Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
There are cadet branches from the Imperial line; how much do they hold, or would that be accounted for by the aristocracy in general?
General MegaCorps in Traveller
- Thread starter Duke Craig
- Start date
IMHO, beyond the _immediate_ Imperial Family (anything beyond uncles/aunts and first-cousins, as a rule-of-thumb), _cadet_ branches of the Imperial line ought to number in the nobility/aristocracy in general rather than the Emperor/Empress his/herself, as "courtesy" nobles if nothing else.
Not sure if this belongs here, but it might be valuable to get a better feel for Megacorp Pseudo-organization.
The last few days, I've been looking up some novels I dimly recall through the misty fogs of several-decade old memories. Found a few lost gems!
One was Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy, one of his "Juvenile" series. I recall especially this scene, distinguishing "ownership" and "control" in corporate terms:
That seems a nice snapshot of the sort of chaotic organization that megacorps would use.
Only, in practice, it would be far, far more complex, with companies sharing ownership slices, overlapping boards of directors, all in a complex version of corporate spaghetti-bowl organization charts . . .
OTOH, is it really needed in-game?
Gripping hand, the descriptions of Megacorps strike me as far too simple and straightforward.
The last few days, I've been looking up some novels I dimly recall through the misty fogs of several-decade old memories. Found a few lost gems!
One was Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy, one of his "Juvenile" series. I recall especially this scene, distinguishing "ownership" and "control" in corporate terms:
That seems a nice snapshot of the sort of chaotic organization that megacorps would use.
Only, in practice, it would be far, far more complex, with companies sharing ownership slices, overlapping boards of directors, all in a complex version of corporate spaghetti-bowl organization charts . . .
OTOH, is it really needed in-game?
Gripping hand, the descriptions of Megacorps strike me as far too simple and straightforward.
Proneutron
SOC-13
Berkshire Hathaway is the real life example.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Berkshire is almost benign, since it's out in the open, compared to the ones lurking in Panama and the Cayman Islands.
I think it could be used in-game in some interesting ways. Corporate espionage takes a whole new meaning when it is against a company that it actually owns; hidden connections may need protection or exposure; payoffs may cross companies; favors for one company may translate out to another; a patron is the secret owner of a megacorp through a series of shell companies...
Usage all depends on the sort of game you play (well, that's true pretty much of everything) If nothing else, it can bring in some world building background and allow for a persistent thorn in the players side that has a single entity behind it despite coming from all over.
Proneutron
SOC-13
So are those
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
That's money laundering, and tolerated because intelligence agencies and treasuries would like to know where the money is, where it came from, and where it's going, not necessarily who owns it.
Speaking of money laundering, you could get a loan shark to finance your spaceship.
It's clear that in this game, there's no way you can cover the outrageous interest rates, so the agreement would be that as long as you carry cargo and personnel with no questions asked, you don't have to pay that interest.
Speaking of money laundering, you could get a loan shark to finance your spaceship.
It's clear that in this game, there's no way you can cover the outrageous interest rates, so the agreement would be that as long as you carry cargo and personnel with no questions asked, you don't have to pay that interest.
You can, but only at Jump-1. A Type A, or even a reasonably-built Type R (ditch the Launch for more cargo space, swap out the Size C drives for the Size B ones it really should have) can clear a profit -- not hand-over-fist profit, but more than enough to cover the loan -- even at Cr1000/ton/jump under LBB2 rules. Anything much bigger than a Subsidized Merchant will have difficulty filling its cargo hold under the LBB2 cargo rules on an average (no +-DMs) world though.
Jump-2 isn't profitable at those rates until TL-15 and 5000Td (Z drives are magic), but that ship can't fill its cargo hold with even the absolute best-case conditions and rolling nothing but sixes.
Proneutron
SOC-13
Nope. Money laundering is an ACTIVITY not a banking location.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
You need permissive jurisdictions in order to carry it out.
As regards my previously mentioned interest rates, those were specifically the ones that loan sharks charge, not Traveller's default five percent, which if I remember correctly calculating out over forty years, is half the amount you're repaying the banks.
