Travellerbus 2: Boldly Going Nowhere

[THE MIGHTY GALVATRON]

Bottom post of the previous page:

((Ugh enjoy your tomato ship.))

Ruggero kicks at the ground. "Well that's settled, how long is this paintjob going to take? Do these guys do it in house or is it outsourced?"

[Wyzack]

Don't forget we still need a name. I was thinking something classic like Prometheus. Something old school and intimidating, ya know?

[DemonFiren]

Prometheus...spending half of eternity chained to a rock having your liver pecked out sure sounds intimidating.

[THE MIGHTY GALVATRON]

I was thinking more of the lines of Indefenistrable, myself.

[DemonFiren]

Why not Nonuninflammable, instead?

[Wyzack]

Cyrus waves his hand dismissively. "Too wordy. Maybe shorten it up a bit? Alternatively does anyone else have ideas?"

[Timbrewolf]

While you guys wander out of the dock and off to celebrate the salesman takes your drawing of the desired paintjob and stuffs it into his folder full of paperwork you all signed off on without even noticing.

Congratulations, she's yours.

[Wyzack]

((Aww yiss))

"When can we expect her to be spaceworthy? We should probably line up some cargo or some such before we fly out of here"

[Timbrewolf]

"I need a name to register her under and that takes 2-3 business days turnaround."

[Wyzack]

"How 'bout the Stalwart? Flew a bird in my first tour of duty by that same name, hulled a corsair gullet to asshole with some fancy manouvering too. Good ship."

[THE MIGHTY GALVATRON]

"Might be good if this was a military ship and I had your nostalgia goggles. How do you feel about Mississippi Queen? I can see myself flying in a ship called that."

[Wyzack]

Cyrus grins his lopsided grin

"Know what, I kinda like that."


EDIT((do we actually have no one with the broker skill? And is Scones still playing, i do not think they have posted in a few days

[THE MIGHTY GALVATRON]

((Scones is like Racer X, always helping out and then disappearing.))

"Great! If there's no objections then Mississippi Queen it is!"

[Wyzack]

"Can we move our shit in now or are we stuck at that hostel for a few more days? The bar is sub part and they don't let me smoke in my room."

[Timbrewolf]

He gives you a puzzled look

"I can't have you living inside of a ship on my sales floor. Once everything is registered to you and in order we'll transfer it to a dock here at the station and she's all yours."

[Wyzack]

"Well it was worth a shot anyhow. Cmon guys, let's go see if we can line up a job"

[THE MIGHTY GALVATRON]

"Mr. Salesman, I'm sure you sale many a ships to aspiring travelers. Perhaps you would know where one could take their first job?"

[Timbrewolf]

"Job?" he sighs

"If you guys default on this loan it'll be my ass on the line too. Look, you want to start making money? Gather up all your nickles and dimes and track down a supply of some commodity you guys can sell off at a profit nearby. Buy as much of it as you can at the best price you can get. From there, look for freight jobs, mail, small parcels, information...anything else you can take along with you from A to B and get paid to do it. If you don't mind some strangers crowding around your ship pick up a couple passengers too. When you get to B, cash it all in, pay your bills, and then decide where you want to go next in the universe and do it all over again."

He hesitates, his eyes seem to focus at some far off point in space and he absentmindedly traces a faint scar on the corner of his chin.

"...and maybe if you're smart you'll just find some way to sell this ship of yours at a profit and settle down somewhere nice while you still can. If you want some real advice; don't go looking for adventure. It'll find you, and when you meet it you'll see it's a real ugly motherfucker and nothing like the stories other privateers have filled your heads with. Now get out of my dock, you have money to go make."

[EndgamerAzari]

((Sorry for my absence, I was driving a U-Haul across three states.))

Mac scratches her chin. "What we oughta do is find some rich idiot who's willin' to pay us to ferry his ass somewhere, then figger out what kinda crap sells good on the planet we're takin' him. That way we don't have to shop around as much fer ideas."

[Wyzack]

"Ain't it funny when folks say they want adventure they mean violence, even if they don't know it. I have seen enough in my time.

How about this then. Me, Mac and the doc will go see what kind of wholesalers we can find around, Dick and and his bodyguard can go see what rich folks need passage, then we reconvene tonight. Sound good?"

[Maccus]

"My agent could probably use us travelling off-world. Pretty much anyone remotely attached to me's finding themselves a lot of enemies, know what I mean?"

[Wyzack]

((here is a mockup of what the Mississipi Queen is going to look like))

Spoiler:

"Well then go find out where he want to go and how much money we can squeeze out of him. Lets go guys, we got work to do"

Cyrus walks out, places a cigarrette in his mouth, and lights it with a battered metal zippo with engravings on the side

EDIT:((What is Trin actually like? Is it like Corascant hypertech city with lanes of hovercar traffic zooming between massive gleaming skyscrapers, or is it more like the cities from Cowboy Bebop in the sense that it is more like a modern society with high tech sprinkled here and there?))

