i'm looking for some advice on credit values. my group has a trader who is always looking for cargo to haul wherever we are going, and we're not sure how many credits we should be making. while the corebook lists values for gear and such, it doesn't say much on transporting foodstuffs, raw materials, manufactured goods, etc. we've got a crew of 5, and we're trying to balance being cheap (because it can be frustrating if 100cr a shipment gets divided to 20cr a person, once or twice a session), and making things really easy to buy. any suggestions?

Pick up a copy of the Galactic Campaign Guide and maybe the Hero Guide form Wotc their old Star wars (before saga edition). Its the best book in the universe to help with running a campaign. They have all kinds of tables for that stuff.

That being said, figure out how much the run would cost the ship assuming nothing bad ever happens, then factor in profit margins of say 50 credits a per player. After all you can get rich being a normal transporter but that doesnt mean you are going to.

Well there's a lot of different ways to do this. The most obvious and painful is to develop prices and rarity values for commodities and goods, determine taxes tarrifs and ship docking and restocking fees based on the starport in question, and then use the trade rules out of the book, occasionally adjusting rarity to reflect market trends. Sources like the old WEG Galaxy guide 6: Tramp Freighters, Pirates and Privateers, and Platt's Starport and Platt's Smuggling guides can help you develop these out.

A cleaner, but less static solution is on the other end of the spectrum, and leverages EotE mechanics better: Use obligation to represent a business account separate from the players individual private accounts. When the players pick up a load they spend little to no credits and instead get x amount of obligation. Upon delivery they receive that obligation back, plus a payout that represents everyone's share after taxes, tarrifs, and other operating expenses. This system works especially well when dealing with not so legal cargos as a missed drop means they need to find another way to get that obligation resolved.

Ghost, i like your second option as far as general gameplay. we don't really care what in particular is being transported most of the time, unless it relates to a larger plot arc or is illegal. but my question is more of the relative profit on runs. running 20 credits per person seems too small to make trading worth their while, but on the other hand a few hundred seems like they'd get rich too quick, unless they run into battles and need the ship patched up.

so my question is mostly the relative payment of credits. and this applies not just to shipment jobs, but really to any campaign rewards (smuggling job, piracy, bounties, etc.). the corebook suggests 20 xp or so for adventures, with some adjustments here and there, so we have some scale, but it lacks that for credits.

so, what kind of scale would you guys recommend for earning credits?

If you have Shadows of/under Black Sun, the Sabacc rules can be used for trading, substituting Negotiation (or Streetwise for illegal cargoes) for Cool/Deception. The amount the players risk (their "bet") is the basis for how much they stand to make from a deal (it takes money to make money, and Obligation may be needed to get the scratch to get started). The Force Die rolled represents numerous random elements that can complicate things.

If you have Shadows of/under Black Sun, the Sabacc rules can be used for trading, substituting Negotiation (or Streetwise for illegal cargoes) for Cool/Deception. The amount the players risk (their "bet") is the basis for how much they stand to make from a deal (it takes money to make money, and Obligation may be needed to get the scratch to get started). The Force Die rolled represents numerous random elements that can complicate things.

so the idea would be a percentage based on how much cash they can front (or get credit via obligation), right? i like that as an idea for the mechanic, but i'm wondering how well that fits with cargo space on their freighter.

i'm guessing there's a good thread on translating ship encumbrance to cargo, but i haven't found one. any suggestions?

The Encumbrance doesn't matter unless you want it to. A high-value,low-bulk cargo can gain the same profit as filling a larger hold. You could detail out a maximum based on the EC, but a better way is to adjust the difficulty of the test based on the value of the items sold. This makes bulk carrying less risky but lower overall gains on a good roll.

I don't know the sabbac rules, but use the dice, they're perfect for this. Let the characters do some research and use their skills. If they get successes, give them boost dice. Advantage, upgrade some dice. Then after arriving they roll their dice pool. Successes net them money, advantage maybe more so plus orders or another job, triumph and holy crap they arrived with the exact right thing and make a killing. Just fail and they break even. Threat means they loose money. Despair and oops, that cargo you brought was illegal here.

Then it's up to the characters how much they want to risk. 500, 1k, 10k? Some good rolls and they make money, bad ones and, well, I hope they didn't borrow the money to do this run.

Something I'm considering doing is giving the pc's a contact(s) and giving the contact obligation to the players! Whether for saving them or getting a good deal, and players can cash this npc's obligation if they want something down the road. Why can't obligation work both ways?