Metagame 'tricks' in GURPS?

[demonsbane]

I'm interested in Robin D. Laws' "Hamlet's Hit Points" (it is also available as physical book). Maybe the book has some "metagame tricks", but not "rules" per se, in the sense of "crunch".

I haven't read it yet, but by seeing reviews, it seems an interesting and useful reading.

[panton41]

The way my players bribe the GM is less rules-related and more beer-related.

[Luke Bunyip]

Another one was giving each player five tokens at the beginning of the game. They could expend them as rerolls of a single die, or keep them as character points for expenditure during post session character development.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Another one was giving each player five tokens at the beginning of the game. They could expend them as rerolls of a single die, or keep them as character points for expenditure during post session character development.

In my experience unless you run a particularly lethal game that will simply translate to no use of re-rolls and +5 exp/quest.

[Brandy]

Here's what I do:

Character experience points (CP) are awarded at the beginning of each session, four CP per player. CP can be spent for:

1) A single use of Luck (re-roll a failed die roll or force an NPC to re-roll)
2) Adding a narrative element to a scene. For example, if it hasn't been determined by my description, a character can spend a CP to establish that the carriage that he or she is riding in has a trap door to the roof; the players can trigger the arrival of an NPC into the scene (this would be a good time for the chambermaid to arrive); or whatever. So long as it doesn't violate any established continuity, players can exert a small amount of control over how the scene plays out.
3) Improving the character. Points do not carry over from session to session.

[Kuroshima]

7th sea used Drama Dice as it's metagame mechanic, and it worked reasonably well (The system itself had major structural flaws, but the metagame mechanic was not one of them). The only flaw was tying it to experience points. It means that they were seldom used, because you were "bleeding XP" if you wend to try something awesome, and used a lot of DD to do it. It resulted, in my experience, in characters acting very cautiously, the opposite of the intended effect, that was meant to simulate highly cinematic actions.

Personally, I say that if what you want is having players spend them freely, you should:

• Put an expiration date on them: Players are much more likely to expend a resource that renews itself and is wasted if unused, than one that they can hoard.
• Don't tie it to experience or any other mechanic

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Personally, I say that if what you want is having players spend them freely, you should:

• Put an expiration date on them: Players are much more likely to expend a resource that renews itself and is wasted if unused, than one that they can hoard.

Or put a ceiling on them.

The Essence mechanic in In Nomine (which powers both supernatural abilities and luck) isn't a bad model to follow here, in my opinion. Essence regularly regenerates and there are tricks the players can do to speed that regeneration up .... but you can't have more than a certain amount of Essence points, maximum. Again, the player is discouraged from hoarding, since you'll inevitably hit the ceiling and not get any more until you spend again.

[Kage2020]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

The way my players bribe the GM is less rules-related and more beer-related.

That's... that's... Just fantastic. :D

Gluten-free beer for me!

Thanks to the people that have contributed to the thread. It is much appreciated and has inspired me in a number of different ways. Great.

Kage

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by starslayer

In my experience unless you run a particularly lethal game that will simply translate to no use of re-rolls and +5 exp/quest.

It was a Cliffhanger / Horror game. Most sessions resulted in the players using three or four of them. One entertaining combat with a bunch of Nerlochs* in a tunnel complex soaked up all of them.


*From one of the Creatures of the Night. Able to FNORD.

[Darekun]

Potentially interesting idea — jargon copied from Shadowrun 2ed, mechanics copied from Consumable Signature Gear:

Karma Pool(5/level)
You have a pool of [Level] karma points. Each session, these refresh to full. You can spend a karma point from this pool in place of a character point to activate a transient rule like Influencing Success Rolls.

This way, a character who regularly uses such rules sacrifices a larger amount of power once, instead of a smaller amount of power on an ongoing basis. Other characters can still spend a smaller amount of power once to dip into the rule.