Helping

You can help another character with a test if you have a Being trait that applies to whatever the test is meant to accomplish. Describe how the trait contributes, then instead of making a test yourself, hand the die to the player whose character is leading the test.

You can contribute only one die to a test you're helping with. The leading character can contribute as many dice as they can get away with, as usual. Multiple characters can help on the same test if you can convince the GM that it's feasible, with each helper invoking a single Being trait and contributing a single die.

The leading character chooses which die to use for the test's result. When a test that you helped with incurs fallout, you share in its consequences.

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Performing a Setup

When you set up another character, you make your own test rather than contributing dice to theirs. Describe how you're setting them up, gather your dice, and roll; on any success, they receive an edge, usually representing a situational advantage. The edge's Being symbol will usually match one of the Being symbols you used on the test, though ultimately it's the GM's call.

When performing a setup, your test yields edge and incurs fallout in the usual fashion. It's totally possible to gain an edge on the same setup roll that granted one – or even to gain an edge of your own on a failed setup roll, if that's how the dice fall!

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Edges

An edge is a temporary advantage that you receive when you pick a result that rolled doubles on a test. You have to actually pick the number that rolled doubles in order to receive the edge – just having doubles showing on your roll isn't enough. You can also be granted an edge by another character's successful setup – see Cooperative Tests for more information.

An edge takes the form of a temporary Being trait that you sketch into the “Having” section of your character sheet. The GM determines what symbol you get; they might pick one based on the situation, or roll for one and let the dice land where they may. The GM assigns the edge's symbol, but it's up to you, the player, to interpret it. An edge can be taken to represent a situational advantage, a tool or weapon that you found, or whatever else seems appropriate.

Once you have an edge, it works like a regular Being trait, and can be tapped for dice on tests. It can also be sacrificed to offset fallout like a regular Being symbol – in fact, if you tap an edge for dice and the test incurs minor fallout, the edge is automatically sacrificed. (You can still voluntarily sacrifice it to offset fallout on tests where you didn't use it, if it makes sense to do so.) See Unbeing and Undoing for more details.

How long an edge sticks around depends on its nature. A situational advantage goes away when the situation changes, while a tool or weapon is usually available until it breaks or you run out of ammo, both of which can be good justifications for sacrificing it to offset fallout. You can transfer an edge to another character if it's the sort of thing that can be given away.

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Fallout

Fallout is edge's evil cousin. Whenever you incur fallout on a test, the GM will roll on a special table to determine what goes wrong. For minor fallout, the GM will roll one die, while major fallout rolls two dice and combines the results – and heaven help you if the GM rolls doubles.

The GM may prepare a special fallout table whose symbols represent the hazards of the current scenario. Otherwise, you can use the following generic table. Its symbols can apply to most situations.

Random Fallout

d6	Icon	Description
1		Broken heart
2		Explosion
3		Human figure falling
4		Skull and crossbones
5		Stopwatch
6		Triangular sign with exclamation point

By itself, fallout has no special rules-based effects. The GM simply interprets the rolled symbols to determine what complications or setbacks result from your test. A more complete discussion of fallout is found under Difficulty and Fallout.

You can offset fallout by suffering voluntary “damage” to your traits. You can wait until after the GM has rolled for fallout symbols before deciding to do so, but you have to make the call before they describe the results. Refer to Unbeing and Undoing for more information.

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Edge and Fallout on Cooperative Tests

When you help with a test, only the character leading the test can receive an edge, though they're free to immediately give it away to one of their helpers if they wish. Fallout, conversely, strikes every contributor in a cooperative test. However, only one contributing character needs to incur Unbeing or Undoing to offset the fallout for everyone involved.

When you make a test to set up another character, the edge and fallout from that test are your own.

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Unbeing

Unbeing offsets minor fallout. After seeing the result of the fallout roll, but before the GM describes what happens, you can voluntarily suffer a point of Unbeing to cancel the fallout. Mark a small X beside one of your Being traits; until it's recovered, you can't invoke that Being trait for dice on test. You can also sacrifice an edge for the same effect. Sacrificed edges are gone for good – cross them right off your character sheet. This is mandatory if you incur minor fallout on a test where you tapped an edge. If you tapped multiple edges on the same test, you can choose which one is sacrificed.

