Trade in the Great Wheel - A Ruleset
Aug 19, 2018 17:39:54 GMT -6
Post by Marr965 on Aug 19, 2018 17:39:54 GMT -6
Trade comes in many forms, but the most important ones for owners of spelljammers are the following: speculative trading, freight shipping and passenger carriage.
Speculative Trade
Speculative trade is both the riskiest and the highest-profiting form of trade a spelljammer captain can engage in. It involves buying raw materials, finished goods and other commodities in a place with a surplus, shipping them to a place with a deficit, and selling them, hopefully making a profit along the way.
In order to engage in speculative trading, a captain must first find a broker for goods. If you're shopping around for a legitimate broker on the market, use Persuasion + Charisma. If you're setting up a deal via Planetary Computer Network, use Tech-Use + Intelligence. If attempting to find a broker for illegitimate goods on the black market, use Charm + Fellowship. All of these tests are made against TN 20. Alternatively, you can opt to hire a local guide. This nets you a success with three raises, but limits your options to brokers that could be accessed on the market. Make sure to keep track of any raises on your roll to find a broker, in addition to whether you hired a guide or were dealing with an illicit broker.
Next, the captain has to buy goods. This requires that he pay for them. Make a Wealth test against a TN of 15, or 30 if using an illegal supplier. Passing this test grants a trade credit, and each raise grants an additional trade credit. The players may choose to roleplay this, in which case the SM could choose to add a tally or two to the raises they got when finding their broker if they haggle well, or if they manage to gravely offend the broker the SM might choose to remove a tally or two. If the players do really well, the SM might even choose to grant them an extra trade credit or two.
The captain then loads the goods onto her ship, sets off for another planet or even Sphere, and arrives with the cargo hopefully intact. She must then find a buyer. This is effectively exactly the same process as finding a seller, with the added caveat that legitimate buyers won't buy illegal goods. Again, raises should be noted down, and whether or not a guide was used should also be noted down.
Selling the goods can be handled via roleplay or glossed over. If the players do decide to play through the process of selling the goods, the SM may choose to add a tally or two to the raises they got when finding buyer if they haggle well, or may equally choose to remove a tally or two if they botch it.
At this point, you should have two sets of tallies, a number of trade credits, and some information about guides and illegal goods. Total the tallies, subtracting 2 for each time a guide was used, multiply this total by the number of trade credits, then multiply by 2 if illegal goods were shipped. Finally multiply this number by 5 to find a TN for the Profit test you should now make.
Example Goods
Freight shipping is contracting to a corporation or other organization to take some of their cargo on board, taking it where they want it taken, handing it over, and receiving payment. It's comparatively safe, but it's also got a much lesser chance of paying off big-time.
If a captain chooses to engage in freight shipping, they automatically fail the Profit test with no checks and no Wealth strain.
Passenger Carriage
Passengers represent the final revenue stream that spelljammer captains can tap. They take up a lot less space and need a lot less paperwork than either speculative trade or freight shipping. However, they come with their own baggage, both metaphorical and literal.
Passage on a ship comes in two varieties: High passage and Low passage. Both require that the ship have the passenger berths to take them, but High passengers also come with enough assorted baggage that they can't actually fit both themselves and it into their berth. Hence, taking on High passengers requires a cargo hold as well.
Both High and Low passengers require feeding, entertainment and general maintenance while they're on board the ship. This can be supplied with a mixture of Charm, Common Lore, Crafts, Medicae, Performer, Persuasion and Politics. These fall into two categories: Entertainment and Maintenance. Each dot the major members of crew (the captain and senior officers, as well as possibly any other party members there may be) has in Charm, Common Lore, Performer, Persuasion and Politics counts towards the total for Entertainment, while each dot the major members of crew have in Crafts and Medicae counts towards the total for Maintenance.
Each passenger requires maintenance, so the total number of passengers on board cannot exceed the Maintenance total. However, High passengers are also generally more needy than Low passengers, so the number of Low passengers plus twice the number of High passengers cannot exceed the Entertainment total.
The major upside to taking High passengers is that, despite their needy, whiny, space-filling nature, they do pay a lot more for the privilege of going places than Low passengers do. When you arrive at your destination, multiply the number of High passengers by three, then add the number of Low passengers. Finally, make a Profit test against this total.
