Character Creation
Traits are the foundation of your character. Innate forces that shape how they act, survive, and evolve in a world that no longer plays fair. They don’t just measure strength or smarts, they reflect what you can endure, what you can shape, and what you’re willing to sacrifice. A high Trait Score doesn’t just mean you’re good at something, it means you’ve become something more..
Humans typically peak at a Trait Score of 3. Beyond that, something fundamental has to change. You’ll need to step outside the path humanity was born into, accepting a Deviation that alters your flesh, mind, or essence. The rewards are real, but so is the cost.
Some learn to adapt to the growing chaos. Others improvise as best they can, while a rare few overcome the odds by shedding the skin of who they were. These are not just survivors; they are echoes of a divine design, shaped by pressure and spiraling toward something greater, or maybe something lost..
Humans typically peak at a Trait Score of 3. Beyond that, something fundamental has to change. You’ll need to step outside the path humanity was born into, accepting a Deviation that alters your flesh, mind, or essence. The rewards are real, but so is the cost.
Some learn to adapt to the growing chaos. Others improvise as best they can, while a rare few overcome the odds by shedding the skin of who they were. These are not just survivors; they are echoes of a divine design, shaped by pressure and spiraling toward something greater, or maybe something lost..
Trait Scores and Bonuses
Trait Score 1 : No bonus or penatly.
Trait Score 2 : + 2 bonus to dice rolls
Trait Score 3: + 4 bonus to rolls
Trait Score 4 : + 6 bonus to dice rolls
Trait Score 5 : + 8 bonus to dice rolls
Trait Score 6: + 10 bonus to rolls
Body Traits
Strength - Physical force, grappling, lifting, melee.
Endurance - Precision, movement, initiative, reaction.
Dexterity - Health, pain tolerance, stamina.
Mind Traits
Intellect - Raw mental acuity, science, tactics.
Memory - Recall, dreams, intuition, lost knowledge.
Charisma - Social force, leadership, guile.
Soul Traits
Resonate - Harmony with self, fate, and dream.
Sigil - Vitality, connection, the soul’s warmth.
Flux - Willingness to dissolve, change, transmute.
Wounds (Flesh)
( 3 ) Healthy : No significant injuries. You’re at peak performance.
( 2 ) Hurt : You’ve taken hits. Movement and actions may be strained or slowed.
( 1 ) Grievous : You're bleeding, broken, or barely holding together. Every motion risks collapse.
( 0 ) Mortally Wounded : Unconscious or dead. If still alive, you’re moments from death without aid.
Will (Mind)
( 3 ) Focused : Clear thoughts, firm resolve. You act with purpose.
( 2 ) Shaken : Doubts creep in. Disadvantage on resisting fear or psychic intrusion.
( 1 ) Fractured : Panic, confusion, or obsession takes hold. Delusions or irrational behavior likely.
( 0 ) Broken : Mental collapse. Catatonia, surrender, or flight.
Wane (Soul)
( 3 ) Anchored : Grounded in self. Attuned to reality or higher purpose.
( 2 ) Disturbed : You feel echoes of something vast. Strange dreams, subtle disconnects.
( 1 ) Unbound : You’re slipping. Time feels wrong. Reality bends around you.
( 0 ) Unmade : Ego death. You may not come back the same—or at all.
Health Points (HP) in Cycleborne aren’t just about meat and numbers, they represent the three fronts where your character fights to stay whole. Instead of tracking an evolving series of math problems throughout play, you will have the chance to truly strategize. Deciding whether to fight or flee is no longer an arbitrary question the GM asks you before you hack down his minions like paper, if made rashly you could find yourself a very small fish in a very big pond.
Wounds, Will, and Wane define these boundaries. Each one tells of a different limitation and strength. You will need to manage them equally to avoid succumbing to Injury Deviances at the end of the session.
Wounds are physical injuries: bullets, blades, blunt trauma. You can see them. You can bleed from them. Left unchecked, they’ll kill you the old-fashioned way.
