TRADING (Commerce) and other Revenue - Fornice

The Far Trader "Athelstone" is at Fornice Downport 2-A, the feeder port for the large Arcology-city of Port-au-Prince. It supports frequent shuttle flights from the main orbital Space Port, and infrequent sub-orbital flights from other cities on Fornice's surface. The ship currently belongs to the First Bank of Fornice, and until ownership is transferred...well, best get that done first! When the ship is re-commissioned with the Starport Authority you could choose to change its name.

Trading Facilities at Port-au-Prince are relatively limited. The main 'exchange' and public trading boards can be found on the main starport. However, the chances of finding off-board trades and passengers are good, as this port is not regularly serviced by any of the major shipping companies or passenger lines competition for local goods is somewhat lower.

The public trading boards are dominated by offers of freight and priority freight. These are goods owned by someone else, and that someone needs a ship to move them from point a to point b. The price-fixed rate is 1,000cr per dTon. Priority freight is usually paid at double that, but with a time limit with penalties for late delivery. What speculative cargos show up on the public boards tend to get snapped up quickly; so better act fast or lose out! Same with passengers on the public board.

There are six star systems at Jump-1 (J-1) and Jump-2 (J-2) distances from Fornice:

Jokotre (J1) port B yellow zone - coreward
Mora (J2) port A
Grille (J1) port E - rimward
Maitz (J2) port A
Catuz (J2) port C yellow zone - spinward
Moran (J2) port C

Are any of the new Brokers (Alice and Lu-Yam) going to assist in finding cargo?

ANYONE can help find cargo. Streetwise, Carousing, High Social Status, Good Contacts, Steward, and other skills (and roleplaying) all can have positive effect. The Broker skill can be useful in finding cargo; but local brokers will always have the edge over traveling brokers.

BUT, we are getting ahead of ourselves and I'm certainly not yet ready to start posting "goods available" yet. I mean, we still haven't even gotten the whole crew settled in, nor a Merchant-Charter agreed to, or really anything else.

Steward can help find passengers, especially High Passengers, but so can most of the things posted above.

BEWARE; you do need to do this is some sort of coordinated way. If you have 7 characters out there getting cargo and you end up contracting for more tonnage than you can actually handle, or more expense than you have credits to cover, well you're in a pretty big jam.

I know we all want to get rolling on this. So do I. I admire your enthusiasm! But lets at least get the crew on board, a hierarchy decided on if you decide to go that route, accomodations sorted, etc.

To Dabaggins

BIC
LC, "we can only go to J-2 so there are J1 worlds nearby, the profit is with risk so I suggest Amber zones and seek out all the profit. It is risky, but where is the fun in staying safe?"

"Yes," Mama agrees, "Minimal risk? We might as well be in the union... I for one like a little excitement..."

OOC: Mama can reroll later. That was to assist Dave should I not be able to respond timely. With more qualified seekers of treasures now included in the crew, she will assist rather then lead .

Tharrok looks at the charts and thinks carefully for a moment. Then he says, "I will fly wherever we decide, of course. But I’d like for us to consider going rimward instead of going back the way we came."

"Agreed. Make money, have some excitement." Tharrok’s tail wags a bit. "If I wanted boring, I’d have stayed in the Merchants."

A suggestion, "I was wondering if we could find something that is hard to move, that we might be able to transport in a rather unique way. Something that we can get at no upfront cost, and get paid the transport fee upon arrival at our destination. Should the destination fail to pay transport fee, we sell it to recomp the fee. Thoughts?"

Mama will continue to use cabin 4B as her cabin, as she is already acustom to it and it is closest to all medical based equipment and cold storage units.

I agree with Dave doing a hand wave and granting all new arrivals (and old arrivals without sufficient funds) the additional amount of funds needed to be full share members. This would be completely fare to me as we are still just starting out. We can justify the extra (unnecessary) staffing because of full share holder status and consider that one of the major factors in agreeing to their acceptance as part of the crew.

This would require minimal adjustments to what LC wrote up..

We still need to identify a chain of command. This is necessary in the event of emergency or crisis. The chain of command can be changed by a 51% vote, but should not be changed during jump...
Only while out of jump space and once safety is established.

We elect a ship's captain prior to departure and the elected captain identifies his/her appointed persons the chain of command from highest to lowest. The bottom of the chain of command, still retains full authority as a full shares member, it just clearly establishes who is next in charge should something happen to or incapacitates the current group leader.

The elected captain, through the assistance of the group then decides on the next port, thus giving the purchasers direction in locating goods and services. The purser (whom ever that is) approves the purchase, based on available funds, after consultation with the Steward, and approval by the captain and/or second in command. If all agree, the funds are dispersed and the purchase is made. The Steward continues to ensure that the purser knows how much cargo space remains so that an over purchase of cargo does not occur. All speculative personal purchases must be approved by the Steward as well, for the sole purpose of allocation of hull space. These transactions should be completed through the use of ships communication devices set at urgent. This should assist with rapid transit of information and prevent the loss of a good deal due to "red tape".

Thoughts?