11.4 weeks... and it's likely that a separate hauler per jump can add a week or more...
At 3 jumps, it's 5.1 to 6.9 weeks for catalog, and again for order, and again for notice, and up to 3 weeks downtime... so you won't know if the order was fillable until 10.2 to 13.8 weeks afer ordering – that's a quarter year and some – and 2-3 weeks more to get it there, assuming that it makes all the transfers in a timely manner... but if it's a separate hauler for each jump, that can add another up to 3 weeks of taken quickly, more if it languishes waiting for a ship. So money to goods is 10.2 to 17+ weeks... a third of a year. The time factor can, for items that are not stable demand, result in 10 weeks since money and finding out the order was rejected, and the wire transfer back is reduced by the cost of that wire transfer. The opportunity cost will massively reduce orders at that range save for luxuries.... And if you need a consult first, it's adding another roughly 3 weeks round trip plus your decision time, and possibly holding goods from inquiry receipt until 6 weeks after receipt. The hassle factors at both ends mean slightly higher but closer sourcing is fiscally more responsible.

The odds of a snag go up with distance, too.

So, again, 1Jx? mixed. 2Jx? mostly spec, some freight. 3Jx? almost totally spec or constant carry items.
Note that X is not always set by TL; if the ships can't make a profit at Jx at the specified price, then they're only going to speculate... because the 3I seems to dictate the basic rate... (otherwise, freight and passengers should be treated just like cargos and the Actual Value table,..

 

[Enoki]

The repurposing of the CT Striker currency effects, equipment acquisition and maintenance especially at higher techs to affect trade and even items players may buy paints an interesting and ugly picture.

It was clearly written so merc forces had to use a high/low mix, locally supportable equipment coupled with a few judicious higher tech force multipliers, and big consequences if they are destroyed or fail maintenance.

But used in both the merchant game and general character operations, it creates a whole lot of nuances.

You’re on some hick TL6 world with your Gauss rifle and advanced armor and scanners, locals aren’t touching you. Until your stuff breaks- unless you have an armory and spare parts squirreled away on your expeditionary pinnace, going to have to pay steep prices to get the parts and tools, if you can at all.

All that speculation game changes if you can use currency differences to your advantage. Use your hard TL15 CrIMP to buy the riches of a low tech planet, ship and sell them on higher starport/tech combos, or even buy a genuine TL6 firearm/tool for far less for personal use.

Shore leave for your crew on an otherwise low starport/low tech may be a shopping spree.

Now the balancing factor to consider putting in with a currency subgame is incorporating the cargo tech push/pull baked into these available cargo rolls into speculation.

A straight up DM of tech difference could make a run from a high tech world to the backwater worlds insanely profitable and worth the one way traffic. But temper it with that currency exchange and maybe not so profitable.

Conversely, you might buy that glorious radioactives lot on planet Hillbilly at an insane currency differential, but because it’s not high tech that means it’s not processed refined and thus the speculative DM cuts the other way. Tech of raw materials or food counts, indicating advanced alloys or bioengineered enhanced ag.

Since lots could be goods stranded at a starport warehouse and not of that world, origin tech is a thing to determine. I’d use hard CrIMP for anything not being bought as world origin, no currency manipulation. Or at least origin world tech not current world.

On a macro level the combo of currency and high tech desirability paints a picture of third world planetary exploitation and high tech domination.

It provides a clear reason for why planets don’t just tech themselves up if they can’t ever afford to buy the tooling or produce exports that are desirable and earn enough to get that interstellar TL.

And in the case of the 3I, the powerful nobles representing the megacorps and high tech planets wanting to keep it that way, further reason for no bootstrapping worlds. Fodder for noble drama and patron motives on either side of that line.

Finally, some personal interaction flavor- getting currencies exchanged, making sure your salary/trade deal is in hard CrIMPs, dealing with local desire for said currency and perhaps related resentment, etc. Too bad the fine print wasn’t read, the payout is 1 million in local Starbucks at 5%, that sort of thing.

A lot of effort and somewhere in there clever players abusing math challenged refs, but really could make the environment pop and give one background information to create all manner of world building merchant/adventurer drama.

I would add, that you bring in a load of say TL 12 'stuff' (a highly technical term there) to a TL 6 world, the locals aren't going to look at your goods as some sort of awesome magical stuff. They know about TL 12 and even 15. They don't live in a news / intellectual / technological vacuum. What they also know is they have no way to use it or keep it in use. So, they likely either won't trade for it, or if they do, you have to substantially reduce the price to make it worth their while to buy it. (For an example, see the old movie Doc Hollywood).

I also use numerous monetary systems, not just credits which are 3I. The locals might not want credits but rather something else or, yes, they give you a horrible exchange rate. They might prefer big bills, so-to-speak, too. That means you bring the right money and big bills you get a better rate.