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Undoing

Undoing offsets major fallout. Major fallout can't be offset with Unbeing, not even one die at a time. In order to offset major fallout, you need to suffer Undoing. This works in much the same way: after seeing the results of the fallout roll, but before the GM interprets them, you can mark off one of your Doing traits in lieu of suffering the fallout. Whatever you could do by virtue of that trait, now you can't – not until it recovers.

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Recovery

Unbeing marks go away whenever you have a chance to rest and catch your breath for a few minutes. Undoing is more serious, and requires special measures to recover, depending on what your character's Doing traits represent: overnight rest, a few hours of access to a machine shop, etc. If all else fails, your Undoing marks are cleared at the end of the session.

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Being Traits

While it can be useful to think of your character's Being traits as discrete “skills&” that you have, that's only one way to look at them. Each symbol contributes to your character's overall gestalt, in ways that don't always boil down to “symbol X means I'm good at tasks Y and Z”. A Being trait can mean that, but it doesn't have to.

For example, the symbol could mean that you're good with cats; that you're good at things that cats do; that you're good at things that cat-like traits – agility, cuteness, etc. – would logically help with; that you're in your element in situations that are conceptually related to cats; or even that you physically are a cat – though the last one might take some explaining if it hasn't been previously established.

Alternatively, you might take the first intepretaton more broadly, and call on it when dealing with animals of any sort, treating a cat as an example of a broader type. In general, the more broadly you interpret a symbol's conceptual territory, the more narrowly you should treat the situations where it applies; interpreting to mean you're good at anything that generally animal-like traits would help with is probably too much.

Most of the time you shouldn't need to stretch. The rules assume that you'll be rolling around two dice for most tests, with three being exceptional, and four or more, downright rare. Between your own Being traits, help, and relevant edges, this shouldn't be a hard target to hit. If you're trying to max out your dice pool on every roll, you're probably trying too hard!

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Doing Traits

Doing traits can initially seem much more locked down than Being traits. You already know both the trait's name and the overarching theme of your character's extraordinary abilities, which probably gives you a clear picture of what each trait does.

There's a trick, though: by default, Doing traits operate according to comic book logic. Superman's X-ray vision doesn't mean he emits particles of a particular wavelength and intensity from his eyes, with the effects of the vision derived from those parameters; it means he can do whatever a power called “X-ray vision” sounds like it ought to be able to do.

This is the reason why the character creation rules specifically instruct you not to write down anything about your Doing traits apart from their names. Your charater's theme and the names of your traits set certain boundaries, but within those boundaries, your Doing traits do whatever you're prepared to claim with a straight face they do.

Just like with Being traits, the GM is there to provide some pushback if you're really stretching, but ideally this should rarely be necesssary; as noted earlier, the rules of assume that everyone at the table is approaching the game in good faith, and that includes approaching your own character concept in good faith. When you're reaching, you'll know!

If you know you're pushing it, but want to give it a shot anyway, you can propose treating how you're trying to use your Doing trait as a special challenge. This can help to firm up the trait's boundaries by creating a “possible but costly or dangerous” buffer between what works and what doesn't. The GM can propose a special challenge for the same reason (with the usual opportunity to change your mind if you decide it's not worth it).

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Progress and Disaster Tracks

By default, tests are a one-and-done affair: the player rolls the dice, and if they choose a successful result, their character does the thing. Progress and disaster tracks model situations where it's more complicated than that.

A progress track is a set of boxes, typically three to five, that represent progress toward a complex or challenging goal. Every time a player makes a successful test toward that goal, check off a box. A box is checked even if the successful test incurs minor or major fallout; you can make progress toward a goal while causing some unrelated catastrophe in the process!

In order to avoid having a progress track turn into an exercise in repetetive dice rolling, the exact same combination of Being traits can't be used on multiple tests toward a given goal. The same individual Being trait can be used multiple times as long as it's in a different combination each time. Players will have to mix up their approaches to reach the finish line.

