This is a pretty simple question to answer at the moment! We have been playing Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of for some time now. The reason we play is due to a mechanic in it. My group of regulars all have big personalities and playing with them can sometimes be like herding cats. There is a mechanic in this game designed to address just that issue.
Momentum
In Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of you roll D20’s attempting to get under a certain number for a success. The Games Master (GM) determines how many successes are required to pass the test. To start with you get to roll 2 twenty-sided dice as a default but you can roll up to 5 dice but you need to pay for them. Any successes you roll over the number required to succeed is called momentum. Player’s can buy extra dice to roll and cause other effects by spending points out of the momentum pool. This is a bare-bones explanation of the mechanic but is essentially the core to it.
Why is this mechanic so good?
It causes the players to work together. If they can not generate momentum they can still get extra dice. To do so though requires giving the GM Doom. Doom is not good for players overall, hence its name. We tested this game at Free RPG Day 2017 and it works brilliantly. It herds those cats and causes them to plan as a group. Prior to the discovery of this game, most of the players all wanted to play on different plot hooks. Now, they move together as a group and look out for one another. Brilliant mechanic.
Conclusion
This game is not my favourite fantasy game, but it suits the group perfectly. It makes my job as a GM that much easier because it brings the players together in a way I can’t. Keep rolling!
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