Welcome to the new year ... and a new episode of the Lair of Secrets. The main topic for this episode is "Stealing liberally from other game systems to enhance the ones you’re playing". We look at game mechanics like bennies (Savage Worlds), aspects (Fate), skill challenges (Dungeons & Dragons), plot points (Cortex) and more!

Meanwhile, David Moore is almost caught up on the sleep he lost during his escape to and from New York and Ken Newquist is decking the halls and booting up the Christmas tree. Or at least, the Geek Tree.

Escape to (and from) New YorkMacy’s Thanksgiving Day ParadeTrip to New York2/3rds of the band and guard almost didn’t make it due to plane troublesWaited for five hours (6am arrival) for the parade. Met some nice New Yorkers and was overall fairly comfortable even though we stood most of the time.Heat packs on our back helped a lot with thisBoth our kids were in the parade, even though Isleen graduated last year. They were supposed to march last year but Covid.We all had a wonderful and memorable timeWe totally were not allowed enough sleepSuper BoosterKen got his COVID vaccine booster shot. Still waiting on super powers.Powering up the Geek Treet’s a long running tradition in the Newquist household, ever since Ken's geek ornaments started overwhelming the family tree and needed to be exiled to their own tree.The Geek Tree is a 9-foot tall slender artificial tree … and last year, Ken officially had too many ornaments to put on it.So … this year he's doing themes for the first time.And that theme is “Star Trek”. The tree has 34 ornaments (mostly starships), with Deep Space Nine as the tree topper.Oldest ornament is the Shuttlecaft Galileo (1992, string powered)Favorite is The City on the Edge of Forever (2004, string powered, sound seems to be failing)Newest is a trio of “Mirror, Mirror” networked ornaments featuring the Enterprise crew reciting lines from the famous (infamous?) episode.Hoping to come up with some “galaxy” and “nebula” Christmas ornaments for the tree (look, ma, glitter!)Also: Paper starships.Learn more about the Geek Tree at Nuketown.

Main Topic: Stealing liberally from other game systems to enhance the ones you’re playing

Skill challenges in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (taken from D&D 4e, Star Wars: Saga Edition)Bennies as incentives (Savage Worlds, Fate, Cortex)Give players in-game rewards to take risks (let the plot points fall like rain)Flaws as incentivesOk, you’re a marked man with a death wish? Does it actually ever come into play?Narrative control mechanics (Cortex; spend dice to change a scene)Downtime/travel narrative mechanics (Savage Worlds, Blades in the Dark, Scum and Villainy, D&D 5th Edition)Compels from Fate - get your character into trouble in exchange for a Fate point reward to be used later, able to be resisted if the player doesn’t want to be compelled

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A few of our favorite games to steal from: the Firefly Role-Playing Game, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, Scum & Villainy, Savage Worlds, Fate Condensed