Dirtbag Points
Some games use metacurrency – luck, bennies, rerolls, etc. Our table (aka The Sunday Night Dirtbags) just came up with meta-metacurrency – something we're calling Dirtbag Points.
One of our players – JK, we'll call him – did something so perfect, so hilarious, that we decided it needed to be memorialized. You know, one of those in the moment things around the table that you could never really explain, and if you tried it would be one of those terrible 19-paragraph r/rpg posts that nobody reads?
Regardless, on the spur of the moment, I as GM declared that JK, that lovable scamp, had just earned himself a Dirtbag Point and that if it was okay with the other GMs in the group, he could redeem that Dirtbag Point across any of our ongoing campaigns. The other GMs, being wild-eyed anarchists like myself, immediately agreed and now JK has the ability to do...something...in any game we're playing.
He earned it in our Arden Vul campaign, sure, but perhaps he'll redeem it in the Traveller campaign or the Tales of Argosa game or the supers game that's brewing.
Now, there's something of a Calvinball aspect to it – the Dirtbag Point was earned in the moment and will be redeemed – and negotiated – in the moment. Is it a reroll when he blows his Astrogation check? Maybe. Is it an advantage when he really, really needs a natural 20 in the realm of Asmodeus? Could be. When the time comes, he can declare his intention and let the GM make the call.
It’s stupid, it’s game-breaking, and I have no doubt it will be abused.
But fuck it. It’s FUN. And god knows we all need more of that right now.
Sic Semper Dirtbaggus!