The freighter manifest said the derelict had been carrying processed silicates. The crew that boarded it found: three pallets of silicates, exactly as advertised; one sealed container addressed to a person who had not existed under that name for several years; one case of Jaziri prayer vodka that was technically not supposed to exist because prayer vodka was not a canonical Jaziri product category; and one data core wrapped in four layers of radiation shielding, locked with a seal that was three generations out of date and that the ship's AI broke in about forty seconds.
They argued for the rest of the transit about which of those things they were going to declare and which of those things they were going to figure out later.
Cargo, loot, salvage, and trade goods are the economic engine of a Void Drifters crew. This chapter provides the framework for what things are worth, where demand for them lies, and how to find, assess, and move goods of every legitimate and questionable category.
It also provides the tables the GM needs for generating what is on a derelict, in an abandoned facility, or in the cargo hold of someone who is no longer in a position to argue about it.
Trade Goods
Trade goods are the legitimate cargo economy of the Verge. Prices vary enormously by location: common goods in a manufacturing hub are valuable in a distant colony; luxury goods that would be ignored at a core world trade station command serious prices on the frontier.
The table below provides base prices at a neutral mid-size independent station. Price variance notes indicate how prices shift in different contexts.
Reading the Hold Column
Hold is what one Bulk Unit of the good costs you in ship cargo space. The Vehicles Manual, Chapter Three, has the full rules; this is what you need at the table.
Goods sold by the tonne carry a Density Class, because a tonne of ore and a tonne of grain are the same mass and nothing like the same problem.
| Density Class | Cargo Units per tonne |
|---|---|
| Dense | ½ |
| Standard | 1 |
| Bulky | 2 |
| Very Bulky | 4 |
Goods sold in small lots list fractional Cargo Units instead. Nothing occupies less than a quarter of a Cargo Unit, however little it weighs. A kilogram of pharmaceuticals is not a kilogram in a hold: it is a sealed case with temperature control, tamper seals, documentation, and something to stop it sliding about under thrust.
That minimum matters because manifests are usually mixed. A crew running twelve different high-value lots is filling three Cargo Units, not carrying them in their pockets.
Data has no Hold cost at all. It is digital. A courier shuttle can carry the single most valuable cargo in known space in a case the pilot could sit on, and that fact drives a great deal of what happens in the Verge.
Processed Minerals and Raw Materials
| Good | Bulk Unit | Hold | Base Price | Common Origin | Common Demand | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Iron/Steel Alloy | 1 tonne | Dense | 200cr | Mining systems, asteroid belts | Everywhere | Low margins; high volume |
| Titanium | 1 tonne | Dense | 800cr | Asteroid mining, deep-crust extraction | Ship-building hubs, military contractors | 20-30% markup at shipyard ports |
| Processed Copper/Conductor Alloy | 1 tonne | Dense | 600cr | Mining systems | Electronics manufacturing | Steady demand everywhere |
| Exotic Alloy (faction-spec) | 100 kg | ¼ CU | 1,500cr | Faction manufacturing worlds | Ship builders, military | Specific faction specs; compatibility matters |
| Radioactives (fuel-grade, licensed) | 50 kg | ½ CU | 3,000cr | Extraction worlds | Any port with reactor maintenance | Hazardous Materials Permit required |
| Rare Earth Elements | 100 kg | ¼ CU | 2,500cr | Specific geological conditions | Electronics manufacturing | Very location-dependent |
| Processed Silicon (electronics-grade) | 1 tonne | Dense | 1,200cr | Manufacturing hubs | Electronics factories | Consistent demand; stable pricing |
Price variance: Raw materials command 30-50% markup at resource-poor stations (fringe colonies, orbital habitats with no local extraction). At manufacturing hubs buying large volumes, prices drop 15-25% from base. Faction-spec alloys that are incompatible with another faction's hull standards sell for 20-30% less in that faction's space.
