Scams and Frauds in the Imperium

[MarcusIII]

In the French cases, it's clear that somebody got into the security system and procedures, studied them, disabled what they could and used timing for the rest.

The section where they kept all the jewels other valuable item like Fabergé eggs, jewel encrusted boxes and the like was very near a direct exit door at the lower level onto the Rue De Louvre. At least that's where they were the last time I went there. Not an optimum place for them.

 

[ottarrus]

The section where they kept all the jewels other valuable item like Fabergé eggs, jewel encrusted boxes and the like was very near a direct exit door at the lower level onto the Rue De Louvre. At least that's where they were the last time I went there. Not an optimum place for them.

Well, it's a big help if the good guys make it easy, right?

 

[ottarrus]

And insofar as Traveller scams go, what would be the point in stealing physical objects that you have to fence [at ten cents on the dollar] and transport while every badge on the planet is looking for you? It's WAY easier to steal credit chits, the electronic equivalent to bearer bonds, or industrial intelligence... those crystal chips will fit in the seams of your clothing.
And remember, one million dollars in $100 bills weighs 22 lbs /30 kg. In $1 bills it weighs 2,204 lbs /1 metric ton. That's a little bulky to fit into your carry on bag at the starport...

 

[Condottiere]

You can stuff a surprising amount of cash in a cereal box, with estimates suggesting a standard 17-ounce box could hold hundreds of thousands of dollars, potentially over $400,000 in $100 bills, or around $9 million if using rare, large-denomination bills like $10,000 notes, though actual value varies greatly by bill denomination and how tightly packed.
Examples & Estimates
$100 Bills: A 17-ounce box might hold around $436,500 in crisp $100 bills.
$20 Bills: The same box could hold approximately $87,300 in $20 bills.
Rare Bills: Using high-denomination notes, a cereal box could theoretically contain up to $9 million in $10,000 bills, but their collector value would be much higher.
Factors Affecting Amount
Bill Denomination: Higher-value bills take up less space for the same face value.
Box Size: "Standard" or "family-size" boxes vary, with larger sizes holding more.
Condition of Bills: Crisp, new bills pack differently than worn, folded ones.
Packing Method: Tightly folded or rolled bills maximize space, but loose bills (like in currency straps) take up more room.
In essence, the amount depends heavily on whether you're talking about face value in common bills or a smaller quantity of high-value notes.

 

[Condottiere]

I just realized.

If you iron the dollar bills, they become crisp.

Fresh greenbux, are, therefore, crispies.

 

[actionman]

One cannot overthrow a planetary government, or even mining colonies or whatever, without causing short or long-term disruptions to output.

The quote from Dune of "the spice must flow" is apt here - except one should substitute 'trade' for 'spice'. The Imperium allows worlds a great deal of latitude, as well as individuals and corporations, to do all sorts of things against each other and 3rd parties - so long as trade and the economy are not affected. Which is an interesting dichotomy as certain activities will naturally affect economics at all kinds of levels. One cannot overthrow a planetary government, or even mining colonies or whatever, without causing short or long-term disruptions to output. I don't think it's very reasonable to assume that Party B overthrows (violently, as it's Traveller) on Day 1 and on Day 2 everything is back to normal.

Agreed.

SuSAG is probably not going to work with Interstellar Arms to wipe out an LSP manufacturing facility just to get a corner on the market. The RPG Shadowrun has a background where actively taking down opposing corps is the norm, however I've not really gotten that impression from Traveller over the decades.

Something worth examining is the complex web of relationships that would be affected by an Imperial megacorp using paramilitary force to achieve its goals.

• All megacorps have significant investments by powerful noble families.
• Sector and subsector dukes may be related to these families, and may find themselves on either side or both sides of such a conflict.
• Powerful people can get very mad about this sort of thing, and sooner or later somebody will say to the subsector duke or the sector duke, "you handle this or I'll handle it."
• If the people involved are dumb enough to let the conflict get to the point where it comes to the Emperor's attention, the Emperor will say something to the effect of "don't make me come back there".
• The conflict can be resolved several ways:
  • Somebody takes the loss and somebody gets away with it, and whoever took the loss is mad.
  • The conflict degenerates into tit for tat sabotage and paramilitary violence and everybody's mad.
  • A duke or the Emperor enforces a resolution, which may or may not leave people mad, but nobody gets what they want.
  • A duke or the Emperor enforces a resolution that is relatively fair and just. Everyone is shocked and decides to leave it alone before something bad happens.

