- Pronouns
- He/Him
TUTORIALS
THE TABLE O' MAGIC!
NIKE'S CHARACTER SHEET
NIKE'S EMOTIONAL STATE
ANIMA: Dim
BEATS: 1 Sorrow
CONSEQUENCES: None | Sleepy... (1 Boredom) | None | None
SHARDS:
XP: 3
A BEAT is a coherent "chunk" of emotion - which can be stored in a human soul and spent to perform magic and complete actions. The six "basic" emotions are ANGER/FEAR, JOY/SORROW, CURIOSITY/BOREDOM. Each skill is linked to one emotion and two secondary emotions. For example, Melee uses Anger as a primary emotion, but can also use Joy and Curiosity to a lesser effect.
Whenever Nike feels something, they can take up to 2 Beats or transform up to 2 beats. Transforming across the axis of internal/external emotions causes the beats to DOUBLE. For example, if Nike is afraid (2 fear beats), but then decides to face their fear with a burst of righteous anger, those 2 fear beats can be DOUBLED to make 4 Rage Beats.
When taking actions, you expend beats to get bonus successes (which are added to your dice rolls and your skill bonuses to get your total result.) When casting spells, you expend beats - the more beats, the more powerful the spell.
When taking an action, Nike will roll their Will (starts at 2, gets higher as they gain in experience.) Each Will is a six sided die, with each side reflecting a different emotion. After the dice are rolled, you add in "results" equal to your skills. Finally, you expend any beats you want. For example, Nike has 1 in Melee and they try to stab a bad guy. They would roll 2d6 and get, say, 2 and 4: Fear and Joy. Then their Melee skill would add in a Rage result. But if they had 2 rage beats hanging around, they could expend those to make it 1 Fear, 1 Joy and 3 Rage. You HAVE TO USE the HIGHEST result! Fortunately, Rage is the main skill for Melee, so that'd be 3 successes, which can be spent to hit and do damage.
Whenever Nike feels something, they can take up to 2 Beats or transform up to 2 beats. Transforming across the axis of internal/external emotions causes the beats to DOUBLE. For example, if Nike is afraid (2 fear beats), but then decides to face their fear with a burst of righteous anger, those 2 fear beats can be DOUBLED to make 4 Rage Beats.
When taking actions, you expend beats to get bonus successes (which are added to your dice rolls and your skill bonuses to get your total result.) When casting spells, you expend beats - the more beats, the more powerful the spell.
When taking an action, Nike will roll their Will (starts at 2, gets higher as they gain in experience.) Each Will is a six sided die, with each side reflecting a different emotion. After the dice are rolled, you add in "results" equal to your skills. Finally, you expend any beats you want. For example, Nike has 1 in Melee and they try to stab a bad guy. They would roll 2d6 and get, say, 2 and 4: Fear and Joy. Then their Melee skill would add in a Rage result. But if they had 2 rage beats hanging around, they could expend those to make it 1 Fear, 1 Joy and 3 Rage. You HAVE TO USE the HIGHEST result! Fortunately, Rage is the main skill for Melee, so that'd be 3 successes, which can be spent to hit and do damage.
When 3+ beats are spent at one time, they become a Shard of the dominant emotion (E.G, the most common type.) So, if you spent 5 beats (3 anger, 2 joy), then you would gain 1 Anger Beat.
Shards are persistent chunks of emotion that can only be shed through downtime. This removal requires indulging in an activity that is at least vaguely counter to the shard's dominant emotion. Reading a comedy to wean off anger shards. Read a tragic romance to burn off a joy shard. Get your hands dirty working on a craft project to burn off restless curiosity. However you do it, it costs 1 Thaler (1 gold coin) per Shard removed. This price can be waved by instead doing something YOUNG AND STUPID. For example, why read a romantic novel when you can seduce the wife of the mayor? Removing a shard grants 1 XP!
Shards function similarly to complications - however, unlike complications, they count as actual beats, not skills. This means that shards make it easier to get more shards. Having 1 shard means you only need to spend TWO beats at once to get a second shard.
Shards are useful - as they can be used for magic, unlike Consequences. but they are also...dangerous. If you acquire 10 shards of a single emotion, you become a GAUNT and are no longer able to feel ANY EMOTION SAVE THAT OF YOUR SHARD. Gaunts are prized by the unscrupulous and the power hungry for their magical strength, but feared for their monomaniac personalities and their lack of control.
