Campaign Scenario: The Trade Fair

[rust]

In my Pandora setting it is the habit that a new colony is visited by the re-
presentatives of the region's main trading companies who demonstrate
what they have to offer and attempt to sign a few contracts, both for their
goods and for the shipping of goods.

The main competitors in the Beteigeuze Reach are the Aldebaran Shipping
Company, an old and well established corporation from the Core Worlds
that almost had a monopoly on trade and shipping in the region until re-
cently, and the Outrim Traders, a new outfit financed by some of the Free
Colonies in an attempt to break what they considered the economic stran-
glehold of Aldebaran Shipping. The two companies have quite different phi-
losophies and strategies.

Aldebaran Shipping sells advanced technology and consumer goods from
the Core Worlds, and it uses 300 dton modular starships that carry up to
six 30 dton cargo or passenger modules. A colony is only visited by a ship
of „The Company“ if there are enough freight or passengers for at least
one module, or if at least one module has been chartered for a flight to
the colony. Due to the long term monopoly of the company the personnel
of Aldebaran Shipping is not known to be very friendly, it acts more like
civil servants of a bureaucracy than like people interested in customers,
and the accomodations in the passenger modules are quite spartan.

Outrim Traders, on the other hand, mainly sells goods from the Free Co-
lonies of the region, with a less advanced technology and often designed
for the specific needs of a specific colony instead of a more general use.
The ships of the corporation are 400 dton traders with about the same car-
go capacity as those of Aldebaran Shipping, but comparatively luxurious
passenger accomodations, and the ships visit the colonies that have a con-
tract with Outrim Traders regularly, at least twice per year. Since the com-
pany is in urgent need of additional customers, the personnel is very friend-
ly and willing to offer creative solutions to its customers.

Once the colony on Pandora has announced that it is ready for „The Fair“,
the representatives of both companies – plus a few free traders – will
arrive, and the colonists will have to make a decision which contracts to
sign. This will have a great influence on the future of the colony, because
it will link Pandora to one of the trade networks and almost isolate it
from the other one. Moreover, it will also have political consequences,
as a first decision whether to stay closely connected with the Core Worlds
through Aldebaran Shipping or to „join“ the independent minded Free
Colonies through the connection with Outrim Traders.

Since both companies are likely to use almost all of the means at their dis-
posal to get the contracts they want, including everything from "gifts" to
blackmail and to sabotage of the competitor's efforts, the Fair usually be-
comes a rather „interesting“ event for a new colony, with the trade con-
flict between the competitors as well as the additional conflicts it tends to
cause within the colony, where there will almost certainly develop factions
supporting one or the other competitor.

 

[AndrewW]

Sounds like your players are in for an interesting time.

 

[BP]

Are you going to call this episode 'Fair Trade'?

 

[Dave Chase]

Add in a wild upstart (wealthy) merchant with a grand idea but not enough backing, who makes a proposal to Pandora government of creating a new merchant line. He (she) figures that if OutRim Traders can do it so can they.

They just need lots of backing and set base of operations.

Dave Chase

 

[rust]

Thank you.

The Fair will attract lots of people with brilliant and "brilliant" ideas for the
future of the colony, especially for ways to spend the colony's money on
their pet projects ("Of course a lighthouse in the shape of the Eiffel Tower
will attract thousands of tourists each year, just look at Paris ..."), and I
will add the one you proposed to the list.

It will be a pleasure to see which projects the characters will support, and
what the consequences of this support will be ... 8)

 

[AndrewW]

It will be a pleasure to see which projects the characters will support, and
what the consequences of this support will be ... 8)

And what they get in return...

Don't forget the great pyramid that will be the starport.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Oh, and a monorail is a must!!!

 

[rust]

Oh, and a monorail is a must!!!

Yep, a seafloor monorail in a vacuum tunnel ... 8)

 

[Dave Chase]

Don't forget the mad (insane) brilliant scientist who has great ideas on how to use a water world.

Must be careful dealing with him because he has lots of money and some connections that could make things nasty for the colony if they rudely say no, go away.

