The Infinity Gaming System (Infinity for short) is my own little omni-genre action movie system.  Infinity is:

• Omni-Genre. Not universal or generic, but flexible enough to handle magic, guns, car chases, psionics, cyberware, and much more. Infinity campaigns can be set in fantasy worlds, cyberpunk worlds, the real world, and any other place the GM can devise.

• Action Movie. Infinity 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 an Infinity campaign world, larger-than life characters who seem marked for greatness, those with the bravery to confront evil and the abilities and drive to accomplish awe-inspiring deeds.

System Design Philosphy

To the maximum extent possible, Infinity mechanics are intended to be simple, direct, and obvious. It is as streamlined and fast-playing as I can make it.

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. 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.

My goal is to make mechanics that can easily be understood and described in relatable terms. Success at using a skill is broken into "barely made it", "good job", and "great Shot, Kid, that was one in a million!" Gamemasters can use that mechanical result to vividly describe what happened to the player.

At every point, the system should provide relatable and describable feedback to gamemasters and players. Subsystems, like hacking and hand-to-hand combat, should be built so as to vividly reflect the feel of the activity. Not a point-for-point match to their real-world equivalent (which can bog play down), but the experience of using the mechanic is similar to the experience of the activity in the real world.

When mechanics model the world in concrete terms, and when gamemasters can easily describe what happens, players feel closer to their characters and more grounded in the reality of the game. That's my goal.

These are, I should note, goals, not claims. I am working towards them assiduously, but I haven't achieved them fully. Any advice or feedback that could help is welcome and appreciated.

(Note: the "Destiny Alpha Test Rules" thread contained earlier versions of these same rules. Much of that has been superseded.)

For the purposes of the game, characters are defined by their Attributes, Characteristics, Skills, Traits, and Resolve.

Attributes
Infinity characters have six Attributes: Dexterity, Strength, Endurance, Intellect, Influence, and Spirit. For normal humans, Attributes are rated from 4 to 12.

Each Attribute has inherent uses:

Dexterity is used in Initiative.
Strength determines the amount one can lift and carry.
Endurance resists damage, poisons, etc.
Intellect determines bonus skills during character creation.
Influence determines the base attitude of strangers.
Spirit resists social interactions, mind control, and other mental effects.
[Other uses will be added, as needed.]

In addition to the inherent uses, each Attribute gives a bonus to associated skills.

[B]Attribute Rating Skill Bonus[/B]
4-5 +1
6-10 +2
11-12 +3
This bonus is added to the Skill Points to get a Skill Rating.

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, an Infinity 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.

Strength
This represents a character’s physical prowess: how much they can lift and carry, how hard they punch and swing a sword. Characters with a high Strength are weightlifters, circus strong-men, and so forth.

Dexterity
This represents flexibility, fine motor skills, reflexes, running speed, and other related areas. Characters with a high Dexterity are gymnasts and athletes of every sort, escape artists, stage magicians, parkour aficionados, and martial artists.

Endurance
Endurance describes a character’s health: their ability to resist poisons and disease, to endure physical stress and exertion, and other related areas.

Intellect
A high Intellect makes a person "smart." They learn faster, have a deeper understanding, retain more information, react quicker, and notice more. Scientists, college professors, inventors, engineers, and so on all have a high Intellect.

Influence
Influence is the ability to successfully affect others socially. People with a high Influence are persuasive, charming, and adept at fitting in with others and building strong relationships. Salesmen, con men, politicians, rock stars, actors, the popular kids, and serial killers all have high Influence.

(Note: In most games, this attribute is called Charisma. Characters with a high Influence can be charismatic, but they don't have to be. They can be friendly, persuasive, likable, or physically attractive (any one of these or all). Any number of things can underlie Influence. What matters for mechanics is the effect, not the source.)

Spirit
Spirit is the mental and spiritual strength of a character. A high Spirit implies self-reliance, confidence, a strong will, and stubbornness.

Attributes are rated numerically, with higher values representing more potent Attributes. The higher the Attribute rating, the stronger the attribute.

For normal humans, these attributes range from 4 to 12, with average being 7-9.

[B]Rating Description[/B]
4 Deficient
5 Very Weak
6 Weak
7-9 Average
10 Good
11 Exceptional
12 Legendary

A 12 is Legendary, an attribute typical of the famous (or infamous). Napoleon had a legendary Influence, Einstein legendary Intellect, Winston Churchill legendary Spirit.

