Economics: No guarantees or solutions, just trade-offs
Economics is a major field of study in the Verge and Bleed; understanding economics is often important to understanding how a society operates and how that society manages to thrive and continue existing. It's not an easy to field to understand, but much of that is because as a field, it's misunderstood. Economics is not the science of money; that's finance. Economics is how policies get implemented; that's politics. Economics not about determining governmental positions; that's sociology. Economics is not about crunching numbers; that's mathematics. But at the same time, economics is all these things and more. It's all the uncertainty of the social sciences with the complex math of the physical ones; money has velocity just as assuredly as particles do, and a market can be solvent, insolvent, fast, slow, bearish, or bullish, borrowing metaphors from other fields of study while giving the false impression of similarities. Few other sciences shape civilization as directly as the Dismal Science; policies shaped by physics will not have the same impact on food prices as policies shaped by economics. And given the speed at which societies change, economics always seems to lag behind a few months to a few years with the society at large.
Technology likewise impacts economics, and nowhere is that more clear than the rise of so-called "post-scarcity" economies - much better termed "resource-based" economies. These are the default economy of much of the Verge and Bleed, but where these finite resources are distributed and how - that's economics. A Brief History of Economics in the Verge and BleedIn the beginning, there was money. And the Market saw that money was good, and so it created more of that money. This creation of money was called "growth", the Market saw that it was good indeed. And so it sought infinite, recursive growth; each quarter doing better than the quarter before - even if it meant cutting some of the company expenditures in the form of labor and customer service in the interest of driving this recursive growth. For a while, this drove technological development, especially in the area of automation: self checkout lanes, automated drone delivery, robotic manufacturing, self-driving vehicles, and it eventually lead to the development of the first fabricator.
And this changed the game. Suddenly, the focus wasn't on production or even owning the means of production anymore; manufacturing and industry were just sideshows compared to the real moneymaker. The focus wasn't on ownership of goods; it was on ownership of intellectual property and resources. Companies began to horde intellectual property, spending more money on lawsuits and influencing lobbyists to defend their property than they did to grow that property and develop new avenues and ideas. Meanwhile, resource companies monopolized mining the asteroid belt, and were able to hold entire national economies ransom. This was the state of affairs at the beginning of the Interplanetary Age. Many meta-empires are directly descended from the various nation-states or national blocs, or influenced in some way by them, and this means carrying along the economic baggage in question. However, there were attempts to move beyond the old ways of doing things - the birth of post-scarcity anarchism, for instance, which took the economic developments into consideration and sought to make the ownership of resources available for everyone. The vast distances involved, even with wormholes travel in mind, brought with it the rise of fast money and slow money, to very important concepts in modern interstellar finance. During the Utopian Era, names like Jean-Christophe Rocheford, a writer from Alpha Centauri emerged as important figures, outlining new theories of economic and social organization; his neo-mutualism and it's adjacent system of interstellar legal theories called ispism would shape the Verge and Bleed into the present, laying the groundwork for the Verge Consortium. Thinkers like Chinar Rahmanzai, Asfand Khulozai, and Fan-544 laid down the groundwork for what would evolve into post-scarcity communitarianism, while Zhou Ming and Moa Zhou, writing from Shangtao, using the principles employed by nation-states like Norway, Singapore, and China during the Interplanetary Age to outline the basics of what would become post-scarcity dirigisme and post-scarcity etairism. The God AIs had their own economic ideas as well; within their dominion, all wants had been erased and nobody went without. However, beyond the border of their territories, with the rest of human space, the God AIs employed a form of automated mercantilism with their neighbors, which included early meta-empires like the Indus-Fomalhaut Civilization (who practiced their own divergent from of interstellar mercantilism), the Sino-Civ, the Yellowstone Demarchy, the Tau Ceti Authority, and the Alpah-Centauri-Borealis Republic, along with numerous other corporations like the Verge Finance Company. The notion of an interstellar economic neighborhood developed during this time. Even with the fall of the God AIs and the rise of the meta-empires, these ideas remain; within their polities, the meta-empires and large stellar nations may practice any type of new economics, but outside, the resource economy remains the same, and so does the automated interstellar mercantilism promoted by the God AIs. Protectionism and limited trade are the order of the day in many parts, and as a result, the 27th century looks a lot like the 17th century, but with better TVs and wormholes. |
Redefined by Technology
Technology and economics exist in a feedback loop with one another; the development of a technology can alter how economies work in a big way, and vice versa, and given the acceleration of technology in the early days of the expansion into space, there has been a great deal of technological disruption to the economy. In fact, the very existence of modern post-scarcity economies have a number of technological advances to thank for their existence; without them, they might not exist.
Molecular NanotechnologyNanotechnology is the ability to produce molecular-sized machinery that's capable of breaking apart molecules and reassembling them, or assembling molecular machinery in a sort of "convergent construction" manner that allows for groups of smaller things to be assembled into larger things, and so forth. In its early days, nanotechnology was just a fancy name for a type of chemistry but at present, it's utterly redefined much of how humanity interacts with the world. Robotic factories, nanofabricators, and regular fabricators allow for advanced molecular printing and assembly of any good, provided that the device has the proper molecular blueprint, feedstock nano, and raw materials. These machines produce a tremendous amount of heat through this process, but when you have a machine that can make almost anything, and turn the carbon in plant material into the carbon to make plastic, most production costs plummet and the need for labor is virtually erased, introducing what many consider a "post-scarcity" economy. Naturally, there are still nuances, with the most common being the question of who distributes the machines, who keeps them up, who provides the feed, who provides the resources, and the like, but this technology is what makes these post-scarcity economic debates even possible.
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Nuclear FusionFew people realize just how much of a bottle neck energy is on the economy. The more energy that an economy has, the more things that economy can do; when an economy has almost infinite energy, such as with a fusion reactor - which fuses hydrogen to produce energy - the game changes in a big way. Things like molecular nanotechnology, which consume huge amounts of power, become possible.
The development of commercial fusion revolutionized the economy overnight. Things like vertical farming, indoor farms with specialized (high energy) lamps, and expansive electrical grids became possible. Fusion allowed for a single basement to produce the yield of a several acres of cropland, and it made expansive industrialization and molecular nanotech, as well as high-energy consumption automated factories, possible. Electrical vehicles that charge using publicly available charging stations, households with their own AI supervisors, cities made of smart materials, vast interplanetary colonies, automated mining facilities on distant moons and gas giants, and more are all made possible by the the existence of the fusion economy; dirt cheap energy that runs on several pounds of the most abundant matter in the known universe. |
AutomationWhile molecular nanotechnology can use the properties of convergent assembly to produce a wide array of goods, nanotanks only get so big before heat makes them impractical or even dangerous. For large-scale items - cars, person yachts, starships, planes, military vehicles, and the like - robotic factories are called in. These factories take the various pieces that are "grown" in the nanofactories and assemble them without any human oversight at all, relying completely on robotics.
