UNITY RPG: The Best of D&D 4E, Pathfinder, & Dungeon World

Unity is an interesting new game going soon. With diceless GMing, a narrative approach, and tactical gridless combat in which players operate in "unity" rather than taking turns, and inspirations from D&D 4E, Pathfinder, and Dungeon World, it's an indie game with great production values. I've been sent an exclusive preview of the game, which you can see below - two page spreads, one introducing the game and one taking a look at a combat encounter.

Designer Anson Tran says "If I could sum up what I’m trying to do with Unity, it would be to create a game that has the tactical depth and crunch of D&D 4e, the excitement of character builds from 3.5e/Pathfinder and finally the narrative ease and storytelling potential of a game like Dungeon World. All of this oriented around very team-focused turn-less combat. Unity is Epic Fantasy infused with a flavourful dose of long lost magic-powered technology – there are guns, robots, and floating cities but they are a rare and momentous thing to discover."

There's a Kickstarter coming later this year for the 330+ page full-colour hardcover.

 

[trystero]

Emphasis added:
"Each power goes through endless iterations to ensure that it is compelling..."

They're never going to make their release date if that's true.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I just hope this encourages more people to try 13th Age.

 

[camilaacolide]

I had the same problem.
Unity-rpg.com

Caught it in one of those teasers after some investigating.

There is also the twitter account: https://twitter.com/ZensaraStudios
It seems the website was up on Feb 26, so it's quite a new project.
We're probably going to hear more about it in days to come.

 

[ZickZak]

The best of D&D 4e and gridless combat? Dunno...

We ve played and loved 4e along its entire existance, never had to use a grid. And only the GM drew it for himself on a plain paper.

 

[doctorhook]

Definitely intriguing! Will probably look into this once I see it on a shelf.

 

[Anson]

Heya! The creator for Unity here. Wanted to pop in and say hi and also a give a HUGE thanks to Morrus for putting up this article and helping generate awareness for the game. I'm continually amazed and deeply grateful of the support the RPG community provides to indie developers.

The lavish title of the article definitely has me blushing a bit. To put things into perspective, Unity is my humble attempt at drawing inspiration from the various games that have carved a special place in my heart My only hope is that there are folks out there who might enjoy similar tastes or be interested in trying out something a little different.

I apologize for the un-intuitiveness of trying to find more information on the game itself. The website and social media pages only went up recently and are still spinning up on Google rankings. If the teaser has piqued your interest you can find out more at:

Main Website: http://www.unity-rpg.com

I also interact with fans and provide more frequent updates on my social media platforms:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZensaraStudios/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Unityrpgtabletop/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZensaraStudios

Join up for exclusive updates and a peek at more artwork.

For a limited time: I'm offering any early subscribers to the mailing list exclusive perks for the Kickstarter campaign. If you like what you see and decide to back it and you were on the subscriber list before the Kickstarter went live then you will receive exclusive monsters/NPCs complete with their own unique artwork, lore and mechanics. My way of saying thank you for your interest when Unity was still a tiny sparkle in a sea of brilliant RPG stars. I hate spam and I will only use the mailing list to alert you about the Kickstarter.

Thank you so much for your interest and if you have any questions I'd be more than happy to answer them.

 

[Curmudjinn]

Heya! The creator for Unity here. Wanted to pop in and say hi and also a give a HUGE thanks to Morrus for putting up this article and helping generate awareness for the game. I'm continually amazed and deeply grateful of the support the RPG community provides to indie developers.

I have a question for you, Anson. I'm definitely interested in the game, but the setting itself doesn't jump out at me. If I used Unity, it would be in a generic role for many settings. Are the rules to be presented in a way to not be completely tied down to the setting? Or could a universal system PDF be a stretch goal?
From Knights Templar charging across the fields of the Saracens, to simple low tech/low magic adventurers surviving the wilds of their world.

I look forward to some previews of various mechanics.

 

[Anson]

Hi Curmudjinn,

Thanks for your question. The answer is yes

I’ve been designing Unity for quite some time now and during that journey, a lot of feedback I received was that some folks loved having a rich setting to draw from and some wanted to conjure up their own worlds to explore instead.

One of the key pieces of my design philosophy is to make Unity modular wherever it does not compromise the mechanical integrity of the system as a whole or takes away from the spirit of the game. The spirit of the game is one of storytelling, character development and gripping tactical combat.

With that being said, the setting does inform some of the mechanics in the game but they are mechanics that are “nice to haves” rather than mandatory. I’ll give you an example.

The setting of Unity is one of a world that teeters on the brink of oblivion from so many horrible things occurring. One of the major issues is that the fabric between the Drift (a place of collective spiritual and psychic energies) and physical reality has been sheared opening room for all sorts of nastiness to spill through. This is reflected in an optional mechanic called “Breaches”. Breaches are random rifts that tear open throughout the land and cause a demonic incursion which can snowball into an interesting situation pretty fast. Without going into a ton of detail, they are a tool for the GM to add tension and also put a price on PCs for over-resting, over indulging and plain old fartin’ around instead of getting things done. But it’s completely optional to have Breaches in your game, it’s something a group should talk about at Session Zero and figure out the type of game they want to play.

If you wanted low-tech/low magic you could definitely do away with the automatons or Titan Rigs (extremely rare mechs that players can pilot together). You could take guns off the equipment table. You could make the Afflicted (one of the 4 races) simply diseased and maintaining their function through wooden prosthetics rather than enhanced by magitech. I’m not sure immersion wise if you’d be able to explain away a class like the Mystic who is a manipulator of magical currents. But with the rest of the classes and varieties to their builds… maybe no one will miss the Mystic Hopefully from the combat example provided to ENWorld you can see that the powers should be transferable to any generic fantasy setting. They can also be re-flavoured to your own unique world, the important thing is to maintain their mechanic and purpose.

You know, I would love to say that I can make a Universal Rules PDF a stretch goal but I’m of the mindset of under-promising and over-delivering rather than vice versa. I really want to get all my ducks in a row before I promise anything beyond what I already have but I hope from my explanation above you can see my intention and philosophy for Unity. I am big on flexibility and I will always try to provide it where it doesn’t compromise vision or functionality. As long as you don't go too far in one direction, super hi-tech futuristic or stone age, you should be ok

 

[Curmudjinn]

-snip-

I completely understand about focusing on what you have instead of putting more on your plate, and I respect that in a Kickstarter campaign.

Thank you for the informative reply! I wish you good luck in your future Kickstarter.

 

[Evenglare]

very cool stuff. Ever since Cypher Core Rulebook came out I haven't been impressed with much of anything new, this one got me interested.