Merchant Prince

[rust]

Surely there are more profitable ways to trade and make far more money for less risk? I know it might sound kind of cool, but it doesn't make that much economic sense to me.

Well, the clever trader does not tell the slave that she is a slave, he of-
fers her an excellent, well paid job an a nice garden world, and with a
little luck she will even pay for the passage.

If she does not want to pay for the great opportunity to become an ac-
tress, a model or a nurse on another world, the 2,200 Credits are still
a lot more than the trader would earn by selling someone a normal low
berth passage.

Once the "passenger(s)" arrive at the destination, their status changes
to "slave(s)", and they are treated as such, including the denial of all
contacts with their home worlds to ensure that the supply of such "pas-
sengers into a brighter future" does not dry up.

This business model works perfectly well in real life, with thousands of
women from East Europe, Africa and Asia shipped to West Europe each
year, and it would work even better in an interstellar environment where
the information flow between planets is easier to control.

 

[Jeff Hopper]

On page 114 it states that Stock Barracks only cost Cr25,000. That seems extremely low to me for a 20 person minimal barracks that has its own life support system. I'd place the price at MCr 1, which seems more reasonable.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Exactly... So it doesn't make economic sense to transport them, but it does, at least for some, to use them.

I'd place the price at MCr 1, which seems more reasonable.

I don't know about a megacredit. But it does make economic sense to transport them. Just not at Cr. 2,200/head. Lets say Cr. 100,000 for the sake of argument (and to make the math easy). My research shows that the typical low grade "service provider" grosses between Cr. 75-100/hour. Lets say they put in a full 8 hour day. So that's Cr. 800. After cutting out "expenses" like room, protection cost, and advertising, the provider is down to Cr. 200/night towards working off their debt. Include optional things like food, poor medical care and drugs to make it bearable and you're talking to Cr. 50-100 that they can use to pay back their debt. That's 2.5-5 years of working every day of the year. After that, the service provider probably is no good to the bosses anymore (far to diseased and undesirable) that the provider is cut loose.

Thinking of this in this much detail makes me feel ill.

 

[Jeff Hopper]

I'd place the price at MCr 1, which seems more reasonable.

I don't know about a megacredit. But it does make economic sense to transport them.

I'm not talking about the MCr 1 making sense in the context of slave trading, I'm talking about the MCr 1 price being sensible in the context of shipbuilding.

 

[DeadMike]

I'm not talking about the MCr 1 making sense in the context of slave trading, I'm talking about the MCr 1 price being sensible in the context of shipbuilding.

I don't think it's supposed to be a permanent fixture, but more like a cattle car stuck into the cargo hold. Considering that they contain their own waste collection units and air scrubbers inside the holding areas you may want to jack the price up some. These are probably not designed for humans but cattle by the manufacturer.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Exactly... So it doesn't make economic sense to transport them, but it does, at least for some, to use them.

I'd place the price at MCr 1, which seems more reasonable.

I don't know about a megacredit. But it does make economic sense to transport them. Just not at Cr. 2,200/head. Lets say Cr. 100,000 for the sake of argument (and to make the math easy). My research shows that the typical low grade "service provider" grosses between Cr. 75-100/hour. Lets say they put in a full 8 hour day. So that's Cr. 800. After cutting out "expenses" like room, protection cost, and advertising, the provider is down to Cr. 200/night towards working off their debt. Include optional things like food, poor medical care and drugs to make it bearable and you're talking to Cr. 50-100 that they can use to pay back their debt. That's 2.5-5 years of working every day of the year. After that, the service provider probably is no good to the bosses anymore (far to diseased and undesirable) that the provider is cut loose.

Thinking of this in this much detail makes me feel ill.

Not sure where you are getting your prices from. In RL, a person makes $7-$15 per hour. That corresponds to about Cr. 3 - Cr. 6 per hour, so for an 8 hour day, the average unskilled laborer will make no more than Cr. 20 per day.

Even at Cr. 1 = $1, that only comes out to just over Cr. 100 per day maximum for unskilled labor earnings.

NOT hundreds of credits per hour.

 

[rust]

Not sure where you are getting your prices from. In RL, a person makes $7-$15 per hour.

I think he meant "horizontal service providers", since the discussion star-
ted with the low price of slave concubines.
For this kind of service $7-$15 per hour would indeed seem a bit low ... :lol:

 

[dmccoy1693]

Not sure where you are getting your prices from. In RL, a person makes $7-$15 per hour.

I think he meant "horizontal service providers"

Precisely.

And I'm getting my numbers from extensive research in the area of craigslist. Low grade workers providing a particular service for $150-200/hour in southern NJ. The book says US$2=Cr. 1 So that's what I'm using.

