The State of Gambit

Welcome to Gambit

In this post, we will be discussing the current state of Gambit and its gameplay systems. Let's dive in!

Skills, Levels and Advancement

Unlike many other systems, Gambit is a classless system. A creature does not have a class which it gains Levels in, instead, a creature gains Levels in Skills that it uses in the game world. This means that creatures may advance in unexpected and organic ways when they are forced to use Skills they might not otherwise choose to use.

Skills

Unlike other systems, Gambit has a vast array of Skills a creature may gain experience with and use to perform actions in the game. In many cases, there is a base Skill to which many other Skills relate. When an Outcome Check, described below, calls for a creature to make a check using a certain Skill, the creature may choose to use another Skill related to the indicate Skill instead. Skills get Complement Bonuses when a creature has a Bonus in another, somewhat related Skill and some Skills offer special effects that are applied when the Skill is used, so selecting the best Skill for a situation can make a big difference.

Characteristics

Characteristics are the statistics that define how well a creature may perform some actions. Like Skills, Characteristics have Levels that also increase when the Characteristic is used. Each Skill has a Method Characteristic. That Characteristic's Bonus is added to any Outcome Check made with the Skill.

Reflexes

A Reflex is the combined values of three Characteristics and are often used to see how well a creature may resist some effect. Reflex Checks and Reflex Saves are made in the same way as Outcome Checks, except that it is the Reflex Bonus that is added to the d20 roll.

Outcome Checks

An Outcome Check is a d20 roll to which some Bonuses, either Characteristic, Skill and Characteristic or Reflex Bonuses, are added and the result is used to determine if a creature succeeds at some action. An Outcome Check may either be opposed, and have to beat the value of an Outcome Check made by another creature, or unopposed, and have to beat a static number called the Success Value (SV). If the Outcome Check is a Skill Check, a creature may select a Skill that relates to the indicated Skill to use when making the Check instead.

Critical Effects

Like other d20 systems, Gambit includes many Critical Effects that may apply to an Action, but unlike other systems, Critical Effects do not apply to every Outcome Check. An Ability, Action or Equipment may indicate a Critical Effect type (Hit, Damage, Dodged, Blocked, Struck), its Range of numbers and an Effect. If the dice result of the Outcome Check falls within the Critical Effect Range, then the Critical Effect is triggered. The Critical Effect's Effect will be applied if an Action that satisfies the Critical Effect Type is triggered. For example, if a attack's Outcome Check roll triggers a Critical Hit Effect, then the Effect will be applied if the Hit Action is triggered following the Outcome Check.

Skill and Characteristic Points and Levels

Anytime a creature makes a Skill or Characteristic Check, there is a chance for it to gain Points in any Skill or Characteristic which had its Bonus added to the Check. If the d20 roll plus the Bonus is greater than the Level of that Skill or Characteristic, the creature gains 1 Point in that Skill or Characteristic. When the creature has gained enough Points, they gain a Level in that Skill or Characteristic (they need a number of Points equal to the Characteristic Level or the Skill Level+10-their Reason Bonus)

Skill and Characteristic Awards, Bonus and Abilities

When a creature gains a Level in a Skill or Characteristic, they gain an Award in it. Awards may be held on to indefinitely, if desired, and may be spent to increase a Skill or Characteristic Bonus or to unlock Abilities related to that Skill or Characteristic. It costs a number of Awards equal to the current Bonus+1 to increase a Bonus. Increasing a Bonus often grants the creature access to a subset of Abilities from which they may unlock one or more without spending Awards.

Abilities

Gambit includes a vast array of Abilities that a creature either knows intrinsically, such as Strike, Fire, Move Abilities, Take a Breath and Calm Mind, Load weapons and Don Armor, as well as Abilities they may unlock using Awards from Characteristics or Skills that relate to the Ability. Abilities often trigger Actions which directly affect the game world or Outcome Checks with the Skill selected for the Ability.

Activating Abilities

To activate an Ability, a creature must first select an equipped item to use as the Ability Equipment (if applicable for the Ability), a Skill that the Ability relates to or that relates to the selected Equipment and one or more Targets (if applicable). Often, the Actions or Outcome Checks triggered by the Ability will use the selected Skill and apply effects, such as damage, based on the selected Equipment.