Many service-sector jobs have even been automated as well, with waitstaff positions often handled by a machine interface, as have many customer service situations as well. Even some creative position have been automated, although these tend to be rarer. Layers, accountants, surgeons, many offices in government and corporate bureaucracies, and even some low-level judicial positions all rely on automation now, with an expert system or NAI/LAI overseeing the effort. This has erased the need for human labor outside of many specialized situations, and opened the door for everyone to purse the job of becoming an inventor, business owner, or creative, which has altered the economy in fundamental ways and drive IP fights to the fore. |
Slow Currency and the economics of colonizationSpace colonization is unfathomably expensive; even with the wormhole the cost of constructing the starships, colonies, terraforming, and settling is still well beyond the reach of all but the most powerful governments, megacorps, and other entities. This was especially true in the beginning, without the wormhole network. Only governments could afford to soak the loss and sponsor new colonies and even then, just barely; the colonization effort was fed mostly by the flush of wealth from asteroid mining and the fusion economy established on Earth. To help bridge this gap and get the private sector into the race for colonizing worlds, a number of financial institutions developed a type of currency that's called slow currency. The concept proved so successful that even today, slow currency is still used in the Verge and Bleed. Slow currency, in the beginning, arose from a sort of cryptographic digital currency that allowed party A to send money to party B, but so long as party C was present to notarize the transaction so both parties knew they weren't getting scammed. Party C could only access the currency through a special cryptographic key, in much the same way that earlier cryptocurrencies had worked (although it's wrong to call slow currency a development of cryptocurrency; it uses the same technologies, but the purpose and goal are vastly differently), with Party C often being in a different system from Party A and Party B. The "money" in this case was slow maturing bonds that matured on the scale of 100s or even 1000s of years - from the perspective of party C. So Party A would buy up the cryptographic bonds issued by Party B, but only Party C would have the cryptographic key required to ensure that the bonds were correct. Party B, the new colony, used this to shore up their debt while Party A, the individual party sending the colony, picked up the coupon payment based on maturation rates agreed upon by Party A and Party B and set by Party C; often, Party C was a government or the affairs were backed up with government securities. This was first employed within the solar system to colonize the Oort cloud, but it rapidly expanded from there. The name arises from the fact that in absence of wormholes, it only move at 1/3 the speed of light. Colonies were stronger economies were better able to support their debt, and soon colonies with stronger economies realized that they could make money simply trading their cryptographic keys. Corporations began purchasing stock in the strength of these cryptographic keys, and soon the keys, which were backed by the strength of bonds, became a type of currency in their own right. This was the beginning of slow currency; currency supported by the trade of government bond from various colonies, functionally turning the government itself into a commodity (or, in the case of megastructures, the megastructure itself became the thing that supported the currency; this is why the Rai, the Verge Consortium's slow currency, is so strong: it's supported by the Sothic ringworld). This currency could even be used to support loans itself; the Verge Finance Corporation (the predecessor of the Verge Consortium) emerged as the first entity to take this route, and neo-mutualism as it exists only works because of the existence of slow money. As you might imagine, the existence of slow money is the ban of automated mercantilism, but that's a different topic. |
Post-Scarcity Economics
By classical definition, a post-scarcity economy is any economy where most goods can be produced in great abundance, absent a great deal of human labor. In fact, the price to produce the goods is so low that the goods can be produced and sold practically for free. This does not mean that all scarcity is eliminated - such a thing is functionally impossible - but it does mean that scarcity of most basic goods is no longer a major concern. Often, the modern term for a post-scarcity economy is an intellectual economy, a resource economy, or a distribution economy, since figuring out how ownership of ideas, resources, and the chain of distribution is calculated becomes more important than figuring out how to produce the goods. With this definition in mind, most economies can be classified as "post-scarcity" throughout the Verge and Bleed, although how precisely that manifests can vary from polity to polity.
Post-scarcity economies are often contrasted with two other types of economies: classical economies and reputation-based economies, although there's often overlap between the three categories and it can be hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. A classical economy is the old style economy; where manufacturing and the creation of goods and services is tied to the national economy and drives the economy itself; classical economies can still use the same technologies as a post-scarcity one, but a classical economy that makes widespread use of nanotechnology and fusion technology, along with automation, is a meta-stable one at best. Classical economies tend to be consumer-economies, and without consumers, or with a huge population of under-employed or unemployed homeless and starving individuals who can't find jobs and can't get the money needed to participate in the economy, the economy faces one of two outcomes: brutal and regressive authoritarianism that will only last as long as the the powerful can keep their thumb on the powerless or full-scale revolution, followed shortly by a return to the normal way of doing things until the next revolution happens to repeat the cycle. This makes classical economies the ban of modern economies and many interstellar banks and industries won't do business with classically capitalist economies, because they are are so unstable and they're unstable on short time periods; a matter of decades, if not years, which is anathema to the type of slow-money investment that interstellar financiers prefer. Reputation-based economies, meanwhile, are usually considered a special type of post-scarcity communitarianism (see below) and are sometimes called post-scarcity anarchism; they will be dealt with separately.
While there are many breakpoints on the axis of "post-scarcity economy," there are three broad and nebulous "categories" that the various ideologies that define the fight over post-scarcity economies tend to break into. It should be noted that these three are not mutually exclusive and combinations of them are often the rule, not the exception.
Post-scarcity economies are often contrasted with two other types of economies: classical economies and reputation-based economies, although there's often overlap between the three categories and it can be hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. A classical economy is the old style economy; where manufacturing and the creation of goods and services is tied to the national economy and drives the economy itself; classical economies can still use the same technologies as a post-scarcity one, but a classical economy that makes widespread use of nanotechnology and fusion technology, along with automation, is a meta-stable one at best. Classical economies tend to be consumer-economies, and without consumers, or with a huge population of under-employed or unemployed homeless and starving individuals who can't find jobs and can't get the money needed to participate in the economy, the economy faces one of two outcomes: brutal and regressive authoritarianism that will only last as long as the the powerful can keep their thumb on the powerless or full-scale revolution, followed shortly by a return to the normal way of doing things until the next revolution happens to repeat the cycle. This makes classical economies the ban of modern economies and many interstellar banks and industries won't do business with classically capitalist economies, because they are are so unstable and they're unstable on short time periods; a matter of decades, if not years, which is anathema to the type of slow-money investment that interstellar financiers prefer. Reputation-based economies, meanwhile, are usually considered a special type of post-scarcity communitarianism (see below) and are sometimes called post-scarcity anarchism; they will be dealt with separately.
While there are many breakpoints on the axis of "post-scarcity economy," there are three broad and nebulous "categories" that the various ideologies that define the fight over post-scarcity economies tend to break into. It should be noted that these three are not mutually exclusive and combinations of them are often the rule, not the exception.
Post-Scarcity CommunitarianismWith post-scarcity communitarianism, the community tends to own or lease the nanofactories and robotic factories, and are responsible for the upkeep and administration of these devices. In some instances, the communities have say over what their fabricators can and can't produce, leasing the IP they want from megacorps or hypercorps (or even forming a community hypercorp to establish their own local IP; blurring the lines between it and post-scarcity etairism). In other instances, a supervising government leases the IP, acting as a middle man between the community and the corporations that own the IP. In some instances, all of the above are true. "Community" is used loosely here; it's often called post-scarcity localism as well, to reflect the "local" nature. Given that the communities often vote a board of directors to oversee the IP and lease the IP, or the local governments of such communities establish a board, it does not automatically imply anarchism.