Ships with the No Supply Vaults console may not take passengers, while ships with a Promenade gain a bonus to their Entertainment totals equal to their Crew Size, and ships with Extended Supply Vaults gain a bonus to their Maintenance totals equal to half their Crew Size.
Specialist Trading
Step 3: ? ? ?; Step 4: PROFIT
Passing AND experiencing Wealth strain, on the other hand, implies that you've made a major loss, and that your livelihood is at risk. You experience the normal Wealth strain penalties.
Speculative Trade
Speculative trade is both the riskiest and the highest-profiting form of trade a spelljammer captain can engage in. It involves buying raw materials, finished goods and other commodities in a place with a surplus, shipping them to a place with a deficit, and selling them, hopefully making a profit along the way.
In order to engage in speculative trading, a captain must first find a broker for goods. If you're shopping around for a legitimate broker on the market, use Persuasion + Charisma. If you're setting up a deal via Planetary Computer Network, use Tech-Use + Intelligence. If attempting to find a broker for illegitimate goods on the black market, use Charm + Fellowship. All of these tests are made against TN 20. Alternatively, you can opt to hire a local guide. This nets you a success with three raises, but limits your options to brokers that could be accessed on the market. Make sure to keep track of any raises on your roll to find a broker, in addition to whether you hired a guide or were dealing with an illicit broker.
Next, the captain has to buy goods. This requires that he pay for them. Make a Wealth test against a TN of 15, or 30 if using an illegal supplier. Passing this test grants a trade credit, and each raise grants an additional trade credit. The players may choose to roleplay this, in which case the SM could choose to add a tally or two to the raises they got when finding their broker if they haggle well, or if they manage to gravely offend the broker the SM might choose to remove a tally or two. If the players do really well, the SM might even choose to grant them an extra trade credit or two.
The captain then loads the goods onto her ship, sets off for another planet or even Sphere, and arrives with the cargo hopefully intact. She must then find a buyer. This is effectively exactly the same process as finding a seller, with the added caveat that legitimate buyers won't buy illegal goods. Again, raises should be noted down, and whether or not a guide was used should also be noted down.
Selling the goods can be handled via roleplay or glossed over. If the players do decide to play through the process of selling the goods, the SM may choose to add a tally or two to the raises they got when finding buyer if they haggle well, or may equally choose to remove a tally or two if they botch it.
At this point, you should have two sets of tallies, a number of trade credits, and some information about guides and illegal goods. Total the tallies, subtracting 2 for each time a guide was used, multiply this total by the number of trade credits, then multiply by 2 if illegal goods were shipped. Finally multiply this number by 5 to find a TN for the Profit test you should now make.
Example Goods
These lists are meant to be illustrative, rather than a hard set of rules as to what can and cannot be traded. If players decide that they want to set up a factory for building hyperdimensional drives that allow faster-than-light travel without using the Warp, it's highly unlikely that those hypothetical FTL drives will neatly fall in any of thse categories. That's okay. They don't have to.
In addition, it's not guaranteed that what will be illegal in one place will be illegal in another, or vice versa. Obviously, in the Abyss, finding anything for sale is going to be difficult, but it's likely that materials that are "legal" there are heavily policed elsewhere in the Wheel, and particularly in Arcadia or Elysium. Similarly, a weapon that's legal in Baator might be banned in Commorragh, or vice versa.
Legal goods
Electronics - Electronics, including computers, sensors and cybernetics
Machine Parts - Machine components, spare parts for machinery and spelljammer components
Manufactured Goods - Clothing, household appliances, etc.
Raw Materials - Metals, plastics, feedstock chemicals, etc.
Consumables - Food, drinks and other agricultural produce
Ore - Rocks with a high concentration of metal-bearing minerals
Weapons - Things that stab, bludgeon, shoot or cut
Vehicles - Things that can be used to get from place to place, without leaving the atmosphere of a planet
Biochemicals - Biofuels, organic extracts and similar products
Crystals and Gems - Gem-quality stones, either raw or cut
Live Animals - Livestock, riding animals, exotic pets, etc.
