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Gaming Outpost Discussions » Tag: society - Recent Topics http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/tags/society Gaming Outpost Discussions » Tag: society - Recent Topics en-US Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:15:37 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/search.php Tadeusz on "Alternate Movies" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/alternate-movies#post-577 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:58:30 +0000 Tadeusz 577@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ This is an attempt to create a list of alternate movies that sound interesting, and explanatory of their culture so that a GM can say... "You're driving your three-wheel electric cabriolet through the streets of New Amsterdam with your girlfriend Sheila, and she spots the movie XXXXXXXXXXX on the marquee and asks if you can go watch it with her." 1. Steelblood: This movie exalts the local reality Dagger Teams who are the this-world equivalent of SEALS. It fits comfortably in between Die Hard and Navy Seals. It has a lot of action, male bonding, knife fights, and desperate action along with the bold heroes seeking out and destroying the wicked. 'Its not hard figuring out what's right. Its the doing it.' Jake Smith, famous mature actor. 'Yeah, all you need is steel in your fist, and steel in your blood' Mike Angellii, famous Italian lead. 2. Draw or Die: A murder mystery focusing on a sketch artist who is suffering from artistic doubts. The scene where he blindfolded and tied in a chair uses a pencil snub to sketch the face of his captor on the floor so that after he is taken to the cabin in the woods where he is to be killed, the pursuing detective can match the face to the ID files,a nd then the ID files to the property owner files is one of the tensest fifteen minutes in modern cinema as you are sure that he is about to fail no fewer than eleven times. When he succeeded in the first showing, the audience got up and cheered. 3. Oil Mangler, Oil Mangler Two, Ship Mangler, Town Mangler, Return of the Mangler, and the New Mangler are not very good flicks, but they made a lot of money. A man is killed through the laziness of his bosses on an oil rig, and his soul possesses and animates the rig. So he goes on a rampage toward land, destroying things in his sub-intellgent fury until the hero figures out the problem and guides him the the headquarters of the oil company which got him killed. He destroys the building after everyone but the execs escape. Then he makes them get on the conference table and throws the table and the execs twenty miles out to sea. And then his soul goes to Paradise. Ship and Town respectively featured a possessed ship, and a small town that animated itself and ate visitors. 4. Killicarne': This demented comedy about an invasion of Scottish serial killers having a competition about how many they can kill at the World Barbecue and Carnival Festival in Texas, Tejas, North Mexico, or the Southern Territories as it may be called provoked a devoted, cult-like following although no one took it seriously enough to act on it. However, it did provoke a lot of people to dress up very strangely on August the 13th which is the supposed date of this imaginary festival. And it led to lots of nerds quoting lines from the film to each other. Last but not least it led to the entertaining biography of the world's most famous clown entitled..."Clowns Are Not Worth Extra Points." 5. Hard Times, Good Times: This serious drama about the romance and marriage and kids and life and marital problems, and grandkids and everything else runs over three hours. Its considered a modern classic in its depiction of normal middle class life in a big city, and all the struggles that go with it. "I love her, more than the day we married." Father. "Then why do you yell at her so often?" Eldest adult son. "Because she makes me mad, of course!" Father looks incredulously at his son. "Don't you know? Love don't mean its easy. I thought I trained you three boys better than that." 6. Path of Evil: This is a disturbing look at how an idealistic young man became a Communist, and for the best of reasons ended up executing families 'for the good of the State'. Its bleak portrayal of life in a totalitarian environment will raise questions in your own mind...Could I become like that person? Are we all just murderers inside? The movie has an answer which you may not agree with. Yes. 7. Doomsword: The cursed sword passed down generation to generation until it came to him, the seventh son of a seventh son, and then it came to its true power. In his hands, the sword made him unstoppable, and so he was able to defend the Earth against Eldritch Threats from the Abyss. But every time he drew it, one of his friends or his family died. He now casts it aside, but the Daemon Prince of Hades is coming....what will he do? Spoiler: His girlfriend offers herself up to the sword, and is accepted. However, he stabs himself through the heart sacrificing himself as well. Its uncertain whether this overloaded the sword with two lives in it, and thus his girlfriend became the sword. Or if the sword really wanted his total committment all along,a nd once he sacrificed himself he was no longer cursed. And the thing with his girlfriend was a tragic last death that was not needed. In any case, his sword is no longer cursed, and his girlfriend lives in the sword as its spirit. Critics still argue which interpretaton is correct. 