Information: Actions
1) You can bid (up to your chosen action's value in tokens + your current stockpile of tokens) in tokens each turn so people aren't blocked from bidding entirely if they are at 0 tokens. That said, you are limited to the guaranteed revenue from said action (i.e. You can't spend stuff you might fail at as part of the bid)
2) Actions have a variety of results:
- Hard Failure: The character is harmed and on cooldown for 2 turns/seasons. (Failing by 4 or more)
- Soft Failure: The character fails but is not harmed and, therefore, not on cooldown. (Below the DC but above the hard failure threshold)
- Success: The character succeeds and receives the appropriate income (Meeting or exceeding the DC. Also the auto-success result for those with sufficiently high modifiers)
3) If the quest grows big enough, I might set up a form for people to fill out their roles since players should (reasonably) be able to estimate what their dice rolls are based on the action. Automation is godly as things grow and I already have a decent roster of characters so this may just be needed later on.
Information: Perk Tokens
1) Passive income is always 10 tokens + faction income + colony income. This is also the income for "autosuccess" level tasks where you do something and post but you don't take any risk of failure. Sources of passive income are claimed land with improvements safely in the colony borders, strategic sites (generic term for owning territory with value beyond basic farmland), trading ships (as well as other forms of trade income), faction or personal artifacts/territory/trade.
2) Quick learner income is locked to a single category but does NOT count against that category's perks. Instead, they count against your token generators in that are category-locked to that category and each additional one reduces the income by 2 for all those in the same category. (i.e. 2 Quick Learners is 16 income instead of 20, 3 is 18 income instead of 30) The reasoning here is to encourage people to branch out into multiple areas rather than hyperspecialize.
3) Success tokens are gained from taking on tasks that you can fail. However, if they affect more than just you, bidding for them might be a selfish act (trying for tokens) at the risk of hurting the colony or faction you are in.
4) You officially gain the new tokens at the end of turn / start of the next turn based on the action decision you made and any roll(s) that resulted from it. Right now, I'm just using a quick script to give very rough roll/odds calculations to estimate these things. This does not affect your ability to bid a task down by spending "negative tokens" against that task's potential revenue.
Information: Other Income
For now, there is no need to worry about other income types but a brief summary is below.
1) Trade good income. This is something you put on a ship and send back to the Empire in exchange for perk tokens to spend. Their market values will shift based on supply and demand as dictated by the QM (and randomized commodity data). This is like playing the stock market without it being grounded in anything other than the QM's imagination, so godspeed if you go this route. Also pirates can be a problem as this goes up in size for the colony. However, it also counts as an export which everyone will appreciate.
2) Buffs. Small bonuses that can be spent to improve a roll as a one-off. You'll want to stockpile these but you'll be getting them in decimal form. (i.e. +.34 or 1 every 3 turns is pretty average for this income source) These will let a broad category (i.e. crafting) or a narrow category (i.e. animating undead servants) in which a faction or player can tap this pool to improve a roll. You'll need to do this as part of your bid if you want to spend this resource before the dice are rolled. You can't just decide after seeing the results.
3) Gold. S-grade gear requires rare trade goods combined with gold inlaid runes (done in wire or grooves in a metal object with the gold attached magically to 'fill' it). This is the currency of the game. This provides you with a handful of options (buying trade goods to make S-grade items, converting trade goods into S-grade items, buying buffs from other player's pools, buying perk tokens, etc). Keep in mind every currency in the game is tradable.
4) Favor. Political favors owed by a faction. You can call these in (based on QM's view of what a favor is worth) in exchange for things they might not otherwise do for you but since they want to be a known and reliable friend they will do them to repay you. Be reasonable. If you ask them to slit another friend's throat, they won't do it. An enemy's though? Almost certainly.
