Sculpt: A System Overview
Summary: Sculpt, at its core, is a low fantasy, slow growth, tactical choice TTRPG where characters rely on their attributes, skills, and talents to overcome obstacles by using opposed, step-die resolution rolls to determine the magnitude of success or failure.
Low Fantasy: Sculpt’s default fantasy rules include magic and wonder that are relatively grounded. Characters are able to conjure blades and flames and illusions, but none affect the world or mire the mind more than any other mundane skill. An illusory disguise may be quicker to conjure than paint on, but neither is more effective than the other at fooling the mark. Magic flames may sear wounds into a foe, but no more so than being pressed with a lit torch. Blades may be brought forth to bare against fearsome creatures, but conjured or no, the edge cuts just the same. Additionally, magic requires an effect target. Conjuring a blade doesn’t just create a blade from nothing, the blade must previously exist and be available for the conjuring.
Slow Growth: Sculpt’s characters do not become heroes of legend quickly, if at all. Player characters utilize their skills and talents to interact with the world, and each skill or talent takes time to grow and develop. Based on a -1 to +6 ranking system, moving up a single tier of training can be the result of several adventures worth of experience. For context, the rankings of a skill or talent, lowest to highest, are Hindered, Untrained, Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Adept, Expert, and Master.
Tactical Choice: Because character growth is slow, players are encouraged to tackle challenges using their characters’ best traits. Teaming up and offering aid have meaningful impacts on gameplay and the likelihood of success increases drastically. Players are encouraged to work together, think creatively, and manipulate situations to favor their chosen abilities.
Attributes, Skills and Talents: Attributes, skills and talents are the three levers players choose between when developing their characters. Attributes are the underlying characteristics a character possesses. Skills are the common abilities available to all characters, and talents are unique advantages that alter a character’s skills in meaningful ways. Two characters with the same attributes and skill training, but different talents, will roll drastically different dice given the same situation and challenge.
Opposed Step-Die Rolls: Each skill a character uses is represented by a single die roll. The die is any even-number faced die with anywhere from 2 to 12 sides. The die roll is compared to an opposing die roll from the corresponding skill of the character’s target. A success is any character roll that meets or beats the opposed roll, and a failure is any character roll that is below the opposed roll. For context, most starting character will roll a 4-sided die (d4) when their skills are used, and a starting character’s best skills will likely use a 6-sided die (d6). The die challenge level of the opposing dice, from lowest to highest, are Simple, Easy, Moderate, Difficult, Daunting, and Impossible, represented by a d2, d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12 respectively.
Magnitude of Success or Failure: Because die rolls are comparative, the magnitude of success or failure is determined by the difference of the character’s die and the opposed die. A player roll of 3 beats an opposed roll of 2 by a magnitude of 1 ( 3 - 2 = 1 ), but a player roll of a 4 fails against an opposed roll of 7 by a magnitude of 3 ( 7 - 4 = 3 ). This variable magnitude determines additional effects and ability triggers to keep large margin success feeling powerful while narrow margin success feel tense and hard won. Likewise, narrow margin failure feels recoverable while large margin failure feels costly.
Over the next several updates, I’ll be digging into each of these in further detail and context as well as providing examples and explanations of how I decided on these mechanics. However, the next update will be Sculpt’s Design Document (along with an explanation of why a Design Document is useful), and remember, it’s never too late to start your own project or finish a system in progress. You never know where remarkable games await!
