Starship Brokerages of the Three Galaxies

[taalismn]

Starship Brokerages of the Three Galaxies

“I found out where the Toads dumped the Octogenarian Tunafish; a dealership on Hmal’s Hellpit---lovely name. Big repo yard in the middle of a desert. I got some info off the local infonet and aside from a few monitor towers, it looks like we should be able to sneak in and get to the ship.”
“Then we get the silverweb slates out of the smuggling compartments?”
“We steal back the whole ship!”
“Why? Can’t we just get the valuable stuff out? It would be easier!”
“Because it’s MY ship, that’s why! I’m not letting the Toads sell my darling to some vap-headed shovel-dragging ore-hauler to break her back schlepping rocks!”

“Funny, how when you buy a starship at very good terms and a very low price, and it turns out the ship is haunted by a murderous alien intelligence, you can never find the dealer who sold you the thing...”

“Yeah, tell you what, I can sell you the DSL-39 Starsucker astro-refinery for, oh, four hundred mil. Brand new unit would cost you nine hundred back in the day, but since they came out with the new Stonker Filtration Process, nobody wants to operate the old DSLs. Still, if you’re building a colony, this thing’s still more than efficient at supplying your fuel needs. However, you might want to stock up on spare parts, because, again, all the major manufacturers are retooled for servicing the Stonker gear. Fortunately I got a pair of DSL-38s; they can’t fly anymore, but you can have them for parts for another, call it one hundred fifty mil. I’ll knock it down to one hundred thirty mil if you do your own field-stripping.”

“Bought my ride ‘as is’ from a back-orbit dealer on the Rim. Ship seemed to be a repo or contraband from some bandit-king or raider on the galactic rim because I discovered this ship has some serious LEGS built in, some very nicely appointed living quarters, a weapons array I’m sure is probably illegal in most coreworlds, and a fully-functional and oh-very-pleased-to-meet-me sexaroid in a stasis closet in the bunkroom.”

“I’m Onest Ob, and I want to sell you your next starrider!!!”

So you finally got the credits to do some serious adventuring; now, where are you going to buy that starship you’ve always wanted?
Most spaceports will have at least one dealer in spacecraft ready to meet your needs, or at least try to tempt you with alternatives. Well-trafficked systems will have dozens, potentially hundreds, of brokerages looking to sell new and used starships. Big chain dealerships and small private concerns vie for customers, while government auction houses offer surplus and legally-seized starships. Chopshops with connections to organized crime dispose of stolen or hunted starships on the sly; that shiny executive starshuttle sitting on the tarmac may have been the getaway runner for a genebank heist several sectors over. Lurid rumors of alien species and demonic beings dumping booby-trapped or haunted vessels on the unsuspecting market make ship-buying in some of the less-travelled sectors of the Three Galaxies as adventurous as any xeno-wreck dive.
Most dealers are largely honest in their dealings with customers, but the culture of ‘used car salesmanship’ haunts the profession, and brokerages will attempt to make as much money as they honestly can off a sale. And there are some truly unscrupulous starship dealers out there who perpetuate the stereotype of the ‘dishonest used starship dealer’ with their practices of high-pressure sales tactics, and dumping dangerous merchandise on the market. Those in the market for starships are advised to keep their eyes open and their sense of caution primed, lest they fall victim to buying a seemingly pristine and cheap, but irradiated star-transport dragged across the galaxy after the Solarflare Flood that toasted Holstander IV.

Note: The following are for CIVILIAN-application spacecraft. Despite the ability(and custom) of fitting civilian vessels with at least point defense weaponry, sales and possession of purpose-designed, fully armed and operational starships are strictly regulated by most reasonable governments. Military equipment that DOES make it to a regular starship dealer is either thoroughly stripped of all military gear and/or is several generations out of date, or is in such bad/thoroughly modified condition that the authorities no longer consider the ships a security threat.

Starship Brokerage Template:
A. Size:
B. Affiliation:
C. Reputation:
D. Honesty:
E. Facilities:
F. Security:
G. Selection:
H. Maintenance Quality
I. Prices:
J. Payment:

A. Size:
How big is the brokerage?
Note that all the vessels may not be stored in the same place, especially if the dealership has multiple facilities, or even offices in different solar systems, but all the ships in the inventory can be pulled up for potential customers to check the stats, and ships can be moved from facilities(or brought in from other solar systems) if they show an interest.

01-15% Tiny---Has 2d4 vessels available at any time
16-55% Small---Has about 4d6 ships ready for sale
56-75% Modest---Good selection of 1d4x10 ships for customer consideration.
76-90% Large---The brokerage can offer a selection of 3d6x10 ships at any given time.
91-00% Sprawling----The dealership has 1d4x100 ships available to be inspected and purchased.

