Fishing mechanics?

question
#1

Does anyone have any good fishing mechanics they’d like to share? I run a game for my 2 young boys (7 and 8) and started them on an island with a dungeon crawl, so naturally they were like, “I want to go fishing!”

So, I came up with some mechanics on the fly. Role WIS/INT against the TARGET, if successful, a fish gets on your hook. Then a head to head DEX roll with the fish to see if it slips off the hook. If it stays on, roll for EFFORT (one heart). The next round, roll head to head again, and if it stays on the hook, roll for EFFORT. Rinse/repeat. Once reeled in, roll a d6 to see what kind of fish you got.

My 7 year old lost a fish at 2 effort left twice and started to cry. I told him he could probably find a better fishing pole that gives him +DEX while fishing or something, so he cheered up.

At the end, they caught a few fish, and were jumping up and down yelling how much fun they had. It was awesome.

Just to keep things interesting, I rolled for a random band of goblins each round.

Anyway, it worked out, was a lot of fun, but I ended up wondering if there were some better mechanics out there.

Thanks!

#2

This is hilarious as I just made fishing mechanics a couple weeks ago for mini-game fun. Every good RPG needs a fishing mini-game!

#3

Sounds pretty solid mechanics-wise. Off the top of my head, you could make the opposed rolls best two out of three if you don’t want to calculate Effort, perhaps with a natural 20 equaling an instant catch (Besides poles that increase DEX, you could have some that allow critical successes on lower numbers as well?).

I could also see it as a way to accidentally pick up weird Loot – Roll a d6 behind your screen if you’re using one, and if it matches what your player rolled, they get something off a custom loot table (“At the end of your line is a tin can… that allows you to hear clearly when you put it up against a wall!”)

#4

Allow a wilderness/survival/wisdom check or intelligent check to find the best fishing holes. One might allow a bonus to effort or a lowering of the target number.

But I think contested rolls are good. All in all I think your mechanics are pretty solid!

#5

Thanks for the feedback already everyone!

@fancyscrams, @Paxx, really good recommendations, I think I’m going to try them!

I just want to RANT about how freaking awesome ICRPG is. It makes coming up with mechanics on the fly much easier due to its solid foundation. I’m in love!

#6

Welcome to the obsession!!!

#7

That’s fantastic. Fishing game coming to my table soon!

#8

When we did it I came up with a random loot table of fish with some flavor text (color, pattern, fins, eye size, scaliness, reputation, flavor) just a little blurb for each. Then I gave each one a name based loosely off of a search of the breeds of fish in World of Warcraft. Each one was worth a certain number of points in our game because the winner got an trophy from the town’s festival maiden at the end of a big party.

#9

Absolutely true. I find ways to wedge ICRPG into conversations it has no business being in.

#10

This is a hilarious way to bring in LOOT and a great way to bring in weird ones.