You, Not Your Gear

 You, Not Your Gear

Description: Characters receive less treasure, especially items that grant special abilities. Instead, they gain more regular boosts to their abilities. In its original format, players recieved 20% less treasure but gained twice as many ability score increases. 

Find it in: The Official Dungeons & Dragons blog circa 2006

Keywords: Epic, Heroic, Low-Magic, Swashbuckling

Genres: Epic Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Martial Arts, Pulp, Superhero, Sword & Sorcery, Western

Steal the Spotlight

Steal the Spotlight

(a.k.a. "Hold my beer", Time to Shine) 

Description: Once per session, characters get to declare that they are grandstanding and showing off their ability. They gain a vastly increased dice pool or double advantage on this roll.

Find it in: The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence (NSFW), Alpha Blue (NSFW)

Keywords: Cinematic, Epic, Fast-paced, Heroic, Pulpy, Swashbuckling 

Genres: Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Martial Arts, Pulp, Science Fiction, Superhero, 

Boosts

Boosts

Contributed by: McChuck 

Description: Characters have Boosts which passively grant bonuses to certain actions. Actively using the boost creates a much greater effect, but reduces the boost by one level. This reduction may be automatic, or determined by a dice roll. Boost levels heal with time, after resting or between play sessions.

Source: House rule, inspired by depletion rolls and Luck Scores.

Keywords: Epic, Heroic, Pulpy, Tactical

Genres: Sword & Sorcery, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Martial Arts, Pulp, Superhero

Evolving Magic Items

Evolving Magic Items

Description: Magic items are exceedingly rare. They begin with a single ability, but gain more abilities as their wielder levels up, allowing magic items to grow with PCs, rather than having PCs find many of them. 
Find it in: Low Fantasy Gaming
Keywords: Weird, Pulpy, Dark, Heroic
Genres: Sword & Sorcery, Low Fantasy 

Failing Forward

Failing Forward

Description: Task resolution rolls that do not indicate success do not mean simply failure that halts forward momentum; instead it means the PCs suffer loss of equipment, injury, or discover another way to progress that creates even more obstacles. A failed roll leads to a narrative complication, not a halt to the action. 
Find it in: the Black Hack, PARANOIA 2017, 
Keywords: Heroic, Light-Hearted, Pulpy
Genres: High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Pulp, Superhero

Simplified Wounds

Simplified Wounds 

Description: Hit points are abstracted either into the number of Wounds that the target can take (in OSR games this is equal to HD). Any hit doing 4 or more damage deals a wound.
Find it in: Dungeoncraft
Keywords: Rules-light, Heroic, Fast-Paced
Genres: Any

Player-Facing Defense

Player-Facing Defense

Description: Game masters do not roll for attack, instead PCs have a defense ability they roll when attacked to beat a set attack value from a monster. 
Find it in: Knave, Maze Rats, Four Against Darkness, the Black Hack
Keywords: Rules-light, Heroic, Tactical, Player-Facing
Genres: Any

Armor as Damage Reduction

Armor as Damage Reduction

Description: Rather than having armor make a PC harder to damage or letting them take more, armor reduces the amount of damage taken on each attack, or allows characters t soak more damage if resistance rolls are used. 
Find it in:  the Black Hack, Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Into the Odd
Keywords: Heroic, Epic, Pulpy
Genres: High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Science Fiction, Superhero, Pulp

Rescues

Rescues

Description: A character may sacrifice their turn and a resource like luck to leap to another NPCs aid, catching them at a cliff's edge, pushing them out of the way of a car, taking a bullet for them. Etc. PC preforming the rescue may be subject to taking damage themselves. 
Find it in: Low Fantasy Gaming
Keywords: Tactical, Swashbuckling, Heroic, Pulpy
Genres: Sword & Sorcery, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Post-apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Pulp, Superhero, Military

Intercepting

Intercepting

Description: A character may sacrifice their turn to run their movement speed and block another moving character from reaching their destination. 
Find it in: Low Fantasy Gaming
Keywords: Tactical, Swashbuckling, Heroic
Genres: Any

Combat Exploits

Combat Exploits

Description: During Combat characters may declare special effects of a combat attack, like disarming, knock back, tripping, blinding, etc., and on a successful attack, a die roll may resolve this effect. More severe or permanent effects may require special Luck checks or limited resources. Missed exploits prevent further exploits against a target until players gain  new tactical advantage. 
Find it in: Low Fantasy Gaming
Keywords: Tactical, Swashbuckling, Heroic, Pulpy
Genres: Sword & Sorcery, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Post-apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Pulp, Superhero, Western