Your Favorite Modern Mechanics

[Sletchman]

• Narrative Control: Heaps of systems do it different, and do it well.  FC has some good Narrative Control options and I'd like to see them expanded upon more in future.  Dresden Files RPG (which I've started reading because a HMJesus is gonna run a game) has some utterly brilliant stuff for this.

Care to elaborate on your favorite narrative control options from Dresden?

Like Alphastream wrote, in the initial start up the PCs and GM cooperatively decide who will be vying for power in the setting (usually a city - it's primarily a single location game, compared to the more jetsetting themes of many Spy games), as well as other occupants of the setting.  In a lot of ways it's no different to how many of us GM anyway (getting players to tell us what they want to see in the game, and what kind of antagonistic forces are at play) - it just formalises it in a really easy to run fashion.

Like HMJesus wrote, you can also change and declare things on the fly - an in book example is a player declaring that the villain you are trying to stop has a gimpy leg.  Which makes him easier to ID and catch in foot chases.  It's fairly dependant on Fate Points (their systems chief currency), but I can see it translating fairly easily to Action Die expenditure.  A player wants to say their quarry has a bad leg from an old gunshot wound - throw down an action die (or two) and it's a done thing.  Perhaps the big bad has a subordinate who isn't a true believer - throw down a few action dice and it's a done thing.  You could extend it to the non-supernatural options that Dresden Files has too - spend action dice to "get lucky" and have a fire department responding to an alarm in the building next door (instead of having a coven of mages next door...), or police presence in the area for an unrelated matter (both of which could be very good, or very bad for the PCs - because the GM gets the same options).  It can also work in conjunction with Subplots (another great Crafty innovation).

FC made a great start on this sort of thing, and I love it - what I'm looking for is more (lots more).  Getting the players really invested in the world from it's inception all the way to the colour of the bad guys hair is a great thing in my book (as I'm sure you'll totally agree).

[LordKruelos]

• Narrative Control: Heaps of systems do it different, and do it well.  FC has some good Narrative Control options and I'd like to see them expanded upon more in future.  Dresden Files RPG (which I've started reading because a HMJesus is gonna run a game) has some utterly brilliant stuff for this.

Care to elaborate on your favorite narrative control options from Dresden?

Like HMJesus wrote, you can also change and declare things on the fly - an in book example is a player declaring that the villain you are trying to stop has a gimpy leg.  Which makes him easier to ID and catch in foot chases.  It's fairly dependant on Fate Points (their systems chief currency), but I can see it translating fairly easily to Action Die expenditure.  A player wants to say their quarry has a bad leg from an old gunshot wound - throw down an action die (or two) and it's a done thing.  Perhaps the big bad has a subordinate who isn't a true believer - throw down a few action dice and it's a done thing.  You could extend it to the non-supernatural options that Dresden Files has too - spend action dice to "get lucky" and have a fire department responding to an alarm in the building next door (instead of having a coven of mages next door...), or police presence in the area for an unrelated matter (both of which could be very good, or very bad for the PCs - because the GM gets the same options).  It can also work in conjunction with Subplots (another great Crafty innovation).

FC made a great start on this sort of thing, and I love it - what I'm looking for is more (lots more).  Getting the players really invested in the world from it's inception all the way to the colour of the bad guys hair is a great thing in my book (as I'm sure you'll totally agree).

While I already do a lot of this, I would bring Action Dice even more to the front-and-center

[MikeS]

I'd also like to throw in the Dresden Files/FATE that haven't been mentioned yet (I think):

Aspects and die rolls: Characters can perform maneuvers, which result in aspects being placed on the Scene, the opponents, or the surroundings. This is kind of like, eg, using a non-combat skill to gain a combat advantage. What stands out for me is that these maneuvers give you a +2 on the roll on which you want to use the bonus, or more if you stack several free or tagged aspects, compared to a roll of -4 to 4 (heavily trending towards a 0 average), and where a +2 skill bonus is already a very competent character. This is like getting a +5 to +10 on your roll in the average d20 game! It really makes maneuvering worth it, compared to most d20 games, and spices up combat a lot.

