Jraynack
Explorer
Welcome to the Roleplaying Revolution. Within the next two weeks, Alea Publishing Group will launch its first Kickstarter project: The Genesis Roleplaying System.
However, before we launch our Kickstarter Project, we wanted to first introduce the game.
Why do we call it a Roleplaying Revolution?
The Genesis Roleplaying System is vastly different than its predecessors.
First, apart from being a role-playing game, it is also a deck building game, where players create a character deck as they adventure. The character deck serves as their potential to overcome hazards and monsters to progress the storyline.
Secondly, unlike traditional role-playing games, the Genesis system does not need dice resolution. It instead uses a innovative card mechanic to resolve actions.
Why Cards?
While not as old as dice, cards offer plenty of opportunities to explore a variety of interesting game mechanics. You can flip, reveal, discard, draw, turn, stack, and shuffle cards. Whereas with dice, you can add more, change a die type, maybe add a few modifiers. As you can see, dice is a very limited mechanic.
To further explain, let me introduce the three main card resolution mechanics: the advanced, the standard, and light methods.
The Advanced Method
This method is generally used to attack, cast spells, or perform opposed actions. To determine if your character succeeds at a task you do the following:
- Draw a card from one of the 5 central Ability Stacks: Agility, Charm, Insight, Strength, Willpower.
- Add your Ability Score to the chosen card.
- You and your fellow players may further boost the result by discarding additional cards from their hand.
The Standard Method
This is a quick method to determine a resolution - maybe your character is busting a few heads in a bar fight or bashing a door to escape ravenous ghouls.
- The Game Master determines which one or more of the five abilities you need to attempt the action.
- Reveal your hand.
- For each appropriate ability card revealed, add your corresponding ability score.
- Compare the result to the difficulty revealed by the Game Master.
The Light Method
This is the most basic resolution. You might hear an enemy approaching, quickly pick the pockets of someone passing by, or jumping a barrel while guards are in close pursuit.
- The Game Master determines which one or more of the five abilities you need to attempt the action.
- Reveal your hand.
- For each appropriate ability card revealed, it counts as a success.
- Compare the result to the difficulty revealed by the Game Master.
You can already see the advantages and flexible this system holds over basic dice mechanics. Further, as a Game Master, you can use all of the methods for a detailed adventure or just focus on one, such as the light method, for a quick and casual game.
No more being bogged down by rolling lots of dice. However, if you, like many of us, still cling to your addiction to dice, we will also show you how to incorporate dice into the system.
Stay tuned for more updates about the Genesis Roleplaying System as we countdown to our Kickstarter launch.
Also, feel free to ask questions here or join us on Facebook. This is a revolutionary new idea and we want to address any concerns you may have.
