Wealth and Money
Money use to be such a simple thing. People use to trade items for other items that they needed. And in order to help facilitate that currency was created. Now with gold/silver stamped coins people could trade items for value without having to receive something they didn't find as valuable. Our wealth was dependent on how many coins you had. To help insure your money banks where formed. They kept your coins safe while also allowing people to buy things with money they didn't have. They just needed to go into debt with the banks.
Things quickly started to get more complicated from there Banks/Credit/Debt. And all that was before advancing technologies such as the internet with electronic transfers, interest rates, credit limits. This wealth system is an attempt to simplify managing money and wealth while still representing some of the complicated aspects of our modern and possibly future economy without compromising game play and story telling.
Some player's may only need to review the Basic Rules. Advanced Rules are only there for more complicated purchases if the GM and/or Characters wish to roll play buying equipment such as ships that may cost vastly more then what they have on hand through a Loan. As well as how additional sources of income come into play.
Character Sheet
- Ability Affinity
- The Credit Score is a skill bonus to any Profession skill. The Profession skill is used to determine the character's starting money and there Budget during game play. More rules on the wealth system can be found here
Editing Character Sheet: This is located on the second page at the very bottom left corner.
Basic Rules
| Credit Rating | Budget |
|---|---|
| 0 | $0 |
| 1 | $250 +250 |
| 2 | $500 |
| 3 | $750 |
| 4 | $1000 |
| 5 | $1250 |
| 6 | $1500 |
| 7 | $1750 |
| 8 | $2000 |
| 9 | $2250 |
| 10 | $2500 |
| 11 | $3000 +500 |
| 12 | $3500 |
| 13 | $4000 |
| 14 | $4500 |
| 15 | $5000 |
| 16 | $5500 |
| 17 | $6000 |
| 18 | $6500 |
| 19 | $7000 |
| 20 | $7500 |
| 21 | $8500 +1000 |
| 22 | $9500 |
| 23 | $10500 |
| 24 | $11500 |
| 25 | $12500 |
| 26 | $13500 |
| 27 | $14500 |
| 28 | $15500 |
| 29 | $16500 |
| 30 | $17500 |
| 31 | $19000 +1500 |
| 32 | $20500 |
| 33 | $22000 |
| 34 | $23500 |
| 35 | $25000 |
| 36 | $26500 |
| 37 | $28000 |
| 38 | $29500 |
| 39 | $31000 |
| 40 | $32500 |
| 41 | $34500 +2000 |
| 42 | $36500 |
All things revolve around the ISC otherwise known as Credits. Credits is the official Currency used galaxy wide and Character's will use them to buy items while adventuring. Characters gain credits through there Profession as well as adventuring. Character Budgets show how much money a Character gets just from there Profession that they can spend in a 1 month time frame. You can learn about these in the Basic Section.
Editing Character Sheet: Credits show how much money a Character has on them. There wealth is shown on the second page of the Character sheet near the bottom underneath the items section. This section has three parts: (Credit Score/Budget/Credits) Credit Score rules are explained below along with Budget (which is determined by Credit Score). Credits is simply the amount of wealth a Character has. Credits is the most important part. Many Characters will likely not have a Credit Score or Budget and thus not need to understand those rules.
Below the Basic Section is the 'Buying Stuff' section which has the Procure Difficulty rules. This is just a set of rules for making an item more expensive or difficult to acquire to represent that it may be rare or illegal.
Below that is the last section the Advance Rules section. This has more in depth explanation of the credit score and Loaning Power as well as additional sources of income and how they factor into game play. Credit Score determines a Character's Budget as well as determines the 'loaning power' the Character has. Credit Score/Loaning Power is not necessary to know about unless the Character intends to roll play buying extremely expensive items. The GM may not have an adventure in mind that even deals with players needing to know the Advance Rules for buying.
Inter-Stellar Credits (ISC)
One of the biggest things the Jove brought too the Milky Way was a way to be an intermediate for trade. No longer did alien Civilizations exchange resources using rare materiel trade but instead use modern concept of money and credit. The Jove setup a banking system connecting across the galaxy using state-of-the-art quantum entanglement communication systems. The Interstellar Ledger of Wealth is the foundation of the bank. An advance public ledger that uses powerful encryption systems monitored by all who wish to participate. There is no exclusive member within the bank making the public accountable for themselves. Almost all civilizations recognized ISC (or just Credits for short) as a valid form of currency. Some governments even have converted there currency over too ISC/Credits.
A Character within the Future Path world can buy almost anything with Credits. There is only one type of Credits and its value is considered the same across the Galaxy. There are other currencies that are local too a Civilization. Sometimes that currency is recognized by neighboring Civilizations. However the details of other currencies and there worth should be up to the GM and the story that is being told. As for most Character's traveling around the Ring of Life within the Milky Way Credits is all that is needed.
