Chain×Link (CxL) is a semi-cooperative dungeon-defying roleplaying game. It uses minimal but evocative rules to facilitate the story of captured rebel leaders exploiting tools of tyranny to achieve victory for one of their Factions. 

Chain×Link is semi-cooperative. The core resolution mechanism requires all the characters to work together, with the chance of success mechanically dependent on the success of the prior actions of other characters. However, only the last character to succeed decides how the rewards are distributed, thus ensuring that their own Faction is best positioned for victory.

Chain×Link is dungeon-defying. The game is designed to tell stories about how people rebel against, or adhere to, the systems around them–be they legal, social, or even magical. Characters are capable, but their powers are constrained such that they must rely on subverting the rules that bind them, all the while surviving by binding themselves to one another.

Chain×Link is a roleplaying game. The game is best run with 3-4 players and a Gravemaster (GM). The players play as rebel leaders called Breakers, collectively called a Chain, escaping a megadungeon called the Grave by completing Trials. Whenever the Breakers hear news of their Factions in the Life Above, the players assume the roles of Factions as they compete to realize their disparate goals against the Crown. 

What is this?

The Chain×Link System Reference Document (SRD) is a condensed version of the game system for CxL that you can use to create your own standalone games. It also provides guidance on how to create content for CxL, including Reputes, Factions, and Levels. 

In this SRD, the rules for the game are presented in a different order than that of the CxL rulebook to more quickly convey the general rules of the CxL system before going into supporting rules.

I encourage designers using the CxL SRD to change as much of the game system to suit the purposes of their own games. Feel free to pick apart the system and use only what interests you. 

License

The text in this document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). See all details here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This means you can make and sell your own game using the systems and text contained herein, as long as you give credit to the original designer. Projects that are created using generative AI in any way are not within the purview of this license. Include the following text:

This work is CHAINLINKED, and is made using the Chain×Link system, developed and authored by Ethan Yen of Glyphtide Games, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This work is not affiliated with Glyphtide Games. https://glyphtide.games/chainxlink

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