GIST Toolkit

GIST is Gameplay, Improvisation, Storytelling, and Tactics.

I wanted a coherent and cohesive modular system that I could use  for many different settings and game types, from low fantasy to far future, from noir investigation in a small city to planet-hopping mind-bending horror. Widely applicable, yet full of flavor.

The Toolkit provides not just a set of rules for building and modifying your own games, but the guidelines and analysis on how they influence the experience of playing it.

IMPORTANT

Purchasing the Toolkit today supports its ongoing development.
The Toolkit available today comes with:
- GIST Toolkit, which is over 120 pages of content.
  A rough draft.
  Will be brought up to date during the course of development.
- GIST Proposals, another ~230 pages of content.
  Not a ruleset.
  The raw system of proposals that I use to develop GIST.
  Contains tons of improvements that will be incorporated into the main doc.
  Provided to open the door for feedback on the ideas being proposed for GIST.

For a simplified variant ruleset inspired by GIST or the rules as implemented in games with settings, check out the other items on my profile.

Features

• Gameplay: How dice really work and the impact they have on the player and GM experience. Not only a dedicated chapter on probability, but important mechanics also come with explanations for how they change the game, when added or removed.
• Improvisation: Reference material and quick build tools, with strategies for tracking and props. Balancing roleplaying with stats. The rule of cool vs RAW. 
• Storytelling: How to convey a sense of depth and interest to your characters and worlds. Presumption of competence for characters and the games that love them.
• Tactics: A comprehensive set of tactical systems and options, from narrative-driven social conflicts to grid-based mass combat with multiple options in between.
• GIST Core: A stable set of rules to support a broad range of game types, using "peak human" as a starting point, extracted and simplified from my other games.
• Modularity: No longer be limited to a single way to approach classic challenges in TTRPGs, use modular systems that work better for your players, your game, your setting, and your scenes. This isn't just a loose pile of variant rules, but come supplied with pros and cons, opinions, and examples.
• Conversions: Port your favorite spells and abilities in from the plethora of supplements released along the rich history of TTRPGs. (request your favorite system if its not already included!)

Why I Made GIST

In many ways GIST was a response to and an outgrowth of the types of games I played, both tabletop and video games, where I felt something was missing. In some roleplaying felt like an afterthought and in others the element of risk felt inconsistent or arbitrary. They can be, and often are, still amazing games to play. But I wanted to see something that balanced them. I wanted a system that I could use as a baseline to play a game at any scale, where the rules wouldn't immediately break down when the scale got too small or too vast.

I use GIST not just for TTRPGs, but as the basis for systems in video games and how characters work in writing narrative fiction of any type.

I hope that GIST helps you build your own worlds.

Note: Completely unrelated to Zeruhur's GIST!. The origins of my system go back to 2010 and the first preview was published under the name GIST back in 2016. It's a pretty good name if I say so myself.