Prize Money?

[Condottiere]

I think there are some financial instruments that are structured that way, including government debt, before the issuers wised up and claused them to their advantage and discretion.

There was an article on the oldest existing bond from I think the seventeenth century, that pays cents annually, but kept going as a historical curiosity.

 

[Timerover51]

One of the nasty tricks with certain real world financing contracts: you can't always pay off early.

IMTU, sure, you can prepay, but the title isn't clear until the end of the financing....

Some mortgages were working that way in 2010 and 2011. If you tried to pay if off early, you had to pay a big chunk of the anticipated interest over the life of the mortgage. It pretty much discouraged any early pay-off due to the size of the immediate payment required.

 

[mike wightman]

Are a few MCr really all that game breaking?

Medical bills, augments, rejuvenation, high TL gun ⌧, wafer insurance etc can all remove a few MCr from a player's bank balance.

A few tens of MCr from a prize wouldn't last long with all the toys on offer.

 

[gchuck]

Prize Money

Are a few MCr really all that game breaking?

Mcr? The haul from capturing a Marava came to 520k Cr for six pc's and npc's.

I think Mike got the handle on this. Sure they can buy that house in the countryside. But its the difference between a mansion on Omen, or the dingy little hovel on Capital.

My whole take on this, is it gives the PC's access to more resources to continue the 'mission'.

And so far, I've not been disappointed.

 

[whartung]

Are a few MCr really all that game breaking?

Considering that the Credit is supposed to be based on the 1980 dollar (or something like that), you don't think a few MCr of those would turn heads?

Even 500K (1980 dollars) isn't nothing.

Can you retire on that? Maybe, maybe not (depends on your age, where you are, how you're willing to live, etc.), but it's a big shot in to the nest egg for sure.

 

[mike wightman]

In the 1970s you were not spending a few million on rejuvenation treatments, a few million on augmentations, a few million on personality back up and clone body replacement insurance, and that's before you start buying proper gear - state of the art drones, robots, computer gear, weapons, armour etc.

Like I said a few million credits just isn't going to go very far in the toy shop.

 

[Timerover51]

In the 1970s you were not spending a few million on rejuvenation treatments, a few million on augmentations, a few million on personality back up and clone body replacement insurance, and that's before you start buying proper gear - state of the art drones, robots, computer gear, weapons, armour etc.

Like I said a few million credits just isn't going to go very far in the toy shop.

Given that list, I would say that Traveller has decayed a bit into a Monte Hall D&D game over who has the most goodies to play with.

How many Game Master are allowing their players to get all of those "toys"? At what point does the utter ridiculous of this come into play? For that matter, where does the element of danger come into play?

"I could not care less about getting killed, as I have a half-dozen clone back-ups along with rejuvenation insurance and a near-invulnerable suit of Battle Armor. I laugh at getting killed."

I can already hear the refrain.

 

[Condottiere]

Annual income might be the limit, not windfall, which like crocodile meals, could be allowed to be digested over a longer period.

 

[kilemall]

The primary reason the Royal Navy favoured prize money is to motivate the vrew during wartime and keep them hungry and aggressive, life for the rank and file being no picnic, and career choice being somewhat involuntary; possibly a legacy instrument from the days of Drake.

The corresponding dry land equivalent would be looting, which tended to get focussed during sieges, specifically storming a defended and fortified city.

One of the impetuses for the extensive US investment in coastal artillery and forts was to dissuade an external power from making a seaport raid for loot.

 

[kilemall]

Given that list, I would say that Traveller has decayed a bit into a Monte Hall D&D game over who has the most goodies to play with.

How many Game Master are allowing their players to get all of those "toys"? At what point does the utter ridiculous of this come into play? For that matter, where does the element of danger come into play?

"I could not care less about getting killed, as I have a half+dozen clone back-ups along with rejuvenation insurance and a near-invulnerable suit of Battle Armor. I laugh at getting killed."

I can already here the refrain.

High powered campaigns imply high powered opponents.



And all technology breaks and has to have continuing funding.