Biological and Agricultural Goods
| Good | Bulk Unit | Hold | Base Price | Common Origin | Common Demand | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Rations (bulk) | 1 tonne | Bulky | 150cr | Agricultural worlds, hydroponic stations | Everywhere | Low margins |
| Exotic Foodstuffs | 50 kg | ½ CU | 800cr | Specific worlds; cultural specialties | Wealthy populations, faction cultural markets | High markup in right cultural context |
| Medical-Grade Botanicals | 10 kg | ¼ CU | 2,000cr | Specialist agricultural worlds | Pharmaceutical production | Shelf-life restrictions; temperature-controlled shipping |
| Live Specimens (legally held) | Per unit | 2 CU | 500-50,000cr | Specific worlds | Research, collections, breeding programs | Species-specific Permits required; Hazardous or Restricted for many species |
| Restricted Biological Samples | Per unit (I) | ¼ CU | 2,000-20,000cr | Research or restricted worlds | Academic programs, corporate research | Illegal to transport without specific authorization; high value to right buyer |
| Pharmaceutical Compounds | 1 kg | ¼ CU | 1,000-8,000cr | Pharmaceutical manufacturing hubs | Medical facilities everywhere | Narcotics-class compounds require permits and command black-market premium |
| Gene-Culture Stock (agricultural) | 10 kg | ¼ CU | 5,000cr | Licensed biotech firms | New colonies establishing agriculture | High value; significant export restrictions |
Perishability: Biological goods deteriorate. The GM should track transit time for biological cargo; every week beyond the rated shelf life, the cargo loses 10-15% of its value. Refrigerated cargo containers (Enc 6, 1,500cr to buy, 100cr/week to power) extend shelf life significantly but add overhead.
Legal complexity: Live specimens and biological samples carry more legal weight than most cargo categories. Every major power has their own restrictions, and some species are restricted by multiple overlapping authorities simultaneously. The cargo that is legal to pick up at the origin may not be legal to deliver at the destination, which is a common and expensive discovery.
Technology and Electronic Goods
| Good | Bulk Unit | Hold | Base Price | Common Origin | Common Demand | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Electronics (consumer) | 100 units | 1 CU | 2,000cr | Manufacturing hubs | Everywhere | Consistent demand; competitive market |
| Ship Components (commercial-grade) | Per lot | 2 CU | 500-10,000cr | Shipyard worlds | Any ship-capable port | Widely needed; variable by component type |
| Sensor Arrays (commercial) | Per unit | ½ CU | 3,000cr | Electronics manufacturing worlds | Ship operators, stations | High demand at fringe ports with limited supply |
| Communications Equipment | Per lot | 1 CU | 2,000cr | Electronics manufacturing | Remote stations, new colonies | +30% markup at communication-poor locations |
| Medical Electronics | Per unit | ¼ CU | 1,500-8,000cr | Specialist manufacturers | Medical facilities, colonies | Consistent high demand |
| Computing Hardware (commercial) | Per unit | ¼ CU | 500-5,000cr | Manufacturing hubs | Everywhere | Broad category; price varies by spec |
| Military-Adjacent Electronics (R) | Per unit | ½ CU | 5,000-25,000cr | Military contractors, faction worlds | Mercenary units, private security | Restricted; requires documentation or black market |
Technology goods have consistent demand almost everywhere but compete in a competitive market at any port with normal supply chains. Value arises at under-supplied locations: a fringe colony that needs a specific sensor array and has no supplier within three jumps will pay significantly above base. At a major electronics manufacturing hub, the same goods compete with fresh production and command little premium.
Luxury Goods and Cultural Items
| Good | Bulk Unit | Hold | Base Price | Common Origin | Common Demand | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fine Spirits and Beverages | 50 kg | ½ CU | 1,500cr | Producing cultures; specialty worlds | Wealthy markets everywhere | 2-4x markup at culturally appropriate destinations |
| Art (certified provenance) | Per piece | Varies | 500-1,000,000cr | Everywhere | Wealthy collectors, cultural institutions | Extraordinarily variable; provenance is everything |
| Musical Instruments (fine) | Per unit | ¼ CU | 300-5,000cr | Craft worlds; cultural centers | Cultural markets | Niche but consistent demand |
| Fashion and Textiles (luxury) | 50 kg | ½ CU | 2,000cr | Manufacturing worlds with craft tradition | Core world wealthy markets | Near-worthless at fringe |
| Hazardous Recreation Substances (I) | Per kg | ¼ CU | 500-5,000cr | Varied; mostly illicit production | Any population center | Illegal everywhere; significant black market value |
| Perfumes and Personal Luxury Items | 10 kg | ¼ CU | 3,000cr | Specialty manufacturers | Wealthy markets | Stable luxury demand |
| Cultural Artifacts (clear provenance) | Per piece | Varies | 1,000-100,000cr | Cultural origin worlds | Museums, private collectors, faction cultural offices | Extremely variable |
| Cultural Artifacts (unclear provenance) | Per piece (I/R) | Varies | 200-50,000cr | Anywhere (often salvage) | Private collectors | May be legally contested; see Cultural Relics section |
Information and Data
Information is the lightest and most valuable cargo in the Verge. It weighs nothing. It has no shelf life. And it is worth exactly what the buyer believes it is worth, which can be essentially nothing or essentially everything depending on what the data contains and who needs it.