As for trade, I play that with player character skills heavily. The locals have radioactives they want to sell you (from the above). They show you a large bucket of high-grade ore and say they have lots and lots from a mine. None of the players have much in the way of trade, science (like geology), etc., skills but they can see that the ore they're looking at is radioactive (using a test device or something). So, they make a deal and the locals show up with cargo containers full of ore and load them into your cargo bay. When they get to where they expect to make big bucks, it turns out the containers are full of nothing but worthless rocks and they got played.

If they had the skills, I would have let them know something was up since the player(s) with those skills would more readily want to examine the cargo, etc. Skills make a difference and playing the character as rolled up, in character, is important. Bottom line: Don't roll up a mercenary style character then try to be a merchant.

 

[whartung]

I would add, that you bring in a load of say TL 12 'stuff' (a highly technical term there) to a TL 6 world, the locals aren't going to look at your goods as some sort of awesome magical stuff.

We did that once.

Instead of assaulting a heavily guarded asteroid, we pooled out Mustering Out money, bought a bunch of solar powered scientific calculators, and sold them for a gazillion credits on a TL 5 world.

I don't know why the ref was so mad after we made our millions we wouldn't assault the asteroid for a mere 10KCr. He was the one that let us do it.

 

[Enoki]

I just looked up that ship. It was* a tanker of 2600 GT (9306 m^3 = 665 dTons), so closer in size to the subsidised liner than to a free/far trader.

*Vessel Tracker has it last registered on AIS 4488 days ago and last seen 3113 days ago; Mrine Traffic has it last logged on AIS 4459 days ago en route to Gressik in Indonesia. That suggests it got taken out of service for scrapping.

My point is, that free, subsidized, and far traders are the equivalent of smaller coastal freighters. The smallest of them in the 100-to-200-ton range are little more than small fishing trawlers but less specialized. Most would be in fair to iffy condition as they operate on small margins and the crew just doesn't have the time or energy to put into keeping everything up.

A tanker-type small freighter would likely still exist in Traveller for hauling liquid cargo, whatever it might be. Others would be bulk handlers and small container ships. The sort the players would want was a flexible bulk hauler that can manage containers, bulk cargo, and other sorts of loads.

 

[Enoki]

We did that once.

Instead of assaulting a heavily guarded asteroid, we pooled out Mustering Out money, bought a bunch of solar powered scientific calculators, and sold them for a gazillion credits on a TL 5 world.

I don't know why the ref was so mad after we made our millions we wouldn't assault the asteroid for a mere 10KCr. He was the one that let us do it.

See, I'd expect a TL 5 world have a little need for piles of scientific calculators. Sure, there'd be some local demand, but not much. Population would be a big determinant here. How good the local economy is would be another (I have a homegrown means of calculating that on a scale of 0 to 10 and anything less than about a 4 would have bought maybe a handful and that'd be that). I might have some local engineer or academic type show up with the businesspeople and show you the calculator they already have...

 

[Condottiere]

Risk and reward.

Laptops should be hot commodities, considering they're portable, and all in one.

And, of course, cell phones.

 

[Rupert]

Risk and reward.

Laptops should be hot commodities, considering they're portable, and all in one.

And, of course, cell phones.

But in a universe like Traveller that means the bulk of the demand has already been filled, because someone else worked this out decades before the PCs came on the scene. Anything that's useful and affordable despite shipping costs and markups and that'll last long enough to be worth the cost of purchase will already have been imported into the low TL world. Any demand the PCs are filling will be for replacement units to replace those that are broken, lost, etc.

The exception will, of course, be novel goods, but aside from fashion items those won't be very common in the TU.

There's another exception, but it's not one I'd expected a small tramp to be able to speculate on, and that's capital items being moved to a world that's experiencing capital investment and improvements (i.e. is building a new industry and/or upgrading its TL). They might get freight or charter opportunities from this sort of thing, though. Cellphone towers and repeaters for extending a phone network would be such a thing, assuming the world doesn't simply use satellite systems.

 

[Condottiere]

Probably circumstantial to the specific conditions on each planet.

At technological level eight, air/rafts become low orbit satellites.

At a pinch, hot air balloons.

I'd say that technologies don't exist in a vacuum, but tend to complement each other.

 

[aramis]

I would add, that you bring in a load of say TL 12 'stuff' (a highly technical term there) to a TL 6 world, the locals aren't going to look at your goods as some sort of awesome magical stuff. They know about TL 12 and even 15.

Not all of them...

They don't live in a news / intellectual / technological vacuum.

if the Law Level is above 10, expect them to NOT know much about offworld unless they're veterans of a big war. There's no right to information in the imperial charter, but there is freedom to travel. Hell-holes are better off redacting much of the extraplanetary news so people don't want to go to the evil other worlds of the Imperium... Also, that right to travel only allows you to get to orbit, not down to surface... nor beyond the starport.

What they also know is they have no way to use it or keep it in use. So, they likely either won't trade for it, or if they do, you have to substantially reduce the price to make it worth their while to buy it. (For an example, see the old movie Doc Hollywood).

