You can’t have an exciting adventure without some brave (or foolhardy) adventurers to go get themselves into trouble and then back out again. Here’s how to make player characters for your TorchLite adventures.

Character Creation

The default method of creating a character centers around the character’s three starting distinctions. The character’s people, profession, and persona give you a rough shape to start with.

Each distinction choice suggests typical trait spreads, traits, and milestones, but these are entirely optional. You can distribute your die ratings however you like, create whichever traits feel appropriate to your character, and start with whichever milestone takes your fancy. The distinction lists simply provide an easy place to start.

To create a character, you populate five trait sets—distinctions, attributes, roles, specialties, and signature assets—and assign a die rating to each trait in those sets.

Your distinctions are chosen from three lists: one for your people, one for your profession, and one for your persona.

For traits like attributes and roles, when making a new adventurer, you are given an array of die ratings for each set—such as d10, d8, d8, d8, d6, d6—and you assign one of these ratings to each trait in the set. So a character’s attributes might be Agility d8, Alertness d6, Brains d8, Brawn d6, Charisma d10, and Composure d6.

For specialties and signature assets, you may select traits from the lists on your chosen profession and people spreads, or make up your own.

When distributing your own trait ratings, it is usually easiest to choose which of the traits is most significant, the one the character will rely on most and for which they would likely be most well-known to others. Assign the largest die rating to that one. Then choose their second best trait, one they are still really great with and can rely on, even if it isn’t the most important one, and assign the second largest die rating to it. Then keep assigning in order from best to worst.

Distinctions

Much of your character is defined by three distinctions, words or brief phrases describing core aspects of their identity. Each distinction is rated d8. While attributes and roles describe what your character is good at, distinctions summarize who your character is. Your character begins with three distinctions: one representing their people, one for their profession, and one summing up their persona.

Together, your three distinctions should sum up your overall character concept. If your character were the protagonist of a book, movie, or video game, and you were describing them to a friend, your distinctions would feature prominently. Distinctions spell out how your character is different from others, and they impact every action you take.

Distinctions aren’t necessarily permanent features of your character forever. Characters often evolve during play. These changes can be expressed through distinctions as well. See Spending XP for rules to rewrite your distinctions.

Hindering Distinctions

Every distinction benefits from the Hinder SFX, your character’s first SFX.

Hinder: Roll a d8 distinction as a d4 to earn a Ⓟ.

Hinder is best used in situations where a distinction would actually make things harder for the character instead of easier (such as a character raised underground trying to fight in bright direct sunlight), or when no distinction really applies to what you’re trying to do (“I’m a warrior, not a librarian!”). Since Hinder earns you a Ⓟ, which can be spent to include extra dice in your total, this allows you to accept a temporary disadvantage now in order to succeed more spectacularly later on.

Choosing your Distinctions

Start making a character by picking three distinctions, one from each of the option categories listed below. Each of these options is described in detail in its own section, under Peoples, Professions, or Personas.

For your people distinction, choose one of: Cambion, Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Gnome, Halfling, Human, Ogre, or Wyrmkin.

For your profession distinction, choose one of: Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Hexknight, Mage, Mystic, Paladin, Ranger, or Rogue.

For your persona distinction, choose one of: Cipher, Comrade, Devotee, Disruptor, Loose Cannon, Mercenary, Schemer, Valiant, or Wholesome.

You can either use the distinction name given here or some other version of that name as your distinction. In the full descriptions, each people lists three or more subgroups that you can also use (so your Elf character could instead be a Wood Elf, High Elf, or Deep Elf). Similarly, each profession lists a number of subclasses, specialized vocations you might identify with. If you want, you can also add a noun or descriptor to any distinction (as described in the distinctions section of Cortex Lite). This means your distinctions could be just as simple as Cambion, Bard, and Cipher, or you could end up with a more detailed list of three distinctions like Wood Elf, Illusionist Wizard, and Schemer, or Dwarven Grandparent, Paladin of the Silver Order, and Loyal Companion.

Each of your distinctions is rated d8.

Attributes

When you need to accomplish something, your six attributes—Agility, Alertness, Brains, Brawn, Charisma, and Composure—are how you get it done.

Agility includes manual dexterity, swiftness, deftness, reflexes, balance, and hand-eye coordination.

Alertness includes perception, intuition, attention, sensory acuity, and overall awareness of your environment.

Brains includes intellect, reasoning, memory, scholarship, and aptitude for learning.

Brawn includes physical strength, constitution, raw muscle, stamina, endurance, athleticism, and general health.

Charisma includes presence, bearing, persuasiveness, social graces, force of personality, and personal magnetism.

Composure includes willpower, self-control, tenacity, discipline, determination, resolve, and the ability to keep your emotions hidden or in-check.

Assigning your Attributes

You may use the ‘quick attributes’ listed under your character’s people, or you may assign them yourself. If you choose the latter, assign the following to ratings to your attributes, in any order you like: d10, d8, d8, d6, d6, d6. If you wish, once your ratings are assigned you can choose to do either (or both) of the following:

You may upgrade one d6 attribute to d8, but if you do so, you must also downgrade one d10 attribute to d8 .

You may upgrade one d8 attribute to d10, but if you do so, you must also downgrade one d6 attribute to d4.

Roles

Each of the five roles—Scholar, Scoundrel, Scout, Soldier, and Speaker—represents a thematic grouping of skills, training, and capabilities. Your largest rated role usually corresponds to how you best contribute to a group, whereas for smaller rated roles, you’re usually better off relying on more proficient allies.

Thematically, some roles correspond with certain attributes, but attributes tend to represent raw aptitude and talent, while roles are more about focus, pursued interest, and experience.

Scholar is your academic knowledge, including education, lore, deduction, literacy, teaching, and research.

Scoundrel is your aptitude for trickery, crime, spying, sleight of hand, and defeating security measures like traps or alarms.

Scout is your facility for exploration, perception, and survival, including tracking, navigation, animal handling, climbing, and simply noticing things.

Soldier is your skill and experience when it comes to wielding weapons, enduring hardship, providing security, and fighting in general.

Speaker is your affinity for empathy, communication, group dynamics, leadership, and various forms of self-expression, such as oratory, performance, and art.

Sometimes more than one role might apply. Sneak up on a poacher with Scout or Scoundrel? Give battlefield orders with Soldier or Speaker? In those cases, choose the one your character favors.

Assigning your Roles

You may use the ‘quick roles’ listed under your chosen profession, or you may assign your roles yourself. Assign the following die ratings to your five roles, in any order: d10, d8, d6, d6, d4.

Specialties

Specialties are narrow skills that supplement the broad areas of expertise defined by your roles. Unlike attributes or roles, specialties are free-form traits you create yourself. Whenever a specialty applies, you roll it in addition to the appropriate role.

For example, you might use Soldier to display your general prowess with weapons, but you might also have a specialty that you add when using certain types of weapons appropriate to the game’s setting, such as Swordplay d6, Archery d6, or Axes d8. When you follow a trail through a dense forest, your dice pool might not only include Scout but also an extra die for your Tracking specialty.

Though specialties are like more focused versions of roles, there are no limits on what role you must use to include a specialty that suits your action. For example, if you show off your skill with a knife to intimidate someone into answering your questions, your pool might include both your Speaker role and a Knife Fighting specialty.

Selecting your Specialties

You can choose to start a new character with either two or three specialty traits. If you choose two, one is rated at d8 and the other is d6; if you choose three, all three are rated at d6. Examples of appropriate specialties for adventurers like you are listed under your profession.

Specialty Examples

• Acrobatics
• Agriculture
• Alchemy
• Arcana
• Archery
• Athletics
• Blacksmith
• Bludgeons
• Cooking
• Deceit
• Devices
• Diplomacy
• Divination
• Drumming
• Dual-Wielding
• Equestrian
• Escape Artist
• Fire Magic
• Handling Animals
• Heraldry
• History
• Investigation
• Jousting
• Lasso
• Leatherworking
• Lockpicks
• **Martial Arts **
• Necromancy
• Persuasion
• Polearms
• Politics
• Religion
• Sailing
• Secret Doors
• Sleight of Hand
• Stealth
• Threats
• Tracking
• Wilderness Survival

Signature Assets

Signature assets represent external factors that characters can rely on for frequent use. Usually, they cover anything that gives you an advantage and isn’t covered by your other trait sets. After character creation, regular assets can become signature assets through play.

Note that your signature assets do not include all of your character’s gear or other advantages. When something is an asset, it just means that it’s so important to your character’s story that you gain an extra die when using it.

Creating your Signature Assets

You can choose to start a new character with either two or three signature assets. If you choose two, one is rated at d8 and the other is d6; if you choose three, all three are rated at d6. More examples of suitable sample assets are listed under your people.

In addition to those two or three assets, you also start with an extra free d6 asset that all player characters receive: your starting adventurer’s kit, which you describe in a way that suits your character, but which is assumed to contain certain basic items (food, water, rope, light sources, etc.).

Kinds of Signature Assets

Most signature assets break down into one of four categories: things, creatures, places, and persons. Example signature assets for each category are listed below.

Things are the most common form of signature asset, including items or equipment that you own, carry, or have access to, some of which may be magical. Examples include Magic Carpet, Healer’s Kit, Personal Spellbook, My Family’s Heirloom Sword, Hand Crossbow, Magnifying Glass, Silver-Plated Dagger, Bull’s Eye Lantern, Iron Shackles, etc.

Creatures include pets, mounts, animal companions, familiars, and the like. Examples include Armored Warhorse, Well-Trained Bloodhound, My Cat Snowball, Ornery Camel, Baby Dragon, Tamed Pterodactyl, Imp Familiar, etc.

Places represent advantages gained from being in or having knowledge of a certain location. Examples include Seaside Hideout, Private Library, My Family’s Tavern, Pocket Dimension, Hidden Glade, Crumbling Cottage, My Queen’s Palace, Blacksmith Shop, Shrine to My God, etc. It is rare for the travelling, dungeon-delving PCs of TorchLite to have place-based signature assets.

Persons are minor GMCs who can be relied upon to help you, at least occasionally. Examples include Loyal Squire, Minotaur Bodyguard, Thieves’ Guild Contact, Cunning Servant, Psychic Little Sister, Wizard Mentor, Fence Who Doesn’t Ask Questions, Majordomo, etc.

Your Adventurer’s Kit

You carry a kit that includes gear useful in adventuring, all of which can be carried using a backpack or the like. Give your kit a descriptive name and record it as a d6 signature asset.

If a snappy name is not springing to mind, use the table below. Roll d10 d8 d6 and combine the descriptors that match your die results to randomly generate your adventurer’s kit.

