Random Rules (From A Bunch Of Places)

[Amechra]

I'm a bit of a packrat, and I've taken to collecting RPGs. Like, seriously, I'm drowning in the things. Now, it's very unlikely that I'll get to play half of them (in some cases, that's a good thing), but a lot of them have some cool rule or idea that could be repurposed for other stuff.

So I thought I'd start a thread where people can slap down favorite (or weird) rules from games. I'll start us off with a few:

1) Stat Auction (Amber Diceless Roleplay)
One of the weird traits of Amber Diceless Roleplay is that you don't buy your stats normally - instead, the ranking of "who beats who" is auctioned off. Then NPCs come in with a default "point spend" to see how things fall out. You can move up the rankings through advancement, but doing so requires you to spend enough points to beat the person right above you. The specific bit I find interesting here is how the variable, player-determined costs indicate to the GM what kind of game the players want (if everyone spends a ton of points on Warfare, people probably want fighting to be a thing).

2) Unique Traits (Nobilis 3e)
So, part of Nobilis is that it has a really flexible power-building system. More intriguingly, however, is that you can spend a 1 point surcharge to say that the power you built is super-rare, possibly even unique. This is something that I think would be interesting in a more standard point-buy game. Honestly, having an explicit "I want to be the only person who can do this" button to signal the GM with should be more common.

3) Big Ol' Stat Table (Exo)
Exo is a Spanish sci-fi game that has an interesting twist to how you generate your stats. There's a huge table in the book (seriously, it has 23 columns and 28 rows) that maps a 3d10 roll to a number from 0 to 6. Different species tell you to roll your stats on different columns, usually with some bonus on top of that. While it does go really overboard with it, it's an interesting idea - which is what you can say about a lot of the game, honestly.

4) Circles (Burning Wheel)
Burning Wheel is a very polarizing game, but Circles? Circles are great. Essentially, they're a social stat that you can A) use when you're dealing with that social circle (nobles, farmers, the clergy, etc) and B) use to create new NPCs. The roll is easier if that NPC has already been established to exist, but if you really need that friendly noble to get you invitations to court...

[Khedrac]

Something I like is:
Player only rolling for opposed checks (Lost Souls)
PCs have numeric values for stats and skills, and skill results are grenrated by rolling D%, modifying it by the stat and getting a ranked result - (e.g. poor, average, good, excellent etc.).
NPCs and skill checks just have a ranking (poor, average etc.) - all checks are handled by seeing if the PC's roll can beat the NPC/situation ranking.
Combat damage is covered by weapons having a multiplier - if a PC attacks and beats the NPC's defence ranking by 2
levels of result then they do 2 * their weapon multiplier damage. When a NPC attacks the player rolls defence and for each rank they get below the attack rating they take damage (multiplied if applicable).
The DM never rolls for combat or skill checks, it's just the player.

[Glimbur]

Street Fighter: The RPG has an interesting initiative system. Each round each combatant chooses one of their maneuver cards. Then you start counting initiative up from 0. When your count comes up, you have to declare your action. Anyone faster than you can interrupt. So you can have Cami do a backflip kick to hit Blanka and get away from the grapple he is trying to start. There are a couple modifiers to speed you can get: blocking and combos can both speed you up. Stronger attacks are slower: fierce kick is slower than a short kick but maybe still faster than a siberian suplex. Character speed also affects maneuver speed. It's quick and exciting.

[Laserlight]

A couple from Champions / HERO System:

Each character has a Speed rating, which determines how many actions you can take per turn. For example, Speed 3 acts on 4, 8, 12, Speed 6 acts on 2 4 6 8 10 12. Most PCs are Speed 3-6.

Your powers (attacks, active defense like forcefields, and movement) cost Endurance. If you need to "give it all you've got", you can Push, making your power stronger than normal at increased Endurance cost. When you run out of Endurance, you spend Stun instead, and when you run out of Stun, you go unconscious. It's possible to over exert yourself, get exhausted and pass out.