Your Favorite Modern Mechanics

[Sletchman]

Given all the talk of Square vs Hex battlegrid, I like games that don't assume the use of one.  Too many effects in Fantasy Craft are based of "squares", and there is only one place that I could find in the entire core book that tells you what a square is, and it's listed under Size in the NPC section (and not even obviously so) - not the place I'd go looking for it.  The game can support both grid types (and I've seen many that do), but it shouldn't assume that I use one or the other because most the guys I've gamed with don't use either.

I've seen a lot of new FC players be unable to figure out their Reach or how effects work because they couldn't find what a Square was and we didn't use a grid.  To me, that's a fairly large communication failure - if you want to assume grid use, it really needs to be laid out at the very start of the page (along with very clearly saying that any time a distance in squares is used it means X Distance).

[Mister Andersen]

I find this interesting, because I recall at least 1 1st ed AD&D book (I'm thinking possibly the Wilderness Survival Guide?) that had hex grids in the back for people to photocopy. But the idea of a "square" being a "5 ft by 5 ft space" has pretty much been an industry standard for well over a decade by now, cemented firml in place by 3rd ed D&D.

[Krensky]

Or we could all go back to inches without a grid for the truely old school feel.

[Sletchman]

I find this interesting, because I recall at least 1 1st ed AD&D book (I'm thinking possibly the Wilderness Survival Guide?) that had hex grids in the back for people to photocopy. But the idea of a "square" being a "5 ft by 5 ft space" has pretty much been an industry standard for well over a decade by now, cemented firml in place by 3rd ed D&D.

The dudes I was talking about were either new to roleplaying as a hobby (people in my classes who were into CRPGs and happy for me to introduce them to the tabletop), or people who have only played non-D20 games (yes, they exist) - one had only ever played GURPS where everything is in yards.  A couple thought that since ranged weapons were in feet, so was reach.

My point is that a stand alone game system shouldn't have any assumed knowledge or assumed previous experience, and games that don't make assumptions about their player base are usually better for it.

[Crafty_Pat]

My point is that a stand alone game system shouldn't have any assumed knowledge or assumed previous experience, and games that don't make assumptions about their player base are usually better for it.

For what it's worth, we agree on both counts.

[Bill Whitmore]

Or we could all go back to inches without a grid for the truely old school feel.

Heh, I still do a lot of my combats that way.  I started porting over my 40k play experience.  I'd have them pick a target point for spells or effects and then measure afterwards to see who was hit.  It made launching fireballs aimed to scorch just the enemies in a battle line a lot scarier.  If you wizard's target point was an inch to close, some of your own warriors were getting toasted, too.

[Psion]

I sort of like investigative skills in Gumshoe (but I hate other skills in Gumshoe). In a way, it feels like Spycraft/FantasyCraft already did this with "Flawless" style abilities.

There is another take I like a little better. In the Burning Wheel games (to include Mouse Guard and Burning Empires... I guess if you average them out, they are a modern game, right?), failing a skill roll can become "success with a consequence", if the GM feels it is important you succeed.

Of course, I love the crafty mechanics of Action Dice and Origins.

[LordKruelos]

There is another take I like a little better. In the Burning Wheel games (to include Mouse Guard and Burning Empires... I guess if you average them out, they are a modern game, right?), failing a skill roll can become "success with a consequence", if the GM feels it is important you succeed.

This is something I tend to do in Spy/FantasyCraft -- if it's vital for a skill check to be made for the adventure to continue, I will often let players spend AD to narrative control/automatically succeed such a check rather than roll as normal and be stuck if they don't succeed.

[spinningdice]

it's an alternate way around the "at least 3 ways to success" method that's commonly cited. I do quite like it as an option in the toolbox.

[MaskedBrute]

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

I love three things in this game: Distinctions, Stress, and Milestones.

Distinctions are simply phrases or words that describe some aspect of a character or place or thing. If that characteristic plays into the action you're taking, you get a die to add to your pool. Its a simple way to include flavorful stuff without having to construct an all-inclusive list of special talents/abilities - and its just fun to have something like "Clobberin' Time" on The Thing's datafile.