8. Feud at Stanton: The collapse of national authority after the bioplague leaves two families near the small town of Stanton feuding for dominance over Stanton. It begins slow with harsh words, but then it escalates, and soon both sides are sniping each other, blowing up offices, and burning down homes. The cycle driven at first by a desire for power becomes about revenge, and finally becomes about survival. In the end, one man lives. And the townspeople of Stanton drive him out with stones. 9. Blood Prince: The Lord of Darkness, the vampire Dracula is here to take over a capital city. He maneuvers, he blackmails, he seduces with promises of money and power, and with his own presence. Meanwhile, a desperate team of federal investigators is trying to track him down. Dracula consolidates his power, and has killed several of the more recalcitrant of his enemies. Now he owns the city, and he uses his forces to take the heroic team to him. He laughs at them, and promises a reign of blood to last a thousand years. "Not even a night." Claire Jones says from the window of the Oval Office, Presidential Palace, Throne Room, etc.. "God's played his trump card." She adds. He scoffs. She points out the window into the sky. Everyone goes and looks up into the sky to see an asteroid plunging to Earth on top of the Capital city. Flashback to an earlier shown scene in the movie where Dracula was killing an annoyingly principled astronomer who was babbling some warning about a rock or something before Drac snapped his neck. Roll credits. 10. Haunted is the story of a lady desperately needing to buy a large house for her school. The only house in town that is cheap enough, and large enough is a haunted Victorian mansion that can't be sold. She moves in to get it ready. Soon, ghostly things like figures appearing out of the corner of her eye, and skulls in the mirror, and blood dripping down walls appears. Her response is at first startlement, and then she starts trying to chase them down. She arms up and looks for dark basements to go into. When ghostly children appear, she yells at them to 'Stop Right There! I didn't give you permission to leave.' While an attractive, but harried looking female, she is not a superstar for looks, but she carried this role with verve and authenticity. One believes her fury when a knife fly's across the room at her head. And when she starts praying, and demanding that the spirits obey her, the spirit laughs at her. "There is no god." "How does that go? Ah yes, liar, liar, pants on fire. There is, I know it, and He's in charge of everything including you." She resumes, and soon the spirit is begging her for mercy, and she's demanding information about what horrors occurred here. She begins to clean the house of the remnants of its evil past, removing wallpaper to take down blood-soaked boards which drip in her hands until she yells at the spirit responsible to 'come out now, In the Holy Name, or else!' After that one is dispacted, its on to other parts of the house. And then the basement, and her confrontation with the Power. The Power toys with her, laughs at her, and after beating her up condenses out of smoke in the form of a man. "You're going to die here. There is no god." He laughs sinisterly. (^&^*&(_*)& is her response. "He's abandoned you to me." He uses his magic to tie her to a table, and manifests a knife. "Fine." she says calmly. "Fine?" He repeats incredulously. "Yes, I may win through faith, close the mouth of lions, or I may lose and the lions eat me, but I still trust. He knows what He is doing." The Power raises its hand to knife her in horror, and we see she is glowing. He cringes back, and she glows more. He turns to run, and she fills the room with radiance. He turns to curse her, and blows away in the radiant fury of the Holy Presence. Next scene is of the house from the outside as light shines through every window. The house is cleansed. She leaves to go find her students which she hasn't signed up yet. She notices a few faeries flying away in the peaceful garden the next morning and asks them where they are going. "We leave, Servant of the One God." "I have no quarrel with you. You're not malicious and evil." "We are born of Chaos and Wildness and have little love." "Still..." "NO. This house, this land, its under the Law of Love. We have no place here. The Wild and the Crazed have no rest in the land of