What can you do with 10,000 Credits?

Why ten thousand credits? No profound reason. It is a common amount of Retirement Pay. It shows up in a few places in TTB as a cost of things (see below). Looking at the Mustering Out Tables, 10,000 is not hard to come by. But it can go again quickly if a PC is not careful. I also figured this would be useful to Referees in determining how much to pay the Travellers for their current job. Don't be a cheapskate, but don't Monty Haul them either.

In terms of Long-term Subsistence, 10,000 Credits will pay for almost an entire year, at the High Living level, to give you a sense of scale. But remember this game was written in the 1970’s when a decent starter house might only cost $10-20,000. Oh, how times have changed.

Is it really an adventure if there's no treasure involved?

I combed through the Traveller Book and my blog for any reference to paying for things. Here's what I found: 10,000 Credits will buy a Traveller:

Forget Adventuring, Become a Broker!

 In the article High Finance by Terry McInnes from JTAS #13 

"After a character has reached his late 50's or early 60s - an age when rough and tumble adventuring loses its appeal, he may wish to . . . settle into the brokerage business. Cargo brokers help ship captains get increased prices for their goods and charge a percentage of the final price for their services. Brokers also arrange the sale of goods by planetside farmers and manufacturers to ship captains who invest in these cargoes for resale to another world."

Cargo Brokering. Wow. You can make an absurd amount of money with this little technique, all without the wear and tear of adventuring. I ran the numbers, keep reading and you'll see.

So you're sure this cargo isn't illegal on this world, right? Ohhh-kay.

The general process is this: the Referee determines the number of captains per week who may want to contract with the broker. This is presented in the article as always being a non-zero number. Perhaps this should be modified by the starport rating of the world the PC works from.

A Useful Table - Random Values for Things

Recently I had two PCs who were exploring the hinterlands of an island on Tifur. This island was inhabited by large reptilian creatures - dinosaurs. They came upon one such hostile beast, about the size of a bull elephant – 14,000 kg.

Oh lucky you. You encountered a T-Rex.

Sounds like Frightening Animal Encounter time, right?

Wrong.

Their ATV had an Auto-Rifle in a mount on top. The dino appeared at long range, and even at speed 3 it took it three rounds to close in on the PCs. By then the Auto-Rifle had filled it full of lead. [Auto-Rifle vs. Jack armor is +6 to hit; in effect, an auto-hit. And two throws to hit each combat round.]

So now the PCs have this dead dino. What to do with it? There's no way they could have butchered it and saved even a tenth of the dino meat. So they decided instead to skin it.

The PCs returned to the logging camp and the port town with 700 kg worth of dino hide. This presented me with another problem. How do I determine how much a dino skin is worth?

Crew of the Bonaventure

May is cleanup time here at the AF3 blog. I'm perusing my files for post drafts, finishing them, and putting them up. It's going to be a mixed bag, I suspect. 

To start off, here is the Merchant ship Bonaventure, and its crew. I created these years ago with the idea of using them as the cast of short stories, but the stories never materialized. Maybe they'll show up in my monthly game as NPCs. Maybe they'll show up in your game as NPCs! If they do, please leave me a comment and tell us about it.

"Parking orbit, please Mr. Hammilton." "Aye, Sir."

The US Merchant Marine ship Bonaventure is registered in New Maryland.

Owner/Navigator Jason Hammilton 7A5D98 Age 42 Merchant 3rd Officer

Navigation-4, Leader-2, Vaccsuit-1, Electronics-1, Mechanical-1, Gun Combat-0, Broker-2, Trader-2, Administration-2

Captain Hammilton has dreamed of running his own starship since he was a child. He was level-headed enough to see that more than dreaming was required. He took every opportunity he could to learn about merchant operations and taught himself how to be successful. Once he felt he was ready, he left his job and bought his own ship. He is very aware of the debt burden he’s put himself under but it keeps him focused on succeeding.

Quote: “You have two choices. One, realize that I’m in command here and get in line. Two, get your sorry ass off my ship. You have one minute to decide.”

Pilot Derek T Hammilton 7998A8 Age 38 Navy Commander

Pilot-4, Leader-1, Pistol-2, Computer-2, Ship Tactics-2, Vaccsuit-1

Derek has been piloting since he was 18. He has piloted everything from yard tugs to heavy cruisers. Bonaventure is an easy assignment for him. Mostly he took the job to work with his cousin Jason. He is orderly, efficient and confident. He reads a lot and always is looking for new ship types & classes to add to the catalog he is writing.

Quote: “This crate is easy. You should have seen the panel on this one destroyer I was on. Talk about inefficient.”

