Black Market

[Perrryyy]

Anyone used a black market in their games (either from a player's perspective or as a narrating device)?

I've got a vague idea (yep more M*A*S*H*) running around in my head, but I'd like to hear how others have used the underground markets in their games before I work out some ideas for posting

[Anomaly]

Well, I've used it in games as a player, a GM, as well as in real life.

Finding a contact in the BM should initially be difficult. Most people are paranoid that a person they've never done business with is a member of law enforcement. However, enough money will usually convince someone that it is worth the risk to do business with the person.

A BM isn't really a market, per se, but a network of good-old-boys who can probably round something up if you need it.

Customer: 'I need X.'
Marketeer: 'Well, I don't have X, but I can get you Y.'
Customer: 'Can you send me to someone who has X?'
Marketeer: 'I might know someone. Let me see what I can do.'

You won't find a bargain in the BM. The illegal nature of it is a guarantee you are going to get shafted somehow, but that is the price of going 'underground'. Most dealings are done in public places where private conversations can occur, such as parks, restaurants, etc. BM'ers deal in hard cash, not credit, not promisary notes, strictly cash.

Hope this helps some.

[Perrryyy]

Thanks. I guess I'll have to work on the idea for a while & see where it leads.

[Owen E Oulton]

If you're trying to find a black market item, the specific skill to use is Streewise (Locate Contraband). Dealings on the black market will usually involve the skills Merchant (Black Market) and Bargain (Marketplace Haggling). When dealing in specific black market items, the skills Bargain (Specific Product) and/or Merchant (Specific Product) will be handy as well. You may also want to require a roll or two in Bargain (Bribery) to grease the wheels a bit.

It's not quite true that black market items are always more expensive than the legitimate item. Two categories of item will be cheaper - stolen goods will often be half or less the retail price, and high tax items on which no tax has been paid (cigarettes in Cornwall, Ontario...)

Of course, the trouble with black market contraband is that it may be worth less than what you paid - the Aldebaran Whisky which "fell off a shuttle" may really be bathtub gin with a green dye in it...

[Perrryyy]

Lemme bounce an idea off you guys so you have an idea where I'm going.

Back to my old standby.. M*A*S*H*.. specificallly Klinger.

Meet Grelk, a Ferengi, possibly in SF as an administrative aide or requisition officer (I'm not too keen on that idea myself, but it'll do till I come up with something better)..

Like his Lebanese counterpart, Grelk is a master swindler/trader/rapscallion. I'm considering using him with the idea that he has connections in some sort of 'underground market'. If I keep him an aide or req. officer, he'd probably be on a DS9 style station during the DW.

Now... cut off the stations' supply lines. So Grelk has to get supplies from somewhere else.

Is the BM a valid place for this?

Shoot holes, change, or help me develop this idea at will, guys

If I've learned anything about the members of this board, it's that they've got more creativity than you can shake a jumja stick at!

[Anomaly]

Having him get his supplies from a disreputable source is a great idea. The black market could assuredly supply a station with those things that it needs.

Attach the 'black market' to a face, though. Someone that the characters know are pretty slimy to begin with. So when it comes out where the Ferengi is getting his supplies from, it'll be doubly distateful.

The black market could be run by the Orion Syndicate, the Breen, or even other Ferengi. The Cardassians have a healthy black market too.

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by Anomaly
Having him get his supplies from a disreputable source is a great idea. The black market could assuredly supply a station with those things that it needs.

Attach the 'black market' to a face, though. Someone that the characters know are pretty slimy to begin with. So when it comes out where the Ferengi is getting his supplies from, it'll be doubly distateful.

The black market could be run by the Orion Syndicate, the Breen, or even other Ferengi. The Cardassians have a healthy black market too.

Will that work if the Grelk is a PC though? That's where I keep getting hung up. Otherwise, it's back to the drawing board!

[Dan Gurden]

It depends on your Player. One thing that keeps coming back to me in reading this thread is the old Woldside sourcebook for Fixers in Cyberpunk...

I think there are likely to be 2 black markets on a frontier station, especially with a Starfleet officer from the Ferengi.