the Kind. Besides..." The faerie spokesperson points at the four corners of the estate where giant angelic figures with flaming swords stand guard. "They make us nervous." =============================================================== So, I'm sure I missed all sorts of genres of movies, and I could use more movies of the same genres. Have at it! Also, feel free to discuss my imaginary movies. Eric Tadeusz on "Roles" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/roles#post-1755 Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:57:44 +0000 Tadeusz 1755@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I don't have a lot to say about this right now, but one of those differences that scale between socieities is how firm the roles are. And what are the nature of those roles. An example that may help the typical player is to compare their Multiverser character to the D20 character. D20 is a role or class based system. Multiverser is obviously not. Almost all societies to some degree are class based systems, but people themselves not so much. A1 is wanting to discuss roles. MJ is correct that medieval societies were very role oriented. We mostly think of roles in relationship to the Spheres used by Victorian society, but the Medievals were even more so. One marker for high roles structures is Credentialism. That is, you can't do a job without the proper papers. This could be Union Cards, or it could be being a Lawywer, or anything else. Nowadays, it seems that a rise in credentialism has occurred over the last few decades. I regard this with suspicion. Now back to Lawyers and Judges. You might think such requires credentials....but part of the purpose of this is to stretch the mind. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a quasi-Libertarian classic of SF by Robert Heinlein. Judges are chosen by a group of spectators to a crime, and paid by the defendant and the victim. Trial is held in the street or at a nearby bar. I wrote a sketch world on this--taking this concept and ripping it to shreds. But that is not the point. The point is that you theoretically could run a society with almost no credentials, and almost no roles. It occurs to me that our sliding scale might be marked, at least in part, by which professions require credentials. At one end, Doctors are allowed to practise when they put up a sign in their door, and at the other end of the scale, Pizza Delivery Drivers have to take a twenty week course, and pass several tests in order to get a Delivery Driver Card (which is on top of the Driver's License everyone also has to get.) Or even better, Gamemasters have to take ten semester hours in game theory in order to get their Amateur Gamemaster Golden Dice which they wear on a chain around their neck (I'm thinking of a society in which everyone has necklaces covered in small charms which represent approval from various Testing Boards for certain activities.) Tadeusz on "Cycles in Time" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/cycles-in-time#post-1665 Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:07:24 +0000 Tadeusz 1665@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ This would probably be grouped with 'Societal Structures' along with 'Status of Women', and such stuff. Societal Cycles: ================ The notion of cycles in history fascinates most everyone. Cycles offer a glimpse into the future, and warn of impending disaster for the nation or the world. But, they have more advantages than is commonly understood. One problem for Future Historians is how they make their histories too smooth, without sudden zigs and zags. Cycles can help. Another advantage to cycles is they can help you understand history far better. And once you understand History on a 'almost lived it' level, then you're a more capable world creator and gamemaster because you can take those scenarios from the past, refurbish them, and use them. And they will feel real, because they were based on a solid understanding of history. Isaac Asimov based his Foundation Series on the Decline and Fall of Rome. The Dominic Flandry series is based on the conflict between the Medes and the Persians even as its set in space with Lizardfolk battling Humans. If award-winning, bestselling novelists do it, then maybe you should too. Mine History, and one of the best tools is an understanding of cycles. One set of cycles, I've used twice. For my "Hide From the Evil Day" project (not yet finished) I wrote up four hundred years of future history leading to a superpower conflict on a landlocked moon across the galaxy. In "Starsong Systems" a Transhumanist game setting, I also wrote up four hundred years of future history leading up to a society of human cetaceans, and human trees, and human commando-forms, and a whole lot else (including the kitchen sink) for a society of a trillion humans spread over nine planets, and many asteroids. I used the Strauss and Howe Cycle of History for this. You can read about it in "Generations" (OOP), or in "Thirteenth Generation". I am simplifying here. It is a structure of four stanzas with two eruptions that are forty years apart. The whole takes eighty years. And then it repeats. There are four generational types: 1. Teamplayers--Sharing, conformity, and a focus on the material tend to be their life. 2. Finetuners--They seek to make the world safer, smoother, fairer, more precise. 