First Ideas

First Post!

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately. Most of them talk alot about Indie RPGs. After I listened to the Sons of Kryos Dreamation round table show I started getting all kinds of ideas.

Most of these posts will be from things I've posted on the Forge.


Out of the Gray is the title for the game. A lot of the theme is based on the color spectrum and light.

“Powers” exist and each one has a physical and mental key word. For instance Red is the power of Anger and Pain. Each power also has two aspects. White is the external use and Black is the internal use.

Each PC starts with one color and can use either aspect of it. Right now I’m using a D6 mechanic with 4+ being a success. You would start with one D6. Each time you use a power in the same aspect it gets stronger and you add a die. If you are using a different aspect than the last time you used the power, you lose a die. At a certain point when you succeed with a power (right now I’m thinking around 5 or 6 dice in the roll) it locks into that aspect and lets you choose a new power above or below it on the spectrum. In the future any time you use a power in the same aspect as a locked power and can justify their combination, you can add in the dice from the locked power.

You may already see what my problem is. This lets the PCs power up very quickly.

The setting gives me a natural system for slowing advancement, but I can’t come up with a mechanic. I’ll have to explain a little bit more…

The setting (in general)

The power first manifested in a world much like our own today. Two users discovered the aspect linking and each followed a different path. One became the paragon of White, the other the paragon of Black. They fought, but neither could win. A kind of cold war situation developed and they began to tame the world. Other power users were exterminated or joined one of the two camps. Soon everything was dull and safe. Most people are unaware of the situation, and never experience strong emotions due to the influence of the paragons. New power users are born when someone does feel something like pain or anger to a great degree and “awakens” to the Red power.

I want there to be a balance between two forces pulling on the PCs. There is the pull from the gray world to fall back into boring safety. The other pull results from locking powers. The more powers you lock into an aspect, the more influence that paragon has on you.