If you take one step back and look at the whole picture, starships are really cheap, maintenance is peanuts.
If annual maintenance fee is paid, actual depreciation is basically cost to get those quirks fixed.
Unless you blow up engineering or you can't maintain hull integrity, there's no reason to scrap them, unless it's a tax write off.
As regards my previously mentioned interest rates, those were specifically the ones that loan sharks charge, not Traveller's default five percent, which if I remember correctly calculating out over forty years, is half the amount you're repaying the banks.
If you take one step back and look at the whole picture, starships are really cheap, maintenance is peanuts.
If annual maintenance fee is paid, actual depreciation is basically cost to get those quirks fixed.
Unless you blow up engineering or you can't maintain hull integrity, there's no reason to scrap them, unless it's a tax write off.
Sebokea Corporation
The system is led by the fervent, overworked staff of the planetwide Sebokea Corporation. Its ambitious and driven culture works tirelessly to overtake the subsector capital Kaasu and become an economic powerhouse in its own right.
wiki.travellerrpg.com
So, is the Sebokea Corporation a mega corporation or something smaller? Is it considered OTU if mentioned in the World Description for Traveller Map?
It would be nice if the reference Mega corporations above included the OTU source and the location(s) per OTU.
The system is led by the fervent, overworked staff of the planetwide Sebokea Corporation. Its ambitious and driven culture works tirelessly to overtake the subsector capital Kaasu and become an economic powerhouse in its own right.
Shushaka (world) - Traveller
So, is the Sebokea Corporation a mega corporation or something smaller? Is it considered OTU if mentioned in the World Description for Traveller Map?
It would be nice if the reference Mega corporations above included the OTU source and the location(s) per OTU.
No, the article in the Wiki tells you what it is: it is a planetary corporation. Mega corporations have reach across multiple sectors at minimum and likely have an Imperium-wide presence, meaning that the Emperor and the Archdukes need to seriously factor them into their political consideration for the Imperium and their Domains. Megacorporations are the equivalent to what in the modern world would be called a "transnational corporation", in that they legally straddle international boundaries as independent entities. In the Imperium the Emperor and Archdukes need to deal with Megacorporations at a Peer-level.
The information on Traveller Map is Canon. But Traveller Map does not have world descriptions, only Extended UWP details and a link to the Traveller Wiki
The Traveller Wiki is editable by anyone and should Never be considered Canon on its own. This is clearly stated on the Main Page of the Wiki concerning entries. If it is footnoted/referenced with sources and endnotes, then yes. Otherwise, treat it as unattested or non-Canon (but you can always check the endnotes and ludography - sometimes people will add a source at the bottom without an in-line reference in the text. But you will need to double check the source yourself.
Yes it would. Since I have never heard of the above before (and it is NOT a MegaCorporation, merely a WorldCorp), and since there is very limited source data at the bottom of the page, I would treat it as non-Canon. But note also at the bottom of the Wiki page, the article is listed in the "Non-Canon" Category - that should be a hint that this is not attested in OTU material.
That doesn't mean it isn't perfectly usable, of course . . .
Also, if you haven't already, check out the Wiki article on Megacorporations, which also has a list of the 13 canonical Megacorps in the OTU.
Black Vulmea
SOC-11
Jeff Rients did a write-up of the corporations in the Judges Guild Gateway setting - no longer canonical but still interesting, perhaps. I run my games in this setting, btw.
Bears repeating.
casquilho
SOC-13
What??? Are you trying to say not everything on the internet is accurate and true?
That cannot be. It is the internet. Man's greatest repository of knowledge......
Sorry, I will stop now.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
A couple of my fav's for use in Traveller (that are canon):
Schunamann and Sohn AG (SuSAG). A pharma company that is above board within the 3I and plays it much looser outside. I've even had them as owners of a solar system where they have very heavy defenses and manufacture all sorts of illegal, highly illegal, OMG! illegal drugs and do 'experimentation' that is equally illegal and morally questionable.
