Dealing with Your Boss's Bank's Boss

And blowing open the letterbox

This Week’s post is all about the Free Exchange Trust in Intergalactic Bastionland.

It’s easy to underestimate the great institutions. Look no further than the FXT, which some mistake for a corporation.

They control money, but they aren’t a bank. They control trade, but they aren’t merchants. They’re a monopoly, but they’re not a monolith. They’re a sprawling web of open hands and closed fists.

Confused? Think of it this way.

Claiming ownership of clusters of stars is no true power. Instead, it lies in controlling a vital element of interstellar life. The six great institutions have each managed to do this, getting all the benefits of power without the need to operate as a traditional government or corporation.

The Free Exchange Trust did this with trade. They don’t do the trading themselves, but the traders can’t operate without them. Traders need loans to invest in stock, orbitals to drop the cargo, and they get paid in Frags. Guess who controls all those things?

Controls, not owns, right? Look, I didn’t say this would be simple.

The institutions have surprisingly few employees, and the FXT are no exception. Instead, they rely on their network of sponsored agencies and organisations. Though technically independent, they rely on their institution in order to operate within its domain.

All those parts of the network treat you differently based on your status with the institution. Everyone’s status is recorded as one of the following:

Sponsored: Given support and authority
Certified: Trusted and recognised
Registered: Permitted to operate
Flagged: Monitored and restricted
Blacklisted: Denied all access

Sponsored by the FXT? Now you’ve got more frags than you know what to do with.

Registered? Sure, you can go about your business as long as it’s benefiting them.

Blacklisted? Good luck getting anything done when you can’t dock at an orbital and nobody trusts you to pay your debts.

Sure, you could start up a new bank that isn’t part of the FXT. See how that works out. Getting Blacklisted is far from the worst outcome there.

Despite their omnipresence, institutions are still made up of individuals. Discovering their personal agenda and desire is more important than understanding the wider machinations of the institution.

When you make a deal with the FXT, they always win, so find a way to make a deal with that desperate person behind the suit instead.

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Letters to Bastionland

Let’s shake out a couple of these from the inaugural heap.

The game of life (The board game) gave me one of my most favorite memories.

Now the game of life is not a particularly well made game. At best it is the better version of candy land. At its worst it is spin the boring wheel and, depending on the version, one which leads to extreme wealth inequality or a dull game. Further, it is completely luck based. No amount of strategy can prevent you from being forced to choose between a plumber or teacher instead of a doctor or accountant.

That is the result of not a rule or two but the total sum of them; the ruleset. There is no amount of rules one can add to fix the game of life. Its problem is at the core, for a normal mindset set on winning the game that is. So this board game seems to have little to offer yet one day, I played the game not to win but determined to have fun instead.

I proceeded to fail college three times, lose my job, and have a ton of children. In a normal game that would have meant failure and frustration but it was now the cause of laughter with my fellow friends. I ended up wanting to fail more than to succeed to joke about how horrible my "life" turned out.

It makes me curious as to how many games could be better if the attitude of the players were changed or how many games that are good become boring because of a wrong expectation.

I hear this talked about, how certain games need a certain type of player or how certain games are good if only played by a certain person. I wonder if there is a way to create rules that teach players to have fun. Not just push players to play a certain way to win but to enjoy the process itself; the journey.

Can one teach someone through a game to have fun?

- Mr-Game&Play

My view is that most people come to a game ready to have fun whatever happens, but sometimes the rules pull them away from that attitude and toward something else.

Pure games of chance are a window into this phenomenon. I think it’s trickier the further you move away from that.

When you write Neolithic Bastionland?

Brontak bored of knights and spaceships. Brontak think they are soooo paleolithic. Brontak want more sabretooth tigers and mammoths. Plus, the spark tables will be useful for Brontak to make fire.

- Brontak of the Red Mountain

Those in the know will remember when Mythic Bastionland was called Primeval Bastionland, much to the disappointment to those who came expecting dinosaurs.

I suppose Auldskunterroy is about as far back as I’ve gone in the time-warp of Bastionland’s history, though I did float the idea of a stone age game some sixteen years ago without going anywhere with it.

You know, that post is actually closer to the stone age than it is to today?

Thank you to everyone else who wrote in, I was sure to read every letter.

If you want the chance to feature in a future edition, you can send your own Letter to Bastionland here.

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Coming Soon

Over on Patreon I talk about another of the great institutions of space.

There’s a saying that all of the institutions are really just about pushing pencils. The FXT buys the pencils, the NCA tells you what colour you’re allowed to use, and Sovereign tells you that’s not your pencil so put it back.

Expect the full post here and on the blog next week.

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