Introduction
Picture this: it’s game night, you have your gin tonic with frozen raspberries (or whatever other beverage goes with that for you) and tonight you feel like diving into a world of heroic fantasy and crushing some dragon skulls. But there is a problem, your group usually plays gritty cyberpunk. Normally, that would mean you have to convince everyone to learn new system, buy more books, and then invest time and energy into something new. Even worse, the custom creations you’ve crafted for one game often end up gathering dust, locked away in an incompatible system.
Over the years, I’ve faced this struggle over and over again. I’m deeply inspired by the stories I consume. Reading How to Train Your Dragon with my son, I dreamt of a campaign where every player had their own dragon. Garth Nix’s Angel Mage inspired me to add angelic icons to my world, and his Abhorsen cronicles influenced necromancy and riverwalking. Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders made me bring living ships to the table. My setting evolved into a chaotic mix of magic, technology, and genre-spanning ideas that, somehow, work together to occassional delight of my players.
Age of Adventure is my answer to these challenges—and my invitation to you to build something even greater. This system’s modular design allows you to switch genres without learning new rules, seamlessly carrying your favorite elements from one setting to another. Your creations will interact with others in new and interesting ways: when I created an "Echo" feature for creatures it allowed me to immediately have echo knights, wizards, and assassins in a sword-and-sorcery game, but it also means I can have pirate aliens with echo like hologram technology in a space opera game down the road with no additional work.
What makes AoA truly special, though, is its openness. Every aspect of this system is developed transparently and protected by a simple Creative Commons license. No hidden clauses, no fine print, and no corporate interests. The core rules and my own creations are freely available for everyone to use. The system’s code and content are open-source, ensuring there are no rug-pulls or gatekeeping. Best of all, it empowers you to contribute freely while retaining ownership of your work—or sharing it as widely as you like.
I would like to end this welcome with a nod to my players, friends and family that support and contribute to these efforts as inspirations, co-creators and rough first draft playtesters that stand by me even when things do not work so great, providing honest but kind feedback.
Semper tuum, JR.
What is AoA?
Age of Adventure is open source, modular, multi-genre table top role playing game.
Open Source
Age of Adventure is developed in the open. This means all of the core data, site and functionality are available for everyone to see, copy and modify (in their own version), without the need to ask for permission.
Repositories are available at the following links:
This openess means that AoA is free to everyone but also that everyone is free to propose contributions, and if they are seen as appropriate and beneficial by the core maintainers, they will be accepted into the core and made available to everyone. Of course, at that point those creations become part of the core and subject to its open licencing, so only make those contributions if you are fine with that.
This open model diminishes our control over the system and reduces our chances for any monetisation greatly, but we hope that it can foster positive and and productive community of creators, game moderators and players that are making everyone's experience with the game we all love that much more enjoyable.
Modular
Almost everything in AoA that can be made modular is. On the highest level you can enable or disable various genre or setting specific modules to filter down exactly to the experience you want. This way you don't need to care about laser guns if you want to play stone age mammut hunt. But also you do not need to learn new core rules when you want to help defeat evil galactic empire. You just switch modules, allowing for maximum flexibility.
Character and item creation (and many other things) are also made modular. This means you are not stuck playing wisdom based druid just because that is what druids are. you can easily combine druid features with intellect based fitures to create a savy and scientific explorer of nature or come up with any other combination of features you want for your character. Because of how combinatorics work, this makes number of character builds in AoA near infinite. It is therefor very likely that the character you make for your AoA game will be completely unique to you.
This modular design also means that every new creation you make for AoA gets to be used in countless ways, with a minimum effort. Lets say you are creating dark setting where good guys use special divine light to fight against zombies, vampires and the rest. Creating this one feature immediately enables paladines and clerics to use it, but it might also find a way into some gunslinger build down the road, making your game more interesting and aiding in the future worldbuilding.
