A Gonzo Science Fantasy Adventure Game
This project is maintained by Transcendent-Tapir
Inspiration and Advancement are two sides of the same coin in Distorted Domains. Inspiration serves as the games metacurrency, and advancement as its way to enhance characters.
Inspiration is gained from
Gaining inspiration always takes place after a roll, so you cannot use the inspiration you gain from using a negative aspect in that same roll.
You start each session with 1 inspiration.
Before a roll, you can use a point of inspiration to raise a die in your pool, move a negative aspect die from the opposition pool to your dice pool, or lower a die in the opposing pool. You can spend multiple points and do this multiple times if you want.
After a roll, you can change what kind of negative outcome you have. You can switch the harm track affected from the one you rolled with to a different one of your choosing. Instead of taking harm to a harm track you can spend an inspiration to take on or step up a negative trait. You can also spend inspiration to redirect harm to an asset, or to redirect harm from an asset to your harm track or to a different asset. If you redirect harm to prevent a harm track from going over a d12, you avoid incapacitation.
Outside of a roll, an inspiration can be spent to make a d6 scene asset without using a roll, or to keep a scene asset for the entire session. The scene asset created should be something that the character could make with their current abilities, or something that makes sense to be found in that location.
Advancement points are used to enhance your character, and can be gained in a few ways.
points are gained by:
Use the table below to grant advancement based on the length of the adventure
| 1 Session | 2-3 Sessions | 4-6 Sessions | 7+ Sessions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |
Travelers have a goal, they are looking for something. The “looking for” aspect tells us what this is, and the higher that die is, the closer they are to finding it. Once it reaches a d12, they are able to find what it is they’re looking for within the narrative. Once they do, that character is retired unless they are given a new goal of some kind, a reason to keep going. The easiest way to do this is to re-roll on the “Looking for” table in character creation. This new goal starts at a d6.
Things you can do with your advancement points
raising a die to a higher level requires more advancement points the higher you want it to go
| D4 -> D6 | D6 -> D8 | D8 -> D10 | D10 -> D12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| New D4 Aspect | D4 -> D6 | D6 -> D8 | D8 -> D10 | D10 -> D12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 |
When Lowering negative aspects, it always costs 5. However, a negative aspect cannot be lowered below d4, there will always be a trace of it around.
Assets in Distorted Domains degrade over time, if a player or Traveler wants to save or restore an asset it costs 5 advancement. This returns the asset to the die rating that it had at the beginning of the session, or the die rating of when it was acquired if it was acquired this session.
A temporary asset can also be made permanent with 5 advancement.
Upgrading Assets is not done with advancement, this can only be done within the fiction of the game. If a player would like their asset die to be upgraded beyond the standard die rating, they must seek out someone or something that can make that asset better. Someone like an enchanter, an engineer, a blacksmith. They can also use a rare item such as a gemstone of beguiling, or the crystalline vapors of a deep sea thermal vent.