After about a year of work, I'm nearly finished assembling the Alpha Test rules set for my own little action-movie RPG, Destiny. Playtesting starts in just over a week, but before then I'd like to post the rules to get some feedback.

I've posted rules from Destiny before, starting about a year ago. Those posts have been superseded.

As a side note, I'd like to thank forum members The Traveller, Ladybird, Silverlion, Chaosvoyager, salmelo, davidov, dan buter, dorrinal, and Bloody Stupid Johnson for previous bouts of feedback, assistance, and criticism.

The Destiny Gaming System is designed around three central goals. Destiny is:

• Genre-Neutral. Not universal or generic, but flexible enough to handle magic, guns, car chases, psionics, cyberware, and much more. Destiny campaigns can be set in fantasy worlds, cyberpunk worlds, the real world, and any other place the GM can devise.
  
• Action-Movie. Destiny is an action-movie system. The mechanics allow characters to emulate the daring feats of an Indiana Jones, Ethan Hunt, or Evelyn Salt. They encourage and reward players who do more than just shoot or punch; witty banter and rapier-fast retorts are often more useful than bullets or blades.
  
• Heroics. Player Characters are the heroes of a Destiny campaign world, larger-than life characters who seem marked for greatness, those with the bravery to confront evil, who have the abilities and drive to accomplish awe-inspiring deeds.
  

System Design Philosphy

To the maximum extent possible, Destiny mechanics are intended to be simple, direct, and obvious. It is as streamlined and fast-playing as I can make it, and any rules that playtesting reveals as cumbersome or onerous are going to be clarified or eliminated.

My design motto is: “Simple rules that allow for innumerable situations, limited only by the Players' and Gamemaster's imaginations.”

The purpose of streamlining the mechanics is to focus on in-character play and vivid world descriptions. Immersiveness is a prime focus, and the mechanics are built to encourage (but not mandate) that. The point is to get the mechanics out of the way, so the players can play their characters and the GM can portray the world in an interesting and colorful manner.

That said, Destiny is not a storygame but a traditional RPG. Despite some mechanics licensed from Fate (under the OGL), it has the same GM/player split in responsibilities and authority as most RPG's, going back to OD&D. Not only is this my preferred method of play, but the goal of immersiveness works best within that framework.

Attributes, Skills, and Characteristics

Destiny is a skill-based role-playing game (RPG) system. Player Characters have six Attributes — Dexterity, Strength, Endurance, Intellect, Influence, Spirit — which represent different innate capabilities and the capacity to learn associated skills.

Attributes are rated numerically, with higher values representing more potent Attributes. Attribute Ratings range from 4 (Deficient) to 12 (Legendary). Human average is 8.

Each Attribute has inherent mechanical uses (Strength measuring how much a character can lift) and provides a Base Rating to associated skills. The Base Rating Attributes provide is:

Attribute — Base Rating
4-5 — 1
6-10 — 2
11-12 — 3

Each Attribute has a number of associated skills. Dexterity skills include acrobatics and dodge; Strength, lifting and melee weapons; Influence covers charm and persuade.

Skills represent specific areas of expertise, such as firearms, lifting, or charm. The firearms skill represents the character’s ability to shoot (e.g.) pistols and shotguns, lifting their ability to heft heavy objects, charm their ability to flatter others. Nearly every action one wishes to attempt will have an associated skill.

A character’s training in a skill is measured in "plusses", as in “I have a plus 5 in this skill”. On the character sheet, and in game material, plusses are represented by the + symbol, as in +5. The associated Attribute’s Base Rating is added to the skill plus to get a Skill Rating.

Example: An Attribute of 8 (human average) gives a Base Rating of 2. A neophyte has +1 skill, which gives a Skill Rating (or “skill”) of 3 (2 +1).

Characteristics

Characteristics are campaign- or setting-specific capabilities. Whereas all characters have all Attributes, Characteristics exist only in specific settings, and usually only affect a limited number of characters in those settings.

• An Eldritch Horror setting, for example, might have an Insanity characteristic, representing  the mental damage caused by confronting cosmic horrors.
  
• A Cyberpunk setting might have System Strain, representing the increasing medical or psychological difficulties inherent in replacing large amounts of your body with cybernetic implants.
  
