I'm not sure where exactly my love of unconventional mechanics came from, I just know that when I encounter them in the wild (other indie games) I feel this excited surprise bubble up in my chest and I think "Oh My God, This is so fucking creative. I never would have thought of this." and I become immediately obsessed with it, usually instantly evangelizing the mechanic, its game and its designer to my friends- some of whom are also designers or game industry professionals, some of whom don't play games at all but let me talk about them whenever I want (I am very lucky that way).
By unconventional mechanics I mean game mechanics that are not the classic card/dice-based mechanics that are typical of games historically. Rock/Paper/Scissors is too common of a tiebreaker, so I consider it relatively conventional a mechanic in this context, too. I'm talking about, for example, games like Kick Rocks (or its companion Kick Garlic), a role-playing/storytelling game played by physically kicking along a rock on a walk and the events of the story being determined by the directions the rock goes etc., designed by the incredible Charu Patel. Cannot recommend either or both of these games enough.
Tumbling Block Towers (Think JENGA) started as a somewhat unconventional mechanic when employed in TTRPGs and now have risen in use, often citing the, arguably foundational TTRPG in this conversation, The Wretched by Chris Bissette. The Wretched is a solo journaling TTRPG that uses cards, a microphone and a tumbling block tower, and when talking about games that have inspired a plethora of new ideas and games this is a big one. From The Wretched came then the System Reference Document (SRD) Wretched & Alone by Matt Sanders of the Sealed Library, written in consultation with Chris Bissette himself, designed to help designers create their own games using The Wretched's system, and boy have they.
One of my personal favorites of this genre is BustBlockers by StarshineScribbles, one of my all time favorite designers. The day I have serious disposable (or any) income I plan on buying StarshineScribbles' entire catalogue, I can't recommend exploring their page enough. BustBlockers was so fun and intriguing to me conceptually immediately I've been developing a limited web-series AP for it for a year now.
Another favorite of the Tumbling Block Tower using games is Kaiju Don't Care About You by Cicada Human. Kaiju Don't Care About You is such a vividly exciting and incredibly easy game to pick up. It's a single-player as well and I was so eager to play it when I discovered it that I, lacking a physical tumbling block tower at the time, stacked a bunch of my pens atop each other a la Pick-Up-Stix (Another interesting concept for an unconventional mechanic!) and played through it by pulling them out without disturbing the others and rebalancing them. And this game is so captivating that even with my wobbly stack of pens it was an incredibly fun time. (I'm also producing a found footage style radio-play podcast (inspired by Cloverfield and the radio-play War of the Worlds) of Kaiju Don't Care About You.
(Perhaps producing APs is my love language.)
Another example of unconventional mechanics within TTRPGs includes, in my opinion, creating a less than conventional end result if your play, for example Void 1680AM by Ken Lowery, which uses cards and dice in combination with recording equipment and, if you like, even recordings from other people posing as your stations' callers and your own musical media collection! (See, told you dice and cards could end up making something less than conventional). I really look forward to creating my own broadcast with this game, as a lifelong radio enthusiast myself. My CD Collection and I are eager to see what story we have tell through this system.
Sometimes unconventional mechanics have nothing to do with a physical tool so much as they rely on the unpredictability of behavior or the physical limits of our own bodies. Last month I saw stopwatches used in a way I had never considered, it was gorgeous, though I can't yet say more (I'll edit this when that game is out!).
An example I can talk about though is Snugglebug by, well, me. Cutestpatoot Games. This is the game that made me realize I really could (at least try to) game-ify...everything. My beloved friend Dillin, also an absolutely brilliant designer, casually challenged me to design a game that used cuddling up together in a blanket as a mechanic via a tweet. I saw the tweet when I woke up and didn't move from my spot in bed for another two hours (at the time I had the bad habit of sleeping with my laptop beside me, oof) when I hit publish on Snugglebug.
In Snugglebug you create your character by answering a series of yes or no questions about yourself that correspond to physical characteristics, which is also how your GM and co-cuddler determines which of the pre-written adventures you end up embarking on. Along the way of roleplaying the adventure the two of you duke things out via, yes, rock-paper-scissors. If the blanket you're cuddled into together slips from the Player's shoulders during it has different consequences than if it slips from the GM's shoulders- and trust me it's going to slip.
I adore Snugglebug, as well as its small companion that I'm actually planning to expand this year, Snugglebug's Pet Edition for those who live alone with a pet, that gameifies your pets' cuddling behavior in lieu of Rock-Paper-Scissors.
I cannot get enough of unconventional mechanics, I want to constantly push at the limits of what we consider a game and what we can use in this world to play. It's so much fun to wrap your head around something creative you maybe never would have come up with yourself. So far I've found a way to game-ify watching TV & movies (competitively even, in two different games!), game-ify listening to music (a game book on which is coming out soon and I'm excited to share with everyone) and I know I likely won't rest until I've game-ified making and playing games (Though, arguably with 10 Minute TTRPGs I already have game-ified making games. Oh my god. I hadn't realized that. That's hilarious).
In fact, in honor of my love of unconventional mechanics, and the upcoming release of a full version of Snugglebug's Pet Edition, I've been playing with the idea of an unconventional mechanics jam... Hmm...
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