MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
There are two active discussions in this forum that got me thinking about this. The first is: "What are your pedantic complaints about the D&D?" The second is "What are your favorite single game mechanics?" Participating in these discussions got me to thinking about mechanics, practices, and game aids that are often decried, or that I realize are not particularly elegant, but which I am strongly attached to. Its probably mostly nostalgia. Not sure. That's why I thought it would be fun to discuss here. Here are some TTRPG mechanics and conventions that you'll have to pry from my cold dead hands.
1. Multiple polyhedral dice.
I play plenty of games that get by with just six-sided dice (whether 1,2,3, or "pools" of 'em) or a couple d10s for percentiles. But I love me my traditional D&D polyhedral dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. But I've also noticed something funny. I don't like it when folks use the traditional dice but mess with the traditional set by adding other weird dice. Over the past few years I've enjoyed a few one-shots of Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics at conventions and run by friends. I don't like the d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24 and d30 dice.
I get pretty carried away with my go-to D&D dice set. I bought precision-balanced dice from gravity dice, but not a set. I bought each individually so that I could have the shapes matched to their traditional alchemical colors. d4 is red, d20 blue, etc.
While I did buy some rectangular d4s with rounded ends from kickstarter that had healing and magic missile themes, they rarely leave my bag. If your d4 can't also serve as a caltrop, you're doing it wrong.
2. Spell Slots
I've had some young 'uns at my table--some 20 or 30 something friends of friends who somehow got into my game--who have the audacity to challenge the Vancian magic system. These upstarts inevitably start lecturing me about "mana" or whatever video-game nonsense has gotten into their heads. I still love the flavor and in-game strategy of spell preparation and spell slots. Look, y'all have "cantrips" now, so stop your complaining and get back to studying your spell book!
3. Hit Points
Here I'm deviating somewhat from the topic's theme. Hit Points are not poor mechanics. They are a brilliant, elegant, and easy to understand--and use--abstraction for how hard something is to kill. Yet, these same young turks who poo-poo spell slots love to go on about how "unrealistic" HP are. Look, I've been through this before. After decades of play and after having tried many other systems, which have introduced all kinds of mechanics and hit-tables to inject "realism" into my make-believe fights, I'll stick to my trusty old hit points thank you very much.
4. The six classic ability scores
I've heard and read arguments against the classic ability scores in D&D since the 80s. The six classic ability stores are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. There have been some official attempts to add others, such as comeliness, but these six have remained constant even as the game itself has undergone radical changes. I understand the arguments against them, but I don't care. I like 'em as they are. I'll play in campaigns with lots of home-brew rules, but I lose interest when a potential DM starts going on about their changes to the ability scores. It is a litmus test. If you are at the point of messing with the sacred six, then you really don't want to play D&D.
That may seem inflexible, but that's the point of this post. What mechanics are you unwilling to accept changes to in the games you love?
1. Multiple polyhedral dice.
I play plenty of games that get by with just six-sided dice (whether 1,2,3, or "pools" of 'em) or a couple d10s for percentiles. But I love me my traditional D&D polyhedral dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. But I've also noticed something funny. I don't like it when folks use the traditional dice but mess with the traditional set by adding other weird dice. Over the past few years I've enjoyed a few one-shots of Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics at conventions and run by friends. I don't like the d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24 and d30 dice.
I get pretty carried away with my go-to D&D dice set. I bought precision-balanced dice from gravity dice, but not a set. I bought each individually so that I could have the shapes matched to their traditional alchemical colors. d4 is red, d20 blue, etc.
While I did buy some rectangular d4s with rounded ends from kickstarter that had healing and magic missile themes, they rarely leave my bag. If your d4 can't also serve as a caltrop, you're doing it wrong.
2. Spell Slots
I've had some young 'uns at my table--some 20 or 30 something friends of friends who somehow got into my game--who have the audacity to challenge the Vancian magic system. These upstarts inevitably start lecturing me about "mana" or whatever video-game nonsense has gotten into their heads. I still love the flavor and in-game strategy of spell preparation and spell slots. Look, y'all have "cantrips" now, so stop your complaining and get back to studying your spell book!
3. Hit Points
Here I'm deviating somewhat from the topic's theme. Hit Points are not poor mechanics. They are a brilliant, elegant, and easy to understand--and use--abstraction for how hard something is to kill. Yet, these same young turks who poo-poo spell slots love to go on about how "unrealistic" HP are. Look, I've been through this before. After decades of play and after having tried many other systems, which have introduced all kinds of mechanics and hit-tables to inject "realism" into my make-believe fights, I'll stick to my trusty old hit points thank you very much.
4. The six classic ability scores
I've heard and read arguments against the classic ability scores in D&D since the 80s. The six classic ability stores are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. There have been some official attempts to add others, such as comeliness, but these six have remained constant even as the game itself has undergone radical changes. I understand the arguments against them, but I don't care. I like 'em as they are. I'll play in campaigns with lots of home-brew rules, but I lose interest when a potential DM starts going on about their changes to the ability scores. It is a litmus test. If you are at the point of messing with the sacred six, then you really don't want to play D&D.
That may seem inflexible, but that's the point of this post. What mechanics are you unwilling to accept changes to in the games you love?
I don't care if that doesn't keep the mental and physical scores grouped together, that's the way they'er supposed to be listed.
