Here, Have a Bit of Coin

Georgie placed four coins on the table to purchase the Loaf of Bread card. It was a steep charge, but with the inflation during game play and how desperate his player was, he couldn't afford to not buy the card, not knowing when the next food card would be played. Buying this card replenished his player's life force from a one to a three. Ideally, he wanted to be at a five going into the final round, but he would take what he could get.

With a greedy grin, Dick picked up the coins and added them to the Tax Collector's Bag, the position he somehow always managed to get to play.

Jane went next, flipping over the top card to reveal Loot.

Georgie inwardly groaned.

Of course she'd get to loot. This card allowed her to take all food, weapons and coins from any player of her choice. And of course that card couldn't be played on the Tax Collector without a golden master card to accompany it, which left Georgie and his measly three remaining coins, bread card, rope and dagger now in the hands of Jane. This move would effectively take him out of the game since he no longer possessed any Action Cards to trump this action. He used his one Action Card two turns ago to avoid getting sucked into quicksand.

Begrudgingly, Georgie began collecting his cards when Jane cleared her throat and played a card from her hand. Robin Hood. This card, now combined with Loot, allowed her to steal everything that Dick had. And both Georgie and Jane knew that Dick didn't have an Action Card to trump this move. He always spent all of his time raising taxes and taking money from the other players and never spending any of it on a good Action Card because he planned on buying his way out of most problems.

Dick grunted his acknowledgement to his loss and pulled out the score board. "Damn, I'm down 20.5 coins now."

Jane snorted. "How are you supposed to pay me half a cent?"

While Georgie scrunched up his nose and asked, "how did you manage to get half a cent?"

Dick turned around the score board, reminding Georgie of the not-so-sensical betting rules they had made, including half-coins, quarter-coins and nine-eights. Dick now owed Jane 20.5 and Georgie 2.125. Georgie owed Dick 38.125 and Jane 67.5. And Jane, to no one's surprise, only owed Georgie 1.125 (which happened in some fluke game where Georgie actually won; Dick had joked about calling Guinness World Records to which no one laughed.)

"I'm never gonna get my money." Dick huffed.

"I'm not so sure about that." Jane grinned, pulling out her tablet from her backpack. It made a thunk as she set it on the table, sliding cards and coins out of her way. "Georgie and I were up late last night, trying to get the algorithms right, but I think we finally got it."

"Got what?"

"Trade coin." Georgie said, using the name Dick had originally proposed with his halfcocked idea.

"A digital type of money?" Dick's face lit up. "You guys actually did it?"

Jane and Georgie exchanged a look, asking each other if there really was any doubt that the two of them would be able to come up with yet another one of Dick's outlandish ideas, but neither said a thing.

"We're actually thinking about calling it Bitcoin." Jane spun the tablet around so Dick could take a look. "Since we all owe each other only a 'bit' of coins." She laughed under her breath. "And since you both owe me an arm and leg," she shyly flicked her eyes toward Georgie in a way of apology, "I shall accept small installments."

"This is incredible." Dick scrolled through the information.

Georgie shrugged. "Really wasn't that hard once we figured out the--"

Dick waved a hand in his direction. "Nobody cares about the how Georgie. Now we can actually get paid."

"Yeah." Jane sighed. "All that work and it probably won't ever amount to anything."