The Great Material Continum - And...how?

Greetings all!

First off I have to say I am new to the CODA Star Trek game after buying the Players Guide recently I quickly snapped up the other available books and have now got a small group together to do a game. I was amazed to find a forum still going to discuss things with!

Now the premis for my campaign is the group own a cargo ship the SS Venture. It has been several years since the Shinzon incident and nogitiations with the Dominion allow for ships to traverse the wormhole (after undergoing strict security checks) also negotiations with the Romulan Empire have gone well and trade/exploration now moves freely between.

My group are currently on Deep Space Nine undergoing their security checks before going through the wormhole to seek out money (or Gold Pressed Latinum if you will) Some are currently in holding cells after a violent altication with a drunk Klingon...the Trill engineer needed his face fixing after that!

Now my problem is this.

HOW?!

I have tried to find out how trading can work, what certain things are worth, their uses e.t.c. However more importantly is how they can afford it? One character is a Merchant so starts off with the Merchant starting equipment as per the Narrator's Guide. This includes Latinum Certificates, but of course for no diescernable amount.

What I guess I'm asking really is, how much should the Latinum Certificates be worth and is there anywhere I can find a list of goods that I can use, at least as a rough, guide to trading?

I have searched on these forums for something but to no luck, most links I have found are to yahoo! Geocities web pages but Geocities has now been shut down so they are unfortunatly dead links now.

Thanks in advance for any help you may give and spare the beatings if this has been answered recently! I did look! :)

Um... what are your players trying to buy?

Welcome aboard, Raevis. This place is usually pretty quiet, but a few of us drop in now and then.

To answer your HOW, I'd recommend bargain and barter. We've had all the usual ST fan debates over credits/money/pay/socialism etc in the UFP, and there's enough contradictory evidence to support any financial system you like. But I've found in tramp freighter games (mostly SW and Serenity) that the best games are the ones that don't focus on money, but on people who want favors or are owed favors. I'd start with the PCs broke when some shady character offers to fill their fuel tanks if they'll just deliver this package, no questions asked.

I realize I haven't really answered your question, but I'm not familiar with Coda Trek. ICON Trek had a supplement called Raiders, Renegades, and Rogues that might have something useful in the way of merchanting.

Also not going into the question itself to much I'd like to mention that there is a whole book dedicated to this from old FASA some "Merchants". If you are able to find it it's worth a look!

The rules probably don't focus as much on cash because a "traditional" Trek game doesn't revolve much around wealth acquisition. But as Sarge points out, even sci-fi games with a merchant flavor like Serenity or a smuggler-focused Star Wars work best if the actual collection of coin is not the central theme, although its pursuit will drive the player characters in the direction the Narrator desires.

So your next adventure involves that strange swampy planet on the edge of the sector? Well, of course a Starfleet crew would just go investigate and the Klingons would plant a flag, but your freebooter campaign would go there for the little known trading port to pick up that much needed supply of tritium so they could seal a deal on Delta Canopis II.

Its really just about motivating the players in a different way. Think like a Ferengi and you can't go wrong! :D

Ok cool thanks. So focus more on how they do it rather than how much they do it for? Seeing as they are a crew thoguh the captain will need to pay them.

I'm thinking the results on the Captain's negotiation with other merchants can determin a percentage if you like of profits which then allows me to make up a number and give him a certain number of credits which he can distribute accordingly.

Along the way though they will alos be doing odd jobs, the first thing they do once they get off DS9 will be a small job for Quark (Typically he hasn't given them the full details for the job and they'll get into a bit of trouble doing it!)

One of them has the Rival flaw and another has the Enemy flaw so that gives me plenty of options/oppertunities to throw a spanner in the works. In the character with the rival flaw background he has said he served with the man during his stint in Starfleet. The rival is a security officer so I'm thinking he can get arrested for a trumped up charge and risk going to prison.

In a way enemy is easier! You can just have the enemy pop up occasionally with some big guns! :P

Speaking for myself and everyone I've ever gamed with, tabulating incomes and expenses and profit margins and tariff fees is boring. We play games to get away from that kind of mundane tedium. I always did my best to hand-wave that kind of thing and get on with the adventure.

I once ran a fantasy RPG where I wanted the players to be focussed on their characters, not on treasure. I told the players before we started, "This game is not about grabbing treasure and collecting gold pieces. If you want to buy something, just ask me for it and I'll let you know if you can afford it." I often let them barter for things they couldn't afford, which led to more interesting role-playing and adventures.

Ok cool thanks.

I'm probably going to stick with odd jobs more than actual trading. If I do trading I'll base it more on the captain's negotiation skills, if he does well he buys something for a good price and does well again he sells it for a good price and then I give them a figure they share amongst themselves.

I have to say though, I love the starship creation system, I think it works really well and is easy. I made them an Orion Freighter as their ship and I'm quite happy with its stats e.t.c, the edge and flaw give it a nice bit of character as well.

Raevis

In addition to the advice above, here is a tip for information. If you still find links to Geocities sites, substitute the letter 'G' in Geocities with the letter 'R'. Some sites have been archived this way, and you find some useful information you could use.

so...

www. Geocities.com/StarTrekInfo

would become...

www. Reocities.com/StarTrekInfo

(This isn't an actual link. Sorry!)

As Storm mentioned above, the FASA supplement called "Trader Captains and Merchant Princes" may be of interest for guide lines for prices, although you could just as easily make them all up, as stated.

When I played FASA many years ago, the few trader based adventures our Starfleet crew became embroiled with always revolved around the story, not the finances. But if you have a player who wants to do accounts, let them do all the hard work!

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Originally Posted by Raevis

I have searched on these forums for something but to no luck, most links I have found are to yahoo! Geocities web pages but Geocities has now been shut down so they are unfortunatly dead links now.

Thanks in advance for any help you may give and spare the beatings if this has been answered recently! I did look! :)

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Have you tried using the Wayback Machine?