Let's Talk About Metacurrency

[Maxperson]

I just finished that one. The end is... a lot.

And I thought the ending to book 4 was a lot.

 

[TwoSix]

And I thought the ending to book 4 was a lot.

Book 5 is even more "a lot". It's my favorite of the 7 I've read.

 

[JohnSnow]

Okay, I love the topic, but just can't bring myself to read 54 pages of comments.

I like meta-currency, but I hate there being a ton of different kinds of them. The only meta-currency should be something like Luck Dice, Deathbringer Dice, Bennies (Savage Worlds), Inspiration (5e), Action Points (d20 Modern), Luck Tokens (Shadowdark), or Force Points (WEG Star Wars). Hope and Fear in Daggerheart serve basically the same function.

It's a way for players or GMs to thumb the scale for things that should be occasional, earned, or when they really, really want something to happen. And here's the deal - you can spend the currency and still fail. It happens.

I'm in favor of doling out a few to everyone and then awarding them for smart and entertaining (or in character) play. But then I generally like swashbuckling games. I also think there is a place for awarding them for failing, so that the player who's been failing a lot due to plain bad luck gets their moment to shine later in the game.

In an ideal game, I'd want to see them power any abilities you want to restrict to "X per day" or "X per session," because daily abilities seem so cheesy to me unless there's a very good reason they depend on getting a good night's rest.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah. Batman isn't a fan of the hail of bullets that is the primary Plan B for Shadowrunners...

Shadowrun: 3 hours of planning, only for the Street Samurai to go in guns blazing...

 

[Nytmare]

I just started reading the first book. Wonderful

It's weird cause I'm really not a fan of the lit rpg scene, but if you get a chance to listen to the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks, they are quite possibly the best produced audio books I have ever listened to. DOUBLY so when you realize that all of the voices you're listening to are one single voice actor.

 

[Nytmare]

Shadowrun: 3 hours of planning, only for the Street Samurai to go in guns blazing...

 

[Fenris-77]

It's weird cause I'm really not a fan of the lit rpg scene, but if you get a chance to listen to the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks, they are quite possibly the best produced audio books I have ever listened to. DOUBLY so when you realize that all of the voices you're listening to are one single voice actor.

I'm going to have to give those a listen.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Shadowrun: 3 hours of planning, only for the Street Samurai to go in guns blazing...

We always refer it to defaulting back to "The Irish Plan". Part of it, of course, is an extent plan can easily not have a good drop-back state if a few critical parts just don't work out, and even if it could that tends to require even more planning, and as some point parts of most groups just don't have the patience for that.

 

[Artamo]

I'm going to have to give those a listen.

Same. I keep hearing about this series and it sounds like I need to check it out.

 

[Fenris-77]

Same. I keep hearing about this series and it sounds like I need to check it out.

I'm maybe three chapters into the first one, and I suspect I won't reading anything else for a while until I'm caught up.