In "real world", i.e., RPG terms, it means that you have established
contact with people that are willing to trade, which you can establish in
your gaming sessions.
In terms of the more stylized trade tables, it goes into defining what
sort of facilities are present for landing, servicing, and refueling
trading ships. If there is a gas giant in the system or an ocean nearby,
you've got fuel, so all you need to do is clear off some ground, light
some flares, and you'd have a minimal class X (not to mean interdicted,
but barely there) "starport."
I imagine some guy with a radio on a card table in a tent doing air
traffic control with incoming ships, saying, "We're down here at lat-long
XXX, YYY, just to the south of the row of hills. NO! The OTHER side of the
hills! Pull out and try again! That's better."
To me, you are at the maximal amount of TNE fun. You can start salvaging
stuff to build warehouses, talk to the locals to set up hot dog stands and
tchotchke booths, staple up some cyclone fencing to establish "security,"
and declare yourself "Port Master."
This, my friend, is living!
> In one of my previous games in RCES setting, I tried to establish possible
> trade routes after "second contact" was made to an isolated/backwater
> world in the Coalition region. Possible trade is still not guaranteed or
> even possible. Sometimes trade routes (in other versions) are determined
> by the presence of a gas giant and a serviceable starport. Starting from
> nothing, how does trade progress to a point of profit
> The following is a concept from the World-Tamer39;s Handbook (GDW 0311).
> Initial trading is called "off-world trade" on (35), but how is this done
> by a civilization without a starport? Would we assume that damaged
> facilities exist? Am I confusing "second contact" with the actual tech
> level?
> What is the value of making second contact in terms of opening a world to
> trade with other emergent systems
>
>
contact with people that are willing to trade, which you can establish in
your gaming sessions.
In terms of the more stylized trade tables, it goes into defining what
sort of facilities are present for landing, servicing, and refueling
trading ships. If there is a gas giant in the system or an ocean nearby,
you've got fuel, so all you need to do is clear off some ground, light
some flares, and you'd have a minimal class X (not to mean interdicted,
but barely there) "starport."
I imagine some guy with a radio on a card table in a tent doing air
traffic control with incoming ships, saying, "We're down here at lat-long
XXX, YYY, just to the south of the row of hills. NO! The OTHER side of the
hills! Pull out and try again! That's better."
To me, you are at the maximal amount of TNE fun. You can start salvaging
stuff to build warehouses, talk to the locals to set up hot dog stands and
tchotchke booths, staple up some cyclone fencing to establish "security,"
and declare yourself "Port Master."
This, my friend, is living!
> In one of my previous games in RCES setting, I tried to establish possible
> trade routes after "second contact" was made to an isolated/backwater
> world in the Coalition region. Possible trade is still not guaranteed or
> even possible. Sometimes trade routes (in other versions) are determined
> by the presence of a gas giant and a serviceable starport. Starting from
> nothing, how does trade progress to a point of profit
> The following is a concept from the World-Tamer39;s Handbook (GDW 0311).
> Initial trading is called "off-world trade" on (35), but how is this done
> by a civilization without a starport? Would we assume that damaged
> facilities exist? Am I confusing "second contact" with the actual tech
> level?
> What is the value of making second contact in terms of opening a world to
> trade with other emergent systems
>
>