What Specific Game Mechanics Make You Say "Cool!"
Patiently waiting for the zombie apocalypse...
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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Now, I've yet to create a GeekList that really strikes a chord here on BGG... and that is ok. However, I have a BGG goal this summer. So here I go again.
In my enthusiastic, though short, experience in the board gaming world, I have come to love many things about board games, but for many games I come to really enjoy certain specific mechanics or aspects. Now, I am not talking about generic mechanics, i.e. "I like auction games." I am talking about specific game mechanics that really make players say, "Now that is pretty cool...."
So I'm going to start a list, by no means all encompassing, of specific gaming mechanics that really stand out to me. I encourage all BGGers to add their items and tell why they enjoy said mechanic.
Edit: WOW!  I just want to say a big THANKS to all the contributors and comments added to this GeekList! This has truly been a lot of fun watching one of my first GeekLists really take off! ONE BIG  FOR ALL OF YOU!
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151.
Board Game: Don
[Average Rating:6.20 Overall Rank:1710]
Jason John
United States
Whitinsville
Massachusetts
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Excuse me if anyone has already mentioned this, but the fact that this game gives dual meanings of bids makes it interesting. The cards are numbered from 0-9. Owning a certain # restricts you from being able to make bids that end in that number (so, if I have a 5, I can't bid 5, 15, 25, ect.) In addition, if someone else makes a bid with that number as the last digit, then you get their money (or split it with anyone else who has that number.) This addition adds a bit of spice to the auctions.
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152.
Board Game: Genoa
[Average Rating:7.32 Overall Rank:158]
Michael Mehl
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
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The mechanic that made me say cool was the power of influence over the lead trader. There is a lot of table talk and trading your goods, messages, and delivery cards can make for an interesting game. I really liked this one and left the table thinking it is a great title by Mr. Dorn.
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Ray Jankowski
United States
Overland Park
Kansas
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The whole ebb and flow of this game made me say 'cool!'.....Building up your population as much as you can, and then after the death ship comes you feel a sense of desperation as you're trying to keep them alive before the game is over.
Love this game!
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154.
Board Game: Macao
[Average Rating:7.48 Overall Rank:132]
John Chapin
United States
Barnhart
Missouri
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Macao has a unique way of allocating action points. There are 6 colors of action cubes. Each of which has the same number of city squares and offices. At the beginning of each turn (after card selection) the 6 colored dice are rolled. Each player may take 2 dice worth of action cubes. You have to balance taking a few cubes for now and taking a bunch of cubes for future turns in order to manage card activation, shipping, player position, and commodity purchasing. Excellent game based largely around this wonderful mechanic.
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Patrick Cassidy
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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This may have already been mentioned, but I love that Malifaux uses a standard deck of playing cards for resolution instead of dice. But what really makes this mechanic shine is that it isn't just a "d13" system, but that the suits of cards matter and can trigger additional effects. What is also innovative is that you have a hand of cards to play and 'cheat fate' and replace your result. Your hand gets refreshed at the beginning of every round, so you want to use high AND low cards from your hand. If you only use good ones, eventually you'll just have a hand full of junk and you won't have much control over the game.
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Sean Murphy
Ireland
Ballincollig
Cork
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the use of the vacuum cleaner (which arrives through a time warp) to catch fleas is pretty cool but the mechanic which most appeals is that graveyards are open (the objective is to dump bodies in graveyards) for a period of real time vs game time and the criteria for opening include factors such as whether it is raining (in the real world) this adds to the atmosphere and mayhem.
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Julio Escandon
Mexico
Hidalgo
Texas
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The auction system in Cyclades let you bid not only for turn order but for the god's favors defining your actions this turn. I love that each action is linked to a god favor thematically (Ares for battle, Apollo for money, Athenea for philosophers, etc.)
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Will Allbritain
United States
Foresthill
California
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The idea of having each suspect, location, etc., be represented by two cards instead of one really upped the interest factor for me. Add the ability of cards to change hands, and good note-taking becomes very important.
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Perry Fergin
United States
Baltimore
MD
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No brainer: the Power Cards.
(For those unfamiliar: you have a hand of cards numbered 1-5. For challenges and fights, you choose one of your cards and add it to a randomly chosen card. But that's just the beginning of the brilliance. The game must really be played to appreciate it.)
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Perry Fergin
United States
Baltimore
MD
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The movement ruler. It tells you how to move your ship, and even how to turn.
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161.
Board Game: Finca
[Average Rating:7.08 Overall Rank:282]
Gary Averett
United States
Salt Lake City
Utah
uh...whose turn is it?
I spent 100gg for this?!?!
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I like the rondel on this one, I'm not sure how similar it is to other rondel games, but I like this, you move as many spaces as the number of pawns on your starting space and take as many resources as there are pawns on your destination space, cool stuff.