B. Affiliation:
What’s the brokerage’s background and its connections?

01-30% Private Dealer----The dealers are private citizens who acquire their ships via various means, via government auctions, repo contracts, salvage, estate sales, corporate liquidations, trade-ins, and the like. Business practices tend to be more liberal with private dealers, in either direction. Bonuses: +10% to Payment

31-60% Shipwright Corporation---The dealers are shipbuilders selling their vessels direct from the slips, or refurbishing older vessels of theirs that have been returned to them(typically in exchange for newer models). This means they feature less of a selection of manufacturers, and more of their own products, but their refurbishing and maintenance of the ships they do offer tends to be of better quality. They may occasionally have vessels of other manufacturers, but these ships may not be given the same degree of care as the company’s own. Bonuses: +10% to Prices, +5% to Payment, +10% to Quality, +5% to Security.

61-80% Government Yard----The brokerage is run directly by a regional government as a means of auctioning off surplus government vessels or selling off legally seized starships. Most governments will have a mandatory maintenance and safety check performed on any equipment they mean to sell off, but more extensive repairs and modifications are the responsibility of the buyer. One of the minuses of dealing with a Government brokerage is that the authorities tend to more thoroughly vet customers and will take notice of who’s buying what. Bonuses: +5% to Quality, +10% to Selection, +20% to Honesty, +5% to Security.

81-90% Recycling Company--The dealers’ main interest is in recycling components and materials, but they’ve decided to give any still-functional vessels they acquire one last chance before being broken up. Quality tends to suffer at brokerages like this, and any repairs tend to be with parts scavenged off other vessels(not always the same type), but prices tend to be on the cheap, and the selection can be surprisingly diverse. Bonuses: -15% to Reputation, - 20% to Price, -20% to Quality, +15% to Security.

91-00% Organized Crime---The ship brokerage is connected with organized crime, either as means of laundering credits, or disposing of stolen or otherwise ‘hot’ property. Odds are, the majority of the ships being offered by the brokerage have been acquired by less than legitimate means. Maintenance on acquired vessels is more aimed at removing identifying markings than anything else, and the more valuable gear is typically stripped off.
Bonuses: - 5% to Price, -10% to Quality, -20% to Honesty.

C. Reputation:
What’s the word on the street about the brokerage?

01-15 % (In)Famous---The dealer has a reputation for questionable trade practices and slick salesmanship. This may be genuinely earned through shady dealings, or negative publicity aimed at them by their competitors. Odds are, if you’re looking for long-term guarantees, you’re likely to be disappointed, as this company might not be around for much longer.
16-25% Fair---The brokerage is regarded with overall good reviews, but there are enough complaints about shoddy equipment, slow paperwork processing, and suspicious behavior with regards to ship histories that customers are advised to keep their eyes open when dealing with these people.
26-80% Good---The dealership has a generally good reputation for treating customers right, aside from the occasional over-enthusiastic salesman or negligent secretary mishandling paperwork.
91-00% Pristine---The dealership is long-known for honest dealing, polite service, and aboveboard practices--even if they are chiseling you. If these guys are breaking the law, it’s going to be awfully hard to prove.

D. Honesty:
What’s the true story behind the Reputation?

01-15% Cutthroat Liars---The dealership will do just about ANYTHING, as long as it doesn’t cut into sales, to get you to buy, and at the same time will use every opportunity to chisel as much money out of you as possible(+10% to Price) unless they’re deliberately trying to get rid of a ship as quickly as possible(in which case, the price may be -15 to -25%). They will also NOT provide a true history of the ship unless held at gun/lawsuit point.
16-50% Occupational Fibbers---The dealers will occasionally indulge in a little white lie and some dramatic high-pressure sales tactics if they think a customer is losing interest. They may not be 100% thorough in checking and reporting the background history of their ships and won’t volunteer a full history unless the customer asks repeatedly and clearly for it.
51-90% Truth-Shaders----Generally honest with anything with a paper trail, but will try to up the price with various sales gimmicks(extended warranties, engraved windows, deluxe modifications, etc.), and will provide a more or less complete history of the ship, but not full details unless deliberately asked.
91-00% Sales Gurus---Scrupulously honest, the dealership will tell you everything upfront, and will provide those who ask a detailed history of any ship they have, including past and present problems, and may include recommended courses of repair and maintenance. +5% to Quality, -5% to Price.

E. Facilities:
Where is the ship brokerage located?

01-05% Nomadic---The dealers don’t have a fixed location; they operate out of a larger spacecraft that wanders about from location to location, with the ships lashed to the outer hull.

06-15% Free Orbit---The dealership doesn’t have a garage/hangar facility or space station, but claims a registered orbit(such as a LaGrange Point) and parks the ships there, with a beacon to tell of ownership.