Nothing like a Traveller version of Breaking Bad on a scale that makes Walt look like an amateur...
wiki.travellerrpg.com
wiki.travellerrpg.com
The other one is Miracru Tradecorp. Miracru specializes in making trade deals with markets that are difficult or impossible to get into from the 3I and the like. They often invest years in working these out and aren't above using all sorts of means to get a deal. One I use with them is they like to hire small ships and crews, with promises of whopping huge rewards if successful, to take on trade missions to places where the ship and crew are likely to be destroyed, taken prisoner and put in some horror of a prison camp, etc. But, of course, they don't tell the crew that...
"We'll pay you a bonus of 10 megacredits if you're successful..." or, "We'll pay all of your debts off and your ship free and clear if you..."
wiki.travellerrpg.com
We are Miracru. We make trade deals. Prepare to die!
These guys aren't "evil" per se, they're businessmen--ruthless, heartless, double-dealing, low down, scamming, sidewinding, types, but it isn't as if they steal candy from babies, and tie women to railroad tracks or anything...
Schunamann and Sohn AG (SuSAG). A pharma company that is above board within the 3I and plays it much looser outside. I've even had them as owners of a solar system where they have very heavy defenses and manufacture all sorts of illegal, highly illegal, OMG! illegal drugs and do 'experimentation' that is equally illegal and morally questionable.
Nothing like a Traveller version of Breaking Bad on a scale that makes Walt look like an amateur...
SuSAG - Traveller
Dug (world) - Traveller
The other one is Miracru Tradecorp. Miracru specializes in making trade deals with markets that are difficult or impossible to get into from the 3I and the like. They often invest years in working these out and aren't above using all sorts of means to get a deal. One I use with them is they like to hire small ships and crews, with promises of whopping huge rewards if successful, to take on trade missions to places where the ship and crew are likely to be destroyed, taken prisoner and put in some horror of a prison camp, etc. But, of course, they don't tell the crew that...
"We'll pay you a bonus of 10 megacredits if you're successful..." or, "We'll pay all of your debts off and your ship free and clear if you..."
Miracru Tradecorp - Traveller
We are Miracru. We make trade deals. Prepare to die!
These guys aren't "evil" per se, they're businessmen--ruthless, heartless, double-dealing, low down, scamming, sidewinding, types, but it isn't as if they steal candy from babies, and tie women to railroad tracks or anything...
Black Vulmea
SOC-11
I do appreciate the inherent lack of veracity in using the internet as a primary source.
What is the general guidance on edits to the Wiki?
Is it considered OK to add material that is self generated? If I decided to flesh out a particular star system as part of IMTU, would it be well received as an edit to the Wiki? At what level of craziness is it too much?
Is everything good or is content expected to stay inside some particular set of Traveller rules? I guess the question is where is the break point between canon, plausible current rule set, plausible with Classic (or other) rule set, minor variations, to the "our starships are really space dragons that need to be fed on asteroids that have high concentrations of CHON or they start killing humans to eat them" rule set.
What is the general guidance on edits to the Wiki?
Is it considered OK to add material that is self generated? If I decided to flesh out a particular star system as part of IMTU, would it be well received as an edit to the Wiki? At what level of craziness is it too much?
Is everything good or is content expected to stay inside some particular set of Traveller rules? I guess the question is where is the break point between canon, plausible current rule set, plausible with Classic (or other) rule set, minor variations, to the "our starships are really space dragons that need to be fed on asteroids that have high concentrations of CHON or they start killing humans to eat them" rule set.
Good question. I need to take a look at it myself, to see if there's a clean way to add explicitly non-canon alternative information and clearly mark it as such. Sort of the kind of thing that I wrote up about Collace/D268 a while back (adding extra history going back to the Sindalian Empire, and including an ongoing terraforming project dating back to when pre-Maghiz Darrians found the survivors of the Sindalian mining colony).
Not that it matters much now, since Mongoose is starting to write content for that region and will probably obsolete anything I could come up with... lol
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