The Sacred BBQ

An Irreverent Roleplaying Game

By Jim McGarva

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The Basic Rules Playtesters, when going through these rules please keep an eye out for any holes I may have missed. If a

rule doesnt exist or is unclear, please let me know. Feedback is extremely important! You can reach me

at jimbozig@hotmail.com

This game is an instance of exception-based design, which is to say that there is a set of basic rules that

apply in general, but that individual characters and creatures are expected to have abilities that let them

break those rules.

Outside of combat, most tasks are handled through roleplaying. You describe what your character does,

the other players and the DM add details and embellish. You make jokes and kibitz anyone who tells

you that you have to be in character one hundred percent of the time is taking the game too seriously.

Anyway, at some point you reach a point where your character runs into opposition or where youre not

sure if your character can do something. Thats when we go to the dice. There are two kinds of rolls

standard rolls and opposed rolls. In an opposed roll, your character is struggling against another

character we roll dice to see what the outcome will be. If youre in a violent conflict, see the Combat

rules. For everything else, use the rules below.

On a standard roll, the first thing you do is decide what you want to achieve (your intent) and how you

want to achieve it (your task). Based on your task, you and the DM decide what skill is appropriate to

roll. Sometimes there will be multiple options that the DM finds appropriate, and in that case you get to

choose which skill to use. For instance, making horseshoes could be farrier, but you could also use

blacksmith. For contrast, shoeing a horse would be Farrier, not Blacksmith.

Once you have decided what skill you are using, either you already have it on your character sheet (you

are Skilled) or you dont (you are unskilled). Roll a die and consult the following table to determine the

outcome.

Skilled: Unskilled:

6: Success with an extra bonus 6: Success and learn the skill OR extra bonus

5: Success 5: Success

4: Success 4: Success with a Condition

3: Success with a Condition 3: Twist

2: Twist 2: Twist

1: Twist 1: Twist with a Condition

Thats right, there is no such thing as a difficulty class. (But see the heading Advantage and

Disadvantage, and see the heading Inappropriate, Complex, and Difficult. When is a roll appropriate?)

Theres no difference between lifting a heavy object and lifting a heavier object. Thats because this

game is not concerned with simulating the physics and realities of the game world in the mechanics. The

simulation should be going on in your descriptions, in the actions you try, and in the outcomes you

narrate. It is everyones responsibility to make the world and your characters seem real to the other

players.

Success

When you succeed, you get your intent. What you wanted to happen happens. The DM and other

players can embellish or add details, but they cant add anything that takes away your victory. It is the

DMs job to determine when a players intent and task line up. You can certainly tell a player that they

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are not in a position to perform a certain task, but you MUST tell them before they roll or else you make

their success feel like a failure. For example, you might say This is an extremely sophisticated vault and

youre an amateur. If you succeed, youll quickly and quietly assess what tools and information you need

in order to crack it when you come back. If you fail, youll be seeing a pair of security guards walk around

the corner. See page 5 for more on when to roll.

What is Success with an extra bonus? Well the extra bonus depends on what you were trying to do

and how you were doing it and a million other factors. It can be that you find out some useful

information, that you make a friend, that you get a useful object, or almost anything else. It can be that

your success was beyond what youd aimed for or it can be a boon that is tangential or unrelated that

you gain in the course of your success. The successful player may choose the extra bonus they get. The

DM and other players may have a say or insist on modifications if the players idea doesnt quite work

for whatever reason, but dont be a control freak about it this is the players chance to contribute

something cool. Three guidelines to make sure your idea doesnt get vetoed: your bonus needs to be in

keeping with the tone of the game; your bonus should not invalidate important aspects of the game or

of any players planning; your bonus should not dwarf your initial success. You wont go wrong by giving

yourself advantage to an appropriate future roll.

When a player rolling unskilled gets a 6, they may choose between the short-term benefit of getting an

extra bonus as above or the long-term benefit of learning the skill. When you learn the skill, write it on

your sheet. There is one other way to learn skills: at the end of each adventure (or scenario, dungeon,

episode, session, whatever) each player picks one skill that they rolled unskilled during that adventure

and writes it on their sheet.

Sidebar: You cant learn that!

Because you always have a chance to learn any skill you roll, you shouldnt be letting players roll with

skills they cant possibly be good at. If they might turn out to have a knack for the skill or might have

picked it up somewhere along the way, let them roll. But if the character cant possibly know metallurgy,

that shouldnt be the skill they roll. What exactly is the character doing? Youre sure they dont know

metallurgy so they must be doing something else. Roll that skill.

What is Success with a condition? Its simply a regular success but in the course of your success you

get a temporary penalty. See the next heading for more details.

Conditions

Sometimes your actions lead to you getting a Condition. A condition is a temporary penalty that you can

get. For example, maybe you succeed in lifting the portcullis but with a condition. So youre winded or

exhausted the DM decides what condition is appropriate. As a guideline, players aiming for bigger

successes make themselves vulnerable to worse setbacks, including more serious conditions.

Minor conditions:

Angry When you are angry, you have disadvantage to all skill rolls in social situations. Youre not just a

little bit mad, youre absolutely furious.

Winded When you are winded, you have disadvantage on all skill rolls involving physical activity, and

on attack rolls in the first round of any combat. If you are given the Winded condition while already

Winded, make a note (write Winded x2). There is no additional disadvantage and recovery is the same.

However, if you are Winded again before you recover, you become Exhausted instead.

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Exhausted When you are exhausted, you have disadvantage on all skill rolls involving physical activity

and on all attack rolls in any combat. You dont want to get into a fight when youre exhausted.

Major conditions:

Injured When you are injured, you subtract one from every d6 you roll. A roll of zero is treated as a roll

of 1. This is cumulative with the other major conditions.

Diseased When you are diseased, you subtract one from every d6 you roll. A roll of zero is treated as a

roll of 1. This is cumulative with the other major conditions.

Cursed When you are cursed, you subtract one from every d6 you roll. A roll of zero is treated as a roll

of 1. This is cumulative with the other major conditions.

If you have more than one major condition, you should probably be focused on getting well again before

you try do any more adventuring. So now youve got these nasty conditions, you want to get rid of

them! See the recovery heading on page 11.

Feel free to come up with custom conditions, major or minor, to fit your situation.

Twists

A twist means that the player did not get their intent or that they got their intent but something went

seriously wrong. They may or may not succeed in their task either one is okay. The key thing to note

here is that a twist MUST change the situation. If you present your twist and the end result is the

characters are in the same place, theyre going to wonder why they cant just try again or try a different

angle. Theyll want to make the same rolls over again to get what they want. Boring! See the heading

Fun Once on page 11 for more details.

DMs, youll want to use some twists that are really damn harsh and some twists that are pretty tame

and everything in between. Its important to get a variety and its important to hit both ends of the

spectrum. Every test being a life-or-death situation is exhausting and frustrating for the players because

they are going to fail a good proportion of the time. On the other hand, giving your players nothing but

mild twists will suck the tension out of rolling. As a guideline, players that aim for bigger successes make

themselves vulnerable to worse setbacks, including harsher twists. Try to keep some balance between

risk and reward, but at the same time make sure youre not picking on a player constantly giving nasty

twists will make players reluctant to try cool things.

Players, when you get a twist, the DM gets to narrate how you came to the twist in the course of their

narration they might say something your character does. This is part of the game. If the DM oversteps

her bounds, speak up and talk to her like an adult, but in general your job as a player is to roll with it and

make it real. Maybe your character screwed up. People do that. You dont get to say no, my character

would never make a mistake like that! Sorry, the dice disagree. The dice say you screwed up. Thats

part of life and part of the game. Remember, you dont know everything there is to know about your

character and part of the fun of playing a character is finding out new things about him. And nobody,

certainly not the DM, knows where the story will go. You and your friends are playing together to help

each other find out. Twists are a vital part of that process. Some Twists can be planned (having a

surprise ready in your back pocket is a good thing for a DM to do) but they are usually improvisational

the DM cant plan out every check you might make and she doesnt want to. One of the things a games

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rules should do is make the unexpected happen. I like surprises, so one of my favourite moments in

gaming is when everybody knows what should happen, its obvious to everyone at the table where the

story is going, but the dice disagree. Then everyone needs to figure out what this new direction is.

