Lifestyle
Lifestyles can vary a lot. Different subcultures, habitats and levels of wealth: all of these play a part in how a character lives. Despite these variations, however, all but the most austere tend to possess a variety of mundane items and accoutrements used to live their lives—from clothes, to chairs, to simple electronics, to even the humble toothbrush.
These possessions are represented by the Lifestyle score, which takes the form of a short descriptor that ranges from Broke to Obscenely Rich. See the table and descriptions below.
| Lifestyle | Brief Description | Day | Month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broke | Little money or property. | 5¤ | 150¤ |
| Poor | One fifth average wealth. | 20¤ | 600¤ |
| Struggling | Half the average money and property. | 50¤ | 1,500¤ |
| Average | The default lifestyle; about average. | 100¤ | 3,000¤ |
| Comfortable | Better lifestyle than most; twice average wealth. | 200¤ | 6,000¤ |
| Wealthy | Five times average wealth and possessions. | 500¤ | 15,000¤ |
| Very Wealthy | Wealth and possessions are 20 times average. | 2,000¤ | 60,000¤ |
| Filthy Rich | Access to almost anything; 100 times average wealth. | 10,000¤ | 300,000¤ |
| Obscenely Rich | Staggeringly opulent lifestyle; 500 times average. | 50,000¤ | 1,500,000¤ |
Broke: The character is technically homeless and possesses little. She may have access to a lockbox at a local shelter or may have a corridor or abandoned hab in which she regularly squats. There she has access to items for personal hygiene and the ability to get a spare change of clothes, if necessary. If the character lives on a ship, she is likely a stowaway, leeching off the rest of the ship for life support amenities, such as water and air.
Poor: The character has a coffin-sized room she can sleep in and an attached lock-box she can use to store her belongings. This comes with access to shared hygiene facilities. She likely has a pass for the local public transit. If the character is living on a ship, this is the lowest lifestyle rating covering legit board, including paying for her own air and water.
Struggling: The character has a small hab she shares with several other people. There is enough shared furniture to fill the space, and she has the usual living amenities. She also likely has a pass to use the local mass transit.
Average: The character has a small hab to herself in a residential complex somewhere. Groundside, this is likely to consist of two to three small rooms. On a station or ship, this is likely to be a single small room. She has enough furniture to fill her rooms, as well as the usual living amenities. She also likely has basic insurance and has a pass to use the local mass transit or a membership in a groundcar share.
Comfortable: The character has a medium-sized hab to herself, with all the usual amenities. She has basic but reliable insurance and possibly owns a light ground transport outright, such as a bicycle or moped. She also has full access to public transit.
Wealthy: The character has a medium-sized hab to herself in a convenient location. It is fully outfitted with good quality amenities. She has good insurance. Groundside, she is likely to own a groundcar. On a ship or station, she is likely to have membership in a transport share.
Very Wealthy: The character has a large hab to herself, which may even be a freestanding building, such as a traditional house. She likely has a luxury groundcar or a very basic air or space transport. She has comprehensive insurance. She may also be a member of selective clubs or consumer networks.
Filthy Rich: The character has a large hab to herself, which is either freestanding with surrounding land or in the very best of locations, such as a penthouse suite with a roof garden. She may have multiple groundcars or a luxury air or space transport. Her hab only has the highest quality accoutrements, and she has the best insurance. She likely has several services she regularly pays for, such as part-time servants who will clean her hab or pilot her around.
Obscenely Wealthy: The character has a large hab in the best of locations and possibly several additional smaller ones. She likely has several personal attendants she keeps on her payroll for mundane tasks and is a member of multiple exclusive clubs or consumer networks. She has numerous groundcars or a luxury air or space transport, such as a yacht. She has the highest quality accoutrements and the very best insurance.
Starting Lifestyle
Unless the GM’s particular campaign premise specifies otherwise, all characters begin with an Average lifestyle. This may be modified by the character’s traits, such as by Status, Poor and Stigmatized.
Cost of Living
Those seeking to maintain their lifestyle must pay bills and keep up appearances. After all, if you repeatedly appear poorer than you are, people will begin to assume that you are poor.
Maintaining your lifestyle requires regularly spending half the listed value for your rank in cost of living expenses (see the table on page XXX). The GM may decide whether to track this daily or monthly. If you fail to make a payment, you lose access to your lifestyle’s goods and services, as well as the benefits of any traits that increase your Lifestyle, until the next payment is made.
Goods and Services
A benefit of Lifestyle is that while you are home, you are assumed to have access to Common availability goods with a cost equal to or less than your rank’s daily value. So, for example, a Comfortable character is assumed to have access to common goods that cost 200¤ or less. This benefit is lost if you failed to pay your most recent cost of living expenses.
Labor, Lifestyle and Wages
One way to think about the cost of goods and services is in terms of hours or days of labor.
Each job a character might work supports a particular Lifestyle. Laboring at that job for one day produces a daily wage equal to the daily amount listed for that Lifestyle (see the table on page XXX). For example, if being an engineer supports a Comfortable lifestyle, then a typical daily wage is 200¤.
Working a job involves making a test—usually TN 10 and involving a Trade skill or some kind. The GM may opt whether to handle this daily or monthly. Jobs with variable income bring in their typical daily or monthly wage, modified by 10% per margin of success or failure. Jobs with fixed income simply bring in their usual wage, but too many failures—or any critical failure—may result in being fired or some other disciplinary action.
Dado spends a day busking in the station’s marketplace. This job supports a Broke lifestyle and working it calls for an Expression-10 test. He makes the test and gets a 16, giving him Margin 6. This means he increases his earnings by 60%. Since a typical daily wage for a Broke lifestyle is 5¤, Trent makes 8¤ that day.
Raising or Lowering Lifestyle
You may increase your Lifestyle a rank by voluntarily paying the new rank’s cost of living expenses for three months in a row. So, for example, to raise from Average to Comfortable, you would pay 6,000¤ a month for three months.
Similarly, your Lifestyle is decreased a rank if you fail to pay your cost of living expenses for three months in a row.