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Matthew Eklund
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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It's not even close to the best mechanic in the game... but the brainmap certainly stands out as one of the ones that made me go "cool".
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Stefano Crespi
Italy
Bologna
Italy
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I love the way casualties are determined in battles.
It depends on how many swords are depicted on the cards (upper half) you play.
It doesn't matter if you win or lose, you decide how much samurai your opponent will lose.
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chet carmody
United States
California
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I really like the "recapture" bit.
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Ray Diebel
United States
Phildelphia
Pennsylvania
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The whole MOVE/LOAD concept based on all players having to use their OWN card combination based on a common die roll, AND the fact that the card combination has a STage 1 (Day) and Stage 2 (Night) portion is the most unique concept I've come across.
The hardest part is teaching it, since every one sees a number, so when it's their turn, their instict is to MOVE that many. But NOPE, doesn't work that way!
The other two beautiful things that result from this mechanic is
1. Players have the same 11 cards, but get them at different times. In essence, players are bound to go through their hands twice befor the game ends, and this ends up keeping the game "close" almost every step of the way, and
2. when the perfect dice are thrown, but they are layed opposite your needs (noght on day or day on night) and that just totally ticks you off. AND, just when you think you resolved which of your three cards you intend to play, the guy who goes before you lands on the treasure that made your card perfect!
GREAT GAME!!!! AWESOME MECHANIC!!!!
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Peter Elsenheimer
United States
Howard City
Michigan
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In the Seven Dragons card game, the starting dragon is silver, which is a "wild card" color until someone declares it (with an appropriate card) a different constant color; that declaration of color change is optional! Throughout the game, that same dragon can be changed again, even back to silver. I find this optional and varying wild mechanic utterly "Cool!" This mechanic adds options to the players, and increases the level of strategy for the players in reaching their goals.
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Rob Steward
United States
Meridian
Idaho
Brought to you by the letter R... r... r...
Hold. Your. Fire.
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Time traveling, represented by three sections on the board.
Buildings built in the past "ripple" forward into the future.
Cool. (And really hard to get your head around.) But cool. 
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Kevin Shillinglaw
Canada
Kitchener
Ontario
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I love the bidding mechanic for two reasons.
First, with each auction you win that is one less piece to bid with later. You must choose what auctions to win and lose.
Second, the way bidding works. I bid on a neighbourhood. The next player then bids on an adjacent neighbourhood and so on. This means you never start on the neighbourhood you actually want. Start someplace else and try to move the bidding to where you want it to go.
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Kevin Shillinglaw
Canada
Kitchener
Ontario
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I love the "partial knowledge" of how the commodities will fluctuate. Especially when I see a player buying a lot of a commodity and I have the cards to plummet the price.
Not so much when it happens to me.
Also, I love the fact that whoever donates the least to charity CAN'T win, no matter how much money they have. And since you donate with commodities, you may be reducing your net worth making sure you have a chance to win.
Simply delicious.
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Kevin Shillinglaw
Canada
Kitchener
Ontario
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The double sided goods cards are very cool.
When you deliver goods you flip them over. This way you may suddenly have a huge supply of a type of good (combined with what was already at the planet) to pick up. However, if two of the flipped delivered cards match, then those cards are discarded from the game.
Very awesome!
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Two Steps Ahead
United States
Fairfax
Virginia
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Transparent cards that can be played on top of other cards to modify them. The laminate material must be really expensive; otherwise I can't understand why no one except Atlas Games has used this idea.
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for the "dump bodies" mechanic.
Dayton
Ohio
It's the game mechanic of the future, baby!
Sanger
California
feel free to point out the fact that i can't read where people are from when making points. i just laughed my self to tears over that.
Alton
Illinois
1. Your definition is for "mechanics", not "mechanic".
2. The only definitions given for "mechanic" from dictionary.com are as follows:
me·chan·ic /məˈkænɪk/ [muh-kan-ik] –noun
1. a person who repairs and maintains machinery, motors, etc.: an automobile mechanic.
2. a worker who is skilled in the use of tools, machines, equipment, etc.
3. Slang. a person skilled in the dishonest handling of cards, dice, or other objects used in games of chance.
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[Origin: 1350–1400; ME: mechanical < L méchanicus < Gk méchanikós, equiv. to méchan() machine + -ikos -ic]
3. If you're going to try to manipulate definitions to support your argument, make sure they're the correct ones for the correct word.
4. I'm right; you're wrong.
II. 3. Mechanism, mechanical structure. Obs.
1605 BACON Of the Aduancement of Learning II. sig. Ll1v, "The fault being in the very frame and Mechanicke of the parte".
So the word has a fine precedent for legitimate usage in the sense in which it's in common use on the Geek -- even the best of pedants can be undone by inadequate scholarly resources!
Royal Leamington Spa
Warwickshire