Forming a Play by Post Forum Game

[Zowy]

Player Connections so far....To save people looking back 5+ pages :?

David Swain > Cosmia and ?
Evan Starletter > Rebeca and Artemsus
Cosmia > David and Rebeca
Rebeca Nova > Evan and Cosmia
Artemsus Bishop > Evan and ?
New players > ? and ?

 

[M. Lydius Of Phoga]

I'd like the Diplomat skill from the set, if that is ok. hopefully it can help us get set up with good positions on these worlds by getting to know the local governemts.

 

[DPSteve]

Army, Merchant, and Agent have Drive as a skill. None of us have it and none of the group skill packages have Drive as one of their skills.

I have Drive 0 but I must have missed how this applies to the "Ship Boat" discussion. Drive skill only pertains to ground vehicles.

Team -

Ditching the Launch would give us an additional 40000 credits a month. Tight, but a possibility to stay afloat with our combined ship shares and an older ship.

I think we also need to ask ourselves ... do we really want (or have the character game time) to do that much speculating throughout our adventures? I'm all for trying this out but this may not appeal to some of you.

Supergamera, asked if someone had Driver/Flyer skill. I did not think we did.

Looks like we may get to the 8 players cap? Should we dich the Launch on the Safari ship and use the 20 tons for more staterooms, as the ship is stremlined? The more passengers we have the more we need steward / cooks. Is 8 crew to many for a 200 ton Safari ship / High Liner? We can cut our cargo space way back. Just enough for a mail drum and maybe 10ish tons more?

or

Start looking at 400-600 ton ships? The ship shares are starting to add up, we could end up with a used ship for around 1/2 a new ships cost? So our limition becomes crew positions and not monthly overhead? As long as we don't get silly with non-income produceing extras.

I would say ditch passengers in favor of cargo, personally. Our group isn't really set up for passengers the way it is cargo, so the slight extra made per ton of passengers over freight wouldn't make up for what we could make with speculative trade. On average, with out taking into account destination DMs, I will hit a 14 on the price tables (10 average over 3d6, +4 from broker). This means our average buy will be 80% and our average sell will be 120%, for a 40% profit margin. The lowest value on speculative cargo is 1,000cr for wood. Most are in the 10,000 to 100,000 range. I think we could stand to make a killing in speculative trade and at worst still make decent pay on straight freight.

Conversely, assuming the Steward levels stack among characters, the most we (currently) could care for would be 6 high passengers or 15 middle passengers, for a profit of 36,000 to 45,000 per jump for 1 or 2 parsec jumps.

I dunno. Maybe it's the Merchant talking but I'd say go with cargo over people any day of the week.

=====EDIT=====
Correction, after reading the description on Luxuries (of which our proposed ship has 2 levels), we can care for 10 high and 25 mid. I think we're gonna need a bigger boat after all . . . .

 

[area_51_games2]

[[ Name :Cristofur Housey. Solomani origins but parents migrated to Home World: Antares I (High Population, Ice-Capped) for religious reasons]]
Starting Stat rolls: {6 x 2d: 7, 6, 6, 8, 7, 8}

[[wow pretty mainstream for Cris.]]
Str: 7 (0), Dex: 6 (0), End: 6 (0), Int: 9 (+1), Edu: 7 (0), Soc: 9 (+1)

[[Now it's time to come up with a homeworld. Antares is the subsector capital and an ice-capped world, according to An_2421)_(world)
Home World: Antares I (High Population, Ice-Capped)

[[Now I get 3 background skills. I have to take streetwise 0, vacc suit 0. Leaving me with one skill I can choose from the education list. I'll take Computer. At this point my character is 18.]]
Basic Skills: Streetwise 0, Vacc Suit 0, Computer 0,

[[Time for my first career. .]]
Career: Drifter: wanderer tour 1 term 1
[[Next we roll to qualify. auto}