Stress in MHR is basically damage, but it comes in three flavors: physical, emotional, mental. You can inflict or take levels of each, and topping off the track in any one removes you or your foe from the conflict while you recover from wounds, get over your hissy fit, or sort out your confusion, etc. In other words, you may never be able to punch Juggernaut into submission, but you can sure trick/manipulate him into defeat.

Milestones are miniature subplots with a general descriptor and three steps along a track. The first step is some narrative situation that can come up often in every scene, the second one can come up once every scene, and the last one can only happen at some major juncture/decision point. Each gives you XP, and you can pick two of them in a given Event (story arc) from Event-specific Milestones or two that you have on your character datafile. They get pretty specific for each character or scenario, but they easily give players (and GMs) guides for portraying a hero or a theme.

I have to say, I loved the idea and execution of Subplots in Spycraft... but I definitely think there's something to look at in the Milestone system as far as implementation goes.

They're right there on the sheet telling you what a player thinks is important about their character and the game, they allow the GM (being the person designing/choosing/presenting event-or-organization-specific Milestones) to tell the players what's going to be important about a given event or organization, and they hit both the instant and delayed gratification buttons (what with the "once a scene" and "once a storyline" ends of the spectrum).

For those not familiar with them, here are a few examples.

Captain America
Mentor the Hero
1 XP when you choose to aid a specific hero for the first time.
3 XP when you aid a stressed-out hero in recovery.
10 XP when you either give leadership of the team to your chosen hero or force your chosen hero to resign or step down from the team.

Spider-Man
Deadly Foes of Spider-Man
1 XP when you declare a villain as an old foe.
3 XP when you take trauma from your chosen foe.
10 XP when you forgive your chosen foe, or they beg for your forgiveness and you let them go.

Black Widow
Black Ops Betrayal
1 XP when you first use your Covert Specialty in an action and succeed.
3 XP when you convince a team member to make a painful or difficult choice.
10 XP when you either betray a team member in a critical moment or sacrifice yourself for them.

The Civil War Event
Convert the Enemy
You’re sure you’ve chosen the right side.
You just know that you can convince your opponents they’ve made a mistake, if they’ll just listen to reason! So many heroes could go either way that your persuasive efforts could make a massive difference in the war.

1XP when you make a specific plea to another hero, in a forum that exposes you to the other side (like a live TV interview or open Avengers frequency).
3 XP when your efforts to recruit someone cause that hero to quarrel with his allies or oppose your side even more strongly.
10 XP when you directly convince an opposing hero to switch to your side, causing emotional stress or you fight
a hero you’ve tried to convert and one of you stresses out the other.

HYDRA (Evil Spy/Terrorist Organization)
Deep Cover Agent

You have either infiltrated or allied yourself with one or more organizations in order to report on their activities to Hydra, or you’re reporting to one of those organizations by joining Hydra. You may also be a sleeper agent waiting to receive specific instructions to execute one of Hydra’s glorious secret plans. Hail Hydra!

1 XP when you make a choice or perform an action that could put your true allegiance in question.
3 XP when you allow the organization you’re infiltrating to accomplish one of its goals to maintain your cover identity.
10 XP when you either blow your cover to protect someone or allow innocents to suffer to maintain your secret.

There are also, in the course of the game, "unlockables" that the XP is spent on (like gaining a particular NPC as an ally, converting a given villain into a hero or even a PC if someone wants to play them, getting backup from a given organization for a scene, etc.). Which is cool but not really the same thing.

Anyway, it's just a cool rule idea that could perhaps be taken apart by the clever Crafty folks and used for their own ends.

[Angstspawn]

I hope I'm not off-topic, so I'll try to make it short!  

First I think SpyCraft is too much focusing on spy/thriller genre.
Yes I know, it's all in the title, but please be kind enough to let me develop!
Wizards of the Coast, abandonned the modern and post modern genre, so my point is: why not aiming at SpyCraft becoming the equivalent of PathFinder for modern and post-modern (futurist) genre?

Said otherwise rules should also fit "universes" as different as Usual Suspect, Predator, Expandable, True Blood, Benjamin Gates' series, Alien/Prometheus, CSI, V, NCIS, The Walking Deads, Metal Gear, Uncharted, Avatar, Dexter, etc...

