Unbound Fantasy

This is a game where trolls linger under bridges, wizards dwell in reclusive towers, those caves in the high mountain passes can and very likely do hold dragons. There are weirder places still, pocket dimensions of clockwork, dungeons of living ice and cities that grow like jungles and try to swallow up the brave residents that call the place home. All of that and more. This is a game where players start as accomplished heroes and aspire towards even greater heights.

Progression Based Freeform

Unbound Fantasy is inherently a freeform game, while some dice rolling could be possible, overall the game will be driven by the narrative more so than mechanics. There will be skills, advancement and measurable progress. How do these two concepts go together? Simply! You will have a character sheet and it’ll have numbers, but these numbers are really only an abstract representation of your mastery. Success and failure will be determined by the GM based upon the narrative and situation, not dice. Your progression will not just be measured based upon your characters growth. It will also be in the allies you gather, secrets you uncover (Or create!) and things you add to your realm.

Character Creation

Stats

Might: How strong your character is.
Finesse: Determines things like dexterity, hand eye coordination, and the like.
Endurance: How tough your character is, how good he is at taking hits.
Acumen: How smart your character is, this governs things like perception and intelligence.
Arcanus: This is the force of your character's mind, how powerful their magics are.
Will: This is how strong your character is against magical and supernatural attacks.

All stats begin with a score of 1, characters will start with 14 stats to spread as they wish with no stat being higher 6

1: Sickly, enfeebled, debilitated in some way
2: Meager
3: The standard measure of a human.
4: Notably advanced.
5: An impressive specimen, you're clearly superior.
6: Your abilities exceed normal limitations.

*Special rules for 7 and higher
7: Anyone who beholds you in action will have no doubt that you're blessed.
8: Legendary, your capabilities are superhuman.

And there may be levels to further attain. Should you pass level 8 in a stat then the only way to measure your capabilities are against others of similar caliber.

*Note: Once you've hit rank 6 in a stat, to progress further you'll need specialized adventure rewards or certain Myth advancement to progress further.

Trademark Skill

This is your 'schtick.' They're the whip for Indiana Jones, James Bond's debonair, Han Solo's Millennium Falcon, Teddy's Roosevelt's 'Big stick'. Your trademark skill is the one that really gives your character their area to shine. What can these includes?

Shapeshifting into animals
Crime Scene Investigation
Speaks to Trees
Alchemist who specializes in combustible materials

This is the thing your character is excellent at and what set them above others in the world. They will always do this well and while their skill might occasionally fail them, it's because of extenuating circumstances never through any sort of fumbling of ineptitude.

The more specific the trademark the better! “Pistoleer with a six shooter” is better than “shoots guns” and “Poisoner” is better than a generic “assassin”

Skills

All skills advanced in the game through use and practice. When you apply your skills to relevant, challenging tasks, engage in study or training, you'll advance a %, amount based upon GM fiat of the situation. Once you hit 100% with a skill, you'll move to the next skill ranking, from 0 to 1, 1 to 2, etc.

All skills have an associated number. Your number in a skill only gives you a rough measure of how your character stacks up to another character, the GM may tell you if you're not skilled enough to accomplish something, though generally you'll be able to do it, you just won't look good!

You can go beyond rank 5 in a skill, but unlike the relative power of stats, a rank 10 Master produces goods just as fine as a rank 5 master, the main advantage of going beyond rank 5 is that you obtain more sub-skills, potentially granting you more flexibility or more unique traits to your creations.

Supernatural Skills & Magic

These must be obtained before they can advanced. The exception to this is your Trademark Skill.

Hero's Myth Advancement

Finally, there is one last way in which heroes advance. Their myth. Below are the options for the sort of myth's that a hero can foster. These myths will steadily advance on their own simply through the hero's continued existence and as they advance they'll empower the hero, either directly or indirectly. More importantly, they're how the hero will be remembered.

Myth of Might: Fostering a myth of might means that this hero will be remember for their strength, their ability to lay foes low whether by sword or sorcery. This is a legendary warrior or wizard who made armies tremble.
Advancement: This myth is all about personal strength. Advancing this myth will provide stat advancements or skill advancements. A myth for those who desire a life of adventure.

Myth of Dominion: A hero who is fostering this myth is a nation builder. They invest their time and efforts into a region and people. Under the heroes tutelage this place will grow by their whim and become a reflection of their hero.
Advancement: This myth is about kingdom building. Choosing this myth will give you access to weekly resources to spend to build a country and shape its advancement.

Myth of Creation: The Creation Myth are the stories of origins and endings. A hero with a myth of creation has less fine control over the world than a hero who rules a nation, but this hero can enact even greater changes on a larger scale. Calling up mountains, dreaming into existence monsters or remembering old civilizations that hadn't existed but now do.
Advancement: This is myth is about having a hand in the greater world. Advancing this Myth will give the hero the ability to make impactful changes to the greater world. Unlike dominion, once those changes have been set into motion they're then outside the control of the hero who spawned them. This is a myth for those who yearn to make their mark on the world, then see how that mark changes things.

Myth Advancement

Each week you will obtain 2 Myth Points. How these can be spent will vary depending your hero's myth. When you expend the Myth Points they are lost until you accumulate more.

Myth of Might
5 Myth Points - Raise a stat by 1 (Up to a max of 6)
5 Myth Points - Increase a skill by 15%
10 Myth Points - Raise a stat by 1 beyond 6
15 Myth Points - Obtain a Trademark Enhancement

Myth of Dominion
Any Myth points you obtain are instead transformed into Influence. You get 100 Influence for every 1 Myth Point. Influence can be spent on the following:
50 Influence - Special Unit
100 Influence - 10% Nation Skill Advancement
200 Influence - Special Location
500 Influence - Noteworthy Being

Special Unit: A hardened soldier, a wry bard, a mechanical dragon. You can create whatever special unit you like (Though you should be able to give a good narrative reason how you obtained it for the more exotic units)

Skill Advancement: Nations are not unlike heroes in that some countries are better at things than others. Influence can be spent to nurture these national skills.

