This system allows for handling cash and purchases in a fast an abstract manner: No need to keep track of exact numbers of credits or dollars! No coming up with specific prices for all the goods your characters want to buy! It takes some getting used to, but this optional rule can take a lot of busywork out of the game.

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Aspect: Wealth
Wealth describes your economic class and quality of life, and some vague notion of your savings and living expenses.

0: Poor
1: Working-class
2: Lower middle-class
3: Middle-class
4: Upper middle-class
5: Rich
6: Elite

The exact level of Wealth should be decided during character creation; the Director has final say over what is appropriate. It may go down (temporarily or permanently) during play; the Director may decide when and how it is restored or increased. The Wealth score can also become negative to reflect varying levels of debt.


Ability: Resources (Credit, Gold, ATM, etc.)
This reflects how much of some kind of money source you have access to, and could bring to bear in a purchase/exchange. These can be made specific for the kind of game you’re playing. (For example, a +3 ATM and +2 Credit could be reasonable for average play.)

0: No resources.
+1: Limited resources.
+2: Average resources.
+3: Above-average resources.
+4: Prolific resources.
+5: Incredible resources.

These scores should be assigned during character creation based on the character’s backstory; exact scores are decided by the Director.

Note: Influence can also be used using the rules above, foregoing the need for the resources ability.


Aspect: Loot! (aka Stuff! or Cash!)
Loot initially begins at zero, but goes up during play. Whenever an event occurs that would have netted the player some material gain, the Director will indicate some number of “Loot” points she has gotten (usually between one and four). At some future point (making a purchase or sale), the player can spend Loot points to push the exchange in her favor. Luck points can be spent in the same way.


Purchasing Items
You can describe the worth of a value roughly in terms of the “difficulty” of the purchase. That is to say, everyday objects have a trivial cost, larger objects (such as a car) would be a challenging purchase, and so on. (It is entirely likely that some things go completely off this scale; just make up an abitrary difficulty in this case.)

Most purchase tasks are attempted unskilled, although you can apply a haggling or barter skill to a purchase task. Compare your Wealth and the “effort” required for the item. We’ll call this the Value.

The player must expend an amount of “effort” equal to the Value to make the purchase succeed. This can come from the Resources (described above), but only if it is reasonable that the resource in particular could come into play. (For example, one’s +3 ATM and +2 Credit would not be useful if trapped in a technologically backwards culture.)

Effort can also be expended from Reasoning and Creativity to represent haggling, but only if the bartering is significantly roleplayed.

If “effort” is GREATER than the Wealth value, then the player must reduce his Wealth value by one. (This reflects the consequences of living outside of one’s means; also, it is analagous to how effort and Discipline work in task resolution.)

Finally, both Luck points and Loot points can be spent towards a purchase/exchange task. (These don’t count towards any potential reduction of Wealth value.)


Selling Items
Work in reverse, from the item’s rough “difficulty” to a numerical Value; the player gets this many points worth of Loot.

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Difficulty Modifiers
Player is in a hurry: 1 Level Harder
Time is spent shopping around, etc: 1 Level Easier
Player is buying/selling back something he just sold/bought elsewhere: 1 Level Harder


Optional Rule: Gear!
With little effort, you can use this system (including the Loot! points) for checking if you have certain Gear or Equipment with you (i.e. if you would have been prepared enough to have it with you at the time).