Det jag kom att tänka på var att pengar och utrustning (resurser) i sig inte är konstanta värden. Vilket flera har varit inne på i tråden (märkte jag efter att ha läst innan jag postat). Själv skulle jag vilja att resusvärden hade två egenskaper, ett avtagande värde som baseras på omsättning/konsumtion/levnadsnivå (eller vad som passar) och ett stigande som baseras på inkomster/värdeökning/anseende/kontakter/avkastning( eller vad som nu passar). Nackdelen är i och för sig att det genererar en massa bokföring. Men det var vad jag skulle velat se.
Jag har tagit det ett steg längre: tre egenskaper!
* Inkomst. Den talar om vilken levnadsnivå man har råd att hålla.
* Tillgängliga pengar. Den talar om hur mycket pengar man kan använda bara sådär.
* Tillgångar. Fasta tillgångar med ett värde, tex hus, bil, rymdskepp osv som kan omsättas i pengar, men inte utan en del krångel.
Den fulla texten (numreringen är off och kapitäler blir versaler när man kopierar text):
1.1 Economics
There are three different kinds of wealth to consider when handling money in the game. Each type can be adjusted by the appropriate advantages and disadvantages.
At the game master’s discretion, it may be possible to convert between different kinds of wealth. You may buy resources for cash, take a loan that decreases your income but gives you more cash or resources, sell resources for cash, bribe your way to a better job and so on. This of course depends on the situation, the character, and the timeframe. When converting wealth like this, each step you lower one type of wealth advantage/disadvantage will increase another one step.
1.1.1 Cash
This is your usable economy, how much you have available to use at the moment. This is normally in cash or something that can easily be exchanged for cash. A typical person who only has a lot of cash on hand is a lottery winner.
1.1.2 Income
This is the amount of money you earn. It is the net amount, after all normal expenses has been paid. It may be saved over time to increase your cash on hand. A typical high-income only person is someone with a high salary but expensive habits.
1.1.3 Resources
Resources are the fixed assets you have, like houses, cars, stock, companies and so on. They can be converted to money, but it is a large process and will probably not be a profitable exchange. A resource only person may be someone who has inherited a large estate or company, but does not earn much money.
1.2 The two ways of managing money
Economics works differently in different times and places. The need to keep track of the economics also varies a lot with the style of the campaign. It is very important to keep track of money in a campaign focused on killing monsters to get their gold, but if you play a modern horror story, it can be handled in a sketchier, less precise way. Generica has two models for handling economics, called ‘The accountant way’ and ‘The spender’s way’. Depending on which you choose, things will be handled differently.
1.2.1 The accountant way
Handling money and economics the accountant way is done by the traditional method of keeping track of how much money you have and how much money you spend. This method works well when you play a campaign where the income is a result of game events and you need to keep track of what you spend. A very typical example of a campaign suitable for this method is stereotypical fantasy, where much of the campaign is focused on achieving and spending wealth and the characters have little or no other income.
The downsides of this method are that the expenses of daily life usually get lost in the handling or reduced to an occasional meal at an inn. Adventuring is a hard life and it is hard for the equipment and clothes as well. A fair amount of money should be spent on repairs and acquisition of new equipment. Keeping track of running costs is cumbersome and easy to forget. This method is also a bit awkward in societies where bartering is the main form of trade.
Using this method is easy; just keep a tally of your current funds on the character sheet.
1.2.1.1 Wealth
All types of wealth are measured in money, although resources are usually also described.
In this game, prices will be described in a constructed currency that has no real world equivalent. This currency, called ‘Coin’, or © for short is balanced against the game world so that a typical meal (hamburger, supper at an inn) will cost ©10. If you play in a world with a specific currency, for instance Victorian England, you will have to translate prices and wealth to the local currency, in this case pound sterling.
1.2.2 The spender’s way
In contrast with ‘The accountant way’, which focus on what you have, this method looks at it from the other end and focuses on what you can use your wealth to buy.
‘The spender’s way’ uses a mechanism similar to skill checks, with varying difficulty according to the price of the purchase. This works well in a campaign where money is not central, for example a noir detective campaign or a horror campaign. It also works well in a campaign where the characters have a job or other source of income. The randomness of the die roll represents the variations in the characters economy. You may have to live on bread and water the days before payday, but the day after payday you’re back in the game. By using this method, a lot of bookkeeping and keeping track of everyday costs like rent, food, clothes, insurance, petrol, taxes and so on can be eliminated. Instead, it allows you to focus on the important part: what you can do with your money.
This method is less suitable when all income and expenses are a direct result of what happens in the game or when you want to keep track of exactly how much money each character has.
1.2.2.1 Wealth
When handling wealth using ‘The spender’s way’, the Cash advantage/disadvantage will reflect your purchase capacity by changing the value you need to roll when trying to buy something or use money to achieve something. INCOME and RESOURCES are still measured in hard cash in the same way as in ‘The accountant way’, since these are either converted to CASH before use or their use is more a part of game events than economics.
Each month that the INCOME level is lower than CASH level, CASH is lowered to the next lower level of the CASH advantage (for example average to below average), each month it is higher, CASH is increased. This of course is assuming no large changes in CASH have occurred, like buying expensive equipment or receiving large amounts of money.
1.2.2.2 How to spend money
When using this method, each purchase has a difficulty that is used when making a roll against CASH. If you succeed, you had money enough to make the purchase, if not, you didn’t. A spectacular success gives you an especially good deal, a spectacular failure means you made a bad deal or that you were cheated in some way.
If you are unprepared for a purchase of this size, typically something that costs more than is usually carried in cash, the difficulty will be at +5. On the other hand, if you have had time to plan a purchase and save money, you get a –5 difficulty, more if it is something for which you have saved money for a long time. You can also get an additional –5 difficulty by stretching your budget and lowering your financial status one step.
If you want to buy something normally out of reach for you, consider taking a loan or selling some of your resources to increase your CASH. On the other hand, if you get more money on hand than you need, you can invest it to increase your INCOME or use it to buy RESOURCES.
In a world where money is not used and goods are bartered instead, use the difference between the difficulty of what you offer and what you want as difficulty.