A disaster track is the opposite of a progress track, marking boxes on failures rather than successes. A disaster track can be used to represent scenarios where no individual goal warrants detailed tracking, but the overall situation is precarious. As with progress tracks, a failure that incurs no fallout still marks a disaster track; any fallout incurred while a disaster track is in play should be interpreted as additional problems to get distracted by, not a worsening of the one the track represents.

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Assessing Fallout

In most situations, fallout can be treated as self-scaling: problems introduced by minor fallout should be less bad than whatever the acting player was trying to deal with, while major fallout can be interpreted either as multiple minor problems, or – particularly in the case of rolling doubles on the fallout table – as a single new problem that's about equally bad.

Since fallout can be incurred on both successes and failures, care should be taken not to use fallout simply to reverse the effects of a success. A success with major fallout isn't “you tried to solve that problem and just made it worse”; it's “you solved that problem and created a new, different problem in the process”. Fallout on a failure, conversely, can absolutely make the problem the player was trying to solve worse.

Individual fallout symbols have no specific rules-based effects attached, and are left to the GM's interpretation. is a collaborative game, so don't be afraid to ask the acting player what they think their test's fallout symbol means, or to open it up to the table for a quick brainstorm. Some examples of possible interpretations under various conditions are given below.

When the problem at hand is merely inconvenient…

the player characters annoy an NPC whose help they require

the chosen approach encounters unexpected delays

an important object is dropped somewhere hard to reach

something reacts to the player characters' actions with surprising vigor

When matters are pressing, but not (immediately) life-threatening…

the acting player character is physically separated from the group

an tool or asset breaks and can no longer be used

a hostile NPC becomes aware of the situation and arrives to investigate

an NPC gets the wrong idea about the player characters' intentions

In a life-or-death situation…

a potentially deadly hazard is created or released

a mishap creates extreme time pressure, with only moments to act

an NPC ally or bystander is accidentally injured

something important literally catches on fire

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Special Challenges

Special challenges can be used to spice up tests when a player wants to try something really implausible, serving as a soft boundary between “sure, roll for it” and “absolutely not”. What qualifies as implausible will vary depending on your game's premise, and may also vary from character to character depending on each character's Doing traits.

Special challenges can also be used to establish a buffer zone between what's possible and what's off limits when calling on a Doing trait. Some applications of a particular Doing trait will clearly be a stretch, but not quite so much of a stretch that you want to rule them out entirely. Special challenges can provide that grey area; as a GM, calling for a special challenge signals that you're allow it, but it's on thin ice.

This document includes two basic types of special challenges: epic tests, and perilous tests. Future revisions will provide other varieties of special challenge rules.

If a player wants their character to try something absurdly out of their league – like punching out a god, or maybe just Godzilla – you can decide that the test is epic. The player should be informed of this fact before rolling, and given the opportunity to change their mind.

When making an epic test, the acting character suffers a point of Unbeing before rolling. The player chooses which Being trait to mark off, as usual. The trait is marked off before gathering dice, which will affect which traits are available for the test. If another character is helping, only the leading character can pay the cost.

In some cases, having a relevant Doing trait may reduce an epic test to a normal test for that character. In other cases, a relevant Doing trait will be required just to try it!

On the other hand, if a character is trying something that's not really implausible so much as very likely to go very badly wrong, you can decide that the teset is perilous. As with epic tests, the player should be warned that this is the case.

When making a perilous test, any result that would ordinarily incur minor fallout – i.e., a result of 3 or 4 – is upgraded (downgraded?) to major fallout. Rolls that would already incur major fallout and rolls that incur no fallout at all are unaffected. There are only two ways a perilous test can go: perfectly or catastrophically.

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NPCs and Unbeing

An NPC that's really determined to be a pain in the player characters' collective butt can force the issue by suffering Unbeing. Any time a player rolls a success to overcome an opposing NPC, the GM can mark off one of that NPC's Being traits to shrug off the success. The GM chooses which trait to mark off, not the rolling player.

The marked trait is no longer available to the NPC, which will affect their ability to engage in further opposition – if their only relevant trait is marked off, they effectively don't have one! An NPC whose final Being trait becomes marked is removed from play.

When dealing with NPCs that have traits, this rule replaces any general rules regarding the need for multiple successes to achieve an objective – see Difficulty and Fallout for more details.