Multi Genre
Modularity enables AoA to be multi genre TTRPG without pushing, tearing and stretching of the rules usually required to addapt such game systems to a genre they were not created for. This means that learning this one ruleset future proofs your games even if you want to completely shift the tone down the road. If you are a world builder this also means that AoA is here to support you even when you stray off of a beaten path and add advanced alien civilisation to your sword and sorcery setting. Or introduce magic in space. Or any other even rarer combination of things. Who knows, maybe looking down the list of modules even sparks some ideas for a new genre you haven't tried or thought about before.
Tabletop Role Playing Game
Age of Adventure belongs to the group of games intended to be played around the table with a group of friends, paper, pens and some dice. During the gameplay the players jump into the roles of fantasy caracters they created and roleplay (mostly narrate, but feel free to go as hard as you want) their actions. Once the consequences of those actions are resolved using some dice and elementary math we are left with the story created and told in collaboration with everyone at the table. This usually creates enjoyable, shared experience that is hard to forget and continues to bring value to the entire group. After all, how can you not be close friends, when you have beaten that dragon together?
License
All the rules, mechanics, and core content of this tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. In short, this means:
- You are free to share: You can copy and redistribute the material or parts of it in any medium or format.
- You are free to adapt: You can remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. You maintain all the rights to your own work and can do with it as you please.
Conditions
Some simple conditions have to apply in order to keep things nice:
- Attribution. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. Usually just declaring what system you are working on, what license you are using and what parts of whatever it is you are making are your invention completely satisfies this requirement.
- No additional restrictions. You can put whatever restrictions you want on your own creations but cannot put any additional restrictions on the use of this system and its core creations.
What This Means for You
This license allows creators to freely use the core rules, mechanics, and core content in their projects. Whether you want to make a homebrew module, write a supplement, adventure or even design your own spin-off game, you can do so without asking for permission. You can publish your work anywhere you want, openly or under restrictive and commercial licenses. If you manage to make money while doing so, you don't have to pay any licensing fees. We would be happy for you.
For GMs and players, this ensures that the game remains open and accessible, and you can share materials, create new adventures, or tweak the rules to fit your table without worrying about legal issues.
Why This License?
We feel that only this open model truly fosters creative collaboration that makes TTRPGs so great. Every group of players can bring something fun and interesting and unique to the table, if only they are allowed. By embracing this open model it is our hope that we can foster community that is ready to contribute and work towards common good of all, enriching us all in the process.
Community
How to Use This Book
Online Tools
Core Concepts
Roles
Modularity
Material
Game Flow
Session
Skill Checks
Skill Challenges
Combat
Game Rules
Standard Actions
Conditions
System Stress
d20 | Effect |
---|---|
1 | You lose 1 VIT until recovered. |
2 | You lose 1 INT until recovered. |
3 | You lose 1 AGI until recovered. |
4 | You lose 1 WIS until recovered. |
5 | You lose 1 CHA until recovered. |
6 | You get ♦ less on your turn until recovered. |
7 | Your speed is lowered by one until recovered. |
8 | You are blinded until recovered. |
9 | You are deafened until recovered. |
10 | Move action costs additional ◆ to use. |
11 | Your DgC is reduced by 2 |
12 | All your movement speeds are reduced by 1 until recovered. |
13 | You immediately take 1d12 ravaging damage. |
14 | You immediately take 1d10 true damage. |
15 | Your max HP is reduced by 1d6 until recovered. |
16 | You suffer -1 to all skill checks until recovered. |
17 | You suffer -1 to all attack rolls until recovered. |
18 | You gain 1 level of disadvantage on initiative until recovered. |
19 | You get ⮌ less on each of your turns, to the minimum of 0. |
20 | You suffer no major consequence this time. |
Character / Creature Creation
Idea
Imagine the character you wish to play. Think about what defines them. What are their characteristics? Background? Skills they have? How they belong into the setting your GM created? Start with the things you feel strongest about - AoA is a modular system so the character can be created from many directions.
Pick Building Blocks
Category
1 or more
Lineage
type + kin
Size
Backstory
Background + culture
Add flavour.
Features
Character abilities.
