Trade, Commerce and Random Trade Generators

[ddamant]

Curious, what rules do people prefer for trade and commerce?

Book 2? My favorite. The only issue I have is tech level differences between the buying and selling world are ignored. +/- 10% per TL between the source and destination world seems reasonable to me for all goods other than raw materials.

Merchant Prince? Always seemed rather bland to me.

Don McKinney's Trade and Commerce rules? Detailed. Lots of die rolls Boring for players to sit through while the Referee makes a million rolls.

Something else?

In the past I have tried using Don's but I find that the sheer number of die rolls far too time consuming, slowing down the game.

Have there been programs or apps created which can assist a Referee during play?

 

[The Pakkrat]

I enjoyed the detail in Merchant Prince with all its events and encounters and mishaps. The taxation by Government is also a proper money sink. What I didn't lIke was the range of 40% buying steals to 400% profit. Too overpowered. But our Wednesday night meta-sessions were exciting to see the ship's cargo hold make money on the side from the Mercenary Mission Tickets. It helps to field an 800dT Broadsword Mercenary Cruiser.

But in solo play, I'll prefer to throw Flux dice in Traveller5. The system is simpler, taxes are subsumed in prices buying and selling. I could use more condensed listing of all money sinks pertaining to ship, crew and specialists.

 

[robject]

I frankly like Book 2's "roulette" system. It's fun and winnable, but you can have long dry periods while you're wandering the starlanes looking for those great port-pairs.

But in reality, Book 2 is not much more than Merchant Prince with an equipment list fronting it. And T5 is a reworked Merchant Prince.

So: take the Book 2 list and base prices, and modify the price using T5's modifiers instead of the Book 2 modifiers. And see what happens (maybe it's a dud, but maybe it's interesting).

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I use Marc Miller's rule for trade.

 

[Supplement Four]

I frankly like Book 2's "roulette" system. It's fun and winnable, but you can have long dry periods while you're wandering the starlanes looking for those great port-pairs.

Here-here, Mr. Eaglestone!

I'll second that!:coffeesip:



@ddamant

I know you're talking about mechanics, but one of the best things that helps me in a game is to really know my subsector.

Check out this thread: READING A SUBSECTOR.

Once you have a good feel for your subsector, then you can figure, pretty much, the major trade routes (outside of the X-Boat lanes), not unlike the extra trade routes in the Aramis subsector shown in TTA.

Get a handle on TL first. Where's the highest tech?

Why are Amber Zones and Red Zones restricted?

Are any worlds non-industrial?

What is the population on each world?

What is the atmosphere--if you've got one that is Earth-like, then that's probably your breadbasket for the subsector, unless the the population is too low to have multiple farmers.

I always think this kind of stuff is neat. Marc once said that he loves generating worlds randomly and then trying to figure out how they got that way. I do dearly love that creative exercise, too.





Once you start answering these questions, it makes your subsector come alive. One question I always try to figure out is: Where does the wood come from? Too many worlds under the Traveller generation system will not support forests. What if this world is also an Amber Zone? Maybe the populace is pissed that its forests are being stripped into extinction, and they are attacking--and the world is only TL 4! That's an interesting world, right there, already, and I only know three things about it: It's a vital source of wood for the subsector, it is over cut and the populace is pissed and aggressive to offworlders, but they're only at TL 4. They're riding horses or using equivalents of WWI vehicles.

Isn't this a grand game! :coffeegulp:





EDIT: The TL will also tell you where NPCs are most often from--which world. Your TL 4 guys are going to stay at home as they're not advanced enough to go into space. Even if they have a Class A starport. The world is a stop over.

Your Travellers are generally going to be from the TL A+ worlds.

Of course, there's always exceptions.

Once you start viewing the subector in these terms, though, it becomes smaller and smaller. You start to see which worlds dominate politically though power of trade and technology.

 

[aramis]

Curious, what rules do people prefer for trade and commerce?

Book 2? My favorite. The only issue I have is tech level differences between the buying and selling world are ignored. +/- 10% per TL between the source and destination world seems reasonable to me for all goods other than raw materials.

Merchant Prince? Always seemed rather bland to me.

Don McKinney's Trade and Commerce rules? Detailed. Lots of die rolls Boring for players to sit through while the Referee makes a million rolls.

Something else?

In the past I have tried using Don's but I find that the sheer number of die rolls far too time consuming, slowing down the game.

Have there been programs or apps created which can assist a Referee during play?

T20 adapted back to MT. I had some undue influence on T20 T&C... except for the good table itself, many of the differences can be attributed to playtesters. Blame me for the 3d6 Actual Value Table, and the double occupancy staterooms and passage prices. Hunter and/or MJD did the expanded goods table.

The differences from CT aren't that huge, but I like them.

 

[Timerover51]

I just use the Book 2 table, but first determine what any given planet is likely to have for export, and what would be favorable imports to a planet. That does take time, but I have the time to work it up. I also run transport charges a bit differently so that the massive swings in purchase cost and profit are less needed. However, there can be times when someone on a planet has to dump some material, and someone on a planet will do whatever is necessary to get some material.

I always figure that seafood to an arid planet is good for luxury goods treatment.

 

[Orr]

I currently use Merchant Prince with a few flourishes from SWN's Suns of Gold. When I say I use it, I mean that I, the referee use it and use it alone.

My players do not use the system. It is a "black box" to them. They know what the usual "inputs" are; trade codes, supply and demand, brokers, all of that. They know what the "outputs" is because that's what I present them. What they don't know is how I used the "input' to create the "output". They don't know what the tables, rolls, and DMs produced. They only know is presented to them and that allows me, the referee, to add or remove what I see fit for the needs of the adventure.

Trade isn't a "meta" process in my game. The players don't make choices with all the tables and DMs solely in mind. Neither do tables and DMs solely determine what options there are to choose from. The reason I've added concepts like "friction" from Suns of Gold is that those concepts help me use trade as a "pull" or "push" more easily.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that trade in my game is a means toward an end rather than an end in and if itself.

 

[Supplement Four]

Trade isn't a "meta" process in my game. The players don't make choices with all the tables and DMs solely in mind.

Good show, my man! Very good. Bravo! :rofl: