Fractal System

A rules-light, player-centered game
focused on generative narratives
instead of mechanical crunch.

Developed under Creative Commons license by Walter Licínio

THE BASICS

Game Philosophy

Fractal uses Themes and Tags as game tools to enhance the narrative focus on whatever the players choose it to be focused on.

They don't represent absolute, precise mechanical measures about the characters. Instead, they are a measure of how the player can push the story in the direction they want.

All Themes and Tags are equal in power.

There's no theme or tag more powerful than another. There are no 'best themes' or 'worst tags'. They can be applied differently to different situations — a tag can be more useful than other in the a specific moment of the story — but if something is important enough for the player for it to be a theme or a tag, it is powerful enough to change the story.

Game System

Fractal is a tabletop RPG focused on narrative and character development.

Instead of statistics and attributes, it uses narrative Themes and Tags to solve in-game contests.

Whenever trying something risky or dangerous, the player rolls a six-sided die (d6), plus an extra d6 for each relevant Tag that they have. Then, they check their highest result on the roll:

1 to 3 means a failure, and the situation gets worse.4 and 5 means a partial success, but they suffer a complication.6 means a total success, and they gain narrative advantage.
Every time you fail a roll, mark xp on that theme. This will be used to evolve the theme in the future.

EPILOGUE

The Fractal System is an attempt at creating a tabletop RPG that focuses on player autonomy. The game plays as fast as the group wants, and zooms in whatever the group decides to zoom in. It's fully customizable, and easy to improvise upon.

When I play RPGs, I like to do exactly that: play. The Fractal System is way for the players to get to the play as quickly as possible.

The following games served as great inspiration in creating the Fractal System.

City of Mist, by Amít MosheBlades in the Dark, by John HarperNeon City Overdrive, by Nathan RussellFATE, by Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue
This game is an ellaborate illusion made up of words. Make it your own.

You can find some links for my social media below:

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CHARACTER CREATION

Each character starts with 3 Themes, each of them with 3 Tags.

A Theme can be anything that the player chooses to highlight as important to their character story. It will enhance the chances of the character to move the story in the direction they want whenever using Tags related to that Theme.

Each player has a limit of 4 themes per character, and 6 tags per theme.

Each Theme must be in one of the following categories:

1. Past — Something happened that changed your character forever.
Ex: Chemical accident, Grew in an orphan's Home, Millionaire parents.

2. Bond — A relationship that pervades the life of your character.
Ex: My Gangster Crew, Personal Shady Dealer, Brothers-in-arms.

3. Drive — A goal or mission that propels your character forward.
Ex: Hunt all Androids, Heal the World's Pain, Pay my Debt.

4. Style — A statement of personality, psyche or style that defines your character.
Ex: Everyone deserves a second chance, I'm the coolest person alive, Nihilistic behaviour.

5. Asset — Material possessions, gear or places that are specially important for your character.
Ex: Family Weapon, Automated Suit, Mechanical Workshop

6. Expertise — Formal training on a job or hobby that your character took seriously.
Ex: Assassin for hire, Wilderness campist, Computer security specialist

Themes can be broad, but each of its Tags must be specific enough to be used in particular situations that must fit the Theme to which they're attached.

Here are some examples of Themes with starting Tags.

Extras Tags

During play, the player characters will come in contact with assets, NPCs, memories and situations that can be turned into tags. These tags that are not necessarily bound to a Theme of the character are grouped into a single category called Extra Tags. Maybe it's a rookie NPC that is now following the character, or a crew asset like a cyberpunk vehicle such as the fastest motorcycle in town. Maybe it's a mystical power from their fantasy race, like an elvish aptitude for magic, or a dwarven innate knowledge about minerals.

Extra tags have their own xp marks. Whenever you mark three xp on an extra tag, you may choose to turn it into a Theme, or mark it as favored. There's a limit of six extra tags per character.

Grit

Each character starts every session with two Grit points. Whenever they wish, they may spend one Grit to add an extra die to any roll. Grit can also be used activate special abilities, depending on the setting.

CHARACTER PROGRESSION

Flaws

Flaws are troubles and complications your character faces because of their theme. Each Theme of the character must have a Flaw, some narrative problem it brings to the character. Something like "Hunted by Captors", or "Terrible Negotiator", etc. Anything that troubles your character deeply and frequently.

Whenever the GM wishes, they may give a player 1 Grit to create a complication, or have them fail a roll, because of their Flaw. The player may accept this, and mark xp on that theme; or they may not accept it, and spend 1 Grit to negate this effect. If they do this, they mark a Crack in that theme.

Theme Evolution

Whenever you mark three xp on a theme, you Evolve that theme. You can write a new Tag for it, respecting the limit of six tags per theme. If you already have six tags, you may swap a tag with another, or choose one of your tags to mark as favored.

If you take three Cracks, you lose the Theme and must create another one that makes more sense with your current character. When you do this, lose all previous tags, and create three new tags for it. Mark one of them as favored.

Whenever rolling with favored tags, use a different die for each of them. These are called favored dice, and are considered success in both 5 and 6, instead of only 6.

End of Session

At the end of each session, the player chooses how the events affected their character. They may choose two from the following options:

Mark xp on a theme.Mark xp on an extra tag.Remove a Crack from a theme.Add a Crack to a theme.
This gives the player more narrative control to which direction they're heading with their character's evolution.

CHALLENGES

Negative Tags

Negative consequences are represented by negative tags.

Whenever a character suffers any kind of hindrance, permanent or temporary, if it is sufficiently troublesome to interfere with their ability to push forward, it must be treated as a negative tag.

This hindrance can be mechanical, subtracting one die from their dice pool, or narrative, forbidding them to act in a certain way. For example, an arm affected by the shaking tag could subtract one dice from shooting a pistol, while a paralyzed arm could totally forbid the shot.

Wounds

Wounds are a special category of negative tags. They're divided in light, medium and severe, and represent physical damage taken by the character. They remove, respectively, zero, one or two dice from a character's dice pool.

The harshness of a wound — and the precise measure of the damage needed to cause it — depends on the setting. A setting about modern superheroes could treat bullets as light wounds, while a realistic horror setting would treat them as severe, or even lethal.

Lethality

These aspects that deal with damage, wounds, penalties and lethality must all be agreed upon what kind of shared narrative is being built. Both the GM and the players must be on the same page regarding how dangerous and lethal the setting will be.

HACKING THE FRACTAL

Starting Themes

If you want a game where the characters start with less "narrative power", you may reduce the quantity of starting themes and/or tags. For example, beginner children adventurers in a medieval fantasy world could start with only 2 themes of 2 tags each.

In the same way, if your group wants a complex game about characters with a multitude of narratives, you may increase the quantity of starting themes and/or tags. For example, a game about a council of sages and special operatives that solve problems in a sci-fi galaxy could start with 4 themes, each of them with 5 or 6 tags.

Grit Variants

The Grit mechanic was developed as a one-size-fits-all way for characters to use special abilities without abusing them.

For your game, you may want to use the Grit framework to develop different 'narrative currencies' for special abilities, depending on the focus you want it to have.

For example, if your game setting relies a lot on spellcasting and sorcery, like a magical school, you may want to use Mana tokens that allow for more powerful spells to be cast. Or if your game setting is all about investigation and subtle manipulation, you may create Clue tokens for solving mysteries, or String tokens to represent the favors characters owe to each other.

It all depends on what you and your players consider important to the setting, and generating a 'narrative currency' that fits the theme.