i am a gm in phaseworld and have been for a long time, usually we do not spend much time discussing money issues, but i do wonder how everyone else handles the issues that might come up when it concerns money.
as far as i know each and every major powerblock in phaseworld has its own currency, each and every member planet in any powerblock may or could also have its own currency (depending on their membership) which i call local credits. there is also gems and metals but their value vary alot depending on where you are in the 3 galaxies. additionally there is universal trade credits which seems to be the easiest to handle since they are "universally" accepted.
my players handle everything in universal trade credits or in gems and metals and they can have one or more credit cards, credit sticks or actual cash. i usually just assume they use larger galaxy spannig corporations like the royal exchange of dracul and similar but i occasionally do wonder how these firms or banks keep it all together, especially when you take into consideration that communication in the three galaxies is actually relatively slow, information travels only about 10 times faster than the fastest spaceships which means it can take hours, days or weeks to reach from one location to another. i mean these delays can interrupt game play unless you decide to ignore them or pay little attention to it, i was just wondering how everyone else handles these things and how big does the problems get if the characters use local banks and cannot afford to start an account with one of the large corporations, what are the alternatives?
as a side question i would like to know how much time other phaseworld players and gms spend on taxes, contracts, tarifs, permits, money spend on renting docking bays, fees etc. until now i havent spend much time dealing with these things, but if the players own a runner ship and run it like a business, wouldnt it give a more real feel to have to deal with these things as well as corrupt businessmen, blackmail, unions and similar. let me know what you think.
thanks in advance, c ya