Medical Supplies - Diagnostic equipment, pharmaceuticals and other medical drugs
Petrochemicals - Coal, oil and gas, basically
Radioactives - Radioactive materials for use in enrichment programmes or ready for use in a reactor - or a bomb
Robots - Servitors, drones and similar equipment
Spices - Preservatives, luxury food additives and natural drugs (such as willow bark)
Textiles - Fabric and hide
Wood - Construction quality timber, or particularly attractive wood for use in smaller projects
Illegal Goods
Biochemicals - Dangerous chemicals (such as sandipede venom) or extracts from endangered species
Cybernetics - Combat cybernetics or illegal enhancements
Narcotics - Highly addictive drugs, combat drugs
Luxuries - Addictive or debauched luxuries (such as meat from sapient species)
Weapons - Weapons of mass destruction, unethical weaponry, Tribbles
Exotics - Priceless works of art, Syrneth artefacts, prototype technology, Spark-made objects, Artifacts, captive Daemons, etc., etc., etc. Basically, if it's at least two of rare, valuable and dangerous it may well fall under this category. Trade in Exotic goods is almost always a matter for roleplaying and adventure, rather than simple rolls of the dice. Exotics can be either legal or illegal.
In addition, it's not guaranteed that what will be illegal in one place will be illegal in another, or vice versa. Obviously, in the Abyss, finding anything for sale is going to be difficult, but it's likely that materials that are "legal" there are heavily policed elsewhere in the Wheel, and particularly in Arcadia or Elysium. Similarly, a weapon that's legal in Baator might be banned in Commorragh, or vice versa.
Legal goods
Electronics - Electronics, including computers, sensors and cybernetics
Machine Parts - Machine components, spare parts for machinery and spelljammer components
Manufactured Goods - Clothing, household appliances, etc.
Raw Materials - Metals, plastics, feedstock chemicals, etc.
Consumables - Food, drinks and other agricultural produce
Ore - Rocks with a high concentration of metal-bearing minerals
Weapons - Things that stab, bludgeon, shoot or cut
Vehicles - Things that can be used to get from place to place, without leaving the atmosphere of a planet
Biochemicals - Biofuels, organic extracts and similar products
Crystals and Gems - Gem-quality stones, either raw or cut
Live Animals - Livestock, riding animals, exotic pets, etc.
Medical Supplies - Diagnostic equipment, pharmaceuticals and other medical drugs
Petrochemicals - Coal, oil and gas, basically
Radioactives - Radioactive materials for use in enrichment programmes or ready for use in a reactor - or a bomb
Robots - Servitors, drones and similar equipment
Spices - Preservatives, luxury food additives and natural drugs (such as willow bark)
Textiles - Fabric and hide
Wood - Construction quality timber, or particularly attractive wood for use in smaller projects
Illegal Goods
Biochemicals - Dangerous chemicals (such as sandipede venom) or extracts from endangered species
Cybernetics - Combat cybernetics or illegal enhancements
Narcotics - Highly addictive drugs, combat drugs
Luxuries - Addictive or debauched luxuries (such as meat from sapient species)
Weapons - Weapons of mass destruction, unethical weaponry, Tribbles
Exotics - Priceless works of art, Syrneth artefacts, prototype technology, Spark-made objects, Artifacts, captive Daemons, etc., etc., etc. Basically, if it's at least two of rare, valuable and dangerous it may well fall under this category. Trade in Exotic goods is almost always a matter for roleplaying and adventure, rather than simple rolls of the dice. Exotics can be either legal or illegal.
Freight Shipping
Freight shipping is contracting to a corporation or other organization to take some of their cargo on board, taking it where they want it taken, handing it over, and receiving payment. It's comparatively safe, but it's also got a much lesser chance of paying off big-time.
If a captain chooses to engage in freight shipping, they automatically fail the Profit test with no checks and no Wealth strain.
Passenger Carriage
Passengers represent the final revenue stream that spelljammer captains can tap. They take up a lot less space and need a lot less paperwork than either speculative trade or freight shipping. However, they come with their own baggage, both metaphorical and literal.
Passage on a ship comes in two varieties: High passage and Low passage. Both require that the ship have the passenger berths to take them, but High passengers also come with enough assorted baggage that they can't actually fit both themselves and it into their berth. Hence, taking on High passengers requires a cargo hold as well.
