The Continuum roleplaying game has been in existence for about five years now officially, and there are many elements of the game system that have aspects to them that make the players, and GMs, think a little bit. This Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page is designed to answer some of the commonly asked questions about one of the more complex Continuum game elements - Character Generation.
For example, if I have a Mind of 3 and a Science (Physics) title of Journeyman, my Skill rating is 5. If I have a Body of 4 and an Unarmed Combat (Karate) title of Master, my Skill rating is 7.
For a leveller, it is calculated from the date of birth. For example, if the character was born on October 1st, 1973, this would put his or her age at 26 y 119d (to use standard Continuum notation). Now let's say the character becomes a spanner.
To start with, throw leveller age out the window. For character creation, up until their Invitation, the GM treats it just like they were a leveller for number purposes. Now, as it states on page 9, roll a d10 and multiply by 30. That is the number of extra days the character has. It doesn't matter when the game starts. It is assumed that the character Spanned around, and spent that much Age in various locales before he or she got to the game start.
Now, the character writes down the information for the first Span of the game. When the character takes his or her next span, he or she notes how much time they spend Levelly. That is the amount of Age they spent there. The character still grows older, mind you; just in their own personal timeline, effectively, independent of calender dates.
In Time Combat, the character writes down the amount of time he or she spent in a Strategem as a matter of expediency. In normal leisurely existence, the character wouldn't know how much time he or she would spend, so he or she would wait until their next Span on that particular Level to write down the Age spent there.
Chronological age is a (relatively) simple concept from there: If I was thirty years old when I departed in that example, I would be thirty years and six months when I returned (though a leveller would expect me to still be only thirty, and that scar is sure going to be difficult to explain).
The rules in Continuum , page 14, state that the One Big Score is generated through "gambling, lotteries and the stock market" under the careful monitoring of the Moneychangers, and that further Scores might even be petitioned from them. The Vido character in the story "Sleepwalking On the Cliff" (Continuum , pp. 30-32) makes some tantalizing comments about how spanner money is managed, but the details are nowhere in the main book. (Evana also makes a comment in "Beside Myself with Laughter" about being "a billionaire... Up in 2012" (see page 43). In Further Information, page 13, the Arranger is mentioned as the 'specialist' of Moneychanger who actually arranges One Big Scores, but still no real details...
Officially, the GM decides how Assets are handled. What the author has done when these questions come up in game is simply state that the Assets of One Big Score are available whenever the spanner needs it, and the Moneychangers quietly handle its availability. One makes no adjustments or inflation.
There's some logic to this. Since Span Ones are those normally receiving the One Big Score, there's little chance of them encountering wild inflation within their local decade, or swap greenbacks for 16th Century Spanish gold. And while 1960s dollars are technically more valuable than 1990s dollars, remember that money is for all _leveller_ debts, public and private. In 1960, a dollar might buy you a nice stack of candy bars, but six million dollars can't buy you a very nice computer there.
Ideally, if a player wishes his character to play with his leveller money, he can request the Moneychangers take some of his One Big Score, and invest it for him in some distant year he hopes to be able to visit someday, or that an elder has hinted about in his Yet. This is likely the nature of many of the "additional scores" mentioned on pg. 14 - they're nest eggs in the Yet. GMs may also declare that all of the PCs leveller job wages, bank acounts and credit cards are handled by the Moneychangers as well, to maintain the illusion to levellers that they are ordinary members of the community.
And as Continuum page 14 warns, those who would take their One Big Score to engineer their own Second Big Score, "Any such undertakings not done under the watchful eyes of the Moneychangers are dealt with harshly". Older spanners have probably made a friend or contact within the Fraternity to handle their finances, much as wealthy levellers employ personal bankers and accountants. Making the number in the Assets box go _up_ is probably nigh impossible without the involvement of the Moneychangers. In a future edition or supplement this should be explored.
If your gaming group wants to play with relative dollars over time, they can add more math to the game, and out-of-game research time too. Any spanner this interested in money either got a crappy One Big Score - or he's going to get recruited for the Moneychangers. To quote "Sleepwalking On the Cliff":
"Cyn looks at Vido. "It ain't so tedious," he says in his throaty voice as he closes the case. "Not when it's your passion.""
Special thanks to Chris Adams, Dave Fooden, Barbara Manui, David Trimboli, and the folks on the Continuum Mailing List for their help in the compiling of this FAQ information.