[07] Money, Items, Professions, Jobs, and Quests

[Ander]

MONEY

The currency we use here at Chubbs is called “zeni.” Everyone starts out with 250 zeni. Like XP, earning zeni is entirely contingent on role-playing. The main source of your moneymaking is going to be through our “Profession” system, although you can earn additional zeni by other means, namely quests, sparring, or participating in sagas. Zeni may be earned through all of the above methods whether you’re alive or dead, but you cannot use your zeni if you are dead.

It is also possible to offer to pay people zeni as thanks for doing a graphics job. A person may not ask for zeni or require someone to pay them in order to do a graphics job. You may also make bets using your zeni for OOC purposes, or give zeni donations for OOC purposes. Normal transfer rules apply to all of the above.


Shopping

Obviously, if you have money, you are going to want to buy stuff. You can check the Shop for a full list of purchasable items. Any and all of those items are available for sale no matter which planet you are on. When you want to make a purchase, make a new thread in the Capsule Corporation forum. You do not have to role-play a purchase, but you need to fill out this form:

Items Buying:
Current Zeni: (amount before purchase)
Total Purchase Cost: (how much each item is, and what it adds up to)
Final Zeni: (amount after purchase)

Also, when buying items that increase your Combat Ability (e.g., Battle Chargers), please list the changes that need to be made for easier updating, and specify which items you will be equipping to your Head, Body, or Accessory slots.

If you wish to sell an item back to the shop, you may do so and you will receive one-fourth the price for it. You can sell an item to any shop you want, regardless of where you purchased it.


Transferring Money
The primary reason most people transfer money is if you don’t have enough zeni to make a purchase on your own. If this is the case, you may ask someone else to help you. This is one benefit of being in an Alliance, although you do not have to be in an Alliance to have someone help you out. When you make a purchase and you are taking zeni from multiple accounts, please state that you are doing so in the purchase form and that you have their permission. You do not have to know the person IC (In Character) nor do you have to role-play giving them the zeni.

In order to be able to transfer money, you need to have posted at least one minimum-length role-play within the last two weeks (14 days) prior to the transfer. You may not transfer zeni if you are dead. You also may not transfer zeni if you are quitting or will be leaving for a length of time beyond two weeks (14 days).


cBay

Here at Chubbs, we have something called cBay. Normally, if you want to sell your item, you could sell it back to the shop (any shop will do) and receive one-fourth of the zeni the item is priced at. However, with cBay, you may auction off your items to any player character—whoever is the highest bidder. Post a thread in the cBay sub-forum stating what item and the starting bid, and a date of closure (e.g., five days). You do not have to know the person IC (In Character) nor do you have to role-play giving them the item(s). You cannot trade for items; you must pay in zeni. All bids must be made in increments of 50, and in multiples of 5. Bids ending in anything but a 0 or a 5 will not be accepted. Do not double post: wait until someone outbids you before you bid again. If your item does not sell before the close date, you may extend the sale once. If no one buys it after that, please sell it to the shop instead.

ITEMS

Aside from travel, items are the main reason you’re going to be needing zeni. Each item is available for purchase on any planet, save the Afterlife, where using items and zeni is verboten. They serve different functions, from boosting your Combat Ability to weapons to several other handy uses. Each character has a set of “slots” that their items fall into: Head, Body, Accessory, and Other. Every item is categorized to “equip” into one of those four slots. The Head and Body slots may only have one item equipped at a time, the Accessory slot may one have two items equipped, but there is no limit to how many items you can equip to the Other slot. You cannot carry items that you have no room to equip unless you have purchased a method of storing them, such as a Personal Headquarters or a Warehouse upgrade for an Alliance Headquarters.

You may freely transfer items amongst other players, but it is more profitable for you if you sell them, whether it’s back to the shop for one-fourth its original price or put it up for bid on cBay. In order to be able to transfer items, the same rules apply as if it were money. You need to have posted at least one minimum-length role-play within the last two weeks (14 days) prior to the transfer. You may not transfer items if you are dead. You also may not transfer items if you are quitting or will be leaving for a length of time beyond two weeks (14 days).


Power Point Restoring Items

There is a limit to how many PP-restoring items a character can carry at any one time: three (3). These items include things like the Power Pill, Stimulant, and Senzu Bean. Only three may be carried at a time. This includes any combination of three: 3 Power Pills, or 1 Power Pill + 1 Stimulant + 1 Senzu Bean, 2 Stimulants + 1 Senzu Bean, and so on. These items, however, can be used at any time and instantly restore PP.

PROFESSIONS

Professions are completely optional, but this is where the most zeni can be made. You pick a “Profession,” which is entirely up to you, and can be anything from a bricklayer to an assassin. The only restriction regarding Professions is that they must have a specific task that they do. For example, you cannot be a “Jack-of-All-Trades,” “Freelancer,” “Temp,” or a “Mercenary” that can be employed to do virtually anything under one moniker. You can call your Profession whatever you like, but you must classify it for a specific task. For example, if you were a “Mercenary,” you need to specify whether you were a Mercenary who is hired to kill somebody, or if you were a Mercenary who is hired to protect somebody. So it would either be “Mercenary (Assassin)” or it would be “Mercenary (Bodyguard).” If staff is unsure what entirely your Profession encompasses, we may ask in order to determine if it’s acceptable.

