wesleysgirl: (Default)
wesleysgirl ([personal profile] wesleysgirl) wrote2005-09-18 11:08 am

Firefly money



Even after reading this page pointed out by the lovely [livejournal.com profile] justhuman, I'm still trying to sort out what Inara might charge for her services.

The first question is, does Inara get paid in official, Alliance based credits, or in border world platinum? It makes sense that, as an official, sanctioned Companion, she'd be paid in credits, but since credits are an electronic form of money, wouldn't that make it awfully easy to track her and thus Serenity?

Part of the issue is whether or not Inara charges for a set amount of time, which I'd imagine she does (vs charging a certain amount of money for each individual act performed during that amount of time.) If a high-class call girl in today's society can make $1000-1500 an hour, then what would she charge for an entire evening, or a day, or a weekend? I'm thinking that half a day (from late afternoon until late evening) might cost the equivalent of $5,000; 24 hours might cost $10,000. Does that sound way off-base?

5,000 of today's dollars = 500 platinum = 200 credits
10,000 dollars = 1000 platinum = 400 credits

I'd love some discussion on this.

[identity profile] j00j.livejournal.com 2005-09-18 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
If someone owns the Serenity RPG, its writers have probably come up with a more precise system for dealing with money, or even what a Companion gets paid, in that. Hmm, there's nothing in the playtest materials I have, and I haven't bought the rulebook yet now that it's out. The RPG isn't exactly canon, I guess, but it would be one semi-official option for more information. Just a thought.

[identity profile] treebee.livejournal.com 2005-09-18 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
www.serenityrpg.com is gonna be the official site for the RPG sourcebook, but the link is still dead. Don't know when the site is going live, but it's supposed to have a lot of info when it does.

[identity profile] nnmpsn.livejournal.com 2005-09-18 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually I got the RPG book at Dragon*Con. It does have some price info for companion services:
evening -- 350 credits/875 platinum
full day -- 450 credits/1,125 platinum

As it also lists this availability as "Core" rather than "Everywhere," you can probably take it not to be referring specifically to Inara, but more in the 'Verse in general.

On a quick reading it also seems like credits aren't much used outside the Core (where platinum isn't legal tender). So maybe even the wealthy folks out towards the Rim would be dealing in platinum. And as a companion in the outer worlds Inara might be sort of a special case, anyway.

So, you can take that as you will....it's certainly more concrete than anything that was written into the show.