Summary 0:43 Experiences (Black Hack) - In between milestone and experience leveling - Discovering/ Completing Quest etc. = 1 experience - Sharing experience roll d6, carousing table in book 3:10 Let It Ride (Burning Wheel) - Once you roll, unless there is a significant change in the conditions, you can't roll again - Example: Roll stealth once, you are silent throughout the night, fail a lock GGWP 5:19 Cyphers (Numenera) - One shot magical items, limitations for how many you can carry - Can be impactful or whimsical, book has examples 7:36 Ancient Tomes (Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells) - Ancient tomes have strange effects table at addendum of book - New spell with adventure hooks when using ancient tomes 9:48 Luck / Rolling over the body (DCC) - Luck Stat, can be reduced permanently to increase a particular roll - When rolling luck, rolling below luck is success above is bad. - Eg. Statue fell and going to hit random PC, roll luck to see who it hits
One of my favorite mechanics of the Burning Wheel is how it codified the failing forward idea. It was simply said: when you are running away from the guards and come across a locked door high on the castle walls into a tower. The question isn’t if you are able to pick the lock, the problem is if you pick the lock BEFORE the guards catch you.
Totally agree. I was trying to figure out if that is the earliest version of a codified fail forward mechanic. I believe BW first released in 2002, and the PBtA games were later. Those are the primary systems that make me think of fail forward. Good comment, bonus points for the name too!
0:43 Experiences (Black Hack) 3:10 Let It Ride (Burning Wheel) 5:19 Cyphers (Numenera) 7:36 Ancient Tomes (Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells) 9:48 Luck / Rolling over the body (DCC)
@@gypsyfreak6666 I actually did another one two weeks ago, which I called 5 more tools you be stealing. I had to change the title a bit to make sure that it didn't get confused with the previous one, but the new one hasn't gotten noticed like the first two did. :)
Related to the Let It Ride mechanic, kind of taking it the other direction really (for when you want a character's skill to be important but want to avoid rolling forever because the dice gods don't like somebody), the Take 20 option from 3.5/PF1 is worth importing into games that don't have it. Simply put, if the task is one that has no significant consequence for failure and time isn't an issue, you just look for whether the character's total skill bonus +20 meets the target DC. I go a step further and assume any character not threatened or in a rush is always using Take 10 (using their skill bonus +10 to see what they can do) unless the player says otherwise, so they can perform impressive feats of skill as part of routine goings-on. For instance, that player with a character having +20 to Jump knows he can casually make remarkable leaps without needing to roll anything, which encourages him to work that into his roleplaying.
I think anything like that, which speeds up the game and reduces unnecessary rolls is at least worth considering. One great aspect of Call of Cthulhu is that I often have sessions where the dice are rolled only a few times, but it still very much feels like a game.
I think anything like that, which speeds up the game and reduces unnecessary rolls is at least worth considering. One great aspect of Call of Cthulhu is that I often have sessions where the dice are rolled only a few times, but it still very much feels like a game.
Love these videos. Just finding the different ideas can be insane. So thank you so much saves me loads of reading. Maybe an idea for you to do a series on different systems but single mechanics from a given system, but then maybe show a couple of examples in a usage fashion. Maybe a 5 minute solo playish. Sorry late for me I am rambling hope you catch my idea there i personally would enjoy the hell out of something like that
Burning Wheel’s Let It Ride might seem to be the opposite of Pathfinder’s Push Your Roll mechanic, but I think they are actually related. In both cases, failure means the situation for a subsequent roll has to change in some way to represent a progressing narrative, or “failing forward.”
For those still using xp, I recommend something like 3e's Magic Item Creation Feat mechanic. Certain activities require spending xp for success. I'd limit it to downtime, non-combat, etc, activities. In other words, xp are a resource for more than just leveling up. They're a kind of currency for specific things, and you can only spend those in excess of your current level requirement. (So at 2nd level, for example, anything over 300 xp is available.) This allows the DM to provide many opportunities to gain them, and encourages players to go out there and earn them.