3. Fireborn--Cries of individuality, of furious morality, of the need to shake off the corrupt world abound. 4. Hardcore--Actually more individualistic than the Fireborn. They try to put society back together again, and to survive. In their youth, the Teamplayers fight a Phoenix War. The old world order is destroyed, and made new. They then live in plenty, and create the glories of a new modern world. Airports of towering pre-stressed concrete spring up where corn and log cabins once stood. The Finetuners come, and make their harsh and material world with its sudden judgements and its unfairness a much more pleasant and kindly place. And then the pampered children who have been given everything they ever asked for arrive. They see the glorious world their parents made, and consider it the normal baseline. Towering airports are nothing to them. Instead, they see a world of corruption, and materialism. They seek a new relationship with the Divine. In some cycles this is a Missionary Awakening, and in others its Flower Power. The Teamplayers fold before this furious onslaught that they don't understand, and retreat to splendid retirements. Suddenly the spirit-minded change, and go forth to seek money and status avidly, but they carry their values inside them, and they preach them loudly when they may. And society begins to change from the inside out as their Fire burns everything. "We didn't start the fire" one rock singer claims, but his generation sure fanned those flames as hard as they could. Unnoticed, frequently despised, the Hardcore arrive in a world that doesn't really like children anymore. They see a world that is completely falling to pieces. Even the most basic elements of society are on the verge of total collapse. They teach themselves how to survive, and start trying to fix things to general revilement. Everyone remembers the Norman Rockwell picture of two parents looking in on their baby safe in his crib. Those parents are adult Hardcore. They are protecting what needs to be protected. Its interesting that this picture, and Norman Rockwell in general draws scorn. This picture draws scorn because a lot of people don't want to focus on the basics the way the Hardcore know down deep in their bones that you have too. By this time, the Fire is ready to burn the world. The Teamplayers have been reborn. A new generation of eager, kindly, cooperative children are young adults. The children are Finetuners who realize that the adults are about to do something dreadful, and they should keep quiet. The Hardcore control most of the positions of power with their steely-eyed gazes. The top-most positions, and the seats of the visionaries, are held by the old prophets and seers, the Fireborn. And the Fireborn have been telling everyone for the last forty years that certain values need to be enforced. Fireborn who once were all about choice and diversity and tolerance. Fireborn who in their youth protested against war will now call in a loud voice for WAR. Another Phoenix War is upon the world. And the world is about to be shaken by the tail, dumped upside down, and totally changed. Before the Spanish Armada, Spain ruled. After, not so. Before the Civil War, America was a Republic with slaves and not slaves, with a co-equal agrarian and industrialized sectors, after it, slaves were gone, the agrarians were under the yoke, and the Republic had become the Nation. Before World War Two, there were many powers. After it, there was America and the Soviet Union and MAD. Whats the next Phoenix War? In my Starsong future history, I postulated an invasion of China by America in 2025 or so. And defying the so-called 'Rules', America wins. And after that...the near solar system is opened. People in 2040 will look back on us the way people in 1950 looked back on 1910. It will be a different world, not just in relations between nations, but in so many different ways that it would be hard to catalog. How can you use this? 1. Create a Future History with some jags, and zigs to it. History twists and turns, and is full of plot twists. Who from 1951 would have predicted Woodstock? Who from 1981 would have predicted the Fall of the Berlin Wall? 2. This short intro may help you to see into history a bit more clearly. Sometimes, the reason someone is angry at another one is not class interests, or philosophical differences, but one man might be of another generation than the other. If a forty-year old Hardcore attains power amidst a group of twenty year older Fireborn, its almost certain that nothing he does will make them happy. 