Both High and Low passengers require feeding, entertainment and general maintenance while they're on board the ship. This can be supplied with a mixture of Charm, Common Lore, Crafts, Medicae, Performer, Persuasion and Politics. These fall into two categories: Entertainment and Maintenance. Each dot the major members of crew (the captain and senior officers, as well as possibly any other party members there may be) has in Charm, Common Lore, Performer, Persuasion and Politics counts towards the total for Entertainment, while each dot the major members of crew have in Crafts and Medicae counts towards the total for Maintenance.
Each passenger requires maintenance, so the total number of passengers on board cannot exceed the Maintenance total. However, High passengers are also generally more needy than Low passengers, so the number of Low passengers plus twice the number of High passengers cannot exceed the Entertainment total.
The major upside to taking High passengers is that, despite their needy, whiny, space-filling nature, they do pay a lot more for the privilege of going places than Low passengers do. When you arrive at your destination, multiply the number of High passengers by three, then add the number of Low passengers. Finally, make a Profit test against this total.
Ships with the No Supply Vaults console may not take passengers, while ships with a Promenade gain a bonus to their Entertainment totals equal to their Crew Size, and ships with Extended Supply Vaults gain a bonus to their Maintenance totals equal to half their Crew Size.
Specialist Trading
Asteroid Mining
Asteroid mining is a highly specialised job, involving use of complicated equipment and potentially dangerous tools in environments which can be lethal if encountered unprotected. It's also tedious, takes a long time, and pays very little by comparison with many other forms of revenue. However, the communities of asteroid miners (commonly known as "belters") are tight-knit, with a strong focus on family, clan and the wider belter community. In a similar manner, junk trading (whose practitioners are known as "junkers") is also a dangerous, boring and poorly paid job with a similarly tight-knit community. It's extremely common for a belter to do some junking on the side, or vice versa. After all, what is a derelict ship but a peculiarly formed asteroid with a particularly valuable composition, and what is an asteroid but effectively a derelict ship which has been stripped of almost all its valuable components?
Asteroid mining has a series of steps that need to be taken in order to get a profit from the endeavour: finding an asteroid, mining the asteroid, refining the ore and finally selling the produced materials.
Finding an asteroid requires a Tech-Use/Academic Lore + Intelligence test against a TN of 20 which takes half a day. Passing this test allows a set of rolls on the following tables, with a +1 bonus per raise on the test, applicable to any of these rolls.
First, find the size of the asteroid. Then multiply it by the percentage of usable material in the asteroid, to a minimum of one trade credit.
The miner must then make a Crafts + Strength or Tech-Use + Intelligence test which takes an hour, against a TN of 10. Passing this test allows harvesting one trade credit worth of usable material from the asteroid, plus one trade credit per raise on the test. This then needs to be processed, which takes one hour per trade credit of harvested material. It's only at this point that a trade credit of sellable material can be actually harvested. Multiple mining attempts can be made on the same asteroid, and can even be made simultaneously.
The Profit test for asteroid mining uses the number of trade credits of sellable material as though it were speculative trading, but the composition of the asteroid determines the effective number of raises on finding a broker. Poor-quality rock counts for two raises, good-quality rock counts for four raises, and crystals count for six raises.
An Exotic asteroid has some unusual feature about it. Maybe it's actually made of pure platinum thanks to a Warp incident. Maybe it's a derelict ship. Maybe it's actually a bunch of rocks clumped around an ancient Syrneth artefact. Whatever the case, the exact details are up to the SM, but they usually represent a unique opportunity to make an enormous pile of money.
Junk Trading and Ship Breaking
Junk trading is similar in execution to asteroid mining, but has a much more random element to it. Scanning the Planetary Computer Network for reports of derelict ships takes a day and requires a Tech-Use + Intelligence test against a TN of 20. Each raise on this test allows gathering a little more information about the ship found.
Once a ship has been selected, the SM can either build the ship from scratch or make some rolls on the following table for some inspiration:
Glossary
Slaving
Slaving is a venerable tradition. It is also a tradition almost universally reviled among the Spheres where worship of the Blessed Pantheon is prevalent, and also among Spheres where worship of Luna is foremost.
Slaving requires, much like normal speculative trade, a seller, a buyer and a captain willing to ship the goods between the two. However, slaves are almost always illegal goods, and have an additional requirement: Slaves need to be fed.
