Page 2 (general background information - what most people would know)<br/><br/>I have no intention of getting too wrapped up in record-keeping and crunching numbers, but this information might help lend a little realism to the play.  Fairy godmothers don't leave food in the pantry or refuel the ship at night when everyone else is asleep, right?<br/><br/><div align="center">=================================</div><br/><br/>Docking for up to one week, administrative costs, power hookup, septic flush, and fresh water fill costs 1 credit per 100 tons of ship. Each week thereafter is 0.5 credits per hundred tons.<br/><br/>Liquid hydrogen delivered to the ship’s tanks costs 5 credits per 1 ton of fuel. Fuel is available on Core planets and only on those frontier worlds with well-developed economies where hydrogen is used to run a wide variety of smaller vehicles. Liquid hydrogen is unavailable elsewhere on the Rim.<br/><br/>How the crew takes their pay is between them and the captain (or owner, if he or she prefers). Spacehands on salary make 10 to 20 credits a month depending on experience and skills, plus free room and board. Officer’s pay is roughly double this. Captains and owners normally take shares of the ship’s profits, although a liner captain may receive a flat 100 credits a month. The crew may be offered shares instead of some or all of their pay, which gives people an incentive to work hard—and keeps overhead down.<br/><br/>Dock Workers: Crews requiring help loading or unloading can usually hire manual labor at halfa-credit a day per person. There are always laborers hanging around the docks looking for work, though dealing through the local union or tong (which may be the same thing) rather than hiring directly is sound business practice.<br/><br/>Rental: Equipment needed, but not on hand can like as not be rented. Rentals cost 1% of purchase price per day, and require a substantial guarantee in the form of cash (a bond) or collateral (usually the ship) to insure that the equipment will be returned in its original, undamaged condition.<br/><br/>Fines: Various infractions of Alliance law and local regulations are punishable by fines, which run from 100 credits for something minor to fines that equal more than the value of the ship.<br/><br/>FREIGHT<br/>Ships carrying cargo are paid one of two ways: If the cargo belongs to someone else, the crew is paid for  bringing it from origin to destination. The usual rate is 1 credit per ton of general cargo, assuming the trip doesn’t take more than a week. Longer trips or those involving danger or difficulty will charge more accordingly; as will those where the crew has to take a more active role in collecting payment or making delivery. Some shippers will offer bonuses for timeliness or charge penalties for delivery beyond a certain date. The captain can buy the cargo and then try to sell it at the destination for enough to cover the costs and risks involved. This is far more common out on the Rim, where banks are scarce and demand for goods tends to be somewhat irregular. Payment may be in cash or barter or a combination of both. Quick turnover is the key to making a profit, so a smart captain will have a buyer in mind before purchasing the goods.<br/><br/>Spaceships generally carry enough fuel for at least 600 hours of normal cruising, utilizing either reaction drive only, or pulse and reaction drives together. Each use of the pulse drive burns 100 hours’ worth of fuel. Pushing a ship to her max speed (known as “hard burn”) adds 2 to her effective speed class, but doubles her fuel use (both initial burn and cruise rate).<br/><br/>==============<br/><br/>Firefly Class ship is approximately 2,400 tons.<br/><br/>Length: 191 feet<br/>Beam: 128 feet<br/>Height: 53 feet<br/><br/>Firefly’s Speed Class of 4. Her maximum (full-burn) is Speed Class 6.<br/><br/>fuel capacity: 60 tons.<br/><br/>Crew Quarters:  three single crew cabins and two doubles, one of which is the captain’s.<br/><br/><br/>==============<br/><br/><br/>TRAVEL TIMES AND COMMUNICATIONS LAG<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Journey</span><span class="bbc_u">Travel time </span><span class="bbc_u">Comm Lag</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 8pt;">Between moons of the same<br/>planet*            1 - 600 hour                     0.1 - 10 seconds<br/><br/>Between moons of the<br/>same planet         1 - 20 hours                  0.1 - 10 seconds<br/><br/>Between planets in the<br/>same system         20 - 1,500 hours             2.5 minutes - 2 hours<br/><br/>Between planets in <br/>adjacent systems      500 - 2,500 hours        1 - 4 hours<br/><br/>One side of the ‘Verse to<br/>the other         3,000 - 6,000 hours                4 - 10 hours</span><br/><br/>* Using reaction drive only, rather than pulse drive<br/><br/>==============<br/><br/>The central planets—them as formed the Alliance—have a complex and sophisticated economic system. Financial institutions such as banks hold the money for their customers in interest-bearing accounts, investing it at the exchanges on Sihnon and Londinum. Most money transfer in the Core is done by computer, with data bytes and pixels replacing cold, hard cash. Currency exists in the Core, to  