MONEY AND ECONOMY

In the Central Planets, the ones which formed the Alliance, there are two types of money, the pixel version (aka Alliance Credits) which is kept track via the Cortex-linked computer system, and actual paper currency. Both types can be tracked and traced (and if they can be, they probably are). Wherever you use your credit chit, it will be on record for any Alliance official who feels they have a need to know. Paper money, ditto. Wither you spend it, the government will know. Paper bills and credit transfers are the only legal tender on Core Planets. Purchasing goods with "hard coin" is not only untraceable, but illegal. The Black Markets love it.

On the Border Planets and out on the Rim, nothing spends as well as precious metal coins (platinum being the flavor of choice), or good old fashioned barter and trade.

Goods are expensive, regardless of where you buy them, though some things will obviously be more pricey in certain parts of the galaxy than others. Some will be abundant, and others impossible to find.

I'm more interested in what the characters do with their hard earned Platinum than I am with keeping track of it. So let's assume that everyone can afford the basics to start with. If you have a hankering for something extremely shiny, talk to me.

KEEPING TRACK OF CASH

A good deal of the action in Firefly centers around the need for cash. It's expensive to keep a ship flying and to feed a crew, not to mention the exorbitant cost of new personal weapons and the associated ammo, and cash is hard to come by. There are some days when a platinum coin is a dear as blood.

While the economics of personal finance is a driving motivation, I don't want to deal with counting and converting all the many different ways someone can be paid. I also don't want to keep a running balance of who has what, or to price every gorram piece of merchandise in the 'Verse.

While the In Character lingo of the game is Platinum and Credits, Barter and Trade we'll actually keep track of income and debits by use of a OOC token system.

For every job you complete, the characters will be paid in whatever manner was contracted for. That's the IC side of it. On the OOC side of it, I'll be letting you know how many tokens that really means, and then divvy them up on the basis of what the crew's agreement is with the Captain or Owner.

They spend in a very general way. For example you have 3 tokens left over from the last job. You make landfall in Bellerophon, and are waiting to make contact with someone who may have another opportunity for you. The crowd is rowdy, and you're in a good mood, so you buy everyone a round! The barkeep says that the tab comes to 3 Platinums. You slip the coin onto the counter. I consider 1 token being spent.

As another example, it's time to fuel up the ship. You make the refilling station, and it will cost 625 credits to juice her up. You hand the attendant your credit chit, wincing at the high cost of fuel on this rock. I deduct one token.

As a last example, while making landfall at Shadow, one of the folk you typically do business with has had a bumper crop of strawberries and fresh melons. You have a store of Alliance imprinted protein bars. They don't worry about the imprint, and you don't worry that the food will go bad before it's inhaled. A trade is struck. I deduct 1 token to cover your protein bars. If the fruit had been stored in something to make it nonperishable, I would have granted a token -- as then the fruit would be something you could barter with later.

Just as a recap, tokens are strictly an Out of Character device used solely for bookkeeping. All In Character transactions should be concluded with one of the tenders of the 'Verse.