GILDED AGE QUICK START GUIDE
Skills When you want to use skills, roll 2d10 and add your skill. You want high numbers. If your Chemistry is 6, you'd roll 2d10+6. If you have any points in the Talent associated with the skill you're using you can re-roll dice, one at a time, up to a number of times equal to your Talent. You roll a 2 and a 5 on your 2d10 for Chemistry. You have 2 points in the Science Talent. You can re-roll the 2, and then re-roll it again, or re-roll the 5. Regardless of your Talents you can never re-roll a 1.
Skills can be used however you see fit, but you should ask your GM before you roll anything. Any skill can be used to Know things related to the skill, Talk to others about the skill, Make stuff related to the skill, or just Do actions related to the skill.
Skill checks fall under a tiered success system. The numbers for successes are static at each Level, and known to all players at all times. A Miss is the worst result. You fail and something bad might happen. A Single is the lowest success. Either you barely pass, or you pass and something bad might happen. A Double is a good success. You succeed with nothing bad happening. Something good might happen as well. A Triple is a critical success. You succeed and something very good might happen. Instead of the regular tiered resolutions, your GM can ask for a pass/fail check, requiring you to get a certain level of success or better. If you need a Double or better to pass, then a single doesn't count as a success.
Combat Combat is run in turns with an initiative order. Each turn you'll spend your AP (action points) to take actions. You'll get 3 AP per turn, and might get more at the start of battle. AP carries over from turn to turn, but maxes out at 6. You can take most actions twice per turn, so long as you have the AP to do so. Combat takes place on a grid battle map. All actions and ranges are noted in a number of spaces, not feet or meters.
When you attack, roll d% and compare against your Accuracy and Critical for that attack. If your roll is higher than your Accuracy it's a miss. Nothing happens. If your roll is equal to or lower than your Accuracy, it's a Hit. You deal normal damage to the foe. If your roll is equal to or lower than your Critical, it's a critical hit. You deal double damage to the foe. If you're hit or critically hit, roll d% and compare against your Evade. If your roll is higher than your Evade you fail to evade and take whatever damage is dealt. If you were hit and your roll is equal to or lower than your Evade, you take no damage. If you were critically hit and your roll is equal to or lower than your Evade, you take normal damage instead of double damage. If you take physical damage but you have Defense, you can reduce that damage by that amount.
If an effect tries to inflict a debuff or status effect on you, roll d% and compare against your Resist. If your roll is higher than your Resist you fail to resist and take whatever effect is dealt. IfSample your roll is equal to or lower than your Resist you'll negate the incoming effect. file If you take damage, it comes out of your HP. If your HP hits 0 then you're Downed.
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Foreword Table top role-playing games are a way to have fun with your friends, or a way to make friends. And, throughout the (entirely too long) development of Gilded Age, that's been my goal. To make this game fun. To that end, from top to bottom, the rules presented here are made to give players cool PCs, give GMs flexible tools and NPCs, and add substance without fluff. Just keep in mind that this is an Indie RPG, designed by one dude in his spare time. Gilded Age isn't perfect. Though really, no game is.
That said, this book is crammed full of all the creativity and inventive ideas I could muster. It's got 14 unique classes that are each vastly from the other, and different from any other RPG you've read. It's got cool tricks you can pull off in battle. You can create a very wide variety of characters. You can go and retheme literally anything, and you're encouraged to do so. You will absolutely read something in here and go "Oh that's cool."
It's crammed full of unique stuff because at some point during development I realized that what I really wanted out of Gilded Age wasn't just to make a fun game, but also to challenge myself. At so many points in the process I asked, "what can this system support?" or "how can I do something that I haven't seen before?" I pondered how I could add aspects of things I loved about other RPGs, video games, shows, manga, anime, and cool modern board games into Gilded Age.
I poured everything I had into this game for many years. Too many years, to be honest. I wouldn't have gotten this far if it weren't for my gaming group, who supported me and my unending edits through too many years. When I needed players to play my game, they showed up, and not only became excellent test subjects, but also became excellent friends. I couldn't have kept going without my wonderful, funny, nerdy, cute, smart, and ultimately patient wife. She's the best person I know, and I'm super lucky to have her support, even if at times that's just listening to me rant about how I have to rebalance some math.
In the end, Gilded Age is mostly just a way to have fun with your friends. And I've had several metric tons of fun with my friends playing Gilded Age. And, honestly? I think that you will too.
