One of the memes of SF RPGs that is very popular is the Tramp Spaceship model - the group of PCs who own/crew a spaceship which travels from world to world, picking up cargo here and selling cargo there. This is one of the memes I want to support in SC 3E, yet it seems incompatible with the economic future as envisioned in SC 2E - that all things being equal, one does not ship in from another system what one can make in-system. The reason you buy something is that it is perceived as being better and/or cheaper than the alternatives - it is either one, the other, or both.
If you are transporting something from out of the system, the product is very unlikely to be cheaper than what is manufactured in-system, so it has to be better to compete. Your friend here is the Tech Level difference. If you have a positive TL difference between the source and the highest TL in-system, you are selling goods that cannot be made in the same manner in this system, and thus may undercut the price and/or quality of goods in-system. If you have a negative TL difference between the source and the lowest TL in-system, you need too be selling something which is not made at all - handicrafts, unique objects, and the like. There are some items which can be sold regardless of tech level - artwork, gourmet foods and drink, and much Intellectual Property, for example.
So I have to work out a commercial system for SC 3E which can take all of the above into account. It also must use the Wealth system rather than credits, like IHW:SC, and unlike SC 2E. What I'm thinking is using the group rules I developed for IHW:Wild Blue and extended in OHMAS as a basis for this. The group creates a company, and the company prospers or not. The PCs earn paychecks from the company. The company owns the ship, and buys and sells merchandise. I like this! It's simple, logical, and extensible.
-clash
I have always felt that the primary thing overlooked in sci-fi settings is the delta of production combined with utility. A real world example of delta of tech level is cell phones in the Sahara. Doesn't do you much good and you most likely will not get many takers. Sure, cell phones are great but they do not have the infra structure to support it. Now, look at solar powered water pumps. They have little hope of producing such a thing themselves but certainly understand the concepts of water pumps. This has value since it is a factor of production and utility. In a sci-fi scenario, precision ball bearings to a colony without the capability works quite well.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, TL will be a good rule of thumb.
Hi Clash,
ReplyDeletePicked up SC:IHW over the weekend and I'm loving it - particularly the cluster generation rules, which I'm playing with using some real-world exoplanet data to generate my own Known Space type setting. Really enjoying doing it. Rest assured I will be picking up SC3 in due course.
Sounds like you are having a nightmare at the moment so I thought it might be good to hear that your work is appreciated.
Just a quick word on trade - economists explain it using the concept of comparative advantage, which gives rise to specialisation. We're all better off if we concentrate at what we do best and swap our surpluses, rather than each trying to do everything for ourselves. The gains from trade obviously have to offset the cost of freight too. So I guess a starting-point is how expensive freight is in the setting.
Another decision is how different economies are from each other in terms of their tastes (demand) and technologies of production (supply). In an SF setting, if you have "nanofactories" that can churn out anything you've got a design for from feedstock, then everyone has more or less the same technology of production and gains from trade will be limited, although I imagine there would be a roaring trade in blueprints and handmade stuff.
I could go on but not sure if this is particularly helpful!
Marchand
Hi Marchand!
ReplyDelete*Really* glad you are digging IHW:SC! You saying this made my day! Thanks! :D
I'm thinking that comparative advantage works perfectly well, but when you have a whole world and a workforce of hundreds of millions, or billions, to work with, you can specialize in a lot of things, and trade the surplus on world. What you don't trade on world, it's easier to trade in-system if possible.
Like you said, blueprints and hand crafted stuff would be worth serious credits. Nano-tech in the Cluster is a factory thing, not some magical gray goo people carry around. The nano machines have to be created and programmed to do what you want. If your tech is high enough, you have a lot of surplus manufacturing ability, but it's not exactly man-portable, and it takes a lot of infra-structure to keep it all running.
-clash
Hey Bill!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was looking for - a rule of thumb that makes sense with this kind of setting. Something I can build the system around. :D
-clash
What I will be using is a CPI combined with what is called an adjusted market index or sometimes adjusted rarity index. Basically, a cpi rolls these things into an easy multiplier that caries out to many products. You can then work AMI into it by listing specific rare items. So, for instance, a planet may have a general CPI of 1.4 due to being a colony and not having extensive manufacturing. However, it is a Uranium mine so Uranium would have an AMI of .4 which would over ride the CPI.
ReplyDeleteHave a CMA has its advantages occasionally. ;)
That sounds cool, Bill, but won't work with a randomly generated setting. I'll have to work out a check for this.
ReplyDelete-clash
Might also look at utilizing the "Tramp Freighter" for mail delivery--people always want to send stuff to other people. Courier service is essential when you need to cross stellar distances, and can't just pop it there out of a nanofac or the like.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think it could in an exceptionally cool way. What if you were to generate the CPI randomly? No reason you could not it is just like any other factor of the planet you care generating. Then, if desired, you can link in AMIs as a factor of the CPI. In most cases, an extreme CPI will have a nice even curve coming off it reflecting the number of AMI present. This means, in economies where CPI is far from 1, the effect is product tend to have many exceptions. When a CPI is close to 1, it is nominal meaning there can be deviation but it is rare.
ReplyDeleteThen again, maybe I am the only one who gets excited by this crap. Yeah, that is probably it. ;)
Tim:
ReplyDeleteYep! This is a staple - whenever a ship leaves a system, it takes the latest news/mail it has received, and dumps it when it arrives in the next system. This gets picked up by repeater bouys near the jump point and radioed ahead. This gives you a nice credit against docking fees, but isn't a ig moneymaker. Courier service is another thing entirely, and quite lucrative. People always need a trustworthy, fast courier service.
-clash
-clash
OK - I think I see it, Bill - now to actually make it work! :D
ReplyDelete-clash