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.