TR> CT Book 2  Starships 2e 1977, 1981 6th printing p. 9

>Passengers: Second paragraph - "Passengers will pay a standard fare for the class of transportation they choose: Cr10,000 for high passage, Cr8,000 for middle passage, and Cr1,000 for low passage. Passage is always sold on the basis of transport to the announced destination rather than on the basis of jump distance."

Me:


I would interpret that as, for a J1 passage, every ship charges the same standard rate, 10kcr for high passage, etc, etc,  regardless of whether the ship  is J1 or J6- because the *ticket* is only J1.


It makes sense to me that everybody charges the same for J1 passage, because it doesn't matter how fast the ship CAN go, it matters how fast it IS going.  Your J4 hull doesn't make the J1 run any faster than a J1 hull down the road, so you don't get to charge premium pricing.

I could see maybe a slight premium for higher-G ships, if you want to shave a couple of hours to/from the jump point on both ends, but for the most part, transit time is pretty much the same. But even there, for most people, it's going to be a level of detail that does not add much to game play- arguing with the DM over fractional pricing changes based on how many g's the ship can pull doesn't really improve the sense of high adventure.



IMTU, for higher jump number tickets, the prices go up - I think the rule was something like the standard rates times the square root of the jump number- because ships with J2+ are more expensive to purchase and operate, and generate less income per dton, than a J1 in the same hull.


Depending on where you are, it may also be harder to find cargoes and passengers willing to pay the direct transit premium.  OTOH, it may also be harder, in some systems, to find passengers and/or cargo willing to travel by J1 ships if J2+ ships are available.

J1, direct, 10krc

J2

J1x2, 20kcr, 2 weeks
J2 direct, 14krc, 1 week

J3

J1x3 30krc, 3 weeks
J2+J1, 24kcr, 2 weeks
J3 direct, 17kcr, 1 week

J4

J1x4, 40kcr, 4 weeks
J2x2, 28kcr, 2 weeks
J3+J1, 27kcr, 2 weeks
J4 direct, 20kcr, 1 week


J5 ticket, 2.25x base rates
J6 ticket, 2.5x base rates


I don't know that those fudge factor numbers are economically right, i.e. that square root of jump number reflects the higher cost of the J2+ ships, and lower operating incomes due to higher fuel tonnage demands, regardless of whether they are running full jump capacity or not.

The cost bump = square root of jump number was just a convenient pricing factor.

(Looking back, I should have done some some puttering with the cargo and passenger availability, too, for higher jump direct routes vs lower number indirect routes.  Probably some sort of puttering around with ship availability, too, but then the whole thing rapidly gets complicated.  I don't know that it ever came up, all that much- mostly scouts with a type S, and one merchant campaign, where availability of *other* ships was never that much of an issue.)

Related note:  I assume that the standard rates are for one jump, and reflect some sort of economic uncertainty.  i.e. high passage is 10kcr per sophont, but perhaps a ship generally only books 75% of available staterooms and cargo space on any particular leg.

The ship is hoping to book passengers and cargo up to full capacity to maximize income and profit; empty staterooms and open cargo space is lost income.

If you are booking end to end travel for several jumps, you could probably wrangle some sort of discount, because you are now guaranteed income for those legs.  

(There is a slight financial risk to the ship, of course, it could be someone else would book that stateroom at full fare, so the ship might loose the discount.  Of course, the opposite is also true, it's possible that nobody would book the stateroom for that leg, and income is zero for that empty stateroom.)

Dan

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