In The Black

[PVernon]

Hunter,
I see that the T20 economics will be in "In the Black" due out in August, will it be at all compatable with "GT-Far Traider"?
Reason for asking:
In CT, etc we have a system to generate loads for free traders but no idea what the real economics of the Third Imperium are.
GT for the first time we see what the trade volumes of the various planets looks like. How many ships per day arrive at Glisten, and from where.
If "In the Black" builds a difforent looking economy then there are going to be things in adventures that just don't translate between systems. At the moment a CT adventure can be played with any of the rule sets. I am afraid that if the economics don't come close to each other than the background, that has mostly stayed together for 25 years, will start to come apart to the detriment of all the systems.
I hope I made sense.

 

[Ron]

I hope not. GT: Far Trader seeks a simulationist appoach to Traveller's economics. The result is a very complicated system that is too time consuming to any real roleplaying activity.

I don't know how realistic GTFT is and I couldn't care less. Despite the fact that the authors have really invested in something they believe is the corrected approach, I don't need a lecture on starfaring comerce, just quick and dirty rules to take care of a side aspect of my game.

 

[Elliot]

I agree with Ron, Merchant campaigns need to be hard and fast and 'situational' rather than 'simulational'. Hunter, dude - make the game playable.

By the way, for those who are interested, I have found that a primer book on the Terran Law of International Trade is pretty good at explaining how the nuts and bolts of trade in the 3I works.

 

[Vargas]

With all due deference to those people who worked so hard on GT:FT, I prefer CT's trade rules and concur with those who stress game over simulation.

 

[Anthony]

It would be possible to be 'compatible' with Far Trader without being particularly similar to the Far Trader book; there's a lot of stuff in Far Trader that a typical merchant campaign doesn't need to worry about. As long as 'In the Black' applies a sensible model of supply and demand, it should be compatible enough.

This does mean that the per-jump costs in CT pretty much have to be discarded. So do the trade tables, since the trade tables fail to recognize that someone _else_ might figure out the same profitable route you did, thus introducing competition and driving down prices.

 

[Ron]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Anthony:
It would be possible to be 'compatible' with Far Trader without being particularly similar to the Far Trader book; there's a lot of stuff in Far Trader that a typical merchant campaign doesn't need to worry about. As long as 'In the Black' applies a sensible model of supply and demand, it should be compatible enough.

This does mean that the per-jump costs in CT pretty much have to be discarded. So do the trade tables, since the trade tables fail to recognize that someone _else_ might figure out the same profitable route you did, thus introducing competition and driving down prices.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh, I'm sure the original rules are broken and that Far Trader is correct in pointing out that competition is necessary to correct it. However, I am against the high complexity rules design they presented. Perhaps, it is possible to develop some clever rules that will take competition in account without the burden of GT:FT complexity.

 

[PVernon]

I should note that a lot of what is in "GT-Far Trader" is background and not used during a game session. Also most of the nasty math has been done for you if you are gaming in the pre-hard times Imperium. See http://maps.grandsurvey.com for trade maps good for most of known space in CT, MT, & GT. (Thankyou Anthony)
All I realy want is for "In the Black" not to break "Far Trade".

 

[Ron]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by PVernon:
I should note that a lot of what is in "GT-Far Trader" is background and not used during a game session. Also most of the nasty math has been done for you if you are gaming in the pre-hard times Imperium.
All I realy want is for "In the Black" not to break "Far Trade".<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The problem is that I need to go over all that trouble and I already have too many complex things in my life to worry about. I am sure that there are people who love to work on those formulae and calculate the required stats to every route in a sector. I am more pragmatic. When I plan a sector, I don't want to worry about technicalities that are only marginal to the campaign. Quick and dirty rules are more useful.

I understand your request for sharing data between several diferent systems. The problem is that I believe that Far Trader model isn't appropiated to gaming. It is perhaps a good exercise about starfaring comerce, but it is unecessarily complicated for gaming purposes.

 

[Takei]

I really like Far Trader. It's a good, interesting read, but I feel it's more suitable for solo play than anything I'd use with a player group.

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Paul