A few suggestions for The Drinax Companion

[JMISBEST]

Here are a few suggestions that I have for stuff to put in The Drinax Companion. What do you think?

Stats for The Pirate Base at Wildeman

Stats for The Space Station from Adventure 5

Skills and Stats for Wrax, Darokyn, Hroal and Oleb in case they're ever needed

Statistics for The Wyvern mentioned in Adventure 6

Ideas for missions to guarantee A Planet sides with Drinax. For example The Adventure Seed that adds Bryni to Drinax if The Pcs prove to Byrni's Ruler that Oleb is worth of The Title of King

[M J Dougherty]

The book was completed months ago.

[JMISBEST]

The book was completed months ago.

Ooops sorry

[Old School]

You know, this is the first JMISBEST that I can agree with. But since its too late, perhaps JMISBEST would be willing to help out and stat them up himself for us.

[Moppy]

Why not write them up anyway? Some people might be able to use them for their own games.

[Sigtrygg]

Perhaps there has to be a second companion...

[PsiTraveller]

The hidden Class B pirate base of Tambny Dour described on page 268 is a bit of an oddity. The asteroid where it is hidden must be pretty good.

Requirements for a class B starport are
Docking Space: 50 000 tons
Fuel Refinery: 1000 tons per day capacity of refined fuel. This can take anywhere from 66 to 100 tons and adds a few more crew needs
Civilian sensors
Commercial Zone: 5000 tons
Residential Zones: 2500 tons
Shipyard: 10 000 tons

So this is a lot of tonnage, and implies a capacity for a pretty big operation
The Docking Space needs 500 people to work it. The Residential facilities can hold 600 staterooms, and will have an additional 1250 tons of common space as per page 58.
The Shipyard needs 1000 workers.

Overall this asteroid will house several thousand people to run it, and the above numbers do not include the people needed for the fuel plants and engineering section to maintain, or the vats/food production system to feed the people the food they will need each day.

Finding an empty asteroid with basically a city inside it is a massive find. I skipped this adventure, I think it could derail a campaign as the players decide to start up production. Since JMISBEST started the thread I will add in more numbers and options.

Assume Tech-World is willing to cut a deal and sends 5000 robots to run the site. JUst to have staffing not be a problem. Your asteroid is staffed.
1000 tons per day of refined fuel means 10 000 tons of shipping distance can be supplied per day. (10000 tons for a J1, 5000 tons of ships at J2 etc) 1000 tons at 500 Credits per ton is 500 000 Credits per day income potential. 15 million a month.

The 10 000 ton shipyard can build ships up to 5000 tons in size. Going into the smaller ship market you could make a lot of 200 ton ships worth 40 million each and crank 25 ships out at a time. That is a Billion Credits per production cycle.

The docking space can hold ships up to 16 000 tons in size and offers docking fees pf 1D6 X 500 per ship, per visit (Core Book page 225 berthing cost for Class B starports).

The concept of building ships opens up the need for all the raw materials to feed the yards. You could buy them, have it shipped in to build to order, or you could add onto the starport the refinery and goods production needed to feed the need for materials such a starport would require. This is when you break out the spreadsheet.

[DickTurpin]

I strongly doubt that the hidden pirate base is a true Class B starport by the High Guard definition. No matter how good a pirate is he is not going to be able to finance, build, and staff such a huge project. If he somehow did pull that off, then why would he bother being a pirate when he is pulling in billions of credits each month in a legitimate business? And most obvious of all, how would an operation that size, with a constant flow of spaceships and potentially missions of people visiting each year remain hidden?

My expectation is that is is a Class B starport by the much simpler CRB definition: It can supply refined fuel, build jump capable ships, and repair any type of ship damage. In that case, the shipyard is probably less than 1,000 tons; fuel limited to a couple of hundred tons per day, and no berthing fees because it is only visited by members of his pirate fleet. It is still an impressive base, no question, but the money, time, and effort needed to get it fully operational is very nearly a complete campaign all by itself. Even if the base was made public and fully staffed, it would not be classed as a true starport at all, it would just be a small, privately-owned manufacturing facility.

[PsiTraveller]

All true. I admit to some tongue in cheek reading of the High Guard rules.

A hidden base with fuel storage and repair drones able to help patch up damage to a pirate ship is far more realistic.

[Condottiere]

[Moppy]

Maybe these ports are run like legitimate businesses and have similar infrastructure, but they sell illegal things. I am sure if you look at the drugs trade (today) you would find a lot of hidden factories and warehouses on a scale appropriate for a large company or (very) small country.

[PsiTraveller]

There is big money in fuel, and a lot of ships have the ability to make 20 tons per day. That's 10 000 credits worth a day. Since a month's wages for the Pilot is 6000 a couple of weeks of fuel production pays for the year. This is only true if there is a demand for the fuel, granted. I think there is also an element of taking things too literally for a space opera game. Creative players looking to earn a lot of money can find areas that create a huge cash flow.

So running anything as a business can be a lucrative option for the players. And then the GM can come along and throw anything and everything at them to make their lives fun and exciting. Organized crime looking for a payout, protection rackets, pirates, competitors, plague ships spreading the Sindalian flu.

Lots of fun.

[Condottiere]

Fifty kiloschmuckers per tonne of fuel processors; that's fourteens cents per day maintenance.

Ten kay per day nominal gross profit, two kay likely raw materials, not counting labour, tariffs, taxation, storage, and overheads.

Unless there's a monopoly, there doesn't seem to be a high barrier to entry.

[Old School]

Unless there's a monopoly, there doesn't seem to be a high barrier to entry.

In which case the price and profits would come way down as others entered the market. Again, translating in game pricing to a real economy doesn’t work.

[Moppy]

Buying fuel is much quicker, especially for traders with a tight schedule and 1G drives.

I would assume that because Traveller has so many tramp merchants (ships with no fixed route) compared to today, that one can profit very much from being able to jump anywhere (fuel scoops and processors) or right now (buy fuel). In a universe with full coverage from reliable freight networks, the free trader would have very little purpose outside of smuggling, and is too slow for emergency courier work.

[Condottiere]

Opportunity cost of having an onboard purification plant; cheap tanker operation with crude hydrogen could turn up, hose ready.