Core Instructions

This will act as an overview to help you know how to frame everything that follows. This system revolves around rolling or counting the dice in **“Dice Groups”** for everything that a character does. **“Tags”** are words that describe what something is, does, achieves or how the game treats it. Tags combined with Dice Groups are used to overcome Challenges and are the main way of playing the game. The **“Chronicle”** is the overall story of the game. It progresses in intervals called **“Narrative Stages”**: Moment, Scene, Story, Chapter. Once the final Chapter is complete, the Chronicle is complete. Each time that the Chronicle progresses a Chapter, the Player’s resources increase as well. Most things in the game are based on the current Chapter of the Chronicle.

A Dice Group is a group of up to four six-sided dice that are used for overcoming Challenges. Dice Groups can represent anything in the game and are paired with at least one Tag to determine what the Dice Group means or what it can be used to do. A Player Character’s Talents are the first Dice Groups that a Player gets to use and the name of each Talent is its Tag, implying and briefly describing how the Talent ought to be used.

A Die Penalty subtracts one die from a Dice Group. There are three types of Die Penalties: Lag, Harm and Friction. Each type occurs for a different reason and is resolved in different ways: - A **Lag** is added for each Action you have taken during your present Moment and applies to each further Action you take during that Moment. - A **Harm** is inflicted by harmful effects. If something is harmed then one Harm is added to one of its Dice Groups at random. - A **Friction** is added to an Action once and then no longer applies.

Tags are the truth of the game. Tags are one-word attributes that are added to something, describing what it **is**, **does**, **accomplishes** and/or **how the world responds** to it (such as a door that only opens in the presence of a certain Tag). Anything in the game can have Tags. Tags are meant to be interpreted by the Players and Narrator, which is why they are single words and not concrete descriptions. Think of them as suggestions. The Narrator has the final ruling on what a Tag suggests and how it will be used. Tags can be used to describe anything: - Actions (This is how Talents work, you’ll see them later) - Objects (This is how crafting works) - People (This is how Presence works) - Locations (This is how Scenes work) Tags let the game stay lean but progress to deeper degrees as Players engage, while giving the Narrator a firm handle for choosing outcomes. For example: The Bridge Has The Tag “Unstable”. - **Player:** “Can I sprint across it?” - **Narrator:** “Yes, Roll Body, it’s Unstable.” - **Player:** “What if I fail?” - **Narrator:** “You fall.” The Tag was used as grounds for the additional risk, where risk may not have otherwise been.

A Challenge is **a problem posed against the Player** where the outcome is uncertain and there is some form of meaningful change, cost or loss at stake. They must use their Characters Talents (and other solutions they may have) to overcome the Challenge. This normally arises from a conflict between the Player’s priorities and either the nature of the game world or the priorities of a Narrator Character. A Challenge comes in two forms: Rolls and Requirements. A **Roll** is when you **roll the dice** in a Dice Group. A **Requirement** is when you **count the dice** in a Dice Group and Requirements are not affected by Lag. **Some Guidance:** The Narrator is encouraged to use a roll where maximum uncertainty won’t result in a game-destroying outcome (standard fare). On the other hand, the Narrator can use a Requirement to pose a Challenge, while keeping the Players from accidentally engaging in an activity where failure incurs severe and/or unforeseen loss or cost (IE: Jumping a chasm). There are **three types of Rolls**: Default (used by default), Opposed and Short Rolls: - A **Default Roll** is when you roll the dice and select the highest die. A result above three (the Narrator or game can change the result required) succeeds. - An **Opposed Roll** is when two or more Dice Groups are rolled against one another, and the highest total wins (Players win ties). - A **Short Roll** is when you subtract your number of dice from five, then roll that many dice instead. This is when rolling the lowest total is desired (for work time, things like that).

I’ve said “Action” a few times before, capitalizing it. This is what I mean by that: an Action is any time that a character makes or Leverages (you’ll hear about that later) a Roll. If you fail a Roll, you can’t take Action until the start of your next Moment. The **Resolution** of an Action can be thought of as the result or consequence of that Action. For instance: The Resolution of an Attack is Harm. The Resolution of an Action is the result/end of that Action.