As Nog showed us, there is a strong system of 'trading favours' within Starfleet, where you have to navigate the deals and coordinate the product until you get what you want... For which the 'Great Material River' is a childhood lesson for the Ferengi that puts them several steps ahead of all those hoo-mons...

The other black market is going to be the dodgy one, with the cash deals in dodgy locations, where you have to watch out for undercover law officers and second rate product... Where the item aquired may be stolen and may even draw more danger by its meer presence. And where a deal could easily turn sour and leave you with nothing except violence...

Now like the 'favour-trading' a Ferengi is again, naturally several steps ahead on this market too, most especially as many of the front men are likely to be Ferengi too, and the Rules of aquisition clearly support a deal between Ferengi as honourable...

"I may be a Starfleet officer. But I am also a Ferengi."

The levels of black market and people your dealing with will vary depending on the product;

Small deals
Likely to be expensive jewellry, electronic goods and luxury items.

These are likely to be one offs in a public place, and not always very private. Its a good way of making contact,and generally ignored as the small individual deals are almost inconsequential to the local law enforcement, unless there is a crime crackdown, but on the whole the most that will be done is a confiscation of goods. Expect to pay between 30-60% of the stadard price (depending on product pedigree and demand). Also expect that much of the produce is fake, stolen or smuggled.

Bulk Deals
Similar items to small deals.

Buying in bulk. A large package full of a particular item, definatly more than 1 of the items in question. Usually purchased by people expecting to sell the items on themselves. There is an increased risk of Law Intervention and arrest and seizure. But the profits are slightly better as the product is generally 'cleaner', ie; not stolen (as such) but more misappropriated or damaged stock. This is the source of the Traditional 'back of the lorry'. Expect to pay 40-50% on the deal, with the possibility of price mark-up for re-sale.

Stuff of life
This end has the unscrupulous business men making a profit on misery, such as food sales in a famine, or pharmaceuticals along the front line. There are very few 'Robin Hoods' here, these people are selling a product that will save lives, your life, if you can pay...

This is the dangerous end of the market (for the salesman), if word gets around things can turn ugly, and they can even get dead in a hurry. But if you get in, make the sale and get out before the Law or Military get you, a great profit can be made. Expect to pay 200%+ for standard everyday products that are in short supply. Often this type of Marketeer will have his own security to ensure that the crowd doesn't get too rowdy and poses no threat to the profits.

Hardware
Military and Weapons technology.

Full on military hardware, clean, untraceable and perfect for your needs. This marketter is a gun runner, finding and supplying the illegal weapons sales, supplying pirates with the weapons they need to hijack the spacelanes, anything from a Phaser Rifle to a Spacecraft. Expect to pay 500%+ Price subject to change at a moments notice, and expect to be surrounded by dangerous goons with better weapons than they are willing to sell on.


You can thank both 'Wildside' and my uncle Carlo for this info, based on Londons black market.

[toadkiller]

There's also the "grey market" which might be a bit more what you are looking for if you want to base it off MASH. With any really big organization like the modern Army or the future SF there is a certain degree of semi-"legal" trading going on.

For example - my command ends up with 2000 self sealing stem-bolts for the X-345 shuttlecraft. Turns out that some numbskull typed in 20 cases instead of 20 each. Now I'm "supposed" to turn them back in to supply and they'll restock them. But I really need a couple cases of the new model tricorders - so I call around to my fellow X-345 shuttle users till I can make a trade.

I've broken some regulations - but not really done anything immoral.

In one game I've been playing we have a LTJG pilot that is the expert scrounger in this fashion. The PC's had lost their ship, an old Constellation class, neatly "deleting" the borg from my game universe (I got tired of how Voy was treating them - so they are either all gone or down to just a few "cells" but that is beside the point). Anyhow LTJG McKennon is the only core Officer from the old ship assigned to the new ship while it is being constructed at Utopia Planitia (Sp?). For various reasons the construction project is being sidelined because the powers-that-be at UP aren't very excited about this new Terrell class scout program and don't want to build it. LTJG gets the chance to scrounge throughout the UP supply system to get the parts and resources needed to have the ship ready to go before the CAPT gets back.... Worked out pretty well as a "side" adventure for that character and built up his rep as "the guy who gets things". He didn't actually have to deal outside the "greater Star Fleet organization" either.

Just some grist for the mill....