The elites may, and probably will, get their high tech comforts at nice discounts, since they're above local but below the neighboring systems' tech levels.

 

[Badenov]

Not all of them...

if the Law Level is above 10, expect them to NOT know much about offworld unless they're veterans of a big war. There's no right to information in the imperial charter, but there is freedom to travel. Hell-holes are better off redacting much of the extraplanetary news so people don't want to go to the evil other worlds of the Imperium... Also, that right to travel only allows you to get to orbit, not down to surface... nor beyond the starport.

The elites may, and probably will, get their high tech comforts at nice discounts, since they're above local but below the neighboring systems' tech levels.

The closest concept in RL I can imagine is taking a TL7/Modern whatever to a backwater place like an amazon tribal village still living at TL0 or even an African community who get visits from TL7 aid workers all the time, but can't maintain above like TL 4 locally even though they know what it is and have seen it. And then again, sometimes they don't know what the high TL items are, or ascribe the workings to magic, while a few elites hog what wealth comes in.

 

[aramis]

The closest concept in RL I can imagine is taking a TL7/Modern whatever to a backwater place like an amazon tribal village still living at TL0 or even an African community who get visits from TL7 aid workers all the time, but can't maintain above like TL 4 locally even though they know what it is and have seen it. And then again, sometimes they don't know what the high TL items are, or ascribe the workings to magic, while a few elites hog what wealth comes in.

Think North Korea any time after the armistice, or post 1945 China, or the old Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia... or Tokugawa Iemesu's 1635 closure of the borders which lasted until the Perry Expedition 1853, or even 1950's onward Cuba. All they see of the rest of the world is through the propagandist's final cuts... and the pubic executions for "seeking imperialist lies." Well, no, Cubanos have always had some access to US AM radio... not legally, mind...
The term in TNE for many such is a "Technologically Elevated Dictator"... the rest being charismatic or non-charismatic or theocratic dictatorships, or repressive oligarchies. I better stop there, as I'm right at the politics line of 1960.

 

[Enoki]

Not all of them...

True, but that's really the exception, not the rule.

if the Law Level is above 10, expect them to NOT know much about offworld unless they're veterans of a big war. There's no right to information in the imperial charter, but there is freedom to travel. Hell-holes are better off redacting much of the extraplanetary news so people don't want to go to the evil other worlds of the Imperium... Also, that right to travel only allows you to get to orbit, not down to surface... nor beyond the starport.

Now, this is true. But one would expect the 'dictatorship' would do something to prevent the veterans from being able to spread their knowledge. One way I did that with this polity, https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Anubian_Trade_Coalition was that veterans in return for their service were given a plot of land on specific worlds within the coalition as a reward and kept away from the virtually enslaved worker population from which they were drawn. This meant they had a vested interest in staying quiet and were at the same time rewarded for it.

In another case, the government did repress outside knowledge even covering up the occasional uninvited starship (sort of like UFO's?) while allowing limited trade on their terms to occur that benefited the government. Again, arriving uninvited wasn't something you'd really want to do.

The elites may, and probably will, get their high tech comforts at nice discounts, since they're above local but below the neighboring systems' tech levels.

This is true too. The rich and powerful will get all the nice toys while the untermich get nothing and told they will like it.

 

[kilemall]

True, but that's really the exception, not the rule.


Now, this is true. But one would expect the 'dictatorship' would do something to prevent the veterans from being able to spread their knowledge. One way I did that with this polity, https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Anubian_Trade_Coalition was that veterans in return for their service were given a plot of land on specific worlds within the coalition as a reward and kept away from the virtually enslaved worker population from which they were drawn. This meant they had a vested interest in staying quiet and were at the same time rewarded for it.

In another case, the government did repress outside knowledge even covering up the occasional uninvited starship (sort of like UFO's?) while allowing limited trade on their terms to occur that benefited the government. Again, arriving uninvited wasn't something you'd really want to do.

This is true too. The rich and powerful will get all the nice toys while the untermich get nothing and told they will like it.

I have a simple mechanic for repressive worlds resolving right of travel and serving the Imperium.

They can leave, they can travel, they can serve.

They just can’t come back home.

 

[Enoki]

I have a simple mechanic for repressive worlds resolving right of travel and serving the Imperium.

They can leave, they can travel, they can serve.

They just can’t come back home.

The Traveller universe isn't solely made up of the Imperium. Most of what I do, and game occurs outside or on the fringes of it. I see a game run in the center of the Imperium like having a game centered on Kansas in the US. It ends up nothing but vanilla.

 

[Condottiere]

A certain amount of brainwashing would be required.

Or, an adherence to an authoritarian ideology, which could fall into religious territory.

For a lack of a more appropriate term, society gets divided into castes, and you create enough of the middle class with some perquisites, to counter balance the proletariat, while the elite get most of the benefits.