freight costs--Merchant Prince

[apoc527]

Quick question/issue with freight shipping in Merchant Prince: the cost for freight continues to plummet, making it harder and harder for a ship to make a profit shipping freight. Given that MOST free traders are not going to use up that much of their hold on dangerous speculative trade, it seems like the cost for freight is ridiculously low.

In the Core Book, it's Cr1,000/ton for 1 parsec, +200 per additional parsec. In Merchant Prince, it's Cr500/ton with a 20% boost per parsec modified by a negotiation roll.

I think the easy thing to do is just double the prices in Merchant Prince...

 

[Treebore]

I think they dropped the baseline because with good skill, good modifiers, and good rolls you can also negotiate a pretty awesome profit margin. Start with a higher base price, and those profits get even uglier.

So bottom line, if your not a good enough of a trader to make a profit on 500 base line, your going to go out of business like so many do. If your truly good, you will thrive.

What your asking for is a base line where success is assured. Like in todays world, I am sure most start up business' fail. Lots of established business' fail. Heck, this year alone, only 5 months along, and over 50, or maybe its now 60 BANKS have failed across the USA. I think the total over the last 3 years is over 300 bank failures, definitely over 200.

So business is anything but a definite success, your far more likely to fail.

 

[apoc527]

I was just doing the math. A free trader can survive on freight plus passengers fairly reliably if it sticks to high-pop trade routes. Anything else requires skill, daring, ad some luck.

So, post retracted. If the PCs want to get rich, they better take some risks, either with "odd jobs" or spec trade.

 

[Stainless]

So, post retracted. If the PCs want to get rich, they better take some risks, either with "odd jobs" or spec trade.

Take risks? That's what PCs do best!

 

[apoc527]

Speaking of "risk taking," is anyone else a little confused about the Risk/Reward modifiers? How can they simulate "flying through pirate territory" when there might not BE any pirate territory to fly through on a particular route?

What else do you think this is representing?

 

[rust]

What else do you think this is representing?

You could replace the pirates with some natural hazard, for example as-
teroid fields, dense dust clouds, high radiation levels blinding some sen-
sors and thelike ?