Speculative trade w/illegal goods

[drl2]

If players are looking for illicit cargo and make the roll to find a dealer, is it expected that the dealer will sell _only_ illegal cargo, and for legitimate cargo they'll have to find a different broker/supplier? So potentially there will be two different, unrelated sets of rolls with (possibly) different DMs for two different sets of cargo?

The trade goods table is set up for a d66 roll but the instructions say to just use "6"+d6 for illegal goods, which implies separate rolls.

 

[Midnightplat]

I think the tables as written presume illegal cargo and legit cargo are separate endeavors. Now any customs person will tell you most contrabrand brought in via freight tends to be mixed buried with legitimate goods. Since your travellers are doing speculative trade, that means they're doing their own bundling of legit and contraband, so I'd say separate brokers. "Realistically" your travelers are going to want the legit stuff coming from a honest/innocent broker in case the run's investigated. If the contraband was "premixed" that's not speculative trade, that's probably doing a job for someone doing the thining for you.

Think of it this way. Even if you had a broker who was selling contraband and legit goods. That broker is keeping two sets of books, so your Travellers are making two separate deals regardless if this is a speculative trade acquisition.

Want to further complicate things? Look into trade based money laundering.

I was just reviewing the other day the trade rules overview Seth Skorkowski gives in his Traveller overview series. He mentions a JTAS issue, maybe issue one I think, that actually gets into the nitty gritty of how you move your goods and ill gotten goods. Made a note to check it out.

 

[Garran]

To some degree it will also depend on whether the stuff is illegal at both the source and the destination*. There's no reason for separate brokers/books if the stuff is perfectly legit where the deal is happening.

* Also along the way, but that has the added wrinkle that some stuff that's illegal (for most people) to possess is okay to be carrying as cargo.