It's growing on me...
...of course I'd want to add a little colour to your idea. Just to keep it from being boring (no offense intended, but as is why bother, just do the adventures, ignore the trade entirely, presume break even). In a trade centric game the trade should be the bulk of time and occassionally interesting in itself and adding some colour will make it more real imo. And you can't adventure all the time
I was thinking Skills will have to factor in somehow, BUT as noted the table is break even as is, so just presume it already factors in minimum skills. Rather than factor higher skills towards profit/loss as a DM, just presume more revenue is traded off by higher salary and it still evens out.
I have to speak to Broker skill. It is not a skill Travellers should have imo. That's for the people who live on a planet and work there. And again with tbeard's table, you just presume that the best broker is hired and they are paid out of the result. Simple. Elegant.
I do think it should be based somehow on the types of worlds visited though. Still giving it some thought, don't want to mess with the elegance of the system. What I mean is the break even system (ty's system, it needs a name ty
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) works for me, IF one presumes the players are operating in systems that will support them.
I prefer that Free-Traders operate in the niches, scrounging up trade and pax from the leftovers or where the better services don't go. So maybe the norm (i.e. no DM) is Class C and D starports (ignore pop, starport is the traffic) where they can find enough to stay in business without being squeezed out by the big guys. While the Class A and B sytems (the big boy systems) and the Class E and X systems (the nobody in their right mind tries to make money there systems) are both a -1DM on the regular trade (for their own reasons), but no DM on the risky trade (they are by definition risky systems to trade in). So the players will probably "work" (normal trade table) in the Class C and D systems most of the time but sometimes have to (or want to) go through other systems where normal trade is difficult but risky trade is a reasonable option.
And perhaps to flesh out the simple system tie the roll into the percentage of the hold and staterooms that are occupied? High rolls mean fuller loads, lower rolls mean running emptier? Knowing how many pax and how much cargo one has is bound to be required info at some point.
An optional system that I probably should have included is this -- breaking even includes the payment of all required crew salaries. If PCs fill these roles, they get the salary that month.
However -- this system partially defeats my goal of requiring adventures to be the primary source of spare cash for adventurers. In this case, a PC will get Cr1,000 to 6,000 per month.
Works fine with my heretical divide (almost) all Book 2 prices by 10
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That way they only get a couple hundred a month, hardly enough to retire or go shopping crazy on.
The current CT economic system rewards dull (and unchallenging) trade table manipulation rather than *real* adventure. My system makes *adventuring*, not mere dice rolling, the main source of reward.
As it should be IMHO.
Agreed (largely), to a point. But the trade system does at least make the players think about the systems they intend to travel to/through. Can they get enough pax and cargo to make the payments? Where is the best place to sell that spec cargo? That sorta thing. I think your system needs something like that. Not sure my idea above is on the right track towards it but I think it might be. Just needs a little more noodling and proper stating.
EDIT: And while I'm composing you go and changed things up
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Not sure how that affects my points but take that into account.