[TML] 2300 Trade Rules

Sun Oct 21 17:25:47 MDT 2007

   Hi gang,
     Well, I mentioned the 2300 Trade Rules I'd found in an old issue of Challenge magazine, so I figured I'd best follow up by making them available. So here they are (I'm fairly sure 
  they're in their original form)  :)

    -Ken Murphy-

  Trade and Commerce
  The Nature of Trade
   If someone wants to make money as a merchant, he needs only to follow one rule: “Buy low and sell high.” A character who keeps this maxim foremost in his mind, and who truly lives by it, is bound to increase his capital.  But life isn’t that simple. It takes a careful eye to determine the true value of available goods; it takes a network of contacts to have sources and customers; and it takes shrewd communication skills to haggle for the best prices. All of these skills can be earned as mercantile skills, and tasks can be developed which use each. Some tasks are included in these guidelines; many others can be invented by the Referee on the spur of the moment during game sessions, depending on the situation in which the characters find themselves.
  Finding a Product
   A profitable trade route must go both ways, unless costs can otherwise be held to a bare minimum. Expenses accrue whether the cargo hold is empty or full, so it is to the ship owner’s advantage to find customers at the destination of each leg of his regular route.
   Sometimes this is simple. The merchant may carry agricultural goods from a farming colony on a garden world to a barren mining world, where foodstuffs are exchanged for ores. These minerals are then carried on to an older colony with manufacturing facilities, where the ores are traded for finished goods. These are then loaded into the ship, which returns to the garden world and swaps them for more agricultural goods, thus completing the cycle.
   Unfortunately for the players, dice are not omni-benevolent deities which set up the Traveller universe in this way. It can be discouraging to discover how many mining worlds are adjacent to each other, and how agricultural colonies tend to clump along one area of an arm.
   But profits can still be made even in these situations if the players are willing to work harder. Even on Olde Earth, many countries both export and import agricultural goods. A country that exports manufactured products also imports them. Ores go out, ores comes in. What’s the secret here?

Unlike for Like
   No one will trade apples for apples, or oranges for oranges. But many apple growers would enjoy orange juice with their breakfast, and many owners of orange groves can’t resist apple pie.
   The same situation holds true for ores and manufactured goods. A country or world may be rich in iron, but lacking in molybdenum. It will gladly trade one for the other in order to make it possible to forge stronger steel with its own ores. The Azanian export of tantalum, platinum, and gold for other minerals is an excellent example of this.
  World Classifications
   How can the Referee know which worlds are rich in some materials, and, simultaneously, what materials that world would like to import from others?
   When a world is generated, the Referee determines its general nature from its UWP characteristics. Worlds with larger populations tend to have a higher degree of trade. The type and quality of surface interface systems is also a good indicator of the amount of trade: the better the interface, the more importing and exporting that takes place on that world.
   Surface facilities should also be noted. Worlds with heavy mining tend to export more ore than they import. Agricultural worlds are usually exporters of foodstuffs. Industrial worlds are likely to produce their own manufactured goods. In all of these cases, the special situation of trade of unlike goods should be remembered. The old saw about the exception proving the rule holds true in this case.
  Buying and Selling
   The Referee should decide for each particular cargo and world the difficulty level of the task for buying and selling goods, ranging from Simple, to Impossible. The following task serves as a guideline:
     To buy or sell a particular resource on a particular world:
   Routine, Trader, Persuasion, Int, 1 hour (confrontation, uncertain).
   Referee: This task determines the availability of goods for sale on a particular world, or the purchasers for such goods. Price determination is covered in a separate task below. This task varies from world to world, and assumes that the character is a regular trader in the goods in question on those worlds. The task further assumes a network of trade contacts has been built up over time. If a character is visiting a world for the first time, increase the task’s difficulty by one level. Other modifiers to the level of difficulty might be the world’s natural supply and demand for the goods being purveyed. 
  Pricing of Goods
   The characters always fulfill the role of distributors in interstellar trade. They do not manufacture products, nor do they sell to the ordinary consumer. Rather, they buy from the manufacturers or other distributors, and then sell to retailers, who sell the goods at their List Price.
   Characters pay 50% of the List Price when they buy the goods; they receive 80% of the list price when they sell goods. For example, take a product with a retail List Price of 5KCR per ton. Most products are not sold by the ton to their final consumer; the price represents the value of a quantity of these goods that require a ton of cargo space. It would cost a character who wanted 100 tons of these goods, 2.5KCR per ton (50%), for a total of 250KCR in expenditures.
   When the character sold these goods, he would receive 4KCR per ton (80%), for a total income of 400KCR for the cargo. Note that a distribution network is necessary for both the purchase and the sale of the goods, and that these prices apply only to wholesale quantities. A character, even an interstellar trader, will be unable to purchase only one of an item for the 50% bargain price. 
   Actually, things aren’t quite that simple. There are a number of other modifiers which come into play depending on the world where the trade takes place. Non-Industrial worlds, lacking local manufacturing facilities, must import certain goods, and are therefore willing to pay a premium for them. On High Import worlds, multiply the List Price for applicable goods by two or three, depending on how far that world is from a major manufacturing center.
   Other worlds do produce their own goods. Some of these products are consumed on the world itself, but it is often better for the inhabitants if the remainder of the goods are traded for goods from other worlds which are not abundant locally. In order to encourage this export trade, the price modifiers for the local goods range from .9 down to .5 their price on a “typical” world.
   The Referee must decide, based on the characteristics of a particular world, which pricing schemes are in effect for specific types of goods. 
   Complete examples can be found in the following tables. The examples show the buying and selling prices for goods costing 4000CR per ton on the different types of worlds. Referees should compute the expenditures and incomes for trade in other goods according to their ordinary List Price.
  Expenditure and Income Chart
  When buying:
Ordinary   Source  Local Price/   CR Cost/       Buyer’s     Final Cost/
List Price   World   Metric ton     Metric ton     Discount  Metric ton
  4KCR         HvyExp      50%             2KCR       50%           1KCR
4KCR         Lt Exp         90%          3.6KCR       50%        1.8KCR
4KCR         Average    100%            4KCR        50%           2KCR
4KCR         Lt Imp       200%            8KCR        50%           4KCR
4KCR         Hvy Imp   300%          12KCR        50%           6KCR                     

