Fantasy Flight has announced Genesys, an RPG that works with any setting

Fantasy Flight is bumping up its roleplaying output with a brand new RPG designed to run campaigns in any setting or genre.

Genesys is built on the narrative dice system, which was originally used in the publisher’s Star Wars RPG Edge of the Empire. The gameplay uses custom dice based on each character’s abilities mixed with difficulty dice that can result in failure and threat results – this means outcomes are more granular than simply passing or failing, potentially leading to successful actions with negative effects or unsuccessful attempts with positive side effects.

The dice can be temporarily upgraded by both players and the GM using story points acquired at the beginning of each gameplay session, to try and sway the outcome of a specific event for added drama.

Genesys is a setting-neutral roleplaying game – the core rulebook includes rules and advice on running games in fantasy, steampunk, ‘weird war’, modern-day and sci-fi settings, but the idea is that the systems can ultimately be used to support any type of genre or universe, not unlike Steve Jackson's flexible system GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System).

Similarly, the core rules include tips that support the creation of player characters that can be used in any of the settings. Characters are generated from four archetypes, plus a career – which can be general or setting-specific – and a series of special skills and talents.

The Genesys core rulebook includes player and GM rules, and is planned for release in Q4 this year.