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Post-scarcity DirigismeWith post-scarcity dirigisme, the government gets involved. There are various government agencies that own and supervise the nanofactories and robotic factories and that handle the upkeep of the devices, managing the stock and leasing or even outright purchasing the intellectual property. Dirigiste governments often tend to be very active in the market, using taxes and government ownership over resource acquisition and distribution firms to pay for the nanofabricators, keeping them open to all members of the society or government have access to a specific card (usually a sort of national ID, or NID). Price-fixing, distribution ownership, VAT taxes, tariffs, and the like are all features of post-scarcity dirigiste economies. The active government role tends to get these labeled as post-scarcity state socialist economies, and these often take on shades of a planned economy, where the state determine what the public fabbers can and can't produce.
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Post-Scarcity EtairismWith post-scarcity etairism, the ownership of the public-access fabricators is in the hands of the corporations that own the IP said fabricators produce. Thus, corporations - often megacorps but also hypercorps - manage the upkeep and provide the feedstock and blueprints that the public access fabricators use. This type of post-scarcity is common in corporate owned habitats, but it can also appear along side government ownership as well, where the government still believes in a neoclassical approach and thus, subsidizes corporations to provide public access to the fabricators.
Etairism occurs with worker-owned collectives, too; in this way, it often overlaps with post-scarcity communitarianism to produce a type of post-scarcity syndicalism; the best example of this being Nariac prior to the rise of Saminov, at which point it took on features of a tradition post-scarcity socialist state. Insight is also a good example. |
How Post-Scarcity Civilizations InteractWhile the three above - post-scarcity communitarianism, post-scarcity dirigisme, and post-scarcity etairism/syndicalism - form the backbones of intrastate and intra-nation economies. However, the Verge and Bleed consists of more than just state; how these states interact and the nature of foreign policy is shaped by these post-scarcity entities as well.
Automated Mercantilism and Interstellar Tariffs Automated Mercantilism emerged with the writings of Gian Santana and Diana Prado, but it really took off with the God AIs, who made rigorous use of it to maintain their own highly-advanced post-scarcity economy. AM (as it's often called) seeks to maximize imports while minimizing exports, promoting expansionism, tariffs, subsidization of businesses and distribution networks, control over the movement of capital, and centralizes both currency and control over wormholes in the hands of a single government. Automated mercantilism is in many ways the defining ideology of the modern meta-empires (which makes the Verge Consortium so unusual for rejecting it in favor of neo-mutualism; see below). It's called automated because the colonies that produce the raw materials necessary for the home economy are almost entirely automated at this point, with expert systems and AGIs fanning out and forming new "colonies" that harvest raw materials to be produced by the home economy through the various means, and these materials are then used to bolster the growth of the home economy. It's also sometimes called wormhole mercantilism or wormhole imperialism, since it depends on control over and expansion through wormholes. Neo-Mutualism and Ispism Neo-mutualism stands in sharp contrast with automated mercantilism; as an ideology, it emerged with the writings of Jean-Christophe Rocheford, who was critical of the God AI economies and felt that the God AIs and civilization would benefit better if they all worked together. Rocheford posited a situation where the various components of interstellar civilization - the corporations, the governments, the labor unions, the syndicates, and the like - are all individual entities and thus, principles of anarchist thought could be write large and applied to these entities as well. Using the principles of slow money, Rocheford created an economic system where a third party that was composed of members would validate and hold control over cryptographic keys between colonies and those who financed them; a unified third party that everyone agreed to follow because its membership included everyone involved with the slow currency trade, so everyone had a stake in the game. This was similar to the idea of a mutually owned bank or mutually owned finance institution - a sort of credit union for governments, corporations, and the like, but that worked in government, corporate, colony, and syndical bonds. As trade of cryptographic keys turned the keys themselves into a type of currency, the idea of a member-owned credit union that offered low-interest loans using these cryptographic keys as support made the metaphor of a community-owned credit union into a reality. Since this relies on the trade of government bonds and the free flow of resources between governments, neo-mutualism is in many ways starkly opposed to the automated mercantilism of the other meta-empires. Ispism, meanwhile, is a legal theory that arises from neo-mutualism which holds that governments, syndicates, labor unions, corporations, and the like are all legal entities with the same standing in the eyes of the mutual union, unless one legally suborns themselves to the others. This is a defining feature, since it means that all members are treated equally, even if the members are governments and corporations and not individuals. Neo-Mutualism is sometimes called liberal trade theory. |
Life Within a Post-Scarcity CivilizationPost-scarcity economies, on the surface, are not too dissimilar to economies at the end of the 20th century, especially for those from the developed world, but are very different in other respects. Citizens have access to public nanofabrication that can produce most thing; silk sheets, food, non-branded dumb clothing, dumb furniture made of things like oak and hardwood, and the like all available to all citizens, whether or not those citizens engage in with the economy or choose to drop out. This is perhaps the biggest difference; it's possible to survive in a post-scarcity economy without directly participating in the economy (this is more common in post-scarcity dirgiste societies than post-scarcity communitarian or post-scarcity etairism). However, large items - electronics in particular but also cars, vehicles, smart clothing, smart furniture, and the like - are often available only to those who have money and can participate in the economy. The precise nature of what is and isn't allowed varies from meta-empire to meta-empire; most allow the basic fundamentals for survival to be produced by the public nanofabricators, but what is and isn't a "fundamental for survival" varies depending on definition; in most, electronics are not considered fundamental, but many disagree with this, arguing that mesh and grid access, and therefore, the technology that is necessary to access it, is fundamental to human survival and thus should be considered a human right. Functionally, this means that nobody ever goes without food or clothing. Often especially in post-scarcity dirgiste economies, there are also large-scale public housing complexes as well, so all the basic needs are met, resulting in a situation that people who poorly understand the situation refer to as "socialism," despite the world not really applying anymore. This is true in post-scarcity etairism, as well, but not necessarily in post-scarcity communitarianism, since it depends on how the community feels like treating individuals - although it's important to remember that the three can exist alongside one another in the same society. However, things like guns, smart clothing, electronics, smart furniture, and the like all tend to be require purchase from a licensed vendor, who produces the material out of their shop using IP they leased from the IP holder. Within many post-scarcity societies there are often reputation networks; these networks are usually constrained to small subcultures and factions that operate within the paradigm of these entities although it isn't unusual for a national government to give out reputation, either, which may or may not be monitored by a national bank of some kind to ensure stability. Often, these are seen as secondary measures within the economy, and are often not fully supported by the state. Subcultures, however, often make heavy use of reputation networks and calling in favors, but these networks tend to be regulated by the members themselves. For many states, a regimen of different taxes is used to pay for the public access fabricators; that, or the state outsources the care and upkeep for the fabricators to large corporations or to the communities themselves, who can set rules on how, where and who gets to use them. |