[[Because this is my first career I get the basic training skills for it at 0], unlike other Careers; a drifter gains level 0 skills from the approperate specialist table instead.]
Basic Training: athletics:0 Deception:0 Recon:0 Stealth:0 Streetwise:0 Survival:0
Drifter Tour 1 term 1
[[First I get a Training roll. I can choose from the Personal Development, Service Skills, , or wanderer tables. To start out I'll roll Personal Development.]]
Training: Personal Development: {1d: 6} +1 Int
[[Now it is time to see if I survive this term. I need a 7+ to survive.]]
Survive: {2d : 7} Yes [[ just bearly]]
[[ok bearly got out of that with out any mishaps so lets see what happen in life events.]]
Events: {2d: 4} Cris takes a chance at a risky but rewarding adventure. but i just get out with my life and a tale of adventure.
Advancement: {2d +Int: 7} Yes
[[Well I advance that means Rank: 1
Rank Benefit: – street wise 1
[[That wraps up my first tour, Cris is now 22 years old, I think I well move on and see what the army has to offer me]]
so I muster out of wanderer,I get two rolls.
cash {{ roll 1d6:6 4,000
Other benefits {{ roll 1d6: 3 Ally

Army Cavalry
Tour 1 term 2
Next we roll to qualify need 6; roll 2d6 get 6
Training: Service Skills: Melee; unarmed 0
Survive: Dex 7+{{2d6:9}}
Events: {2d: 9} souranded and outnumbered by the enemy, you hold out till relief arrive, gain +2 DM to your next advancement check .
Advancement: {2d +Int +1,+2DM :8}
Training: Advanced Education: {1d: 5} Navigation 1
Rank: 2 – Lance Corporal; Recon 1
Commission Soc 8+ {{rolled 2d6:9)
Officer rank from commission Lieutenant: Leadership 1
officers skills: {{1d6:5 tactic: military}}
[[Well that puts me to 26 years old. I could stop here and go adventuring, or I could go on. I'm doing well so far and would like a few more skills under my belt so I think I'll go on.]]

Army Calvary Tour 2 term 3
Training: : {1d: 4}Gunnery 1
Survive: {2d +Dex: 8} Yes
Events: {2d: 10} Life Event. peace keeping roll Investigation 1
[[peace keeping roll gain one of four skills choose investigation.]]
Advancement: {2d +Dex: 12} Yes
Training: Officer Training : {1d: 5} Tactics 2
Rank: 2 – Captain
Rank Benefits: none
[[Army wasn't turning our so Cris return to Antares I ]]
musters out of Army
two rolls in Cash one roll in other benefits
20,000 +2,000=22,000 credits and a combat implant skill augmentation Gun Cbt 1

CitizenTour 1 term 4 quilify: EDU +5 {{roll 2d6: 9
Training: corporation: Computer 1
Survive: {2d +soc: 9} Yes
Events: {2d: 10}you gain experience in a technical field as a computer operater raise by one
Advancement: {2d +Int: 9}
Training: Advance education: {1d: 5} Computers 3
Rank: 2 – Managment Admin 1
[[Well now I am 34 years old, and that means I have to start rolling for Aging after this term and at the end of every term after this. This roll uses the total number of terms I've taken so far as a negative modifier.]]
Aging: {2d -4: 1} No Effect
[[I've aged well so far it seems.]]

Citizen tour 2 Term 5
Training: Personal Development: {1d: 2} +1 EDU
Survive: {2d +Edu: 6} Yes
Events: {2d: 5} Life Event the corperation business expands your corperation grows +1 dm to benefits
well under Cris managment skill the company grows and cris reaps the rewards
Advancement: {2d +Int: 6} rank 3
Advance education table {{1d5:5) Computers 4
Aging: {2d -5 terms: 1} No Effect

[[Well after a diverse five term career as an Drifter, Army Calavry Officer and Citizen Corperate Manager. Corprate Manager This gives me 3 benefit rolls for the terms served, plus two more for rank, and I get 10,000 cr in retirement pension. Not bad. Also in my fifth tour I got +1 dm to any one Benefit roll, I'll use it on the first roll.]]
corporate Mustering Out