Will measures your mental resilience. It frays when you’re pushed too far, too fast. When fear, stress, or psychic pressure grind your mind to dust. Lose your Will and you may freeze, flee, or shatter.
Wane is something harder to name. A sort of spiritual fortitude, its erosion causes the slow fade of the self. Exposure to Resonant forces, alien truths, or the unraveling of natural law chips away at your essence. Burn through your Wane, and you risk becoming something else entirely.
These stats are not static. They interact. Damage to one may bleed into another. Panic opens the door to injury. Corruption numbs the mind. The loss of identity calls to the Void. Managing your HP isn’t just survival, it’s understanding what part of yourself you can afford to lose.
The bullet shattered something in his leg. Felt like bone, but who could tell anymore? It was clean compared to watching his entire unit scream and run into the foreign rainforest like wild animals. Rifles discarded into the overgrowth. Eyes glassy with some kind of unnatural focus. Some even tore at their skin as they babbled nonsense. Not a single order got through. Just static in their comms and madness in their eyes.
The UEC recruit didn’t scream when he fell. That part of him was gone now. Pain had become background noise. A signal he’d learned to ignore. What broke him was the quiet. The kind of silence you only hear after a thousand boots stop marching.
He crawled through mud, dragging what was left of his leg. He had to know why. That compulsion felt stronger than survival. The further he moved from the extraction point, the clearer it became: there was something in the forest calling him. Not with sound, but with pattern.
It danced in the leaves when the wind moved right. A spiral. No—a lattice. A fractal, repeating over and over in bark, stone, even the clouds if he squinted. It wasn’t there when he blinked. It wanted to be seen.
His thoughts felt... thinner now. Lighter. Like parts of him were being etched away, drawn inward, pulled toward the vanishing point at the heart of the jungle. Every heartbeat made him less than he was a moment before.
For the first time in his life he understood what it meant to truly contemplate mortality and the concept of a finite universe. Something doesn't need to change. Everything needed to change..
If Traits are what you’re born with then Skills are what you learn to do with them. They represent learned ability, practiced instinct, and split-second decisions forged through repetition or trauma.
When attempting an in game task, your Skill Rank determines how many d20s you roll. You keep only the highest die, then add your Trait bonus.
You get one die per Skill Rank.
Skill Rank 1–3: Human maximum.
Skill Rank 4–6: Requires a Deviance—Bionic, Somnic, or Resonant.
Skill Rank 0 (Untrained): Roll no dice unless you spend 1 point of Will to attempt it.
When attempting an in game task, your Skill Rank determines how many d20s you roll. You keep only the highest die, then add your Trait bonus.
You get one die per Skill Rank.
Skill Rank 1–3: Human maximum.
Skill Rank 4–6: Requires a Deviance—Bionic, Somnic, or Resonant.
Skill Rank 0 (Untrained): Roll no dice unless you spend 1 point of Will to attempt it.
Untrained actions are possible, but dangerous. It takes mental effort and force of will to push beyond your limits. That’s the cost of improvisation. The higher your rank, the better your chances. Not because you’re stronger, but because you have learned patience and finesse.
Body
Move, fight, survive.
The Body represents your character's physical ability to interaction with the world. Whether you're dodging gunfire, scaling a collapsing structure, or creating makeshift explosives in the field, this is your edge.
- Combat : Covers the instincts and trained reflexes of a seasoned warfighter. Whether honed in a military academy, a gangland shootout, or a back-alley brawl, this Skill measures your ability to stay focused under fire. Used for firing weapons, engaging in melee, and determining Initiative in combat.
- Mobility : Mastering the art of moving one's mass around can provide quite an edge both in and out of a fight. From slipping past sensors to scaling broken high-rises, Mobility is essential for scouts, spies, and survivors alike. Used for stealth, dodging threats, climbing, swimming, or traversing unstable terrain.