Though different in some specifics from the "standard six stats" commonplace in RPG's from the time of OD&D, these six Attributes are clearly related. This is deliberate, as the division is useful, widely understood (The above definitions being almost redundant. Almost.), and defensible from a verisimilitude standpoint.

As a omni-genre RPG, the above stats are widely usable in any genre. They make sense. With the use of Characteristics (see above), I can create new Attributes as desired and needed for a specific setting. The core Attributes can be as genre-neutral as possible.

These six attributes are familiar, and hence approachable. In several key areas — such as Initiative — Infinity does things differently than most RPG's do. Using approachable mechanics makes the game more palatable to players.

Games are often criticized for using the standard six (or close variations). This is a narrow critique, arising from geek love of novelty. Novelty for novelty's sake, preferring the new just because it's new, is a mistake in game design.

What's important is how the rule works in the context of the system itself, not whether its vintage or cutting-edge. Use what works, not what's modish.

[A quick aside.]

Infinity is an omni-genre RPG, intended to handle all sorts of settings, from fantasy to hard sci-fi, and much in between. I'm building a few settings for use with Infinity, some of which I've posted about already.

• The Infinity Files: The walls between our Reality and alternate Realities (where the impossible becomes possible) are breaking down. Portals to other worlds are opening up, flooding our Reality with things that cannot exist. Magical artifacts. Psychic abilities. Super powers. Our Reality is being swept away. Agents of the Infinity Group, it is your job to find these portals and close them, to save our Reality from utter destruction.
  

• Dead Man's Land: You are the zombie. The zombie apocalypse has arrived, and you are infected. Slowly dying from the plague, you are becoming more like a zombie every day, and gaining strange powers thereby. You can feel their presence. See through their eyes. And even control them. Between the last Sanctuaries of the human race and cities thronging with the dead is a vast territory that is your domain: Dead Man's Land.
  

• Altered States: Secret agents and special forces, magic and techno-magic, in an alternate Earth where Camelot never fell, the United States was never born, China fights Spain for control of California, the Aztec Empire is a strong and growing power, and the Mississippi River marks the boundary between the Native Nations and the east-coast Colonies. (Alt-history urban fantasy technothriller.)
  

• Age of Legends: Stripped of their power, the Legends of a vanished age of magical might awaken in the modern world and strive to regain their memories and power, all the time hunting agents of the Evil that imprisoned them and altered existence so their Age never even happened. (Urban fantasy superheroes.)
  

• Dark Stars: At its height, galactic culture spread across the stars. Quadrillions of sapients, thousands of worlds, a dozen alien races. Then the hypergate network collapsed and every world was thrown into isolation; a dark age descended on the galaxy. Five hundred years later, and the gate network has suddenly reactivated. You are the best and brightest of a far-flung colony of mankind, scientists and engineers tasked with entering the hypergates, contacting other colonies, and discovering what went wrong centuries ago. (Mythos informed hard sci-fi. Take Alien, "The Cold Equations", Star Trek, and Starship Troopers and blend well.)
  

• Storm Knights: Torg, remastered for Infinity. (A fan's reworking of an incredible game.)
  

I'm excited about the lot of these, honestly. Infinity, the system, is just a tool for me to present these settings. As work progresses on the lot, I'll post details for the interested.

(Information about Infinity and its settings also appears on my blog, Jasyn's House of Gaming.

Skills

There are probably going to be 20 basic skills or so. These cover combat, technical abilities, social interactions, and miscellaneous uses. (Typically, FX powers have their own skills.)

Skills are rated in Skill Points, which determine how trained a character is. The Attribute bonuses are added to the Skill Points to get a Skill Rating.

Example 1: A character with an Influence of 11 has a bonus of 3 for all Influence skills. If they have 1 pt. in charm, their Skill Rating is 1 +3 = 4.

Example 2: A character with a Dexterity of 4 has a bonus of +1. With a 5 in firearms, their skill level is 5 +1 = 6.

Skill points indicate how well trained a character is (including book learning and experience).

0 = Unskilled. You haven't even the slightest hint of training in this area, and no experience either.

1 - 3 = Minimally trained. You have learned the very most basic concepts of the skill. There are large gaps in theory and application.