Non-State Actors in the Corridor

For this post I have relied heavily on the personal & group name tables provided in Stars Without Number. Even if you don't intend to play them, support the publishers of free games by picking up their stuff and sharing what's good about them!

In my Traveller Universe, there are some religious radicals, but the 10th century of the Space Age is more an era of political loopiness and wannabe world dictators, like the Yedos. (See Homesteader's Stand) Every crackpot political idea of the 20^th century, like every Christian heresy, will rear its ugly head again. 
Fascists!

Communists!

Anarchists!

Monarchists!

Oh My!

Across the map

Lots of rich guys think it's cool to have a private army to secure their big estates, settle scores and do the occasional job to disadvantage their rivals. Nobles are expected to have personal bodyguards and armed retinues.

Arms dealing, especially across TL lines, is frowned upon as being destabilizing, is done constantly, is highly profitable and often is very dangerous. Competition is fierce. 

There are several trade/cargo conglomerates. They are not beholden to any nation or state. These too have their own Private Military Contractors, including armed ships to defend their transports. The PMCs will guard docks, warehouses and ships. Private Naval Contractors, aka Privateers do 'jobs' in space.

Companies & corporations of any size and location may have PMCs.

Say No to generic equipment

Classic Traveller's vehicle section is not the game's strongest point - starships get a lot more coverage, and more detail. Striker has vehicle design rules, but for most folk that's too much detail. Here I propose an experiment; not yet a house rule. By means of a table already part of the game we can introduce variables into the generic vehicle designs, which can be just background/color or a plot hook. Please feel free to tell me whether you think this will work or not.

Who are you calling a Pirate?

Pirates! 

And you laugh at the Marines for using cutlasses.

They're everywhere in Traveller. Every group of Travellers will encounter pirates at some point in their adventurous career; it's almost a requirement. Piracy is a popular and often-debated topic, but how do you decide who's a pirate and who isn't? Does the Third Imperium have a definition of piracy? The Traveller Wiki says no; this entry simply assumes that piracy exists.

All right, then, I'll do it.  

Small Cargoes - Amber Zone Reviews # 31

Everybody knows "small packages" is a Trader euphemism for smuggled goods.

Amber Zone: Small Cargoes, by J. Andrew Keith

Location: the planet Karin (SM/Five Sisters 0504)

Patron: Kyle Veristan, a businessman from Penelope, a planet one hex from Karin

Mission: Quietly deliver a package to his sister on Karin, avoiding import duties – in other words, smuggling.  The smuggled goods are pharmaceuticals which the sister needs.

 

Short Shelf Life, deliver at once!

Complications: The package is on the restricted items list on Karin, so discovery will carry significant penalties – fines rather than imprisonment/execution. There are multiple layers of customs inspection to get past in order to make the delivery.

Payoff: Cr 500,000 to the group, payable upon confirmation of delivery of the goods.

Strong Points: This could be a good solo mission: it has a stronger motivation behind it than Chariots of Fire - the goods are medicine which the patron's sister needs to live. So it's a mercy mission, forced to be a criminal job by bureaucracy. The alternative endings given introduce further complications and can serve to lead into other adventures.

Weak Points: Overall I have enjoyed Mr. Keith's work, but not this time. As I have observed about several other Amber Zones, I don't like that the patron is specifically asking the PCs to commit a crime. At least the reason this time is more legitimate, it's a humanitarian type mission. The Amber Zone as written requires the PCs to engage in  smuggling & bribery, so PCs without those essential social skills are likely to feel left out; as well as the combat-oriented PCs. One other thought. If the patron has that much cash to hand out to the PCs, why isn't he doing any of this himself?

In particular, please do not confiscate and incarcerate.

What I'd change: This does not have to be a criminal enterprise at all, and I would encourage players to try non-criminal methods. The whole challenge of this adventure as written can be gotten around by persuading the sister to cross the extrality line, and giving her the pharma where it's legit. The patron could set up a regular round trip for her to get her dosage, he's got the cash for lots of high passages. The sister's medical condition is real, and one assumes documented, so that it would be easy to explain frequent trips. 

 

 PCs could also go to the Navy, be completely upfront about what they want to do, and use Admin/Liaison or any other reaction modifiers they can think of to persuade the Navy patrols to grant an exception. They're getting paid half a million, I think they could afford a few fees/penalties for the extra paperwork. A sympathetic diplomat or priest (somebody with both pull and immunity) could be brought in to lend their persuasiveness to granting an exception, and no illegality would have to be employed.

In My Traveller Universe: I would set this adventure in the Union of Socialist Worlds, which has the most reason to want to restrict imports to their worlds.

