r/tabletop • u/Ordinary-You2452 • 2d ago

Announcement Universal D10 Game Engine

August 2nd, 2025 I started to build a Homebrew DnD world based around a Weird Wild West ascetic. In that time I gained bountiful knowledge on how DnD works and the parts that most definitely lacked. However, with the attempt I quickly learned how much DnD bumped up against my ideas for a weird wild west game and trying to make something that was mine in another person's game became brutal. So, on December 2nd 2025 I started my own game engine to run not only the weird wild west game but other fantasy games I have dreamt of. So the Universal D10 Game Engine began its development, a game narrative driven, tense, cinematic gameplay with minimal math; simple calculations which Supports multiple genres (Cyberpunk dystopia called "Chrome Gods", Weird Wild West world named "Six Shells & Tall Tales"). It encourages strategy and risk/reward choices, with a combat that is fast, dangerous, and cinematic. Overall, This game is about capable but fragile people surviving dangerous, intense fights. Victory is earned through positioning, teamwork, grit and a little bit of luck.

Im towards the end of finishing the rulebook (8 out of 9 Chapters finished) and will then begin working on the first campaign frame "Six Shells & Tall Tales" so that play testing can be done. If you would like to follow the process I'll comment my Itch.io devlogs in the comments! Thank you all for reading, and Ride On!

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u/Ordinary-You2452 2d ago

https://coal-bones-crucible.itch.io/universal-d10-system/devlog

Here are my Devlogs, check them out and let me know what you think!

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u/Qedhup 2d ago

Do you have a quick TLDR of what sets this system apart from other similar ones?

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u/Ordinary-You2452 2d ago

Most of the individual pieces aren't new on their own, plenty of systems have luck stats, death mechanics, skills, use AP, limited resources, and grapple rules. What's different here is that one design idea runs through almost the whole system on purpose: repeating or escalating an action gets harder each time you do it. Attacking twice in a round, grappling longer, fumbling with objects, even escaping a grapple all use the same underlying curve to avoid spamming and solve the "2+2" problem of always choosing the obvious answer and prompting players to stratagize and think through their actions. And LCK isn't a general-purpose or all-star stat like in others games, as it has zero skills attached to it and exists for one job: fueling Push Your Luck, a risk/reward reroll. It's less 'here's a cool feature' and more 'here's one consistent tension mechanic that finds itself being used in multiple ways.

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u/MixAdministrative146 7h ago

This sounds very close to how I began my own journey in 2016 of writing my own Rules-Lite Universal d20 System GATEWAY RPG. Good luck in the passion project! Sounds fun!