After posting a piece on porting over a rules set from d20 Babylon 5 2nd edition, I read this missive from UncleBear on mechanics vs. style of play.

He’s right:  you don’t necessarily need mechanics to make a game fit the genre you’re in, but if they aid the GM and players, or enhance the fun (did my influence test succeed all the way?  Or am I going to get a nasty little surprise later?)  The fleet level combat rules I posted some time ago for Battlestar Galactica (look in the Roleplaying Game Resources section of this blog) were based on fleet rules from the original Babylon 5RPG from Chameleon Eclectic (a strange set of mechanics, but one I actually prefer to the d20.)

If it helps play, or enhances the fun, house rules or borrowed bits from other systems are always a good idea.