Game mechanics are rules that dictate how a game behaves. They can be a simple as "roll a die to see if your sword hits the orc", to as complicated as an AI that stalks you through air vents. Be it a board game, a card game, a Tabletop Game, or a Video Game, these mechanics set games apart from other media, and unite them in their differences. From chess, to Dungeons & Dragons, to Halo, to Cards Against Humanity, these mechanics are what make games games.
See also "Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics" for one of the earliest formal definitions of the term "gameplay mechanic".
Tropes:
Related indices
- Gameplay Randomization
- Gaming Stat Tropes
- Instructive Level Design
- Levels and Experience Tropes
- Not the Way It Is Meant to Be Played
- Stock Videogame Puzzle
- Tabletop Game Tropes
- Tabletop RPG Tropes
- Video Game A.I.
- Video Game Effects and Spells
- Video Game Interface Elements
- Video Game Items and Inventory
- Video Game Physics
- Video Game Rewards
- Ability Depletion Penalty: Don't use up all of this meter or you'll be punished.
- Action Initiative: How the game chooses who goes first in a battle.
- Aggressive Play Incentive: Take risks and be aggressive. The game will reward you.
- Bad Luck Mitigation Mechanic: Rare things become more common when they don't happen after a while.
- Blending-In Stealth Gameplay: Sneak around by blending in with the environment.
- Borrowing from the Sister Series: The developers took a mechanic from one series and used it in another.
- Breakable Weapons: Your weapons only have a limited amount of uses.
- Causality Mechanic: Change the past to affect the future.
- Character Level: Visualize your character getting stronger by earning levels.
- Checkpoint: Respawn from here if you die.
- Chunky Salsa Rule
- Class Change Level Reset: Changing a class sends you back to level 1.
- Close-Contact Danger Benefit
- Color-Coded Item Tiers: Special items are colored to indicate their tier and rarity.
- Combatant Cooldown System
- Comeback Mechanic: Losing players are given advantages.
- Common Tactical Gameplay Elements
- Context-Sensitive Button
- Creature-Breeding Mechanic
- Critical Failure
- Critical Hit
- Critical Status Buff
- Damage Reduction
- Damage Typing
- Death as Game Mechanic
- Desperation Attack
- Diagonal Speed Boost
- Discard and Draw
- Drafting Mechanic
- Entry Point: The player's way into an Alternate Reality Game.
- Epileptic-Friendly Filter: When a toggle setting.
- Event Flag
- Experience Points
- Extra Turn
- Extrinsic Go-First Rule
- Fast-Killing Radiation
- Finishing Move
- First-Player Advantage Mitigation
- Full Health Bonus: This works better if you have all your health.
- Hidden Mechanic
- Hit Points: How much health you and others have.
- Item-Drop Mechanic
- Game Hunting Mechanic
- Gameplay Randomization
- Karma Meter: Be nice or mean, and the game keeps track of it.
- Level Drain
- Level Limiter
- Limit Break
- Literal Wild Card
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic
- Mana
- Manipulating the Opponent's Deck
- Maximum HP Reduction
- Meteor Move
- Minigame: A smaller game where you have to...
- Betting Mini-Game: Gamble money.
- Fishing Minigame: Reel 'em in.
- Hacking Minigame: Hack some software.
- Herding Mission: Round 'em up.
- Lockpicking Minigame: Pick a lock.
- Persuasion Minigame: Convince someone.
- Racing Minigame: Put it in gear.
- Morale Mechanic
- Newbie Immunity: The game makes it impossible to lose or less penalizing than it normally is at the beginning.
- No Saving Throw
- Onesie Armor
- Out-of-Turn Interaction
- Platform-Activated Ability
- Player Elimination
- Point Build System
- Prestige Class
- Random Drops: Items that only have a certain chance of being dropped.
- Rate-Limited Perpetual Resource: A resource that's impossible to run out of, but only a certain amount can be used or taken at a time.
- Real-Time with Pause
- Reduced Resource Cost
- Resources Management Gameplay
- Respawn Point
- Resting Recovery
- RPG Elements
- Scoring Points: Earn points, whether or not they do anything.
- Scripted Event: Events that always play out the same way.
- Self-Damaging Attack Backfire
- Single Player Gauntlet
- Skill Scores and Perks
- Skill Slot System
- Special Attack
- Spell Crafting
- Spell Levels
- Status Effects
- Stat Meters
- Stat Overflow: Your stat has a cap. This mechanic or item will allow you to temporarily surpass it.
- Status Buff: Temporary bonuses.
- Tiebreaker Round
- Time Rewind Mechanic
- Trickster Game
- Turn-Based Combat: You and the enemies take turns until the battle ends.
- Underused Game Mechanic: Why isn't this cool thing used as much as it should be?
- Uniqueness Rule
- Video Game Delegation Penalty
- Video Game Sliding
- Video Game Stealing
- Wrap Around: Go off one side of the screen and come out the other.