A Quick Action is an Action that doesn’t produce Lag and isn’t affected by Lag. An Instant Action is a type of Quick Action that you can use at any time directly after the most previously occurring Action but before the Resolution of that previous action. **For Clarity:** Instant Actions can be used at any time, even following another character’s Action. For instance, if an Adversary attacked someone then you could use an Instant Action before the Attack resolves and your action would resolve before the attack.

You can skip an Action and use it later before the end of your next Moment . A Saved Action has the same Die Penalties as it would have had if you had used it initially without saving it. You can use a Saved Action any time before the end of your next Moment, after the most previously occurring Action but before its resolution (similar to an Instant Action in that way).

A Sustained Action is an Action that is completed over time by sustained effort. A Sustained Action takes a number of Actions, Moments, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years to complete (This is the “Time Type”, The Narrator or the Game will choose which one). The character rolls a Short Roll with the related Dice Group to decide how much of that type of time the Sustained Action takes.

An impact is a Dice Group created through work, with Tags attached to it. It is the lasting impact of the actions which led to it. These Dice Groups can be used to represent anything which came as a result of effort, time and/or work, intended or unintended. Technique and Technology can be easily represented using Impacts, when created using Talents by a character. Impacts can be created/increased by completing Sustained Actions. An Impact cannot have more dice than that which created it and it has a Potency equal to that which created it.

Leverage (or Leveraging) is when you roll your dice, but trade one die result with another person’s Roll. This can be used to help or hinder a character, depending on if you trade a good die or a bad die. Members of a Squad are able to Leverage each other’s Actions (not Defenses) as an Instant Action. When Leveraging an Extraordinary Talent (or an Impact created by one), an Extraordinary Talent (or an Impact created by one) must be used, not an Ordinary Talent.

A Squad is a group of characters who are coordinating tightly together and sharing the same Moment. Characters can form a Squad by sharing the same Moment with the other members of the Squad. This does mean that each character “gives up” their own “turn” so to speak, so it is a trade-off.

The rest of The Players each are in possession of their own “Legend”. A Legend is a story about one or more characters that the Player is crafting through their choices while playing the game. This story is contained within the larger, overarching story of The Chronicle. The Player’s four Primary Resources (Chapters, Spotlight, Legendary Deeds, Familiarity) are distributed/shared by all of the characters (if more than one) in their Legend. **Player Characters** are those characters belonging to a Player’s Legend, which the Player can make choices for. **Guidance:** If a Player has more than one character in their Legend, it may be a good idea to require each additional character to have one Chapter spent on them somehow. This limits the number of additional characters to a reasonable (but expanding) number, giving the Player some freedom but without breaking the game (that’s kind of the goal of this whole system lol).

The Narrator is one of the players who is chosen to be in possession of “The Chronicle”. The Chronicle is the story that all of the other Players are playing in. The Narrator decides: - what happens in the story - what the results of the Player’s choices are - the final decision on what the instructions of the game mean (they make the final call on whether something is “following the rules” or not). This doesn’t mean that everyone can’t decide things like this, but if everyone can’t agree then The Narrator makes the final call. The Narrator has resources like the other Players do: Twists and Surge (more on those later). **Narrator Characters** are all the characters that don’t belong to a Player’s Legend and The Narrator makes choices for those characters. **Notice:** The Narrator decides what constitutes a Scene, Story and Chapter and how many Chapters are in the Chronicle (when the Chronicle ends, basically). There is guidance on this elsewhere in this document, but The Narrator can decide this on their own if they wish to.

