Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Starships, page 42

I've had quite a few new readers (or returning ones) over the past couple of days, so I'm going to keep the Traveller love going.

Our last(?) section of this book is on Trade and Commerce. Well, that's related to starships, especially if you have a 40-year mortgage on one. We begin with a note that most commercial starships do the flat-rate per ton thing, which is both safe and boring. Much more entertaining is when you speculate in the buy-low-sell-high market. But you have to know the markets to do that, which is why it's a good idea to have star charts. It's also good to know what the markets are and how long it takes to get to them, but we'll have to wait for the next book for that.

We are promised a 'reasonably comprehensive' listing of trade goods and items on spec. In three pages? Okay, then. And we get a note that some of this stuff isn't worth carting around the galaxy, although it's still better than running with an empty cargo hold; operating at a loss sucks, but it's better than operating at a total loss.

So far, we aren't exactly getting a Masters in Economics and Business here.

Trade goods have a specified base price, yada yada. There's an 'Actual Value Table' that will modify that base price; higher is better if you're selling, but dear Lord, don't buy from someone who rolled a 12 or more. You will get so totally hosed. A 2 means the price is 40% of its base; 12 is 170%, and you can get as high as 15 for 400% price. 7 is average (100% of the base price). Man, buy it with a 2 and sell it with a 15, and you made 1000% profit! And that might cover the cost of fuel for the trip! *sob* How is it even possible to pay off the mortgage on these things?

How do you roll higher than a 12? So glad you asked. DMs, of course! No, not Dungeon Masters; that's the other game. But we won't get those ones until the next page. Instead, we get the Procedure for whether or not you find anything to buy in the first place.

To do that, you roll two dice, but you don't read them as normal; you read them as a number between 11 and 66. So, for those unfamiliar with that process, if the first die is a 4 and the second is a 2, you got a 42. A 2 and a 4 gives you 24, and so on. If you're on a world with a population of 9 or greater (I'm going to assume that's another level, like tech and law from before), you get a +1 to the first die roll. If it's small enough to warrant a 5 or less on the pop level, you get a -1 to the roll. You can't get lower than a 1 or higher than a 6 from these mods.

Whatever number you ended up with, that is the trade good you ended up with, or at least what is the best option you have. There's no indication of a second-best option, and you can only roll once per week. We'll have to wait until the next page to see what is on that table, though; the only table we have here is the Actual Value Table.

You then roll for the quantity of the item available; again, that should be on the forthcoming table. The quantities are in tons, except for the 51-56 range, which are individual items. Can't wait to see what those are. You can do a partial purchase if you want (maybe your cargo hold isn't big enough for the entire shipment), but you'll pay a 1% handling fee for splitting the load.

Then you use the Actual Value Table to find out how much it's going to cost you to buy it; again, the mods will be on the next page, but they come in three varieties: Character's skills, Brokers' services, and world characteristics.

See, that makes four references already to world characteristics; two in the Drugs section, and two here. I'm thinking that for clarity, it might have been better to put those two sections at the back of the third book. But, they're here, so we'll deal with them as they are.

Next up, the modifiers!

If Traveller is your jam, then perhaps you would like some peanut butter to go with it. My first science-fiction book is available at Amazon, in paperback or e-book format. It's called Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System, and it's a fun, pulp-style science-fiction adventure book. Check it out!