Do the Math
Traits
Traits are basic characteristics of a creature and can be both positive and negative in value. If any trait drops to -5 or less the creature is outright killed.
Traits play significant role in all skill checks.
- AGI
- STR
- VIT
- INT
- WIS
- CHA
- LUC (with luck module)
Skills
Skills are a meassure of how good a creature is at certain categories of tasks. Skill can never be negative. A skill is always combined with a trait to make a skill check.
Specialisations
Specialisations are narrow categories of special skills that creature has and can be added to any skill check if it makes sense for the situation.
Category
A creature has one or more categories that influence its traits.
- aberration
- celestial
- demon
- dragon
- fey
- ooze
- swarm
- beast
- construct
- devil
- elemental
- monstrosity
- plant
- undead
Type
Type is a broad category that creature falls in bologically. Together with Kin it represents creature's lineage
If a creature has parents of different lineages, it gets type from one and kin from the other, becoming hybrid of the two.
Kin
Specieces / race of the creature.
Size
AoA has 7 size categories:
- minute
- tiny
- small
- medium
- large
- huge
- gargantuan
Culture
Each creature has one culture - one that shaped it most when it grew up.
Background
Each creature comes with a background, reflexing its life prior to the story.
Whenever you are creating a character, select the background that bests reflex your story (or create a new one).
Background consists of 4 points total of specialisations, movement speeds and languages (one language counting as 1 point) and 3 times 2 in skills.
Features
When a creature levels up it gains features.
HP Calculation
HP (health points) are a resource that gets depleated as the creature takes damage. Droping to 0 brings creature to the brink of death - unless healed it soon dies.
Block and Dodge Class
Each creature has 2 scores defining its defensive capabilities, Block Class (BC) and Dodge Class (DgC).
Dodge class is a measure of how hard the creature is to hit. To hit attacks below DgC miss the targets and deal no damage.
DgC = 10 + Dodge + AGI
Block class signifies resilience to damage. Attacks and effects that hit a creature can be greatly reduced (but not completely negated) by armour and other padding around the creature.If to hit roll is more than dodge class but less than block class the target is hit but only takes half of the damage. Damage from effects that require skill checks to resist is also halved if the check DC is less than creature's Block Class.
BC = 10 + Block + STR
All creatures have BC and DgC, but special items, effects and features could also grant three other defensive numbers: Shielding, Damage Treshold and Damage Reduction.
Shilding is a pool of HP on top of creature's regular HP that is always used first whenever creature takes damage. If a creature takes more damage than the amount of shielding it has left, the rest of the damage affects its normal HP.
Some creatures and items are impervious to small amounts of damage. Those creatures and items have Damage Treshold score. Whenever a target receives amount of damage less than its damage treshold from a single source it takes no damage. Wheneve such creature or item takes damage equal or more than its damage treshold it takes damage normally, without any reducions, as if damage treshold didn't exist.
Rare creatures and object have damage reduction. This reduction applies to every single source of damage, reducing the amount of damage by the number specified. If a creature or an item with a damage reduction would receive less damage than its damage reduction, it receives no damage instead.
