Renegade Game Studios Announces New Essence20 RPG System
Leading up to RenegadeCon this weekend, Renegade Game Studios unveiled their new tabletop roleplaying game ruleset called Essence20. Elisa Teague led the team in developing the Essence20 System for the upcoming Power Rangers RPG, Transformers RPG, and G.I. Joe RPG as well as future projects.
As the name implies, Essence20 is a d20-based system and will see players rolling a d20 along with additional dice to resolve various tests and combat. Meanwhile, character creation focuses on three points: Origin, Role, and Influence which will all affect the attributes of Strength, Speed, Smarts, and Social.
This is extremely exciting since at the original announcement of these RPGs, it was said that they would be using the 5th Edition ruleset. Apparently, during development, the team found that a custom system would be much better for servicing the fans and the worlds. Talking about the system, Teague told Forbes:
First off, as you may suspect from the name, Essence20 is a d20 based system. The core mechanic for resolving a roll is for the player to roll a d20 along with their Skill die (ranging from a d2-d20). The result of the d20 and skill die must exceed the difficulty of the test in order to succeed. Characters with a specialization in the skill being tested get to roll their skill die and all dice below it, and pick the highest result to add to their d20 roll, increasing their odds of success! What’s more, a max value roll on ANY die is a critical success, leading to more chances for crits and more opportunities for great roleplaying incorporating them.
Character creation follows a three-pronged approach, based on their Origin (what type of person are they?), Role (what is their place on the team?), and Influence (what experiences have led them to this point?). Character’s abilities and skills are based on the 4 S’s, Strength, Speed, Smarts, and Social. These options give an amazing depth and breadth to the variety of characters that a player can create!
The character backgrounds, character flaw system, and Story Point system (awarded for mission success, special heroics, and spectacular roleplaying) lend themselves to a cinematic and cooperative roleplaying experience that is a great fit for settings like Power Rangers, G.I. JOE, and Transformers.
We are excited to show this system off, so please join us for RenegadeCon Virtual Special Edition this weekend for more information and to see it all put on the table in our premiere of Day of Destiny, a Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Actual Play!
Fans can learn more about the system and even see it in action during RenegadeCon. The Roleplaying Games Reveals panel will take place on August 27 at 5:30 PM Pacific and Day of Destiny will show off the Power Rangers RPG on the same day at 8 PM Pacific. You can watch all the streams on Twitch.
