A minimalist, setting-agnostic, roleplay-focused, attribute-based tabletop roleplaying system.
Keystone is a minimalist, setting agnostic, roleplay focused, attribute based tabletop roleplaying system.
Now for those of us who are not linguists, let us explain that quickly.
Minimalism: deliberate lack of decoration or adornment in style or design.
In this context, the goal is to have as little as possible between your artistic vision and the experience of roleplay. Minimizing the content of the system allows you to maximize your creativity. Keystone seeks to provide only what is needed to organize a well-structured game, so players and GMs can focus on discovering, experiencing, and interacting with a fictional world instead of picking abilities from a giant list.
Setting: the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place.
Agnostic: denoting or relating to hardware or software that is compatible with many platforms or operating systems.
In this context, it means this system is meant to work whether your setting is high fantasy, low fantasy, hard magic, soft magic, technological, or anything in between. With minor changes, this system should serve you well for running your games.
Roleplay: act out or perform the part of a person or character.
The goal of this system is not wargame-like combat numbers, min-maxing, efficient build puzzles, or complex class trees. The point of Keystone is to take a character concept from your mind and let you present it at the table with as little friction as possible. Checks, NPC interactions, and storytelling should be smooth, fast, and clear.
Keystone is built on cooperative storytelling and leaves anything not explicitly stated in the rules up to the GM. What the GM says goes.
Attribute: a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of someone or something.
In Keystone, the primary means of gaining power and improving your rolls is attributes: words or abstract descriptions of innate or learned features of a character. These attributes are freely created and picked by players (with GM approval), and can be as abstract as Big Build or as specific as Ancient Ice Magic Knowledge. If it helps describe how your character interacts with the world around them or inside them, it can be an attribute.
You probably know what tabletop means, but Keystone can be enjoyed just as much online as around a table with pretzels and juice. The goal is to connect people and make roleplaying and storytelling easier. The base game does not require miniatures or maps, but house rules are always encouraged.
The main thing that makes this system special is the Keystone system.
Each character picks 6 keystones from this list, broken down by category:
Beyond those, the character is built from certain descriptive tags.
If no roll is needed, do not roll.
If a roll is needed, make it matter.
Rolling works through binary points. Coin flips, d6 yes or no checks, cards with success or fail, or any fair yes or no method can be used.
Then resolve each roll as a binary success or failure. Total your successes. The GM sets how many successes are needed.
Here is the thing: your strengths can work against you.
The GM can use a player's positive attributes as negative modifiers on a roll when those attributes would realistically get in the way.
A monk with Iron Conditioning might be too stiff and heavy for a delicate acrobatic stunt.
A diplomat with Disarming Honesty might lose rolls to deceive or bluff.
A bruiser with Built for Beating might scare a child she is trying to comfort.
Players do not get to invoke this rule themselves. It is a GM tool. The GM should use it sparingly and only when the fiction genuinely supports it. When it happens, it should feel like a story beat.
| Successes | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| 5 | Hard for a normal person |
| 7 | Hard for a trained person |
| 10 | Hard for a special person |
| 15 | Nigh impossible |
| 20 | Near legendary, character-changing feat |
The GM can modify required successes based on fiction, tools, time, and help.
Here are a few scenarios showing how rolls actually play out at the table.
June wants to scare a rival club bouncer into letting the party through.
Relevant keystones and attributes:
Training (3): Intimidating on Demand applies directly.
Brawn (2): Built for Beating applies. She looks like she means it.
Roll pool: 5 base + 2 applicable attributes = 7 rolls, plus 3 (Training level).
Total: 10 potential successes.
GM sets difficulty at 7 (standard challenge, this bouncer has seen some things).
June rolls 7 binary results: ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✗ = 4 successes from rolls.
Plus 3 bonus points = 7 total successes.
Success. The bouncer steps aside. He has seen what people built like June can do and decides tonight is not the night.
A child is hiding after a violent incident. June tries to coax them out.
Relevant attributes:
Training (3): Learned Empathy applies.
But the GM invokes a positive attribute as a negative:
Brawn: Built for Beating works against her. She looks terrifying to a child.
Roll pool: 5 base + 1 applicable attribute − 1 (GM-invoked negative) = 5 rolls, plus 3 (Training level) bonus points.
Total: 5 rolls + 3 bonus points = 8 potential successes.
GM sets difficulty at 7 (standard, the kid is already scared).
June rolls 5 binary results: ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓ = 3 successes from rolls.
Plus 3 bonus points = 6 total successes.
Failure. The kid flinches and backs further into the corner. June is trying, but everything about her screams danger. The GM describes the child staring at June's scarred knuckles. The story moves forward: June needs to find another way or get help from someone less intimidating.
A brawl breaks out in a market. Ren wants to identify the leader directing the attackers.
Relevant keystones and attributes:
Reason (1): See the Pattern in Chaos applies perfectly.
Training (3): None of his Training attributes directly apply here, but the GM allows Breath Control Mastery as staying calm under pressure.
Roll pool: 5 base + 2 applicable attributes = 7 rolls + 3 (Training level)
Total: 7 rolls + 3 bonus points = 10 potential successes.
