Through this site and the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast, I’ve had the privilege to interview some of the industry’s household names. During these interviews, I’ve used some recurring questions, one of which was:

Tell me about a particularly satisfying mechanic you’ve either created yourself, or came across whilst playing someone else’s game.

As you can imagine, it’s thrown up some interesting replies. This post is intended to document them all in one place. It features responses from Gav Thorpe, Andy Chambers, Tuomas Pirinen, Jervis Johnson, Alessio Cavatore, and Joe McCullough.

Alessio Cavatore

In terms of somebody else’s, it was Massimo Toriani who showed this game that he designed, and he was using D10 as scatter dice. All the other polyhedrons are platonic, so they are symmetrical. There is no direction in any way. There’s no arrow, no verse this way or that way. But the D10 is not a platonic solid; it’s artificially made to be ten-faced, but it is not. It definitely has an arrow shape. Each face of the ten faces is an arrow and has a number in it. So it was just like, well, you don’t need scatter dice and distance, et cetera. You just roll a D10, and that tells you distance and range in the same roll. And I was like, oh, my God. Yes, of course. Why didn’t we think of this? So, since then, I have done that as well in games I design, and, yeah, it just works. It’s so obvious.

As for my mechanics, the drawing of the action dice from the bag in Bolt Action, because of the dynamic that creates for the game on the other end. Of course, I hesitate to say that’s a mechanic I created, because drawing chits has been done before. I kind of added the fact that the dice actually have the orders, and therefore, you can then use the same thing you use for the drawing as the marker on the unit. So that kind of does a few jobs together. But, yeah, writing the game and sticking to that logic was cool.

But again, I don’t think it’s as original as perhaps when I invented the rattling gun. The mechanic for the rattling gun, which, as far as my mentors tell me, they hadn’t seen it before. That’s a good thing because, normally, I go, “I have this great idea. It’s completely new”. And Rick goes, “Well, that was done in 1976 in this game.” I was like, oh, it’s not new, right? But this one, now, they went, oh, wow, that’s a cute little mechanic that we never seen. It’s fun.

Basically. Is it like a minigun – a Gatling gun. It’s a rattling gun because it’s a Skaven weapon. But it is the mechanic where you roll a dice, and that’s the number of shots, and then you can stop safely, just basically cranking, doing one turn to the crank. Or you can go, no, let’s have two turns. And so you roll two dice, adding them together, so more hits. However, if you ever roll a double, then something goes wrong, and there’s a chart of wacky nastiness that happens. So basically you can roll maybe up to six dice. If you’re incredibly lucky, you don’t get any doubles, but there is a point where you go, “Statistically, I should stop, but maybe I need one more crank, one turn to this.” That is fun because it kind of challenges your greed towards the potential punishment if you go wrong.

Full interview with Alessio Cavatore

Gav Thorpe

My favourite mechanic is when Jervis created the blocking dice for Blood Bowl. It took a really complicated game with lots of sets of tables and looking things up and modifiers and stuff, and turned it into a really simple roll, one, two, or three of these dice, and then depending on how you roll, something happens. And it was so streamlined and so simple and made the game so much more playable. Yeah, it was just genius. That’s been one of my favourite mechanics, I think, of anything.

And because it was a physical thing as well, it was the idea that we can do stuff with dice. They don’t have to just be D6s. They don’t have to have equal weighting between the six roll results, and actually rolling multiple dice and picking one, not necessarily having to add them all together or all that kind of stuff. Third Edition Blood Bowl is just a beautiful piece of games engineering based around those very simple mechanics. And I loved it when it came out. I loved playing it

in terms of mechanics myself, I suppose when I did Inquisitor. It’s very narrative, and what you do is you nominate what your character is going to do, what you want them to do. You, rather than having a set of action points to spend, then you just go through and do them, you say, “Oh, well, they want to run over here. They’re going to hide behind a barrel, and then they’re going to shoot at that sort of like cultist over there.” And then you roll a bunch of dice, depending on their speed. And each four plus actually allows you to have part of that action. So what you’re doing is you’re never quite sure exactly how much of your intended actions you get to actually resolve. So there’s always a tension between trying to do stuff and playing it cautious. People have spoken to me and said that – that it’s kind of quite core to the game, and that’s one of the things that makes it fun. Again, that plays back into the Blood Bowl idea of the turnover, the idea of the failure.

