Identity System Version 3.0

Alan Aubrey's

Identity System

An All-Purpose Role-Playing Game
Version 3.0

Introduction

The Identity System is my attempt to create a universal rules-lite RPG. The intent of this system is best summarized in a single word: Accessibility. Anyone, new or old, should be able to play, in any setting, any genre, however they want. High fantasy, survival horror, and anything in-between, without 300 pages of rules getting in the way of every player having fun--their way.

Fiction First Philosophy

As with any rules-lite RPG, this system is designed with collaborative storytelling in mind. The rules are there to enable the fiction, and as such can be bent or even broken when the story demands it. This is not to say that the GM has free reign to ignore the dice rolls and strip agency from the players; quite the opposite, in fact. The players and GM should be working together to construct a satisfying narrative.

The Basics

This game follows in the tradition of Powered by the Apocalypse, where the GM (usually) doesn't need to roll. The players (ideally, around 3-5) will be rolling 2d6 plus any applicable modifiers. The number you roll will indicate your degree of success. Anything above a 10 is considered a Full Success, the equivalent to a natural 20 in other systems. It's the best possible outcome for your character, achieving exactly what you set out to do with no (or at least minimal) drawbacks. It's a perfect bullseye, it's landing a triple backflip on your first try, it's getting an A+ on a test you didn't even study for. Anything from 7 to 9 is a Mixed Success. You still do it, but there are complications. You hit the target, but not exactly dead-on. You stumble on the landing of that backflip. You still get a passing grade on that test, but didn't get any extra credit. A Mixed Success is the most common type of success, and it gives players and GMs alike interesting consequences to their actions. Any roll of 6 and under is a Failure, which, well, fails. Depending on the context of the situation, a Failure could be anything from mild embarrassment to a drastic injury. You don't even hit the dartboard. You faceplant. You walked into the wrong classroom the day of the test.


The roll isn't the end of the process, though. You can modify it through Skills and Aspects. You have five Skills to increase or decrease your final roll.

Strong concerns your character's physical fortitude, whether it's their strength or their toughness. If you wanted to punch out a goon, stop a runaway train with your body, or resist the effects of a deadly poison, you would roll using Strong.


Swift concerns speed, dexterity, and sleight of hand. If you wanted to pick a pocket, pick a lock, or pick your nose without anyone seeing, you would roll using Swift.


Smooth concerns social acumen and the ability to keep cool under pressure. If you wanted to charm someone, tell a convincing lie, or construct a clever disguise, you would roll using Smooth.


Sharp concerns mental acuity and lateral thinking. If you wanted to hack into a computer, analyze an ancient manuscript, or investigate a crime scene, you would roll using Sharp.


Strange concerns the weird. Magic, psychic powers, knowing things you couldn't possibly know. If you wanted to summon a demon, crush a car with your mind, or hear someone's thoughts, you would roll using Strange. Strange is unique among the five Skills in that it is mostly optional, since not every setting has magic or psychics. If you want to use Strange in a more mundane setting, I recommend flavoring Strange as a unique "knack" that the character has, which can't entirely be explained by mundane logic. Never losing a coin toss, always knowing which way is North, that sort of thing.


These skills come with modifiers to distribute among them, adding or subtracting from your roll. The modifiers are as follows:
+2, +1, 0, -1, -2

Each modifier can only be used once. For example, if you started with a +2 to Strong, you couldn't add that same bonus to Smooth.


This is where the Identity part comes in. In addition to Skill bonuses, you also have your Aspects. Aspects are what make your character unique. They are divided into Traits and Flaws. A Trait is something positive about your character (a unique skill or proficiency, a natural talent, something about them as a person) while a Flaw is something negative (a past trauma, an addiction, a family curse). At character creation, I usually insist upon two Traits and one Flaw, but this number can be changed based on GM ruling and/or group consensus. Some players might be thinking, "If I can pick my own Flaws, what's to stop me from giving myself something minor and convenient?" Nothing is, really, except your own sense of integrity. After all, what makes for a more interesting story: a character who is competent, but has a dark secret they have to struggle with, or a perfect specimen who can do no wrong and has no narrative conflict? This game is about telling a story, and perfect characters aren't interesting.

