Terms

Trait

Your character's traits. They range from -1 to +5.

Brawn is using force, endurance, or willpower.
Prowess is using speed, agility, or precision.
Instinct is using intuition, observation, or empathy.
Reason is using logic, deliberation, or expertise.
Guile is using deception, stealth, or cunning.

Control

Control is a PC's, NPC's, creature's, or entity's command or influence over a situation. It is a fictional position that a character can be in.

If your character has control, they know what's going on. They can act freely and proactively. They have time & ability to direct their will.

If a character isn't in control, they are reacting to the situations around them. They are answering to the events in the world.

If your character has control, you take Actions.
If your character is not in control, you take Reactions.

(You can say a character is "in control", or they "have control". Either one is fine.)

Represent control at the table by giving each player either a coin that has two colors or a playing card:
Green/Blue/light colors or a face-up card represents a character who is in control.
Red/Orange/dark colors or a face-down card represents a character who is not in control.

Who has control is established at the start of a conflict or tense situation, like a Skirmish, Hunt, or critical Social situation. It gets determined for each character or entity involved in the situation.
When a conflict has been resolved, all PCs involved regain control.

Being in control is the default state for someone who is awake and paying attention.
When a PC sleeps, they do not have control.

Tense Situation

The GM will confirm if the game is "tense" or not. If you're in a tense situation, you can use Skirmish or Hunt Actions/Reactions.

Actions

Actions are intentions manifested. They are acts, movements, and things your character can do when the results or outcome of a situation are uncertain.

If your character tries to do something and the outcome seems certain, your character just does it. No need for an Action roll.

You take Actions when your character is in control.

Reactions

Reactions are reflexes. They are acts, movements, and things your character does when the world acts upon them and the results or outcome of that situation are uncertain.

If something is happening to your character and the outcome seems certain, your character just does it. No need for a Reaction roll.

You take Reactions when your character is not in control.

Response

A Response is something your character does to interrupt an Action or Reaction.

Responses typically look like:
When X happens, do Y.

Roll

To take an Action or Reaction,
roll 2d10 + Influences + Trait + Other Modifiers.

After the roll, you may want to Burn Momentum.

Roll results

A 17+ is called Progress.
A 12–16 is called a Struggle.
≤11 (11 or less) is called a Miss.

If you have a choice in any of your results, you should endeavor to choose the ones that either match the fiction the closest or serve the story the best.

Roll any Trait

If an Action/Reaction says roll any Trait, use the list below to determine how you approach the Action/Reaction:
If you act...

• with force, endurance, or willpower: Roll +Brawn.
• with speed, agility, or precision: Roll +Prowess.
• with intuition, observation, or empathy: Roll +Instinct.
• with logic, deliberation, or expertise: Roll +Reason.
• with deception, stealth, or cunning: Roll +Guile.

Influences

Things that can influence or affect a roll.

Advantage

Advantage is rolling 3d10 and keeping the highest 2d10.
It is assigned before the roll is made.
If you have advantage, using it is optional.

Disadvantage

Disadvantage is rolling 3d10 and keeping the lowest 2d10.
It is assigned before the roll is made.
If you have disadvantage, you must use it.

Secure

Secure is rerolling the lowest 1d10.
It happens after the roll is made.
If you have secure, using it is optional.

Slip

Secure is rerolling the highest 1d10.
It happens after the roll is made.
If you have a slip, you must use it.

Flat Roll

A flat roll is a roll without any of the Roll Influences Advantage, Disadvantage, Secure, or Slip.

If a roll is Secure and/or has Advantage, AND the roll is a Slip and/or has Disadvantage, it becomes a flat roll.

Another way to put it is...
Advantage and Secure are in favor of the PC, while Disadvantage and a Slip are against the PC. If there are ever Roll Influences that are both in favor and against the PC, the roll becomes a flat roll.

Momentum

Momentum represents how you're faring in your adventure.
It ranges from -4 to +10, and is on the left side of your character sheet. Use a paper clip or token to mark the current value.

Action/Reaction results may tell you to increase or decrease momentum.

