Top 10 RPG Mechanics You Should Steal
Steve Mayne medium.com
Inspired by the upcoming Dark Souls RPG I talk about using mechanics from different games in your campaign. I was inspired to write this list from a couple of different places. One being the new…
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Medium
Inspired by the upcoming Dark Souls RPG I talk about using mechanics from different games in your campaign.

I’ll Just Borrow These

I was inspired to write this list from a couple of different places. One being the new season of Dungeons & Daddies, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast where Anthony Burch has shifted a lot of mechanics from Call of Cthulhu into the 5E D&D campaign the group is playing. The other is the pre-release live stream for the Dark Souls RPG where they took 5E and shuffled the mechanics to make a more Dark Souls like experience. The things that have shown up in both of these shows feel like great additions to the game system. I’m enjoying the changes in Dungeons & Daddies and looking forward to seeing more on the changes made in Dark Souls.

But that got me thinking about the way I could use mechanics from one game in a different game. I’ve done this in the past, but it occurred to me that there were a lot of ways that this could be applied. Admittedly, these methods probably won’t work in every game, at least not without a bit of work on the part of the game master. These are going to be some I think will work well, but I’d love to hear about ones you’ve used.

Lines of Fate from Through the Breach

Publisher: Wyrd Games

Through the breach is a wonderful game set in the Malifaux universe, a pocket dimension where Wyrd Games long running miniature skirmish game takes place. Cards and Fate are a huge part of Malifaux. It is so ingrained in the universe that character creation for Through the Breach is a Tarot reading. You flip five cards and each one reveals a line from your characters fate. These five vague things are going to happen to your character. In each session a character will be forced to deal with one line of their Fate. Ideally, this will be in the form of a difficult choice with long reaching consequences where all options are bad.

In one game I ran a character had the line, “The songbird will die alone.” This showed up while the group was under siege. They thought they’d gotten everyone in town to safety, fortified a building, and everyone was safe. During the assault, the character who’s line of fate we were dealing with was alone at a door, they looked out in the dark, and saw the singer from the local saloon. She was wounded, struggling to get to the shelter, and not going to make it. The player didn’t have time to get help and had to choose to save them but open the base to attack or let the saloon singer die. The player knowing what was going on chose the town over the singer and watched as she was drug into the darkness before her scream cut off.

This is 10 on my list because it will probably require the most work. You’ll probably also need a copy of Through the Breach for the fortune telling charts. You’ll also end up adjusting sessions to revolve around a character to deal with those moments. The reward in Through the Breach is tied to leveling, but in other systems you can shift this to things more appropriate to that system. D&D might be a new magic item, Shadowrun could get them a new contact, and Star Wars could give them a new piece of kit. It will make a character the focus of a session, but as long as you share this around and let everyone get the spotlight from time to time, I promise this will give you some amazing moments.

Scene Tracker from Sentinels Comics

Publisher: Greater than Games

Sentinel Comics is an RPG set in the superhero universe of the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game. In this game the player are superheroes working together to save the day from the forces of evil. During a typical scene there is a Scene Tracker that is used to keep track of how the villain and their plot is coming along. The tracker is typically divided into seven spots across three sections: 2 green, 3 yellow, and 2 red, though this can vary. Every round the environment gets a turn, the track advances, and something bad happens. The further along the track the counter has moved the more serious the consequence. Heroes do have an option to stop the track from advancing but it usually requires an action on their turn.

I’ve not used this in other games, but could see it easily fitting in some games. For example, if the heroes are attempting to stop the villain from opening a portal to the nether hells to summon a greater demon lord then the scene tracker could be set up to reflect. Every round the tracker is in green a demon from the nether hells is summoned and the tracker advances. When the tracker slips to yellow tears in the fabric of reality start to open around the room making the villain’s spells become more effective. Once the tracker moves to the red zone the walls are torn away leaving the room they fight in just a floor floating through the nether hells and allowing some of its more powerful residents join the fight. If the track runs out then the villains plan has worked and the demon lord appears and escapes into the world forcing the players to hunt it down and deal with it next.

One of the mechanics for Sentinel Comics is that as the scene tracker advances or the health of the hero reduces they gain access to more powerful attacks. For something like this to work in other games you’d need to modify that for the party. In the above example the heroes might get a bonus to dice rolls in yellow, and the inherent power of the nether hells might recharge some of their abilities. This system will require a bit of work on the game masters part but would work nicely in Dungeons and Dragons for the above scenario, Shadowrun or Cyber Punk could have it set up as how new guards or law enforcement will arrive, and the Star Wars RPG could use it to introduce new forces to the scene during a fire fight.

