For Community Feedback…
Can you think of a really underrated game mechanic? Here is what I mean: I think the way The Burning Wheel abstracts money is fucking brilliant, but all you ever hear about with that game is the Belief system or The Duel of Wits.
What is a really underrated game mechanic, and why is it so brilliant?
So few people talk about Golden Sky Stories in terms of its mechanics, and more about how it has a particular atmosphere and is geared towards a younger set.
But the thing is, there’s some real gems of mechanical brilliance there. One that I really love is that, okay, so you have two main “power” stats–Feelings and Wonder. Feelings are used to boost your attributes so you can succeed at a check (the game is otherwise diceless). Wonder is spent to activate your magical powers (because every character is a cute Japanese animal spirit with magical powers).
Now here’s the cool kicker: you get a refresh of Feelings and Wonder each scene. How many do you get? Well, it’s based on the strength of the relationships that you have with others…and the relationships others have with you. Relationships are bidirectional–they measure how you feel about another, and how that other feels about you. If you have strong relationships with others, you get more Wonder. If others have strong relationships with you, you get more Feelings.
So building up relationships with others will increase your power stats, and you can only control some of that–you need others to build relationships with you in order to gain the power stat that lets you succeed at attribute checks. And if everyone loves you but you don’t build relationships with others, you don’t have enough magic juice to fuel your magic powers.
It’s thematic in a really cool way that reinforces the main point of the game, which is building community to solve problems.
So few people talk about Golden Sky Stories in terms of its mechanics, and more about how it has a particular atmosphere and is geared towards a younger set.
But the thing is, there’s some real gems of mechanical brilliance there. One that I really love is that, okay, so you have two main “power” stats–Feelings and Wonder. Feelings are used to boost your attributes so you can succeed at a check (the game is otherwise diceless). Wonder is spent to activate your magical powers (because every character is a cute Japanese animal spirit with magical powers).
Now here’s the cool kicker: you get a refresh of Feelings and Wonder each scene. How many do you get? Well, it’s based on the strength of the relationships that you have with others…and the relationships others have with you. Relationships are bidirectional–they measure how you feel about another, and how that other feels about you. If you have strong relationships with others, you get more Wonder. If others have strong relationships with you, you get more Feelings.
So building up relationships with others will increase your power stats, and you can only control some of that–you need others to build relationships with you in order to gain the power stat that lets you succeed at attribute checks. And if everyone loves you but you don’t build relationships with others, you don’t have enough magic juice to fuel your magic powers.
It’s thematic in a really cool way that reinforces the main point of the game, which is building community to solve problems.
Quests in Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine. They’re a set of goals that your character gets by nudging scene framing and narration. Each goal is a dramatic beat, and sort of like a AW move. Every quest is like a personalized front with a built-in countdown clock. They are meant to encourage pro-active play.
Speaking of countdown clocks, there is the old Jenga tower from Dread. It’s a shame there haven’t been more applications of tactile skills in tabletop RPGs like that.
Quests in Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine. They’re a set of goals that your character gets by nudging scene framing and narration. Each goal is a dramatic beat, and sort of like a AW move. Every quest is like a personalized front with a built-in countdown clock. They are meant to encourage pro-active play.
Speaking of countdown clocks, there is the old Jenga tower from Dread. It’s a shame there haven’t been more applications of tactile skills in tabletop RPGs like that.
60 second hour glass (minute glass?) or other timer from robo-rally. not an RPG but there have been a few rpgs where I would love to have seen it turned over when one player stalls or we all get stuck coming up with an over elaborate plot that will just end in a sudo-random dice roll anyway.
60 second hour glass (minute glass?) or other timer from robo-rally. not an RPG but there have been a few rpgs where I would love to have seen it turned over when one player stalls or we all get stuck coming up with an over elaborate plot that will just end in a sudo-random dice roll anyway.
The confessional in Inspectres. That was a groundbreaking narrative mechanic that consistently produces interesting play. Sure, it means diving a little into a mockumentary style or breaking the fourth wall a lot, but it’s pretty amazing.
