Has anyone run into the impulse to give players some kind of monetary credit?
We’re adding a new PC to the crew of a starship, and I want to give them credit for a workspace, without actually just installing it in the ship right away. Installation as part of a join up agreement makes sense, but it jars me to have them just jump into that commitment. This has me thinking about ways of giving them credit instead.
I think credit could be in the form of favor with a faction or I could represent it as a kind of virtual cargo — eg you have credit for one unit of class 2 cargo.
Thoughts on this? Have other people encountered this? What did you do?
My first thought is to go with a faction favor simply because you can have a lot more fun role playing the collection of that favor (what if it was a favor from a faction the players oppose?) And you can work with the player to set up the back story as to why that faction owe you a favor. Sounds like it would increase character depth and enhance player buy-in.
Favour sounds good for this case.
In other instances transportable goods can be solved like this:
My players are on the hunt for some space pirate’s treasure and have on their way aquired small, but valuable Cargo that doesn’t take up Cargo space. After looting the corpse of an ancient pirate slumped in the corner of a labyrinthine space crypt one player ended up with gold jewelery worth a class 1 Cargo.
I was honestly also thinking about sometimes giving players a cred worth of class X cargo which can be used on acquisition or other barter moves.
I also second the idea of favor and debt, depending from joining player and other players debt, one faction can call in debt “we want you take take on board one of our employees to supervise your performance in this upcoming assignment we have for you.”
Thanks all! I think I will stick with giving Favor. It includes story material that simple credit does not.