Carrying Capacity
Carrying Capacity = 10 + Stamina + STR
For GMs
Genre Transitions
Balance
Genre
High Fantasy
Low Fantasy
Sword and Sorcery
Dark Fantasy
Urban Fantasy
Steampunk
Steampunk Fantasy
Gaslamp Fantasy
Mythic Fantasy
Eco Fantasy
Dungeon Crawl
Hard Sci-Fi
Soft Sci-Fi
Cyberpunk
Post Apocalyptic Sci-Fi
Space Opera
Military Sci-Fi
Time Travel Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi Horror
Dystopian/Utopian Sci-Fi
Mecha Sci-Fi
Historical
Western
Pirates
Cosmic Horror
Post Apocalyptic
Wuxia & Xianxia
Detective Noir
Weird West
Sci-Fantasy
Survival
Romantic Fantasy
Espionage
Dieselpunk
Atompunk
Biopunk
Solarpunk
Clockpunk
Teslapunk
Raypunk
Decopunk
Stonepunk
Grimdark
Crystalpunk
Silkpunk
Mythpunk
Hopepunk
Rustpunk
Lovecraftian Sci-Fi
Neonpunk
Magipunk
Fantasypunk
Futurepunk
Psychadelic Fantasy
Plaguepunk
Kaijupunk
Piratepunk
Retrofuturism
Tech Noir
Gothicpunk
Apocalyptic Horror
Heroic Fantasy
Arcanepunk
Space Western
Shonen Action
Eldritch Fantasy
Adventure Pulp
Oceanpunk
Necropunk
Junglepunk
Art Deco Noir
Folklore Horror
Espionage Sci-Fi
Superhero
Exploration Sci-Fi
Agripunk
Monster Tamer
Tech Fantasy
Dark Academia
Wuxia & Xianxia
Heroic Fantasy
Romantic Fantasy
Eldritch Fantasy
Folklore Fantasy
Dark Academia Fantasy
Hard Sci-Fi
Soft Sci-Fi
Cyberpunk
Space Opera
Military Sci-Fi
Time Travel Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi Horror
Dystopian/Utopian Sci-fi
Mecha Sci-Fi
Exploration Sci-Fi
Espionage Sci-Fi
Biopunk
Solarpunk
Tech Fantasy
Cosmic Horror
Apocalyptic Horror
Gothic Horror
Folk Horror
Sci-Fi Horror
Dark Fantasy Horror
Historical Drama
Western
Pirates
Weird West
Pulp Adventure
Tech Noir
Art Deco Noir
Detective Noir
Superhero
Post Apocalyptic
Dystopian Survival
Monster Tamer
Survival Horror
Dieselpunk
Atompunk
Teslapunk
Raypunk
Neonpunk
Decopunk
Rustpunk
Clockpunk
Silkpunk
Crystalpunk
Hopepunk
Plaguepunk
Kaijupunk
Oceanpunk
Junglepunk
Agripunk
For Creators
Design Decisions
Creation Guidelines
Contributing
Modules
Age of Adventure is designed around modular design where components can play of each other in endless combinations.
Module Overwiev
The Core module is the foundation of every Age of Adventure game. It includes the basic mechanics needed for gameplay, covering actions, traits, combat, and social interactions. All other modules are optional and can be enabled to expand the system for specific genres, themes, or styles of play.
This modular design ensures that Age of Adventure is highly flexible and genre-agnostic. Whether your story involves mages battling robots, stonepunk societies, or space-faring explorers, you can customize the rules to fit your setting without requiring players to learn new mechanics every time the genre changes.
Magic and Supernatural Modules
These modules add magical, mystical, and supernatural elements to your game.
Spellcasting
Allows creatures and players to cast spells. A core module to many fantasy settings.
Dependency: Requires either Arcane, Divine or Elemental.
Alchemy
Alchemical and chemical crafting, with rules for potions, bombs, and advanced materials.
Arcane
Controlled, learned, almost scientific magic.
Chronomancy
Time travel mechanics, including handling paradoxes and temporal effects.
Divine
Features clergy, cultists, divine magic, and optionally, divine beings such as demons, devils, and angels.
Elemental
Introduces elemental energies, druids, and elemental magic. Optionally includes elementals as creatures.
Hemocraft
Rules for blood magic, vampires, and vampirism.
Necromancy
Focuses on necromancers and undead creatures, including rules for raising the dead.
Outsiders
Cosmic horror elements, featuring eldritch horrors, cultists, and sanity mechanics.
Psionics
Adds mystical mental powers like telepathy, telekinesis, and precognition.
Runecraft
Explores ancient runes, lost languages, and rune-based magic systems.
Shadows
Shadow magic, cloacking, and creatures of the dark.
Technology Modules
These modules introduce advanced technology, vehicles, and futuristic concepts.
Atom
Rules for nuclear technology, radiation weapons, and mutations.
Blades
Features medieval-level weaponry and armor.
Biomancy
Gene editing and chimeras. Enables modified humanoids and creatures when paired with Monsters or Humanoids.
