Economy #

Well, do your characters care about money?

This sounds like a trick question, but do they really care? Is the flow of money narratively meaningful? I would say that if there’s no meaningful chance of them running low or out, then it might be a more minor thing or non-existent.

Extending this to abstract currencies, it’s good to ask yourself whether tracking something like experience is actually helping your design. The purpose of a currency in a game is usually to provide something that characters and players are incentivized to obtain for a reason.

Many games have multiple tracks of advancement. Characters will gain levels and also be expected to improve equipment or vehicles or such through money or equivalent, for instance. With every independent lever, though, comes a point of failure. So before we get further, if you do have multiple forms of advancement, I encourage you to consider whether you can consolidate your advancement, or at least make it orthogonal in some way. Think about how resilient your design is to a very stingy or a very generous Narrator.

Valiant Horizon #

There isn’t any kind of meaningful currency, in no small part because there isn’t any kind of mechanically relevant equipment, but in general because that’s not the kind of story I wanted to tell. As such, there is only one kind of advancement: gaining Levels.

NULL_SPACE #

Money in NULL_SPACE is considered a form of advancement, as characters can get various outfits and tools and weaponry to make their tasks better; but it’s fully orthogonal to non-physical advancement, which is largely adding traits or attributes to characters, and as characters do start with at least two tools/weapons, it’s mostly a matter of flexibility.

This is important because money is also intended to be a major pain point and source of anxiety in the game.

The first step, no matter where you end up on it, is to think about how currency enters and leaves the game.

The reliability of how you gain and lose currency has a distinct impact on how “controlled” it feels: if you want characters to feel less in control, modulate both through circumstance or randomness.

NULL_SPACE #

Characters in NULL_SPACE get paid in a semi-random amount: it’s based on a die roll, typically using Mid Die Effect (stepped up or down depending on performance, etc). This is because Credits represent money left over, not the actual pay, so a group can’t guarantee a good payout will leave much after general expenses.

Sometimes expenditure is also random: procuring Restricted items is also a die roll to see how much they cost, and not having the Credits when that comes through can create problems (very literally, as the impact is that it adds Troubles).

Whatever causes the balance to go up. How does that happen in your game? Do characters get paid for work or as a reward for doing services? Do they find treasure? Do they steal it? When you get money, experience, etc., where come from?

This can have as many answers as you like, but the nature of each one can either focus or obscure the nature of how your game feels and what characters (and players) are incentivized to do. Consider the breadth of your brush before you paint.

NULL_SPACE #

Characters in NULL_SPACE get paid for Jobs: either directly for services rendered, as a reward, or by selling procured goods. (Mechanically these are largely treated similarly.)

Whatever causes the balance to go down. These are split into two categories:

• Expenditures are things that characters spend money on voluntarily and proactively. A game with expenditures usually treats currency as a method of advancement, indirect or otherwise.
• Sinks are things that drain money from characters involuntarily or in reaction to events. A game with sinks usually treats currency as something that solves immediate problems or prevents future problems.

Most games with concrete currencies will have both of these, and a lot of the interesting outcome of a currency can come from the tension between these two. These can also be used in non-concrete ways.

NULL_SPACE #

As noted prior, characters in NULL_SPACE spend currency (in this case Credits) on permanent equipment, meaning that gaining it provides a kind of advancement. But this same currency can often be drained by various expenses: either literally by spending their earnings to prevent problems, or metaphorically by having to replenish ammunition/batteries, get medical treatment, and so on.

A very easy way to enforce simplicity and limit impact is by making a currency temporary or fleeting. This is to say, when you gain it, you’ll have to spend it or it goes away, either immediately or over time. This can help relax the pressure on risk-averse or resource-hoarding players: if there’s no way to save it for the future, then that’s the way it goes.

This can also work on a two-tiered system: you can have a “lesser” currency that doesn’t stick around, but a “greater” currency that persists.

NULL_SPACE #

Credits are the currency described above, and they’re temporary: any unspent credits before the next Job go away. (However, NULL_SPACE has a more subtle, persistent, and meaningful currency: Debt.)

One way to handle characters not having currency when they’d like to is through some kind of debt. This involves players effectively spending currency they don’t have in exchange for problems later if it’s not paid off in time. Problems can include:

• Interest has to get paid
• A favor gets called in
• Collateral gets collected
• Someone finds out about it

Sometimes it makes sense for a currency to only be in units of debt: this represents stuff that’s too big to practically track with cash.

In general, my preference is for debts becoming an issue to be a random chance of some kind: every set period, check if it becomes a problem.

You could easily use this approach for non-diegetic currency as well: a character gains experience early in exchange for something going wrong, for instance.

NULL_SPACE #

Debt is a secondary currency to credits. It can be incurred directly through large purchases (like ships), or to gain a handful of credits. It’s part of a larger constellation of currencies called Troubles:

• Debts are money gained in exchange for collateral put down
• Expenses are constant drains on cash
• Liabilities are things that aren’t a problem but could be in the future
• Favors are IOUs that can be collected

Each one incurred has a value, usually between 1 and 3. (Players always have a 3-Value Expense representing basics and they start the game with 3 value of Troubles representing how their ship is a pain.) After every Job, the total Value of every Trouble is added, then someone rolls: if the Total is lower than the total value of Troubles, then one of them comes due.