When you have positive momentum, things are going your way. You have the advantage. You are improving your position. Your path is clear. You are set up for success.

When you have negative momentum, the tide has turned against you. You face tough odds. You are outmatched. Your next steps are uncertain. Things are going poorly.

Gaining Momentum

If an Action/Reaction tells you to add momentum (phrased as “gain +X momentum”), increase your momentum track by the value indicated. The choices you make, options you choose, or the assets you use to support the Action/Reaction may modify the amount rewarded.

Gaining +1 momentum represents a minor improvement in your position. Gaining +2 momentum (or more) represents a major improvement in your position.

Losing Momentum

You can lose momentum as a choice or result when taking Actions/Reactions, usually on a struggle or a miss. If a move tells you to lose a specific amount of momentum (phrased as “suffer -X momentum”), you reduce your momentum track by the value indicated. The options you choose in an Action/Reaction or assets you use in response can alter this.

If you lose momentum as a result of a narrative outcome without a defined value, you should
suffer a reduction appropriate to the narrative circumstances. The GM will give guidance here when needed.

• For a minor difficulty or complication, suffer -1 momentum.
• For a major difficulty or complication, suffer -2 momentum.

Some Actions/Reactions and assets give you the option to suffer a loss of momentum in exchange for other gains.

Burning Momentum

Burning momentum is a powerful option to build on your success and deliver a decisive result or avoid dire failure.

When you have positive momentum, after you make a roll for the chosen Action/Reaction, you may increase the lowest die up to your current momentum value.

If both dice in your roll are less than your momentum value, you may increase them both to that number.

For example:
Your momentum track is at +5. Your 2d10 roll was 3 and 10, and you're adding +Brawn which is +3.
Without burning momentum, you have a 16 (struggle). You can then burn momentum to increase the 3 to a 5. This shifts your result to a 18 (progress).

Burning momentum is never required. Even if you score a miss and have enough momentum to increase your results into a struggle, you can choose to suffer the failure and save your momentum for a more crucial moment.

After you burn momentum, you must reset your momentum.

Resetting Momentum

After you burn momentum, you must adjust your momentum track to your momentum reset value. The default reset is +1. This value is lowered when your character suffers from a condition or wound. Conditions are states like bleeding, shaken, or unprepared.

• If you have one condition or wound, your momentum reset is +1.
• If you have more than one condition or wound, your momentum reset is 0.
  There is a box below the momentum track where you can record your current momentum reset.

Suffering Negative Momentum

When your momentum is less than 0, you subtract that many from your Action/Reaction roll.
(This may be too punishing, we'll see)

Minimum Momentum

Your momentum cannot drop lower than -4. This is your minimum momentum.
If a move tells you to lower your momentum, and your momentum is already at its minimum, you will instead lose control and make the Face a Setback Reaction. As a result of this Reaction, you must gain Fatigue and Fog (or some combination thereof) by that amount, or undermine your progress in a current quest, journey, or fight.

Take Actions like Gain Leverage or Push Forward to regain momentum.

Maximum Momentum

Your max momentum starts at +10, and is reduced by 1 for every condition and wound you have.
You can’t increase momentum over your max.

Fatigue

This is going to be similar to BitD Stress, and I'll likely include something like the resistance rolls mechanic.
It'll be a track that goes up to 8 or 12 or somewhere around there.

I'm thinking that taking more Fatigue prevents Wounds. But obviously if you're too tired (Fatigue track is full), you can't stop someone from stabbing you.

Fog

Fog is like mental stress. Mental clarity is going to be an important part of this game.
This is like a 2nd stress track but it only has 3 or 4 ticks.
When you would take more than your Fog track allows, you go unconscious or you're stunned (or similar)

I think each Fog you have just gives you a -1 to every roll. It's just bad & dangerous to not be clear-headed.

Max fog means disadvantage (3d10 keep lowest 2)?

Wound

Similar to Batman or The Witcher, I think the game is going to be more about getting beat to shit and failing to protect every innocent person rather than death.

