Ship shares table. Opinions

[hdrider67]

I have stayed with the 1MCr share value but I wanted some limitations placed on share actual values. In addition, I wanted to provide the a story for how these expensive credits were offered to the characters. How does one come up with a million credits in IOUs anyway? My players with shares will have a sort of backstory now. Take all of the shares, role a single die, and find out if you were the pirate who (accidentally) saved a queen or a trader whose partner wants to buy him out.

The table didn't format, so the text is a bit off.

If a character has rolled an award of one or more ship shares towards the purchase of a starship, the source (and actual cash value) can be determined by rolling 1D6 and consulting the table below. This allows for a backstory for the award as well as a limitation on the value of the shares. In all cases, the value of the shares is 1MCr per share but the cash value ranges from 0Cr in the award of a grant program or as much as 100Kcr cash value.


Die Roll Cash Value Circumstances
1 50KCr The character has invested in a shares program. The program requires an initial investment of 50,000 Credits. The financial institution reinvests this money generally making 10 to 12% compound interest. In the time it takes the character to pay off his or her loan, the bank has earned over 2MCr. If this award is taken as cash, the character receives 50KCr.

2 100KCr The character was involved in a legal battle and won 10KCr per year paid for life. Because of Anagathics, the institution making payments must place 200KCr into a low interest (and low risk) fund in order to make these payments. It is in the payees interest to be rid of this long term payment but only if the lump sum is substantially lower than the funded trust. The trustee will try to offer a 50KCr payment into a ship shares program (See 1.) or will negotiate a settlement of no more than 100KCr. An opposed Broker roll will determine how much the final amount is (60K +/- effect). If the result is lower than 50KCr, a ship share program will no longer be an option unless multiple shares are combined and the result is 50Kcr or more. Any remainder will be awarded as cash.

3 100KCr Buy-out. The character is an investor in a shipping related business concern. The current owners are offering buy-outs in the amount of 100Kcr cash or DOUBLE shares in a shares program (See option 1). If the buy-out is declined, the character receives 2D6-2KCr per year per share in the form of cash dividends.

4 250KCr The character has been approved for a grant program. The grant allows shares to be applied to the purchase of a for-profit shipping enterprise (Any ship type can make be considered for a profit making enterprise). The character must write up a short statement describing their enterprise. This grant program can not be converted to cash and can only be used for outfitting a ship (shipboard supplies and first speculative trade count) For outfitting purpose only, each share has a value of 250Kcr

5 25Kcr Auxiliary. The character has done some sort of service that has benefited the awarding government. As a reward for the rendered service, the government offers to sponsor the purchase of a ship. The character will be subject to recall by the sponsoring government in the event of an emergency. Alternatively, the character could opt for a 25KCr cash reward for service.

6 100Kcr The character has won a lottery. The lottery terms include 1Mcr per share towards a ship purchase from government owned impounds or a 100Kcr cash reward per share.

All opinions are welcome!

 

[-Daniel-]

I think the table is interesting but I plan on leaving the shares as they are. I believe the value adjustments are more an issue of one reading the table then some issue of fairness in real play.

The shares allow the players to start with some part of the ship already paid off and gives them some equity in the ship they chose to spend their shares on. However, I do not think this is much different then when I used to have uncle bob kick it and leave the player a ship but also the leans on that ship. The player "owns" but also needs to do something to keep cash flowing.

If I do nto want that I can still have the government/corporation/organization just give them the ship if need be. :wink:

Daniel

 

[hdrider67]

I think it has to do with my players not generally being a cohesive unit at the start of play. Shares (IMTU) will need to represent some real value, rather than a ship they own together already. This also helps me in the event one of the players is forced to re-roll. I can't have everyone owning their own rig.

So I had to return to a value that was represented by something tangible and at the same time, not available to the party as a cash award. None of the Actual Cash Values are in the exceptionally high range with regard to muster tables and the one listed as 275K only seems high until the text is read. That 275K is only good for fitting out a vessel for an initial voyage.

The figures average to about 60K

In any case, even without using actual values, the table helps with backstory during chargen. The rule of 72 is unlikely to ever change, even thousands of years from now, so the investment related rolls not only provide a rationale for why a share is not really worth 1MCr, they're actually viable in real life investments, though I greatly simplified how available such investments would be.

I think I might change this to a 2D6 roll and make some of the awards happen on 2 results while others will happen on 1 (with 3 and 6 being more rare)

 

[-Daniel-]

I think it has to do with my players not generally being a cohesive unit at the start of play.

Not that I have ever face this issue myself as a GM. :wink: :lol:

I agree, it is hard to get the players to think as a team even when the players have played together for a time. If they are not thinking as a team it can have a negative impact on how the choice of ship etc is played out.

Daniel

 

[Xoph]

I have interpreted the rules in such a way, that in my game I have made ship shares a real thing like shares in a corporation. In MTU every ship ownership is divided (like the book says) into 100 shares. Like in a corporation the character with majority share in the ship is in charge.