| Data Type | Base Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial intelligence (trade routes, pricing) | 200-2,000cr | Value decays as the information ages |
| Proprietary technical schematics | 5,000-50,000cr | Value depends on who wants to build it |
| Faction operational intelligence | 10,000-100,000cr | Extremely high risk to carry; extremely high value to buyers |
| Unexplored sector navigation data | 2,000-20,000cr | Per route; value depends on what is there |
| Personal compromising information | 500-20,000cr | Blackmail-adjacent; many buyers; significant danger |
| Scientific discovery data | 1,000-500,000cr | Breakthrough science is worth more than most physical cargo |
| Military movement and disposition data | 20,000-200,000cr | Most valuable information in the Verge; most dangerous to carry |
Pricing a route. Unexplored sector navigation data sits within its 2,000 to 20,000cr range according to what the route contains and how well the record is made. Accuracy tiers (Rumored, Charted, Surveyed) are defined in the Void Drifters Sector Atlas.
| Route Content | Position in Range |
|---|---|
| Dead end or empty system, Rumored | Bottom of range, or a negative-result fee of a few hundred credits |
| Empty system with resources, Charted | Lower third |
| System with a Class A or B body, Surveyed | Upper third |
| Corridor that continues onward | Add a third |
| Bypass into known space around a controlled seam | Top of range; the faction operational intelligence bracket applies to the right buyer |
| A ruin, developed life, or an unmapped relay node | Priced in the scientific discovery bracket for that item, separate from the route price |
A crew can sell the same record to several buyers; each sale makes the route less exclusive and the crew more visible.
Data cargo does not show up on standard cargo scans. It does not weigh anything. It can be delivered across a comm link rather than physically. These properties make it the preferred cargo of people who want to move something valuable without attracting inspection. They also make it the preferred cargo of factions trying to track information movement: if the data is important enough, they are watching the nodes it passes through.
Cultural Relics and Contested Items
Cultural relics represent the most legally complex cargo category in the Verge. The same item may be: a legitimate archaeological find with clear provenance and legal export status; stolen property of an individual, family, or institution; contested between two or more factions both claiming it belongs to their cultural heritage; or a religious object whose removal from its context constitutes a crime in the originating faction's law, regardless of whether that law applies to the buyer's jurisdiction.
Provenance is everything. A cultural relic with clean documented provenance, clear legal export authorization, and certified authentication is straightforward commercial goods. The same item with a gap in provenance documentation, acquired through a private sale with no records, is a potential problem at every checkpoint it crosses and a significant liability if it turns out to be something someone is actively looking for.
Faction claims complicate provenance. Jaziri theological artifacts that have left Caliphate space without Caliphate authorization are, to the Caliphate, theft of divine property. The Caliphate's pursuit of those items does not acknowledge the legal authority of other jurisdictions over their property, which creates a situation where the carrier may have legal possession by one jurisdiction's law and be hunted by Caliphate agents who operate under a different legal framework entirely.
The crew that picks up an item they cannot identify, sells it to the first buyer who shows interest, and spends the credits has made a decision that may feel complete. It sometimes is. And sometimes, several sessions later, someone shows up wanting to know where that item went and who sold it and what they know about where it came from.
Salvage Rules
Salvage is the economic backbone of the Verge's independent operator community. Derelicts, abandoned installations, wrecked ships, and disaster sites all contain recoverable value if someone gets there with the right equipment and the willingness to work in uncomfortable environments. The legal, practical, and financial dimensions of salvage are addressed below.
Finding Salvage
Salvage does not find itself. A crew looking for salvage uses one or more of the following approaches:
Known sites: Old battle sites, documented disaster zones, and derelict routes that appear in old astrogation records. Finding these requires a Lore or Astrogation check (difficulty varies from Easy for well-documented sites to Very Hard for records that are decades old and barely legible). Known sites have often been hit before; what is left depends on how good the previous salvagers were.
