Tell Me About Your Favorite Mechanics

[Aldarc]

AGE System - Stunt Points: roll 3d6. If you succeed and roll doubles, gain a number of stunt points equal to the face value of the stunt die (typically of a different color than the other two dice). Stunt Points can be used on the scene for special moves from a list of Combat, Exploration, Social, and Magic stunts.

Cortex Prime - Trait Die Pools: The basic mechanic of assembling a rated dice pool from your character's traits.

Fate - Aspects / Cortex Prime - Distinctions: Aspects and Distinctions were heavily inspired by Over the Edge, but these are the games that have really run with fictional tags for characters and other things in the fiction that have some mechanical heft.

Black Hack - Usage Die: Certain resources use a Usage die, which can start at d20. Instead of tracking each piece of food, ammo, torch, etc., players roll the Usage die only after the scene or combat is done. If the Usage die produces a 1, then the Usage die steps down to a smaller die type. That becomes the new Usage die. The Resource dries up once the Usage die produces a 1 on a d4.

Index Card RPG - Effort: Instead of conventional "damage," some tasks require Effort. So picking a complex lock, for example, may have a Room DC of 13 and 1 Heart (= 10 HP). So once the players hit the DC 13, they roll their Effort for Tools (1d8) against the Effort. Depending on what is happening, this means that picking the lock could take multiple rounds.

 

[Bagpuss]

Cortex Prime - Trait Die Pools: The basic mechanic of assembling a rated dice pool from your character's traits.

Got to say that is one mechanic I really dislike, I've always found it seems to waste a lot of time, finding the dice and building the pool for very little mechanical benefits. Where as you could just as easily change the probability with either changing the size of a dice pool using the same sized dice, or with modifiers.

 

[Aldarc]

Got to say that is one mechanic I really dislike, I've always found it seems to waste a lot of time, finding the dice and building the pool for very little mechanical benefits. Where as you could just as easily change the probability with either changing the size of a dice pool using the same sized dice, or with modifiers.

Your contrary opinion has been noted. I disagree. I enjoy it a lot, and that's what matters most.

 

[R_J_K75]

The ones that dont charge you up the A$$ for the fictitious "Johnson Rod". Those are the best. Oh, not that mechanic. Kidding aside while not technically a RAW in any edition I know of but it's a DM tool regarding percentile dice. I read it in a Dragon Mag article '95-'97 and it said, and I'm paraphrasing, "if you as a DM need to determine any outcome you haven't prepared for or expected, roll %'s and decide what the chance is, of an enemy attack succeeds, makes a save, the PCs traverse the crevasse, etc. It's based on the logic of 50/50, something will either have a positive or negative outcome. Its an easy way to resolve a situation, regardless of mechanics RAW, quick and easy that helps move the game forward and I use it all the time to good results.

An example would be. A group of (5) dwarves on the side of the PC enters a fray. Use a series of % rolls to see if they hit, how many enemies they hit, and how much damage they do. For us it adds realism that the party NPCs are involved without dragging them game down with an abundance of dice rolls. One step further, no mechanic, as a DM you should within reason be able to just dictate what happens without a dice roll as long as its neutral and not an attempt to skew the game one way or the other.

 

[billd91]

I've recently been re-reading Fading Suns (2e) and have been reminded of how great the core "blackjack" mechanic is. To succeed at an action, you need to roll under your ability rating + skill on 1d20. BUT you want to roll as high as you can under that target.

I remember TSR doing that with 2e psionics checks too. One benefit was it allowed you to also have contests where the winner was whomever rolled high while still succeeding at the check, something easier to do than subtracting the results from their target numbers and comparing the size of the differences.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

I love inventory mechanics that aren't fiddly and cut to the chase, particularly by getting rid of weight vs. strength calculations (some of the wost record-keeping nonsense in any RPG). For example:

-In Alien, you run out of ammo based on rolling 1's when pushing a roll. No ammo tracking other than that.

-In Blades in the Dark and Scum and Villainy you pick your loadout (light, normal, heavy) and then tick off items on your list, up to whatever maximum you picked, as needed.

-Likewise, in Stonetop you also pick your loadout based on three encumbrance totals, but because travel is a big part of the game the decisions are very different. Want to bring a bunch of rations? Should probably leave the shield, which takes up two inventory slots.


But I also respect when games where detailed, trad inventory mechanics are needed also make those as streamlined as possible. Like how in Twilight 2000 if you do autofire, the number or rounds you burned in the attack are determined by the same dice you rolled to attack.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Black Hack - Usage Die: Certain resources use a Usage die, which can start at d20. Instead of tracking each piece of food, ammo, torch, etc., players roll the Usage die only after the scene or combat is done. If the Usage die produces a 1, then the Usage die steps down to a smaller die type. That becomes the new Usage die. The Resource dries up once the Usage die produces a 1 on a d4.

I like that Resource dice in Forbidden Lands are harsher—the dice type goes down on a 1 or a 2. And there's no d4, so when your d6 resource gets used up, that's it.

