Game Mechanics You Enjoy

[Koumei]

Mongoose can't be uniformly terrible, can they?

I assure you they can.

[Ravengm]

If we're talking about board game mechanics, one of my favorite things ever is engine building. The idea is you start off with little, if anything, and eventually work up to something that runs smoothly and efficiently, with individual pieces synergizing off of one another. A system where the individual parts don't necessarily do much on their own, but when added together are fantastically efficient.

[silva]

RQ3 didn't have experience points. To have a chance to increase POW, all you needed was to cast a spell such as Befuddle on an opponent who had at least/better(?) than 5% chance to resist your spell. It's been a while ...

If its anything like skills improvement then there is another condition too: it must be made in a situation of tension or of importance to the story. In other words, you can't declare you're befuddling your skinny weak neighbor just to check the stat for an improvement roll.

[kzt]

RQ3 didn't have experience points. To have a chance to increase POW, all you needed was to cast a spell such as Befuddle on an opponent who had at least/better(?) than 5% chance to resist your spell. It's been a while ...

I did like the concept of Runes as actual physical things you could integrate with and hope to steal that for a game, if I ever get an RQ6 campaign going.

IIRC, you could also resist getting affected by a spell to have the chance of a POW increase. While clever at the time, the whole increase mechanic is almost as bad as Frank says it is. Last time I started a RQ game (over a decade ago) I used HERO mechanics, at least until I had a couple of player really want to go all old-school RQ on me.

It always seemed odd how the game was called RuneQuest, but in RQ 1 - 4 there was almost no involvement with them other then some concepts in Greg Stafford's head.

[silva]

Huh... there is still no envolvrment with actual runes in the last edition of the game. I think it would be more coherent if the game was called Cultquest.

[Pixels]

a farmland is complete when its surrounded by roads and walls.

At least in the base game, a farmland is never complete until the game ends. Even if it is completely enclosed, your resources stay locked up. People tend to avoid farming until the late game because it is really hard to estimate how many points a farmer will be worth until the map is mostly complete, and investing in farming early means you will always have fewer meeple to spread elsewhere.

While on the subject of Carcassonne, I really like the map building aspect of that game. It is super neat to watch a countryside take shape as you lay tiles.

[Harshax]

IIRC, you could also resist getting affected by a spell to have the chance of a POW increase. While clever at the time, the whole increase mechanic is almost as bad as Frank says it is. Last time I started a RQ game (over a decade ago) I used HERO mechanics, at least until I had a couple of player really want to go all old-school RQ on me.

True, that was the other method, but since few PCs wanted to be exposed to harmful magic that could overcome Countermagic or Spellshield, it was the least preferred method.

It always seemed odd how the game was called RuneQuest, but in RQ 1 - 4 there was almost no involvement with them other then some concepts in Greg Stafford's head.

Totally agree. This is the one thing that tricked me into buying MRQ. It's also the reason I bought the Runes supplement when it was on $1 clearance on Drivethru.

I've seen Frank's argument for roll over instead of roll under, but I haven't had the time to critically analyze its impact on the way I play or whether the minutia you gain by rolling high is worth the effort. I remember briefly looking at the stats for an Elephant, and realized that roll over might require an entire rewrite of the Bestiary, because a human could beat a elephant in tug of war if you used the stats as written. The flip side of that conclusion may be that the bestiary isn't as well conceived as I originally thought. Hard for me to say, since I haven't yet sat down and run a session of RQ6.

[Sakuya Izayoi]

a farmland is complete when its surrounded by roads and walls.

At least in the base game, a farmland is never complete until the game ends. Even if it is completely enclosed, your resources stay locked up. People tend to avoid farming until the late game because it is really hard to estimate how many points a farmer will be worth until the map is mostly complete, and investing in farming early means you will always have fewer meeple to spread elsewhere.

Not a change in later releases, just my mistake. But good point, starting a farm is a huge commitment that has to be taken into account. But if the game runs at a close tie until the end, the farms can be what wins it, since they're not counted until after the last turn.

[silva]

I like mechanics that promote inter-player intrigue and conflict in primarily cooperative games like the traitors from Shadow over Camelot and BSG, the Dark Fates and trust from Mountain Witch, highlighting and Hx from Apocalypse World, and some MHR spy-based milestones that reward players for betraying each other.

(btw, such a mechanic would fit Shadowrun perfectly.)

[radthemad4]

I've always been a fan of cooldown systems. I'm often really hesitant to use consumables because I keep thinking, 'I might need this later'. I like how DnD breath weapons can be reused a number of rounds afterwards for instance.

[rapa-nui]

I like cooldown systems too. XCOM: Enemy Unknown used a really nifty combination of cool down abilities and consumables. But the consumables were more like encounter powers: they restocked when you were done with an op, and returned to base.