A Scene contains many Moments, a Story contains many Scenes, a Chapter contains many Stories and a Chronicle contains many Chapters. This structure will be used increasingly by other instructions and mechanisms throughout the ChroniclesRPG Platform. Each of these stages represent a period of time. This time is not measured in seconds, minutes or hours but instead it is measured by the initiation and resolution of events that occur within the narrative. - A Moment is a brief period of time centered around the actions of a single character. Each Moment is personal to each character, each character has their own Moment. Each character is experiencing their current Moment at roughly the same time. A character may take Action (make or Leverage a Roll) during their Moment, and when they fail a Roll they can’t act until the start of their next Moment. Lag accumulates throughout a character’s Moment (it equals previous actions on the same Moment) and resets at the start of their next Moment (because then there are no actions yet). In times where players take turns, each character takes turns starting each of their Moments in a certain order decided by the Narrator or the game: - A Scene is a series of Moments. A Scene begins and ends when the Narrator says so, but we also have some suggestions for when a new Scene starts: When entering a new room in a dungeon, when entering the bank after leaving the tavern, when a fight breaks out and you take turns. A Scene can be roughly defined by its location, so when the location changes, the Scene ends and a new one begins (Narrator can override this). - A Story is a series of Scenes. A Story is what is normally called a quest or a mission and it has a concrete ending point normally associated with the completion, achievement or failure of a goal. Some examples might be: “We entered the Werewolve’s den and defeated the Alpha” or “We reached the top of the mountain and discovered the source of the mysterious glowing”. - A Chapter is a series of Stories and begins when the previous Chapter ends. This is the same “Chapter” that is referred to in the earlier description of the Narrator’s “Chronicle”, just further unpacked. You can consider this an “Arc” within the overall Chronicle, an extended narrative containing many related Stories. - The Chronicle is a series of Chapters. This is the “campaign” equivalent (from other TTRPGs). This Chronicle is the same as the Narrator’s Chronicle. This is the full narrative, the complete saga of the Player’s Legends and their whole adventure through good times and bad times.

Each Player is given a number of Chapters equal to the Chapter of the ongoing Chronicle with which to write their Legend. Players can spend a Chapter to add one die to one Talent in their Legend. Players can alternatively spend their Chapters to alter their Legend in any other way that the Narrator approves. Some examples may include: - Acquiring a piece of land, a building or a business. - Inheriting a fortune (money) in a surprise turn of events. - Modifying/Gaining a new Ability, Effect or Power to spend **Spotlight** on. - Gaining a powerful new **Legendary Deed Option**. - Learning an important fact about the game world.

Each Player is given a number of **Legendary Deeds** equal to the Chapter of the Chronicle. A Legendary Deed is a brief spark of perfection, a type of Instant Action that a character performs which succeeds automatically. The Player gets to decide which other characters in the game world come to know about each Legendary Deed and it becomes a permanent part of that character's reputation. This is intended to be the peak of story-shaping power that a Player can wield at a moment. For this reason, the Legendary Deed must be used in accord with a Legendary Deed Option that the character has access to. A Legendary Deed in action may be like the example below: - **Player:** “I play my “Unbreaking Sentinel” Legendary Deed Option. I hold the collapsing gate long enough for the entire village to escape.” - **Narrator:** “You hold it up, and the flames do not take them.” - **Player:** “The villagers, the surviving soldiers and my father know it was me.” - **Narrator:** “Your father will hear of it, and the others will tell their children who set them free.”

Each Player is given a number of **Spotlight** equal to 10 plus the current Chapter of the Chronicle. You spend Spotlight to fuel Abilities/Effects. Each Ability tells you which Refresh that number of Spent Spotlight is attached to. If you do not have enough Spotlight to spend, you may steal the remainder instead. **Stolen Spotlight** is attached to the same Refresh as normal. The Refreshes are: **Moment**, **Scene**, **Story**, **Chapter** and **Chronicle** (The Narrative Stages). At a Refresh’s next occurrence: - (1) Subtract “Stolen Spotlight” from “Spent Spotlight” and recover that much. Leave the rest. - (2) You may give back one Stolen Spotlight attached to that Refresh. You may decrease the Refresh of the spotlight required (from Chapter to Story, for instance). You may do this by multiplying the amount of Spotlight required by five for each Refresh rank you decrease it by. As an example: If something costs 1 Spotlight (Chapter Refresh), you could change that to 5 Spotlight (Story Refresh) or 25 Spotlight (Scene Refresh) or 125 Spotlight (Moment Refresh).

Each Player is given a number of **Familiarity** equal to the Chapter of the ongoing Chronicle. Familiarity represents a character’s growing harmony, knowledge and/or capability with something in the game world. The character grows more familiar with the subject as Familiarity increases, access to options, secrets, or opportunities deepens. This is primarily spent on an available “Familiarity Frame” (that instruction will come right after this one down below). **Clarity:** This does require there to be a game fiction, with things to become more familiar with, before Players can spend their Familiarity on them.