I think, for me, narrative comes from unpredictability. Sometimes, the things we remember most about the games are the things that we didn’t expect to happen. When units charge in and crush that goblin unit and run them down, you go, “Well, that’s what they were supposed to do.” But when the goblins charge in and crush the knights and run them down, that’s a story. And the same time when your dwarf general flees, or the thing goes bad (or particularly well), that will be remembered.

Full interview with Gav Thorpe

Jervis Johnson

One mechanic I came across recently and really like is used in a series of games called Table Battles, published by a small company called Hollandspiele. The games recreate various famous battles from history and use cards to represent the major formations of each army.

In your turn, you roll six dice, and then allocate them out to cards in your army; each card needs certain combination of dice to be able to carry out an action. So one card might need a pair of 5s to attack, while another might need you to place a 4, a 5 and a 6 on the card, and so on. Any dice that are placed on a card can’t be rolled again until they are used, so the dice are a limited resource, and you need to think hard about where to place them. At the start of your turn, before you roll the dice, you can carry out an action you have set up with your earlier dice rolls.

What I especially like about this mechanic is that sometimes, when you attack, you will force your opponent to make a reaction, and this will stop them from carrying out their action in their next turn (they are reacting to your attack rather than unleashing their own). These simple mechanics do a lot to represent command and control issues, and they also capture the idea of one side gaining the momentum in a battle, which is something I have read about in lots of historical accounts but very rarely seen recreated in a game.

Full interview with Jervis Johnson

Andy Chambers

I’m going to nominate myself for this one, actually. The blast marker mechanic that we introduced in Epic initially, I think. There’s just something about having little explosion markers next to a unit. It’s another stage of damage at its heart, but it’s not removing models; it’s just showing that they’re kind of being suppressed under fire, that sort of a thing. And it’s been used in quite a few different game systems since then. I’ve used it a few times myself, and it’s a good mechanic. It’s a useful tool to have when you’re designing a game, to have that other stage of damage which isn’t actually killing things or knocking off hit points per se, basically like a temporary damage source which suppresses them or whatever. So, conceptually, I think that’s a good one.

The other one I’d nominate is the system that I use in Blood Red Skies for doing three-dimensional combat because that’s a World War II fighter combat game which doesn’t use altitude or anything like that. It uses what I call the advantage system, meaning we don’t care about how high up you are. Basically, it’s like, are you at an advantage relative to the fight? Are you neutral relative to the fight? Or are you disadvantaged relative to the fight?

Being advantaged means that you have more options. Basically, being disadvantaged means you have less, and it’s only if you’re disadvantaged, you’re actually in danger of being shot down. Until that point, you’re just ducking and diving along with everybody else. But in a disadvantaged state, that’s where you’re most vulnerable as well. So again, it’s a way of almost combining damage with other factors at the same time, without it actually being damaged to the unit. So I think that’s another particularly kind of interesting example of almost the same again, if you go on a very meta-level conceptual design mechanic applied in a different way.

Full interview with Andy Chambers

Tuomas Pirinen

There are a ton of great game mechanics I admire, but I’m going to use my own – Mordheim‘s exploration roll. This gives you your income, the ability to modify through the metagame, and helps you to find unusual places. You only need to get a handful of dice, roll that, and all of that happens from there.

Full interview with Tuomas Pirinen

Rick Priestley

I thought the turn over mechanic in Blood Bowl was an interesting way to sequence a game, and I took the idea and adapted it to my Warmaster system. So, to activate a unit you rolled dice to give an order; if successful you continued to move and order units, but if you failed, it’s turn over. It’s interesting because you have to decide which things to move first and which to leave until last and risk not being able to move at all. I later adapted the same mechanic to Black Powder and Hail Caesar for Warlord Games, so it’s had a good run!

