The Penance RPG system allows for complete free-reign for its players to choose how they want to deal with issues they face. If they want to use some form of elaborate trickery to get past a guard or set a building ablaze they can. However, for every action there is a consequence, and sometimes this sense of karma can come back to bite them. Hard.
We feel that telling a story with the characters and allowing them to grow and change makes for a better experience. The story and characters develop and weave together organically. Our storytelling is collaborative and so every character action is important.
We also have a varying number of characters per recorded episode, typically between 4-8 Characters plus the DM every week. This depends who is free to record the episode that week. The characters that aren’t present are said to be “asleep on the cart” or “in the bag of holding” and will return in future weeks. This allows for a greater variety and keeps each episode feeling fresh and dynamic.
Adaptations
Largely, any system or campaign we adapt to our own system is run largely the same as our homebrew engine. In doing so, we attempt to keep the feel of the original - this has included (so far) Dungeons & Dragons 5e and Call of Cthulhu. In addition, we enjoy and take inspiration from many other forms of gaming and wider entertainment. Board games in particular have a place close to our hearts.