Quote
Originally posted by Martin Turner:
**One indirect way of taking away money is to create an item which is 'given' to the player at the end of a mission which has a negative effect -- eg, gives you a worse turn rate, or a ridiculous distance from the centre before you jump. This forces the player to 'pay a fine' (ie, buy an item which reverses the effect). You can set it up so that the reverse-effect item is only available after that mission, and you can only have one of them.
As David says, you can't take away money directly.
**
You mean like giving them the Denver Boot?
My, the possibilities... You evacuate a colony and somehow a bratty little kid stays on, getting into everything, ruining crew efficiency (special cargo awarded at mission completion). You have to take a tough mission in your semi-crippled ship to return the kid (probably, to find or visbit the only spob with the special tech level allowing it to "buy and sell" that special cargo.)
(Hmm. There was actually a similar bit in one of Melissa Michael's "Skyrider" books, when she took on a passenger who could not tolerate combat accelerations. To preserve his life she had to risk all of theirs.)
Or, simpler, you have to transport/tow/install some nasty, bulky, highly sensitive bit of gear that interferes badly with some part of the ship until you can deliver it. "I'm sorry, Captain, but the interstellar particle collector is quite incompatible with your sheilds. You will have to have those de-activated for the duration of this mission. But of course we have to go into the Dark Nebulae! Where do you think the best concentration of interstellar particles is?"
Right. Back to work on my TC. You guys get such neat ideas!
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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"