Slaving uses the same system as speculative trade for buying and selling, with an added 1.5 multiplier on the TNs for the Wealth tests, but half the total of slaves on board a ship count as Low passengers for the purposes of passenger carriage.
Slaves on board a ship can be put to work. A pair of slaves can be made to count as a +1 bonus to the Entertainment total, or 4 slaves can be put to work cooking, cleaning and carrying out medical work to count as a +1 bonus to the Maintenance total.
Asteroid mining is a highly specialised job, involving use of complicated equipment and potentially dangerous tools in environments which can be lethal if encountered unprotected. It's also tedious, takes a long time, and pays very little by comparison with many other forms of revenue. However, the communities of asteroid miners (commonly known as "belters") are tight-knit, with a strong focus on family, clan and the wider belter community. In a similar manner, junk trading (whose practitioners are known as "junkers") is also a dangerous, boring and poorly paid job with a similarly tight-knit community. It's extremely common for a belter to do some junking on the side, or vice versa. After all, what is a derelict ship but a peculiarly formed asteroid with a particularly valuable composition, and what is an asteroid but effectively a derelict ship which has been stripped of almost all its valuable components?
Asteroid mining has a series of steps that need to be taken in order to get a profit from the endeavour: finding an asteroid, mining the asteroid, refining the ore and finally selling the produced materials.
Finding an asteroid requires a Tech-Use/Academic Lore + Intelligence test against a TN of 20 which takes half a day. Passing this test allows a set of rolls on the following tables, with a +1 bonus per raise on the test, applicable to any of these rolls.
| 1d10 | Size (in Trade Credits) | Composition | Usable Material |
| 1 | 5 | Poor-quality rock | 1% |
| 2 | 10 | Poor-quality rock | 2% |
| 3 | 15 | Poor-quality rock | 4% |
| 4 | 20 | Poor-quality rock | 7% |
| 5 | 30 | Poor-quality rock | 10% |
| 6 | 40 | Good-quality rock | 15% |
| 7 | 50 | Good-quality rock | 20% |
| 8 | 75 | Good-quality rock | 30% |
| 9 | 100 | Good-quality rock | 40% |
| 10 | 125 | Good-quality rock | 50% |
| 11 | 150 | Crystals | 60% |
| 12 | 200 | Crystals | 70% |
| 13 | 250 | Crystals | 80% |
| 14 | 300 | Crystals | 90% |
| 15+ | +100 for each subsequent step | Exotic | 100% |
The miner must then make a Crafts + Strength or Tech-Use + Intelligence test which takes an hour, against a TN of 10. Passing this test allows harvesting one trade credit worth of usable material from the asteroid, plus one trade credit per raise on the test. This then needs to be processed, which takes one hour per trade credit of harvested material. It's only at this point that a trade credit of sellable material can be actually harvested. Multiple mining attempts can be made on the same asteroid, and can even be made simultaneously.
The Profit test for asteroid mining uses the number of trade credits of sellable material as though it were speculative trading, but the composition of the asteroid determines the effective number of raises on finding a broker. Poor-quality rock counts for two raises, good-quality rock counts for four raises, and crystals count for six raises.
An Exotic asteroid has some unusual feature about it. Maybe it's actually made of pure platinum thanks to a Warp incident. Maybe it's a derelict ship. Maybe it's actually a bunch of rocks clumped around an ancient Syrneth artefact. Whatever the case, the exact details are up to the SM, but they usually represent a unique opportunity to make an enormous pile of money.
Junk Trading and Ship Breaking
Junk trading is similar in execution to asteroid mining, but has a much more random element to it. Scanning the Planetary Computer Network for reports of derelict ships takes a day and requires a Tech-Use + Intelligence test against a TN of 20. Each raise on this test allows gathering a little more information about the ship found.