Shards are persistent chunks of emotion that can only be shed through downtime. This removal requires indulging in an activity that is at least vaguely counter to the shard's dominant emotion. Reading a comedy to wean off anger shards. Read a tragic romance to burn off a joy shard. Get your hands dirty working on a craft project to burn off restless curiosity. However you do it, it costs 1 Thaler (1 gold coin) per Shard removed. This price can be waved by instead doing something YOUNG AND STUPID. For example, why read a romantic novel when you can seduce the wife of the mayor? Removing a shard grants 1 XP!
Shards function similarly to complications - however, unlike complications, they count as actual beats, not skills. This means that shards make it easier to get more shards. Having 1 shard means you only need to spend TWO beats at once to get a second shard.
Shards are useful - as they can be used for magic, unlike Consequences. but they are also...dangerous. If you acquire 10 shards of a single emotion, you become a GAUNT and are no longer able to feel ANY EMOTION SAVE THAT OF YOUR SHARD. Gaunts are prized by the unscrupulous and the power hungry for their magical strength, but feared for their monomaniac personalities and their lack of control.
TUTORIAL: An enemy has five important stats. Danger (Usage), Defense, Armor and Flourishes. Danger is their hit points and how dangerous they are. The usage (indicated in parenthesis) indicates how much danger they can spend to take actions. So, in this case, Bear can spend 1 Danger on a single target per turn! Defense is how many successes you need to roll to hit them. Armor is how many successes you need to cause 1 damage.
So, if Nike got 4 successes, they would spend 3 to hit, then the last could be spent to do 1 damage (which would be doubled by their longsword to 2), reducing Bear to 4 Danger. If an enemy hits 0 danger, they can be "taken out" as a free action. What being taken out MEANS depends on the Escalation. There are four levels of combat: Social, Chase/Physical, Non-Lethal and Lethal combat. We're currently at Non-Lethal, so taking him out would KO him or force him to surrender!
Enemies (or Nike!) can escalate at any time, to entirely refresh their health AND gain the initiative (this is a sneaky way to get two actions in a row), but the downsides are that...well, the consequences for failing have just gotten dramatically worse.
Finally, there are Flourishes. Flourishes are special moves that NPCs get to reflect their training, skills, spellcasting abilities and magical powers. Since you've never fought Bear, you don't know what his flourishes are.
Now, for actions, you choose a Skill, then roll it, then expend those Successes on any of four actions (and yes, you can combine these actions, in any order you want, so long as it makes sense using the skill in question.) Those actions are Manipulate the Environment, Attack, Hew and Harry. Manipulating the Environment is a catchall for moving, throwing over tables, kicking braziers at people. Attacking is just as it says, attacking. Hewing reduces the enemy's armor by 1 per success to a minimum of 1 until they expend Danger to repair it. Harrying is the same, but with Defense! There is one restriction in skill use: Hewing and Harrying CANNOT USE COMBAT SKILLS unless you have a weapon that specifically allows for it!
So, if Nike got 4 successes, they would spend 3 to hit, then the last could be spent to do 1 damage (which would be doubled by their longsword to 2), reducing Bear to 4 Danger. If an enemy hits 0 danger, they can be "taken out" as a free action. What being taken out MEANS depends on the Escalation. There are four levels of combat: Social, Chase/Physical, Non-Lethal and Lethal combat. We're currently at Non-Lethal, so taking him out would KO him or force him to surrender!
Enemies (or Nike!) can escalate at any time, to entirely refresh their health AND gain the initiative (this is a sneaky way to get two actions in a row), but the downsides are that...well, the consequences for failing have just gotten dramatically worse.
Finally, there are Flourishes. Flourishes are special moves that NPCs get to reflect their training, skills, spellcasting abilities and magical powers. Since you've never fought Bear, you don't know what his flourishes are.
Now, for actions, you choose a Skill, then roll it, then expend those Successes on any of four actions (and yes, you can combine these actions, in any order you want, so long as it makes sense using the skill in question.) Those actions are Manipulate the Environment, Attack, Hew and Harry. Manipulating the Environment is a catchall for moving, throwing over tables, kicking braziers at people. Attacking is just as it says, attacking. Hewing reduces the enemy's armor by 1 per success to a minimum of 1 until they expend Danger to repair it. Harrying is the same, but with Defense! There is one restriction in skill use: Hewing and Harrying CANNOT USE COMBAT SKILLS unless you have a weapon that specifically allows for it!
