What is it?
Utopia is a neo-futuristic roleplaying game, drawing on elements of cyberpunk and speculative science fiction.
In Utopia, you will:
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create a character;
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determine their short and long term goals;
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tell the story of how they accomplish, or fail to accomplish, those goals
Whether your characters goals are to form a crime syndicate, become a famous pop singer, negotiate peace among the cities of Utopia or raise themself up out of poverty, it is your characters drive to pursue these goals that will drive the story forward.
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As your character approaches each new challenge, they will gather their advantages and use dice rolls based on their skills and knowledge to measure their successes and failures. With each new goal achieved, your character will become more skilled so they can set themselves ever-loftier goals.
Utopia.
How does it work?
The Dice
Each dice roll begins with 2 d10s, to which you add additional d6s based on your characters skills, knowledge and other bonuses from their equipment or bravado.
YOUR DICE POOL:
2d10 + skill dice + knowledge dice
Difficulty
Difficulty of tasks in Utopia is determined by rolling dice based on one of two things:
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Danger Level - A number on your character sheet representing the current danger your character faces. This will go up and down depending on the tasks your character engages in and the events happening in the city that week.
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Determination - The measure of the general skill of an NPC (determined by rolling during NPC creation) or an opponent (determined by consulting a table).
Combat or Confrontation
Utopia has combat abilities and equipment aplenty, however, not every characters story is all about action, guns and gore. For some characters, words will be their weapons of choice and the human heart and mind their battlefield. For this reason, Utopia comes equipped with a dual system called combat and confrontation where characters can engage in physical combat or rhetorical debate. (Utopia is designed so you can play without ever engaging in violence)
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In either combat or confrontation, you or your GM will set the difficulty rating of your opponent based on a handy table and some loose guidelines, then you will choose from 4 combat/confrontation actions and roll against the difficulty rating. The difference between your roll and the difficulty rating will determine the effectiveness of your move.
Newsfeed
A newsfeed of events happening in your city every week that your character can interact with. The newsfeed is powered by a massive rolling table of 100 different events that will pop up, linger in your city just long enough to cause you trouble and be replaced by new events.
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More to Explore
There's lots more to explore in the pages of Utopia, including:
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character creation options
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NPC followers
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equipment and tech devices
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cybernetic enhancements
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systems for hacking, software and AI programming
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special rules for custom scenarios (including radioactive fallout, invasive plant infestations and nanophages)
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information on how to make your own Utopia content
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and just so much more (really it's 248 pages... there's a lot in there)
Solo, Group or GM'd Play
Utopia can be played either solo or in a group; with or without a game master (GM). The basic systems of the game remain the same in each instance, with a few key differences:
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In SOLO PLAY, you will pursue your characters goals, using the newsfeed roll tables to help guide the events happening in the city. and determining difficulty of tasks based on the danger and determination systems.
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In GM-LESS GROUP PLAY you will utilize the same mechanisms as solo play, but share a common newsfeed with the other players. You can choose to either work with the other players to accomplish common goals, against the other players, or have your own adventures happening in tandem.
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In GM'D PLAY, Utopia functions closer to other RPGs you might have played, with the GM determining what events are happening in your city, voicing NPCs you meet and choosing complications to throw your way. The GM may also choose whether to use the danger and determination systems to determine the difficulty of tasks or set the difficulty themself. ​
