money and equivalents

[Barrataria]

In looking at some of the SWRPG materials, I'm left wanting a little more detail, and a little more fantastic detail at that, about money in the galaxy far, far away.

Obviously, in the Outer Rim and backwater worlds, there will be all sorts of local monetary systems. Those may or may not be convertible into Imperial and/or New Republic credits, and the terms will vary widely from planet to planet. Converting Imperial Credits to NR credits will entail some black market maneuvering, at least. Money laundering operations will be important, the province of criminals (hutts) and neutrals (Bespin, aqualish, etc.)

I'm curious if any of you have tried to flesh out the actual form of "credits" in Imperial and/or NR space. There has to be some physical form- presumably that's what's in the ammo crates Han loads onto his ship before getting lectured by Luke and Chewie in Ep.IV. I haven't decided what those might be- plastic seems lame, gold seems too un-sci-fi. Maybe coins or tokens of some only-in-SW element(s) that are mined in places worse than Kessel. Hard currency will be important in any SW campaign because it is portable and more or less anonymous.

I'm mostly troubled by the electronic/data forms of exchange. Clearly bulk freighters do not exchange gigantic cargoes for big crates of plastic chips. I recently read an adventure where an NPC throws a "credit stick" to characters to convince them to take a job in the heat of the moment. But "credit sticks" remind me too much of the flash drives I have all over my house. In a galaxy with lightsabers and hyperdrive, what have you come up with to seem otherworldly and futuristic?

[Gry Sarth]

We like to play it loose in our games, and not get too bogged down in monetary issues. Basically, if you have money, you have money, and you find a way to get it across. You flip a coin to the bartender (like Han did in Ep4), stuff a bunch of credit chits in a guard's hands to bribe him, use the convenience of an electronic credit chip to make the payment on your new speeder or simply access the holonet and make a digital transfer from your bank to your friendly-neighbourhood bounty hunter to hire his services.
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[Ankhanu]

Adding this complication is, imo, not in the spirit of d6. It's a complication... a needless one in most circumstances. D6 is a simplified, streamlined system; complicating for the sake of complicating is like cancer.

That said, yeah, there are physical representations of wealth... I could be wrong, but that's what Han is putting aboard the Falcon in A New Hope on Yavin when Luke approaches him about staying on with the Rebellion; boxes and boxes of money for saving Leia. These could be chips, sticks, whatever... yeah, kinda like flash drives. I've also seen coins mentioned.

Most commerce is done electronically, however. The only problem there is how easy it is for those in charge to keep track of, hence the popularity of physical credits in the underground.

Conversion of money between currencies (galactic vs local), well, we see that in action in Ep. 1 with Wato and Qui-Gonn; Wato refuses galactic credits for their lack of use on the Fringe. However, I imagine it would work just like it does here: banks or other services will buy/sell foreign currency and exchange it for another... usually for a handling/brokerage fee. I doubt you'd have to resort to black market exchange unless you need to keep your exchanges hidden.

As for the futuristic character of Star Wars, lets not forget that it ISN'T really THAT futuristic. In many areas modern technology has surpassed Star Wars technology in terms of miniturization, convenience, etc. Star Wars is a delightful mix of old and new, analogue mixed with digital and beyond... it's a gritty, run down galaxy, but it does contain amazing wonders of technology in a crazy juxtaposition of qualities. Don't worry about making things futuristic, if it's old and broken it has just as much a place in Star Wars as bright and flashy.
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[Rerun941]

[Ankhanu]

Yeah, it's hard to say what it is... but it is a possibility.
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[Barrataria]

[Rerun941]

Everything I read about the Alliance is that they DIDN'T have a lot of money/supplies just lying around. They were a rag-tag group of rebels just scraping by.
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[Red 331]

I also think that it's probably best not to get bogged down in the details of things like currency, but just for completeness, according to the Star Wars Radio Drama, the contents of the crates Han loaded were precious metals from the Rebel tech facilities (Episode 12 - The Case For Rebellion).

[Whill]

I have seen that trend in RPGs for money to only be a number on a character sheet, and it is magically transfered from one's ethereal account to another's, with no concern for what form the money is in and the encumburance of carrying around 10,000 Gold Pieces on your person. This may be considered "cinematic" by some and if that works for your game then great. But that concept seems silly to me, and it's not really cinematic with respect to the Star Wars films themselves.

In the original film, Han did toss the bartender some physical form of cash after he fried Greedo, but in the advanced Star Wars galaxy I dount it was just a coin made of some metal. It probably was an electronic flashdrive chip. And in TPM, Qui-Gon Jinn offered Watto Republic dataries, but they didn't have any value on Tatooine. I think the form the money comes in is very relevant to the Star Wars films, so that concern is cinematic. As the story of TPM shows, having money is a specific form does not always allow you to buy your way out of a problem, and so these monetary concerns can be an important part of the story itself.
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[garhkal]

I have had some planets who won't take rebel script, or imperial script. And others where barter is the norm.
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[jmanski]

If it keeps the game interesting or moves the story- great.

But it can lead to tedius bookwork and complicate things.
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[scott2978]

In my games, I have credits divided into three types:

Cred accounts, which are universal bank accounts that work anywhere. All you need to use one is a thumbprint. Personally I think this form of security is laughably lax, but it's the way things are in so many SW books so I use it. I have made the standard "Thumb print" more than just a person's skin ridges though, it also records the pattern of blood vessels and the DNA of the person making the thumbprint, and the scanner can tell whether the thumb is "alive" or not (ie: in case someone cuts off your thumb, it won't work). Cred accounts are the most widely used currency in the coreward systems because of their ease of use and they are 100% traceable. Also, they are relatively difficult for aliens without thumbs to use, which suits the Empire just fine.

Credsticks, which are like USB flash drives filled with "electronic money". Credsticks are the most common form of currency in the midward systems, because while transactions with them are traceable, the identity of the person holding the credstick is not.

Cold hard credits, which are coins minted by the Empire that contain nanochips that can be scanned to verify their authenticity, and to track their use. Most legitimate businesses and banks scan the credits and report their use to the Central Bank on Aargau, but any individual with a hand scanner can verify the credits without reporting their use. This makes hard credits the most popular form of currency in the outer rim, because it's relatively untraceable.

I also allow local currencies, but the Empire mandates that all worlds within it's borders accept Imperial credits or else.

In my game, the Empire does not meddle with the money of the galaxy. I never worked out just why, but Palpatine does not "invent" new money, nor does he meddle with exchange rates or banking in any way. The ISB and Imperial Intelligence are both allowed full access to all banking records throughout the galaxy though.

[Barrataria]

Thanks, this is exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in. I hadn't thought about the thumbprint scan problem for aliens; maybe the "important" aliens (i.e. Mon Cal, Bothans, etc.) have "skinprints" that are analogous for the NR to rely on.

[jmanski]

[cheshire]