Special Location: A wizard's tower, a hardline military academy, a faerie grove. These are special places within your nation you either, build, discover or create. They'll grant some sort of benefit which you work out with the GM.

Noteworthy Being: You may have a dozen clockwork dragon units you made, but Big Ben is the fiercest and far more powerful than the others. Noteworthy beings are grand beasts, powerful allies, spirits you've aligned or national heroes. They are quite impressive! (Though are certainly a step down from you or other Heroes. If you send one after a Hero don't expect it to return, perhaps three could do the job depending the circumstances. If you elevate a special unit you already created you can take off the points previously spent making it cost 450.)

Creating a Noteworthy Being requires it has a name and at least one post dedicated to its creation.

Myth of Creation
5 Myth Points - Spawn a short lived danger (Roving goblins, a zombie uprising, a border conflict between countries) Heroes can either intervene or this danger can naturally run its course.
5 Myth Points - Create an adventure hook for Heroes to undertake
10 Myth Points - Create a permanent addition to the world, create a new realm, dream up a new villain, fashion a new city or forge a new plane of existence
15 Myth Points - Break a rule of the world. What was once thought to be a hard and fast rule turns out to have a loop hole, this loop hole will be permanent.

Note: Any Creation undertakings are to be discussed with the GM prior to implementing them.

Aspects of Adventures

What is a campaign of daring and adventure if there are no rewards? In Unbound Fantasy there will be no shortage of valuables to be obtained. In fact, the problem isn't that there is a shortage of loot to be obtained, it's that these Aspects are fleeting. When an adventure concludes several rewards will be made available. Each Hero on the adventure can only select one, all the others are lost.

Aspects of the adventure can vary widely in what's offered though often they'll reflect the nature of the adventure that was undertaken. Rewards will also generally be more interesting when there are more players. But be warned, the only way to ensure you have first pick of the rewards is by securing an adventure hook, otherwise they're first come, first serve. Be sure to talk with your fellow Heroes if you have a preference for the rewards being offered!

Time

When it comes to Heroes, time can be a soft affair, while weeks pass for one group of adventurers only days pass for another. It's just another curious trait of living in a world brimming with magic and adventure. Luckily it tends to be convenient than troublesome as it often makes it easier for Heroes to rejoin one another and strike out on new adventures.

Magic

There are two forms of magic in the world. The first is the normal sort, like any skill it can be advanced through practice, weekly progression and Aspects of Adventures, when it reaches 100% it advances to the next tier and gains a subskill which gives a new defined use of its power. If you're a Fire Mage, you learn to throw fire, when you advance perhaps you learn to throw fire around corners or call up a wall of fire. You can only do spells you obtain through practice. This is Stable Magic, it's reliable, but limited. You can obtain it through your adventures in the world.

Then there is Old Magic.

Old Magic is flexible where Stable Magic is rigid. It can do things on a whim. It's flexible, but also wild. Using Old Magic comes with risk. Unlike Stable Magic there are not predetermined spells you learn and master, instead you call up the magic in the form you need it at the moment. Is there a blazing fire? Using your Old Magic of Water you summon water to douse it. An unreachable window? You use Old Magic of Water to create a ladder of ice. How well this goes... depends.

Users of Old Magic will have a pool of D6s. Whenever you use Old Magic, roll a D6. On a 6, you succeed exactly as you hope. On a 4 or 5, you succeed, but some sort of complication occurs. You call up too much water or the ladder of ice is sharp and cuts your hands. On a 1, 2 or 3 the Old Magic misbehaves and the goal is not accomplished.

Each time you use Old Magic you lose 1 dice of your D6 pool. So if you have 5D6, you'll roll all 5 dice and take the highest result, but next time you use Old Magic you'll only have 4d6, thus Old Magic becomes less reliable the more you use it.

When you first learn Old Magic you'll learn a certain subschool of it and have a dice pool of 1 which can expanded. If you're not a fan of uncertainty, this is not the method of progression for you. Your Old Magic dice pool will restore at a rate of 1 dice per week.

Weekly Progression

Each week a Hero will the following:
+2 Myth Points
+10% Skill Advancement
+2 Healing (If damaged)
+1d6 to their Old Magic dice pool (If they've learned Old Magic and are below their cap)

Additional 5% Skill Advancement: Share your favorite part of the game from that week or ideas you have for your future plans. Really any thoughts relating to the game will get this reward. (All positive for Weekly Progression though! Concerns or complaints should get their own message to be addressed!)

To claim this reward, send a message through your Weekly Progression Private Message to the GM on the appointed day and then update your sheets accordingly. It will be up to the players to maintain their character sheets. (And be careful! If the GM has to do math and realizes HP or dice pools are larger than they should be they may be lowered below what they would have normally been!)

Battle

Violence will not be uncommon in the adventures to come. All Heroes will have a base of 10 hit points. When these drop to zero the Hero is incapacitated and at the mercy of their foe.

Heroes have a way of coming back though. No matter how mortal a wound they received, a Hero will rise up three times before they're truly slain. They'll come back bearing scars for their ordeal, but also empowered. On falling the third time the Hero will be truly passed on to the realms of death.

Healing: You will recover 2 hit points each week when Progression is distributed. This means you may need to be careful after a taxing battle!

Updating Combat: If there are three or more players in a thread where action is taking place, I'll update the thread once two thirds of the players involved have posted. Due to the nature of play-by-post, I'd rather keep the momentum up.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:51, Wed 23 June 2021.