Skills

A skill is just a word on your character sheet. A skill has no rating. There is no default list of skills. If you

make a list of skills, you are dictating what actions can be rolled for in your game. Anything outside that

list is also outside the purview of mechanics. If thats what you want in your game, then please do work

with your group to make your own custom skill list. If thats not what you want, then skills are simply

made up on the spot. If you decide to use a skill list and intend long-term play, you may run into the

problem of a character knowing ALL the skills. To avoid this, you must also decide on a cap on the

number of skills characters can learn. Once they reach this cap if they want to learn a new skill they

must drop an unused one.

Skills may also be restricted. Restricted skills may be limited to certain Types (see page 30). Sometimes a

restricted skill cannot be used untrained and cannot be learned through practice. An example might be

Cantrips you cant make an illusion with the power of your mind just by grunting and screwing up your

face. The skill may only be available to those who have unlocked their magical ability or received

specialized training from a wizard. To learn a restricted skill, you have to make it a goal and use your

other skills to achieve that in play.

You need to decide as a group how specific is appropriate for skills. Is Religion an appropriate skill, or

do you want separate skills for Catholic Doctrine and Preaching and so on? 4e went with very

general skills, but in this game I feel like you can go more specific than that. Skills are no longer rated

and you dont have to spend resources on improving them. There is very little complexity added by

having more skills on your sheet. You also learn skills very quickly by using them. Having specific skills

can also help you when you are roleplaying. If you decide you are using Religion to convince the priest

of something, thats pretty vague. If you have Catholic Doctrine and Preaching as options on your

sheet, it makes you think about how your character would approach the situation. For all these reasons,

I recommend that you keep skills specific.

Advantage and Disadvantage

When a character has a strong advantage working in his favour on a skill roll, he is said to have

Advantage: he may roll two dice and take the better result. If he has a strong disadvantage working

against him, he is said to have Disadvantage: he must roll two dice and take the lower result. If he has

Advantage and Disadvantage, he simply rolls one die as usual. These are not cumulative having

Advantage from three sources is the same as having it from one. Having Disadvantage from three

sources and Advantage from one source still results in you rolling one die.

DMs, dont feel obligated to give characters an advantage just because they really want it. Players have

their own ways of generating advantage without your input (see the headings Helping, Linked Tests, and

Action Points). So the DM is free to give out advantage and disadvantage as the situation demands. This

is sometimes called unreliable currency, while Action Points and Linked Tests are reliable currency. You

can ALWAYS spend an action point for advantage without relying on anyone elses interpretation.

Aspects of Skills

You can use skills in at least four distinct ways:

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First, you can roll a skill to attempt a task where you use that skill primarily. This is what you would

naturally think of. Use the blacksmith skill to craft a fine sword, or the lockpick skill to open a door.

Second, your skill grants you knowledge about that area. Your blacksmith skill means that you know

about smithing techniques and your lockpick skill means you know about different kinds of locks. You

can use this knowledge in two ways: you may use a skill to ask the DM what you know about a situation

above and beyond what everybody knows the DM must tell you some extra information that is

interesting or potentially useful. If the DM thinks of a good potential twist to use, he may call for a roll,

but usually this is not worth rolling for the DM will give you info for free.

You may also make a declaration of knowledge related to that skill. This is your chance to make up a fact

about the world and take some narrative control. Usually this involves a roll, but if the DM thinks that

your idea is very cool or if she cant think of a good twist, she will just say yes and your declaration will

become fact. It seems obvious, but Id better write it down: you cant make a declaration that

contradicts previously established facts.

Third, you can use your skill to contact an NPC related to the skill. You can use your Law skill to find and

contact a lawyer or your Poisons skill to find and contact a maker of poisons. There is a particularly

interesting sort of twist that often gets used when you fail this sort of test. Instead of finding who you

were looking for (or perhaps in addition to finding who you were looking for), you find an enemy

someone who you have upset or whose interests lie opposed to your own. Sometimes the person you

were looking for is the enemy and sometimes not. Usually it doesnt make sense to roll unskilled in this

way. If you want to find a poisoner but dont have the poisons skill, use a skill that specifically relates to

finding people instead (that may be skilled or unskilled).

Fourth, you may use a skill to observe or detect something related to the skill. Your knives skill can be

used to see that your opponent has a concealed knife. In practice, this use is very similar to the

knowledge your skill grants you and everything I said about that applies here too. You may make

perception-based declarations or ask the DM what you notice.

How strictly should we interpret the skills?

Fairly strictly. Players, please dont stretch to make a skill fit your task. DMs, do not let your players

stretch. First, because they already get tons of freedom to define their skills and they shouldnt need to

stretch. Second, because rolling unskilled tests is how you learn new skills and improve your character.

Jane: I know about herbs from my cooking I want to use my cooking skill to find the right herbs for a

poultice to help heal his wound.

Gary: If you wanted to find the right herbs for stew that would be fine. Finding medicinal herbs is

different altogether. Youll be rolling an unskilled test. If you roll well enough, I guess your skills might

transfer over well enough. In case you roll a 6, what do you want to call your new skill? Herbalism?

Apothecary? Foraging?

Jane: Foraging! That sounds more useful than Apothecary at least.

Inappropriate, Complex, and Difficult. When is a roll appropriate?

Im going to state a rule here and then immediately contradict it. But its still a rule. The rule is Say Yes

or Roll Dice. When a player wants to do something, either he does it and you just say yes, or he has to

roll and see what happens. The immediate response that springs to mind is Well what if he wants to

invent nuclear fission or jump to the moon or convince the king to marry his daughter to the town

drunk? Okay, settle down. Heres the trick its always the DMs call whether a task and intent pair are

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appropriate. Getting to the moon is a valid intent, jumping is a valid task, but together they are

inappropriate. You cant get to the moon by jumping. There is no roll you can jump as high as you like,

but youll never jump to the moon. It is inappropriate. Trying to get the king to give his daughter to the

town drunk is a reasonable intent, but you will never do it by simply arguing with him no matter how

much of a smooth-talker you are. It is inappropriate.

So what if the player comes back next session and wants to invent a rocket to get to the moon? Thats

actually a reasonable task and intent, but its too big for one roll. Youd have to start by learning

alchemy, then by spending months or years on experiments to make explosives, then find blacksmiths

who can make you what you need to test simple explosive projectiles, etc. etc. etc. The player doesnt

get to just make one roll for it because it is too complex.

What if the player wants to shoot an archery butt half a mile away? I mean, come on, thats not

inappropriate because its possible, and its not too complex just extremely unlikely. Its difficult. And

so you have to let him roll. You can give him disadvantage because of the extreme difficulty. But then he

gets to roll. When hes trying something so difficult, look at whats at stake and give him a nice big twist

if he fails risk vs. reward again. If nothings at stake, say he just wants to shoot the archery butt for no

reason just for its own sake, then theres not much you can do in the way of giving him a twist. So

theres no roll. You have to say yes. He shoots it. Hes awesome. Player characters are supposed to be

awesome.

In summary, if the task is inappropriate to the intent, or if the task is too complex for one roll, there is

no roll until those problems are corrected. If the task is very difficult, you have to Say Yes or Roll Dice.

Opposed Rolls

You and your opponent are in an argument, a tug of war, a race, using catspaws to contest control over

the docks, or any other sort of contest where you find yourself in opposition with another character. The

first thing to decide is whether to use an opposed roll or a standard roll. If the opposition is another

player character, you have to use an opposed roll. If the opposition is an NPC who has his own

motivations and intents beyond simply opposing the player, then it should be an opposed roll. If its just

some mook guard that the player wants to sneak past, make it a standard roll.

Heres how it works. You each declare your intent what you want, and your task how youre going to

get it. Stop for a second and re-examine. Make sure that your intents really are at odds here. There may

not be any real conflict after all; you may look at each other and say Oh, is that all you want? Well we

can both have our way. But assuming that you are indeed at odds and your task-intent pairs are

appropriate, you work out with the DM what skill makes sense for you to roll based on your task.