As well as Aspects, your character will often take on Conditions. Conditions are like temporary Aspects that the GM can assign to a character, something that influences a character's physical or mental state. Physical Conditions can be anything from "out of breath" to "missing an arm," depending on the circumstance. Mental Conditions, similarly, can range in severity from "frightened" to "gibbering lunatic." Keep in mind, the Conditions should match the circumstance in which they were acquired. Being punched in the face isn't likely to break your legs.

It's worth noting that Aspects are not intended to be flat numerical bonuses, as that goes against what this system is designed to be. Instead, you can invoke these Aspects during play to justify your character being able to do something, or to aid them in taking that action. It's less "Jim has a +1 to attacks using rifles," and more "Jim's time as a soldier has made him familiar with all the ins and outs of rifles and military hardware." Your Aspects aren't just what your character can do, they're who your character is. They should be rooted in the very essence of the character.

Using the above example of Jim, let's take a look at a possible Aspect setup:


Trait: Old Soldier- Jim served in the Army in his youth, and his time as a soldier has made him familiar with all the ins and outs of military hardware.

Trait: Bloodhound- Jim is a private investigator, his naturally inquisitive mind catching the details that nobody else notices.

Flaw: Can't Save Everyone- Jim is haunted by the ghost of his wife, the one murder he couldn't solve.

Let's see how this would play out in a scene:

GM: Alright, you open up the door and there's a gruesome crime scene right there in the front room. Blood everywhere, signs of struggle, and a woman's body in a peculiar pose. And there, sitting cross-legged on the coffee table, wearing the same clothes she was killed in, a ghastly wound torn across her throat, is your wife. She grins at you, and her smile is too wide.

Jim: "Leave me alone, Moira. I'm working."

Moira: "You could have saved her, Jimmy. You could have saved me."

Jim: Right, so I'm ignoring her and taking a look at the crime scene. Any clear signs of what happened?

GM: Sounds like you're gonna need to roll a Sharp check.

Jim: Okay, so that's a 7, my +2 gets it up to 9...I'm gonna invoke Bloodhound to bump that up to a 10.

GM: Okay, so it looks like she died of blood loss following a gut wound, but there are signs of struggle. Bruising around the neck, evidence of strangulation.

Jim: Does the gut wound look like a gunshot or a knife wound?

GM: Roll Sharp again.

Jim: That's...shit, that's a 5. I'm gonna invoke Bloodhound, but that'll only bring it up to 6. Can I use Old Soldier too? Maybe whatever it was was army surplus.

GM: Oh, I love that. Okay, so with a mixed success, I can tell you it was a knife wound, but if it's a military weapon it's not one you've ever used. The wound is ragged, sort of triangular.

Jim: You said the body was arranged in a weird position. Any significance to it?

GM: I think you can roll either Sharp or Strange for this one.

Jim: 6. Can I use Bloodhound on this?

GM: I'm not sure how you could. You don't know much about the occult, so you'll probably need to seek outside help on this one.

Jim: "Damn wizards."

As established above, Aspects can only be invoked if they make sense. If you can make a convincing argument for it, odds are you can use it, provided your GM agrees.

Harm, Stress, Luck, and Experience

Whether you're playing a 1920s bootlegger or a space pirate, odds are you'll end up getting in a scrap or two. One thing about the Identity System is that it makes very different assumptions about combat than, say, Dungeons and Dragons. D&D assumes that the players will have multiple renewable healing resources and methods to prevent (or even return from) character death. This system, on the other hand, doesn't have those same safety nets, or at least it doesn't always have them. Combat is dangerous. Anything and everything can kill you if you aren't careful. To that end, you have a series of counters that track your physical well-being, your exertion (both physical and mental), experience, and fortune.