• Dead Man’s Land, a Destiny campaign setting where Player Characters are carriers slowly succumbing to the zombie plague, has a Necrosis characteristic, representing the degree to which a character has become a zombie.

Characteristics have Ratings, like Attributes and Skills, and their own unique Characteristic Challenges. Each functions differently, according to its Rating and associated game mechanics.

The effects of a Characteristic are tailored to what it represents in the setting. Some Characteristics may be used directly, as if a skill, some may grant special powers at specific levels, some may “attack” the character from time to time.

Rules for Characteristics will be found in the appropriate setting.

Is this your first game? Your design philosophy is really good.

To be totally honest, I'm probably not going to play your game (enough trouble getting to play any games!), but I think there's a good chance that we can all learn from the design choices you've made. I look forwards to reading what kind of a system you've come up with!

Challenges

Challenges are tests of a character’s abilities, they represent characters attempting to do something. "I want to search for the Cardinal's letter." "I want to repair the car's engine." "I want to shoot at the griffin with my bow."

There are several types of Challenges, each operating slightly differently. Types of challenges include Attribute Challenges, Skill Challenges, Characteristic Challenges, and Combat Challenges.

Use of an Attribute involves an Attribute Challenge. As Attributes measure inherent abilities, the Attribute Rating determines what the character accomplishes; no dice rolling is necessary.

Skill Challenges are covered in the next section (forthcoming), Combat Challenges in the Combat section (again, forthcoming). Characteristic Challenges have their own unique rules, reflecting the setting-specific and unique nature of all Characteristics (see above).

Declarations

A Declaration is a short, vivid, in-character description of a desired action. “I whip the horses to get the carriage to go faster.” “I leap from the car to the truck.” “I try and clear the jam.”

If the player describes their action in terms of a Declaration, rather than rules-speak, they gain a +1 bonus to a Skill or Combat Challenge.

• “I make an Attack Total to shoot with my AK.” This isn’t worth a bonus.
• “I light up the room with my AK.” Bonus.

Ideally, coming up with a Declaration should be quick and easy. Players should never have to slow down play to think of one. So long as they are descriptive and in-character, they are worth the +1 bonus.

Declarations can be as elaborate as the player wishes, but don’t have to be.

• “I dive over the counter, my two pistols blazing away at the enemy.”

This rule gets players thinking more in terms of what their actions are like in the game world, and less about the mechanics. The gamemaster can then help them translate their efforts into mechanical terms (though veteran players probably won’t need much help).

Declarations are the perfect place to inject a bit of character style into the game. Is your character a brutal no-frills fighter, who goes in directly for the kill, or they a flashy, high-kicking martial artist who shows off with every blow? When using a blade, are they Conan or d'Artagnan? The game mechanics of the attack are the same, but the description is very different.

The more life you infuse into a Declaration, the more your character's style bleeds through, the more color you bring to the game.

Quote from: davidov;597019Is this your first game? Your design philosophy is really good.

Thank you.

Not my first game, nor my first exercise in game design, but if finished it will be my first complete game. The past is littered with half-finished projects.

Most of the design work I've done before has been extensive house-ruling of existing games, for example Torg and Dungeons & Dragons 3.0

Quote from: davidov;597019but I think there's a good chance that we can all learn from the design choices you've made. I look forwards to reading what kind of a system you've come up with!

Thanks. Again. Any comments people have will be welcome.

Skill Challenges

Skill Challenges occur whenever a character wishes to use a skill or a gamemaster calls for one.

Each Skill Challenge has a DR, or Difficulty Rating, representing how difficult it is. Difficulty Ratings start at Routine (DR 0), and vary upwards to Moderate (DR , Difficult (DR 10), Grueling (DR 18), and even Nearly Impossible (DR 28).

When a character attempts a Skill Challenge, the Player rolls the dice (see next post) to get a Bonus (ranging from -9 to +9). Add the Bonus to the Skill Rating to get a Skill Total.

Example: A character with a mechanic skill of 8 rolls a bonus of -1. His Skill Total is 7.

The Gamemaster subtracts the DR from the Skill Total to get the Result Rating, which determines success or failure. A Result Rating of 1 or higher is a success, and the higher the Result Rating, the better the character did.

So, a Challenge total of 9 will fail against a Difficult challenge (DR 10), but succeed at Moderate challenge (DR , with a Result of 2.