Then each side rolls a die. The higher roll wins. If one character wins by 3 or more, they win completely.

They get what they wanted and the loser pays the price of their actions.

If a character wins by 1 or two, the winner gets what they wanted, but

(Pick one)

Their hold on it is insecure.

It costs them more than they expected

It costs you less than you expected

You get something extra too. Maybe part of your stakes, maybe something else.

Its not enough to complete their true goal theres more they need to do first.

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The loser of the roll chooses one of the options and they may suggest how they see it working, but its

the DMs responsibility to fill in the details of the outcome. In any given situation, some of these options

wont really make sense. Its incumbent upon the loser of the roll to choose an option that makes sense

in the context. Its incumbent upon the DM to explain the result in a way that makes sense in the story,

preserving the sanctity of both the winners success and the losers choice.

If the roll is a tie, you may earn an Action Point by breaking the tie in your opponents favour using one

of your flaws. If the tie remains unbroken, neither side gets their intent. Try to think of something that

makes both sides wince. Its ingrained in us to compromise; weve been taught from a young age about

the importance of compromise, so our first instinct is to try to come up with a way that everyone can go

away happy. Thats great for real life, but in a game compromise tends to reduce the tension whereas

both characters remaining unsatisfied tends to ratchet up the tension. Of course there will be situations

where it just doesnt make any sense for neither side to get their way, and in that case you can fall back

on compromise, but that should be your last recourse.

Skilled vs. Unskilled: If there is an opposed roll where one character is using a skill they have and the

other is using a skill they do not have, the unskilled character has disadvantage. If the unskilled

character rolls a result of 6, they learn the skill (this is not the case in unskilled vs. unskilled you learn

more from taking on skilled opponents).

Linked Tests

A Linked test is a test you make in preparation for a later test. You may be buying or creating tools for

you or one of your allies to use. You may be spreading rumours about the Parsons wife to give your

friend an advantage at his trial. The idea is that you are doing something that, depending on how well

you succeed or fail, could either help or hinder a future test. It often precedes the next test in the

chronology of the fiction, but it could also be simultaneous. Distracting the guards while your friend

sneaks past is a great time to use a linked test.

A linked test is always a standard test, never opposed. You do all the usual things: declare your intent,

your task, and decide what skill to use. Roll as usual and determine success and/or twists. It is a normal

roll in all respects with its own distinct outcomes. It also comes with the added gamble that if you

succeed then you (or whoever you are setting up) get advantage on your future roll, but if you get a

twist then you have disadvantage on your future roll. The one exception is if you roll a result of

Success with a Condition you instead Succeed with no Condition, but also without gaining

advantage on the roll you are linking to.

Players can ask for Linked Tests when they want to prepare for a future action, but DMs can also

demand linked tests if they feel that an action requires preparation. Sure you can build a bridge over

the chasm out of scraps using Carpentry, but the quality depends on your materials so somebody needs

to roll scavenger.

What if I want to help my friend but the task doesnt really have a separate outcome that can have its

own twist? Like what if I just want to lend my strength to him as we lift the portcullis? Then what you

want is in the next heading: helping.

Helping

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If you want to help your teammate in a way that doesnt qualify as a linked test if its not a separate

action that has its own consequences then you get to roll (one die if you are skilled, two dice and take

the lower if you are unskilled) and if your result is higher than that of the person you are helping, you

add 1 to his roll. For instance, if Bob is helping Cindy using his Law skill and Cindy rolls a 1 and Bob rolls a

5, Cindys result is counted as a 2. So help is worth less than advantage, but can act cumulatively with it

the above example would work just the same if Cindy had advantage but rolled two 1s. It also helps to

mitigate disadvantage. And, as might be expected, the help of a skilled character is much more potent

than the help of an unskilled character. It never hurts to help, but the help must be appropriate. If Im

trying to use diplomacy to convince the king that we should go to war for the good of the kingdom and

my buddy Bret goes Hey, Im skilled at intimidation I want to threaten him into going to war, the DM

will reply No, Bret. Thats not helpful. Thats orthogonal to the diplomacy, not helpful. Bret: What if

Im just subtly and politely intimidating? DM: No. Youre stretching.

Helpers are at risk too. If you help and the roll results in a condition, you also get an equal or lesser

condition.

Group Rolls

Sometimes youre in a situation where everybody has to perform the same task, succeeding and failing

as a group. Common examples are sneaking, avoiding offending the host, spotting an ambush and

passing off disguises. The way rolling works in this game means that mixed results can be confusing. If I

get Success with a Condition and Bob gets a Twist, the whole group has to deal with the twist, but I also

have a condition on top of that? That hardly seems fair, and my success is pretty meaningless.

The solution is the group roll. Simply, the DM decides who gets to roll for the group. Sometimes there is

one character who is clearly the primary actor then that character rolls. Sometimes the character with

the greatest chance of success may roll spotting an ambush, for example. Only one character needs to

spot the ambush to forewarn the rest. Sometimes the character with the worst chance of success must

roll passing off a disguise, for example. One characters mistake spoils the act. If theres a tie, pick the

character who has the most personally at stake or for whom you can think of a very personal Twist.

Personal Twists are usually more interesting than abstract ones.

Although there is only one roll for the group, the other characters involvement is still narrated and can

be represented using the rules for Helping or Linked Tests if appropriate. When looking for the ambush

along a wide road, everybody can help. In a cramped hallway, only the character at the front of the

group might have any chance and nobody can help. When using Acting to pass off a disguise at a guard

post, the weakest Actor must roll but the others can help out by doing most of the talking. At a grand

soiree, the characters spending their time babysitting the weakest actor would be a giveaway and so

they may not help. They may do linked tests using Bluff to convince the partygoers that the poor actor

has sworn a vow of silence, perhaps, but in the end she has to stand on her own acting abilities.

Action Points

You may spend an action point on any roll outside of combat to gain advantage. You must narrate what

the advantage is. It can be a stroke of luck or good timing, or it can be a pre-established fact of the

situation.

You may also use an action point to automatically succeed at something if you have an appropriate

Trick. Characters start with one trick from their background and can gain more as they level up, or from

items, trainings, boons, etc. A Trick is something along the lines of: I want the truth!: You can always

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sense lies, evasions, or partial truths. If your character has that trick and is involved in a conversation

where you want to know if your interlocutor is being truthful, you ask the DM Can I tell if hes telling

the truth? The DM may just say yes and tell you No, hes clearly hiding something, or the DM may ask

you to roll an appropriate skill. If you are asked to roll, you may decide instead to spend an Action Point

and use your trick to garner an automatic success. If you dont want to spend an action point, you can

always roll on the skilled chart when using a Trick. So Tricks act like trained skills.

Some items use or generate action points, too. See page 13. See also the Relationship rules on page 14.

Action points carry over from session to session. You automatically gain one at the start of each session.

Additionally, once per session you may award another player one action point for doing something you

think is awesome. To be clear, you dont give them one of theirs, you just award them one. When to give

this award is completely at your discretion and the only rule is what I already said give it away for

something awesome, not just because Brenda is running low on Action Points or because its the end of

the session and you need to dump it off on somebody.

If nobody goes out of their way to get more, the group will accrue a total of two Action Points per player

per session - not very many. If you want to earn more, you need to use your Flaws. To learn more about

using Flaws, see the next heading.

Using Flaws

On any standard roll outside of combat, you can earn an Action Point by using a flaw to get a twist on a

task instead of rolling. You can suggest a twist, and the DM is free to accept your idea, modify it, or give

you a different twist altogether as long as it still uses your flaw.

Example: Im trying to steal a relic from the Papal Treasury, but Im running low on Action Points, so I

use my flaw Enemy of Charles the Bad and suggest to the DM that as I enter the treasury I find his

agents there also trying to steal the relic. The DM says Hmm. Thats pretty good but Ive got something

better you find the relic and realize that its a fake! Charles the Bads agents have already stolen it! Is

her idea better than mine? Thats a matter of opinion, but its her choice and I need to roll with it. Ive

got an action point and a new lead to chase after. To Navarre!