16-25% Remote Spacestation---The dealership has a deep space facility off the beat and path where it keeps its inventory. This may make it hard for customers to casually drop by, but it also allows for more private sales and transfers.

26-50% Orbital Habitat---The brokerage has a spacestation in orbit of a more settled world, or offices aboard a large orbital habitat. The point is, they’re closer to a trafficked hub and easier to access, but are also more subject to casual attention.

51-80% Surface Facility---The dealership is based and housed in a groundside yard in an atmosphere/gravity well. This makes casual inspection of their goods much easier, but limits their selection to vessels that can survive a planetary environment, endure the pull of gravity, and take off and land in a gravity well/atmosphere under their own power.

81-00% Combined Complex----The brokerage maintains both surface facilities and orbital anchorages. This makes taking in their selection at a glance problematic, but it also allows the dealers to maintain a wider variety of craft in their offerings.

F. Security:
How secure are the premises?

01-15% None---Aside from a few facility lights, or locked airlocks, there’s nothing to keep somebody from strolling on-premises and breaking into a vessel. Some dealers with this level of security hedge their bets by removing key components from a ship to keep it from being flown off without their say-so, but a good mechanic(especially with forewarning) can bring their own parts and do a quick repair onsite.
16-50% Secured---The facilities are monitored by basic security alarms and locked access ways, and the ships sport similar intrusion alarms.
51-95% Airtight---The brokerage engages the services of an armed security service that regularly patrols their grounds and monitors each individual ship. Orbital anchorages will have a sensor beacon overwatch platform that detects and reports anybody approaching the spacecraft.
96-00% Paranoid---Groundside facilities are protected by the sort of security one would expect to see at a military base. Armed patrols, defense in depth, hardened hangars for ships, and elaborate security procedures insure nobody slips in or out undetected. Orbital anchorages are monitored by armed patrolcraft(including warships) and regular fighter/armed shuttle patrols, and robot weapons platforms(warsats).

G. Selection:
What’s being offered? (can roll in general or for each individual vessel).

01-15% Shuttlecraft---Non-FTL small ships
16-30% Light Commercial Vessels---The ubiquitous ‘stock light freighter’, generally seen confined to single solar systems, but frequently outfitted for short FTL jumps. This classification also covers courier craft, stellacommuttas and spaceyachts.
31-55% Medium Transports---This is where most of the profitable small-cargo run vessels are classed.
56-70% Heavy Transports---Large freighters, spaceliners, and bulk carriers.
71-75% Superheavy Transports--These are the big superhaulers that can carry megatonnes of cargo between the stars. They’re generally commissioned by specific companies, and worked until they’re ready to be scrapped, but occasionally they do come up for sale.
76-80% Specialized Industrial Vessels---The brokerage deals in more specialized industrial/utility vessels, such as asteroid miners, gas harvesters, colonial surveyors and refinery craft.
81-95% Military Surplus---Light---These would be a variety of ex-military utility craft and demobbed shuttles, landing craft, fighters and scoutships, stripped of any sensitive military equipment, but otherwise built to military spec(and easily refitted).
96-00% Military Surplus---Heavy---These would be larger military vessels up to light cruiser displacement, that have been stripped of armaments and converted, or purpose-built, as transports/utility carriers.


H. Maintenance Quality:
What’s the quality of the starships on offer? This reflects in general how much effort the brokerage puts into refurbishing and repairing ships it receives prior to putting them out for sale. It also shows how well they maintain ships sitting on their lots, and to what extent they fumigate and mothball them for storage, and regularly check them for deterioration. Note that the more unscrupulous dealers may vacuum the cabins and slap a fresh coat of paint on ships to conceal structural cracks, stress fractures, and burn marks masking serious damage, so buyers are advised to either do their own checking or employ the services of a third party mechanic or inspection service to look for hidden faults in a ship they’re looking to purchase.

01- 10% Decrepit---It’s arguably whether the ships can leave the yard under their own power . It might be more worthwhile to simply sell the vessel for scrap value. The ship generally has only 1d4x10% of its rated structure, and speed is a paltry 10-25% of its rated power output. On the other hand, the ship is -15% to Price.
11-20% Poor---Whether the ship came ‘as is’ or was neglected while awaiting a buyer, the ship is in poor condition, though it CAN make it off the premises under its own power. The vessel is a real ‘fixer-upper’, with overall hull structure rated at 50% of what it should be, and engines operating at 30% of optimal. -10% to Price.
21-60% Fair---The ship has obviously seen better days and could use some serious work, but it’s functional, more or less intact(structural integrity is at 75%), the propulsion works(albeit at 70% of its rated power). The ship passes most inspections, but could do with an overhaul soon. -5% to Price.
61-80% Good---The vessel has a few battered plates, some dings and scratches, and the engines occasionally make funny noises, but passes muster on almost all scores. Overall structural integrity and power ratings for this used starship is at 80-90%, so with a little additional work, the hull plates can be repaired, the engines tuned up, and the rust buffed off.
81-94% Excellent---The ship has been well-taken care of and is only lacking 5% of its structural/power rating. A good tune-up and repair oughta take care of that easily enough. +10% to Price
95-00% Perfect----Somebody went over the vessel with a fine-toothed comb and calipers, and had just about everything that needed fixing fixed, and the ship given a makeover. During its stay in the ‘yard, it received regular TLC maintenance. Even if used, the ship is for all intents and purposes, brand spanking new. +15% to Price