Once a ship has been selected, the SM can either build the ship from scratch or make some rolls on the following table for some inspiration:
| 1d10 | Ship Class | Damage Extent | Damage Type | Cargo Quantity | Intact Consoles | Hazard Rating | Hazard Type |
| 1 | Debris | 0 | Open to void | 1 | 0 | 1 | Escaped cargo |
| 2 | Debris | 1 | Open to void | 5 | 0 | 1 | Daemonic incursion |
| 3 | Debris | 1 | Critical location damaged | 10 | 0 | 1 | Reactor leakage |
| 4 | Escort | 2 | Reactor malfunction | 15 | 1 | 2 | Unstable superstructure |
| 5 | Escort | 2 | Total crew kill | 20 | 1 | 2 | Fire |
| 6 | Destroyer | 2 | Engines offline | 30 | 2 | 3 | Alien attack |
| 7 | Destroyer | 3 | Environmental hazard | 40 | 2 | 3 | Mad servitors |
| 8 | Cruiser | 3 | Warp drive leakage | 50 | 3 | 4 | Toxic atmosphere |
| 9 | Cruiser | 3 | Space hulk | 60 | 3 | 4 | Rival junkers |
| 10 | Battleship | 4 | Other | 70 | 4 | 5 | Other |
Debris - There isn't actually a ship there any more, but simply scattered chunks of ship and dead bodies. This automatically implies two rolls on the damage type column, as well as open to void and total crew kill.
Damage extent - How damaged the ship is. Roll that many times on the damage type column. A result of 0 implies total crew kill, but no other damage.
Open to void - The ship has no air in it for whatever reason. Void suits or some other means of surviving airless conditions must be used.
Critical location damaged - The bridge has been destroyed, or maybe all the food has run out. Either way, the ship is either going to be immobile or unsurvivable before long.
Reactor malfunction - The ship's reactor is either leaking or has gone kablooey.
Total crew kill - There's no-one still alive on this ship - or at least, no-one that's supposed to be here.
Engines offline - The engines may have run out of fuel, or maybe a critical part is missing.
Environmental hazard - The ship may be stuck in the Astral Sargasso, or maybe it's managed to manoeuvre into a asteroid field it cannot now safely manoeuvre out of.
Warp drive leakage - The warp drive is leaking, and that's an issue. Expect daemons.
Space hulk - It's not a derelict at all, but a full-blown hulk!
Other damage - Maybe the ship has cosmic rust. Maybe the on-board AI has gone mad. Maybe the ship has been taken over by pirates, illithids or modrons. Go nuts.
Cargo - The ship had some cargo on it, even if that's only food for the crew. Take the number rolled, and multiply it by 1 for debris, 2 for escort, 3 for destroyer, 4 for cruiser or 5 for battleship to get the total number of trade credits of salvageable cargo.
Consoles - All ships have consoles, but some of them may be damaged or hard-wired into the ship and hence unsalvageable. Determine which salvageable consoles the ship has however you wish.
Hazard rating - Something has to be wrong with the ship for it to be derelict. Roll this many times on the hazard type column.
Escaped cargo - Some of the cargo was alive. It's still alive and now it's out of its cage.
Unstable superstructure - The struts and supports that are supposed to hold the ship together and in its proper shape aren't doing their job very well any more. Feel free to change the map around the players as you wish.
Alien attack - The ship was attacked, and some of the attackers are still present. Expect them to be hostile.
Mad servitors - The ship's onboard compliment of robots (or possibly the software controlling important parts of the ship, like the doors) has gone mad. Expect them to be hostile.
Toxic atmosphere - The ship's air is either poisonous or non-existant.
Rival junkers - Another junker crew has already started junking this ship. They may be open to collaboration, or they may not.
Other hazards - Maybe the ship is in two mostly intact pieces. Maybe a cabal of sorcerors is using the ship to attempt to achieve godhood. Maybe the ship isn't derelict at all, but has been reported as derelict in order to attract naive junkers. Whatever. Go nuts.
Once the ship has been generated, the junkers can take one of two routes: either they can jump straight into dismantling the ship, or they can scour the inside for any valuables or salvageable consoles, cargo, etc. Taking the latter route is best dealt with via roleplay (can you say "dungeon crawl"?), while the former simply takes some time, but likely leads to less value retrieved from the ship.Damage extent - How damaged the ship is. Roll that many times on the damage type column. A result of 0 implies total crew kill, but no other damage.
Open to void - The ship has no air in it for whatever reason. Void suits or some other means of surviving airless conditions must be used.
Critical location damaged - The bridge has been destroyed, or maybe all the food has run out. Either way, the ship is either going to be immobile or unsurvivable before long.