Starting wealth, the amount of Credits and Credit Score (See section below as well as table to the right) can be determined by a Character's starting Profession. Find out more about professions here.
Below is rules on the Credit Score of a Character. This can determine how many Credits the Character earns every month at his or her's job. (Which is the Character's Budget) If your Character doesn't have a job or during adventuring they are unable to preform the Job then Credit score is not necessary.
Credit
The Credit Level tells how much your budget is. It can start at 0 which means you have no spare cash to afford anything. It also means you cannot buy anything on loan. The only money you may have is whats on you or in other words your Bonus income. At a Credit score of 1 you have $250 IGC (Inter-Galatia Currency) as a budget. And for ever point higher you had an additional 250 IGC. However at level 11 you start to add $500 too the budget instead of $250. The increase that happens every 10 steps is to represent that it is easier to increase wealth when one has more wealth. At level 21 this occurs again and now you add an additional $1000. You add $500 more to what you grow each level for ever 10 levels. A full chart of this process is shown below to help explain.
Your Credit score is determined by your Profession. Please review the Professions page for more information on starting wealth. Keep in mind that professions may change as your character levels up and gains new Advance Classes.
Buying Stuff
Most items have a set price based on Credits. Such as Neural Computer Link for $2500 credits. The Character can see how much credits he or she has on hand. This is Credits + the Character Budget (Budget is provided by the Credit Score which in turn is provided by Character's Profession) if they have any. If the Character has enough Credits they subtract that amount from there wealth and get the item. Budget is considered part of the advanced rules and not necessary to know. To learn more about it go to the Budget section below.
The primary thing is simply the amount of credits. If a character has $10,000 credits then they can buy $10,000 worth of something.
Procure Difficulty
| Level | Extra Cost | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Level 0 | %0 | In most cases the item will be common and can be found with little difficulty in stores as long as its in the same tech level. |
| Level 1 | %10 | The item is not common however usually not illegal. Larger stores and cites, popular places of trade or places that specialize in having it. |
| Level 2 | %20 | The characters will likely have to work to find the item. Sometimes it can be illegal. You will have to go to places known to have it. It will be rare to see it anywhere else. |
| Level 3 | %50 | Almost always illegal or simply extremely rare and probably unknown to the average person unless the character is familiar with the items field. |
| Level 4 | X2 | Probably illegal. Highly unlikely to be found anywhere except in hidden markets or extremely expensive public ones. |
| Level 5 | X3 | Usually not for sale precious items. Or extremely illegal or both. If its not highly illegal then it is a niche item that few people would ever know about. |
This is mainly a tool for the GM to help in deciding how easy it is for players to procure weapons. Many factors can come into play and effect this. Here are some basic rules to help avoid arguments over wither not a shop keeper or gun store would have the item in question. To the right is a table explaining in a rough summary what each level can mean. The levels or more like a guideline or a scale to be able to easily communicate the difficultly of procuring any item in the game to other players.
There are 6 levels of difficulty 0 through 5. Although it doesn't always have to do with legality of the item that usually has something to do with it. Zero is the easiest and means that the item is not illegal and is fairly common. 5 means that it is usually illegal and can mean extreme consequences if caught buying, selling or simply having it in your procession. It also implies doing so is time consuming and difficult.
The rules here are very loose. They are designed more as a ground work. To provide a scale to work off so that GMs have a way to explaining/defending how hard it may be to acquire an item even if the player character has enough money and is at the right store. The GM can add the difficulty number too rolls associated with bluff/diplomacy/intimidate or any other skill/ability check that has to do with acquiring it. It also lays the ground work on how populated/popular/powerful the civilization or city or station or store has to be to have said item in stock. If you walk into a shoddy shop located in a small unpopular space station then likely you are not going to find a +4 or +5 item and probably not even a +3 unless they specialize in having it and then they likely charge an arm and a leg for it.
Below is a chart with a few basic scenarios to help get an idea on what can increase an item's Procure Difficulty.
| Scenario | Difficulty increase | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Illegal | +2 | The item is considered illegal by the society the player is attempting to purchase it from. |
| Highly Illegal | +4 | The item is considered highly illegal meaning that the punishment for being associated with it can be extremely severe. |
| MasterWorked | +1 | The item is constructed with better then normal materials making it more valuable and rare. |
| Off World Merch | +1/2 | This means the item was not manufactured on the planet/space-station the character is attempting to buy it on. However the amount difficulty increase is dependent on how far away the item is and how easy it is for that society to travel that distance. A Tech Level 4 civilization can easily traverse a much larger range and thus the item would have to be in a very very distance solar-system. |
| Ancient Alien Tech | +2/4 | Looking for ancient tech? It may be hard. Depending if you are looking for it on the planet it originated from or some other location. |
| Taboo Item | +1 | You are looking for something that the society you are in finds distasteful or perhaps superstitious about. |
Advanced Rules
Budget
Budget is a static number linked to the Player's Credit Score. The Budget is like a bucket that gets refilled every month for the Character. But the bucket itself is the same size. This bucket only exists and only gets refilled if the Character has a job and is active in it during game play. For example the Character may be a Bounty Hunter that works for a corporation. The story involves chasing certain people down. So he is effectively still on the clock. However another member of the group may be a doctor playing a Xenophile and chasing a person down is not part of there job. So the Xenophile doesn't have a Budget.
