What gameplay mechanics do you like, /tg/? Note that this doesn't have to be an entire system, just parts you think are cool or fun.
Personally I really like the FFG SW system of splitting success and circumstance, but tying the dice rolls into the narrative. It makes things harder for the players to predict and gives me a good mechanism to speed things up if they're getting bored.
I also really like classless systems, I feel like the classes in most games are inflexible and arbitrary, they don't give you a lot of control over your character and might not match up with your setting.
What mechanics do you like?
>>46290243
FATE POINTS, Sanity Meters
>>46290243
I really like the elegancy of the (4d100/4)-1 that FATAL uses. I just wished it could be extrapolated into a general purpose roll rather than just character generation.
>>46290243
The "Make your own Attack" mechanic. Like what M&M and BESM does. It's cool to come up with your own powers, though usually it lends itself to being easily broken.
>>46293508
Sigh, still better than d20
>>46290243
d6, i like the simplicity
>>46290243
Simpler stat systems, like "Mind", "Body", "Heart" rather than the usual six.
>>46290243
Partial successes on checks-- if you fail the check by a certain margin, you can choose to succeed, but at a cost. Like alerting some guards while sneaking by, or taking falling damage as part of scaling a wall.
I'm quite a big fan of the ToC sanity system and how it ties in to the pillars of sanity. I also think the slightly meta way it handles the mental disorders the characters gain is pretty fun to play out.
The way Dogs in the Vineyard handles character growth (additional dice are gained whenever the party faces adversity) is unique, I wish more RPGs only awarded characters when they were being earnestly challenged.
1: Non-linear dice probabilities
2: Degree-of-success mechanics
3: Dodge and armor handled separately
4: Location-based targeting and damage
5: Drama points for rerolls/bonuses
6: Skills not influenced by attribute modifiers
>>46290243
Dice pools.
I want to roll all the dice.
>>46293597
What's BESM?
>>46295789
Big Eyes, Small Mouth. It's a game for playing anime characters and tropes. There are better versions of it by different names, but that's the most well-known name.
I really like health levels like in WoD. It's a lot more immersive than HP pools
>>46295004
I am a collector of rare sanity systems, how does ToC handle sanity?
>>46295197
My nigga. What games do you play? that list remembers me of Burning Wheel. what other games have those?
>>46299326
Honestly that list is pretty much the design directives of the sci-fi homebrew I'm working on.
It started out many years ago as an adaptation of Unisystem classic and has mutated beyond the point of resembling its origins.
I will say Unisystem does have a decent called shot and degree of success mechanic however.
>>46290243
Simultaneous attacking. Most often its just a homebrew, but I really don't like how its usually "Okay, you punch me in the face, then its my turn to punch you in the face".
Succeeding at a cost if you fail
>ctrl f
>no races as class
Runequest 6 has several mechanics that I love.
Combat skills are "schools" instead of a single weapon choice.
Like you can have "Barbarian Berserker" school and anyone training in it can use great axes, spears, clubs and throwing weapons plus gains a bonus to damaging enemy armour. While "City Guard" would have shields, polearms, clubs and crossbows with a bonus on knocking people unconscious. (These are examples I just made up. In the game GM and players make up the schools although few examples are given.) And if you have a character that for some reason has Berserker at 60% and Guard skill at 75% since both schools have the weapon club he could pick which skill he uses based on which bonus he wants to gain while using clubs.
The opposed rolls are also done excellently. Roll against skill (roll under) the one who gets the biggest number while still succeeding wins.
Meaning that a character A with skill at 80% has a better chance than B with that skill at 60% since A can roll 61-80 and still succeed. No need to count degrees of success while still having the same effect.
>>46303415
Woefully underappreciated idea.
>>46290243
Double blind fighting scripts with simultaneous reveal.
>Having to actually use thought and skill beyond how ginormoushuge your character stats are
>That tension when you realize that if you don't read your opponent's skills and tactics to get an idea of what he's going to put on his script that your ass will get gutted
>Don't even have to bust out a mapgrid to do it
Thank you, based Burning Wheel.
>>46290243
The initiative system from the same (everyone rolls, results determine pc/npc slots instead of individual initiative). The only complaint I have is that the party needs to have some idea of who should go first; with the wrong players, the game can deadlock as they sort that out.
