Ascendant

Ascendant is a tabletop Role-Playing Game developed by Sean Fennelly.

Game Setting
The game is set in the world of Erus, on the continents of Aorik and Ura. The current state of affairs in these areas could be described as quickly waning; wars, rebellions, and the march of terrible monsters from the south have drained the progress that has otherwise been forward.

Crumbling ruins and empty towns over-taken by nature are as common place as peaceful hamlets and bustling cities.

Gameplay
In the game players make characters of their choosing and are lead along a story told by their Game Master. Having an open imagination is generally important, as it is in most role-playing games.

The Basics
In the game, there are certain basic rules. All actions in the game the player takes that has an element of random chance are handled with the rolling of dice. All actions which require this die roll use a 20-sided (d20) die. Things such as damage in combat are handled by 6-sided (d6) die.

In the game there are no classes: you can improve your characters in any way you wish. There are some starter characters that essentially form "classes" but are more of a guide-line for how to start a character rather than a set path that the player must choose for their character.

Experience Points
Main article: Experience Points 

Experience points form the currency through which a player can improve their character by spending it to improve their attributes or skills, or to purchase traits or abilities. The total amount of experience a character has earned forms the basis for their 'level'

Attributes
Main article: Attributes 

Attributes are the primary physical, mental and magical characteristics of a player character. They are one of the primary determinants of how a character will play. These primarily affect character skills.

Skills
Main article: Skills 

Skills are a character's trained or aquired knowledge on techniques for everything from combat to smithing to magic. They are a core determinate of what kind of actions a player can have their character take during the course of the game.

Traits
Main article: Traits 

Traits are passive bonuses that apply to certain aspects of a character. They usually have certain requirements of skills or attributes before they can be taken by the player.

Abilities
Main article: Abilities 

Abilities are unique, special actions that a character can perform. As with traits, they have certain requirements before a character can aquire them.

Combat
Main article: Combat 

Combat in the game is rather brutal compared to most other tabletop RPG's. It is possible for a character to be at risk of dying very quickly, which leads to generally requiring more thought out tactics during a fight. Unlike most other games, combat is active in terms of both sides; that is, when one character attacks another, the other character actively defends themselves - if they are aware of an attack (as opposed to the attacker requiring the attacker to simply beat a static value to land successful hits.

Also, unlike other games Ascendant does not use hit points, but a specialized "wound" system. This is what makes the combat somewhat brutal as a fatal wound can come quite easily but at the same time is not necessarily a death sentence.

Adventuring
Main article: Adventuring 

The game also supports exploratoration, discovery and roleplaying. The lands of Ascendant are quite mysterious and full of all kinds of people and cultures, places to go and things to buy. A GM's campaign does not necessarily even have to involve combat at all - it can involve mystery or politics, city management or any number of other things.

Races
Main article: Races 

There are several races living on Aorik & Ura that co-exist in a somewhat tenous balance of power. There are 8 playable main races in the game - each with different attributes, racial traits and abilities that separate one from the other.

Magic
Main article: Magic 

Magic in Ascendant is quite different from other games. It does not have pre-formed spells, but instead has effects that a player can choose from to attempt to cast to. To cast spells, the players must roll to see if they succeed in summoning the affect.