Without a Trace - Amber Zone Reviews #30

Without a Trace by J. Andrew Keith from JTAS #18

Location: Banasdan and Arcturus, in the Solomani Rim

Patron: Mr. Urshukaan, president of Lamark Minerals, LLC. 

Mission: A Lamark ore carrier, the Solaria, has disappeared and the patron wants the PCs to find out what happened to it. One lead points toward the Arcturus system, a planetoid belt system extensively mined by Lamark. 

Payoff: Cr 50,000 fro the group, with 10% available as an advance for fees. The group may use Lamark transport to the Arcturus system; they are given travel vouchers to secure in-system transportation. 

Complications: Arcturus belt is vast and a ship of any size has virtually unlimited places in which to disappear, if it's even there at all. 

Strong points: This is a solid, straightforward mystery; well presented. Determining the fate of the Solaria, and what the PCs should do about it, will be about the players asking good questions and following the right leads. The conclusion of this adventure presents the players with a moral issue to address.  Also, this adventure was written as an intro/lead-in to Adventure 11 Murder on Arcturus Station, published shortly after this issue. 
     Depending on the outcome of this adventure, the PCs can expect to get more offers of work from Lamarck Minerals. 

Weak points: A quibble, really. The Solaria is modeled on the Leviathan-class ships. The deckplans from Adventure 4 could be helpful if & when the PCs find the Solaria. Without Adv 4, the referee will have to mock up all the deckplans.

What I'd change: This is another Amber Zone that stands up well on its own; I would perhaps add to it, rather than change it. The referee's information includes the truth that Lamarck does not treat its employees very well. I would then include an NPC to impress this perspective on the PCs. They encounter a monk or priest who travels about the belt offering spiritual counsel and comfort to oppressed workers. He could accompany the PCs on their search, explaining the conditions and pressures that led to the Solaria's disappearance. The priest could assist in resolving the confrontation at the climax of the adventure. 

     As an alternative to the storyline given, what if the people who caused the Solaria's disappearance were planning to turn pirate, or use the ship in a terror strike against Lamarck HQ in Arcturus?

In my Traveller Universe: I would locate Lamarck Minerals and this adventure in Sutter's Belt, a planetoid system in the Dothan Alliance (Dothan-Talaveran subsector).

There is no map for this adventure, given the breadth of a solar system-wide planetoid field.

Food - We need Food! Four reasons why food is The Big Trade Item

Four Reasons why food, not power or fuel, will be THE big trading commodity in a Traveller universe

Harder to grow than you might think

The review of the Amber Zone "Foodrunner" caused me to think about the need for food in the Far Future. Eating, on a regular basis, is and always has been the major occupation of mankind. Barring any sci-fi alterations to our biology (which would change what it means to be human) the need for food will still be of major importance in the future.  It is as simple as supply and demand, as I will now demonstrate:

Demand: Everyone eats. Everyone needs to eat regularly, as in every day, and everyone needs to eat a certain quantity of food every day. This demand is constant. There are, by current count, 11 TRILLION people living in My TU. At 3kg per person per day (not a scientifically rigorous figure, but it is reasonable), this is 33 BILLION TONS of food consumed PER DAY. That's a lot of food. Certainly, some people or worlds are going to get more than that bare minimum share, while others will get less. But it averages out, for the level of granularity I'm working with here. Humans need between 2.7 and 3.7 liters of water per day to avoid dehydration and its attendant ills. (1)


As an example most folk will find familiar, take the planet Coruscant, from the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The Wookiepedia claims that this world has not a Billion, but a Trillion inhabitants, and that the planet's surface is one continuous city. Going with the basic human standards I mentioned above, they need to generate 3 billion tons of food and 4.07x10^14 liters (407,000,000,000,000) of water per day. Every day.

Takeout, anyone? 

Now, on to the Supply side of the discussion. 

1) Limit to Supply: Humans have definite biological tolerances, which cannot be exceeded. Our bodies need certain things and need to avoid certain other things to go on living. As such food, in order to be food, must be within those biological tolerances.

2) Limit to Supply: Flora and fauna are directly related (on a chemical level) to the soil [i.e. planet] they come from. This affects how well they meet condition one, above. Humans IMTU live on some very un-earth-like planets, that by the fact of their planetary chemistry (a lot of planets have 'tainted' atmospheres) are not going to produce human food without some serious modification. Which means it costs more money to grow food on that world. The more it costs to grow something, the less of it there is, or the harder it is to acquire.