Roll	Condition	Material	Container
1	Patch-Covered	Burlap	Backpack
2	Bloodied	Sailcloth	Bundle
3	Brand New	Crococile Skin	Drawstring Pouch
4	Brightly Dyed	Leather	Pilgrim’s Bag
5	Road-Worn	Rope Mesh	Rucksack
6	Scripture-Inscribed	Thick Wool	Satchel
7	Secondhand	Waxed	Cotton
8	Sun-Bleached	Woven	Leaves
9	Well-Maintained
10	Wine-Stained

In play, you can roll this signature asset not only for the container the kit comes in but for the kinds of items that you’d plausibly pull out of a kit so described. You can elaborate a little on what’s inside before you play.

Beyond the basic info, you can use the listed prompts to better define what’s in your kit—if you’re in a hurry, you can just choose the first example listed for each (resulting in the basic example kit described at the end of this section).

You’ve got 50 feet or so of rope—what is it made out of? (Examples: Hemp, silk, flax, lime bast, walrus hide, cedar bark, griffon hair, cattail, nettle, the webbing of a giant spider, etc.).

You keep a two-week supply of food that doesn’t easily spoil—what’s your staple? (Examples: Hardtack, beef jerky, dried apricots, almonds, stockfish, pecorino, chestnuts, trail mix, elvish waybread, etc.).

You drink from a reusable container that you can refill with water or other liquids—what does it look like? (Examples: A stoppered glass water bottle, a hollowed-out calabash, a wineskin you clean and soak in oil after use, a petrified ostrich egg with a corked hole, a pewter flask, etc.).

You have 5–6 hours worth of light sources—what lights your way in the dark? (Examples: Half-a-dozen torches, a lantern with a large wick, oil lamp and refill flask, alchemical crystals that light up on command but melt away after a few hours’ use, etc.).

You carry a cheap, quick, and portable means of lighting fires—what is it? (Examples: A tinderbox, a flint-and-steel striker, a bamboo fire piston, a glowing ember kept hot in a magic locket, sulfur matches made of pinewood, a glass jar with a tiny fire elemental bound inside, etc.).

Your kit includes your necessary camping supplies, like portable bedding, something to cook food in, a bowl or dish to eat from, personal soap, and the like—when you travel, which of these items makes you feel most at-home? (Examples: Heavy canvas bedroll, lavender soap, an ornate silver dish, an old silk pillow, a strigil with aloe vera bathing oil, a thick fur, your mom’s iron cooking pot, a woolen blanket you sewed yourself, etc.).

A basic example is provided below.

Patch-Covered Burlap Backpack

▶ 50-foot hemp rope
▶ 2 weeks’ ration of hardtack
▶ Stoppered glass water bottle
▶ Half-a-dozen torches
▶ Tinderbox
▶ Camping supplies (bedroll, etc.)

Schrödinger’s Inventory

Unlike in a lot of roleplaying games, TorchLite characters don’t need to start play with a long inventory list. Character creation gives you a handful of signature assets, but that doesn’t mean that’s all the cool stuff that will feature in your game.

You can keep a list of items your character carries that aren’t signature assets. Or, you can use a trick we like to call Schrödinger’s Inventory.

Adventurers often carry a whole bunch of items that aren’t important enough to be signature assets—or rather, items which aren’t important until circumstances make them so. Think coil of rope, ten foot pole, and torches. The kinds of things are often a part of your adventurer’s kit, but even when they aren’t itemized on the character sheet, they can still feature in your game.

The default rules of TorchLite can handle these just fine through your kit, test-created assets, and spending Ⓟs for assets. You can also include these items without any rules at all.

You can use test-created assets not only for assets that are literally created in the story, but also to reflect planning and preparation. A PC might dig into their adventurer’s rucksack and pull out some fishing bait—assuming bait is a thing that they would plausibly have been packed. They might roll Brains, Scout, the distinction Halfling and the signature asset for your adventurer’s kit. The effect die becomes the asset rating.

A player might spend a Ⓟ to produce a fishing bait from their bag, which gets them a d6 asset. This is a good option for when time is too tight to roll a test. Usually the plausibility requirements for a Ⓟ spend are a little more lenient than a foresight-in-packing test, but they’re still there. Pulling out some worms is one thing; pulling out a depleted uranium fuel rod containment unit is quite another.

But perhaps the most potent trick to cover such needful items is to use no rule at all. When you need to tie up the ork you just defeated, is it really necessary to figure out if you have rope? In a modern game, one assumes that most everybody has a cell phone handy. So too, PCs have basic adventuring gear handy. Especially if it’s not going to be involved in a die roll, no mechanics are necessary.

When you pick up a mundane item that has enough practical use that you want to keep using it regularly, but it isn’t interesting or important enough to become a signature asset (such as a stick of chalk or a pack of pitons), you can let your GM know you’re adding it to your adventurer’s kit. It’s assumed you restock your kit every couple weeks or so—if you go much longer than that, parts of your kit probably stop being available as you use them up.

But it is a rare TorchLite game where “If you don’t have it written on your sheet, you don’t have it.” is a rule. A little common sense and a willingness to bow to narrative flow will let your game focus on questions more interesting than if you remembered your wallet when you left the house this morning.

SFX & Limits

Each character has a handful of SFX, reflecting special capabilities associated with their distinctions. A player character also has Limits. A Limit is a special type of SFX that imposes a disadvantage on your character in order to earn them Ⓟs or another reward.

Whenever you gain an SFX or Limit, you can rename it to better suit your character. In TorchLite, your SFX are attached to your distinctions (instead of being attached to roles as they are in Cortex Lite).

Complications named in SFX (such as Enraged or Indulged) are mere suggestions and can always be swapped for something more creative or appropriate to the moment.

Some SFX are tagged as (Gear). These generally require you to have the equipment described in the SFX in order to use some or all of the options that SFX offers.

Selecting your SFX

Choose three SFX based on your distinctions. These distinctions can be chosen from the SFX listed with your people, those listed with your profession, or the General SFX. Your character begins play with the chosen SFX, in addition to the Hinder SFX all characters receive.

Selecting your Limits

Choose two Limits for your character, based on your distinctions. Your profession lists a few suggestions for characters with that distinction, but you can choose any two Limits you wish.

Milestones

As you play, your character can gain Experience Points (XP), which can be used to change or augment your traits. You earn XP using milestones, lists of actions or events that advance your character’s story and give them a chance to grow. A character has two milestones at a time. A milestone usually has three levels, each of which provides a different amount of XP and can be tapped for XP at certain times:

▶ A 1 XP level that you can hit once per beat;
▶ A 3 XP level that you can hit once per scene;
▶ And a 10 XP level that you can hit once per session.

Once XP is gained, it can be spent between sessions to change or improve your traits, gain new traits, or unlock other benefits. After you complete the 10 XP level, you remove that milestone and replace it, starting a brand new milestone. (Theoretically, you could choose to send your character on a new version of the same journey by starting the same milestone over again, if you feel it captures an aspect of your character that you’d like to explore more deeply, but it’s usually much more interesting to move on to a new one.)

Selecting Your Starting Milestones

All new characters start play with two milestones. By default, these include the milestone listed for your persona distinction, and a custom session milestone provided by the GM. However, you can choose any two appropriate milestones listed in this book or another source. If there isn’t currently a session milestone available, you can default to the Levelling Up milestone listed below.

Milestone: Levelling Up

▶ 1 XP when you earn a Ⓟ from an SFX or Limit (such as Hinder).
▶ 3 XP when you help someone else recover from stress or you succeed on a roll to create an asset for an ally.
▶ 10 XP when you recover from stress of d12 or larger, or when an asset you created for someone else helps defeat a challenge that has at least one trait at d12.

Completing Your Character

Once you have determined and recorded your distinctions, attributes, roles, specialties, signature assets, SFX, Limits, and milestones, you have all the mechanical elements of your character in place. If you haven’t already, you need to choose your character's name and pronouns. Once this is done, your character is complete!

Peoples

Choose one of the peoples described in the following pages to represent your character’s ancestral origin. You might also pick one of the subgroups described under your people to further define your character.

Tall or Small

The peoples listed here all come in many different shapes and sizes, but certain varieties are specifically described as smallfolk or tallfolk. Smallfolk simply refers to any people or subgroup whose average height is less than 4 feet (120cm) tall, while tallfolk have an average height around 7 feet (210cm) or higher.

Characters belonging to either group can add the appropriate SFX below to the list of SFX associated with their people. A player can also do the same if they simply want their character to be a good deal smaller or larger than the average size for their people. (Obviously, unless you have a very unique character concept, it likely doesn’t make much sense for one character to have both these SFX.)

Smallish: Add a d6 to your dice pool for a roll to avoid Damaged and step down the largest die in the pool by one, then step up your effect die.

Hulking Build: Spend a Ⓟ to double Brawn on a roll to resist Exhausted or to lift, push, drag, or throw something heavy.

Cambion

Strange and uncanny, cambions are born into the mortal world, but with an otherworldly lineage. They are always marked; however, while many cambion are horned and possess pointed ears and eyes of inky black, these features are not universal to all. Tails, wings, fangs, hooves, barely discernible haloes, flickering shadows, or faint scents of brimstone or petrichor are other signs of such ancestry. Their skin tones can be any color you can imagine, depending on their ancestry.

Cambions are rare, and often seen by small-minded folk as exotic at best or dangerously weird at worst. Most come from communities of non-cambion peoples, but more than a few grow up in places where cambions have gathered in settlements of their own. The most frequently encountered cambions (labeled as fiendtouched or nephilim) have ancestry tied to demons, devils, or the like. Others descend from creatures of the fey realm (sometimes called feyblooded), from elemental beings (known as flamesouls, stormsouls, icesouls, acidsouls, and venomsouls), or even from divine beings like angels or demigods (called lightborn).

Certain cambions resemble humanoid animals. There are also many descendants of the fey who have such features, such as the feline catfolk or the ravenlike kenku, as well as cambions of other lineages. Some sages group together all such peoples under the name beastkin.

Cambion Quick Attributes

Agility d8 Alertness d6 Brains d8 Brawn d6 Charisma d10 Composure d6

Typical Cambion Assets

• Dark Cloak with a Large Hood
• Goggles
• Scrappy Tent
• Leather Longcoat
• Unsigned Love Letter
• Brace of Daggers
• Worn Disguise kit
• Surly Black Cat
• Red-Stringed Fiddle

Cambion Quick SFX

Unearthly Constitution: At the start of each session, choose a certain type of element, energy, or harm related to your heritage (fire, lighting, cold, acid, poison, etc.). When you roll to avoid stress from the source you chose, spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction. If your roll fails, step down the opposing effect die.

Typical Cambion SFX

Boon of Comprehension: Spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6 to understand all spoken languages until the end of the scene. For the same duration, any creature that can understand a language can understand what you say.

