Mechanics Worth Stealing: Villain Strength from 7th Sea 2nd Edition

One of the things that's really cool about 7th Sea 2nd Edition is the way it handles its villains. Mechanically a villain is effectively one stat, and then has whatever abilities you want them to have. Why? Because villains are exclusively the domain of the GM, and since the rules tend to not apply to the GM - who can make and change them as they please - why bog it down with extra mechanics?

Some people may balk, but this is no different than making a custom monster in D&D or pathfinder, or building an encounter in any system. Yes, there are guidelines, but if you - as the GM - want brand new PCs to fight an epic level monster nothing is stopping you. It may not be fun for your group, but that is between you and them, not the rule system.

Running A Dogfight

(Image from Tachyon Squadron by Evil Hat Productions)

One of the campaign ideas I've wanted to run for years and years now is a 'fighter squadron' campaign. The most common version of this want is set in the Star Wars universe with the PCs being a squadron of fighter jocks working for the Rebellion or New Republic with the idea for the campaign being along the lines of the Rogue Squadron & Wraith Squadron series of books.

Mechanics Worth Stealing: Hero Points

There are tons of games that use Hero Points, but in my opinion every game can benefit from them. Hero points are a great way to add a small currency to your game so that you, as the GM, can reward players for playing to the themes of the games and their characters - even when it isn't mechanically optimal - and do a number of other things. They allow the players to be that little bit more awesome when they need to be in return.

So today let's talk about hero points.

Mechanics Worth Stealing: Enemy Threat Level

Over the weekend I saw this tweet on twitter. In it, Corey Hickson talks about a mechanic he really likes from Blades in the Dark. The more I think about the mechanic, the more I find I like it as a way to do encounter design and give certain NPCs a more threatening feel not necessarily by jacking up the mechanical threat they hold, but in how they are presented and how much initiative they have.

Today let's talk about it, and how to use it in your game.

Progress Clocks: Making Trades

A couple weeks ago I talked about Progress Clocks from Blades in the Dark.  Today I want to talk about what one of my favorite uses of using Progress Clocks: making trades.

Mechanics Worth Stealing Lite: Giving the Environment a Turn

At GenCon this past year I got to play in a demo run of the Sentinels Comics RPG. It is a super hero RPG based off the universe used in the Sentinels of the Multiverse CCG. One of the neat things that happens in the game is that during combat, the environment you are fighting in gets a turn.

It's an idea I kind of like. And today I want to talk about it. This isn't a full on "mechanics worth stealing" though as I haven't seen the mechanic enough to fully know how it works. So this is more just me going off the idea and what I think and hope it could be.

Mechanics Worth Stealing: Advantage/Disadvantage from 5e D&D

One of my favorite mechanics from 5e D&D is the Advantage/Disadvantage system. It is a simple tool that works well to automatically make things harder or easier for the player. It replaces the need to figure out pesky things like how much penalty does this level of darkness have, how much benefit can my friend add to this check, what happens if I'm covered in oil and try to handle a smooth glass cylinder?

Liberal usage of Advantage/Disadvantage can speed up the game. And it is an easy system to use, or tweek, to fit your own needs.

How It Works
The core to Advantage/Disadvantage is figuring out if a character is in an Advantageous position to do the check, a Disadvantageous position, or a neutral position.

If things are looking up for the character, they roll 2 D20s instead of 1, and they take the die that has the better result on it. If things are looking down, they roll 2 D20s instead of 1 and take the die that has the worse result on it. If things are neutral you just roll one die as normal.

And that's it.

Cancel Out by Choice
By default any advantage cancels out any disadvantage and vice versa. So if you have three things that should give advantage, and one thing that gives disadvantage, you have a neutral roll. This is easy enough to tweak or change to fit your needs though. Make them cancel out at 1:1 if you want, and then go wild with the different status ailments and benefits.

How To Steal
The hard part about stealing Advantage/Disadvantage is that it works best in a system where you roll one die. If you roll a dice pool it can seriously add a lot of time to making a check. Though most systems, dice pool or not, have a Lucky mechanic that does that anyhow.

How To Use
Advantage/Disadvantage is a great way to just short hand bonuses and penalties to a roll. You don't worry about finagling things. Flanking an opponent doesn't reduce their AC, or give them a flat footed penalty. It just gives advantage. At the same time, you don't have to worry about how much penalty you have when tied up in spider silk while trying to climb a wall. You just roll with disadvantage.

That short, easy solution to handling the more intricate nuances is where it shines. It doesn't remove all chance, it just makes it harder. About 25% harder if you just convert the penalty to passive scores it gives in 5e (+ or - 5 out of potential 20 results on the D20.)

Simple. Elegant. Versatile. That's a mechanic I can really get behind.

Mechanics Worth Stealing: Aspects

FATE Core came out in December of 2013, but the system has been around longer than that. It has done a tremendous job of revolutionizing a lot of parts of the RPG market, particularly the indy game scene, and is a solid core for a ton of different games and systems out there. Honestly, if you haven't tried FATE out, you should give it a shot. Maybe it won't be for you, but the system does a great job of making you think of the mechanical expression of everything in a different way. And one part of that is Aspects.

Today we're going to talk about Aspects, and how you can steal them for your own game.

Mechanics Worth Stealing Followup - First Experience With Progress Clocks

Last Wednesday I talked about Progress Clocks from the Forged in the Dark games. That Friday I put them into play in my D&D game to test out how they'd work in another system not designed to work with them. The results went smoother than I expected from a mechanical stand point, but did have a little bit of awkwardness from a narrative one that I chalk up mostly to using new mechanics.

Mechanics Worth Stealing: Progress Clocks

I've yet to play in a game of Blades in the Dark, or other Forged in the Dark games, but I've been intrigued by several of them. One aspect of the mechanics I like is the idea of Progress Clocks. A progress clock is a simple way to track progress towards some goal, threat, or occurrence in play. It gives a way for a GM to know just how much the PCs have to do to accomplish their goal, how much lee way they have before things get bad, and how easy it is for things to get real bad once they've started to go bad.

Today I want to talk about Progress Clocks, and how they can be used to help any game.

Mechanics Worth Stealing: Roll & Keep's Raises

I had this idea for a new series on the blog, and thought now might be a good time to launch it. The idea here is to point out mechanics I see in games that are worth paying attention to, or just flat out lifting for your home game. Maybe they don't make a 1:1 conversion, maybe they do. Either way, they provide a way of resolving or representing something at the table I find to be worth while.

Today, for the initial post, I couldn't think of anything I wish I could have in every system more than the Raise mechanic from AEG's Roll and Keep System. With that said, let's talk about Raises and how they can help with any game.