Roll 1: Cash: {1d +1DM: 7} 100,000cr
Roll 2: Cash: {1d: 5} 10,000cr
Roll 3: Other: {1d: 6} one ship share
[[Now it is time to bring everything together and tally up my final character stats.
Cristofur Housey age 38
height: 5'11 weight: 176 lb hair: Brown Eyes : Blue
Facial hair of weeks growth, White under shirt, Black over coat, under arm harness for snub noise pistol. Brown slacks and black belt. Black short boots . Cris is kind of plan average male with a casual air about him and always listening disposition. if Cris is nervous or agitated he Snickers or gigles. its his tale in poker and his one possible fatal character flaw.
Str: 7 (0), Dex: 6 (0), End: 6 (0), Int: 9 (+1), Edu: 7 (0), Soc: 9 (+1)
Skills: Vacc Suit 0, Admin 1, Computer 4, , Investigate 1, Leader 1, Melee (unarmed ) 1, Implant Gun cbt (slug pistol)1,gunnery 1, tactics 2 ,Navigation 1 , Streetwise:1, athletics:0 Deception:0 Recon:0 Stealth:0 Survival:0 .

one ship share
146,000 credits
implant combat
one ship share
one Ally
shopping list
Wafer Jack Computer 4 15,000 expert programs :computer 2 dm+1 100,000
Snub pistol 150/ 3d6 -3/ magazine 6/ammo 10
10,750 REMAINING
Cris always that his parent where a little off, this whole thing about religion was just a little old fashion. Cris knew as soon as he had the chance he was going to be an adventurer and see the Galaxy, while hanging around the space port Cris meet Drixel Anuba < not real name> who filled his head with tresure and adventure in far off worlds looking though ancient lost ruins, well as soon as cris could hitch a ride he was off to those so called tresure ladden Ruins and Damn near got his Rear end shot off, oh well at lease he made a friend and that was it for him if some one was going to shot at him he might as well get paid, so as soon as cris could find a recuiter he was joining the Army! and wouldn't you know it he was right in the middle of a revolt! out numbered and out gunned Cris lead his platoon on ward to survival! relief arrived just in the nick of time, and believe it or not they considered Cris some kind of hero, and he became Lance Corporal Housey! then some one thought that he told his adventure so well they went and commisioned him as a Officer! Well Cris desided the army was not so bad and went another tour,So he got droped into a peace keeping mission Investigating of all thing tomb roberies from some religous temple! It was a no brainer the butler did it! well actually it was the priest but hey Cris got another promotion and now he was Captain Housey! Cris knew he could do better and went on to a Corprate organization who told him he made fine managment material.So Civilian life Cris was bound for on his home world. it was not hard you told people to work hard, then throw a party every now and then for something trivial and bam ! Every one thought you where Great! so the Corperation flurished, and Cris stayed around a few years, Cris got real good with computers and got every one to believe he was indespensible, till one day on his 38th birthday Cris realized he missed the Adventure and unknows of travel! so he gave noticed and head to the space port - what the hell there was bound to be some one who need his unique abilities!

ok folks I might have screwed up was doing this while waiting from news about my Oldest son who disided not to come home today, Police found him and he is home safe<he has minor Artism>. I had to try something to steady my nerves!

 

[DPSteve]

Player Connections so far....To save people looking back 5+ pages :?

David Swain > Cosmia > ?
Evan Starletter > Rebeca > Artemsus
Cosmia > David > Rebeca
Rebeca Nova > Evan > Cosmia
Artemsus Bishop > Evan > ?
New players > ? > ?

Alex Rowe has the following connections possible

1 Rogue Ally (Evan?)
1 Ally
1 Contact

The contact was a life event so could come from anywhere
The ally, as rolled, seemed to be best played by the old merchant captain Alex worked under for nearly 16 years. However, I'm more than happy to give that up to pick up a connection to the current crew.

 

[Zowy]

Player Connections so far....To save people looking back 5+ pages :?

David Swain > Cosmia > ?
Evan Starletter > Rebeca > Artemsus
Cosmia > David > Rebeca
Rebeca Nova > Evan > Cosmia
Artemsus Bishop > Evan > ?
New players > ? > ?

Alex Rowe has the following connections possible

1 Rogue Ally (Evan?)
1 Ally
1 Contact

The contact was a life event so could come from anywhere
The ally, as rolled, seemed to be best played by the old merchant captain Alex worked under for nearly 16 years. However, I'm more than happy to give that up to pick up a connection to the current crew.

Player connections and their 2 skill picks are in addition to NPC Allies and Contacts.

 

[area_51_games2]

I some how managed an very average Character! but I am always interested in playing challenging characters and even near Accountants !
its the average joes that beat the odds that is always fun.
but with a computer of 4, he is not to average!

so how do I connect with the rest of the crew?
I have one Ally i got from Mustering out as a drifter first term, any ideals?

 

[Chronus]

That or maybe you could take Trade ( Chef ) 1, from the ship skill package gerzel posted. With you Deception and Carouse skills, you could make a very flashy show of cooking?

You're really determined to make me a drop out Chef, aren't you?

Very well. I'll take the Trade(Cooking) skill but can we call it Trade(Chef) instead? Also, per Zowy's suggestion, I'd appreciate it if the skill would contribute to the Steward skill total so that I can at least feel like I'm contributing to ship operations.

I would say ditch passengers in favor of cargo, personally. Our group isn't really set up for passengers the way it is cargo, so the slight extra made per ton of passengers over freight wouldn't make up for what we could make with speculative trade. On average, with out taking into account destination DMs, I will hit a 14 on the price tables (10 average over 3d6, +4 from broker). This means our average buy will be 80% and our average sell will be 120%, for a 40% profit margin. The lowest value on speculative cargo is 1,000cr for wood. Most are in the 10,000 to 100,000 range. I think we could stand to make a killing in speculative trade and at worst still make decent pay on straight freight.

Four staterooms are occupied (double occupancy) with eight players. This seems to lean us into the cargo business.

After doing some more math, I wonder if we should consider the following:

If we go primarily with speculative cargo then we should consider a Far Trader.

If we go primarily with freight cargo then we should consider a Heavy Freighter.

The above ships are the only trade ships with Jump 2.

If we want to do more passengers, maybe a modified Yacht? Remove the Ship's Boat and ATV to allow bigger drives (Jump 2) and more fuel. Divide the suite so that we get a full 16 staterooms. Twelve high passengers at 12000 a pop (for Jump 2) makes for 288000 credits (2 trips) a month!

And, of course, we can continue to look at other modified ships.

Incidentally, I incorrectly made some earlier calculations based on 1000/ton cargo. In MGT, cargo is 1000 + 200 per additional parsec. A nice boost for higher jump ships but it makes me wonder now how the Free Trader and Subsidized Liner can survive in such an environment (jump 1 high passengers income has been lowered from 10K to 6K in MGT).

 

[Zowy]

I some how managed an very average Character! but I am always interested in playing challenging characters and even near Accountants !
its the average joes that beat the odds that is always fun.
but with a computer of 4, he is not to average!

so how do I connect with the rest of the crew?
I have one Ally i got from Mustering out as a drifter first term, any ideals?

You can make a player >to< player connection at any point in your backstory. It is independent of Allies and Contacts.

Allso, like me you do not get a pension. You need 5 terms in the same service. Scout, Rogue, and Drifter do not get one at all.

 

[gerzel]

400 Ton Kalyabian Class Small Cruise Liner
-400 ton distributed hull
-D J-Drive
-B M-Drive
-D Power Plant
-Bridge
-96 Tons Fuel Storage
-Model 6 Computer
-Intellect Program
-Jump Control/2
-Auto-Repair/1
-Repair Drones
-30 Staterooms
-Luxuries/6
-Modular Cutter
-2 Module Bays
-Full Kitchen
Total Cost: 166,950,000cr

The Queen Jissarra
Service: 20 years

Modifications
-Fuel Module
-Cargo Module
-Passenger Module
Asking Price: 150,924,500cr

 

[DPSteve]

I would say ditch passengers in favor of cargo, personally. Our group isn't really set up for passengers the way it is cargo, so the slight extra made per ton of passengers over freight wouldn't make up for what we could make with speculative trade. On average, with out taking into account destination DMs, I will hit a 14 on the price tables (10 average over 3d6, +4 from broker). This means our average buy will be 80% and our average sell will be 120%, for a 40% profit margin. The lowest value on speculative cargo is 1,000cr for wood. Most are in the 10,000 to 100,000 range. I think we could stand to make a killing in speculative trade and at worst still make decent pay on straight freight.

