Mission of Gravity
This is a postal (or PBM) game of Star Trader run by Mike Dommett and published in my postal games 'zine, To Win Just Once. This is the web version of the latest turn. Follow the link for an introduction to Star Trader.
Sections: Report, Corporations Table, News, Press, GM Notes, Star map (separate page)
Previous reports: Turn 13 Turn 12 Turn 11 Turn 10 Turn 9 Turn 8 Turn 7 Turn 6 Turn 5 Turn 4 Turn 3 Turn 2 Turn 1 Start-up
Turn 14
“That was rough!”
“Report, please.”
“Uh…”
“Report please, systems check.”
“Umm, captain – my screens are clear.”
“Where are we?”
“Just off our starting point, Sir.”
It’s hard to steer when psionic emanations are disrupted!
Hyperspace is difficult enough to travel without the added burden of a Psychic Jam. Most of the better crews still found their way to the target systems, but many of the poorer crews, and those taking risky jumps were limping back into the spaceports all this quarter with exhausted crew.
Many Corporations found themselves with ships scattered around the 8 systems.
However, the word that a ship was wanted to take an exploration team had got round and there was keen competition got the contract. It was won by TRADE WIND, whose ship, Bolearis, was despatched into the unknown from Gamma Leporis.
The presence of the highly illegal tobacco on Sigma Draconis, probably raised by the AIA as a typically irrational activity, was the target of VOGON’s ship, which made an unauthorised landing on Planet.
CAESAR WHOLESALE collected some weapons at Alpha Centauri for onward shipment. Suggestions that the Corporation should be investigated were overruled by friends in the System Government.
TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC bought 11 Alloys for 3 HTs each at Gamma Leporis and gained a Dealership.
Epsilon Eridani saw ZWILLINGE selling 3 Isotopes for 7 HTs apiece. ALSAFI-TOLIMAN ACQUISITIONS Co. sold 6 Petroleum for 12 HTs each – undercutting ZWILLINGE’s bid of 14 – and gained a Contractorship.
At Delta Toucanis ISNOTISTOO sold 2 Alloys at a price of 4 HTs, but failed to sell Isotopes at 10. Neither did ISKANDER, selling at 8, or ZWILLINGE, selling on Contract, when their ship had failed to arrive with the goods. TRADEWINDS sold 8 at 8 and VOGON sold 2 more at the same price. ISNOTISTOO bought 10 Petroleum for 10 HTs to become a Dealer, while ISKANDER bought just 1 for 9 HTs. ISNOTISTOO then sold 14 Spice for 12 HTs each, gaining a second dealership, and cutting out ZWILLINGE who wanted to sell at 13 HTs.
VOGON disposed of an Alloy for 5 HTs at Tau Ceti. ALSAFI TOLIMAN bought 12 Isotopes for 4 HTs each and acquired a Dealership. ZWILLINGE and ISKANDER bought 5 each on Contracts. TRANSURANIC’s bid of 1 was ignored. ZWILLINGE then sold 10 Petroleum for 8 HTs apiece and became a Contractor.
ISKANDER sold 9 Isotopes at 7 at Mu Herculis, undercutting VOGON’s 8. CAESAR WHOLESALE dropped 9 Liquor for 7 HTs each to gain a Dealership and SSL&M sold their single one on Contract. CAESAR bought 4 Monopoles at 12 HTs each and SOLAR SPICE, LIQUORS & MONOPOLES bought 5 on Contract. CAESAR failed to buy Petroleum at 10 as the price rose unexpectedly.
Sigma Draconis saw TRANSURANIC buying 6 Alloys for 1 HT each and ZWILLINGE using Percent to do the same. VOGON sold 5 Isotopes on Contract. SWISS MERCENARY FLEET sold 10 Monopoles for 12 HTs each, getting a Dealership and enough free cash to repay their loan. SOLAR WINDS TRADING COMPANY sold 7 Petroleum at 8 HTs and gained a Contractorship. Finally at Sigma Draconis, TRANSURANIC bought 3 Spice for 7 HTs a unit, keeping the price up for SSL&M and ZWILLINGE to buy 5 each on Contract.
SOLAR SPICE, LIQUORS & MONOPOLES bought 10 Liquors for 8 HTs each at Alpha Centauri and gained a Dealership. ISKANDER and TRANSURRANIC couldn’t buy at 6 HTs. SOLAR WINDS then sold 8 at 4 HTs, driving the price back down.