Example: A novice character (skill 4) is attempting a Very Easy task (DR 3). They roll a Bonus of +1, for a Skill Total of 5 (4 +1). The Skill Total of 5 - the DR of 3 = a Result of 2. They have succeeded at the Skill Challenge.

For most Skill Challenges, the Result is read as a Success Rating. Each higher Success Rating represents a better and better outcome for the character.

[B]Result Rating Success Rating Description[/B]
-1 or Less 0 SR Failure
0 0 SR Complication
1-5 1 SR Success
6-10 2 SR Solid Success
11-15 3 SR Superior Success
16+ 4 SR Spectacular Success
-1 Result Rating or lower is a Failure: the character failed at the Challenge.

0 Result Rating is a Complication. The character has neither succeeded nor failed at the task. (See “Complications”, below.)

1 SR is a Success, the character barely succeeded at the task.

2 SR is a Solid Success, they did well at the task. Not outstanding, but well.

3 SR is a Superior Success. The character did remarkably well, enough to earn compliments or admiration for their accomplishment.

4 SR is a Spectacular Success, the character did amazingly well. In many cases, the gamemaster may decide to reward the character with some small mechanical benefit for such an outstanding accomplishment. (A small bonus to the next Challenge of that skill, additional benefits beyond succeeding, and so forth.)

Complications

In order to defeat a Challenge, you must beat the Challenge. This means at least 1 Result Rating.

A Result Rating of 0 doesn't succeed, but it doesn't fail either. Instead, it causes a Complication.

The character can still succeed at the Challenge, and can attempt it again using the same skill, but at a -3. Or they can try and approach the problem from a new angle, using a different skill to attempt the Challenge.

Example: The party needs to jump over a wide gorge. Most of the party made the leap, but one got 0 Result Rating, a Complication.

The GM rules that he can’t try jumping again, so he can either climb to the top (with a climbing total) or the rest of the party can try and pull him up (with a lifting total).

The GM has final say on which is appropriate, or what other skills can be used. Different skills might have higher or lower Difficulty Rating, depending on the skill.

All characters have Character Traits: evocative, free-form statements used to define mental, physical, or other idiosyncratic facets of the character.

"Ugly as Sin" is a Character Trait (physically repellent), so is "Prickly Sense of Honor" (code of behavior, but also sensitive to slights), as is "Life on Wheels" (crippled, spends life in a wheelchair). There are innumerable possible Traits, limited only by player imagination.

Each applies in specific situations, sometimes hindering the character, sometimes aiding. Traits are combinations of advantages and disadvantages, and serve to describe what makes your character unique.

Lead characters, being typified by deeper characterization, typically have between two and five Character Traits unique to themselves. Supporters usually have between one and three, and groups of supporters (a squad of faceless stormtroopers, for example) may share the same Character Trait.

Traits allow you to spend additional Action Points on a Challenge (see "Hero's Luck"), and when one causes the character meaningful problems (makes the module harder to "win"), they gain an Action Point.

Example: A character with "A Prickly Sense of Honor" will be sensitive to slights. If someone offers insult, they'll probably challenge them to a duel. If this causes significant problems, such as a confrontation with an NPC the party needs a favor from, the character gains an Action Point.

Traits work hand-in-glove with Action Points to reflect the kind of setbacks and sudden victories endemic to action movies. They reward roleplaying, give concrete benefits to drawbacks only when they are a drawback, and allow players to indicate what they want their character to be. "Baddest Mother on the Block" is obviously a very different character than "Ice Cold Killer", and both are different from "Blood! Ewwww!"

Character Traits are persistent, they last until the player decides to change them (during Character Advancement). Other Traits are temporary: Injury Traits (representing different forms of damage), Subplot Traits from the Destiny Deck (below), or Player's Call Traits from Combat Interaction skills.

"Enemy of 'The Seven Tigers'" could be a persistent Character Trait, which dogs the character the entire campaign. Or it could be the result of a Nemesis subplot, and only apply for one adventure arc. Either way, the character gains an Action Point when — and only when — it causes meaningful problems.

So long as they last, other kinds of Traits are treated exactly the same as the Character Traits.

