Virtual Mining Software in HG

[Annatar Giftbringer]

But that, you see, is where an adventure is born.

My thoughts exactly, couldn't agree more!

Anything can be made into an adventure, and if the GM wants to take away the player-found way to become rich, don't just remove it and say 'no!' Steal it with a plot-device and give them an option (or the illusion of an possibility) to get it back, the hard way

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Not to mention all those High Law Level worlds where that particular program you are running in the background is against the law...

Outside of an interstellar polity, you wouldn't have the protection of Extrality...

"Hi we are from the Morality Police and we are here to confiscate your computer system."

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Anything can be made into an adventure, and if the GM wants to take away the player-found way to become rich, dont' just remove it and say 'no!'

I agree with this in principle, but I perhaps lack the imagination to make that an exiting adventure.

 

[alex_greene]

Anything can be made into an adventure, and if the GM wants to take away the player-found way to become rich, dont' just remove it and say 'no!'

I agree with this in principle, but I perhaps lack the imagination to make that an exiting adventure.

Add it to the trade game.

Invest in a bunch of high tech TL 14 or TL 15 model 5 handheld computers, dedicate them to the VM software +2, convert one of the staterooms into a server farm running your Model/5s in a beowulf cluster, run VM/7 on all of them while the ship's down for maintenance or something in a Class A or B Starport. Come back when the maintenance period is over and just add what cash you mined to your funds. Then take that cash and anything else you have spare like your annual pension or your ship shares monthly dividends, and go spec trading with it or pay off your berthing fees or alleviate your monthly maintenance fees or something.

If it doesn't make you money, at the very least it can be used in the trade game to offset some of the minor running costs.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Anything can be made into an adventure, and if the GM wants to take away the player-found way to become rich, dont' just remove it and say 'no!'

I agree with this in principle, but I perhaps lack the imagination to make that an exiting adventure.

To be honest, I'm not sure I could succeed in creating an exciting adventure from it either, at least not without a lot of pre-plannning and extra work. Could be fun to try though....

 

[PsiTraveller]

I am finding that having the players become rich does not really impact the game all that much, it just changes the scale of the numbers they are talking about. There may be an extra couple of zeroes on the end of the line, but they are still focused on buying weapons and spare parts, they just order more.

Richer players can also get into political intrigue. Diplomacy and Carouse (in a refined sense) become more important. It depends if your players want to be the agents and boots on the ground, or the folks in the power suits in the backrooms making the dirty decisions. Maybe they want to be both. Have one set of players involved in international/ Intersector banking and then a group of covert ops agents who go in and try to hack the opposing Megacorp servers. Diplomacy and intrigue or action and mayhem, depending on mood.

 

[-Daniel-]

I am finding that having the players become rich does not really impact the game all that much, it just changes the scale of the numbers they are talking about. There may be an extra couple of zeroes on the end of the line, but they are still focused on buying weapons and spare parts, they just order more.

Richer players can also get into political intrigue. Diplomacy and Carouse (in a refined sense) become more important. It depends if your players want to be the agents and boots on the ground, or the folks in the power suits in the backrooms making the dirty decisions. Maybe they want to be both. Have one set of players involved in international/ Intersector banking and then a group of covert ops agents who go in and try to hack the opposing Megacorp servers. Diplomacy and intrigue or action and mayhem, depending on mood.

Great point. It all comes down to what kind of game you want to play and how you want it to feel. Given the right GM and players, a political intrigue game can be as exciting as a wild west shoot out on a frontier world. :mrgreen:

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

True, good points!

Of course, depending on where they travel, even a rich and well-equipped group might end up in a Wild West shootout
Especially considering the players might wanna get in on the action themselves, seldom satisfied with letting other have all the fun (even if they might be able to afford bodyguards/a small private army)

 

[-Daniel-]

Of course, depending on where they travel, even a rich and well-equipped group might end up in a Wild West shootout

LOL, of course, players just gotta have fun.

Of course we must remember that while the characters might be better equipped, so might the NPCs. :mrgreen:

And to be on topic, I was thinking as the characters start to show up with the money, I wonder how long until some organization might get interested in taking over the operation. I could just imagine there are a few syndicates or "families" who would love a good scheme to make money. The characters could find themselves in the sights of some interesting competitors.

