Main Page

Metaforce is a d12 genre-agnostic framework designed to allow a wide variety of game settings and scenarios while enabling players to build and customise their character’s powers, skills and abilities with numerically-backed scores known as Metaphors.

Game/Wiki News (from AlienOvan)

18th September 2025
After a summer away, I've returned to do more updates and changes to the Metaforce system. A few highlights include Status Magnitude & Saves, Attribute Power Tiers and updating creation rules to suits and more! Training Points supersede Attribute Training Opportunities, gained the same way as ATOs except they can now be spent to obtain new Metaphors and also increase a character's Attribute tier!

Level Points are now produced 1 for 1 for each Experience point spent. These LPs can be exchanged for level-ups. This was done to make it more obvious that spending Experience is required to level up and the character sheet has been updated to track these properly.

Speaking of sheet updates, now that Status Saves have been introduced to make inflicting and recovering from status conditions easier and fairer. The character sheet has been updated to give plenty of room to track statuses and their Magnitude amounts. Resistances have also been added and defined, offering a number of ways one can protect themselves passively from damage and effects, and also circumvent them via Penetration. With added definition to how Deflection works by default (it's Resistance X).

Attribute Tiers add more depth to a character's core abilities. Those with higher tiers will get access to greater bonuses whenever they roll for checks or use Metaphors that use them. The Exert feature allows one to briefly tap into the utmost of their Attribute at the cost of a little exhaustion or some other cost. Characters can start with higher tiers based on their Nature (Race) and Nurture (Class/Choice/Backstory), and spend a lot of points to raise their tier with Training points!

Lastly, the system has a new Logo! A pixel-style inspired by wplace.live created by AlienOvan. Incorporating all the four primary colours with a retro TTRPG aesthetic. This will replace the Logo-Maker stuff I had been using previously, it looked nice, but literally anyone could make it and this way, I know it's unique to Metaforce. Nicer versions of the Logo to come in the future!

14th May 2025
Added a new mechanic, Experience Debt. A potential penalty, or trade-off for events that may occur in games to slow experience gains, or a way to allow innately-powerful characters to be played in games where they wouldn't normally.

Additionally, Level has been updated to feature a new Level Investment approach to levelling up. Whereby a character can't spend experience to level up directly, but rather requires spending enough XP on things such as Metaphors and Attribute Training Points (previous ATOs) to automatically gain a new level. Depending on how well I can implement this on the character sheet, Level Investment may be the standard approach for Metaforce games moving on.

Chapters

Getting Started

Before you start playing Metaforce, best to read up on the basic terms and concepts.

• Character Creation A section to help new players start creating their first character.
• Character Sheet Explains the Character sheet used to play Metaforce.
• Attributes A section explaining the six essential aspects of a characters capabilities.
• Core Value A section explaining the three core stats that affect everything else, including resistances.
• Meta Dice A section that covers the unique dice used in Metaphors, Attributes and more.
• Metaphor A section that covers what Metaphors are used for and how values are assigned and used.
• Recommended Metaphors A list containing Metaphors players would find helpful in most Metaforce games.
• Level A section that goes over the importance of a character level, level-ups and progression.
• Progression A section that goes into depth Racial Traits and Class structures for characters.
• Experience A describing how Experience points (XP) are gained and used to progress a character.
• How To Play An explanation how games are run and what to do and when to do checks.
• Debt Explains the concept of Experience Debt and Boosting (to modify progression).

Playing Metaforce

These concepts make more sense after understanding the basics, or might only be relevant after starting your first session.

• Meta Point An important section that goes over Meta-Points (MP) and the Meta-Abilities that use it to influence games on the player level.
• Equipment A section that covers how equippable and usable (consumable) items work, and how they can be modified or enhanced.
• Inventory A section that details the carry capacity and Inventory rules for characters.
• Encounter An in-depth look on how combat and special scenarios work in a Metaforce game.
• Action Frames A break-down of what Action Frames are, how to use them in Encounters.
• Magnitude An explanation to how Status Conditions and Magnitude work, and how they can be used to measure stamina and action costs.
• Complication Describes the circumstances in which a character may lose advantage or suffer disadvantage during checks.
• Resistance Explains how the difference Resistance (and Anti-Resistance) properties function.
• Size A section that goes over the effects of Size and various considerations to take involving gigantic or tiny creatures.

Advice & Insight

Everything else that isn't required or is supplementary to the core experience will be listed here. Take some time to grasp the more nuanced aspects of the Metaforce system.

• Rules to Remember A section that covers regularly occurring rulings that can be used to help Players and Game-Masters resolve issues.
• Game Mastery A section for managing Metaforce games more effectively, rulings and guides for Game-Masters and Players alike.

Features

Modular Skills and Powers Metaphors are skills, powers and abilities a character can use to defend themselves or gain an advantage within their environment throughout various campaigns and settings. The Game Master and Player should communicate to each other to create and design Metaphors that are appropriate to the campaign.	Exploding Dice Dice with 12 sides (and sometimes other forms of die) can ‘explode’, allowing an additional die with the same number of sides to be rolled and added to the result upon rolling its highest value. Typically, Skill, ToHit, and Damage Dice can explode in this way.
Meta Dice Meta Dice appear in Attributes and Metaphors with a value of +1 or greater. Starting at d4 and working up to d6, d8, d10 and d12. Meta-dice have a minimum number relative to the initial value of the Attribute/Metaphor, at its strongest, the d12 can't roll lower than a 5.	Attributes / Core Values There are 6 Attributes (Strength, Endurance, Agility, Perception, Intellect, Charisma) that can be added to various checks, these Attributes contribute towards 3 Core Values (Body, Reflex, Mind) which govern a number of other stats including Health-Points (HP), Meta-Points (MP), Deflection and Evasion.
Status Conditions and Magnitude Status Conditions affect characters in different ways, and even keep track of various resources they may have. Magnitude is used to track conditions and if it exceeds a character's relevant Core Value, they may become affected by a condition.	Size and Size-Rating Size Rating determines the physical size of a character or creature, scaling its statistics such as Max Health, Damage dealt, Reach, Move Speed and more. The rules and adjustments for size work the same for player characters and NPCs.