Genship Exiles is an upcoming game that's powered by the Resistance toolbox, and it's been through something of a tumultuous development process.
The whole game is designed around the idea that stories should unfold like stories under the ruleset, and I want to be able to add layers to the Resistance toolbox and swap out the vanilla systems for more distinct ones that are tailored to social storytelling.
In the past I've talked about my plans to switch around the dice mechanics of Genship Exiles from the Resistance toolbox's standard set. Now I think that I might walk that back, in favor of a system that preserves the core functionality but allows for different characterization.
Basically, my guiding philosophy here is built on the notion that characters shouldn't generally roll more than 3 dice, but I also want to have a strong bond system that works differently than what's in the Resistance toolbox (more on that here). The bond system will be changed between what's detailed there and the final game, but it's a good starting point.
I also want to give defined character roles. The idea behind the game is actually somewhat of an inverse of the usual: characters have few unique defining factors other than the combinations of abilities they have and their combinations to each other, and also no numbers on the character sheet.
This is going to be done by a unique stress system, which allows characters to gain bonus dice beyond what they would normally be able to get, and stress of different types has unique mechanical effects. I'll detail this on a different day.
How this goes into game mechanics, however, is as follows.
A character in Genship Exiles has attributes (not domains, as standard in Resistance games, though the mechanics are identical), skills, a role, and affinities. They also gain generational bonuses based on their predecessors, which function like Advances in the standard Resistance toolbox: this bonus is inherited based on the role or affinity of a previous character in the game, to show the character's relationship history.
By default, a character may apply no more than three dice; their attribute, skill, and a role or affinity bonus (not both). Once they achieve an inheritance bonus, if they have exceptionally positive circumstances, or receive active aid, they may roll with mastery, per the traditional Resistance toolbox, gaining an additional die.
However, let's say that there's a Difficulty 3 action, so the character would lose all three dice. They may Stress any of their non-mastery dice sources (and bonds, which typically give mastery but are unique) to add an additional die, with no limit to the number of potential dice added.
The counter-point to this is that a failed action can cause Stress, and a critically failed action causes multiple Stresses. Fallout occurs when a character takes Stress to an already Stressed dice source, which is generally a major dramatic issue.
This Stress has a narrative consequence; stressed dice sources still function normally, but may not be stressed again.
At the end of a session, the players choose between removing stress or making a new character and gaining an inheritance bonus from their current character. All inheritance bonuses are passed forward, giving the potential for constant progression.
A character should have between ten to twelve stressable dice sources (inheritance bonuses are not), which provides a natural spotlighting mechanic.
Thoughts? Ideas?