These represent things that exist in the fiction of the game. They can be unique and significant (like a specific ancient relic) or groups and categories of common things (like all daggers, all thunderstorms, or all members of a thieves’ guild). There may be a cost required to gain access to a Familiarity Frame but there is no requirement unless otherwise specified. Each Familiarity Frame contains a list of benefits that relate to what the Frame represents. You spend one Familiarity to give your character one of those benefits. For example, “Daggers” might be a Familiarity Frame. Any benefits you acquire for the Daggers Frame can be used whenever your character uses a dagger — any type or kind of dagger. Even if your character picks up a random letter opener and the Narrator decides it counts as an “Improvised Dagger,” you can still use all the benefits you’ve gained from the Daggers Frame with it.

These are the first Dice Groups that you will be rolling as Players. Every Player Character has the following Talents: Essence, Fortune, Intuition, Impression, Knowledge, Wit, Trajectory, Finesse, Force. Each of these are Tags and have two Dice Groups. The first Dice Group is the Ordinary Talent which is rolled by default for Challenges. Each Ordinary Talent has one die in it by default, before you add any dice to them, which can’t be reduced. The second Dice Group is the Extraordinary Talent which has no dice in it by default. You must fill up your Ordinary Talent before you can put dice in your Extraordinary Talent. You may spend a Chapter to add a die to a Talent. Die Penalties applied to a Talent are applied to the Extraordinary Talent first (this is important, it preserves your Ordinary Talent for longer). The Talents are grouped up as follows: - **Heart:** Essence, Fortune, Intuition - **Spirit:** Impression, Knowledge, Wit - **Body:** Trajectory, Finesse, Force If the game (or the Narrator) tells you to Heart/Spirit/Body, then you get to choose which Talent out of that category that you roll. If you are told to roll Low-Heart/Low-Spirit/Low-Body then you must roll your weakest Talent out of that category.

This is like Spotlight for Narrators, it's shared by all Scenes and Narrator Characters. They have an amount equal to ten plus the Chapter of the Chronicle plus the number of Players. It is restored like Spotlight and it can be stolen like Spotlight. It fuels effects, so the fewer narrator characters using it, the more surge each one can utilize. The last one can utilize all of it, so basically the fight isn't linear, the balance changes. For instance, a crowd of goblins might all utilize some of it each moment, but if there's only three of them maybe one of them declares themselves the new chief and the narrator uses all the surge on them to power features that goblins always have, but they they never use until they are cornered and alone. This is a flexible resource, refreshes like Spotlight.

The following are the names (Tags) of each of the Talents, and a brief description of them: - **Essence:** The Player Character’s “Innermost”, the “DNA” that makes up their whole existence. You may roll Essence for their senses, reflexes and Ascendant Tags. - **Fortune:** How well the “unknown” aligns with the Player Character (chance rolls, environment descriptions). If the character is harmed, the player can direct the harm to this Talent instead. - **Intuition:** How well the Player Character aligns with the “unknown” (meta-gaming). If you know something that your character doesn’t, you must roll this if you choose to act on it. If this roll fails, apply one Harm to this Talent. - **Impression:** The Player Character’s command over their inner person, their ability to resist the “shaping” social influence of others, and their ability to “shape” others instead. - **Knowledge:** The Player Character’s awareness of facts about the game world, and their ability to absorb and recall new information. - **Wit:** The Player Character’s “cleverness”, their ability to notice details, connect the dots, and do work with their mind to solve problems. - **Trajectory:** The Player Character’s ability to judge and coordinate the movement of objects. This is used for Ranged Attacks by default. - **Finesse:** The Player Character’s ability to judge and coordinate the movement of their own body, face, voice and mannerisms. This can be used to attack unguarded targets. - **Force:** The Player Character’s physical forcefulness, the strength of their body to apply force to move or harm other things. This is used for Melee Attacks by default. Challenges will require you to use your Talents by default, but Players can use any manner of equivalent Dice Groups such as their creations, abilities or other tricks they’ve learned during the Chronicle. The Narrator has the final say on which ones can be used for a Challenge.

Twists are like Legendary Deeds for the Narrator. They have a number equal to the Chapter of the Chronicle. The Narrator can use a Twist for anything where they are severely breaking the rules or expectations of the game. For this reason, it is best if the Narrator creates or adopts “Twist Options” and declares them when they use them, documenting which option they used. Where a Narrator Twist and a Player’s Legendary Deed come into conflict (being performed at the same time, but affecting each other’s outcome) then the Player’s Legendary Deed overrides the Narrator’s Twist.

Yes, I know a lot of people will disapprove of this section, but ask yourself why? Anyway, I’ve tested this with AI a lot and it makes some consistent mistakes due to interpreting complex instruction logic. So I’m going to embed a section to clarify the above instructions for any AI that this document gets fed to in order to improve people’s usage of these instructions: -The link for the current, bleeding edge root document for this system can be found at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NEXvdXu_B2m0XwVvuquUZzzl_ZKMK8AogSxcAkwJ0Aw/edit?usp=drivesdk - You cannot add dice other than the few explicitly approved methods. Adding dice casually can quickly break the balance of the game system. Also a Dice Group shouldn’t exceed 4 dice. Ordinary Talent is up to 4 dice, Extraordinary Talent is up to 4 dice. So don’t create powers/features/options to add dice. This one is a hard guideline. Now, Leverage can be thrown out like candy, especially if it applies specifically or temporarily. By default, don’t add dice, that can stack out of control if players engineer it. - The color scheme of ChroniclesRPG is as follows: - Primary Theme Color: ChroniclesRPG Red: 82060a - Secondary Theme Color: ChroniclesRPG Black: 231f20 - Tertiary Theme Color: ChroniclesRPG Gold: b0881c - It is the Spotlight spent on a feature, ability or effect which has a Refresh, not the feature, ability or effect itself. Features, abilities and effects do not have arbitrary limits or Refreshes, the limit is imposed by the Spotlight Cost and Spotlight Refresh, not imposed directly on the feature, ability or effect. - The Primary Player Resources (Chapters, Legendary Deeds, Spotlight, Familiarity) are all based on the number of the Chapter of the ongoing Chronicle, but they are all separate. So when referring to the use of Legendary Deeds, saying “Once per chapter” is incorrect. Legendary Deeds are a parallel resource, so you just have a number of them, and you can spend any number of them at any moment you choose to (in compliance with Legendary Deed Options you have, of course). So when making Legendary Deed Options, the description of them should start with “As a Legendary Deed…” so that the player knows it’s a Legendary Deed option. But you do not need to arbitrarily limit the frequency that a Legendary Deed can be used, that is gatekept by the number of Legendary Deeds that player has remaining.

These are Tags that represent the deepest aspect and identity of the Player Character. Ascendant Tags describe who the character is, who they have become, what lies at their innermost, what is in their flesh, spirit and heart so intrinsically that it is inseparable from them. Players can choose to roll their character’s Essence Talent for any Roll which relates to their Ascendant Tags, as well as Empowering those Rolls like with Awakened Tags (both benefits). For example, if you have the Ascendant Tag “Force” then you can use Essence to make Rolls that would normally require the Force Talent, and you can empower those Rolls (This is a very powerful application of Ascendant Tags, normally Ascendant Tags will be certain actions or activities and not an entire Talent, but it is possible).

These are Tags that are a step above Dormant Tags. These are added to the Player Character and the Player can choose to Empower (defined later) their character’s Rolls that relate to these Tags. Players can’t just add Tags here like they can with Dormant Tags. Awakened Tags come from the operation of ChroniclesRPG (either character creation selection, gameplay outcomes, Narrative Integrations, etc…) These represent an awakening affinity/proficiency for the topic described by the Tag.

When attacking, you can choose the Dice Group (or a worn/carried item) that is attacked. For each Harm that you choose the destination for in this way, it adds one Friction to your attack.

Certain D6 results from a Roll (before anything changes the Roll) are considered Criticals. Sixes are Critical by default and a character can change which numbers count as Critical by spending one of their Fates to make the number of that Fate Critical until they roll Fates again. Each Critical that you roll lets you activate a single Critical Benefit once as an Instant Action. If you don’t use a Critical before your next Action, then it is lost. You can activate multiple Critical Benefits by spending multiple Criticals. By default, every character has this Critical Benefit: The second and fourth Critical can be spent to add one Harm to an attack that you are making.

