How long until the next free trader?

[rancke]

How would you work out a die roll to see if the world you're on gets a visit from a free trader this week?

It seems to me that it would be a combination of the chance that a free trader has goods to deliver or sell and the captain's perception of how likely a visit is to get him some freight and passengers and speculative goods. Both would be tied to population level. But tied how?

I think maybe I'd guesstimate at what population level you're likely to get 1-2 free traders per year and make that roll 2 (and less) with 2D (i.e. once every 36 weeks on the average), then increase the number by 2 for every population level above that. Or perhaps increase the number by 3 per population level?


Hans

 

[Spinward Scout]

Starport type and Tech Level could be a factor, too. A Free Trader could show up for repairs or fuel - and have open cargo space and passenger rooms or even an opening in the crew. Or show up just because of a certain type of industry on the world.

 

[Quint]

Starport type and Tech Level could be a factor, too. A Free Trader could show up for repairs or fuel - and have open cargo space and passenger rooms or even an opening in the crew. Or show up just because of a certain type of industry on the world.

As well as the distances to the closest ports. In my mind the Free Traders are more likely in the out of the way places and common in the big population centers - or at least, kinda-sorta.

D.

 

[rnadams2]

The trade speculation system in CT Merchant Prince might provide some insight based on trade codes of the world you're on and those of the neighboring systems.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Hans, could you not work the speculation rules in reverse for your destination world? Mongoose has a system for outbound predicated on you first selecting your destination world and doing the calculations. In this model you can work out the details of freight outbound. Example your plane t is in System 0 surrounded by 6 systems 1 hex away (Systems 1 thru 6). You do all the calculations from each combination of
Origin-Destination
0-1
0-2
0-3
0-4
0-5
0-6
To reverse it in this situation, simply do
Origin-Destination
1-0
2-0
3-0
4-0
5-0
6-0
Combinations which resolve to no passenger or freight would mean that planet does not like sending stuff from them to you.
Or are you looking for a simpler be all end all die roll?

 

[rancke]

I don't usually double-post, but this is what I came up with and I think it fits in both threads. (The other thread inspired me to start this one; perhaps I should just have stuck with that, but what's done is done).

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

 

[Selandia]

fine, may I suggest a way to reflect that traffic transiting on a world is not only the traffic generated by that world.

Crude but easy and workable at a glance: throw in a +dm to target X if on a J-1 route or cluster as free trader on their way to the next world could pass by and have a berth or residual space available.

DM= Number or world on the route or cluster (maximum value 6) /6. Feel free to fudge that value for the result to make sense
the max 6 is to avoid obscene number like those that could be generated by the J-1 route in the Spinward Marches

have fun

Selandia

 

[rancke]

fine, may I suggest a way to reflect that traffic transiting on a world is not only the traffic generated by that world.

But through traffic doesn't really affect the world it moves through. The freight and passengers aboard an arriving ship stay aboard and take up space on the jump out.

That's not to say it's not something to keep in mind, because a ship passing through may not be booked solid. But I think it's something referees have to deal with according to the actual astrography. I don't think there's any way to come up with a generic rule for how many ships passes through a random star system on their way from one terminus to another.


Hans

 

[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 lots of odd situations e.g. an A class star port with a very low population, 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 *passing through* and only refueling plus (1-6 per month) destined for the system itself.

#

This does make me wonder how ships passing through might operate though. Would they go to the world itself for refueling or a space station further out or a C star port truck stop on a major trade route might have a fancy high port for the passing trade and a dump down port for the free traders.

 

[Selandia]

This does make me wonder how ships passing through might operate though. Would they go to the world itself for refueling or a space station further out or a C star port truck stop on a major trade route might have a fancy high port for the passing trade and a dump down port for the free traders.

Ton of creativity. is fun.

