A Beautiful Frankenstein's Monster RPG

[GreyOne]

If you could pick and choose from every rpg or iteration of an rpg you are familiar with, to cobble together, jury-rig, adapt or weld an element or game play idea from it to the rest to make a Frankenstein's hybrid of an rpg what might it look like? Also why or what about that element do you like?

Some examples:

In Savage Worlds, I like the idea of Wild Cards and also Extras that can be plowed through fairly quickly. I like the idea that some threats have a small chance to get through to player characters, but I don't have to wade through all the time accounting for hit points, etc.

In D&D, I like the idea of Advantage/Disadvantage rolls.

In Call of Cthulhu, I like the idea that your character will lose their sanity over time if they're not careful.

I know a most of the time that games are designed to bring out certain elements of game play in the way the game is designed. I was just looking for some cool hybridizations that might attract my attention.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'd love to find a way to graft DCC RPG's Mighty Deeds die onto 5e, but I have a hard time seeing it existing within that framework without being either too regimented and thus losing the creativity of it, or too powerful.

 

[ART!]

Zones from Fate. These are used instead of range and feet/meter/etc. measurements. Zones are less fiddly and they lean into the drama (ina. barfight, the area behind the bar is definitely it's own zone!), which for me is a real asset when running a combat.

Ideals and Relationships traits from Smallville. They get used in tandem with powers and skills, so that personal stakes are involved in most actions. I really love this.

Exploding 3d6 resolution mechanic from Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes. It just feels right to me, and it's fun.

Believe it or not, the skill fumble and crit tables from Rolemaster. Not the weapon cit and fumble tables, mind you - just the ones for skills. I like guidelines when it comes to how well a character succeeds or fails, outside of stabbing and burning things, and these were fun.

That's all I got off the top of my head. Cool topic, though!

 

[ART!]

I'd love to find a way to graft DCC RPG's Mighty Deeds die onto 5e, but I have a hard time seeing it existing within that framework without being either too regimented and thus losing the creativity of it, or too powerful.

Could you sketch out how they work in DCC, if it's not too much trouble?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Certainly! So the warrior and dwarf classes start out with a Mighty Deed Die of d3. When you make an attack, you declare a mighty deed and roll your d20 + your modifier + your deed die. If all that together is enough to hit the AC, you hit. But if that deed die also comes up with a 3, your specified deed happens as well. As you level up, your deed die increases, as does the range (so that on a d4, for example, your mighty deed fires on a 3 and 4. Regardless of whether the deed goes off, the deed die roll also adds to the damage roll on a successful hit.

DCC gives samples of potential Mighty Deeds, but the player can come up with anything as long as the Judge thinks it's reasonable. i.e., generally insta-kills like "I chop their head off" wouldn't fly, but something like "I smack the necromancer in the throat with my pommel, giving him a penalty to his next caster check as he struggles for breath" or "I somersault over the mercenaries to land behind them" would. It allows for enormous creativity you don't always see in fighter-type classes and is designed to simulate the sorts of dramatic battles seen in Conan or Lankhmar stories.

Could you sketch out how they work in DCC, if it's not too much trouble?

 

[ART!]

Certainly! So the warrior and dwarf classes start out with a Mighty Deed Die of d3. When you make an attack, you declare a mighty deed and roll your d20 + your modifier + your deed die. If all that together is enough to hit the AC, you hit. But if that deed die also comes up with a 3, your specified deed happens as well. As you level up, your deed die increases, as does the range (so that on a d4, for example, your mighty deed fires on a 3 and 4. Regardless of whether the deed goes off, the deed die roll also adds to the damage roll on a successful hit.

DCC gives samples of potential Mighty Deeds, but the player can come up with anything as long as the Judge thinks it's reasonable. i.e., generally insta-kills like "I chop their head off" wouldn't fly, but something like "I smack the necromancer in the throat with my pommel, giving him a penalty to his next caster check as he struggles for breath" or "I somersault over the mercenaries to land behind them" would. It allows for enormous creativity you don't always see in fighter-type classes and is designed to simulate the sorts of dramatic battles seen in Conan or Lankhmar stories.

Cool - thanks!

This feels like the Battle Master's combat maneuvers, so it seems very do-able. Also, lot of people have argued for expanding combat maneuvers and making them available to other fighter subclasses and even other classes. Adding something like this across the board would create a lot of design space, too.

 

[BigJackBrass]

Exploding 3d6 resolution mechanic from Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes

Do you mean the 2d6 Saving Roll? Offhand I can’t recall an exploding 3d6 mechanic in MSPE.

 

[ART!]

Do you mean the 2d6 Saving Roll? Offhand I can’t recall an exploding 3d6 mechanic in MSPE.

Oops! I might have mistyped, or been thinking of a dice mechanic I used for a while that was inspired by MSPE.

 

[overgeeked]

Agendas and principles from Powered by the Apocalypse for players and referees. Suggested moves from PbtA for referees.

Qualitative prose character creation from HeroQuest 2.

Resolution mechanics from Over the Edge, 3rd Edition. Roll 2d6. If you're active, 7+ to succeed; if you're reactive, 8+ to succeed. Bad twists from any rolled 3s; good twists from any rolled 4s. Player-facing rolls. Referee narrates the outcome.

Subjective and comparative "levels" from Over the Edge, 3rd Edition. "Level" differences give one bonus or penalty die or, at the extreme, make something automatic or impossible.

If any player feels the referee's declared outcome doesn't conform to the agendas or principles, the players are free to ask for clarification. If the players still object after the referee details how the declared outcome does conform to the agendas or principles, the players are free to suggest an alternate outcome. To determine which outcome happens, roll off and high roll wins. This comes from a bunch of wargames, though usually applied to rules disagreements. Maybe some kind of metacurrency to limit this so the game isn't bogged down by endless, bad faith second guessing.

 

[Sanguinarious]

I'd take a fate/luck system from one of several games and put it in battlelords. That game can be a bit lethal.