Sensor sweeps: Actively scanning a region for anomalies, unpowered objects, or hull material signatures. Electronics or Astrogation check; difficulty depends on how densely scanned the region is (Easy in known derelict belts, Hard in open interstellar space). Sensor sweeps in active transit lanes will attract attention from traffic management.
Information purchase: Buying coordinates for a specific site from an information broker or another crew who found something they could not work themselves. Price varies enormously based on the site's apparent value and the seller's negotiating position.
Accident response: Arriving at or near a recent incident before formal salvage claims have been filed. This is sometimes legal (if the vessel is truly abandoned) and sometimes a gray area (if the crew is incapacitated but the ship is not technically abandoned). The legal definition of "abandoned" varies by jurisdiction.
Assessing Salvage Value
When a crew reaches a potential salvage site, they need to determine what is there and what it is worth before committing to the recovery operation. This requires:
External survey: Sensor sweep of the site to identify hull type, damage level, and any active systems (power signatures, life signs). Electronics check; difficulty based on wreck age and sensor interference from debris.
Internal survey: EVA or boarding to physically assess the interior. More dangerous than external survey; more informative. Craft or Technical check at Average to Hard difficulty depending on wreck condition, with success providing: estimated recovery value, major risks (radiation, unstable structure, active defense systems), and time estimate for recovery.
Assessment result tiers:
| Check Result | Information Gained |
|---|---|
| Failure | Basic external data only; interior assessment is a guess |
| Success | Rough value estimate (within 25%); major hazards identified |
| Two Successes | Accurate value estimate; all significant hazards identified; recovery time estimate |
| Three+ Successes | Full manifest recovery; specific high-value items identified; optimal recovery approach |
Recovering Salvage
Recovery requires EVA gear (minimum), cargo handling equipment (for significant volume), and time. The GM should use the following as guides:
Personal gear and small items: One EVA-capable crew member can recover approximately 5-10 Enc of goods per hour, limited by carrying capacity and airlock cycle time.
Container cargo: Requires cargo handling equipment (either ship-mounted grapples or portable cargo sleds from Chapter 09). A ship with functional grapples can recover sealed containers at approximately 2-4 per hour depending on debris field conditions.
Structural salvage (hull plates, drives, reactor components): Requires either heavy equipment or multiple crew members working in coordination. Time scales from hours (for loose major components) to days (for integrated systems requiring cutting free).
Working in a debris field imposes Bane Dice on physical checks depending on density and instability. Active structural hazards (unstable sections, leaking fuel, armed systems) create specific risks that the GM should surface before the crew commits to their approach.
Legal Status of Salvage
The law around salvage is both complex and practically important.
Abandoned vessels: A vessel with no registered owner, no crew, no claims, and sufficient time elapsed under relevant jurisdiction's definition of abandonment is legally salvageable by whoever claims it first, subject to filing requirements. Filing a salvage claim (through the relevant port authority, 50cr + 5% of assessed value) protects the claim against later challengers.
Derelict with registered owner: A ship that is damaged and abandoned but still registered to a living owner is not salvageable without the owner's consent. Salvaging without consent is theft, legally. The owner may be impossible to locate; that does not change the legal status. The practical reality is that most salvagers in fringe space operate on the assumption that no one is checking, which is frequently true and occasionally catastrophically false.
Faction-claimed salvage: Wrecks in faction-controlled space that belong to faction military or government entities cannot be salvaged without faction authorization. Some factions (notably the Directorate and the Collective) actively enforce this. Others (the Antaean League in fringe territories) are more lax about older wrecks.
Contested salvage: Two or more parties attempting to claim the same site simultaneously creates a situation that law can theoretically resolve and practically cannot resolve before someone's cargo bay is full and their ship is in slipstream. Contested claims are the source of more freelance violence in the Verge than almost any other commercial dispute.
Artifacts and tech: Even a legally salvaged wreck may contain items that have restricted legal status independent of the salvage: faction military hardware, cultural artifacts, biological samples, or Shoiyan continuity stacks. Recovering these items from a legal salvage does not automatically legalize them for transport or sale.
