The Forge Archives

This topic over at RPG Theory about Destiny in a game and Ben Lehman's blog post about actually trying to design a game got me both thinking, so please be cruel, it's my first time.  None of these ideas are new, all of them are stolen and all I did was put them together.

Destiny Denied

Setting: There are four settings.  Each of them a different age.  The first age is like the Dark Ages right after an empire falls.  The second age is like the High Fantasy medieval ages that everyone is too familiar with.  The third age is western (there is no difference between cowboys and knights; just one uses a gun and the other a sword).  And the forth age is a modern night occult conspiracy type one.  The setting is left mostly vague because a group can play through all four ages building up the legends of the land as they go.  The one constant is that each age is having great conflict and the characters have no memories, great prowess, and greater destinies.  But great does not equate to good.

Characters: A cross between Jason Bourn and Jerry Bruckheimer's "King Arthur".  They have paranormal (superhuman?) skills and abilities, no memories, and really sharp swords.  They are measured in three ways: stats, accomplishments, and destiny.

There are four stats, reflecting the four fold path that a Knight must walk: soldier, noble, holy man, and everyman.  They start at 5 each and at the end of every adventure they can be moved up or down one point (every point a stat is raised, another must be decreased).  Also, one stat can be increased freely if destiny was not evoked that session (and therefore no accomplishments were written down see below).  They also have an damage stat with them to reflect wear and tear.

Conflict resolution: (stolen heavily from DitV) Every statement that a player says is intent and becomes a fact UNLESS the GM says roll dice.  They work out the stakes of the conflict (what each sides want) and then chose a starting stat that is appropriate (soldier for fighting, noble for talking, holy man for supernatural, and everyman for everything else like running or hiding or plowing or baking cookies).  You take the stat and roll than many dice (six sided dice).  Set aside any dice that rolls over a three.  Then the player and the GM (or player and player for those kinds of conflicts) take turns making statements (initiation now) about what is happening while pushing forward one or two dice to give that statement weight.  The opposing player has the option to either dodge by matching the weight of the statement in dice or if he can't or decides not to, he can take the damage, pushing up some or none dice that are less than your total and taking the difference as damage to that stat.  Then the opposing character gets to make a statement and play continues until all the dice have been used up OR...

A player may at anytime chose to surrender and lose the conflict but suffer no more damage or to escalate the conflict by moving it to a different stat.  They get to roll those stats and add those dice to their totals and continue on, now narrating the conflict in the new arena.

Play continues until one side gives up or is beaten into submission.  The winning side gets to narrate the stakes being won or lost.

Destiny: At any time during a conflict, a player may invoke his character's Destiny.  Destiny is rated from 1-3.  When Destiny is invoked, write down why it was invoked and take a number of Fate tokens (see below) equal to your character's Destiny value.

By invoking your character's Destiny, you free up some dice that you had to set aside because they rolled over a three.  At Destiny one you get all the fours back.  At Destiny two you get all the fours and fives back.  At six, yep, you guessed it, you get all of them.

Density can only be increased when all the players feel that they are ready to take the game up a notch.  At level three, the Endgame starts as all the Destinies are either fulfilled or destroyed.

Accomplishments:  Accomplishments are a list of activities done while pursuing Destiny.  Every time that Destiny is used (see above) write down a short sentence about the situation.  At the end of a session, look at the list for this session and chose one, placing a checkmark next to it (or a star if you like stars; hell, I'm partial to highlights myself).  That accomplishment now gives you an extra two dice in conflicts when a similar situation comes up.

Fate Tokens: At any time the GM (or another player) can make your life more interesting by using your Fate Tokens against you.  Fate Tokens can be used as a six in any conflict against your character as the universe itself conspires to hurt your character.  A Fate token can also be used to cancel out the use of an accomplishment.  A GM can also use a number of Fate Tokens equal to twice the current destiny level to cancel a use of destiny.  (More evilness must be thought up, but I wanted to post this today).