4 - 8 = Beginner. You have mastered the basic concepts of the subject, but struggle with intermediate techniques. You make mistakes that other beginners or amateurs won't catch, but anybody who know what they're doing will.

9 - 13 = Proficient. You have a solid grasp of the theory and practice of the skill. Advanced concepts can be challenging. (The oft-cited "10,000 hours of practice".)

14 - 18 = Expert. You are very skilled, thoroughly conversant with even the most obscure subjects in your field. If they know of it, your skill impresses people.

19 and higher = Master. There are few more knowledgeable than you.

The Skill Rating can be used to gauge how competent a character is in a specific skill:

2-4 is a Novice, a raw recruit or an inexperienced beginner. Part-time employees, like the teen who flips burgers at a fast food joint, are Novices, as are interns.

5-9 is Skilled, someone employable in a field at an entry level. Telemarketers and Tech Support employees are typically Skilled, as are people just graduating college with a Bachelor's degree.

10-14 is a Professional, possessing a post-graduate degree or equivalent in on-the-job experience. Your general physician is a Professional, as are the vast majority of movie sergeants.

15-19 is Accomplished, a standout in the field, cited and respected by their peers, but typically unknown to the general public. Writers of specialized books (such as textbooks or reference works) are usually Accomplished.

20-24 is World Class, one of the best in the world. (As the name implies.) Olympic athletes, for example.

25-29 is a Grand Master, "The Best There is at What I Do". Grand Masters are luminaries in their field. Physicist Stephen Hawking, as a real-world example.

30+ is Legendary, one of the best who's ever lived. Legendary figures are those who dominate history. Their works live on long after they die and their names become synonymous with their field of expertise. Shakespeare, Robin Hood, Einstein: these are all Legendary figures.

One of the goals in design is "to make mechanics that can easily be understood and described in relatable terms". The idea is to give labels and information which can easily be compared to people's real-life experiences.

This begins with the Attributes, which are described with labels people can easily grasp. (Not unique to this system, fairly common in fact, but critical to my approach.) We all know what Average is, we know Exceptional people, we know people who are Very Weak in something.

It's relatable.

This idea is carried into the skill system. We've all been Unskilled in an area, right now in fact. We've studied and become Minimally Trained, when something is new and even the basics are a struggle. We know of people who are Proficient and even Expert at what they do.

We can relate the abstract numbers to real world experiences. This makes the game feel real.

The Skill Rating labels and descriptions serve the same purpose. But, as they are a combination of Attributes and Skills, there's some internal logic to how the two relate.

The bonus for an Average attribute is +2. With Minimal training, 1, Average people have a Skill Rating of 3, Novices. An Average person with Minimal training is a Novice.

This is a common-sense, easily understood measurement. People with minimal training/experience are Novices. (Even the very talented but minimally trained are Novices: Skill 1 +3 bonus = Skill Rating 4. Everyone, even those with potential, have to start somewhere.)

Average people (+2) with a Beginner's training (4) are Skilled (Skill Rating 6).

Average people (+2) with demonstrated Proficiency (9) are Professionals (Total Skill 11).

Average people (+2) with Expert training (14) are Accomplished (Skill Rating 16).

Average people (+2) with a Mastery of the subject (19) are World Class (Skill Rating 21).

Again, all of these are straightforward and make sense. You can easily understand why a Master of a subject would be World Class.

The rest of the Skill Ratings follow similar internal logic, as do the Challenge Ratings. Challenge Ratings are defined by how challenging they are, in relation to specific Skill Ratings. Difficult Challenges are apt for Professionals, for example.

The idea is that not only can players and gamemasters relate to the mechanics, but gamemasters can translate mechanics into real-world equivalencies and vice versa. How this works will become clearer when I post Skill Challenges.

Some times you just need a unique mechanic, along with a Rating. The examples above argue why it must be this way.

In such case, it helps to have a pre-defined "idiosyncratic mechanic" slot. With such a mechanic, Players and GM's will expect that different settings work in slightly different ways, and accept it when a new setting introduces an idiosyncratic mechanic.

Many systems have implicit Characteristics. Torg did, as Aysle Honor/Corruption, Cybervalue, and Orrorshan Corruption show. The old World of Darkness did, Arete (as an example) applying only to mages.

