On Sun, Apr 2, 2023 at 11:22 AM Alex Goodwin - alex.goodwin at
multitel.com.au (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
>

> >
> > The goal was to crank up Carmel's industry by exploiting the various
> > trojan belts.
>
> I presume you're referring to Deneb 0604?
>

Yep

> Makes a lot of sense and is a fairly logical explanation for a good
> chunk of boodle.
>
> Are (landed) baronets high nobles IYTU and thus entitled to a cut of
> Imperial tax revenues?
>

IMTU, there's not a lot of direct Imperial Tax revenues - user fees
and such cover the local needs. The Big Money is the Imperial Family
ownership of stocks in the Megas, which gives income via profit
disbursements and also gives the Imperial family some control of the
corporations
Cleon I kept the reins in his reign, so to speak.
Bottom line for the Baronet is : no appreciable tax income that isn't
already committed to making the by-the-book mainworld stuff work.

> Is there an inner belt that can be exploited to hide the exploitation of
> the others in plain sight?

The system generation I did didn't produce any belts. I've
rationalized that as what otherwise would have been the belt got stuck
at the trojans for the larger worlds.

The easiest exploitable trojan is swarming with belters, which
explains why an otherwise backwards system has a Class B starport: the
port builds and maintains the mining boats.

> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > So the timeline I'm working with has Legionary purchase in 1107, and a
> > mature swarm in 1111/1112, with some of the production diverted along
> > the way to producing a few 10-ton launches for sale to cover the
> > payments on the Legionary and pay for the work crews
>
> I'm presuming the launches are flogged through dummy companies and the
> boodle laundered back to H.E. ?
>

The Baronet's on the Board of Directors for the company running the
starport , and the boat yard there, so he's got an in for getting them
to buy from a shell company and can convince them not to keep much
paperwork about the purchase.

> A classic way would be the Baronet borrowing the boodle from himself, or
> via a third party (securing the funds borrowed with the dirty boodle),
> and after a while, the paperwork grows legs.

Makes sense, noting that

> I suspect one of H.E.'s earliest recruits to this scheme will be a
> solid, but bent, forensic accountant (maybe an illegitimate child, to
> set up the "Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?"
> line when the PCs get involved).
>
> Honest Eneri's job will be to red-team the setup and clean up/prevent
> things that their less-bent colleagues would notice later on.  After
> all, under rule of men, not laws, it's legal if you don't get caught.
>
> And to stay waaay the hell away from Old Chrome Dome, Branj "Mullet"
> Dilgaadin.
>

Adding as possible adventure fodder down the road

> >
> > 1111 also sees hiring some naval architects, construction of a space
> > station for them to live and work on, and building a type-A a year,
> > selling them, and paying off the Legionary by 1114ish
> Launches _and_ scout ships, maybe?

I played with the idea of Type-S or even Type-J's, but figured a
single type-A per year might be easier to lose the paperwork for.
Construction ability by the start of f111 is on the order of a
thousand tons of hull without impacting other projects (Swarm growth,
space station)

What's a reasonable number of ship sales a year you could hide?

> >
> > 1114 to 1117 see selling a Type-A a year for expenses and banking most
> > of it.. and by "banking" we're talking about half of it being buying
> > stocks in planet-side businesses and helping them expand. Figure
> > pumping about 15Mcr/year into business growth, and avoiding inflation
> > by selling needed expansion goods from a shell company the Baronet
> > owns that's actually the Swarm making stuff.
>
> Presuming the above laundry setup, I'd suggest a combination of
> investment, both debt and equity.
>
> Maybe shopping centres or the like?
>
> Maybe a venture capital fund set up by Definitely Not The Baronet You're
> Looking For?
>

That and lots of immigration subsidies - Carmel's really population
poor. Shopping centers need customers.
How hard do you think it would be to get the Ministry of Colonization
to rubber stamps something they didn't have to fund, so that it looked
like the funds were coming from them?

> >
> > Early 1117 there's a player adventure we're in the middle of running:
> > A Vargr courier gets word to the pirate clans that the Emperor was
> > assasinated before word gets to Carmel. A Vargr pirate chieftan
> > decides to raid the planet - and the Baronet's swarm is way and gone
> > out system and can't arrive in time. (The players don't even know the
> > swarm exists.) This adventure is an introduction for the players to
> > the Assemblage of 1116
> One hell of a kick in the pants, at the very least.

Yeah, it's looking to be a bit of a "oof!"
They think they're on a completely different adventure, and they're
having fun with it... and will be right up to the minute the Vargr
Corsairs arrive
I'm trying to set it up so there's a real high point of emotional
"WE'RE ROCKING IT!!" that whipsaws around to "WTF? " for full player
emotional buy in.

> >
> > After such a dramatic method of finding out the Imperium is in dire
> > straits, and finding out his fief is vulnerable, the Baronet goes nuts
> > on making sure this never happens again. He also suspects that his
> > liege lords are going to want ships, and that the MegaCorps are going
> > to be either distracted by the madness or wanting to make huge profits
> > building ships and want to squish his operation if it becomes a
> > competitor.
>
>  From what you've described, the Baronet's operation won't be big enough
> to be a real concern to the megas.

Whew!

>
> Maybe he hides it in plain sight by _subcontracting_ to the bigger
> outfits, and tests designs in his system fleet first?  The bigger the
> subcontracting gets, the more actually-dirty boodle can be mixed in and
> washed.
>

Now there's an idea!

> >
> > In the short term, he build a lot of SDBs in different variations on
> > the theme, and plays around with various starship designs. He sees his
> > main priority as making Carmel safe for his people. He doesn't want to
> > rely on being left out of the loop again, and builds some couriers of
> > his own, and a few mini-swarms to support them, sort of a mini X-boat
> > network that he puts at the disposal of the subsector and sector
> > nobles. He figures if he keeps it low key, nobody will do the math to
> > add up what the investment was and nobody's going to ask questions
> > that bring the MegaCorp hammer down on him.
>
> Filling in the gaps left by the official J-4 and secret J-6 couriers?
>
> Could be just me - that doesn't quite seem strong enough.
>

In what way? Can you expand that?

> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > Anything glaringly out of sync above? It all seems to hang together
> > for me, but it feels like there's something I'm missing.
> > Is the worry about MegaCorps too strong? What's the threshold there
> > for getting noticed?
> > Would building starships to go help the rest of the Domain make more sense?
>
> I think the worry about the megacorps is too strong, and have suggested
> ways to mitigate that.
>
> The timeline might be a _little_ compressed up until 116, but not overly so.
>
> After the lid flies off the 3I, I think the Domain of Deneb is going to
> care more about _having_ new-build ships than _where_ they came from -
> that being a good time for H.E. to step up burying/muddying the paper trail.
>

Makes sense!

> --
> Hope that helps find any loose bits that I've sailed right past.
>

Thanks! Appreciate the insights.