Subject: Re: Starship Advantage for GURPS Traveller [long]

From: Anthony Jackson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 17:42:15 -0700 (PDT)

Christopher Thrash writes:
> {Regent's note--this was caught by the size filters. Trim those replies}

<OK, trimmed to nothing>

While this method seems reasonable for a starship, it has a significant
disadvantage of not being particularly general (in addition, the price of a
starship may be overstated).  An alternate version, which I wrote some time ago
(which is actually potentially useful in other settings).

Advantage: 'Loan'.  Cost variable.
    You have at some point in the past acquired a sizeable loan, representing a
large multiple of starting wealth.  Over the course of the game, you will be
expected to repay that loan, with interest.  The size of the interest payments
are dependent on the size and security of the loan, and measured monthly.  In
general, loans should be used for large capital investments.  For reference,
the cost of loans is roughly computed from a combination of 'temporary wealth'
and 'duty -- to repay loan'.  Loan types:
Fully Secure: the loan represents some form of property or other capital
investment, which can be foreclosed upon to recover the lost loan, where the
property in question cannot generally be stolen or hidden, and is quite
unlikely to lose its value.  Payments: 0.5%/month for at least 20 years. 
Example: mostly buildings.

Secure: as above, but the item in question can reasonably be stolen or hidden,
and might require significant effort to recover, _or_ where the item probably
cannot be stolen or hidden, but has a reasonable chance of having a sudden
reduction in value.  Payments: 1%/month for at least 10 years.  Examples: for
the first type, most large vehicles in areas where vehicles are registered. 
For the second type, examples would be factories, mines, and other business
loans.

Insecure: the item in question represents a significant risk.  2%/month for 5
years.  Examples of this type would be things such as cyberware, etc.

Point cost of a loan:
2: equal to starting wealth (including wealth level)
4: equal to 2x starting wealth
6: equal to 5x starting wealth
8: equal to 10x starting wealth.  Not for 'insecure' loans.
10: equal to 20x starting wealth.  Only for 'very secure' loans.

Effects of defaulting:
Fines: usually equal to some percentage of a monthly payment; 5% per month per
missing payment seems reasonable.
Foreclosure: seizes the assets in question; most lenders will give significant
grace periods before attempting this.  If successful, simply mark off the loan
and give the character the disadvantage 'bad credit rating -2'.  There are
several ways to fend off foreclosure:

*Working it out: if you can convince your banker that you will get them the
money soon, an extension will probably be provided.  This process should be
role-played out; assume that you have a -1 reaction penalty with your banker
per missing payment (halve this for 'very secure' loans).  Skills such as
fast-talk are useful here; having a good idea about how to get the money is
also quite useful.
*Flight: this usually happens _before_ foreclosure, not after.  Character
acquires the disadvantages 'bad credit rating -4' and 'enemy: creditors', worth
at least twice the value of the loan.
*Bankruptcy: requires a successful law roll; if successful, foreclosure is
legally prevented while you make a good-faith attempt to pay off your debts. 
On the minus side, the courts determine what 'good-faith' actually means, and
is generally permitted to take control of whatever aspects of the business it
chooses to make sure that you're operating in good faith.

Consequences:
*Seized Assets*: generally speaking, a lender may attempt to seize any assets
of a defaulter it needs to in order to recover it's loan; the difficulty of
this varies, and the process will take some time in any case.
*Locked Assets*: this may occur when a lender is _attempting_ to seize an asset
(or even is simply trying to get payments).  The asset is question still
exists, but is not available to the player until it is unlocked.
Disadvantage: 'bad credit rating'.  This is 'reputation with creditors' -- this
is usually a fairly large group (half value), with a frequency depending on the
degree to which credit ratings are tracked.
Disadvantage: 'Enemy, Creditors'.  Most creditors have quite large resources
(minimum 100x the size of the loan).  Assume that the assets designated to
tracking you down are appropriate to the size of the loan which was defaulted
on; this probably means capital (for the people involved) of at least twice the
value of the loan, though the actual expenses will probably be no more than
10-20% of the value of the loan.  This might also correspond to having a bounty
on your head.