>"bennies" for stuff like rerolls
>gm gives some in the start of each session and for good RP
>2 standart actions, not move and standart
>no dedicated Charisma stat
>>46290243
>What mechanics do you like?
Different stats being used for "casting".
I know that's, like, a really boring thing to say, but it's a really small detail that I find interesting for some reason.
Like a Druid using Wisdom or a Warlock using Charisma, etc.. To basically better represent the differences in how their class of spell casting function or something.
I dunno, It's neat.
It's neato.
I like the initiative rolled for each side system. It just speeds things up and one dice roll for each side at the beginning of each combat round is faster than getting twenty different initiative rolls and writing each one, in order, on the marker board.
>>46303415
sell me on it
This is more for large battle type wargames than RPGs but:
>Limited command control
I love when you can't get your forces to do exactly what you want. makes battles much more realistic, especially for thirty years war or ancients type battles.
>Double Blind Play
Nothing like the uncertainty of not knowing where the enemy is, and being able to sneak past an enemy who hasn't detected you.
>Combination of strategic campaign map and Tactical tabletop battles
Gives each battle a reason to be fought, and gives you objectives based on what you need to do strategically. Combining grand strategy with localized tactics is the way to play tabletop games
>Being able to do stuff in the enemies turn
Things like reactions or diving for cover, or shooting a tank that crosses your field of fire, even though it would end its move outside your Line of Sight
>>46306465
I find this genuinely interesting.
How would you handle them? Do you have any example of games featuring these mechanics?
>>46306563
Harpoon has double blind, as well as many others. you need a big group of people to pull it off though.
There are a few games that combine strategy and tactical, but mostly we write out own games for this kind of thing. Osfront has full campaign and tactical rules (designed for 1/72 or 1/100 WW2 minis), as well as a campaign map for use with risk figures
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/45jrnm7xwc8uw/Ostfront_(WW2_Tabletop)
As for limited command control, I wrote Thirty years war and Russo-Japanese war games that used limited command control (both in this folder):
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/y54a7nxlqd6r1/Ikonki_and_TYW
I usually do it by giving each player a hand of cards, with each card allowing you to make a series of moves or actions. Both games handle is slightly differently.
As for doing things in enemy turns, all of these games allow for that (Except 'Ikonki' the Russ-Japanese one), but Traveller also has this function, allowing you to dive for cover, dodge, etc during the enemies turn, but in doing so sacrifice some initiative next turn and get a negative to everything you do next turn
>>46304624
I've always liked the idea of this, but in practice it seemed really hard to make work - particularly in balancing what each "school" should actually do and provide in such a way that there was a meaningful incentive to take more than one.
>>46306440
> race as class
> sell me on it
OSR guy here. I have to say, I genuinely do love race-as-class. If you separate out races and classes, you wind up in an awkward situation where pretty well every demi-human is better at a class than a human would be. Why would I ever play a human wizard, when I could be an elf wizard? Why play a human fighter when a half-orc or dwarf fighter gets the same benefits and more stuff?
Race-as-class lets you tweak things directly. Making "Dwarf" a class means that you can better balance their special abilities against that of a fighter. In most editions where this comes up, it also means their saves bonuses are already built in, etc. Same with elves and halflings as a class.
From an aesthetic perspective, I think it also tends to make the races stand out more, rather than just being pointy-eared stat boosts. The dwarf in Basic D&D is more than just a human fighter but better, while not wholly eclipsing said fighter.
I like this mechanic our group use:
Instead of the usual 3d6
we roll (FirstD6Dice * 6 ) + SecondD6Dice -6
We fixed some mistake that d&d developers did
>>46307983
Could you explain that in more detail?
>>46306465
>Being able to do stuff in the enemies turn
This is one of my favorite parts of Brikwars, not only situations like overwatch or Perry, but you can also spend your foe's turn building a new constructs that your mechanic started on in your last turn.
>Subtraction-based armor system
>Hit-location table for armor gaps and partial coverage
>HP damage causes reduced stamina and concentration
>damage based on character stats, weapons just give bonuses
>seperated dodge and armor
>difference in dodge/hit rolls influences damage
>different physical damage types like pierce , slash and crush/impact
>training-based stat improvement
>bell-curve probabilities like 2d10
>>46306640
Have you tried any part of the "Carnage & Glory" computer-assisted rules?
