Feats of Strength-Highly Versatile RPG System

Want to go on an adventure as a goblin bard with a pet monkey? Maybe you would prefer to be a giant flying manta ray that shoots lightning? Perhaps racing down the streets as an artificially intelligent motorcycle on the run from the law is more your speed? How about being an alien with incredible abilities powered by his belief in the divinity of an ordinary pickle? All of this and more is possible with Feats of Strength.

OVERVIEW

Show Content

Spoiler
Feats of Strength was a system I started writing several months ago in some sort of manic episode. The story of that is more or less explained in the introduction. Since then I have significantly improved and simplified it. It should work well in both a pen and paper setting and when doing play by post. I will almost certainly be running an adventure with it either here or on Chocolate Pi, possibly with a Sci-Fi theme.

The core design philosophy of Feats of Strength is that everything should be built of individual pieces that can be swapped and recombined in different ways. Instead of classes, characters get an Identity made up of their Race, Profession, and Aptitude. The main effect of the identity is what feats it allows the character to choose. Feats give small bonuses, abilities, and other things to the character that picks them. This pretty much determines what the character can do and what they are good at.

The mix and matchable pieces don't end there though! There are a number of different varieties of weapons that can have several different properties. Armor, traps, and potions work more or less the same way. Players who take the correct feats can build all of these things themselves, breaking through the barrier between NPCs and Player characters.

There are also 5 skills that allow the players to do different things. Any player can try to use a skill and has a chance with most things, but players can take feats to give them bonuses to all checks with a skill or to specific uses of the skill.

The game is designed to be simple and easy enough for people who don't play many tabletop RPGs (though some experience with other kinds of RPGs may be required to fully grasp it) while providing enough depth for long time gamers. There are two main ways that this is accomplished. Firstly, all the dice are d6's. Since most people have access to d6's, that significantly lowers the barrier to entry. Secondly, combat uses a system of zones instead of a normal grid. This simplifies combat by making it less precise while still allowing plenty of tactical strategy.

Everything can be found in this massive PDF that I've made. The final version will have links to make navigation much easier, but I have to redo it every time I update the document so I don't have it set up now. Just hit Ctrl-F and use the nice guide I have below to help you find your way around.

If you have an ebook reader like iBooks, I would recommend sticking it in there. It makes it MUCH easier to read than a straight PDF.

There are a few minor errors in the PDF. If you guys see any you should let me know.

CHAPTERS

Show Content

Spoiler
1-The Basics (Page 3)

Show Content

Spoiler
Skip section 1 since it's for people who don't know how tabletop RPGs work. Section 2 has a little bit more of that, but also explains the circumstance modifier and a few specific things about the system.

2-Character Creation (Page 10)

Show Content

Spoiler
Probably THE most important chapter since it contains all the feats and everything. It also explains about levels, death, and identities.

Races

Show Content

Spoiler
Race is just a broad category of what a creature is. For example, elves and dwarves are both part of the humanoid race.

Bestials: Literally animals. The undisputed masters of unarmed combat.
Constructs: Robots, golems, undead, etc. Build items right into your body.
Humanoids: Humans, elves, dwarves, trolls, etc. Can turn anything into a weapon and are too stubborn to die.
Unnaturals: Aliens, creatures from other dimensions, and weird stuff. They have fantastic mental abilities.

3 other races are planned in an expansion, but that's a long ways off.

Professions

Show Content

Spoiler
Professions are the character's actual job. The game assumes that they had some training in being something before they became adventurers.

Scholars: Bookworms that know a little bit about everything.
Craftsmen: Make ALL the things!
Criminals: The best at sneaking and pretty good at deception.
Guardians: Good defenses and great at protecting allies.
Entertainers: Highly social and talented distracters.

Two more professions are planned in an expansion, but that is a long way off.

Aptitudes

Show Content

Spoiler
Aptitudes were initially based on the concept of Power Sources in DnD 4E. They are where a character's more supernatural abilities come from.

Arcane: Straight up magic. Shoot energy or perform sorcerous deception.
Divine: Power from belief, but not necessarily belief in gods. Buffs and debuffs.
Nature: Communing with nature itself grants you power. Control yourself or the world around you.
Martial: Badasses who gained their abilities purely through training. The best with basic attacks.

3 (possibly 4) more aptitudes are planned in an expansion, but that is a long way off.

3-Combat (Page 57)

Show Content

Spoiler
Probably one of the most important chapters. It explains all the things that a character can do in combat and lists the afflictions (status effects).

4-Movement (Page 73)

Show Content

Spoiler
Explains the zone system and long distance travel.

5-Skills (Page 87)

Show Content

Spoiler
Skills let characters do a lot of awesome things.

Finesse: Anything that requires fine detail. Crafting, sneaking, lock picking, etc.
Knowledge: Identification, medical aid, giving advice, etc.
Sense: Foraging for stuff, finding hidden creatures, detecting lies, etc.
Social: Making friends, intimidating, deceiving, etc. Most social checks get modified by a reaction modifier based on identities.
Toughness: Enduring, climbing, rolling with a fall, grabbing, etc. Grabbing opens up a ton of possibilities.

6-Equipment and Crafting (Page 103)

Show Content

Spoiler
Explains buying stuff and how the crafting system works.

7-GM Overview (Page 133)

Show Content

Spoiler
GM stuff like creating enemies.

8-Where an example adventure will go eventually.
9-Examples (Page 151)

Show Content

Spoiler
Tons of example characters.

Right now I'm mainly just looking for feedback. I'd love to see what you guys think of the system. If navigating the PDF is too frustrating, I may cave and fix the links.