VAriations on a ThemeThere are any number of ways that an economy can form; below are some of the most common forms that have emerged in the Verge and Bleed: Haleism Named after Christopher Hale, the former Regent of Bluefall, Haleism is a type of post-scarcity dirigisme where control over the intellectual property is given to private companies that lease it out to the nation government through a variety of different agreements. Ownership of the public fabricators falls to a national government, who manages the upkeep, as is traditional with post-scarcity dirigisme. The major feature with Haleism is that these fabricators are often centrally located in urban areas, rather than rural areas, which encourages a type of urban redevelopment and the growth of large cities and urban areas, as opposed to planned villages. New Urbanism The New Urbanism meme combines a type of post-scarcity communitarianism with a planned villages to produce a highly localized economy. The ownership of the fabricators in New Urbanism falls to the community, who often elect a board of supervisors who manage the fabricators and ensure they're stocked and such. Since it makes heavy use of planned villages, New Urbanist encampments can sometimes be confused for city-states practicing post-scarcity dirgisme, although the ownership of the intellectual property is often privately held and leased through a large national government-like entity that leases the IP. However, the community, not the government, determines what can and can't be produced in the public fabricators, which means that nations who practice New Urbanism tend to have a patchwork of communities each with their own standards for what can and can't be produced in their fabricators, all of which are accessible to anyone who lives within the nation proper. State Etairism State Etairism combines aspect of government control with Etairism; in this paradigm, governments lease out the ownership and upkeep of the public-access fabricators to corporations, who also provide the intellectual property. However, with etairism, these corporations are often state-subsidized hypercorps that are run locally, who are solely devoted to the upkeep of the devices, while other hypercorps specialize in the production of IP; this has the effect of the government becoming a massive distributed network of hypercorps, each devoted to creating a specific type of IP for the public fabricators. Technosocialism Technsosocialism is a type of post-scarcity dirigisme or post-scarcity communitarianism where the government or supervisory body that runs the community both owns and leases the intellectual property to the nanofabricators. Within a technosocialist system, any intellectual property created by the citizens is purchased by the state and then made available to the masses at large through the public-access nanofabricators. In this system, the citizens are usually rewarded with reputation (if it is, then it becomes a reputation-based economy) or with currency that they then use to by things that the the government doesn't own, or to buy things from the government that aren't leased under the public-access fabricators. The technosocialist meme combines this with a flat, transparent government that is usually some type of technocracy or direct/semi-direct democracy. It's also sometimes called the university model. |
Corporations and Post-Scarcity
Corporation has several meanings throughout the Verge and Bleed, and all of them are shaped by the post-scarcity technologies that shape the modern age, as well as the availability of slow capital and money in contrast with fast money, with the precise definition sometimes varying within a polity. At their heart, all of them are the same: a collection of people working towards a single goal, often the ownership of specific IP, production of new IP, or the ownership of various distribution chains, resource acquisition, and the like. Historically, corporations have also been concerned with growth and return on investment for shareholders, often on a quarter-by-quarter basis, but this is no longer the case for the very largest of them and for many of the smallest as well: the very nature of space travel and the distances involved, as well as the existence of slow money and slow-stocks, means that many businesses - especially so-called megacorporations - have to think on much larger time scale than quarter to quarter, and as a result, there are corporations that exist that don't concern themselves with quarterly profits at all, preferring instead to measure growth on the order of decades or even centuries.
HypercorpHypercorporations are highly specialized, small firms that tend to focus on just one specific area or field of intellectual property while realizingly relatively local (hence their name: hypercorp, from hyperspecialized corporation). They tend to focus on one or two fields rather than attempting the massive integration strategies of the megacorporations, and often very good at the areas they focus on. Hypercorporations are also very good at working together, owing to their small size, specialization, and high dependence on automation. Hypercorps are a product of post-scarcity economies and many of them can only exist within a post-scarcity dirigiste or post-scarcity communitarian style system. Speaking generally, they don't involve themselves in R&D by may work with other hypercorps to produce an "R&D Collective" that all of them can benefit from. The major feature is their flexibility their tendency to form alliances and work together, although on the scale of megacorp time, such alliances are often fleeting and short-lived (exceptions tend to produce keiretsu corps or "man-o-war" corps; see Megacorporation). Hypercorps often trade stock, but their stock is fast stock, and traded with fast money. From a legal perspective, hypercorps are subject to national laws, and the Verge Consortium tends to view hypercorps as individuals rather than collectives, and so it doesn't deal with hypercorps directly.
There are two types: there's the IP production type, which focuses on just one type of IP or a cluster of related IP types (for instance, a specific type of computer hardware), while others focus on production of tools and devices that public nanofabricators can't produce. For this reason, hypercorps don't exist in pure reputation-based economies, although hypercorps will freely make use of reputation. Despite this, there are some exceptions; a few hypercorps become large enough to dominate their field and produce a number of still related but more broadly focused IPs; for instance, AoiGenomics on Bluefall, which is agriculture, genetics, etc. |
MegacorpLegally speaking, a megacorporation is a corporation that behaves less like a private entity and more like a government. They are massively integrated entities, practicing both horizontal and vertical integration. They often use profits obtained from one area of the business to help overcome costs in other areas, opening up new markets for by simply throwing money a the problem of barriers for entry. These companies often don't turn profits as a result, or if they do, they only turn profits in certain sectors. Investors are promised returns on stocks rather than shares of the profit, and they are always traded on stock markets as a result, both fast and slow, since they often stretch across many different systems. They depend on extensive automation and and the tools of post-scarcity, and while they may lack flexibility - being monolithic giants who span many different systems - they make up for it by having access to tremendous resources and their own R&D department to develop their own IP. Sometimes megacorps license their IP out to smaller hypercorps, although just as often, they own any middle-man production or practice a type of Etairism. Megacorporations are often not subject to national or government laws, and may even establish laws of their own in a given territory.
Not all megacorps are owned by private individuals; a fair number of them, called Mondragon Corporations, are owned by their workers; Insight is one such company, and Nariac is often said to be another. Another example of an odd type of megacorp is the keiretsu corp (informally called a "man-o-war corp") which takes its name from the Japanese concept of companies working together with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings; modern keiretsu is actually a collection of hypercorps that as a unified whole become large enough to challenge a megacorporation. Terragenesis is an example of this type of megacorporation, although it's often just called a Mondragon Corporation, since all the hypercorps involved are owned by the employees. |
MicrocorpA microcorporation is often confused for a hypercorp, but there are a few very important distinctions. Like hypercorps, microcorps tend to be small, single-IP endeavors, often focusing on just one field or a collection of closely related fields. They often rely on heavy automation and computation, and they are usually fairly good at working together; a microcorp may even work along side a number of hypercorps in a situation where there is a governmental entity to oversee them. The major difference between microcorporations and hypercorporations is the microcorps are funded through collective effort, usually through a crowdfunding mechanism or through a state (they are a very common feature under technosocialist schemes), they engage in IP and R&D, often on behalf of a technosocialist or reputation-based state, and they are often goal-focused; once they achieve that goal, they disband.