The confessional in Inspectres. That was a groundbreaking narrative mechanic that consistently produces interesting play. Sure, it means diving a little into a mockumentary style or breaking the fourth wall a lot, but it’s pretty amazing.
My vote goes to open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom in Apocalypse World (and the other related mechanics where stuff in your world is attuned to it and miss outcomes are treated as if you opened your brain to it). Its brilliance totally gets lost among all the moves gaming of interpersonal drama, so you don’t recognize it, but what it does is give players mechanical incentive to pay attention to the setting and situations prepped by the GM. In most GM-prepped games, from D&D to Vampire to Lacuna to Acts of Evil, there’s really no good reason for players to get involved in whatever bullshit the NPCs are up to, because it’s always a hassle. So they just avoid it unless you force it by making it a mission or kidnapping them or stealing their treasure or whatever. open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom turns being drawn in into a super power.
My vote goes to open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom in Apocalypse World (and the other related mechanics where stuff in your world is attuned to it and miss outcomes are treated as if you opened your brain to it). Its brilliance totally gets lost among all the moves gaming of interpersonal drama, so you don’t recognize it, but what it does is give players mechanical incentive to pay attention to the setting and situations prepped by the GM. In most GM-prepped games, from D&D to Vampire to Lacuna to Acts of Evil, there’s really no good reason for players to get involved in whatever bullshit the NPCs are up to, because it’s always a hassle. So they just avoid it unless you force it by making it a mission or kidnapping them or stealing their treasure or whatever. open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom turns being drawn in into a super power.
Skill Challenges from D&D 4th Edition. When the mechanics are talked about is the tacticle combat. Which is pretty interesting if you like it boardgamey and are into trad. games.
But the skill challenge mechanic asking you to try different skills at a Task instead of just determining one, while also bringing in a Teamwork aspect to a skill check. Usually in skill based systems Resolution can be pretty binary and it is obvious which character will be the best suited for a Task, because they have the highest applying skill. The challenges ask you how you are Approaching a Task and tell you which Approach was sucessful and which didn’t work as well. Giving more of a narrative input than just fail / pass. I liked to see something like that in this very tactical combat focussed game. Nice way to make the non-combat stuff interesting and put a Little more thought and weight into it.
Skill Challenges from D&D 4th Edition. When the mechanics are talked about is the tacticle combat. Which is pretty interesting if you like it boardgamey and are into trad. games.
But the skill challenge mechanic asking you to try different skills at a Task instead of just determining one, while also bringing in a Teamwork aspect to a skill check. Usually in skill based systems Resolution can be pretty binary and it is obvious which character will be the best suited for a Task, because they have the highest applying skill. The challenges ask you how you are Approaching a Task and tell you which Approach was sucessful and which didn’t work as well. Giving more of a narrative input than just fail / pass. I liked to see something like that in this very tactical combat focussed game. Nice way to make the non-combat stuff interesting and put a Little more thought and weight into it.
Skill challenges are an idea that I really wish had been iterated more by future designs; I think there was an interesting concept there, but the execution was a little lacking.
Skill challenges are an idea that I really wish had been iterated more by future designs; I think there was an interesting concept there, but the execution was a little lacking.
Ooh, here’s one from a largely unknown game that was almost stunningly brilliant. Arrowflight is pretty much a traditional fantasy RPG, but with these opposed Mana and Spirit stats. Mana is the part of the character linked to the web of life, from which the power of magic is drawn. Spirit is the part of the character linked to gods and forces beyond the material world. The traits fluctuate in play. At the point of death, the game’s cosmology has it that there is a necessary communication between Mana and Spirit, with each informing the other how to respond to dying. If a character dies with Spirit at 0, there is no communication from Spirit telling Mana to resolve its ties to the material world. The character becomes a soulless being attached bodily to the material world: a ghoul. If a character dies with Mana at 0, there is no communication from Mana telling Spirit to resolve its ties to the material world. The character becomes a bodiless spirit attached to the material world: a ghost.