- Craft : The Skill of turning raw parts into working miracles—or weapons. Whether it’s rigging a pressure mine, forging a custom blade, or retrofitting a recon drone with a rifle, Craft is for those who solve problems with tools, tape, and tenacity. Used for creating demolitions, as well as repairing or modifying equipment.
Mind
Think fast, act smarter.
The Mind contains your character's toolkit for understanding and manipulating advanced systems. It’s where experience meets analysis, and insight becomes power.
- Tech : Mastery of digital systems, machine languages, and synthetic logic. In the Age of Expansion, Tech users are modern sorcerers. Rewriting protocols, breaching enemy firewalls, and sometimes even holding conversations with unstable AIs.. Used for hacking, coding, remote control, and digital infiltration.
- Engineering : Where Craft covers improvised builds, Engineering is the domain of large-scale structures, systems, and strategies. Fortresses, vehicles, infrastructure, and schematics all fall under this skill. Used to reinforce or sabotage structures, create complex blueprints, and prototype advanced machines.
- Influence : Charm, deceit, leadership, and psychological warfare. Influence measures how well you twist others to your will. Whether through a honeyed voice, an intimidating presence, or a calculated appeal to logic, those not used to resisting your guile often find themselves serving your ambitions instead. Used for interrogation, negotiation, manipulation, and persuasion.
Soul
Push boundaries, breach reality.
The Soul governs your character's interaction with the unknown. Deviances, altered states, or forces not meant for human hands. These are not learned in a classroom, but survived through exposure.
- Channel : Channeling measures your ability to shape, endure, and command Somnic forces. Even non-Dreamers can train this instinct to defend against intrusion. Though many Channelers live on society’s fringe, rumors persist of a UEC branch turning them into living weapons. . This Skill is essential for activating Somnic Abilities and resisting their effects.
- Insight : Keen perception, sharp memory, and intuition refined to a blade’s edge. Insight governs how your character reads between the lines. Cryptic transmissions, dead languages, and echoing anomalies appear as delectable puzzles to sink your teeth into. Used to analyze evidence, uncover hidden connections, and piece together the invisible.
- Lore : Lore isn’t just about facts, it’s the ability to interpret what others fear to comprehend. From evidence of ancient design to the unbearable beauty of the cosmos, Lore determines how much your mind can endure and understand it. Used to decode mystic symbols, interact with Resonant phenomena, and glimpse the deeper truths hiding behind reality’s veil.
Now that you’ve selected your character’s concept and laid the groundwork with Traits and Skills, it’s time to choose their Age Index—a snapshot of where they are in their life’s arc. This isn’t just about a trivial number, but how tenacity, experience, and willpower have shaped you. Your Age Index affects the distribution of Traits and Skills, reflecting the natural balance of youth, maturity, and long-earned mastery.
Each Index offers a unique starting point for your journey in Cycleborne.
Seed (18–30): Bright potential, high physical aptitude, but limited in life experience.
Forge (31–59): Tested, balanced, and sharp. You know your limitations, now to discover your potential.
Echo (60+): Seasoned and scarred, your mind has been shaped by decades of triumphs and losses.
Choose the Index that best fits your character's past—and the future they’re still shaping.
Seed (Age 18–30) – Potential Unleashed
You're young, reactive, and raw. Your body and mind haven't yet been dulled by age or cynicism, and the future is wide open.
Seeds begin with powerful Traits but limited practical experience.
Trait Spread: 3 Major, 3 Medium, 3 Minor
Skill Points: 3
Vibe: Reckless prodigy, UEC recruit, escaped experiment
Forge (Age 31–59) – The Tested Self
You've survived long enough to know the game and still have enough fire to play it. Most people call this middle-age but this is where true growth begins.
Forges are balanced—hardened by experience, yet still capable of growth.
Trait Spread: 2 Major, 5 Medium, 2 Minor
Skill Points: 6
Vibe: Orbital drop trooper, jaded mercenary, prophet of the Dream
Forges are balanced—hardened by experience, yet still capable of growth.
