I wanted to make a general RPG system with the creative, flexible and general parts from Fate Core and a clear progress-making, level-based approach; here it is.
In a Nutshell
- characters have
- a Level, an overall power level
- Skills, determined by a number
- Destiny, a pool of general-purpose points
- Aspects, determined by free description
- Talents, abilities not covered by Skills
- Stress Pools, pools to soak different types of short-term trauma
- Consequence Slots, to soak long-term trauma
- characters do things
- by starting from the most relevant Skill's level
- adding to it a zero-average roll
- further modifying it by spending Destiny points via Aspects
- comparing the result to a Target Number
- narrating the action including the applied Skill and Aspects
- characters get hurt by
- accumulating Stress
- accumulating Consequences
Character Level (CL) and Development Points
This measures the character's overall power level, and probably their fame to some extent, as well.
- making progress may be based on
- the number of sessions played
- the number of hours played
- significant points of the story
- the number of tasks completed
- experience points O.o
- amount of points to develop PCs at every level
- amount of talents to develop PCs
Skills
These measure mundane, common abilities of characters that most people in a setting are somewhat proficient with.
- may be limited based on level
Destiny Points
These define the amount of game-mechanics control of the players over the game that can be spent from a pool, as opposed to the static modifiers the skills provide.
- gain 1 for accepting a compel, via an aspect
- spend 1 to boost skill checks after rolling, via an aspect
- spend 1 to get a reroll, also via an aspect
- spend 1 to gain narrative control over story elements (setting, NPCs, events)
Aspects
These are descriptive statements about something in the game. Basically, aspects enable players to spend Destiny points to gain a favourable effect (invokes), and to gain Destiny points by getting into trouble (compels). In both cases, they need to incorporate the aspect into the narrative of the action or events.
Aspects can be attached to the campaign, story, character (personality traits, beliefs, background, profession, possession, noticeable feature, relationships to people and organizations, problems, goals, issues, titles, reputations, obligations), group, situation, scene, place, and they can be long-term or temporary. Long-term aspects can change with time, but do not go away automatically, while temporary ones pop out of existence with some set condition.
- invokes cost Destiny points or Consequence
- Destiny: +3 to the result or reroll any number of dice
- Consequence: + its level to the result
- compels provide Destiny points
- anyone can initiate a compel on any PC or NPC
- the character's player decides if it happens, it can be freely refused
- temporary aspects
- they are created by some in-game event
- they provide free invokes for either the PCs or their antagonists
- those that automatically vanish when the scene ends, are called advantages
- those that can only be actively mitigated after a minimum time, are called consequences
- group aspects: can be used as regular aspects, they also have levels as Consequences and can be used as positive ones shared by the PCs
- aspects can be treated as characters, giving them aspects, skills, talents, stress pools, and consequences
Talents
Talents are abilities not covered by skills, they can modify skill use via specialization and can add abilities that are either innate or require some special pre-requisites that skills don't.
- initiation level (groups or supernatural power)
- may include (supernatural) abilities considered very basic for the group
- such as Identify, Detect magic, Dispel magic, Magic sigil, etc.
- such as bonuses to skills relevant for the group
- branch of magic (may require initiation level)
- may initiate / advance a pool of supernatural energy that can be used to generate effects, uses stress pools or consequences
- at lower levels may only provide mundane abilities related to magic
- such as understand magic, read/write magic script, knowledge skill bonuses, etc.
- number of supernatural talents (arcane schools, divine domains, psionic disciplines, etc.) may be limited in a setting: mortals can't be talented in so many, ranks can be limited, too
- such as one full, two at rank 5, all others at rank 3
- specializations
- the sum of bonuses to a single skill from talents may be limited (half the skill level)
- no flat modifiers, but a specialized Aspect pool that can be used only for the listed skills / actions
- talents can be described as a tree structure, where at a certain rank there are more options to go, each leading to a sub-tree
- branches can happen as early and as late as desired
- gaining ranks in branches of the same talent simultaneously???
- talent trees can be made up on the fly, always defining the currently bought rank, with group consensus
- costs for using talents
- mostly associated with supernatural abilities
- stress damage / attack
- Destiny
- what talents can do
- specializations
- defensive bonus: reduce stress in certain circumstances
- offensive bonus: increase damage in certain circumstances
- increase stress pools permanently
- increase stress pools temporarily
- provide advantages
- remove advantages
- provide consequence slots
- give abilities that are not possible with skills
- [ML]: Mastery Level = (CL - level taken at + 1)
- This marks that the player can choose the strength of the effect within limits.
- the player can choose the level of the effect, no higher than ML
- if you are level 6 and gained the effect at level 1, you can choose the effect’s strength 1-6
- if you are level 6 and gained the effect at level 3, you can choose the effect’s strength 1-4
- the higher the level, the greater the effect, but the more serious the consequences can be, too
Stress pools
These measure things that can be decreased and depleted, but get replenished automatically. The rate of recovery can be different. When a stress pool runs out, the character suffers a Consequence.
- Endurance (physical), Willpower (mental), Reputation (social), Sanity (emotional), etc.
- start at
- fixed number
- modified by a skill / talent
- replenish
- all after each scene
- some after each scene
- some after each day
- limit may increase automatically with level
- special pools that replenish differently
Consequences
They measure the amount of integrity loss which bring something mechanically bad for a character. When a character runs out of Consequence slots, something really bad happens — which is agreed upon by the group before starting the game.
- temporary aspects with free invokes for opponents during each scene
- each level gives one free invoke
- level defines the the amount of trauma it can take and the period after which it can be attempted to be 'healed'
- healing: decrease intensity to one lower slot, if there is one available
- 1: after the scene
- 2: after a few days
- 3: after about a week
- 4: after about a month
- when a character is helpless
- the opponent can do whatever they please
- they die
- they fight on but accrue some permanent trauma
Equipment
- resources may be a skill, a character can get most things under its level
- have to roll if the stuff is higher level to find it at an affordable price
- weapons and armor: can give free stunts, advantages or situational consequences
- important, aspect-defined stuff
- the GM has to avoid taking it randomly
- the player has to keep a replacement aspect ready in case it is taken/lost
NPCs
- basic skill set: social, knowledge, action
- differentiate
- more skills
- specializations
- aspects
- templates with specializations and aspects
Doing stuff
This is how the PCs (and NPCs?) accomplish things they want to achieve.
- obstacles: single-roll tasks
- TN vs. attempt (= PC skill + 6dF)
- spend Destiny or Consequence(s) to boost result
- fail: attempt < TN-5
- mixed: TN-5 < attempt <= TN -> fail or success with complication, player's choice
- success: TN < attempt < TN+5
- exceptional success: TN+5 <= attempt -> extra situational consequence or narrative control
- challenges: several obstacles probably by several PCs
- decide result after all are resolved
- decide result after each roll
- contests: set number of successful attempts, the first character to reach it wins