What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?

[VLessa]

@Neonchameleon , since you brought videogames to the discussion, I'll point out that the Citizen Sleeper series is heavily inspired by Blades in the Dark according to it's main dev, Gareth Damian Martin. Don't know if you seen it yet, but I've played and it's pretty good. The system is immediatly reconizable for those who played Pbta/Fitd:

Spoiler

 

[billd91]

TSR's Marvel Super Heroes (aka "FASERIP") used a meta-currency called "Karma", and it was published in 1984. Shadowrun's "Karma Pool" mechanic came out in 1989.

In a 50-year history, something that started in the first ten years doesn't seem terribly "modern".

I agree. To add more examples:
Fame and Fortune points appeared in Top Secret back in 1980 - though I believe they were limited to just saving your agent's life.
James Bond 007 took their Hero points a step farther by allowing them to be spent to improve success levels on tasks.

 

[Umbran]

I do think supers games are perhaps a special case though. IME they're almost impossible to play like the source material without genre mechanics and meta currency. I don't think stuff like that made a big splash in otherwise traditional games that weren't supers until much later.

I mean, I gave you Shadowrun, just five years later in 1989.

WEG Star Wars used Force Points in 1987 - while the Force exists in the story, it isn't a resource that characters in the fictional universe have to spend.

 

[Umbran]

Could you transfer that between players? Oh wait sorry you COULD. I remember the pools now. Right.

Somewhat - you could form a Team Karma Pool, and allow team-members to spend from it.

You could not take from that pool back into personal karma, to spend on advancement.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean, I gave you Shadowrun, just five years later in 1989.

WEG Star Wars used Force Points in 1987 - while the Force exists in the story, it isn't a resource that characters in the fictional universe have to spend.

I don't know. Since the Force is a real thing in the setting, I can't see using it as meta-currency. There's nothing meta about it. You might as well say casting spells in D&D is meta-currency.

And I acknowledged Shadowrun.

 

[Fenris-77]

You saying I don't know doesn't actually, you know, change whether something is meta currency or not.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You saying I don't know doesn't actually, you know, change whether something is meta currency or not.

Ok, I don't agree that Force use in any Star Wars RPG is meta-currency. That work better for you?

 

[Fenris-77]

Ok, I don't agree that Force use in any Star Wars RPG is meta-currency. That work better for you?

Sure. I think you mistaken, but we're all on the same page at any rate.

 

[Umbran]

I don't know. Since the Force is a real thing in the setting, I can't see using it as meta-currency. There's nothing meta about it

Does Obi-Wan ever say, "Use your Force Points, Luke" ?

Force points don't exist in the setting itself. Indeed, the Force is explicitly described as something outside of the practitioner, rather than banked within them, that they could run out of. Nowhere in the fiction do they describe the acquisition or spending of Force Points.

In the game, people who were not Force sensitive, and could not use the Force, still had Force Points, and could spend one to double the number of dice they were rolling - a purely metagame mechanic.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure. I think you mistaken, but we're all on the same page at any rate.

Can you extrapolate how you feel I'm wrong? My metric is that "meta" means outside the setting, so anything that exists inside the setting, like the Force, can't be meta. What makes me wrong here?