# Paragon tags: #game/rpg/paragon ![[Agon (cover).jpg|600]] **Paragon** is the name the third-party ecosystem uses for the engine underneath **[[Agon]]** — the tag-based, dice-pool system that John Harper & Sean Nittner built for the game's second edition and then licensed outward into a small family of self-contained playsets. It's less a brand the core book pushes and more a quiet shared chassis: the playsets carry the credit line ("**A Paragon system playset**," "for use with the Paragon system, ©2020 John Harper & Sean Nittner"), while the rules themselves live in Agon. If you own Agon 2e, you own the system every member of the family runs on. ## Setting Paragon is a system rather than a setting — a skeleton you hang whatever fiction you like on. Its members repurpose the same handful of moving parts to very different worlds: Greek heroes lost in a mythic sea (**[[Agon]]**), cold-war-era agents containing an alien signal (**[[Chamber]]**), disguised robot vehicles defending 1984 Earth (**[[SurgeProtectors]]**), stormcraft pilots fighting for the last of humanity (**[[Agon - Storm Furies]]**), a city-sized starship holding a civilization in stasis (**[[Agon - Endeavour]]**), and an undead war for an empire's last remnant (**[[Agon - Memories of the Fallen]]**). Same machines, completely different gears. ## Mechanics The engine Agon 2e codifies: characters are a handful of traits rated with dice from d4 to d12, larger being better. Conflicts resolve through **contests** — everyone rolls together in a single pooled roll against an opponent assembled from its own traits, decided through a **Domain**-flavored contest where the higher side gets what it wants and the losers take the consequences. The playsets re-skin the vocabulary rather than rebuild it: **Chamber** swaps Epithet for **PROFILE** and renounces the four mythic Domains for **Advanced Systems, Applied Dynamics,** and **Human Factors**; **SurgeProtectors** and **Storm Furies** put a **Vehicle Form** or a pilot's **Role** in the Epithet slot. Some members keep the god-strength resource in a new coat (stormcraft pilots track **Expressions** instead of Divine Favor). It's the same contest machinery under a quick change of costume. ## The family - **[[Agon]]** — the flagship: Greek heroes, mythic islands, Divine Favor & Pathos. *In the library.* - **[[Chamber]]** — Harper's 1968 alien-signal agency. *In the library.* - **[[SurgeProtectors]]** — Nittner's 1984 hidden-robot defenders. *In the library.* - **[[Agon - Storm Furies]]** — the sci-fi stormcraft dial. *In the library.* - **[[Agon - Endeavour]]**, **[[Agon - Memories of the Fallen]]** — third-party playsets. *In the library.* ## References - [Agon — Official Site](https://agon-rpg.com/) - [Agon — Evil Hat](https://www.evilhat.com/home/agon/)