Three out of four of these possibilities are very likely to lead to bitter long-term grudges between powerful megacorporations, nobles, and noble families.

To prevent conflicts from degenerating into full scale wars or constant cycles of violence, there are probably agreed upon traditions or protocols or Forms of Kanly or whatever for this kind of thing. As long as people stay within those boundaries, things stay relatively stable. If someone foolishly violates those boundaries, by hiring a band of wandering space losers to do something incredibly destructive for example, then the appropriate duke will have every right to exact a heavy price on the violator, and the violator won't really be able to complain.

So one would (or could/should) assume that these sorts of things MAY happen, they probably aren't all that common.

Reasonable, and the incidents are probably rather mild and the true perpetrators are probably well hidden. Only the fall guys suffer the consequences.

Some sort of social stability has to be present in order for this to occur.

Agreed, and I think this is frequently overlooked by writers who focus on drama and adventure rather than plausibility. In cyberpunk style settings where corporations lord their wealth and power over the impoverished groveling masses, who's buying their products? There has to be some social and economic stability, or populations start to crash because people don't feel safe enough to have families, economies start to crash because it's not safe enough for people to go to work, businesses struggle to stay profitable while enduring waves of robbery and theft, families and communities start forming gangs, at first for self-protection and then to gain resources at the expense of others, and the situation becomes a downward spiral.

At some point every authoritarian regime has fallen - either to outsiders or to internal conflict as repression tends to beget rampant corruption.

Thoughts:

• At some point every regime has fallen, authoritarian or not.
• Does repression beget corruption, or are those who are corrupt willing to repress?

 

[rinku]

In Traveller as in real life, this sort of heist is most likely done when the buyer is already lined up. It's unlikely that any fencing was needed, or that the fools that did the job and were nabbed for it mattered to whoever actually planned it. The crown jewels are still missing; everything else was likely opportunity loot for the heisters.

In Traveller terms, not so much a job that the PCs saw an opportunity for and planned, but a Patron (who themselves was an intermediary) employed them to pull off, with instructions.

 

[phavoc]

Yanno, the more we talk and debate about this stuff, the more I'm thinking that Traveller is really more like the A-Team than Hammer's Slammers. Sure, there are some bad people out there, but they are chumps, bullies and small-time. The greater Imperium is relatively stable and people are relatively happy and there isn't a lot of internecine conflict.

If you have a problem, and if no one else can help, and if you can roll them... maybe you can play an RPG... in spaaaccceeee!

 

[Maxijohndoe]

The Fifth Frontier War gives many openings for Traveller Heists to work.

Normally given the TLs and the way jumping between systems work stealing something of great value or importance means facing the full might of some pretty powerful opponents.

But what if those opponents have even bigger problems to deal with than you?

As it is unlikely I'll ever get to run it here is the synopsis of a one-shot I was working on.

Kinorb is a rich world tucked away on the Coreward edge of the Spinward Marches. The Barons of Kinorb have ruled this world for centuries from their ancient estate. Entrusted with the task of watching over the nearby border regions between the Imperium and the Vargr Extents, the Barons are mostly left to their own devices by an Imperium with far more pressing matters to attend to.

For almost as long as a Baron has ruled Kinorb rumours have swirled of a great treasure hidden in vaults burrowed deep under the ancestral estate. No two rumours can agree on what it is: technology of the Ancients; vast piles of jewels and precious metals; a supply of Anagathics large enough to last generations; archives of documents hiding secrets that could undo many of the Imperium's nobility; or just a cellar full of the finest of wines.

No one was ever likely to find out. While Kinorb itself is deliberately kept at TL 8, the Baron has access to the best technologies money can buy, including security for the estate.

Then the Zhodani changed everything. By the time news of the Fifth Frontier war travelled to Kinorb Vargr forces, either allied with the Zhodani or simple oportunists, began raiding the nearby systems. By 1108 Kinorb itself was threatened by Vargr corsairs. Kinorb was declared a warzone, but with Efate and Regina under direct Zhodani threat, the Imperial navy had no ships to spare for Kinorb's defence.

