Friday Chat: What Mechanics Do You Steal From A Game To Use In Another?

[Reynard]

Some games have really great subsystems and mechanics that can be used in other games. What's your favorite? How do you adapt it?

I really like the Dragonbane initiative system. It is a simple set of cards going from 1-10 that get doled out to the PCs and any monsters/groups of monsters. Boss monsters usually get more than one. When your initiative number (on the card) comes up, you can either take your action or trade the card with anyone who hasn't gone yet (PC or NPC/monster). It works really great. Once all the cards are used, the round is over.

I like this system for Savage Worlds (which is already card based) as well as importing into Shadowdark (because I don't care for Shadowdark's initiative system).

Another subsystem I like and have imported to different games (mostly editions of D&D) are the domain and warfare rules from the Companion Set/Rules Cyclopedia.

What about you?

 

[Umbran]

I carry "popcorn initiative" around into a lot of games - especially ones in which folks don't usually spend a lot of resources specifically on improving their ability to get good initiative.


One I have not actually done, yet:

I recently played a one-shot of Draw Steel, and it has a framework around persuading/negotiating with an NPC that I may yoink for D&D, or some other game without much social-dynamics mechanics.

 

[SkidAce]

Some games have really great subsystems and mechanics that can be used in other games. What's your favorite? How do you adapt it?

I really like the Dragonbane initiative system. It is a simple set of cards going from 1-10 that get doled out to the PCs and any monsters/groups of monsters. Boss monsters usually get more than one. When your initiative number (on the card) comes up, you can either take your action or trade the card with anyone who hasn't gone yet (PC or NPC/monster). It works really great. Once all the cards are used, the round is over.

I like this system for Savage Worlds (which is already card based) as well as importing into Shadowdark (because I don't care for Shadowdark's initiative system).

Another subsystem I like and have imported to different games (mostly editions of D&D) are the domain and warfare rules from the Companion Set/Rules Cyclopedia.

What about you?

Neat initiative.

Thoughts on giving two cards and letting them choose the one they keep for people with high init or init style feats?

 

[SkidAce]

Re: OP.

I use Fate aspects. Then if I use a compel, they get a token they can use like inspiration.

 

[SkidAce]

I carry "popcorn initiative" around into a lot of games - especially ones in which folks don't usually spend a lot of resources specifically on improving their ability to get good initiative.


One I have not actually done, yet:

I recently played a one-shot of Draw Steel, and it has a framework around persuading/negotiating with an NPC that I may yoink for D&D, or some other game without much social-dynamics mechanics.

Curious about that framework.

 

[payn]

I like hero points or some type of limited meta-currency resource pool. I like PF1, so you can guess my games get swingy, but I like the players having some chance to act against a swing, particularly if they get shellacked by something they had no real chance to impact with their own decisions. I've also used it in Traveller games.

 

[Reynard]

Neat initiative.

Thoughts on giving two cards and letting them choose the one they keep for people with high init or init style feats?

That is reasonable. there might even be a mechanism for that (Dragonbane does have something that looks like feats) but I might be thinking of the Savage Worlds Edge for that.

Re: OP.

I use Fate aspects. Then if I use a compel, they get a token they can use like inspiration.

I love Aspects. That is how I tried to treat Bonds and Flaws, and how I treat Experiences in Daggerheart.

 

[Reynard]

I like hero points or some type of limited meta-currency resource pool. I like PF1, so you can guess my games get swingy, but I like the players having some chance to act against a swing, particularly if they get shellacked by something they had no real chance to impact with their own decisions. I've also used it in Traveller games.

Do you use a specific mechanic from a specific game?

 

[Laurefindel]

Neat initiative.

Thoughts on giving two cards and letting them choose the one they keep for people with high init or init style feats?

Some card initiative systems do that. Others allow you to exchange cards with an enemy before combat. We could also imagine a trump mechanics for some characters, either in round 1 only, or throughout the whole fight.

 

[Umbran]

Curious about that framework.

Let me see if I can articulate it. Leaving out the specifics of Draw Steel's dice mechanics, since I'd be porting it to some other system anyway...

For any negotiation, an NPC has two stats, Interest and Patience, rated 0 to 5, representing how much they want to help, and and how much they want to keep negotiating, respectively. The players can present an argument, and roll - on a good result, Interest and/or Patience may increase. On a failed roll, one, the other, or both may go down. If either drops to zero, the negotiation ends, and the PCs don't get what they want.

The PCs can stop negotiating at any time - they get the result based off the NPCs interest at the point they stop. If they drive the Interest up to 5 and stop there, they get the best possible deal. If they stop when Interest is only 1, they get what they want, but in limited form, with great limitations or costs.

There's a list of possible Motivations for the NPC (the playtest came with 12: Benevolence, Discovery, Freedom, Greed, higher Authority, Justice, Legacy, Peace, Power, Protection, Revelry, and Vengeance. One can imagine others.) An NPC has at least two Motivations - if you make an argument that touches on that motivation, you get an improved outcome for that roll. The NPC also has at least one Pitfall - if you make an argument that is based on a Pitfall, you automatically fail that roll, and Interest and Patience automatically drop one each.

So, if you are negotiating with a Hag, they may have Motivations of Greed, Power, and Freedom. They may have Pitfalls of Benevolence and Higher Authority. Knowing about the NPC (either by doing legwork and asking around, or observing them in person), you may learn the Motivations or Pitfalls.

Edit to add: This is actually very similar to the Social Conflict rules of Savage Worlds Adventurer's Edition. In SWADE, you get three rounds of arguments, rather than "until you run out of Patience", and you gather "tokens" for successes rather than measure the target's Interest, but the similarities are there.