Are Aslan females filthy rich? The males can't balance their chequebooks, but they only make up a quarter of the society, so should that have a big impact on female wealth?
According to Aliens of Charted Space "There is no pension system for Aslan. An old Aslan should have accumulated enough Clan Shares to have enough money to live on." The main source of income from Clan Shares is owning a corporation.
The corporation is described differently in Pirates of Drinax compared to Aliens of Charted Space:
In Drinax: "The Traveller owns an operating corporation. It has MCr5 in assets per Clan Share spent and produces gross profits equal to 1D% of its assets per year. The Traveller need not do anything to administer the corporation, but may become involved if desired."
"Gross profits" is an odd way to describe the firm, since gross profits are revenue, removing cost of goods sold, but not removing other expenses, so isn't necessarily the bottom line for the firm. However, Megatraveller's Aslan Corporation benefit is described as "The corporation has assets of MCr4D-3 and produces net profits of 4% of its assets" and Classic Traveller reads "It has MCr4D in assets and produces gross profits equal to about 4% of its assets", so perhaps this is a typo/thinko, and should be regarded as net profits. Note that (in the real world) net profits are normally compared to equity values, rather than total assets, so if a firm had plenty of debt (and hence paid interest on that debt), net profits could be a very low percentage of assets. Note also that comparing the "old" (Megatraveller/Classic Traveller) numbers, getting a Corporation there is a much more unusual benefit than getting a Clan Share in "new" Traveller, so it's not likely to come up multiple times for a character.
The Drinax corporation benefit is a pretty tidy moneymaker. It on average brings the Aslan in 3.5% of MCr5 per year, or Cr175,000 per year. That's with one Clan share. According to the core book, a Rich lifestyle costs Cr12,000 per month, and a Ludicrously Rich lifestyle starts at Cr20,000. So that sort of income puts the Aslan in the lap of luxury. Two Clan shares leaves her set for life, and even one leaves her so wealthy that there's little point to adventuring. Technically, there's also no restriction on male Aslan from taking the Corporation benefit either ...
In Aliens of Charted Space (or Mongoose 1E): "The Traveller owns an operating corporation. It has MCr500000 in assets per Clan Share spent and produces gross profits equal to 1D-5% of its assets per year. The Traveller need not do anything to administer the corporation but may become involved if desired."
Again assuming that this is supposed to be net profits (so the number is what the Aslan earns per year), the Aliens of Charged Space features an *enormous* corporation, with 500 billion credits worth of assets, but that's losing money paw over claw (on average -2.5% profit per year). However, if the Aslan rolls a 6, she ends up with Cr5 billion (1% of Cr500 billion) income that year.
Supposing that the MCr500,000 was a typo, and should be Cr500,000, and that we should interpret the 1D-5% to be capped below at 0%, then the corporation would earn a 1% return every six years (on average), paying out Cr5,000 if it does. This would mean that an Aslan who wanted a Cr1,200 per month income (Average lifestyle) would need about 18 Clan Shares (earn Cr90,000 every six years). This, compared to the Drinax rule or the RAW Aliens of Charted Space rule, seems fairly austere.
So what's the story? Are female Aslan rich as kings, or poor as church mice?
According to Aliens of Charted Space "There is no pension system for Aslan. An old Aslan should have accumulated enough Clan Shares to have enough money to live on." The main source of income from Clan Shares is owning a corporation.
The corporation is described differently in Pirates of Drinax compared to Aliens of Charted Space:
In Drinax: "The Traveller owns an operating corporation. It has MCr5 in assets per Clan Share spent and produces gross profits equal to 1D% of its assets per year. The Traveller need not do anything to administer the corporation, but may become involved if desired."
"Gross profits" is an odd way to describe the firm, since gross profits are revenue, removing cost of goods sold, but not removing other expenses, so isn't necessarily the bottom line for the firm. However, Megatraveller's Aslan Corporation benefit is described as "The corporation has assets of MCr4D-3 and produces net profits of 4% of its assets" and Classic Traveller reads "It has MCr4D in assets and produces gross profits equal to about 4% of its assets", so perhaps this is a typo/thinko, and should be regarded as net profits. Note that (in the real world) net profits are normally compared to equity values, rather than total assets, so if a firm had plenty of debt (and hence paid interest on that debt), net profits could be a very low percentage of assets. Note also that comparing the "old" (Megatraveller/Classic Traveller) numbers, getting a Corporation there is a much more unusual benefit than getting a Clan Share in "new" Traveller, so it's not likely to come up multiple times for a character.
The Drinax corporation benefit is a pretty tidy moneymaker. It on average brings the Aslan in 3.5% of MCr5 per year, or Cr175,000 per year. That's with one Clan share. According to the core book, a Rich lifestyle costs Cr12,000 per month, and a Ludicrously Rich lifestyle starts at Cr20,000. So that sort of income puts the Aslan in the lap of luxury. Two Clan shares leaves her set for life, and even one leaves her so wealthy that there's little point to adventuring. Technically, there's also no restriction on male Aslan from taking the Corporation benefit either ...
In Aliens of Charted Space (or Mongoose 1E): "The Traveller owns an operating corporation. It has MCr500000 in assets per Clan Share spent and produces gross profits equal to 1D-5% of its assets per year. The Traveller need not do anything to administer the corporation but may become involved if desired."
Again assuming that this is supposed to be net profits (so the number is what the Aslan earns per year), the Aliens of Charged Space features an *enormous* corporation, with 500 billion credits worth of assets, but that's losing money paw over claw (on average -2.5% profit per year). However, if the Aslan rolls a 6, she ends up with Cr5 billion (1% of Cr500 billion) income that year.
Supposing that the MCr500,000 was a typo, and should be Cr500,000, and that we should interpret the 1D-5% to be capped below at 0%, then the corporation would earn a 1% return every six years (on average), paying out Cr5,000 if it does. This would mean that an Aslan who wanted a Cr1,200 per month income (Average lifestyle) would need about 18 Clan Shares (earn Cr90,000 every six years). This, compared to the Drinax rule or the RAW Aliens of Charted Space rule, seems fairly austere.
So what's the story? Are female Aslan rich as kings, or poor as church mice?