Extended Update: PICK+E System

During the last two weeks, I took much of the feedback given to me and cannibalized some other systems I have made to create the official PICK+E system which is (PHY, INT, COG, KIN + Existence systems) together into one system. Together, they allow for Vector-Radial Interactions and when used with Progress Clocks creates intuitive and quick actions that can happen. I expanded the document from 4 pages up to 25 core pages. The PICK+E system can be integrated into any other system and it will add: existence tension, vector-based action math, and divine bias overlays.The 4-pager Appendix N, game jam, brochure is now set to being a free demo item.

“Of Courtly Intrigue” is an optional sub-module that I’ve devised that helps showcase the world, and how the post-siege could potentially continue. This explores the consequences of high-affinity choices, divine-bloodline legacy, and the intersection of political intrigue and metaphysical existence by building directly on the foundation of CBITN.

Though Castles Burning In The Night is more the first official one-shot that the PICK+E system utilizes. As a player your choices echo and as the GM, your attention to detail and what the players interact with have effects on your world-state. A campaign that’s based post-siege could be anything that abides to the natural rules and narrative consequences.

If you choose to or roll for the Lord to have an heir–what happens post-siege if the heir dies–or what if the Lord dies but the heir survives?

If you don’t want to use CBITN but still use the PICK+E system, I made a few setting placers that will help get your game rolling. That is also added to the document.

Outside of that if you don’t want to explicitly use the siege primer for the PICK system, but still use the Existence system for setting–or use it in a PICK or Existence compatible way. That requires making the denizens of the world: whether its Warhammer, VTMB, Mouseritter, Cairn, et cetera, meet the existential system effects more cleanly: you’ll need to ensure their native species, deities, and metaphysics are translated to properly reflect existential tension and godliving/godless interaction. This is also a scaffolding tool for adapting complex lore universes but having them stay grounded and can help with literal devices such as the Modern Girl In Thedas trope that was extremely popular some several years ago.

I do realize it makes nearly anything with reality manipulation a la magic, a property of a godliving world. However, psionics are the literal exception as it can be in either and like if magic is more inherently the emergence of peoples understanding complexity and entropy, then yes its an exception but its overwhelming godliving in nature. Naturally that allows for godless realms to have telekinesis, lucid dreaming and more via psionics which are internalized systems versus magic being an externalized system. 

All that said, I am always looking for feedback to continuously improve this system that is very dear to me. The art part will be rough until I can end up commissioning reusable art.

It will need another pass with polish, but I am solo and time constrained.