TEXAN STARLIFT INCORPORATED
EST. 826 A.S.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is an OORP info and feedback thread on my little enterprise. Feel free to comment or ask questions. As for a FAQ:
Q) What is Texan Starlift?
A) TXSL is a new shipping company in a very hostile market. That's really all there is to it, because everything else stems from this: How do you compete with established, corrupt megacorporations that have the direct backing of the government, a pulse on all interstellar trade and near monopolies of everything from food to near slave-labor? Well, you cut corners. And maybe throats. And to survive like this, the person in charge has to be a bit of a bastard. Lucky me, eh?
Q) Who's working for it?
A) In-RP, TXSL is run by a retired, ex-USI transport skipper, turned Freelancer, turned entrepreneur. He set up shop on his native Planet Houston, where there still exists regular ol' folks with their own livelihoods, despite Ageira's decimation of the system, the rise of the Bounty Hunters and the conversion of the starscape into a series of prisons by the LPI. His staff are primarily locals, which also includes ex-cons and would-be-cons who for their own reasons abandoned piracy and terrorism or realized they were no good behind a gun anyway. The company bills itself as a company by workers, for workers, which is a nice pitch when the megacorps are treating their employees like chattel. All of this comes together in a serious marketing advantage for anyone not in rich peoples' pockets.
Furthermore, by having ex-cons and the like onboard, TXSL has immediate access to less-than-lawful contacts and nav routes that the megacorps only could with piles of bribe money. When leveraged correctly, it can also be used to wheedle into quasi-lawful markets, which helps make up for the seriously monolithic competition faced in the houses. This is a fine balance that must be walked, of course; the advantage is lost if company transports are seen clearly supplying terrorists, or if one group hates the company for supporting another. But the idea is that some groups would be all too happy to have access to the supplies and logistics train of a proper, civilian company, even if it costs a little extra to maintain a facade of deniability. The chairman and CEO, Mr. Harriman, isn't exactly the southern gentleman he paints himself as, and so you have a Jekyll and Hyde situation. "With a gentleman, a gentleman and a half. And with scoundrels, a scoundrel and a half."
That is, except for Texas. Mr. Harriman is a Texan separatist at heart. Though nobody knows what exactly he's seen or done in the years before he was with USI, he never lost contact with his roots in rural Houston, and like many there he shares a burning resentment for what the authorities did to their system, their planet, and their futures. Mr. Harriman has no real stake in what happens in, say, the Omicrons, outside of pure business, but that changes when it reaches his front door. If it were up to him, he'd fund a militia (Texas Rangers?), kick the bounty hunters, the LPI and the Navy right out of the system, and make the system independent. If there were ever elections held for system governor, you can bet he'd run, and he'd win the Houston vote in a landslide. But ambitions have a nasty habit of being limited by facts, and so here he is, trying to make life better for "his boys," even if he has to skirt the law to do it.
OORP, the company is just me. That may change, but I doubt it, and here's why.
Q) So what's the gimmick?
A) The gimmick is I just got off of a Railroad Tycoon binge and wanted to refresh my Accounting skills from university. Unlike just about every other company roleplay on this server, I'm going out of my way to run it like a business, and show it, too. I keep track of all my manifests, my expenses and revenues, then report it in weekly financial statements. The numbers you see really exist, down each credit. Of course, they're a little fuzzy when it comes to the less than lawful work, but the numbers are intact. Further, I implemented a stock exchange: Anyone is free to invest in my company (in-RP), and their stock can and will appreciate in value as a result of my operations. In fact, I even issue dividends, which means you get paid every week.
Needless to say, this is a pretty tight ship. I can't expect others to find this part fun, and I'd need any "employees" to maintain proper accounting for this to work right. Plus, the numbers aren't even all that big. If you wanted to get rich, you'd be better off powertrading like everyone else. I'm limited by ID and server rules anyway.
Q) So you're a quasi-lawful shipper but pretending to be totally lawful. How is that fair? That's OP!
A) On top of being prevented from flying anything above 3.6k, our company ships are also exclusively 3k trains. Why? Because trains are for working men and women. They aren't fancy, they aren't death mobiles, and they aren't 5ks, but y'know what? They make sense. They're legitimate, vanilla civilian cargo ships. They're economical, they're robust and they aren't blatantly faction-related.
Also, bear in mind that because I'm actually roleplaying instead of silently trading, I can and will be pirated all the same, regardless of my stories. I can and will have enemies, regardless of my character's/company's roots. There's nothing OP about this in or out of meta. Most communications on the forum are considered confidential anyway, so double-dealing or playing both sides in a fight is nothing new. The megacorps have done that even with their in-game ID restrictions.
And I don't run from fights. Come and take it.
Q) Wait, did you say you give people money for free??
(10-18-2019, 04:01 AM)Corpus13 Wrote: This is very, very cool and interesting. Keep it up please!
I'll try. It's easy to get discouraged. Too easy. Need to focus on the ground floor, the small time, no SRPs, no bids for faction status, yada yada.
I do promise that if it all goes belly up, anybody who invested money in this will get something back out of it. I'm not callous enough to sink the whole ship and ruin it for everyone else.
@Kalhmera, I do hope we can get something out of it. By that I mean, I hope we can do things without totally busting my entire company in 60 seconds flat. If at any point the LPI comes down on it, the jig is totally up, and it'll never be a legitimate company anywhere ever again, because all other houses will be aware of it. I'll need to walk a fine line with you and your guys in-game, when the rational thing to do in-universe is to actually avoid you as often as possible. If you have any ideas to this end, please let me know. I've got a couple of cheeky things in mind, but it's all for naught if it escalates to "Complete LSF investigation, charges of treason," etc.
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