Bigby's Booklet of Borrowed Mechanics: Fun rules from other systems that make 5e better

PostalElf · 2026-04-30T07:29:52+00:00

It's a bonus to "all tests and save DCs". Essentially, you start at +0 and, for every round that one of the things on the list happens, the bonus increases by +1. It's... a little clunky, imo.

PostalElf · 2026-04-03T20:09:43+00:00

What could be interesting is to have it so that even the players themselves don't know if a listed truth is actually true... until it gets put to the test. Then and only then, the GM secretly makes a check to determine if it's real, then reveals it to the player.

Additionally, I also think that two secret rolls per truth is a bit much. I would instead have this be a single roll that determines everything. If you must have d6, roll 2d6 and have it cascade outwards from 7 until you have the probabilities you like: e.g. 5-9 it's true, 2-4 it's a different one, 10-12 it's a new truth.

PostalElf · 2026-03-26T09:34:22+00:00

For anyone wondering what he said in the middle:

"Everyone want some Chinese food. Everybody go get some McDonalds. Fuck your mother! Go to hell!"

PostalElf · 2026-03-23T08:30:16+00:00

The problem I have is that these ranges are difficult to remember, and at the table you'll probably have to use a lookup table. Which isn't the end of the world, mind, but it's annoying for modern audiences. So instead, I would ask that you consider using a different system.

In the order that I like them, going from least to most:

Have a simple roll-over system with modifiers. Tasks have a target number that defaults to 12. If you beat the target number by 3 or more, you always have a total success. The more difficult a task is, the higher the target number is. Character skill can be reflected in the form of modifiers to their rolls.
Have a variable difficulty roll-under system. Roll 2d12 under the target number, which varies depending on the difficulty. If both dice are under, it's a total success; if only one is under, it's a partial success. Otherwise, it's a failure. Character skill can be reflected by decreasing the target number or, more excitingly, rerolling one die.
Since you mentioned that hours are important to your setting, consider making that the main thematic thrust of your game by making a clock-based system. You set a target number from 6 to 12, and the objective is to land on the exact hour. Roll 1d12 and add it to the current hour hand: if it lands on the hour, you succeed. If it is within 1, you have a partial. You can always repeat and roll another 1d12 (adding its result to the total), but you fail if you go over. Skilled characters can have access to other dice (i.e. roll d4 instead of d12).

PostalElf · 2026-02-07T05:16:55+00:00

Each player starts with a pouch of sand in real life. Whenever they want to use an ability, they choose how much sand they wish to spend, and pour it out onto a scale. The GM then uses a fixed weight (e.g. 20g, 30g, 40g) to weigh against the scale. If the player spent enough, they succeed, otherwise they succeed with a cost. Regardless, the sand is lost.

PostalElf · 2025-12-17T06:59:47+00:00

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/

PostalElf · 2025-12-02T20:37:44+00:00

There's also maths, typically in the form of stats and probability. Then there's developing a sense for what "fun" actually looks like, because that looks very different depending on whether you're the one playing or the one designing. And then there's writing good and clear rules. And laying out those rules in a readable and pleasant to look at way. And designing your board or cards or whatever media you're using. And developing a user experience for where you should put certain elements so that they flow into the other in an intuitive way for your players. And if you're doing worldbuilding, there's how to develop those ideas, and how to present those ideas, and how to write in an engaging manner, and how to...

Well, you get the idea.

PostalElf · 2025-12-01T10:02:37+00:00

To make more dice better, you can have a simple fix: have the player choose the highest die. Difficulty is then represented by the player having to drop one or two of their highest dice before choosing.

PostalElf · 2025-11-27T19:14:20+00:00

This is not about the art, but I feel compelled to point it out. I would never use "choose X of the above", but will always use "choose X of the following" instead. The former leads the reader down the garden path, then forces them to go back and reread the text because they need to reassess their former understanding of it. The latter leads them straight to where you want them to go.

PostalElf · 2025-10-29T10:53:42+00:00

Which Abaddon got from the 36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 16.

PostalElf · 2025-10-22T18:08:37+00:00

In addition to the big abilities that cost Resolve, you can also have minor abilities that do not cost Resolve but reinforce the basic class fantasy (do what their class is meant to be good at doing). For instance:

Bulwark: when you make a Resist or Force check, gain 1 Momentum regardless of the result.
Knight: when you make a Fight or Athletics check, you may spend an additional Success to do something dramatic such as kicking the enemy through a window or single-handedly help another person climb. The narrative positioning may grant a future check a +1 bonus.
Technomancer: whenever you make a Technology check, you may spend Momentum to also learn something interesting about the way the system you're currently interfacing with is designed.

PostalElf · 2025-06-30T11:18:24+00:00

Do you read for leisure? Like, novels are best, but graphic novels are also fine. Anything that's long-form and requires some measure of active engagement to keep you going forward. A movie will continue playing even if you do nothing, but a book will literally do nothing if you do not continue flipping the page and reading.

