Let's Talk About Metacurrency

VHawkwinter · Mar 14, 2026

Micah Sweet said:
Agreed. There's a couple out there, but they tend to have a higher than average complexity scale.

I took that comment you were replying to as a wish for more consistent supers fiction. But maybe I'm mistaken.

VHawkwinter · Mar 14, 2026

Umbran said:
This is why many games that have contingency-planning as a motif typically use a flashback mechanic, or a trench coat effect, to make it happen.

In Shadowrun, planning out the job as fallible humans with "the map" is a lot of fun - no flashback mechanic required. But that playstyle will never result in you being Batman.

aramis erak · Mar 15, 2026

Micah Sweet said:
I've seen more than one supers game that did in fact comes from a broader angle than you seem to be advocating (FASERIP is my favorite), so the end product certainly can.

FASERIP has the first metacurrency use I realized was meta... spending Karma to adjust rolls.

D&D style XP are meta, too, but many don't realize that.

aramis erak · Mar 15, 2026

Benjamin Olson said:
[...] it's just that in the places where it's initiative system doesn't work for me it really spectacularly doesn't work. Not only do I get to have my character kind of suck for the moment, but I get to potentially negotiate uncomfortable social dynamics at the table around my character kind of sucking and my decision to take a turn.

Using the optional turn mechanic might help with that.

Maxperson · Mar 15, 2026

Staffan said:
IIRC, it was also the way to unlock more Power Stunts, or how to use your power(s) in new ways. It was fairly common for one of the more flexible powers (e.g. Earth Control or Telekinesis) to start with one power stunt beyond the power's basic use, and you'd need to develop further ones in play.

Yep. Forgot about power stunts entirely. Karma was a critical meta-currency.

Micah Sweet · Mar 15, 2026

VHawkwinter said:
I took that comment you were replying to as a wish for more consistent supers fiction. But maybe I'm mistaken.

One, I expect, would lead to the other. Consistency has definitely worsened in the last decade or so.

VHawkwinter · Mar 15, 2026

Micah Sweet said:
One, I expect, would lead to the other.

I suspect that's a one way relationship. A more consistent TTRPG isn't going to make the fiction more consistent.

Micah Sweet said:
Consistency has definitely worsened in the last decade or so.

I stepped off the Marvel bus when they destroyed the multiverse around 2015. Basically all the characters I still cared about canonically died, and any of them that were recreated in the new universe, are new characters despite their similarities. I had no investment in their replacements, so I stopped buying marvel comics.

Funny to think that with their 1:3 timescale, they're in a universe that's only ~3 years old though.

aramis erak said:
D&D style XP are meta, too, but many don't realize that.

Yeah, yet most RPGs use something similar. I'm not convinced they're the best option, personally. But otherwise you need to have downtime mechanics for training and study and whatever other non-meta advancement rules you have.

Fenris-77 · Mar 15, 2026

Meh, XP can be 'explained' as the cumulative effect of actual in-adventure experience without sounding too silly. No sillier than HP anyway. Or levels period. And so on and so forth.

VHawkwinter · Mar 15, 2026

Fenris-77 said:
Meh, XP can be 'explained' as the cumulative effect of actual in-adventure experience without sounding too silly. No sillier than HP anyway. Or levels period. And so on and so forth.

"HP" "Levels Period"
Those D&D mechanics have always been quite meta. Like, why do you suddenly gain this big chunk of class abilities all at once, etc?

Yes you can tolerate them because of other things the system does that you like, or simply not care, but that's hardly the only option. Shadowrun, GURPS, and Mythras require substantially less contortion to 'explain' what's going on (though they do offer the more D&D type XP options as well, the granularity of picking up new abilities one at a time is a valid design choice, and so is not having JRPG style rapidly ballooning HP pools - GURPS also has learning through training. Levels, rather arbitrary XP, and quickly accelerating HP pools are not the only option).