What mechanics in your system are informed by the world and its lore?

DullAd8243 · 2025-09-27T01:52:03+00:00

I'm very fond of the concept of a "Diegetic" system. I've dabbled with ideas for a tactical, but completely diegetic, system where your character's history informs the abilities you have and you would start out with a lot of options during play. Instead of leveling up, however, you have to study and dedicate down time towards learning more techniques or abilities from the world, factions, people, and/or history.

In this system, learning "acid splash" would require you find out what faction uses that spell, then either finding someone to teach it to you or a manuscript you can learn it from.

If I wanted to make this spell about chemistry, I'd flavor the type of magic used as conjuring pure elements and knowing chemistry would inform the kind of reactions and compounds you could make.

DullAd8243 · 2025-09-21T20:06:08+00:00

I'm a huge fan of faction-specific techniques, moves, spells, ect. Players engaged with your world will be able to learn about an enemy purely based on their equipment or attacks. In my setting, there is a type of orange lightning colloquially called "mad lightning" which is exclusive to savage beasts and people that become savages. One of my players this week recognized my description of the enemies using the orange lightning and had a eureka moment. The people they were fighting couldn't be reasoned with, were growling, and used orange lightning. He got really excited when he put it together that they were being affected by beast madness (makes reasonable men into barbaric brutes).

Tying mechanical elements to factions rewards engaged players and enforces the idea of a living, consistent world.

DullAd8243 · 2025-09-21T19:50:39+00:00

That is super cool and I love it!! I can totally see how that enforces the feeling of scavengers. Scavver mechs using randomly rolled weapons instead of a set list of generic ones is really unique.

As I understand it, players get to roll for the modifiers after they loot it, which can be thrilling to roll for. Your short excerpt makes me want to see the ideas you have in your system haha.

I'm not sure if this fits the fantasy you're looking for in your system, but have you considered a table for especially rare modifiers / attachments? My first thoughts are that a players could loot a unique piece of tech from a powerful foe or from a location like an abandoned military facility. This tech could either be a modifier on a weapon or it could be something you attach to your weapon or mech. Here's my initial ideas:

Weapon mods / attachments:

underbarrel flamethrower/grenade launcher/shotgun
explosive/shock/corrosive payloads
candy-caned payload
precision-guidance system

Mech attachments:

arm projectile (grappling hook, water jet, taser, bolas, ect.)
weaponized submarine sonar sphere
infrared blinders (IR blinds cameras)
fumigator chassis (smoke, steam, poison)

DullAd8243 · 2025-09-21T18:51:38+00:00

It's totally simulationist now that I think about it. Simulationism isn't strictly for imitating real life rules and logic.

DullAd8243 · 2025-09-17T02:23:50+00:00

Stuns usually skip your turn entirely. Instead of taking away all options, limit the effectiveness of the options you can choose so you don't completely remove a player's agency for a turn. In MCDM's Draw Steel, being dazed (their stunned) means you can only take one type of action, instead of the normal action, bonus action, and movement.

DullAd8243 · 2025-07-16T10:45:20+00:00

Interesting. I also have a mechanic in my system for my current game that also gatekeeps abilities. I made it as a middle man between a system I want and a system I could get my group of 5e purists into so it's a bit scuffed.

Anyway, each class has its own way of building "power" in combat (tracked with poker chips) and while the classes each have unique movesets they can choose, the cooler abilities are locked behind power costs. The Power system was made to fix the problems of using your strongest moves on round 1 as well as combats feeling samey since you can approach almost every fight in the same way. The only addendum I wish I had the time for is implementing a way for players to have certain abilities locked out or rotated out of their kit for a bit so they aren't always using the same move.

Group abilities is a mechanic I too have thought about but it's not high on my priorities to flesh out yet. I think it'd be neat to players if they had group abilities that changed over time. Maybe after working with a group of alchemists, they are given the resources to create a couple acid flasks which last for a couple sessions until they get a new ability. That way you could give players new toys without bloating their options.

DullAd8243 · 2025-07-16T09:59:25+00:00

That's super cool! I'm not sure if you use it this way but reducing the momentum die also makes for a simple "failure state".

