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2018-01-24, 10:47 PM (ISO 8601)
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What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Exactly what the title says. This thread is to post mechanics from tabletop games that you wish were more widely used.
One of the mechanics that I wish was more widely used was how in gurps some skills were essentially more expensive than others due to the learning difficulty requiring more points to be spent in order to make the skill easier. I think that this would be good for other non class games because there's usually skills that are worth far more than others and this would be a way to balance minor skills with more powerful ones.
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2018-01-24, 11:48 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2005
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- http://www.giantitp.com/c
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Choosing Pros and Cons.
I don't know the name of the actual system but you have points and you buy pros with them, but you also need cons that equal the cost of the pro.
Like you buy 'Charismatic' for 5 points, to equal out the cost of the you get 'Sickly' a 2 point con, and 'Wide Spread Negative Rumor' a 3 point con.High Priest of the Fellowship of Xykon's Blade.
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2018-01-25, 02:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2009
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
I like reroll tokens, like the bennies of Savage Worlds.
A reroll has been the high point of so many Savage Worlds games...
... and it has also been the low point of so many Savage Worlds games. The highs are high, the lows are low.It always amazes me how often people on forums would rather accuse you of misreading their posts with malice than re-explain their ideas with clarity.
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2018-01-25, 04:18 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2017
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
I always import the WFRP/Dark Heresy Fate Point system in to other games (every character gets 1-3 one-use points that can undo an event) - I find its really good for helping new players and low level characters survive a bad run of luck.
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2018-01-25, 05:32 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2006
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- England
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
The One Rings...well, everything really, but particularly the combat system. It does away with specific positioning and replaces it with a more abstract concept of how aggressive you are that round, influencing both how easy it is to hit your foe and how easy it is for them to hit you. It's an elegant system (from a more civilised age?) that encompasses everything I want from combat with none of the hassle other systems get bogged down in.
I apologise if I come across daft. I'm a bit like that. I also like a good argument, so please don't take offence if I'm somewhat...forthright.
Please be aware; when it comes to 5ed D&D, I own Core (1st printing) and SCAG only. All my opinions and rulings are based solely on those, unless otherwise stated. I reserve the right of ignorance of errata or any other source.
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2018-01-25, 11:04 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2011
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- Canada
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Another one I thought of is how some games have minor failures for checks if you only get a bit below success. I find that it makes the skill systems seem more real since there's something between complete success and complete failure and it also gives more cinematic moments like barely making a jump so you have to pull yourself up or failing a knowledge check gives vague info.
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2018-01-25, 11:18 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Mechanics? That's a tough one. I love reroll mechanics in almost any system. And I generally prefer D&D non-death-spiral HP.
But, I guess, if I had to choose, I'd want custom character creation, like was in the 2e D&D DMG, to be a part of every system.
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2018-01-25, 11:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
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- The Lakes
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
It's a simple one, but fixed curved dice rolls. HERO's 3d6 roll-under, with a fixed target (average is 11 or less) and modifiers as necessary.
Dice pools and other variable dice, and sliding target-number scales, always seem to end up with wonkiness somewhere along the way.It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2018-01-25, 11:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2007
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
There's a lot in Legend of the Wulin that other systems could learn from. I'll limit myself to one thing though, the alignment system. Instead of showing what values the character considers most important (though they still can do it of course), the alignment system of LotW signals to the GM what you want from the game - the opportunities of acting according to which values do you want to appear in the game, and how powerful the effects will be when your character does so.
BESM does it too. Sadly it's one of the few things that BESM does well.
Similar points exist in Mutants & Masterminds and FATE as well. It's a very good mechanic so more systems should do it.
I found this in several other RPGs too but the twist is - when advantages and flaws are bought using a point system, it rarely works well. It encourages min maxing, with players buying advantages that are really good and "balancing" them out with flaws that are meaningless (has to wear glasses, cheap car), not an issue for their character (shaky hand when shooting for a melee character), or not flaws at all (an enemy or someone you have to take care for - that's not a flaw, it's a plot hook!).
I prefer the approach where you can pick one or more flaws and they have a chance to become problems during the game, instead of giving you extra character creation points they confer some other advantage when it happens. Such as a Hero Point when the complication arises in M&M.
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2018-01-25, 11:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2010
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2018-01-25, 11:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2006
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- Marlinspike
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
This
A binary success/fail system is boring. I like more options like:
- success, but at a cost
- failure, but you got something useful out of it (maybe resulting in a small bonus for a future roll)
Etc.
I remember a dice pool system where there were two different sets of symbols on the dice.
(A) success / (B) fail
And
(1) good thing happens / (2) bad thing happens / (3) nothing extra happens
(A)(1) was awesome. (B)(2) was horrible and the other combinations were a range of scenarios in between.