3. While this Cycles will be most useful to Near-Earth timelines, those events in history can be used after appropriate cover from metaphors as Space Wars, or as battles between the White Order and the Legions of the Abyss. 4. You may find that you can also just use small generational differences in certain conflicts. The new lord of a castle is as in #2 a Hardcore. All his advisers are Fireborn. You've just set the stage for court conflict, possible treason, too aggressive tactics by the young lord, and general revolt in the land as forces pull one way or the other. 5. This may be of use in Non-Player Character Creation. At one time, cartoons which featured teams of heroes usually had one hero with the personality 'Woman'. That is, they might have four guys ('Cowboy', 'New Yorker', 'Scientist', and 'Brash Enthusiast') and 'Woman'. Nowadays, many such shows have more complicated female characters which is good. But, in desperation, you can certainly make a group of people by rolling 1d4...Joe is a Finetuner, Mary is a Fireborn, Sam is a Teamplayer, and Kevin is Hardcore. Add a few more traits from the Three V Non-Player Character Creation chart, and you might have in the space of three minutes something approaching real enough people. 6. I've found also that this schema is a useful outline to hang history on. Because, knowing dates does not get you very far. You need to see the forces and the patterns flow in order to get a clearer understanding. Tadeusz on "Elements of Magic, Punishments, and Woman's Status" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/elements-of-magic-punishments-and-womans-status#post-1065 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:37:15 +0000 Tadeusz 1065@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I've got a fall cold, and I'm taking meds so I may not be totally coherent. Elements of Magic: 1. Code of Behavior For some magic, you have to stay within the confines of a code of behavior, or the magic leaves you. A. Paladins B. Good Witches 2. Those sensitive to magic can sense you. 3. You use the magic for an improper use, and you get punished. 4. Balance of elements magic--you cast a laser spell, and shortly there after, you're surrounded by shadow. 5. The traditional time, body involvement, items, and speech. 6. Certain languages get a bonus. More later... Tadeusz on "Societal Types and Inter-Society Conflict" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/societal-types-and-inter-society-conflict#post-1258 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:44:07 +0000 Tadeusz 1258@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ The cough is still hanging on, but I'm mostly as good as new although with little reserve. Its seems like some of my recent post titles resemble sociological papers which makes sense as I'm trying to describe the various ways one can build a society across the Multiverse. Societal Types: 1. Hunter-gatherer This breaks down into two types, nomadic and largely sedentary. The nomadic is the purer form. The most likely size is small tribes, but large spread out tribes are not uncommon. There is no major scaling difficulty to prevent a dispersed mass of small tribes from turning into a Horde like the Mongol Horde. Conflicts with Agrarian or Agricultural societies started by this type tend to be of two types. One, if the agrarian society is weak, and rich then greed lures the barbarian forward (see the Fall of the Roman Empire). More likely, the barbarian horde is being driven before some huge natual force like famine. Or famine is driving another tribe which drives another tribe which drives them. Conflicts started by Agrarian societies tend to be focused on the land, and on resource competition. In such conflicts, a 100-1 and a 10-1 principle may be stated. The agrarian society has inferior fighters due to poor food, and little practise. Oftentimes, the hunter-gatherer is worth ten of the farmers, but his problem is that there are a hundred farmers to the one hunter-gatherer. However, a concentration of force may be arranged, and such a Horde may well sweep the world. While the agrarian society has an advantage, its not a clear-cut advantage. This is a point that reoccurs. Some people imagine that conflict between civilizations neccessarily yields a victory for the more highly advanced one. This is not the case. 2. Agrarian 3. Industrial 4. Information 5. Post-Scarcity Tadeusz on "Resource Management" http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/resource-management#post-1196 Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:17:49 +0000 Tadeusz 1196@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ I'm going to come at this from an odd angle, but it does lead to Developing Different Dimensions. A young woman, late at night, walking home alone from the club, and through the park. She gets asked by a stranger for light before the park. In the park, stranger ambushes her. She survived. Recent news in the region although no one I even faintly know. One blogger says she is in part responsible because she did not take elementary precaution. There's some arguing, and legalistic stuff by those who don't want to blame the young woman at all for making some unwise choices. I get a flash of insight. What the 'she is not responsible, and its hateful for you to say she is' people want is for the police to be there in person, or in robotica (cameras and lights). They are making a claim on the finite resources of the society. The criticizing blogger (a female mind you) is making a claim on the personal resources of the young women going to clubs. 