[THE MIGHTY GALVATRON]

"Alright, Dick. Any idea where your agent will be at this point in time? Safehouses or anything like that?"

[Timbrewolf]

EDIT:((What is Trin actually like? Is it like Corascant hypertech city with lanes of hovercar traffic zooming between massive gleaming skyscrapers, or is it more like the cities from Cowboy Bebop in the sense that it is more like a modern society with high tech sprinkled here and there?))

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Trin_%28world%29

It's kind of Blade Runner-y. The atmosphere around the planet is thick and hostile. If you're walking around outside in it you'll want to be wearing some kind of mask. It's not inhospitable though, people do grow food on the surface, you just don't want to go out there and get a lungfull of it for yourself. The planet isn't very densely populated for its size, people live in a series of arcologies connected by maglev trains and also do a lot of travel and ferrying via air-vehicles. The buildings themselves aren't the sort of squat, oppressive ziggurats from Blade Runner but rather elegant and very tall structures. People are basically confined to these structures for the most part, and travel inside them is all done on foot or via trams and lifts. Aside from that the planet's surface is littered with gigantic blackened craters. There's a huge belt of debris that surrounds the planet from some previous disasters. There's a reason why this planet seems so abundant and yet it seems kinda underpopulated.

The society is quite nice. It's also quite tolerant. As long as you aren't toting around chemical weapons or high-explosives nobody is going to care that you're lugging around different kinds of guns or whatnot. People are super careful about visitors though, you will only be allowed to enter or leave from a specific dock and the authorities aren't above executing you on the spot if you're caught smuggling.

The history is a little checkered given the important tactical location of the planet itself, but how much your characters know about that is up to you and their own knowledge rolls. Let's just say there's been a bit of violence in the past which explains why people care about their FREEDOMS when it comes to weaponry and such.

[Maccus]

((Says I have a contact, can it be my talent agent/whatever the equivalent is for a semi-successful stand-up comic is in this setting? Could give us an opening for a job.))

[Timbrewolf]

((Says I have a contact, can it be my talent agent/whatever the equivalent is for a semi-successful stand-up comic is in this setting? Could give us an opening for a job.))

((Sure))

[Maccus]

"I could drop him a line, we could meet up here the same time tomorrow. Gonna warn you ahead of time. He's a scummy mothafucka."

[EndgamerAzari]

"What kinda scummy are we talkin' here?"

[Wyzack]

"eugh, alright then Dick you get to bleach his stateroom after we arrive. When you know where he wants to go see if you can find anyone else who needs passage, according to the schematics we have 4 spare staterooms after we are all taken into account, and they can hold 2 people each in a pinch. Get me a destination ASAP so we know what cargo to buy."

[Wyzack]

Cyrus swaggers out of the salesman's place of business, gestures for Mac and Danny to follow him, and then attempts to hail a cab if possible/walk to a transit station or whatever

[Timbrewolf]

Getting cargo, passengers and all that is actually pretty straightforward in Traveller. You just wander down to the starport and start looking. There's a bunch of handy tables to roll on depending on who is looking and what you're looking for. It's pretty easy.

[Maccus]

(I wanna spend this time to make contact with my contact and see what world he'd want to be dropped off at. Since he's an NPC that's up to you, right?)

[Timbrewolf]

(I wanna spend this time to make contact with my contact and see what world he'd want to be dropped off at. Since he's an NPC that's up to you, right?)

Let me give you guys a boot in the right direction, since you don't seem to be getting it.

This map outlines some common trade routes in the area (the green connector lines).
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Trin%27s_Veil_Subsector

Though historically the trade rout leading out of the Trin sector and in to Deneb via Inkekush seems to be regarded as pretty lucrative as well (http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Inkekush_(world))

Trin qualifies for the Trade Codes:
Ga

While Inkekush qualifies for the Trade Codes:
De, Ht, NI, Po

So consulting the handy trade table on page 165 see's that the Trade Good "Basic Raw Materials" might be something worth looking at. You would get a bonus of +2 when buying it here, and if you were to travel to Inkekush with it to sell, you would be getting a +2 for selling it there. This looks like the ideal goody for you with a net +4 swing. You may even find enough to fill up on, if you can afford them. If not, Basic Consumables (at a net +1) or Basic Electronics (also at +1, but higher potential for profit/loss) could fill out your hold, followed by freight, mail, whatever (+ a few spare tons for passenger doodads).

Consulting the passenger table, this trip would have a passenger value of 7. Not that great, but some good Carouse checks or Streetwise checks might bump that up.