Cyber
Focuses on hacking, cyberspace exploration, and futuristic computers.
Diesel
Diesel-powered machines, vehicles, and weaponry.
Elektrica
Covers electricity-based technology, transportation, and mystical energies.
Gunpowder
Introduces firearms, explosives, and early industrial weaponry.
Mecha
Rules for piloting giant robots, optionally including giant monsters to battle them.
Nano
Advanced nanotechnology, laser weapons and energy-based equipment.
Space
Rules for space travel, rockets, and alien worlds.
Steam
Introduces steampunk technology and clockwork devices, optionally incorporating magical machinery.
Stone
Focuses on stone-age tools and weapons, as well as animal-powered technology. Ideal for primitive or low-tech campaigns.
Synth
Introduces artificial intelligence, androids, and other artificial life forms. Includes rules for creating, interacting with, or even playing as synthetic beings
Species and Creature Modules
These modules expand on character and creature options.
Heroes
Introduces superhuman characters with extraordinary abilities.
Humanoids
Introduces non-human playable species, from aliens to mythological beings.
Monsters
Adds a variety of creatures for use as enemies, allies, or world flavor.
General Modules
These modules enhance the social, political, and economic aspects of your world.
Apocalypse
Covers catastrophic events such as plagues, natural disasters, environmental collapse, and societal ruin.
Bases
Rules for building, upgrading, and maintaining bases, secret lairs, or headquarters. Includes mechanics for fortifications, resource management, and customization.
Crafting
Enables players to create magical or technological items.
Exploration
Focuses on travel mechanics, environmental challenges, and world exploration.
Factions
Adds faction renown, political systems, and power struggles.
Hearts
Personal renown, relationships, followers and pets.
Mercantile
Rules for trading, banking, and investing.
Learning
Rules for learnings and improving during downtime. Grants small bonuses and aids in roleplay and exploration.
Luck
Introduces mechanics for luck as a core trait, allowing players and enemies to influence outcomes with lucky breaks, rerolls, or fate-altering events.
Scavenging
Rules for gathering resources, looting, and crafting with found materials.
War
Adds large-scale battle mechanics and war machines.
Setting-Specific Modules
These modules are designed for specific settings within the Age of Adventure universe. They showcase how multiple modules can combine to create unique, tailored experiences.
Riverwalk
Focuses on navigating the river of life, bringing back souls, and battling necromancers in death.
Dependency: Requires Necromancy.
Teoxal
Introduces Teoxal Warriors—powerful allies who can be stored in Teoxal cubes and summoned for combat.
Dependency: Requires Monsters.
How to Use Modules
When building your game, follow these steps to choose the right modules:
- Start with Core: Always include the Core module.
- Choose Your Genre: Decide the theme or style of your game (e.g., medieval fantasy, sci-fi, post-apocalypse, etc.).
- Enable Relevant Modules: Refer to the "Modules for the Genre" section to see which modules are normally best for your chosen genre.
- Customize: Customise to your liking. Add any general modules you want to include.
Alchemy
Apocalypse
Arcane
Atom
Bases
Biomancy
Blades
Chronomancy
Crafting
Cyber
Diesel
Divine
Eletrica
Elemental
Experience
Factions
Gunpowder
Hearts
Hemocraft
Heroes
Humanoids
Learning
With this module enabled, characters can improve their skills beyond what they would usually get. There are three distinct methods of skill advancement, each granting +1 to a chosen skill, stacking up to a total of +3.
Learning Methods
- Guided Mastery (+1) – Learning from a teacher who is more skilled than you.
- Scholarly Insight (+1) – Studying from books, digital archives, or other media.
- Breakthrough Moment (+1) – Achieving a major success through gameplay.
Once a skill reaches +3 using this system, no further increases can be gained through learning. However, characters may still improve skills through other game mechanics (e.g., level-up features, feats, or magic items).
Guided Mastery
Characters may seek out a mentor or instructor to improve their skills. A teacher must have a higher skill bonus than the student to be able to teach them.
