Leif's DISCONTINUED GURPS Traveller Game -- IC01

[Lou]

Jimmy Beam

"I need to drop in on the other places to see what needs to be shipped out. Or we could ask around this place. Someone might need to get something off-world without going through customs."

 

[Shayuri]

"So, in other words, you don't have any cargo," Zoe says, putting her straw down. "You want to rent our cargo space, so you can do spec trading...in our ship." She chuckles. "I'm no economist, but I think if it's trading you want to do...unless you have a lead on something with a really high value-to-volume ratio, the Zax might not be your ship of choice. Making a decent profit on eleven tons of space is a challenge."

 

[Lou]

Jimmy Beam

"Twelve tons is too small to be a trader or smuggler. Have to be custom shipments."

Jimmy moves off to the side and asks the bartender quietly if anyone is looking to ship out anything small, less than 10 tons.

OOC: Ok, how does this work in GURPS Traveller? Roll 3d6 against skill levels and modifiers? Looking for low rolls. Jimmy is 12-15 on all the relevant skills: Diplomacy (IQ/H) 12; Streetwise (IQ/A) 13; Fast-Talk (IQ/A) 13; Savior-Faire (Galactic) (IQ/A) 13; Savior-Faire (Service Industry) (IQ/E) 14; Merchant (IQ/A) 15; Broker (IQ/A) 13. From my reading of Traveller, the BROKER skill is the most important for finding cargo shipments.

 

[Leif]

Inthe/Glisten en route to Edenelt/Trin's Veil -- in the "High Passage" Bar

The Barkeep sizes up Jimmy, winks, and says, "There's a bulletin board you should check right over there," he points to an area past the end of the bar just outside the restrooms. Perusing the bulletin board, Jimmy sees that there is a shipment of 10 tons to Edenelt. The notice is beer-stained and at the very bottom of the bulletin board. It looks like it's been there for some time. The notice was apparently placed by Quahog, Slimer, and Yupyers, Attorneys at Law, and there is a number to call.

 

[Lou]

Jimmy Beam

Jimmy pulls the beer-stained notice off the bulletin board and returns to his seat. "Looks like we may have a winner. What's the standard rate for shipping cargo to Edenelt in these parts. I'd hate to agree to rate that's too low."

OOC: Is there a rate in the books?

 

[Leif]

Inthe/Glisten en route to Edenelt/Trin's Veil -- in the "High Passage" Bar

OOC: Is there a rate in the books?

OOC: There may be one in Free Trader or somewhere, but I haven't been able to locate one in the main book. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's not there.... But, in the true spirit of galactic capitalism, you can always fall back on the "whatever the market will bear" premise.... In other words, make an offer and see if it floats. And the Zax has a growing reputation for only accepting specialized cargo of a somewhat pricey nature.... [even though the only time such pricey cargo has been accepted was in a former incarnation of the game]

 

[Shayuri]

(OOC - True, but it makes sense. That's specialized enough that it would circulate among the relatively small number of people interested in that kind of ship. And the Zax provides Jump 3 drives, which is quite a bit faster than most merchant vessels...making it useful for sensitive, small cargoes that are time-sensitive. I expect that Jump 3 capability is one of the things that keeps them financially solvent.)

 

[Leif]

Inthe/Glisten en route to Edenelt/Trin's Veil -- in the "High Passage" Bar

(OOC - True, but it makes sense. That's specialized enough that it would circulate among the relatively small number of people interested in that kind of ship. And the Zax provides Jump 3 drives, which is quite a bit faster than most merchant vessels...making it useful for sensitive, small cargoes that are time-sensitive. I expect that Jump 3 capability is one of the things that keeps them financially solvent.)

OOC: Well, that, and the fact that Zeering Conglomerate has other, more vital, uses for the Zax that go well beyond trading/cargo speculation. The Conglomerate isn't really that interested in having the Zax be a profitable trading ship. But, still, if her capable crew can manage to offset some of the operating expense of the ship by using some good personal initiative, so much the better! This is just the sort of thing that comes into consideration at bonus time.... Just bear in mind that the Zax doesn't belong to any of you, so profits from trading are, technically, the property of Zeering Conglomerate. (Practically speaking, well, what they don't know won't hurt them, and they're not going to usually be looking over your lading records or checking your logbooks, so they won't necessarily know about any cargo, either.)

 

[Leif]

Inthe/Glisten en route to Edenelt/Trin's Veil -- in the "High Passage" Bar

OOC: I stand corrected yet again! There IS a table in the main GURPS Traveller book, tucked into a sidebar on page 122, that says [AHEM]:

• High Passage = 3,500 CR
• Middle Passage = 1,750 CR
• Low Passage = 175 CR
• Freight (per ton) = 650 CR
• Mail (if fitted) = 10,000 CR
• Speculative Cargo = Varies

When looking for cargo/passengers, any character with Merchant skill may make one roll for each type of cargo once/day. For each successful roll regarding passengers of various sorts, if any are available the number is as follows-- High: 1d/2, Middle: 1d, Low: 2d-3 (you must have someone medically trained to carry low passengers. Luckily you still have npc Doc Hannigan.)

For Freight, roll 1d to determine the number of lots available. Each lot is 4d-4 tons in size, and lots must be accepted/rejected in total -- dividing up a lot of cargo is not allowed. This is where the small size of the hold of the Zax will getcha.

 

[Leif]

Inthe/Glisten en route to Edenelt/Trin's Veil -- in the "High Passage" Bar

OOC: The Zax has 11 tons of cargo hold available (less what Jimmy's stuff takes).

Currently, on Inthe there are 2 lots of cargo bound for Edenelt, which are:
1. 7 tons of legal files (This is the notice that Jimmy pulled off the bulletin board)(also, there is a bonus for delivering this lot expeditiously, and the bonus is proportionate to the expedience of the delivery)
2. 5 tons of stainless flatware

No mail is available, because Inthe is large enough to have established contractors to take care of that.

Our steward will need to make one Merchant skill check for each class of passengers that you are looking for. If the roll succeeds then there are passengers of that class available and you must determine the number available, as stated as follows and also in the previous post. Ordinarily you do this to check for cargo, too, but I usurped your skill roll this time.
Low: 2d-3 (175CR each)
Middle: 1d (1,750CR each)
High: 1d/2 (3,500CR each)

NOTE: You can stash the extra ton of cargo in the Air/Raft bay, if you want. I think there's a specific rule for this somewhere, but I don't know where it is. We'll say for now that you can squeeze out a total of an extra 2 tons of cargo space beyond the regular cargo hold by putting cargo in the empty spaces, under the seats, and behind the spare fuel can in the Air/Raft bay. If you put stuff in the corridors, put a little bit in crew quarters, and maybe hide a cask or three on the bridge, you might even be able to coax a little bit more out of it. We'll burn that bridge when we come to it. Oh, and anyone who knows of GURPS Traveller rules that contradict any of what I just said is invited to clue me in.