GMMichael
Guide of Modos
What's a core mechanic? You'll probably have to ask Mike Mearls. I'm pretty sure that he was involved in creating that term for D&D 3. A roleplaying game, if you're doing "top-down" design, is going to need some basic rules that apply to the majority of situations. This makes the game easy to play and understand. Those rules are probably considered "core mechanics."My thinking is, the interesting elements of a design come right after that core design. Like if we were using d20 as our base, the interesting stuff comes from the elements you tack on top of that d20+something roll mechanic. You know elements like skills feats ect. The close to core mechanics. (Actually, how do you tell what a core mechanic is?)
I took the effort to codify my rules, and have 16 of them that provide the foundation for most of the other rules. You can see them under "core rules" here:
https://modos-rpg.obsidianportal.com/wikis/rules-catalog
I really have three core modules: core, character, and extended conflict. The combat and spellcasting modules are the least "core" of the bunch.
Mechanical feel is a big deal, no? The d20 System is simple, but blunt. The Fantasy AGE system requires more math, but gives more consistent outcomes. WFRP uses icons on the dice to reduce the numerical feel, but you end up doing a different sort of math to see how things turn out.Mechanical feel. This is something I have just started looking at is how a mechanic feels and if that matches up with how it should feel. You know dose combat feel like combat, or dose picking a lock feel like picking a lock. (Should they feel alike?) This is what I use rather then reasim. I tend not to try and replicate the reality of an action, but more the feeling and choice that the player expects from it.
It's probably fair to assume that combat should be fast, and other contests can take longer. When I ran a Skyrim module for my game (see above link), I used some new rules to simulate lockpicking in Skyrim. It wasn't: make a lockpicking check, if it's high enough you pick the lock. It was: make your check, and if you succeed, you make progress toward the attempt. If you fail, you break the pick, and get closer to running out of picks.