You may use a flaw on an opposed roll to break a tie in your opponents favour and earn an Action Point.

One last way to use a Flaw to gain an Action Point is similar to the first, but with the difference being

that no roll is being made. If you and the DM agree, you can use a Flaw to generate a Twist even when

no roll was called for. A common example is when you are facing a decision. In general, you dont have

to roll the dice in order to have your character decide a certain thing, but you might use your Flaw to

have your character make a bad choice within his nature. Any player including the DM can suggest this

sort of use of a Flaw, but the player in question and the DM both must agree. The guideline you and the

DM should look at when judging this sort of use is the following: it needs to get you into deeper

trouble, and it has to hurt. If the Twist in question doesnt hurt, you can still play your character that

way. You should play your characters flaws when they matter and when they dont matter so much.

Only the former gets you an Action Point. The latter is something most people do without

encouragement.

Example: If your character is cowardly, you dont have to roll dice to see whether or not he goes into

battle, unless perhaps the enemy is supernaturally frightening. In this scenario, you might want to use

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your cowardly Flaw to get your character into deep trouble by skipping out on the battle. The DM might

disagree and say that skipping the battle is not more dangerous than joining it, so you dont get the

point (you can still skip the battle!) Or the DM might agree, give you the point and then set up a scene

where you are being arrested for desertion.

Note that the DM cannot give you disadvantage for your Flaws. Your flaws only come up when you

choose to play them they are descriptive and they are resources, but they are neither prescriptive nor

restrictive. Flaws do exist in the fiction, though. If you have the Flaw Morbidly Obese then other

characters will react to your size.

Changing your Flaws

When it is narratively appropriate, you may swap out your personal (not the one from your Type) Flaw

for any other. You get to decide when it is appropriate, not the DM, not the other players, although they

may voice their opinions. To swap out the Flaw from your Type for any other Flaw, the group must

unanimously agree that it is narratively appropriate. For more about changing elements of your

character, see page 67.

A Note on the Design of Flaws

Flaws were designed badly in many games over the years. Flaws in some games were penalties you

could take at character creation to gain points to be spent at character creation. From that point on, you

had every mechanical incentive to ensure your flaw never came up in play. Newer games have solved

this problem by giving rewards when your Flaws actually come into play, not just at character creation.

Now if youre afraid of snakes, you want to see those snakes show up you either get bonuses for using

your Flaw or you get to bravely overcome your fear.

A Flaw is something that is negative for your character but it is never negative for you as a player. Your

characters flaws can only help you! First, they get you Action Points which can give you advantage,

guaranteed success on one of your Tricks, or extra actions in combat. Second, they are only used when

you elect to use them nobody can ever force you to use a flaw against yourself. Third, you can use

your flaws to get twists on rolls you dont care about and spend the rewards on rolls you do care about.

Last, but perhaps most importantly, when you use a Flaw, you make the game revolve around your

character. In the example above, you and your friends are robbing the Pope, but when you use your flaw

you get to bring in your enemy and send the story towards what you are interested in. When you and

your friends are all doing this together you wind up with a story that is all about your characters.

Action Points as Currency

Actions Points are a type of currency you pay them to get things you want (automatic successes,

advantage, extra actions in combat) and earn them by failing using your flaws. In this way, you get to

pick how your character tends to succeed and how your character tends to fail. Thus choosing your

Flaws and Tricks is an extremely important part of making your character. Playing this game, your

character will succeed sometimes and fail sometimes. So your choice when you create your character is

to choose when you fail and when you succeed. If you take advantage of this cycle and use your flaws

frequently, you will be able to fail on your own terms and succeed when it really matters to you.

A Brief Word on Pacing

DMs, it doesnt do to spring nastiness on your player characters without warning. For that reason, you

should build the tension and pull your punches until one of two things happens: the players choose to

ignore the obvious danger, or a player rolls and gets a twist. Then its game on.

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Too many cooks spoil the broth

The DM must limit the number of helpers on any test as seems appropriate. For instance, if you want to

break down a small door, simple geometry means that your friends arent going to be able to add their

strength to yours unless you improvise some kind of battering ram. Well what if we just take turns? He

tries then I try? Hes going first, so he rolls. If he succeeds, youre through. If he fails, the twist isnt

going to be as bland as He doesnt do it. Your turn. A twist has to change the situation and will

preclude rolling again. See the next heading for more on this:

Fun Once

Heres another neat little rule with big implications. You cannot roll for the same task and intent more

than once. This works two ways. First, if youre trying to sneak into the Queens bedchamber, the DM

cant make you roll to sneak past the gate guards, then to sneak past the maid, then to sneak past the

butler. No, one roll decides whether or not you are sneaky enough to accomplish your aim and if you roll

badly then the DM has the right to decide when your luck runs out you could be caught by the guards

or the maid or the butler, whichever the DM thinks is the most interesting. On the other hand, you cant

roll to pick the lock, fail, and then roll to try again. A roll assumes you are giving it your best effort the

first time.

You might need to roll again if the situation changes dramatically. If you sneak past the guards

successfully but then you get a twist on your roll to climb the wall of the keep, the twist might be that

you are seen and an alarm is raised. It would then be fair for the DM to require a further stealth roll,

likely with disadvantage for the alarm. The DM is not required to call for another roll, of course; only call

for rolls when its interesting.

Note the limitations on this rule. You dont make one stealth roll for an entire session. If you have two

different intents then you will roll twice even if youre using the same skill. You might sneak into the

gatehouse to raise the portcullis for your friends, and then sneak to scout the disposition of the guards

outside the Queens chamber. You can roll the same skill twice in a row. The only thing that is prohibited

is rolling the same skill multiple times when there is only one intent and the situation has not changed

dramatically.

Can you roll with a different task but the same intent? Can your ally roll with the same task and intent

after you have failed? Technically yes, but a good twist will usually preclude that, at least in the short

run. If you fail to convince the king by means of diplomacy, the twist isnt going to leave you there still in

the throne room ready to try a different angle. A twist must change the situation.

Recovery

To recover from the Angry condition, you need some time and you must describe your character doing

something she enjoys to calm her down or let out her rage. It takes as long as it takes, but its got to be

significant. You cant just recover any time anywhere.

To recover from the Winded condition, you need to rest for 10 minutes and have something to drink. In

4e, it was a dick move for a DM not to let their players rest they needed short rests to get back their

HP and their encounter powers. Those things are not true in this game, so dont be afraid to press your

players. Sometimes enemies wont allow players ten minutes to rest, and sometimes players cant allow

their enemies ten minutes to act. Fighting while Winded is not bad, and they can afford to be Winded a

couple of times before they need to rest. In old-school D&D players were deterred from resting in the

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dungeon by wandering monsters every ten minutes there was a chance of something interesting

happening. If you want to use that technique, roll a die when your players rest. On a roll of 1, something

comes along or some trap is sprung or whatever their rest is interrupted and they dont get to recover.

To recover from Exhaustion requires a good meal and a good nights sleep in a safe place. This is nigh-

impossible to get while in a dungeon. It would require some skill rolls to secure an area and stand watch

to allow for this to occur. The advice for Winded mostly applies here. Fighting while Exhausted is very

hard, however, and players will quickly learn to avoid doing so wherever possible. Dont be afraid to

press them, however the whole point of these conditions is to wear them down and force the players

into hard choices.

To recover from injury requires appropriate treatment by a doctor and at least one full day of rest.

To recover from disease requires appropriate treatment by a doctor and at least one full week of rest.

Recovering from curses depends on the curse. Perhaps a priest can bless you, or perhaps you need to

find the right components for a cleansing ritual, or perhaps there is some task you must perform to

make amends for your trespass. You have to work out in play what is required.

