Play the character you want to play

Simple rules for creating the unique and interesting character that you want to play. Define the basic capabilities and skills of your character, as well as the areas in which they’ve honed their skills into focused masteries. Create powerful Boons that become iconic parts of your character — allowing them to rise above incredible challenges. Beware, though, as your character will struggle with their own personal Burdens. All of these features will help your character on their journey to build their Legacy, a powerful theme that guides their personal story.

What you do has more impact than how you roll

The entire Ascent system functions off of just one core mechanic — the Challenge. Challenges are a modular system, which could be used to resolve a simple action, or expanded to resolve a complex situation with multiple characters. The intensity of a heroic battle, the intrigue of a masquerade ball, or the quiet but harrowing work of a skilled burglar — all could be easily handled with the same set of mechanics.

Ascent equips the GM with a simple set of tools to adapt Challenges to meet the needs of the current situation. This allows them to adjust the Challenge according to the number of PCs involved, the different NPCs and other Threat sources, or the unique Opportunities that the players could seize for themselves. With a little bit of practice, the GM can put together even complex Challenges on-the-fly.

Just one mechanic to resolve any challenge

Dice are an integral part of the core Challenge mechanics, but you don’t have to be wholly at their mercy.  While every Challenge can be resolved by rolling the dice and scoring big, players always have the option of giving up their dice roll in favor of a set level of success. It’s going to have less impact than a lucky dice roll will, but it at least avoids the sometimes disastrous consequences of a bad dice roll. If a player wants to increase that level of success without rolling, they could instead expend resources to power a Boon, granting them a significant increase in success, or they could generate more success through creative use of their Personal and Global Traits.

If you want to accomplish something in Ascent, and you can’t do it based on your core abilities, you can overcome it by taking a risk, getting creative, or paying the price.

Equal spotlight for every player

The core Challenge mechanics are designed such that every player can contribute, in a way that best suits their character. If the nature of the Challenge doesn’t match your character’s skillset, you can perform related actions to indirectly contribute to the Challenge, ensuring that no one is left out of the action.

Hack it to whatever setting you want

The Ascent system can be hacked to virtually any setting.