Another mechanic that I’ve always thought would be interesting to adapt is the combat mechanism in a game called Warlord. Warlord is a game of nuclear warfare published in the 70s and later re-boxed and marketed by Games Workshop as Apocalypse. Anyway, it works like this:

When making an attack you take a dice and secretly select a number by hiding it behind your palm, you can only choose a number up to the total number of pieces you are attacking with. Your opponent guesses what number you have chosen, and if correct, you lose that number of pieces, if incorrect, your opponent loses one of their own pieces.

The attacker can stop at any point if things are not going well. Assuming things do go well, once an attacker removes the opponent’s last piece, you get to move into the space and take it over, but the number of pieces you move in has to be the number you last selected. Thus, the initial attacks can be random, although choosing a high value risks losing a high number of pieces, which encourages you to choose a low value… but your opponent knows this… and you know that they know… and so on.

When it comes to your last attack, the fact that you take the space with the number of pieces nominated means you want to choose as high a value as possible… but your opponent knows this… and you know that they know… and so on. I just like the element of double guessing and the potential for a lucky guess to unravel an attack.

Full interview with Rick Priestley

Joe McCullough

There are so many, as far as I’m concerned, because, for me, every aspect of a game can have unique and elegant mechanics.

So, like, movement. In most games, movement is a very set kind of thing. You can move your guy six inches. If you are doing a unit, you can move it, and you can make one manoeuvre with it; that’s absolutely fine, but there’s nothing amazing or elegant about it. And then you see something like X-Wing, the miniatures game that has this incredible movement mechanic where you have the secret little spinner, where you decide what move your ship is going to make, and everyone does that for all their ships. And then you reveal it, and they all just go everywhere in a way that fantastically recaptures the look and feel of the movies. And that’s just movement.

My all-time favourite game mechanic is the combat mechanic in a game called Silent Death, which it’s about space fighters shooting it out. Every gun system in the game rolls three dice, and two of those dice are determined by what that gun system is, and one of those dice is determined by the gunner. Like the gunner’s skill, you might have a gun skill, but a gunner with a D8. So you roll two D6 and a D8. And what’s really beautiful about it is you roll those three dice and add them together to see if you hit. But then you look at the dice a different way to determine how much damage is done. So a gun might have a damage level of medium. So you’d roll the three dice, and you’d find the medium die, and that would be the damage done.

And that idea of one die roll serving multiple functions has been hugely influential to me. Obviously, you see it in basically all my games. So Frostgrave has that same idea of making one die roll determine who wins and how much damage is done. And Silver Bayonet has that as well.

So, yeah, that’s a biggie. But there are just so many. I love the way power works in Marvel Crisis Protocol. I love how, as things happen through the game and as a figure gets hit, it can actually gain power. And thus, by having something bad happen to it, it is also given the potential to do more things. And that’s just a beautifully elegant balancing mechanism within the game. But also, again, it really captures the flavour of what they were trying to mimic in that game of superheroes beating each other up. And in all honesty, I could just go on and on. These things are like little bits of art to me, so I do collect them.

Full interview with Joe McCullough

What’s your favourite miniature gaming mechanic? Leave a voicemail and let me know. It might make it onto a future episode of the podcast!

How can a “one mini each” pub table game keep things dynamic, and not regress into a sterile dice rolling exercise?

I’ve always been fascinated with the question of “How small could this be?” when it comes to miniature games. In particular, I like the idea of a system where both players control a single miniature each. The reasons for this would need to fit your own preferred sandbox, but an obvious setting would be some sort of gladiatorial or arena combat.

Anyway, the problem, as far as I can see it, with 1v1 games (with the essential caveat that I’m not a games designer) is that the miniatures could simply become an aesthetic, rather than an integral part of the game. If you think about it, it’s likely that they’ll either both find static positions to take cover and shoot from, or, get into hand-to-hand and remain there. In both examples, these become dice-rolling exercises rather than dynamic tabletop experiences.

After a while, I stopped giving the idea any more thought. Then, I had a bit of an out-the-blue lightbulb moment when reading John Lamshead’s brilliant Sci-Fi Skirmish Scenarios.

In the book, John details a scenario where two warbands are trying to catch a drone. The drone is controlled by the game’s AI and is essentially bouncing around like a tennis ball, rebounding off the edges of the table, mat, or playing area.