Then again, one only needs to look at the other 2 worlds that he last was allowed free regin on.

One is now life less and the other, no one know for sure what happened to it.

Dave Chase

 

[rinku]

Will the respective trade delegations have booth babes?

 

[AndrewW]

Could include recruiters trying to get colonists to sign up and take them away from the colony.

 

[rust]

Thank you all for your ideas.

Will the respective trade delegations have booth babes?

Of course they will. The only difference will be that those of Aldebaran
Shipping will look like top models wearing the newest fashion from the
Core Worlds while those of Outrim Traders will be more the "pretty and
competent colonist" type. 8)

 

[rinku]

Thank you all for your ideas.

Will the respective trade delegations have booth babes?

Of course they will. The only difference will be that those of Aldebaran
Shipping will look like top models wearing the newest fashion from the
Core Worlds while those of Outrim Traders will be more the "pretty and
competent colonist" type. 8)

But which are more likely to put out?

 

[rinku]

Thank you all for your ideas.

Will the respective trade delegations have booth babes?

Of course they will. The only difference will be that those of Aldebaran
Shipping will look like top models wearing the newest fashion from the
Core Worlds while those of Outrim Traders will be more the "pretty and
competent colonist" type. 8)

But which are more likely to put out?

(you KNOW there's going to be at least one player who'll try...)

 

[Dave Chase]

Thank you all for your ideas.

Will the respective trade delegations have booth babes?

Of course they will. The only difference will be that those of Aldebaran
Shipping will look like top models wearing the newest fashion from the
Core Worlds while those of Outrim Traders will be more the "pretty and
competent colonist" type. 8)

But which are more likely to put out?

(you KNOW there's going to be at least one player who'll try...)

Oh, the scandal of it all (or the blackmailing of them). There could be a 'booth babe' (male of female) that is there to purposely lure one of the top government individuals into such a situation that could lead to blackmail/control of that individual.



Or one of the top government individuals falls for one of the booth babes but that booth babe takes to another top government individual and a rivialry starts with could cause major colony issues (since there are so few total individuals present on the colony.)



Dave Chase

 

[rust]

But which are more likely to put out?

(you KNOW there's going to be at least one player who'll try...)

I think I will keep this as a referee's secret for now. 8)

Oh, the scandal of it all (or the blackmailing of them). There could be a 'booth babe' (male of female) that is there to purposely lure one of the top government individuals into such a situation that could lead to blackmail/control of that individual.

During the times when our friendly eastern neighbours were not yet so
friendly, they called this kind of specialists "Sparrows" and had training
centers, so called "Sparrow Schools", for them ... :lol:

 

[MarkB]

Here's an idea, just to make both sides look a little less-than-upstanding.

Early in proceedings, as both companies are effectively 'setting out their stalls', unloading their spacecraft and readying their parts of the exhibition, two separate incidents occur almost at the same time, clearly intended to sabotage the Outrim Traders' exhibition and weaken their position. The players happen to be on hand to help foil these incidents, and are asked by the colony administrator to investigate.

It looks like an open-and-shut case - clearly Aldebaran Shipping are trying to undermine Outrim Traders using underhand tactics - but Outrim are strangely unco-operative.

Upon further investigation (if successful), it turns out the Aldebaran Shipping were indeed responsible for one of the incidents, but the other one was staged by Outrim themselves, intending to frame Aldebaran for it to bring them into disrepute.

With both sides trying dirty tricks, picking one as more honest or reliable becomes problematic.

 

[rust]

Here's an idea, just to make both sides look a little less-than-upstanding.

Thank you very much, I like the idea, it makes it a bit more difficult for
the characters to decide who are the "good guys" - or, more precisely,
the "less bad guys".

 

[rinku]

Hmm... I assume you don't expect your players to be reading any of this, rust?

 

[rust]

Hmm... I assume you don't expect your players to be reading any of this, rust?

No, we have an agreement that they stay away from certain forums, and
in my experience they are wise enough not to ruin their own fun by at-
tempting to get access to "referee secrets".

Oh, and it helps somewhat that most of them have problems with English
and usually avoid English language forums anyway ... :wink: