Agate is a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) designed specifically for the setting of Angrea. Many of its systems may be adaptable to other settings, but every design decision was made through the lens of immersing players into the world of Angrea.
Like most other TTRPGs, a game of Agate is designed to be played over multiple Game Sessions. Over the course of one or more Game Sessions, Players will be guided through an Adventure by the Weaver. A game that spans multiple Adventures is known as a Campaign. Campaigns can often last years, sometimes decades.
Weaver
Instead of a Dungeon Master, Game Master, or Storyteller, Agate has the Weaver. The Weaver is the one running the show. They're the one describing the world, coming up with Adventures, role-playing Non-Player Characters (NPCs) and adjudicating the rules. Regardless of the rules written here, during a Game Session, the Weaver's final word is law.
Players
The Players are everyone else in the game besides the Weaver. They typically control a single character each, and are responsible for that character's actions, words, and growth. Those Player Characters (PCs) are the protagonists of the shared story the Weaver and the Players are telling. While the Weaver is the final word on the rules and the world, each Player is the final word on the actions, thoughts, and personality of their respective PC.
Player Characters
Every PC is defined by their Ancestry, Skills, Traditions, and Feats. Ancestry and Skills will determine a character's Attributes and Traits. Advancement is bought with Growth, a single currency spent on Skill Ranks, Specialty Ranks, Feats, and Resources alike.
During character creation, Players select an Ancestry, Region, and Background for their PC. Region and Background will help determine what Skill Ranks and Specialty Ranks a PC starts with. You can read more about all of these in the Character chapter. The group of all the PCs the Players control is known as the Party.
Scenes
Game Sessions are broken up into Scenes. Different Scene types have different pacing, specialty rules, and narrative stakes. The Scene types are Exploration, Social, Combat, Travel, and Downtime. Not all Game Sessions will have every Scene type. Sometimes, a Scene type may not come up in an entire Campaign. Maybe the PCs live in a city, and never leave it. While such a Campaign could utilize Travel Scenes as PCs go from one part of the city to another, it is often sufficient to just narrate the PC's arriving at the new location and entering into one of the other Scene types. A Scene is not the same as a Location. PCs might transition between Scenes multiple times, all without leaving, for example, the inn that they awake in.
Time-keeping
Agate tracks in-world time in its own units, layered from the Moment up to the Day, rather than in real-world seconds and minutes. Action Speeds, Working durations, and travel times throughout the rules are given in these units.
| Unit | Equal to | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Moment | — | 1.5 seconds |
| Turn | 81 Moments | 2 minutes |
| Mark | 3 Turns | 6.1 minutes |
| Period | 9 Marks | 54.7 minutes |
| Phase | 9 Periods | 8.2 hours |
| Day | 3 Phases | 24.6 hours |
Where to go next
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Character Creation — build a character step by step.
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Conflict Resolution — how actions, dice, and outcomes work.
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How Feats Work — active and passive abilities, and where they come from.
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About Traditions — the branching schools of practice.
Browse the full reference from the sidebar: Feats, Traditions, Ancestries, Regions, Backgrounds, and Items.