"Your Nomination for Greatest (Core) Game Mechanic" Topic

With years and years of rules sets floating around there, what is your nomination for the greatest game mechanic out there? I'm talking about the core mechanic around which a game is based.

For instance, Risk has the Roll Dice and compare top rolls mechanic (which also appears in another form in other games like War at Sea).

Games Workshop has the buckets of D6 to hit, then roll to wound, then roll to save mechanic.

D20 has its roll a D20, add to an attack die, then compare to an armor class mechanic.

Etc.. etc..

It need not even be a die mechanic, necessarily, but what mechanic is your favorite, and why?

Sorry, can't say WHY I like it, but, I really like the GoalSystem mechanic first used in SuperSystem.

You abilities (strength, accuracy, mind, etc.) have a pool of dice (usually around 3 or 4) that can be modified by weapons, powers, etc.

You roll you dice pool and every 4,5,6 is a "goal". These are compared either by a set difficulty level (how many goals does is take to accomplish something) or by your opponent rolling his pool of dice (Opposed die roll).

The results can determine number of hits, number of kills, etc.

I'd nominate the quality die mechanics of Stargrunt 2. The system concisely models green (d4) through elite (d12) forces yet still allows greens to hold their own.

The quality system in Stargrunt 2 was flexible enough to morph into FMAS (from the GZG List Archives). The flexibility allowed GMs to run all sorts of games from Ancients to Far Future.

D.

I can't say enough good things about IGOUGO!

Ganesha Games roll to activate were you can choose to roll up to 3 dice giving a figure potentially 3 actions but at an increasing risk of rolling multiple failures and ending your turn early, adds to the strategy while providing a nice 'fog of war' mechanic.

Robert

I really like the simplicity and elegance of the Ganesha Games 'Song' mechanics.

I also like the THW 'Reaction system' although the descriptions as written (at least in the old days) were pretty confusing.

I kinda like The expanding dice of Forgotten Worlds Adventurers Handbook
if you roll the maximum, roll again and add to the total.

I like the card driven activation system for movement and then fire popularized by Larry Brom in The Sword and the Flame and all of its variants.

Jim

I like opposing die roles like in the first CAV rules from Reaper minis, and Force on force..and reaction systems like Two hour wargames and Force on force.

I like the gambling aspect of Ganesha Games' activation rolls. I also like the dice pool for the entire game that Die Fighting uses. Maybe combining the two…. Hmmm….

I liked the "open ended" dice roll in RoleMaster. If you rolled a 96-100 you rolled again and added the result. On the down side if you rolled 01-05 you rolled again and subtracted the result.

The 2HW is indeed a good system, but my favourite is the way Age of Reason uses dice, both the way morale is calculated (add or subtract dice, with an end roll of 6+ = Good Order) and also casualties (add or subtract dice, multiples of 6 = kills.)

the National Characteristics modifers in Column, Line and Square.

JOHNNY REB's simove system based on inverted chits.

Always been a big fan of the elegant way that Battlefront:WW2 handles combined arms with one combat results table.

Crossfire's ruler-less system.

Ganesha's gambling mechanism

Bloodbowl's sudden death turnovers

FoF's dice classes (lifted from Stargrunt, if I understand correctly)

I'd say the command and control mechanic from Warmaster and then refined in Black Powder/Hail Caesar.

I like the damage system from silent death where the damage and the hi roll is done wih the one dice roll, where you roll ( usually 3)dice to hit, with a certain total target number needed to hit, and weapons doing low, medium or high damage, so a hit with a laser does damage equal to the lowest dice roll, guns equal to the medium dice roll etc. The fun is when you roll multiples of the same number, so a roll of 5,5,7 would cause a low damage of 10 (5+5) but a roll of 3,6,6 would have a low damage of 3 etc. Makes for very variable damage result.

I also like the exploding dice mechanic from Dystopian wars. 1,2,or 3 is a miss, 4,5 causes 1 hit, a 6 causes 2 hits and gets a reroll, so even a low dice attak could potentially cause a lot of damage through successive rolls of 6's

Phil

I like Memoir 44's dice. No numbers, just symbols (infantry, armor, grenade – which hits anything). If you roll your target's symbol you get a hit.

Terrain modifies the number of dice thrown.

Another vote for Ganesha Games' activation mechanic.

The action/reaction system from FoF is the most interesting and original game mechanic I have seen in years.

I like card based activations in numerous games as well.

I love the damage charts used in FASA's Renegade Legion, and later in Crimson Skies. yes it was tedious but i liked the overall effect. 2 well placed laser blasts could bring down even the toughest opponent.

I dont care for DBA as it is written but the mechanic of opposing rolls to establish how many moves you have in a turn is a great mechanic.

Two Hour Wargames reaction system for me although Ambush Alley's system is right up there too.

Crossfire is pretty clever/unique too.

Turning away a bit from board / wargaming .. I prefer percentage based dice systems like the old RuneQuest (RPG) and current Palladium (RPG) systems

It seems a bit more intuitive … and does not 'bell curve' like systems that use multiple dice

I really did like RuneQuest's percentile system--makes everything pretty intuitive, but for more modern games, agree with several posters above re: THW reaction and Force on Force reaction/opposed die roll mechanic.

But then, I also liked GZG's opposed roll mechanics.

Rob

There are three that I like.

One is using a d20 for results, because folks tend to think in 5% increments a lot. Gives enough chance for unusual results, but weeds out things that just aren't important enough to be in a game.

The Command Decision tank vs antitank system, where a penetration and an armor value are compared, then modified by a d10 roll for results. With a sliding damage scale, the results are very good.

The Stars N Bars system of figure and morale casualties. One d100 roll gives the result for both types. It allows artillery to kill morale and small arms to kill people, and still runs smoothly. I kyfed it for my house rules for 18th Century, Napoleonics, and ACW.

Honorable mention for artillery rules in the black powder era that allow guns firing ball to affect units behind the target (if they're close enough) and howitzers firing shell to ignore stone walls and fences. Roundshot should bounce along the ground, and howitzer shell goes off overhead (so the chance of hitting the opposing line is roughly the same whether there's a stone wall or not).

I'm a big fan of the multiple die types a la Stargrunt II.

Also, I really like the "bonus dice" concept in Johnathan Tweet's On the Edge RPG. Basically it's just roll multiple dice and take the highest.

I use variations of both of these in nearly all my homebrew rules.

Combat Resolution Tables. Tables in general.