Defender of the Mortal World: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on a creature from another plane of existence, such as a demon, devil, angel, fey, or elemental, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Divine Heritage: Spend a Ⓟ to step up the smallest die in your pool on a roll to avoid stress. If your roll succeeds, keep stepping up the smallest die in your pool whenever you roll to avoid stress. This ends at end of scene or if you fail a roll to avoid stress.

Elemental Heritage: Choose a certain type of element, energy, or harm related to your heritage (fire, lighting, cold, acid, poison, etc.). When you roll to inflict stress from the source you chose, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Fey Heritage: When you roll to beguile or misdirect, double your distinction; if you fail, step up your opposition’s effect die.

Fiendish Heritage: When you fail a roll to avoid Damaged inflicted by a foe within your reach, spend a Ⓟ to summon forth fiery vengeance, inflicting Damaged d6 on that foe.

Gift of Flight: Spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6 to manifest a pair of fiery, spectral, feathery, or leathery wings; you can fly as fast as you can run until the end of the scene.

I Know Who I Am: Spend a Ⓟ to double a distinction on a roll to resist Demoralized stress.

Inspire Greatness: When you roll a heroic success on a roll to entertain or inspire using Speaker, choose one witness; they gain a Ⓟ.

Otherworldly Insights: When you roll to investigate or manipulate strange phenomena, spend a Ⓟ to step up Scholar or Speaker and step up your effect die.

Savor Your Victories: When you succeed on a roll to inflict stress, step down your own Demoralized, then shutdown this SFX until the end of the scene.

Swift as Shadows: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to moving at incredible speed. While you have this asset, you can move with preternatural quickness and jump twice as far. This asset ends immediately if you wear armor or use a shield.

Torment Foe: Spend a Ⓟ to inflict d6 Damaged or Demoralized on a foe who has already taken that kind of stress from you this scene, then shutdown this SFX for the rest of the scene.

Uncanny Presence: Double your distinction on a roll to intimidate someone or leverage your otherworldly status. After the roll resolves, take a Mistrusted d6 complication.

Underwater Adaptation: Spend a Ⓟ to gain the asset Amphibious d8. While you have this asset, you can breathe both air and water and swim as fast as you can walk.

Dwarf

Stout and often bearded, dwarves are known for mining, crafting, and carousing, though not necessarily in that order. They tend to be bigger and broader than smallfolk like halflings or gnomes, but shorter than humans and elves. Dwarves are renowned for their primordial connection to earth, metal and stone. Their skin shares the same range of colors as the earth itself, from tans and browns to the gray of granite or the crimson of red clay. Their cultures vary, but all tend to teach the virtues of determination, hard work, and tenacity, even to the point of stubbornness.

Among other peoples, dwarves have a reputation as implacable enemies and steadfast allies. Their largest communities are those of the mountain dwarves, who build great underground cities in caves beneath the tallest peaks. Other dwarven cultures include the hill dwarves, whose settlements are better positioned for trade with other peoples, and the obsidian dwarves, who have adapted to life in the deepest volcanic tunnels.

Dwarf Quick Attributes

Agility d6 Alertness d8 Brains d6 Brawn d8 Charisma d6 Composure d10

Typical Dwarf Assets

• Ancestral Battleaxe
• Hammer & Tongs
• Greathelm
• Inscribed Gauntlets
• Sigil of the Forge God
• Stonemason’s Tools
• Stout Donkey
• Warhammer

Dwarf Quick SFX

Heritage of Stone: When you roll to resist Exhausted, to work metal or stone, or to avoid a complication that involves pushing or poisoning you, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Typical Dwarf SFX

Ancestral Arms (Gear): When you roll to make a melee attack with the traditional weapon of your clan or family lineage, double your distinction die. If your attack succeeds, you can spend a Ⓟ to step up your effect die.

Back Against the Wall: While you have d10 or greater stress, spend a Ⓟ to double your largest die on a roll to avoid stress.

Close-Knit Connections: Whenever an ally creates an asset in your presence, you may immediately spend a Ⓟ to step it up.

Crafter: When you spend an hour or more crafting with good tools and materials, add d6 and step up your effect die on a roll to create an asset representing your work.

Night Life: Whenever you spend time and coin carousing or otherwise enjoying urban luxuries, you and anyone accompanying you may each spend a Ⓟ. Doing so steps down all of that character’s complications and stresses.

Outlast: Spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction and step up your effect die on a roll to inflict Exhausted. If the action succeeds, step down your own Exhausted.

Robust Health: When you would take stress or a complication from disease or poison, spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress you take.

Stalwart Endurance: Spend a Ⓟ to step down your Exhausted, then shut down this SFX until the next scene.

The Family Business: Spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction on a roll that includes a specialty of d8 or larger.

The Harder They Fall: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on a giant, tallfolk, or other humanoid creature that is at least seven feet tall, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Tool Expert: When your roll to create an asset includes a tool-related specialty, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Undaunted Resilience: When you activate an opportunity, instead of stepping down one stress or complication, you can choose to step down both your Damaged and your Demoralized .

Work Ethic: When you take your time to do things right on a roll to create an asset, if you roll one or more hitches, you can take Exhausted d6 to reroll one or two dice that rolled hitches.

Elf

Supernaturally graceful, long-lived folk with pointed ears and an innate connection to their wilderness homelands, elves are kin to the fey, born of magic. Not every elf pursues the arcane arts, but none is ever truly mundane; each expresses their mystical nature in one way or another. They tend to be lithe and light on their feet, and tales say the most dextrous elves can stride across thin snowdrifts and flimsy tree branches where others would slip or fall.

Some of the most well-known elven folk are the wood elves, legendary for their subtle and instinctive skill as foresters; the high elves, who dwell in hidden refuges where the fey realm meets the mortal world; and the deep elves, who build magnificent cities in deep subterranean caverns. The various elven lineages include all the potential skin tones a human might have, plus a few more extreme hues, including the pale bluish-white complexions of some high elves from colder climes and the dark gray or purplish colors common among deep elves.

Elf Quick Attributes

Agility d10 Alertness d8 Brains d8 Brawn d6 Charisma d6 Composure d6

Typical Elf Assets

• Elegant Cuirass
• Cloak of Leaves
• Silvered Rapier
• Riding Elk
• Quartz Owl Icon
• Herb Pouch
• Supple Boots
• Hand-Carved Ashwood Longbow

Elf Quick SFX

Elven Precision: When your roll includes Agility, Alertness, or Brains and the opposition rolls one or more hitches or opportunities, you can add an extra die to your total.

Typical Elf SFX

Archer’s Aim: On a roll to inflict Damaged with a ranged attack, immediately after rolling the dice pool, you can spend a Ⓟ to choose one die that rolled a hitch and reroll it.

Fey Will: When you activate an opportunity, instead of stepping down one stress or complication, you can choose to step down both your Enthralled and your Exhausted.

Fleet-Footed: Spend a Ⓟ to step up your largest die on a roll to avoid stress from a visible threat.

Longevity: Spend a Ⓟ to reveal a detail about an item or location’s history from before anyone else in the scene was born, then gain a related d8 asset.

Otherworldly Step: Take Exhausted d6 to teleport yourself to a nearby location you can see.

Precise Sense: While you are able to hear, spend a Ⓟ to know the location of any nearby creature that is hidden or invisible.

Preternatural Grace: When you succeed on a roll to avoid stress, spend a Ⓟ to turn your effect die into an asset for yourself related to your graceful movements.

Surge of Speed: When you choose multiple effect dice for one roll, step up two of those effect dice, then shut down this SFX until the scene ends.

Telepathic Gift: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to telepathic communication with one creature you choose. While you have the asset, you and the chosen creature can communicate telepathically as long as you are within a mile of each other.

Vanishing Act: When your roll includes an asset related to deception or stealth you created during the same scene, double the die for that asset. If the roll fails, step down the asset.

Ways of the Fey Realm: When you take Enthralled or take a complication from magic that would affect your mind, spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress or complication. Magic can never force you to sleep.

Gnome

Gnomes are cunning tricksters and clockwork inventors with magical talents for secrecy and creativity. Gnomes are descended from the fey and remain close to those roots. Many inherit a spirit of capricious mischief or pursue one idiosyncratic goal with insatiable, single-minded passion. Gnomes are among the smallest of smallfolk, seldom standing more than 3 feet (90cm) tall. They enjoy a wide variety of colorations and features, reflecting the vibrant diversity of the Fey Realm itself, though they can be categorized into a few subgroups.

Forest gnomes favor untamed wildernesses of unchecked vegetation, protected by their connection with nature and secretive illusion techniques. Fringe gnomes dwell in their own enclaves near or within larger communities, where they work to combine other cultures’ innovations with their own to invent wondrous devices. The subterranean fungal gnomes—called svirfneblin in their own tongue—are named for their staple crop, which they farm in vast and deep caverns. Legends of fringe gnomes having created living iron constructs known as ferrous gnomes are unconfirmed.

Gnome Quick Attributes

Agility d8 Alertness d6 Brains d10 Brawn d10 Charisma d10 Composure d10

Typical Gnome Assets

• Miniature Crossbow
• Camouflage Cloak
• Clockwork Blade Sharpener
• Jeweler’s Loupe
• Inquisitive Ferret
• Iron Toolbox
• Cobbler’s Hammer

Gnome Quick SFX

Confounding Ways: When you roll a heroic success on an action to inflict a complication, you can keep a second effect die as Demoralized or Enthralled against the same target.

Typical Gnome SFX

Alchemical Infusion: When an ally within reach partakes of a potion or alchemical healing, spend a Ⓟ to step down their Damaged or Exhausted. Once you heal a particular creature with this SFX, you cannot heal that creature with it again until the next scene.

Arcane Cunning: When you roll to avoid a magical complication, spend a Ⓟ to step up Scholar or Scoundrel and step up your effect die.

Clockwork Limb: When you would take Damaged, spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress you would take and then turn it into a Detached Limb complication.

Earthen Endurance: Spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction on a roll to avoid Exhausted stress or avoid Damaged from nonmagical weapons.

Friend to That Which Grows: When you roll to avoid stress from being attacked by plants or fungi or from any poison or disease derived from them, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Furry Friends: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset, representing a small mammal who can understand what you say to it and is eager to help you out.

Gifted Illusionist: Spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction on a roll to create a magical illusion.

Sly Gambit: When your roll includes an asset representing an illusion or device you created, spend a Ⓟ to step up the largest die in your pool and step up your effect die.

Svirfneblin: While underground, spend a Ⓟ to double your largest die on a roll to navigate, avoid notice, or magically befuddle someone’s senses.