So why almost brilliant? The character becomes an NPC.
Ooh, here’s one from a largely unknown game that was almost stunningly brilliant. Arrowflight is pretty much a traditional fantasy RPG, but with these opposed Mana and Spirit stats. Mana is the part of the character linked to the web of life, from which the power of magic is drawn. Spirit is the part of the character linked to gods and forces beyond the material world. The traits fluctuate in play. At the point of death, the game’s cosmology has it that there is a necessary communication between Mana and Spirit, with each informing the other how to respond to dying. If a character dies with Spirit at 0, there is no communication from Spirit telling Mana to resolve its ties to the material world. The character becomes a soulless being attached bodily to the material world: a ghoul. If a character dies with Mana at 0, there is no communication from Mana telling Spirit to resolve its ties to the material world. The character becomes a bodiless spirit attached to the material world: a ghost.
So why almost brilliant? The character becomes an NPC.
Skill challenges sounded interesting to me, but in play they seem pretty flat YMMV. I feel the same way about Dungeon World’s “When you undertake a Perilous Journey” move. It’s essentially a role-based skill check. I used it in a game I ran for my boys just last night and it was “okay.”
Skill challenges sounded interesting to me, but in play they seem pretty flat YMMV. I feel the same way about Dungeon World’s “When you undertake a Perilous Journey” move. It’s essentially a role-based skill check. I used it in a game I ran for my boys just last night and it was “okay.”
Ray Otus I’m going to disagree strongly about ‘Undertake a Perilous Journey.’ I happen to think that, along with Discern Realities and Spout Lore, it is one of the things that makes DW so brilliant. It allows you to explore an aspect of the adventuring party experience that often gets hand-waved away, without bogging the session down in a lot of needless detail. The key is to play with the fiction a bit before you let them make the roll. I usually ask them to explain their approach to the journey, and what kinds of difficulties they expect to encounter along the way, in terms of geography/terrain (Trailblazer), available resources (Quartermaster), and dangers in the area (Scout). By doing that, you create a certain amount of vividness to the journey itself that might not have existed beforehand, and if they blow the roll, they have already seeded your GM move.
Ray Otus I’m going to disagree strongly about ‘Undertake a Perilous Journey.’ I happen to think that, along with Discern Realities and Spout Lore, it is one of the things that makes DW so brilliant. It allows you to explore an aspect of the adventuring party experience that often gets hand-waved away, without bogging the session down in a lot of needless detail. The key is to play with the fiction a bit before you let them make the roll. I usually ask them to explain their approach to the journey, and what kinds of difficulties they expect to encounter along the way, in terms of geography/terrain (Trailblazer), available resources (Quartermaster), and dangers in the area (Scout). By doing that, you create a certain amount of vividness to the journey itself that might not have existed beforehand, and if they blow the roll, they have already seeded your GM move.
🙂 I was kind of hoping you would Jason Cordova. I see have successfully baited you into telling me how to do it right. Bwahahaa. I do love Spout Lore and Discern Realities, for sure. Those are great moves. I guess I wasn’t running the Perilous Journey one in that “let’s see what dangers are lurking inside the player’s minds” sort of mode. I will definitely do that next time and see what brilliance ensues.
🙂 I was kind of hoping you would Jason Cordova. I see have successfully baited you into telling me how to do it right. Bwahahaa. I do love Spout Lore and Discern Realities, for sure. Those are great moves. I guess I wasn’t running the Perilous Journey one in that “let’s see what dangers are lurking inside the player’s minds” sort of mode. I will definitely do that next time and see what brilliance ensues.
I’m really not sure what’s underrated, so I’m just going to talk about stuff I think is awesome, and hope that someone somewhere didn’t realise it was awesome.