[Note: Character Traits are adapted from Fate's Aspects. I renamed them because there are several mechanical differences, such as not being able to make Declarations, and I didn't want players familiar with Fate to assume they were identical.]

Action movies are defined by two types of characters: Leads and extras. Leads are primary characters, those with the most screen time, with more fully developed characterization. The chief Villain and his henchmen are often Leads, his minions are extras. All Player Characters are Leads.

Lead characters have a chief advantage extras don’t get: Action Points. Lead characters are just lucky. For whatever reason, fortune seems to cheat on their behalf. Action Points reflect just this sort of luck.

Mechanically speaking, each Lead character has a number of Action Points that refresh each session (determined by their Action Rating). At any time, a Character may spend an Action Point to gain a +3 bonus to any Skill, Combat, or Characteristic Challenge. After doing so, their current number of Action Points is reduced by 1.

Example: Bill rolls a -2 when trying to pick a lock, for a Skill Total of 8. Bill is certain that’s a failure, so spends an Action Point for a +3 bonus, making his Skill Total an 11. The gamemaster indicates this is a Success. Bill reduces his current Action Point total by 1.

You can freely spend at least 1 Action Point on any Challenge (assuming you have any left). In addition, if one of your Traits applies to the situation, you may spend additional Action Points, one Action Point per Trait that applies. So long as you have Action Points remaining, and Traits that apply, you may spend as many Action Points on a single Challenge as you wish.

Example: Bill rolls a -4 against a similar lock (Skill Total 6). He spends an Action Point, but is certain a 9 won’t do it. He decides to invoke a Character Trait (“They ain't built a vault yet that I cain’t break into.”), which allows him to spend another Action Point, for a Skill Total of 12 (6 + 3 + 3). Again, he succeeds.

Doing so will leave you short of Action Points, at least until the next session. However, characters can gain Action Points during play.

Any time one of their Traits causes the character to suffer a meaningful difficulty, they gain 1 Action Point. Chapter 4 has more detail on this process.

Extras don’t get Action Points. Leads, including NPC’s do. Each session, the GM gains a pool of Action Points he can spend on the actions of any character (including extras), equal to 1 point per each Player Character.

Powers (such as spellcasting, blessings of faith, or pulp powers) reduce a character’s Action Rating, meaning they have fewer Action Points to spend in a session. Advanced races (which vary by setting) may also reduce the Action Rating. Last, characters can learn Stunts, which enable them to break the rules in specific ways. Each Stunt learned also reduces the character’s Action Rating.

No combinations of Powers, Race, or Stunts can reduce a character’s Action Rating below 1. Players are simply disallowed from purchasing abilities that would do so.

As the game goes on, a character's Action Rating will increase. This will allow them access to more Action Points per session, as well as more or more powerful Powers and Stunts. Also, newly made characters will have access to more powerful Races.

[Note: Again, adapted from Fate, via their early excerpts from Fate 3.0, aka Fate Core.]

The Destiny Deck is a deck of cards, the use of which emulates the strange coincidences that occur to Lead characters. Meeting a friend in a foreign city, finding exactly the clue you need to decipher the mystery, discovering a working car abandoned by the side of the road — all of these are potential effects of Destiny Cards.

Each card is divided into a Hot and Cold half, and each half has a different game mechanical effect. In general, the Hot half aids the character in some way (for example allowing them to escape an inescapable confrontation), while the Cold half hinders their opponents in some way (such as making an enemy's attack automatically fail).

Cards are played according to the full Destiny Deck rules (described later). Once a card is played, it is discarded. Any time a character would be eligible for gaining an Action Point (for example, from roleplaying a Trait), they can instead choose to draw a Destiny Card.

Destiny Cards are dealt to players and gamemasters alike and, with few exceptions, are usable by the gamemaster and players alike. Cards are dealt at the beginning of a session, and a character's hand refreshes the same time their Action Points do.

Any time the Heroes successfully Seize the Initiative, each player can draw a single card. If the Villains Seize Initiative, the GM can draw one card for each PC in the scene.

At the start of a campaign, the number of cards dealt is 4. This "hand size" increases by +1 for each additional Campaign Stage (to 5 at Stage-2, 6 at Stage-3 and so forth).

Further rules on the use of the Destiny Deck, including detailed mechanics for each card, appear in Chapter 4.