The first counter, Harm, tracks your physical health. It is how many steps you are from Death's door. However, just because you haven't hit your Harm threshold doesn't mean you're out of danger. Halfway down the Harm track is your Harm Benchmark. Once you reach your benchmark for a certain track, you cannot heal past it without resting. In addition, upon reaching your Harm benchmark, you will receive a negative physical Condition. Upon filling your Harm counter, your character is either dead or in need of serious medical attention. The second counter, Stress, tracks your physical and mental exertion. Stress is more of a resource than Harm, and can be used in a variety of ways. Its primary use is invoking Aspects in combat, but it can also be used to negate Conditions. When receiving a Condition, you can mark Stress equal to the severity of the Condition, depending on GM ruling. When you reach your Stress benchmark, you will receive a negative mental Condition. Upon filling your Stress counter, there are no immediate negative consequences, but you will be unable to use Stress until you rest.

Experience tracks how your character grows and changes over time. Experience can be gained in two ways: rolling a 6 or below, or answering one of the following questions at the end of a session:Did we complete an objective?
-Did we win or avoid a fight?
-Did we save someone?
-Did we learn something new and important about the world?
-Did we learn something new and important about one of the characters? Rolling a 6 or below grants 1 experience, answering "yes" to one or two questions grants 1 experience, answering "yes" to three or four questions grants 2 experience, answering "yes" to all five questions grants 3 experience. At 5 experience, your character levels up and you select one of the following options:

-Add +1 to a Skill of your choice (Maximum of +3)

-Add a Trait

-Lessen or remove a Condition

-Instantly heal Harm or Stress up to the nearest benchmark

Once you've leveled up, remember to clear your experience track.

Despite the benefits of experience and leveling up, there are often opportunities where rolling low is the last thing you want. To that end, you have the fourth tracker, Luck. Luck can be used after any roll to retroactively change the result to a 12 or ignore all Harm and Conditions from a wound. As you mark more Luck, your character's fate grows steadily worse, incurring worse and worse Conditions and Flaws as the game goes on.

Coin and Commerce

Money, as they say, makes the world(s) go round. While there is nothing stopping players from tracking every penny, credit, or gold piece to their name, the Wealth tracker offers an alternative. It's another 8-part tracker to go along with Harm, Stress, and Luck. Unlike the aforementioned trackers, Wealth doesn't have any sort of disastrous consequence for filling it, but instead sets a maximum limit on an individual player's savings. When you reach 8 Wealth, you can't acquire any more until you spend what you've got. To that end, here's a reference guide for Wealth.
0 Wealth: Insignificant things/flavor items, such as a bottle of perfume, a stick of gum, a newspaper
1 Wealth: Things of minor value, such as a piece of modest jewelry, a hint from a shady character, a meal at a decent restaurant
2 Wealth: Things of moderate use, such as a common piece of gear, a week's stay at an inn, a very nice hat
3 Wealth: Useful items, such as a specialized piece of gear, a hunting hound, a very nice hat
4 Wealth: Slightly more expensive items, such as a common car, a significant bribe, a truly magnificent hat
5 Wealth: Expensive items, such as a custom-tuned supercar, a decent apartment, a trained bear
6 Wealth: Very expensive items, such as a suit of bespoke power armor, a mechanical prosthetic limb, a piece of advanced spellwork
7 Wealth: Prohibitively expensive items, such as a yacht, a squad of elite mercenaries, a favor from an influential figure
8 Wealth: The rarest of the rare, such as a literal king's ransom, a nuclear missile, the Kohinoor diamond
Downtime

From the strongest dragon-slayer to the cockiest fighter pilot, everyone needs rest. Downtime is the most effective way for characters to heal their injuries, come up with new plans, or just relax. Downtime could be anything; a night at the bar, a stay in a hospital, a power-nap. Regardless of the circumstance, Downtime affords you the following options:
Heal Harm and Stress up to the next Benchmark
Remove one negative Condition

Keep in mind, the healing should match the method and time taken. If your arm is broken, a quick rest isn't likely to fix it. 