My fave AW mechanics are the ones which force the MC and the players to create unexpected material on the fly. Read person, for sure: I can force you to answer a question about your character that you’d never even considered before. I can force the MC to give an NPC interesting motives even if they were really just some guy. Open your brain, also: I can ask questions about the world, with no way to get that information, and force the MC to detail it. And of course, the MC can ask me questions that would never even occur to me to answer, without even the vaguest fictional justification. Cool!
I also love love love the way that Dream Askew forces you to make trouble for yourself to get the tokens you need to be awesome.
Of course, I can hardly believe that anyone has ever underrated these mechanics, but maybe.
I’m really not sure what’s underrated, so I’m just going to talk about stuff I think is awesome, and hope that someone somewhere didn’t realise it was awesome.
My fave AW mechanics are the ones which force the MC and the players to create unexpected material on the fly. Read person, for sure: I can force you to answer a question about your character that you’d never even considered before. I can force the MC to give an NPC interesting motives even if they were really just some guy. Open your brain, also: I can ask questions about the world, with no way to get that information, and force the MC to detail it. And of course, the MC can ask me questions that would never even occur to me to answer, without even the vaguest fictional justification. Cool!
I also love love love the way that Dream Askew forces you to make trouble for yourself to get the tokens you need to be awesome.
Of course, I can hardly believe that anyone has ever underrated these mechanics, but maybe.
Ray Otus Haha, well-played. As a general matter, I find you can never go wrong by letting the players seed the fiction. One of the most powerful and effective tools we have as GMs is the callback. I like to ask a particular question, or dwell on something very specific, that appears to have no connection to the events in Session X. When we then revisit that oddball thing a few sessions later, everyone’s mind is blown and the experience goes from being a simple dungeon crawl, to something bigger and more meaningful. It is doubly the case if it is something the players gave you.
Ray Otus Haha, well-played. As a general matter, I find you can never go wrong by letting the players seed the fiction. One of the most powerful and effective tools we have as GMs is the callback. I like to ask a particular question, or dwell on something very specific, that appears to have no connection to the events in Session X. When we then revisit that oddball thing a few sessions later, everyone’s mind is blown and the experience goes from being a simple dungeon crawl, to something bigger and more meaningful. It is doubly the case if it is something the players gave you.
A few mechanics that have really gotten my creative motor running both because they are narratively affective and really artful but not “perfect” are:
– Dungeon World: Bonds
– MonsterHearts: Strings
– In a Wicked Age: PVP Conflict Resolution
I think that each of these is really special, and has something really innately beautiful about them which I find inspiring. Each also has flaws that make me want to break out my mental bag of tricks and make them better. Bonds seem to have a polarizing effect with in our group. I have tried in the last few games I have ran to increase their importance and potency with mixed affect. Strings have been held up as a good conflict resolution mechanic, but appear to work well only in the confines of pvp. The negotiation rolls and injuries found in “In a Wicked Age” allow players to avoid outcomes that they find wholly outside the realm of acceptable, or negotiate for a mutually beneficial out come. But they also feel cumbersome, especially in multiple layers of conflict between players.
I feel that each of them has something to them that is useful and impressive and may not be getting the due that they deserve.
A few mechanics that have really gotten my creative motor running both because they are narratively affective and really artful but not “perfect” are:
– Dungeon World: Bonds
– MonsterHearts: Strings
– In a Wicked Age: PVP Conflict Resolution
I think that each of these is really special, and has something really innately beautiful about them which I find inspiring. Each also has flaws that make me want to break out my mental bag of tricks and make them better. Bonds seem to have a polarizing effect with in our group. I have tried in the last few games I have ran to increase their importance and potency with mixed affect. Strings have been held up as a good conflict resolution mechanic, but appear to work well only in the confines of pvp. The negotiation rolls and injuries found in “In a Wicked Age” allow players to avoid outcomes that they find wholly outside the realm of acceptable, or negotiate for a mutually beneficial out come. But they also feel cumbersome, especially in multiple layers of conflict between players.
