Offworld Trading Company / OFFTC

What We Are

Offworld Trading Company is a merchant house. We make markets, and we own every link in the chain that stands behind the prices we quote.

The Exchange buys, sells, brokers and runs our trading floors. Extraction holds the claims. Logistics moves the goods. Escort protects the chain. The last three exist so the first can quote a number it can actually honor.

We are not a navy. We are not a crusade. We are a business that has been run by the same three chairs since 2412, and we intend to be running when everyone reading this is gone.

What We Believe

A price is a promise. Anyone can shout a number. A price means someone will stand behind it tomorrow, at volume, when it has become expensive to do so. That is the entire product. Everything else we own is infrastructure for making that promise credible.

Own the chain or you are guessing. A broker who does not control supply is at the mercy of whoever does. We learned that at Armitage in 2681 and it cost us a quarter’s earnings. We dig it, move it, guard it and quote it, and the quote is worth something precisely because the other three are ours.

The ledger is the asset. Not the ships. Not the claims. Five hundred and forty-four years of continuous prices, unbroken through two wars and a regime — nobody can buy that, copy it, or start one now. We have been offered a great deal of money for it. The answer has been the same every time.

A market is a public good before it is a private one. We profit from trade, openly and without apology. But a market where only insiders can see the price is not a market, it is a hunting ground. We publish. We publish even when it costs us, as it did in Vega for six years.

We do not take from people who have less than we do. We are not ashamed of earning. We have never once earned by cornering a supply someone needed, squeezing a stranded hauler, or pricing a disaster. There is money in all three and it is not ours to take.

Independence is worth what it costs. We have turned down buyouts, mergers and comfortable arrangements with people who would have made us rich and owned us. They wanted the price book. It is not for sale.

The frontier does not owe us anything. We quote markets no one else will touch and fly routes no insurer will cover. When that goes badly it is our decision and our loss, and we do not blame the black for being what it is.

The Code

These are not aspirations. They are conditions of trading under this charter.

1. No price is quoted that we cannot fill. If we can’t deliver it, we don’t quote it. A withdrawn quote is embarrassing. A broken one ends careers.
2. No manifest is ever falsified. Not for a client, not for a customs officer, not for convenience. We opened our own books in 2792 when we did not have to, and we have not lied on paper since.
3. A contract accepted is a contract delivered. If we cannot do it, we say so before we take it, not after.
4. We do not manipulate what we quote. No spoofed volume, no invented scarcity, no talking a market we are positioned in. Our feed says what we actually see.
5. We do not fire first. Not on haulers, miners, or anyone going about their work. We are armed because the verse requires it, not because we enjoy it.
6. We do not take from the defenseless. No piracy. No shakedowns. No opportunistic salvage off someone else’s disaster. No disaster pricing.
7. Nobody is left in the black. Crew, contractor, counterparty, stranger on an open channel — if we can reach them, we do. This one is not negotiable and never has been.
8. You answer for your own hull and your own book. Every member trades and flies under the company name. What you do in it, the company wears.

On the Market

We run three things, and they are open to anyone.

The floor. A standing market where you can sell what you’ve pulled out of a rock and buy what you need, at a posted price, without hunting for a counterparty or hoping a stranger honors a handshake. We take the other side ourselves. That is what a market maker is for.

The book. Brokerage. Bring us what you have or what you need and we will find the other half of it. We guarantee both sides. If your counterparty fails, that is our problem, not yours.

The feed. What things are actually worth, where, right now. Published. Not sold to the highest bidder, not reserved for members, not quietly shaded in our own favor.

We are open for hire and open for trade. Empire contractor or one pilot with one shipment — the spread is the same, and we do not require that you like us, share our politics, or belong to anything.

What we will not touch: cargo taken by force, anything whose delivery we would have to lie about, and people against their will. Ask anyway if you’re unsure. The answer will be quick and honest.

On Raiders

We do not go looking for a fight. We are not an anti-piracy outfit and we have no interest in patrolling space that isn’t ours.

But understand the arrangement clearly.

Hit an OTC convoy and you have not taken from a hauler. You have opened an account with a house that has been settling accounts for five centuries and has never once written one off.

We will find out who. We will find out where they sell. Then we will do the thing we are actually good at: we will make that market unprofitable. Every buyer they rely on will find a better price from us. Every fence will discover that moving their goods costs more than the goods are worth. We are patient, we are funded, and we do not forget.

Come to us first, before we come to you, and it can end with a payment and a signature. That door closes the moment one of our crews doesn’t come home.

What We Ask of Ourselves

Quote honestly. Log the run honestly, including the parts that went badly — a mistake in the record is worth more to the next crew than a clean sheet that lies. Call your position. Check the frequencies.

Help the new pilot who does not know the lane yet, and the new trader who does not know what anything is worth. Somebody did that for every one of us.

Never trade on what the company knows and the counterparty doesn’t. The feed goes out before the position goes on. Always.

And when the route is bad and the escort is thin and no one would blame you for turning around: remember that this company exists because in 2945 nineteen crews flew into Vega instead of out of it, and because the floor stayed open while the sky was burning.

The Standing Policy

Contracts are honored. Cargo is delivered. No manifest is ever falsified. No price is ever quoted that we cannot fill.

Adopted 2792. Amended once, in 2952, to add the fourth clause.

Rock to receipt. Nothing lost in between.

These are the rules of Offworld Trading Company. They are public because we would rather you read them before you apply than learn them afterward. Signing on means agreeing to all of them.