Trait Spread: 2 Major, 5 Medium, 2 Minor
Skill Points: 6
Vibe: Orbital drop trooper, jaded mercenary, prophet of the Dream
Echo (Age 60+) – Wisdom Unbound
You’ve lived through collapse, betrayal, and transformation. What your body has lost, your mind has sharpened into a potent tool.
Echoes are deeply skilled, but their Traits are worn from time.
Trait Spread: 1 Major, 3 Medium, 5 Minor
Skill Points: 9
Vibe: Olympian sleeper agent, deep scholar, surviving myth
I know some people are asking themselves right now, "where do we go from here in terms of character progression", or maybe just questioning my choice for such a simplified system. I assure you there is method to this madness, and I have what I think it a killer plan for character progression. What you have built so far is a human that would fit in somewhere in the modern world without much fuss from society. Maybe they think they have reached the pinnacle of achievement in their field, or even hold world records to prove their mettle above all others. Let's touch on Deviances quickly and how they will forever change your character after the game begins.
Deviances refer to augmentations to your human form that fall outside the realm of natural. These come in the form of special abilities and the ability to transcend the limitations of '3' on all Skills and Traits. Each is tied to one of the three spokes on our wheel of fate and function as follows.
Bionic Deviances : Cutting healthy tissue from the body just to make room for upgrades to the human condition used to be illegal, however in recent years it has become a fad amidst first world nations. Bionic Deviances offer a significant boost to combat prowess, the ability to shrug off lethal damage and enact superhuman feats on the battlefield, but do not come without cost. For each enhancement a character has, reduce dice pools associated with Will by 1, to a minimum of 1, reflecting their reliance on machines over natural bodily responses.
Somnic Deviances : Those that dare listen to the Dream sometimes discover a message buried within it. It is rumored that if one is disciplined enough they can access miraculous looking abilities that blur the lines between fact and fiction. Inherited genetic memories, influence over seemingly inanimate objects, and even remote viewing are now potential tools to bend the world around you to your will. Somnic Deviances require Concentration to utilize, and are subject to Feedback penalties upon a critical fail.
Resonant Deviances : Often confused with Earthly forces, there are a rare few that learn to be a part of the cosmic song or silence without ever understanding its true meaning. Those that even witness these abilities can go mad from the grand spectacle and scale of their effects, but overuse can lead quickly to the loss of one's self. Resonant Deviances always succeed, but at a steep cost. Each success triggers unseen fractal connections that can alter the very strands of reality around you.
By now, you’re probably wondering what Deviances actually look like in play. How a character might evolve over a few sessions, and what kind of strange power awaits your character in their Cycle. Good news and bad news.
The bad news? A lot of this is still actively in development. I’m digging through years of old work, combining it with new ideas, and letting the dark magic of AI (Hail ChatGPT, Glory to Skynet) help shape the results. The good news? You can be part of the process! Whether you just want to peek at what’s coming or offer thoughts that shape the next draft, it all helps. The first batch is already up—check out the Deviances Teaser and get a glimpse at what happens when humanity takes one step too far from what it was meant to be.
I plan to always offer this game digitally for free over World Anvil because I was once a broke gamer who felt left out of all the fun. There may eventually be other outlets once I am actually happy with a final copy. (I started my first version of this 20 years ago, so no promises there..) But anyway, the system is being rebuilt from the ground up, incorporating ideas that stood the test of time and even folding player actions from past tests into the official lore. As I go, I’ll be sharing every piece of it open-source in spirit. You’re free to use anything here at your own table, remix it, expand it. Just please don’t Ctrl+C it straight into your Amazon listing!
Join the Discord if you want to start up a conversation or throw your hat in for the pool of testers. New channels being added now and a regular poll to check availability unobtrusively once a week. No long term commitments and your ideas may make it into the final design!
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