Since microcorps are involved in research and development as well as the manufacturing of new types of IP, it's uncommon to see them sell anything or to even turn a profit, and they are never traded on the open market. Depending on the intellectual property rules of the state in question, the microcorp may only be able to sell any IP they develop to the state or the collective that funded them, and in exchange, the individuals who founded the microcorp gain some sort of restitution or payment for their effort, either in the form of reputation or money, or the microcorp may be able to lease IP to hypercorps who then produce the IP they developed (paying the state the licensing fee or royalties), or they give their findings back directly to the community, making it available to everyone. The later is common in post-scarcity anarchist habitats and territories. Microcorps, despite their name, do not have to be small (speaking in terms of assets that they control). They're called microcorps because they're the opposite of a megacorp in almost every way. |
Trading Stock: Fast Stock and Slow StockMany corporations trade in stock, although where they trade and how they trade depends on the market itself. The largest stock exchange in the Verge and Bleed is the VEX, which trades on a millisecond by millisecond basis; prices can fluctuate wildly over the course of a day from open to close, and that's to say nothing of futures. Of course, institutions like the VEX run into problems when discussions of light lag are factored in; even with quick transportation through the wormholes, it still months to get from end of the Verge to the other in optimistic scenarios. Given megacorps are often large enough to operate at this scale, new mechanisms were needed to ensure that they didn't lose everything they had because it takes them so long to respond. As a result, VEX trades stock in the largest of megacorporations using both fast currency and slow currency. Slow stocks are saved exclusively for the largest of megacorporations and these markets are very difficult to get into, but also incredibly lucrative. Meanwhile, VEX's fast stocks are saved for local hypercorps and smaller megacorporations that operate locally (with respect to the VEX office in question, usually with one VEX office per planet or major population center). Stocks are not traded using reputation; they are only traded using currency, whatever the local currency happens to be. VEX itself is technically a hypercorp; a corporation specialized in the trade of stocks and managing that trade, although it also works in commodity markets, as well. It is possible to buy stock in VEX, although VEX only sells its stock as fast stock, not slow stock. VEX is highly automated as well, and every ten years VEX goes through an Interoffice Realignment, where its various offices exchange data and information so they can fix price drifts on the slow stock market. |
Reputation-Based Economics
While they are often included apart from the standard post-scarcity economy, reputation-based economics are technically a subtype. The defining characteristic of a reputation-based economy is the existence of social networks, which is how reputation is kept and regulated, and a rejection of traditional currency. Even the most ardent post-scarcity economies still make use of some form of currency, here defined as a liquid asset that is (a) fungible (b) durable (c) portable (d) recognizable and (e) stable. In these economies, the basics tend to be supplied through public access fabricators while the more advanced materials, including smart clothing, electronics, and the like, must all be purchased using some type of currency; in this manner, the state can perpetuate itself through an economic system that isn't too dissimilar to the models that came before. Reputation-based economies, however, reject currency (in theory; in practice, reputation can sometimes serve the role as currency) and instead reward members who participate within the community using reputation points; the higher one's reputation, the more likely one is to receive assistance when they call for it on their social media networks. These networks are used for pulling in favors, where a favor can be anything from a blueprint for a specific type of shoe that are then used in the community-owned nanofabricators to access to certain files that only specific individuals have access too. This highlights another feature specific to reputation-based economies: intellectual property is owned by the community rather than a specific individual, and there is often very little regards for IP outside of the community, as well.
An individual gains higher reputation for doing things with the community, being a good citizen, participating in the social norms, and the like, and is penalized reputation for not participating, for being a poor citizen, for violating social norms, and such. Reputation-based economies are not mutually exclusive with larger post-scarcity economies; wherever there is a social network, there's a reputation-based economy or the potential for one; high standing with the community or subculture results in an easier time getting favors from the community, while lower standing results in a harder time getting anyone to listen to you.
The most famous type of reputation-based economics is post-scarcity anarchism, but there are other types as well.
An individual gains higher reputation for doing things with the community, being a good citizen, participating in the social norms, and the like, and is penalized reputation for not participating, for being a poor citizen, for violating social norms, and such. Reputation-based economies are not mutually exclusive with larger post-scarcity economies; wherever there is a social network, there's a reputation-based economy or the potential for one; high standing with the community or subculture results in an easier time getting favors from the community, while lower standing results in a harder time getting anyone to listen to you.
The most famous type of reputation-based economics is post-scarcity anarchism, but there are other types as well.
Post-Scarcity AnarchismWhen most people think of post-scarcity economics, this is what they think of: post-scarcity anarchism. Post-scarcity anarchism is an extreme form of post-scarcity communitarianism without any sort of hierarchy or leadership at all; all of the rules and regulations for the community are voted for by the people who live in, and if the people who live in a community want to change those rules, they can. Often, post-scarcity anarchism is paired with a leftist form of anarchism, since those are the ones that last the longest. This can result in things like post-scarcity libertarian Marxism and the like, as well as post-scarcity mutualism (not to be confused with neo-mutualism, the interstellar trade philosophy), with the precise difference depending on the group in question; most take a technosocialist approach to intellectual property, with the designer getting "paid" in reputation.
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Post-Scarcity STatismWhile post-scarcity anarchism gets the lion's share of attention, there's another type of reputation-based economy that exists: post-scarcity statism. Post-scarcity statism is best exemplified by the Imperium: the Imperium has done away with money entirely, and everyone works for the state, meaning the state rewards individuals in reputation which they can then use to call on favors. Post-scarcity statism has the advantage of having an advisory body to monitor the stability of the reputation as opposed to the value of reputation fluctuating wildly, but it also can't respond as quick to changes as post-scarcity anarchism can and, of course, it requires a state. A variant is systemism, a type practiced during the Utopian Era where a lesser ASI would manage society and serve the function of the state with regards to monitoring reputation's stability, but the citizens themselves decide who gets and who loses reputation.
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DemarchismTechnically classified as type of post-scarcity anarchism, although there is disagreement on this fact, demarchism combines the economic principles of a reputation-based economy with the political principles of demarchy, or sortition. Individuals who are nominated to serve in government receive reputation for their service based on how well their service went; this reputation doesn't serve an economic function as much as it does boost their chances of being selected at random again to once more lead the colony or the state. Politicians and representatives are only allowed to use reputation while in office (or they use a specific type of reputation), meaning that if their favor drops with the general populace or their constituents, then not only do they risk losing office, they find it harder to accomplish things. This model can exist within a post-scarcity state or post-scarcity anarchism; it first appeared in Yellowstone.
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How Reputation-based Cultures interactThe interactions between various reputation-based societies depends on faction more than any sort of allegiance to a grand ideal like a nation. For instance, the Autonomist Alliance is the largest network of anarchists, and it consists of numerous different types of anarchism and the different forms that it can take. These groups, all of them unified by their shared adherence to post-scarcity anarchism, tend to largely get along.