Tinkerer’s Gifts: When your roll to identify, repair, or create an item includes a related specialty, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Trickster’s Camouflage: Double your specialty die on a roll to avoid notice or create an asset related to stealth or concealment. When you use this SFX in a tunnel or sylvan setting, you can reroll one die that rolled a hitch.

Wonderworker: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset, representing a unique clockwork device you’ve been working on that you've just activated.

Goblin

Goblins are tenacious survivors who tend to be wiry, cunning, and stealthy. They have a wider range of skin tones than humans, with shades of green or red as common among them as brown or gold. History is full of goblin uprisings against oppression. Tyrants and conquerors often see goblins as ideal soldiers and try to press them into service, so most goblins make their homes in hidden places. They have a reputation for teamwork and resilience, for getting out of tight corners by stealth or guile, and for quickly crafting clever weapons out of unlikely materials.

When most folk refer to goblins, they usually mean cave goblins, smallfolk with an uncanny knack for narrow escapes, who build communities in the interstitial spaces between other settlements and cultures. Their human-sized kin, hobgoblins, are known for uncanny collaborative instincts and insights into group dynamics, allowing them to coordinate their efforts with allies in extraordinary ways. Bugbears, another branch of goblinkind, are tallfolk with a supernatural gift for moving unseen despite their great size.

Goblin Quick Attributes

Agility d8 Alertness d8 Brains d8 Brawn d8 Charisma d6 Composure d6

Typical Goblin Assets

• Scavenged Chain Shirt
• Map of Tunnels Under the City
• Lucky Dice
• Rope Ladder
• Set of Bonecarver’s Tools
• Paired Hatchets
• Riding Worg
• Waterproof Tent

Goblin Quick SFX

Heritage of Rebellion: Spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction die and step up your effect die on any roll to hide or escape, to craft weapons, or to avoid Enthralled.

Typical Goblin SFX

Camaraderie: When you greet your kin with traditional hospitality and/or boasting, spend a Ⓟ to gain a d8 asset related to their assistance.

Defiant Parry (Gear): Double a weapon or shield asset on a roll to avoid Damaged. After the roll, step down the asset until the scene ends or you recover by activating an opportunity.

Escape Route: When you roll to create an asset or complication related to distance or escaping pursuit, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Frenzy: When your roll during your turn includes both Soldier and an asset related to rage or vengeance, spend a Ⓟ to double that asset and step up your effect die.

Group Negotiation: When a nearby ally’s dice pool includes their Charisma, spend a Ⓟ to add a die equal to your own Charisma to their pool.

I Know a Gob: In a populated settlement, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset for a goblin GMC you know with access, skills, or material you need. They'll have a price.

Leveraged Teamwork: When your dice pool includes an asset created by an ally, you may spend a Ⓟ to double that asset in your pool.

Opening Move: When you succeed on a roll to inflict stress and it’s the first time you’ve inflicted stress on that foe this scene, keep a second effect die as an asset for yourself related to tactical advantage.

Reckless Gambit: When you roll dice, add a die to your pool equal to the largest stress or complication anyone has in the scene. Take a complication at d6 if the roll succeeds, or d8 if it fails.

Step Through Shadows: If you are not within reach of any foe at the start of your turn, spend a Ⓟ to remove yourself from play until your next turn. At the start of your next turn, reappear anywhere that you could have moved to normally during a single turn. Add d8 to any roll you make to inflict stress during the turn you reappear.

Subterranean Survivor: When you roll to survive or navigate underground, discern or recall information about underground creatures, or to avoid an attack from someone you can’t see, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Surprising Defense: When you roll to avoid stress, add d8 and step up your effect die if you haven’t yet taken a turn in the current conflict.

Halfling

Folk of all kinds crave community, good food, and the comforts of hearth and home, but halflings seem to feel the love of these things in their very bones. These smallfolk have a reputation for fitting in wherever they go, whether as the life of the party or just a face in the crowd. Other legends tell of their green thumbs, knack for stealth, or preternatural luck. They look much like humans, with the same range of complexions and features, but at roughly half the size.

Most halflings are shirelings, who tend to spend their lives rooted to stable settlements on fertile farmland where cozy houses are built into hillsides and fresh produce is always plentiful. In such villages, what other folk would consider a legendary feast is seen by the locals as just a casual brunch. There are also migratory clans, such as the riverfolk who travel along rivers and coastlines in fleets of watercraft. The halflings known as bladeriders are reclusive hunter-gatherers with a spiritual reverence for the beasts they breed as mounts—whether they are ponies, dire wolves, or even drakes. The lithe and childlike wanderken are free-spirited folk whose irrepressible curiosity and impulsive wanderlust tend to get them into constant trouble.

Halfling Quick Attributes

Agility d10 Alertness d6 Brains d6 Brawn d6 Charisma d8 Composure d8

Typical Halfling Assets

• Skillet & Spices
• Sling & Sack of Marbles
• Book of Simple Prayers
• Hammock
• Shortsword
• Leather Hauberk
• Stalwart Pony
• Wheel of Cheese
• Woollen Traveler’s Cloak
• Padded Bedroll

Halfling Quick SFX

Keep Calm and Carry On: When you roll to avoid Demoralized or Enthralled, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Typical Halfling SFX

Astute Traveler: While in a populated settlement, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 transportation related asset for yourself or an ally (such as a horse, wagon, gondola, etc.). As normal, you can spend an extra Ⓟ to extend this asset to your whole group (a team of horses, a wheelhouse, a ship, etc.).

Bold Heart: When you roll to avoid stress or complications from fear or despair, you can reroll one die of your choice.

Down to Earth: When you would take Enthralled stress, spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress you take. If this steps the stress down below d6, you take no stress at all.

Fortune’s Favor: When you roll multiple hitches, you may reroll the smallest die that rolled a hitch.

Innocent Face: Double Charisma or Composure on a roll to avoid suspicion or blame. If you fail, step up the opposition’s effect die.

Knapsack: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset in the form of a useful handheld item you just remembered you had in your knapsack.

Light Fingers: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset representing something you recently pickpocketed from a nearby character.

Nurturing Presence: If an ally rests or relaxes in your presence for at least an hour, double the largest die in the next recovery roll for that ally’s stress. If you provide food or drink, you can also spend a Ⓟ to step down one of that ally’s stresses.

Overlookable: Spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction on a roll to avoid notice or evade pursuit, or to create a d8 asset related to blending in.

Persuasive: Take Enthralled d6 to double Speaker for one roll.

Resilient Luck: When you start a scene with no Ⓟs, gain one.

Second Breakfast: When you spend at least an hour indulging (or overindulging) in food, drink, or luxuries, step down all your stresses and complications, then gain the complication Indulged d6. If you share, you may invite others to do the same.

Taunt: On your turn, when you succeed on a roll that includes Speaker, keep a second effect die as Enthralled against a foe that can see or hear you.

Human

As unpredictable as they are diverse, humans are famous for the bewildering variety of their customs, interests, and ways of life. Poets among the dwarves and elves—who enjoy much longer average lifespans—have often mused that humans’ brief lives stoke the fires of ambition, driving them to make their mark on the world as quickly as they can. Their versatility and insatiable urge to explore have made them the most numerous of the world’s peoples.

Nearly every inhabited region or major city has at least few humans living in it. They exhibit the same range of skin, eye, and hair colors as their kin on Earth, but they are the only one of the world’s peoples who aren't born with any innate magical gifts (unless they have extraordinary ancestry). However, they can still master spellcasting as well as anyone. From grizzled folk of icy climes and seafaring raiders to cosmopolitan city dwellers and nomads of the vast grasslands, humans boast more different cultures and lifestyles than can easily be counted. Some sage categorize human subcultures based on what kind of environment they come from, such as urban humans or humans from certain terrains (coastal, desert, forest, plains, mountain, swamp, wastelands, or arctic folk).

Human Quick Attributes

Agility d6 Alertness d8 Brains d8 Brawn d8 Charisma d6 Composure d8

Typical Human Assets

• Bastard Sword
• Iron Breastplate
• Gilt Cartographer’s Toolcase
• Sturdy Pack Mule
• 10-Foot Pole
• Kite Shield
• Tome of the Faith
• Hooded Lantern
• Impressive Wardrobe
• Ledger of Loans & Debts

Human Quick SFX

Versatile Skills: When your dice pool doesn’t include a specialty, spend a Ⓟ to double your attribute for that roll.

Typical Human SFX

Beginner’s Luck: Whenever you roll a 4 on at least one d4 in your pool, you can add three dice together for your total. If two or more d4s roll a 4, step up your effect die as well.

Calculated Risk: Step up a specialty die on a roll to create an asset. If the roll fails, step up the stress you take for failing.

Cold Lands Heritage: When you roll to move across icy or slippery terrain, survive in a cold climate, or avoid stress or complications from cold, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Desert Ways: When you roll to survive in a hot climate, to avoid stress or complications from heat, or to discern or recall information about desert creatures, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Endurance Hunter: Step down all Exhausted stress you take from long-term effort, and step up all Exhausted stress other creatures take trying to escape, evade, or outlast you.

Frustrated Fury: When you fail a roll to inflict or avoid stress, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to rage, vengeance, or tenacity. If you end your turn without having rolled to inflict stress that turn, step down this asset.

Plucky: When you face down terrible odds with personal courage, spend a Ⓟ to step down a complication or your Demoralized .

Shieldwall Veteran (Gear): When an ally within reach succeeds on a roll to avoid stress from a foe who is also within reach, if you and the ally both have shields, spend a Ⓟ to inflict that ally’s effect die on the foe as a complication related to shoving or pushing that foe.

Seize Initiative: When another player (including the GM) chooses who goes next at the end of a turn, you can take Enthralled d6 to choose someone else who hasn’t had a turn this round to go next.

Stand Together: When you create a defensive asset for another character, you may gain a Ⓟ, but if their next roll with that asset fails, you become the target of their opposition’s effect die.

Status Conscious: When you roll to secure an audience with local authorities using diplomacy, bureaucratic savvy, or aristocratic privilege, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Well-Traveled: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset in the form of a helpful insight about a situation, location, or monster that you’ve previously encountered during your travels in a foreign locale.

Ogre

Tallfolk known for their hulking bodies, dense muscles, skin in shades of grey or green, and intimidating horns or tusks, ogres boast a reputation as powerful comrades and terrifying foes. Ancient myth speaks of deities dividing the new-made world into territories for their favored peoples, leaving ogres with only the inhospitable hinterlands. According to some ogre storytellers, their ancestors accepted this as a challenge, defiantly thriving in shallow caverns, rocky chasms, and sunless swamps. Perhaps owing to these harsh homelands, ogre cultures tend to prize hunting skill, martial prowess, honorable conduct, and strong familial bonds.