Really, if you aren't having fun with your friends then what are you even doing? Sample file
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SampleCopyright Travis Gardin, 2012-2021 file
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For My Friends and Fellow Adventurers
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3/31/2021 pg. 5 of 663 GILDED AGE Table of Contents
Introduction to the Gilded Age 8 A Chance Meeting 9 What Is Gilded Age? 13 Why Play Gilded Age? 14 The Dice You Roll 16 General Advice 17 The Most Important Rule 19 PLAYER'S GUIDE
Chapter 1 Chapter 4 CORE MECHANICS ITEMS
Skill Checks 21 General Items 285 Talents And Skills In Depth 34 Items In Combat 289 Combat 50 Equipment 295 Weapons List 299 Chapter 2 Armor List 305 CHARACTER CREATION Shields List 307 Accessories List 308 If You're a Player Character 63 Equipment Customization 313 7 Steps Of Character Creation 65 Examples Of Custom Weapons 317 Character Sheet 66 Basic Statistics And Items 70 Chapter 5 Building Character 77 ADDITIONAL RULES Archetypes 84 Human Phenotypes 103 Advanced Combat Mechanics 320 Wounds And Death 333 Chapter 3 Status Effects and Debuffs 336 CLASSES Damage Types and Elements 343 Goddess Points 350 Class Overview 113 Aegiseer 121 Bastion 132 Botanist 141 Chronostriker 150 Creature And Master 161 Doppelganger 176 Dynamist 186 Experimentalist 198 Grave Keeper 208 Interpreter 219 Meteorologist 229 NavigatorSample239 file Profane 248 Stylist 270
3/31/2021 pg. 6 of 663 GILDED AGE Table of Contents GAME MASTER'S GUIDE
Chapter 6 Chapter 7 GAME MASTERING COMBAT AS GM
If You're a Game Master 355 Creating Encounters 430 Forming A Campaign 361 Weldan Fights 438 Example Campaigns 371 Making Battlemaps 444 Skill Checks 380 Running Encounters 449 Advancement And Rewards 398 NPC Classes 457 Equipment Titles 409 Boss NPC Classes 496 Weapon Titles 413 NPC Archetypes 525 Armor Titles 421 Human Archetypes 527 Shield Titles 425 Animal Archetypes 552 Protean Archetypes 558 Mechanical Archetypes 543 Supernatural Archetypes 546
Game Master Quick References 552
THE WORLD OF THE GILDED AGE
Chapter 8 Chapter 9 THE WORLD ARCHETYPES IN DEPTH
World Map Gild Powers World Overview Auric Items Ambold Technology Carshin Proteans Kembrant The Lands of Kanu Lochsairse New Kembrant North Granseca South Granseca Wievault Xigdas Languages International Factions Global Issues Crime, Punishment ReligionSample file
3/31/2021 pg. 7 of 663 GILDED AGE Introduction to the Gilded Age
The Gilded Age started over 1900 years ago, when Saint Sanren died. Saint Sanren was the first Gilded, a person with supernatural powers. Before then no one had any special powers whatsoever. When Saint Sanren appears in history they (no one is certain of their gender after all this time) are fighting bandits, wooing princes/princesses, liberating slaves, slaying tyrants and generally being an outstanding adventurer in an age that badly needed them. After their death children across the world began to be born who had Gild powers. It was only 50 years after their death, when a third generation of Gilded started being born that humanity realized that this was not a passing phase, or a fluke. Humanity reset the clock and started a new era. They called it the Gilded Age. But not everyone was born with these powers. Less than ten percent of humans are born Gilded, and those who aren't can never be. Thus 200 years after the Gilded Age began inequality spread amongst the people. Those with power often took it, forcefully, and the world became unbalanced. Fearing the power of the Gilded a new power was invented, one intended to bring magic to those born without it. They were called Auric Items, weapons and equipment made to harness the elements and forces of nature, able to be wielded by any with the skill to do so. While they proved themselves to be the equal of Gild powers, Auric items were expensive to produce and rare. Instead of making the world balanced it became controlled by two classes instead of one, those born with Gild powers and those with Auric items. Of course technology slowly advanced. Through out the Gilded Age men and women sought to invent their own kind of power, one usable by all. Advancing from arrows to Gatling guns, from sharpened sticks to swords to piston-powered lances, from torches to lanterns to flashlights. From even before the Gilded Age began humans have kept innovating, and still do today. Even as cars drive down boulevards in busy city streets, even as airships scrape the skies and carry passengers across oceans, humans still seek the new, the next, the better, the faster. Elsewhere, in the depths of the ocean, while humans fought and lived and died, things slept beneath the waves. Strange, alien beings emerged in small numbers on our shores in 1890 G.A. Most are hostile, a few are not. Humans call them Proteans, as some of them have revealed that they originate from far before humanity's time. They come in a wide variety of types, mimicking our own animal kingdom, yet they are neither animals, nor insects. They all begin their lives as silvery, metallic slime creatures, and as they grow they take on a more substantive and fixed form. They are bizarre and alien and we have had less than 50 years to study them. Worst of all, some of the ones who are friendly claim that there perhaps billions of Proteans beneath the seas, some unfathomably powerful and that most are hostile to humanity. The ones that are friendly, however, have created bonds with individuals, lending their powers to those who deserve them. Though what "deserving" means to a strange blob creature is anyone's guess. Yet none of these powers, Gild, Auric, technology and Protean, have solved any of the world's fundamental problems. Inequality is still rife. Poverty strikes those without the power or means to combat it. Hunger pangs trouble the world's most impoverished. Pirates, bandits and brigands attack from the land, seas and skies. Tyrants rule countries and inflict terrible harm to their own people. Wars drag good people into bad positions where they must commit terrible crimes, just to survive. Every Auric cop is met by a Gilded robber. The drives for profit and power are often at odds with human rights.
