Let's Talk About Metacurrency

Nytmare · 2026-03-15T23:45:02+0000

TwoSix said:
You could do that, but I think making it supernatural makes a lot more sense. It’s a better simulation of how a fantasy D&D world would really work.

I have to say, reading how Rich Burlew was running his game in the late 90s, where character stats and levels and hitpoints and spell slots were just open, understood, concrete facets of daily life that characters just talked about without having to hem and haw over anachronisms and meta game concepts was such an amazing eye opener.

zakael19 · 2026-03-16T01:16:54+0000

Nytmare said:
I have to say, reading how Rich Burlew was running his game in the late 90s, where character stats and levels and hitpoints and spell slots were just open, understood, concrete facets of daily life that characters just talked about without having to hem and haw over anachronisms and meta game concepts was such an amazing eye opener.

I mean, if you're doing a lot of team based work that involves solving various sorts of problems you start to discover very quickly who is stronger/cleverer/more perceptive/more strategic/nimble/etc. Folks who do a lot of sparring/fighting know who can take more punishment and keep going. You know who is the most personable of a group, that can turn on the charm and make friends. I think we talk about this in general terms not that far away from "so and so has the most charisma" or whatever even in todays' world.

If you add in an awareness of the supernatural / magic, I can see how much of that would be even more concrete. The granular level of 16 vs 18 strength is an abstraction, and a bit goofy sometimes.

But if you don't think that "Experience" can accumulate quickly with real distinct outcomes, I'd encourage you to consider something as simple as military boot camp and other training regimes. At the start of it, recruits can't really march at all. By the end you're executing precise unified movements. Many recruits are in terrible physical condition, and are in pretty decent shape to hike a combat load by the end.

Further training at combat related tasks boost perception (identifying specific shapes, performing rapid identification and counts of vehicles and troop formations), etc.

Maxperson · 2026-03-16T02:38:28+0000

Lanefan said:
BEFORE you've got the XP.

You train for 1st level (before coming into play) then go out and earn xp by putting that training to use. Then you train for 2nd level, and go out and earn xp by putting that training to use. Lather rinse repeat.

That's putting the cart before the horse. XP is earned as you adventure in order to advance you as you go along, not to get you ready to practice stuff. If all it is for is to show what you already learned in training, then it become entirely meta since it represents nothing about improvement in the game.

Nytmare · 2026-03-16T04:25:19+0000

zakael19 said:
I mean, if you're doing a lot of team based work that involves solving various sorts of problems you start to discover very quickly who is stronger/cleverer/more perceptive/more strategic/nimble/etc. Folks who do a lot of sparring/fighting know who can take more punishment and keep going. You know who is the most personable of a group, that can turn on the charm and make friends. I think we talk about this in general terms not that far away from "so and so has the most charisma" or whatever even in todays' world.

I'm not talking about a begrudgingly hand waived acceptance of what the abstractions might look like in real life if you squint real hard. I'm talking about an in-game reality where people in the world know that you have an 18 strength and 142 hit points. They know that a goblin only has a CR of 1/4 and is worth 50 experience points and that that wizard must have taken the Elemental Adept feat because when he rolled damage his 1s counted as 2s.

Maxperson · 2026-03-16T07:07:35+0000

Nytmare said:
I'm not talking about a begrudgingly hand waived acceptance of what the abstractions might look like in real life if you squint real hard. I'm talking about an in-game reality where people in the world know that you have an 18 strength and 142 hit points. They know that a goblin only has a CR of 1/4 and is worth 50 experience points and that that wizard must have taken the Elemental Adept feat because when he rolled damage his 1s counted as 2s.

Dungeon Crawler Carl!!