Four staterooms are occupied (double occupancy) with eight players. This seems to lean us into the cargo business.

After doing some more math, I wonder if we should consider the following:

If we go primarily with speculative cargo then we should consider a Far Trader.

If we go primarily with freight cargo then we should consider a Heavy Freighter.

The above ships are the only trade ships with Jump 2.

If we want to do more passengers, maybe a modified Yacht? Remove the Ship's Boat and ATV to allow bigger drives (Jump 2) and more fuel. Divide the suite so that we get a full 16 staterooms. Twelve high passengers at 12000 a pop (for Jump 2) makes for 288000 credits (2 trips) a month!

And, of course, we can continue to look at other modified ships.

Incidentally, I incorrectly made some earlier calculations based on 1000/ton cargo. In MGT, cargo is 1000 + 200 per additional parsec. A nice boost for higher jump ships but it makes me wonder now how the Free Trader and Subsidized Liner can survive in such an environment (jump 1 high passengers income has been lowered from 10K to 6K in MGT).

I'd say go with the Far Trader, or at worst a modified Fat Trader (with J-2 modification). There's a lot of cargo on the Fat Trader that can be scavenged for upgrades and extra rooms without really sacrificing our ability to do freight/speculative. The issue becomes rent though, as my toying with the modifications brought the cost of the Fat Trader to over 115 MCr.

Looking at the Fat Trader, we can gut a good portion of the Rear Cargo Bay to put in a Jump Drive class D (J-2). The comp will need an upgrade, as will software. And fuel.
Assuming we don't add or remove any staterooms then we're looking at 5 state rooms for crew (up to 10 double occupancy, possibly lose 1 for more cargo or add to passengers) with 8 state rooms for passengers. By moving the bulk heads around we end up with 4 state rooms for crew and 9 state rooms for passengers. If we lose the deep freeze that gives us an additional state room for passengers, totaling 10 (which just happens to be the number we can care for). We'll loose 5 tons to the J-drive and 3 tons to the power plant. We loose an additional 44 tons to new fuel requirements. So, that's 52 tons out of 205. Leaving us with 153 tons of cargo. That's, assuming freight and full 2 parsec moving, 1200*153 = 183,600Cr per jump . . . assuming we can find 153 tons of freight. Speculative will, of course, bring more. So, per month of freight we could bring in 367,200Cr. The key question is will this cover rent, fuel, and incedentals?

Life support will run us 12,000 for our double occupancy, plus 20,000 for the staterooms (assuming single occupancy). Fuel will cost us 19200 in unrefined fuel, 5 times that in refined

Assuming we can knock off 10% of the price for a used ship, and it looks like we should have a good 25% (more if I can put my Free Trader in full towards a Fat Trader) worth of ship shares, then we're financing about 65% of the ship. If we take the patron at full, then we're only looking at 45% of about . . . say 120MCr (high estimate).

Without patronage, our rent is 325KCr/Month. At half patron value, rent is
275KCr. At full patronage, rent is 225KCr.

I think that's doable. We can make the biggest payment just hauling freight (worst case scenario), and should definitely be able to handle it with speculative cargo. Add in passengers, and I think we can make it work.

Just a thought though.

 

[area_51_games2]

First term was as a drifter who could Cris have run across- from that term Cris got an ally, could any one have gone with Cris on his adventure?
say 16-19 and half years ago?

 

[DPSteve]

First term was as a drifter who could Cris have run across- from that term Cris got an ally, could any one have gone with Cris on his adventure?
say 16-19 and half years ago?

