Will the complexity pendulum swing back?

[Thomas Shey]

There is a recent thread on Force Points in SW d6. That's definitely a metacurrency that has one foot on the player resource side, and one foot firmly on the character side and interacting with the game world. Although I have to admit we never called it "metacurrency" back in the 90s.

I think that term mostly postdates that period.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Almost no one considers XP, a player side resource, as a metacurrency, either... but it is. It's an abstraction into metacurrency. More clearly so in games like Storyteller System, Hero, or GURPS... the latter two being "experience is just more points to spend…" ... as they have multiple ways to spend XP/Exp/AP/CP etc...

I think resources not spent within the actual play of a game, rather than in advancement largely broadens the term to uselessness.

(Of course there are point sets that live with a leg in both camps--the WEG games and some other designs coming out of Greg Gordon's mind land in this--but then, those "conflate hero points and experience" systems have more than their fair share of other issues).

 

[Thomas Shey]

Force Points exist in the fiction of the game. They are just a resource.

Not so sure. Its not clear to what extent that should be a finite resource within the setting. It strikes me as more likely a game balance tool.

 

[dbm]

How many midichlorians to the force point?

 

[Reynard]

Not so sure. Its not clear to what extent that should be a finite resource within the setting. It strikes me as more likely a game balance tool.

That's fair, but i think there is a difference between Force Points and, say, Buffy's Drama Points or Savage Worlds Bennies.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, but you're super-purist for simulation Micah. You gotta admit that's going to color your view on it.

No doubt, but that's where I stand.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Force Points exist in the fiction of the game. They are just a resource.

Yeah, they're like sorcery points or spell slots conceptually.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I had a couple larger fights, too small for the battle system, too big for TOTM, in 3rd. a few of those I solved by using the Clan War minis game rules.

I still have my copy of Clan War.

 

[soviet]

Force Points exist in the fiction of the game. They are just a resource.

Yeah as has been said I think clearly in the setting the Force exists but I don't know that the points do. To my mind Force use is more like a skill check in that we see new practitioners struggling to do things (think: Luke trying to pull his lightsabre when trapped by the wampa) while experienced practitioners seem to be able to do things quite casually. We do sometimes see force users come up against some sort of point of power exhaustion (think: Palpatine vs Mace Windu, although I'm not sure how much of this is a bluff) but it's quite rare.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah as has been said I think clearly in the setting the Force exists but I don't know that the points do. To my mind Force use is more like a skill check in that we see new practitioners struggling to do things (think: Luke trying to pull his lightsabre when trapped by the wampa) while experienced practitioners seem to be able to do things quite casually. We do sometimes see force users come up against some sort of point of power exhaustion (think: Palpatine vs Mace Windu, although I'm not sure how much of this is a bluff) but it's quite rare.

The points are an abstraction of a phenomenon within the fiction. Metacurrency, by definition, exist "meta" to the fiction, outside entirely.