I feel that each of them has something to them that is useful and impressive and may not be getting the due that they deserve.
Scott Owen Apart from expressing my general distaste for them, I have never been super-precise about why I think DW Bonds are so awful. Here it is, by way of example:
My thief is trying to avoid a stone giant’s club in an effort to attack him. My companion, a bard, narrates helping me do this by distracting the stone giant, thereby triggering the Aid move (btw, this could also be Defend, depending on how it is narrated). He gets a +1 to the Aid roll because he has a Bond with me. What is that Bond? “[The thief] trusts me with a secret.” In this example, there is literally no connection to the fictional nature of the Bond and to the fact the bard is helping me dodge a stone giant.
Now, if Aid was re-written to incorporate the fictional nature of the Bond, I could definitely get behind it in that regard.
A secondary problem with Bonds is that you can totally game “resolving” them in order to get an XP. This is because “resolving” the Bond is a super-vague concept, and pretty much anything can count, thereby rendering the exercise meaningless.
All that said, I think there is something interesting to be done with them. I’m just not sure what that would be that would still keep the game focused on dungeon crawling.
Scott Owen Apart from expressing my general distaste for them, I have never been super-precise about why I think DW Bonds are so awful. Here it is, by way of example:
My thief is trying to avoid a stone giant’s club in an effort to attack him. My companion, a bard, narrates helping me do this by distracting the stone giant, thereby triggering the Aid move (btw, this could also be Defend, depending on how it is narrated). He gets a +1 to the Aid roll because he has a Bond with me. What is that Bond? “[The thief] trusts me with a secret.” In this example, there is literally no connection to the fictional nature of the Bond and to the fact the bard is helping me dodge a stone giant.
Now, if Aid was re-written to incorporate the fictional nature of the Bond, I could definitely get behind it in that regard.
A secondary problem with Bonds is that you can totally game “resolving” them in order to get an XP. This is because “resolving” the Bond is a super-vague concept, and pretty much anything can count, thereby rendering the exercise meaningless.
All that said, I think there is something interesting to be done with them. I’m just not sure what that would be that would still keep the game focused on dungeon crawling.
I can forgive the apparent disconnect between the text of a bond and the situation of the assist. the bard is not better at helping the thief because of the secret. he is better because he has more connection/history with the thief as opposed to someone else.
The problem is that they are either useless or gamey depending on how honestly people use them. The way I originally read the text, the bonds are supposed to represent the current relationship between two characters. they are only resolved when this description no longer applies. The thief and the bard are best friends. if this is accurate and both players play this way, the bond remains and you get no xp (but you do get the aid benefit). many of us have looked over the pre-made bonds and wondered, “how would this ever get resolved?” many of them are statements of fact about the past and thus should never change. so this looks like a somewhat lame but functional mechanic. Its when players, driven mad by the apparent slowness of character progression, try to use bonds as an xp farm that they start getting weird. we see the same bonds over and over and they are very lamely “resolved” every adventure. I trust the thief, now I don’t trust the thief, the thief has regained my trust… I think you should just remove the xp part of the bond and leave it as another descriptive element, like the characters look choices, while still having a little mechanical benefit by affecting the aid roll.
I can forgive the apparent disconnect between the text of a bond and the situation of the assist. the bard is not better at helping the thief because of the secret. he is better because he has more connection/history with the thief as opposed to someone else.
The problem is that they are either useless or gamey depending on how honestly people use them. The way I originally read the text, the bonds are supposed to represent the current relationship between two characters. they are only resolved when this description no longer applies. The thief and the bard are best friends. if this is accurate and both players play this way, the bond remains and you get no xp (but you do get the aid benefit). many of us have looked over the pre-made bonds and wondered, “how would this ever get resolved?” many of them are statements of fact about the past and thus should never change. so this looks like a somewhat lame but functional mechanic. Its when players, driven mad by the apparent slowness of character progression, try to use bonds as an xp farm that they start getting weird. we see the same bonds over and over and they are very lamely “resolved” every adventure. I trust the thief, now I don’t trust the thief, the thief has regained my trust… I think you should just remove the xp part of the bond and leave it as another descriptive element, like the characters look choices, while still having a little mechanical benefit by affecting the aid roll.