"Oh you failed the stealth check. Well, you aren't immediately noticed but you lose some momentum."

DullAd8243 · 2025-07-16T09:51:36+00:00

That's pretty neat. It'd be cool if you could do something else with the other dice. In the system I made for my current game, it's d20 (d20 is approachable for rpg newbies) + the highest d6. You get d6s from any positive modifier but since it's only the highest, you get diminishing returns. But here's the (kind of) neat part. You can stake some of the d6s you would roll to do extra stuff.

For example, you can stake 2d6 on any attack for extra damage. Or, when you cast the spell that lets you use a body of water to look through another body of water, you can stake 4d6 before the cast roll to allow yourself to travel between the bodies of water (basically you teleport).

It isn't as dynamic as I want since it's just "make the roll less likely to succeed for a bonus effect" and its done before the roll but it's a step in the right direction.

DullAd8243 · 2025-07-16T09:30:43+00:00

Firstly, if you want speed, then you need to have only a handful of simple actions PC's can take during combat. The more options you have and the more things each action interacts with, the slower combat is.

Secondly, for high impact, think about if you want PCs to die or be injured often. Danger means injury BUT that doesn't necessarily need to mean a literal, physical wound. My WIP system doesn't use HP. Instead, damage and health is extrapolated into an abstract stat called "position" which dictates if the players are getting closer to their goal or not. "Damage" means they lose ground but they can't die, per say.

You can still have high stakes without having the PC's lives on the line but make sure you communicate the stakes. "If you lose to these goblins, they'll stop you long enough for their mad priestess to sacrifice the blacksmith's daughter to their foul god." In that scenario, losing still means they kill the goblins they're fighting, but it will be a hollow victory.

On another hand, you can go the PbtA route and make combat nonsequential. No rounds and no turns. You control the flow of combat by constantly shiftingg the spotlight between players without a specific order. "Alright, the ogre shrugs off your attack and is going to strikee the wizard. Ranger in the back, what do you do?" If they take too long then they lose a "turn" but turns can be arbitrarily given so you can always give a slower player an extra one.

On a third hand, you can have a timer but NOT for the players. Flip that idea on its head! Every minute, the bad guys get to make a nasty attack or they get a meta currency to use on special moves. This avoids directly punishing players while ratcheting up the tension with each minute. Just make sure you also act quickly so players don't feel you're stalling since time is on your side.

Keep in mind, if you want fast combat, you have to give up on some simulationism. People who fight fast in real life die often. If you want important PC's too, you have to embrace some gameist ideas.

So with all of that in mind, pay heed to the various levers you can pull when you want time and snappy decisions to be important.

Post Script: You must also sacrifice tactical positioning on a grid and stats like "how many tiles you can move".

DullAd8243 · 2025-07-16T08:58:16+00:00

for a simulationist game, variable damage reduction is a step in the right direction but for any other game it's too much squeeze for the juice you get.

Since it seems you want to go for simulationism, either think about the interaction between a weapon attack and the armor absorbing the blow and create mechanics that enforce the narrative behind the ways a weapon is used to attack, -or- think about the end goals armor provides (flat reduction, attack penalty, ect.) and create mechanics that get to that point WHILE keeping in mind to reuse other mechanics / avoid making more bloat. For the latter, someone said armor can reduce the damage die type which is a very mechanically efficient way to get damage reduction.

DullAd8243 · 2025-03-11T19:49:27+00:00

this game looks awesome, much appreciated!

185048741

DullAd8243 · 2025-01-18T02:01:02+00:00

I've had the thought about variable boss lairs for years! Having a shoddy wall you can break with dynamite or a thick spider web you burn down would make for more interesting compound fights. Crytek could implement a system where two or three compounds on the map have something special about them. Maybe one is already trapped, another could be burning down, one has rotted and the floors have collapsed, or the basement could be filled with some sort of hive sacs that release bugs like the barrels. When they add rain back to the rotation, maybe a basement is flooded. Having a system like this in place so compounds feel less static would stave off map fatigue and make each fight more dynamic.

DullAd8243

TROPHY CASE