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Hey all,
Just an informal question / survey of sorts. I'm interested to hear about your favorite game mechanics, or those that you find the most interesting or under-used.
Little rules components, resource-management systems, and mechanical in-game choices and aspects that interested you or really made you think.
We're speaking very broadly here - not about tabletop games, card games, or video games in particular. Even athletic sports are fair game. There are actually some neat scoring mechanics in the rules for American football.
Collect your thoughts here - I'm interested to hear them!
I enjoy weather/enviromental mechanics. My experience is that few people use them, but I find that they help shape a scene in important ways and make them more memorable.
Few people remember the fight in the ten foot by ten foot stone room, but many will remember the pitched battle atop a crumbling stone bridge in the mist of a raging blizzard.
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I love the Deadlands Initiative and Huckster casting mechanics; both of them use a deck of cards. Initiative, it shifts every round and is based on what card you drew (Jokers can go whenever they feel like it) and for Huckster casting, you need to make the best possible five card poker hand that you can.
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TORG Drama Deck.
Draw a card to determine initiative. There are two initiative lines: one for when you're fighting mooks, one when you're fighting the BBEG. The odds are skewed in favor of the heroes when fighting minions, not so much against the BBEG. Furthermore, the heroes or the villains might receive a random bonus or penalty to certain kinds of actions each round, so there was added incentive to change things up.
In addition, each player received a number of cards from the Drama Deck. Each card also had bonuses for different kinds of actions, which the canny player could use to great benefit, if they're willing to shift tactics.
Some aspects of TORG were terribly clunky, but the Drama Deck is pure awesome.