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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 9044788" data-attributes="member: 82106">Exactly! For instance, we can ask ourselves what characteristics the ideal Trade system would have in Classic Traveller. The answers will NOT INVOLVE realism to very great extent, and will not involve economic simulation AT ALL. The main successful traits will be that the system produces marginal gains for the PCs involved, in fact that it should, ideally NOT be sufficient to support them, certainly not in any style. It should largely prevent them from settling down into a fixed 'trade route' or schedule, since that would become dull and routine, and inhibit the exploration of the Universe that is a thrust of the game. It should probably be amenable to player skill in deploying character resources and leveraging their strengths such that a skill game of "successful at trade" (which will of course involve some 'interesting' activities) should be possible, etc. Obviously this system should be plausible, it should involve the buying or offering to transport goods and the selling or off-lading them at various ports of call, complete with a sense of the various legal and financial factors involved. None of this need be realistic at all, really, just ticking a few boxes that match player's preexisting notions of what trade entails. And I would maintain that this is the main thrust of PFS type play, or other closely-related forms. It isn't about an accurate portrayal of reality at all. It is about being plausible enough that the players expect things to work how they do work, most of the time. They can plan, reason, employ their planning and reasoning skills, and generally participate in imagining themselves in their roles. This works great, and often realism is actually the ENEMY of this sort of play, not its friend! Its just like the very core conceits of the Traveller Universe, jump drive, anti-gravity, fusion power, etc. etc. etc. is all employed in the construction of a specific sort of genre, exists ONLY FOR THAT VERY PURPOSE. It is classic PFS in a nutshell!</blockquote>

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