Regarding Cyphers, another crucial detail that was not mentioned was that characters could only carry a limited amount of cyphers at a time. If they went beyond that limit, either bad stuff would happen or none of their cyphers would work until that character corrected their cypher allotment. It was mainly a way to prevent characters from hoarding cyphers and to encourage both the PCs to use them liberally and for GMs to hand them out liberally.
Yes, that is 100% correct. In Numenera it talked about them coming together to form a “Voltron” super big bad potentially if you carried too many. Lots of options for what could go wrong, but mechanically it was just a tool to get players and GM’s to use them. 😀
The Burning Wheel book looks so beautiful it makes me want to buy it but I don't know if I actually need it. Torchbearer 2e might be enough for my needs.
@@booksbricksandboards783 Thanks for the reply! I had a feeling that BWHQ games tend to iterate and refine the same core principles, making the previous games kind of obsolete. It's why I'm hesitant to get Mouse Guard as well even though it looks nice.
@@lastburning So Mouse Guard is halfway between Burning Wheel and Torchbearer. I will say that the implementation in Mouse Guard handles that particular story exceptionally. I also think that the Mouse Guard boxed set is probably the best value in a starter box that tackles a whole RPG (not just Quickstart) in recent memory. You literally get EVERYTHING you need for $50.
I feel compelled for some reason to point out that Dungeon Crawl Classics took their Luck mechanic from 7th edition Call of Cthulhu. In CoC you also use Luck to make character development rolls (that system's version, kind of, of xp and level ups) so spending Luck to boost ability or skill rolls has a consequence on your ability to improve. DCC is undoubtedly a great game, but in this instance they don't deserve the kudos for Luck. Incidentally, Luck was first introduced as a working stat in the 80s in the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and RPG, though it wasn't used as a points resource but just a stat you rolled against. Didn't exist as a concept in D&D at the time. It's a very useful stat that negates the need for percentile rolls and makes a game more about player agency than randomness. I'm surprised it's not used in more systems.
I actually commented on this in the video and also in a prior reply to a similar comment. The Luck mechanic in DCC was chosen because it also implemented the Roll Over The Body aspect which gave a more severe consequence for reckless use of the resource of Luck. Thanks for watching.
Yeah it is used in both Call of Cthulhu and Dungeon Crawl Classics, I believe I mentioned that in the video but if I didn’t I had intended to. The reason I listed as a DCC mechanic was because I specifically cited the “roll over the body” aspect of the rule that was in DCC. But yeah, used in both systems.
@@booksbricksandboards783 might of missed it. Currently fighting a cold. The “roll over the body” mechanic is amazing though and very unique! Would be great for CoC honestly, if a death is more ambiguous you can have that mechanic kick in
@@ReplicatorFifth I agree, oddly knowing both mechanics, I never considered using that part for Call of Cthulhu. Of course, most deaths in my Cthulhu games are pretty unambiguous, ie tentacle monster rips investigator in half to make a blood fountain! :)
Really like the Luck roll at zero HP mechanic from DCC. Also agree that Luke Crane has a really great mind for ideas, but on the whole I find his work just... really damn obtuse. But lots of ideas to mine and lift into other games like you're suggesting here.
Will, what do you think of Mouse Guard rpg mechanically? I found Burning Wheel impossible to understand first time. I read Mouse Guard, grokked that, then Torchbearer, which made sense because it was a beefed up Mouse Guard. Now I am working back through Burning Wheel again. Not ideal that I had to work through two other games to get the original to click admittedly 😂, but once they clicked I really enjoy his design philosophy and will be running some Torchbearer in the next couple weeks with one of my groups. But, your statement is absolutely accurate!
Like the list, but you need a remote mic as the audio is really hard to listen to with the background noise level and hard surfaces bouncing all that sound around.
Thanks Fred! I tried to pick rules that I thought were easily portable. There are some mechanics I like even better, but they would essentially require a complete rewrite to be usable in a different game. I might still do a video on my favorite game mechanics of all time at some point… Dungeon Crawl Classics spell system would definitely be high on that list!