The freight table shows a freight traffic rating of 0. As it turns out, nobody ever ships freight from Trin to Inkekush. A quick roll on another chart determines that there is also currently no mail anyone is willing to entrust to you guys on that route.


...and that's how it goes. I would strongly recommend you guys take a minute to do some of that comparison between the nearby worlds to figure out where you guys want to go. You might be able to find a more lucrative jaunt than the Trin -> Inkekush trip I just described for you. You can figure out what Trade Codes a planet has by consulting page 181 of the core book, and then comparing the planets ratings in different categories to the table there. If a planet's scores in each category fall within the listed parameters than it qualifies for that trade code. Page 165 shows which trade goods are available where, as well as roughly outlining demand. A + in the purchase area mean you're more likely to find that good cheaply on that kind of planet, but also will have to sell that item cheaply on that planet. A + in the sale area means demand for that thing is high on that kind of world. Note that only the highest modifier applies, Advanced Electronics do not sell at a +5 on a Rich Asteroid, just at a +3.

-----------------------------------------

From a meta perspective what you're doing would be a good idea in most any other game. You're looking for a plot hook. Plot leads to adventure. Adventure leads to reward. That is how D&D, Shadowrun, and a bunch of other games operate. Traveller is different. In Traveller all the tools for you to get paid are right there in front of you if you do some digging and plan it out for yourself. You can make your own rewards. The adventure and plot come from mishaps and complications along the way.

Walking up to someone and asking "Hey got a job for us?" just isn't how this game normally operates. You have a job. It's filling that ship up with goodies and moving it around.

There's more to this than an economic trade simulator but I'd be lying if I said that economic numbers trade simulator wasn't a HUUUUUUUGE part of it. By all means roleplay it out, continue to interact in character and explore. I'm happy to flesh all of that out for you guys. But if you're trying to figure out where to go next in the game it's what I outlined above.

BUT ANYWAY TO BRING THIS FULL CIRCLE AND BACK TO WHAT YOU ASKED

Your agent explains that there's no place he'd rather be in this sector than Trin. But, being your old agent, he is easily able to shop around the idea of a luxurious space cruise with THE ONE AND ONLY Dick Pryer, funniest man in the whole sector as your personal in flight entertainment. People are pushing and shoving eachother to get on board wherever the hell you end up going ((made a Carouse check for your character, where-ever you end up deciding to go you'll have a +6 bonus to your passenger factor for that trip))

[Wyzack]

Cyrus sits in the cramped hotel room, leaning back in a chair with his feet up on another. The ashtray on the table is piled high with butts, and a thin smoke fills the air. The table is covered with star charts and documents about Trin's Veil, with Cyrus' slanted chickenscratch writing scrawled all over in places. A half empty bottle of cheap whiskey sits off to the side with a few glasses.

"We could try hitting up Edenelt through Katarulu. Katarulu is a little shithole of a rock that really only exists to sustain the naval base there, but Edenelt is bursting with rich people. Might be a lucrative run."

((where are you finding the trade codes on the wiki? I cannot for the life of me find the damn things))

((EDIT: Wait, do you just look at the world codes (desert, high tech ect)) and cross reference that with the trade codes chart at the end of the book? This looks like it is going to take some real life paperwork. I love this kind of autismal micromanaging stuff in muh RPGs, i might have a problem

Also are we in the classic era or new era? Many worlds are different depending on this, i think Trin got fucked up real bad by some marauding ship))

[EndgamerAzari]

((Okay, it's been a while and I haven't read the entire book lately--though I am getting a hard copy in the mail soon--but how are we going to afford our cargo? Do we get sold to on credit or something?))

[Wyzack]

((We have some money from chargen. I have almost 60k and I think Maccus has even more))

[Timbrewolf]

New Era. Yeah you figured it out, you just cross reference the world codes to get the trade codes. ICly there is no big ass sign on a planet that says "WE ARE A DESERT PLANET SO WE BUY THIS CRAP" but it's stuff you could discern the way your character is going about it or wandering around schmoozing/spying up on people at the local trade depot.

Buying stuff can be a little confusing. You want everyone to have a stake in all the junk you bought so that when you sell it everyone gets a cut of the money. If everyone has a ton of cash that is easy. When some characters are loaded and some aren't (like your group) it gets complicated. Figuring out how you guys want to handle that is a small hurdle.

[EndgamerAzari]

((Since some of my gear was, in retrospect, not kosher at character generation, I'll probably have some more cash than initially presented. Going to trade in my arc field claw and laser carbine for a piston fist and a shotgun.))

[Wyzack]

((Dear sweet fuck that is a lot of paperwork and number crunching))

After many hours Cyrus finally looked up bleary eyed from his pile of charts and notes. The ashtray had long since overflowed with butts onto the table and the bottle of whiskey was empty.

