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
Description: Match-, wheel-, or Flint-Lock weapons take too long to load to be reloaded in battle without a hireling to load it, thus they may be fired only once per battle unless the character also carries (potentially explosive) pre-prepared shot, wadding, and powder bundles (called "apostles.")
Find it in: Lamentations of the Flame Princess
Keywords: Exploration, Fast-paced, Gritty, Pulpy, Rules-light, Swashbuckling
Genres: Crime, Dark Fantasy, Pulp
Description: Used in TTRPGs that use a Luck Scores. When a party of PCs is attempting to fled a battle they make Luck Checks, if more than half the party succeeds, then the party shakes their attackers and winds up in a relatively safe location that the GM chooses. Alternatively, everyone who succeeds escapes. This removes the need for chase mechanics.
Find it in: Low Fantasy Gaming
Keywords: Cinematic, Fast-paced, Pulpy, Rules-light, Swashbuckling
Genres: Crime, Low Fantasy, Pulp, Sword & Sorcery, Western
Description: Characters may once per day recover from a small amount injury by drinking alcohol.
Found In: Age of Conan, D&D3.5
Keywords: Pulpy, Swashbuckling
Genres: Sword & Sorcery, Western, Martial Arts, Crime, Military
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
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
Description: Combat-oriented characters may declare special effects of a combat attack, like disarming, knock back, tripping, blinding, etc., and get variable success based on a roll of a die.
Find it in: Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG
Keywords: Weird, Fantastical, Dark, Tactical, Swashbuckling
Genres: Sword & Sorcery, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Post-apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Pulp, Superhero
Description: Sacrifice Armor effectiveness to reduce damage.
Find it in: Right Here
Keywords: Fantastical, Tactical, Heroic, Cinematic, Swashbuckling
Genres: Sword & Sorcery, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Science Fiction, Post-apocalyptic, Pulp
