Long-Term Consequences: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Three

I read Blades in the Dark sitting in a Discount Tire. It was a long wait to get my flat fixed, as I hadn’t had an appointment. I still have a strong physical memory of working through the book with a lukewarm bottled water in my hand. I’d hit a rule and try to process the consequences of it at the table.

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/long-term-consequences-great-rpg

#ttrpg #RPGMechanics #bitd

Better Bennies: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Three

There’s a maxim that a game incentivizes what it rewards. That reward doesn’t have to be even a direct gift, but a savings, a bargain, a better value. The moments that let me say to a player “you’re losing money not doing that…” In this case ‘that’ is helping others.

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/better-bennies-great-rpg-mechanics

#ttrpg #RPGMechanics

Lifepaths: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Three

Ever since the first player asked if they could assign their rolls to stats rather than rolling them in order, there has been a tension between random and assigned character creation...

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/lifepaths-great-rpg-mechanics

#ttrpg #RPGMechanics

Slices: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Three

Yesterday I talked about flashbacks as an element of play. Today I want to talk about them as a cornerstone...

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/slices-great-rpg-mechanics

Engagement & Flashback: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Three

I have sat through hundreds of in-game planning sessions. There’s an objective, maybe specific, maybe general, maybe— god forbid— we’re discussing which objective we want to approach. These can be wonderful and interesting moments to explore character and role play to show what your PC values. They can be...

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/engagement-and-flashback-great-rpg

Sleeving: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Two

One of the great changes in the last couple of decades has been ditching of outmoded concepts regarding body modification...

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/sleeving-great-rpg-mechanics

Death Moves: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Two

I talked yesterday about Secondary Characters, in particular a feature of Star Trek Adventures, but also a facet of Ars Magica, Good Society, and Legacy: Life Among the Ruins. It is Legacy, and its various incarnations, that adds another element which boosts the play of those additional characters and incentivizes...well…killing them off...

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/death-moves-great-rpg-mechanics

Secondary Characters: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Two

Paul Beakley of Indie Game Reading Club says that some mechanics are the “secret sauce” to a game. (you should be reading IGRC,). I quote that often, probably too often. To me it means that while the rest of the game is standard, good or maybe even great, there’s some process or sub-system that kicks up the flavor.

Secondary Characters do that for Star Trek Adventures and I didn’t believe it...
https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/secondary-characters-great-rpg-mechanics

Icons: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Two

One of the biggest challenges for a GM is conveying an established setting...

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/icons-great-rpg-mechanics

Approaches & States: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week Two

All characteristics, stats, and attributes for characters are abstractions...

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/approaches-and-states-great-rpg-mechanics

What's the Worst...: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week One

“Imagine the worst thing possible, assume it's true, and go from there.”
— Theodora Crain, The Haunting of Hill House, Season 1: Open Casket

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/whats-the-worst-great-rpg-mechanics

#ttrpg #ttrpgmechanics

Generational Play: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week One

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/generational-play-great-rpg-mechanics

#ttrpgmechanics #ttrpg

Stress Dice: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week One

I’ve played a lot of the Mutant System, beginning with a multi-year Mutant: Year Zero campaign. That has a great setting, with a solid mechanic supporting the vibe. You have a pool of d6s in different colors (stat, skill, gear). You want to hit 6s to get successes. If you roll and don’t get enough of those, you can push yourself and roll again...

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/stress-dice-great-rpg-mechanics

#ttrpgmechanics #ttrpg #alien

Scale: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week One

Fighting big vs. small

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/scale-great-rpg-mechanics

Gear & Loadout: Great RPG Mechanics
#RPGMechanics Week One

For the next few weeks, as a short break from the RPG Covers series, I’ll be talking about discrete rpg mechanics which I dig. These are rules, elements & systems that grabbed me when I read them. I love what each of them do to play at the table. This isn’t a cobbling together of mechanics to build a new game, but an appreciation of cool ideas designers had and how they work.

https://openhearthrpg.substack.com/p/gear-and-loadout-great-rpg-mechanics

#ttrpg #ttrpgmechanics