This is where you enter, somewhere between 1920 and 1950 G.A. You enter the Gilded Age as its stands on a precipice. Giant beasts rampage in the Lands of Kanu. Granseca stands eternally at the edge of internal war. Ambold's monarchy stands in the way of progress. Kembrant is run by profiteers who care little for the people they take money from. Wievault is prepared for international war, with their neighbors or with something more frightening. Lochsairse is embroiled in a revolution, trying to break the yoke of tyranny. New Kembrant is full of mystery and the unknown. Carshin is run by pirates, gangsters and assassins. Great problems loom over the world, but small problems still persist, single murders, missing parents, stolen heirlooms and petty feuds between clans. Sample There are a million stories in the Gilded Age. It's time to tell yours. file
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 8 of 663 GILDED AGE A Chance Meeting April 25, 1933. 2:30pm. New Brant City, Kembrant. An ordinary, crowded street in the greatest city in the world.
Lord Huffington was now a Lord in name only, though he still dressed the part. He wore a red and black striped suit with a top hat and monocle, and looked like a dapper older gentleman. Of course, he’d long since lost his land, investments and even the legal rights to his title due to his gambling addiction. He sat in a small outdoor cafe Monday at 2pm. He didn’t really have a reason for being there, other than that he liked to make passes at Sally, a waitress there. She just saw him as “some adorable old gentleman” rather than an aged, down- on-his-luck degenerate gambler. He appreciated her kindness and her giggles at his marriage proposals whenever she refilled his tea. Across the street was the 1st National Bank of Kembrant. It wasn't really the first, and was neither run by nor represented the nation of Kembrant. But it was popular and successful, so people didn't want to make a fuss. Among the people who didn't want to make a fuss was Mi Shu Le. She was of average height and weight for a woman in her mid-30's, with well-kept strawberry blonde hair and a pleasant face. She was wearing a doctor's coat and very wide rimmed glasses, and people assumed that such a nice looking woman was probably a pediatrician or veterinarian. She actually stood in line inside the bank waiting to deposit a briefcase full of greasy cash. A patient had paid her last night for emergency surgery on a "please-don't-tell-the-cops-I'm-here" wound. She flipped through a pulp novel, dreaming of adventure and sailing across the skies. Outside the bank, a crowd was forming. It was an unusual crowd, being comprised of 30 or so people, almost all of them wearing red scarves. In this crowd were many people who were un-noteworthy, and two who were notable. Yorick Strobard Vilgust was a tall young man in his late teens with long black hair and black circles under his eyes. He wore a long, dark grey coat with red stripes, despite that it was spring and really too warm for that kind of thing. This seemed to be part of his "look" though, as was a great sword across his back. It was wrapped in cloth, but still very obviously a great sword. Today he was wearing a long red scarf that was tattered, though maybe he bought it that way, since it was clean. The other notable person here was Shelby Grift. She was a short, slender young woman in clean but well worn clothes. She had newsie cap that was two sizes too big and came down to just above her eyes, and goggles over hanging around her neck. She wore a blue button down shirt, a tan vest, tight khaki pants and brown leather boots which seemed to be immaculately clean. At her left hip was a holstered semi-automatic handgun, at her right hip were a couple of daggers. She had a large brown messenger bag slung across one shoulder. Anyone in the crowd thinking "gosh, is she an adventurer?" was correct. Shelby moved through the crowd and stepped next to Yorick and whispered, "Are you gonna be with them or with me?" Yorick blushed and turned to her. She was very cute, and he wasn't really used to talking to girls. And she was asking if he wanted to go somewhere with her? Yorick swallowed and meekly replied, "Um, sure, I'll be with you." "Great!" Shelby confidently clapped her hands together. "I thought I was gonna have to take on the whole gang by myself." Yorick tilted his head in confusion. "Gang?" "Oh, this whole thing is cover for the Red Scarf gang," Shelby cheerfully replied. "They send letters to people in a city that they want to hit, saying that people should put on red scarves and come to X bank at Y time and they'll receive free tickets to a movie or something. They'll probably be here any minute now." Yorick was ambivalent. On the one hand, this girl wasn't asking him out. That made sense, as girls didn't like Samplehim. But she had seen that he might be a strong fighter, and he liked being recognized as filea competent fighter, which he was. Also he was super bummed that he wasn’t going to get a free ticket to the new Franklin Adams movie. As he considered keeping the scarf, since it matched his jacket, the Red Scarf gang took action.
