"Looks to me we have been recruited as regular ship crew. Its what we are paid for anyhow. Still just to be on the safe side i ordered me a hull welding suit from a local veteran. But you are right setting the right expectations is a smart move. And we can also check what the first few ports are we are hitting so we can get something to load into that container."

As they talk a light shine pops up in his glasses as he starts to check the local market for bargains as he nurses his drink and looks at the rest of the team to see what they think about the nature of their job and cargo.

Lilana sighs, because this was the sort of thing that frightened off her last crew.

"I do documentaries, I am not a spy, I am not an enforcement agent.  I have no intention of challenging dangerous people, no infiltrating into gangster's hideouts, none of that.  I would rather report things to the Commonwealth and then document what happens.  Besides, the Nellie Bly's military days are long over, she's not a fighting ship anymore."

Charles pokes around Poseidon's commerce listings.  All of the major worlds have them.  And all the major worlds have lots of people looking at them.

To find something special, he needs to use his skills, in this case his Broker skill.

2d6+ Broker Skill to search for Really Good Deals.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:28, Thu 23 Jan 2020.

"Alright then,now that we got that on the table we can get down to brass tacks and decide on this job." Jackson glanced at his associates "I think we should go for this job. While I hope she means what she says I think I will bring a few toys form my days in Customs and security, just in case."

Jackson noticed Charles looking at the commercial listings and said: "Once we actually find out where we are heading we can determine what will sell the best."

Charles goes through the listings but was also keeping an ear to the conversation. At the moment nothing really profitable was popping up.

"Yeah as much as i love to believe you you might be poking in a hornets nest and just because you don't plan to stir the nest up and you look harmless doesn't mean they won't shove a torpedo into your reactor core.

Still we are walking into this knowingly so you seem to be paying enough. Pay is for us doing crew stuff. So we expect to be doing just that next to our own side trade for which we like to know what ports you plan to visit. If you expect more of us its best you let us know before we set off so all our expectation from each other are on the same page and we can get the right tools. For what you hired us a toolkit is enough. If you need someone to get you out of that innocent black site once you realize you bit of more then you can report we better come prepared to do so and you should be ready to compensate for it."

OOC: I thought it was just the PCs present - wouldn't have been so disparaging if the boss was around.

"Tell us about the ship," Sanjuro suggests. "Or give us a tour. You have any modifications to help you out in your line of work?"

While a tour is in preparation...
Delorean looks over what he can get here at Metropelago Arcology, Poseidon.

As one might expect from a city supported on oceanic pylons, with no natural land, there is definitely a marine tilt to the economy here.  A couple of outliers, yes, but a lot is focused on the sea.

But that means most of the deals he could swing are not the kind that seem promising.

 There's a supplier here submersible work robots.  Big yellow pods that are designed to do all kinds of underwater work, from managing fisheries to mining to seafloor exploration.  You could squeeze two into the cargo area you have, but then, where you sell them?


Marine heavy cranes...still used because the Grav lifting devices are so very expensive and consume so much power.. but the Nellie Bly couldn't even carry one.  You'd need a big special cargo bay for that.

Small outdoor delivery robots, the type that replaced human package and letter delivery workers in many areas a long time ago.  You could carry eight of them, and buy them at 3000CR each.

Synthetic Fiber... that's only worthwhile when you have a big bulk carrier and a regular route!   Similar problem with the Packaged Freeze Dried Noodles (which aren't made here, it's an excess delivery.)  Sure, they are cheap, very cheap, but you need lots to make any real money.

A few goods available move further up the value chain... you could buy whole pallets of assorted shirts (you can fit 40 pallets) at 700CR a pallet.  Flash frozen fish... naah, you'd either have to chill the entire cargo hold, or buy a whole refrigerated shipping container of frozen fish at 65,000 Credits.  That's over 40 tons of fish.

Packaged processed fish, though... 2,600 a pallet and you could fit 40 pallets.
Coconut oil, 700CR a pallet.

And one that might be more of an interest.  Expansion into space has greatly increased the challenge for media companies to market their programs while fighting piracy and copying. In the 24th century, programming is produced on "media cards" which contain micro-computers that use highly advanced and propietary software to ensure that the data will not be copied- often by making sure that the copier gets a nasty virus instead.  Each card is also good for a limited number of uses- one might by a two hundred hour card, and after 200 hours of use (not ownership!) the card is useless.  In this way, networks can safely and reliably sell their content across the Hundred Worlds.  Metropelago Arcology happens to be home to a media production company, Seafire Visions.

