Best Game Mechanics

[YorkNecromancer]

Simple enough.

What are the best (or simply your favourite) tabletop boardgame/wargame mechanics that you've used in a game?

I'm a huge fan of White Wolf's Storyteller RPG system. It uses a D10 based 'successes' system, where you roll a number of D10s equal to one trait representing you innate ability, and another trait representing your training. (So, in weightlifting, you might roll two dice for your Strength, and four for your Athletics). Every 8+ is a 'success'; one success means you did okay, five means you did amazingly well. Tens 'explode' and allow you another roll (where another ten means another re-roll and so on).

It's a great system for almost anything that isn't combat, which has never really been a problem for the games I run. (In one five year campaign, gaming for five hours every Friday night, there was exactly one fight. My games don't really involve fighting all that much).

I also like 40Ks 'AP' system; I know a lot of people seem to prefer a modifier, but I remember playing with those back in the old Rogue Trader days, and all it meant in practise was that no-one got a save, ever. I like how the current AP rules make each special weapon so specifically tactical - there's a real difference between flamer, plasma and melta, for example. I'm of the opinion that more rules = slower, more boring games, so anything which streamlines play is always a good thing in my book.

What about other people? What game mechanics do you really like?

[Denzark]

Blip tokens in Space Crusade. Especially the blank decoy ones. Ratchets up the tension.

[Mr Mystery]

White wolf for me too. Especially as you can add stunt dice if you get a particularly cool description from the player.

Other than that, Warhammer 8th Ed. Tickles all my special places!

[Psychosplodge]

Other than that, Warhammer 8th Ed. Tickles all my special places!

I don't think it's supposed to that

[Kirsten]

two game mechanics that I am very keen on lately for Infinity and Bolt Action. they each work for their system really well.

In Infinity it is the ability to react to the opponent, so if your character sees an enemy sticking his head out of cover, you can take a pot shot for example. makes the whole game feel really alive and action packed.

For Bolt Action, there are six different orders you can give. each order is on one face of a six sided order die. take a die for each of your units, put it in a bag with your opponent's order dice, draw one at random. whoever it belongs to assigns it to one of their units, with the order they are being given face up beside the unit, and carry it out. then draw again. very very simply handles a lot of options, and keeps you guessing.

[40kGamer]

In Infinity it is the ability to react to the opponent, so if your character sees an enemy sticking his head out of cover, you can take a pot shot for example. makes the whole game feel really alive and action packed.

I love this mechanic! Pretty cool how they bill it as 'always your turn' in the videos.

Plus there's something so satisfying when your opponent has a smug look after hitting on 4 dice only to have it all go away when you roll a single critical.

[Psychosplodge]

I like the flux card games mechanics the randomness makes the game rather interesting

[Kirsten]

I have only had a few games, but it was awesome when I got my band into the perfect positions and my opponent had to try and wade through a hail of reactions shots to get anywhere

[DarkLink]

I love this mechanic! Pretty cool how they bill it as 'always your turn' in the videos.

Plus there's something so satisfying when your opponent has a smug look after hitting on 4 dice only to have it all go away when you roll a single critical.

Yeah, Infinity's whole face-to-face mechanic is brilliant. There's a lot of tactical depth in deciding what actions and reactions to take all wrapped up in something that's incredibly easy to play.

[daboarder]

Yeah, Infinity's whole face-to-face mechanic is brilliant. There's a lot of tactical depth in deciding what actions and reactions to take all wrapped up in something that's incredibly easy to play.

the elegance of that ruleset goes even further in that pretty much EVERYTHING you do is just a basic stat check, and it is all inherent to the rules themselves, there are no "super secret special awesomesauce" exceptions because the core mechanic handles everything from pg1. Wonderful game system