When you need a selection of random cargo for a game, is this more useful, as I think it is, then a list of specific items?

Material Goods Ideas:
Raw                 Rare              Art
Refined            Unique            Currency
Corrosive         Viscous           Records
Poisonous       Abrasive           Documents
Contagious     Perfume            Archeological
Flammable      Pharmaceutical   Ancient
Odorous         Novelty             Recordings
Perishable      Explosive            Books
Heavy           Liquid                Firearms
Voluminous     Fragile              Textiles
Dense           Desiccated         Machinery
Waste           Insidious           Tools
Scrap            Alcoholic           Ammunition
Obsolete        Cryogenic          Electronics


Using one or two of these to describe a cargo seems to generate more ideas than a fixed list does.  IMHO
In your opinion is a fixed list of items a better method to use?
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I like this list.  it's general and yet encouraging.  "Machinery" can mean so many, many things -- so can "Art", "Novelty", "Textiles"...but I really like "Obsolete"...it's obsolete on this planet maybe, but somewhere else, it's magic...

EDIT:

PC: "Okay, let's see what our old buddy Cromwell has at his warehouse."

REF: "You stop by his office, one blustery local-autumn day, and he's looking a little glum.  'You should've seen how these things sold three months ago,' he says, as he walks you towards a stack of crates.  'The kids were all over them.  But now that it's fall...' He presses a strip on the top of a  half-ton case and the lid swings open to reveal a veritable mountain of burgundy-colored textiles.  He holds one up -- it's a shirt.  He grips a portion of it in his hand, squeezes for a few seconds...then lets go, revealing that the cloth he'd gripped has turned to bright purple.  He swings it back and forth, then flings it back into the case.  He shrugs.  'Kids.  So fickle.'"

PC: "What's the name of that world that just joined the Imperium...Riolto?  Like, three parsecs from here?  Early electricity, lots of sun?"

REF: "Yup."

PC: "...'Cromwell...I'm'a make you a freaking millionaire'."

Then, of course, they take the shirts to Riolto, where the demand soon outstrips the supply and a highly-conservative segment of the population notes that bright purple is a color associated with local nobility, and the notion of shirts that change to that color by the virtue of mere body heat (associated with manual labor and peasants) try to ban the things, and Riolto's historians therafter chronicle the bloody, divisive Hypercolor Riots.

I like it too. The idea of a "Chinese Menu" approach to describing cargo (or most anything) appeals to my Old School Trav instincts. Make it a table you can roll on and you've got a winner.

Looks good. A few sub tables for a few items; ore type, grade of machinery(finished product, heavy and light manufacturing), ect.

Should also add vehicles, foodstuffs, agricultural items, luxury items and even xeno tech.

Quote from: Nazgul...and even xeno tech.

PC: "Okay, what's this stuff that Cromwell threw in with the data-tapes?"

REF: "They look like computer terminals made of Jell-O."

PC: "What good are they?"

REF: "I'unno.  You wanna start poking buttons?"

PC #2: "Hey -- I've got Int B, thanks to the Navy...and Electronics-2.  I'll take a stab at it...here, I rolled a 10!"

REF: "MWA HA HA HA HA HA!"

PC #2: "Bwhuuuuu...?!"

REF: "Oh, nothin'."

Turns out it's a computer made of Jell-O.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Turns out it's a computer made of Jell-O.

I smell 2300AD........

Once again, Dr. Rotwang shows why he's my hero.

Quote from: NazgulI smell 2300AD........

Oh, that's 'cause I got a Judge Dredd Glade Plug-In.

Taking one from each column is brilliant.

Who could resist transporting Voluminous Novelty Tools?

- Q

Quote from: QuireTaking one from each column is brilliant.

Who could resist transporting Voluminous Novelty Tools?

- Q

No one doubts the potential profits of shipping oversized foam rubber screwdrivers, Quire.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Oh, that's 'cause I got a Judge Dredd Glade Plug-In.

"Can you smell what the Judge is cookin'?"

That is pretty cool. For science fiction games I always liked cribbing from the Independence War 2 cargo lists. One of these days I need to pull all of them out of the resource files for the game...

Quote from: QuireTaking one from each column is brilliant.
- Q

I had not intended them to be taken in sequence but I suppose the fact that you can get something helpful out of doing that is a bonus.
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