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2018-01-25, 11:44 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
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- The Lakes
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Eh. I have no problem with a good point system setup (see, Disads in HERO).
Metacurrency is really REALLY far down my list of things I worry about in gameplay, it just doesn't do anything for my enjoyment. (In the old WEG Star Wars system, I created a species that couldn't have or use Force Points at all, not even for the dice bonus all characters could do, in part so I could just ignore all that nonsense.)
In fact, I've seen metacurrencies and similar end up encouraging /enabling min-maxing behavior just as much as any other system might, with players looking for opportunities to maximize their gain in "meta points" and then use them to best mechanical effect later, to the detriment of other considerations.It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2018-01-25, 11:46 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
One mechanic I've been using a lot in recent systems is the idea that rather than having some innate passive level of avoiding harm (in the form of AC, Saves, To-Hit rolls, etc), all active actions against another are assumed by default to succeed, but come with a price tag which the target can choose to 'buy off' with various resource pools. So rather than e.g. 'this spell kills you instantly, but that spell damages your hitpoints' its more like your hitpoints might explicitly be broken down into 'wound' and 'dodge' pools, and the insta-kill spell is just the flag 'cannot be bought off with wounds'.
The reasoning is, this allows things to be narratively extremely dangerous and lethal without making the game itself dangerous and lethal. A dagger to the eye kills, period, but the really tough characters have the pools to buy off a hundred attempted stabs to the eye. So stuff like absolute domination magic and other kinds of extreme effects (when seen from the point of view of Save-or-Lose type logic) stops being mechanically problematic but instead just becomes a set of options to customize what exactly your 'killing' blow does in the aftermath of the fight.
It also gets interesting when you have effects that are expensive to buy off but are not instantly disabling or lethal. It fixes an issue with enemies with custom/'interesting' effects in that, often in something like D&D, the enemy would need to have high enough DCs for the party to fail saves for those effects to matter rather than just being wasted actions, but at that point enemies could just throw Save-or-Lose effects instead. Whereas with this, even if the PCs all decide to no-sell the effect by buying it off, the thing that the effect would have done still matters in that it was part of the players' reasoning as to whether or not to buy it off.
Also in a similar vein, I like deterministic stealth systems where you have pools of stealth points and you 'buy' your way out of jams. I think it helps resolve the 'stealth forces us to split the party' problem that often crops up, since you can e.g. have the stealthy members pay out of their pools to cover the less stealthy ones, and so on.
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2018-01-25, 12:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2010
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
I wish Legend from Rule of Cool's Key Modifier system was in more games, and in every D&D-like. I also wish its weapon creation system was more widespread. Those two combined made it so that basically every character concept was viable.
Last edited by Magic Myrmidon; 2018-01-25 at 12:26 PM.
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2018-01-25, 12:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2007
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- San Antonio, Texas
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Hackmaster does this; partially niche protection for thieves (anyone CAN learn to pick locks or disarm traps, but it costs a lot), but the other skills vary in the 1-10 point range; there's even a 20 points-per-mastery-die skill around (Trap Design)... and you only get 15 points at level-up.
What I find I miss when I leave Hackmaster for other games is the second-by-second action and initiative. Movement by the second, the ability to react to others' maneuvers as they happen, but with the possibility of resetting your own count for weapon use... it makes the "wait your turn" aspect" of other games tedious.The Cranky Gamer
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2018-01-25, 12:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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- MN-US
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
I need to read more into it, but the first glance at Blades in the Dark's stress mechanic is awesome and I'd like it in more places.
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2018-01-25, 12:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Some things I like in my games (and have ported to other games):
- Partial successes - You fail, you succeed (but with a cost), or everything is good. You can add another layer for critical successes if you want to increase progression.
- Bell-curve dice - Rolling 3d6 (or 3d of any die) produces a bell-curve which will reward skilled characters more than unskilled characters at various tasks and it also makes super low or super high rolls pretty rare.
- Character bonds between characters - Mechanically driven character bonds that represent some piece of their backgrounds together. This makes it unnecessary to do the whole "You meet in a tavern" trope or the whole "I see your party lacks a wizard" thing. It also gives opportunity to reward players for their characters' interactions (and especially drama).
- XP for resolving character bonds, adventures, and interactions with the world.
- Contacts - Nothing overly complex, but I want to know who your characters know and how easy it is to get help from them.
- Factions/Debt - Who the characters owe money, loyalty, or favors to.
That's about all I can think of right now.
I like limited metacurrency that encourages specific gameplay. Some examples where it is done well (in my opinion):
- Monster of the Week - Every character has 7 (I think) points of Luck. When a character runs out of luck, more bad things start happening. It promotes a sense of temptation and impending doom. No one is forced to use it, but if you do, you'll eventually run into consequences.
