GangreneTVP wrote: So, we have a key card. Well, I'm familiar with cards. So then these cards need a way to transfer the credits... maybe they both swipe a machine and the transfer is made... that data HAS to be stored on the card. So either the cards transfer directly or you need that machine. I guess they'd work more like, touch the cards to transfer funds avoiding some other device that everyone would need to have. That's important when you're in the wilderness doing a Merc mission for creds, for instance. That brings up a LOT of 2nd questions.
Yeah, basically they seem to be like unhackable pre-paid credit cards. You can spend off them hand them to each other, and so forth.
I've house-ruled that you can rub two different cards together to transfer funds from one card to another, for exactly the kind of exchange you're talking about.
Otherwise, you'd just have to hand your card to them.
What keeps me from just coming up to you and taking your card?
Absolutely nothing.
Is each card tied to its user?
Nope. They're all apparently anonymous.
Take a card, transfer the balance, and much easier than going on some suicidal mission for creds. That will definitely change the atmosphere of the tough streets of the burbs for example. Is that the correct answer? Are these cards easily stolen and their balance easily transferred?
Yes, BUT not everybody needs to carry all their credits on them.
One could leave millions of credits at home in a safe, and head into town with only a $20 credit card in your pocket, and another in your shoe in case muggers get the first one.
The next big question is... If these cards store the data, which they must as I don't see a mechanism for these transfers to be transferred back to the CS in a central banking database.[
How are these cards kept from being hacked?
By using technology that is SO advanced, it seems incomprehensible to our modern minds and understandings of the universe.
The tech of Rifts Earth is so advanced that it seems kinda stupid sometimes, in fact.
It seems one skilled hacker could just change the balance on their card and the whole system would fall apart. I'll just hack a Billion Creds onto my card and... we're golden. I guess we'll just have to say that the cards aren't hackable or they have threat detection to self destruct, and lose your balance, if they detect manipulation which would surely reduce the urge to do so. These clearly will have to be smart computerized cards. It's the only way they'd work. A simple magnetic strip is out of the question.
We're left a pretty complete void of information on how Credits work, but if they were easy to hack--or even possible to hack--on significant levels, the Rifts economy would function as it is shown.
So we're left to fill in the gaps however we please, as long as it gets us to the end result we're shown.
People--including myself--have come up with all kinds of ways that SHOULD work to hack credits, and possible counter-measures. For example, if each credit card uses the brain of a flea or other tiny creature to store the data, that would be unhackable using conventional hacking skills and/or powers like telemechanics (if only because each card would then be a cyborg, and cyborgs are impervious to telemechanics).
It could get pretty complex to come up with a series of possible attacks and countermeasures, to the point where unless that's what one wants the campaign to focus on, it's best just ignoring it all and handwaving questions of hacking and such.
Why would some multidimensional species / marketplace like the Splugorth use a CS currency? They must convert all transactions. Of course if the cred is a fiat currency it only has value if someone is willing to trade to me with those creds... Seems a big risk to the Splugorth to use it. They could also try to destabilize the CS by forcing the use of their currency instead...
With the Naruni, they could spend their credits on Rifts Earth, acquiring trade goods that they can convert into local currency when they get home.
With Atlantis, it makes less sense, but I guess if one thought about it hard enough, they could figure out some sugar to make that medicine go down.
I guess this brings us to the black market salable items each OCC gets. I have NOT read the black market book yet. It sounds to me now like these creds maybe are FAR FROM universal and many small tribes who never go to a CS city to purchase would have little value for creds. So, we have some sort barter system going on all around the world which trade in "Black Market Saleable Items"(BMSI). I'm thinking I should just assume that there is a common small item that is readily tradeable, bottlecaps, as a BMSI common exchange currency. Otherwise I really can't see a small band of adventurers having a huge haul for trading in such scenarios. I think I'm going to have to do something like that to make the BMSI trading system feasible. Then there is the issue of transferring BMSI to creds...
Okay, so there's Universal Credits, and that's the main currency of Rifts North America (and arguably Rifts Earth, I supposed). The CS uses it, which means everybody in or near CS territory is going to use it.
But different kingdoms or businesses can have their own credit. You might get paid for a job in Wilk's Credits (I'm pretty certain this is canon), for example, which are only good for spending with Wilk's, or anybody who is interested in shopping there.
You might visit some kingdom outside CS territory that makes their own credits, or their own paper money, or their own currency, and so forth..
There should be a lot of variation, particularly the farther you get from CS territory.
"Black Market Items" are generally anything that sells on the black market that you don't want to keep track of, I think. A pre-Rifts beer can, a book, illegal porn, or anything else that would go for money in the Black Market. It kind of works like old D&D adventures where you'd find "a bag of mixed gems worth 100 GP" or whatever. You don't really need to know what kind of gems, or how many; it's just assumed you can trade them and get change back, as a rule.
The Black Market also has its own form of credits, I believe. No, I don't know how that'd work, but apparently it does.
I'll try to find some older conversations, and post you some links to browse.