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 9 of 663 GILDED AGE Inside the bank, two men at the front of the line put red scarves over their faces, pulled sub machine guns and held up the tellers. The tellers hit the silent alarms, and started filling the men’s duffel bags. A guard rushed over, drawing his gun, only to be electrocuted by a bolt from someone in the crowd. Screams followed. Outside on the street, a man in a hooded robe opened his cloak and threw a steel pylon on the ground in front of the crowd of scarf-wearers. He bellowed at them with a deep voice in a thick Wievaultian accent. “EVERYONE STAY STILL! I DO NOT VANT TO SET YOU ON FIRE BUT I CAN AND VILL!” The pylon crackled with electricity and small gouts of flame burst from it. People took him seriously. The criminal inside the bank who bolted the guard zapped him a few more times until he was lying on the ground, twitching. He strode over to Mi Shu Le, who was the only one still standing in line. She was still oblivious, engrossed in her book, just wishing that something exciting would happen to her for a change. The red scarfed bandit held his electric hand up to her face. “Yo lady, you gonna run? You gonna hide?” “Ah,” Mi Shu looked up from her book. “No, then I’d lose my place in line and couldn’t deposit this briefcase full of money.” She held up the briefcase in front of herself to illustrate the point. The man blinked several times, then calmly pulled his scarf over his face and wrenched the briefcase from her. “Just how stupid are you?” he rudely asked. Mi Shu Le slouched with disappointment and spoke rapidly. “Um, I made it through med school? So not very? But nobody respects that anymore! I’m in that weird spot, you know, where I’m not young and pretty anymore, but also I’m not old enough to get respect? I’m just really going through a tough time in my life right now. My husband left me for a younger woman 4 years ago, and I’ve had to take weird jobs and-” Behind her, at the counter, the duffel bags had been filled with cash and the two bandits there started going for the exit. They moved past her and grabbed their electrically gifted friend, who had been locked in place by Mi Shu’s rant. “Wait!” She shouted at them, and they briefly stopped. She squinted at them and asked “are you guys robbing the bank?” with the disapproving tone of a mother finding her child had eaten all the jam. “YES!” all three men shouted at once. This was followed by them cursing as a flurry of medical scalpels flew from Mi Shu Le’s hands and imbedded themselves in their shoulders, arms and legs. Of course she’d used surgical precision, and these wounds would be painful, but not be injuries that would leave them crippled. She didn't want them to be more of a burden on society than they already were. They moved to escape, shoving their way through the crowd.
Outside, a fight had already been going on. Viktor “The Machine” Stein was engaged in pitched battle with Shelby and Yorick. Shelby had a slate tablet in her hand, and occasionally tapped it, creating energy circles on the ground which looked like a topographical map. Her Zones helped the civilians quickly escape and held Viktor down in place where Yorick could bash him with his great sword. Viktor (they didn’t yet know his name) was incredibly tough. Every one of Yorick’s great sword slashes was met with a clang of metal as Viktor blocked with various parts of his body, all still hidden by his long cloak. As the fight progressed, his cloak became more and more torn, revealing the man underneath, who seemed to be almost entirely mechanical. As the three bandits emerged from the bank, they quickly glanced at the scene, and all three opened fire with their sub machine guns, riddling Yorick with dozens of bullets. Poor Yorick slouched forward, and then fell on his face, dead. They then turned their guns toward Shelby. Across the street, Lord Huffington had continued to drink his tea, but had not been idle. His eyes crackled with golden Gild energy. As the gang opened fire on Shelby, Lord Huffington watched the bullets fly in slow motion. He saw each piece of hot lead as it flew towards the girl and thought that he really didn’t like seeing girls bleed to death. As he thought this he expended his accumulated Gild energy and made sure every single bullet missed the girl and instead flew into nearby trashcans. Lord Huffington didn’t appreciate litter. “Screw it, let’s go!” one of the men shouted, and the three of them ran down an alley. Sample “Vait!” Viktor yelled after them. He was pinned by Shelby’s Zone. “You have to give her fileback!” He slouched over and fell to his knees, sobbing.
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 10 of 663 GILDED AGE Mi Shu Le looked around for wounded. She first tended to the guard who had been electrocuted, and used CPR to restart his heart. Then she came outside. A young man in a grey coat which was too heavy for spring was lying face down in the street, blood flowing out of dozens of bullet holes. A mechanical man was crying in the street. A young woman was looking at a small tablet, talking to herself about routes and paths. A dapper older gentleman started walking across the street towards the scene. Mi Shu dashed towards the downed young man, a pool of blood all around him. She didn’t have to check for a pulse. Losing that much blood meant that he was long gone. As she thought this Yorick pushed himself up into a sitting position. This was highly unusual. From the bullet wounds in Yorick, small silver tendrils poked out, much to the horror of pretty much everyone watching. The tendrils turned black and hardened, sealing the wounds. “Well, that hurt.” Yorick stated matter-of- factly. Viktor had stopped crying. Even a nearly entirely mechanical man was sickened by Yorick's weird regeneration. Both he and Yorick slowly got to their feet. Shelby addressed Viktor without looking up from whatever her Auric tablet was doing. “Maybe don’t run, since I can just slow you down like, forever.” She reinforced this thought by creating zones in a wide circle around him. “I must go.” Viktor replied in his deep baritone. “I must save my Lady,” and he took a very slow step forward. “A lady is in peril, you say?” Lord Huffington strode forward. “Is she beautiful? Single? Wealthy? Please say yes.” “She is beautiful and kind. She is happy to see me every day, despite my appearance.” Viktor removed his hood, revealing a face that was at least 30% metal. “She is warm and fluffy and-” “Oh it’s a cat.” Lord Huffington sighed disappointedly. “Why didn’t you fight back?” Yorick said while getting to his feet. “All you did was block and dodge. With that metal arm you could’ve punched a hole-” “I did not want to be here. I did not want to hurt civilians. I was forced to, to save the life of my Lady, who they have hostage.” “Oh! You must be a Grave Keeper!” Mi Shu Le exclaimed, turning to Yorick. She clapped her hands together in excitement. “Can I analyze your body later?” Yorick blushed for the second time that day. “Everybody shut up!” Shelby said, holding a hand up, but still looking at her tablet. “Right, so they went north, and their airship is probably still docked at the Donson Docks, where I saw it last night, so if we go east on Maple, then north on Causeway, we should arrive before they can pull away from the docks.” She looked up from her tablet. “Who’s in?” Viktor “The Machine” Stein nodded and threw back his cape, revealing a large mini-gun where his right arm should be. “I must save my Lady. I will shoot them many times.” Yorick Strobard Vilgust stood up and grabbed his great sword from the street, slinging it over his shoulder. “I’m big on revenge on people who kill me.” Lord Huffington turned away from the group and started to walk away when he saw Sally watching him. Sensing the opportunity to impress a lady and leave without paying his bill, he turned back to the group and doffed his top hat. “My noblesse oblige does not allow me to let such villainy go unpunished!” Mi Shu Le smiled embarrassedly and stepped forward. “Um, they took my briefcase which was full of money that I got from completely legal work.” “Okay then kids, everybody in.” Shelby said, despite clearly being the youngest of them. She ran towards a convertible car nearby and jumped over the door into the driver’s seat. The others joined and were soon As they drove at high speed through narrow streets full of Monday traffic, Yorick, who had gotten into the passenger’s seat, turned and looked at Shelby. She was determined and fiery and cute. “You, um, have a nice car.” He yelled over the roar of the engine and the honking of all the other cars Shelby was cutting off in traffic. Sample “Thanks," she said, smirking. "But it’s not my car.” file Yorick looked down the steering column at wires which had been pulled out and obviously hotwired. He sighed and muttered to himself “I’m going to get arrested again.”