I. Payment:
How does the brokerage accept payment? Some dealers offer generous financing and loans to draw in customers, while others want the money in immediately usable form, all at once, on the counter, before they let the starship leave their docks.

01-25% Cash Up Front---The brokerage only deals in cold hard cash up front and in full. Depending on the dealer, they may also require a SPECIFIC form of currency to be paid in, such as locally-minted iridium-gold caltrops instead of Galactic Credits.
26-65% Lenient--- The dealership offers up to 20% financing and scheduled payment plans for the ship, but begins charging interest and making threatening noises of repossession if one or two of the payments are missed. They will also insist on some form of collateral be put up front.
66-90% Flexible--- The brokerage is more open to negotiation, and can offer loans of 30-40% of the ship’s base price. Low-interest payment plans are the norm, though, again, some form of collateral must be exchanged.
91-00% Liberal---The dealership offers interest-free loans up to 50% of the ship’s base price, has very tolerant payment plans, and will even accept other forms of payment such services, in lieu of credits.

J. Price:
Bottom line, how much is this going to hurt your wallet?

01-10% Insanely Inexpensive---The price of the ship is at most 50% of the regular price of the ship class. How are these people making a profit off this sale?
11-30% Cheap---The ship is discounted, at 60-75% of the type’s normal price.
31-75% Fair Market Value---The price is about average for the ship type, +/- 5-10%.
76-90% Steep---Price is high, but not unrealistically so; 15-25% over fair market value.
91-00% Price Gouging---Asking price for the ship is exorbitant, even before accessorization(which in some dealerships can include engines, life support, etc...); 50% or more over average price for the ship type/class. This is typically true of brokerages that own a local monopoly on spacecraft in a region.

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

A new taalsimn table!!! WOOOOT!
Also...intergalactic car/ship dealers got me like..
https://youtu.be/B2LLB9CGfLs

[taalismn]

I'd tie this in to the Starship Flaws thread if there was any organization to that....
What the hell...here it is anyway...
http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=75673&hilit=starship+flaws

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

I'd tie this in to the Starship Flaws thread if there was any organization to that....
What the hell...here it is anyway...
http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=75673&hilit=starship+flaws

mother of god.. it's 21 pages long!

[taalismn]

I'd tie this in to the Starship Flaws thread if there was any organization to that....
What the hell...here it is anyway...
http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=75673&hilit=starship+flaws

mother of god.. it's 21 pages long!

Lot of things that can go wrong on a starship.
Though they generally fall into several categories:

Construction Flaws(Cheapskate design to Bad Repairs)
A.I. Problems(Because Nothing Can Go Wrong, go wrong, go wrong...)
Alien Technology/Philosophies(What does the red...whatever it is...do?)
FTL Problems(Event Horizoning)

[glitterboy2098]

“Bought my ride ‘as is’ from a back-orbit dealer on the Rim. Ship seemed to be a repo or contraband from some bandit-king or raider on the galactic rim because I discovered this ship has some serious LEGS built in, some very nicely appointed living quarters, a weapons array I’m sure is probably illegal in most coreworlds, and a fully-functional and oh-very-pleased-to-meet-me sexaroid in a stasis closet in the bunkroom.”

myself and another player actually used a variation on this in a campaign.. i was playing an Altess bounty hunter, the other player a female android assassin.. since my bounter hunter had a custom built ship as part of her starting gear (made using the rifter article for galactic tracer ships) we decided to claim that when my character picked out the base hull from the scrapyard and started getting it rebuilt, she found the Android onboard.

the rest of the group didn't know abut the assassin part, so just thought their bounty hunter captain kept a gynoid around for personal reasons..

[taalismn]

[
myself and another player actually used a variation on this in a campaign.. i was playing an Altess bounty hunter, the other player a female android assassin.. since my bounter hunter had a custom built ship as part of her starting gear (made using the rifter article for galactic tracer ships) we decided to claim that when my character picked out the base hull from the scrapyard and started getting it rebuilt, she found the Android onboard.

the rest of the group didn't know abut the assassin part, so just thought their bounty hunter captain kept a gynoid around for personal reasons..

Nice to know there was precedent.
"That's not my sex toy, it's my business partner."