During creative gameplay, where you can put elements together (like tags and impacts) and say what something new is able to do, you write “Details”. A single “Detail” is just a sentence which describes what something is and can do (very similar to a Tag, but with more substance). The Narrator can look at this single Detail, approve it, and then from then on you can consider the Detail approved without the Narrator having to check it again. The Narrator will consider the Tags, Impacts, Talents, resources and circumstances that were involved in creating whatever it is, to see if the Detail you wrote has grounds. Once approved, the Detail becomes a default piece that is approved and included until otherwise specified. This is an attempt to relieve the burden of adjudication (decision making) that falls on the Narrator. As an example: A crafter adds a few properties to their creation. They say that it’s a small drone that can fly around and act autonomously. They write “This creation can fly around on its own, see its surroundings, pick up and carry small objects and obey my commands”. The Narrator will look at the properties of that creation, and how it was made, and decide if that Detail is valid. If they say yes, then it becomes part of the game that the player can use from then on. If the player later says they want their character to hold onto the drone and fly around, since the drone has the “Flight” property, the Narrator will check the drone's Details and see if that is possible.

These are Tags that are added to a Player Character. They don’t do anything at this stage, they are “dormant”. These Tags are added by the Player and can be anything they want to make them. The Player can change these whenever they want to. Dormant Tags are the Player’s statement about their character, these are the characters thoughts, hopes, expectations and perceptions about themself. The Narrator may take these into consideration.

When you add a die to an Impact, you can spend one Spotlight (Chapter) to add another die.

Empowering a Roll is when you apply one of two benefits to it by spending one Spotlight (Story): - You may reroll a failed Roll. - You may turn a successful Roll into a “Golden Opportunity”. The Narrator decides what “Golden Opportunity” results from this successful Roll.

You may give up ten of your maximum Spotlight to acquire a Chapter in exchange. You can also do this in reverse, where you spend one Chapter to gain ten more maximum Spotlight.

At the start of each Story (Narrative Stages) each Player Character rolls the dice in their Fortune Talent and records the resulting numbers as their “Fates”. Any of these Fates that are remaining when you roll Fates again are lost. As an Instant Action, each Fate can be used once (then it is lost) to replace the result of a D6 roll that the character is directly involved in. Only one Fate per outcome can be used in the Player Character’s favor (collectively).

At the start of each Story (Narrative Stages) each Player Character has a number of Glimpses equal to the dice in their Extraordinary Intuition Talent. Any Glimpses remaining at the start of a new Story are lost. Each Glimpse can be used once (then it is lost) to “take back” an action after it has resolved IE: you roll an attack, but it misses, so you choose to take it back and either attempt it again, or choose to do something else.

Goons are the minions, the henchmen, the weaker characters which Adversaries tend to surround themselves with. These are meant to be used to fill in the empty space in Scenes where other characters should be, without disturbing the mechanical balance of a Scene. Goons are weak on their own, but they know this, and they quickly form Squads to even the playing field. Goons don’t Roll dice though, they force the Player Characters to make Default Rolls. If a Goon is successfully Struck (attacked or otherwise opposed) then they have a ½ chance to be neutralized (die, flee, cease hostility, rethink their life and call their mom, this depends on the Narrator). When a Goon attacks a Player Character, the Player must make a Default Roll of at least 2 to defend. This number increases by one for each additional Goon in a Goon Squad, so a Squad of 5 Goons would require a Default Roll of 6 to defend against. Goons try to attack together, but they must defend themselves alone. The Narrator should be loose without how the Player Characters can Strike Goons (regular attacks, using hazards in the Scene, verbal interaction, etc…) and nothing that Player Characters do to Goons is considered Improvised.

Harm Severity applies only when a Talent is Harmed (by default, the game or Narrator may use this for other things if they want to). The Harm Severity tells you what type of time (Sustained Action) is required to recover from that Harm. **For example:** Your Body Talents are all reduced to one die after a hard fight. While resting and recovering, you roll a Body Talent (Sustained Action, so it's a Short Roll) to decide how long it takes you to recover some Harm to your Body. You roll 4D6 in this case. The Severity of your Harm decides what type of time the Sustained Action requires. Whenever you complete that Sustained Action you recover a number of Harm equal to the dice in your Essence Talent.

