What is a Metacurrency?

Non-diegetic resources in tabletop roleplaying games are often called “metacurrencies”.

i.e. if your character defeats a dragon and gets some gold coins, that’s actual currency in game. The character has that. Same if they got “magic essence”, if that’s a thing in the world, or land, or a princess’ hand in marriage.

But if your character gets a “Hero point” that can then be spent to twist fate at some later date, it’s not something the character has - but a reward on a meta layer, encouraging thinking about that gamified layer and the player’s interest in gaining points, irrespective¹ of the character’s intents.

There's nuance to this; some diegetic resources are measured in non-diegetic units. “Hit Points” in many games are an example of this. The character doesn’t have 5 hit points in universe, but there’s a tangible thing that’s going down when they lose them². The resource is an abstraction, but one that’s meant to map to the simulated world. Meanwhile, some meta-resources can be real in-universe: fate may actually smile on the heroes in a literal sense³.

There’s some metacurrencies in this game, like Doubt and Fame. They tend to inhabit the grey area - real, from a certain point of view - but not something to dissect exactly a scientific connection between every cause and effect.

Footnotes

1. But note irrespective is not necessarily in contradiction of. ↩

2. Though there can be endless debate per system and scenario on what that thing is - if it’s their stamina, their health, or whatever. ↩

3. And when a game emulates a genre where fate and magic are real - not in a scientific way, but a way that is karmic, sympathetic and present, it’s often bringing with it that implication even when the game itself doesn’t recognize it. ↩