Reactor malfunction - The ship's reactor is either leaking or has gone kablooey.
Total crew kill - There's no-one still alive on this ship - or at least, no-one that's supposed to be here.
Engines offline - The engines may have run out of fuel, or maybe a critical part is missing.
Environmental hazard - The ship may be stuck in the Astral Sargasso, or maybe it's managed to manoeuvre into a asteroid field it cannot now safely manoeuvre out of.
Warp drive leakage - The warp drive is leaking, and that's an issue. Expect daemons.
Space hulk - It's not a derelict at all, but a full-blown hulk!
Other damage - Maybe the ship has cosmic rust. Maybe the on-board AI has gone mad. Maybe the ship has been taken over by pirates, illithids or modrons. Go nuts.
Cargo - The ship had some cargo on it, even if that's only food for the crew. Take the number rolled, and multiply it by 1 for debris, 2 for escort, 3 for destroyer, 4 for cruiser or 5 for battleship to get the total number of trade credits of salvageable cargo.
Consoles - All ships have consoles, but some of them may be damaged or hard-wired into the ship and hence unsalvageable. Determine which salvageable consoles the ship has however you wish.
Hazard rating - Something has to be wrong with the ship for it to be derelict. Roll this many times on the hazard type column.
Escaped cargo - Some of the cargo was alive. It's still alive and now it's out of its cage.
Unstable superstructure - The struts and supports that are supposed to hold the ship together and in its proper shape aren't doing their job very well any more. Feel free to change the map around the players as you wish.
Alien attack - The ship was attacked, and some of the attackers are still present. Expect them to be hostile.
Mad servitors - The ship's onboard compliment of robots (or possibly the software controlling important parts of the ship, like the doors) has gone mad. Expect them to be hostile.
Toxic atmosphere - The ship's air is either poisonous or non-existant.
Rival junkers - Another junker crew has already started junking this ship. They may be open to collaboration, or they may not.
Other hazards - Maybe the ship is in two mostly intact pieces. Maybe a cabal of sorcerors is using the ship to attempt to achieve godhood. Maybe the ship isn't derelict at all, but has been reported as derelict in order to attract naive junkers. Whatever. Go nuts.
Slaving
Slaving is a venerable tradition. It is also a tradition almost universally reviled among the Spheres where worship of the Blessed Pantheon is prevalent, and also among Spheres where worship of Luna is foremost.
Slaving requires, much like normal speculative trade, a seller, a buyer and a captain willing to ship the goods between the two. However, slaves are almost always illegal goods, and have an additional requirement: Slaves need to be fed.
Slaving uses the same system as speculative trade for buying and selling, with an added 1.5 multiplier on the TNs for the Wealth tests, but half the total of slaves on board a ship count as Low passengers for the purposes of passenger carriage.
Slaves on board a ship can be put to work. A pair of slaves can be made to count as a +1 bonus to the Entertainment total, or 4 slaves can be put to work cooking, cleaning and carrying out medical work to count as a +1 bonus to the Maintenance total.
Step 3: ? ? ?; Step 4: PROFIT
Once you've carried your cargo, whatever it may be, to its destination, you have to make a Profit test. This is a Wealth test with a TN which depends upon the exact nature of the cargo you've been carrying. Normal bonuses and penalties for this test (such as those caused by Wealth strain or those granted by class completion bonuses) are reversed.
If you fail this test and do not experience Wealth strain, this implies that you've been making shrewd trades, and have made a little bit of profit on the procedure. You get a free trade credit plus an additional trade credit for each check you get on this test, which can be added to the next shipment you make.
If you fail and do experience Wealth strain, however, you've effectively hit the motherload. Roll for Wealth strain as usual, but for every two checks you got on the Wealth test, apply a +1 static bonus to the roll. Then, rather than applying the normal penalties for wealth strain, reverse them: you gain bonuses instead!
Passing this Wealth test, however, implies that your trading hasn't been anywhere near as shrewd as it should be. Passing but not experiencing Wealth strain implies that you've made a small loss - the next time you engage in speculative trade, you gain one fewer trade credit than normal.
Passing AND experiencing Wealth strain, on the other hand, implies that you've made a major loss, and that your livelihood is at risk. You experience the normal Wealth strain penalties.