Early Spring, Y2TURNTURNTURNACTACTACT: Spend 4 Favor to rename one ship Citizen Snips and the other The Claw.
ACTACTACT: Spend 0.2Gn on the Jolly Crustacean as a Christmas Bonus for the captain and crew.
ActActAct: Sell 1 sand for 0.38 Guineas and spend 2 royal favours to rename one ship Abyss.
ACTACTACT: sell 2 sand for 0.76
ACTACTACT: On behalf of the shareholders, I buy a new ship named 'Sandshape', ", which will initially sail the Nearsouthlands trade route.
ACTACTACT: Sell 4 Sand and 10 Wool. 1.52+7.58=9 point freaking 1.
ActActAct: Change Warrick destination to Norderland
ACTACTACT: Sell 3 sand for 1.14
ACTACTACT: Another bathtub frilled with coins equaling 10 Guineas is delivered to the office as payment, as is right for commissioning a ship. The Bloody Shark has been purloined.. Destination is Nordrland.
NOTE: Powder made a mistake last turn, selling sand he did not have. He confessed his mistake, and I've let him off with the penalty of having sold sand last turn instead of this turn, costing him 0.15gn in lost profit.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. SELLING FUTURES TO THE MARKET IS NOT ALLOWED, AND DELIBERATE ATTEMPTS TO DO SO WILL MAKE ME VERY UPSET. (Selling futures to other players is allowed, though!)
The Warrick, Nsailor, Magierin, Sandshape, and Bloody Shark all depart the docks this month- the harbour is really livening up these days.
Sand is sold, sand is consumed. The price remains stable.
[10 Sand Sold]
The Wool market receives a small blow when a well-known tailor decries the stuff as useless. Other tailors disagree, but the price still takes a hit.
[10 Wool Sold]
The CEO of Happy Crab LLC decides to give a Christmas Bonus to the crew of the Jolly Crustacean. Great! Just a few problems. One, nobody knows what Christmas is, and why it would yield a bonus. Two, assuming it's some sort of mid-winter festival, that's since passed. Three, the Jolly Crustacean is not in port at the moment, so when the CEO hands over the bonus, it just falls into the water. Makes a bit of a splash. Oh well. I'm sure the fish and/or the next person to go diving in the vicinity will appreciate it.
Less appreciated is the CEO's public taunting of the Crown. While not rising to the level of a crime, the jabs are sufficiently irritating that a stern letter is delivered telling them to cease and desist.
[Happy Crab LLC receives 1 Royal Disfavour]
The Crown graciously names three of its finest warships "Citizen Snips", "The Claw", and "Abyss". The companies that suggested these names receive a Certificate Of Commendation for each ship named.
[Happy Crab LLC receives 2 Certificates of Commendation. Wilco Ventures receives one. These are pointless but slightly prestigious trinkets]
Moira Libum is... an interesting woman. It is not entirely clear whether she ever sleeps, though she is always full of energy. She habitually dresses in shabby clothing- old leather and stained linen-, but lives in a luxurious three-story townhouse with servants and everything. It is almost impossible to understand what she is talking about at times, but it's obviously all very profound. Her profession? "Inventor".
Recently, Ms Libum has been sending barely-legible letters to ship-owners, asking them to sponsor a new project. Specifically, she wants Sand. But it has to be
fresh sand, which is to say sand that has not been sold on the market- she is concerned that sand dealers are cutting their product (with dirt, dust, even ground up seashells), and refuses to work with sub-standard ingredients. What's in it for the person who gives her sand? Well, once the project is completed, she will give the blueprints of her invention to the sponsor, to do with as they will. She... doesn't seem to care about exploiting the actual end product, she just enjoys the process of inventing.
How much sand does she want? Oh, not that much.
Just a single shipload. 10 units.
Will the end product be worth anything?
"Yeah probably!", is the response.
"Might beuseful ona ship I guess!"What if multiple people offer her sand?
"Oh well firstcome firstserve! Right!?"Does she not need anything else to invent stuff?
"Oh I'll justhave Igor buy anything elseat themarket! Money isn't anissue! People keep giving itto me so Ihavetons!"Are... are you okay?
