Six Perfected Game Mechanics (Volume 5)

This is the fifth volume of Perfected Game Mechanics (Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4), a series exploring games where, be they wonderful, amazing, inspiring, or even flawed in some ways, managed to utilize one particular mechanic with sheer perfection. That one mechanic is not going to be improved upon; there is nowhere “up” to go.

Note: the images representing the mechanics are from BoardGameGeek.

Critical Hits and Failures

[caption id="attachment_319683" align="alignright" width="150"] Critical Hits and Failures[/caption]

Definition: When the dice are rolled, if the result is particularly low or high, then spectacular failures and successes are possible.

Rollmaster

Role-playing games date back to the 1970s. Dungeons & Dragons started a trend that was followed up with games like Traveller, Villains and Vigilantes, Boot Hill, Top Secret, and so many others. All of these games focused much of their rules on combat and adventurous survival. This was no surprise, as it was a natural extension of the war games that birthed the hobby. Early D&D spells, for example, were re-themed medieval weapons (e.g., Fireball was originally based on the effect of a Catapult). The problem for many started when the amount of damage needed to take out a character started growing (and growing, and growing).

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