Normally, these cards are packed into cases, then into pallets, for distribution.  And normally, media companies go through a lot of effort to optimize the content for different markets.  What sells at Alpha Mensae might bore people at Calderada. But, because of computer error, Seafire Visions production center has cases of "non optimized" card assortments which they are willing to sell at 30CR a case, half the usual wholesale price.  The good news is that Media cards are small.  You have space for up to 8,640 cases of them!

The Nellie Bly is a small ship.  It is wide arrowhead shape about 45 meters long.  It has 2 decks.  The two "wings" of the wedge are fuel and electronics- unmanned areas of the ship.  The actual usable area is a rectangle in the center, tapering towards the front, though the nose space is stuffed with equipment and not usable for other things).  Artificial Gravity is only provided on the top deck in the main area- artificial gravity is an expensive and power hungry feature and most ships will only use it where necessary.

The lower deck has three cargo bays in the shape of a reversed "E"- in the gaps between the cargo bays are the aft landing engines and retractable struts with the forward set in the nose.  Each of the two outboard bays can fit one standard shipping container (roughly, the international standard 40'container that hasn't changed in centuries!*).  The characters have one for their use.  The center bay is used by Lilana and includes a ground vehicle, while the other outboard bay is used by the rest of her crew.

The reason for the odd arrangement is the ship's military origin:  the two outboard cargo bays were originally intended as "mission configurable" spaces that could house various weapons, sensors, rescue equipment, or simply remain as cargo as required by the mission.

A long midship gallery connects the three, though each may be loaded externally (that's the only way you get shipping containers or large cargo in and out)  The midship gallery also has the ship's main entrance (which doubles as a small cargo airlock), a ramp that lowers down when the ship has landed, stairs up to the top deck, and additional cargo and stowage area.  This is generally used for ship supplies.  Forward of that are engineering spaces- the ship's powerplant, warp drive, other systems, sensors, forward weapons, and electronics.

The top deck has the original crew quarters, now configured as 6 staterooms, a medical bay, lounge/galley, exercise room and sauna, and an office and media production studio.  There is also the bridge, and aft weapons station.  There is a top airlock, which actually opens upwards.   It also features a retractable long range high capacity communications antenna.  This is important to Lilana's business.  She wants to be able to transmit and receive commercial broadcast signals when still approaching or leaving a planet- most typical receivers will pick up the main communication and navigation signals at a distance, but nothing else.

The top deck also has two escape pods, one in front, and one in rear, and access to the main maneuver engines.

In reply to The Boss (msg # 14

Does Charles inform the group about his search?


If so Could we get clarification on the definition of non Optimized. Does it mean not formatted for security, memory and/or security? How will this non optimization effect it's salability?
This message was last edited by the player at 20:26, Fri 24 Jan 2020.

"Non optimized" means that normally, the computers load the cards depending on the intended market.

For example, if it was today, and Disney was making these cards, they'd make sure that Winnie the Pooh wasn't being shipped to China (long story, worth a google, Winnie the Pooh is banned in China).

They would also make sure to include more things they know is popular in that market.  Different cultures like different things. Norwegians watch shows about knitting.

Non-optimized means "Just stuff", no specific target market intended.

This can be good or bad.  Good because you don't really know where you are going, bad because it might not be as appealing when you get it somewhere.  Might even be offensive.

Charles swipes his most interesting finds to his drone and tells it to project it onto the table.

"biggest issue is i got no idea what will get us a decent rate but these are the options i think are most interesting. Just got to figure out how much we got to invest and what we like to take along."

Jackson looked at Charles' display weighting the trade possibilities of each. "depending where we go the media card offers some possibilities." He paused when noticing the tern "not optimized" in the description. "We should find out what is actually on these card. If could be easily sold they would have sold it themselves. I would like to know how much legwork we going to do to sell them so we can see if the cards would be worth the cargo space."

Charles already has the answer to that:

They are non optimized, due to a production error, so Seafire Visions cannot sell them to the regular distributors.  They can sort it all out but if they can get it off their hands by selling them at discounted rates, so much the better, they can put their time to better use making new cards.

Characters with merchant experience know that *space* is the critical issue.  Space merchants have to figure value per unit space, not simply per unit or per weight, or anything like that.  Thus, some things that would seem very expensive are really not as valuable as cargo as one might think, and some things that seem cheap are very valuable.

A shipping container filled with bicycles is actually as valuable than one filled with motorcycles, because there are so many more of them in there.  (This is if the container is factory packed, they are experts at cramming things in there just right.)

Seen that way, media cards, even blank ones, are at the high end.  Not the crazy high end like precious jewels, pearls, drugs, and nano printed computer circuity, but in the high but normal end along with filled chocolates, bismuth, tin, and skin care cremes.