All conversations on The Gauntlet eventually devolve into one about Bonds, haha.
All conversations on The Gauntlet eventually devolve into one about Bonds, haha.
back on topic, I really like the Oracle in In a wicked age. I like that it sort of sets up the start of the story and gives us characters to chose from. In DW games we often set aside some classes that wouldn’t be appropriate for the adventure or setting. or party’s have trouble because no one picked a fighter, or a thief. Or the druid is worried about what sort of animals he should chose. Or the guy who likes playing bard doesn’t know if this is a straight up dungeon crawl or if he will be parlaying a lot. it would be cool if the dm set up some plot queues before the adventure started that the players could draw their character ideas from.
back on topic, I really like the Oracle in In a wicked age. I like that it sort of sets up the start of the story and gives us characters to chose from. In DW games we often set aside some classes that wouldn’t be appropriate for the adventure or setting. or party’s have trouble because no one picked a fighter, or a thief. Or the druid is worried about what sort of animals he should chose. Or the guy who likes playing bard doesn’t know if this is a straight up dungeon crawl or if he will be parlaying a lot. it would be cool if the dm set up some plot queues before the adventure started that the players could draw their character ideas from.
Daniel Fowler I agree with you regarding the xp farming of the bonds mechanic. In my mind, the bond allows you to aid or hinder another because you have the additional emotional impetus to do so. Kind of a mother pulling the car off the child idea. I have a strong emotional bond with this character, therefore I have the drive to aid or hinder them that I would not have if they were a stranger. But it should work more in line with the final girl, in that you have to choose what kind of relationship it is. If you are rivals then you should only be able to hinder them, aid if friends, either if sex, drugs, or money is involved.
Because I have seen what can be done with games that focus on player interactions I know that the bonds can be improved on with out having to be completely thrown out. They just need to be altered and updated with them as a focus rather than an after thought. Even with their obvious flaws I think they do not generally get the praise that they deserve. They do remind us that this is not just about the blood and the booty. It is about the heart that beats with in us, and as one with all creation. Holding us high in the light so that we may reflect the beauty of others in ourselves. ( Manly tears run down my face)
Daniel Fowler I agree with you regarding the xp farming of the bonds mechanic. In my mind, the bond allows you to aid or hinder another because you have the additional emotional impetus to do so. Kind of a mother pulling the car off the child idea. I have a strong emotional bond with this character, therefore I have the drive to aid or hinder them that I would not have if they were a stranger. But it should work more in line with the final girl, in that you have to choose what kind of relationship it is. If you are rivals then you should only be able to hinder them, aid if friends, either if sex, drugs, or money is involved.
Because I have seen what can be done with games that focus on player interactions I know that the bonds can be improved on with out having to be completely thrown out. They just need to be altered and updated with them as a focus rather than an after thought. Even with their obvious flaws I think they do not generally get the praise that they deserve. They do remind us that this is not just about the blood and the booty. It is about the heart that beats with in us, and as one with all creation. Holding us high in the light so that we may reflect the beauty of others in ourselves. ( Manly tears run down my face)
A few things from Mouseguard (and BW).
1. When you help someone else, give them a physical (distinct) die, that way when the roll occurs you can see whether or not you actually helped.
2. You only get better at doing something by doing it, and only if you are failing (or doing challenging tasks). You cannot improve if you never use it, you cannot improve if you don’t do challenge your self with in the skill.
3. You earn traits by acting like you already have them. You loose traits if you never actually use them.
A few things from Mouseguard (and BW).
1. When you help someone else, give them a physical (distinct) die, that way when the roll occurs you can see whether or not you actually helped.
