A Gonzo Science Fantasy Adventure Game
This project is maintained by Transcendent-Tapir
Distorted Domains is built on a system called Distortion Dice. It’s a simple system. travelers have 3 stats, and an opposing harm track for each stat. travelers also have a number of aspects and assets. aspects can be things like background details and personality traits, and they can be positive or negative. Assets are physical things that travelers carry with them, and can only be used positively. While travelers can use all relevant aspects, assets are limited by how many a traveler can logically use at one time. You wouldn’t expect your traveler to be able to use a lasso and a chainsaw at the same time, for example (unless you combine them, of course). Each stat, harm track, asset, and aspect has a die rating to represent the narrative impact of that thing.
When your traveler would like to do something where failure would be interesting you make a roll. To do so, two dice pools are assembled, one player pool, and one opposition pool. For the player pool, we start with the most relevant stat for the action or approach taking place. Then the player may add the dice for any appropriate positive traits. Next, the player may select an appropriate number of assets and add the dice from those to the pool.
For the opposition pool, the narrator will first select the harm die that matches the players stat. If a player is using strong, the narrator will use the die from that players Strong harm track. Any negative traits that the traveler has that are appropriate can also be added to the opposition pool. Last the narrator will add dice based on what the opposing force is. If it is an NPC, it will likely have a base die rating and some aspects with die ratings as well. If is a static object, a base rating can be determined by the narrator if it is not explictly set in advance.
Once pools are rolled, you simply compare the highest die from your pool to the highest die of the opposition pool.
If you beat the opposition you succeed at what you were trying to do. If you beat the opposition by 5 or more, you get a critical success and gain a bonus of some kind. If you tie with the opposition, you succeed at a cost. And if your die is lower than the opposition you fail and something bad happens. The critical success bonus will vary depending on the situation. If you are trying to cause harm to an NPC you will cause an extra harm, if you are accomplishing a task perhaps you do it particularly well or get a bonus of some kind.
When an action results in a mixed success or a failure, raise a harm die to the next die level. The harm die raised will be the one from the harm track that matches the stat being rolled. If a harm die would be raised above a d12, then your traveler is incapaciated and can no longer take action until the next scene. In addition, they take on or raise a negative aspect. If a negative aspect is raised above a d12, your traveler is retired. Harm represents the difficulty of using a certain stat. This can be because of injury, stress, insecurity, or basically anything from a previous failure that may hold you back.
When a traveler becomes incapacitated they can raise an existing negative aspect, or they can roll or select from the table that most closely matches what they were incapacitated by. As a guide, if a traveler had a negative aspect in the opposition pool when they were taken out, that aspect is raised. If no negative aspect was used, roll on a table below, or on a negative aspect table specific to the domain you are in. An exception to this could be if an enemy has a specific ability that would make sense to be a negative aspect, such as some sort of curse or poison.
| D10 | Injury |
|---|---|
| 1 | Head |
| 2 | Neck |
| 3 | Hand |
| 4 | Arm |
| 5 | Shoulder |
| 6 | Chest |
| 7 | Stomach |
| 8 | Hip |
| 9 | Leg |
| 10 | Foot |
| D10 | Tech/Magic |
|---|---|
| 1 | Parasitic infestation |
| 2 | A Growing Corruption |
| 3 | The Darkness calls to you |
| 4 | Prone to Electrical Interference |
| 5 | Involuntary Larceny |
| 6 | An Insatiable Hunger |
| 7 | Inconsistent Gravity |
| 8 | Electromagnetic Sensitivity |
| 9 | Sharp growths |
| 10 | An Unusual Glow |
| D10 | Social Blunder |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tongue Tied |
| 2 | Always Rambling |
| 3 | Distrustful |
| 4 | Prone to Anger |
| 5 | Scared of Confrontation |
| 6 | Challenges everyone |
| 7 | Has to test everything |
| 8 | Forgetful |
| 9 | Mumbles |
| 10 | Paranoid |
Sometimes Harm doesn’t always make the most sense as a negative consequence. In these instances it can make sense to have a player traveler lose an asset, damage an asset, or take on a temporary aspect. One example is throwing an asset and failing that roll. In this instance it probably makes the most sense for the asset to be removed from play until it can be retrieved in the fiction. If an obstacle has an aspect that represents an ability to degrade an asset or to apply a condition that is not necessarily related to causing harm directly, you may also want to use an alternative to harm. If, for example, an obstacle is a creature that can spit acid, a living magma entity, or a difficult to pick lock, failing a roll against it could mean that your asset is damaged, and the die for it is lowered until it can be repaired. If the obstacle is something that holds you in place, then it could give you a temporary aspect such as “d6 bound” which represents a travelers inability to move and how difficult it is to get out of. These temporary aspects are removed when they are no longer relevant, usually at the end of the scene, or when they are removed from that situation.
In situations that are dire, you can push yourself for a greater chance at success. Before you roll, you can choose to take the harm die away from the opposition and use it in your own pool, However, after the roll you must raise the harm die to the next die size, from d6 to d8 for example.
Taking a few moments to rest allows your traveler to reduce a harm die by one die size. This costs you some time, but depending on the situation, this can have negative consequences such as being found by an enemy, or losing valuable time before a void portal is opened. In extremely dire situations rest may not be an option at all. Each day, you can do this once for each harm track.
You can also reduce the harm die by taking an action to do so, but this requires a roll. If you are reducing your own harm die, the opposition pool will use the harm die twice. If you are reducing another travelers harm die, the opposition pool will use their harm die as well as your own. The DM can also add in any relevant die for the situation at hand to the opposition pool. On a success reduce the harm die by one, on a critical success reduce it by two, on a mixed success you can reduce the target harm die by one, but you must also raise the die of your own harm track, on a fail you make it worse and raise the harm die by one.
If you stop to rest for an extended period of time, such as overnight, you can reduce each harm track by one. At the end of an adventure, you can reduce all harm tracks to d4.
Obstacles do not have a harm track. If the obstacle has stats or a relevant asset like armor, those will get lowered as they take harm. If the obstacle does not have stats or assets, they will likely just have one die rating that will get lowered as they take harm. If they take harm at a d4, then the obstacle is defeated, incapacitated, or otherwise loses the engagement and the PCs get what they want.
If you want to help an ally with their action, you can use a stat, asset, or aspect die to do so. The harm die used in the opposition pool is still the one of the primary traveler doing the action. If the action fails, both travelers take harm. You cannot push your luck while assisting, but the primary traveler has that option.
Sometimes a scene will have things that the players can use as assets. Such as dropping a chandelier on someone, or electrifying the water. A standard for these assets is to set them to d6, but a particularly weak asset can be a d4, and a more impactful asset might be a d8 or even a d10. Players can also choose to create an asset using the abilities or assets of their travelers. To do so, the traveler will make a test, if successful they create an asset equal to the size of the die they use as their result. So if the highest die in their pool has a value of 5, and is a d6, then the asset will be a d6. On a heroic success, raise the asset to the next die size. Scene assets will disappear at the end of the scene unless a player spends inspiration to keep it around until the end of the session.
Each domain in Distorted Domains is likely to use a different form of currency. So if players want to trade, they will need something else of value. This can be doing someone a favor, offering information, or trading another object that they have. For short periods of time, players may have narrative item that represents the amount of currency or particular item of value. Both of these could be represented as assets if there is no specific goal in mind or if they are being used as a bargaining chip. Or they can simply be a narrative item with no die value, meant to be protected until it can be traded for what the players are really after.
If travelers are staying in one domain for an extended campaign, it may make sense for them to acquire currency and other items of value to trade within that domain. You can represent this with a Resources asset, that can go up when they acquire wealth, and goes down when they spend. A traveler should never be able to purchase something at a higher die rating than their resources asset. If they fail the roll, the resources asset is lowered by one die size, but the asset can still be acquired. If the asset being acquired was the same die level as the resources die and the roll failed, then the character will owe a favor or have to give up something else of value in order to gain the asset.