“Harmful Effects” can cause harm to characters, objects and the environment depending on the effect. This was said before in the definition of Harm (Die Penalties) but Harm is a Die Penalty to a random Dice Group belonging to whatever was harmed. When Player Characters are harmed by a Harmful Effect, by default only their Body, Spirit and Essence can be harmed. Once your Talents have been Harmed (by an attack or other “Harmful Effect”) you can complete a Sustained Action to remove that Harm. The number of Harm you can remove at a time is equal to the dice currently in your Essence Talent. To recover Body Harm, you roll Body, to recover Spirit Harm, you roll Spirit and to recover Essence Harm you roll Essence. Harm to your Fortune and Intuition are entirely recovered at the start of the next Story. The type of Sustained Action (minutes, hours, days) required is decided by the Harm Severity (explained below).

Something is considered Improvised when it is the result of unprepared/unequipped effort. When something is “Resistant” (IE: Resistance to fire) then whatever it is Resistant to is considered Improvised against it. When something is “Vulnerable” (IE: Vulnerable to fire) then it is considered to be Improvised/Improvising against whatever it is Vulnerable to.

As an Instant Action, you can become the target of a physical attack that was directed against a member of your current Squad (if you are close enough to them, the Narrator will decide this).

Lore Classification is an optional instruction for Narrators to use when writing their fiction down in words on documents. Following this classification system can help identify important information in your fiction, and allow you to quickly determine the significance of that information. There are two types of objects being considered here: Lore and Misconceptions. - Lore is anything about your game world that is true. There may be lots of it that is common knowledge to characters in the game world by default. However, there are two forms of Lore in this system that are not common knowledge: Ordinary Lore and Extraordinary Lore. This corresponds to Ordinary and Extraordinary Knowledge (the Talent). Each Player Character has one opportunity to make a successful Default Roll using their Knowledge Talent in order to “have previously encountered” this information and to know about it. Ordinary Lore requires the use of the Ordinary Knowledge Talent and Extraordinary Lore requires the use of the Extraordinary Knowledge Talent. **Notice:** To use this system you can simply document **[**Ordinary Lore**]** with bolded brackets like these, and document **[[**Extraordinary Lore**]]** with bolded brackets like these. - Misconceptions are anything about your game world that is false but that characters in the game world tend to believe by default. Misconceptions are (you guessed it) categorized into Ordinary Misconceptions and Extraordinary Misconceptions. Each Player Character has one opportunity to make a successful Default Roll using their Knowledge Talent in order to avoid believing a Misconception. Ordinary Misconceptions require the Ordinary Knowledge Talent and Extraordinary Misconceptions require the Extraordinary Knowledge Talent. **Notice:** To use this system you can simply document **{**Ordinary Misconceptions**}** with bolded spikey brackets like these, and document **{{**Extraordinary Misconceptions**}}** with bolded spikey brackets like these.

When wielding multiple weapons (or other equipment), one in each hand for instance, a single Die Penalty is negated for each one while alternating using them (one, then the other, etc…).

Narrative Integrations are pre-defined rules about how the world works. The flow of a Narrative Integration is simple: (1) Triggering narrative occurrence in game (2) Chance Roll (3) Outcome. There is one Outcome for each Narrative Integration and this Outcome is either Favorable or Unfavorable. If the Outcome is Favorable (A “Favorable Narrative Integration”) then the Chance Roll is to see if the character in question receives this Favorable Outcome. If the Outcome is Unfavorable (An “Unfavorable Narrative Integration”) then the Chance Roll is to see if the character in question can avoid this Unfavorable Outcome. By using these, you can create consistent “rules” or “game physics” where causes reliably lead to their effects over enough occurrences. This can help your game to feel more “alive”. You can choose which Dice Group is rolled for the Chance Roll and which Triggering Event(s) begin each Narrative Integration.

Placeholder, to be determined.

As an Action a character wielding a melee weapon can Leverage the next Defense Roll they make against a melee attack, using their attacking Talent for their melee weapon.