Each Skill or Combat Challenge involves rolling two 10-sided dice of different colors, numbered from 1-10 (the "0" on most gaming dice being considered a 10). One is a Hot die (typically red), the other a Cold die (typically blue). The Hot Die adds, the Cold die subtracts.

Roll the two dice, and discard (or ignore) the highest. The lowest dice is either added to the skill (if Hot) or subtracted from it (if Cold). If the dice are tied, discard both; the player has rolled a +0.

This outcome, rolling doubles, has special rules significance. In short, Doubles are Trouble. (See next post.)

Example: If the Hot die is a 5, and the Cold die a 1, the Hot die is discarded; the Bonus is a -1. If the Hot die is a 3, and the Cold a 4, the Cold is discarded; the Bonus is +3. If both roll 10, use neither; the Bonus is +0.

The number rolled (the Bonus) will vary from +9 to 0 to -9, depending. A skill of 8 (Average) can produce results from -1 (Bonus of -9) to 17 (Bonus of +9.)

In Destiny, Doubles are Trouble. In a Skill or Combat Challenge, when a character rolls doubles a side effect occurs in addition to whether or not they succeeded or failed.

1.) Disaster. If a character fails a Skill or Combat Challenge (-1 Result Rating or less) and rolled doubles at the same time, a Disaster occurs. Such disasters are side effects of the original Challenge, and they make life significantly more difficult for the character, and perhaps the party.

Example: While climbing a mountain, the party is tethered together. A simple Failure on a climbing Challenge might cause the unlucky character to lose his grip and begin to fall. A Disaster, on the other hand, will cause not only that character to fall, but other characters to be torn loose as well.

Disasters are major impediments. They should take a significant amount of time, resources, effort, or ingenuity to overcome.

2.) Mishap. If you succeed at a Skill or Combat Challenge (a Result Rating of 1 or higher), but roll Doubles, you succeeded, but caused some problem as a side effect.

"I jumped to the moving car, but dropped my gun." "I shot the target, but my gun jammed." "I ran out of ammunition."

Mishaps are not meant to be crippling occurrences, rather they are minor events that will make the character's life more difficult in the future. By taking some time, characters should be able to recover from mishaps fairly easily.

3.) Campaign specific uses. Some specific settings and campaigns use Doubles to invoke certain effects. In Dead Man's Land, doubles can be a sign that the character's incipient zombieism has suddenly surged, causing them difficulties. Each setting will include its own rules for dealing with such occurrences.

In combat, characters have combat skills (firearms, melee weapons, thrown weapons), weapons (a gun, fists, a sword), and armor (shields, kevlar vest, hides).

Weapons have a Damage Rating, reflecting how much damage they do. Armor is measured in plusses (similarly to skills), representing how much it protects the character.

Armor plusses are added to a character’s Endurance to get a Toughness value. (Inanimate objects, such as vehicles or a wall, have an inherent Toughness value.)

Combat Challenges

Combat Challenges involve one character’s Attack Rating (attack skill + Damage Rating) against another’s Defense Rating (defense skill + Toughness).

Attack: Attack skill + Damage Rating
   vs.
Defense: Defense skill + Toughness (Endurance w/ armor bonus)

As with Skill Challenges, Combat Challenges involve rolling 2d10 to get a Bonus. The rolled Bonus is added to the Attack Rating, which is compared to the Defense Rating. 1 Result is all that's needed to succeed (so ties go to defender). 1 point of Result equals 1 Wound.

(Combat Challenges do not suffer from Complications from rolling a 0 Result Rating. Instead, the target has suffered a glancing blow, being hit but taking no damage. The attacker can continue to attack without any further problems next Action.)

Damage and Effects

Wounds are an abstract measure of damage. Once combat is over, they heal relatively quickly (a character can heal a number of Wounds per day equal to their Endurance.) Medical treatment can speed this up.

Wounds accumulate with each successful attack. A character with 2 Wounds who takes 4 Wounds now has 6 Wounds.

As he accumulate Wounds, a character becomes Injured. Injuries represent the long-term damage inflicted by combat. A broken leg is an Injury, a head wound is an Injury, a 2nd degree burn is an Injury.