- Mutants and Masterminds - When one of your disadvantages is used against you, you are rewarded. This encourages characters to have disadvantages and complications with their characters' lives and gives a sense of heroics. A normal person would have failed, but your character is exceptional.
It's rare that it's done well, but I like it when it adds to the game's theme in some way.
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2018-01-25, 01:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2005
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- Worcestershire, UK
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
I came here to post that!
In fact, I've kind of adopted it for my d20-based homebrew hack games - instead of having a load of feats to do with Combat Expertise, Power Attack that give you penalties for bonuses and all that, anyone can just declare that they are fighting aggressively (taking a penalty to defence, getting an equal bonus to attack) or whatever. The feats have all been upgraded to mean you take no penalty.
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2018-01-25, 01:24 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2011
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
I'll throw my hat into the metacurrency ring, although my personal favorite is the Prowler and Paragons Resolve/Misfortune system.
It being pooled by the party instead of allocated per character is a nice change of pace. And the fact that it lets you swap out one skill to substitute another (IE hacking an electronic door by shooting the keypad with your laser) is just fun.
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2018-01-25, 01:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2016
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- The Lakes
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Last comment on metacurrency, I don't want to sidetrack the thread -- my comment wasn't a criticism of metacurrency, just an expression of deep skepticism that setting up "flaws" around metacurrency instead of character build points is any less prone to be min-maxed.
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2018-01-25, 01:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2010
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Of course it's prone to being mix-maxed. ALL RPG mechanics get mix-maxed, even Risus's. It's just a matter of what you want to encourage the players to do. GURPS-style disadvantages get min-maxed to provide build points, then not screw up the PCs too much in play, Disadvantages-for-luck-points get min-maxed so they WILL show up in play. (One game I like, Legends of the Wulin, has the players PAYING build points to pick up new disadvantages for just this reason.)
Imagine if all real-world conversations were like internet D&D conversations...
Protip: DnD is an incredibly social game played by some of the most socially inept people on the planet - Lev
I read this somewhere and I stick to it: "I would rather play a bad system with my friends than a great system with nobody". - Trevlac
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2018-01-25, 01:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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- a nice pond
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
The Inspiration system is by far the best thing about 5e and I keep wanting to import it into my 3.5e games somehow. Giving a tangible reward for good roleplaying or acting in accordance with your backstory or personality, but not having that reward be major or permanent (XP is a very bad way to reward this), it's just great.
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2018-01-25, 01:45 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2007
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2018-01-25, 02:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2016
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- The Lakes
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2018-01-25, 03:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2006
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- Pittsburgh, PA
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
It's rewarding a transitive descriptive moment with a permanent mechanical benefit. Sort of the same reason that D&D-style flaws are problematic-- it's typically not great to give an always-relevant bonus in exchange for accepting a sometimes-relevant penalty. That's why things like M&M's Complication mechanics (or Fate's Compels, or 5e's Inspiration, or any number of similar hero point things) are nice. Gives you a transitive benefit only when the transitive penalty comes into play.
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2018-01-25, 03:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2011
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Can you go into more detail as to how, exactly, LotW enables this conversation?
I have a strong love of characters who are "not from around here", and for drop in games, where characters don't all know each other when they meet. Are any of these systems good for handling bonds as they develop, and as they change over time?
Also, can you give more detail on the type of debt system that you enjoy?
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2018-01-25, 04:16 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2017
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- East of Hell
Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
I really like the Aspects mechanic of FATE systems, I find it just adds a little more depth to character creation and as the DM can make setting the scene much simpler.
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2018-01-25, 04:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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- MN-US
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
Dungeon World may fit the bill. Characters come with bonds at the start, but those could be chopped off. It has bonds worded like "I have adventured with ____ before, I trust their judgement". When that resolves, the person who held that bond gets XP, and they can make a new bond. It can be an evolution of that, or a drastic change, based on what happens. Something like "_____ went behind my back, betraying my trust. It will be a long time before I put my faith in them again."
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2018-01-25, 05:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2011
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- Canada
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
The only game I know of that had this rule made partial success and partial failure too common and because of that it wasn't unlikely for a session to turn into slapstick with partial success during a chase meaning that they accidentally trip into their target and gun fights that consist entirely of accidentally shooting pieces of the scenery that end up disabling opponents.I still wish to see it done well though.
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2018-01-25, 05:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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- Dallas, TX
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Re: What mechanics do you wish were in other games?
The ability to treat improve several similar skills at once, by making that a character trait.
In Hero System, you can take Scientist for three points, and you get one extra point for any science skill. Or Jack of All Trades for three points, and you get one extra point for every profession skill. Linguist or scholar for languages or knowledge skills.
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