Right now I'm thinking wounds will be a bit loosey goosey, but you can have 4 of them and then give you a permanent minus to your rolls. They'll be write-in like BitD.
So you might have "Arm sliced" that gives you -1. And you might have "Broken Leg" that gives you -2 or -3.

I want the game to be about trudging forward despite being hurt, but I also don't want a death spiral so the minuses are likely to change.

Once all your wounds are filled and you get in a situation that calls for it, you can die. But I think it will be more a conversation at the table than anything mechanical.

Conditions

Ongoing affects or states.

Bleeding, confused, cursed, maimed. Each one will have a bespoke effect. Some will happen when you're wounded, some won't.

Pursuits

See 02 - Actions#No Stone Unturned for how you gain a Pursuit.

Pursuits are something your character is bound to. They are something they are obsessed with, or something they are dedicated to finding resolution on. Pursuits are meant to be dramatic, and should really help define your character.

"I want, no I NEED to figure this out, solve this, pursue this."
They aren't chosen or taken-on lightly. Ideally Pursuits would be connected to a greater failure or consequence if not, well, pursued.

There may be cultural expectations around a Pursuit ("Don't go sticking your nose where it doesn't belong"), or personal stakes for making one ("My father wants me to continue his work as a Blacksmith, but figuring this out is more important to me.").

If a Pursuit is in service to someone else, it should impact your relationship with them and others you encounter.
If it's personal and something in the story acted as impetus to make you give up on it before it's complete, the decision to give it up should cause you to reconsider and reprioritize your other Pursuits (or other things you care about). ("My mother asked me to be a guide for the King. What do I do now that he's dead?")

I'm thinking there would be a main Pursuit that the GM gives at the start of an adventure, and also a shared one that the party/group/crew has, but otherwise the players would decide them.

Portents

Portents are connected to Pursuits because that causes drama.

In BitD: you suffer a consequence, complication, reduced effect, harm, end up in a worse position, etc. SOMETHING happens to you that raises the stakes, and you now have to deal with it.

If you have a moment in the game where you want to make progress on a Pursuit, you can deliberately invoke something bad happening yourself via Portent. Which is dramatic! You get a little bit of what you want, but at a cost.
Usually we wait for that to happen after a failure roll, but I think there would be a ton of power & interestingness in giving that over to the players to do at (pretty much) any time.

It's giving players that tradeoff of "you gain something, but you also have to give something up", but mechanically.

And I think it has the potential to do something else neat, which is give things a fated sort of feel. In pursuit of your goal, bad things happen to you. And they were always going to happen to you (the player can see them on the character sheet, but the PC doesn't know they're coming).

Fiction First

State what you want to do in the fiction, and the GM will suggest an Action or Reaction.
Then if you think another Action or Reaction fits the fiction better, you can suggest it.

Before the roll is made, the GM states what they think the consequences on a struggle or miss will be.
If you don't think the consequences will serve the story, you can suggest different ones or choose another way to proceed in the fiction.

Grant: I want to stab the guard and take him out before he gets suspicious.

GM: You have control, so sounds like a Strike +Prowess. If you struggle it's going to hurt him but not take him out. And if you miss, he's going to disarm you.

Grant: Oh snap, I don't want to risk being disarmed right now. I'm going to hit him with my bare hands instead.

GM: Alright, that's a Strike +Brawn.

Grant: I'm not trying to knock him out, just disable and maybe silence him. If I did a karate chop to the throat, could that be +Guile because it's a cheap shot like a sucker punch?

GM: No, you can't Strike someone with cleverness. But I think +Prowess fits.

Grant: Fine. I'll do that.

GM: If you struggle or miss, it won't hurt him and he'll know you mean him harm. Additionally, on a miss he'll grab your arm.

Grant: Okay. Can I hurt him on a struggle but we sort of tangle up, so I take a point of fatigue?

GM: Sure, I like that. Go ahead and roll.

Grant: Okay. I hack at his neck! *rolls while making a chopping motion*

Play to Find Out, but the World Acts On Its Own

The mystery is set up before the game starts, but that doesn't at all mean the GM knows what is going to happen next.