Reputation does not always transition between networks, however, and the best example of this is the Imperium. The Imperium is widely regarded by many as a form of fascism (this is wholly incorrect given the Imperium, while aggressively authoritarian, models itself after older pre-fascist governments with a new technological sheen and rejects fascism, with its emphasis on capitalism, as one of the many mistakes that humanity has made), and as such, reputation earned on an Imperial network will absolutely not transition to reputation on an anarchist network. However, there are some exceptions; for instance, most nations, including post-scarcity ones, tend to have their own reputation networks (albeit underdeveloped ones); national reputation is often good with other factions who align themselves with that national identity, but the reverse isn't true; the faction and subculture reputation is not recognized among entities that only accept the national reputation. This asymmetry characterizes economies that are reputation-based, and is one of the reasons why so many divergent networks exist. ∎ |
Life Within a Reputation-based CultureWithin a Reputation-based society, life tends to be a little more freeform. Almost everything that a "citizen" could want is available from the fabricators; there is no enforced scarcity such as there is within the ironically named post-scarcity civilization. Public-access fabricators can produce anything from electronics to smart clothes to firearms (depending on the people) to furniture and the like. Access requires having a certain degree of reputation within the civilization, however; they don't just open the doors to anyone. Similarly, maintaining a high reputation is key; this often means living up to the norms of the civilization or society, and contributing where possible with one's unique talents. This usually means ensuring that your personal part of the station is clean and kept up, but adding new IP and ideas is always welcome. A high reputation is good, since not everything is a commodity or material and services require individuals to perform and that requires maintaining a good reputation with the community. Reputation-based societies don't necessarily exist independent of traditional post-scarcity societies; the two can (and often do) co-exist, with the larger civilization managing currency and economics while subgroups and subcultures handle the issue with reputation and social networking. However, when on talks about reputation-based cultures, they're usually talking about ones that exist independently. |
GAme Information: Living in a reputation-based World
Skills: Accounting (IQ/H), Administration (IQ/A), Current Affairs/TL11 (Business) (IQ/E), Diplomacy (IQ/H), Economics (IQ/H), Finance (IQ/H), Law (Corporate, Financial, Trade, etc.) (IQ/H), Merchant (IQ/A), Politics (IQ/A), Propaganda/TL11 (IQ/A), Savoir-Faire (various) (IQ/E), Smuggling (IQ/A), Sociology (IQ/H).
For many people in the Verge and Bleed, the reality is that reputation is a major feature of their day-to-day lives; even in those that lack well-developed reputation networks still depend on their social network to call in favors and the like. This section details how players can make the most use of living in a reputation-based economy. The following rules are modifications to the Reputation trait (p. B26-8).
Reputation: the BasicsReputation maps fairly well to the extant GURPS Reputation system as it already exists; each +/- in Reputation translates as +/- 25 points, with reputation networks working on a scale of -100 to +100, with -100 being the worst and +100 being the best. Thus, as characters buy up their reputation with factions and groups, they spend points to increase it by 25-point block. Reputation of this type is treated as "All the time," since anyone can access it using online features. There are four broad network-types: National, Organization, Social Movement/Cultural, and Subcultural. When purchasing Reputation for National Networks or for certain Cultures (like Solarians, Spacers, Skimmers, Ultimates, and the like) you use the x1/2 modifier. When you purchase reputation with Organizations and Subcultures, you use the x1/3 modifier. Thus, purchasing National Reputation and reputation with a whole culture is [3/per level] while purchasing Organization Reputation and reputation with a subculture is [1/per level]. For major network rep, see below. Reputation with Organizations and National Governments is capped at +2 with individuals who lack ranks in Administration with that government or organization. Every 2 ranks of Administration provides a further +1 Reputation free. This restriction does not apply to cultures and subcultures. |
Networking 101 and calling in favorsMaking the most out of Reputation means using it for more than just a reaction booster. While Reputation does boost (or penalize) reaction checks, there are other ways to use it in this setting, and that involves using Reputation to call in favor on social networks. Each group that you purchase Reputation with has their own social network that you can use to call in favors on. For governments, this means using various government social media accounts, or business-related accounts in the case of corporations. For cultures and subcultures, this means accessing the right forums, which you're assumed to know how to do if you have Computer Operation at your IQ. To call in a favor on the network, you make a check with one of two skills, adding your Reputation bonus to the check: National Networks and Organizations: use Administration (IQ/A) or Diplomacy (IQ/H), depending on the network. Cultures and subcultures: use Savoir-Faire (culture/subculture) (IQ/E). Calling in a favor is as simple as making an Administration or Savoir-Faire check. Note that your Reputation modifier adds to the check; so if you have a +4 Reputation with the Dinosaur Boys subculture, then when you call in a favor on their network, you roll Savoir-Faire (Dinosaur Boys) with a +4 bonus. |
Reputation: Major Network Rep
There are thousands of networks throughout the Verge and Bleed. However, these minor networks often default to a larger network and sometimes groups will just use the largest network instead of a smaller network. Below are the largest networks in the Verge and Bleed that most smaller networks will default to. These networks are functionally a fifth network type; they constitute the x2/3 cost modifier and thus, are [4/per level].
Defaults between major and minor networks: Almost all smaller reputation networks should be associated with one of the above networks and depending on the situation, the GM may allow for a default between a larger network and a smaller network (although never from a smaller network to a larger network), usually at a -1 to -2 (-3 at the worst) default penalty to the associated skill. This penalty can never drop the Reputation bonus below +0, however. So, if you have Reputation +4 (a-Rep, all the time) then whenever you deal with a person who works with the Andromeda Regency directly, you have a +4 bonus. And since the Andromeda Regency is large, you can call on them practically anywhere. However, if you go to Bluefall, the Democratic Bluefall Regency uses their own national reputation system: BlueGov. But since Bluefall is part of the Andromeda Regency (a major part but still part), it would make sense for BlueGov-rep to default to a-Rep at a -2 penalty; so when dealing with the Andromeda Regency directly, you have a +4. When dealing with the Democratic Bluefall Regency, you have a +2. If you had a-Rep +1, then you would effectively have BlueGov-rep +0, not BlueGov-rep -1.
However, the reverse is not true. Just because you have a +3 BlueGov-Rep does not mean you have a-Rep +1, unless the GM feels the situation is specific enough to allow it. Note that this works for even smaller subcultures; returning to Bluefall, since every subculture on Bluefall defaults to BlueGov rep (or/in addition to some other reputation network), this means the BlueGov-Rep +3 is functionally Rep +1 (Atistu subculture) or some other subculture on Bluefall. Note that this default bonus is not in addition to existing Reputation; you pick either your existing reputation or the default bonus when you make the check. The two don't stack. Note that you can't buy up from a default, either; thus, you may have Rep +1 in a Bluefallen subculture, but if you BlueGov +4, the default will still be better than your native reputation, since the default will be +2. The trade off, of course, is the BlueGov is [3/level] where local subcultures are [1/level], so having BlueGov +2 [6 points] is more expensive than having a subculture at +4 [4 points], especially considering you only have the subculture at +1. There is no default between local subcultures and meta-empire reputation.
- The Circle-A List (@-Rep): This covers autonomists of all stripes, from extropians to anarchists to anarcho-capitalists to companies that have agreed to the Mondragon accords like Insight. The skill is Savoir-Faire (Autonomists).
