Some of the older colonies still ran their own currencies but the Polyaspora had wrecked any wider human economy. The entire fugitive culture had been living from day to day for decades on a barter-economy. Largesse had started when people began swapping skills and services for
whatever necessities could be gleaned. Colony kybernets had formalized it into a credit system, at least nominally backed by Hugh. It remained rough around the edges, intentionally shadowy, a cobbled-together system for a cobbled-together civilization.

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Largesse is how much spending power a Traveller can cobble together out in the far future’s cold galaxy. The main stat referenced is Social Standing but on some worlds, Education or Intelligence or Psychic Ability or even Strength might play a part, adding to the roll.

Generally, when rolling Social Standing is the primary stat with the following Die Modifiers (DM’s) based on how high the Traveller’s Social Standing is.

Social Standing = 0-5 – only roll one die

Social Standing = 6-10 – roll 2d6 (traditional Classic Traveller throw)

Social Standing = 11-14 – 2d6+1

Social Standing = 15 – 3d6, add them all together

When a character is rolling to purchase something using Largesse, the amount of currency is discussed in-game as usual but there is no need to count it up. Let’s think of it as follows:

A paycheck = +1 to next Largesse roll.

Paycheck for rare skills or a very dangerous gig = +3.

A small fortune – a knight’s ransom on a world with hundreds of manor-satellites orbiting a gas giant = d6 that is added to the Largesse roll.

A fortune – planetary baron’s ransom = 3d6.

Finding that target number. How do you know what to roll to buy what?

Like all of the throws in Traveller, a good Referee will find that consistent line through play – rolling when failure offers interesting results by putting pressure on the Travellers in ways that inspire fun and often desperate decisions.

Rolls should never take the place of context and flavor. If the currency is digital what is the sound of the beep when a deal goes through and money goes into and out of your account? If the currency is physical, what does it look like and feel like? How do pirates fiddle with it when they are nervous? How hard is it to break the plastic chit to make change and what does it sound like when it pops?

When a Largesse roll is failed, the Referee has plenty of options beyond just, “You can’t buy that,” which is also a fine option that might very well put pressure on an ambitious Traveller. Context and setting might give more than are listed below but here are some ideas:

How can Social Standing go up?

Make a checklist or a clock. Every substantial Largess roll is a check on the clock. When you are at Social Standing of 9, 10 checks to get to 10.

Above 10 means in-game work of purchasing a title. On some worlds this might mean serving a knight or marrying a non-heir or shepherding a baron’s ransom in cattle to your rival in the next valley or who-knows-what.

Referees might suggest in-game work for any Social Standing increase.

It is just like training as depicted on pages 40 and 41 of Book 2 Starships.

Examples:

Carlysle the Knife: Carlysle has landed on the Akrayez Station and is hungry. I go buy some noodles. No roll necessary.

He sees the group of ne’erdowells he flew in with, playing black hole poker to pass the time while the transport waited for gate permissions to go through. He wants to earn some good will, maybe see if anyone has a lead on a gig. “These are the best noodles in the System! Noodles are on me, you savages. Least I could do after taking your money at poker while the gate visas were processed.” Social Standing of 8, he got a +1’s worth of creds that he took with a lucky-ass gambling roll playing poker. He rolls 2d6 and gets a 3+1=4. Shit, can I not afford noodles? Carlysle can afford the noodles but it costs a bit more than he had anticipated. The credit to bone-chit (the currency name, roughly translated, on Akrayez Station) is not as good as you thought.

Shit, is Carlysle broke? Nah, he’s not sitting pretty but he just doesn’t have enough left from that poker money to really help him buy beyond his Social Standing. You aren’t busted but you aren’t sitting pretty. I’m not going to put you in debt over some noodles.

Months later, after some rocking campaign play, Carlysle is made a huge profit and is sitting on 3d6 – which is represented by a stash of Laz-Crystals he smuggled off his friend’s ship. During a big firefight, everyone thought all of the Laz-Crystals got destroyed but this one, Carlysle was able to save.

Carlysle is going to put a down payment on that Free Trader that was handed over to the station authority. That was a sweet ship, even if local Traveller lore says it might be a bit cursed – he’s not superstitious – all nonsense. That is a huge roll. Let’s say you need a throw of 17.

2d6 from an 8 Social Standing. Add in 3d6 from that fortune in crystals and I’ll add +2 from the pay from the gig.

Wait, let’s talk this out a bit before you throw dice. Where are you unloading the crystals? Those things are rare and everyone you just worked with thinks the batch they fought to obtain were destroyed.

Carlysle’s not going to the buyer the folks from the gig were going to sell to. He’s going to contact the buyer’s rival. The gang from the surface cities who were trying to contact us during the job.

Their agent is still on-station.

NOTE: I imagine a short mini-adventure here, talking about setting up the drop and maybe grabbing a trusted friend to run security for him. Lots of science fiction smuggler-crime color. Finally, the roll to purchase the ship.

Carlysle takes those credits and bone-chits and puts that down-payment on that ship!

2d6 from an 8 Social Standing. Add in 3d6 from that fortune in crystals and I’ll add +2 from the pay from the gig. All 1’s on the d6’s +2 is 7 total.

You’ve got the ship but taxes, registration and docking fees costed way more than you had anticipated. You’ve got no crew and no money to pay them but the bank that mortgaged the ship sends an e-missive with a possible job to hold off payment for a few months. Seems like an easy repo, some settlers who haven’t paid a cred since disappearing into the wreckage cloud from that space naval battle folks are always salvaging in….

Carlysle names the ship, The Flop.

I’d be dishonest if I didn’t cite my sources and mention that this system is entirely inspired by years of playing Burning Wheel and making use of its Resource system.