About the Miracle System

This post holds a resume of all the details I've been working on for my system. I will be working on this post as I find the time to do so.

Dice Rolls
The game is designed to run all of its rng through Xd6 because of two motives:
- Affordability. Because where I live, dice other than d6 are rare and their prices outpace the wallets of most of the population.
- Escalability. Because the game is designed with "legendary progression" in mind rather than being an afterthought.

The Standard Roll is Xd6 versus Target Number (from now on abbreviated TN.)

X here is a sum of Appropriate Stat, Appropriate Talent if any, Appropriate modifiers if any.

TN is defined as Difficulty x 5 (+/- 0~5, depending on minimal circumstances). So, your median Difficulty 3 is TN 15, but it can range between 10 and 20.

There are basically five possible results:

Failure: Low roll with more than 5 points of difference versus TN
Slip: Milder failure. Low roll with 5 diff or less versus TN.
Miracle: Critical Success. Result = TN. There are abilities that let you try to manipulate results. They are called Miracle-Forcing abilities for a good reason.
Success: Ordinary success. High roll with 5 diff or less versus TN
Excessive/Massive Success from now on abbreviated simply Excess: Success with a minor boon, should never be as good as a miracle. High roll with more than 5 diff versus TN.


Character Creation and Advancement
Takes snippets of Old School, Point Buy Systems, and the Cypher System to build up something unique and robust, easy to learn, hard to master. Essentially you begin making the typical choice based build, but later progress is made through various means, mostly through the expenditure of points.

To begin with, the player is led through three decisions, and each decision made will determine specific things and an additional subset of decisions.

I do it this way because of the next motives:
- Accessibility. When I tried to introduce a group of IRL friends to point buy systems they got overwhelmed at character creation. The systems expected a degree of rule-reading that they weren't willing to make at the moment. By lowering that bar, I expect that more players get to the point of actually playing the game.
- Variability: I like games where all (or as many as possible) build options have a reason to be. Games in which there is not an established orthodoxy of character building, and that aren't meant or designed to have one.


The core decisions to create a character are:

Lineage: This determines what kind of living being you are. The things you can do by nature. A lineage comes with a bundle of traits, including three Trait Selections, in which each player gets to choose between at least three options (can be more depending on the lineage) to customize its character a little.

Basically: Whether you are a human, elf, woodbot, elemental rodent or something else.

(Homebrew difficulty 3/10)

Archetype: This determines what kind of stuff you will specialize in doing. The archetype you start with is your Main Archetype, but you can access more archetypes by paying a fee. Each archetype levels up independently, when you buy specific stuff for it.

Your main archetype determines the baseline for your starting stats (you then pump them up some more at your criteria, with the same limits among all archetypes) Your starting Talent spread and your starting Equipment.

Every archetype you have grants you access to a market of abilities of its own, which are unlocked at set levels. Capstones are found at Archetype Level 30. Archetypes also have Specialties: Smaller, themed ability packs, that escalate the more you dedicate to both your archetype first, and your specialty second.

Specialties can be understood as subclasses, except one can branch out and take stuff from a different specialty.

The Archetypes are: Agent, Charlatan, Combatant, Explorer, Patron, Scholar, Supporter and Tinkerer.

(Homebrew Difficulty:
Entire new archetype 11/10
Extra abilities for existing archetype 0.5/10
Specialty 3/10)

Power System: The choice is divided between whether you start with access to a Power System or not. This is the special things that adds flavor to a character. What makes a common Scholar a Wizard, turns a Charlatan into a Bard, or grants a short, asocial teen girl the power to defeat an incomprehensible world ending threat (If I had a bonus die for every time Sanderson pulled this off, I'd have two bonus dice. Which isn't much, but it's weird it happened twice). All power systems are essentially its own sets of rules and progression within the boundaries of the game. And as such they have their own limits and are not exempt from risk, especially when you chew more than you can bite. Starting as a clean slate, without a Power System, also has its benefits, by boosting your more mundane side.

Excidar, are you looking for feedback, or just musing out loud and building here? (If you intended this to be a 'clean' thread I can delete this post as well...)

The Structure of an Archetype
Archetypes are the first source of progression and abilities, common to all player characters. Mechanically speaking, they consist of:

- a Level.
- a bunch of starter Stats, Talents, and Equipment.
- an Archetype Progression Ability.
- an Archetype Progression Tree.
- a collection of Specialties.

