Universal in the Dark - Core Rules
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Universal in the Dark is a hybrid setting-agnostic system for cinematic games inspired by Blades in the Dark and Freeform Universal 2 (in the spirit of Neon City Overdrive). Its main features are:
Rolls use six-sided dice of two colors to track players' ability and the difficulty of the action. Difficulty dice cancel ability dice when they land on the same face. Success/Partial Success/Failure system to move the story forward in interesting manners. Threat/Effect level system to describe the effect and consequences faced by the player in case of success or failure. Tag-based system for character creation that allows players to easily come up with characters that fit any setting and the fiction they envision. Tags are then used to decide the number of ability dice rolled. Descriptive harm system¸ no health bar. When you take a hit¸ it is an injury that has effects on your character. Stress resource for narrative control. When you really want to succeed¸ you can increase your chances at a cost. Stunts for special abilities. Give mechanical flavor to your character by coming up with special abilities that break the rules and have unique mechanisms.
The game includes:
A 4 pages ruleset with a character sheet (two pages for players¸ two for the GM) A character sheet example with a short gameplay example. A list of 16 stunts in 4 different settings to give some examples of what stunts can look like.