For the past half a year or so I've been collecting weird and interesting ideas as they've either come up in conversations with my friends or just randomly manifested in my head. Now I was thinking that sharing them all here can be my little thank you and christmas gift for the community.
So, without further ado here's some things me and my peers have dreamt up. Some of these might just be rehashing already existing ideas and mechanics since no such things as original ideas exist in this day and age, but I hope some of y'all might get inspired by some of these:
----------Health Chunks mechanic-----------
(Heavily inspired by how health works in Hunt: Showdown)
Can have total of six (6) hp, separated into chunks.
Running out of hp knocks you out.
Now, arrange those six hp into chunks.
Example health chunk arrangements;
[1, 5]
[2, 2, 2]
[1, 3, 2]
[1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
[6]
When somebody helps you up you permanently lose one chunk of health untill you get proper medical attention and time to recover.
If you lose your last chunk, you are DEAD.
At the end of each combat, refill your latest non-empty chunk to full.
Healing effects restore chunks rather than pure hp.
Damage value ideas:
- Explosions = 1d2+1chunks
- High calibre guns = 1d2chunks + 1hp
- Small calibre guns = 1d2chunks
- Two-handed weapon = 1chunk
- Large weapon = 1d2+1hp
- Medium weapon = 1d2hp
- Unarmed = 1hp
---------Failure points & Positive death spirals--------
(From a conversation with two of my friends.)
- Gain "failure points" every time you move a step down the death spiral
- List of effects you can buy with "failure points"
- Either cash in small effects here and there or save up to redeem one big effect
---------Learning foreign (alien) languages-------
(I was thinking about running adventures in the Veins of the Earth, and how interacting with all the settlements of weird underground species and civilised monsters would happen since just resolving the language barriers with binary "you either know or don't know the language" check wouldn't really work in environment where the PCs only have these weird language using things to interact with.)
- Language check when first interacting with the language to see if you "get it" on how it works
- hefty bonus towards learning it if successful (+50)
- Start at 0/100 progress, at the end of the day gain +1d4/+1d6/+1d8/+1d10/+1d12/+1d20 to your progress depending on how many meaningful interactions you had where that language was used, each interaction increasing your progress die size by one dice step.
- At 100/100 you are able to fluently converse in the language
------------Cursed bloodlust blade------------
1d8 damage cleaver, grows more blunt with every kill while the blodlust of it's wielder swells to horrifying extents.
After having killed something with the weapon, it will have formed a bond with it's wielder.
From there on, every kill with the weapon will decrease it's damage by one die size (1d8 -> 1d7 -> 1d6 -> ... -> 1d1).
- For every lower natural die size you reach with the weapon, gain an extra attack. You must use all of these attacks in each round of combat. ("Natural" die sizes are d6, d4, d2.)
- The lower the current damage die on the weapon, the stronger the desire to cause violence with it. (GM can compel you to attack something equal to the amount of extra attacks you have gained from the weapon per day, save to resist.)
-----------Another cursed blade--------------------
When swinging the sword, choose which die size to use for it's damage.
Ignores any AC based on armour or tough hide, the sword will cut cleanly through even slabs of stone if swung with enough force.
Swinging the sword causes damage to it's wielder every time due to the grip also being a blade, roll the chosen damage die separately for both the attacker and the defender.
----Attack Chains in Combat----
Monsters with attack chains
Move 1 -> move 2 -> move 3
- Telegraph the next move at the end of the last one
-----------Treat HD as Usage Die-------------
(Got a full game written from this idea called Usage; Die)
Whenever you get hit, lose one die & roll the remaining ones. On any results of 1 you move down a die size.
Armour = Upgraded die size.
Counter Hits:
If you roll the max value on your hit die, treat it as having landed a hit on whoever hit you if you were engaged in melee with them.
Whenever you do something that requires effort like climbing up a cliff or engaging in a chess match, decide how many HD to commit to the task.
Any dice that come up as 1 are exhausted and lost for the day.
----Mountain Climbing---
(An idea I had from checking on a friend's project.)
GM draws a branching tree structure to represent the different potential routes on the climb the player wants to undertake.
Not all branches should go to top and they should take the PC to unexpected places sometimes.
Determine how far up the PC can see (perhaps tied to how long they spend preparing for the climb), and reveal an amount of the branching climbing routes accordingly.
Whenever the PC comes to a branch in the route, they choose which way they want to go.
(Some branches could be hidden or be really difficult to use and warrant a new climb check).
Whenever the PC uncovers a new part of the GM's route map, check Climbing as they enter a segment they hadn't already observed for grips and footholds.
-----------Summoning and Rituals for dummies-----------
1 hour to create the first summoning circle.
Double the time taken for every additional circle, so 2nd is 2h, 3rd is 4h, 4th is 8h etc.
Per every two summoning circles, a sacrifice is required to for any additional circles to take effect.
This sacrifice will be thematic to what you're summoning.
(Sacrifice could be a memory, money, specific material, blood and flesh etc.)
The ritual itself will take [summoning circles] hours to complete.
Use the number of drawn circles to determine the intensity/power/effectiveness of the ritual.
