Loan Sharks
Purchasing and outfitting a freighter costs a great deal of money. The business is speculative: operating a ship so it sees a profit takes hard work, dedication and more than a little luck. The operator more often than not hasn't got much capital against which to secure a loan, and what capital he does have -- his ship -- is highly mobile, able to be whisked away to the other side of the galaxy and given forged registration papers and renamed in a matter of weeks. And even if the trader is honest, the chances of him staying in business are depressingly low: over 60 percent of one-ship operations fail within their first year.
For these reasons, most legitimate financial institutions will not loan tramp freighter captains money, at any price. The risks are too high; the returns are too low.
This is where loan sharks come in. They will loan money to almost anyone, offsetting the risk by charging a grossly high interest rate. And, unlike most banks, loan sharks have no qualms about using force to remind the customers when payment is due, and they will not hesitate to hunt down and terminate anyone who dares to skip out on his debt. This naturally tends to cut down on the number of defaulters.
Rates
Loan sharks charge high -- excessively high -- interest rates for the money they loan. The typical rate is 300 percent spread over 30 months, at 10 percent per month.
For example, if a character borrows 20,000 credits from a loan shark, he pays the loan shark 2,000 credits (10%) each month, for 30 months. At the end of that time he has paid the loan shark 60,000 credits, and he's even.
Typically, there is no rate reduction for early repayment: once someone borrows from a loan shark, he owes him 300 percent of what he borrowed -- whether he pays the money back in thirty months or three days.
Late Payments
This is a very, very bad thing to do. The loan shark is likely to be very, very angry with a person who misses a payment, and if he does it too many times, he's likely to end up dead.
The First Missed Payment
If a character misses a month, he must pay it next month. In addition, he is charged a penalty of a month's payment.
For example, assume a character misses a 2,000 credit payment. Next month, the character owes three payments or 6,000 credits -- the payment he missed, the penalty, and the payment due that month.
The Second Missed Payment
A character who misses two months in a row is courting danger. He is very likely to get a visit from the loanshark's goons: they will suggest that the character pay up immediately, and, more than likely, will make some kind of violent demonstration to make sure that the character is paying attention. At this stage, that's likely to be of the broken-finger variety, the character taking a wound at the most (unless he resists, in which case you should run it as a normal combat).
The character who misses two months in a row is charged a penalty payment for each missed month. Therefore, to get up to date, in the third month the character would have to pay five payments in all -- two for each missed month plus the current payment due for the third month.
Three or More Missed Payments
Err, well, now it's probably time for the character to think about skipping the galaxy. Characters who miss three months in a row are "invited" to visit the loan shark and explain their delinquency. If the character's story isn't good enough, he's beaten up. He may even be killed.
The character must explain why he's late, and how he's going to make up the payments. The character must also make a con or bargain roll (his choice). If he passes a Very Difficult roll, he's let off with a warning. If he passes only a Difficult roll, he is beaten, taking the equivalent of a wound in damage. If he passes only a Moderate roll, he is beaten to incapacitation and then dumped with is friends. If he doesn't make an Easy roll, he is killed, and his body disposed of.
The penalty for three months' delinquency (in addition to the beating), is two penalty payments for the third and subsequent months missed. If, at the time he's brought before the loan shark, the character can come up to date with his payments, you should give him +5 to his con or bargain roll to avoid the beatings.
Note of course that these sessions should be roleplayed out, with the character being dragged into the loanshark's office, held by thugs, questioned closely by the loan shark, and then, depending on his interaction roll and the quality of the player's roleplaying, beaten to a greater or lesser degree, as described above. If the character chooses to resist, run the combat. If he escapes, well and good -- except that he'll now have a hefty price on his head until he or the shark is dead.
Goods and Services
The loan shark is a good tool for getting your characters to do things that they normally wouldn't. If they get heavily into debt, they're quite likely to accept more dangerous jobs in an attempt to keep up with their payments. They can get themselves into all kinds of trouble with the black market, Imperial Customs, local planetary officials, and everybody else, as they scrabble around desperately for cash as the end of the month approaches. During these times, you can dangle especially risky but lucrative jobs in front of their noses and watch them try to wriggle out.
Also, the loan shark can offer them employment directly, perhaps cutting off a few month's payment in return for a "real simple" run. The traders are better off not inquiring into the nature of these runs too closely ... and Deity protect them if they have to, say, jettison the loanshark's cargo because they are approaches by an Imperial Customs Frigate.
Think of the loanshark as a real nasty adventure hook. The deeper the characters have chosen to fall into his clutches, the more trouble they should have getting out.