Versio 11. lokakuuta 2018 kello 16.38

On the Nature of Far Trading

Perhaps most importantly, there is no such thing as interstellar bulk shipping in Stars Without Number. Even the largest spike drive ships have cargo capacities measured in a few tens of thousands of tons, while a modern oil tanker has a capacity of around 500,000 tons. Trying to run a meaningful trade in bulk commodities has been a lost cause ever since the jump gates failed and massive system-ship freighters could no longer make the jump between worlds. Such commerce can exist inside a system, with huge slowboats moving from planet to planet, but modern trade relies on carrying small loads of high-value goods or expert services. Most small merchant ships such as the ones a PC group is likely to own rely on in-system supply runs as their bread and butter. They cart loads of food, water, replacement personnel, spare parts, and other life support supplies out to remote asteroid mines, research stations, and extraction plants. The pay is rarely much, but such supply run missions are excellent hooks for dropping a group into the middle of some disaster. Trade beyond supply runs usually revolves around moving local specialty tech or products. Local art, exotic pharmaceuticals, high-quality technical specialties, or passengers with special skills who want to reach a particular world all make up this class of trade. For most purposes, it’s not necessary to really elaborate on the specifics of this, though it can add flavor to make up a product or two unique to a given world. -Kevin Crawford, Stars Without Number, 235.

Starting Situation

At the orbital shipyards of Thjorgt, your new ship is almost ready to go, and your career as an unscrupulous far trader can begin. But first you need products to trade, and you've just so happened to hear of a local bureaucrat who happened to lose a shipment of weapons, and might just be willing to tell you where that shipment is, if you help them with something...