Need suggestions for list of trade goods

[Merciless Ref]

Going to run the classic Traveller adventure: "Night Of Conquest" again after 20-odd years, this time with my son's friends instead of my old college buddies.

The scenario is an interstellar trade mission to a backwater planet of tech level 6 or so. First-contact type initial speculative trade mission.

I need help making a list of trade goods, equipment, and product samples likely to be aboard, stuff of about TL 9 or 10.

Main categories:

Medical and scientific products
Industrial products and applications
Consumer goods
Cultural goods art and artifacts
Weapons
Agricultural products.

Think of TL-10 stuff that would fit one of these categories, which might be useful not just as trade goods but as plot-movng devices or macgyvered weapons in the game scenario.


Spoilers ahead for those that don't know the scenario:







A rival nation crashes the trade agreement signing party at the palace, with a mini-invasion, flying in on parachutes, assault dirigibles, and combat cargo gliders, approx. WW-ii Earth era type gear, which is the local tech level, the point of which is to grab the players and their ship full of high tech, and take it back to their own country, before local regular army and replacement air force can regroup from the first strike and arrive in strength to save the day. Crew has to scatter and blend into the local town for a time and gets cut off from the ship for a while, but some of the trade goods on the list are assumed to have been taken out and left in various places where they were demo'd and are now available in the palace or surrounding buildings.

One I came up with in the industrial/agro category was a spray-on anti-friction coating and applicator. It was demo'd on a local plow blade that now plows like a monomolecular knife thru butter. The applicator was going to be used for amusing party tricks at the post-treaty party, creating a temporary indoor "icerink" in the dance hall, but now it's a defensive weapon to throw a frictionless coating on floors and etc. behind you, while escaping the striker troops.

Can you think of any more high-tech, non-weapon trade goods that have dual uses like this?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Dragoner]

Even a relatively primitive (or advanced by our standards) cell phone network would be highly valuable to them.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Drugs, man!

The Drugs all can be used in interesting ways. I think it is Medical Slow Drug that puts you in a suspended state. You can hit a sentry or guard with that and now they have a prisoner to interrogate, provided they have the counter drug.

Also, laser scalpels can be interesting, and of course TL-A med scanners probably have parts that can be turned into offensive weaponry in a pinch with the right skills. Not to mention TL-A med scanners might be able to be used for peeking through thin walls and stuff.

Just off the top of head. I have company so I can't do the whole list.

Hope this helps.

Laterness,
Craig.

EDIT: I just thought of this based on Dragoneer's comment, the US Marines at one time evaluated the Apple Computer's eMate for potential use in combat. They gave a platoon eMates and sent them up against a company. Needless to say the eMate platoon whipped ass. A ton of TL-A tablets with wireless connectivity could really do wonders for the good guys.

 

[Gray Pennell]

Try this site its tradestats express it tracks global trade.

http://tse.export.gov/TSE/TSEOptions.aspx?ReportID=2&Referrer=TSEReports.aspx&DataSource=NTD

I did an export from US to South America and got the quick catagories of

325--CHEMICALS $22,187,946,264 19.3 %
324--PETROLEUM & COAL PRODUCTS $17,952,929,709 15.7 %
333--MACHINERY, EXCEPT ELECTRICAL $17,874,579,009 15.6 %
334--COMPUTER AND ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS $17,507,744,801 15.3 %
All Others $39,143,945,098 34.1 %

But there is table that has many more products. Work with the NACIS option it could get interesting.

 

[Zutroi]

"Foamcrete" - a spray-up building material intended for temporary construction (like the bandshell the players 'sprayed up' in the host's garden)... now used to seal up doorways and create seperation between the players and the invading troops.

 

[VonPickles]

What about a rudimentary weather satellite, for greater ag yield but can be reconfigured for a military application.
Also a modified fertilizer/defoliant again designed to increase yield and reduce weeds, but could be modified to kill crop or defoliate problem areas.

 

[Dragoner]

Tribble proof quadrotriticale!

No, but really, safe gmo foods adapted to the planetary climate, maybe even a robotic microlab to help with agricultural production.....


...but can be adapted to chemical warfare. :devil:

 

[Spinward Scout]

Anagathics. Smuggled or Legal. The top-of-the-line, and very expensive Eterna, or the cheaper and not as potent Methuselex (I just made those names up).

 

[Timerover51]

I have the original copy of Night of Conquest, and also the reprint in the Classic Double Adventures.