2. You only get better at doing something by doing it, and only if you are failing (or doing challenging tasks). You cannot improve if you never use it, you cannot improve if you don’t do challenge your self with in the skill.
3. You earn traits by acting like you already have them. You loose traits if you never actually use them.
Yoshi Creelman. For that matter, CoC (at least as far back as 3rd edition) had a great “You only get better at doing something by doing it” mechanic. All skills were %’s. When you used one in the game you put a tick mark by it. At the end of a session you rolled a d100 against your skill. If you got over it (so that higher skills were harder to improve than lower ones), you got to then roll a d10 and add that many %’s to your skill. Slick, intuitive, easy, smart. One of the few things in the game you could say those words about. (Ha ha)
Yoshi Creelman. For that matter, CoC (at least as far back as 3rd edition) had a great “You only get better at doing something by doing it” mechanic. All skills were %’s. When you used one in the game you put a tick mark by it. At the end of a session you rolled a d100 against your skill. If you got over it (so that higher skills were harder to improve than lower ones), you got to then roll a d10 and add that many %’s to your skill. Slick, intuitive, easy, smart. One of the few things in the game you could say those words about. (Ha ha)
Premium RPG gaming: Its not widely advertised but anyone playing in one of my games can buy a reroll for $1 or 12 rerolls for $10
Premium RPG gaming: Its not widely advertised but anyone playing in one of my games can buy a reroll for $1 or 12 rerolls for $10
Daniel Fowler “For when videogames aren’t throwing enough microtransactions at you!”
Daniel Fowler “For when videogames aren’t throwing enough microtransactions at you!”
Yikes.
Yikes.
Another really great mechanic that I have heard but never seen in play is “Fan Mail”, which I think Steve Mains mentioned on the pod-cast in association with…. “Prime Time Adventure”? Based on my understanding it is similar to the currency mechanic present in”The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen”. When you do something awesome in “Prime Time Adventure” other players gift you points. While in “The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen” the person with the best story is bequeathed all coins. It is an interesting and really positive way of distributing the in game exp and currency.
The mechanics that Ray Otus and Yoshi Creelman mentioned above remind me of older video games I have played. Final Fantasy 9 had something similar but connected to the weaponry you equipped. Each weapon dictated the kinds of moves you could use. Using the moves while the weapon was equipped allowed you to slowly master the technique until you no longer needed the weapon to take the action. The added idea of slowly losing the ability do to non-use is really interesting and organic.
Of course Kristen D and I both love systems that use dice as their random number generator. Lol Jokes.
Another really great mechanic that I have heard but never seen in play is “Fan Mail”, which I think Steve Mains mentioned on the pod-cast in association with…. “Prime Time Adventure”? Based on my understanding it is similar to the currency mechanic present in”The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen”. When you do something awesome in “Prime Time Adventure” other players gift you points. While in “The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen” the person with the best story is bequeathed all coins. It is an interesting and really positive way of distributing the in game exp and currency.
The mechanics that Ray Otus and Yoshi Creelman mentioned above remind me of older video games I have played. Final Fantasy 9 had something similar but connected to the weaponry you equipped. Each weapon dictated the kinds of moves you could use. Using the moves while the weapon was equipped allowed you to slowly master the technique until you no longer needed the weapon to take the action. The added idea of slowly losing the ability do to non-use is really interesting and organic.
Of course Kristen D and I both love systems that use dice as their random number generator. Lol Jokes.
In Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor for Monsters and Other Childish things there is a sidebar describing the option to just represent big threats like a horde of goblins or a fire by a single dice pool that also serves as the hit points. Which for the One Roll Engine, which usually is using hit locations, this is a great way to make the game easier. I have used it for any ORE game I ran so far and also stole it for other pool based systems like World of Darkness, especially for abstract threats. Worked really well.
In Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor for Monsters and Other Childish things there is a sidebar describing the option to just represent big threats like a horde of goblins or a fire by a single dice pool that also serves as the hit points. Which for the One Roll Engine, which usually is using hit locations, this is a great way to make the game easier. I have used it for any ORE game I ran so far and also stole it for other pool based systems like World of Darkness, especially for abstract threats. Worked really well.
