Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd
The fundamental problem with insurance (and finance in general) in an RPG is they are probability games for the investors. But in a dramatic work like a game, the probabilities, both good and bad, are completely out of proportion to the real world. They have to be, because unusually good or bad stuff happening to the characters regularly is what makes the thing entertaining.
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One way around this is to provide that insurance always has a deductible.
There's a joke about two businessmen who meet in a vacation resort. One of them tells the other about the fire that burned down his business and gave him a million dollar insurance payout. The other describes the flood that gave him a ten million dollar payout. The first one leans closer and whispers, "How do you start a flood?"
To discourage that sort of thinking, insurance companies are reluctant to pay the full costs you incur by having a bad thing happen to you. You get back most of the value of your house or car, or you have to pay a few dollars on your medical bills, or whatever. This isn't a perfect deterrent, of course. But if the PCs got into trouble accidentally, and get back 90% of the cost of their starship or their medical expenses, they'll feel the bite.
And deductibles don't only deter fraud; they also discourage carelessness. (It's like the study decades ago that found that people who wore seat belts drove less carefully because they felt safer.) But discouraging risk-taking is obviously not something you want to do in an RPG.