I like to experiment more than any other GM I have known. I guess there is a simulationist game designer always in my head just ready to get out. I thought I would throw these few ideas out, in case anyone has interest.
I like this mechanic because one person's luck becomes another person's luck. Whether that luck is good or bad depends on how you use it.
In my online game on roll20 this means making 4 copies of the maze, each rotated 90 degrees from the previous. As the players move through the maze, using dynamic lighting with their torches (limited to 15 or 20 feet by magic darkness), they occasionally hit a point and then the whole party gets moved to the same location on the next map.
In a live game, the party is at the center of a large piece of poster board with a hole in it approximately 6 to 10 inches across. This hole lets the map below show through. The miniatures sit on this map. As the characters move, the GM rotates and shifts the map below so the players only see the small section showing through the hole.
In both cases, the rotation is really what is going to mess with the players. Thank goodness rotations are hard for most people to handle in complex mazes.
I don't like most sanity rules I have read, which reflect the Lovecraftian insanity of a mind being torn apart by the unnatural. The DMG sanity rules for 5E are uninspired and don't give many details. My version starts every character off with so many sanity points. When the character can rest without worry, they regain some points. For 5E, I use the Wisdom mod as the recharge.
Now when something affects the character's sanity, they get a normal save. Maybe it is a DEX save to look away or a CON save to avoid become physically ill. Certainly, others can apply based on the scenario. If they fail, the GM rolls sanity damage.
For 5E, this 1d6 to 3d6 sanity damage comes off an original 50 sanity points. What the character hits 40, 30, 20, and 10, insanity increasingly starts to kick in, first with minor quirks to roleplay, and eventually causing the character to become distracted and end up with disadvantage on skills, unreliable results, and eventually disadvantage all rolls. Finally, if the character hits zero, the character is insane and now controlled by the GM. Players rolls a new character.
I really like this because it makes the character more interesting to play as things go through the first two levels. Quirks add to the roleplaying of a tense atmosphere. Hallucinations and delusions start to break apart the party and illustrate the cracks in the character. Eventually the character falls apart with insanity and becomes ineffective and eventually insane. This alternative to 0 HP is far more interesting. That is what I want... mechanics that make roleplaying better.
Pass Around Curse
The idea with this mechanic is to pass around a boon or curse within the gaming group. If a players rolls a natural 20/ natural 1 / whatever makes sense for your system, and they have the boon/curse, they get to choose to pass it to another player.I like this mechanic because one person's luck becomes another person's luck. Whether that luck is good or bad depends on how you use it.
The Confusion Maze
In my online game, I have been struggling with a way to generate the realistic confusion that a party would experience in a labyrinth or maze. The idea is to keep generating random shifts of the map while only allowing the party to see a small nearby area.In my online game on roll20 this means making 4 copies of the maze, each rotated 90 degrees from the previous. As the players move through the maze, using dynamic lighting with their torches (limited to 15 or 20 feet by magic darkness), they occasionally hit a point and then the whole party gets moved to the same location on the next map.
In a live game, the party is at the center of a large piece of poster board with a hole in it approximately 6 to 10 inches across. This hole lets the map below show through. The miniatures sit on this map. As the characters move, the GM rotates and shifts the map below so the players only see the small section showing through the hole.
In both cases, the rotation is really what is going to mess with the players. Thank goodness rotations are hard for most people to handle in complex mazes.
Sanity
I don't like most sanity rules I have read, which reflect the Lovecraftian insanity of a mind being torn apart by the unnatural. The DMG sanity rules for 5E are uninspired and don't give many details. My version starts every character off with so many sanity points. When the character can rest without worry, they regain some points. For 5E, I use the Wisdom mod as the recharge.
Now when something affects the character's sanity, they get a normal save. Maybe it is a DEX save to look away or a CON save to avoid become physically ill. Certainly, others can apply based on the scenario. If they fail, the GM rolls sanity damage.
For 5E, this 1d6 to 3d6 sanity damage comes off an original 50 sanity points. What the character hits 40, 30, 20, and 10, insanity increasingly starts to kick in, first with minor quirks to roleplay, and eventually causing the character to become distracted and end up with disadvantage on skills, unreliable results, and eventually disadvantage all rolls. Finally, if the character hits zero, the character is insane and now controlled by the GM. Players rolls a new character.
I really like this because it makes the character more interesting to play as things go through the first two levels. Quirks add to the roleplaying of a tense atmosphere. Hallucinations and delusions start to break apart the party and illustrate the cracks in the character. Eventually the character falls apart with insanity and becomes ineffective and eventually insane. This alternative to 0 HP is far more interesting. That is what I want... mechanics that make roleplaying better.
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