Tell Me About Your Favorite Mechanics

[hawkeyefan]

Hmm. Interesting. So Silver in the Spire is more of a reactive stat that governs how/when bad things happen to your financial status, rather than a proactive stat you use to get things done and/or acquire things? That's certainly different from how most other games I've seen where "money" is a stat do it.

Yes, it’s primarily a consequence… kind of saves and hit points rolled into one.

But it also has a secondary use as a kind of passive indicator of wealth and lifestyle and so on.

 

[aramis erak]

I like the multiple separate pools priority system for Characters from old World of Darkness... VTM, WWTA, MTA, WTO, and CTD, plus my favorite oWoD game, Street Fighter...

I like the roll and keep narrative dice mechanics from Legend of the Five Rings 5th edition

I like the narrative traits in 2d20 system games, and their parallel in Cortex Plus/Cortex Prime.

I like the general skills/specialized subskills mechanic in Serenity RPG (Cortex Classic) and in Alternity. In both, up to a certain level, you buy the general skills; past that, you raise each subskill separately.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I like Hero System's speed mechanic, with characters being able to hold actions and abort to defensive actions. Combined with combat bonuses that can be moved from attack to defence this allows for some very cinematic combat.

The old Legend of the Five Rings duelling (from 3rd ed, gone from more recent additions.) Gave a lovely feel of rising tension leading to swift action.

Fate points and the bidding system whereby GM and player can try to outbid one another to activate or resist character traits. Such a nice system, so easy to attach to any game system.

 

[damiller]

For me its Champions Now:

1. I like the way "rounds" are handled in combat. Its segmented, and your speed determines how often in a round you will go.
2. I like that powers cost. You can't just throw your most powerful power all the time.

 

[payn]

Traveller character generation. I really like the life path system. I also like skill heavy systems.

3E/PF1 weapon crit ranges and damage multipliers. Makes weapons interesting and different.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I like the Speed Chart from HERO.
I like a 3d6 roll under for skills; I appreciate that it pretty much helps defined just how good you are. If you have a 17- you have to roll under on 3d6, you know you are very good at that skill.
I like the crit system in 3E/PF1 - the range and different damage.
The escalation die from from 13th Age.
The die pool countdown mechanics from WOIN.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

The escalation die from from 13th Age.
The die pool countdown mechanics from WOIN.

I don't know these two. Any chance of a brief explanation?

 

[Reynard]

I like the Speed Chart from HERO.

I love hero, and in theory I love the speed chart. Until there's a speedster in the party.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I don't know these two. Any chance of a brief explanation?

Escalation die - you have a d6 that turns up by one every round, and that adds to hit rolls. However in 13th age the monsters have different powers that work if the escalation die is odd or even. It's a narrative rule that does the "losing at the start of the fight, figuring out how to fight the opponent and winning" feel of action movies.

The countdown dice pool. Lets say you have the PCs in a situation where something dire is about to happen, but you don't want to decided a specific time, so you put a pool of D6s into the pool. At the end of reach round you roll them, and remove any that have a specific number (I think six is the default). So each round there is a chance of 0-lots of dice being removed. When all the dice are removed the event happens. It helps build tension, and isn't some arbitrary amount of time. The players can see the pool get smaller and smaller and adjust their actions accordingly.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I love hero, and in theory I love the speed chart. Until there's a speedster in the party.

I can see that. But for 25 years the only people in my groups that wanted to play a speedster was me.