Professions earn money based on a ranking system, Ranks 1-5. The zeni itself is made through “Jobs,” which offer cash rewards for successful completion that will be determined by your rank. The amount of potential zeni you can earn increases with each rank, but so does the difficulty in effort required to actually receive that amount. For instance, Rank 1 Jobs yield relatively low money but are easy to complete, while Rank 5 yields relatively high money but is much harder to complete. Your Jobs are role-plays that should be designed around the type of Profession you picked, so a bricklayer would do construction-type gigs, while an assassin would go after targets to capture or eliminate them. In order to go up in rank, you need to stick with a single Profession and successfully complete a certain number of Jobs to go to the next level. The chart in order to “rank up” is as follows:

Rank 1 to 2: 4
Rank 2 to 3: 8
Rank 3 to 4: 12
Rank 4 to 5: 16

So, if you’re a Rank 1 Bounty Hunter, you need to complete 4 Bounty Hunter-related Jobs in order to become a Rank 2 Bounty Hunter. If you decide to change Professions, your rank drops one level, to a minimum of one (i.e., you cannot go below Rank 1). So for example, if you were a Rank 3 Bounty Hunter, and you switch to a Bodyguard, you drop down to a Rank 2 Bodyguard.

“Jobs” are simply tasks you give yourself that fall under your specific Profession. In order to qualify for zeni for a Job, you pick a post where the Job starts, and you pick the post where it ends. Between those two points is where the Profession should come into play. When you’ve completed a Job, post a thread in the Updates forum asking for a grade, and based on your rank and effort, you’ll receive zeni for it. Make sure you include your Profession, the type of Job it is, the link to the thread, and the first and last post numbers of the Job. Post numbers can be found on the top right-hand corner of a post, directly across from the time stamp. For example, if I’m a Rank 1 Bounty Hunter, and I role-play a quest for my Profession where I take out the head of a major corporation, my request would look something like this:

Profession - Bounty Hunter (Rank 1)
Job - Bounty Hunter

[Thread Link], post 4 to post 8.

Can you grade this please? Thanks.

Keep in mind that Job grading takes longer than normal updates, so please observe the 72-hour bump rule. As stated before, the zeni earned is based on your rank and effort, determined by this specific scale:

Rank 1: 100~300
Rank 2: 200~400
Rank 3: 300~500
Rank 4: 400~600
Rank 5: 500~700

As you can see, the minimum reward for a Rank 1 Job is 100 zeni, which is given for minimal effort, while the maximum reward is 300 zeni, given for the most amount of effort. As you rank up, the reward gradually increases, but so too does the effort required in order to earn those rewards.

As far as multiple people go, if you’d like to role-play completing Jobs in a group, you may do so. Just make sure you specify this in your update request; only one person should make the post. Each person involved will receive an individual grade, and each person’s pay will be determined by Profession, rank, and individual effort. It should look something like this:

Bob
Profession - Bounty Hunter (Rank 1)
Job - Bounty Hunter

Joe
Profession - Bounty Hunter (Rank 1)
Job - Bounty Hunter

Mike
Profession - Bounty Hunter (Rank 1)
Job - Bounty Hunter

[Thread Link], post 4 to post 8.

Can you grade this please? Thanks.

Although this is an entirely optional system for everybody, for tracking purposes each roster will have the default of “Unemployed.” This simply means you have not selected a Profession. You may choose your Profession at any point and time you’d like. Each one will have its rank listed next to it. For example, if you choose to be a bodyguard, your roster will list you as “Bodyguard - Rank 1.”

Although it should go without saying, once you use a particular post for a Job grade, it cannot be used again for another Job grade.


Quests

We talked about “Jobs” up above, but “Quests” are something different. While a Job is something you come up with yourself, Quests are like writing prompts created for the players. Quests have a defined "difficulty" which determines the amount of effort expected in order to complete the Quest. In addition, Quests are split up by planets, so you can only take on a Quest for the planet you are on.

The biggest difference between Jobs and Quests, though, is that Quests are graded by other writers in the community, not just by the staff. When you complete a Quest, other players will come into a thread, created for your Quest, and decide what reward they think you should receive for what you did. These rewards are then averaged and awarded by the staff. For more information on Quests follow this link:

Quests Forum


Jobs/Quests, Spars and Dragon Balls

You can complete a Job or a Quest while simultaneously attempting to earn a dragon ball. Provided it takes you a long time to earn the dragon ball, you can also, in fact, complete multiple Jobs or Quests, so long as you are following the above rules of not doing a Job and Quest at the same time. So, a thread might be something like this: Posts 1 - 4 go to a Job, Posts 5 - 10 go to a Quest, and all 10 posts count towards earning the dragon ball.

You cannot, however, double up a Job/Quest and a Spar to receive a zeni payment for each. Anything marked as a Spar will receive the Spar reward, and does not count as a Job or a Quest.