Playing a character that is still active in a job of some kind will require extra roll playing and thus is more of an advanced topic. Your character may not need to worry about anything but what credits he or she has on hand. And may only get credits from adventure to adventure.
Saving
Saving can be hard. To represent the struggle of maintaining a budget and attempting to Save income for later there is a DC that must be beat with a roll. 1d20 + Wisdom. Adding Wisdom modifier is to represent that a wiser person may have more self control or foresight to be in a position to save some income. If a player chooses that they want to save their Budget for this month of game play they can make this roll. If they succeed they can choose to save that amount and deduct it from there budget. If they roll higher then what they wanted to save they do not need to save that exact amount. They can only deduct up to the max that there roll allows. The below table shows the DC range for the maxim amount savable.
| DC Range | Saved % |
|---|---|
| 1 - 5 | 0% |
| 6 - 10 | 25% - 1/4 |
| 11 - 15 | 50% - 2/4 |
| 16 - 19 | 75% - 3/4 |
| 20 | 100% |
Loans
Buying something that you can not normally afford via a Loan is one of the defining things of modern society. A Future Path hero will also need to make large purchases sometimes much bigger then they can normally afford. They can accomplish this by getting Loans. Loans take away from your total Credit. This emulates the idea that part of your monthly budget now goes towards paying off that loan. A characters Credit score determines the amount of the Loan one can get. Loans are not permanent adjustments too Credit. However they do last a while. The GameMaster can have some say in how long the the Time frame for the loan is. The Player can attempt to get a better Time by rolling 1d20 + Int or 1d20 + Cha against a DC of 15 to lower the loan below the minimal amount of time. Lowering however will take another -1 hit too the credit score sense you are attempting to pay the loan off faster. The player can do the same roll with a DC of 20 to have the time raised so that the players credit score is not so adversely effected. More on that after the chart below.
Here is a table showing Credit score ranges and the amount of Loan associated with them:
| Credit Score Range | Loan Amount | Time In Years |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | - | - |
| 1 - 5 | $10,000 | 1-2y |
| 6 - 10 | $50,000 | 2-4y |
| 11 - 15 | $120,000 | 4-10y |
| 16 - 20 | $250,000 | 15-30y |
| 21 - 25 | $500,000 | 30y |
| 26 - 30 | $1,000,000 | 30y |
| 31 - 35 | $2,5000,000 | 30-45y |
| 36 - 40 | $6,500,000 | 30-45y |
| 41 - 45 | $10,000,000 | 45y |
| 46 - 50 | $20,000,000 | 45y |
| 51 - 59 | $45,000,000 | 45-60y |
| 60 - 69 | $100,000,000 | 45-60y |
| 70 - 79 | $250,000,000 | 60y |
| 80 - 89 | $500,000,000 | 60y |
| 90 - 99 | 1,000,000,000 | 60+y |
| 100+ | 1+ Billion | 100+y |
A player may choose to buy a product on loan as long as that product doesn't cost more then there credit rating or one range above. For example say the Player wants a new hoover bike. The bike costs $25,000 and the player has a credit rating of 7. If the player wants to buy the bike on loan and he can as the cost of 25,000 is between 10,000 and 50,000 which means only players with Credit score between 6 and 10 can get a loan of that size. (Please review above chart) The player buys the bike on loan and takes a -1 to his credit rating for the next 2 years a time frame negotiated in game with the GameMaster roll playing the seller of the bike.
A player can attempt to get a loan for an item that the cost is in a range above the players credit. Lets go back to the previous example except this time the player only has a credit score of 4. It would be a massive strain on that player's budget to buy the $25,000 hoover bike. However not impossible. The loan can still be made. Except now the player takes a -4 penalty on his credit score. The player can attempt to negotiate a longer loan time with a 1d20 + Int or 1d20 + Cha against a DC 20. This can lengthen the amount of Time for the loan or get a better rate or what scenario best fits according to the GM and the Player can reduce the penalty to his credit score to only -4. A player cannot attempt to get a loan any higher then one range above. A player cannot attempt a loan scenario that could lead to a negative credit.