It has Limited Command Control and (since action is intertwined) being able to do stuff in the enemy's turn is, basically, rule of the day.
I like the THW's 'Reaction' system for the sheer randomness of your (and enemy) troop's actions.
>>46308194
>Could you explain that in more detail?
The idea behind using d6 is that this is the most common dice.
Now you say, "ok lets use 1d6"
But at the same time they think "1d6 only allow 6 different results, lets add more dice"
Now, this is where they get their stuff wrong.
As some example we use just 10 digits to represent number (0-9), this is called base 10.
Anyway when we want to have numbers higher than 9, we dont get the sum of digits, the number 19 in base 10 is not 10 (9+1), its 19.
2016 after christ is not 9 (2+0+1+6)
Anyway by doing this:
(FirstD6Dice * 6 ) + SecondD6Dice -6
our group assume base 6 dice and that each dice is one digit of the number.
in the end we have 36 possible results with just 2 dices, instead of the 16 possible results with 3d6.
Less dices used and more results possible.
The -6 of (FirstD6Dice * 6 ) + SecondD6Dice -6
Is there to allow us to have the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6 as possible results
>>46300825
I know the Doctor Who RPG has a good version of this - a bare minimum failure will be "No, but..." so you don't get what you want but something mitigates it, while a bare minimum success will be "Yes, but..." where you do get what you want but something mitigates it.
>>46307759
In practice it is up to GM and players to make it work. That is both the strength and weakness having of weaponskills as schools.
It is more than likely that an average character would only know one school of combat and learning another one would be a significant part of character growth.
Like a PC who grew up as a hunter but later joined a legion and therefore has both the "hunter" school (spears, bows maybe one other weapon) and the basic Legionnaire school.
I don't actually see it as mandatory to have several schools of combat for a character since the entire point of this is to reduce the amount of skills required for a character. It's not just one "fight" skill and the schools can be distinct and different but you don't also have to spend skillpoints on raising up each individual weapon in order to be useful fighter.
>>46308800
that's how SimpleD6 handles things as well
>>46308708
This made more sense before you explained it. Could you give an example?
>>46297228
You have a pool of sanity points. In addition, you have "Pillars of sanity," Things which your character believes about the world, and the way it works. When you lose a significant amount of sanity (I believe 1/4th of the total pool), you lose a pillar of sanity (you choose which based on what's happened in the story, there is no mechanical difference), and you can never regain those sanity points.
>>46307759
>Why would I ever play a human wizard, when I could be an elf wizard?
Because then you are an Elf, with all the social connotations that entails. In a video game, that argument makes sense. But, in RP there's more to a character than numbers on a page, and mechanical superiority. Even in many race-as-class systems Elves make better Wizards than Wizards do. I'm not really arguing against race as class, I'm just saying that "they are mechanically more efficient" is a weak argument to me.
I feel like race-as-class serves a specific purpose, which is making non-human races feel like a small, specific culture. Dwarves aren't wizards. It's just not something they do. It's not that it's impossible, but it's not part of their culture. It's just a question of whether you see demi-humans from a classic or modern perspective.
>>46308708
>>46310759
This system is referred to as d66. I think the poster is not a native English speaker and that's where the confusion is coming from. It's like rolling a d100. You roll 2d6, with one die being the ten's place, and one being the one's place. There are 36 possible results, with linear distribution.
>>46313243
This actually very common in Japanese games. I has similar rolling variance to a d20, but uses dice that easy to find and cheap.
>>46307759
>pointy-eared stat boosts
This shit. This shit right here. Character race needs to be as much an aesthetic choice as a mechanical one.
Last time I DMed D&D 5th, I stopped mid-game and asked everyone why they chose their race (nobody chose human). I asked all 5 players why they chose their race. 4 replied "stats." 1 replied "I really like the idea of being an outcast and having spider-bondage-related PTSD."
As far as mechanics I like:
zone-based movement
partial success
determining initiative by the action's degree of success
>>46290243
Generally I love every game that makes a smaller, slimmer system focused specifically on the thing the game is about. "Generic fantasy world simulation" has been done to death and just leaves you with a clunky rules monster that isn't very helpful for actually role-playing. Make a game about playing scheming nobles, fill it with scheming noble mechanics and stuff that's more relevant than having 10 different physical stats and where skills mostly work the same.