Outside of the OTU, I can easily see a SOC level limit to high end weapons and access to clones/wafers as elements of power and privilege.


Undocumented backdoors into tech control by governments, House Controlfreak and/or corporations can be built in and require a lot of trouble to disable.


And of course characters that act badly because of their toys will garner a lot of enemies and possibly get their cash flow cut off by one of them.



Lots of ways to skin that problem, beyond impoverishment. And opportunities for entertaining conflict.

 

[Enoki]

Given that list, I would say that Traveller has decayed a bit into a Monte Hall D&D game over who has the most goodies to play with.

How many Game Master are allowing their players to get all of those "toys"? At what point does the utter ridiculous of this come into play? For that matter, where does the element of danger come into play?

"I could not care less about getting killed, as I have a half-dozen clone back-ups along with rejuvenation insurance and a near-invulnerable suit of Battle Armor. I laugh at getting killed."

I can already hear the refrain.

There's an easy fix to that.

If you have players that insist on doing stuff that would clearly be idiotic in real life...

Say like insisting on wearing battle armor while wandering around a city, or packing major firepower everywhere, I simply turn it into an encounter with the local authorities / law enforcement ("You were most likely reported... an officer saw you..." etc.) and it simply escalates as the player continues to push back. Some idea that you have clones or whatever does you little good when you get tossed in prison for major felonies because you wanted to be pedantic with the police or government.

If they want the large ship, etc., then there are increasingly large fees and other bureaucratic and government issues they continually run into. Living large means spending large.

 

[McPerth]

Given that list, I would say that Traveller has decayed a bit into a Monte Hall D&D game over who has the most goodies to play with.

How many Game Master are allowing their players to get all of those "toys"? At what point does the utter ridiculous of this come into play? For that matter, where does the element of danger come into play?

"I could not care less about getting killed, as I have a half-dozen clone back-ups along with rejuvenation insurance and a near-invulnerable suit of Battle Armor. I laugh at getting killed."

I can already hear the refrain.

This time I agree with you. I can accept longer lives (e.g. though anagathics), but the risk must still be there, as immunity to death makes the game worse, IMHO.

Now returning to the initial discussion, money is not always the only motivation for the players, or they will look for a more stable (and boring, from game prespective) job.

Of course, this depends on the setting and the style of playing you and your players like. In a setting like Hard Times, just to give an example, money may not be their main motivation (one of the things I like about it, BTW)...

 

[whartung]

In the 1970s you were not spending a few million on rejuvenation treatments, a few million on augmentations, a few million on personality back up and clone body replacement insurance, and that's before you start buying proper gear - state of the art drones, robots, computer gear, weapons, armour etc.

Like I said a few million credits just isn't going to go very far in the toy shop.

No, in the 70's you were paying for state of the art cars (seatbelts! AM/FM/8 Track stereo), state of the art home electronics (color console TV with REMOTE! Quadraphonic hi fi system. PONG!, and that $100(!!!) LED watch), long distance phone calls, bell bottoms, leisure suits, available air travel, and state of the art medical care. This was all pretty much routine to the middle class.

Yachts, exotic cars, mansions, private planes, all of the other things associated with Millionaires were, obviously, not associated with the middle class.

if a house mortgage in the 3rd Imperium is running 100,000Cr, like it was in the 1980 dollars, then rejuv's, augmentations, personality backups, clones, drones, robots, and "gear" for millions of credits were not middle class items. They are actually, figuratively, and even spiritually, out of reach. The stuff of fantasy and glossy magazines.

So, given a choice between dropping 1MCr of free cash on, well, any of those vs paying off the family house, putting the kids through school, splurging on a nice [car, boat, computer, bucket list trip] and sticking the rest in the bank for retirement -- that's really a no brainer for a lot of folks, frankly.

Simply, either 1MCr is "a lot of money" or its not. If it's not, it's not. Maybe the CrImp is more like the Lira or the Zimbabwe dollar. But thats not the story I've been hearing.

The fact that some things are expensive, suggests that they are not common. If they are common, then there's a lot of money in the middle class.