The most populous ogre communities are those of the orks, whose war hordes can annihilate invading armies in a single battle and cripple even the most powerful kingdoms with lightning raids. Half-giants are gray-skinned mountain folk who pursue athletic competitions and other tests of skill with even more intensity than other ogres. Curling horns, furry hide, and pronounced snouts give minotaurs a distinctly bovine appearance. An islander and maritime people, minotaurs feature prominently in pirate stories. Gray ogres tend to be both the largest and the most reclusive of ogrekind, favoring deep backwoods and caves to shun polite society.

Ogre Quick Attributes

Agility d8 Alertness d6 Brains d6 Brawn d10 Charisma d6 Composure d8

Typical Ogre Assets

• Ancestral Relic
• Handheld Drum
• Bone Harpoon
• Hide Armor with Furred Pauldron
• Tower Shield
• Greataxe
• Horned Helm
• Spiked Mace
• Skull Goblet
• Mammoth & Riding Harness

Ogre Quick SFX

Intimidating Demeanor: Spend a Ⓟ to double your role trait on a roll to inflict Demoralized . If the roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Typical Ogre SFX

Competition Expert: When you roll to succeed at a game or competition, or to predict the outcome of a sporting event, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Destructive Strike (Gear): Take Demoralized d6 to double a weapon asset on a roll to inflict Damaged.

Iron Fortitude: On a roll to resist Damaged, Demoralized, or Exhausted, spend a Ⓟ to step up Soldier and step up your effect die.

Long in the Tusk: When you share the wisdom of your people, spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction for one roll.

Kinbond: when you work alongside your kin, gain a d8 asset to represent them and then step up Enthralled.

Mountaineer: Double Scout or Soldier on a roll to climb, avoid a fall, move across treacherous terrain, or survive in high altitudes. If the roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Never Lost: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to tracking, navigation, or perfectly recalling a path you’ve traveled.

Oral Tradition: When you tell a (brief) story, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 inspiration-related asset that anyone who listened can use.

Powerful Shove: When you succeed on a roll to create a complication related to pushing or knocking down a foe, assign a second effect die to inflict Damaged against the same foe.

Raw Athleticism: When your roll related to movement, endurance, or performing a feat of strength doesn’t include a specialty, choose one d8 or smaller die in your pool and step it up.

Relentless Fury: When your Damaged or Exhausted would step up past d12, you can instead keep it at d12, and you gain a d10 complication related to being berserk or enraged (or step up a similar one).

Scavenging to Survive: When scavenging ruins or conquered settlements for valuable items, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Strongest There Is: Spend a Ⓟ to double Brawn on a roll to inflict Damaged or Demoralized, or to create an asset related to inspiring courage. On a heroic success, step down Demoralized for yourself or a nearby ally.

Tenacious Spite: Step down Damaged to double a d8 distinction; afterwards, step up Exhausted.

Wade In: Take Damaged d6 to to target multiple nearby opponents when you roll to inflict Damaged. For each additional target, add a d6 to your pool and keep an extra effect die.

Wyrmkin

The legacy of dragons has defined the heritage of many humanoid folk. While separate draconic species differ greatly in their physical traits, they share certain attributes in common, including scaly skin that is thicker in their extremities, horned skulls, taloned hands and feet, reptilian eyes that usually range between red and gold, and laying eggs. Features like wings, tails, resistance to certain forms of harm, and even a dragon’s destructive breath weapon do occur, but differ by population group or even between individuals, as do the colors of the scales.

In terms of personality, wyrmkin vary as much as any people, yet in every draconic heart, a fire burns. This hunger for greatness echoes the powerful drives of the great dragons themselves. In some, this ambition may manifest as a yearning for glory or respect, in others it might be the urge to conquer or rule. The most well-known wyrmkin are the diminutive, tunnel-dwelling smallfolk called kobolds and the saurian lizardfolk who favor homelands in marshes or jungles. Another, rarer group are the draechen, formidable tallfolk with a knightly culture and mysterious origins.

Wyrmkin Quick Attributes

Kobolds

Agility d10 Alertness d6 Brains d8 Brawn d8 Charisma d6 Composure d6

Lizardfolk

Agility d8 Alertness d8 Brains d6 Brawn d10 Charisma d6 Composure d6

Draechen

Agility d6 Alertness d6 Brains d6 Brawn d10 Charisma d8 Composure d8

Typical Wyrmkin Assets

• Clan-Crested Square Shield
• Bone Helm
• Caltrops
• Cudgel
• Teak Chess Set
• Feathered Cloak
• Dragon Pendant
• Gold Jewelry
• Scale Armor
• Trapsmithing Kit
• Trained Iguanadon

Wyrmkin Quick SFX

Scaly Hide: When you would take Damaged from something sharp, spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress you would take. If this would step the Damaged down to smaller than d6, you take no stress at all.

Typical Wyrmkin SFX

Bloodied Fury: While your Damaged is d8 or larger, step up your smallest die on all rolls to inflict Damaged or Demoralized .

Draconic Breath: When you are not Winded, you can take a Winded d6 complication to breathe out an energy or element tied to your draconic heritage. When you use this beath to inflict Damaged, you can choose up to three nearby targets that are all within your reach or each other’s reach, keeping an extra effect die for each target beyond the first.

Frontline Skirmisher: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on a Soldier or raider, or any creature that is part of an army or horde, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Heritage of Wyrms: When you call upon draconic might, take Exhausted d6 to double Soldier until the end of your next turn.

Instinctive Sense: Before making a roll, spend a Ⓟ to step down a foe’s asset related to avoiding notice or step down a complication you have related to your senses.

Nictitating Membrane: On a roll to use your vision when visibility is poor or obstructed, spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction.

Steadfast Resistance: At the start of each session, gain an asset related to resisting a certain type of element, energy, or harm (fire, lighting, cold, poison, etc.). The asset is equal to your smallest role. When you roll one or more hitches on a roll to avoid a complication or stress that included this asset, you can step down the asset to reroll one or two dice that rolled hitches.

Swamper: When you roll to survive in swamps or marshlands, to move across treacherous terrain, or to avoid stress or complications from poison, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Trapmaster: When your roll to lay or disarm traps includes a specialty or a tool asset, double your distinction and step up your effect die.

Ungovernable Might: When you fail a roll related to physical strength or destroying objects, spend a Ⓟ to reroll all the dice.

Winged: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to your wings. While you have this asset, you can fly as fast as you can run. This asset steps down each time you include it in a dice pool, and it ends immediately if you wear armor.

Customizing Your People

You might find that your character idea isn’t fully or accurately defined by a single one of these distinctions. You might have ancestry from multiple peoples, have been born of one people but raised by another, have been touched by strange magic, or simply have grown up differently than is the norm in your culture or subculture. You and the other players might agree to let you imagine a character type of your own not defined here. To make such a character, customize your distinction’s name accordingly, and then work with your GM to decide which SFX accurately represent the background you’re envisioning.

Example: Gnolls

For instance, Jeremy is a big fan of the old-school fantasy creatures called gnolls and he wants to play one. In play, he wants to explore the infernal connections they’ve been portrayed as having in the past.

Gnolls are a special type of fiendtouched cambion, hyena-like tallfolk who exist in greater numbers than other cambions, most of whom travel in nomadic tribal groups. Though ancient pacts bind many gnolls to the service of demons and compel them to mercilessly raid their neighbors, there are also large gnoll communities whose members have escaped this fiendish subjugation.

Working with his GM, Miriam, Jeremy gives his character the distinction Gnoll of the Northern Badlands, and they identify five cambion SFX and five ogre SFX that all seem to make sense for a gnoll PC. During character creation, and as the character grows in his career, Jeremy will choose people SFX from the list he and Miriam agreed on.

Professions

Choose one of the professions listed in the following pages to define your character’s adventuring vocation.

Multi-Profession Characters

Effort has been made to make each of these distinctions as inclusive as possible, but you might decide you want to play a character who practices more than one profession. Perhaps your character went to seminary to pursue their calling as a cleric, but at night they were haunted by a decidedly unholy being who also persuaded them to make a pact and become a hexknight. If so, you can reflect this dichotomy in your distinction name (Cleric by Day, Hexknight by Night), and then work with your GM to choose SFX that capture your character’s capabilities.

Bard

Wielding skill and spell to support allies and befuddle foes, the bard inspires though performance, artistry, leadership, and lore. Common career paths your bard might pursue include:

▶ A troubadour traipsing from town to town, performing songs, reciting poetry and tales, and bringing news of distant lands.
▶ A herald wearing the colors of their liege, serving as a messenger, diplomat, historian, and arbiter of etiquette.
▶ A skald fighting alongside fierce comrades, a warrior-poet whose songs and chants inspire courageous deeds and preserve epic tales.
▶ A loremaster devoted to academic scholarship, conducting research, educating students, and recording knowledge for posterity.
▶ A jongleur, traveling for applause and coin, performing death-defying acrobatics, knife throwing, juggling, and other crowd-pleasing stunts.

Bard Quick Roles

Scholar d8 Scoundrel d6 Scout d4 Soldier d6 Speaker d10

Typical Bard Specialties

• History
• Enchantment
• Balladry
• Busking
• Flirting
• Horns
• Illusion
• Lute
• Oration
• Painting
• Pan Flute
• Persuasion
• Reading People

Bard Quick SFX

Bard’s Glamourous Spells: Double Speaker when rolling to create assets or inflict Enthralled with magic. If the roll fails, the stress for failing is Enthralled; on a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Inspiring Performer: When you perform or give a speech, spend a Ⓟ to grant an ally in your audience a d8 asset related to inspiration or motivation.

Typical Bard Limits

Eager for Attention, Head in the Clouds, We’ve Got History

Typical Bard SFX

Bard’s Sagacious Spells: Double Scholar when rolling to create assets or inflict non-stress complications with magic. If the roll fails, the stress for failing is Enthralled; on a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Bard’s Scandalous Spells: Double Scoundrel when rolling to create assets or inflict Demoralized with magic. If the roll fails, the stress for failing is Enthralled; on a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Bard’s Valorous Spells: Double Soldier when rolling to create assets or inflict Damaged with magic. If the roll fails, the stress for failing is Enthralled; on a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Bolstering Word: When you succeed on a roll to avoid stress that includes Speaker, take Exhausted d6 to step down an ally’s Damaged or Demoralized .

Clever Words: Spend a Ⓟ to add both Speaker and Scholar to your dice pool when trying to seem convincing, well-spoken, or impressive.

Contact: While in a populated settlement, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset in the form of a local who will inform you of area factions, rumors, and events.

Flirting with Danger: When flirting with or befriending someone would be dangerous, and you do it anyway, double your Charisma on your next roll.

