Game systems

Environment

The world itself: time of day, weather, seasons, elements, and terrain.

• Crop Growth

  Planted plots hold crops that advance through stages of growth as days, rounds or hours pass, helped by water, soil and care, until they are harvested for sale or use or wither from neglect, drought or a season's end

  ClockBoard & card · VideoUnverified

• Day-Night Cycle

  The world passes through day and night on a repeating clock, and the hour changes what can be seen, which enemies appear and how dangerous they are, and what is open, so players plan their actions around the time

  ClockTabletop RPG · Video

• Destructible Terrain

  Terrain and structures hold a damage state that weapons and tools break and that stays broken, so craters, holes and collapses change footing, paths, cover and lines of fire for the rest of the round or level

  Player actionVideoUnverified

• Dynamic Weather

  Weather changes during play, drawn at random or simulated region by region, and alters movement, combat, equipment or damage rather than only the scenery, so players plan around conditions they do not control

  AutonomousBoard & card · Tabletop RPG · Video

• Light Sources

  Torches, lamps and fires that the player carries or places burn down with moves or time and are renewed from a limited stock, while the darkness beyond them slows, harms or reveals the party, so light is a supply spent to stay safe

  Player actionTabletop RPG · VideoUnverified

• Pollution

  Industry, power and traffic emit pollution that builds up where it is made or on a shared track, lowering health, land value, yields or growth or bringing disaster, until it is cleaned up, absorbed or cut by cleaner production

  AutonomousVideo · Board & card

• Seasons and Calendar

  The game keeps a calendar of days and seasons, and the season decides what grows, what can be gathered and which events and festivals occur, so work is planned across a year that ends or repeats on schedule

  ClockBoard & card · VideoUnverified

• Spreading Blight

  A hostile substance or biome spreads over the map's ground by its own rule and turns what it reaches into its own kind, which stays turned, so the player builds, fights and digs to hold it back or cleanse it

  AutonomousVideo · Board & cardUnverified

• Systemic Elements

  Elements such as fire, water and wind are held as states of the world's terrain and materials and spread from place to place by rule, so where a fire runs and what it consumes follow from the simulation rather than a script

  AutonomousBoard & card · VideoUnverified

Inhabitants

Non-player characters and creatures as agents: rivals, routines, and ecology.

• Alert Phases

  One detection puts every guard in an area into a shared alarm that brings more guards and takes away the player's aids, and the area steps back through searching and wariness to normal on timers or when cleared

  Player actionVideo · Board & cardUnverified

• Contagion

  A disease passes by contact or nearness from character to character or place to place, often after a delay and in rising outbreaks, and is checked by cures, vaccination, isolation or quarantine, so the player races to contain it

  AutonomousVideo · Board & card · Tabletop RPGUnverified

• Ecosystem Simulation

  Creatures feed, hunt, fight and starve among themselves on their own rules whether or not the player is present, so the predators, prey and populations the player meets rise and fall with a food supply the player also draws on

  AutonomousBoard & card · VideoUnverified

• Nemesis System

  Enemies are generated as named individuals in a ranked hierarchy who remember their encounters with the player; one who kills the player is promoted and one who escapes returns for a rematch, so rivalries form out of play

  Player actionVideoUnverified

• NPC Schedules

  Non-player characters keep daily routines keyed to the game clock, working, eating, sleeping and moving between places, so where a character can be found and whether a conversation, shop or quest is open depend on the hour

  ClockVideo

• Queue Management

  Visitors or patients queue for rides, rooms or staff that serve a fixed number at a time, and the wait wears down their patience and comfort, so long queues lower satisfaction and send them out of the park or hospital

  AutonomousVideo

Society

Law, factions, and territory: collective bodies that hold an attitude or ground.

• AI Diplomacy

  Computer-run rival powers hold attitudes toward the player and one another, moved by deeds, agendas, broken treaties and relative strength, and act on them; they set the price of peace, vote in councils and declare war

  AutonomousVideoUnverified

• Army Supply Limits

  Each province or area can feed only so many troops, set by its wealth, terrain, season and who holds it, and troops above that limit waste away or must disband, so armies spread out and losses are refilled from a slow inflow of men

  AutonomousVideo · Board & cardUnverified

• Civic Unrest

  A population's stored satisfaction, set by its growth, living conditions, amenities and laws, decides how much it works and pays; at its low end production stops, rebels arise, or the people remove the ruler

  AutonomousVideo · Board & cardUnverified

• Crew Mutiny

  A crew's stored morale falls with time at sea, short rations, unpaid wages, thin shares or fear, and recovers with plunder, pay or time ashore; at its low end the crew deserts at port or mutinies against its captain

  Player actionVideo · Tabletop RPGUnverified

• Crime and Bounty

  Crimes that witnesses report put a price on the player's head, kept per region or authority, that outlasts any chase and sends hunters until the player pays it, serves time, or removes its source

  Player actionVideoUnverified

• Domain Management

  A ruler holds lands on a periodic turn; holdings yield taxes and owe upkeep, the subjects' contentment moves with taxes and events and cuts revenue or turns to revolt when it falls, and vassals and heirs carry the realm on