But the legwork in selling them... that is a trick, and every different commodity has its own special peculiarities.  Learning those peculiarities is how traders become successful traders, there is no sure fire list of instructions.  (Except for the obvious, like, if you have pallets of unpopped popcorn in your cargo hold, under no circumstances should you allow your hold to be exposed to extreme heat.)

Charles relays what he knows and takes a sip of his drink.

"So in essence we got to gamble and hope we will have the time to do the legwork at the next port(s). Its low risk low reward stuff,"

In reply to Charles 'Viper' Delorean (msg # 21):

Jackson nod his head in agreement "True. But we should definitely find out where we are heading so we can get the stuff most likely to sell."

In reply to The Boss (msg # 17):
OOC Just curious, is there a planet "Norway" and are there shows about knitting amongst the cards? :P Also does the cards all have content or are we being sold blank cards as well?

The general direction of where everyone is going is a reasonable request, your new employer decides.

"A remote place on the coreward frontier, past Deseret.  There's only a small settlement their now, called Kozaana, but I have a contact to meet there.  From there, I expect to be around the coreward frontier area- Saint Brendan, Merlin, Fulgora.  Frontier worlds, off the beaten tracks.  Okay, Merlin's pretty well settled.  But exactly where we go depends on the information from the contact.  Even I don't know yet."
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:28, Sun 02 Feb 2020.

"Well people out there might want some R&R but im not sure if we want to take to much. The Bots might be of use? Dunno not really a frontier person."

"not sure, been a bit since I've been on the frontier.   Perhaps a little research would be in order. We may want to also research if these have been known to be repurposed, especially by frontier types. As far as the cards go I am not sure we have the creds to fill the container." 

 "I might know a guy in the entertainment business," Sanjuro offers, "but I don't think we'll run into him on that route. Don't know offhand what would help with the chips. But I think a few out-of-the-way spots sound like the right place to sell uniptimized chips. They'll probably take what they can get."

The Nellie Bly is not going to wait for endless "market research".  Speculative trading is, after all, heavily built on intuition, experience, personal connections, and luck.  If the exact risk and reward expectations could be worked out beforehand...

Everybody would do it.

But about repurposing...

While the cards are designed to render themselves useless after a set allotment of viewing time, in order to create a steady market, it is possible to restore the cards.

They won't bother here because it is actually easier for them to just manufacture new ones.  Restoring them is tricky and there is a failure rate.

But out on the frontier its different.  People have more of a re-use, re-purpose, recycle life style.  Restoring a hundred spent cards and getting 20 you can use is better than nothing.

You can use the other 80 as coasters, wall tiles, poker chips, whatever.

On the third hand, it is not essential to load up here and now.  You would have further options elsewhere.

OCC: me thinks the The Boss wants us to make our minds and get the story going

"I think that the card would make for the most flexible items and we need to decide soon. I can contribute 40K to this. Are we in or Not?"

"I am willing to risk half what i got which is 5k. I don't expect us to fill the container as thats a whopping 260k of pocket money."

He looks around the table to see who else wants to chip in.

In reply to Charles 'Viper' Delorean (msg # 30):

Jackson shrugs "We get what we can get. That means we have room if we find something valuable and unclaimed. There is lot of that on the frontier."

They meet the rest of the crew.

Such as it is.

Minka "Mad Dog" Gottfried is the very petite, very busy, and very businesslike intern/assistant who for the moment, doubles as pilot- supposedly having learned from the previous pilot.  In between, she handles a lot of the business and technical affairs, and the galley.  She is always doing something, and seems to have life timed to the second, at least six months in advance.

Quote:  "We're already behind schedule."

Otto Shen is the laid back but skilled technician. The general purpose handy-man fix it guy on the ship.

Quote:  "Sure it might be dangerous but it still beats getting a real job."

And they settle into their quarters, after loading 1,500 cases of media cards.  Non optimized.

Minka, of course, has advice.

"That's pretty smart.  Did you know that in total retail credit value shipped, media cards are second only to Precious Metals as most valuable category of interstellar cargo?   I read that in Main Line Traffic.  It's full of good things for a pilot to know, a lot about ships and operations.  I read a lot.  I think if I'm going to fly this ship, it will be helpful.  This is going to be my first launch on my own."
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:11, Wed 06 May 2020.

Sanjuro scratches his cheek. "Eh, I guess I can manage 20K," he offers. "Give it a try. Meantime, I'm going to have a look over our sensors. Going to need them more than usual on this job, I think." The Nellie Bly used to be military - maybe she had some interesting leftovers. And sometimes they just disabled things rather than remove them...