What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?

[Thomas Shey]

Very late to this party but if it hasn’t been mentioned so far… the re-roll.

If true, I wonder how much of that is the reach of 5e Advantage/Disadvantage.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I must have been avant-garde then, because I gave each player a dieroll mulligan each session in my AD&D games in the 90's lol

Not like design trends don't have precedents usually, especially at individual tables.

 

[TheSword]

I must have been avant-garde then, because I gave each player a dieroll mulligan each session in my AD&D games in the 90's lol

Almost certainly yes! You trend setter!

I’m trying to cast my mind back but I’m pretty sure that d20 re-rolls were extremely rare in 3e and before. Not sure if they came in during 4e.

 

[TheSword]

If true, I wonder how much of that is the reach of 5e Advantage/Disadvantage.

It’s something I noticed in 4e WFRP as well that wasn’t really present in earlier editions either. Definitely feels modern to me, though some indie games no doubt used the mechanic earlier.

 

[The Firebird]

Yeah this is distinction I've also alluded to in the past and it does not have proper agreed upon nomenclature. And tension between these can exist in any game, but I have been very aware of it in the Blades in the Dark game I've been playing in. Like on one hand the game probably expects you to "play characters like stolen cars" and enjoy the chaos, but it also has hella lot incentives that push the players to play really carefully, You need to consider whether every move is worth it, as every dice roll risks some unpleasant consequence. There are clocks, stress and heat you need to manage, and this encourages flinching before the crap really hits the fan. And there are entanglements, traumas and harm that are quite consequential and have far more teeth and are harder to recover from than some loss of HP in D&D.

I have pointed this out before, but it did not gain much traction, but to me these conflict is very apparent and I am not quite sure how the designer expected people to approach the game. Am I supposed to drive a stolen car or am I supposed to carefully manage various crap gauges to ensure success?

I have also found these goals in conflict. I think the game expects you to play to drive action forward rather than play to win, hence the stolen car advice. But for me it is hard to get of the 'play to win' mode.

 

[The Firebird]

As an aside, I also wanted to potentially make it a +Thread for Simulationism so there would be a place for people to also talk positively about Simulationist games (and hopefully not negatively about non-Simulationist games either), with a focus on the contemporary landscape. As I said before, I think that any perceived hostility to simulationism in contemporary trends tends to be exaggerated, if not imagined. Just because other games may have different play agendas doesn't mean that they are hostile to play agendas that they don't emphasize. I do think that there are a LOT of contemporary simulationist games, as well as older simulationist games that remain highly popular. But I also don't necessarily think that Simulationist games have to look like one thing anymore than all narrative games have to look like PbtA. Though I do agree with Snarf in so far as when I think about simulationist games, I definitely don't think D&D, whose simulationist elements IMHO seem more perfunctory or token.

I think this would be a great thread.

 

[Aldarc]

Very late to this party but if it hasn’t been mentioned so far… the re-roll.

I suppose it depends on how "modern" we are talking about. SWADE had Bennies, and 3e Eberron had Hero Points. Both of these games were 20+ years ago, and there were undoubtedly games that had re-roll mechanics before these two.

I think this would be a great thread.

Done.

 

[TheSword]

I suppose it depends on how "modern" we are talking about. SWADE had Bennies, and 3e Eberron had Hero Points. Both of these games were 20+ years ago, and there were undoubtedly games that had re-roll mechanics before these two

Eberron’s action points were a 1d6 bonus rather than a reroll/mulligan.

 

[Aldarc]

Eberron’s action points were a 1d6 bonus rather than a reroll/mulligan.

You're right. I was conflating them for Hero Points in Pathfinder 1E, which did allow you to re-roll checks.

 

[TwoSix]

Almost certainly yes! You trend setter!

I’m trying to cast my mind back but I’m pretty sure that d20 re-rolls were extremely rare in 3e and before. Not sure if they came in during 4e.

The specific "Roll 2 d20s simultaneously, and use the higher result" mechanic was an Avenger class feature in 4e. I can't say it was the first time that mechanic was ever used (it is a fairly simple mechanic that could pop up in a lot of places), but it's the first time I remember being used in an official D&D product.