Flashbacks from Leverage

Publisher: Margret Weis Productions

Leverage is a heist RPG based on the television series of the same name and uses the Cortex system as its basis. In both the series, the game, and any heist story in general flashbacks are a major piece of how the genre works. There’s that moment where you see the job in full swing and suddenly the group has found themselves in an unwinnable situation. Except, we get a flashback to the planning stage when suddenly we see a member of the group say, don’t forget to pack the night vision goggles because we’re cutting power to the building at exactly 10:20. Shoot back to the present, the clock ticks to 10:20 and the power goes out. They’ve got night vision goggles and are fine.

One game where I wish I had used these was a Shadowrun. The group had done the same thing you always do in the shadows and scouted the location, talked to contacts, and reached out to different sources to research the location. They even grabbed some special gear for this job. They went in, got through most of the job, but a part of their plan revolved around being able to see a security guard so the mage could use a spell on him. Except the glass in the way was one way and they couldn’t see him. All of the preparation they’d done and I’d missed that the glass was one way until they were in the room. As professional thieves they should have been able to figure that out. But because I’d missed that one line in the module until the night before we ran the job, they were hosed, the alarm was sounded, and the entire job turned into a firefight. If I’d given them a flashback they might have been able to come up with a solution to my mistake, because at that point we were so far in it was impossible to take it back and I was too new to just make the glass standard.

In Leverage there’s a resource that players can spend to create different effects, one of which is a flashback. They can only do so many of these in an adventure. It prevents them from using them all of the time and gives them some other things to spend the points on. For other games I’d just give everyone a point, I find poker chips are a great thematic representation for this. With one point each player gets to call for a single flashback where they can have any encounter, show themselves purchase any piece of equipment, or get a piece of information. While this has obvious applications in Shadowrun and Cyberpunk I think it can be used in other style games as well. If you’re going after the big bad for your campaign in D&D then you’ve probably done some recon of his castle, in X Crawl you could use flashbacks to represent the team watching game tapes, and in Pulp Cthulhu you could use them in the search of an ancient temple; I mean the archeologist must have read something on this pharaoh.

Sanity from Call of Cthulhu

Publisher: Chaosium

Call of Cthulhu is a horror game of regular humans coming face to face with eldritch horrors from beyond time, space, and reality. It’s based on the works of HP Lovecraft and runs a fine line of people having to deal with things they can’t comprehend. Sanity in the game is a health or hit point style resource that measures your mental well-being. While the game has a myriad of effects that can be triggered when you’re sanity reaches zero it basically boils down to your characters flight, fight, or freeze instincts being triggered by some great and unknowable force.

I feel sanity works best not when reducing the stat to zero and forcing a sanity check but in reducing it closer to zero. That moment as your sanity drops and you’re put in a position of needing to move forward but afraid to because the next step, encounter, or effect could trigger a sanity check that you cannot pass so you want to turn around and go back but not being able to because you are the only ones here to deal with the problem and if you don’t then the consequences could spell doom for so many people. That need to go forward but still protect your lagging sanity is a lot of the tension in the game.

I’ve used sanity exclusively in Call of Cthulhu but I can see where it could fit in other games under certain conditions. The biggest hurdle to using it would be coming up with mechanics for it in your system. Certain classes or professions would have a better resistance to sanity damage and thus the game master would almost be creating an entire mechanic for their game. That said, things like Castle Strahd in D&D would be a wonderful fit for this mechanic. Dealing with the insect spirits of the Hive in Shadowrun would be a useful tool to build tension. Even stepping away from more horror specific storytelling and just an overwhelming foe like the Borg in Star Trek could fit.

Devil’s Bargain from Blades in the Dark

Publisher: Evil hat Productions

Blades in the Dark is a gothic fantasy heist game where you are the members of a gang of criminals who work in the shadows of a dead sun to claw your way to the top of the criminal underworld, or at least just survive. While Blades has a version of some of the mechanics I’ve talked about here the one I specifically want to focus on is the Devil’s Bargain. Blades uses a dice pool system and the game master can offer a player an extra dice for their pool at a price. That price can vary based on the circumstances of the roll or the whims of the game master and it’s up to the player to decide if they want to use it. The deal can also trigger either way, a success might include a long ranging effect that will haunt the crew in the future or the game master can offer a short term penalty on a failure.

One place where I’ve used this was in a game where the group was operating in their home city and they needed information from an NPC. The player questioning the NPC was well respected in the community but to get the information they needed to threaten the NPC. I offered them a Devil’s Bargain. They’d get advantage on the roll but if they were successful word of what they did here would get out and it would tarnish their reputation. They didn’t have to take the deal, they could just roll the dice and pray, but it was important for them to get a success and I decided to tempt them with this decision.

