Destiny and Doom

The Tides of Destiny and Doom are always present in the characters’ lives. At times, the PCs may seize the moment and lead a path to victory. At others, it seems as if the world itself is against them. This expresses itself in the mechanic of Tide Pools: the Destiny Pool and the Doom Pool.

Points in the Destiny and Doom pools act as narrative currency in DTGS. Since narrative and mechanics are tightly coupled, Destiny and Doom points also act to fuel many mechanical benefits. When a trait is activated using a Destiny or Doom point, it is saying, “This is important to the narrative.” In terms of framing a scene, it means that trait is coming to the forefront of the action—the audience has no doubt that this trait is important to the moment. While that trait may always be otherwise present as part of a character (such as a Mantid’s Multiple Limbs in Relics of the Moon), the trait doesn’t matter as much to what’s happening in the moment unless and until they are activated.

In some cases, players may want to activate a trait simply for the mechanical benefit. This is not only acceptable but encouraged. With that mechanical benefit, though, comes the seed of narrative. No mechanical benefit is simply activated without describing how that manifests in the ongoing story.

Outside of botched, critical, and overpowering results, the growth of Destiny and Doom are in the hands of the Team. Even botched, critical, and overpowering results are often in the hands of the Team as dice pools are shaped by the Simple modifiers they apply. Players are given opportunities in every Event to guide Destiny and Doom.

Destiny Pool

Points in the Destiny Pool are beneficial to the Team. Spending a Destiny point is a metanarrative action that frames aspects of the situation to be in the favor of the Team in some way. In general, only the Team spends from the Destiny pool.

Spending Destiny Points

Destiny points fuel a wide variety of traits, usually in the form of spending a Destiny point to activate a certain trait. Unless otherwise noted in the trait description, traits activated this way last for the duration of a single turn. Most traits must be activated during the initial “Set the Action” step for each turn and the Destiny points spent accordingly. There are some traits that have specific triggers noted in their description. These more specific cases override this general rule and allow such traits to spend Destiny when the trigger happens.

During the “Set the Action” step, Destiny points may also be spent to create Beneficial(+) Add Dice on a one-to-one basis. For example, spending two Destiny points creates +2d6 Add Dice. This is a bit more freeform in terms of a narrative seed than activating a trait, allowing the Team to describe what may be presenting itself as a momentary benefit.

Starting Destiny Pool

Each new Scenario will start with one Destiny point per PC. Destiny points are carried over from session to session until a scenario ends.

Maximum Destiny Pool

The maximum size of the Destiny Pool is three times the number of PCs (3 x number of PCs). Any Destiny points earned in excess of this cap are lost. This encourages Teams to continually tap into the Destiny pool so that they maximize their influence on the Challenges they face.

Adding to the Destiny Pool

Critical successes and overpowering successes in the Team pool when facing a Challenge add points to the Destiny pool. A variety of traits will add to the Destiny Pool under certain circumstances described in the trait. The Create an Opportunity Team Tactic is one such trait that is available to all members of all Teams.

A Shared Resource

Destiny is a group resource and consensus must be reached to spend from it. This is one of the primary discussion points in the “Set the Action” step that happens each round when facing a Challenge.

Doom Pool

Points in the Doom Pool are the counterpoint to Destiny points. They may be used to activate Challenge traits that use Doom points to fuel their effects. The narrative turns to bring the Team face-to-face with a force that stands against them.

Starting Doom Pool

Like the Destiny Pool, the Doom Pool begins each new scenario with one point per PC. Doom points carry over from session to session until a scenario ends.

Maximum Doom Pool

Unlike the Destiny Pool, the Doom Pool has no maximum: At times, the Team might feel that the world itself is against them.

Adding to the Doom Pool

The Doom Pool may grow from botches or overpowering successes in the Team pool when facing Challenges at the end of the Team’s turn. Some traits will add to the Doom Pool under certain circumstances.

The Hand of Doom

As Doom begins piling up, the Hand of Doom may appear. The form that this phenomenon takes is up to the GM and/or players based on the current narrative. During an Event, the GM spends five (5) points from the Doom Pool. In its most simple form, it applies two (2) Stress to every Team member. Stress received this way is “unavoidable” and cannot be mitigated by any means. Alternatively, the GM may also use the Hand of Doom to create other effects, such as modifying an existing challenge, giving the Team a temporary Hindering(-) trait, or creating a new challenge.

Destiny or Doom

Many PC traits offer the choice “Destiny or Doom”. When this choice is offered, a PC may spend a point from the Destiny pool or add a point to the Doom Pool to activate the associated trait. This choice will color the narrative of the trait being used. When choosing “Doom”, the PC is activating their trait in a more risky way or by more desperate means.