The point of Infinity is to allow characters from different settings to adventure together (the Infinity Files meta-setting an explicit implementation of such). Rather than making the mechanics one-offs, with unclear application in cross-setting games (as was the case in the OWoD), I've standardized them and made the category explicit.

You'll know how a Characteristic from one setting can be used in another.

Challenges

Skill use involves a Skill Challenge, combat a Combat Challenge. In both cases, the player rolls the dice to get a Bonus Number, then adds or subtracts that number from the appropriate rating (Skill Rating or Attack Rating) to get a total.

This total is compared to a Challenge Rating to get the Result. The higher the Result, the better the character did.

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.

Rolling the Dice

The game uses 2 10-sided dice of different colors, typically numbered 0-9 (0 representing "10"). One color dice is the Hot dice, the other the Cold dice.

The player rolls the dice and discards the larger of the two. If the remaining dice is Hot, he adds the number to his Skill or Combat Rating. If it is Cold, he subtracts it.

If the dice are tied, nothing is added or subtracted. This result, rolling doubles, means that some kind of good or bad luck has happened, in addition to the outcome of the Challenge. (Rolling doubles causes double the outcome: Doubles Double-up.)

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.)

When you roll Doubles on a Challenge, you determine the outcome normally. Then you look at the dice, to see which doubles you rolled:

Low Doubles (1-5): Mishap, something bad happens. A key piece of equipment is dropped (or broken), the character trips and falls, their ammo runs out, etc.

High Doubles (6-10): Breakthrough, something good happens. The character notices a clue they weren’t looking for, they get a bonus to the next Challenge of that skill, unexpected help arrives.

In general, Mishaps are worse if you Failed, and Breakthroughs are better if you Succeeded, but both are entirely unrelated to the Challenge.

If you’re shooting, and roll Double 7′s, you don’t shoot better. Instead, something nice happens (whether you Succeed or Fail).

This mechanic means you can Fail, and still have something good happen. It means you can Succeed and have something go wrong. Both can occur in the real world and action movies, so both can occur in the game.

Challenge Rating

Here are the Challenge ratings for Skill use, and what they mean.

[B]CR Description[/B]
0 Routine
5 Easy
8 Moderate
10 Difficult
15 Formidable
20 Grueling
25 Monumental
30 Nearly Impossible
Routine: “Don’t even think about it.” A task so easy, you barely notice performing it. Even rank amateurs and raw recruits usually succeed at Routine tasks.

Easy: “That seems pretty easy.” A relatively simple task, something amateurs find too complex, and entry-level workers find challenging, but competent professionals almost always succeed at. Ex.: Taking off or landing an airplane in clear weather. Diagnosing a common disease. Swimming a mile.

Moderate: “That’s complicated.” This sort of task is the bread-and-butter of veterans (who usually succeed), but the untried and inexperienced find them daunting. Ex.: A reporter writing a newspaper column or story.

Difficult: “This isn’t a job for greenies.” Veterans often succeed at these sorts of tasks, and standout members of a profession nearly always succeed, but entry level employees usually fail.

Formidable: “We need a specialist.” Something seasoned characters struggle to achieve, but luminaries usually succeed at.

Grueling: “Only 6 people in the world understand this theory.” A task one of the best in the world fails at, more often than not.

Monumental: “There’s only one man for the job.” Tasks the foremost expert fails at most times.

Nearly Impossible: “No one could make that shot.” Even a DaVinci or Napoleon finds these tasks difficult, failing more than half the time.

(Note: Obviously, I need to fill in more examples. As I work on defining individual skills, and what Challenge Ratings mean in those skills, I will fill in the chart.)

Determining Success

To determine success, the Challenge Rating is subtracted from the Skill Total to get a Result. 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 Success Rating Description[/B]
-1 or Less 0 SR Failure
0 0 SR Complication
1-4 1 SR Success
5-9 2 SR Solid Success
10+ 3 SR Spectacular Success
+5 +1 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. (More details on Complications later.)

1 Success Rating 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 Spectacular Success. The character did remarkably well, enough to earn compliments or admiration for their accomplishment.

Every 5 Result higher than 10 (15, 20, 25, etc.) is an additional SR. For normal skill use, these results aren't used, treat them like a Spectacular Success. Some rules will refer to higher Success Ratings. See those rules for details.