ottomancer wrote:

1. Can characters spend money on training to improve skills, or can skills only be improved in-game using RP?

I do not know how your game works, so I would say 'maybe'. If I were to do it in my game, I would houserule it that the characters were renting time on the servers of mesh schools or universities and running training simulations to practise specific skills or abilities. That would give the characters, I think, a reasonable mechanic for spending credits to gain CP to put toward their lists of documented skills.

ottomancer wrote:

2. The first three adventures I have run have been based on or in orbit around Mars. The economy there is very similar to what we have now, so characters have used money without issue. The campaign is heading Rimward, first to the Main Belt, then out to Saturn and beyond. My question is this: There is mention in the rules of the Lunar banks having established exchange rates between new/old economies. Is there an example of this in the rules? If not, how to I convert credits to rep?

The character creation part of the core book has mappings for the five grades of favors to credits, as I recall. In v3 of the core book, it is on page 137. As for how it would work into the narrative of your game, let me do a little thinking out loud... Mr. Smith has 10,000 credits that zie would like to turn into a requisite volume of favors that might possibly be called in on Titan. Let us assume for the moment that the government of Titan and the Lunar banks have an agreement in which Mr. Smith's accomplishments in his communities and his bank account balance are tracked in a cryptographically secure and verifiable fashion. Mr. Smith tells the First Bank of Luna that they can convert his account balance of 10,000 credits into two High Favors. They deduct 10,000 credits and update their internal social network to say "Mr. Smith is now owed and should be given (what we call two High favors as players) should zie ask for them. Zie can cash out those two favors and recieve 10,000 credits in exchange if zie has not called in those favors before that time." The First Bank of Luna's databases now reflect the transaction, and the update is broadcast across the solar system to all of the other banks that work in the same way. Those updates are also broadcast to all of the entities in the solar system that care about someone vouching for someone else to do certain things of a certain magnetude. This means two things: First, Mr. Smith may now potentially be on the hook to do favors for other customers of the First Bank of Luna and every other entity that they have an agreement with, up to and bounded by what the game rules call two High favors to balance the books. Second, this puts every other entity and individual that is a customer of the FBoL or which has an agreement to do favors for them to do things for Mr. Smith up to and bounded by what the game rules call two High favors. What does everyone get out of this? Anyone who chooses to be a member of this pan-solar system network can say to the First Bank of Luna "Hey, can I have 10,000 credits drawn on your reputation network?" if they want to, and because the FBoL has lots of credits in their coffers, they can choose someone in that network more or less at random and say to them "Hello. You exchanged 10,000 credits for two High favors in our network. Another customer in our network wants to borrow 10,000 credits from you, and in exchange they will be liable for any two High favors you may ask of them (or they may transfer those favors to someone else in our network, on the same terms). May we give them those credits and put them on the hook to you?" If transhuman A declines, the LAIs running the reputation network move on to transhuman B, transhuman C, and so forth until they run into someone who accepts the deal. If not, chances are employees of the FBoL may be contracted to carry out (or broker) those favors to make the books line up at the end of the analysis period; they have lots of transhumans they can contract to carry out all sorts of weird tasks within specific parameters that ultimately make the books balance. Mr. Smith may even, as a customer worth lots of credits, be tasked with carrying out certain tasks wherever zie happens to be as a pre-requisite of doing business with the FBoL to make the books balance (as part of their AUP). Mr. Smith may ask the same thing of the FBoL and expect to get either credits, stuff, or work done for them on the same terms by someon in the same network who is physically near them. Everybody gets something they want from someone else when they ask for it (in theory; if they do not that is were reputation hits for not playing along with everyone else come in). At the end of the week, Mr. Smith cashes out his two unused High favors for a bank account balance of 10,000 credits. Someone else in the FBoL's reputation network is asked if 10,000 of their credits can be transferred to someone else in exchange for a couple of favors being brokered for them in the future, and the cycle begins all over again.