Free Trader/Far Trader

[MongooseMatt]

Something the cropped up in the Sindal forum got me thinking.

Can anyone see any good reason why the Free Trader benefit should not be made into a choice of Free Trader or Far Trader?

Far Trader allows better exploration for players, Free Trader allows more profit (potentially). Giving this option will allow greater flexibility in where players can start (not everyone is going to be on the Spinward Main...).

 

[Captain Jonah]

Something the cropped up in the Sindal forum got me thinking.

Can anyone see any good reason why the Free Trader benefit should not be made into a choice of Free Trader or Far Trader?

Far Trader allows better exploration for players, Free Trader allows more profit (potentially). Giving this option will allow greater flexibility in where players can start (not everyone is going to be on the Spinward Main...).

This has been mentioned a number of times in other places.

Firstly limiting it to the Free Trader which is Jump 1 makes it all but useless in the new official sector since it lacks a jump main.

Secondly it takes away the players choice, do they want something with more cargo but less range, or go for jump 2 and less cargo or cabins etc.

On the same line the ship benefit is very restrictive being only a single ship, what about an option across all of them.

A scholar with a lab ship, more or less lumbered unless the campaign is geared to it, but why can't a poorer university or research center use a modified far trader with half the cargo space as a lab area, or an astrophysics lab that is a modified scout / mining ship with a pilot and researcher, labs and a cargo bay full of sensor drones that are launched to make up a huge distributed sensor net. The sort of ship that jumps somewhere and sits there recording data for a month or two. All are lab ships and give players more choices without a 400Dton ship that has very little use adventuring because it can't generate an income.

Scouts are very much traditionally given scout ships.

Merchants, the Free Trader or the Far Trader, the Fat trader, the liner. Progressively bigger ships and more expensive plus harder to run but that Jump 3 gives a lot of options in a sector with long jump distances such as the new focus on not being in the spinward marches.

Rogues, the corsair which seems to have vanished. Or an armed freighter variant, an Armoured trader, a twin turret Far Trader.

The 25% shouldn't be applied to some of the larger ships, I'm sure we all know players who would go for a merc cruiser at 25% off :lol: but it should be used for other ships at reduced effect to give players the choice.

The Iconic free trader as adventuring ship was fine for last century but it's the 21st century now and options for the win

Thoughts ?

 

[Captain Jonah]

Oh and the Yacht / safari ship. :roll:

 

[Golan2072]

I'd even go as far as to offer characters who rolled the "Trader" benefit multiple times (3? 4? 5?) a choice of a Fat Trader/Subsidized Merchant with mortgage rather than a Free Trader without mortgage.

Oh. by the way, I *LOVE* the new way ship shares work. Now you can use your share to have an actual *share in a shipping company* (or ship), generating revenue! Cool!

 

[-Daniel-]

Something the cropped up in the Sindal forum got me thinking.

Can anyone see any good reason why the Free Trader benefit should not be made into a choice of Free Trader or Far Trader?

Far Trader allows better exploration for players, Free Trader allows more profit (potentially). Giving this option will allow greater flexibility in where players can start (not everyone is going to be on the Spinward Main...).

I think adding the option is a great idea. It also addresses from the start some of the trade off that a merchant must face.

Would you then offer the Yacht / Safari Ship option as well? I saw a few folks ask for that for the same reason. Jump limit.

 

[Condottiere]

You can start off with a default ship, and then consult the group if it suits their needs, or what they perceive their needs to be.

Then give them a series of optional ships, with advantages, disadvantages and/or obligations clearly listed. That can include a career requirement by one of the players.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Free Trader: MCr46.4
Far Trader: MCr55.1 (sorry I am NOT going to list the price down to 5 significant figures..!)

So allowing a Traveller to select the Far Trader rather than a Free Trader is given them a 25% bonus. (hummm funny how that number strikes a cord...)

Perhaps make a comment that if the Traveller gets this Benefit TWICE, they may choose a Far Trader at 25% paid off rather than a Free Trader. This would also HINT that some negotiations can be done with this Benefit.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Free Trader: MCr46.4
Far Trader: MCr55.1 (sorry I am NOT going to list the price down to 5 significant figures..!)

So allowing a Traveller to select the Far Trader rather than a Free Trader is given them a 25% bonus. (hummm funny how that number strikes a cord...)

Perhaps make a comment that if the Traveller gets this Benefit TWICE, they may choose a Far Trader at 25% paid off rather than a Free Trader. This would also HINT that some negotiations can be done with this Benefit.

Going purely on ship costs doesn't work that well across the range of ships. After all the scholar and rogue are both looking at Mcr140+ for their 25% benefit, three times the Free Trader.

Probably easier to accept that the GM and players want some variety and will simply ignore rules they find silly and say something like 25% on the specific named ship or 15% on another ship of the same general purpose at GMs discretion. So a Free Trader at 25% or another Trader type at 15%.

Make this the standard rule for all ship benefits so even the scout could get something not a scout ship if they want.

Allowing the players a Fat Trader instead of a Free Trader is still a lot cheaper than a Rogue getting a Corsair. In the end the money is just numbers, give the players the option to pick what they want and keep it simples :lol:

 

[-Daniel-]

You can start off with a default ship, and then consult the group if it suits their needs, or what they perceive their needs to be.

Then give them a series of optional ships, with advantages, disadvantages and/or obligations clearly listed. That can include a career requirement by one of the players.

I would agree with you except the issue that started this was we are looking at a core setting that has very little Jump 1 opportunities. The need for a jump 2 in the setting makes the Far Trader a better fit. I believe the core rules must assume the use of the core setting as it is included.

That is why I think the option to trade up to the jump 2 ship and have less cargo space is a good one to include in the book.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

Far Trader should be treated the same as a free trader when it comes to "free ship" rolls. Let the players determine if they want more cargo or more range. Honestly I've never played in any Traveller game since 1981 that someone picked a jump 1 ship over a jump 2 ship. Adventure class ships simply need better range for most sci-fi adventure gamers.
I do like the idea of treating multiple rolls of "free ship" like some armor or weapon rolls. You can trade in additional "free ship" roles for upgraded vessels.
IMTU the players settled on jump 3 frontier trader to meet their needs.
IMHO I think there should be more J3 ships to exploit the niche between military and high risk, high reward merchant vessels.
But what ever you finally decided, I would give maximum flexibility for the players to have a wide range of choices, or as much as possible.
Perhaps you can match 2-4 ships with the various Skill package sections, "Explore skill package, Criminal skill package, Trader Skill Package etc... each have at least 2 standard ships the group of players can choose from to match the flavor of the campaign?