I. Membership

1. Affiliate membership is welcome. You do not have to make OTC your main org. Fly with whoever you like. We only ask that you do not bring another org’s conflict onto our manifest without telling us first.
2. You represent the company while flying or trading under it. Set to OTC, on company comms, on a company contract, or quoting from our floor — what you do, the company wears.
3. One account, one member. Alt accounts are fine; register them so we know who we are dealing with.
4. Leaving is free. No exit fee, no drama, no blacklist. Settle anything outstanding, hand off anything you were holding, and the door stays open if you come back.

II. Conduct Toward Each Other

1. Nobody is left in the black. If a member calls for pickup, recovery, or a tow and you can reach them, you go. This rule outranks every other item on this list.
2. No harassment of any kind. Racism, sexism, homophobia, targeted abuse — removed on the first offense, without discussion.
3. Disagreements go to a private channel. Argue with anyone here, including the chairs. Do it out of general chat.
4. Teach the new pilot and the new trader. Everyone here was taught by someone. Pay it forward or stay quiet.
5. No friendly fire abuse. Accidents happen — own it, replace what you destroyed. Deliberate griefing of a member ends membership immediately.

III. Trading

The Exchange is the largest thing this company does, and it runs on exactly one thing: whether people believe our number. These rules exist to protect that and nothing else.

1. A quoted price is a commitment. If you post a buy or sell on the company floor, you fill it. Not “if the market moves,” not “if something better comes along.” You fill it, or you eat the difference personally.
2. Quote only what you can deliver. Do not post volume you do not have, cannot reach, or cannot move within the window you stated.
3. No market manipulation. No fake volume, no invented scarcity, no talking down a commodity you are about to buy, no coordinating with another member to move a price. This is the one rule most likely to end a membership quietly and permanently.
4. The feed goes out before the position goes on. If you learn something through the company — a claim yield, a route closure, a price shift — it is published to the feed before you trade on it. Every time. No exceptions for “I only made a little.”
5. Deal with non-members exactly as you would with members. Same spread, same honesty, same follow-through. Empire contractor or one pilot with one shipment, the number is the number.
6. No dealing in stolen cargo. We do not buy it, broker it, fence it, or ask fewer questions because the margin is good.
7. No disaster pricing. When something goes badly wrong somewhere and people need what we have, the price does not move. Ever. This is not negotiable and it is not a business decision.

IV. Your Own Book

1. You are free to trade independently. Run your own routes, your own speculation, your own deals. We take no cut and never will.
2. Do not trade against the company floor. You may not take a position specifically designed to profit from an OTC quote, undercut a company contract you had advance sight of, or use our feed against a counterparty we are also serving.
3. Company data is company data. Our price history, claim surveys and route intel are shared internally to make you better at the work. Selling them, leaking them, or handing them to another org ends membership on the spot.
4. Declare a conflict before it becomes one. If you hold a position in something the company is about to move on, say so. Nobody has ever been punished here for declaring. People have been removed for not declaring.

V. Conduct in the Verse

1. We do not fire first. Not on haulers, miners, salvagers, or anyone going about their work.
2. No piracy, ever. No shakedowns, no tolls, no “protection” offers, no opportunistic salvage off someone else’s wreck while they are still trying to recover it.
3. No manifest is ever falsified. Not for a client, not for convenience, not to make a run look cleaner than it was.
4. Retaliation is authorized, revenge is not. If OTC is attacked, the chairs will call the response — and it will usually be commercial before it is armed. Do not open a private war in the company’s name.
5. Aid calls are answered where practical. Members of other orgs, unaffiliated pilots, strangers on an open channel. We are not obligated, and we do it anyway.
6. Your bounties are your own. Crimestat earned outside company operations is yours to clear. Do not bring a hot hull onto a company convoy or a company floor.

VI. Operations

1. Voice comms are required for group operations. Mining ops, convoys, escort contracts, anything flown as a unit — you are on voice. Listening only is acceptable if you cannot speak; silent is not.
2. Text is fine for everything else. Solo play, trading, casual flying, general chat. No one will chase you for being quiet.
3. Call your position, call your loadout, call your fuel. Most losses are avoidable and most avoidable losses are information failures.
4. The flight lead calls the run. Disagree afterward, in the debrief, where it can actually change something.
5. Log the run honestly. Including the parts that went badly. A truthful record of a failure is worth more than a clean sheet that lies.
6. Do not fly company cargo you cannot afford to lose. The verse takes ships. Fly accordingly.

VII. Payment and Settlement

1. Company contracts pay as agreed. Terms are stated up front. If they change mid-contract, they change in your favor or not at all.
2. Brokered deals are guaranteed by the company, not by you. If a counterparty we matched you with fails to deliver, that is the company’s loss to absorb. Report it and move on.
3. Split before you fly, not after. Agree the division of proceeds at the briefing. Arguments over loot are almost always arguments about an unmade decision.
4. Company assets stay with the company. Ships, equipment or funds advanced for an operation come back after it. Losses on company business are company losses, not yours.
5. What you earn on your own time is yours. Entirely. No cut, no tithe, no dues.

VIII. Activity

1. There is no activity quota. This is a game and you have a life. Go dark for a month and come back — your place is still here.
2. Tell us if you are holding something. An open position, a claim, a contract, an asset, a role someone depends on. Hand it off before you go quiet.

IX. Enforcement

1. Most things are a conversation first. Mistakes, bad calls and learning curves are not offenses.
2. These are not. Harassment, piracy under the company name, falsifying a manifest, manipulating a market, and breaking a quoted price. First instance, membership ends.
3. Appeals go to the chairs. Any member may take any decision, including a removal, directly to Kamko Amoh, Itsuki Kaze or Panda. You will get an answer and a reason.
4. This charter can be amended. Any member may propose a change. The chairs decide. Changes are announced publicly, not quietly edited in.

Contracts are honored. Cargo is delivered. No manifest is ever falsified. No price is ever quoted that we cannot fill.

Rock to receipt. Nothing lost in between.