Injuries cause penalties to Challenges; the more severe the Injury, the greater the penalty. These factors are tracked on the following chart:

[B]Wounds Injury (Penalty) Description[/B]
1-5 None Scratched.
6-10 Moderate (-2) Hurt.
11-15 Serious (-4) Faltering.
16-20 Critical (-6) Dying.
21+ Mortal Dead.

Characters who take 6+ Wounds receive a Moderate (-2) Injury.

Characters who take 11+ Wounds are Faltering. They take 1 Wound each Action. (If they remain still and take no actions, they take no Wounds). They also receive a Serious (-4) Injury.

Characters with 16+ Wounds are Dying. They automatically take 1 Wound a round. (Plus another if they take any Action). They also receive a Critical (-6) Injury. The first aid or medicine skill can treat Dying characters, preventing them from further deterioration.

A character with 21+ Wounds is dead. Immediate and significant medical (or other) intervention might be able to save their lives, but the chances are dim.
   
Characters only suffer the penalties for the worse Injury level they suffer from. A character with a Moderate (-2) and a Serious (-4) Injury suffers a -4 penalty to Challenges, not -6.

Wounds, Injuries, and healing from same is described in more detail in Chapter 6: Combat.

Wounds and Injuries are wholly abstract measurements of damage. They do not reflect any specific injuries caused by combat.

As an option, gamemasters may choose to describe injuries in more detail, based on the type of damage that caused them.

Such descriptions are called Injury Traits, and function just like other Traits. (See “Character Traits”, earlier).

Injury Traits are not Injuries. An Injury occurs when the number of Wounds taken exceeds a certain number. In Injury Trait is a phrases that describes the Injury.

Injury Traits are optional, but encouraged. They do not makes things worse for the character — the game effect of Injuries are the same, as is the rate at which they heal.

They do, however, make combat more vivid, by giving concrete descriptions to the abstract Wounds and Injuries of the combat system. They also aid Players by providing new opportunities for the character to gain Action Points (as with all Traits), as such they actually aid the character in facing the difficulties of a module.

How to Use Injury Traits

Not all forms of damage are identical. Some effects cut through muscles, some crush bones, some burn skin and flesh, some assault your mind or spiritual connection to the Divine.

All of these varying attacks could cause any number of different effects. For example, flame can burn your hands or legs, could cause welts and blisters, or char your flesh to the bone.

Game systems introduce a lot of complexity trying to measure and track many of these different types of damage, not always successfully. Destiny uses Injury Traits to emulate all of these effects, and more.

A flamethrower causes Flame damage. If you get a Serious (-4) Injury, you could have the “Badly Burned” Trait, which can make certain types of physical activity harder or just impossible. Climbing, for example, or picking a lock. Each time the character is meaningfully hampered by the Injury, they gain an Action Point.

The GM decides which Injury Trait a particular attack causes, based on the circumstances and type of the attack. The previous Flame attack could also inflict the “My legs are badly burned” Trait, meaning the character’s arms and hands are alright. So the Trait could affect climbing, but not lockpicking.

(The penalty stays the same, however. Pain is pain.)

[Note: Another mechanic adapted from Fate 3.0.]

The potential range of Injury Traits is very wide. Poison or disease could inflict “Blurred Vision”, “Staggered and Confused”, or “Retching”. A Psychic attack could inflict “Catatonia”. A spell could inflict “Crippling Migraines”.

Not only do Traits vary based on what the attack was, the same attack could inflict one of several different Traits. Blunt force trauma (from a bat) could inflict “Broken Bones”, “Knocked Down”, “Concussion”, or “Knocked Unconscious”.

The GM chooses which, based on what they think is most appropriate. This enables the system to be highly flexible, emulating the vast range of real-world results, without needing a lot of complicated mechanics unique to each attack type.

You can emulate any type of damage with Injury Traits. Tear Gas, beanbag rounds, knockout darts, Poison, Hand-to-Hand combat whatever. All inflict different Traits, because each attack is unique.

Defining Attacks

Weapons or attacks (spells, miracles, and so forth) are defined by:

• Damage Rating, Range, etc.
• The necessary Attack and Defense skills
• A description of how the weapon operates in the real world (and a description of the weapon itself)
• A sample of Injury Traits the weapon inflicts

The DR is used to generate Wounds and Injuries, and the real world description and sample Traits are used by the GM to select an Injury Trait appropriate to the circumstances.