FASA Games, Inc.

Tupteq, Erian Li Halan and her "cadre" had a charioteer, the long time childhood friend Julia Abrams!
But, how they got the keys, only Bill Bridges can answer that one!

I wouldn't be surprised if each of the Hongs did things like hand out "unofficial" keys to associates, friends, and others that they could use to call in favors at later dates as well. Probably a shady practice that they keep hidden from each other but each of them probably does it just so that they have people to call in to do transport or do things that they don't want to get their hands doing themselves.

I wonder if the Charioteers could craft and sell time-restricted jumpkeys, or jumpkeys that will work only a limited number of times?

A red light shows up in the screen.
*WARNING*
*This jumpkey will explode in 3... 2... 1...*

Never buy ACME jumpkeys! =P

Hey TupTeq

Your world your way but there are some things I'd like to mention;

Starships cost a prohibitive amount of firebirds. They represent huge amounts of capitol for their guild. Thousands of them being in any one location would be improbable but if Gate Cycles are sufficiently long, hundreds of ships anchored at a gate would be plausible.

Tens of Thousands of firebirds is actually a pretty fair price for a good Jumpkey. If you have a few hundred tons of cargo and earn a margin of 2-3 FB per ton of profit each jump that adds up pretty quickly. Drop the price on a Jumpkey too much and players with a ship become very wealthy very fast and Charioteer players become much less important in the game world.

The Charioteers are not the police, but if you make a living transporting goods they are significantly more powerful. If they want to make a case to invade your privacy they won't hesitate to ask to see your Jump Records. You can refuse, but it might mean you have difficulty getting mooring at the next spaceport, you might not have your Cargo held for you by the boatswain. Might not manage to find any passengers You could find that the inquisition searches your ship or that it's quarantined. You could discover that refusing the Charioteers is an endless nightmare of inconveniences.

The charioteers also don't ask. If the Guild has strong suspicion that you're involved in trade violation or other threats to their trademark you'll get a Kilroy on your ship. It's basically why they have kilroys. If a spy finds evidence that you're using forged keys or hacking your Jump Drive Think Machine your engines will stop and your life support will sputter out and a Guild Vessel will come to your rescue in exchange for every jump key on your ship and the wheel patches of every Charioteer you're flying with.

Just some ideas to chew on.

Thank you for the reply, mighty Leviathan

I'll polemize a little bit.

What if the key cost was only about 1k for a good route? There would be more freighters on that route and the profit would be only a couple of wings per ton. It's how economy works. And players had to work hard to get the money. Even with profit of 3fb/ton, PCs with a small freighter with 40t of cargo space could get only 120fb per jump. Let's say one route takes them two weeks. 240fb/month, investment in ship (let's say 40k) will pay off in ... 14 years (20 years if profit was only 2fb/ton)! It may sound great for a business-oriented noble who thinks in long term, but not for PCs, who don't want to wait. Although, for PCs It might be nice source of extra income that helps them cover costs of fuel and repairs (PCs like trouble).

Also, in the past there was plenty of starships and plenty of jump keys, so even if most of them (keys) is lost, many should survive and can be used again (maybe after realignment). Because the number of ships is also greatly reduced, old keys could satisfice significant percentage of need (Scravers wouldn't resign from such occasion).

Moreover, I think that even without total control over keys Charioteers could be filthy rich (like it's with computer piracy in our world - over 40% of software worldwide is pirated, but Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and others are still biggest companies in the world). Also, as practice shows - the more expensive good, more likely it's gonna be forged/copied/pirated. So, the higher price would cause black market to grow (it's inevitable, we can see it clear observing our "war on drugs").

But anyways - with your assumptions (that are probably much more canonical than mine), is it possible to play a group of (relatively) free space vagabonds with a starship and no home? From Alustro's Journals it looks it's possible, but how? Hire Charioteers regularly (which may be problematic if you are a outlaw or want to keep low profile)? Make a quest for each jumpkey (because they are so precious)?

Maybe my thinking is wrong - too Star Wars-ish? In FS space travel seems to be a really big deal (compared to Star Wars), but even FSR Player's Guide says: "It is not recommended that players begin gameplay with spacecraft - they should earn a ship through roleplaying", so players should (be able to) earn the ship, eventually.

I don't think the Charioteers would be out of business or reduced to a minor guild within months if another reliable source of keys were to suddenly appear. They still have a vote scepter and have significant resources at their disposal as is. They, along with the Engineers, manufacture jump drives and they do train the best pilots, etc.