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Mobs and Giant Monsters

An NPC that represents a large mob of characters, a giant monster, or some other large-scale threat can be assigned multiple copies of the same Being trait. This doesn't affect individual tests against them, but each copy of the trait can be marked off separately, obliging the player characters to rack up more successes in order to deal with them.

In general, a single NPC should rarely have more than five Being traits, including any duplicates.

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Abstract and Inanimate NPCs

Inanmate or abstract elements of a given encounter – ranging from objects and geographic features to narrative tropes – can be modelled as NPCs using these rules. This is appropriate when you want to encourage the players to engage with the obstacle in question as something with agency that's actively out to get them; more impersonal threats are usually better handled using progress or disaster tracks.

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NPCs as Special Challenges

An NPC can be designated a special challenge, applying the relevant challenge rules to tests against that NPC. Depending on the NPC, this may apply to only some tests against them; for example, a big dumb monster might be an epic challenge in a physical fight, but not if the player characters try to trick or fast-talk it instead.

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Random NPCs

NPCs' traits can be randomly generated in the same way as a player character's traits, by rolling on the tables in the relevant appendices. If random scenarios are in play, there are special rules regaring an NPC's first Being trait – refer to that section for details.

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Doing Traits as Edges

Sometimes, a regular edge may not be sufficient to represent the advantage that's been gained. Successfully carjacking a giant robot, for example, probably warrants more than a temporary Being trait! In these cases, the GM can elect to grant a temporary Doing trait instead.

A Doing trait gained as an edge has the same anatomy as a regular Doing trait (i.e., a single Doing symbol paired with a single Being symbol), and it's drawn in the “Having” section of the receiving player's character sheet, like any other edge. As along as it's present, the character has an extra Doing trait for all rules purposes.

As always, the GM only chooses the symbols, with the receiving player being responsible for interpreting what they represent. Owing to how such edges are gained, the circumstances of the edge's acquisition are likely to suggest an obvious interpretation; nonetheless, the option of calling for a group brainstorm remains on the table.

Edges of this type can't be sacrificed to offset minor fallout, but can be sacrified to offset major fallout. Like a regular edge, sacrificing it to offset fallout is mandatory if fallout of the appropriate type (i.e., major in this case) is incurred on a test where the trait was brought into play. Player characters in tend to be hard on their gear.

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Advancement

Conventional “levelling up” is hard to apply to for two reasons. First, traits don't have ratings, so there are no numbers to make bigger. Second, the peculiarities of the game's dice-rolling mechanics mean that players are obliged to remember what all of their traits are at all times, and a starting character is already very close to the limit of what's practical. Adding more traits wouldn't make characters more powerful in practice, since players would start forgetting about their lesser-used traits.

Of course, mechanical advancement isn't strictly necessary, particularly in a short or one-shot game. For longer games where character concepts are likey to develop over time, a lateral approach is recommended – that is, advancement based on adjusting existing traits rather than adding new ones. This can be accomplished using the following guidelines:

At the end of each session, each player character receives a minor advance. This can be used to swap out a single symbol on their character sheet for a new symbol of their choice from the game's regular tables. The replaced symbol can be a Being trait, or part of a Doing trait; the replacement symbol must be of the same type as the one that was replaced. (i.e., a Being symbol must be replaced with another Being symbol, and a Doing symbol must be replaced with another Doing symbol.)

Every third session, each character instead receives a major advance. A major advance can take one of two forms:

• As a minor advance, except the new symbol need not be drawn from the game's regular tables. The player can find the symbol elsewhere, or draw one themselves. In either case, the new symbol should observe the guidelines for symbols of its type, as set forth in the relevant Appendix. In a chat-based game, it's also the player's responsibility to identify a suitable chat-friendly approximation for the new symbol.
• A third symbol can be added to one of the character's Doing traits. Thereafter, the Doing trait consists of either two Doing symbols and a Being symbol, or two Being symbols and a Doing symbol. It's still one trait, but it should be renamed to reflect its expanded remit.