I thought it was a nice idea, and that there was potential for a mechanic like this to exist that would actually do harm to the miniatures. For example, could it be a drone with whirring blades, a ball of malevolent magic, or some sort of slaver with a range weapon taking aim for a pop at a combatant?

Immediately, this would solve the problem of players keeping their minis in the same place. Their miniatures would need to stay mobile and break from bouts of melee combat regularly to risk being killed. From a cinematic point of view, you might also see a stronger or healthier character trying to hold an opponent in place to use this non-player weapon against them.

As discussed in my musings (ramblings?) on narrative solo and co-op wargaming, fighting the conditions, table, or game can often throw up more interesting situations than a “kill all the other guys” approach.

Back to this concept, though, it’s not necessarily about having whatever tennis ball-style weapon that fits your setting bouncing around the table. It’s about both players having a reason not to stay in one place for long. And that could apply to the entire playing area.

Maybe the arena is built on some sort of irradiated ground, electrically charged sheeting, or enchanted with a dark and cruel magic. Whatever the reason, it might mean that miniatures remaining static for more than one turn take an attack roll at the level of a low or medium-strength weapon. Maybe they wouldn’t simply be hurt, either – what if they were blasted off in a random direction (and range) using a D20 as a scatter dice?

Once you start to give it some thought, there are so many ways turn a low model count game into something dynamic, frantic, and cinematic. It could even work as a solo game using one single miniature.

I’m writing about this idea while fresh in my head and purely from a “this could be fun to try” perspective. For all I know, such mechanics or systems might already exist in games I haven’t encountered before. And, if that’s the case, I’d love to hear more about them!

Feedback on Single Miniature & Arena Combat Game Ideas

Some feedback from the Discord community.

Dr Spork said, “My mind was drawn to thinking about Robot wars. The randomly activated hazards and the house robots make things more interesting than one on one battles.
Another aspect to consider is giving the combatants extra options/skills that provide some tactical options outside the simple punch or shoot. D&D has a bunch of stuff like this that could be cribbed to make the combat a bit more varied. Grappling, pushing opponents back, rapid fire pinning them down, that sort of stuff.”

Gibby said, “One ruleset for this that I found to be really clever is Red Sand, Blue Sky by 2 Hour Wargames. It’s a game about Roman Gladiators (complete with a campaign about being a Lanista and running a gladiator school, and a campaign where you play as a gladiator trying to survive to retirement). The coolest mechanic in it was each combatant begins with a certain number of dice, which are used to throw attacks or pull off various tricks and such. Thing is if you ever run out of dice, then your character is exhausted and drops to their knees, there to be at the mercy of the crowd (or Emperor). Plus, you could do stuff like kick sand into your opponent’s eyes and such.”

And William said, “Maybe Melee or it’s supplement ‘Wizard’? They are hex-based games with an emphasis on duelling”

Our recent survey asked which game or ruleset you spent the most time playing, planning for, or thinking about in 2023.

On the plus side, there were no patterns, which shows the diverse tastes of the community. On the downside, this makes it difficult to create any sort of meaningful headline or write-up around.

That said, folks were keen to get a flavour of the outcome, so I did what any lazy content creator would do and pumped the raw data into ChatGPT. Here’s what it came up with. (excuse any factual errors, which ChatGPT is always so keen to point out that it regularly makes)

Tabletop Triumphs and Miniature Marvels: A Year in Review and Anticipation for 2024

Introduction: As we bid farewell to the gaming adventures of 2023, let’s take a moment to reflect on the myriad tabletop games and miniature delights that captivated hobbyists throughout the year. From the battlefields of Warhammer to the creative chaos of Gaslands, the community shared their gaming triumphs and miniature marvels. In this blog post, we’ll explore the most played games, favored miniatures, and the highly anticipated releases that promise to shape the tabletop landscape in 2024.

Tabletop Triumphs: Most Played Games of 2023

1. Warhammer, Gaslands, 40k 2nd Ed: The triumvirate of Warhammer 6th edition, Gaslands, and 40k 2nd Edition dominated the gaming tables, offering diverse settings and strategic challenges.

