It was a worthless load of junk and everyone knew it. Twenty sealed cargo containers, packed to the seams with … smaller cargo containers. You easily convinced the cargo master to pay you to haul them off, just to clear up the space. You moved them right into the hangar of a small export company, who gladly paid you top money for them. You smiled, thanked them, and took the cash. You moved on, looking for your next deal.
People always have something to sell, and someone else is always looking to buy it. The trick is to be able to move the goods without anyone knowing what a huge profit you make by doing it. And you have always been very good at that. The profits from the cargo containers were handed over to a bemused tradesman for a load of foil blankets that had been gathering dust for a year. The next day they were being shipped out to a newly founded arctic colony world and you pocketed your profit.
Each day was a new deal, a new adventure. One trade led to another, each one bringing in a bigger payday for you. A warehouse full of discarded solar panels found its way to a desert world. Crates of old lamp shades were shipped to a giant space mall to be gobbled up in the sudden antique craze. Other traders tried to follow your example, but you stayed one step ahead; people thought it was skill, but you knew the truth. It wasn’t skill; it was art. The art of the deal. You always came out ahead and made more money than anyone else would have thought possible.
You amazed your friends when you managed to trade eleven crates of plastic figurines (still in the original packaging, of course) for a shiny new starship. You thought that this could very well be the best trade you had ever made. The next day you heard about the competition. The old Star Tsar was out — no one seemed to really know why, but he was definitely not in charge anymore — and the Emperor was going to hold a trading contest to determine the new one. You smiled to yourself and looked over at your new ship.
Could someone trade a starship for control of the entire galactic trade network? It would be incredible, it would be amazing, it would be the biggest deal of the century. There’s no star trader out there who could pull that off. Well, no trader except you.
You are the Negotiator. It’s time to inform the galaxy what the real deal is.
Game Specifics:
- +$1 to +$4 for delivery Payoffs
- +$1 for Station Fees
You’re the sharpest of all when it comes to making a deal!
When you deliver a cargo, you get bonus $tarBucks equal to the normal Prestige for that Contract.
(For example, if the Prestige on the card is 3, you get +3 $tarBucks.)
When you collect a Station Fee, you get a bonus 1 $tarBuck. If you deliver a cargo to a world with your station, you get both bonus payments.
Negotiator