As I said, Blades in the Dark is a dice pool system so offering the players an additional dice is a pretty easy carry over if you’re using a system that allows that. While some games won’t have that mechanic and would need some other thing to use. In Dungeons & Dragons 5E I offered advantage which is just getting to roll a second dice and take the better. Through the Breach uses a card draw system but I could let them flip an extra card and take the better result. Call of Cthulhu uses a percentage system so you could give them a 10% bonus to a roll but offer far darker consequences.

Values from Star Trek Adventures

Publisher: Modiphius

Star Trek Adventures is an RPG set in the Star Trek universe and your players are the bridge crew of a star ship. You are the highly talented section chiefs of a star ship crew. The game uses a dice pool system and there are several things that effect that system. The one I’m talking about today starts in character creation but expands once the campaign begins. As you create your character you will have points to give your character a value; a moral imperative that defines their personality. If you’re ever making a check, this value would apply, and if you’re roleplaying it out then your character gets an extra dice in their pool.

I was in a campaign where I was the ships chief medical officer. One of my values was, “the chain of command is almost as important as my patients.” How this worked in practice was that I understood the chain of command and for the most part respected it. I’d follow the chain of command until it was a medical issue and then it was my way completely. In one particular game we were on a dying planet with the last group of people who refused to leave. I was in the away team because some of the refugees were wounded. We had been ordered by the planetary leadership to leave and the 1st officer had ordered everyone on the away team to let him do all of the talking. Both of those people technically outranked me in this situation and I should have been quiet and let them deal with it. However, people were hurt and that was all I cared about. As soon as we got within talking distance of the local leader I started in on him to give me access to the wounded. I got an extra dice for it.

Using values in other games could be a great roleplay tool for players and GM’s. It rewards players for staying in character and making less than optimal interactions since they’ll get a small advantage on a roll, gives GM’s a focus for adventure design so that your players will be put in situations to let them shine, and helps give mechanics heavy games a splash of narrative. You’ll need to help players choose values that aren’t blanket ideas like, “I like to hit things with my sword.” But you could give them a bonus for choosing their father’s specific non-enhanced sword because, “my father’s spirit will guide his sword against the undead.” Perhaps they believe, “The angriest enemy will respond to flattery,” might give them a boost when being overly polite to an enemy. The most famous one, “there’s no such thing as a no win situation,” might give the character a bonus when massively outnumbered and outclassed as long as they keep trying. It’s a mechanic that lets your players tell you what type of roleplay they want to take part in and how to reward them for it.

Secrets from Asunder

Publisher: Fallen Superheroes Club

Asunder is a dark fantasy game set in a world where the gods have abandoned the people leaving them on their own in a harsh unforgiving world. You are a seeker who scours the land for answers about yourself, your world, and the dark realities of the universe. Secrets are a mechanic where players will be given a piece of information about the world and may choose to reveal that information for a bonus. Depending on how important, dangerous, and personally uncomfortable that information is the reward can be impressive. It can range from a small bonus on a check, a reusable effect, or a powerful item. Players have the power to decide if they want to reveal the secret as doing so will put the information into the world and depending on if the secret could endanger the party later.

One particular use of this is something I’m planning for an upcoming D&D campaign. For session zero I want to have the characters start at level 0 with none of their class features. I expect that each of the players will have chosen their class and using that I’ll give them access to a secret about their history. If they choose to reveal it they’ll get a one shot use of one of their eventual level one abilities. For example, if there’s a barbarian he might learn that they have a bully in their life. It could be a family member, a member of the community they live in, or a person who is no longer with them. If they reveal this information they’ll get access to rage for one round as this relationship comes spilling out. They won’t have to use the rage immediately, but can hold onto it until they get in a fight.

Secrets are a great addition to a lot of different games and genres. In Cyberpunk the head of a local gang could be someone they’ve hurt in the past giving them a bonus to a dice check against the gang. In Call of Cthulhu perhaps they were a member of the cult the group is tracking letting them have bonus to dealing with the cults members for the rest of the session. In Star Wars they were an Imperial officer who took part in Order 66 and because of this they have knowledge and access to a nearby weapons cache that could include a new blaster rifle they can use. Any secret that ends in a permanent item or effect should be earth shattering for the party and that secret could break a band of rebels.

Mojo from X Crawl

Goodman Games

X Crawl is a modern day dungeon crawler used as an X-treme sport and televised on pay-per-view to distract people form their everyday lives. You are part of a team of athletes who run a fully lethal dungeon for cash, prizes, and fame in front of millions. One of the features of X Crawl is the Mojo Pool. At the beginning of every level each player gets a certain amount of points based on their social skills to help assist the other members of the team. Every critical gives you more points and a botch reduces everyone’s mojo to 0, so spend the hell out of it. Also you can never ask for mojo it can only be given before the dice are rolled. Mojo represents how teams prop each other up and give the other members a boost by chanting, cheering, and giving them words of encouragement. I also like that with one bad dice roll everyone losses all of it. This encourages the players to spend it rather than hoard it for the boss at the end of the game.