GM sets difficulty at 10 (hard, the market is pandemonium).
Ren rolls 7 binary results: ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ = 5 successes from rolls.
Plus 3 bonus points = 8 total successes.
Failure, but close. The GM offers a partial success with cost: Ren spots someone giving hand signals near the fountain, but he takes a stray elbow to the ribs getting there. He has a lead, and a bruise.
Two merchant factions are about to start shooting. Yil-Tesska steps in to broker peace.
Relevant keystones and attributes:
Talking (3): Pheromone Subtext, Cultural Pattern Matching, and Disarming Honesty all apply.
Knowledge (2): Galactic Trade Law (Mostly) applies.
Roll pool: 5 base + 4 applicable attributes = 9 rolls, plus 3 (Talking level)
Total: 9 rolls + 3 bonus points = 12 potential successes.
GM sets difficulty at 7 (standard, guns are already drawn but no shooting yet).
Yil-Tesska rolls 9 binary results: ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ = 6 successes from rolls.
Plus 3 bonus points = 9 total successes.
Success. Yil-Tesska calmly walks between the factions, pheromones projecting non-threat, and starts quoting trade precedent while reading both leaders like open books. The guns lower. For now.
When one character helps another on a check, the table can choose one of two approaches:
Which approach fits depends on the fiction. A friend steadying your hands while you pick a lock is a combined roll. Two people simultaneously hacking a door console and watching the hallway is a split check. The GM picks what feels right, or lets the players choose.
Sometimes the math is not on your side. If a player would automatically fail a roll because they cannot meet the threshold, or at any point before the outcome of a roll is determined, they may choose to burn part of their character for a desperate edge.
There are three levels of burn:
Sacrifice one of your attributes for extra dice added to the current roll. The burned attribute becomes unusable until the GM decides it recovers. This might happen after a rest, a story milestone, or a dramatic moment, entirely at the GM's discretion.
This represents pushing a part of yourself past its limit. You still have the knowledge or ability in the fiction, but mechanically it is spent.
Sacrifice one level from a keystone for one extra guaranteed success point on the current roll. The keystone's level decreases by one, but you keep all your attributes under it. Your roll pool shrinks going forward until the level is restored.
Restoring a burned keystone level is up to the GM. It might require training, downtime, or story progress.
Sacrifice an entire keystone, all its levels and attributes, for a guaranteed win on the current roll. No dice needed. The keystone is gone. Its attributes are gone. Whatever that part of your character represented is burned out of you.
This is a last resort. It should feel like a defining character moment: the monk shattering his discipline to save a life, the diplomat burning every bridge to win one impossible argument, the soldier giving everything in one final stand.
Restoring a fully burned keystone is a major story arc. The GM may allow it to be rebuilt over time, but it will never come back the same way.
Burning is always the player's choice. The GM cannot force a burn. But the GM decides when burned attributes and keystone levels come back.
Write one sentence for who this person is.
Example: Former street fighter trying to become better, while haunted by bad habits.
Write one belief that drives the character. This is your roleplay north star.
Choose 6 from the 10 options. These are your primary domains of competence and growth.
You have 9 points to distribute among your 6 chosen keystones.
Each chosen keystone gets a number of attributes equal to its level. If your Training is 3, you get 3 Training attributes. If your Twitch is 1, you get 1 Twitch attribute.
Attributes should be short, clear, and playable. GM approval is required.
Each chosen Keystone can get a short title or punchline. This line is both an attribute and not an attribute.
Think of it as a roleplay flag that tells the table what kind of drama follows this Keystone.
Choose 1 to 3 negative attributes. These can reduce rolls when relevant and help define your character.
Give your character a name and a simple role descriptor. Occupation can be literal, poetic, or both.
This section elaborates the keystones in plain language. Keep it loose, keep it useful.
Raw information, study, memory, lore, technical facts, theory. Use this when facts are the solution.
Good attribute examples: Urban Legends Hoarder, Ship Systems Certification, Ancient Ice Magic Knowledge
Knowledge is not genius by default. It is what your character has actually learned.
Logic, pattern recognition, deduction, strategy, puzzle solving. Use this when the question is not What facts do I know? but What can I conclude?
Good attribute examples: Cold Reader, Tactical Geometry, Conspiracy Thread Puller
Reason shines in planning, analysis, and seeing the move behind the move.
Disciplined practice, craft, profession, habits, reps. Use this for skills your character drilled until it became muscle memory.
Good attribute examples: Gigging Experience, Battlefield First Aid, Lock Mechanism Familiarity
Training is where your character history becomes reliable action.
Persuasion, intimidation, diplomacy, lying, performance, charm, command. Use this when people are the obstacle or the solution.
Good attribute examples: Intimidating on Demand, Silver Tongue in Uniform, Knife-Edge Negotiator
Talking is not just charisma. It includes timing, pressure, and reading the room.
Strength, durability, endurance, body control under strain. Use this when force, resistance, or physical staying power matters.
Good attribute examples: Built for Beating, Iron Grip, Carry the Team Literally
Brawn handles offense, defense, and surviving punishment.