'You have a duty to learn how to protect yourself in the most basic forms, at the least.' The clubbers don't want to spend their own resources. They want to spend society's resources so they don't have to spend their own. Now consider several different societal responses, and how it yields vastly different feelings of worlds in places that are essentially alike. 1. Society spends little, clubbers spend little, crime statistics shoot through the roof until the police stop bothering to collect the data cause it makes them look bad. In some cases we start to see problems about ethnic violence, and rioting, and then police brutality seems to go up (it does, but the claims of it go up even faster). The city is in a death spiral. It may take decades, but the city is dying. 2. Society spends a lot (installs cameras everywhere, lights on every major and minor footpath, and a large number of police are put into action.) Clubbers wave merrily to Officer Friendly on his big horse as he sedately ambles down Nightclub Road keeping an eye on any potential troublemakers who are easily spotted under the bright lights. As a side effect, a lot more work and ordinary life gets done at night. It used to be in major cities that ordinary people went out at midnight to eat ice cream in the park (probably because in the summer it was the only cool part of the day. the kids are asleep, walk across from your apartment with your wife, and chat with her and some of your buds about working in the steel mill all day...) 3. Society claims to spend a lot, but there is more Big Speeches and Posters than real effect. Cameras get put up because they're cheap. A few lights get put up. Few officers are hired. Things stay the same, but the pols proclaim "We're Safe City!" This is a good setting for crusading activists and private investigators (versers can be one too!) who find out which pol is on the take from which crime group, and track down maniacs who have kidnapped decent citizens. 4. Society spends little, but decides to go for max effect. Scum are scum after all, and 'rights' are for decent folk. A little curbside justice 'explains' things wonderfully. There is a dangerous edge to the City, but its generally safe if you're cautious. However, mouthing off to a cop is a very bad idea. Your teeth will not thank you. And the cop has a dozen friends who will assure the judge he was on the other side of town in a bar if you bother to wade through the red tape arrayed against you. After which, you'll get another shellacking some night real soon. Its actually fairly effective. And if you're not suicidally inclined, you'll probably do just fine. And its a lot cheaper. Its a good place for private detectives with big fists. 5. The society spends little, but the clubbers spend more. Most clubbers have mace, a snapstick baton, and are at least a green belt in Baton-Ryu, or as MJ would put it Beat-on-ryu or Mow Git Smashed. They also make efforts to carry 'screamers' and to stay to well lit areas. Private bouncers at clubs know the faces of regulars, and pair them up with other trusted regulars as they leave. Bouncers also know the signs of trouble, and might on occasion administer a dumpster dive on a creep. Also, 'pack not a herd' mentality occasionally kicks in as when a woman screams for help, and the ten nearest women as if galvanized by an electric shock charge in and beat the snot out of some creep. (There's been a few incidences somewhat similar to this in the last few years.) Also having a big, strong boyfriend is better than having a sensitive skinny poet even if the first guy really likes football. Result....crime goes down, way down. Tax bills go way down. While there are dangerous areas, there are relatively few. And there are concerted efforts by 'Night Clubs' to eliminate those which consist of 'take back the night' community activities. However, with all the money spent on Kikhaid and mace and concealed carry pistols and range time there is less money spent on fancy restauraunts and museums on on Xbox and DVD movies. On the whole its cheaper than letting the gov't do it because the gov't is vastly inefficient. But its a hugely different society in which one--woman is fearful of her safety as she looks out in daylight through the glass of her restauraunt at a guy openly studying her with ill intent, and