When selling:
Ordinary  Market   Local Price/  Selling Price/   Sell for    Final Price/
List Price  World    Metric ton     Metric ton      % of List  Metric ton
  5KCR         Hvy Imp  300%            15KCR       80%         12KCR                     
5KCR         Lt Imp      200%            10KCR       80%           8KCR
5KCR         Average   100%              5KCR       80%           4KCR
5KCR         Lt Exp        90%           4.5KCR       80%         3.6KCR
5KCR         HvyExp     50%            2.5KCR       80%           2KCR

Lt Imp  Light Importer
Hvy Imp  Heavy Importer
Average  Average  
Lt Exp  Light Importer
Hvy Exp  Heavy Exporter
  Tech Level Effects
   Subtract the Market world’s TL from that of the Source world, and multiply the result by 10%. Take this TL modifier and multiply it by the Selling Price, then add the result to the Selling Price.
   Note that a high Source TL and a low Market TL are advantageous. A low Source TL and a high Market TL, on the other hand, generally indicates a loss of revenue; possibly to the point where there is no demand for the low tech goods at the Market TL.
  Price Task Rolls
   Characters who find goods available on a world, or who have a network of possible customers for goods, must determine the Actual Value of such goods; once that is done, they will still have an opportunity to haggle over price. 
  To estimate the Actual Value of goods:
Routine, Trader, INT, 1 minute (uncertain).
Referee: If the result of the uncertain task is : 
No Truth: The character is convinced he knows the value of the goods to within 40%; roll 8D-8 to determine the actual percentage (with a minimum of 1%).
Some Truth: The character is convinced he knows the value of the goods to within 20%; roll 4D-4 to determine the actual percentage (with a minimum of 1%).
Total Truth: : The character is convinced he know  the value of the goods to within 10%; roll 2D-2 to determine the actual percentage (with a minimum of 1%).
   In addition, 1D is rolled to determine whether the character’s estimate is higher, or lower than the Actual Value.
     Whether the character will be able to buy the goods at a cost of their estimated worth, or whether more must be paid, depends on the next task.
     To haggle for the best price with a buyer or seller:
   Routine, Bargain, Persuasion, INT, 5 minutes (confrontation, uncertain).
   Referee: The Bargain skill levels of both the character and his adversary must be taken into account as DMs for this task, countering one another. Only the character’s Bargain skill level is known; the adversary’s appropriate modifiers being kept secret by the Referee.
     When Buying: 
No Truth: Indicates the character will receive no discount.
Some Truth: The character will receive a discount of up to 20% on the Final Cost;
roll 4D-4 to determine the actual percentage (with a minimum of 1%). 
Total Truth: : The character will receive a discount of up to 40% on the Final Cost; roll 8D-8 to determine the actual percentage (with a minimum of 1%). 
     When Selling: 
No Truth: Indicates the character will be receiving no premium.
Some Truth: The character will be able to sell the goods for up to 120% of the Final Price ; roll 4D-4 to determine the actual percentage (with a minimum of 1%) which is added to 100. 
Total Truth: : The character will be able to sell the goods for up to 140% of the Final Price; roll 8D-8 to determine the actual percentage (with a minimum of 1%) which is added to 100.
  Here and There
   Looking at the Expenditures and Income chart for goods, it appears that good profits can be made with a minimum of work. Unfortunately, the only way to conduct interstellar trade is by transporting goods from one world to another. This cost quickly raises the expenditures for a merchant.

 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 