Was chatting online with a pal last night and we were discussing the new Alien game from Free League as my buddy had just gotten done playing his first game and we were discussing the Stress mechanic and how it can impact play in meaningful ways, which lead to a discussion about the narrative dice and general benefits of this system.

By the end of the discussion I realized that, despite having grown up on Traveller, games without some kind of interesting or new mechanic fail to capture my interest - just rolling 2D6 to get above a threshold is fine (and describes many of my Saturday’s growing up) but games like this and Genesys have something extra that keeps me more engaged.

So, that said; what other games do you guys play and what is it about that game that you love? Is it a mechanic or setting or other?

I've stolen a ton of stat blocks from WFRP3e, but more than anything my players liked the base-building mechanics from MUTANT: YEAR ZERO, so we stole those almost wholesale (no offense to the base-building in _Far Horizons_...).

I've played a good deal of Pathfinder , and one element I miss in other games is the generally reliable Challenge Rating system.

-Nate

8 minutes ago, Nate said:

I've played a good deal of Pathfinder , and one element I miss in other games is the generally reliable Challenge Rating system.

-Nate

check out the Genesys expanded guide

Stuff I've recently played or read includes Ironsworn, a free RPG that can be run solo (without GM), co-op, or traditionally with a GM, set in a sorta fantasy Norse milieu.

Dungeon World, a Powered by the Apocalypse take on DnD. Takes some traditional DnD elements and gives them a twist with narrative mechanics.

Masks, a teen supers game of fights and feelings, also PbtA.

I love Exalted's setting, but every edition of the game has been basically adversarial to GMs and nearly to utterly unplayable.

I haven't played/ran it yet but the Conan 2D20 system is one I'd really like to try. I also enjoyed Green Ronin's Intrigue system for their A Song of Ice and Fire RPG, though it is a bit on the crunchy side math wise.

1 hour ago, unicornpuncher said:

I haven't played/ran it yet but the Conan 2D20 system is one I'd really like to try. I also enjoyed Green Ronin's Intrigue system for their A Song of Ice and Fire RPG, though it is a bit on the crunchy side math wise.

Conan 2d20 and Edge of the Empire were both designed by Jay Little, so that tracks...

The Dnd Game 13th Age has a Combat mechanic called the Escalation die. It's basically just a d6 that starts at 1 on round 2 and increases by 1 every round after that. It is used to trigger abilities and spells, but it's main function is to give every PC a +1 to hit for every round after the first. This means that the pcs usually start a battle loosing, but will increase power over the course of it. It also stops combat from dragging on all too long due to bad dice rolls.

I have considered adding this to EotE, but with our narrative dice hit chance and damage are connected. Giving every combat roll an automatic success for every round of battle after the first sounds very strong.

1 hour ago, MaxXIII said:

I have considered adding this to EotE, but with our narrative dice hit chance and damage are connected. Giving every combat roll an automatic success for every round of battle after the first sounds very strong.

Liberally upgrade the difficulty of the adversaries' checks with DPs. Guide the encounter into a direction that will make things difficult for the adversaries, too, and apply setbacks to their checks.

You can also use Threats rolled by the adversaries as a countdown instead of spending them immediately - once you've accumulated X Threat, something very bad happens to them, a third faction enters the fight, etc.

Good ideas for sure! But if I were to emulate 13th Ages escalation die, it would have to be something that increases the players hit chance.

Applying the " escalation die" to the narrative die system, instead of adding +1 to hit, you could instead have it add a free upgrade to everyone every round after the first. This could be even stronger than adding a flat +1 or success for every time the die goes up, but man would it make for a crazy encounter.