Part of what mojo represents is how the team has been working together for a while and knows how to boost one another up. I like to have the players describe what they’re doing to give the mojo points over. This gives the players a great chance to start getting into the sports of it all. It’s a real thrill to see a table full of players start a football style chant to encourage the fighter as he bears down on a T-Rex. With shows like ted Lasso becoming more popular I’m really looking forward to seeing players really lean into this. Jamie Tart do-do-do-do-do-do…

Mojo can work in any game where the players are an experienced team and you’re going for a faster style of play. D&D and Shadowrun are two games I think would really benefit form a system like this. Those are both games about groups who’ve worked together for a long time and I’ve seen players do things at the table I would definitely qualify as a mojo spend. Traveler would function here as the team are often a crew that’s been together for a while. I don’t think it would work in a one shot such as a typical Call of Cthulhu game where the players are all brought together by circumstance. However, with the right game this can be a fun addition.

Minions for Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Just in case someone is new to gaming, Dungeons & Dragons is a high fantasy adventure game where you play the members of an adventuring party as they travel the world. In 4th edition D&D had a mechanic that I dearly miss in the new 5th edition; minions. These were a mass of easily dealt with grunts that would populate various encounters to give them an epic feel. Minions could only be damaged on a hit but only had one hit point. This meant that you’d get huge crowds of monsters that died in droves. This meant you had these epic fights where crowds of monsters would charge into an area and die in swaths of destruction. Plus, any creature could be a minion to give the players a more epic feel. You would typically see a crowd of goblins or bandits but it was possible to see a wave of ogre minions fill a cavern. The fact that they only had one hit point made them a boon to DM’s as they didn’t have to keep track of tons of different health pools. They were either alive or had been hit and died.

Minions worked well for epic feeling encounters where you wanted the players to feel like the odds were against them but they still had a good chance of success. A level one adventure I’d designed had a room of twenty cultist minions at the end because I wanted the players to feel like they’d interrupted a cult. They had a massive crowd of lunatics charging at them and it let the players feel like big damn heroes as they mowed their way through the crowd. A couple of good area attacks, a hard charge, and an explosion of pure rage and the crowd was mostly handled. The fact that it was accompanied by its leader and a lieutenant made the fight a challenge but the cultists made it memorable.

Minions work in a game where you want the players to feel larger than life. If you want to give them a overwhelming looking challenge but not one that isn’t overly dangerous to the party. I could see minions working in Through the Breach as a band of outlaws invading a town to help recreate moments like Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven. Cyberpunk could have the players deal with a mass of gangers protecting their streets. And Star Wars can let the players deal with a mass of Storm Troopers. Minion rules aren’t necessary for every encounter, but could come out for those special occasions where you want the players to feel bad ass.

The Players Worksheet from Quest RPG

Publisher: the Adventures guild LLC

Quest is a new player friendly rules lite game. It mostly has the one rule, you role a 20 sided dice to do anything and succeed on a 10+ and most results under that are success with a penalty. The game has some classes with fun abilities that let you change the way the game works in a very thematic way. It’s a lot of fun and is easy to play with anyone including experienced players. One of the parts of this game that I love is the character creation worksheet. It’s an introductory paragraph for your character with some blanks you need to fill in. It’s simple and works so well at giving you a fresh and unique character. I love using the worksheet for my own characters even now. I’m pretty sure all of them have one.

The sheet itself is system agnostic and can be used with any game to create the basic description for any character. Here’s one I created for a dwarf I’m playing…

Hello, my name is Dervish Craghollow. I am 75 years old, and stand 4’8” tall. I’m the party’s paladin and Tin Smith. When people see me the first things they notice are my stocky frame, well-kept beard, and friendly demeanor. I wear a flat brimmed hat, armor stenciled with the symbol of my god, and I move with sense of measured ease. I’m from the mason’s quarter where my people are known for their pride in their craft. I believe that truth shall prevail in the darkness but my desire to see the good in people will be my downfall. I dream of reuniting with my brother. I carry a blessed hammer, a shield with my badge of office emblazoned on the face, and lantern so my companions may see in the darkness.

That is the introduction to my character. It’s a great sheet and really helps you focus your character. That initial setup after you’ve finished with all of the numbers lets this build myself a character I’m ready to play.

Thanks for the Loan

There you have it. Ten mechanics you should consider stealing for your game. I’d love to hear what you think I should have included or better yet, what are some you’ve transplanted to other games. Let me know in the comments

Until next time, stay safe and be well.