Professions/advanced professions must be designed (and named accordingly) to fit, if not all, most of it.
If combat is important, social interaction and investigation is at least as important. Maybe to add a few more skills to increase the possibility to personalise a group of same-profession characters.

Weapons damages should be "simplified" and regrouped in categories (is it very important to distinguish 5.45, 5.56 or 7.62?) more like 2d8 for light, 2d10 for medium and, 2d12 for heavy calibers.

Cybernetics should be introduced (for cyberpunk or Six Million Dollar Man), as should be psionics and a limited magic system (the system ruling Force powers of the Star Wars revised seems to me quite balanced).
Races/creatures (cyborgs, Grey, Aliens, Predators, Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, Cthulhu, etc...) should be included.
Powered armor, exoskeleton, small mech operation and combat should have an entry too.

A 500+ size book like the PathFinder Core Rulebook would be a must and if you can get illustration less manga-style it would be even better.

For sure it'll be a bit less like the original SpyCraft but you'll provide players interested to play modern/science-fiction genres a support and you'll become a reference for it.
Upcoming books could then focus on a specific style with specific/expanded rules. But the advantage would be that it was thought from the beginning.

Last but not least, why not opening a subscription for SpyCraft 3, providing a description of the menu? It would allow you to raise funds and to secure a release for 2013.
Look at Paizo, I'm convinced that SpyCraft has no less potential than PathFinder as most modern/science-fiction RPG still available have weaker games mechanics than yours!!!

[3catcircus]

I've gotta show my support for several of the mechanics from Twilight:2013, even though it was not that popular of a system and only lasted a few years before going OOP.

1.  Lifepath.  A great system for developing your characters without the danger of being gimped like in classic Traveller fashion.

2.  d20 pool dice mechanic.  Simple, easy, and much more consistently random than many other systems.  Very simple - the number of skill points you have in a skill determines how many d20s you roll.  Your base target number (DC in d20 parlance) is the controlling attribute's value (e.g. want to fire your gun and have a Coordination (like DEX) attribute of 8?  Roll an 8 or less on any of your d20s).  The more skilled you are, the more d20s you roll, simulating a better chance of success.  Likewise, having a higher attribute value simulates more natural talent, making it more likely to be successful.  It even allows for the unskilled by way of rolling 2 d20s and taking the HIGHER of the two rolls.  Your margin of success determines variable effects (e.g. a gun may have a base damage of, say, 5, and if you succeed, the amount you succeed by gets added to the base damage).  Additional successes add 2 more points to your margin of success (e.g. you roll a 4, 4, and 7 vs. that target of 8?  Your margin of success is 4 + 2 + 2 = .  Exceptional margins of success are like criticals (5 or more) and exceptional margins of failure (5 or more) are like fumbles.

3.  The damage/wound system.  No hit points to keep track of - once they are determined at character creation, that is where they stay.  The amount of damage gets compared to the hit points and at various multiples of your basic hit points, various effects occur - from losing 1 d20 from your dice pool at the lowest levels of wounding, up to "lights out" at the highest levels.  In between, you can continue fighting on, but the chances exist to go into shock, or hit the edge of the avalanche into a death spiral as you bleed out.  Although I haven't played enough to figure out if the system is too deadly or not deadly enough, it can easily be tweaked just by tweaking the values of the various multiples for the various wound levels to scale for wahoo or for gritty combat.

[ErikB]

The regenerating health from... every shooter since the first Halo.

Gives combat a great shoot - take cover - shoot flow. Means you don't have to hunt for health packs. Minimises downtime and removes the need for save scumming.

[Crafty_Pat]

The regenerating health from... every shooter since the first Halo.

Gives combat a great shoot - take cover - shoot flow. Means you don't have to hunt for health packs. Minimises downtime and removes the need for save scumming.

Heh. You will be pleased.

[ErikB]

Heh. You will be pleased.

Dude. If you incorporate something that brings the feel of Call of Duty etc. to the tabletop I will love you forever.

Also, a sticky cover system like Gears of War (And Bloodstone, and Splinter Cell: Conviction and the rest, for added Spyness).