Delve into newly discovered dungeons, save villages from bandits, uncover lost artifacts from forgotten temples, usurp kingdoms, and journey into the furthest reaches of the astral plane where nameless beasts rule.  Inside these pages, you will discover game rules to help you embark on your own adventures and to design characters to explore any place your imagination can create.  You can take on the role of a hero, a villain, or even a peasant and join with a few of your friends to begin a journey inside an epic tale.  

This is the Renegade 20 role playing game. Many of the current game systems have evolved over the years and have become bloated, difficult to manage, counter-intuitive, over-powered, or redesigned commercially to target a much more limited market. We hope that this open source game system will grow to accommodate the needs and the imagination of the single most important part of the game... the players. This will be accomplished by incorporating and managing the contributed ideas of the individuals who are playing the game.  

Do you find aspects of the game difficult? -- Suggest a better one!  Perhaps it will become a variant and supported system.  Perhaps with enough community support it will become part of the core rule set. This game is only limited by our goal to support all audiences. Initially, the rule set will target the fantasy audience, but we expect a modern and futuristic version to succeed these rules and more!

Playing the Game

This is a paper-based game; however, to accommodate variation, location, and chance, you will need a few other tools. The first is a set of dice designed for gaming. You should have a 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, and 20-sided die.  You may only need two or three of them to play your character, but all these dice are used in the game as a whole.  You may also need an object to represent your character to designate a location in a room or position in a battle. If you have miniatures, you also need the map.  You may want to add a standard 1” square standard battle map. We suggest a miniature designed for a 1 inch scale grid. Finally, you may need some munchies. That’s right!  Where would this game be without all the necessities to sustain yourself at your fingertips... after all, you won’t want to leave the gaming table!

Dice Notation

Die rolls are normally labeled as a lower case “d” followed by the die type. If multiple dice are indicated, the number of dice precedes the letter. A d6 would indicate a 6-sided die. A d20 would indicate a 20-sided die. 3 six sided dice are indicated by 3d6. Finally, and additive bonuses are added to the end. So a damage of 3d12+5 would mean to roll 3 12-sided dice and add 5 to the summation of the three die values to determine the amount of damage that you do.

The Game Mechanic

The game is based mainly on Skills that your character possesses. Your character has four Attributes that are the foundation of all your Skills and incorporate the physique, dexterity, intellect, and presence that your character possesses. These Attributes normally do not improve with your character’s development, but Skills do improve as your character advances over time. Your skills cover your characters abilities of agility, athletics, cunning, endurance, intuition, learning, perception, reasoning, stealth, and willpower. They simply represent the proficiency in which you can express yourself and how others perceive you. If your character needs to dodge an attack against their Agility Defense, that is an attack of another creatures skill against a defense based on Agility.

IIn general, a test of Skill, whether it be an attack, test of knowledge, etc. is made with the roll of a 20-sided die.  Skill modifiers and any powers/aspects are added to the number on the d20 to determine success. If the die roll plus the modifiers meet or exceed the predetermined value, your character has succeeded in the attempt.  For example, a successful test of your Athletics Skill (your d20 roll plus any modifiers)  indicates that your character did in fact jump across a pit. An unsuccessful roll indicates that your character failed and is grasping on the edge of the pit or, even worse, failed entirely and is falling down a dark hole.

In addition, your character gains Class Levels as you gain experience, and a Class Level Modifier (CLM) is added to many of the skill attacks of your character.  With each class level, you may gain additional Skill points to improve your skills, gain Powers which improve your combat potential and effectiveness, and gain Aspects to enhance your character’s developmental potential.

Defenses are your character’s ability to fend off attacks.  They are modified by your CLM.  Your Armored Defense represents your armor bonuses, agility skill bonus, and CLM bonus. Your Armored Defense is the defense that represents your armor bonuses, agility skill bonus, and more, and is frequently targeted when an opponent strikes you with their weapon. Your Agility Defense is your ability to dodge attacks and cover yourself from area effect spells that immerse you in their effect. Attacks based deception that can leave you off guard target your Reasoning Defense, while attacks based on fear and domination attack your Willpower Defense.

Character Level Modifier (CLM)

Your Character Level Modifier (CLM) is one-half your total Character Level as a bonus, rounded down. If you are third level, you have a CLM of +1. If you are eighth level, your CLM becomes +4. As you increase in level, your CLM increases as well, affecting your defenses, attacks, and more. More powerful opponents will have a higher CLM, and as a result be harder to damage. Weaker opponents will have a lower CLM, and as a result be easier to damage.

Hit Points

Hit Points represent a beings’ health. Your Hit Point Maximum represents the total health your character has as a composite of energy, endurance, ability to withstand damage, bleeding, bruising, and more. If you have 30 hit points maximum, and you have 30 hit points currently, you are at full health. Conversely when you are reduced to less than zero hit points, you are in shock and dying. If your character has 15 hit points of a maximum of 30, then you are at half of your health. Damage is defined in hit points. If you take 10 points of fire damage, this represents a loss of one-third of your 30 maximum. Your current hit points are reduced to represent this damage. In time, you replenish your hit points through rest. Also, as you gain experience and levels, your maximum hit points increase to represent your ability to better dodge those blows, and better withstand that fall.