  ClockVideo · Tabletop RPGUnverified

• Election Cycles

  Elections fall due on a schedule, and a simulated electorate split into groups or regions turns a ruler's record or a party's platform into votes, tracked beforehand by polls, so that each count wins or costs office or points

  ClockBoard & card · VideoUnverified

• Faction Warfare

  Factions in the game world declare war and peace, make and break alliances and rise or fall by their own rules between the player's actions, and the war moves the player's standing with each side, so the player can join or tip it

  AutonomousTabletop RPG · VideoUnverified

• Generational Heirs

  Play passes from a character who dies or whose part ends to an heir, who takes over the family's holdings, standing or traits, so the player's line outlives its members and marriages and births decide who comes next

  ClockTabletop RPG · VideoUnverified

• Wanted Level

  Crimes the authorities see or learn of raise a level held in tiers, each tier sends a stronger response up to an elite unit, and the level clears when the player escapes notice, pays, or is arrested at a price

  Player actionTabletop RPG · VideoUnverified

Economy

Prices, production, and demand across a simulated population or market.

• Population Cap

  Every unit a side fields takes room under a ceiling that its houses, farms, depots or held centres provide, so production stops at the ceiling until more housing is built or taken, and housing competes with the army for resources

  Player actionBoard & card · Video

• Simulated Economy

  Simulated producers and consumers in towns, factories or populations turn goods into other goods and use them up, so supply, demand and prices change without the player, who trades in, builds into or disrupts the running economy

  AutonomousVideo

• Traffic Simulation

  Simulated trips or vehicles travel over the roads and rails the player lays, each stretch carries a limited load, and the congestion that forms slows or fails trips, which feeds back into growth, ratings or defeat

  AutonomousVideo

• Utility Networks

  Power, water or fluid travels from producing buildings to consuming ones through lines and pipes the player lays, and the simulation weighs supply against consumption on each network, so buildings work, slow or fail as capacity allows

  AutonomousVideo · Board & card

• Zoning Demand

  The player designates land for kinds of use instead of placing buildings, and simulated demand for homes, shops and jobs decides what grows there, while roads, utilities, neighbours and taxes feed back into that demand

  AutonomousVideo

Body

The avatar's physiology: needs, injury, and exposure.

• Damage Control

  Damage to a ship lands in its systems or compartments, knocking them out, starting fires or breaching the hull, and stays until the crew repairs it, often mid-fight and at the cost of fighting, while fire, lost air and flooding worsen

  Player actionBoard & card · VideoUnverified

• Fatigue and Sleep

  Exertion, wounds or hours without rest wear a character down toward penalties or a forced halt, and recovery needs rest or sleep that costs time, a safe place, money or risk, so when and where to rest is a recurring decision

  Player actionTabletop RPG · Board & card · Video

• Injury System

  Harm leaves named injuries on body parts, such as a broken limb, bleeding or a destroyed organ, that carry their own penalties and persist after the fight until treated with specific care, apart from or on top of hit points

  Player actionTabletop RPG · VideoUnverified

• Survival Loop

  Needs such as hunger, thirst, warmth and rest drain with time, exertion and exposure, and the player finds or gathers food and water, crafts tools and builds shelter to refill them, so staying alive frames the rest of play

  ClockBoard & card · Video

Pacing

Systems that meter encounters and intensity over a session.

• AI Director

  A controller reads the players' recent state, such as damage taken, position and pressure, and adjusts spawns, item placement and threat during play, alternating peaks of intensity with lulls instead of following a fixed script

  AdaptiveVideoUnverified

• Dynamic World Events

  Authored encounters start in a shared world on a timer, schedule or trigger, are open to every player present, and resolve by stages into success or failure that decides what the area and its next event become

  AutonomousVideoUnverified

• Settlement Raids

  Attacks on the player's base or settlement come on a schedule or as it grows, with a size read from its wealth, population or the player's progress, so building up draws larger raids against the walls and defenders it pays for

  AdaptiveVideo · Board & cardUnverified

Drivers

Clock

State advances on a schedule that could be printed in advance. Crop Growth, Day-Night Cycle, Domain Management, Election Cycles, Generational Heirs, NPC Schedules, Seasons and Calendar, Survival Loop

Player action

State builds up or decays from what the player does. Alert Phases, Crew Mutiny, Crime and Bounty, Damage Control, Destructible Terrain, Fatigue and Sleep, Injury System, Light Sources, Nemesis System, Population Cap, Wanted Level

Autonomous

Simulated agents or processes change state on their own rules, whether or not the player acts. AI Diplomacy, Army Supply Limits, Civic Unrest, Contagion, Dynamic Weather, Dynamic World Events, Ecosystem Simulation, Faction Warfare, Pollution, Queue Management, Simulated Economy, Spreading Blight, Systemic Elements, Traffic Simulation, Utility Networks, Zoning Demand

Adaptive

The system reads the player's state or performance and adjusts to it. AI Director, Settlement Raids

Domain by driver and part

Most-combined mechanics