Laudatory Introduction: After you introduce an ally to someone, for the rest of the scene, any time that ally makes a roll you can spend a Ⓟ to add your Speaker trait to their pool.

Legends & Lore: When your roll to recall lore or discern information doesn’t include a specialty, choose one d8 or smaller die in your pool and step it up.

Lost in Your Art: Take Enthralled d6 to step up Speaker until the scene ends, or your current performance ends, whichever comes first.

Jack of All Trades: When your roll to create an asset doesn’t include a specialty, step up a d6 in your pool.

Military Historian: Give the current battle a name ("The Battle of Two Corridors", "Ambush at the Iron Ford", etc.), then spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset containing that name.

Nurture Will: Spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6 to create a d8 asset for yourself or an ally related to strength of will, morale, or resistance to mental influence.

Perilous Stunt: Double Agility or Charisma on a roll to perform a risky physical feat. If you do not achieve a heroic success, take Damaged d6.

Scholar of War: Step up Scholar or Soldier on rolls to create assets by making battle plans or otherwise leveraging your knowledge of military history.

Startling Prowess (Gear): When attempting to inflict Demoralized stress with a blade or other impressive weapon, add a d6 and step up your effect die.

Stirring Presence: When you succeed on a roll to create an asset using Speaker, spend a Ⓟ to step down one stress for someone who can see or hear you.

Veteran Performer (Gear): On a roll to play a musical instrument or to use the instrument as a weapon, add a d6 and step up your effect die.

Way of the Wandering Balladeer: When you are paid—in coin or in food—for a performance, gain a Ⓟ or step down your Exhausted.

Cleric

Devotion to a higher power infuses clerics with sacred energies, making them miraculous healers, channellers of divine wrath, and champions of spiritual causes. Common career paths your cleric might pursue include:

▶ An ordained priest tending to the spiritual life of their community, whether that means teaching, preaching, performing religious rites, or ministering to those in need.
▶ A warpriest who masters arms and armor, blesses allies, and calls down divine wrath upon the enemies of their church or nation.
▶ An oracle who wanders between settlements as a mendicant, delivering prophecies and divine truths despite the efforts of those in power to silence them.
▶ An ascetic of a contemplative order, eschewing worldly pursuits to seek the direct experience of divinity as a hermit, monk, or nun.
▶ A runecaster who inscribes the divine alphabet of creation itself to discern divine will and channel raw power from the heavens.

Cleric Quick Roles

Scholar d10 Scoundrel d4 Scout d6 Soldier d6 Speaker d8

Typical Cleric Specialties

• Undead Lore
• Medicine
• Applied Theology
• Empathy
• Oration
• Community
• Rites
• Religious Traditions
• Curses
• Leadership
• Penitence
• Demonology
• Armor
• Library Use

Cleric Quick SFX

Healing Touch: Roll to create an asset related to healing magic, which lasts until the session ends or until it steps down below d6. Step down the asset to step down the Damaged or Exhausted of one creature you touch.

Turn the Unholy: While you brandish a holy symbol, take Exhausted d6 to target multiple undead or fiends on a roll to inflict a complication. For each additional target, add d8 and keep an extra effect die.

Typical Cleric Limits

Bleeding Heart, Righteous Urgency, Encumbering Armor

Typical Cleric SFX

Acolyte: While in or near a populated area, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset who is a faithful layperson or aspirant priest called to follow you for a time.

Blessed Orator: When you roll to preach to a crowd, spend a Ⓟ to add a d6 to your pool for every audience member beyond the first and then assign an effect die to each listener as an asset for them or as Demoralized .

Castigate: When you criticize another character for improper or unfaithful actions, you may spend a Ⓟ to step down your Exhausted.

Chalice Lighter: When you light a flame to meditate on a named conflict, spend a Ⓟ to gain a d8 asset related to understanding the questions you believe are central to that conflict.

Cleanse: When you roll to recover another character’s complication (including stress), take Exhausted d6 to step up your effect die. You may do this more than once on a single roll.

Cleric’s Battlefield Prayers: Double Soldier when rolling to create assets or inflict Damaged or Exhausted stress with magic. If the roll fails, the stress for failing is Demoralized ; on a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Cleric’s Cloister Prayers: Double Scholar when rolling to create assets or non-stress complications with magic. If the roll fails, the stress for failing is Demoralized ; on a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Cleric’s Temple Prayers: Double Speaker when rolling to create assets or inflict Demoralized or Enthralled with magic. If the roll fails, the stress for failing is Demoralized ; on a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Detect Rites: Double your Alertness or Scout on a roll to magically discern which religious or spiritual rites a character has most recently been a part of; on a success, give them an asset or complication (your choice) equal to your effect die based on those details: Screaming Dragon Cultist, Supplicant of the Bright Faith, or similar.

Divine Providence: When the GM rolls an opportunity, take Enthralled d6 to earn a Ⓟ. You can immediately spend it to activate that opportunity.

Ecclesiastical Support: While in a populated settlement, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to support from a local temple or church of your faith. Once a day, you can step down the asset to step down Damaged for yourself or an ally.

Expert Healer: When you roll to help an ally recover Damaged or Demoralized, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Extended Lifespan: Spend a Ⓟ to ignore a complication or stress caused by aging, the passage of years, or time-based effects.

Holy Focus (Gear): When your roll using magic to create complications or recover stress includes an asset that’s a holy symbol or sacred relic, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Patient Healer: When you take your time to help someone, you may reroll one die that rolls a hitch on your rolls to recover their stress.

Prayer of Knowledge: Spend a Ⓟ to gain a d8 specialty you don’t already possess until the end of the scene.

Priestly Blessings: When you bless a someone for the first time since the last sunset, you may spend a Ⓟ to step down your Exhausted.

Sanctify: When you create an asset for a blessing (on a character, item, or location), spend a Ⓟ to step up that asset.

Fighter

Courageous, versatile, and stalwart warriors, fighters master a formidable arsenal of arms and armor. Common career paths your fighter might pursue include:

▶ A mercenary, trading martial prowess for coin wherever battles are fought and bravery is required.
▶ A commander, taking leadership of military units and marshaling soldiers in service of a greater strategy.
▶ An adept, perfecting martial arts as a spiritual discipline and matching their technique against new challenges as a path to personal growth.
▶ A berserker, losing themselves in savage battle rage to unleash implacable fury on all who oppose them.
▶ A spellsword, a warrior who dabbles in the arcane arts to enhance their combat prowess with battle magic.

Fighter Quick Roles

Scholar d4 Scoundrel d6 Scout d8 Soldier d10 Speaker d6

Typical Fighter Specialties

• Military Tactics
• Armor
• Endurance
• Shields
• Blacksmith
• Duelist
• Feudal
• Politics
• Swordplay
• Siegecraft
• Equestrian
• Geography
• Leadership
• Polearms
• Two-Handed Weapon Stance

Fighter Quick SFX

Recovery Surge: Instantly step down one stress you have, then shutdown this SFX until the end of the scene.

Power Strike: When you roll to inflict Damaged on a single target with a melee attack, step down your largest die to double Soldier, then step up your effect die.

Typical Fighter Limits

Hard on My Gear, It Can’t Be This Easy, Encumbering Armor

Typical Fighter SFX

Battle Meditation: If you’ve had at least an hour to meditate since the last time you fought, you may spend a Ⓟ to gain a Battle Focus asset equal to your Scholar or Scoundrel trait (whichever is smaller). Step down this asset to gain a Ⓟ or to step up your smallest die on a roll to avoid stress.

Battlefield Glory: While near a populated area, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset who is a mercenary or other skilled warrior requesting to serve under you for one mission.

Barrage of Strikes: Double your largest die on a roll to inflict Damaged on a single target. Remove the highest rolling die from your pool. Keep an extra die for your total.

Berserker’s Rage: Gain the complication Enraged d6 and earn a Ⓟ. When you roll to inflict Damaged or perform a feat of strength, you can spend a Ⓟ to add Enraged to your pool. After the roll is resolved, step up Enraged.

Bigger But Not Meaner: When you are facing down an opponent bigger than you, step down Brawn to double Soldier in the same roll.

Building Fury: When you succeed on a roll to inflict stress on a foe, spend a Ⓟ to step up an existing asset you have related to rage, vengeance, or tenacity. If you end one of your turns without having rolled to inflict stress that turn, step this asset back down.

Cleaving Attack: When your roll to inflict stress includes an asset related to being tactically well-positioned, step down that asset to target multiple opponents. For each additional target, add d6 and keep an extra effect die.

Combat Magic: Take Exhausted d6 or spend a Ⓟ to step up Soldier on a roll to create a combat-related magical asset.

Critical Strike: When you score a heroic success on a roll to inflict Damaged, keep a second effect die as a complication or another stress against the same foe.

Flesh Wound: When you could step down all your stresses (such as at the start of a new scene), you can step down Damaged twice instead.

Grappler: When you roll to inflict a complication related to grappling, holding, or restraining a foe, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Great Weapon Strike (Gear): When you roll to inflict stress with a two-handed melee weapon, spend a Ⓟ to double Brawn and step up your effect die.

Infantry Training: When you fight in formation with a compatriot, spend a Ⓟ to gain a relevant d8 asset.

Kitted Out (Gear): Spend a Ⓟ to reveal that you have a useful piece of adventuring gear you previously obtained for or from an adventure, gaining it as a d8 asset.

Lightning Riposte (Gear): While you wield a one-handed melee weapon and no other weapons and succeed on a roll avoiding Damaged from a foe within your reach, take Exhausted d6 to inflict Damaged on that foe equal to your effect.

Maneuvering for Advantage: During a fight, when you roll to create a positioning asset instead of attacking, gain a Ⓟ.

Martial Artist (Gear): While you are not wearing armor or carrying a shield and succeed on a roll to inflict Damaged with an unarmed strike or a weapon traditional to your martial arts style, keep a second effect die as a complication against that foe or another foe within reach.

Missile Deflection: When you take Damaged from a ranged weapon or projectile, spend a Ⓟ to step down that stress. If this steps it down below d6 and your hands are empty, you can catch the weapon or projectile.

Retaliating Strike: When your roll to avoid Damaged or Demoralized succeeds, spend a Ⓟ to inflict your effect die as the same stress you avoided on the target who tried to inflict it on you.

Shield Wielder (Gear): Step up a shield asset on a roll to avoid Damaged. If that roll fails, step down the Damaged you take, then step down that asset. Recover with a repair test or a smith’s services.

Siege Tactics: When your roll to avoid stress includes an asset related to being protected by walls or your allies' shields, or to circumventing such protections, spend a Ⓟ to double that asset in your pool and step up your effect die.

