The Cardinal System is Sanguine Games' bespoke system for many of their Tabletop RPGs, created for Ironclaw.
Cardinal is unique in that most stats are not represented as integers, but as dice. A character might have a d6 in Body, d8 in Mind, and d4 in Speed for instance. To make a check, a player looks at their character's traits, skills, and gifts to determine how many dice of which sizes to roll and succeeds if any of their dice roll higher than the target number (usually 3), with more successes the better.
Each character has four "basic" traits: Body, Mind, Speed, and Will; as well as two or more "unique" traits. These unique traits act as Cardinal's Splats, when a character is created they choose from a list of unique traits in two or three categories (Career and Species in Ironclaw), which are only applied to a narrow range of skill checks specified in the trait description but are cumulative with basic traits. For instance, the Knight-Errant Career trait in Ironclaw is used with the Dodge, Melee Combat, and Tactics skills; so a character with Body d8 and Knight-Errant d6 will roll 1d8 and 1d6 when swinging a sword at someone.
In the earlier games (Ironclaw, Myriad Song) skills could have additional dice added by purchasing "marks" with XP, but later games (Urban Jungle and later) have been moving away from skill marks in favor of adding a third unique trait. Characters might also take Gifts that add more dice in even more specific circumstances or allow special actions such as casting spells.
Games using the Cardinal system:
- Ironclaw (codified in 2nd edition)
- Albedo: Platinum Catalyst: Published between Ironclaw 1e and 2e, sort of a "proto-Cardinal" system.
- Usagi Yojimbo: The Roleplaying Game (1st edition only, 2nd edition was Powered by the Apocalypse)
- Myriad Song
- Urban Jungle
- Vital Hearts
- Eumorphica (under development)
Tropes appearing in Cardinal games:
- Non-Combat EXP: Experience is awarded for acting in-character and accomplishing character goals, combat is only relevant if it furthers those goals.
- Point Build System: There are no "levels," characters spend XP directly to buy skill marks, gifts, or improved traits. Starting in Ironclaw 2e all gifts cost a flat 10 XP and may be awarded directly for accomplishing character goals, improving a trait by one dice size or buying a new unique trait counting as a gift.
- Rocket-Tag Gameplay: The target number for attacks is determined by the defender's highest rolling defense dice, and damage is based on the number of successes, so one-shot kills are relatively commonplace. Cushioned somewhat by player characters and major NPCs getting a Combat Save gift that neutralizes the worst of the damage, once per session.