3) Limit to Supply: Even on more Earth-like planets, there are places where it is difficult to grow food (too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry, not enough soil). The United States, one of the major food producers on Earth, has only 16.9% of it's land area classed as arable land, and 4.9% of our imports are agricultural products - food. (2)  Humans are limited in where the food will grow, and face added cost in making food grow in less-than-optimum locations.

4) Limit to Supply: All modifications to make flora & fauna edible will cost money, which takes away from other sectors of the economy, so it may not be profitable to raise food everywhere. The more assistance the food needs to grow, the more workers are going to be necessary, which takes labor away from other areas of the economy.  Artificially grown food (hydroponics) and chemically derived foodstuffs ('food concentrates' 'food cubes') have their own expenses, for the raw materials and infrastructure but this may be able to be overcome by bulk production. Furthermore, food must be transported, and while bulk transport is relatively inexpensive, transport costs do add up, especially over multiple jumps.

      By comparison, hydrogen, the fuel of choice for fusion power generation in Traveller, is extremely plentiful throughout MTU. In fact, it is the most common element in the known universe. While it may not be super-accurate to assert this in the real world, in Traveller, all Jovian or Gas Giant planets are big balls of hydrogen which is free for the scooping. Hydrogen fusion is introduced at TL 9, which most all of the planets IMTU have reached. Therefore, fusion power will be plentiful and will be reasonably cheap, unless artificially restrained. Petroleum should be fairly common as well; any planet of say size 4+, hydro 4+ and atmosphere thin or better will have plant life that can eventually become petroleum. 

To conclude, the planets with the favorable conditions of soil, atmosphere, hydrosphere, population and technology will be planets that have power. They have what everybody needs - food. While some Traveller players look at which planets have TL-15 and Industrial trade classifications, I look for the planets with the Agricultural trade code. 

Citation:
1) Sawka, M. N., Cheuvront, S. N., & Carter,Robert, I.,II. (2005). Human water needs. Nutrition Reviews, 63(6), S30-9. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212334059?accountid=12085 
2) (CIA World Fact book)

For further reading:
Feeding Frenzy: the new politics of Food https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1847658792
Full Planet, Empty Plates: the new geopolitics of food scarcity 
Food Politics: what everyone needs to know 

Foodrunner - Amber Zone Reviews #5

 Amber Zone: Foodrunner by Mike Metlay, from JTAS #5
Check out the series introduction here.
 
Location: Roup, Regina 0407 Spinward Marches (C-77A9A9-6)

Patron: A businessman and freight shipper (“a middle aged, rather vulgar person”)

Mission: The PCs are hired to crew an armed merchantman, delivering a special cargo to the Scout base, but not to the Scout service. The cargo is foodstuffs and wine. Once delivery is completed, they must return to the point of origin and deliver the cash that they receive for the food.

Complications: The ship is, well, substandard. It will need lots of work and money to get it into regulation trim. It will likely break down on the PCs during the trip. The group that the PCs are supposed to meet will not be the only ones trying to get their hands on the food. Multiple groups, all armed, will descend upon the landing field. The description presents a picture of a large, multi-sided brawl or more likely gunfight on the landing field – with no cover. If their contact does not deliver the payment, the PCs won't get paid either.

Payoff: the PCs will be given title & ownership of the merchantman as payment. This will be a mixed blessing, given the state the ship is in.

Strong Points: The ship is a modified Type A, with improved performance envelope, if it runs. The adventure can start more than one jump from the target, allowing for a lot of little adventures in emergency repair, or other space-based activities. The PCs have the option to take off into the wild blue yonder with a ship and a large sum of cash – starting a new campaign to avoid the repo men and bounty hunters. The big fight on the landing field will be a very exciting one.

Weak Points: The white elephant of a ship, unless the players want the challenge of constantly repairing their ship. Even repaired, the ship does not hold much cargo. Traveller's combat rules aren't really set up to handle a scrum involving possibly more than 100 people. If the PCs don't come armed, they are likely to get swamped. They can't just retreat to the ship and wait it out. If they do, the cash will vanish.

What I'd change: Nothing. I don't think this is a great scenario, but it is sound enough to work as it is.

In My Traveller Universe: The adventure could start anywhere, but the delivery should be to one of the Independent worlds. I'd substitute Mercera (Gelderon 0703) for Roup. It is simple to make Mercera's poor atmosphere the reason for food being in such demand, instead of overcrowding – everyone lives high in the mountains, because that's where the oxygen is.

Map of the landing field

Map scale is 30 meters/hex. The X is the meeting point with the contact. The building icon is the Scout shack, the circle/triangle is the PC's ship. The black lines are the fence around the field.

This map was created me, using Hexographer (www.hexographer.com). It can be used or modified without restriction.