Salvage Table
When the crew finds an unidentified derelict or the GM wants to randomize a site's contents, roll 1d12 on the following table. For complex sites, multiple rolls may be appropriate, representing different sections or multiple finds.
| 1d12 | Result | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stripped hulk | Scrap value only. Previous salvagers were thorough. Value: 1d6 × 50cr in scrap metal; 1 week labor to cut it free. May still contain personal effects (roll again on 5 result for one person's effects). |
| 2 | Intact cargo containers | 1d6 sealed containers still in the cargo hold. Roll once on the Trade Goods tables per container. Condition of contents varies: roll 1d6; on 1-2, contents are damaged (50% value); on 3-5, intact; on 6, exceptional condition (+10%). |
| 3 | Damaged but functional equipment | The wreck's personal equipment and tools survived in partial condition. Roll once on each relevant gear chapter from this book. Each item found has a 50% chance of being functional (full value), 30% chance of Inferior condition (half value, functions with 1 Bane Die), and 20% chance of non-functional (parts value only, 25%). |
| 4 | Faction military hardware | Restricted military gear in good condition: 1d3 items from the faction weapons table or armor table. Clearly faction-marked; carries legal exposure. Value at 100% to the right buyer; significant risk to transport. Roll 1d6 for faction: 1 Irnan, 2 Funtari, 3 Shoiyan, 4 Jaziri, 5 Antaean, 6 independent military. |
| 5 | Personal effects | The crew's personal belongings: clothing, personal data tablets, small amounts of personal credit (1d6 × 50cr cash or credit chip), and items of personal significance. Low material value (total 50-200cr) but may contain information, identity documents, or hooks for crew history. At GM discretion, a personal data tablet may contain relevant information or mission seeds. |
| 6 | Intact data core | A sealed data storage device in functioning condition. Value: 1d6 × 500cr to a data broker or information buyer. Alternatively, the GM may rule it contains: an unexplored sector survey (see navigation data prices), proprietary technical schematics, or specific information relevant to the current campaign. The core is sealed; accessing it requires an Electronics check at Average difficulty. |
| 7 | Surviving crew in stasis | 1d3 individuals are alive in emergency stasis pods. Reviving them requires a Medicine check (Average difficulty). Their condition, identity, and the story of how they came to be in stasis is the GM's to determine. They may be: grateful survivors willing to pay for rescue (1d6 × 200cr each, paid when able); individuals who someone does not want found; individuals who have information valuable to a faction; or a complication that the crew was not expecting in any of several specific ways. |
| 8 | Automated defense system (active) | The wreck's security systems are still running. Before any salvage can be recovered, the crew must deal with: 1d3 security drones (functioning, hostile), an automated turret system, or a locked-down facility that requires electronics work to unlock before it stops shooting. After the encounter, roll again on this table for actual contents. |
| 9 | Hazardous cargo | The cargo is valuable: 1d6 × 1,000cr worth of goods that the Trade Goods table would describe as either pharmaceutical compounds, radioactives, or exotic biological materials. The hazardous cargo is clearly labeled (inspectors will find it) and requires either a Hazardous Materials Permit to transport legally or sufficiently aggressive concealment. Additionally, 1 in 6 chance the cargo is actively dangerous: leaking, unstable, or biologically active in ways that require immediate handling decisions. |
| 10 | Prototype or experimental tech | One item of experimental or pre-production technology, clearly beyond standard commercial specification. The GM determines what it is based on campaign context; it may be: a faction research project, a commercial prototype that disappeared before production, or technology that answers a question the players have been asking. Value: 5,000-50,000cr to the right buyer, who will not be the first buyer. Multiple parties will want it. Some of them will be aggressive about it. |
| 11 | Cultural artifact | An item of cultural, historical, or religious significance to a specific species or faction. Value: 500-20,000cr to an appropriate buyer. Ownership is contested: the originating faction considers this their property regardless of how the crew acquired it, and they may be actively searching. The artifact may be: a Jaziri religious object that the Caliphate is seeking, an Antaean cultural piece the League has been trying to recover for a decade, a Shoiyan historical record with implications for current political disputes, or an item whose significance the crew does not immediately understand. |
| 12 | Shoiyan continuity stack backup | A Shoiyan-made continuity stack backup unit, portable, still powered by an internal cell with years of runtime remaining. Contains at minimum one full consciousness backup. To the Shoiyan Collective, this is a person: a legal citizen with rights, whose backup the Collective is obligated to restore. Value to the Collective: the Collective does not put a price on a citizen's life, but is prepared to be extremely grateful and compensate appropriately for the return of their citizen (negotiable; 10,000-50,000cr in credits or equivalent favors). Value on the black market: similar, to the right research buyer who is not asking what they are buying. The person inside the stack has opinions. Restoring them means those opinions become relevant. |
Found Treasure and Rewards
Not everything valuable comes from trade cargo or salvage. Crews encounter value in many forms, and not all of it fits the standard commercial model.