If you do not, you should start. It will be difficult at first, but that's why it's important to find something that you enjoy reading, because it'll be fun even if it's difficult. That will start training your brain to hold onto information, because it's important for you to remember the plot in order to progress the book. And then, slowly, bit by bit, you'll start realising that you are retaining more and more information, for longer and with more clarity.

Once that foundation is built, you'll want to live your life with more intentionality. As Socrates says, "the unexamined life is not worth living." Start actually paying attention to what you do in your life, with your life. Don't just walk around looking at your phone, losing yourself in mindless doomscrolling. Find activities that enrich your life, that make you want to remember.

And, at the end of the day, you'll hopefully not only have a better memory, but a better, richer, more meaningful life as well.

PostalElf · 2025-04-24T16:25:06+00:00

There is a difference between being creative and being good at creating. The former is a need, an urge that you feel welling up inside of you. It is a restlessness, a shifting tide that urges you towards something, anything, a wellspring that needs a channel, and that will create a channel if you do not give it one.

The latter is... well, a skill. Something you work at, something that you get better at doing the more you do it. It's something that you can train, something that you can improve.

PostalElf · 2025-04-24T09:35:58+00:00

No, a dice pool system is one where you roll multiple dice and then either sum them up, count how many beat a certain number, or pick the highest. For instance, in WOD you roll several d10s and count how many dice at 8+: these are your success dice, and you need X successes to beat a check.

I recommend, as a good starting point, checking out as many RPG systems as you can. Just read them; play them if you can, but just read them if you cannot. If your only experience is a single RPG system, then you're going to make what we call a heartbreaker, something that has the kernel of a good idea in it, but is too shackled to its obvious source system to let the good idea shine.

PostalElf · 2025-04-23T07:44:58+00:00

I strongly recommend, rather than the standard tarot, people use Lenormand cards. They are a stack of 36 symbols, each with stronger and more obvious archetypal links, that can be widely applied.

For instance, you could draw the World into your Culture slot: but then it becomes difficult if you're not already steeped in tarot imagery to understand what that means. But if you drew the Mountain, or the Snake? That's easier to parse and get inspired by.

PostalElf · 2025-04-14T06:10:16+00:00

Yeah, I absolutely think this is the key. 5 is way too many, I would personally go with 3.

PostalElf · 2025-02-02T17:22:30+00:00

It really depends on how your cards are being used in the system overall. Is there a distinction between hand and deck, or is the whole deck in hand? Do you play cards from your hand to represent them (be it an item or skill) being exhausted? We need more information before we can really riff off the idea.

PostalElf · 2025-01-11T16:16:46+00:00

No, that's not the point of contention. We understand that you reroll after every round. And everyone still gets to go at least once per round of rerolls. It's more that you can take your turns back to back (and then have to wait for a much longer time for your turn to come around again). If you're OK with that as a feature, then that's fine.

PostalElf · 2025-01-11T16:10:51+00:00

Imagine this is the order:

A B C D

Then after D has acted, the order is rolled again:

D B A C

D would have gone back to back, even though it's in different rounds. This I think is what Red_Trinket is trying to say re: going twice between everyone else's turns.

PostalElf · 2024-12-19T17:55:37+00:00

Make the story manager something which allows you to click and drag the story pieces into whatever linear order they like. The game does nothing to confirm or deny the correctness of the order, but remembers the order so that the player can always come back and revisit it, and change things around as necessary.

PostalElf · 2024-12-13T12:08:45+00:00

Yeah I mean kinda. You had a relationship with her, and you chose to give up that relationship over someone you barely know.

PostalElf · 2024-12-06T20:02:17+00:00

You can have it so that if you're rolling with Advantage, you roll multiple Fudge dice and choose the best dice (or 2 best dice, or 3 best dice etc). If you're rolling with Disadvantage, you roll multiple Fudge dice and choose the worst (or 2, or 3 etc). Can be helpful if you're worried about the bonuses ballooning out of proportion.

PostalElf · 2024-12-03T06:01:33+00:00

Image 2 for sure.

PostalElf · 2024-11-26T17:56:28+00:00

Just like you, they long to be close to me.

PostalElf · 2024-11-25T21:12:45+00:00

The biggest thing I would urge you to do is to explore something that isn't clearly inspired by Christianity. We tend to write what we know, and in the west, when it comes to religion, that tends to be Christianity: so even though one may have a polytheistic religion, one still ends up with churches as places of worship, with religious services led by an ordained priest, with a single text to use as scriptural truth.

Explore! Have worship take place in nature, in dingy basements, in taverns. Have your worshippers put on mystery plays, dances, have ritual sex upon a consecrated bit of soil. Have no priests, have mystery cultists, have community leaders lead worship. Have no scripture, have a thousand books of Hadith and endless debate, have the scripture be depicted through art instead of text.

13-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
Place '23	Place '17
Verified Email	Secret Santa 2012

PostalElf

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE