I've always been interested in implementation of meta elements into roleplaying games. Has /tg/ any experience doing this? I've heard about a group who played a game on one of the player's cottage and brought a replica handgun with them, and whoever had the replica was also having the only gun in-game. Was some kinda psychological horror-murder-mystery whatever. Another game I heard about a different group playing where I live was they did a tactical espionage action style game and in one session, the DM left his bag in the living room while they were playing, with a phone set on timer to imitate a ticking bomb when the players reached a certain location in-game.
Anyone have any ideas or stories of meta elements affecting the actual game?
>>44323481
There are literally dozens of games that employ rules that engage the players on a meta level. Almost all the narrative "indie"/"storygame" stuf do. And a lot of traditional games from the last decade or two showed an increasing number of mechanics that need decisions on part of the player that have no direct equivalent in the in-game fiction (see all the lucky rerolls, fate points and so on).
Unfortunaltely, some fucker decided that these were "dissociated mechanics" and somehow bad for the game, and that's become a meme in some very vocal fandoms.
>>44323577
That's not really what I meant. Fate or luck points aren't really different from any other powers the characters have at their disposal the way I see it.
I'm actually interested in concrete, real world objects, actions, utterances, etc. having some kind of an effect in game. See what I mean?
>>44323577
I feel the same, anon.
In the mansions of Madness boardgame there is a mechanic of opening safes and rerouting wires that the player has the pieces in front of him and can only swap/move pieces in a round equal times his character int status. I used this in my warhammer fantasy roleplay 3rd edition and worked like a charm. The players loved the "mini puzzles"
>>44323613 again
Minecraft Mod "thaumcraft" has some mini puzzles as well to unlock knowledges, using aspects that combine. I´m trying to emulate the same ideia in a indie rpg that im creating.
So far, I just tought of a app in my tablet...
>>44323718 here
Im not >>44323613
Im >>44323648
Sorry for the error.
>>44323481
In one of my EP games I made them hack a truecrypt volume and decipher an encrypted message as an allegory for hacking something in the game.
Another time they had to solve IQ test puzzles under real time pressure.
That's about it.
>>44323613
I regularly do things like giving my players handouts or textual props. One of last things we did is giving them a list of stuff they need for a demon-banishing ritual, and the next time they showed up with a bag with the actual items in them (including holy water and porn magazines).
Those are fun things to do, but ultimately they are gimmicks. They're absolutely not needed for the game, and there's no way a game could include something like that in the rules.
Now, take a look at something like Primetime Adventures. It's a generic narrative game about making up tv series. In that game you don't solve actions based on what the characters can do, you solve scenes based on the dramatic impact they would have if you saw them on TV. You don't get more meta than that,
>>44323481
>Meta implementation in roleplaying games
>Go to attack other player
>Just smack him in the face as hard as you can
Hey, it's just a game bro.
And lets not mention how it gets when you start roleplaying fade to black scenes...
I just got back from a weekend DnD 5E game where the regular DM asked me to co-DM with him since there were 6 total players. We split the party into two groups of 3 so that there would be two parallel dungeons and the party would regroup between them and share resources and information about what they learned. It was 3 5-hour sessions taking place over friday night, saturday morning, and saturday afternoon.
The meta thing involved a running plot point about destiny and fate, and whether individuals were able to escape their fate, challenge fate, or bend fate to their will.
At the very beginning of the game, even before the characters were introduced to each other, each of the players met with me in a small side room one-by-one. There they were presented with a table full of seemingly symbolic items, such as tarot cards, a scale with different colored glass beads, coins, jewelry, etc. The regular DM loves physical props and paraphernalia, so the players were told in a mysterious voice that they could choose any item on the table.
Unbeknownst to each player, each item signified some event that was going to happen during the game, and whoever picked that item was going to be the central figure for that event. As they curiously looked over the items, I narrated a little dialogue in the mysterious voice about how their choice reflects on their character in some way.
After each player was done picking an item, the game resumed normally. I passed a note to the regular GM indicating which player chose which item from the table. When a critical plot point was about to occur, the players had some time to discuss things to themselves, then the DM pointed to the player with the symbolic item and informed him of some wrinkle of fate that had come to pass because of the item which had mysteriously been in his/her character's possession.
>>44324337
>>44324601
At first the players were confused, unsure if the scene where they chose an item had occurred in-character or if it had been an OOC pre-game scene.
When circumstances with the items kept happening, the PCs decided they needed to figure out what was going on. They shared with each other the items, tried to guess what symbolic fate each of them entailed, and wondered if they could perhaps swap or share them. They tried to identify if they were magical, and arguing with each other about philosophy and whether fate was changeable of if it was random. Some of them wanted to keep their item, thinking they would be rewarded for cooperating with fate, and some wanted to swap with another player, thinking that they were doomed because of the bad omen of the item they had picked.
Eventually they met an NPC in one of the dungeons, who I narrated using the same voice as the one I used when they were picking symbolic items. They were leary of him at first, but eventually learned he was some kind of prophet, no evil necessarily but not particularly good either, and if they could trick him into revealing the significance of the items, they could learn about their fate and maybe change it.