2. Rebels and Patriots: Daniel Mersey’s Rebels and Patriots, part of the Rampant series, led players through historical conflicts, proving that the allure of historical wargaming remains strong.

3. Rogue Trader Supplements and More: Rogue Trader supplements, including Waargh the Orks and Freebooterz, captured the hearts of enthusiasts exploring the rich lore of Warhammer 40k.

4. Frostgrave, Dragon Rampant: Fantasy skirmishes thrived with Frostgrave and Dragon Rampant, providing immersive adventures in magical realms.

5. Stargrave, Necromunda: Space mercenaries and gritty gang wars were brought to life with Stargrave and Necromunda, offering players thrilling narratives in unique settings.

Honorable Mentions:

Several games received honorable mentions, from the quirky Space Weirdos to the classic Kill Team and the narrative richness of Rangers of Shadow Deep.

Miniature Marvels: Most Enjoyed Miniatures of 2023

1. Warlord Games, Gripping Beast: Warlord Games and Gripping Beast led the charge in providing top-notch miniatures for historical gaming enthusiasts.

2. Ramshackle Games, Warmonger/Wargames Foundry: Ramshackle Games’ imaginative creations and the vast range of wonders from Warmonger/Wargames Foundry captured the imagination of miniature painters.

3. Etsy 3D Prints, Stargrave: The accessibility of Etsy 3D prints and the thematic richness of Stargrave miniatures made them favorites among hobbyists.

4. Wyrd, Mezgike Miniatures, Oathsworn Miniatures: In the fantasy realm, Wyrd, Mezgike Miniatures, and Oathsworn Miniatures stood out for their exceptional designs.

Honorable Mentions:

Old School Miniatures, Anvil Industries, and Games Workshop’s classic models earned honorable mentions for their enduring appeal.

Anticipating 2024: Games and Rulesets to Watch

1. Hail Caesar: Hail Caesar promises to transport gamers to historical battlefields, offering a fresh perspective on ancient warfare.

2. Forager and Squad Weirdos: Forager, a Napoleonic skirmish game, and the anticipated Squad Weirdos are set to bring exciting new dynamics to the tabletop.

3. Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader, 1st Edition: A nostalgic journey awaits as Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader, 1st Edition, makes a triumphant return, inviting players to rediscover the roots of the iconic universe.

4. Dungeon Saga Origins and Full Spectrum Dominance: Dungeon Saga Origins brings new adventures to the tabletop, while Full Spectrum Dominance promises intense and immersive gameplay.

Honorable Mentions:

Outsiders/Notorious expansion, Frostgrave, Space Weirdos, and 15mm Pony Wars are among the eagerly awaited releases that promise to make 2024 a thrilling year for tabletop enthusiasts.

Conclusion: As we step into the unknown realms of 2024, the tabletop gaming community remains vibrant, fueled by the passion for strategic challenges, immersive narratives, and stunning miniatures. Whether you’re a seasoned wargamer or a newcomer to the hobby, the diverse array of games and miniatures ensures there’s something for everyone. Here’s to another year of epic battles, creative painting, and the joy of rolling those dice in the pursuit of tabletop triumphs!

The following scenario has been created for Song of Blades & Heroes, though it can be easily tweaked to fit any skirmish gaming system.

The aim is to take on the role of a Chaos sorcerer who roams a small village, attempting to recruit as many allies as possible before a band of bounty hunters arrive to take him dead or alive.

As Thul’garr the Eldrich, a tentacle-faced servant of chaos, and his formidable bodyguard, Jarek the Damned, descended upon the remote hamlet of Middensbury, the forces of corruption drew nigh, veiled by the fading light of day.

Pursued by relentless bounty hunters, Thul’garr and Jarek had sought refuge in this unsuspecting outpost on the edge of the Empire. Their pursuers, driven by vengeance, gold, and the desire to extinguish the sinister influence Thul’garr embodied, drew closer with each passing day.

Thul’garr, a master of manipulation and cunning, had a plan as simple as it was sinister. He intended to exploit the villagers, to bind them unwittingly to his nefarious cause, using his dark, corrupted magic. In the throes of chaos, they would become both a shield and a weapon against his relentless pursuers.