Changing Characters (or adding new ones)

There are many reasons why you might change your character. Your previous one might have died or

retired or been crippled or settled down or went on vacation or disappeared into a screaming vortex to

the overworld. Or maybe you just got tired of her. At any rate, simply create a new character and figure

out with the group how to introduce your new character to the group. All the usual warnings apply:

make a character that has an interest in the situation and a reason to work with the others at least some

of the time; dont make a character that is too close in mechanical terms to another players character

variety is important and everybody should have a niche or role in the group.

As far as your level goes, the default is to create your new character at the same level as the others (but

see page 66 for another option). Having the same level will bring you up to speed with the others in

terms of everything but skills and equipment. If youve been playing for a while and everybody has lots

of skills more than ten each, then you may take two backgrounds for skills and resources. You may still

only pick one of the two Tricks available (unless you get more by leveling up). You and the DM might

collaborate to work out what gear, if any, you may start with.

Of course, all this applies to introducing new players to an ongoing game too.

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Your Characters Stuff Equipment, gear, loot, magical items, and more

The effects of most items in this game are narrative. That is not to say that they have no mechanical

impact. They have the strong mechanical impact of allowing you to do things in the story that you could

not otherwise do because they wouldnt make sense. A Letter of Marque doesnt need a mechanical

write-up, but without it youll have a very hard time pleading your case when accused of piracy. Without

a forge you wont be making any swords at all. A blessed weapon may or may not have special

mechanical benefits, but if the phantasms appearing in the church cannot be touched by mundane or

profane objects then the blessing will take on a new significance.

Players wishing to acquire items or claiming that their character would be carrying certain items already

must look to their resources. Assuming that their resources are appropriate to the object in question,

the DM must either say yes or ask the player to roll dice.

Some items go beyond the narrative effects and demand additional mechanics. Use your imagination

and pick something that makes sense for your specific situation. In general, if a player wants to acquire

one of these items, theyll have to either roll for it or pay some price it doesnt do to give away these

powerful benefits for free. Giving such items as treasure to reward them for clearing a dungeon or

defeating a difficult enemy or exploring a secret passage is of course acceptable in fact its practically

required. This is D&D after all, and loot has long been a core part of the game.

Possible benefits:

Grant advantage with a specific skill or skills (a high-tech skinsuit or a cloak of elvenkind that gives an

advantage to stealth checks)

Ignore certain disadvantages (night vision goggles allow you to ignore disadvantages to using the

Observation skill in darkness)

Grant a skill (A loop of blessed rope that grants the bearer the Spirit Binding skill)

Help clear conditions (A potion of endurance that allows the drinker to temporarily ignore exhaustion)

Grant a Trick (A scroll containing the Knock spell.) This one is great because its automatically balanced

because the players need to spend action points to gain the benefit.

Any of the above conditionally (The loop of rope only allows you to use Spirit Binding in the daytime and

does nothing from dusk til dawn.) Some things only apply under certain circumstances.

Any of the above with a cost (You must invest a spark of your vital energy into the rod of power before

you can use it. Spend an action point.) The typical costs are spending action points and gaining

conditions, as those things are well balanced, but feel free to change it up if you like.

Grant action points under certain conditions (a bloodthirsty sword that grants the bearer an action point

each time it tastes the blood of the innocent.) Be careful with this one. These items are extremely

powerful and players really shouldnt be getting more than one free action point per session unless it

comes with an associated cost on the magnitude of a Twist. Using flaws, action points and their Tricks,

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players can trade Twists for guaranteed successes. If you give away action points too freely they will not

have any reason to use their Flaws and the economy will falter.

Grant a combat benefit (A suit of power armor that grants damage resistance but cannot be repaired

once broken) Another one to be careful with. Encounter powers are good, but you dont want your

players to have so many that they dont use their class and role powers. Constant benefits are hard to

balance. Conditional benefits are easier. I like limited-use items and items that have a chance of

breakage because it limits the risk you take on as a DM when you design those items. If you screw up

and they are unbalanced, you know that theyll only be unbalanced for a few combats and then you can

be rid of them. If they turn out to be balanced and fun, its easy to come up with ways to give the player

such powers permanently.

Downsides

Lots of items have downsides. Your plate armour is noisy and heavy, your rope is frayed and weak, your

axe marks you as a foreigner, your staff has a mind of its own. The easiest way to give items downsides

is by attaching Flaws. Players can use their items flaws in the same way they use their characters. This

is best because it lets the players get their characters in trouble without making them feel like they are

being punished as players. It also means that better is not always better your chainmail comes with

the flaw Heavy, which could earn you an action point whenever you are swimming or climbing or

whatever, while the Dwarfs mithril shirt has no such flaw and he has no such option. He gets his benefit

if he wants to use his armour to impress or if he wants to sell or trade it. That is to say that he gets a

narrative bonus while you get a mechanical one in the form of a Flaw.

Nevertheless, sometimes you want to give an item a mechanical downside to balance its upsides:

Give disadvantage to certain skills (swimming in plate armour)

Disallow certain skills entirely (casting magic in plate armour)

Grant a condition when you use it (a powerful artifact that brings a Curse on those who use it)

Any of the above conditionally (the artifact only curses those who use it for their own gain)

These lists are not comprehensive. Be creative with items and give them personality.

Improving and Upgrading

Its appropriate to have some items having better benefits than others. You might replace your items

with better ones over time, or you might modify your existing items to improve them. Your first suit of

armor might give you the benefit Once per combat, when an enemy hits you, you may force them to

reroll that attack and use the worse result. Finding a much better suit, you might instead get the

benefit Once per combat, when an enemy hits you, they instead miss. Bringing this suit to the greatest

craftsman in the land for improvements, you might get the same benefit as before with an additional

benefit of Whenever an enemy hits you with a roll of 6, treat it as though he rolled a 5 instead.

Relationships: Friends and Foes

Relationships can be simply people you know, but certain relationships can also have mechanical

weight. Heres how I like to handle it. Each character has a list of relationships including anyone who is a

recurring character. You may spend an action point to have one of your relationships come in and

change the nature of a scene. They may be saving you from immediate danger, providing you with a

new lead when the trail has gone cold or anything else as long as they change in a big way whats going

on in the scene. Youre about to be sacrificed on the stone altar when a helicopter appears and your

sometime nemesis Nala jumps out, shooting the Celebrant in the head. She grabs you and the helicopter

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whisks you both away. Youre out of the frying pan, but you know Nalas not saving you out of the

goodness of her heart.

Heres the catch: its not always an ally who comes to save you and you dont always get to choose who

it is. The player rolls a d6. On a 4-6, they choose which relationship arrives. On a 1-3, the DM chooses.

When the DM chooses, she may choose to add a new relationship to the list if she wants to use this

opportunity to introduce a new character that has been waiting in the wings. Its the DMs job to play

NPCs, so its always up to the DM to decide the Relationships motivation for coming into the scene. If

youre lost, use the following guideline: if the player got to choose who showed up, they should be

mostly helpful. If the DM got to choose, they should be helpful but with darker intentions (or at least

intentions not so much in line with what the character wanted). This is just a guideline, not a rule. If you

have a really good idea, dont let the guideline get in your way. Use the motivation that makes the most

sense for the character.

If youre using these rules, you should be sure to include a good mix of antagonists, allies and everything

in between as relationships. In The Dresden Files, Harry Dresden is constantly being saved by his dog

and his friends, but also by his enemies and others who want to keep him alive for their own purposes.

Sometimes when a relationship arrives theres a price. Nala may save you, but she may also steal your

notebook while shes at it.

I like this system for two reasons. First, it means you can make really hard moves as the DM. You can

capture people and threaten them with certain death, secure in the knowledge that even if they fail

they can spend an Action Point to survive. Second, it helps make the plots more convoluted and

involved and introduces in an improvisational way new layers to the story. What might be initially a

straightforward evil plan can turn out to be more complicated when a Relationship shows up and you

need to figure out what interest they have in the scheme.

There are two other ways to handle this, depending on the tone you want for your game. If you want

fewer twists and turns, and you want the mechanic to be more of a pay a point to save your ass rule,

the player may always choose which relationship arrives. If you want more surprises and want there to

be greater consequences for players getting themselves into a bad spot, the DM may always choose.

