[TML] First Session CT Questions - long

[shadow at shadowgard.com]

On 4 Nov 2007 at 10:38, Keith Grant wrote:

> Tech level will affect only what goods are available
> locally.  Where possible, shopkeepers will generally
> prefer to stock locally made goods - its cheaper. 
> Transport costs less if its locally produced, plus you
> don't have to bother getting it cleared through
> customs.

Keep in mind that inside the Imperium *in general* customs are more 
apt to be like the fruit insprectors at the California border than 
like at an international border.

But that's just an "average". Since Imperial law is so loose and the 
planets have a lot more autonmy than US states (or EU member nations) 
have, it could be as bad as at one of the old Soviet border 
checkpoints.

A lot depends on law level and government type.

BTW, someone the other day was talking about having two separate law 
levels to justify the "cops" being able to way out-gun the PCs.

This doesn't make a lot of sense, since just about *everywhere* in 
the real world what police and other government types are allowed to 
carry as weapons is usually not regulated much if at all.

Law level based weapon restrictions are on what *private citizens* 
can carry. Not on what the local police have.

> You asked what rules I'm using.  The answer is that
> I'm not using hard rules.  When a player asks "can I
> buy X here?"  The question I have to answer as a
> referee is "Would someone selling X here be able to
> turn a profit?"  When there's no profit, there's no
> store.

Not true.

If there isn't enough profit, there won't be a store for long. But 
there are often optimists who think they can make a profit at 
something. 

They'll lose money and eventually go out of business. But they can 
hang on for suprisingly long times.

So that means that unprofitable businesses are rare, and if present 
are either new and not bad or old and obviously not doing well.


--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com