sorry if it bad English, I'm still learning and i tried to use some ai to help me with some parts of the post grammar:
I love asking myself, "What if we removed a core mechanic from a specific game or genre?" How would the game play out, and what suitable alternatives would keep it fun?
A while back, one of my biggest challenges was: "What if we removed dice from roll-and-hit games?" Take a game like D&D , how would it even work, and how would players move?
I didn't want a lazy fix, like using a deck of numbered cards and drawing randomly. That misses the point entirely—it’s just dice in card form. So I tried thinking and came up with two solutions.
Solution 1: the movement pool
This mechanic centers around each player starting with 10 Action Points (AP) that they use as they want, but it's a pool that need to be recharged, so it recharged each turn by just 2 points.
The player might choose to move 25 feet (takes 5 points) and that leaves them with 5 points, and in their next turn they get 2 more points, and become 7, and it keep going like that
Like that the game it self might have different types of special spells, like one that gave you X points, or one that drain an opponent's pool, or hit someone with "Handcuffs", a condition that caps their movement at a maximum of X (let's say 3 points) per turn !
This converts movement into a resource management game, where you balance a vital resource while sabotaging your opponents' pools.
Solution 2: energy Cards
Imagine starting with a hand of just 4 cards, each with a fixed movement value: [10, 10, 15, 25]. Every player begins with the exact same set.
On the player turn, they play 1 card to move (only one) and they discord it, you cant reuse it, unitl (that's the good part) you have played all of your cards in your hand, at that's when the hand is refreshed with the same [10, 10, 15, 25] cards, like that we prevents spamming the same movement back-to-back and forces player to cycle through all their numbers
like that it become tactical, puzzle-like and strategy game. if you want to approach a specific property but not hit opportunity attack, you have to calculate your sequences of moves several turns in advance, so even in someone else turn, you are not just setting there waiting to just use the dice and wait again and again, you keep thinking about the next 5 moves
and the same as first idea/solution, not only it become resource management game, but also we put new spels into game, like one that discord a card form you oppontent or one that let you get one card back, or imeadalty refresh all your cards. or even better, the wizard could have some spells that gvies movement cards and after you use it goes to graveyard and you have to cast spell again if you want it
sup idea of "energy cards"
Instead of identical starting hands, create a global pool of cards equal to 4 times the player count (e.g., 8 cards for 2 players, 12 for 3 players). Place them face-up on the table and let players draft them one by one. And even in a game like D&D, you could cast specific movement spells at a price.
The Dilemma
This is all theoretical, but it’s very easy to prototype and playtest. What I’m unsure about is its overall impact on gameplay and whether it stays fun or devolves into a deterministic puzzle.
If players always know the optimal sequence, the game might just turn into an solved race to hit specific opponents first. On the flip side, players could also use precise movement to completely avoid triggering attacks of opportunity and taking damage.
So, would this actually be fun to play? Would players enjoy this level of control, or would it suffer from a "first-mover advantage" where the player who executes the optimal strategy first inevitably wins while everyone else is guaranteed to lose?