 

[DeadMike]

Personally, I feel that unless there is a huge demand for lots and lots of slaves that it just wouldn't be worth it. Make more credits with less hassle moving food. Besides using it for creating detailed enemies, I see the whole slaver thing as a waste of space in the book. It is for me anyway, there are much better/easier and more legal ways to make a credit. If I am going to haul illegal goods, it'll be something that doesn't need to breath.

 

[Techno-Guru]

finally got the book and have to say I'm pretty impressed. It's definitely one of the larger ones I've bought and chalk full of stuff I'd love to have the chance to play with. Unfortunately my current group is still very much in the "dungeon crawl" stage of their PnP careers. Pity, I would love to try a Junk Dealer or Free Trader.

Thinking of this in this much detail makes me feel ill.

Look at it this way, it means you still have something resembling moral fiber.

Personally, I feel that unless there is a huge demand for lots and lots of slaves that it just wouldn't be worth it. Make more credits with less hassle moving food. Besides using it for creating detailed enemies, I see the whole slaver thing as a waste of space in the book. It is for me anyway, there are much better/easier and more legal ways to make a credit. If I am going to haul illegal goods, it'll be something that doesn't need to breath.

I wouldn't be so hasty, I see a few interesting plot hooks involving Imperial Intelligence or a major law enforcement agency and a Slaver PC's trial. "Convict X9471, you are found guilty of trafficking in human lives. I could sentence you to death or life imprisonment and not lose an ounce of sleep over it. However, an authority higher then mine has come up with another way for you to repay your debt to society. Appease them and you might actually breath fresh air again...."
But still, inanimate contraband is a perfectly valid route if you so wish.

 

[DeadMike]

I wouldn't be so hasty, I see a few interesting plot hooks involving Imperial Intelligence or a major law enforcement agency and a Slaver PC's trial. "Convict X9471, you are found guilty of trafficking in human lives. I could sentence you to death or life imprisonment and not lose an ounce of sleep over it. However, an authority higher then mine has come up with another way for you to repay your debt to society. Appease them and you might actually breath fresh air again...."
But still, inanimate contraband is a perfectly valid route if you so wish.

As far as the skills learned, the mustering out benefits and the job as a whole, I'll pass. Other careers are more to my liking for all of the above. The only way I would roll up a slaver is if the GM required it for the initial adventure. That is just me though.

 

[Techno-Guru]

As far as the skills learned, the mustering out benefits and the job as a whole, I'll pass. Other careers are more to my liking for all of the above. The only way I would roll up a slaver is if the GM required it for the initial adventure. That is just me though.

*shrugs* Me too, I just like being the devil's advocate sometimes. My two cents.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Might make a good Enemy though...

It also ties in nicely with the Slave career from Spica Publishings Career Book 2.

 

[chrisboote]

Remember we still have perfectly legible copies of books that are 400+ years old:

CD's start to 'break down' after 10 years or so...
Anything stored on 3.5" will soon (next 10-20 years or so) not have much hardware available to read it...
formats change regularly and not all new software is fully backwards compatable...

There will always be a need for hardcopy IMTU.

And of course we can still read the Egyptian hieroglyphs perfectly, at c. 4000 years old

 

[Techno-Guru]

Silly question but I've been thinking about the Taxation rules for Speculative Trading at the end of the book, should those be applied to Junking and Slave Trading as well? Just an idle thought; I wouldn't bother as the profit margins for refurbished goods are low enough (although not bad considering a Junk Dealer pays a base cost of zero credits in most cases.)

 

[FreeTrav]

It still hasn't appeared at the Compleat Strategist of New York; I've asked them to poke their distributor.

 

[alex_greene]

I'd probably go for contraband data, myself.

In the future, it would be possible to smuggle in terabytes of contraband data (pr0n of some sort, like xeno or vi stuff; cloned ids; stolen digital signatures of various authorities, e.g. an Imperial Agent's electronic warrant card or a private encryption key for an Imperial code) in something the size of the tiniest diamond in a wedding ring.

A data smuggler could keep his nose clean, stay away from the more visible kinds of crimes and still manage to scrape a pretty decent living from basically carrying around a library in the back of his hand.

 

[Techno-Guru]

I'd probably go for contraband data, myself.

In the future, it would be possible to smuggle in terabytes of contraband data (pr0n of some sort, like xeno or vi stuff; cloned ids; stolen digital signatures of various authorities, e.g. an Imperial Agent's electronic warrant card or a private encryption key for an Imperial code) in something the size of the tiniest diamond in a wedding ring.

A data smuggler could keep his nose clean, stay away from the more visible kinds of crimes and still manage to scrape a pretty decent living from basically carrying around a library in the back of his hand.

Interesting, something I will have to keep in mind for my games...

 

[BP]

"I'm telling you the truth, Guiardo, the mugger took the ring..."

 

[rust]

"I'm telling you the truth, Guiardo, the mugger took the ring..."

"And it was a small guy with hairy feet who kept mumbling something
about allseeing eyes and volcanoes, really ..." 8)