 

[Aldarc]

I like that Resource dice in Forbidden Lands are harsher—the dice type goes down on a 1 or a 2. And there's no d4, so when your d6 resource gets used up, that's it.

Not my style - I don't equate harsher as being intrinsically better - but more power to you.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Not my style - I don't equate harsher as being intrinsically better - but more power to you.

Oh totally. I’m actually an extremely wimpy GM, relatively speaking. I just meant that for resources specifically, I like the higher stakes and greater chance for mishap.

 

[Bill Zebub]

A favorite mechanic of mine is the opposite of mechanics where you have a finite/rare resource to spend, but you lack any information to help you spend it wisely. 5e Inspiration is a prime example of this. I think the reason it is so underutilized is for this reason. Everybody would remember they had Inspiration if they could spend it after they rolled the first die.

(Note that I like the advantage mechanic itself, just not when the way you get it is by spending a resource.)

Another example is the Hope mechanic in The One Ring 2, in contrast to the identically named but mechanically and thematically different (superior) mechanic form The One Ring 1.

 

[pemerton]

A favorite mechanic of mine is the opposite of mechanics where you have a finite/rare resource to spend, but you lack any information to help you spend it wisely.

Personally I'd generalise this: if the players have access to interesting resources, I prefer a system that encourages them to use them rather than hoard them.

 

[Faolyn]

Personally I'd generalise this: if the players have access to interesting resources, I prefer a system that encourages them to use them rather than hoard them.

That's one of the things I like about SWADE. Everyone starts with three bennies and the GM is encouraged to give out additional bennies like candy.

 

[Reynard]

That's one of the things I like about SWADE. Everyone starts with three bennies and the GM is encouraged to give out additional bennies like candy.

When I run SWADE con games -- which is fairly often -- I have adapted the 2d20 Threat and Momentum pools for Bennies. In con games it is more difficult to rely on roleplaying to get bennies refreshed and the Jokers are (obviously) uncertain, so my GM bennies all come from a special pool of bennies the players get to use but once they do they go into my GM pool -- and when I use them, they go back to the player side. It keeps them moving and lets players hoard their personal bennies to soak damage.

 

[dumdragon]

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.

Yoink! I'm gonna try this in a scenario I have cooking up.

I have a dragon that will try and steal a key to unlock some bad MOJO that is protected by some powerful wards.
I think this will add some beautiful tension and drama.

 

[Fenris-77]

There's a variant of the countdown pool where you add dice. Anytime the group does something time consuming, or loud, or whatever, you drop d6 into the pool. Unless something else trigger the pool, when it hits 6 dice you pick it up and roll it (with a standard encounter on a 1 being the standard). I like it because it makes the use of time a visible resource with predictable consequences. Tip of the cap here to the Angry GM, from whom this is shamelessly stolen.

 

[Bagpuss]

I remember TSR doing that with 2e psionics checks too. One benefit was it allowed you to also have contests where the winner was whomever rolled high while still succeeding at the check, something easier to do than subtracting the results from their target numbers and comparing the size of the differences.

Pendragon does the same thing, rolling your skill is a critical. If you skill is over 20, you can't fail and your critical range increases by how much your skill is above 20. So say you have 22 in a skill, a roll of 18-20 is a critical success.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Black Hack - Usage Die: Certain resources use a Usage die, which can start at d20. Instead of tracking each piece of food, ammo, torch, etc., players roll the Usage die only after the scene or combat is done. If the Usage die produces a 1, then the Usage die steps down to a smaller die type. That becomes the new Usage die. The Resource dries up once the Usage die produces a 1 on a d4.

I loathe this sort of mechanic. While it does simplify book keeping and introduce a random factor in a game, I hate it because PC prep between missions/scenarios gives me time to reflect, and also makes inserting seemingly random NPC interactions easy. nIT also forces player to take a greater interest in planning.

Plus I enjoy players watching their supplies and resources diminish faster than anticipated.

 

[Aldarc]

FYI, the purpose of this thread is not to slag on my favorite mechanics but for people to talk about their favorite mechanics.

 

[Bagpuss]

I loathe this sort of mechanic. While it does simplify book keeping and introduce a random factor in a game, I hate it because PC prep between missions/scenarios gives me time to reflect, and also makes inserting seemingly random NPC interactions easy. nIT also forces player to take a greater interest in planning.

Can't you still have that with prep between sessions increasing the dice type?

Plus I enjoy players watching their supplies and resources diminish faster than anticipated.

That still happens if they roll a lot of 1's. I guess the difference is you can't force it to happen. Although I suppose you could just have it automatically drop a dice type for particular events.

 

[Bagpuss]

Fate - Aspects / Cortex Prime - Distinctions: Aspects and Distinctions were heavily inspired by Over the Edge, but these are the games that have really run with fictional tags for characters and other things in the fiction that have some mechanical heft.

Yeah I do like that aspect of just a few lines can mean a whole lot of things true. For example in Fate you can do most of Superman's powers just with the Aspect - Kryptonian under a yellow sun.