Make a game about playing brutal pitfighters and go bonkers with the combat mechanics and cool moves.
Make a game about playing wizards and make awesome magic rules and tons of fluff about going to wizard school.
But mixing everything together invariably leads to one type of character overshadowing the rest or sticking out like a sore thumb, and sessions that devolve into generic questing and dungeoncrawling.
I also love game mechanics that tie into the way your character is played, rather than your character being a puppet that's 100% under control of the player so the player can just go against the character and make the "right" choice gameplay wise every time.
An example of both of the above, that I really like is Poison'd
It's a game about being a pirate crew, the mechanics focus on being part of a pirate crew, and there are character stat for things like "soul" that essentially translate into how decent and good your character is, and the stat is used for situations like trying to finish of a downed enemy (no, you failed, now you have to role-play how you can't bring yourself to do it) and to decide whether or not people are likely to show you any mercy (so if you're an asshole with no compunctions about backstabbing or killing innocents, people are a lot less squeamish about murdering you right back) and so on.
>>46290243
Seconding this. I absolutely adore that game's mechanics. So flipping fun.
>>46313161
>all the social connotations that entails
Unless that is a joke about rape being justified when done on an Elf, it doesn't make sense, because an Elf is usually, by RP, a superior human.
>>46313824
>spider-bondage-related PTSD
Tell me more.
>>46314169
I love the escalation system in Poison'd. I keep chewing on a way to import it into a game that is more robust, but haven't quite nailed it yet.
I've yet to see an actual game that has it although I'm sure one exists, but a webcomic now defunct that I used to like had "action points" where different actions had different point costs, including reactions.
Also Exalted's tick system. I absolutely hate the initiative system of 3.5 where initiative just determines who goes first. Faster characters should move faster.
Dice pools are fun too I guess.
>>46314724
Drow, Anon. Their entire sado-matriarchal culture.
>>46317404
I'm making a homebrew game inspired on vidya like CS, dirty bomb, overwatch, etc with some rpg elements using action points for movement, attack, counterattack, dodge, move or make actions outside your turn, use skills etc, for now is called Project H and is near 1 step to post the playtest pdf on the /gdg/ Game design general if you are interested
>>46313824
>Last time I DMed D&D 5th, I stopped mid-game and asked everyone why they chose their race (nobody chose human). I asked all 5 players why they chose their race. 4 replied "stats."
Sounds like you need better players, Anon.
>>46290243
Two things, from completely different games:
> Drawing on the map
In Rogues To Riches, players get a chance to modify the combat map before it starts. The game hands out specific map modifications that keep character abilities relevant. Like a really defensive character gets to add a choke point to the map.
> Double threat
I play a chess variant where you can't capture normally, and any piece that's threatened by two enemies at once is instantly removed.
I'd really like to see it applied in other situations, maybe a modern warfare game where you refer to it as flanking.
>>46317404
Shadowrun has Action Points, though not in the way I think you mean it.
Nechronica on the other hand has an Action Points system more in line with what you're saying - you might find the hyper-abstracted movement and positioning system a bit off putting though (even though, now that i think about it, that particular way of handling relative position and the battlefield is a mechanic I personally really like, so ymmv)
>>46290243
>FFG SW system of splitting success and circumstance, but tying the dice rolls into the narrative.
Although I have yet to actually play it, the narrative dice in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire already (seems like) my favorite system. I love the idea of having a clear way to say "You didn't succeed, BUT so-and-so awesome thing happens."
Also, I like exploding dice, where whatever die you roll the maximun on gets re-rolled. Makes crits more fun.
>>46317404
Marvel Roleplaying, Not to be confused with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.
>>46325858
My mistake, Marvel Universe, not to be confused with Marvel Heroes, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, or Marvel Superheroes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Universe_Roleplaying_Game
I liked D&D 4e healing surges and their overall intergration into the game. Having an economy for healing seems like an obvious thing in hindsight.
>>46326035
NOOOO IT'S WAY MORE IMMERSIVE AND REALISTIC TO HAVE PCs HAUL AROUND BAGS OF CURE LIGHT WOUUUNNNNDS
RGRGGGHHHH
>>46314169
>I like specific rules instead of generic ones
>>46315414
>me too, I keep trying to generalise them but haven't quite nailed it yet
Oh I laugh
