I was wondering, if Edge of Empire could be used as a system of playing campaigns similiar to Traveller, where you can buy cheap and sell with profit. But the rules in Core Rulebook provide only one guideline for determining prices, which is rarity depending on which Rim the planet is. It's very poor... It leads to situation, where all planets in one rim have identical prices. Are there some better rules for it in some supplements? If not, the only way would be to use tables from other games, like Stars Without Numbers with Suns of Gold supplement, or Traveller, I guess.

While Edge of Empire is brilliant game, it is sometimes lacking in economy and resource management rules. That's why I really like what they did in Far Horizons. However I don't know if it's a mistake. Buying a business costs 50,000 or so, and it generates only 100 credits monthly? It would be absurd.

I think somewhere in far horizons it mentions part of the price for objects can have to do with marketing/logistics/shop rent And such.

I think I would make it so the business actually does have to buy what's needed for X amount of product and then it has to sell it.

So instead of a lame flat income of 100 credits it would be varying amounts based on how well things were bought or sold.

Maybe it gets problems attracting customers, at the same time you don't want the players getting to rich so keep having the business wanting to invest, maybe NPCs take a large amount of the earnings if the business decides to broaden. Or pay money to set up events or promotions or network with similar businesses.

At some point have to decide who the business is supplying, maybe businesses, maybe a certain demographic or maybe the rebellion

Edge is very easy to run like Firefly - at least on the story/narrative end especially with Obligation etc. I agree that it really does not have reasonable profit/business rules.

I was wondering, if Edge of Empire could be used as a system of playing campaigns similiar to Traveller, where you can buy cheap and sell with profit. But the rules in Core Rulebook provide only one guideline for determining prices, which is rarity depending on which Rim the planet is. It's very poor... It leads to situation, where all planets in one rim have identical prices. Are there some better rules for it in some supplements? If not, the only way would be to use tables from other games, like Stars Without Numbers with Suns of Gold supplement, or Traveller, I guess. While Edge of Empire is brilliant game, it is sometimes lacking in economy and resource management rules. That's why I really like what they did in Far Horizons. However I don't know if it's a mistake. Buying a business costs 50,000 or so, and it generates only 100 credits monthly? It would be absurd.

Generally, no. The rules for selling and buying are simple so the margin for creativity is wide. They put emphasis on buying common goods and selling in a place which the goods are rare, which is the core of trading. I am sure you as GM could and should make the prices in accordance to your campaign. There are also plenty talents related to trade that make it interesting and fluid.

If you are looking for rules-heavy, EotE isn't your game... Its a narrative driven system, and the books relay more on examples of play and guidance, and less on hard rules. You should read again the start of the Gear & Equipment chapter, it tells you a lot about how to run trade.

Specifically, Far Horizon got it right in my opinion. Realistically, a business is almost never quick to return its starting fee, but it could in the scope of the campaign.

I am fairly certain part of playing a trader or smuggler is to try and buy cheap and sell for profits, there are even droids or devices for monitoring intergalactic exchanges for such.

Buying a business that generates an additional 100 credits a month of profit, you are essentially getting mechanically in game a business that gameplay mechanics wise isn't ever in the red, which is much more far fetched than a business that only maintains a small return in monthly profits after you pay for the costs of running said business, labor usually being the most expensive cost. If you want to present your players and their business an opportunity to earn more profits that what getting out and running an adventure is for.

Look at it this way that business you spent 50000 credits on is still worth 50000 credits you simply spent the credits to give yourself a little extra disposable income

Fly Casual has a table for determining payment for cargo jobs as a percentage based on rarity, page 73. Right next to it is a table for payout modifiers.

A note I'd keep in mind is that in addition to their not being much on how much you make trading, there's nothing on how much it costs to run a ship. If you put in one without the other, your characters get rich quickly and easily. (See video games like Escape Velocity for an example of this.)

According to a lot of the EU stories, under the Empire, the trade and tariffs were so bad that it was almost impossible for a small trader (ie, light or medium freighter) to even keep their ship flying with legal trade runs. This is why so many of those pilots turned to smuggling.

Remember to take individual variance into account when looking at Rarity. Goods in general might be rarer to find in the Outer Rim but if the PCs are at, for example, a mining colony, chances are that ore will be available at a very low Rarity, regardless of what the charts say.

A business or a homestead is not intended as a way to make money, it's an alternative to having a ship as a base for the PCs if you want a campaign that's more stationary. The PCs should earn their money from adventures, not working retail (or what have you), because the former makes for a fun and interesting game while the latter doesn't.

Just as a little tidbit - the background of our game is basically mercantile. We generally have weeks or even a couple of months of downtime between adventures, when our ship is flying around the outer rim picking up peoples shipments and dropping them off at another location. We figure that commodity trading anywhere but the most remote locations is all but pointless, because we'd never be able to compete with bulk freighters (who can make a 1/4 credit per ton profit and come out ok), but we can make ends meet as an independent courier service moving other people's cargo.

This is all background, though. It's how we explain paying our NPC crew's salaries, why the ship has fuel, how we've been eating etc. It also comes in out when we're counting space in our cargo holds (oh, right, we're 3/4 full with pallets head to planets x, y & z) or timing (we can spare two days, any more than that and we'll miss our delivery deadline and be out the 5,000 credit security).

You could ramp it up to a bit of a salary if you wanted to, but I'd only do that if you want to keep "making money" from behind the motivation behind adventuring. In that case, "not losing money" becomes the likely motivation. either way, interesting stories rarely come out from things going right.

Traveler was always more of a crunchy system versus what EotE was intended to be. While previous people have mentioned Fly Casual as a good starting place, you will probably find that it doesn't quite suit your needs.

My suggestion would be to use a quick and dirty roll whenever the players hit a new marketplace such as a planet, outpost, or colony.

For the base roll use the broad location of the marketplace. Please keep in mind I am away from my books so this is a rough idea from memory.

G - Core Worlds / Colonies

GG - Inner Rim / Expansion Region

GGG - Mid Rim

GGGG - Outer Rim

GGGGG - Wild Space / Unknown Regions

Upgrade the roll based on any exceptional reasons for exceptional demand, low amounts of industry and infrastructure. I would also upgrade the roll based on high levels of disposable income in the economy.

The difficulty should be based upon the quality of the market and economy itself. Maybe. That one may need a bit of work.

Upgrade the difficulty for exceptionally poor planets, ones without a currency, and other significant hazards.

Spend the advantages to determine higher base rarity mods for the marketplace, additional blue dice for certain segments of merchandise (weapons, food, armor, water, etc), or maybe even a few upgrades. You get the idea. Please keep in mind this is only the result of a few minutes of thought so it is by no means fully developed yet.

Edite - Be sure to save the results so they can be somewhat confident the next time they travel there. At least until you determine that there is sufficient reason for a shift in the economy.