dragonhawk
Mongoose
Question, why if the trader does not accept the price of a specific speculative cargo, does he have to now wait a month to deal with that supplier? I can understand that particular trade good would now not be available (a different captain buys it, etc.) but what about the other goods that supplier had available? Example: Bob the free trader captain lands on an Agricultural world. He finds a supplier and he has all the trade goods for an Agricultural world, all the Common goods, Biochemical, Luxury Consumables, Textiles, Uncommon Raw Materials, and Wood, as well as 1d6 other trade goods. Captain Bob plans on jumping next to a Rich world. He inquires about the Luxury Consumables (say a high end alcoholic beverage) because he feels that he can make a good profit on them. But due to high demand for the beverage, the price being asked for is high (he made a low roll for the purchase price), he feels that he could not make a profit at that price so he declines. Now according to the rules, he now has to find a different supplier, even though the original supplier has at least 11 other trade goods for sale. And if he fails his supplier roll the second time, either he has to wait or go with freight only. And a supplier has no problem letting a potential buyer go because they cannot close a deal for one of the trade goods? That does not make good business sense for the supplier in my view.
Now would be a good time to make the change the paragraph for determining purchase price to read "The trader does not have to accept this price, but if he rejects the deal, he cannot purchase this particular trade good from this supplier again for at least a month." As for selling goods, the sentence could read "If a Traveller does not accept the price offered for his goods, he must find another buyer for this trade good or wait a month."
Now would be a good time to make the change the paragraph for determining purchase price to read "The trader does not have to accept this price, but if he rejects the deal, he cannot purchase this particular trade good from this supplier again for at least a month." As for selling goods, the sentence could read "If a Traveller does not accept the price offered for his goods, he must find another buyer for this trade good or wait a month."