What is the experience-type metacurrency in Call of Cthulhu that you get for "defending the world against the forces of the Mythos"? CoC's experience-type metacurrency — sanity — is the inverse of others. You're trying (nominally) not to lose it. So in this sense it's more like hit points than experience points. I don't think CoC has any experience-type metacurrency. The closest thing is the checkmark you get for succeeding on a skill roll, but you only get those once per skill per "level" and they only give you a chance of advancement.
A very refreshing take on that topic, many thanks for that article. Just a few days ago, I was in a discussion with someone who dismissed metacurrencies as “modern nonsense.” They believed that “real role-playing” (whatever that is) doesn't need such things. I wish I had had the insights from this article back then.
Great post--thanks for putting words to an idea that was knocking around in my brain but which I couldn't articulate. I'd go a step further here and argue that much of what makes a game fun involves scarcity of one or more of these metacurrencies. For example, I found that players treated hit points as far more precious when I introduced an expensive and scarce material component for healing spells. My original purpose in doing that was to encourage players to be more wary about starting fights. What I found is that increasing the likelihood that a character would actually die in any given combat increased the narrative tension of the game.
In Tales from Trinity City, you have health and energy. Health is punishment you can take. Energy allows you to use abilities, once you’re out, you can only do the basic stuff.
What is the experience-type metacurrency in Call of Cthulhu that you get for "defending the world against the forces of the Mythos"? CoC's experience-type metacurrency — sanity — is the inverse of others. You're trying (nominally) not to lose it. So in this sense it's more like hit points than experience points. I don't think CoC has any experience-type metacurrency. The closest thing is the checkmark you get for succeeding on a skill roll, but you only get those once per skill per "level" and they only give you a chance of advancement.
A very refreshing take on that topic, many thanks for that article. Just a few days ago, I was in a discussion with someone who dismissed metacurrencies as “modern nonsense.” They believed that “real role-playing” (whatever that is) doesn't need such things. I wish I had had the insights from this article back then.
Great post--thanks for putting words to an idea that was knocking around in my brain but which I couldn't articulate. I'd go a step further here and argue that much of what makes a game fun involves scarcity of one or more of these metacurrencies. For example, I found that players treated hit points as far more precious when I introduced an expensive and scarce material component for healing spells. My original purpose in doing that was to encourage players to be more wary about starting fights. What I found is that increasing the likelihood that a character would actually die in any given combat increased the narrative tension of the game.
Interesting article.
In Tales from Trinity City, you have health and energy. Health is punishment you can take. Energy allows you to use abilities, once you’re out, you can only do the basic stuff.