rmcoen
Adventurer
Responding to the OP:
I like metacurrency for the PCs, but they need to be earned. IMC, I give each Player a "Luck Point" for showing up to the game on time; Luck Points can be used as Inspiration or for a slightly stronger effect. They get 1 "Fate Point" per level or major storyline completion; Fate Points save your life, or allow you to "edit" the world. And we use "Inspiration Cards" - you can forfeit the standard reroll rule for a unique one-time special effect described by the card.
I hate the idea of metacurrency for the GM, because it promotes the idea that the GM is "against" the Players. As the GM, I'm providing a story and a setting, and then letting the players run amok in it. I'm not out to get them, I'm there to adjudicate the results of their actions. If they figure out there's a medusa in the basement, they can avoid it, drop the building on it, face it in battle (with or without mirrors and whatnot), report it to more powerful authorities, flee in terror, whatever. If they miss every clue about the medusa, and wander unprepared into the basement, well... I don't need to spend "metacurrency" to trigger the medusa, or hide clues, or prevent the PCs from leaving the area, or thwart their first two ideas for collapsing the building, or whatever. We are playing a TTRPG (D&D 5.5e in this case), not "Descent" or similar "5v1" tabletop boardgame.
Likewise, if a battle is going too easily for the PCs... then it goes easily. I'm not throwing in 1d6 extra skeletons because I have a Threat token. If there are 5 skeletons in that battlefield, they are/were always there, for the reason I put them there - and they activate or don't because of the reason/story that I defined - like "desecration of a gravestone (perhaps from an AoE spell)", "a radiant attack kills a someone within the grounds", or "any necromantic spell being cast has a 10% chance per spell level of awakening them". Now, I know the PC warlock alternates between eldritch blast and sacred flame, so there's a good chance that trigger #2 will happen; he also likes wall of fire, so trigger #1 might too. Chill touch is the only necromantic spell the players have, and it's not used much (thanks to 5.5e's version being TOUCH range again!), so trigger #3 might never happen from the PCs. On the other hand, the bandits have a dark cleric with them, and he has a few necromantic spells (spiritual weapon interestingly having the potential to be either!). The point is: no GM metacurrency required or desired. I'm not spending 5 Threat to drop a dragon on them - there is no dragon in the area, no matter how much metacurrency I want to spend!
I like metacurrency for the PCs, but they need to be earned. IMC, I give each Player a "Luck Point" for showing up to the game on time; Luck Points can be used as Inspiration or for a slightly stronger effect. They get 1 "Fate Point" per level or major storyline completion; Fate Points save your life, or allow you to "edit" the world. And we use "Inspiration Cards" - you can forfeit the standard reroll rule for a unique one-time special effect described by the card.
I hate the idea of metacurrency for the GM, because it promotes the idea that the GM is "against" the Players. As the GM, I'm providing a story and a setting, and then letting the players run amok in it. I'm not out to get them, I'm there to adjudicate the results of their actions. If they figure out there's a medusa in the basement, they can avoid it, drop the building on it, face it in battle (with or without mirrors and whatnot), report it to more powerful authorities, flee in terror, whatever. If they miss every clue about the medusa, and wander unprepared into the basement, well... I don't need to spend "metacurrency" to trigger the medusa, or hide clues, or prevent the PCs from leaving the area, or thwart their first two ideas for collapsing the building, or whatever. We are playing a TTRPG (D&D 5.5e in this case), not "Descent" or similar "5v1" tabletop boardgame.
Likewise, if a battle is going too easily for the PCs... then it goes easily. I'm not throwing in 1d6 extra skeletons because I have a Threat token. If there are 5 skeletons in that battlefield, they are/were always there, for the reason I put them there - and they activate or don't because of the reason/story that I defined - like "desecration of a gravestone (perhaps from an AoE spell)", "a radiant attack kills a someone within the grounds", or "any necromantic spell being cast has a 10% chance per spell level of awakening them". Now, I know the PC warlock alternates between eldritch blast and sacred flame, so there's a good chance that trigger #2 will happen; he also likes wall of fire, so trigger #1 might too. Chill touch is the only necromantic spell the players have, and it's not used much (thanks to 5.5e's version being TOUCH range again!), so trigger #3 might never happen from the PCs. On the other hand, the bandits have a dark cleric with them, and he has a few necromantic spells (spiritual weapon interestingly having the potential to be either!). The point is: no GM metacurrency required or desired. I'm not spending 5 Threat to drop a dragon on them - there is no dragon in the area, no matter how much metacurrency I want to spend!