Combat

Occasionally, combat is unavoidable. Combat is settled with competing dice rolls between opponents. If the attacker rolls higher, they successfully strike. If the defender rolls higher, they successfully dodge.

Initiative

Initiative must always be a sequence of player and enemy turns. The players can pick what order they want to attack in, but it is the GM's duty to place enemies between each player slot. Keep in mind, the number of enemies does not have to match the player count; the number of turns does. Combat will always progress as:


Player>Enemy>Player>Enemy


But each of those enemy slots doesn't have to be a different enemy. To that end, I recommend keeping track of two separate initiative orders: one for the players, and one for the enemies. For example, if there are more players than enemies:


Track 1: Player 1, Player 2, Player 3


Track 2: Enemy 1, Enemy 2


This would make the initiative order look something like this:


Player 1>Enemy 1>Player 2>Enemy 2>Player 3>Enemy 1>Player 1>Enemy 2


This ensures that the enemy has a fighting chance.
In the event that something goes terribly wrong, and we find a player making a last stand, the system works in their favor as well. Let's take a look:


Track 1: Player 1


Track 2: Enemy 1, Enemy 2, Enemy 3


This would make the initiative order as follows:


Player 1>Enemy 1>Player 1>Enemy 2>Player 1>Enemy 3>Player 1


This would give the player time to escape, fight back, or perform some truly legendary strategic actions.

The Player's Turn

A player character has two Actions on their turn. The first and most obvious way to use an Action is to attack, which is accomplished by rolling a Skill check against an enemy's competing check. If the player succeeds, they successfully carry out the attack, dealing the appropriate damage for the weapon they are using. If their roll meets or exceeds a 10, they may pick an option from the following list:
-Hit 'em Where it Hurts: +1 Harm dealt

-Keep Your Guard Up: -1 Harm taken

-Take Advantage: +1 to your next roll

-Reveal a Weakness: +1 to another player's roll

-Knock 'em Back: Force the enemy to change locations

-Cause Lasting Damage: Inflict a Condition

The player can also choose to invoke any number of relevant Aspects to either increase the value of their roll by 1 per Aspect, or pick an option from the bonus list above. Even if the player misses, they can invoke Aspects to pick options from the bonus list. For every Aspect invoked, regardless of purpose, the player must take a point of Stress. Should their Stress reach 8, they will be unable to use any more Stress until their next Downtime.

The second way to use an Action is to move up to 6 +/-Swift squares on the battle map. Given that the player has two Actions, they can use both to move, or both to attack, or one for each.

The third way to use an Action is to, well, just do something. Reloading a weapon, drinking a potion, performing emergency first aid, all of this can be accomplished by using an Action.


Should the target of the attack manage to evade it, they will have the option of counter-attacking. They may then roll an attack against the one who attacked them. It is not possible to counter-attack against a counter-attack, to prevent a single turn lasting until one or both parties are dead.

The Enemy's Turn

The enemy's turn functions more or less identically to the player's turn, rolling a Skill check against the player's opposing check. Should they succeed, they deal damage. Should they fail, they leave themselves open for a counter-attack. The enemy also has the option of invoking Aspects and using Stress.

Morale

When enemies attack in a group, they're likely to have some sort of leader, whether it's the biggest and strongest, their ranking officer, or their charismatic gang leader. When this leader dies, all other enemies must roll a Smooth check unless their Aspects dictate otherwise. On a Full or Mixed Success, they stay in the fight. On a Failure, they attempt to run away.

Weaponry, Weapon Tags and What They Mean

Each weapon or attack in the Identity System has a series of tags that define what it does and how it works. Generally, the weapon has a Harm tag that defines how much (if any) damage it does, a Range tag that defines its effective range, and tags that define the details and drawbacks. Let's take, for example, a sword:

2-Harm Hand Messy

The first tag, 2-Harm, shows how much Harm the weapon can inflict. The second tag, Hand, defines the range (specifically within hand-to-hand combat range, any adjacent square to the attacker). The third tag, Messy, indicates that it will cause a mess when used, on account of all the blood being spread about.

