Spec Trader

[Leitz]

One of the interesting things I've seen in life is that people will apply themselves to all sorts of skills and endeavors. When they work hard their achievements are noticeable. For example: olympic sports, cheerleading, rodeo bull riding, writing game notes on ship design, etc. People work hard, achieve, compete, and roll dice in a sense. With that in mind, I offer the rough draft of a new Merchant type.

Spec Trader

A branch of Merchant focused on the Speculative Trade process and Market Development.

	Life	Service	Officer	Development
1	Combat	Persuade	Liaison	Liaison
2	Carouse	Investigate	Legal	Computer
3	Streetwise	Admin	Leader	Legal
4	+1 Edu	Broker	+2 Edu	+1 Edu
5	+1 End	Vehicle	Admin	Science(Any)
6	+1 Int	Leader	Ship Skill	Trade(Any)
7	+2 Edu	Legal	Ship Tactics	+1 Soc
+2 DM	Int 8+	Terms 3+	Rank O3+	Terms 3+

The first two columns are for either career path. The Officer column is for commissioned Merchants in the Spec Trader Branch. The Development column is for those in the Market Development Branch.

First Term Spec Traders gain one form of personal weapon skill at 0, one small vehicle type skill at 0, and either Engineering-0 or Gunnery-0 for ship skills. A character may enlist in or move between Branches at any time during reenlistment, assuming a second enlistment roll is made to convince the hiring mechanism.

The Speculative Trade process, and related skills:

Learn Local	Carouse, Investigate
Find Cargo	Admin, Streetwise
Estimate Value	Trader
Arrange Funding	Liaison, Admin
Buy	Broker
Transit	Regular Merchant Skills
Sell	Broker

The Spec Trader bridges produces and consumers. Dear Aunt Sally may make the best plum jam for three counties but it's a financial drain for her. A Spec Trader finds those first distant markets and sells the product at a 200% mark up. Aunt Sally is rolling in money now that she has a reliable market (the Spec Trader) and she can focus on jams, not trucking and selling to the individual buyer.

Note that many small businesses in-house the Spec Trader functions for greater profits. Often external Spec Traders will build a relationship, legal or personal, to provide income over the course of time. While a successful venture standardizes after some months the first rush can be profitable for everyone concerned.

Market Development involves finding products that have value but no market penetration, or seeing a need and building the team, organization, and support processes to produce, market, and sell the product on a profitable scale. Think "Facebook" and most of the businesses that come up with a gadget, have it built in China, and then sell it in the US.

For both career paths a high Edu is relevant; it provides the millions of data points needed to estimate value and get ahead of the market.

Unsure how to remove the extra lines in the post above the tables, they don't appear in the edit pane.

 

[coliver988]

I like the idea and execution. I'll have to try & generate some characters just to see how it goes.

And you may be recreating either Amazon or Etsy for dear Aunt Sally. Wonder if the Spec Trading companies then start to produce their own similar products at a discounted price, in a reverse of companies creating their own spec merchants.

 

[Leitz]

I like the idea and execution. I'll have to try & generate some characters just to see how it goes.

And you may be recreating either Amazon or Etsy for dear Aunt Sally. Wonder if the Spec Trading companies then start to produce their own similar products at a discounted price, in a reverse of companies creating their own spec merchants.

Would love to hear any ideas on improving the system!

I tend to think in smaller venues; a spec trader "organization" might well reproduce Aunt Sally's jams if the market looks good. However, the skills required to build and maintain an industrial complex, even a small one, would mean a new hiring spree for the organization and a core shift in focus. In that position I'd be more inclined to build a partnership with someone who already has those skills. Probably ensure Aunt Sally is on retainer too; positive marketing is a good thing!

My focus on entrepreneurial scale ventures is also the basis for lack of fixed rank, though the plan in my head may need revamping. Here's what I'm thinking.

A Spec Trading Organization (STO) finds a potential Cr 5,000/month net profit project. Trader Jamison (TJ) has been doing a fantastic job of turning raw data into actionable market plans and on the side has attended a couple of leadership seminars. The Boss calls TJ into her office, lays out the project outline, and offers him the Project Lead role. TJ accepts and has just been "commissioned". TJ has a quarter of one junior admin's time and a bump in organizational data access.

The project was TJ's first and had some rough times. However, he met expectations and The Boss watched how he recovered from mistakes. A year later a Cr 50,000/month net project comes TJ's way. He now has an assistant Project Lead, a full administrative assistant, and a Financial Officer tagged to quickly provide feedback on cost and profit estimations. TJ does well again, and The Boss grants a bonus for the entire team.

A couple years later TJ saw the MCr 50/month net project in the making. He had been training on his own but was honest about his abilities. A chat with The Boss lands him a Second Assistant VP slot in the project; TJ gets to sit in with the STO's major players and learn the skills to further his career.

In military parlance TJ started as Enlisted and then earned a commission and O-1. He later gets promoted and is the "Captain" of a very small ship; there's a First Officer assigned and an engineer aboard. Lastly TJ takes a Fourth Officer billet on a very large ship. While rank wise it moves him down, career wise it is a big step up.

Thoughts?