System Ribhian Games 2d10
Published by Ribhian Games LLC
Genre Psychic Hierarchy · Political Intrigue
Heptaverse Setting The Psychic Element

The True Game

The Setting

Where Thought Becomes Reality and Hierarchy Follows Power

The True Game is the Heptaverse's psychic approach to cosmic sustainability — a world where mental ability determines social position, crystal-enhanced talent shapes reality, and advancement through the Game's ranks is both personal ambition and existential necessity. Eleven psychic traditions trace back to Eleven Founders, and every soul in the Game knows their place within the hierarchy.

The Experiment

Originally a modest Core research expedition studying Didir's telepathic abilities, the True Game has become a crucial test of whether talent-based social hierarchies can create civilization resistant to entropy. The outcome matters for all seven realities.

The Hierarchy

Social position flows from psychic talent. Those who command more traditions, or who hold a single tradition at its purest expression, hold authority over those who do not. Every interaction is coloured by rank. Every advancement is earned, observed, and recorded.

Crystal Technology

Psychic talent is amplified, stored, and weaponised through gemstone technology. Focus Crystals enhance manifestations. Memory Stones preserve thoughts. And in the deep places of the world, Corrupted Gemstones offer terrible shortcuts — at a permanent cost.

The Stunts System

All psychic abilities are called Stunts — emphasising their mental and technological nature over any magical interpretation. Characters advance through nine Circles of power within their tradition, each Circle unlocking greater manifestations of their inherited talent.

Core Attributes

The Seven Currents

The True Game uses the universal Heptaverse seven-attribute system expressed through psychic society terminology. The seventh — Talent — is unique to this setting, measuring raw psychic force and Game standing simultaneously.

FOR Force Physical power behind martial manifestations
PRE Precision Fine control for delicate psychic work
VIT Vitality Endurance for sustained talent use
ACU Acuity Mental sharpness for complex patterns
AWA Awareness Perception of psychic emanations
AUT Authority Social influence in hierarchical society
TAL Talent Raw psychic force and Game standing
Who You Are

Heritages

Four playable heritages shape your relationship with the Game's talent traditions — and one stands entirely apart from the hierarchy as something the system cannot easily classify.

Universal Heritage
Humans
The Foundation Stock
  • Original colonists enhanced through bio-engineering
  • Access to all eleven talent traditions
  • Full participation at all hierarchy levels
  • The benchmark against which all others are measured
Universal Heritage
Lightborn
The Celestial-Blessed
  • Descendants touched by celestial energies
  • Natural affinity for Healing and Clairvoyance traditions
  • Cannot access the Necromancy tradition
  • Enhanced resonance with light-aligned stunts
Setting-Specific Heritage
Felidar
The Cat-Folk
  • +2 Precision, +1 Awareness
  • Natural affinity for Shifting, Clairvoyance, Teleportation
  • Low-light vision, +4 Stealth, mental resistance
  • Difficulty with Necromancy, reduced Firestarting access
Setting-Specific Heritage
Gnomes
The Small Folk
  • +2 Acuity, +1 Precision
  • Strong affinity for Telekinesis, Sorcerian, Healing
  • +2 bonus to crafting and technical skills
  • Physical Flying restrictions, limited Shifting access
Unique Heritage — Outside the Hierarchy
Immutables
The Null-Minded · Talent fixed at 3, cannot be raised or lowered
  • +2 Vitality, +1 Awareness — Talent permanently fixed at 3
  • Resist and suppress psychic effects of all kinds
  • Exist outside the normal hierarchy as advisors and neutral arbiters
  • Seven distinct Lineages, each with a unique form of nullification
Voidmind "Where thought becomes silence"
Turnkey "The locks that guard all doors"
Mirror "Those who reflect what cannot be absorbed"
Groundstone "The foundation that cannot be moved"
Breakwater "Where psychic storms crash and scatter"
Clearwater "Through whom truth flows unimpeded"
Shadowveil "The spaces between thoughts"
Psychic Power

The Eleven Traditions

The foundation of True Game society rests upon eleven fundamental psychic talents. Each traces back to one of the Eleven Founders — exceptional individuals from The Core who became test subjects in Barish's original psychic hierarchy experiment. Their bloodlines still run true today.

