"your favorite game mechanic/feature" Topic

What is a neat feature or mechanic to a game that you really like? Here's some that I can think:

Chain of Command: its patrol phase and jump off points for deployment. Essentially you move markers under strict rules and lock down the other players ability to move. Once that happens, you choose one to deploy from.

Bushido: when in a combat both players secretly split their combat dice into offensive and defensive pools. The charger uses their offensive dice against the defender's defensive dice, then vice versa.

I also like the Chain if Command patrol phase, as well as it's system of unit activation, with different dice values permitting different command levels to be activated. The Sword and Spear rules also have an interesting activation system, with dice drawn blind out of the bag. Each player has a different colour, one dice for every unit in your army, so in a typical game you draw 7 dice per phase, it may be that only 2 are your colour and 5 your opponents, but over a full turn you will each get the total of dice that you have units.You then roll your dice; depending on score, you can use a dice to activate a unit; 1s and 2s are pretty useless. Other scores may activate particular units, if no unit has activation score matching a dice score, the dice is effectively wasted. It gives degrees of unpredictability and chaos which are pretty appropriate for the Ancient/Medieval,period (and it's good fun too)

The OFM Hidden Poker Chip Movement rule in Flames of Liberty, or any other game we play at The OFM's….

Eric

The melee mechanics in Dashing Dice Games' Witchfinder General rules.

Use of disorder in "Loose Files & American Scramble", which has gone on to appear in other rules.

How do the melee mechanics work in Dashing Dice Games?

I'm assuming the hidden poke chip movement is each unit is a "radar blip" unit it's spotted?

My experimental hidden movement with poker chips:
TMP link

Basically, units move from chip to chip.
They keep notes and let the GM know if they are spotted.
And you can space them out or clump them together to "simulate" difficult terrain.

The Chain Reaction system from Two Hour Wargames -- no more godlike control over your figures, and no more IGOUGO where your figures stand and take it until the next activation. They always react -- and not always the way you'd like them to!

The unpredictable turn sequence of Grande Armee (liked it so much I bought the rights).

Ed's Two Hour reaction system.

Snappy Nappy's "pass or rout" morale system.

In Shako 2, if British line, elites or guard fire at an opponent who is charging and stop the charge, they can now counter charge.
Great rule.

Yeah, yeah, Chain of Command….lovely game and I agree.

However, I'm going to get sooooooooooo slammed for saying this but I like Flames of War's U.S. tank destroyer rules. It simulates ambush and the stealth tactics of tank destroyer command. Oh and they don't "teleport": If you watch where the security section goes you can keep a rough tab on where they are.

The 'blast marker' rules for Epic Armageddon. They effect activation, shooting, routing, and special abilities simply and clearly.

The random events in Victory without Quarter(ECW), a heavy downpour halted all fire for a very long turn once.

Song of Blade and Heroes activation.

I like the Ambush Alley/Force on Force use of different dice to represent different troop quality levels.

I like the Cheating Fate mechanic is Malifaux. It helps to balance out the randomness if you know you can cheat a resource to get the success you need but at the same time they are a limited resource so you're still gambling whether you need it now or later.

The Song of Blades and Hero activation is also good (or any push your luck mechanic).

I also like action point activation that have a suppression factor to reduce what you can do (my main experience is with Dust Warfare but it happens across other systems too).

Perhaps not a mechanic per se but I really love the battle boards and dice of Saga.

Random movement, as in AK47. A nice model of friction without a lot of messing around.

Rolling dice to determine various outcomes.

Saving rolls.

The idea I lifted from Andy Gittins for movement in my game Greyhounds in the Slips (available in the SoA booklet A Domino Double header )

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Sadly Andy is no longer with us.

Phil

Purple Heart Valley – air combat rules – had hidden damage. The attacker was told what they saw and the target noted what had actually happened. So bits fly off could be small parts of fuselage or large parts of a gunner! No visible damage could be anything from a hole to a dead pilot. The only obvious ones were engine fires and bomb bay hit (boom!).

I suspect Tony Bath invented saving rolls but they may go back further …

Phil

I really like the mechanics of the Courage test in Lion/Dragon Rampant. Keep failing to rally your troops and their numberes will deplete.

The firing order in Spearhead.
It looks simple enough, but it very cleverly gives an advantage to towed guns and tank destroyers over tanks.

The use of cards as combat results. That is, to actually determine what happens in combat. You can't save these up as in the "gin-rummy" war games put out by some, but deal them from a deck right out on the combat. It's marvelous, invented by myself, it allows you to modify the probabilities and results as needed by before the game simply taking out or adding the cards you want. Want a bloodier game? Take out the "No effects" or beef up the "Eliminated" and "broken cares". Want a more role-playing type of game? Add on the special situation cards allowing the players to do that and get vicory points for it.

I never use cards for unit activation. That's a disaster not only waiting but begging to happen.

I also use an event deck which will add a special situation for one, the other, or both sides which can be from trivial to catastrophic. These again, aren't held ala gin rummy, but played out immediately.

The Fire and Fury Maneuver Table. It can be disruptive to planning. Same with the activation rolls in Lion/Dragon Rampant.

Stargrunts use of multiple dice reflecting quality and armaments in the same dice roll, with said roll determining both suppression and number of hits.

The "End Turn" card in TFL games.

The "Turn over" rule in Blood Bowl 3rd edition.

The "Firefight' mechanic in Epic 40.000.

Command Decisions option to regroup 2 destroyed units into one new unit.

Warhammer fantasy roleplays method of reversing the dice in the to-hit roll, to get the hit location.

Runequest's method of improving skills you used during the game, by making a roll OVER the skill total.

The Morale rules in They Couldn't hit an Elephant.
Units lose a morale status relatively easily. However they can easily be rallied off with command pips – Usually a Ave Dice or AvD +1. Of course any pip used to rally can't be used to order movement/directed fire.

At the start of the game morale loss is slow, but as casualties build more and more units lose morale, needing more and more pips to keep them together, meaning manoeuver gets slower and slower.

Its a great psychological effect – you can see your units barely held together, unable to move WHILE AT THE SAME TIME your opponents troops seem unbeatable DESPITE BEING IN EXACTLY THE SAME SITUATION.

I know some people don't like the fire result table in IABSM, (I do), but I particularly like the version in Troops Weapons and Tactics. The tables also give Pin and Supress results- a P or S after the number of hits. In TW&T some results numbers were red. if before firing you declare suppressing or pinning fire, or similar – as long as it was clear what you mean – you halve the number of hits, BUT if its is a red number get the next level of pin. So no pin become Pins, and Pins would become Suppress.

I like the move system in Crossfire – move as far as you like in a straight line. Stop when you enter cover. No measurements. Dense terrain can be lots of that kind together. LoS works the same

The Crossfire turn sequence was what really convinced me that things can just "happen as they happen" without a specific order or sequence.

Say what you want to do, then do it.
When the next action starts, the last action has been fully and completely resolved. There's never an abstraction of "this unit was actually there instead".

It basically became the blueprint for how I like to write timing rules.

I go … you go … oh wait, anything not that.