Let's Talk About Metacurrency

[Lanefan]

That's why my PC carries around a meat-meter, to measure my depth of meat remaining.

My plan is to have my PC's artificer friend automate it, so as the meter reading drops, a device pumps healing potion into my PC intravenously!

And thus, in one fell swoop of inspiration, was invented the Ring of Regeneration.

 

[bsss]

So, all that said, how do you feel about metacurrency? Do you like it? Does it big you? Do you prefer a currency just for players, or for both GMs and players? Do you want it to be able to have narrative control (i spend a bennie to have a cart full of hay be below the window I am jumping out of) or do you prefer it to have only basic mechanical/mathematical aspects? Do you want it to be essentially optional, or integrated? How much metacurrency should be "on the table" == a single point of Inspiration as in D&D 5E, or a constant flow like Daggerheart?

For players, I like metacurrency that gives players storytelling levers that go beyond their character actions, because they are as creative as me when I'm GMing (if not moreso, given all the things the GM has to juggle). I am okay with that metacurrency being spent on mechanical benefits (rerolls or bonuses), but think it's not as interesting as the storytelling uses --- mechanical uses are better than not spending them at all, though. Bonus points to 13th Age, for causing that creativity to be tied back to the game world rather than just being pure "luck" or "moxie" or what have you.

I like GM Intrusions from Cypher System (which are incentivized by giving out XP), but I don't think I'd really call them a metacurrency. They're good too, though.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I don't see how hard lines help the GM do their job.

It’s not about “doing their job”. It’s about enjoying doing it that way. Enjoying how that makes the game work.

For D&D, I’ve gone full LitRPG. Hit points are explicitly supernatural resilience, that people are aware of and talk about. Not the actual numbers, but a general sense of magnitude. No one is surprised to see a 5th level character heal up from multiple stab wounds after some rest.

I changed the Cure Wounds spell to “Cure Wounds and Restore Luck and Replenish Defensive Skill”.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It’s not about “doing their job”. It’s about enjoying doing it that way. Enjoying how that makes the game work.

I was responding to @Umbran , who referred to those kinds of rules/playstyle as helping the GM do their job, or thereabouts.

 

[soviet]

I changed the Cure Wounds spell to “Cure Wounds and Restore Luck and Replenish Defensive Skill”.

I cast 'Restore Je Ne Sais Quoi' on Conan. That stab to the face really bummed him out.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I was responding to @Umbran , who referred to those kinds of rules/playstyle as helping the GM do their job, or thereabouts.

Not really. He said that if you have a gist of why it might be beneficial for a GM to follow rules, then you probably already “get it”.

 

[Umbran]

I don't see how hard lines help the GM do their job.

I am not sure what "hard lines" means to you.
But, not everyone is at their best with absolute freedom to do whatever they want. Some folks are helped by having a frame work to follow.

But then, the kind of games that explicitly limit the GM (rather then allowing personal judgement) don't really appeal to me anyway.

Not eveyrone's judgement is great, Micah.

And, even among those who have good judgement, they don't all not feel their judgement is great, and they relax more when there's a framework.

And in some cases, like Daggerheart, the GM's meta-currency is actually a direct feed into balance in the game - the GM is limited by how much Fear the dice produce. That puts some long-term balance into their play, by design.

I generally prefer toolkits rather than targeted RPGs (what @Reynard calls "opinionated" games).

Great for you. Have fun with them.
Never mind that some of the games with meta-currencies are toolkits. Don't worry about that at all...

 

[Thomas Shey]

Many games that have GM-side meta-currency also routinely restrict the GM's authorship rights. Not my bag, but a lot of people here seem to want that for reasons I don't understand.

Well, in the case of lot of direct-roll-intervention things, I don't think there's a virtue in having the players wonder at what point the GM will decide its time to let them succeed. That was a complaint I launched at one edition of M&M some years ago.

 

[Thomas Shey]

But often don't they function the same?

What is the difference between a "potion" the GM gives the player that is consumable and gives them advantage on an action versus and "inspiration" point the GM gives the player that gives them advantage on an action? Both are fictitious. Sure, one is "real" in the made up setting of magic and elves (or space ships and aliens) and the other is make-believe in the rules for the players.

Is only being part of the setting and not the rules the only thing that differentiates them? Why is that important?

A lot of metacurrency doesn't automatically come to you either. But I think if you don't understand why the "meta" part of that matters to some people, them trying to explain it is unlikely to get anywhere.

 

[pemerton]

Hard disagree. Hit points are an abstraction, but they still represent something real in the fiction that the character can experience, and the potion is a real thing in the fiction too. There might be an argument that spending hit dice on a short rest is a metacurrency, but that's fuzzy.

The PC can't experience their luck being ablated. I mean, ablation of luck doesn't even make sense in the fiction (unless it's a very particular fiction).