Tradition I
Teleportation
Founded by Hafnor the Elator
Instant travel, dimensional mastery, and spatial manipulation. At its highest Circle, the creation of permanent portal networks that reshape the geography of demesnes.
Tradition II
Telekinesis
Founded by Wafnor the Tragamor
Matter manipulation and force control. Tragamors can move objects without touch, shape terrain, and at 9th Circle exert force across enormous distances.
Tradition III
Telepathy
Founded by Didir the Demon
Mind reading and mental influence. The tradition whose first practitioner triggered the entire True Game experiment — and whose networks may one day form a consciousness that anchors reality itself.
Tradition IV
Flying
Founded by Tamor the Armiger
Perfect flight and aerial supremacy. Armigers command the skies, serving as messengers, scouts, and an elite military caste that patrols the boundaries between demesnes.
Tradition V
Beguilement
Founded by Trandilar the Ruler
Social control and emotional manipulation. Rulers are the most politically powerful members of the Game — their influence reshaping loyalties, policies, and alliances with a word.
Tradition VI
Sorcerian
Founded by Shattnir the Sorcerer
Energy absorption and redistribution across six elemental forces. Sorcerers choose up to two forces — Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Time, or Void — and cannot combine opposing pairs.
Tradition VII
Firestarting
Founded by Buinel the Sentinel
Flame creation and heat mastery. Sentinels serve as guardians at the borders of demesnes, their fire a visible marker of power and territorial claim against both rivals and Elder Being incursions.
Tradition VIII
Shifting
Founded by Thandbar the Shifter
Perfect mimicry and form adaptation. Shifters can replicate the physical appearance of any creature or person — an invaluable talent for espionage, infiltration, and the Game's more clandestine politics.
Tradition IX
Clairvoyance
Founded by Sorah the Seer
Future sight and remote perception. Seers are among the most sought-after advisors in the Game — their visions of potential futures making them indispensable to Great Houses and Academy councils alike.
Tradition X
Healing
Founded by Dealpas the Healer
Life restoration and regeneration. At the highest Circle, Healers can create permanent sanctuaries where wounds close and sickness cannot enter. They are simultaneously revered and politically vulnerable.
Tradition XI
Necromancy
Founded by Dorn the Necromancer
Death mastery and spirit control. The most feared and misunderstood tradition — Necromancers hold power over the boundary between living and dead, a position that makes them both essential and deeply distrusted.
Crystal Technology

The Crystals of Lom

Scattered across the True Game's landscape are crystals generated by Lom — geological formations that have absorbed psychic energy over millennia. They are among the setting's most coveted and most feared resources.

Crystals of Insight

Many of Lom's crystals enhance and focus talent. They amplify manifestations, store psychic energy for later use, preserve memories, and enable communication across great distances. Practitioners who learn to work with them gain significant advantages within the hierarchy — and Great Houses expend considerable resources controlling the mines and veins where they are found.

Crystals of Harm

Not all of Lom's crystals offer insight. Some drain life, corrupt thought, and twist the personalities of those who handle them. Whether these represent natural formations gone wrong or deliberate Elder Being interference within the True Game's crystalline geology remains an open question — and a dangerous one to investigate.

Origin Stories

Backgrounds

Ten backgrounds define where a character enters the Game — and what debts, skills, and connections they carry into play.

Game-Born Noble
Born into Great Houses ruling demesnes. Academy-educated, politically connected, and burdened with expectation.
Talented Foundling
Discovered showing unusual abilities, with mysterious origins and a possible Founder bloodline waiting to be uncovered.
Academy Student
Formally educated in talent development institutions. Theoretically trained, practically inexperienced, well-networked.
House Guard
Trained in combat and anti-talent tactics to protect noble families. Loyal, disciplined, and deeply aware of hierarchy.
Crystal Miner
Extracted psychic crystals from deep mines. Knows the value of what others take for granted — and what corrupted stones can do.
Travelling Performer
Entertained across demesnes using minor talents. Wide contacts, broad news networks, and a talent for reading any crowd.
Immutable Guardian
Neutral arbiters and talent suppressors from Immutable lineages. Diplomatic immunity and no allegiance to any Great House.
Psychic Investigator
Specialised in talent-based investigation and truth-finding. Credentials, connections, and truth crystals open doors others cannot.
Game Rebel
Actively opposed the talent-based hierarchy. Revolutionary networks, underground safe houses, and a dangerous ideology.
Underground Refugee
From hidden communities of those rejected by the Game. Survival skills, community bonds, and intimate knowledge of the system's cracks.