Scott Owen What I love about PTA’s fanmail is that it’s an instant thing, and that it offers a mechanical advantage to whoever receives it. Entertaining the other players makes you better able to make what you want to happen happen in the game.
I’m usually busy Wednesday nights, or I’d totally run PTA one night.
Scott Owen What I love about PTA’s fanmail is that it’s an instant thing, and that it offers a mechanical advantage to whoever receives it. Entertaining the other players makes you better able to make what you want to happen happen in the game.
I’m usually busy Wednesday nights, or I’d totally run PTA one night.
I love the Rogue’s Phase in Swords Without Master. I recently played with some people who participate in my local boffer LARP (they played their larp characters), and seeing their unique approaches to the “Show me how you” style situations gave me deeper insight into their characters than pages upon pages of character background ever could. It allows players to inhabit their characters, while at the same time gives everyone at the table an opportunity to infuse what they want to see into the fiction. It also gives you a chance to “Montage” over stuff that you might be tempted to handwave, and just gives everyone these cool little character beats throughout.
I love the Rogue’s Phase in Swords Without Master. I recently played with some people who participate in my local boffer LARP (they played their larp characters), and seeing their unique approaches to the “Show me how you” style situations gave me deeper insight into their characters than pages upon pages of character background ever could. It allows players to inhabit their characters, while at the same time gives everyone at the table an opportunity to infuse what they want to see into the fiction. It also gives you a chance to “Montage” over stuff that you might be tempted to handwave, and just gives everyone these cool little character beats throughout.
Steve Mains you need to quit whatever real life s$#t you have holding you back and dedicate yourself to the role playing game game.
Steve Mains you need to quit whatever real life s$#t you have holding you back and dedicate yourself to the role playing game game.
Scott Owen Well, I’m dedicated to the game game. I’m usually at a friend’s place playing board/card games.
Scott Owen Well, I’m dedicated to the game game. I’m usually at a friend’s place playing board/card games.
One more, the flashback mechanic in Leverage. It allows you to get to the action quicker and figure out that cool setup or piece of equipment later, when you actually need it.
One more, the flashback mechanic in Leverage. It allows you to get to the action quicker and figure out that cool setup or piece of equipment later, when you actually need it.
Yoshi Creelman I haven’t played leverage, but I like that mechanic similarly in Blades in the Dark.
Yoshi Creelman I haven’t played leverage, but I like that mechanic similarly in Blades in the Dark.
Haven’t played blades in the dark, so it might be the same or very similar.
Haven’t played blades in the dark, so it might be the same or very similar.
Another underrated mechanic in Leverage: the Job Sheet. When you complete a job (aka a session’s caper), you write it down on your Job Sheet. During the game, you can (once per Job) invoke a prior Job as a callback to get an extra die on a pool. So basically, it’s a way of reinforcing continuity in the game! And it does a great job of modeling those “do you remember when I did the one thing in the one episode…?”
The counterbalance to this: you also buy character advances by spending Jobs from the Job Sheet, which means you can’t use them for callbacks.
Another underrated mechanic in Leverage: the Job Sheet. When you complete a job (aka a session’s caper), you write it down on your Job Sheet. During the game, you can (once per Job) invoke a prior Job as a callback to get an extra die on a pool. So basically, it’s a way of reinforcing continuity in the game! And it does a great job of modeling those “do you remember when I did the one thing in the one episode…?”
The counterbalance to this: you also buy character advances by spending Jobs from the Job Sheet, which means you can’t use them for callbacks.
That sounds great!
That sounds great!
This is a really terrific thread. We could only fit a fraction of it into the podcast (also, the thread remained active long after recording), but there is a lot of really great stuff here.
This is a really terrific thread. We could only fit a fraction of it into the podcast (also, the thread remained active long after recording), but there is a lot of really great stuff here.