In recent times for my group, we have found that we really like games that give bonuses for really good descriptions.
Scion (and Exalted?) call them "stunt dice," Shard calls them "roleplaying bonus dice," and 7th Sea called them Drama Dice.
What other games do you know that use a mechanic similar to this? I was hoping Barbarians of Lemuria did so, ditto Awesome Adventures, but it appears neither of them do.
Forward...to Adventure! uses a stunt mechanic that is similar, but a tad too codified for what I'm thinking. It may be that I've misused it in the past, and requires further reading.
The next game my group and I play (probably in January) will include this mechanic...but I don't what game to use.
Sorcerer does, explicitly. Not that I'd recommend it unless you are aware of problems people have had with the rules/writing.
Doesnt Feng Shui have a mechanic like that? Its been forever since I read the main book.
Quote from: Ronin;342782Doesnt Feng Shui have a mechanic like that?
Yes.
And then there's Wushu (http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=3084) where the mechanism that joewolz looks for
is the entire game.
Quote from: Elliot Wilen;342773Sorcerer does, explicitly. Not that I'd recommend it unless you are aware of problems people have had with the rules/writing.
I had Sorcerer once, but sold it. The preachy writing really bothered me, the game looked okay, but I couldn't get around the ideology.
Quote from: Ronin;342782Doesnt Feng Shui have a mechanic like that? Its been forever since I read the main book.
Is Feng Shui still in print?
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;342786Yes.
Excellent
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;342786And then there's Wushu (http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=3084) where the mechanism that joewolz looks for is the entire game.
That might be too much for my anf mine...but I'm gonna check it out since it's free.
Quote from: joewolz;342873Is Feng Shui still in print.
After taking a look around, it evidentially is not in print any more. I suppose you could find a copy on ebay or something though.
Quote from: Ronin;342909After taking a look around, it evidentially is not in print any more. I suppose you could find a copy on ebay or something though.
One copy isn't my issue, my group likes to buy the books when we start a new game.
I find its the kind of thing that you can hack into almost any game. I think the trick is to give the reward to reflect the kind of play the game supports. Though I didn't ever do it, I contemplated adding them to Buffy, with the rule that you get bonus dice for describing how kickass you are if you're a hero, or describing the action as luck and happenstance if you're a white hat.
So the Hero would get them for saying 'As the vampire charges I brace myself and bring up a foot, kicking him right in the face!'. A white hat on the other hand might say 'I duck and cringe as the monster charges at me! I scrabble away and kick at him, catching him in the stomach with the force of his own charge!'
Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium used "cool dice" which were bonus dice for good descriptions and such.
http://www.neoplasticpress.com/dread.html
Quote from: pspahn;342993Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium used "cool dice" which were bonus dice for good descriptions and such.
http://www.neoplasticpress.com/dread.html
That's what I'm looking for...
FtA!'s Stunt system doesn't give bonus dice for cool descriptions. What it does is allow any unorthodox actions (which will usually tend to be definable as "cool") to be taken at a specific phase of the round, and to have special results. So that for example, if you think it through carefully enough, you could end up defeating a monster your party can't possibly beat in straightforward combat, by doing a stunt to trip it, blind it, make a bucket fall on its head, distract it, frighten it, etc. all based on the player thinking up an idea, then having his character attempt it in the Stunt phase.
I HATE "cool description" bonus dice mechanics. The only thing these do in actual play is:
a) make it so that the GM has to decide what is "cool" or not, leading to arguments between the player, who obviously will want bonus dice, and the GM, who is sick of this shit.
and
b) making every goddamned player trying to make EVERY SINGLE FUCKING ACTION "cool", slowing down the entire fucking game in a lame attempt to get more bonus dice ("I dramatically take off my holster, rip off my shirt, and grunt intensely, narrowing my brow as I sit down; do I get a bonus die to my bowel movement?")
I repeat: if everything "has to be" cool, nothing will be.
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