"Alright gang, here is the deal on this trade route i have been eying. Here on Trin we can likely secure a decent stock of wood, spices, and some other luxury goods folk may want to buy. There is a three-stop route to Edenelt, bunch of rich bastards on a planet locked down by a militaristic government. Still, as long as we play nice we should not have any problems. It is about two weeks to hit Katarulu, then another 1 for Papernium, and another for Edenelt. Katarulu is a bit of a sorry planet, nothing but a colony supporting a navy base, i was stationed out there once or twice in my navy days. Still, folk there need stuff like anyplace else, we can sell most of our goods from Trin here and fill the cargo space with any other goods we can get our hands on, preferably those of a technical nature. From there it is a 1 week trip to Papernium, a low tech agri world. Here we can unload any tech we picked up on Katarulu, they love the shit on little rocks like that. This will hopefully give us the cash we need for our first payment on the Queen. The best part though, is that we can load up on luxury items on Papernium. Silk, spice, wood, anything we can get. It will be a straight shot to Edenelt, where we can likely make a pretty penny off all of it. We can also see about ferrying any passengers or mail we can get our hands on, we will likely have the space.

I know that is a lot to take in, but we need to talk dosh. Specifically, how are we gonna buy our first load of cargo. This is gonna have to come out of pocket. I am in this for the long haul, and i have 50k in solid credits i can throw at this first run, but that might not be enough. What other capital do we have?"

[EndgamerAzari]

((Okay, so I exchanged my stupid-high-tech stuff for lower gear, so I'm not entirely broke. I have 4425.))

Mac whistles. "Shit, that's a lot. All I can spare is about 4k, but I'll chip it in. Sounds like you've got a solid plan put together."

[Wyzack]

"Alright, 54k is a start, but not nearly enough to get us the cash for our first ship bill. How about the rest of you?"

((also who has the highest intelligence/social standing mod? Since apparently there is not a broker among us we need to use the smartest instead, which is probably Mac))

[Maccus]

(I have a social standing of 10, which is, y'know, decent.)

[nsos]

Danilo closes his eyes and tries to recall a bunch of transactions from bank statements he skimmed over maybe once or twice. "I have about...18 grand. I'll leave the logistics and flight plan to you guys."

[EndgamerAzari]

Mac sucks at her teeth, a little extra color surfacing in her ruddy cheeks. "Damn, I didn't know I was that bad with money..."

[Wyzack]

"Don't take it so bad Mac, buncha chintzy bastards in the Navy. Part of the reason i left. You would not believe how hard it was to get them to pay for this arm of mine after i lost the real one in service to our glorious Empire." Cyrus waves his cybernetic left arm. "Anyways, 72 grand is a pretty decent pot. How about you Dick, i am sure a svelte black comedian like yourself must be rolling in cash eh?"

((Can someone direct Scones to this thread, at the very least so they can pitch some money for our first cargo run))

[Timbrewolf]

((I'll get on the Scones phone. He's been really busy with some IRL stuff but that's the advantage of play-by-post))

[EndgamerAzari]

((Just for future reference, as the contribution stands now, Mac's share of the profit is 5%, Danilo's is 25%, and Cyrus's will be 70%.))

[Wyzack]

((Honestly we are barely going to have enough to pay our first bill, and anything left over will be needed to buy more cargo. Realistically at this point everyone can expect a 0% return for the next few in game months))

[THE MIGHTY GALVATRON]

((We have people with professions we could like, do odd jobs too for extra pocket change right? We can do comedy acts, medical care and other junk while hauling cargo too.))

[Timbrewolf]

Helpful railroading GM tip:

While watching you guys fret over money is, in some ways, the meat of this game, I don't want you to get out the gate feeling completely doomed. Only moderately doomed. I'm not sure you have yet factored in the potential profit from ferrying high-class passengers around as well as your goods. You have two characters with Steward 1, which would ideally allow you to take care of 8 high class passengers per trip. You also have THE FUCKING RICK PRYER on board, and his ridiculously high Carouse skills should allow you to attract a pretty consistent group of space tourists willing to pay big bucks.

If you double up on bunking you should have 7 state rooms available, which (if you can get those high class fairs) is a potential swing of up to 84,000 credits per (two parsec) trip. Pure profit. You might also get another 7,200 credits from your six low-berths but that's iffy...not everyone who goes into the freezer comes out alive.

If you can't afford to fill your cargo-hold on your first trip out, thems the breaks. That's what freight is for. You'll find a way.

[Maccus]

Dick smiles, smoothing out his black shirt under his red suit jacket. "Well," he says, "I gots about 130,000 credits to my name right now."