The group that you are contacting is Tech Level 4, equating to 1860-1900, and non-human. They evidently share a sufficiently similar bio-chemistry so that food consumption by humans of their standard fare is non-poisonous, so presumably, standard human food would not poison them.

The attackers are humans, with a Tech Level of 6, and operating aircraft of sufficient size to hold 50 combat troops each, and evidently capable of STOL operation, as one lands in the palace garden. The aircraft are about the size of a C-119 Flying Boxcar to carry that many troops (The C-119 is rated at holding 42 paratroops or 62 troop passengers.) They are able to send 7 aircraft in the attack, and then are looking for reinforcements to be brought in by dirigibles three hours after the attack begins.

I will note that in the opening, the K'tring aircraft are described as cutting their engines for landing, and then are referred to as gliders. On the map of the palace grounds showing two of the aircraft from above, they appear to be 4- engine transports, but are described as "gliders". Each transport is stated to have carried 50 troops, so they are fairly large aircraft.

The crew and contact team of the Scotian Huntress are at the palace, approximately 2.5 to 3 kilometers from the ship, which is located at the airship port. I am assuming that what you are looking for is some form of dual use equipment that your adventurers could use to get from the palace to the airship port.

The first thing that immediately comes to mind is a helicopter, although it may not be large enough to take the entire off-world party in one lift. If you broke it down and then assembled it to demonstrate, you could get a Huey into your cargo hold without excessive problems. The other thing in terms of aircraft would be something on the order of a light, STOL transport such as a DeHavilland Beaver or Otter, which you should be able to get away with landing on the palace grounds. By the way, there is no such thing as a non-military helicopter. If you used a small helicopter, then you could have part of your party fly to the Scotian Huntress, and pick up weapons, leaving a couple of people to defend the ship while the chopper returns to the palace to drop weapons off to the remainder of the party. Aircraft have the same option, but might simply drop the weapons to those remaining at the palace.

This is at night, so any form of night-vision equipment would be extremely handy. Handheld radios would also be very useful, as your party could split up to avoid immediate capture while getting back to the ship. Something like a pick-up truck could be used to get back to the ship, while having your party fight off intercepting K'tring. An ATV would be a possibility as well, and using the river as your escape route. Again, your party would have to deal with intercepting opponents. At Tech Level 4, you are looking at the beginning of large-scale electric power use, so the streets are not going to be that well-lit. The palace, presumably, has its own electric generator plant, so having night-vision gear, in conjunction with knocking out the palace power plant might be an option as well.

I am not going to get too crazy, as in both the Traveller Book and the Spinward Marches, Tech Level 9 is equipment circa 2000. As the J'asdje are upright bipeds, massing an average of 60 kilograms, their weapons should be usable by the party, and at Tech Level 4, that would include magazine rifles and carbines, early automatic pistols and fully developed revolvers, and shotguns. Combine these with night vision gear, and you have a substantial advantage over the attackers.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Power tools - especially impact tools. The air compression can be turned to lethal close combat effect. (Whichever Lethal Weapon it was - "I nailed him".) Along the same lines, cordless saws and drills might come in handy as melee weapons.

Mining equipment - should be some explosives in there somewhere. Should also be pipes and large drill bits and such for making spears (or cannon).

Just plain old fireworks should be helpful, too. And, those can be low tech (non-import) - perhaps they were planning a big show at the end.

Household chemicals - bleach and ammonia, obviously, makes an effective mustard gas.

I agree about communication devices. Probably headset-mounted, encrypted, direct-connect devices that the players already have so they can communicate with the crew and make sure they are in the right place at the right time. (If not headsets, make them talk into their wrist cuffs!)

High-tech fire extinguishers - something like an argon system set up to flood a room with a big fire in it as a demo. (Fire or extinguisher could be handy.)

Along the lines of fire, how about napalm sticks? We used to have these as pieces in aircrew survival kits. You hold the stick with your gloved hand, pull the zip ring hard, and it ignites into a little torch that will light totally soaked wood in less than a couple of minutes. Also, flares would be good (this applies to fireworks, too) as they burn terribly hot and tend to spit out little bits of white phosphorous as they burn.

Alternatively, you could just leave them with a heating duct pipe, full beer keg, wood crate, nylon strap, trash can, boards, whiskey, and some unused matches leftover in an ashtray. I'll leave it to you to figure out what can be done with that.