Stunning Blow: When you succeed on a roll to inflict Damaged, step down your effect die to keep a second effect die as a complication to stun or daze the same foe.

Sweeping Strike: When you take out a foe within reach using Damaged, you can keep a second effect die as Damaged against another foe within reach.

Tactical Maneuver: Spend a Ⓟ to step up Scoundrel or Soldier on a roll to inflict stress. On a success, keep a second effect die as a complication on the same foe.

Unarmored Vigor: While you are not wearing armor, spend a Ⓟ to double Scoundrel or Soldier on a role on a roll to avoid Damaged.

Veteran Soldier: When you go into battle under someone else's orders, you may either spend a Ⓟ to create a relevant d8 asset or earn a Ⓟ by taking Demoralized d8.

Vigilant Defense: When a foe within your reach makes a roll to inflict Damaged that doesn’t target you, one target rolling to avoid that stress can add your Soldier or defensive asset die to their pool. If their roll to avoid the stress succeeds, the attacking foe takes Damaged d6 from you.

Hexknight

The hexknight is a warrior who has made a costly bargain, supplementing their martial prowess with eldritch curses, black market alchemy, and powerful yet risky spells. Common career paths your hexknight might pursue include:

▶ A hedge knight whose only marketable skill was warfare, learning magic out of desperation as you try to eke out a living without the privilege of a knighted noble.
▶ An anti-paladin, casting yourself as the villain in a tale where the “heroes” have lost their way and corrupt hypocrisy must be revealed.
▶ A witcher, empowering yourself with both spells and alchemy to hunt monsters for coin.
▶ A bodyguard, bringing all your spells and skill at arms to bear in the protection of someone who needs it.
▶ A mageblade, trained in ancient magical combat techniques and seeking the ultimate unity between martial skill and spellcasting might.

Hexknight Quick Roles

Scholar d8 Scoundrel d6 Scout d6 Soldier d10 Speaker d4

Typical Hexknight Specialties

• Curses
• Diplomacy
• Duelist
• Escape Artist
• Shadow Magic
• Potions
• Fire Magic
• Haggling
• Counterspells
• Jousting
• Necromancy
• Heraldry
• Law
• Library Use
• Military Tactics

Hexknight Quick SFX

Hexknight’s Arcane Invocations: Take Exhausted d6 to double Soldier when rolling to create assets with magic.

Vengeful Riposte: When you successfully defend against an attack, spend a Ⓟ to inflict a complication equal to your effect die on the attacker.

Typical Hexknight Limits

Beholden, Unwanted Attention, Encumbering Armor

Typical Hexknight SFX

Angry Hex: When you roll to inflict stress while you have stress and at least one die in your pool rolls 7 or higher, keep a second effect die as a misfortune-related complication against the same foe.

Baleful Strike (Gear): When your roll to inflict Damaged with a weapon includes Agility or Brawn, spend a Ⓟ to add Charisma to your pool as well.

Conduit of Questionable Power: When you fuel your spellcraft with strange or dangerous power, take Enthralled d6 to double your distinction in your pool.

Desperate Jinx: When someone rolls to inflict stress on you and you already have stress, step down both the largest die in their pool and the smallest die in their pool before they roll. After the roll is resolved, take Enthralled d6.

Dicey Gambit: When you expose yourself to great risk for great potential result, step down your largest die before you roll. If you succeed, step up your effect die twice; if you fail, step up the stress you take for failing.

Dramatic Reactions: Whenever your roll to interact with a GMC includes Speaker or Charisma, double your highest die and step up your effect die, but both 1 and 2 on your dice count as hitches.

Eldritch Rune: Double your largest die on a roll to inflict Damaged or Demoralized with magic. If the roll fails, the stress for failing is Demoralized, and you step it up.

En Garde: When you duel a single opponent, take Enthralled d8 to inflict the same on your opponent. Neither of you may add the other’s Enthralled to your pool unless your opponent’s focus drifts from the fight.

Hexknight’s Otherworldly Spells: Take Exhausted d6 to double Scoundrel when rolling or inflict Demoralized or Enthralled stress with magic.

Investigator of Eldritch Horrors: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on an ooze, slime, or tentacled abomination, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Killer Instinct: If a target already has d10 or larger stress when you roll to inflict Damaged on them, your roll scores a heroic success if you beat their roll by three or more. For every three by which you beat their roll, your effect die steps up one size.

Paltry Cantrips: When you use minor magics, step down and double the largest die in your pool. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Practiced Alchemist (Gear): When you roll to create a potion asset while you have the proper materials and can take your time, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Red Potion (Gear): You always carry a bunch of little potions on your person. When you produce and quaff one, take d6 Enthralled to step down your Damaged. Earn a Ⓟ when you declare you are out of potions, shutting down this SFX until you have a chance to brew or buy more.

Reveal Sorcery: Spend a Ⓟ to instantly become aware of any lasting enchantments, curses, or active magical effects within ten paces of you at that exact moment, gaining a relevant d8 asset.

Risky Curse: Add a die to your roll equal to the largest trait a foe has rolled against you this scene. The next time that trait is rolled against you this scene, it is doubled for that roll.

Smiting Rune: When you succeed on roll to inflict stress using magic, take Exhausted d6 to step up your effect die.

Tools of the Trade (Gear): When you roll to research or construct a special weapon to use against a specific foe, spend a Ⓟ to double Scholar and step up any asset your roll creates.

Mage

Mages are the undisputed masters of spellcasting, unlocking potentially limitless magic by harnessing the arcane secrets of reality itself.

Common career paths your mage might pursue include:

▶ A wizard, a scholar of arcane magic, exponentially increasing the power of their spells as they progress through constant magical research and study of spellbooks.
▶ A sorcerer, gifted with an innate knack for spellcasting, drawing upon an internal flow of magic fed by supernatural ancestry or another mysterious source.
▶ A warlock, whose eldritch pact with an otherworldly patron grants arcane secrets and mysterious spells from beyond the mortal realm.
▶ A hedge mage, casting self-taught spells to help their community and make a humble living rather than seeking the heights of power.
▶ An arcanist, devoted to completely mastering a single form of magic, such as necromancy, fire magic, illusion, or the art of creating magic items.

Mage Quick Roles

Scholar d10 Scoundrel d6 Scout d6 Soldier d4 Speaker d8

Typical Mage Specialties

• Arcane Secrets
• Conjuration
• Subtlety
• History
• Ice Magic
• Alchemy
• Library Use
• Fire Magic
• Necromancy
• Investigation
• Lightshow
• Shadow Magic
• Storm Magic

Mage Quick SFX

Mana Drain: When you make a successful roll using magic, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6 to step up your effect die.

Area Spell: When you roll to inflict complications using magic, spend a Ⓟ to affect multiple targets. For each additional target, add d6 and keep an extra effect die.

Typical Mage Limits

Conspicuous, Head in the Clouds, Beholden

Typical Mage SFX

Arcane Connections: While in a populated settlement, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset in the form of a GMC who is knowledgeable in academic lore, magic, or both, and who can apprise you of recent local events in arcane circles.

Artificer’s Infusion Spells: Double Brains on a roll to create a magical item asset. On a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6. If you later spend XP to convert that asset into a signature asset, immediately after doing so, you get back 1 spent XP.

Channel Chaos: Take a d6 complication to step up the effect die of a successful roll to use magic, then roll the effect die. If it rolls 1, 2, or 3, step up the complication.

Conjured Elemental: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset, representing an elemental creature summoned to aid you until the end of the scene or you banish it.

Dispelling Expert: When you roll to oppose another’s magic, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Eldritch Blade Technique (Gear): When your roll to inflict Damaged with a weapon includes Agility or Brawn, spend a Ⓟ to add Brains to your pool as well.

Erudite Researcher (Gear): When you spend an hour or more with good sources (a library, a meticulous ledger, accurate maps, informed and cooperative experts, etc.) add d6 and step up your effect die on rolls to create research-based assets.

Find Strength in Sorrow: Take Demoralized d6 to step down your Exhausted.

Flashy: When you succeed on a roll to use an especially grandiose spell, gain the complication Priority Target d6 or step up such a complication to step up your own effect die.

Focused Recovery: When you could step down all your stresses, step down Exhausted twice instead.

Grimoire of Wizardry (Gear): After two or more hours of study, spend a Ⓟ to create a spellbook-related asset equal to your Scholar role. When you would take Exhausted, step down the asset to step down the stress you take.

Minor Mendings: When you roll to repair an object or structure using magic, add d6 and step up your effect die.

New Apprentice: While near a populated area, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset who is a gifted young apprentice eager to study with you on a temporary basis.

Pact of the Warlock: After you sleep for at least an hour, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to an otherworldly entity communicating with you in dreams. When you would take Exhausted or Enthralled, step down the asset to step down the stress you take.

Rods, Staves, & Wands (Gear): When your roll using magic to inflict stress or a complication includes an asset that is a rod, staff, or wand, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Sorcerer’s Manifestation Spells: Double Speaker when rolling to create assets or complications (including stress) with magic. On a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Warlock’s Otherworldly Spells: Double Scoundrel when rolling to create assets or complications (including stress) with magic. On a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Wizard’s Arcane Spells: Double Scholar when rolling to create assets or complications (including stress) with magic. On a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Wellspring of Sorcery: After the start of a session, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to your innate sorcery. When you would take Exhausted or Demoralized, step down the asset to step down the stress you take.

Mystic

The mystic is an outsider with psychic insights who seeks wisdom in wild places beyond civilized lands, drawing on primal forces to cast spells and assume animal forms. Common career paths your mystic might pursue include:

▶ A sentinel, called to protect a particular wild place or region at all costs and aided by mysterious spirits of nature.
▶ A priestess of the Old Ways, preserving ancient beliefs that predate civilization, revering the balance of nature and life’s eternal cycle above transitory mortal concerns.
▶ A beastling, naturally gifted in projecting their spirit to enter a beast’s mind and control its actions.
▶ A seer, blessed or cursed with supernatural perceptions that grant enigmatic visions of distant events, future threats, and potential tragedies.
▶ A shepherd of the elements, specializing in the eternal magic of earth, air, fire, or water, summoning primal forces and powerful elementals to enact their will.

Mystic Quick Roles

Scholar d8 Scoundrel d4 Scout d10 Soldier d6 Speaker d6

Typical Mystic Specialties

• Herblore
• Camouflage
• Animal Kinship
• Climbing
• Burrowing
• Fire Magic
• Flying
• Earth Magic
• Hunting
• Survival
• Ice Magic
• Storm Magic
• Swimming
• Wildlife

Mystic Quick SFX

Balm: When you recover non-Damaged stress, spend a Ⓟ to apply the recovery to more than one character. For each additional target, add d6 and keep an extra effect die.