Other players can assist in buying an object. Say two players want to join forces and buy a new cargo ship to take on intergalactic trade. When doing so each extra player adds 1/2 of there Credit score to the total score to buy the ship. If the item is within the range of the total credit score each player takes a -1 to there credit score and they now have the cargo ship. Or if its one range above their current range they can still buy the ship but both have to take the -4. Basically this works the same as if it was a single person except the penalty is copied to each participating member. For example If Player1 has a score of 10 and Player2 has a score of 12 there combined score would be 16.
Using Bonus Wealth on Loans: A player can use his Bonus Wealth to act as "down payment" on a loan. You can use your Bonus Wealth to bring down the loan into a lower credit range to make it easier to afford. For example lets say a Player wants to buy a small ship. He has a credit rating of 17 but has 500,000 in Bonus Wealth. He wants to by a Ship that costs 1,000,000. Normally that ship would be in the 26 - 30 loan range. But he can subtract his Bonus Wealth to bring the ship price automatically down to 500,000. Now the loan range is 21 - 25. The Player can now afford this as long as he accepts the -4 hit to his credit. He buys and ship and now his new credit score is 13 and he has no Bonus Wealth to spend but he owns the $1,000,000 ship.
Additional Sources of Income
Bonus: While on the job your employer may recognize your good work and give you a bonus. This may be a reward that the GM gives a player. Or the player may roll a profession check (1d20 + Profession Skill Rank) and get a natural 20. The bonus can be anything the GM decides fits. However an easy quick calculation would be to simply take a Credit Score of the player minus 3 and take that Wealth value as the bonus. If you cannot go down 3 ranks because it would end up at 0 or a negative number then you can simply use 1 or $250 as the bonus.
Rewards: When a player completes a task or favor for someone they may want to compensate them for the favor. Or perhaps that is the only source of income for a player is to live from job to job. Doing a mission will likely also provide some finical compensation. All this is considered rewards and go to your Bonus Income.
Stock Market: The Stock Market is confusing and massively complex. Depending on the campaign setting the GM doesn't need to bother with it. In the official Campaign setting for Future Path the Galaxy does has a Market Trading system. Which will be explained in more detail in the Campaign Setting section of the site. Here we will try to set the foundation rule set for both a Modern and Futuristic setting and make it as simple as possible.
There are two types of trading a Player can do in the Market. Short Term Investments and Long Term Investestments. The difference is the DC rating and where the profits if any actually go. To invest you will need to use Wealth from either your Budget or your Bonus Income. If you invest into Short Term then the DC is 20 and the check is "1d20 + Wis". The profits go directly into your Bonus Income and appear within a month of the players check. Long Term investments on the other hand have a DC of 15 and the check is "1d20 + Wis". The profits are in the form of an increase of your Credit Score. You must invest the total amount of your current Credit Score's Budget to qualify for a Long Term Investment.
How much profit goes too your Bonus Income from a Short Term Investment? How much is your credit raised from a Long Term Investment? This depends on how well you beat the DC. Below are two tables that explain.
| Roll Check Outcome | Bonus Income |
|---|---|
| 20 (after Mod) | Break even |
| 20 (Natural) | Investment + 100% |
| 21 - 25 | Investment + 20% |
| 26 - 30 | Investment + 50% |
| 31 - 35 | Investment + 100% |
| 36+ | Investment + 200% |
| Roll Check Outcome | Bonus Income |
|---|---|
| 15 - 20 | Break even no bonus |
| 20 (Natural) | +1 Credit Score |
| 21 - 30 | +1 Credit Score |
| 31 - 40 | +2 Credit Score |
NOTE: You can only make one investment a month. Although you may have a talent/feat that can increase that amount.
Gambling: Gambling has the risk of causing debt and thus can subtract from your credit score. The Gambling has a DC 25 and a check of 1d20 + Chra. If you fail the check with a 1 you get 1 subtracted from your credit score. If you simply fail it you get no money back. If you beat it by more then 5 you get what you gambled back +10%. If you get a natural 20 you get a +100%.
Customized Income: Any source of steady wealth that is legal can be translated as an increase to your credit score. The Player may have an anonymous supporter of her work and provides donations monthly as an example. The bonus to credit is calculated by finding how much it takes to go up to the next Credit level and subtracting that from the extra income while adding a level to your credit. Keep doing this until you can no longer go up credit. For example if a Player has a credit level of 9 and they are getting $1000 a month from some anonymous supporter. To calculate that players new credit score you take the amount of $ it is required to go to level 10 which is $250 and subtract it from the $1000 which makes $750. You now have $750 a month and a credit level of 10. You can repeat this again but you will now need to subtract $500 from the remanding $750 to go from level 10 to level 11. Now the Player has a credit score of 11 and $250 extra income or Bonus income. She cannot go up any more levels because $250 is not enough to go from level 11 to level 12.
Why is that important if all that means is your Budget is higher which it technically is anyway. Loaning power. The Player went from the 6 - 10 range to 11 - 15 range and is now able to qualify for a larger purchase.