Yet Thul’garr knew of a witch hunter’s presence in this region—a relentless and deadly foe dedicated to quelling chaos. Caution was his ally.

As twilight settled over the rustic roofs of the Middensbury hovels, the stage was set for a dark and insidious transformation. Thul’garr the Eldrich had arrived, ready to whisper forbidden incantations and weave the threads of corruption into the very soul of the settlement. Villagers went about their business, oblivious to the horrors that drew closer, the very essence of chaos beginning to infest their souls.

Under the guise of a charismatic leader, Thul’garr extolled the virtues of chaos and its transformative power. His words would sway some, whilst others would prove strong enough to resist. Maybe even to fight back.

But with each step, Thul’garr whispered the promise of power and the temptation of chaos. The air in Middensbury crackled with unspoken promise, as the dark priest extended his influence. And as the bounty hunters closed in on the village, Middensbury’s fate hung in the balance between chaos and order.

Chaos Player Objectives

• Try to convert as many allies as possible in six turns before the bounty hunters arrive.
• Watch out for the undercover witch hunter.
• Dark magic makes Thul’garr and Jarek appear normal to the villagers unless they become hostile to the pair.
• Hostile villagers will turn any other villagers within 6” hostile, too.

Converting Allies

1. Move into range of any villager and spend an action to attempt a conversion.
2. First, draw from a deck of villager cards. If you draw the joker, this villager is the undercover witch hunter and is now hostile. See suggested witch hunter rules below.
3. If any other card is drawn, roll to proceed with the spell.
4. Villagers have varying conversion difficulty. Roll a D20 and compare it with their split number. For example, 10/15.
5. On a roll of 1 to 9, Thul’garr has failed, and the villager is now hostile.
6. On a roll of 10 to 14, the spell is unstable, and you should roll on the Unstable Magic Conversion Table.
7. On a roll of 15-20, the spell is a full success, and the villager is now under Thul’garr’s control until they are killed. 

Unstable Magic Conversion Table (D20)

1, 2 – Villager Dies: The villager succumbs to the chaos or the stress of the situation and dies.

3, 4 – Villager Becomes Hostile: The villager’s encounter with chaos has driven them into a frenzy, and they become hostile to everyone, including your characters and other villagers.

5, 6 – Temporary Conversion: The villager converts to your side but only for a limited duration, lasting for D4 turns. Use their newfound allegiance wisely.

7, 8 – Villager Transforms into a Rat: The villager undergoes a bizarre transformation, turning into a rat. You gain control of this peculiar rat, which may have its uses in the future. One time outcome, re-roll this result in future.

9, 10 – Villager Transforms into a Chaos Spawn: The chaos taint within the villager fully emerges, transforming them into a chaos spawn under your control. Roll a D6 to determine the spawn’s Quality and another D6 to determine its Combat rating. One time outcome, re-roll this result in future.

11, 12 – Villager Enters a Trance: The villager enters a mysterious trance, revealing vital information about the situation or the surrounding area. They share this crucial knowledge with your characters before passing away. Reduce bounty hunters by D4. One time outcome, re-roll this result in future.

13 to 18 – Villager Fully Converts: The villager undergoes a moment of intense mental deliberation and fully converts to your side, becoming a valuable addition to your warband.

19, 20 – Villager Opens a Chaos Portal: In a chaotic twist, the villager somehow becomes a portal to the Realm of Chaos, inadvertently unleashing a greater daemon. Control the daemon, but be wary of its formidable powers. Pass a Quality test each turn, or the daemon will be hostile to the Chaos player. One time outcome, re-roll this result in future.

The Witch Hunter

There’s a possibility Thul’garr will attempt to convert a villager who’s an undercover witch hunter. Should this happen, here are some options for the impact on the game.

1. Reduce the number of turns until the bounty hunters arrive.
2. Increase the number of bounty hunters.
3. Turn another D6 number of villagers hostile to Thul’garr and Jarek.
4. Reduce Thul’garr’s stats or abilities.
5. Increase difficulty of conversion stats for all.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for improving this scenario, please let me know in the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast Discord Community!