As the tin says, I'm trying to make all my games Pulpish, as such the protagonists need a way to escape form certain death/defeat, so I thought of including a luck mechanic. Not sure what it'll look like yet.

So I'm interested in hearing what's your favourite luck mechanic, I might even plagiarize find inspiration on it.

Okay, thought of one mechanic:

Once per day you get to roll your luck and if you roll above the TN then you fall from the precipice but fall on top of a giant eagle and ride it...

The TN is equal to your initial ST.

So your class determine the Luck TN and it doesn't change.

Or you roll a d4

1 = Luck TN 17
2 = Luck TN 16
3 = Luck TN 15
4 = Luck TN 14

The target number still stays the same.

Mekton had a Luck pool, based on the stat of the same name, that could be used to augment rolls if committing to using at least one point there off before rolling. Useful for guaranteeing results on a critical roll.

Savage World Bennies for keep better rerolls. Especially if Bennies are not per session but the PCs can use as many as the like and the GM gets one to use whenever they do. You will pass that critical roll eventually, but how many Bennies have you given the antagonists in the process. Something of a karmic luck balance.

Mixing systems here, but having a willpower score that can be spent as rechargeable hero points to add success or buff roll or burnt, needing to be bought or otherwise raised again to replenish, as destiny points basically call upon the power of plot haxs or however Star Wars Saga Edition described them. Spend and recharge or spend and discard buffs might have been one of the Shadowruns and willpower is Storyteller with only mages being able to use it after the roll to cheat reality.

Using the entropy sphere to alter probability in Mage, as what are the chances something this improbable happens, could qualify, and the paradox backlash for using it in such a vulgar manner would hurt. 

After various experiments, I can't say that I really like any variant of luck points--as explicit things for that purpose.  Whether called luck, fate, Hero points, etc., it doesn't matter.

The reason is that if the points are hefty enough to be useful, they will be hoarded to avoid death, in which case they are only another means of death avoidance.  On the other hand, if they are weakened enough to not be hoarded, they will tend to be forgotten.  In practice, if I'm really careful about exactly what they can do, how they are presented, and remind the players how they work, then sometimes I can sit the game in a narrow slice where the points are used as expected.  However, this is too much work for what it gives to the game.  Moreover, it is never entirely settled, because the exact position of that narrow slice moves with changes in the players, their goals, etc. 

Maybe my games attract the kind of players that are extreme outliers on luck mechanics.  Could be, since I've yet to see an implementation of them that comes anywhere near that narrow slice when run as the game suggests.  Also note that I have not yet tried DCC with this group.  In theory, a luck mechanic that did not involve a decision could work--you have some, it always gets used in certain situations, it eventually runs out, but even DCC still has options to invoke it as a decision.

Savage Worlds bennies have been pretty good for me, especially as you have opportunities to gain them regularly (nothing like two players drawing Jokers in the same round, lol).

Favorite Luck mechanic? Hit Points. 

You roll the dice, you takes your chances.  If I want pulpy I make the PCs significantly stronger than the bad guys.

I did like the system in the RMSS Channeling Companion, where luck points were a direct representation of divine favor for following the tenants of a god's faith.

Quote from: David Johansen on March 28, 2022, 09:12:39 AM
You roll the dice, you takes your chances.

Best "luck mechanic" ever. And the great part is that it's already built in to almost every game.

To follow up on what Steven Mitchell said, I've yet to see anyone even remember that they have Luck points when they're specifically for that purpose. I haven't even seen people burn karma/XP for "Luck" purposes in games that allow that either. It may have happened at some point, but I don't recall specific examples about it. Granted I don't generally play many systems that have them, but I don't recall it ever happening when I have.

I'm not even against the idea of Luck points or burning XP as "luck", but I think that the concept of Luck Points as specifically Luck per se is weak. And people are generally too focused on using XP for advancement to remember or even want to burn them as "luck", unless one of those luck uses includes avoiding certain death.

I would much prefer an "Effort" type mechanic that allows "luck" style uses to boost your rolls or avoid damage, but is primarily used like "Power Points" as the resource used to activate powers or special abilities of any type. That way the pool will see actual game use, but also has alternate uses for "Oh Shit!" moments or if you don't have any cool power currently, or none of them apply in that situation.