be sure, in standard paper notes issued by the Alliance. The notes are printed on special paper by fancy printing systems to discourage counterfeiters. Tracers on each bill allow the money to be tracked as it moves about. Paper bills and credit transfer are the only legal tender on Core planets, and those with gold or platinum coins must go to a licensed money changer. Purchasing goods with “hard coin” is illegal and untraceable, which is why it’s preferred by black market merchants everywhere. The Border planets, lacking the fancy trappings of “civilized” life, rely on precious metal coinage. While different planets have different standards and mint coins in different ways, some basic standards have developed. The coins most often used are made from set weights of silver, gold, and platinum. ‘Course, coins aren’t the only things used for business dealings. Barter is common practice, especially in transactions in which both sides have something besides cash to offer. While simpler, this economic system can also make prices and wages somewhat more fluid out on the Rim, as there aren’t Cortex accessible exchange rates to fall back on, thus making haggling an important skill to master. Debt is tracked with a signed I.O.U., and often collected at the end of a gun barrel.<br/><br/>Simplest way to figure the worth of your credits or coins is to relate it to money you’re most like to understand. It’s useful not only to get a “feel” for how much your latest haul is worth, but also in determining the value of gear that’s not found in this chapter. (More on that later.) First, understand that one standard credit authorized and used by the Alliance relates to roughly $25 U.S. dollars on Earth- That-Was. Then take a gander at how credits and platinum coins equal out. For those who like their cash to make a pleasant jingling sound, look over Table 3-2 for the rates of hard cash as they relate to credits and the ancient dollar—though I wouldn’t bet your ship on these rates being near a sure thing.<br/><br/>Credit     Dollar    Euro      Platinum     Gold    Silver<br/>c1           $25        20            2.5              5        250<br/><br/>If you were to do the math and work out all the prices, you’d find that sometimes the number of platinum pieces for an item doesn’t quite match the credits. Why is that, you wonder? There may be a fairly stable (‘fairly’ being the operative word) exchange rate between the two currencies, but hard cash and credits don’t get spent the same way in the same places. In the Core, only credits and paper currency are legal tender, which means the gorram Alliance bankers could be tracking your every purchase. (And if they can, they probably are, right?) Because precious metal is not traceable, it is illegal tender for transactions in the Core—you try to flash some coin, and you may find yourself bound by law, pending sentence. Out on the Rim, most folk don’t want to bother with their credit accounts (and money-watching Feds), so coin is what you’ll generally need, unless you have goods or services to barter. The Alliance tolerates this ‘cause none of them lily-skinned bankers feel like setting up branches that far from “civilization.” But if you want to spend your hard-earned platinum on Ariel or Osiris, you’d better hit a money-changer first thing. As a result of all this craziness, platinum values can get a mite fuzzy. Bartering with goods can make the prices of some things shift a bit. Since most people deal in platinum and not gold or silver for their big transactions, you won’t find those smaller coins used in the tables here. That’s not to say you can’t use them on the Rim, but while you might buy yourself a soda or a fresh apple with those coins, no one’s going to want to accept small change for anything much beyond that. Folk deal in platinum for real jobs.<br/><br/>POTENTIAL<br/>REGULAR<br/>EXPENSES<br/>• The ship requires fuel (a primary cost). Fuel cells to power a Firefly for 30 days run ₡ 600.<br/>• The crew requires provisions. A crew of five requires about ₡ 120 worth, if they eat mostly packaged protein and canned goods.<br/>• Monthly payments (on a ship that is not wholly owned). A standard finance payment on a Firefly in good  condition could run about ₡ 750.<br/>• Supplies (ammunition, medical supplies, etc.). An average cost would be ₡ 200.<br/>• Ship parts, upgrades to improve. These vary according to need and desire (see Chapter Four: Boats and Mules).<br/>• Business expenses. This can fluctuate wildly, depending on the job.<br/>• Salaries of crew (anyone who is not in for a “cut” of the profits). Monthly salary for skilled crew members can run about ₡ 200 each.<br/><br/>Table 3-4: Cargo & Passenger Rates<br/>Cargo / Passage       Legal Cargo         Illegal Cargo        Legal Passenger        Illegal Passenger<br/>3 Day, Standard        ₡175 - 250             ₡ 200 - 275             ₡ 50 - 85                   ₡ 75 - 115<br/>3 Day, Complicated   ₡c- 225 - 3300     ₡ 300 - 425             ₡ 60 - 100                 ₡ 90 - 140<br/>10 Day, Standard     ₡ 575 - 850            ₡ 675 - 975             ₡ 170 - 255               ₡ 195 - 285<br/>10 Day, Complicated ₡c- 750 - 1,000  ₡ 1,000 - 1,250         ₡ 215 - 300              ₡ 245 - 350