Credits Found in Cash
Ship safes, abandoned installations, dead crew members' personal storage, and the accounts of people who left money somewhere they can no longer access it: these sources of direct credit are common in the Verge.
| Source | Typical Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal credits (crew member's personal wallet) | 50-500cr | What working spacers carry personally |
| Ship safe (working commercial vessel) | 500-5,000cr | Operational cash for port fees, bribes, local purchasing |
| Ship safe (wealthy operator or merchant) | 2,000-20,000cr | Higher operational overhead; more cash on hand |
| Station office safe | 1,000-10,000cr | Varies by station size and function |
| Corporate account credentials | 5,000-100,000cr | Access, not possession; requires electronics work and significant risk to access |
| Black market transaction proceeds | 2,000-50,000cr | Found on someone who was doing something they should not have been |
Cash found in a ship safe or on a person is legally... complicated. Most jurisdictions have asset forfeiture laws that claim a percentage of cash found in criminal contexts. In jurisdictions without strong enforcement, found cash is found cash. In Directorate space, an unexplained large cash find that the crew cannot document the provenance of is potentially subject to forfeiture.
Information as Currency
A data core found in salvage, a tip received for a job, or a briefing from someone who needs the crew to know something: these forms of compensation are non-fungible but potentially very valuable.
The value of information depends entirely on three things: what it contains, who wants it, and whether it is still current. A navigation chart of an unexplored sector that was unmapped last year is worth money. The same chart from forty years ago, for a sector that has since been charted by six commercial expeditions, is worth nothing. A corporate spy's report on a competitor's research program is extremely valuable to that competitor today and worthless after the information has already been acted on.
When the crew receives information as a reward or discovers information as loot, the GM should determine:
- What specifically does it contain?
- Who would pay for it?
- Is it still timely?
- Are there parties who would prefer it did not reach the buyer?
The last question is often the most interesting one. Information that is worth 20,000cr to a buyer is information that is worth preventing from reaching that buyer to someone else, and that asymmetry creates story.
Favors and Faction Debt
Sometimes payment comes as a favor owed. This is most common when the crew has done something for a faction, individual, or organization that the normal commercial system does not have a price for.
A faction that owes the crew a favor represents a specific relationship with specific limits: the faction is not the crew's employee, and they will not do anything that conflicts with their own interests regardless of what they owe. But within those limits, a faction debt is worth more than its credit equivalent in some situations.
Faction debt can be called in for:
- Expedited licensing or documentation
- Access to restricted information or space
- One incident made to officially not have happened
- Commercial introductions and recommendations
- Emergency support in the faction's operational territory
- A single question answered honestly about something the faction knows
Individual debt is more personal and less institutional. An individual who owes the crew remembers, and what they can provide depends on who they are. A Directorate inspector who owes the crew a significant favor can make specific things disappear; a Funtari trade minister who owes the crew can open commercial doors; a Shoiyan technical specialist who owes the crew can provide information or services that money alone cannot buy.
Faction and individual debt expires when it is called in. It can also be spent in ways the creditor did not intend, which creates interesting situations when the crew calls in a debt in a context that was not what the debtor expected to pay.
Rare Items as Payment
When the only available payment is in kind, the transaction becomes a negotiation about what the item is actually worth versus what the payer claims it is worth and what the receiver thinks they can do with it.
Items received as payment should be evaluated on:
- What they are actually worth commercially (see relevant chapters)
- How easy they are to move (Common vs. Rare vs. Restricted)
- Whether they create legal exposure for the crew
- What the payer thinks they are worth (may be inflated)
A crew that accepts Restricted military hardware as payment for a job has received compensation that is either very valuable (if they have a buyer) or a significant liability (if they do not). A crew that accepts a cultural artifact as payment may have received something spectacular or something that someone is actively looking for.
The pattern to watch for: payment in kind is often made in things that the payer cannot easily convert to credits themselves, which may be because the items are inconvenient or may be because the items have problems the payer is omitting from the pitch. The crew that asks "why are you paying in this instead of credits?" is the crew that avoids the second category.