The dramatic conclusion to the last session involved a big ancient evil that was on the verge of reawakening. The players thought creatively and managed to use the clues they had found to trick the prophet into wearing one of the fate-touched items, sealing away the ancient evil and also the prophet with it.
Overall, the gimmick on an ambiguous 'maybe-OOC-but-maybe-not' scene involving physical props, which encouraged the players to think in a metagamey way which actually helped tell the story was a fun experiment. It went off really well due to the quality of the player's personalities and their willingness to put up with being confused or tricked momentarily.
Not something you'd want to throw into every DnD game but it really worked out for this game.
We failed to stop the bbeg of our last campaign and he pulled a Septhiroth where he fused with chaos/nothingness to become god.
He then began to attack us with Gygias-like blows that we couldn't comprehend which slowly eroded our existence. And by that I mean that our DM ripped pieces of our character sheets each time we got hit.
>>44324929
This is cool. I like it.
>>44323481
There's a tabletop game, I forget the name, but you play it while listening to audio and whenever you here a GIANT ROAR a big Fleshpound-y zombie appears in game, and whenever you hear a loud series of groans you spawn zombies and if the music ends before the round is over you die.
It was a lot of fun.
>>44323481
I kind of do it with elements of their many character sheets and online info sheets. I like to sneak little things into their bios sometimes for them to catch whenever they do, get creative with certain important changes, or introduce sudden weird additions with no explanation.
Once was right before they all earned their first mutations from exposure to radiation and Mythos-level bad shit, they loaded their sheets to find one new part of it exploded with weird colors, graphical glitches, zalgo text, and individualized 'corruptions' of the sheet area, to try to catch them in that one-second feeling of unease when you suddenly see something weird like that, like when you get playing a game you know and suddenly see weird graphical glitching.
Otherwise I haven't gone too far down that hole, I know where I can maintain a comfortable balance messing with meta stuff. I do want to make it more weird at the end of the game though, with stuff like people's thoughts drifting on the map, more things being 'said' next to dice rolls, more sheet fuckery (the nice part about online sheets is that you can make a backup and get as messy as you like), and whatever else Roll20 will let me dredge up for some scene piece or one-time meta trick.
>>44323481
I actually plan on doing something meta in an upcoming campaign. Essentially bog-standard 90s Power Rangers, just with a mesoamerican theme to the rangers/bad guys/etc. The meta part is that the game will run just like a television show, with one or two episodes run per session (depending on how fast the players get through the content). The kicker is that I plan on coming here and giving the episode synopsis, and get your feedback, as if you're the Board of Directors for whatever fictional network is running the show.
It's meta against me as I may need to tailor the next episode to better suit the tastes of the Board (barring anything that doesn't belong in the Saturday morning time slot, mind you). And it's meta against the players in that they have to perform well. Characters may be written off if they're not liked enough by the Board.
The idea was brought up by one of my players during character generation, and I'm really digging it.
Did anyone ever try something like that?
>>44325530
Sounds like a pretty fun idea. You could do it with the players even, but have the catch be that each Director is allowed one card or something that will introduce some secret complication or event only they the player know about, and you the GM.
So for example, maybe you get handed a card after the episode is decided on, and you the player see it reads 'But suddenly, when victory seemed clear, _______ attack!"
Fill in the card, and then 'play' it sometime during the game, or just turn it into the GM, whatever seems easier.
>>44325615
That could be an interesting idea. Maybe give a card to each player, one of them with the suggested twist/write off/whatever. The rest are blanks. They can hold on to them throughout the campaign but they MUST use them at some point.
Sounds a bit dangerous given one or two players in the group, but I like it.
>>44325710
I do like your idea of involving /tg/ that way, but remember that if you also involve the players to some lesser degree, especially if you want meta tricks, you can have some serious fun and keep the flow strong and them involved.
You could even get goofy and introduce some sort of smaller meta plot around it, like having a separate small stat block for the player's pay rate, popularity online, fics written about you, etc etc, maybe complicate or liven things by handing out Director notices like "Billy's pay is down by $5,000 this week unless he can boost his ratings" or "Spend one hour together figuring out a marketable color for the 6th Ranger to be introduced" or more silly with "Someone put out some REAL well photoshopped pics of Jacob, he needs to take some serious damage to show off he's clearly not that guy when his suit is torn wide open at 10% HP."
You can have them design the Enemy of the Week even, on rotation.
>>44326128
>Involving the Players
They've already been notified of the fact that the game is being played in TV episodes, and they will be notified of the Board of Directors once I get them all together again.
>Behind the Scenes
I actually have a meta plot planned for about halfway through. I don't think they'll be trolling this thread so I can talk about it. One of the cast will have a problem that may affect their performance halfway through the season. I'll hand them separated character sheets with their characters' actors on them.
>Enemy of the Week
Already got that dialed in. I'll introduce the BBEG and !putties, and they'll fill in the blanks along the way.FATEallows me to do that just fine.
