Mating Airlocks to Cargo Hatches

[MarcusIII]

Also there might have been no other cargo for you at the origin point. It could be we have cargo for Jupiter or nothing. So jump for free or Jump to Jupiter and hope for a cargo there or a cargo you can pick up elsewhere in Sol system.

The ship would wait one week and get cargo at that point.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

The ship would wait one week and get cargo at that point.

I don't have an up to date CRB and what I do have doesn't indicate how often you can reroll BUT for speculative trading there is a DM -1 for each attempt in the same month. Some planets are inherently poor for trade add a DM -1 and it can go from poor to worse, especially for major cargoes. Especially if there are campaign reasons for it.

 

[rinku]

My main point was that the free traders will often have the high port as their destination. But also that there is probably speculative trade exchange going on at most highports. All you're locating are brokers; in many (most?) cases those aren't end-buyers.

A particular Free Trader doing speculative trade may well be going from high port to high port and avoiding all that inconvenient weather and gravity. The trade system pretty much confirms it, with the random availability rolls for cargoes that often could not be produced locally.

 

[Vormaerin]

I do believe the rules say "suppliers or brokers". But, ultimately, I disagree with your assertion because I think it is mistaking "rules to make players able to do stuff" with "how things happen in general".

The rules are designed so that the players are going to get cargo no matter where they are (except maybe red zones). If we treat the whole world as functioning like that, things get pretty weird IMHO. You may disagree.

 

[rinku]

In regards to frequency, for passengers and freight it's not specified. The roll is basically made around the time the ship is preparing to depart. That makes a certain amount of sense if you assume there is a background of other ships operating as the default... passengers and freight will arrive and depart over any given period of time. If you hold off departing for a month, it isn't necessarily going to give you more passengers than if you jumped right away (the ones that were there a month ago may have already left on another ship). But if you do get a low roll, waiting a bit to see if things are better in a few days also checks out.

Speculative cargo DOES specify it, and it's all about finding a Supplier. 1D days normally, 1D6 hours online. With a -1 per previous attempt in the last month.

 

[Condottiere]

Freight tends to have a flat rate, as does passenger passages.

What we tend to add in, is the cost of delivering the goods so that they can be loaded onboard, or take delivery.

I rather doubt starships are permitted to land anywhere they please dirtside, so whether they land on launchpads planetside, or make arrangements to transfer the goods while still in orbit, may depend on convenience and/or cost.

 

[swordtart]

The setting is absolutely not portrayed as being post scarcity. It just is difficult to think of reasons why it isn't given the technology that they do have. It's just one of the conceits of the setting. Like why humans actually do things that you'd reasonably expect automation or robots to do. Or, to stick with the wildly off topic topic we've been, on, we have trade that looks reasonably like trade we as we understand it today even though that seems unlikely. It's because it makes for a better game.

Fabricators still require feedstock. We are told you can make things for maybe as low.as 10% of their base cost, not for free.

We could be post scarcity for food now. It doesn't prevent famine if that food remains in a warehouse.or in the hands of a warlord.

The game assumes trade. Even semi-utopian settings like Star Trek have regular visits to planets that have trade economies and whilst thay can replicate almost anything they still need to travel to planet x for unobtainium.

I don't see fabricators as trade breakers, they just change the nature of the trade for the
planets that can afford to run them.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The setting is absolutely not portrayed as being post scarcity. It just is difficult to think of reasons why it isn't given the technology that they do have.

That's the easy part, it is deliberate. The Imperium maintain a wealth and economy gradiant by not developing all worlds to TL15.

It's just one of the conceits of the setting.

Why use the word conceit rather than concept - I have noticed this over the last few years.
Conceit to me has always had a negative meaning:

conceit

1. the state of being too proud of yourself and your actions: 2. a clever or…

dictionary.cambridge.org

Like why humans actually do things that you'd reasonably expect automation or robots to do.

The small crew size on starships indicate to me that the ship is itself only one step removed from a robot.

Or, to stick with the wildly off topic topic we've been, on, we have trade that looks reasonably like trade we as we understand it today even though that seems unlikely.

People try to make it look like it is today, the folks at GURPS used economic models that don't really fir the setting.
The reality of trade in the 57th century will be very different.

It's because it makes for a better game.

Which is why we got the PC mini game and not the movement of RUs between worlds...

 

[Vormaerin]

That's the easy part, it is deliberate. The Imperium maintain a wealth and economy gradiant by not developing all worlds to TL15.

Why use the word conceit rather than concept - I have noticed this over the last few years.
Conceit to me has always had a negative meaning:

conceit

1. the state of being too proud of yourself and your actions: 2. a clever or…

dictionary.cambridge.org

The small crew size on starships indicate to me that the ship is itself only one step removed from a robot.

People try to make it look like it is today, the folks at GURPS used economic models that don't really fir the setting.
The reality of trade in the 57th century will be very different.

Which is why we got the PC mini game and not the movement of RUs between worlds...

Because conceit has more than one meaning and it is the correct word for the use I put it to. It comes from the same root as "conceive". Unlike concept, it suggests a deliberate choice for effect. It also has a meaning in poetry related to an extended metaphor.

Ships are highly automated. There's no reason they couldn't be autonomous with the technology available to the 3I. In fact, they are in some places outside of the 3I and even within it.

Trade in the future will be absolutely different. So different we don't have any reasonable way of quantifying it or using it effectively in storytelling within the game. So we make decisions about what we want it to look like and Traveller leaves it pretty vague so the maximum amount of those preferences are workable within the rules.