Tell Me About Your Favorite Mechanics

[AbdulAlhazred]

In play I just found it to be a bit formulaic. Like episodic TV. This is the part where Sam's dark past reveals a piece of what's going on, and then we have Melissa's resourceful bit where she constructs a makeshift device to save the day. Finally, Phil does...

I like my game play a little more serial, and I haven't really come to terms with making playbooks work with that. I know you can gain additional moves, even moves from other playbooks, but I just don't know how to make it work for me just yet.

How is it really different from D&D class, which seems to equally put characters in a niche?

 

[payn]

How is it really different from D&D class, which seems to equally put characters in a niche?

Specific vs general.

 

[pemerton]

I like Beliefs and Relationships in the Burning Wheel family of games.

 

[Aldarc]

Specific vs general.

I'm honestly having a difficult time discerning which is which when applied to D&D/PF and the various PbtA games I know.

 

[Faolyn]

I like resource dice, in theory--I've never actually played a game that used them, but the concept seems so useful to me.

 

[GMMichael]

Also, the hit point mechanic in Genesys / FFG feels much different than D&D. It feels more like a Star Wars fight should. Death is possible, but it's radically more likely to end in surrender or retreat, or being "knocked out" of a fight via condition.

It feels like a tense race, where the PCs and opponents are using every trick up their sleeve for advantage before they're hung out to dry. In no way does it feel like a bag of hit points just being depleted.

I have to look this up. It sounds awesome.

It's not terribly sexy, but I really like Take 10/Take 20. Having an absolute value you can point to that provides a reference for how skilled you are, given time and space to practice and err is very convenient, and take 10 is a solid mechanic for action outside of a clock.

Try Take Half. For any roll. It works better for opposed rolls, but you could use it with static rolls too, with a modification like: "take half on a d10 or higher subtracts 2 points from your result."

I'd like to see a D20 skill system that defaults to using those values and translating them into actions players can take, moving rolling onto back burner as something only done when you're pushing your luck.

So a PC can do only what's listed on the character sheet? Not for me.

Also, I mentioned TOR and DW dice mechanics, but I'll broaden that to: "Simple dice mechanics that have a range of possible results, not just binary pass/fail."

Indeed. Saying a PC should "fail" on an action is like saying that "no" is a valid answer to most player inquiries. It's short and simple, but not much fun.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I really like using “signature skills” in my own game, which are skills you’re reliable in because you can up learning them or they’re part of your biology (spirit people talking to spirits, for instance) and so with a signature skill you always reroll any 1s in your dice pool, even if it means rerolling several times. You can still fail, but total failure is less likely, and you’ll never get the minimum result possible.

It also means that the point where you can’t “total fail” once you hit 4 ranks, because total failure is 1-9, and 4 ranks means rolling 5 total dice with a minimum of 2 on each die.

I also really like success ladders as replacement for DCs.

Blades in The Dark uses flashbacks really well.

I feel like I’m forgetting some favorites

 

[jdrakeh]

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. The higher you roll while still remaining under said target, the more Victory Points you receive, with VPs translating directly to degree of success (the more VPs the better the degree of success).

 

[overgeeked]

I really love Playbooks and think that any number of games, trad and otherwise, can benefit from them.

While I generally like the idea of playbooks, their implementation as "story you'll work through" rather than "archetype you want to play" kinda bugs me. I don't want a predetermined story arc for my character. I want to play to find out what happens. That single bit of PbtA games has always been a bit dissonant for me.

 

[overgeeked]

More mechanics I love.

The DCC/MCC dice chain. It's a great idea. And can be used for so many different things. Nothing beats rolling the chonky boy d30 for a to-hit roll.

DCC/MCC magic/powers. I love the idea and implementation of corruption in DCC and mutations in MCC. If you try to use your magic-powers and you botch, look out. It makes magic-powers feel chaotic and dangerous. That's amazing.

MCC tech levels. A lot of sci-fi games have tech levels but there's something neat about the implementation of tech levels and rolling to understand new tech in MCC that just sings.