"Ohyeahyeah I'mfinethanksforasking!"Shiver me timbers! An anonymous whistleblower in the Royal Navy reveals that pirates have managed to get their hands on modern ships (somehow), and are using them to plunder the coastlines of the Motherlands and disrupt shipping. Apparently they've been cautious, picking on small targets and avoiding larger ships... until now. The pirates, operating from an unknown hideout, are sailing the seas armed and dangerous- and will even take on our glorious trade ships if given the chance! While the whistleblower doesn't believe the odds of a successful pirate attack are particularly high, they do warn that attempts to root them out have been futile, and that the pirates are likely here to stay.
The
Jolly Crustacean and
Enterprise arrive on schedule.
PRICES
Sand - 0.38 Guineas per unit (+0)
Wool - 0.75 Guineas per unit (-0.03)
Ships - 10 Guineas each (+0)DESTINATIONS
Nearsouthlands - 2 Month round trip, yields Sand | Public charts
Norderland - 3 Month round trip, yields Wool | Exclusive chartsSHIPS
<Jolly Crustacean - Returned end of Early Spring Y2 with 10 units of Sand. Intending to depart for Nearsouthlands in beginning Mid Spring Y2
Warrick - Departed for Norderland in beginning Early Spring Y2, expected to return end of Late Spring Y2
Nearsouth Nsailor - Departed for Nearsouthlands in beginning Early Spring Y1, expected to return end of Mid Spring Y2
<Enterprise - Returned end of Early Spring Y2 with 10 units of Wool. Intending to depart for Norderland in beginning Mid Spring Y2
Woolritter - Departed for Norderland in beginning Late Winter Y1, expected to return end of Mid Spring Y2
Magierin - Departed for Norderland in beginning Early Spring Y2, expected to return end of Late Spring Y2
Sandshape - Departed for Nearsouthlands in beginning Early Spring Y2, expected to return end of Mid Spring Y2
Bloody Shark - Departed for Norderland in beginning Early Spring Y2, expected to return end of Late Spring Y2
Dreary Black Pincer - Explorer. Departed North in Late Winter Y1. ETA: UnknownOTHER OFFERINGS
Moira Libum seeks 10 units of Sand, in exchange for invention blueprints.
NEW MECHANIC: Inventions! Moira Libum is a one-woman scientific revolution, capable of churning out inventions in the blink of an eye. In this case, she has an invention in mind, but once this one is taken care of, she will accept a donation of any amount/combination of resources, and provide the blueprints to an invention in exchange (you can suggest a concept when donating, but Moira's mind is unpredictable, so the end product may bear no resemblance). Invention blueprints work like Exclusive Charts- they let the owner, and anyone who the owner gives permission, build the invention (which will cost a certain amount of money/resources), and equip it to their ship. Or maybe give it to local businesses to increase demand for a product. Or maybe it doesn't do anything useful, but is an impressive thing to own nonetheless. If you think it is totally useless and worthless, you can just make the blueprints open source, which the Crown approves of (though it obviously approves much more if you make useful blueprints open source).
'Fresh' resources given to Moira do not, in fact, have to be fresh in the sense of recently acquired, they can sit in your inventory for years and still be acceptable. The point is just that you can't buy stuff from the Market to give her (but you can buy from other players!).
Needless to say, the more you give, the more you get. Giving her one unit of Sand is unlikely to produce anything worthwhile, whereas shiploads of hard-to-obtain resources are liable to result in extraordinary contraptions. Generally speaking, 5 units of resources is the minimum amount needed to get something remotely interesting. Oh, also, bear in mind that Moira has access to plenty of 'common' resources, so inventions will not consist solely of the donated resources- wood, metal, and various other bits and pieces may feature as well.
NEW MECHANIC: Pirates! Are not actually that interesting. If I'm being honest, it's just a fancy way of saying that I've rebalanced the odds of a ship getting into trouble. All routes are now
slightly more dangerous.
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Topic: Risky Ventures: Lazy Fair | Early Spring, Year 3 - New investors always welcome! (Read 45093 times)