There is a temptation to have a long list of options right away, but in practice it can become hard to use

if your list is too long. Id advise starting with a short list. Each character may start with one ally, one

enemy, and one relationship somewhere in between. Relationships are generated naturally through

play. Players will make new friends, acquaintances and enemies. Not every one will go on the list the

mindless Golem may be an enemy, but its not necessarily good relationship material. Characters should

go on the list when they spark enough interest that the group wants them to be recurring. Some

characters will go on every players list (the Duke is an antagonist to the whole group) or only on certain

players lists (Jody and Jons stepmother is a relationship for them, not for their bodyguard SONY 5-L).

Factions as Relationships

You might have a relationship with somebody who is unlikely to make personal appearances thats

okay, because you dont need them to physically show up. They might phone you or contact you

remotely or maybe you look around and realize that they were here earlier and left you a hidden

message. Theres another way they can come in they might have an organization behind them that

they can use. So when you use your relationship with Nick Fury, SHIELD agents might show up instead of

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him. Thats cool too. With this sort of relationship, pacing can be important having SHIELD agents

show up a few times first can make it all the cooler when Nick Fury shows up in person, but one must be

careful to give the player the full benefit of their relationship.

Going beyond this, its possible to have a faction as a relationship. Maybe you have a relationship with

SHIELD instead of with Nick Fury, or a hateful relationship with Romulans. Be creative and feel free to

play around with what a Relationship means, but try to make it more personal whenever you can. A

relationship with Nick Fury is cooler, more interesting and more versatile than a relationship with

SHIELD. You use a faction relationship in situations where a single person just doesnt work.

Relationships in Combat

See page 57 for how your allies can help you when using the Tactical Combat rules.

Money and Resources

So youve stumbled across a treasure trove, a dragons hoard, or just a pocketful of copper coins. What

does that mean mechanically? Well the simplest thing to do is to write it down and make it usable as a

Trick for your Resources skill. For instance, 30 copper coins can be used as a Trick when buying

something that might reasonably be had for roughly that price (or a little above, since its not the only

money you have) you spend an action point and then you automatically get the item without having to

roll your Resources or another skill. Higher values can be used more than once for small purchases, but

see also the Fund rules below.

What about big scores that will be spent over many purchases? That can be represented by a Fund. A

Fund has a description and a value, such as Dragons Hoard 6. The value ranges from 1 to 6. A Fund can

be used as a Trick spend an action point for an automatic success. When you do that, reduce the value

of the Fund by one. Youve just spent a chunk of your fortune. You can also use a fund to gain advantage

where appropriate. If you use a fund in this way you dont need to spend an action point, and the Funds

value is not always reduced. When using a Fund for advantage, if your roll gives a Condition (either with

Success or with a Twist) then the Condition must be that the Fund is reduced by 1. If the roll comes up

with a Twist then the DM has discretion. The Twist could leave the Fund unaffected. The Fund could be

reduced as part of the Twist: youve been swindled! You pay but dont get what you want. The DM could

even take away the Fund entirely as the Twist: you open your vault to find it empty. Youve been

robbed! A DM who takes away a Fund like this should be prepared for their players to take extraordinary

measures to recover their wealth. If you dont want the recovery of stolen treasure to be a focus of the

game, dont take away their treasure in the first place.

You can apply these rules to non-monetary items that make sense with non-monetary resources.

Poisoned Bait could be used as a Trick for the Rangers Natures Bounty when trying to catch an animal.

A Heroic Reputation might be represented as a fund for the Veterans Old Friends as he calls in his old

favours. This mechanic could also be used for skills other than Resources.

Even so, isnt money the ultimate resources? Why would I want to have anything else? Resources are

not unique nor exclusive. Any character can roll any resources that are narratively appropriate they

will simply be rolling unskilled until they get a 6. The rich dude can try his hand at foraging and the

ranger can spend money. A fund is a great way to quickly become skilled at a certain kind of Resources,

as rolling with advantage will quickly net you a 6. Eventually every character is likely to have a monetary

type of Resources, but they dont start with it, and even once they get it it may not be as versatile as the

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Vast Wealth that the Magnate starts off with. Resource names should be changed when necessary to

reflect the characters changing abilities.

Resources and Conditions

Resources are a fertile ground for custom conditions, such as Broke or Bad Reputation. These will

typically be minor conditions penalizing only the use of that resource. If youre Broke, you have

disadvantage using your High Income resource skill as you need to try to get things on credit or secure

loans for what you need to buy. Youll stay broke until you score big, find some treasure, or get a job. If

youve got a Bad Reputation then youll have a disadvantage using your Friends in High Places

resource skill to secure favors. Youll keep your bad reputation until you succeed (without a condition)

with the Friends in High Places skill as long as you keep failing, the favors keep coming back to haunt

the givers and your reputation gets worse, but when you succeed that reflects positively on the giver

and makes others want to help you.

Generally you can break down resources into internal and external kinds external resources are things

like money and titles, while internal resources represent your characters inborn talents and skills. When

you give a condition penalizing an external resource, the recovery is usually dependent on external

conditions. When you give a condition penalizing an internal resource, the recovery can simply be

succeeding at the penalized skill as above. A great condition for internal resources (or other skills) is

Lost Confidence you dont get your confidence back until you succeed (without a condition) despite

the penalty.

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Example of Play The players here are Patty and Rick. They are playing the characters Arles and Carlos. The DM is Doug.

This example will go through success, conditions, twists, flaws, linked tests and helping. Arles and Carlos

need to steal an enormous tome that is supposedly kept in the treasury in the Papal palace in Avignon.

Carlos is a former priest and Arles is a knight.

Patty: So Carlos, how are we going to get in?

Rick: Well with my vestments and experience Im sure that Ill be able to talk my way in. Disguising you is

a different matter. My clothes arent going to fit you.

Patty: How about I play a monk sworn to silence? What are those called?

Rick: I dunno, but my character would.

Doug: I dont think its specific to them, but Cistercians would fit.

Rick: Indeed, Arles, we need to acquire robes to make you look like a Cistercian. I think we must make a

trip to a tailor.

Patty: Do we need to roll? I can afford it for sure.

Doug: Yeah, well make it a linked test to your roll to talk your way past the guards. If you fail, the tailor

messes up on some detail.

Patty: Okay, well Ill roll my resources: inherited wealth. Im just going to flaunt my gold and find the

best tailor in town.

Patty rolls a 5. She succeeds and Arles gets his robes, exact in every detail. And they get advantage on

talking their way in.

Rick: While shes doing that, I want to case the joint. Find people who know about the layout and where

I need to go.

Doug: Okay great. Ill just say yes to that for now. You do exactly that. In the course of the heist, when

you want to bring in a fact you learned this way well roll and see what happens. Lets move on to the

palace. You approach the doors. There are guards everywhere. The one in charge asks you your purpose.

Rick: Brother Felipe and I are here as envoys from the Bishop of Tortosa, conveying a message of some

importance to His Holiness.

Doug: Do you have a letter authorizing your visit?

Rick: One of the guys I talked to would have told me about this, surely.

Doug: Yep. They did and you came prepared. Roll your forgery skill, with the advantage from Arles

linked test.

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Rick rolls a 6.

Rick: Of course. Youll see that everything is in order. I hand him the letter and he allows me in. As my

bonus for rolling a 6, he doesnt even assign us an escort he lets us find our way.

Doug: Woah. Alright, so then you use your knowledge of the layout of the place to make your way to the

treasury. There are two guards here and youre not going to be able to talk your way past these guys.

Patty: Well approach as though we want to ask them a question and Ill take one out while you take the

other. Our intent is to incapacitate them without making lots of noise.

Rick: Carlos nods and takes his Garrote out of his sleeve.

Doug: Okay, roll your combat skills. Patty will be the lead and Rick will help because its Pattys idea and

shes the big brawler anyway.

Patty rolls a 3 on her Brawling skill. Rick also rolls a 3. Ricks roll is not higher than Pattys, so hes not

helpful. A 3 gets Patty success with a condition.

Doug: Well you take them out, but they put up more of a struggle than you expect. Youre both winded.