Reflexes, agility, dodging, balance, precision movement. Use this when speed of response and clean motion matter.
Good attribute examples: Float Like a Butterfly, Rooftop Footwork, Tight-Space Dodger
Twitch is how efficiently your body obeys your intent and how fast you move or react.
The origin of your special edge. Magic bloodline, cyber core, divine pact, cursed artifact, unstable science, alien parasite, whatever fits your setting.
Good attribute examples: Spooky Boxing Gloves, Reactor Heart, Patron of the Ninth Door
Source answers where the power comes from and why it is yours.
The style, shape, and output of your power. If Source is the fuel tank, Expression is the engine and steering.
Good attribute examples: Duking It Magic Style, Threaded Lightning Forms, Bone-Script Invocation
Expression defines what your power looks like in the fiction.
Capacity, stamina, duration, repeated use, sustainable output. Use this when the question is How long can you keep doing this?
Good attribute examples: Deep Mana Lungs, Battery Discipline, Last One Standing
Reserve does not make power flashier. It makes it last.
Burst mode. Overdrive. Last-ditch surge. Dangerous brilliance. Use this for high-risk pushes beyond your normal ceiling.
Good attribute examples: Blood for Blood, Burn the Circuit, No Tomorrow Trigger
Explode should feel dramatic. It may carry consequences set by the GM.
When writing attributes, use this quick filter:
If yes, good attribute.
If not, tighten it.
When a player proposes attributes for a roll, use this order:
Default to yes when reasonable.
Default to no when it breaks tone or fairness.
Default to ask for rewrite when wording is vague.
If your table uses Keystone titles/punchlines, treat them as GM-facing story tags.
Quick example: If June has Training — 3 — Fight Night Connoisseur, the GM can use that punchline to introduce old gym contacts, underground fight invites, or trouble from past matches.
Optional Keystone titles/punchlines are shown below. Each line after the level (for example, Pugilistic Problem Solving) is GM-invoked flavor, not a player-usable bonus attribute.
At major story milestones, the GM awards 1 advance. Spend an advance to do one of the following:
You may choose to take extra negative attributes each level for extra advance points.
When a roll fails, something should change. Pick one:
Suggested consequence types:
Failure should move the story, not stop it.
Keystone adapts by changing fictional dressing, not core math.
Keystone does not require maps or structured turns. But if your table wants them, here are clean suggested rules that stay true to the system.
Use a map when:
Do not use a map just because combat started. A bar fight between two people does not need grid squares.
Any surface works. Grid paper, a whiteboard, a tablet app, index cards arranged on a table.
Keystone does not use feet, meters, or specific distance units. Instead, use zones.
A zone is an area that makes fictional sense as one location. Examples:
Draw or label zones on your map. Characters are in a zone not on a grid.
On your turn, you can:
If movement is contested (running past enemies, crossing dangerous terrain), the GM calls for a roll. Twitch attributes are your friend here.
Keystone uses a simple initiative: the GM looks at the fiction and decides who acts first based on what makes narrative sense.
If it is genuinely unclear, each player rolls their Twitch keystone level as a tiebreaker (higher goes first). Ties act simultaneously.
On your turn you get:
Or: two minor actions if you are not doing anything dramatic.
Attacks are rolled like any other check. Build your pool from relevant keystones and attributes, the GM sets the difficulty based on the target and situation.
There are no hit points by default. Instead, the GM describes the outcome based on success margin:
| Margin | Result |
|---|---|
| +1–2 | Glancing hit, minor consequence, the target is rattled but functional |
| +3–4 | Solid hit, meaningful consequence, injury or forced repositioning |
| +5+ | Devastating hit, major consequence, the target is out of the fight or permanently changed |
| Failure | You miss, overextend, or the target turns the situation against you |
The GM can use injury tags (temporary negative attributes) to track harm if the table wants more structure.
When attacked, a character can:
Defense rolls use the same pool system. The defender's successes subtract from the attacker's successes.
Attacking a target in a different zone adds +2 to the difficulty.
Attacking a target behind cover adds +3 to the difficulty.
These stack. Sniping someone behind a wall two zones away is hard for a reason.
When the dramatic tension resolves, put the map away. If the fight is clearly won, the chase is over, or the scene shifts to conversation, drop back to theater of the mind. The map serves the story and not the other way around.
The system is intentionally light, so customization is expected.
Popular add-ons:
Keep add-ons simple and fiction-first.
Keystone is not trying to simulate every edge case. It is trying to get you into character, into scenes, and into story quickly.
Use clear attributes.
Make bold choices.
Respect the table tone.
Trust the GM.
Build worlds together.
If a rule slows down roleplay, simplify it.
If a rule creates better roleplay, keep it.
That is the essence of Keystone.
Build your character below. Select keystones, set levels, add attributes, and write your backstory. Click any card to flip it.
If you enjoy Keystone and want to support further development for things like website upkeep, physical book releases, PDF character sheets, and plugins for Roll20 and other play apps, please consider donating to my Ko-fi. Any amount helps.
Please note that this is a one-person project being balanced alongside college, work, and ongoing development, so progress may be slow.