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 11 of 663 GILDED AGE Several minutes later the cops arrived at the bank, late as usual.
Throughout this book you'll find references to these characters and other iconic examples of Gilded Age PCs. Some of these example characters are typical for their archetype and class, but others are purposefully unique, to give you a sense of how far you can stretch your descriptions as a player and/or GM. Just in this example Lord Huffington, Mi Shu Le and Yorick are pretty typical for their respective archetypes and classes. Viktor and Shelby aren't. Most Mechanical characters aren't 90% cyborg, and nobody in the world uses a gatling gun for their offensive Bastion powers, except Viktor. Shelby uses an Auric item that's like a touch screen tablet. While those are commonplace in 20th century Earth, nobody else has anything remotely like it in the Gilded Age. In almost every section of this book you'll find examples, prompts and suggestions for how you can describe your character, their powers, their equipment and the world at large. Embrace your creativity and make your friends go "Woah! That's awesome!"
And, if you're still stumped on how to describe your powers, the world, or anything else, here are just a few of the places you might draw inspiration from: Manga and Anime: Naruto, Shaman King, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Hunter X Hunter, Fullmetal Alchemist, Buso Renkin, My Hero Academia, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Seraph Of The End, World Trigger, Blood Blockade Battlefront, Trigun, God Of Highschool, Magic Knight Rayearth, Magi. Shows and Movies: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend Of Korra, Indiana Jones, The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Poirot, The Maltese Falcon, The Hudsucker Proxy, Seven Samurai, Hellboy, The Dirty Dozen, The Outlaw Josey Wales and Hard Boiled. Anything by Alfred Hitchcock or Agatha Christie, anything film noir, World War 1 or 2 related, westerns and the like. Video Games: Final Fantasy series, Tales Of series, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Transistor, Bioshock series, Deus Ex series, Metal Gear Solid series, Castlevania series, The Legend Of Zelda series. Note: None of these are exactly what Gilded Age is. Gilded Age isn't "that thing but named differently." The world and characters of Gilded Age are the author's own invention, plus a bunch of factual information he learned, plus your own interpretation, your friend's cool idea, that thing you saw on the internet yesterday, and also that joke you just made about that NPC but now it's canonical. There isn't a right or wrong way to describe this world.
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Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 12 of 663 GILDED AGE What Is Gilded Age?
Gilded Age is a tabletop role-playing game for 2 to 6 players. One player must act as the game master, or GM, while the other players are player characters, or PCs. Note: Gilded Age is recommended for 3 to 5 players. Having too few players leads to battles being either very small or very tough. Having too many players slows the pace of the entire game, both in combat and out of combat. All tabletop RPGs use rules and your imagination to create stories that you and your friends tell cooperatively. What kind of story is up to you and your friends, but Gilded Age can suit many genres of stories, including noir, action-adventure, mystery, horror and more. You can tell a light-hearted comedy or a grim and gritty story. Regardless of what genre of story you choose, combat should be a part of it. Gilded Age's system and characters are built for combat, and you'll need to expect at least some fighting in your game. If you've never played a tabletop RPG before, but have played video game RPGs before, don't sweat it! Many players have come to the game with no tabletop experience and had a very good time with it. Think of a TTRPG as the decision making of an Obsidian-developed RPG combined with the grid based combat of Final Fantasy Tactics.
Player characters are the stars of the story. They make the choices that drive the story in the directions that they want to move in. They're the protagonists. They're often heroes, but might also be rogues, villains or just humble businessmen who get caught up in espionage that threatens to overthrow the current regime and really, that would disrupt the stock market, so we can't have that now can we? The game master is in charge of portraying all the characters that the PCs interact with, which are called non-player characters, or NPCs. The GM is in charge of creating and making the world come alive through description, narration and dialogue from NPCs. The GM usually sets the initial direction of the story, but ultimately the PCs get to make the decisions which determine how it ends. The GM is also the final arbiter of all the rules in the game.
