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(TFT) unfinished

I've been looking at the methods used by Figures who use Power Structures to Action on larger scales. Kings for example can attempt Actions that can have an effect on their entire kingdom and its population. Of course, large-scale Actions like this are certainly not handled with 5 second Turns. Some Actions may take years, decades, or even generations to have a full effect. 
With many of these large-scale Actions this is a pretty direct process.
Decide to build a medieval cathedral and your setting in motion a project that takes roughly 3 to 5 generations or more to complete for example. Player Figures adventuring at the start of construction are unlikely to be around to worship in the completed cathedral. Other large-scale Actions are more immediate but still fairly straight forward. A raise in the tax rate can be affected as quickly as the order can be communicated across the kingdom which can be nearly as fast as modern communication speeds with a Long Distance Telepathy network. Like it or not, Player Figures that owe taxes will have to dig deeper or look for another option, but they know what they are dealing with. 
Some large-scale Actions are quite a bit more subtle.
Currencies are an example of this kind of large-scale Action.
Currency debasement is a common revenue generator for government Power Structures that don't wanna pissoff the proletariat classes with a public move like raising the tax rate. While currencies can be debased for other less nefarious reasons billon coins, lighter weights, or re-striking another nations coinage were all methods used to inflate the total amount of available coinage to try and meet debts for expensive projects like building roads or cathedrals or, more likely, financing warfare. Now this is a large-scale Action that a normal adventuring Figure is unlikely to notice prima facie as the currency is likely to retain many of the same features of its pre-debased state. This type of large-scale Action is often meant to deceive rather than present the players with a choice which points to the question of what the Player should know as compared to what the GM should know about a game-world. 

The information required depends on how the game-world is framed.
A micro-game play session of Melee requires very little information beyond the rules and components. A player needs little more information than the old infantry adagium "ours is not to question why, ours is but to do or die". GM's in this situation are simply another player, running NPC's under the same rules mechanics that the players use. Wizard adds rules for spells and a larger map but still requires no information about where the Figures are coming from, where the arena is located, or even how it is constructed. 
A Figure can't move off the edge of the map and it doesn't matter why.
Of course, that's a game, not a role-playing game.

A step up in required information is the adventure module.
Traditional dungeon modules provide one or more maps of fairly small area that are stocked with various encounters. A typical map or level covers an area roughly equal to what one would encounter in a large office building or production floor, about 27,000 square feet for ITL using its hex tessellation of the 8 by 10 page @ 4m per hex STS and half that for D&D's 10 foot squares on quarter inch graph. Framed as a standalone adventure a module doesn't require additional information outside of that provided by the map and room descriptions. Players rolling up their Figures for a dungeon crawl can create support Figures or specialists that can perform Actions that would be useless in an arena, but really don't need much else in the way of "background" or other information to create their characters. A GM doesn't need to know anything about the game-world outside of the dungeon itself. Within the dungeon we see some of the first common examples of GM information not available to players. The map, monsters, traps, secret doors, and treasures all represent information known to the GM at the start of play but hidden from the players. 

The next rung up the scale puts the module in an environment.
At this level things begin to get a little hairy.
Starting players in Bendwyn to run a play session of Tollenkar's Lair could technically be an issue. Traditionally this kind of set up is pretty abstract with the GM reading a few paragraphs of background or rumor and the players equipping themselves and heading straight to the dungeon, rolling a few random encounter checks along the way. There's nothing really wrong with this as long as the GM doesn't imply that the players have any choice in the matter. Motivation based on rumored treasure is a sufficient reason for adventure but is hardly necessary. There are a number of motivations that lean more toward the necessary, perhaps Tollenkar has kidnapped one or more of the players Figures loved ones and now holds them at the lair, or maybe the player Figures are members of a military Unit that has been ordered to clean the place out, etc. but in the classic setup the only thing really preventing a player from heading north to Dranning is their greed. 


then...
Most of what follows can be considered as being "stuck in traffic on the exit ramp leading to the ballparks parking lot" as far as accuracy is concerned. 

Money
Historically the extraction of silver to that of gold in primary production has run at a ratio of roughly 16:1. According to the World Gold Counsel roughly 5 billion ounces of gold have been mined up till today with about 95% of the total continuing to be held by mankind and several of the worlds largest mining companies claiming that peak-gold has been reached in the last decade. This suggests something on the order of 75 billion total ounces of silver have been produced. The livre equaled 1 pound of sliver divided into 20 sous (shillings), each consisting of 12 deniers (pennies). One troy pound of 92.5% sterling silver makes a coin approximately a quarter of an inch thick and about three and a half inches in diameter. One troy pound (named after Troyes, subject of 'Life In a Medieval City') consisted of 12 troy oz. 
One troy oz is slightly over 31.1 grams.
One avoirdupois pound weighed ~14.583 troy oz in comparison.
The first widely circulated gold coin in England, the gold Noble, was 9 grams of gold valued at 6 shillings and 8 pence but by this time coin weight and purity varied frequently with the Nobel being the second gold coin that Edward III attempted to introduce into currency and after its successful adoption being reduced in weight twice during his, granted long, reign. 
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