What is Project Psyren?

Project Psyren is an Epic Dark Fantasy TableTop RPG which focuses on long form play, open world exploration, freedom, and survival. Project Psyren was built from the ground up with an entirely new and custom dice pool system tailored to achieve these stated focuses and goals of play.

This is a labor of love that’s been several years in the making by a small group of four friends. Project Psyren is the First Game being designed and developed by Psyren Song Studios, a small indie studio based out of Ohio. In this first official devblog for Project Psyren, I'd like to go over our core game concepts to help better illustrate the type of game we're trying to build. 

Core Game Concepts

• “Classless” Character Creation

Project Psyren offers a free form "Tool Box" approach to character creation. Focusing on offering as many options to players as possible in order to truly allow for a diverse range of build options and playstyles that aren't shoehorned in to rigid concepts. It should be up to the player to tell us what a "Paladin" is to them, not us giving them our own concept and demanding they adhere to it. With that, project Psyren focuses on a Build Point character creation system that offers the following list of character Features, 

• “Levelless” Character Advancement

Advancement during play is focused on the earning of Experience through Action that then allows the Player to advance their character’s previously mentioned attributes, skills, etc, in an entirely free form manner. As a character adventures in the world and earns Experience, that experience can be used to purchase Attribute raises, Skill raises, new Talents, Skill Specializations and more. This form of advancement also eschews the concept of "Training Time" to gain any sort of increase after purchasing it with experience. This is done because it is our belief that the act of gaining experience is in and of itself, already, training and growth. 

• Experience through Action 

Experience through Action is a pillar that informs our Experience System that is based on supporting all styles of TTRPG gameplay. Rewarding players for interacting with the world in Physical, Social, Psychological, and Intellectual ways. This means that experience rewards are granted for a wide range of activities and that "Murder Hoboing" isn't the only path to advancement. You may gain experience from negotiating with a noble, exploring a ruin, winning a fight, or any number of other options.

• "World Scale" Setting

Project Psyren is being developed as a system alongside a “World Scale” Campaign Setting that offers Nations, Factions, Peoples, and a large library of Places of Interest. Constructing a world in this manner alongside the mechanical system that governs play allows us to offer a vibrant world for our Game Masters (Demiurge) and Players to play in, offering dozens of campaign options without the need for adventure paths or dedicated separate campaign books.

• D12 based Opposed and Static Dice Pool Resolution System

You heard that right, D12's, lots of them. Project Psyren is built with the "Psyren Song Engine" which constructs "Skill Checks" using a Parent Attribute and a Skill with modifiers that either add or subtract dice. The dice are rolled and "Success" is determined based on the number of Dice to roll 9 or higher. Skill checks in Project Psyren as also "Opposed" by types of thresholds such as "Dyanmic" in which one Actor is rolling against another, "Static" in which an actor is rolling against the environment, or "Void" in which an actor is assumed to be skilled enough to succeed. We'll go over this in greater detail at a later date. 

• Supports both Battle Map and “Theater of the Mind” gameplay options

Project Psyren incorporates terrain, facing, line of sight, height advantages and other factors that are designed to be experienced using a Hex Based Battlemap while also fully supporting “Theater of The Mind” “Mapless” play. 

• Optimized for Long Form Campaign Play

Project Psyren has been Optimized and designed from the start for Long Form Campaigns where exploration, roleplay, character development and growth are paramount. This does not mean that One Shots or shorter session count campaigns aren’t supported however. It simply means that the game is designed to be experienced as an "Epic", hence the idea of it being an "Epic Dark Fantasy" TTRPG. We want our players to be able to tell powerful long form stories. 

That's the basics of Project Psyren, thanks for reading and we'll see you for the next Dev Blog "Foundations" Soon.

-Ciara 
Psyren Song Creator and Lead Designer