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

[Reynard]

Another one I really like is Pathfinder condition tracks for diseases, poisons and curses, as well as Pathfinder haunts (which i think would work great as Daggerheart Environments).

 

[Thomas Shey]

Usually I'm more likely to port rules over conceptually than literally, because trying to do it literally is fraught unless two systems are very similar. As an example, I'd be more likely to port over the idea of "clocks" than any specific expression of them.

 

[The Soloist]

I've adopted the Dragonbane 10-card initiative mechanic for all my solo RPG sessions. It's fun and suspenseful not knowing, in advance, in which order the round will unfold.

 

[The Soloist]

I've adopted the Dragonbane 10-card initiative mechanic for all my solo RPG sessions. It's fun and suspenseful not knowing in which order the round will unfold.

But instead of cards, I use 1cmx1cm card chits with numbers printed on them. It's easier for me to place the chits on the battle board, next to each miniatures

 

[bloodtide]

I use the Ancient Companion/Masters/Mystara Domain rules, with the Dragon articles and a bit of the old Castle Guide, Birthright and 3E's Stronghold Builders Guide.

I use the Ancient 2E XP mixed with Mystara XP rules, so a PC can get xp for doing lots of actions in game. And they get the most actions by each character class.

I use the Knockdown Dice idea from 2E for spells as I like the idea of blasting spells moving targets around.

Karma and Power Stunts from the Old Marvel game.

"Shields shall be splintered" from OSR

 

[Gorgon Zee]

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

13th Age Montage Scenes: I run those in any system that has any form of checks. If the system has a meta-currency, I'll use a montage scene to refresh them, but it's trivial to run anywhere.

The One Ring Travel System: The core elements I use are (1) each player takes one of a set of roles (2) Guide rolls to see how far you get before an event (3) roll randomly to see which other role the event occurs to. I choose a system-specific check for the player and if it fails, something bad (over the scale of a several days journey) happens. If the system has a fatigue score, use that, or add a sticky aspect, or a Yellow King condition. Whatever the game system has as a multi-scene penalty

4th Edition Skill Challenges: Everyone uses these nowadays, so many don't even think of it as 4E specific: To achieve a goal, need X successes before Y failures. Skills get different DCs depending on how applicable they are. Fails usually have some other minor consequences. Some skills "unlock" other skills at lower DCs. This is how I almost always resolve social scenes where there is a clear objective -- I'm with @Umbran in not generally liking a single roll to resolve social encounters in a system where combat needs many.

Fate Advantages: Rather than just an immediate +X bonus for assisting someone else, as most games have, throw out a card with the same +X bonus, but give it a name and allow anyone to use it. Much more flavor and more useful as, for example, a floating +2 you can apply AFTER you see the roll is quite strong in a d20 game.

Don't Rest Your Head: Also in Aliens game more recently. The basic idea is you get to roll more dice, but the extra dice allow bad things to happen. One easy use is to ask a player if they want a safe +2 bonus, or to roll a +d6 bonus, but if a 1 comes up on it there will be a complication.

CoC Sanity: Been adding this to horror sessions of other games for years. In AD&D I used SAN = WILL + CHA - INT because batty wizards is very in-genre and Conan resists horror very well. Lose it when bad stuff happens, get below half and you take an in-game consequence, lose it all and you are out for the scenario.

Bloodied: I used the 4E concept of being at half hits or lower is a pre-requisite or trigger for abilities all the time. Much nicer for dragon breath recharge than rolling d4 as it usually means 2 breaths per fight, which seems about right for me. Good for solos where you are worried the players may gank the solo before their cool power is loosed.

 

[John Dallman]

I've used the Hero System luck roll in several games, including OD&D, AD&D1e and GURPS. As my co-editor wrote in The Path of Cunning #5,

When personal characteristics seem irrelevant​

and one just wants a random outcome, we use a​

“luck” roll inspired by the Hero system​

mechanics: roll 3d6, count 1s (bad) and 6s​

(good). This gives an overall impression of how​

things are going (and a character with the Luck​

advantage can choose to use it for a reroll).​

Mixed luck and unluck sometimes needs some​

hasty improvisation, but it’s a pleasing prompt​

to step outside the way things usually happen.​

If it isn't obvious to me what an outcome means, the players get to suggest it.

 

[SkidAce]

I like to use Savage Worlds' exploding dice for critical hit damage in 5E. It makes small-dice weapons (like daggers) a lot more interesting.

So if you rolled a crit...but none of the dice were maxed, how would they explode?

 

[Reynard]

So if you rolled a crit...but none of the dice were maxed, how would they explode?

One presumes they still double the dice for the damage roll.

 

[CleverNickName]

So if you rolled a crit...but none of the dice were maxed, how would they explode?

They wouldn't; it would be a regular crit.

On a regular hit, the dagger does 1d4 damage. If the player rolls a 4, it does 4 damage... it doesn't explode because it's not a crit.

On a critical hit, the dagger deals 2d4 damage and thus, has two opportunities to explode. If the player is lucky, he rolls a 4 and gets to add another d4 roll to the damage. If he doesn't roll any 4s, nothing explodes (but he still gets the usual 2d4 damage for scoring a crit.)

If the player is super lucky, he rolls two 4s, adds 2 more d4s to the damage, and gets 2 more opportunities to explode.