Let's Talk About Metacurrency

[bsss]

Basically, how do you narrate a character getting taken out of a fight (brought down to 0 HP and below) in any edition of D&D (plus other D&D-adjacent medieval fantasy games) using action movie narration, such that the other characters in the party should be acting like the character is at grave risk of dying in the next few moments (as the death and dying rules require)?

What I say is that unconscious and dying or death saves represent the beginning of cascading system failure. "It's not like you exploded at 0 hp", I have told players before. That just one physical, conscious, or unconscious "part" of the character needs fixing to stabilize the overall system. It doesn't have to be stopping blood loss, it can be as abstract as heroic inspiration or pounding one's chest to get their heart going or fighting off despair or sure, closing a wound. This especially works in systems where the character has a chance to pop back up on their own. From a cinematic action perspective, it happens all the time. Or it doesn't and we get a sad or cruel death scene.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I would be more accepting of that explanation (though I'm still uncomfortable with it) if any RPG actually explicitly used it to explain things. But none of them bother, and I want a more realistic world than that anyway

Earthdawn.

 

[Maxperson]

This is an excellent example of just how differently we can play RPGs. I explicitly don't want the rules of the game to do any of the things you are talking about here. All I want from the rules is to model the world and how we interact with it.

Speaking for D&D, it has never done that. There have always been meta-rules for the DM to use when he models the world. Later editions have added some of that for players. Take the Luck feat in 5e. Those luck points are metacurrency that the player uses to model getting lucky within the game world and how his PC interacts with it.

All metacurrencies are, are different ways to model the world and its interactions with the PCs. I can understand not liking them, but the reason you are listing doesn't make sense.

 

[Maxperson]

I greatly dislike metacurrency.

As the DM is running and making the whole game play plot story and everything, it is so odd to say "okay DM just sit there and do nothing. You canonly act if you have a DM point and your current total is zero, haha!" So then the players just dance around and have some sort of activity while the DM watches. And the whole idea of the DM being forced to do anything as "a player used a point" is crazy.

I hate 'fate points' or such where a player can alter game reality. It's so pointless. When the player stands up so proud and says "I use a fate point and the moon falls on top the the dragon god and my character gets all the XP and Loot! Huzza!", my reaction is more like "okay, fine your character rules the world. Whatever. Go home and rule the world, no point in playing a game with you."

Now, more like an inspiration point were the player can take some bonus action or effect, like the effect of the 'wish', but no the hostile alter game reality directed at the DM. I use such inspiration in my games all the time.

I do see most of the casual DMs loving metacurrancy. They can just show up to the game and have the players tell them what to do, or even go as far as let the players just run the game. I guess that is fun for some people, but not me.

Maybe you should look up what the metacurrencies actually do before going off on the. You're tilting at windmills here.

 

[Maxperson]

So I don't use luck points or inspiration in my D&D, but I actually used something like you describe. (And yeah, it was meta.) We have divine favour points that can be gained by praying and making sacrifices in the temples. You would pray for a favour towards a certain task from an appropriate deity, and they would bless you with couple of favour points. Then you could use those points for rerolls when pursuing the blessed task.

I did this is I wanted to emulate the sort of polytheism, where the divine is part of the lives of the laypeople, and they pray to different gods depending on their needs.

That is really cool. I think I'm going to steal that.

 

[Reynard]

It is desirable to me, as GM or Player, because the alternative makes zero sense to me. If you're concerned about getting hurt and having your injuries hinder you (totally fair), there are steps you can take to mitigate that, including avoiding unnecessary fights and being careful.

Just like real life. The PCs are talented people, not superheroes in my game (unless I'm playing a supers game, which I noted as a specific exception) and not main characters in a story.

I understand the theory, I just don't think it works most of the time.

 

[Reynard]

Earthdawn.

Earthdawn has an in-fiction explanation for every D&Dism it embraces. It's glorious.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Speaking for D&D, it has never done that. There have always been meta-rules for the DM to use when he models the world. Later editions have added some of that for players. Take the Luck feat in 5e. Those luck points are metacurrency that the player uses to model getting lucky within the game world and how his PC interacts with it.

All metacurrencies are, are different ways to model the world and its interactions with the PCs. I can understand not liking them, but the reason you are listing doesn't make sense.

I have spoken above about how I'm not comfortable with luck mechanics, so I'm certainly not ignorant of them. And I'm aware that meta- rules of one kind or another have always been a thing. I try to avoid them when practical, particularly in actual play at the table (on either side of the screen). I have been very clear on this many times. How does this not make sense to you, whether or not you agree?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I understand the theory, I just don't think it works most of the time.

Even so, that is the ideal I strive for in my games. Doing otherwise in my case would be letting the perfect become the enemy of the good.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Earthdawn has an in-fiction explanation for every D&Dism it embraces. It's glorious.

It would be interesting to read.