Learning Process
- Each learning session lasts 1 hour and focuses on one specific skill check.
- At the end of that hour, both the teacher and student roll a chosen skill check.
- If the combined total of both rolls is 30 or higher, the student marks one success in that skill for the chosen attribute.
- Once the student has gained a success in all six attributes for the skill, they achieve Guided Mastery (+1 to the skill).
For example, to learn Stealth, a student would need to succeed at Stealth (AGI), Stealth (STR), Stealth (VIT), Stealth (INT), Stealth (WIS), and Stealth (CHA).
Additional Notes:
- Multiple teachers may be used. A character can seek different teachers for different attributes.
- A teacher may instruct multiple students at once. Each student rolls individually, benefiting from the teacher’s roll.
- A poor teacher roll can slow progress. A teacher who barely meets the required skill level will make learning much slower than one who excels.
Scholarly Insight
Characters may study books, digital archives, training simulations, expert videos, or other media to improve a skill.
Learning Process
- The character must acquire an appropriate piece of media to learn from.
- Each study session lasts 1 hour and focuses on one specific skill check covered in that media.
- At the end of that hour, the character makes a skill check (DC 20).
- On success, they mark one success for the chosen attribute.
- Once the student has gained a success in all six attributes for the skill, they achieve Scholarly Insight (+1 to the skill).
Media Quality & Availability
- Higher-quality media may provide a bonus (+1, +2, etc. to the roll).
- Some media may require translation or decryption. A character who does not understand the language (or lacks proper access credentials) cannot benefit from the material unless they have a way to bypass this restriction.
- Media is not consumed or destroyed but must be available for study.
- Multiple characters can learn from the same media if they are learning the same skill check (e.g., one character reads aloud, or a training simulation is run for multiple participants).
- If multiple characters want to study different attributes from the same media, they must schedule their downtime accordingly.
Breakthrough Moment
At any point during gameplay, if a character rolls 40 or higher on a skill check, they experience a Breakthrough Moment.
- This reflects a moment of absolute mastery, allowing the character to instantly gain +1 to that skill.
- No further effort or downtime is required.
- A skill can only benefit from one Breakthrough Moment. If a character rolls 40+ again, no additional bonus is granted.
- This applies to any roll over 40, regardless of external bonuses or assistance.
General Learning Rules
- Learning order is flexible. A character can mix and match the three methods in any order to reach the +3 cap.
- Students can attempt the same check multiple times. There is no penalty for failure aside from lost time.
- This is a downtime activity. Learning typically occurs between adventuring sessions (e.g., while camping, during town visits, or in other low-stakes moments).
- Teachers and media provide in-world roleplay opportunities. NPCs may charge for lessons, offer training as a reward, or refuse to teach without proper persuasion.
Example: Learning Stealth
A character wants to improve their Stealth skill. They can:
- Find a mentor (Guided Mastery) – A rogue in town agrees to train them for a price. Over several days, they complete six successful lessons (one per attribute).
- Study expert knowledge (Scholarly Insight) – They acquire a rare thief’s manual, an interactive VR stealth course, or a hacker’s guide, and spend downtime studying it.
- Achieve a Breakthrough Moment – During a high-stakes infiltration mission, they roll a 42 on a Stealth check, immediately gaining their final +1.
Once they have used all three methods, their Stealth skill is permanently improved by +3.
Edge Cases & Clarifications
Can a character fail to learn?
No, but learning can take a long time. If a character fails a learning check, they simply spend more downtime attempting it again.
Does a teacher need to be far more skilled than the student?
No, but the better the teacher, the faster the progress. If a teacher rolls low, the student must compensate.
Can a single piece of media be used by multiple characters?
Yes, but only if they are learning the same skill check. If multiple characters want to study different attributes from the same media, they must schedule their study time.
Can a teacher instruct multiple students at once?
Yes, but all students must be learning the same skill + attribute combination.
Can a character gain more than +3 from this module?
No. Once a character has Guided Mastery (+1), Scholarly Insight (+1), and Breakthrough Moment (+1), this module can no longer improve that skill.
