From: lward@husc11.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: A Shadowrun Question (both 1st and 2nd ed.)
Date: 12 Jan 93 18:46:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc.lward.726864398

JENKINS@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu (Kent Jenkins) writes:

>In <1iq15kINN3td@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> by670@cleveland.Freenet.Edu writes:
>>
>>   A small point about about and availability of medical care for SINless.
>>
>>1. Cash does exist in the Shadowrun universe (at least I'm told it does by
>>our group's Shadowrun trivia guru), but it is reserved for the shadier
>>side of shady deals... I think Shadowrunners qualify. In addition to this
>>certified credstick would be useable by SINless, as it requires no ID.

>Cash does exist, as America and Japan are not the only countries in the world.
>German Marks, perhaps even ECC Dollars (or whatever the ECC would want to call
>them, tho they've long since collapsed in the Shadowrun world), and I'm almost
>positive any insufficiently technologically advanced country would still be
>using Hardcopy Cash.

The reason I hesitate to have cash in a campaign is that in a society that
.is. technological advanced, it's .very . easy to counterfeit.  No other point
than that, but keep it in mind when you let into campaign.  (BTW, I beleive
that the UCAS 'mainland' does still print dollars on paper, by the book,
although I could be wrong.)

>And then there's Corperate Script.  I honestly don't know what these things are
>supposed to do.  Lester?  Carl?  Mary?  Anyone more Worldly Wise want to take a
>shot at explaining it?

Ick. I'll give it a shot.

Idea 1)  Stock certificates, perhaps even in tenth-share increments, that are
owned by whoever posesses them.  Likely only a very small percentage of a
megacorp's stock is in this form (<1%), as corps like to know who their 
stockholders are and no records would need to be kept for scrip.  These would
be valuable (apart from being untracable) beause they would be backed by
the value of the megacorp and could be purchased by legitimate sources.

Idea 2)  Corporate cash coupons.  Printed to create a company store idea.
Probably, they'd only be redemable by the corp that issued them.  Like,
Aztecnology scrip would only be usable within Atec holdings (or, alternately
on products made by them or their subsideraries).  These would be valued
by normal people beacause they would allow the holder to purchase said
commoditites at a discount (say, as much as 40%).  They also might convince
a company to part with stuff it might not sell to any purely anonymous
person.

>>2. Medical care? That's what the street doc contact is for, true you can't
>>get DocWagon, but it works. Most street docs will accept almost any form of 
>>payment (including the cyberwear or body of the guy who lost the fight).

>Milage May Vary.  Streetdocs, like any illegal personage, are rather fickle.

They also don't pay malpractice insurance, if you get my drift.

>I was reading the Neo-Anarchists Guide to Real Life and was rather unhappy with
>the way they handled, or didn't handle Credsticks.  I have /always/ wanted to
>know what they consider "standard information" on a Credstick.  What kind of
>information can a decker, for instance, hack out of one?

Kent, while you were out, I posted a thing about sticks, exactly what was in
them chip wise, and what they could do.  Remind me to mail it to you.

>I like certified credsticks, but just think they're too insecure.

I wrote my post with an eye towards security, both for the holder, the holder's
money, and for the financial institution.  I think my rules make sense (as
a programmer, it would be how I would build them) and don't require inordinate
amounts of overhead.

Wordman
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc