Chapter 1: Playing the Game

Imagination is the name of the game! Monsters & Magic is a collaborative storytelling game where the players and the game master play together, sometimes with the dice, sometimes against the dice, to tell a story that everyone at the table can enjoy.

Player or Game Master?

Player characters, or PCs Game Master, or GMs.

Dice

Dice are what you roll with! They’re what add randomness to the game and help you determine whether what you’re trying to do will be successful or not. While you may be used to thinking of dice as little six-sided cubes, dice can come with many different numbers of sides!

Dice Notation

When you’re asked to roll dice, what dice (the number of sides the dice has) is indicated by a d followed by a number—a d6, for instance is a six-sided die, a d10 is a 10-sided die. The number of dice you should use is indicated by a number before the d—if you’re asked to roll 2d10, you’ll be rolling 2 ten-sided dice.

If you have a modifier, you’ll add it after the dice you’ve rolled. If you’re rolling 2d6+5, you’ll roll 2 six-sided dice, then take that result and add 5 to it; 1d12-2, and you’ll roll 1 12-sided die, then subtract 2 from it.

Sometimes, you’ll be told to increase or decrease a die size. Changing a die size by one step should change the average you can roll with it by about 1. If you need to decrease the size of 1d6, for instance, you’d instead roll 1d4. Sometimes, though, you’ll need to change the number of dice you roll, not just the number of sides the dice has—increasing 1d12 would become 2d6 instead of 1d14 (which is fairly uncommon). With a typical set of dice, the you’ll generally use the following scale:

11d41d61d81d101d122d63d4

Percentile Dice

Some rules may refer to a d100 or a d%; this is a percentile roll. You’re unlikely to find a die with 100 sides, so instead, you should roll 2d10, designating one as the “ones” digit, with two 0s as 100. You may be able to find a d10 that is numbered in increments of 10 to make percentile rolls easier.

Odd Dice Faces

Dice with an odd number of faces, like a d3, are typically hard to find as well. In these cases, if you can find an even faced dice thats twice the odd number you need, in this case a d6, roll that instead, divide the results by two, and round up.

What are Dice Used For?

The most common uses of dice in Monsters & Magic are:

Ability Checks

A pair of 10-sided dice (2d10) is the most common roll you’ll make while playing Monsters & Magic—it’s what you roll when you make an ability check, the mechanism to determine whether a creature succeeds or fails when they attempt something.

Damage Rolls

The second most common roll you’ll be making. Instead of rolling 2d10, you’ll be rolling with a die (or dice!) based on what you’re attacking with. Weapons all have a damage die associated with them, as do damage dealing spells. When attacking with a weapon, add the ability you used to make the attack roll with to the weapon’s damage.

Random Tables

Sometimes you’ll be asked to roll on a random table, for instance to determine what kind of loot you’ll find from a monster, or what items a store has in stock. These will each have their own dice associated with them.

Percentage Chances

Rarely, instead of using ability checks or random tables, a rule will say that something has a certain percent chance of happening, for instance a 5% chance. In those instances, roll d% and if the result is equal to or less than what you rolled, you’ve succeeded.

Abilities & Prowess

Every creature in the game has four abilities:

Focus

Your ability to think deeply about a subject, strategize, and connect disparate pieces of information.

Power

Your strength of body and mind. You make a power roll when you attack with weapons.

Cunning

Your decisiveness and ability to think and act quickly.

Luck

How often fortune swings in your favor.

In addition to adding these scores to narrative-relevant rolls, Power is used when making a weapon attack roll, is added to your hit point total, and determines how much you can carry, Cunning is used when making attack rolls with agile weapons and is added to your armor when wearing light or medium armor, and Focus is used when making attack rolls with precise weapons. Luck is also used to determine how many Luck Points you have.

Finally, creatures also have a Prowess score. For PCs it describes a their overall knowledge and experience, and is equal to their current tier of play plus 1, so a Journeyman character has a Prowess of 2, whereas a Legendary character has a Prowess of 5. A PC’s ability scores can never be higher than their Prowess.

Ability Checks

In Monsters & Magic, like other TTRPGs, you make rolls to determine the outcome of narrative events where success is not guaranteed. This is called an ability check. M&M uses a threshold system for ability checks—you roll 2d10, add the appropriate ability and modifiers, and check it against success thresholds: a 10 or below is a miss, an 11-15 is a weak hit, and a 16+ is a strong hit. If you roll doubles and the result after adding your ability is a miss, that becomes a critical miss. Rolled doubles and its a strong hit? That’s now a critical hit! Here’s what that looks like:

Result	Total	Description
Critical Hit	≥ 16 with doubles	You succeed with some additional benefit
Strong Hit	≥ 16	You succeed without issue
Weak Hit	11-15	You succeed, but with complications or trouble.
Miss	≤ 10	You fail—the GM decides what happens. Gain 1 XP
Critical Miss	≤ 10 with doubles	You fail, and there are complications. Gain 2 XP

When both your dice show the same value, you’ve rolled doubles. Doubles always grant +1 luck point, regardless of outcome. Doubles whose total lands in the strong-hit range (≥ 16) are also a critical hit; doubles whose total lands in the miss range (≤ 10) are also a critical miss.

Ability checks sometimes go by more specific names depending on what modifiers you add and their given context:

Skill check

Ability check with an applicable talent, if you have one.

Attack roll

Ability check targeting a creature or object within your weapon’s or spell’s range

Saving throw

Ability check to see if you can withstand something See saving throws

When making a skill check with a talent, instead of the normal roll, replace one d10 with one d12—if you have expertise, you instead replace all d10s with d12s. When making a skill check, treat all 11s and 12s on the d12 as 10s for the purposes of critical hit doubles.

Group Checks

When a group’s success is determined not by an individual’s actions but how they work together, like finding their way out of a jungle, they make a group check. Each creature in the group makes an appropriate ability check, then determines the group’s success by:

1. Treating a critical miss as two misses and a critical success as two strong hits
2. For each strong hit, remove once miss
3. Add up each result:

• If there are more total successes than failures, the group succeeds
• The threshold with the most checks is how the group did on a success
• If there’s a tie, always use the lowest threshold

Advantage & Disadvantage

You’ll sometimes be asked to roll with advantage or disadvantage—when you do so, you roll an additional 1d10. With advantage, take the 2 highest results, or a set of doubles that would result in a critical success. Disadvantage is the opposite: take the 2 lowest results or a set of doubles that would result in a critical miss. Advantage and disadvantage don’t stack, so 2 advantages and 1 disadvantage don’t work out to 1 advantage, the advantage and disadvantage just cancel each other out. If you wind up rolling triples, gain an additional luck point on top of the one you get for rolling doubles.

Effect Steps

If an effect happens at +1 step or -1 step, take the result you’ve rolled and either go up or down the result chart by one step (weak hit to strong hit, for instance). Unless otherwise specified, this cannot turn a strong hit or a miss into a critical hit or a critical miss.

Ongoing, Forward, and Hold

Throughout the game, techniques, spells, or feats may tell you to take ± ongoing or forward to a roll—that’s a bonus (or hindrance) that you add to the provided ability check; ongoing is continuous until cleared, forward is for the next roll of that time. For example, if you rolled really well to try and influence a town’s mayor, you may get +2 ongoing to rolls to convince them to help you while you stay on their good side. If, however, you came into the mayor’s office and immediately called them the wrong name before getting to know them, you may take -2 forward to your roll as you start to interact with them.

Ongoing/forward and advantage/disadvantage can stack, and any ongoing/forward you get from multiple sources stacks as well, however, you can never have more than +2 total on a given roll from any combined ongoing/forward.

Ongoing

A modifier that is applied until the condition described when it was received is met.

Forward

A modifier that ends after it is used, or until the condition described when it was received is met.

Hold is similar—you’re given a pool of things to hold onto that you can spend to do something later down the line. You may be given a cache of fire arrows that you can use to deal fire damage with a ranged weapon, for example, and told to hold 3-firearrow. Whenever you use one of your hold, you reduce your count by 1, until you reach 0. Hold expires when you have no more of it left, until the hold’s end condition is met, or a long rest.

Hold

A tracker of charges to be spent that lasts until the condition described when it was received is met or you take a long rest. Whenever you gain hold, it will be of some type (like arrows); hold of the same type stacks when you receive it.

Saving Throws

Sometimes, instead of testing whether a creature is able to do something, you want to test whether a creature can withstand something, like being able to dodge out of the way of a fireball, or resist having their mind probed for information. This is a special kind of ability check called a saving throw. When a saving throw is asked for, the creature being targeted makes the roll instead of the active creature; in the case of the fireball, the goblins being attacked would make a Cunning saving throw, the Wizard wouldn’t make an attack roll.

All saving throws have a difficulty class (DC)—in the case of the fireball, the DC equals the Wizard’s spellcasting ability. The DC acts as a negative modifier on the target’s roll, so in this case, the goblin would make a Cunning ability check at -3, if the Wizard’s Focus was 3.

TKTK: Come back here Because saving throws typically have their negative consequences happen on a miss instead of a strong hit, the step system is reversed: -1 step for a weak hit on a saving throw becomes a strong hit, +1 step becomes a miss.

To prevent excess rolls from the GM, if multiple non-PC creatures are affected at once, they should roll once and apply each creature’s ability scores individually instead of rolling multiple times.

Luck Points and Doom

Luck Points are a way for your character to change the narrative of the game. Each character has a base pool of Luck Points equal to 1 + LUCK (minimum of 1). You can spend luck points to do one of the following:

Feeling Lucky

Roll a check with advantage

Bend Luck

Increase your success threshold by 1, up to a Strong Hit, or decrease the success threshold of something affecting you (like an attack or a saving throw) by 1, down to a Miss

Lucky Find

Add something helpful to the current narrative that you would have been lucky to stumble across, like the key to a locked door or a cipher for an ancient script. The GM may ask you to spend multiple threads depending on your suggestion, or may veto your suggestion (in which case you don’t spend your Luck Point)

Change of Luck

Take the spotlight from the current team during combat

Whenever you spend a Luck Point, though, the GM gains a Doom. the GM can use Doom like PCs can use Luck Points, as well as to power monster abilities and advance campaign fronts more quickly. GMs also gain temporary luck points equal to the total amount of luck their monsters have at the start of combat.

At the end of a long rest, PCs gain 1 Luck Point if they have fewer Luck Points than their base pool. Any Luck Points above your base pool that you have get transferred to the GM as Doom. They also gain one Doom per player.

Health & Fatigue

In Monsters & Magic, you have two tracks that represent your resilience: your hit points and your fatigue. Hit points represent how much physical damage you can take before you start dying, and fatigue represents how much you’ve pushed yourself.

Hit Points & Armor Class

Hit Points (HP) represent how much physical damage you can take before you start dying. Hit points are determined primarily by your class: fragile classes like Wizards have 12 HP, typical classes like Rogues and Rangers have 15 HP, strong classes like Fighters have 21 HP, and brutish classes like Barbarians have 27 HP. To each of these, you also add your Power, even if it’s negative, so a Wizard with a -1 Power would have 11 HP, and a Barbarian with 2 Power would have 29 HP.

To determine how much damage you take when attacked, characters have an Armor Class (AC). AC is based on a threshold system—you have your base AC, a low threshold, and a high threshold. Compare the damage rolled against your character to your AC: if it’s below your low threshold, you mark 1-fatigue, greater than your low threshold but less than your median threshold, you lose 1 HP, greater than your median and less than your high, 2 HP, greater than or equal your high, 3 HP. For every 5 damage above your high, take another HP.

All armor gives its median threshold and it’s level of protection: light, medium, or heavy. To calculate your low and high thresholds, subtract 4 or add 5 for light armor, subtract 3 and add 6 for medium armor, and subtract 2 and add 7 for heavy armor. Light armor you add your Cunning to your AC, medium add your Cunning up to 2. If you aren’t wearing any armor, your AC is calculated based only on your Cunning, with light armor low and high thresholds.

If a creature has resistance or vulnerability to the type of damage being dealt, they move the calculated threshold up or down one step: resistance to fire damage would move a 2 HP hit down to a 1 HP hit, vulnerability would move it up to 3 HP. If you resist a damage type and it deals damage below your low threshold before applying your resistance, you’re unaffected.

When a creature is at or below 50% of its maximum health, it’s said to be bloodied. Some feats, traits, techniques, or monster abilities trigger when a creature is bloodied. GMs are encouraged to let players know when a monster is bloodied.

Fatigue & Exhaustion

In addition to getting marked when you take small amounts of damage, fatigue is used to power you techniques, spells, feats, and more! Think of it as a “giddyup” pool—you typically don’t need to spend any to do basic things, but spending them can let you deal more damage, make combat move faster, apply conditions, get out of tricky situations, and the like. It’s not a bottomless resource, though!

PCs have 5 fatigue per level of exhaustion, and 5 levels of exhaustion. Marking fatigue within an exhaustion level has no negative effects, but if you need to mark more fatigue than you have left in your current exhaustion level, you increase your exhaustion level by 1. If you have 0 exhaustion and 3 fatigue marked and need to mark 3 more, for instance, you’d mark 2 to get to 5, then instead of marking one more, you increase your exhaustion level to 1 and reset your fatigue to 0. If you had to mark 4 instead of 3, you’d do the same, but you’d mark 1 additional fatigue.

Exhaustion makes it harder for you to succeed in your tasks. Your first level of exhaustion doesn’t negatively effect you, but you take -1 ongoing to your ability checks and saving throws at levels 2 and 3 (non-cumulative), -2 ongoing at 4th level, and -3 ongoing at 5th level. If you need to mark an exhaustion and can’t, you fall unconscious until you finish the equivalent of a long rest.

Temporary Hit Points

You may be granted temporary hit points. Temporary hit points are a hit point pool you reduce from first when taking damage instead of your normal hit point pool. Think of them as an extra boost of vitality. Temporary hit points do not stack, so you cannot gain them from multiple sources. Temporary hit points all go at the end of a long rest

Death & Dying

If your HP total is reduced to 0, you fall unconscious and prone and start dying. Your goal is to stabilize, which you can do by rolling a strong hit or a critical hit on a Luck roll, or accumulating 3-deathsave. When you stabilize, you remain unconscious until you’re healed at least 1 HP or until you’ve finished a long rest. This is called a death saving throw

On your turn, or every 6 seconds, make a Luck roll. On a weak hit, hold 1-deathsave, on a strong hit, you stabilize immediately, and on a critical hit you stabilize, heal 1 HP, and recover from being unconscious. On a miss, you mark 1-exhaustion.

If you take damage wile dying, mark 1-exhaustion. If you are healed while dying, your HP is reset to 0 plus the amount you were healed, you stabilize, and you are no longer unconscious. When you stabilize, reset your held deathsave.

While dying, if you need to mark exhaustion and you can’t, you die.

When you die Death themself come to bargain with you. The GM will give you with a deal—a path you need to take, a change you need to make, or something of the like. Either accept the bargain and stabilize, or refuse, seal your fate, and pass on.

Talents

Talents are a word or phrase that describes a specific set of skills, personality traits, experiences, or aptitudes your character has gained over the course of their life. There’s no set list of talents, but they can’t be too broadly applicable and can’t grant your character a specific mechanical benefit, like spells, special abilities, or senses. Talents like “One-Hit Kill” or “Invincible” are off the table because they imply game-breaking special abilities, while something like “Supergenius” or “Omniskilled” are too broad and could be applied to virtually any roll. Instead, they should be Specific, relevant in key key situations, Earned, through hard work or through your station in life, or Learned, something you could teach others or you’ve picked up from others. Talents work best when they build on your character’s background and help you tell a more rich story about them.

Each of your talents has a proficiency tier:

Trained

When making a skill check that draws on this talent, swap one of your d10s for a d12.

Expert

When making a skill check that draws on this talent, all of your d10s for d12s.

Talents cannot be applied to attack rolls or saving throws.

Equipment

Every character starts with proficiency with simple weapons, with some traits, heritages, and feats granting you additional weapon and armor proficiencies. Gaining a spellcasting feat grants you proficiency with spellcasting foci. If you do not have proficiency with a weapon you’re wielding or armor you’re wearing, you make attack rolls at disadvantage, and you cannot cast spells that require somatic components.

Loadouts

Each character also has two loadouts—sets of equipment that they can quickly and easily swap between. Equipment loadouts can include:

• Either a single primary weapon, secondary weapon, or focus, optionally with a shield
• A primary and a secondary weapon
• Two secondary weapons
• A focus and a secondary weapon
• Two foci

In addition, you have an item loadout with a number of small items (potions, spell scrolls, handheld tools, adventuring gear) equal to your Prowess available for easy access. Swapping between equipment loadouts, or using a small item in your item loadout, can be done with the Use Item technique. Armor does not change with loadout, and equipment your loadout cannot require the use of more than two hands.

Weight & Carrying Capacity

While adventuring, you’re going to pick up stuff, and that stuff has weight. How much weight you can lug around is your carrying capacity, and how much you’re currently carrying is your load.

Each 1 weight weighs approximately 5-10 lbs. There are some items, though, that have a negligible effect on your load; they have 0 weight. Other items only have an effect on your load when you’ve got a bunch of them, those are marked as light weight—10 light weight items, in any combination, weighs 1 weight. Some equipment, like a backpack, make it easier to carry more; their weight is negative. Any combination of 1000 gold and gems that don’t have their own weight has 1 weight.

Your carrying capacity is the most you can carry before becoming encumbered and is equal to double your +POWER plus 10. When you’re encumbered, you speed is halved and take you take -2 ongoing to all rolls until you’re no longer encumbered. Your load can never be more than your carrying capacity +3.

Spellcasting

Monsters & Magic has a flexible spellcasting system—instead of preparing spells or using spell slots, spells are built on-the-fly from a combination of cantrips–basic spells–and charms–modifiers to basic spells–and are powered by fatigue, just like techniques. Say you wanted to cast “fireball”, to do so, you’d start with the fire bolt cantrip then combine it with the sphere targeting charm and maybe for fun upcast fire bolt to both deal more damage and apply the Doomed condition on a strong hit. This of course would cost a lot of fatigue, but it’s a lot of “bang for your buck”, so to speak. Charms can apply to multiple cantrips, so if you wanted to call down a hailstorm instead, you’d cast this with water whip. In addition, there are rare charms just like there are rare techniques—these can only be learned as part of your level-up options or through the course of your story. Charms all have one or more tags describing how they modify a cantrip: targeting, effect, trigger, or metamagic—you can only have one of each type of charm attached to a cantrip at once, and charms that have more than one count as both. Additionally, metamagic charms can only be learned and used if you have a specific feat that grants you access to them.

Spellcasters all know a set number of cantrips and charms, and depending on their spellcasting feat will either choose charms spontaneously throughout the day or pick them as part of starting their day. Your spellcasting feat will also tell you what your spellcasting ability is—this is referred to as +SPELL. The Difficulty Class of a spellcaster’s spells is equal to their +SPELL.

Full spellcasters typically know 3 cantrips and a number of charms equal to twice their Prowess, half casters typically know 2 cantrips and half as many charms.

Cantrips each belong to a different school of magic. Effect charms all also belong to a different school of magic—applying a charm to a cantrip may change its school of magic. The schools of magic are:

School	Typical Effects
Abjuration	Prevents or reverses harmful effects
Conjuration	Transports creatures or objects
Divination	Reveals information
Enchantment	Influences minds
Evocation	Channels energy to create effects that are often destructive
Illusion	Deceives the mind or senses
Necromancy	Manipulates life and death
Transmutation	Transforms creatures or objects

Casting Components

Unless otherwise stated, all spells have three components when you cast them: specific words chanted to call forth the magic, its verbal components, specific movements made to shape the magic, its somatic components, and specific materials used to channel the magic, it’s material components. If a spell does not list a specific material component with a specific price, the material component is typically a spellcaster’s focus.

If you are unable to perform the verbal or somatic portions of casting a spell (like you are bound or gagged, you don’t have at least one hand free, etc…), or you do not have the required material components, you are unable to cast that spell.

Spells also have an AP cost or casting time and a fatigue cost—AP cost or casting time represents how complex a spell is to cast, and fatigue cost is how much energy you need to exert to shape the spell.

Ritual Casting

Some spells have a casting time—those spells are ritual spells, or rituals for short. In order for you to cast a ritual, you must spend its entire casting time performing the verbal and somatic aspects of the spell. Fatigue and material cost for casting a ritual are marked or consumed when you start casting it. If you are interrupted while performing the ritual, you must start from the beginning, paying the fatigue and material cost again.

Spells that neither have a trigger not have an existing casting time can also be cast as a ritual. To do so takes 10 minutes per AP plus 5 minutes per fatigue, minimum of 1 minute. When you cast a spell as a ritual like this, it does not cost you fatigue, and you can upcast it and combine charms as normal. Cantrips cannot be cast as rituals without an attached charm.

Techniques

Techniques provide creatures with moves they can make, typically in combat, and are divided into three categories: Basic Techniques, which all creatures know, Advanced Techniques, which an adventurer or creature may have access to and are available from the start of the game, and Rare Techniques, which are very powerful and can only be gained at higher levels or through the course of your story. Martial characters typically get a pool of techniques to use instead of spells to cast.

Techniques are powered by two things: Action Points and fatigue. Different techniques cost different amounts of both depending on how powerful they are or how much time and effort it takes to do, for instance, the Help basic technique costs 2 AP, whereas the Move technique costs only 1. Unless a technique says otherwise, you can only use it once per turn. Some techniques will call for you to use another technique, for instance, do something, then strike a creature—this does not count as a usage of the named technique.

Combat

When all else fails, it’s time for combat!

When in combat, there is no prescribed turn order, instead, who’s going is determined by what side of combat has the spotlight. Combat typically has a natural narrative beginning—someone flips a chair, throws a punch, or triggers an ambush. When there’s a clear instigator, that side starts with the spotlight, otherwise the players start with the spotlight.

The Spotlight

Combat happens in rounds, with each round lasting approximately 6 seconds. A round starts when the first creature involved takes its turn and ends when the last creature involved takes its turn. Whoever is taking their turn holds the spotlight. Combat is dangerous: in addition to the normal rules, the following also applies based on your attack roll:

Critical Hit

Double the damage die you roll, or increase the duration of an applied condition by 2 rounds

Strong Hit

Normal damage roll or condition duration

Weak Hit

Normal damage roll or condition duration. The creature(s) being attacked can use its reaction to make a 1 AP move

Miss

The spotlight will switch sides at the end of this turn. The creature(s) being attacked are unaffected, and can use its reaction to make a 1 AP move.

Critical Miss

The spotlight immediately switches sides

Saving throws also have these additions, but their order is reversed (critical miss is critical hit, strong hit is miss). If multiple creatures are affected at once, they all must miss or critically miss for the spotlight to switch.

Passing the Spotlight

At the end of a creature’s turn, who goes next depends on how that turn went:

• If the creature didn’t roll a miss or critical miss, their side chooses who goes next.
• If the creature rolled a miss, the opposing side takes the spotlight and chooses who goes next.
• At the end of one side’s turn, PCs may spend a Luck Points or the GM may spend a Doom to seize the spotlight and immediately take a turn.

Once a creature has taken a turn, it cannot take another turn until all creatures in combat have taken one

Action Points

On a creature’s turn, they have a set number of Action Points (AP) that they can spend to do things with—move, attack, help another creature, etc…. PCs typically have 3 AP per turn, whereas monsters, especially more dangerous ones, may have more. You can’t spend more AP in a turn than you have, and unused AP doesn’t carry over to your next turn.

Reactions

Unless otherwise specified, creatures can also take one reaction. Unlike AP, which you can only use on your turn, reactions can be taken whenever their trigger condition is met. Once you take a reaction, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn.

Ready an Action

You can also choose to ready an action; when you do so, you choose a specific trigger and spend the appropriate AP for the action you want to make, but wait to resolve it (mark any fatigue or take the action) until the trigger is tripped. In response to the trigger being tripped, you then resolve it. This uses your reaction. If the trigger is not tripped by the start of your next turn, it ends without resolving.

Basic Techniques

Every creature can take use one of these basic techniques as an action on their turn. provided they meet any prerequisites (like being able to cast spells). You may gain other techniques as you progress throughout the game. See Techniques for full list of techniques.

Reach & Range

Some actions will use a phrase like “within your reach” to describe a distance; this is the range of your equipped weapon and, if unspecified, refers to your equipped melee weapon. If it’s used as a trigger for a reaction and the action has you make an attack, it must be with the equipped weapon, unless otherwise specified. If you do not have a melee weapon equipped, it’s within touch range of yourself (5 feet).

Melee weapons cannot be used at a distance further than touch range, and spells can’t be cast further than their stated range. Ranged weapons, however, can; you can try to attack a creature up to twice your ranged weapon’s range away, making your attack roll with disadvantage if it’s beyond normal reach. Anything further away than twice your ranged weapon’s range cannot be targeted.

Flanking

While two or more allies are adjacent to, and on opposite sides of, an enemy, they flank the enemy. This grants the flanking allies +2 ongoing to melee attack rolls against that enemy.

Mounted Combat

A willing creature that is at least one size larger than a rider and has the appropriate anatomy can serve as a mount. You can use the Mount or Dismount technique to get on and off of a mount. If you’re on a mount and an effect would force you off of it, make a cunning saving throw—on a miss, you’r thrown from your mount and knocked prone in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the mount, on a weak hit you can either mark 2-fatigue to stay on your mount or be knocked from your mount to an unoccupied space within 5 feet but land on your feet. You make the same save if you or your mount are knocked prone.

If a mount has been trained to accept a rider, the rider can control it. A controlled mount’s initiative becomes the same as its rider, and it can only use the Move, Dodge, or Disengage techniques. An independent mount—one that lets you ride but ignores your control—retains its own initiative and can move and act as it likes.

Underwater Combat

While underwater, everything has resistance to fire damage. Attacks with are made with disadvantage unless the creature has a swim speed or is riding a mount with a swim speed, and the range of ranged weapons is halved.

Conditions

While adventuring, you may be subject to a condition, a positive or negative state that has an effect on you. Conditions stack, and you can have one that cancels another. Unless otherwise specified, a condition lasts until the end of the next round, or after 6 seconds. Whenever the same condition is applied again to the same creature, its duration is increased by 1 round.

Blinded

You cannot see—ability checks that rely on sight automatically fail, you don't add your ability from saving throws that rely on sight, attack rolls against you are made with advantage, and your attack rolls are made with disadvantage.

Charmed

You're enthralled—you can't attack the charmer or target them with damaging abilities or magical effects, and the charmer has advantage on ability checks to interact with you socially.

Doomed

You're in grave danger—mark 1-fatigue at the start of every turn.

Empowered

You feel stronger than ever—rolls and saving throws are made with +2 ongoing

Encumbered

Your load is greater than your carrying capacity—your speed is halved and you take -2 ongoing to all rolls.

Frightened

You're scared for your life—you are weakened while you can see, hear, or feel the source of your fear, and you cannot move closer to the source of your fear.

Hastened

You've got a pep in your step—movement speed is doubled

Impaired

You can't exert much energy—lose 1 AP at the start of your turn

Inspired

You're ready to shape your destiny—clear inspired to gain a luck point and use it immediately. Inspired lasts until it's used or until you complete a long or extended rest.

Invigorated

It's tough to tire you out—recover +1 fatigue at the start of your turn

Invisible

You, and everything you're wearing or carrying, is hidden from sight—you become undetected and have advantage on attack rolls.

Petrified

You've been turned into a solid object—you're Stunned and Protected, but can't move or speak, and are unaware of your surroundings. You automatically miss all Power and Cunning saving throws, attack rolls against you have advantage, and you gain resistance to all damage and immunity to poison and disease not already in your system—those are suspended.

Prepared

You're ready for what comes next—take +2 forward on an appropriate roll

Prone

You've fallen to the ground—you become slowed, can only crawl to move. You have disadvantage on attack rolls. Attack rolls against you have advantage if the attacker is within touch range of you and disadvantage if they're further away. You can end this condition by taking the Move technique to stand up, spending ½ your maximum Speed.

Protected

It's harder to hurt you—you gain +2 AC while protected.

Quickened

You're ready to go—gain +1 AP at the start of your turn

Restrained

You're being held back—you're immobile and can't spend AP, except to teleport out of the restrained, until you mark 3-fatigue on your turn to free yourself. If you're being restrained by a creature, they can mark the same to prevent you from freeing yourself.

Slowed

It's harder for you to move—movement speed is halved

Stunned

You're dazed and unable to act—you're immobile and you can't spend AP or take reactions.

Sundered

Your armor is less effective—take -2 to your AC.

Unconscious

You're out—you become prone and stunned and are unaware of your surroundings

Weakened

Your strength has been drained—rolls and saving throws are made with -2 ongoing

Combos

Many conditions represent escalating danger or power. These chains allow players, and the GM, to coordinate attacks to produce bigger and better results, comboing off of each other. For conditions in these chains, applying the same condition again behaves a little bit differently—instead of increasing the duration by 1 round, you can upgrade it to the next item in the chain.

Chains

• Slowed→Impaired→Stunned
• Doomed→Weakened
• Hastened→Quickened
• Invigorated→Empowered

When you get to the end of the chain, you have one of two options when you apply the same condition again: either extend its duration by 1 round, or “detonate” it, removing the condition immediately in exchange for a boon. Detonating Stunned or Weakened deals the target 3 HP of damage of whatever type caused the explosion (or physical, if no damage type specified)—if the attack specifies marking fatigue based on wounds taken, like the Mind Spike cantrip, that happens based on the 3 HP. This entirely bypasses armor thresholds (but not resistance or immunity). Detonating Quickened or Empowered instead immediately recovers 3 fatigue.

Rest & Recovery

There are three kinds of rests you can take as you adventure: a short rest, a long rest, and an extended rest. Each rest takes a certain amount of in-game time, during which time you can swap items in your loadout and take certain downtime activities. You can only rest if you’re in an area of relative safety. Several recovery options spend supplies—a unit of rations and remedies you can buy for 5g, gather during a rest, or earn as treasure.

Short Rest

A short rests takes 1 in-game hour during which you can choose two of the following downtime activities—you cannot take more than 3 short rests in a row before taking a long rest:

Tend to Wounds

Spend up to 2 supplies to heal yourself or an ally 1/4 of their max HP per supply spent

Clear Fatigue

Clear 2 fatigue

Gather Supplies

Search the area for supplies. Make a Focus roll—on a weak hit, gain 1 supply, on a strong hit, gain 2. The GM may set a DC for this based on the area you’re in

Prepare

Complete a number of tasks available when you prepare equal to your Prowess. One of those tasks can be to prepare yourself for the path ahead—when you do so, describe how you prepare yourself for the path ahead and become prepared for that scenario before your next long rest. If multiple party members prepare for the same thing together, they instead each hold 2 prepared, which can be spent 1

to become prepared for a relevant roll.

Long Rest

A long rest lasts 8 in-game hours and cannot be interrupted by more than 1 hour of strenuous activity (such as combat), during which characters typically eat and sleep. You can choose two of the following downtime activities:

Tend Wounds

Spend supplies to heal yourself or an ally 1/4 of their max HP per supply spent

Clear Fatigue

Clear all fatigue and optionally spend supplies to recover 1 exhaustion per supply

Gather Supplies

Search the area for supplies. Make a Focus roll—on a weak hit, gain 1 supply, on a strong hit, gain 2. The GM may set a DC for this based on the area you’re in

Take Watch

Spend 2 hours watching for danger. Make a Focus roll—the GM will tell you what you notice based on the result

Prepare

Complete a number of tasks available when you prepare equal to your Prowess. One of those tasks can be to prepare yourself for the path ahead—when you do so, describe how you prepare yourself for the path ahead and become prepared for that scenario before your next long rest. If multiple party members prepare for the same thing together, they instead each hold 2 prepared, which can be spent 1

to become prepared for a relevant roll.

Work on a Project

With GM approval, pursue a long-term project, such as deciphering an ancient text or crafting a new weapon.

Daily Preparations

Complete a number of tasks available during your daily preparations equal to your Prowess.

Extended Rest

An extended rest lasts for 12 in-game hours and cannot be interrupted by more than 1 hour of strenuous activity (such as combat).

Recuperate

Heal all HP, clear all fatigue, and recover 2 exhaustion

Level Up

Reflect on your adventure and advance to the next level, provided you have enough experience to do so

Work on a Project

With GM approval, pursue a long-term project, such as deciphering an ancient text or crafting a new weapon. Countdown twice, with +2 forward for each roll you make towards it.

Get a Job

Find work to earn some gold. This is typically a day job and the amount you earn is up to the GM’s discretion.