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CA had commented on how rules effect the story that the PCs are in by altering it's tone. As he quoted "the medium is the message." Understanding how a rule alters the tone of game play is important for any designer to understand. I think a lot of times we design by saying I think this is cool. We may know a rule enhances a certain style of play instinctively, but what if there were other rules that would enhance the effect you're after?

Instead of saying "my game uses a dice pool." it would be so much more convincing to be able to explain why that's awesome.

There may be categories of rules that evoke a certain feel but I don't think we could pick that out of the air (maybe CA could he seems to have been thinking about this). So I'm thinking of just attacking this concept by concept and then maybe forming some structure later. Here are some examples of the thought process off the top of my head.

Additive Dice Pool - Gives the feeling of action. Lots of dice makes it seem like the roll is significant. Helps to evoke a active or momentous feeling.

Single die rolls - A simple action with a readily understood result. Important for when the results are intended to be arrived at quickly. Helps to make the roll the roll a low mental investment and faster feeling.

Opposed Dice Rolls - Sets up a direct conflict between characters. Gives the feeling of the players challenging other players (including the GM) directly.

I don't even know if I've got those right but it's a start. What kind of mechanic evokes what quality in your games?

I think this kind of stuff comes out in playtesting a lot too.

There's a rule, or a concept, that you might think is going to help your tone out but in reality it has the opposite effect, or a different effect and then you can find out if you can live with it, have to change it, or like the different effect.

Those are some good additions.

At least with the magic, I didn't really state it well, but there is obviously a different feeling between D&D Vancian Magic (one use and its gone) vs Ars MAgica "Verb + Noun" to create an effect. So there will need to be a place to analyze supernatural power systems.

Another possible analysis is types of character creation. Point buy lets you create the character you want, though it often takes more time. The player is in turn a bit more invested in the character. Meanwhile, random roll gives you more of a playing piece you're not necessarily as connected too, but some people like the challenge of the character you get over the one you build, since you can't always have everything. "Life path" and background systems help straddle this line since they can add some randomness to point buy systems, and a bit of tension since there is a chance of a penalty rather than extra ability.

Roll-Under would seem to have the twin strengths of simplicity and character focus. All the target numbers are there in front of the player rather than on different charts, and it is the avatar's physical/mental limitations that set the difficulty of of a task, not some outside list. Furthermore, you can tell at a glance how hard something will be for any given individual, whereas a static target number does not always work out as descriptive for everyone. A target of ten vs skill of one is a bit better than 50/50 on a d20, and almost guaranteed with a skill of nine.

Comparative dice rolls set up whether the task is player vs fate/universe, or struggling with others. In a realistic setting, you can't dodge bullets or arrows, so the too-hit number is static based on range/size/light/etc. whereas in a heroic setting you can be proactive about avoiding these things.

For combat seeking, XP rewards based on combat success.

For Morality, XP rewards based on certain behaviors. Actually XP might be able to put itself into almost any of the categories.

Just XP in general gives a feeling. It's most often referred to as a reward so the the idea is "good job" but it also gives the player the feeling that they're making progress.

Experience should generally be a reward to reinforce the behaviors encouraged by the other rules and the setting, rather than the sole motivator. There are a few ways it works in isolation - giving the character a history and balancing game elements.

Advancing by level and having all skills go up at once, reinforces competence, and can give a sense of progress. Four or five advancements in D&D makes a big difference and you can certainly feel/see how a character has improved. Simply improving skills with XP doesn't quite have the same blanket power increase, so advancement is a bit more subtle. D&D leveling lets you go from apprentice to renowned hero, points in storyteller, not so much.

It can also encourage/discourage different classes or types of play. Historically, clerics took more experience than other classes, to balance that they were very powerful (almost as good as a fighter in combat, yet has spells like the mage).

Then there are some fun tricks with handing our XP. I've seen several games where the player's vote or nominate others for the reward. At least one that offers the option of using no XP so people are focused on the game, not the future. Mekton has two reward schedules - you can be a seasoned character that starts with extra skills but advances slowly, or a young one with few skills, but twice the rewards every session (mirroring anime where the student surpasses the mentor eventually). In D&B you level up other characters (group cohesion) or heal yourself (defecting) part of my design to create tension.

Back in high-school, my group had a house rule for rewarding the GM experience. It went towards leveling up the characters they weren't playing, and let the others give feedback on how the session went. I'm surprised more games don't include some sort of GM boon, thanks, or review.

This thread is really reminding me of the "Game Mechanism of the Week" series that I wrote on my blog a couple of years ago. I really started delving into the way certain game mechanisms impact the play of the story and the flow of the narrative in a few of the posts from the series.

Do you have a link to it? It might be really helpful.