The Most Valuable Currency

The general had the chief men of the city assembled, the surviving ones, and proclaimed to them their fate.
"You must pay tribute henceforth. Choose whether it will be in money every year or in men when we should call for them."
The chief men consulted and made this reply. "We have expended both in our defense. There is no surplus left to us in anything but difficulties; suppose we pledge to maintain a neverending series of rather simple problems so that your people can come here to level up."
The general praised them for their wisdom and allowed the substitution, the benefits of which soon manifested.
Finis

How to End Your Story

If you could figure out some way to have it quit to DOS, you should. Nothing's more satisfying than that.

Space Cuisine

High-altitude cooking is enough of a hassle as it is. How will high- and low-gravity cooking be, especially when combined with high-altitude, not to mention humidity and the inevitable mutations which will make for picky eaters?

The March of Time

Have you ever stopped to think that many of the arrogant young masters about whom you've read are already arrogant old masters? Or dead. That happens frequently.

Happy New Year!

See above.

Addendum

For those of you thinking it might be time to complete fewer sidequests, first, you won't, second, strive for excellence in everything you do.

For those of you wondering why it's "sidequests" in the text but "side quests" in the tags, it's because of the demon sealed between the "e" and the "q." Sadly, the tags have long since embraced chaos.

Reasonable Goals

I know what you're thinking. "My new year's resolution will be to do all the sidequests!" No, you won't. Try to complete more sidequests instead.

The New Year Always Rings Twice

I won my way into the room with two honest items, my face and my money. Private security would have been less interested in demonstrations of virtue than the building staff, but Viranz's men were spread all over the city, looking innocent, or at least guilty in an orthodox way. The seventh-story room had a peerless view of the arena. I'd known that before I came in. It also had oddities on every flat surface, just what the public would expect from the eccentric collector Viranz presented himself as being. I had girded myself with detailed descriptions of certain items, and I found one: Tarmenbi's Wonderfully Efficacious Queasiness Caster.
"Do you think it will work?"
I spun around. There was Viranz, grinning, and one of his boys, grinning even wider. He had a big face. It went with his big fists.
"I don't see why it wouldn't," I conceded. "Which is why you won't use it. There's no point in rigging the annual fight between Old Year and New Year."
"There's a point to winning bets with outrageous odds, isn't there?"
"But you won't see another year to spend it in."
"I suppose I'll have to get used to living as a rich man in this one."
A discourse on temporal philosophy didn't have much promise in it, and I wanted to catch the match (after getting Viranz turned in of course). Aside from a description, I'd gotten instructions too. I used the Queasiness Caster on the heavy and waited for it to be wonderfully efficacious, which it wasn't, and for Viranz to surrender himself, which he didn't. Those preventive measures I hadn't bothered to listen about were making themselves known.
I was in a tight spot. Whether I got out of it or not, well, wait and see if there's another year.
Finis

Addendum

"We don't have to get a real tree this year. Also I was thinking about going to bed early on the 31st." - future prison inmates

Legal Clarification

It is now illegal to play or listen to Christmas music. That is, in your science fiction setting where future nations try to unify populations flung across planets and space stations by enforcing a universal culture right down to standardizing colors for book covers (military scifi has a diamond pattern).