Beta Hydri had HONEST DARTH selling 4 Isotopes for 6 using his Market Manager’s position, though ISKANDER did sell 2 more at the same price. ISKANDER sold 8 Monopoles for 17 HTs each and gained a Contractorship, while SSL&M sold 5 on Contracts. HONEST DARTH sold 4 Petroleum for 14 HTs apiece and, finally, SSL&M sold 5 Spice on Contracts while TRADWINDS cursed the non-arrival of their ship.
TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC shuffled pods around, and launched their new ship, Betley, at Alpha Centauri with a passenger cargo pod mix.
CAESAR WHOLESALE repaid their loan early.
SOLAR SPICE LIQUORS & MONOPOLES paid to increase their Reputation.
SWISS MERCENARY FLEET repaid their loan this Quarter. An item that may worry a few other Corporations in the near future.
ZWILLINGE were not the subject of an Inquiry, but then, no sabotage was carried out by their agents. Perhaps the Corporation has seen the futility of violence. They bought two new Warehouses, one at Epsilon Eridani and one at Delta Toucanis, and were improving their Political Connections with good works. The Twin was re-crewed with an A class crew, but they were unable to re-crew ships that had failed their Hyperjumps this quarter.
TRANSURANIC TRADE CORPORATION bought a new Warehouse at Alpha Centauri and launched their as yet unnamed Piccolo hull there.
ISKANDER FIRE & ACCIDENT bought a Warehouse for Delta Toucanis.
Someone in VOGON INDUSTRIES spent the interest for the mortgage on Tobacco, with the resulting increase in the loan and loss of Reputation.
Press
Sabotage? Sabotage, by damn! What kind of business do they think I'm running? I call for the tabloids to be muzzled: ruining honest businesses with completely unfounded allegations like these! Pevans van Rijn
Corporations Table
| Corporation letter & name | Conn'n Levels Bus/Crim/Pol |
Init Bid |
Turn Order |
Cash | Rep'n | Player | |||
| A | Alsafi-Toliman Acquisitions | 8 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 8th | 264 | 40 | Rob Fuller |
| B | Solar Winds Trading Co | 3 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 11th | 200 | 27 | Steve Bunce |
| C | Caesar Wholesale | 7 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 7th | 249 | 39 | Simon Burling |
| D | Trans Solar Trading, Inc | 10 | 0 | 7 | 15 | 4th | 228 | 30 | Jerry Elsmore |
| E | SSL&M | 10 | 3 | 5 | +1 | 6th | 21 | 29 | Paul Evans |
| G | HDQUS | 10 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 9th | 694 | 32 | Howard Goble |
| H | Trade Wind | 4 | 0 | 8 | 10+9 | 1st | 314 | 38 | Colin Parfitt |
| J | ISNOTISTOO | 10 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12th | 445 | 40 | William Hay |
| K | Swiss Mercenary Fleet | 8 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 13th | 129 | 40 | Martin Jennings |
| L | Zwillinge | 9 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 10th | 364 | 16 | Michael Martinkat |
| M | Transuranic Trade Corp | 10 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 5th | 298 | 40 | Bob Parkins |
| N | Vogon Industries | 10 | 7 | 0 | 20 | 2nd | 37 | 36 | Nathan Richards |
| P | Iskander Fire and Accident | 10 | 7 | 4 | 15 | 3rd | 286 | 40 | Przemyslaw Orwat |
| 'N' under Initiative Bid indicates No Move Received; ‘F’ indicates the Corp was floated | |||||||||
News
EV 1 (-4 on Hyperjumps) affected many Corporations this quarter.
OP 34 was taken by CAESAR WHOLESALE. OP 27 was taken by VOGON. OP 47 was taken by TRADE WIND.
There were no new chit this turn. New chits are shown in Bold:
Turn 15 P2, B6
Turn 16 P9, P2, C2
Turn 17
GM Notes
If you have a query on your player sheet, please put it in your e-mail where I see it. I have had comments attached to the player sheet that don’t print out, so I missed them. The earlier the query, the easier it is to put things right.
Pevans
Postal games
Mission of Gravity
Railway Rivals 4
Railway Rivals 5