Crafting & Economy
Nephibis runs on a credit-based economy where characters live ordinary lives between firefights. The crafting system lets players create and customize gear with chance-based quality tiers. Both systems ground the world and give players something to spend their earnings on beyond combat equipment.
The Credit Economy
The universal currency is the credit (₵). Physical credit chips exist but most transactions are digital. Corporate scrip (company-locked currency) and Black Ledger (untraceable underworld currency) also circulate.
Starting Wealth by Level
| Level | Starting Credits | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1–5 | 500–1,500 | Street-level. Enough for basics and a week of rent. |
| 6–15 | 2,000–5,000 | Established operator. Reliable income. |
| 16–30 | 5,000–15,000 | Experienced. Connections and reputation. |
| 31–50 | 15,000–50,000 | Veteran. Significant resources. |
| 51–100 | 50,000–200,000 | Elite. Major assets or legendary reputation. |
Power tier ≠ wealth. An Omega-level mutant can be broke. A street-level nobody can be loaded. Set starting credits based on backstory, not power level.
What Things Cost
The economy supports everyday life — groceries, rent, restaurants, transit. Key reference points:
- Street food meal: 5–15₵
- Studio apartment (decent area): 600–1,200₵/month
- Public transit monthly pass: 60–150₵
- Economy car: 8,000–20,000₵
- Pistol: 500₵
- Medium armor: 1,000–5,000₵
- Standard Power Cell (cyborg essential): 200₵
- Light freighter: 500,000–2,000,000₵
When designing content with economic consequences, remember that low-level characters feel every expense while high-level characters don't sweat rent.
Earning Credits
| Activity | Typical Earnings |
|---|---|
| Quest completion | 200–50,000+₵ |
| Bounty hunting | 500–100,000+₵ per target |
| Mercenary contracts | 1,000–25,000₵/day |
| Crafting/repair services | 100–10,000₵ |
| Faction salary | 200–5,000₵/week |
| Regular job | 200–2,000₵/week |
Earning rates should feel proportional to risk. A dangerous salvage run in a war zone pays more than a courier job across town.
The Crafting System
Crafting in Nephibis is chance-based — longer crafting time increases the chance of higher quality but doesn't guarantee it. Players can also commission NPC professionals who have better odds.
Quality Tiers
| Tier | Name | Base Chance | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Standard | 60% | Base stats, no bonuses |
| 2 | Improved | 25% | +10–15% to primary stat |
| 3 | Advanced | 10% | +15–25% to primary stat, minor special ability |
| 4 | Experimental | 4% | +25–35% to primary stat, significant ability |
| 5 | Legendary | 1% | +35–50% to primary stat, unique ability |
Modifiers to tier chance: crafting skill (+2% per point), material quality (+5% per tier above Standard), workshop quality (+5–15%), blueprint knowledge (+10%), time investment (+1% per additional day).
Player vs NPC Crafting
Player crafting uses the player's skill and gives full control. Can be done anywhere with materials. Chance-based tiers.
NPC professional crafting uses the NPC's (typically higher) skill, guarantees minimum Tier 2, but takes 2–5× longer and costs money. The player doesn't control the process.
Material Quality
Materials affect both effectiveness and tier chance:
| Material Tier | Effectiveness | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Scrap | 0.5× | Cheap |
| Standard | 1.0× | Normal |
| Quality | 1.25× | Moderate |
| Superior | 1.5× | Expensive |
| Masterwork | 2.0× | Very rare |
| Exotic | 2.5× | Rare components |
| Legendary | 3.0× | Unique materials |
Equipment Design
When creating new Equipment files, consider:
- Item type — weapon, armor, tool, consumable, cybernetic, drone, robot, medical
- Tier — 1–7, matching the crafting tier system
- Stats — damage, armor value, accuracy, weight, cost
- Special properties — armor piercing, elemental damage, status effects
Equipment should be priced relative to the economy. A Tier 1 weapon accessible to starting characters should cost 50–500₵. A Tier 5 prototype should cost 80,000–250,000₵.
Cybernetics
Cybernetics are a major equipment category. Tiers range from basic stat boosts (Tier 1: +1–2, costs 200–1,000₵) to game-changing prototype systems (Tier 5: +16–20, costs 80,000–250,000₵). Black market and legendary implants (Tier 6+) are unique and often illegal.
Cyborg power source: all cyborg characters must have a Power Cell equipped. Standard cells last ~48 hours of normal use. Heavy-Duty cells triple capacity. Combat cells handle sustained high-draw operations. When a cell runs dry, all cybernetic bonuses and abilities shut down until replaced or recharged.
Barter
In frontier zones and underworld dealings, barter is common. Universal trade goods include ammo, power cells, medical supplies, food, water, salvaged tech, and fuel. When bartering, both sides should feel like they're getting slightly less than they'd like.
Tracking Money & Inventory
The economy is backed by data, not just prose. Three pieces work together, and each world you clone this system into gets to define its own.
Currency files
Each currency your world uses is a Currency file. A currency defines:
- Symbol — how prices are written: ₵ for the credit, gp for a crown, ℳ for a mark.
- Standard — mark exactly one currency per world as standard. Equipment
valuefields are priced in the standard currency's units. - Denominations — the units money comes in (credit chips, holo-tokens, gold crowns), each with a value in base units. Anything can be paid as a digital transfer in any amount; denominations exist so street transactions have texture.
- Exchange rates — how the currency trades against others: "1 of this = rate of that." Set rates where your world needs them (banked exchange, fence prices, black-market premiums) and leave them empty where you want GM discretion at the table.
The samples in this project — Credit, Corporate Scrip, Black Ledger — show the pattern for a multi-currency world: one standard currency for everyday life, a trapped company currency that only spends inside a network, and an untraceable underworld currency that only spends in the dark. A new world can keep that shape, swap it for a single coin system, or delete the samples and start fresh.
Wallets
Every Character has a wallet: one entry per currency held, { currency, amount }. Money is never merged across currencies — scrip does not become credits, and a hundred Black Ledger units won't buy a bus pass. Start a character by adding the currencies they actually hold and the amounts their backstory justifies (see the Starting Wealth tables above).
Inventory stacks
Inventory rows are { item, quantity }. Identical items stack into one row — twelve standard power cells is one row with quantity 12, not twelve rows. totalInventoryWeight multiplies each item's weight by its quantity, so a stack of heavy items drags on carrying capacity just like loose ones. When a stack is consumed (ammo, medical, fuel), drop the quantity; when it hits zero, remove the row.