Let's Talk About Metacurrency

[payn]

Yeah, I like the idea of spending metacurrency to add complications, for sure.

But sometimes you also just really want to deliver the smack down and the dice aren't cooperating...

I think one reason im leaning the way I do, is the combat isnt all that deep in Fading Suns im playing currently (and many other RPGs). So, making a miss a hit isnt all that exciting like it might be in a D&D or heavier crunch system.

 

[Reynard]

Isn't that just the way things go sometimes though? You have to take the bitter with the sweet IMO.

I mean, you don't HAVE to take the bitter with the sweet when you have metacurrency.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I mean, you don't HAVE to take the bitter with the sweet when you have metacurrency.

...and also infinite dragons.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean, you don't HAVE to take the bitter with the sweet when you have metacurrency.

I suppose that's true, but that's a line I don't want to cross personally.

 

[Umbran]

Isn't that just the way things go sometimes though? You have to take the bitter with the sweet IMO.

Meta-currencies are not "I win" buttons. They are just a resource.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

Has anyone played much Cortex Primer here? Especially Marvel Heroic Roleplaying....

I have a hack of Cortex for Exalted (here)

It was the first game I played where metacurrency was actively fun, i looked forward to the spending and gaining of "Action Points" (or plot points whatever any version calls them)

They also tied into exalted SO well.... as you spent, it Felt so much like I was actually seeing the rise in power make my character's Exar (anima banner) grow with it.

it also is a game of "dice tricks" and "narrative roll pools" so it starts with roleplay, then goes into tactical crunch, then ends with roleplay. And its metacurrency really feels like it "belongs" to the flow of that process .

 

[Micah Sweet]

Meta-currencies are not "I win" buttons. They are just a resource.

A resource on the Player-side to make winning more likely, and on the GM side to make events feel more exciting, both for dramatic rather than diagetic reasons.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Has anyone played much Cortex Primer here? Especially Marvel Heroic Roleplaying....

I have a hack of Cortex for Exalted (here)

It was the first game I played where metacurrency was actively fun, i looked forward to the spending and gaining of "Action Points" (or plot points whatever any version calls them)

They also tied into exalted SO well.... as you spent, it Felt so much like I was actually seeing the rise in power make my character's Exar (anima banner) grow with it.

it also is a game of "dice tricks" and "narrative roll pools" so it starts with roleplay, then goes into tactical crunch, then ends with roleplay. And its metacurrency really feels like it "belongs" to the flow of that process .

I read it over, because I love Marvel, but all the stuff you mentioned took the game too far away from Sim for me to enjoy it. Even though I'm ok with genre emulation in supers games, MHR took those narrativist mechanics too far for my comfort.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

I read it over, because I love Marvel, but all the stuff you mentioned took the game too far away from Sim for me to enjoy it. Even though I'm ok with genre emulation in supers games, MHR took those narrativist mechanics too far for my comfort.

I dunno how anyone can consider any super hero anything to be 'too narrative'. Considering comic books are kinda the defining factor of "rule of cool who cares about reality"

As well, the thing to consider about Cortex is that is its one of the only games where its metacurency is also diegetic - especially in Exalted.

It is far more than just 'i do better stuff, and gm get points do better stuff' - it also represents the in-game flow of Qi/Mana/Quintessence/Power and has real game narrative consequences.

 

[Umbran]

I mean, you don't HAVE to take the bitter with the sweet when you have metacurrency.

If a poker player used his supply of chips to bluff a win out of a poor hand, would you accuse them of not taking the loss they "should have" had based on the cards handed to them? Or would you say they knew how to play the game well? Probably the latter.

If a D&D player just happened to have a spell slot, such that they could cast the right spell at a critical moment, and they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, would you argue that they aren't accepting the bitter along with the sweet?

No, you probably would not. They just used an agreed-upon resource well.

Our game participants are not expected to "take the bitter" if they still have resources to spend to avoid it!

Meta-currencies are not somehow different. They are just resources.