The level starts at 1 and raises under the conditions stipulated in the Progression Ability.

Starter Stats follow a distribution of 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 3, depending on the themes the archetype is more likely to follow. There are 8 points that (with some restrictions) allow you to adjust the build. This points go to Endurance, Energy, Strength, Agility, Intellect and Charisma.

Starter Talents are X Development worth of Base Level 1 Talents. They are given as a spread, with options. Example: "Choose between two A talents or one B talent" where A and B represent talent types, and a level in B talent type costs the same development as two levels in A talent type. The player can, after this choice, assign the talent itself.

Starter Equipment follows the same pattern as Starter Talents, in that it is choice based. However, in this case the choice economy is not governed by Development but by Carrying Capacity. By prioritizing one choice over the other, you will take more Burden to one of the three Carrying Stats (Strength, Agility, Intellect)

The Archetype Progression Ability follows the next structure:

At every moment during your character's life, you can associate any appropriate non-miscelaneous talent of each type to this archetype.

You level up in this archetype:
- When you spend Development to increase the level of an associated talent.
- When you spend Development in an Archetype ability. Or a Stack or repetition of an Archetype ability.
- When you gain Archetype Development. Up to once per session.

You gain Archetype Development when:
- You do Thing that this archetype is meant to do 1
- You do Thing that this archetype is meant to do 2
- You do Thing that this archetype is meant to do 3
If this is your Main Archetype you have all this sources of Archetype Development, otherwise choose one and lose the other two.

"Archetype" development is a special form of Development that can only be spent on things that would increase the Archetype's level.

The Archetype Progression Tree is structured in this way:

Levels 1, 3, 6: Unlocks 6 abilities each. (These are designed to be basis for latter synergies within the archetype)
Level 1 specifically grants one of its abilities for free at player's choice, and grants the first stack in a Specialty.

Level 2: Specific Noncombat Ability. Helps in doing the things you are supposed to do a little better. (If I don't specify "unlock", it's because it's a freebie. Unlocked abilities must be bought)

Level 4: Minor defensive bump.

Level 5: Unlocks 6 abilities and grants the second Specialty stack. From now on every fifth level will grant a Specialty stack. This goes even beyond level 30. The abilities found in level 5 allow to dip in level 1 and 3 abilities from other archetypes, except itself and one other archetype chosen by dichotomy.

Level 7: Upgrade 1 to Specific Noncombat Ability.

Level 8: Stat Boost, plus Extra Stat Boost if this is your Main Archetype.

Levels 9, 12 and 18: Unlocks 6 abilities each. These will continue the bases presented in the lower tier, but giving them their own twist. This tier is middle priced and middle powered.

Level 11: Specific Combat Ability. Grants you a boost in combat within your archetype's theme.

Level 13: Bonus to Talents

Level 14: Ultimate version of Specific Noncombat Ability.

Level 15: Unlocks 6 abilities. These abilities provide, alongside their effects, stackable stat bonuses as passives. There is one for each stat.

Level 16: Bonus to Specific Combat Ability.

Level 17: Bigger Stat Boost

Level 19: Ability Freebie up to 15 Development.

Levels 21, 24 and 27: You know the drill. These abilities "capstone" their respective lines. Heavily powered and heavily priced.

Level 22: Second Upgrade to Specific Combat Ability.

Level 23: Archetype Specialty Haste (limited passive discount in action cost for Specialty Actions)

Level 26: One choice out of three for Specific Combat Ability.

Level 28: Talent Boost

Level 29: Stat Boost

Level 30: Unlocks 6 abilities. These are the most expensive ones and are meant to be capital P Powerful. Typically, each of them will "cherry on top" a specific thing other abilities toy with.


Specialties:

Each archetype comes with seven specialties. Each specialty is both a theme and a synergy. A specialty consists of a Passive and a 1, 2 and 3-Action ability. Each time you gain a stack in a specialty you can put it into any Specialty you want, but it's recommended that you focus on one, or as few as possible, because the effects of Specialty actions are often powerful and escalate based on how much points you assign them. Every time you choose a specialty you gain 2 points in it to assign to abilities.