Youve now arrived in the Papal treasury. Its a very large room with not a lot of light filtering in from the

windows high up on the wall. You see strongboxes and loot, but nothing that looks like what was

described. It seems like there is a lot less gold here than youd expect too.

Rick: Damn, its hidden. So I cased the joint earlier, right? Does one of the guys I talked to know where it

would be?

Doug: Lets roll and find out. Well make it a linked test you still have to search, but your information

might make that easier or harder. I guess youre rolling your Priest skill for contacting the others who

worked in the palace?

Rick: Yep.

Doug: And itll have to be search to find where its hidden.

Rick: Cool, here goes!

Rick rolls a 2 on his Priest skill. A Twist! Furthermore, a failure on the linked test gives him disadvantage

for his searching.

Doug: So the twist is that your questions made somebody suspicious and the authorities have been

alerted. You hear voices up above you dont have much time to find it and get out. Roll away!

Rick: Ah, disadvantage sucks. Im probably going to fail this anyway, so Id like to use my Flaw enemy of

Charles the Bad here. How about as I enter the treasury I find his agents also there also trying to steal

the relic?

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Doug: Hmm. Thats pretty good but Ive got something better. After a frantic search you find the secret

entrance to the sub-treasury. The ceilings here are very low and its packed with jewels and gold. A few

paces in you find the relic and realize that its a fake! Charles the Bads agents have already stolen the

real one!

Rick: Aw damnit. Alright, I guess were chasing them back to Navarre. So were going to have to get

supplies for our trip?

Doug: Not so fast! Youre still in the Papal treasury, and you hear footsteps coming down the stairs.

Rick: Isnt that a twist? Can you do that when I didnt fail a roll?

Doug: Sure I can. Its not a twist, its just a thing thats happening. Things keep happening even when

were not rolling dice. Besides, this was set in motion when you failed your linked test.

Patty: Carlos, Ill hide behind the door and knock them out when they come in and then well run.

Rick: I nod to Arles. Ill catch their attention so they dont notice him sneaking up behind them.

Doug: Sounds good. Arles is using stealth, Carlos is helping with acting, right?

Rick: Id prefer to call it Distraction. Im unskilled either way.

Patty: Its okay, I got this. Arles is very quiet for a big man.

Patty rolls a 1. Doug, helping, rolls with disadvantage for being unskilled. He gets a 4 and a 5. Taking the

lower, his result is a 4. Its higher than Pattys, so she gets to add one to her result and gets a 2. Thats a

Twist.

Doug: Four well-armed men come in dressed as guards. Before Carlos can even start his song and dance

number, one guard asks Theres the little guy. Wheres the big one? They turn around and see Arles.

Its combat for you, and remember that youre both winded.

Tactical Combat is described in a later section.

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Who Does What? If youve read all these rules and still have some questions about who is doing what and when or how

much control the players and the DM have, read on! Even if you dont have those questions, read this

section to get a better idea of what you should be driving for when you play.

All Together Now

In the first session, everybody together agrees on a situation and setting to play in. Decide what the

initial focus of the game will be and what sort of action the player characters need to be involved in.

Flesh out a few locations, antagonists and other characters. Its perfectly reasonable to have one player

with a strong vision (often the DM) do most of the work here or to have a brainstorming free-for-all. It

doesnt really matter how you do it as long as the end result is something everybody wants to play.

Everyone needs to agree on what rules theyll be using and what modifications, if any, need to be made

to the rules to make the setting work.

Take a second here to make sure everyone is clear on the tone before you move on. Next the players go

off and make characters together. The DM can comment and contribute to this, but the DM has her own

work to be doing coming up with a few good twists and surprises, working out the plans of all her

characters, and coming up with stats for any enemies the player are likely to fight in the immediate

short-term. Shell have more time between sessions to work on this stuff, so its important just to focus

on the short-term parts here. With that done, the DM sets the first scene and off you go!

Once the game begins, everyone together is responsible for keeping the tone of the game and enforcing

the rules.

The Role of the Players

Players other than the DM are expected to give voice to their characters, make decisions for their

characters, and describe their characters actions. In playing their characters, there are three priorities:

making the character seem real, making the character interesting, and trying to succeed for the

character. How you play your character will depend on how you rank those priorities.

First, making your character seem real doesnt necessarily mean realistic but can depend on the tone

of the game. Create a consistent personality and make your characters decisions line up with it. If this is

your top priority, youll come to the table with a personality in mind and make your decisions based on

that. If its not your top priority, youll make decisions based on the other two priorities and in that way

youll discover your characters personality in play.

Second, making your character interesting means making decisions that arent always optimal and that

can put you in conflict with the other players characters. This usually dovetails very nicely with giving

your character a consistent personality with consistent flaws.

Third, trying to see your character succeed is important, but if you make it more important than making

your character real or interesting then you will run into problems at a few points. If your characters

success is the most important thing to you, youll push for stretching the rules at a number of points -

trying to use skills where they dont strictly apply, trying to make the skills you learn as general as

possible, and violating the tone of the game for instance. You should want good things for your

character. Want them to succeed. But that can't be all you care about. In this game its easy to make

your character be successful in an unrealistic and unsatisfying way by breaking the tone whenever it's

convenient, by ignoring any of your characters flaws (with or without a capital F) whenever they would

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be inconvenient, and by pushing the other players to let you stretch the rules just this one time (every

time). If you are the DM, its important to be strict about stretching the rules and about the tone - if you

go too easy then your players will be happy in the short run but feel less satisfied in the long run.

So what do you do if somebody has proven not to be able to handle keeping a consistent tone or has

otherwise been bending the rules? First, give them the benefit of the doubt and treat it the same way

youd treat somebody dealing themselves first in poker or talking in a movie theatre. You could say

"Dude, I know you mean well, but there are rules. They exist for a reason. We dont do that in this

game. If everyone involved is an adult, thats all it should take. If that doesnt work, then somebody has

a problem and maybe a more involved discussion is necessary.

The Role of the DM

Once the initial situation is decided, its up to the DM to play all the characters that arent the players.

The DM is required to come up with Twists when the players roll them. If youre using the Tactical

Combat rules, the DM also needs to choose and create the enemies the players will face in combat and

the terrain on which theyll face them. Last, the DM must come up with rulings on how to decide what

happens in situations where that is unclear. So the DM has four (or three if you dont use Tactical

Combat) responsibilities, detailed below. Its a harder job than the players have, but not nearly as much

so as in many other games.

Playing the World

The DMs first responsibility is their roleplaying. She plays all the characters in the world that arent the

players. The DMs agenda in this respect is to use the characters and the world to reinforce the games

tone. Typically this means playing them as if they were real human beings, but it could mean playing

them as if they were cackling supervillains or inscrutable aliens. The other characters in the world should

have goals and interests, relationships with one another and with the players.

Its vital that you show the players the consequences of their actions, and usually (but not always) they

will be able to see what the consequences are likely to be before they commit to their action. Usually

youll be establishing the consequences in the context of a player making a roll, but sometimes youll

want to just say yes to their action and give them the consequence without a roll. You know that your

cup is poisoned but you want to drink anyway? Okay, you spend the next week critically sick while

Marcel takes over the business. After that week youll still have the Diseased condition until you can

recover.

If the players object to something in your roleplaying on the grounds that its nonsense, hear them out

and strongly consider revising your play to make the world seem real. Failing that, you should make sure

that they understand why the characters are acting the way they are they shouldnt come out of the

discussion still thinking that its nonsense. Dont be afraid to stick to your guns when youre right and to

change your mind when youre wrong.

A part of this role is your ability to set scenes. You dont have to play out all the boring little details. The

basic technique of scene-framing is to skip the boring parts and get to the good parts and start with the

scene already in motion. Once youre comfortable with this, an advanced technique is to bring players

Flaws into the scene framing tell the player that the scene begins with her character getting in trouble

for her Loudmouth flaw and giving away their plan to the villain. If shes okay with this, shell get an

Action Point for her trouble. If shes not okay, shell tell you and you need to reframe things how far

you can take this very much depends on your players. Ive had players who would not be into this at all

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and others who would happily take the action point and elaborate on how their character screwed up.