If Luck module is enabled, are there 7 rolls to make?
No. You cannot learn luck.
Luck
Mecha
Mercantile
Monsters
Nano
Necromancy
Outsiders
Psionics
Introduction
Introduction to Psionics
The mind is the ultimate frontier — a realm where untapped potential and raw will converge to shape reality. In Age of Adventure, psionics represents the power that emanates from within, allowing individuals to manifest extraordinary abilities through focus, discipline, and insight but without relying out magic and other outside forces.
In a game where settings and genres are left to the Game Masters, psionics is designed to be as flexible as the narrative demands. A psion could be:
- A Mystic Monk: Living high in a secluded mountain temple, mastering inner peace and the art of transcending physical limits while practicing martial arts
- A Hypnotist: Talk of the glamorous saloons and a member of mistical societies, wandering the shadowy fringes of society, using their mental prowess to sway hearts and bend wills.
- A Galactic Guardian: Wielding laser guns and swords, blending martial prowess of the future with metaphysical insight.
- Corporate Mindbender: In the cutthroat world of corporate espionage, this operative uses subtle mental influence to sway negotiations, uncover secrets, and control the boardroom from the shadows.
- Psychic Detective: Always knowing a little more, piecing together mysteries that leave conventional investigators baffled.
- Druidic Empath: Tapping into the collective consciousness of the natural world—communicating with wildlife, healing the wounded, and invoking the ancient rhythms of the earth.
This open-ended design encourages you and your players to interpret psionics in a way that best suits your campaign's tone and aesthetic.
Psionic Points
Each psion has a pool of PP (psionic points in case but this is compatible with wherever else you see PP such as power points in Hero module). Generally every psionic feature gives psion 2 PP.
Psions regain half of their PP after every short of long rest.
Initially a psion can use 1 PP at the time and they can raise that limit by taking levels in Potent Psionics. Limiting this one feature tree therefor allows GMs to fine tune the presence of psionics in their games from minor effects (no Potent Psionics) to world bending psionic powers that can influence entire areas (all 11 levels of Potent Psionics).
Psionic Abilities
Psionic abilities have two stages, low burn and release. After every short or long rest a psion will generally start one or more abilities on a slow burn that give them small bonuses psions are known for - talking telepathically, moving small objects with the power of mind, seeing a bit more, being a bit faster... At any point the psion can chose to release those low burning abilities for a short but more powerful effect. Psion can also chose to overcharge that release with even more PP for a costlier but more powerful effect. Releasing too many of their low burning abilities will leave psions weak and tired until they can take a rest, regain PP and start new abilities.
Breaching Limits
Psions are known for their ability to go past their limits, risking injury to themselvese to go beyond their normal limits. Psions can spend PP they don't have by rolling on the Psionic Punishment Table for each PP. They can also spend PP above the limit allowed by their Potent Psionics by doing the same.
Psionic Punishment Table
d20 | Effect |
---|---|
1 | You lose 1 VIT until recovered. |
2 | You lose 1 INT until recovered. |
3 | You lose 1 AGI until recovered. |
4 | You lose 1 WIS until recovered. |
5 | You lose 1 CHA until recovered. |
6 | You gain -1 to Psionic DC and attack rolls until recovered. |
7 | Your max PP is reduced by 2 until recovered. |
8 | You are blinded until recovered. |
9 | You are deafened until recovered. |
10 | All psionic abilities and release effects cost 1 additional ◆ to use. |
11 | You gain one level of System Stress instead of psionic punishment. |
12 | All your movement speeds are reduced by 1 until recovered. |
13 | You immediately take 1d12 psychic damage. |
14 | You immediately take 1d10 true damage. |
15 | Your max HP is reduced by 1d6 until recovered. |
16 | You suffer -1 to all skill checks until recovered. |
17 | You suffer -1 to all attack rolls until recovered. |
18 | You gain 1 level of disadvantage on initiative until recovered. |
19 | You cannot use the psionic ability that caused this roll until recovered. |
20 | You suffer no major consequence this time. |