- AndroStrada (a-Rep): this covers the Andromeda Regency meta-empire in specific, including all of the major bodies that are associated with the meta-empire, such as the Parliament, the attached organs, the military, and the like. It also covers the Council of Andromeda, as well. The skill is Administration.
- CivicNet (c-Rep): This covers most hypercorps, megacorps, governments, government-like organizations, and similar entities. It's also the default Reputation network for the Verge Consortium meta-empire in specific, and is managed by the VC directly. The skill is Administration.
- EcoWave (e-Rep): This covers nano-ecologists, preservationists, ecoherents, Earth reclaimers, terraformers, terraria designers, and similar individuals, as well as corporations that have a distinctive environmental bend like Alhambra and Terragenesis. The skill is Savoir-Faire (Ecologists) or Administration, depending on situation.
- Fame (f-Rep): This covers the socialites, the artists, the glitterati, the media, the thespians, performers, and the like. The skill is Savoir-Faire (High Society).
- Guanxi (g-Rep): This covers criminals, terrorists, leg-breakers, organized crime, unorganized crime, human traffickers, and similar illegal or illicit activities. The skill is Streetwise.
- The Imperial Way (i-Rep): This covers the Aquila Imperium meta-empire in specific, including all of the major bodies that are associated with the meta-empire, such as the Church of the Imperial Creed. The skill is Administration.
- The Beam (l-Rep): This covers all Lasers and groups associated with Lasers. Unlike other factions, Lasers tend to be fairly homogenous in terms of reputation, and even cliques do develop, it isn't to the extent of other factions. The skill is Savoir-Faire (Law Enforcement).
- The Crown (m-Rep): This covers the Pavonis Monarchy meta-empire in specific, including all of the major bodies that are associated with the meta-empire, such as the royal houses and the militaries attached to them, as well as the ruling house. The skill is Savoir-Faire (High Society); Heraldry at IQ and Social Rank above 0 are a required prerequisite skill and advantage before any rep in this network is allowed.
- The People's Networked Republic (n-Rep): this covers the Nariac Republic meta-empire in specific, including all of the major bodies that are associated with the meta-empire, such as the military, the various branches of the Body Soviet, and other groups. The skill is Administration.
- Research Network Associates (r-Rep): this covers technologists, engineers, researchers, scientists, academics, and other groups who are involved in research and scientific development of materials. The skill is either Savoir-Faire (Academic) or Administration, depending on situation.
- The Sanctum Aqdas (s-Rep): This covers all of the organized religions, and is managed by a neutral, third party that is independent of all the religious organizations. This is not the default network for the Ummah, although the Ummah does use it. The associated skill with Savoir-Fair (Theologian).
- The TechNet (t-Rep): This covers the Borealis Technocracy meta-empire in specific, including all of the major bodies that are associated with the meta-empire, such as the state governments, the military, and the like. The skill is Administration.
- Gatecrashers, Explorers, and Spacers (x-Rep): this covers spacers, explorers, gatecrashers (those who travel trough unknown wormholes to new, previously unexplored locations), and groups associated with them. The skill is Administration or Savoir-Fair (Ultraterrestrial), depending on the situation.
Defaults between major and minor networks: Almost all smaller reputation networks should be associated with one of the above networks and depending on the situation, the GM may allow for a default between a larger network and a smaller network (although never from a smaller network to a larger network), usually at a -1 to -2 (-3 at the worst) default penalty to the associated skill. This penalty can never drop the Reputation bonus below +0, however. So, if you have Reputation +4 (a-Rep, all the time) then whenever you deal with a person who works with the Andromeda Regency directly, you have a +4 bonus. And since the Andromeda Regency is large, you can call on them practically anywhere. However, if you go to Bluefall, the Democratic Bluefall Regency uses their own national reputation system: BlueGov. But since Bluefall is part of the Andromeda Regency (a major part but still part), it would make sense for BlueGov-rep to default to a-Rep at a -2 penalty; so when dealing with the Andromeda Regency directly, you have a +4. When dealing with the Democratic Bluefall Regency, you have a +2. If you had a-Rep +1, then you would effectively have BlueGov-rep +0, not BlueGov-rep -1.
However, the reverse is not true. Just because you have a +3 BlueGov-Rep does not mean you have a-Rep +1, unless the GM feels the situation is specific enough to allow it. Note that this works for even smaller subcultures; returning to Bluefall, since every subculture on Bluefall defaults to BlueGov rep (or/in addition to some other reputation network), this means the BlueGov-Rep +3 is functionally Rep +1 (Atistu subculture) or some other subculture on Bluefall. Note that this default bonus is not in addition to existing Reputation; you pick either your existing reputation or the default bonus when you make the check. The two don't stack. Note that you can't buy up from a default, either; thus, you may have Rep +1 in a Bluefallen subculture, but if you BlueGov +4, the default will still be better than your native reputation, since the default will be +2. The trade off, of course, is the BlueGov is [3/level] where local subcultures are [1/level], so having BlueGov +2 [6 points] is more expensive than having a subculture at +4 [4 points], especially considering you only have the subculture at +1. There is no default between local subcultures and meta-empire reputation.
Advanced Networking and Reputation Rules
Now that the basics have been explained, its time to get into the advanced reputation rules.
Levels of Favor: Calling in Favors has been detailed above. However, it's worth noting that there are levels of favors that can be called on, and that there are consequences for attempting to call on the same network too many times. Just like there are four levels of Reputation, there are four levels of favor that you can call on, detailed below:
Levels of Favor: Calling in Favors has been detailed above. However, it's worth noting that there are levels of favors that can be called on, and that there are consequences for attempting to call on the same network too many times. Just like there are four levels of Reputation, there are four levels of favor that you can call on, detailed below:
0 |
Reputation Score |
Monetary Value |
Time Frame |
Level 0 (Insignificant Favor) |
+0 |
Immaterial goods and services only |
hourly |
Level 1 (Minor Favor) |
+1 (0 - 25) |
up to $100 |
daily |
Level 2 (Moderate Favor) |
+2 (26 - 49) |
up to $500 |
weekly |
Level 3 (Large Favor) |
+3 (50 - 74) |
up to $2,500 |
monthly |
Level 4 (Major Favor) |
+4 (75 - 100) |
up to $5,000 |
6 months |
In general, individuals of a given reputation score can ask for favors equal or below their reputation without penalty. Thus, someone with a +2 can ask for Moderate Favor without penalty on the network that they have a +2 with. However, if they try to call in a major favor, which is a Level 4, then they have a penalty; the penalty is equal to double the difference between their current level and the level of the favor, reduced by their bonus. Thus, a person with a +2 Reputation can call in a Level 4 favor with a -2 penalty on their check (it's actually a -4, but their +2 negates half of the penalty), and so they would roll their Administration or Savoir-Faire check with a -2 penalty. An individual with a +1 trying to call in a Level 4 favor, meanwhile, faces a -5 penalty (a -6 penalty in reality, but their +1 negates one point of penalty). Individuals without reputation on that network at all are limited to just calling in insignificant favors, which Computer Operation checks.