TUTORIAL: When casting a spell, you spend beats on several "categories." The only Category that requires a beat is "Duration" - all others have an effect even with 0 Beats, to allow for simple, easily cast spells. Those Categories are...
DURATION: How Long a spell lasts. A single beat may last for a moment. Eleven lasts for eternity.
RANGE: The range of the spell. No beats means the spell must be touched to an object. Eleven beats reaches around the world.
TARGET: The number of living targets or the weight of unlivng substance effected. No beats will handle one pound or one person. Eleven can create tons, or effect thousands.
AREA: The general area effected. No beats means there is no area of effect. Eleven will cover several square miles.
SPEED: The speed of anything moved. For no beats, no speed can be imparted. For eleven, the spell will impart enough speed to fly across whole continents in hours.
HEALTH: The amount of raw Damage is caused. This is a direct 1 to 1 relationship - 1 beat causes 1 damage.
DICE: The amount of dice added by or subtracted the spell, if the spell is a buff or debuff. At zero beats, this is zero dice. The scaling is relatively slow and caps at +/- 6 dice at eleven beats.
TAGS: This amount of beats indicates the number of positive or negative tags applied to or removed from weapons.
There are four kinds of Implement: Writing, Instruments, Singing and Dancing. Each adds their level to two different categories.
WRITING: Each level of writing adds +1 beat to Duration and Tags.
INSTRUMENTS: Each level of instrument adds +1 to Range and Health.
SINGING: Each level of singing adds +1 to Target and Area
DANCE: Each level of dance adds +1 to Speed and Dice
To put this all together as an example. Say Nike has 1 Level of Writing and 4 anger beats. They quickly scribble some furious exhortation on their trusty flintlock pistol and spend the 4 anger beats - 2 on Duration, 2 on Tags. This is bumped to 3 on duration, 3 on tags, creating a spell that lasts for 1 minute, has a range of touch, targets one one pound object (the pistol), imparts no bonus dice, causes no damage, and has no speed. But it DOES remove 2 tags, which Nike use to remove his flintlock's tags of Loading [2]. Now, he does not need to reload the pistol. It has become a glowing, bright red, modern Colt 1911. For the next few minutes at least.
DURATION: How Long a spell lasts. A single beat may last for a moment. Eleven lasts for eternity.
RANGE: The range of the spell. No beats means the spell must be touched to an object. Eleven beats reaches around the world.
TARGET: The number of living targets or the weight of unlivng substance effected. No beats will handle one pound or one person. Eleven can create tons, or effect thousands.
AREA: The general area effected. No beats means there is no area of effect. Eleven will cover several square miles.
SPEED: The speed of anything moved. For no beats, no speed can be imparted. For eleven, the spell will impart enough speed to fly across whole continents in hours.
HEALTH: The amount of raw Damage is caused. This is a direct 1 to 1 relationship - 1 beat causes 1 damage.
DICE: The amount of dice added by or subtracted the spell, if the spell is a buff or debuff. At zero beats, this is zero dice. The scaling is relatively slow and caps at +/- 6 dice at eleven beats.
TAGS: This amount of beats indicates the number of positive or negative tags applied to or removed from weapons.
There are four kinds of Implement: Writing, Instruments, Singing and Dancing. Each adds their level to two different categories.
WRITING: Each level of writing adds +1 beat to Duration and Tags.
INSTRUMENTS: Each level of instrument adds +1 to Range and Health.
SINGING: Each level of singing adds +1 to Target and Area
DANCE: Each level of dance adds +1 to Speed and Dice
To put this all together as an example. Say Nike has 1 Level of Writing and 4 anger beats. They quickly scribble some furious exhortation on their trusty flintlock pistol and spend the 4 anger beats - 2 on Duration, 2 on Tags. This is bumped to 3 on duration, 3 on tags, creating a spell that lasts for 1 minute, has a range of touch, targets one one pound object (the pistol), imparts no bonus dice, causes no damage, and has no speed. But it DOES remove 2 tags, which Nike use to remove his flintlock's tags of Loading [2]. Now, he does not need to reload the pistol. It has become a glowing, bright red, modern Colt 1911. For the next few minutes at least.
THE TABLE O' MAGIC!
NIKE'S CHARACTER SHEET
NIKE'S EMOTIONAL STATE
ANIMA: Dim
BEATS: 1 Sorrow
CONSEQUENCES: None | Sleepy... (1 Boredom) | None | None
SHARDS:
XP: 3
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