Choosing Factors

The first step in random scenario creation is to choose a set of Factors that form the scenario's framework. There are seven Factors, as follows:

Icon	Description
	Book with skull and crossbones on cover
	Cloud with lightning bolt
	Dragon in profile
	Frowning face
	Ring (jewelry)
	Signpost with signs pointing left and right
	Tower with crenelated roof

Unlike most symbols in , suggested interpretations are provided for each Factor. This is both to give players a starting point, and to aid in devising Factor icons with alternative visual themes, should one be inclined.

challenge to orthodoxy, dangerous magic or technology, secrets

escalating conflict, hazardous environment, looming disaster

big monster, powerful person or institution, singular threat

hostile or threatened community, person in danger, social unrest

contested resource, position of authority, valuable object

long journey, maze (metaphorical or otherwise), moral dilemma

fortified location, government or bureaucracy, organised threat

A scenario's framework consists of exactly three of the seven Factors. You can use the following table to make this selection – each row corresponds to a unique combination of Factors. After rolling, place one of the Factor symbols in each of the three largle circles on the Random Scenario Worksheet (the ones marked “F” in the diagram). You can place them in any order you like; as you'll see shortly, the order doesn't affect anything.

Random Factors

d66	1st Factor	2nd Factor	3rd Factor
11
12
13
14
15
16
21
22
23
24
25
26
31
32
33
34
35
36
41
42
43
44
45
46
51
52
53
54
55
56
61
62
63
64
65
66	Re-roll

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Filling in the Details

Once the scenario's Factors have been chosen, players take turns making one of the following choices, starting with the GM. Apart from the GM going first, you can contribute in any order you like, but nobody should make a second contribution until every group member has made at least one.

• If a Factor has an attached empty circle (the ones marked “B” in the diagram), roll once on the Being tables in Appendix 1: Being Symbols, and draw the resulting symbol on the worksheet. You can decide which circle to draw the symbol in after seeing what you rolled, as long as it's an empty circle attached to a Factor. After adding the symbol, write down one fact about the Factor that relates to the symbol you just added.
• If there's an empty circle connecting two Factors (the ones marked “D” in the diagram) and both Factors have at least one attached Being symbol, roll once on the Doing table in Appendix 2: Doing Symbols, and draw the resulting symbol on the worksheet. As above, you can wait until after you've seen the result of your roll before choosing a circle of the appropriate type. After adding the symbol, write down one fact about the relationship between the two connected Factors that relates to the symbol you just added.
• If a filled circle connecting two factors currently has only one associated fact, write down a second fact about the relatonship between the two connected Factors that relates to the symbol in that circle. This fact should adopt the opposite perspective of the first fact; i.e., if the first fact talks about how Factor A relates to Factor B, the new fact should talk about how factor B relates to Factor A. This choice does not involve making a roll.

Facts should be kept brief at this stage – no more than 8–10 words apiece. The particulars will be fleshed out during play. Opening facts up to a group brainstorm is both allowed or encouraged, though the player taking the current turn has final say in the event of disagreement.

When you're finished, every circle marked “B” or “D” in the diagram should be filled in, and you should have twelve facts written down: two about each Factor, and two about the relationship between each pair of Factors.

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Inciting Incident

Finally, roll once on the Fallout table, and draw the resulting symbol in the central circle on the worksheet (the one marked “X” in the diagram). This represents the crisis, opportunity, or inciting incident that motivates the player characters to stick their noses into the scenario's business. As a group, brainstorm what that incident might be.

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For Solo Prep

The random scenario creation tools can also be used solo, either to aid the GM in scenario preparation, or as a standalone minigame. These guidelines can be used largely as written – apart from the fact that a single person is taking every turn, of course!

When running through the process by yourself, you won't have the benefit of a group brainstorm to help reconcile any strange contradictions that arise from filling in a Factor's second Being slot after its relationships with adjacent Factors have already been defined, so it's recommended that you fill in all of the Being slots before tackling any of the Doing slots.

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With Other Random Elements

If you have a Random Scenario Worksheet filled out, randomly generated NPCs and other elements work a little differently. For the first Being trait for each randomly generated entity, rather than rolling in Appendix 1, roll a single die and refer to the numbers printed around the outside of the Random Scenario Worksheet. This will determine which Factor the entity is linked to, as well as providing its initial Being trait. Any subsequent Being traits should be rolled in the usual fashion.

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