Hmm. That was the second term of my merchant career, but all that happened there was good fortune. Perhaps you provided some insider information on whatever betting was happening on the Fortune Made.

As a side note, I'm confused as to how we're handling connections. I see most people in the beginning of the thread tying them to in-game contacts and allies. Now we're being told not to do that. Which is it?

 

[area_51_games2]

well problem to me is its going to be rough worry about making Rent every month that high our characters will have to be hauling fools!

maybe we should consider a more reasonable vessel, by the way do scout have to pay rent? on thier type s vessels?

I mean if they can be called back into service- did I miss somthing in the rules?

 

[gerzel]

Some notes:

Full Kitchen: To be used at all requires 8000cr/mo in food items (serves up-to 20 people. Also counts as 1 ton of luxuries, provided it is kept stocked (16,000cr/mo). [[These are quick and dirty calculations if there is a rules lawyer in the house who can give me a better estimate I may take them up on it.]]

Monthly Maintenance costs are reduced by 10% for each level of repair drones up to a max of 20%.

 

[gerzel]

well problem to me is its going to be rough worry about making Rent every month that high our characters will have to be hauling fools!

They are called Tourists, it is impolite to call them fools.

 

[DPSteve]

well problem to me is its going to be rough worry about making Rent every month that high our characters will have to be hauling fools!

maybe we should consider a more reasonable vessel, by the way do scout have to pay rent? on thier type s vessels?

I mean if they can be called back into service- did I miss somthing in the rules?

What worry about that high of rent? With speculative trade, passengers, and freight we can make much more than that a month.

Let's assume we haul 100dTons of freight. We haul an additional 50 tons of speculative cargo. We make 120,000Cr from the freight alone, pure profit. The speculative cargo will likely be around 10KCr in value. We pay 8KCr (on average), and sell for 12KCr, for a profit of 4KCr per ton, or an additional 200KCr. We're up to 320KCr now mate. And that's just one jump. Over the month (2 jumps), we're looking at 640KCr. Add in passengers and we're well in the black.

And no, scouts do not pay rent on their Type-S, but may be called back into service from time to time.

 

[Zowy]

well problem to me is its going to be rough worry about making Rent every month that high our characters will have to be hauling fools!

maybe we should consider a more reasonable vessel, by the way do scout have to pay rent? on thier type s vessels?

I mean if they can be called back into service- did I miss somthing in the rules?

I can get a 100 ton Detached Duty scout. But it only has 4 staterooms and allmost no cargo space. It still belongs to the IISS you can not modify it without their OK.

I am not a big fan of doubleing up on crew staterooms for the long term. You can't just go outside for a breath of fresh air.

We need at least a 200 ton ship and maybe a 400 ton one, if we think there are enough mid to high population worlds to make a go of it?

 

[DPSteve]

well problem to me is its going to be rough worry about making Rent every month that high our characters will have to be hauling fools!

maybe we should consider a more reasonable vessel, by the way do scout have to pay rent? on thier type s vessels?

I mean if they can be called back into service- did I miss somthing in the rules?

I can get a 100 ton Detached Duty scout. But it only has 4 staterooms and allmost no cargo space. It still belongs to the IISS you can not modify it without their OK.

I am not a big fan of doubleing up on crew staterooms for the long term. You can't just go outside for a breath of fresh air.

We need at least a 200 ton ship and maybe a 400 ton one, if we think there are enough mid to high population worlds to make a go of it?

If we go with a 200 tonner, we'll have to focus one way or the other, pretty much to the exclusion of the other (passengers vs cargo). In which case, I think cargo is the more stable investment.

To do both to the best of our ability will require a 300-400 ton ship. Much as I'd love to get a hold of a heavy freighter, I don't think starting on a 1000 ton ship is going to do our credit line much good

 

[Zowy]

I think the area has to many backwards systems to make a 1000 ton ship a good idea, unless it was a jump-3 so it could just stick to the "best" systems. At that level we allso start to be a bother to the Biger shiping lines and they play dirty :twisted: