[generic] Meta points

The SWADE Deadlands has only one colour of bennies, and you get them at the start of the session, whenever a PC draws a joker in an initiative card draw, and I think for roleplaying your disadvantages. We generally each tried to save one for emergencies, but otherwise they got used frequently and were a fun part of the game.

Having them in different colours with limited uses sounds unnecessarily complicated and not fun. I'm glad the new version scrapped that.
 
I'm now thinking that for a lot of games it'd be good to give the -GM- a supply of points to spend against the terrible nasty players.

Several of these roads lead back to Star Trek Adventures/2d20.
(Which, by the way, doesn't fit the original post's criteria.)
 
I'm now thinking that for a lot of games it'd be good to give the -GM- a supply of points to spend against the terrible nasty players.

That makes sense. That said I am not very good at running games that require the GM to push back hard against the players, even when the push back is done in the most fun, honest challenge sense. I am a softie GM. I need the system to be play "bad cop" to my "good cop" act. This means which I do better when an escalation of adversity or disappointing turn of events is triggered automatically by the system rather than me, the GM, choosing when best to put the knife in.
 
If I understand correctly (which I may not, as I have never played it) multicoloured bennies are a Deadlands Reloaded thing - Reloaded was Deadlands rewritten for the Savage Worlds Deluxe edition of 2004.

At the start of the game, the GM puts 20 white, 10 red and 5 blue bennies into a pot, and players draw however many they are allowed (usually three, but Edges and Hindrances can modify that).
  • White bennies are used as normal.
  • Red bennies can either be used as normal or add a d6 to a roll like SWADE Conviction (but if you do, the GM gets to draw from the pot).
  • Blue bennies add a d6 to a roll like Conviction but the GM doesn't get anything.
My guess is that this rule has been superceded in the SWADE version of Deadlands, which I think came out earlier this year, by the ordinary SWADE rules for bennies and Conviction. But I am guessing.
 
For a while (in the Before Times, when we could still meet face to face) I did use multicoloured poker chips; blue for bennies, white for power points, red for wounds, yellow for shaken. It was fun tossing them around the table.

Red and yellow we slid underneath the relevant figures to show status. The players referred to figures with a yellow chip as "standing in pools of pee".
 
In my long running Runequest campaign I created a system called Glory where the PCs would get points for emulating their God. They could use these points to reroll failed rolls or to get enemies to reroll successful ones. If they saved enough up they could also buy Rune Magic.

It was a meta currency but tied to divine intervention. It smoothed things like enemy crits and characters fumbles. It did not seem to break immersion for our players.

Other than that action points in 4e D&D worked well, in a more game focused system.
 
Last edited:
I'm now thinking that for a lot of games it'd be good to give the -GM- a supply of points to spend against the terrible nasty players.

SWADE does (at least in the new Deadlands I've played.) The GM had his own starting pool of bennies.

In Coriolis, the GM has a pool of darkness points which they can use to cause trouble for the players. Points are added any time a player pushes a roll or uses certain talents - solving your current problems by storing up trouble for the future.

But back to the players. It's not a currency the GM gets to hand out, as it's acquired through successful moves, but The Sprawl's [intel] and [gear] currencies are great for stopping the game becoming one long strategic planning meeting. The players can start the mission, secure in the knowledge that whatever random item they're going to need is somewhere about their person.
 
SWADE does (at least in the new Deadlands I've played.) The GM had his own starting pool of bennies.

Yep, in SWADE the GM usually starts with one Benny per PC plus two per Wild Card opponent. The WC opponent bennies can only be used for that character, the others can be used freely. In my current game I have five players and generally pit them against one Wild Card, so I usually begin with 7 Bennies.

Something I use which was inspired by Night's Black Agents is the idea of players spending a Benny to get a flashback, in which they narrate how they previously set up some advantageous circumstance. ("Yeah [hands over Benny] I thought they might search us on the way in, so two days ago I sneaked into the toilets disguised as a cleaner and left a gun in a plastic bag in one of the cisterns.") I find this both keeps the game moving, and emulates the action adventure movies I use as a template for scenarios.

In NBA, there is a skill called 'Preparedness' which lets you spend points to do the same thing.
 
Something I use which was inspired by Night's Black Agents is the idea of players spending a Benny to get a flashback, in which they narrate how they previously set up some advantageous circumstance. ("Yeah [hands over Benny] I thought they might search us on the way in, so two days ago I sneaked into the toilets disguised as a cleaner and left a gun in a plastic bag in one of the cisterns.") I find this both keeps the game moving, and emulates the action adventure movies I use as a template for scenarios.
I have allowed this use of meta points in rpgs for a goodly number of years.
 
I've noticed that the Inspiration die in D&D 5e hardly ever gets used outside of the few spells and special abilities that specifically grant it - but it's supposed to be there as an RP reward, too.

I guess most of the people I played D&D 5e with are too old school for that sort of new fangled play. ;)
 
I've noticed that the Inspiration die in D&D 5e hardly ever gets used outside of the few spells and special abilities that specifically grant it - but it's supposed to be there as an RP reward, too.

I guess most of the people I played D&D 5e with are too old school for that sort of new fangled play. ;)

Whereas when I ran 5e at the college club, the newbies were ON IT with Inspiration - constantly pointing out when they had played up to their various motivations etc. to get, and then spend, and then get, and then spend their silver coin of joy.

And if their characters motivation thing changed in the story, we changed it on the character sheet and they just moogled on doing their RP thing.
 
Back
Top