It's not wise to call in too many favors on the same network at the same time, either, lest an individual get pegged as needy and their reputation takes a hit. The time frame on the table above is the "refresh rate" for the favor in question; thus, level one favors refresh daily, while level 4 favors refresh every half a year. Attempting to call in a favor before the refresh imposes a penalty on the check equal to the level of the favor in question; this penalty is cumulative as well. Thus, asking a for two level one favors in the same week results in a -1 penalty; three would be a -2 penalty, four a -3, and so on. Asking for two level two favors the same week imposes a -2 penalty; three is -4, four is -6, and so on. Asking for three level four favors in the same 6-month period results in a -12 on the networking check. These penalties are also cumulative with the penalties above; thus, some rando with +1 reputation on a network asking for one level four favor faces a -5 penalty on their own; if they ask for as second one in the same six-month period, that's a -9 (-5 + -4); a third is a -13, and so on. Furthermore, any failure on this check results in a reduction in the reputation score of the individual; one point in the event of a normal failure, two points in the event of a critical failure, and the reputation can only be recovered by working to get in the good graces of the group again. It is possible for reputation to fall in the negatives this way. So it's possible to piss off a network so severely by asking repeatedly for major favors without the prerequisite rep that they drop your rep below 0, possibly down to -100; this is functionally the Blacklisted disadvantage.
Burning Rep: It's possible to burn reputation; doing this doubles the bonus for a particular check, at the cost of losing the bonus for all future checks. So if a person with 50 Rep on a network attempted to call in a Level 4 favor, they would normally be working with a -2 penalty. However, they can opt to burn all of their Rep, doubling their normal +2 bonus to +4, so they make the check with no penalty. All future checks on that network, however, are at a +0 modified until they recover their reputation. It is impossible to go into the negative by Burning Reputation. To provide another example, some with +2 rep attempting to call in a Level 3 favor normally has a -1 penalty to their check; if they burn all their Rep, instead of -1 (a result of 2 - 3 = -1), they now have a 4 - 3, or a +1 bonus on the check.
Tracking Social Activity: Calling in favors tends to leave a footprint. When an person is tracking another individual who doesn't want to be tracked, the two make opposing checks; the person being tracked uses Computer Operation while the person doing the tracking uses Research. If the person being tracked wins, then they've managed to hid their footprints well enough that no useful information can be gleaned. If the person who is doing the tracking wins, then they've managed to pick up on what the other person is doing online and favors they're calling in and on what networks; the better the success the more they learn. If there is a two, the two make the check again. Once a check is made on that network, another opposed check cannot be made on that network for the remainder of the adventure. There are ways to modify this check:
Keeping Quite: It's possible to use reputation to ask individuals to keep your activity quite. Doing this doubles any existing penalty and adds a -2 penalty if none exist, but your purser suffers a -5 penalty on their opposed check to track your activity as a result.
Burning Rep: It's possible to burn reputation to track someone online. Doing this works exactly as detailed above, but the bonus is provided to your Research check rather than any Savoir Faire or Administration check. This is functionally the equivalent of telling the network that you are serious about finding this individual and you're willing to sacrifice rep to do it.
Advantages and Disadvantages: There are two new traits; the Cyber Ghost advantage and the Digital Footprint disadvantage. Those modify this quick check.
Salt the Earth: If you win your opposed Computer Operation check, then you can sacrifice Rep to impose a penalty on all further Research checks on that network equal to one half of the Rep that you spend (note you can Burn rep on this check, effectively doubling your score for purposes of figuring out the penalty). So if you spend 4 Rep, then future attempts to track your activity on the network face a -2 penalty before they even get off the ground.
It's not wise to call in too many favors on the same network at the same time, either, lest an individual get pegged as needy and their reputation takes a hit. The time frame on the table above is the "refresh rate" for the favor in question; thus, level one favors refresh daily, while level 4 favors refresh every half a year. Attempting to call in a favor before the refresh imposes a penalty on the check equal to the level of the favor in question; this penalty is cumulative as well. Thus, asking a for two level one favors in the same week results in a -1 penalty; three would be a -2 penalty, four a -3, and so on. Asking for two level two favors the same week imposes a -2 penalty; three is -4, four is -6, and so on. Asking for three level four favors in the same 6-month period results in a -12 on the networking check. These penalties are also cumulative with the penalties above; thus, some rando with +1 reputation on a network asking for one level four favor faces a -5 penalty on their own; if they ask for as second one in the same six-month period, that's a -9 (-5 + -4); a third is a -13, and so on. Furthermore, any failure on this check results in a reduction in the reputation score of the individual; one point in the event of a normal failure, two points in the event of a critical failure, and the reputation can only be recovered by working to get in the good graces of the group again. It is possible for reputation to fall in the negatives this way. So it's possible to piss off a network so severely by asking repeatedly for major favors without the prerequisite rep that they drop your rep below 0, possibly down to -100; this is functionally the Blacklisted disadvantage.
Burning Rep: It's possible to burn reputation; doing this doubles the bonus for a particular check, at the cost of losing the bonus for all future checks. So if a person with 50 Rep on a network attempted to call in a Level 4 favor, they would normally be working with a -2 penalty. However, they can opt to burn all of their Rep, doubling their normal +2 bonus to +4, so they make the check with no penalty. All future checks on that network, however, are at a +0 modified until they recover their reputation. It is impossible to go into the negative by Burning Reputation. To provide another example, some with +2 rep attempting to call in a Level 3 favor normally has a -1 penalty to their check; if they burn all their Rep, instead of -1 (a result of 2 - 3 = -1), they now have a 4 - 3, or a +1 bonus on the check.
Tracking Social Activity: Calling in favors tends to leave a footprint. When an person is tracking another individual who doesn't want to be tracked, the two make opposing checks; the person being tracked uses Computer Operation while the person doing the tracking uses Research. If the person being tracked wins, then they've managed to hid their footprints well enough that no useful information can be gleaned. If the person who is doing the tracking wins, then they've managed to pick up on what the other person is doing online and favors they're calling in and on what networks; the better the success the more they learn. If there is a two, the two make the check again. Once a check is made on that network, another opposed check cannot be made on that network for the remainder of the adventure. There are ways to modify this check:
Keeping Quite: It's possible to use reputation to ask individuals to keep your activity quite. Doing this doubles any existing penalty and adds a -2 penalty if none exist, but your purser suffers a -5 penalty on their opposed check to track your activity as a result.
Burning Rep: It's possible to burn reputation to track someone online. Doing this works exactly as detailed above, but the bonus is provided to your Research check rather than any Savoir Faire or Administration check. This is functionally the equivalent of telling the network that you are serious about finding this individual and you're willing to sacrifice rep to do it.
Advantages and Disadvantages: There are two new traits; the Cyber Ghost advantage and the Digital Footprint disadvantage. Those modify this quick check.
Salt the Earth: If you win your opposed Computer Operation check, then you can sacrifice Rep to impose a penalty on all further Research checks on that network equal to one half of the Rep that you spend (note you can Burn rep on this check, effectively doubling your score for purposes of figuring out the penalty). So if you spend 4 Rep, then future attempts to track your activity on the network face a -2 penalty before they even get off the ground.