I also don't have a problem with HP being sacrificed as "Luck Points". I just don't like the idea of everything revolving around HP/Luck/Plot Armor to the point where absolutely nothing bad can ever happen to characters—not even actual falls (just the fall damage, but not the character going down) or an enemy wrestling them down and putting a knife on their throats—unless their HP are completely whittled down first. As has been discussed in the "Are HP dumb?" thread, where Chris has brought it up.

Aren't the vast majority of RPG mechanics luck mechanics?

Quote from: migo on March 28, 2022, 10:31:12 AM
Aren't the vast majority of RPG mechanics luck mechanics?

They have luck built in, but that isn't what they are simulating/expressing/modeling/representing, however you want to say it.  The "luck" is in there to represent the play of the game, the holes in the model, the relative uncertainty of what is happening, etc. 

That's kind of what I was indirectly getting at:  I find that players who are actively having their characters pursue some action as part of role playing expect an aspect of luck to be there, but as soon as you call out "Luck" (or fate or hero points) as a discrete thing, they lose the thread.

I prefer games without luck mechanics, but I have run several that include them so I'll share those experiences. These games all had a finite number of luck points that acted as meta-currencies. The best versions (used in Low Fantasy Gaming and Crypts & Things) had you roll dice to see if you could get below your current luck score. Success meant you got some benefit (rerolls for example) but it depletes one point of luck, leaving you pool lower if you succeeded. As play progressed, the more you used, the harder it was to spend because the total got so low it was hard to roll under. Your luck was essentially running out but didn't ever get to zero. While some uses were voluntary (rerolls for example) it could also be used for saving throws.

If you adopt such a system, I'd offer two suggestions. (1) Give players a list of things they can always test their luck on, but also emphasize that you (DM) might grant other attempts if players get creative. (2) Be flexible but transparent about how quickly the luck pool refills. There is no refresh rate that will work for every type of adventure. A rate that works great for dungeon crawling (perhaps one point per hour of rest) will be very different from the rate used in wilderness travel (I used one point per day of rest).

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 28, 2022, 12:39:17 AM
As the tin says, I'm trying to make all my games Pulpish, as such the protagonists need a way to escape form certain death/defeat, so I thought of including a luck mechanic. Not sure what it'll look like yet.

So I'm interested in hearing what's your favourite luck mechanic, I might even plagiarize find inspiration on it.

Luck is for winning the game.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 28, 2022, 12:39:17 AM
As the tin says, I'm trying to make all my games Pulpish, as such the protagonists need a way to escape form certain death/defeat, so I thought of including a luck mechanic. Not sure what it'll look like yet.

One of the most recent The Shadow stories I read had The Shadow fighting some criminals in a mine. He threw some dynamite which exploded and killed the remaining gangsters and, as the story was written from another's perspective, it appeared to have killed The Shadow as well.

As a GM in an RPG there are several ways you can handle this:

1) The Shadow dies in the explosion so the player spends some Luck points to survive, saying he ducked into an knocked over minecart to avoid the explosion.

2) Before throwing the dynamite, player spends a "Narrative Device" point to make a minecart appear so he can jump into it after throwing the dynamite.

3) Before throwing the dynamite, the player asks the GM if there is any cover and the GM say, "There is a knocked over minecart nearby."


So it really comes down to why you want a Luck mechanic in the first place. Option #1 is really just saving the character's life with no effort on the part of the player whereas option #3 requires the GM to be running the game with a certain level of generosity.

That being said, I prefer Luck mechanics to not require a roll (as you can't be unlucky while being lucky) but also not have points to spend as making anything cost points automatically makes players hesitant to use them. For me the best method of having a Luck mechanic is to not have it but, instead, to have the GM accumulate Unluck points to be used against the PCs at a later date.

In my games, if a player's action is hinging on luck I tell them to throw a d6. I can work out pretty quick something on the fly. I usually preview it by telling them what number or range of numbers they are hoping to get or avoid. It is SUPER quick so tension is not lost talking mechanics.

Jumping from one rooftop to another?..."Give me a d6. You don't want a one or two."