 

[alex_greene]

Of course, depending on where they travel, even a rich and well-equipped group might end up in a Wild West shootout

LOL, of course, players just gotta have fun.

Of course we must remember that while the characters might be better equipped, so might the NPCs. :mrgreen:

And to be on topic, I was thinking as the characters start to show up with the money, I wonder how long until some organization might get interested in taking over the operation. I could just imagine there are a few syndicates or "families" who would love a good scheme to make money. The characters could find themselves in the sights of some interesting competitors.

Or they can do what the most competent people with high levels of Broker, Admin and Persuade do.

Set themselves up as consultants, and work out ways of helping the organisations look legit.

When you've got money, even if you're seen in the right places shaking hands with monied Dons and gangstas, notoriety can be just as powerful a lure as the more positive reputations.

All that money does is bring you closer to the day when you're digging out that old copy of Dilettante.

 

[-Daniel-]

Or they can do what the most competent people with high levels of Broker, Admin and Persuade do.

I read this line and the thought that came to my mind was ...

"Or they can do what the most competent people with high levels of Broker, Admin and Persuade do, they become lawyers."

 

[Condottiere]

Solar panels plus space based: free energy plus free cooling.

 

[fusor]

If money is so easy to make, isn't that going to change the feel of the setting completely? Why doesn't everyone do this? Why struggle to eke out a living when you can just get a computer running and making money for you?

 

[alex_greene]

If money is so easy to make, isn't that going to change the feel of the setting completely? Why doesn't everyone do this? Why struggle to eke out a living when you can just get a computer running and making money for you?

Because eking out a mere living is what turns the characters into Travellers in the first place.

 

[fusor]

Because eking out a mere living is what turns the characters into Travellers in the first place.

Why bother if you can just do this instead?

 

[alex_greene]

Because eking out a mere living is what turns the characters into Travellers in the first place.

Why bother if you can just do this instead?

Because there's always more money to be had, plus adventures, the trade game and chasing pirates and engaging in ship-to-ship combat, which is what all that High Guard ship design stuff is all about - building vessels to fight one another, singly, in fighter squadrons and in fleets.

 

[-Daniel-]

Because eking out a mere living is what turns the characters into Travellers in the first place.

Why bother if you can just do this instead?

Because they are discussing rules and not a world. If it were that easy to do, then there would be large organizations controlling the process. Think gambling. Yes anyone can do it, but to get real rich doing it you end up dealing with government and/or criminal organizations. And I just can't see local governments passing on the opportunity to tax the heck out of such large sums of money. Income tax and other regulatory fees etc.

Lastly, let's be honest, we play for the action not to say our character is sitting at a computer all day. Heck that is what I do in real life and it is far from exciting or fun. :mrgreen:

 

[fusor]

Because they are discussing rules and not a world. If it were that easy to do, then there would be large organizations controlling the process. Think gambling. Yes anyone can do it, but to get real rich doing it you end up dealing with government and/or criminal organizations. And I just can't see local governments passing on the opportunity to tax the heck out of such large sums of money. Income tax and other regulatory fees etc.

Lastly, let's be honest, we play for the action not to say our character is sitting at a computer all day. Heck that is what I do in real life and it is far from exciting or fun. :mrgreen:

Sure, but it just seems a bit dumb to include something like this in the rules. As you say, it isn't really conducive to exciting gaming after all, and if it's so common as to warrant a mention in the rules and makes so much money then it just breaks everything (it's likely that it could be done previously anyway, but mentioning it wouldn't have been worthwhile because it wasn't an effective way of making money). So either it's not limited by anything and it breaks the game, or it's so limited that it's useless and therefore not worth including in the rules. Seems like a waste of space to me.

 

[alex_greene]

it just breaks everything

Hardly. The Travellers conduct heists and piracy, and it's never harmed the economy of the Third Imperium any.

 

[fusor]

it just breaks everything

Hardly. The Travellers conduct heists and piracy, and it's never harmed the economy of the Third Imperium any.

Making infinite money for no effort does.