The Travellers have arrived at Kinorb Highport at exactly the right and the wrong time. The X-boat system has ceased running, the few remaining SDBs are battling pirates out at the gas giants, and a good part of Kinorb's population wants to evacuate before Vargr raiders reach the planet surface.

For anyone with a J-2 Starship opportunities abound.

Then the Travellers are approached by a representative of the Baron. The Baron wants to move a cargo in secret off Kinorb along with a small contingent of guards. Credits on arrival at Yorbund, and no questions asked.

While the Travellers contemplate that offer they get a different kind of offer entirely. Steal the cargo by any means and deliver it to a different buyer waiting at Beck's World. This offer appears to come from someone inside in the Baron's entourage.

Other parties will be interested as well, from organised criminals looking for a once in a lifetime payday, to Vargr pirates and maybe even the Zhodani themselves.

 

[Condottiere]

1. Chartered Space suffers from communications time lag.

2. That would encourage regional industrial and financial hubs.

3. Partially dependent on barriers to entry.

4. Disruption of one supply source, would, at best, have only subsector effects.

5. And those, until it's restored, or alleviated from neighbouring subsectors.

 

[Terry Mixon]

1. Chartered Space suffers from communications time lag.

2. That would encourage regional industrial and financial hubs.

3. Partially dependent on barriers to entry.

4. Disruption of one supply source, would, at best, have only subsector effects.

5. And those, until it's restored, or alleviated from neighbouring subsectors.

Every time you make lists like this, my brain tunes out. Just sayin.

 

[CordwainerFish]

I'm thinking that Traveller is really more like the A-Team than Hammer's Slammers.

So that's why my referee back in high school kept locking us in toolsheds...

 

[ottarrus]

1. Chartered Space suffers from communications time lag.

2. That would encourage regional industrial and financial hubs.

3. Partially dependent on barriers to entry.

4. Disruption of one supply source, would, at best, have only subsector effects.

5. And those, until it's restored, or alleviated from neighbouring subsectors.

Resource disruption effects really does depend on what the resource is.
Lanthanum is one of the rarest ores in common industrial use and cannot be synthesized or substituted for according to lore. It's so rare and in such demand that the Imperium is willing to establish Client State relations with worlds in very dangerous regions in order to get it a good price.
[example: Scangen/Firgr [Gvurr 2937] from The Traveller Adventure's plot]
So imagine an opposing fleet occupying the one good source for lanthanum in a sector. That would have sector-wide, possibly domain-wide, implications.
I admit that this is an extreme example. Not many goods have the applications and rarity of lanthanum, after all. An event as I describe above would be a major political crisis and could legitimately lead to war. Your premise works for most good /resources, Condo, but there's always that outlier to bugger the bell curve.

 

[actionman]

the more I'm thinking that Traveller is really more like the A-Team than Hammer's Slammers.

Yes, Striker was Traveller's Hammer's Slammers.

 

[rinku]

Yeah, it's not actually that rare. Three times as abundant as lead in the Earth's crust. It's more common than Tungsten, Gold or Uranium.

Now, DEMAND for Lanthanum may well be affecting things, and a local source that's more economic to exploit than elsewhere will be important, but on an interstellar scale there's a lot of it about. I would take any statement that it can't be synthesized with a big grain of NaCl. "Too expensive to bother sythesizing when we can just mine it" is much more likely.

 

[actionman]

That would encourage regional industrial and financial hubs.

Probably the subsector capitals, or worlds at the best location on the jump routes.

 

[rinku]

Now, information... particularly time critical information, that may be literally priceless.

And there's always the hoary old standby of an Artifact.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Yeah, it's not actually that rare. Three times as abundant as lead in the Earth's crust. It's more common than Tungsten, Gold or Uranium.

Now, DEMAND for Lanthanum may well be affecting things, and a local source that's more economic to exploit than elsewhere will be important, but on an interstellar scale there's a lot of it about. I would take any statement that it can't be synthesized with a big grain of NaCl. "Too expensive to bother sythesizing when we can just mine it" is much more likely.

If you want rare, go for Onnesium.

Onnesium - Traveller

wiki.travellerrpg.com

 

[rinku]

Nice.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Nice.

I found a reference to that a while back and plan to drop a possible find in game to start a gold rush.