Combat and consequences: Another mechanism I really like is that you can take (more or less permanent) aspects to reduce damage. The severity of the aspect is determined by how many "hit points" you save, eg Sprained ankle would be 2 while Lost an eye might be 10. This is a simple mechanism to hand out permanent wounds, while keeping a simple hit point-like system, and gives the characters control over how mauled they want to emerge from a fight (eg in a simple bar brawl, you might choose not to take any consequences and go down early, while a fight to the death will probably see you fill up every single consequence slot before you give up). Going to 0 "hit points" also just results you in being taken out of the conflict, any way the opponent chooses, so you won't necessarily be dying after every fight.

[MugMug]

Action dice are awesome (in case you're tallying votes).

Walter

[blackheart]

Dramatic Scenes.

Seriously, when taking on mooks and other losers, you can go through them like potato chips, but when the Boss or Big Bad shows up, your character is fatigued or shaken (not stirred) and all damage is wounds not vitality, you know the crap is firmly in the fan and you're against the wall.

Adds a great layer of desperate action and tension to the scene.

[Gundark]

I believe this is from Starblazer adventures . But I really liked the concept of plot stress

[MilitiaJim]

I'm not quite sure how "modern" this thought is, but when diagramming things, hexes > squares.

[Mister Andersen]

What makes you like hexes better?

[tfwfh]

There's no need to have special handling for diagonal movement and distances, because there are no diagonals.  This is especially helpful with explosions or other circular effects.  In that case, you just need to count out a distance from the center, with no corners to figure out how to round off.

[ludomastro]

There's no need to have special handling for diagonal movement and distances, because there are no diagonals.  This is especially helpful with explosions or other circular effects.  In that case, you just need to count out a distance from the center, with no corners to figure out how to round off.

This, I second.

[Krensky]

But, currently, one major downside to hexes is the immense support squares have. Both from the hobby industry and also from more mainstream sources.

It's quite easy to find huge, battle mat sized pads of 1" square grid paper. I'm not even sure that it's made in hexes.

There's also the issue that a straight line will not always be straight on a hex grid, and that most buildings and other interiors fit a square grid better.

[Desertpuma]

Hexes are better for outdoor or large scale maps. But the use of grid squares is too ingrained with most RPGs, especially anything D20 based.

[tfwfh]

You get them from Amazon, for one.  And any FLGS worthy of being called an FLGS will either stock or be willing to order one for you.  If you really want giant paper grids, I doubt it's any harder to get them printed with hexes than squares.

Also, buildings don't match up to a 5 foot square grid any better than a hexagonal one.

EDIT: I just realized this is starting to resemble a debate regarding the merits of various systems, which this thread is not suppose to be about.  So I'll just say I appreciate when a game either provides specific guidance for using a hex grid, or is easily adaptable to one, and leave it at that.

[Crafty_Pat]

I believe this is from Starblazer adventures . But I really liked the concept of plot stress

Care to elaborate? Break it down for us.

[spinningdice]

You get them from Amazon, for one.  And any FLGS worthy of being called an FLGS will either stock or be willing to order one for you.  If you really want giant paper grids, I doubt it's any harder to get them printed with hexes than squares.

Also, buildings don't match up to a 5 foot square grid any better than a hexagonal one.

EDIT: I just realized this is starting to resemble a debate regarding the merits of various systems, which this thread is not suppose to be about.  So I'll just say I appreciate when a game either provides specific guidance for using a hex grid, or is easily adaptable to one, and leave it at that.

I've mixed and matched for ages, I use Hexes where possible, but if using a battlemap with hexes already printed on it, I just go with them instead. Offset squares are good too (essentially being hexes, but sometimes easier to draw buildings on.