expects gov't to handle it, but knows it won't and is sitting down in a very fancy restauraunt with the latest iPod, palmtop, and celphone....and two--woman smiles evenly as she drops into a horse stance after leaving the diner, and slips her fingers over the cool stainless steel of the .45 revolver in her fanny pack that her boyfriend bought her last Christmas, and the possibly predatory male who heads on his way to spend another night not doing what he should not be doing. The first is our society. The second is a nicer one I think. And it comes down to how we think that gov't and people should spend their resources of money and time. Tadeusz on "General Events Monetary Type Chart for Moderate Tech and Moderate Magic Worlds." http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/general-events-monetary-type-chart-for-moderate-tech-and-moderate-magic-worlds#post-595 Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:38:29 +0000 Tadeusz 595@http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/ Monetary Systems for Alternate Dimensions with low to medium tech/magic: Roll a 3d10 to get a number from '3' to '30': =============================================== 3-There are sixteen different types of barter chits to use. If one has a cow, then you take four 'animal' chits, and try to trade them for chits that represent what you want. This chit system allows you to avoid having to carry a bushel of corn, or tote a cow through market. The chit represents that good. All goods in this fairly primitive society are divided into limited number of typed. Sumer had sixteen chit types. 4-Three chit types: Plantfood, animal, and clothing are used in this simpler barter system. 5-Time Hours are banked by someone agreeing to serve an hour in exchange for them being able to require the service of another who owes an hour to the bank. This is a more egalitarian system than money as everyone has only so much time, and thus the price paid to experts is much closer to the price paid to non-experts. 6-Pounds of Pepper are used in some medieval society as payment. 7-Salt is more common as it is neccessary for life. 8-Koku is a unit of rice production used in feudal Japan, and elsewhere in the Multiverse such as on the Planet Oleander in the Psyclone Station setting. 9-Copper, tin, lead shekels with barley as 'small change' has been done with the richer sort using silver shekels and rings. 10-Leather branded Triangles with some group symbol hard to make are one method. 11-Baked pottery 'wheels' with a rattle inside it are used by some cultures. If the wheel is damaged or the rattle is let out, then the wheel has no value. 12-Glass beads are a popular choice. Some hi-tech societies use holographic storage beads for a similar purpose. This can be to trade with less sophisticated peoples, or as the primary money since it can be made very hard to copy. 13-The Roman Denarii is worth one day's wages for the common laborer. 14-The Deben is an Egyptian money that weighs in at three ounces. For larger amounts of money, it can be found in short rods. 15-Silver shekels: A shekel is a nugget weighing close to 1/3rd of an ounce. Their use is very common. Gold and other shekels are used as well. 16-Silver coins (For example: Denarii, Lancaster Marks, Francs, Silver Pennies, Gleams, Silver Pieces, Silver Eagles, and JFK Half-dollars). 17-Paper Fiat Money. This money is given value by the statement of the government, and by its legally being legal tender. (For example: Pounds, Dollars, Rubles, Newbucks, and Yen.) 18-Gold Redeemable Dollars/Pounds/Yen/Bolivars. You can take your paper dollar (or other note) and take it to a bank, and ask for and receive the fixed amount that that dollar is worth by definition. 19-State Dollars. Individual States, Provinces, and Regions have their own monies. 20-Private banks are able to print their own dollars, and these dollars are backed by the wealth of the principal owner. 21-Company scrip has been used in many company towns. 22-Cowrie shells are clipped, and put on a string as a method of storing wealth. Sometimes these necklaces are a hundred long, and the money is stored by hangin it under the owner's arm. 23-Cigarrettes can be the basis of a monetary sytem. 24-Time Hours are a local currency where local businessmen are contracted to accept them. This is a method for an oppressed community which has its skill underutilized since the regular national currency has been sucked out of the community. 25-Clean drinking water. 26-Sealed drinking alcohol is one form of money to many. 27-Chocolate can be used in cold climates. 28-Ounces of various types of dye with royal purple being the most valued. 29-Ounces of Saffron and Yards of silk form the basis of this monetary system. 30- As on the Isles of Yap, giant stone circles and cut out, and made to serve as money. These circles are usually placed in front of a house. They might not be moved even when spent. Instead, ownership is verbally transferred.