Gilded Age takes place in a diesel-punk world, similar to our Earth's 1920 to 1950, but with magic called Gild, peculiar mystic objects called Auric items and strange creatures from the deep called Proteans. You'll also find a healthy amount of retro-sci-fi including airships, robotic limb replacement and characters who shoot toxic bullets.
As a game system, Gilded Age features an open ended skill system that can suit a wide variety of characters in various different campaign types. A PC's class and physical attributes do not determine a PC's personality or what skills they're good at, these decisions are up to the players. You'll never have to sacrifice your character's personality to make sure your strength is high enough to use a sword properly. Combat in Gilded Age is tactical and grid-based, with a variety of abilities available to each PC and NPC. In Gilded Age the skill system is based on d10's, while the combat system mostly uses d% rolls. These systems are different because shooting a robot and creating one from spare parts are very different things! When players create PCs, they'll choose one of the 14 classes, each with set abilities that increase as the characters gain Levels. Additionally, each class can branch out into 3 different expansions. Players also get to choose a human phenotype, each of which is a variation of humanity. There are no dwarves, elves or other "fantasy races" in Gilded Age. In addition to phenotype and class, players choose an archetype, which determines how their characters manifest their powers. Players choose from Gild energy,Sample mechanical devices, an Auric item or even having a Protean companion. file
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 13 of 663 GILDED AGE Why Play Gilded Age?
There are many, many RPG systems in the world. Each one offers different things, different experiences, different ways to play. So why play Gilded Age? What do you tell your friends when you ask to switch to a new game system?
Everyone Will Enjoy The setting : A setting similar to Earth's 1920's to 1950's means that players and GMs have a fast and easy understanding of setting. What technology is available, and the kinds of workplaces, homes and governments in the Gilded Age aren't all that different from our own. People work in factories and office buildings. They listen to the radio. They drive cars. Also there are airships, and the occasional robot. Does a character need to contact another member of the party? Call them up. How do you hear about local news? Read a newspaper or listen to a radio broadcast. You'll spend less time trying to figure out what the characters have access to, and more time figuring out what they can do with what they have. Simple rules, complex abilities : The basic rules of Gilded Age are rather simple. Rolling a skill check or accuracy check isn't a big deal. This means that the number of rules that all players and the GM have to remember is rather low. Instead, most of the rules are set into abilities specific to each class and certain items. Players don't need to read and remember most of the rules, they just need to know what their stuff does. The GM needs to know what the players know, but can skip entire class and archetype sections that the party isn't using. Non-specialized skill system : The skills available to PCs aren't designed to be used in a specific campaign, or a specific scenario or style of play. Dungeons and Dragons has a skill list geared towards adventure, World of Darkness has one designed for talking and politics. Gilded Age says you can do both. Or neither. Gilded Age doesn't pigeon hole specific classes into specific non-combat roles. Sure, a Botanist could be a farmer...but they could also be a book seller, doctor or dancer. This means that players can make almost any characters that they can think of, and GMs can tell almost any story, and have faith that the PCs can roll a check for whatever comes up.
Players Can Expect Unique classes : Gilded Age has highly unique and inventive classes. The Interpreter changes dice rolls, the Meteorologist builds combos and the Grave Keeper likes to hit 0 HP. You'll find 14 classes that are each wildly different from every other class, and different from any other game. Power source and play mechanics are separate : Gilded Age offers you the ability to flavor your powers and describe them as you wish, as long as the mechanics are adhered to. Want to cast spells from an ancient tome? Do it. Want to have a pet that attacks in your stead? Not a problem. Want a jetpack? We can accommodate. There aren't divinely powered characters, though you could always flavor your Gild powers as such, if your really need to. Leveling up doesn't require homework : As a player, you won't need to comb through dozens or hundreds of different feats and spells to choose from when you gain a Level. I know to some people that sounds like fun, but to most people it isn't. Even as a Profane the largest number of things you'll have to choose between is 8. If you're worried about the lack of choice, consider that each class is very different from each other class, and while the choice between expansions is limited, you'll really have to go out of your way to make bad choices, or choices that just won't work for your character. Talents and Skills : Each character has talents which govern their skills. Putting points into a skill gives you a flat bonus, but putting points into the talent that governs it gives you the opportunity to re-roll one of the dice you used. Talents give you the opportunity to push yourself out of failure, or from a success into something better. Just don't roll a 1. Goddess Points : Players have access to a consumable resource called goddess points, which allows them to do something amazing without rolling for it. Goddess points can adjust any roll, let you take back an action, grant you insight or just let you ignore effects and damage that the GM deals to you. They'll make sure that when you need to be outstanding, you can be. Simulation stops when it stops being fun : While you need to keep track of the ammo in your gun's clip, you don't need to keep trackSample of your ammo in general. You won't be keeping track of carry weight and your petty cash filefor sandwiches. You're asked to keep track of what matters, when it matters, and not irrelevant things. You're also given an Item Kit which can produce the kinds of things you should be carrying anyways, all without having to write it down ahead of time.