Ability AP Cost and Energy Costs

A creature gets 2 Ability Points at the start of it's turn. Ability Points are spent to use Abilities, in addition to Energy (Stamina and/or Intention). If Ability Points are not spent during the turn, they may be spent after a creature's turn to activate Reaction Abilities. Additionally, a creature gets a number of Reaction Ability Points at the end of it's turn equal to its Guile Bonus+1 that it may spend to activate Reaction Abilities after it's turn. Energy may be recovered during tactical scenarios by activating the Take a Breath of Calm the Mind intrinsic Abilities.

Attacking and Defending

A creature may activate the Strike or Fire Abilities to make a melee or ranged attack, respectively, or  my activate any number of other Abilities that trigger Melee and Ranged Attack Actions. The Target of the attack often gets the option to activate either the Dodge or Block Abilities (Defend Reactions) as reaction to the attack for no AP or Energy Cost. When a creature activates a Defend Reaction, the attacker makes an Outcome Check using their selected Skill and Equipment and the defender also makes an Outcome Check using their selected Skill and Equipment. If the attacker's check is greater than the defenders, the defender is hit. Otherwise, the defender dodges or blocks the attack. A block attempt that nearly blocks the attack decreases the damage taken by the weapon's Deflection value (usually Damage ÷ 2)

Armor

When a creature is hit by an attack, if the attack's Accuracy (the weapon's Accuracy added to the creature's Coordination) is less than the Target's Armor (the total of all its equipped armor piece's Coverage), then the attack's damage is decreased by the armor with the greatest Coverage. The damage is first decreased by the armor piece's Hardness, then the damage is applied to the armor's Durability, up to the armor's Deflection - attack Strength (weapon and projectile Strength for ranged attacks, attacker Strength plus weapon and projectile Strength for melee). Any damage not applied to the armor piece's Durability is then applied to the creature's Current Health. When an armor piece's Durability reaches 0, the armor's Coverage is subtracted from the creature's Armor value.

Injuries

When a creature suffers damage greater than its Trauma Point (a portion of its Max Health plus 2 x its Tenacity Bonus), the creature suffers an Injury on the targeted body part or a random body part, if none was targeted. Injuries have a number of effects and last for some time (or permanently, in some cases), but may often be mended with medicine and care.

Character Creation

Spending Experiences

As of now, in a standard campaign, creatures start with 10 Experiences that they may use when building their character's Skills and Characteristics. All Characteristics begin at Level 10 and all Skills begin at Level 0. A creature may spend up to 10 Experiences increasing their Skill Level and 10 Experiences increasing their Characteristic Levels. The number of Experiences required to increase a Level increases as the Level increases.

Reallocating Levels

After spending Experiences, a player may reduce the Level in one Characteristic and reallocate those Levels, as Experiences, to another Characteristic. A Characteristic may not be reduced below 8 via reallocation.

Calculating Bonuses and Spending Awards

After reallocating Levels, a creature gains a number of Awards in each Skill equal to Level and a number of Award in each Characteristic equal to Level-10, min 0. If a Characteristic is less than 10, the creature gets no Awards for that Characteristic and it's Bonus is decreased by -1 for each Level less than 10.

Buying Starting Equipment

A player may buy up to 500 Value (the nondescript currency we use to indicate the value of items) worth of starting equipment for their character (this amount is likely to change with playtesting)

Items, Skill and Ability Time Periods

All Items, Skills and Abilities included in the World Compendium include a Period to inform the Worldbuilder which of them might be relevant for their setting. Period indicates the real world time period that Item, Skill or Ability was invented or discovered in, if applicable.

Conclusion

Gambit shares many features with other d20 systems, but attempts to leverage their successes in a variety of ways. Hopefully, Gambit is robust enough to allow you to play games or any genre and produce fun, interesting and unexpected scenarios!

Reach Out

Stay updated about the development of Gambit and informed about when we begin playtesting by following our Twitter account @Gambit_TTRPG or our Mastodon account at https://dice.camp/@GambitTTRPG