The String economy – what does it represent? Does it work?
Recently, I’ve had doubts as to what the string economy is adding to the game? I would appreciate people’s thoughts on:
– What they feel it’s trying to represent?
– What they feel it actually represents?
– Does it work at either?
Amongst other things they mark the investment into another player’s character. You get the strings for mechanically interacting with characters after all and you are investing the risk of doing moves and the time of scenes together. Usually the Strings kind of work to show this connection.
Characters who interact often have a higher number of total strings on one another, of course they can be spend too, but the influence that had still shapes the narrative and shows the connection. Again a reward (or cost) for interacting.
It lets you literally collect social power, either by manipulatling NPCs at +3 or giving other players XP to do what you want. I think they’re amazing and the best part of MH; they show how teens can weaponize emotional entanglement.
I think in theory and practice it tries and mostly succeeds at representing “hold” over another character. I would say “investment” is closer to History in AW. If you have a String on someone you have a piece of them, a piece of their soul if you like. You can use that String to control them. Giving someone that power over you can pay off when it gets you experience for something you might have done anyway but you are giving people power over you when they take Strings. This is important because of all the “teenage” themes of MH the actually giving a shit what people think is probably one of the easiest to overlook. As an older person who’s probably been through this sort of stuff you’re a bit more detached than your character, as a player and not someone actually there you are a lot more detached. Strings remind you how much your characters actually cares about the opinions and actions of everyone else.
On another level they provide an actual quantified resource that can be accrued and spent. It gives you a practical goal that can ebb and flow besides linear character development. It gives you a resource to manage and track. MH doesn’t have many ways someone can get weaker or stronger in temporary terms, Strings fill that gap.
Thoughts later. Sub for now.
I think social power and emotional hold are good, but different, ways of thinking about it. For me, I recognise that in this genre some people find it easier to have others do what they want them to do (and find it easier to resist doing what others want them to do). This ability can be general (e.g. “I find it easier to have others do what I want because I’m in the alpha clique”) or specific (e.g. “I find it easier to have Anna do what I want because she’s really into me”). And it’s part of the genre that this influence can vary; sometimes you shift up the totem pole and sometimes you fall down.
But also in the genre characters don’t lose social power by spending it. When the alpha clique exert their influence to get their way their social power isn’t lessened. Perhaps I could argue that specific hold might be ‘spent’ – if A is attracted to B then perhaps, if B asks A to do them a favour, A will become less attracted or less amenable to future requests (though I doubt this)
My feeling is that social power is used but it isn’t used up. It’s lost when it’s taken away by others. The alpha clique lose some of their influence when someone stands up to them successfully. The hot guy loses his appeal when his fans get burned or when they fall for someone else or because they decide to move on and control themselves.
Thinking on it, I wonder if most of the social power dynamics of strings couldn’t be replaced by conditions: Attracted to B _Intimidated by C_ etc.
Richard, those are part of playing a game instead of writing a story.
And even in something like Mean Girls, Pretty Little Liars,or Buffy, narratively folks only use power so many times before something changes and you have to renew it and prove you still own someone.
PBTA is tremendously easy to hack, so if you want a game that functions like your vision of high school, make it so. But I don’t think you’re going to get a consensus from the Monsterhearts G+ group that the core mechanic of Monsterhearts doesn’t work.
Thanks for the reply. Not looking to build a consensus though, just exploring my own thoughts on the game.
It’s a point that Strings are spent easily and often but that seems to represent something of the volatile social dynamics of Monsterhearts. The idea that you have to keep proving yourself helps but only goes so far.
What I would do to address this without radically changing the game is to look for Skins whose moves don’t expend Strings but interact with them. The Vampire’s Hypnotic and the Mortal’s Entrenched appear in the base Skins. The Enchanted’s Bide your Time effectively lets you keep Strings when an XP offer is refused.
Beyond that you can add general or grown up moves that operate in such a manner. Menaces whose moves are typically passive by nature can make a lot of use of the presence or absence of Strings. Strings can be made to work in different ways with just a few tweaks.