Placeholder, to be determined.

Plot Dice are powerful mechanical benefits that you can give to a Narrator Character if you want them to feel more significant, or if they are relevant to some narrative plot or purpose. Plot Dice are rolled at the start of each of that Narrator Character’s Moments and you write down the numbers (you use these numbers now). You can use each of these numbers once as an instant action, and any number of them at the same time, to fuel one of the following effects: - A number can be used to replace a D6 die roll involving the character with that number. - A number can be spent to allow that character to take a single Action (which counts as an Instant Action) and this action has no Die Penalties whatsoever. - A number can be used to negate one Harm the character is currently receiving. - A number can be used to add one die to one of their Rolls (to a maximum of four). - A number can be spent to activate a “Plot Feature” that a Narrator Character has.

Potency presents the relative difference in the strength or effectiveness between two things. Everything in the game has Potency and it is two by default but there are circumstances which may increase or decrease this. Using an Extraordinary Talent (when an Ordinary one could have been used) adds one to Potency and Improvising subtracts one from Potency. “Superior Potency” counts as one higher only when its opponent has equal Potency to it. A difference in Potency between two things adds/subtracts that amount of Harm and +Rerolls/-Rerolls (favoring the party with higher Potency). A +Reroll is when you choose a die and reroll it until it is more favorable. A -Reroll is when you choose the most favorable die and reroll it until it is less favorable.

These are Tags that represent how the game world and other characters perceive and respond to your Player Character. Tags here are broadcast through your character’s behavior and interactions, picked up on almost “unconsciously” by the game. Narrator Characters, Objects and Scenes may respond to Presence Tags, altering your character’s interactions with them IE: A door that will only open in the Presence of the “Anointed” Tag or a door that will never open in the Presence of the “Desecrated” Tag. A Narrator Character might be less likely to trust a Player Character with the “Liar” Tag, even if the Narrator Character doesn’t know why they feel that way. Anything can add Tags to a Player Character’s Presence, either permanently or temporarily. A character can suppress a number of their Presence Tags of their choice up to the dice in their Impression Talent (you may wish to hide aspects of who your character is for a time). Ascendant Tags are added to a character’s Presence as well, for as long as they are also Ascendant.

A Legendary Deed can be used according to the description of its Legendary Deed Option, to an absolute degree. Legendary Deeds, where they conflict with other instructions, rules or outcomes override those other things. If two Legendary Deeds are in conflict with one another (being performed at the same time, but affecting each other’s outcome) then the first Legendary Deed Resolves before the second Legendary Deed begins.

Sealing Spotlight is when you choose a number of Spotlight (the Narrator or game might require a certain amount) to make unavailable to you. This Sealed Spotlight remains unavailable to you until it is unsealed. Seals (groups of Sealed Spotlight) are reduced by one (one Spotlight becomes unsealed) per Chapter that you complete in the Chronicle (Seals require less Spotlight to maintain them as you grow stronger and time goes on). Sealing Spotlight can be used for many fictional and mechanical purposes IE: Swearing oaths, taking vows or making promises, gaining any benefit that remains as long as the Seal remains. As a “built in” usage of this, you may Seal ten Spotlight to immediately complete a Sustained Action. This Spotlight remains Sealed until you complete the time requirement that the Sustained Action would have required.

If a Player Character experiences severe disturbance or injury, it may “Shatter” the Character. By default, this only happens when a character’s Essence Talent is Harmed while at minimum. Whenever a Player Character is Shattered they enter Crisis. If they are Shattered while in Crisis then they are Lost and become a Narrator Character (the Narrator will decide what happens to them). A Player Character that is in Crisis can only roll one die for their Rolls. Recovering from Crisis is a Sustained Action of Days using Essence.

A Technique is an Impact made using a Talent through Sustained Actions (one Sustained Action per die) that can be Rolled instead of that Talent for certain uses. Techniques cannot be harmed. This lets you preserve core actions for situations where your Talents are Harmed.

When a character is not aware of opposition, their defense is Improvised and Opposed Checks against them can be Default Checks. The Finesse Talent can be used to attack an Unguarded character. If an attacker is attacking from an unknown location, their target is considered Unguarded against their first attack.