Weapons and attacks can have multiple tags if it makes sense for the weapon to have them. For example, a pistol:

1-Harm Close Loud Reload

The Harm tag functions the same as on the sword, inflicting 1 Harm to targets. The Range on this is Close, meaning it can be used on any target within 2-5 squares. The other tags, Loud and Reload, define how the pistol functions. It is, of course, loud when fired and that noise may attract attention. It also has a finite amount of ammunition and may need to be reloaded.

The following list is all the tags that may become relevant during regular play, but feel free to add your own!

X-Harm: How much Harm the weapon deals.

X-Armor: How much damage is absorbed.

Hand: Within hand-to-hand combat range, any adjacent square to the attacker.

Close: Within 2-5 squares of the attacker.

Far: Within 6-10 squares of the attacker.

Loud: This weapon produces a lot of noise, potentially drawing attention.

Messy: This weapon spreads blood and gore around.

Concealed: This weapon can be easily concealed on your person.

Suppressed: This weapon makes very little noise. Someone in the same room might hear it, but someone the next room over won't.

Useful: This weapon can also be used as a tool.

Unreliable: This weapon has a tendency to break down.

Restrain: This weapon can be used to restrain a target.

Heavy: This weapon is heavy and cumbersome.

Stun: This weapon can stun an enemy.

Recharge: This weapon must be recharged between uses.

Auto: This weapon fires full-auto.

Volatile: This weapon has the potential to harm the user if damaged or used incorrectly.

Fire: This weapon sets things on fire.

Electric: This weapon is electricity-based.

Disposable: This weapon is single-use.

Piercing: This weapon can penetrate armor, or go through un-armored targets.

Special tags, like Stun or Restrain, can be used to inform what kind of Conditions it can inflict.
Game Structure

Missions

The main structure of the game is missions, which are tasks that the player characters can complete to gain experience, earn money, or gain reputation. While every mission can and should be unique, there are five main types of missions to use as a jumping-off point. These types are Heist, Transport, Assassination, Sabotage, and Rescue.

Heist missions require the players to break into or enter a location and steal or retrieve something, preferably without getting noticed and getting away clean.

Transport missions require the players to move goods from Point A to Point B, or retrieve them from Point B and bring them to Point A. For best results, the players should ensure nothing happens to the cargo.

Assassination missions require the players to kill/injure/defeat a target. These missions can come with extra objectives, such as "Don't get caught" or "Make it look like an accident."

Sabotage missions require the players to infiltrate a location and leave something there or destroy something.

Rescue missions require the players to save someone or something from a dangerous situation.

Keep in mind, all these mission types are merely suggestions, and should not be taken as the definitive way to play the game.

Research

Before every mission, players will have the option to do research on the upcoming task. Every player will have the option to roll a check of any Skill, and invoke any relevant Aspects, provided they can explain how their methods obtain the information they acquire. The result of the roll determines what the information can be:A Full Success allows the player to come up with some sort of beneficial circumstance for the upcoming mission. Perhaps a security guard is known to fall asleep at their post, or a car has been left unattended.
A Mixed Success allows the player to come up with a minor detail about the mission. Perhaps the site is rumored to be haunted, or the wizard you're kidnapping is a terrible hypochondriac.
A Failure allows the player to come up with a negative circumstance for the upcoming mission. Perhaps the building is being fumigated for pests, or the only opportunity to strike is during a fancy gala.

This approach to research allows the players to feel involved in every aspect of the story, and ensures that each mission is unique and involved.

Scenes

Scenes are the main way to keep time in the Identity System, but are unfortunately difficult to define. A scene could be a conversation, a combat encounter, a journey. The best advice for splitting scenes is to consider it a new scene whenever the metaphorical "camera" cuts away to something, someone, or somewhere else.