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 14 of 663 GILDED AGE GMs Can Use Tiered Success Skill Checks : PC skill checks fall into one of four tiers of success, each of which has ramifications. You don't need to roll for NPC checks or arbitrarily determine skill check difficulties. You can focus on letting the PCs know how their efforts went, not fiddling around with your own dice and trying to figure out how good a police officer is at noticing the PCs hiding in the alley. You'll also find that the numbers for these successes aren't hidden. In fact, you'll want to display them prominently at your table. Letting the players know what their results are helps speed up play. NPCs scale and have their own archetypes : As a GM, you can create a myriad of combat-ready NPCs in minutes, rather than either having to create them from the ground up, or just following from a book what a Level 7 green dragon does. Maybe you want that green dragon to be red. Or be a squid. Or be appropriate for Level 3 PCs. You can do any of that. Less loot, lower money, fewer murder hobos : Gilded Age isn't a loot game. Players can upgrade their weapons, but it only costs 10 upgrade components to do so, regardless of Level. You can give titled loot with unique abilities, but players can't create it themselves or obtain it without your explicit consent. Players don't have to put themselves in situations just to make money unless that's part of their character or your story. You also don't have to hand out 500,000 GB just to get the party to upgrade to +3 items, which is a completely absurd amount of money for any economy. Most of the time you'll need to give the party a upgrade components or just a few thousand GB so they can upgrade their equipment, not tens or hundreds of thousands in currency. The setting allows you to tell your stories : The default Gilded Age setting was created to function with to all sorts of RPG narratives. Fight evil corporations in Kembrant. Hunt monsters in Kanu. Move through the royal society in Ambold. The world is set up as a very culturally, geographically and technologically diverse setting so that you can tell your stories. And if none of that fits, the world map and pre-written setting in this book covers less than 1/3 of the planet of Raileon. The rest is up to you.
Sample file
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 15 of 663 GILDED AGE The Dice You Roll
Gilded Age is a tabletop RPG that uses dice to resolve random chance. The dice we'll be using, and the notation for each, are as follows: Very Common A ten-sided die. When rolling a die that has a 0 instead of a 10, the 0 counts as d10 10. A die roll using percentile dice, one representing the tens column, the other d% representing the ones column. In Gilded Age d% rolls go from 00 to 99. Note: When rolling percentile most of the time you want to roll low, and thus a roll of 00 is the best outcome you can hope for. Less Common d4 A four-sided die. d6 A six-sided die. d8 An eight-sided die. d12 A twelve-sided die. d20 A twenty-sided die.
A numeral in front of the die type tells you how many of the dice that you'll be rolling and adding together . For example, 2d10 indicates that you'll roll 2 ten-sided dice and add them together. 3d6 indicates that you'll roll 3 six-sided dice, etc. Other times you'll see Level, GP or some other variable in front of the die type. You'll use your current Level, GP or whatever else, not your target's, unless specifically noted otherwise. For Levels you'll see the notation (Level)d6. It's just easier to read than Leveld6.
The most common rolls made in Gilded Age are d% rolls, which are mostly made in combat, and 2d10 rolls, which are mostly made out of combat for skill checks. If you only have a single set of 7 polyhedral dice, your percentile die can function as a d10 for your 2d10 rolls. Just remember that if roll a "00" on the percentile die, it's actually a 10. If you have no dice, you can find apps for your phone or computer that will simulate rolling dice for you. If you have no dice and no electricity you can put numbers on pieces of paper and draw them out of a hat. If you don't have a hat you should really get a hat. DICE ADVICE! For players, your class pages will let you know what kind of dice you'll be In several points in this guide you'll find Dice using, and for what. Though 2d10 and a d% is mandatory. Advice side bars. These sections are there to help you play the game using the dice at hand to keep For GMs you'll be rolling a lot of d% rolls in battle, but don't really have to roll track of things. These are just useful tips we anything outside of combat. Certain enemies you field may use different types discovered while playtesting the game, and aren't of dice, however. mandatory.
If a die rolls on the floor, re-roll it. If a die is "cocked" or "cracked," (doesn't land on a flat side) re-roll it.
One non-die related note about playing the game is that when dividing in Gilded Age you will always round up. Example: In Gilded Age 4.3, 4.5 and 4.8 all count as 5. Note: This book contains numerous examples and notes. Examples, like the one above, are always in italics, with grey backgrounds.Sample Notes, like this one, are also in italics, but their background color is coded the same asfile the section they're in.
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 16 of 663 GILDED AGE General Advice
The following aren't rules, but guidelines for all players and the GM. These are here to make your experience as fun as possible, as to keep your game running smoothly.
Keep it moving Keep play moving forward. Make decisions, take action and react to the results. If you're in combat and need to take a minute to strategize, that's fine. Taking two minutes is pushing it. Taking three is wasting other people's time. If you can't decide what to do, hey, you can just save your AP for the next turn. If you're talking to an NPC, paragliding into a manor or cracking a safe, that's not the time to turn to your party and have a 10 minute debate about the ethics of stealing from thieves. You can have that conversation back at your airship, in a bar or any other time when you're not in the middle of action.
Know your character(s) Players should know their character's abilities, have the stats for them ready to go, and not have to read 3 different pages to decide what to do. In combat, plan your turn in advance. Out of combat know what skills you're good at and what items you've got. GMs should know the abilities of any NPCs they field, and have their stats and archetypes ready to go. If you need to have a cheat sheet of all your Experimentalist effects, that's fine. If you need a note card to remember which of your Aegiseer abilities you want on at the start of battle, do that. Highlight things that seem important. Put a star next to that thing you keep forgetting.
