Free Traders - Tramp Steamers or Semi-Trucks

[Enoki]

Yes and no,
With instant comms you would likely have a dispatcher, or broker lining up loads of freight at the next stop. So that would be a boon. IMHO there should be some sort of agent or broker that a trader can sign up with to provide a +DM for cargo along a specified route. Not a formal as a subsidized route, but the Trader would be obligated to visit a number of worlds, and in exchange they pay an upfront fee for the route and get a +DM at each stop when rolling for cargo to represent the extra cargo that their agent has lined up for them. Absent that good planning is essential, Consider this example:
View attachment 5666


You're at Laisarlo, you check the available cargos and find alot of cargo going to Kaflowe. --- Because of the +7 modifier for TL14 --> TL 7.
Or you could take the trip to Emsindale, less cargo, but:

1. It's a POP 9 world vs a POP 5 for Kaflowe. More outbound freight
2. The modifier for the return is much better, -1 vs -7.

In this case the choice should be oblivious.

Using the system I use (homegrown), these three planets have an economic potential rating (0-10) of

Laisarlo: 6.47
Emsingale: 5.84
Kaflowe: 2.51

Under it, Kaflowe is a "basket case." That is, it has little potential for trade on any viable scale. Emsingale and Laisarlo have thriving economic systems. They'd be a pair with lots of trade going back and forth.

As a small trader without local connections, of the sort the players would be operating much of the time, if they were on Laisarlo the available cargo would be:

To Emsingale: There is automatically cargo available as it is >5 in economic value.
To Kaflowe: (6.47*(1/6.47-2.51)))*2D6 or 1.63* 2D6 for a range of 4 to 20 tons depending on the roll.

The problem becomes once you go to Kaflowe...

To Laisarlo: (2.51*(1/(2.51-6.47)))*2D6. Now, this results in a negative number, that is, no cargo going out. So, you then apply a second formula to that of 2.51*2D6 and then take that result and subtract the first one you got from the initial formula.

So, if you rolled a say, 6 and then a 9 the result would be:

-3.8 + 22.6 = 19 tons of cargo, but it takes you two weeks to arrange that whereas at Laisarlo the cargo was immediately available. So, you have to sit at Kaflowe two weeks not making money on moving cargo to get some to move. You can easily see Kaflowe is not going to pay the bills.

On the other hand, there's always going to be stuff moving between Laisarlo and Emsingale so you can move a full cargo bay both directions most or all of the time.

 

[Condottiere]

Could be more like Amelia Earhart.

 

[spank]

Sounds interesting,
How are the trade ratings calculated?

 

[Enoki]

Sounds interesting,
How are the trade ratings calculated?

My system? Trade is based solely on a calculation using the UWP. It accounts for population--the more the better, government and law--open and free vs. dictatorships and draconian, then tech level, the more the better, along with starport type, the better it is the more trade you get.

I suppose I could add in more on various specific types of economic advantages or disadvantages a world has using trade codes, but haven't yet.

 

[Enoki]

This is a typical WW 2 armed trawler, HMT Sir Kay. Displacement is 447 tons which is right at 90 dtons. It's armed with the equivalent of one turret with one weapon, possibly two, fitted.

The slightly larger USS Curlew displaces 570 tons or about 115 dtons. Again, one equivalent to a turret with one weapon fitted.

 

[Vargr Breath]

A fun set of books and a TV series on a small Scottish tramp steamer.

Para Handy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Vital Spark - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TamsinP]

This is a typical WW 2 armed trawler, HMT Sir Kay. Displacement is 447 tons which is right at 90 dtons. It's armed with the equivalent of one turret with one weapon, possibly two, fitted.



The slightly larger USS Curlew displaces 570 tons or about 115 dtons. Again, one equivalent to a turret with one weapon fitted.

I'd be cautious about using displacement of "wet" ships as a measure of volume. For instance, RMS Titanic had a displacement of 52.310 tonnes which using your divisor of 5 would make it 10,462 dTons; however, the GRT is 46,329 which converts to 9,718 dTons. It gets much worse when dealing with naval vessels, particularly armoured ones.
For modern US Navy ships it's actually quite easy to calculate their Traveller dTons as they have either their Gross Register Tonnage (older vessels) or Gross Tonnage (newer vessels) registered with the US Coast Guard.

https://www.cool.osd.mil/usn/pubs/USN-Vessel-Info.pdf

 

[mike wightman]

GRT/5 gives displacement tonnage in Traveller terms, or at least close enough.

 

[TamsinP]

GRT/5 gives displacement tonnage in Traveller terms, or at least close enough.

It does indeed 1GRT = 2.8316846592 m^3

Converting from Gross Tonnage (GT) would be much more difficult but thankfully there are online calculators which will convert GT to m^3, like this one:

Convert Tonnage (Ship Tonnage Measurements) to Cubic Meter (m³, Metric)

Online conversion from Tonnage (Ship Tonnage Measurements) to Cubic Meter (m³, Metric). Capacity And Volume Converter.

www.convert-me.com

Then you can just divide by 14 to get the dTons.

 

[atpollard]

Just an idea of what a 20 dTon (20m x 3m x 5m) Small Craft might look like BELLY LANDING on a beach to unload at an X or E port.

 

[Enoki]

The Sir Kay shown above is 38.1 meters long, 7.2 meters wide, and draws 4.2 meters to the waterline. Of course, you have to take into account the portion above the waterline too. How does that compare to a 100-ton ship in Traveller?

 

[TamsinP]

The Round Table-class trawlers were built to the design of the Star of Orkney, which is listed as 273 GRT = 57.3 dTons.

 

[atpollard]

The Sir Kay shown above is 38.1 meters long, 7.2 meters wide, and draws 4.2 meters to the waterline. Of course, you have to take into account the portion above the waterline too. How does that compare to a 100-ton ship in Traveller?

I would eyeball it an average of another 4 meters above the waterline (1 meter to deck and 3 meters to roof of main deck superstructure).

That comes out to a bounding box of 38.1 x 7.2 x (4+4.2) = 2249 m3 = 160.7 dTons.
Since ships are about 0.62 x bounding box in actual volume [based on a circle inside a square = (3.14/4)^2 = 0.62] ... 160.7 x 0.62 = 99.6 dTons.

 

[PVernon]

Para Handy looks to be "Puffer". There are a few still working and at lest one museum ship.