Cooldown systems also give designers a bunch of knobs to be able to tweak- how long does it take to cool down, can i force the ability through cool down for a penalty (see Shadowrun Returns), does achieving certain things reduce or negate the cool down, can I overload the ability and increase the cool down time... etc

Consumables are usually poorly designed. Either they are not "consumable" at all because they become obsolete before you run out of charges, or they are too precious to ever use tactically before engaging the final boss. Or worse, they are just broken (see Fable, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim).

[Ravengm]

...they are too precious to ever use tactically before engaging the final boss.

I can't tell you how many times I completed a JRPG as a child and had like 27 elixirs still in my inventory.

[DSMatticus]

I'm like that with RPG shooters and ammo. Between System Shock 2 and Bioshock, I have killed an inordinately large number of things with wrenches. Even big daddies (not the ones that shoot explosives) can be circle-strafe wrenched for fairly little damage if you are careful and determined enough.

[RadiantPhoenix]

Consumables are usually poorly designed. Either they are not "consumable" at all because they become obsolete before you run out of charges, or they are too precious to ever use tactically before engaging the final boss.

The worst thing is when they're the former but you've already formed a habit of treating consumables like the latter, and now you've got a pile of cruft in your inventory.

[Koumei]

I can't tell you how many times I completed a JRPG as a child and had like 27 elixirs still in my inventory.

Never mind as a child, I still do that with JRPGs. Actually I did the same with potions and wands in NWN, too.

[radthemad4]

I do that with EVERY game regardless of genre. Though sometimes, I might use something when I've maxed out inventory and see replacement consumables nearby.

I really like items or abilities that automatically revive you if you run out of HP. Heck, you were going to die anyway, so it's not like they were wasted.

[Blade]

I do the same in most games, except games that force me to use them, or that have shown to be generous enough that I know I can safely use them without being in too much trouble later.
The consumable in Bastion come to mind.

Cooldowns are a bit better, but they can, and do, also suffer from poor design. In some cases, you need to keep track of them constantly because the abilities are so good that you need to use them as often as possible, which lead to the game becoming a game of waiting for cooldowns (DoW2 comes to mind).

[rapa-nui]

In some cases, you need to keep track of them constantly because the abilities are so good that you need to use them as often as possible, which lead to the game becoming a game of waiting for cooldowns

Yes, one balancing factor is opportunity cost. If you have other abilities (with or without cooldown) that are better in some way, then it can be interesting. Or if enemies defenses can be whittled down and the cooldown abilities are very bad when they miss, etc.

[tussock]

I think the mechanics I enjoy the most in RPGs are those which enhance the bathos.

The thing where there's 2 Orcs and you laugh, there's 5 Orcs and you laugh, there's 8 Orcs and laugh a bit and then you cry for help like a baby, or there's 11 Orcs and you didn't even get to close the door. Then you're high level and you can multiply that by a hundred, only sometimes there's a Orc dragon-shamans riding dragons and you end up on your last few hit points trying to carry the Cleric's corpse back inside and some scrub with 4 hp stabs you with a plain sword as you run past, makes the crit, and you die.

It's the weird juxtaposition of classic D&D where you become awesome and can slaughter titans but if things go badly a random Orc can still gut you. You save on a 2+ and still fail on a 1, even against some 1st level nobody. There's games spend a long time getting rid of that, or over-promoting it, taking out the player agency. Bathos is where you are truly extraordinary and can do amazing things routinely and yet you fuck up a bit and some random ordinary bullshit shows up out of the blue and becomes the whole story instead.

I love it. Cumulative hit point damage with critical existence failure. Short range glass cannon opponents (when we're the mobile team). As emergent properties that keep you on your toes and make you want to pay attention. Earn the awesome, all the time.

[radthemad4]

Easy free respec. Bonus points if the mechanics of the game can justify it. Paper Mario, Bastion and Transistor are good examples.

[Stinktopus]

a farmland is complete when its surrounded by roads and walls.

At least in the base game, a farmland is never complete until the game ends. Even if it is completely enclosed, your resources stay locked up. People tend to avoid farming until the late game because it is really hard to estimate how many points a farmer will be worth until the map is mostly complete, and investing in farming early means you will always have fewer meeple to spread elsewhere.

You've been playing Carcassonne with a very different group than me. In my group, people farm early and often. With the river expansion, it's standard practice to farm the first and last tiles of the river. Once farm-dominance has been established, the farmer starts making little football cities like mad. Late game, people will start trying to hook their own farmers into the prime fields.

[8d8]

I love the rare insta-win. You pull that one-of-a-kind card and your opponent just throws up hands. The vampire blasts you with lightning bolts until he's spent and you're immune to lightning. Niche options that are totally broken are fun.

The common insta-win is a bore. If your declaration of action makes it sound like there was never any question what you'd do, every time you take an action, then stop playing.