Address Characters Talk to characters, not players, whenever possible. You don't need to ask Matt if he can heal you, ask Delwin, his character if he can heal you. Talking to characters keeps their names in your head, and keeps your head in the game.
Make interesting choices, not necessarily the best ones Flawed characters are relatable characters. Turning down the "best" option because it doesn't suit your morals makes your character believable. Choosing to get into trouble because your character would act on emotion instead of logic makes sense. Sometimes it's a great idea to make mistakes. Great stories don't usually involve people who perfectly execute their plans.
Do accounting out of game Do regular item shopping, distribution of loot and any other numbers management out of game if possible. The more time you spend actually playing with your friends instead of looking at whether or not to make a combination weapon, the better. (Also, combination weapons are pretty cool so you probably should make one! Check out the Equipment Customization section of Chapter 4: Items.)
Keep a record Have either the GM or a player write down the events of each session, and have that record available for all players to look over. If you can do this in a shared online document that works even better, and each player can contribute what they remember. This will help new players come into the game, players who missed a session can catch up, and everyone can look back and refresh their memories on what happened 6 sessions ago. After all, 6 sessions ago might be 3 months of your life, but maybe Sampleonly a few days ago for your character. file
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 17 of 663 GILDED AGE When to go back, when to go on Once action has moved on, (usually in combat if your turn ends and someone else's begins) if you made a mistake concerning the rules, ask who was hurt and who benefited. If you break a rule and you benefitted from it or another player was hurt by it, take the action back. If you breaking the rule hurt you or just wasn't optimal, move on. Examples: You forgot to take your Damage Over Time on your last turn. You should take it now. You forgot that your enemy should have gotten a resist check last round to try and negate your effect. You'll need to let your GM know and have that NPC roll a resist check now to see if it worked. You forget that you could have done an extra 2d6 damage on your last attack, or healed yourself 13 HP. This negatively affects you, but not anyone else. You'll need to remember it next time.
Use AN X Card For your Gilded Age games you can employ a "X Card" or "Red Card," which players can cite to end scenes or actions that they find uncomfortable. You don't need to explain why you want a scene to end, or how the portrayal of a particular emotional or physical trauma is affecting you. You can just say, "X Card" and all players and the GM know it's time to move on, ret-con a bit or shift the tone. Torture and sexual assault are assumed to be "always on the X Card" for Gilded Age games. It's assumed that when you sit down at the table, these things aren't going to happen. A general tone of PG-13-esque violence and content should be expected, though your group can go more or less "mature" if you want.
Sample file
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 18 of 663 GILDED AGE The Most Important Rule
There's one single rule that overrides all others, and envelops all other rules, and sets the tone for all Gilded Age games.
Play with your friends, or people you want to be your friends.
Playing an RPG is about rules, combats, stories and creativity. But you're not ever going to be just playing an RPG. You're getting together with other people to play an RPG. And these people should be awesome. Playing an RPG is mostly about the game, but it's also about sitting down with people you know, talking about how stupid your coworker is and making a joke about that latest Marvel movie. It's about sharing your different experiences in that new dungeon- crawling-loot-hording video game that just came out, talking about how your new significant other is both really cute and really geeky and into RPGs and can she come and play next time? (Maybe that was just me, I'm very lucky). Or it's sitting down, having a look of slight pain on your face, and your friend asking you what's wrong.
You're going to see these people over and over again. Over weeks, hopefully years, they're going to be a part of your life. You'll probably open up to them a little at a time, and over time you'll grow to trust them and care about them, and they'll feel the same way. They're going to make your Christmas (or other gift-giving holiday) list, even if you only give them a new set of dice, which hey, nobody you play with is ever going to be disappointed by new dice. If you're playing with people in-person, you're going to meet somewhere, a game store perhaps, but more likely someone's house or apartment. You're going to pet their dog/cat/llama. You're going to use their bathroom and hey, they use the same hand soap as you, that's so weird! You're going to clean up after yourself, because you're a guest. Also, even if they say they didn't, they totally did at least straighten up the place a little bit before you came over.
You're going to rely on these people, depend on them, like them and laugh with them. You're going to look forward to each game session, not just because you just Leveled up and get to now make things explode good-er, but because your friends are there. You're going to be at work on Thursday, coming back from your break and telling yourself that you just have 48 hours until you're with them again. You're going to use each session as a carrot on the stick of life. Looking forward towards it is going to help you fight your angst, depression, boredom, loneliness, and whatever else life chucks at you. They're going to be there to help you through the darkest, bleakest, most miserable times in your life. They're going to be there at the best times in your life. They're going to be there when you're at your weakest, when you ask if you can just come over and talk to them for a while, not because it's a game night, but because you just need the comfort of people who actually care about you. They're also going to be 4 of the 5 best men/women at your wedding where you get to marry that really cute geeky gamer person. And you will not know how to thank them for getting you through the most difficult times in your life, because really, how can you thank someone for keeping you sane? How can you thank someone for making years and years of your life not just tolerable, but at times amazing?
Play with people whose presence in your life makes your life better. And try, every day, to make their lives better too. Even just if it's to make them laugh, bring the type of chips they like to game, or play the healer or tank if no one else will. TheSample friends you make through games can save your life. I know they did for me. file
Introduction: Welcome To The Gilded Age 3/31/2021 pg. 19 of 663