Sometimes players will set their own scenes. Thats great, but feel free to twist the situation if you think

you can make it more interesting or challenging without invalidating the players idea.

Twisting the Story

The DMs next task is to come up with appropriate Twists. Twists can do a number of things with regards

to the players goals. A Twist can divert players from their goal, put obstacles in the way of their goal,

make the player characters pay or raise the stakes. If you always divert players from their goal, theyll

get nothing done and get frustrated, but if you never divert them then theyll always achieve their goal

in the end and raising the stakes loses its purpose. Putting obstacles in the players path is about pacing

too much and the game slows down, too few and things are won and lost too easily. Making the

players pay is when you take something from their characters while allowing them to progress to their

goal. Raising the stakes allows them to get closer to their goal while revealing a worse possible future if

the players fail in their task. You can only make the players pay so often before youve taken everything

they care about, and the stakes can only get so high before raising them higher becomes meaningless.

So the conclusion here is that you need to do each of those four things without leaning too much on any

one. If you need a fallback, lean towards putting obstacles in their path.

Twists dont have to be all in your hands its often best if your twists give players hard choices. You can

make them choose whether to pay some kind of cost to avoid an obstacle, or whether theyd rather give

up now or else face much higher stakes later. You can give them ethical choices or practical ones.

Another consideration here is how harsh or soft your twists are. You get what you want, but You

dont get what you want, but you do get and You dont get what you want and to make matters

worse are all valid starts to a Twist. Twists can be revelatory or useful denying players their intent

but rewarding them with information they need to continue their investigation is a great play. They can

escalate the danger while giving players a way to back out. They can also be your chance to follow

through on the brutal consequences you set up when you raised the stakes earlier.

Your agenda here can be summed up by the following: Dont give the players everything they want, but

do give them everything they deserve. Make life for the characters interesting and use your twists to

reinforce the tone of the game. Keep the story moving, keep the tension building, and follow through on

your threats.

Sidebar: The Twist List

Here is a list of twists. Its not comprehensive and you dont have to use it, but if youre not sure what to

do you can look here for ideas.

Put them into Combat

Damage or take away their stuff

Hurt or take their friends

Damage or twist their relationships

Threaten them with something really nasty...

...then follow through if they fail again

Someone shows up to screw up their plan

Someone shows up with bad intentions

An enemy benefits from their actions

Now theres more work (or a new quest) to do

They get split up (or captured)

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They take much longer than they expected or hoped.

Injure or maim them

Give them a hard choice and dont let them off easy.

Time-delay any of the above let them know that the consequences of their failure (or of their apparent

success) will be revealed later. Theyll be antsy all session long waiting for their just desserts.

Planning the Combats

See the chapters on Combat Guidelines for all the details on this part of your role as DM. Your agenda

here is to make the fights exciting and not to go easy on your players.

Making Rulings

Do you say yes or do you make them roll? Does this skill apply here? Do you get a saving throw in this

situation? There are like seven different ways this could go how do we decide? Which tasks get rolled

in what order? If we try to rest here will we be ambushed? All of these questions and more fall under

your purview as DM. It might be daunting but, unlike some more complicated games, there are no right

answers that you have to memorize. Its really up to you. Make the decisions as fairly as possible. If

fairness is impossible because a player got overeager and rolled the dice before you decided what the

roll actually meant, they have to roll again once youve worked it out.

Your agenda when making rulings is to make the world seem real (or as real as the tone of your game

requires), and to give players hard choices and make rolling meaningful. That means that if something is

really important to them, it shouldnt be free. By the same token, if nobody cares about the outcome of

a task, dont bother rolling the dice. In Combat, you want to make the mechanical effects of the

monsters, traps and terrain line up with your description of them. If the darts are tipped with deadly

poison, a little bit of ongoing damage is not going to cut it back up your scary description with scary

mechanics.

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Creating Your Character There are just 4 steps to creating a character.

1. Choose a Background. Your background determines what Skills your character is best at, where

your character gets material goods, and any special tricks or abilities you may have outside of

combat. You may pick one from the list on page 27 or collaborate with the group to make up

your own using the provided examples as a guide.

2. Pick one additional skill and one additional flaw. These represent things that are personal to

your character.

3. If you are using the Relationship rules (page 14), collaborate with your group in writing down

initial relationships. Try to tie them into the games starting situation or quest.

4. Pick a Combat skill. This skill represents how your character fights. Every character is skilled at

fighting this is D&D! You may use it when you want to fight but the combat rules are

inappropriate to the situation. Examples: Knives, Kung Fu, Summoning Monsters, Magical

Evocation, Telepathic Domination.

Note: If the focus of your game is on, say, investigation rather than combat, every character

should take a skill describing their go-to investigating skill instead of a combat skill.

5. Choose your Type. If you are using Types in your game (see the Types section on page 30 for

more details), you simply pick a Type and then pick a Flaw and a Skill from that Types lists. If

you are not using predefined Types in your game, collaborate with the rest of the group to

define for yourself a skill and a flaw you would like your character to have using the guidelines

on page 9.

If you want to use the Tactical Combat rules, see the continuation of this section after those rules on

page 66. If youre not using those rules, there is no reason to use the rules for leveling up but you might

want to consider giving one or two more Tricks when its appropriate. After youve played enough to get

a good feel for the characters, your players should choose a Fallback for their character.

Fallbacks

Once youve learned a bit about your character through play, you might recognize your characters

Fallback: its that thing they fall back on when they are in trouble. Maybe its their quick wit or their

bravery or their fleetness of foot or their incredible knowledge of trivia. Unlike Skills, which should be

specific, Fallbacks should be quite broad. Once per session, you can use your Fallback to turn a Twist into

a Success. After the DM has given the Twist, you narrate how you use your Fallback to turn the situation

around and achieve whatever the intent of the roll was. Usually youll use your Fallback to change the

result of one of your rolls, but you could also use it to help out one of your friends change the result of

their roll.

You dont start the game with a Fallback you pick one after youve played for a little bit. See the

Character Creation chapter.

Retraining Flaws, Fallbacks and Tricks

As mentioned in the Flaws section, you can change your Flaws when narratively appropriate. You can

change your tricks and fallbacks if it is narratively appropriate too, but you need the groups unanimous

approval. Tricks are too easy to abuse if you can simply change them whenever you like. The exception

to needing this approval is if you lose access to a trick because of a consequence in the story perhaps

you had a trick based on buying things and now your character just lost all her money. When a trick is

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taken away like that, you can pick a new one to replace it immediately. Your character should always

have two Flaws (one personal and one from your type) and a number of Tricks and Fallbacks appropriate

to your level (one, two, or three). This does not apply to Flaws and Tricks granted as part of equipment

or other rewards, just to the Flaws and Tricks you get for gaining levels. Reward Flaws and Tricks granted

to you by the DM are under her control if you lose the item or ability that grants one as part of a Twist,

she is not obligated to replace it. Your character has inbuilt effectiveness in the rules that the DM cannot

take away, and the extra stuff your character gets is just that extra.

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Backgrounds A background gives the various ways your character interacts with the world. I expect youll make

custom backgrounds, but Ill give some examples here. A background gives you a set of skills, your

Resources or how you get your gear and stuff, and some Tricks that only you can do.

Each background has a list of five skills. Try to include a range of skills practical, social, and so on.

When you choose the background, you get these skills. It has a description of the way your character

would typically go about procuring material goods. This is your Resources and it acts like a skill when you

are trying to acquire something. You also start with anything its logical for you to own based on your

resources. Additional Resources may be gained in play just like skills. Last, it has one Trick: special things

that you can reliably do by spending an Action Point, avoiding having to roll. A Necromancer can always

communicate with a recently deceased person. A Scholar can always call up a useful fact he once read.

As long as he spends an Action Point, that is otherwise he has to roll and see what happens.

If you are making up your own background and cant think of 5 skills that you want, just write down 3 or

4 and leave the rest blank. You can fill them in later