Lord Ballin made some money by offering a "bumboat" service to incoming ships at Noctocol (IMTU) at 100cr the refined fuel or 500 cr the refined stuff, a old 400 tonners spaceship (borderline hulk) could gross 100,000 cr for 200t of refined fuel, + whatever supplies it could sold and whatever the passing crew is willing to pay at the ...well you know... floating around (actually chasing incoming ships broadcasting FBGC signals) with minimum crew. Adventure galore for the PC that sign as crews.

have fun

Selandia

 

[flykiller]

Would they go to the world itself for refueling or a space station further out

for a major route, it will be a fueling station so there is no 100d transit time. if it is a very major route there will be refueling ships to further reduce transit time. these will be supplied by refueling boats that just plod between source and station, keeping the stations topped off so they can respond to any traffic that appears.

for minor routes, an on-world station would be quite sufficient.

 

[salochin999]

Ton of creativity. is fun.

Lord Ballin made some money by offering a "bumboat" service to incoming ships at Noctocol (IMTU) at 100cr the refined fuel or 500 cr the refined stuff, a old 400 tonners spaceship (borderline hulk) could gross 100,000 cr for 200t of refined fuel, + whatever supplies it could sold and whatever the passing crew is willing to pay at the ...well you know... floating around (actually chasing incoming ships broadcasting FBGC signals) with minimum crew. Adventure galore for the PC that sign as crews.

have fun

Selandia

Yeah that's the kind of thing that comes out of quirky systems

 

[salochin999]

for a major route, it will be a fueling station so there is no 100d transit time. if it is a very major route there will be refueling ships to further reduce transit time. these will be supplied by refueling boats that just plod between source and station, keeping the stations topped off so they can respond to any traffic that appears.

for minor routes, an on-world station would be quite sufficient.

That's how I was seeing it - which can lead to truck stop space stations that are like wild west saloons in space.

 

[Easterner9504]

I created this to generate ships either random encounter and to see how many ships in port on arrival.


Random Ship Encounter
STARSHIP ENCOUNTERS
- -- -- - - Starport Type------
2D6 A B C D E X
2 - - - - - -
3 -'- - - - -
4 - - - - - -
5 - - - - - -
6 C C - - - -
7 C C C - - -
8 C C C C - -
9 C C C C C C
10 C C C C C C
11 C C C C C C
12 C C C C C C
13 C C C C - -
14 C C C C - -
15 C C C - - -

DM +2 if naval base in system.
DM +i If scout base in system.

Numbers of Ships in a Starport

Population
Starport A+ 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
A (V) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 -
B (IV) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 - -
C (III) 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 - - -
D (II) 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 - - - -
E (I) 6 5 4 3 2 1 - - - - -
X - - - - - - - - - - -

# Roll result times 1d6 for total ships in port.
- Roll normal starship encounter per TRAVELLER rules

Modifiers (Cumulative)
Red Zone Always treat as (-) unless has a base present
Amber Zone -2
Non-Imperium -1
Unaligned system -2
Govt: 1, 6, D -1 (Corporate, Captive, Theocracy)
Law: 7+ -1 (Excessive regulations repress trade)
Vargr or K'Kree -1 (Additional modifier reflecting K'Kree ship phobia and Vargr pirates depressing
affect on trade)

Ship Type

2D Ship Type Massive Type
2- Massive 500,000
3- 100 ton 50,000
4- 200 ton 25,000
5- 300 ton 20,000
6- 100 ton 10,000
7- Spacecraft 10,000
8- 200 ton 15,000
9- 400 ton 30,000
10- 800 ton 40,000
11- 1200 ton 100,000
12- 3000 ton 200,000

Ship Race

Local: Under 1200 tons, Roll 1d6 and is registered to planet (and not Interdicted)
A: 1-5 B: 1-4 C:: 1-3 D: 1-2 E: 1
Modifiers
Rich: -1, Poor: +1, Amber: +1, Law Level 3 or less: -1, Law 7+: +1, Pop 4 or less: +1, Unaligned +2 (If mods make it impossible to be non-local a 6 is treated as non-local) Unaligned worlds never have Local ships if TL 8 or less except by GM special ruling i.e. captured or salvaged. Spacecraft are always local.

If not Local roll 1d6
1-5 Local Major Race/Government (Imperium, Confederation, Hiver etc.)
If Not Local MR roll 1d6
Alien MR 1-4
Alien Minor Race (JR): 5-6

GM determines which race, use local races of area and determine randomly.

Military
Over 1200 tons: Military 1-4, Under 1200t: 1-2