Beastform: Take on an animal form by creating an appropriate asset (Eagle Form, Shape of a Bear, etc.) and stay in that form as long as the asset lasts. When you create the asset, step down one of your roles and step up another. Recover your roles’ normal ratings by eliminating the asset.

Typical Mystic Limits

Dark Omens, Head in the Clouds, Not Safe Yet

Typical Mystic SFX

Disdain Metal (Gear): When you aren’t wearing metal on your person, step up your smallest die on any roll to avoid Damaged. Whenever you are wearing or carrying metal items, take Demoralized d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Glade Keeper: When you take a complication while defending a wild or sacred place from encroachment or corruption, you can either step up that complication to earn a Ⓟ or spend a Ⓟ to immediately step it down.

Harrying Maneuver: When you succeed on a roll to inflict Damaged, keep a second effect die as Exhausted against the same foe.

Mystic’s Primal Evocations: Double Scout when rolling to create assets, complications, or stress with magic. On a success, spend a Ⓟ or take Exhausted d6.

Natural Wisdom: When you remind another character of their place in the world, spend a Ⓟ to step down Exhausted.

Nature Provides (Gear): When you roll to create an asset for someone else using natural materials, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Oak & Mistletoe (Gear): When your roll using magic to create assets or recover stress uses an implement made of wood or other plant matter that you crafted yourself, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Primal Spirit: While in wilderness, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset, representing a spirit of nature who takes the form of an animal to aid you for a time.

Primeval Sense: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to wilderness awareness. While you have this asset, you know if there are any unnatural or otherworldly creatures within a mile of you, and can sense their general direction. If you’re within a mile of a settlement, all you can sense is the settlement, and your asset is shut down.

Prophetic Dreams: After you awaken from at least an hour’s sleep, roll to create an asset related to omens of future events glimpsed in your dreams. You can remove this asset to change the effect die of any roll, making it the same die size as the removed asset.

Sharpened Senses: When you take a complication related to stealth, deception, or illusion, you can immediately spend a Ⓟ to step down that complication.

Skinchanger: Spend a Ⓟ to project your sprit into the mind of a non-intelligent animal and control its actions, gaining a d10 asset but also the complication Unconscious Body d8, which affects your true form. Remove the asset to return to your own body and eliminate the complication.

Stormshroud: When using weather (natural or summoned) to hide your presence or that of your allies, step up your effect die.

Trained in the Old Ways: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on a fey creature, beast, or plant, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Unobtrusive: Spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction on a roll while you are pretending to be a mundane animal.

Vessel of the Nature Spirits: Take Enthralled d6 to step up Scout when rolling to magically influence or enhance plants or animals, or to use weather-related magic. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Walk Among Dreams: Enter the dreams of the sleeping with a test and take along allies by keeping additional effect dice. In dreams, step up your effect die to recover or inflict Demoralized and Enthralled.
Woodguide: When you sleep on untilled ground with no roof over your head for at least an hour, spend a Ⓟ to step down Exhausted.

Paladin

The paladin is a legendary “knight in shining armor,” a warrior who draws divine might from their sacred oath, which binds them in fidelity to a faith, loyalty to a liege, or commitment to a cause (whether holy or unholy). Common career paths your paladin might pursue include:

▶ A cavalier, a mounted knight errant dedicated to the quest, governed by a code of conduct, and bound to serve the causes of law and good at all costs.
▶ An avenger, an instrument of divine wrath, anointed to mete justice to enemies of the church and punish all those who betray it.
▶ A liberator, a righteous revolutionary sworn to overthrow tyranny and free the oppressed.
▶ A knight of the Old Ways, champion of the green realm of nature, a defiant beacon of hope for those still practicing faiths that have fallen out of favor in the current age.
▶ A blackguard, a fallen paladin who has gone back on their sworn oaths and given themselves over to an evil cause or personal ambitions, granting them access to dark magic.

Paladin Quick Roles

Scholar d6 Scoundrel d4 Scout d6 Soldier d10 Speaker d8

Typical Paladin Specialties

• Applied Theology
• Heavy Armor
• Heraldry
• Demonology
• Leadership
• Jousting
• Law
• Military History
• Undead Lore
• Equestrian
• Oration

Paladin Quick SFX

Lay on Hands: Take Exhausted d6 to create a d8 asset related to channeling healing energies, or to step up such an asset. Step this asset down to step down Damaged or a complication for a creature you touch.

Empowered Smite: When you succeed on a roll to inflict Damaged, take Exhausted d6 to step up your effect die.

Typical Paladin Limits

Code of Conduct, Encumbering Armor, Sworn Enemy

Typical Paladin SFX

Abjure the Unholy: When you roll to avoid complications or stress inflicted by demons, devils, or undead, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Acolyte Militant: When you succeed on a roll to inflict stress on fiends, undead, or enemies of your faith, spend a Ⓟ to step up that stress.

Anointed Weapon: Take Exhausted d6 to infuse holy energy into a weapon you hold, creating a d8 asset.

Aura of Faith: When an ally within your reach takes Demoralized from fear or doubt, either of you can spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress the ally takes. If this steps it down below d6, they take no stress at all.

Bond of the Sworn Oath: Spend a Ⓟ to weave magic into an oath sworn willingly in your presence. The first time the oathtaker believes they have broken their oath, you sense it mystically no matter how far away you are, they immediately break out into a cold sweat, and they take Demoralized d8.

Cavalry Charge: While mounted, when you roll to inflict stress on a creature smaller than your mount, immediately after rolling the dice pool, you can choose one die that rolled a hitch and reroll it.

Challenging Strike (Gear): When you succeed on a roll to inflict Damaged with a weapon, keep a second effect die as Enthralled stress against the same foe.

Chivalrous Honor: Step up Speaker or Soldier on all rolls to influence a foe you recently fought honorably. If you dealt with them respectfully outside of battle, you can still step up Speaker or Soldier by spending a Ⓟ.

Defender of the Faith: When you roll to avoid taking a complication in defense of your faith, spend a Ⓟ to double Soldier and step down the opposing effect die.

Devout Sense: Spend a Ⓟ to know the location of any nearby angels, demons, devils, and undead, and to sense any nearby place or object that is consecrated or desecrated.

Duelist’s Mark: When a foe still has Enthralled stress it took from you and hasn’t taken Enthralled from anyone else since, whenever that foe makes a roll to inflict stress that doesn’t target you, you can spend a Ⓟ to step up their Enthralled stress.

Hospitaler: When you risk yourself to reach someone in need, gain the complication Exposed at any die level; add it to your pool in recovery rolls for others for the rest of the scene.

Majestic Steed: While in wilderness, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset, representing a noble or angelic beast that serves temporarily as your mount.

My Word is My Bond: When you fail a roll, if that roll would cause you to break a promise or fail at your sworn duty, spend a Ⓟ to reroll all your dice.

Paladin’s Battlefield Prayers: Take Exhausted d6 to double Soldier on a roll to inflict Damaged or Exhausted stress with magic.

Paladin’s Heroic Prayers: Take Exhausted d6 to double Speaker when rolling to create assets with magic.

Protective Aura: When an ally within your reach rolls to avoid Damaged or a complication, you or they can spend a Ⓟ to add your Charisma die to their pool.

Zealous Smite: Reveal why a person, group, or supernatural entity is an enemy of your faith, then earn a Ⓟ and gain the complication Fervor d6. When you roll to inflict stress on enemies of the faith, you may add your Fervor complication to your own pool. After the roll is resolved, your Fervor steps up.

Ranger

Walking the edge of the wildest frontiers, rangers are warriors, hunters, and trackers who master a fierce array of weapons alongside the primal magic of nature. Common career paths your ranger might pursue include:

▶ A warden, an implacable defender of nature itself, devoted to the Old Ways and guided by primal spirits who grant the endurance of an ancient oak.
▶ A strider of the wilds, traveling in secret all across a large territory, seeking signs of ancient evils reemerging and fighting to keep them in check.
▶ A monster hunter, dedicated to protecting civilization’s frontiers against a particular kind of foe, whose ways they know in and out.
▶ A beastmaster with empathic connections to beasts of all kinds, assisted by one particularly devoted animal companion.
▶ A vigilante, patrolling urban areas as part of their territory and taking down the “civilized” predators who commit crimes against innocent folk.

Ranger Quick Roles

Scholar d6 Scoundrel d6 Scout d10 Soldier d8 Speaker d4

Typical Ranger Specialties

• Archery
• Tracking
• Animal Handling
• Camouflage
• Herblore
• Hunting
• Wildlife
• Survival
• Climbing
• Stealth
• Cooking
• Earth Magic
• Trick Shot
• Equestrian

Ranger Quick SFX

Pathwarden Magic: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Scout when rolling to influence or enhance plants or animals, or to use weather-related magic. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Quarry: Spend a Ⓟ to designate a target as your quarry and gain the asset Focused on My Quarry d8.

Typical Ranger Limits

Ammunition, Sworn Enemy, Not Safe Yet

Typical Ranger SFX

Animal Companion: When your roll includes an asset representing an animal who assists you, spend a Ⓟ to double that asset for this roll, stepping up your effect die on a success.

Beast Slayer: When you make a roll to spot or reveal a vulnerability of a beast, you can either step up the resulting asset or share the asset with any others you tell.

Close the Distance (Gear): When you switch from ranged combat to close combat or back, step down the largest die in your pool for that roll to earn a Ⓟ.

Creature Lore: When your roll related to discerning information about or detecting non-humanoid creatures includes Scout, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Crimefighter: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on someone you caught committing a serious crime, or whom you know to be part of a thieves’ guild, assassins’ guild, or other criminal faction, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Deadeye (Gear): When you roll to inflict Damaged with a ranged weapon, if your roll includes an asset you created relating to aiming, step up your effect die.

Gap in Their Scales: When you succeed on a roll to inflict Damaged, spend a Ⓟ to step up your effect die.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to camouflage. While holding still, step up this asset in any roll to avoid notice.

Master Tracker: When you roll to inflict the complication Being Tracked or to create an asset related to tracking your quarry, add d8 and step up your effect die.

Natural Explorer: While in the wilderness, if your roll during your turn includes Scout, step up the smallest die in your pool.

Nature’s Bounty: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset utilizing the natural landscape, such as taking cover behind thick brush or maneuvering quarry into marshy ground.

Primeval Sense: Spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to wilderness awareness. While you have this asset, you know if there are any unnatural or otherworldly creatures within a mile of you, and can sense their general direction. If you’re within a mile of a settlement, all you can sense is the settlement, and your asset is shut down.

Ranger’s Heroic Evocations: Take Exhausted d6 to double Soldier when rolling to create assets with magic.

Ranger’s Primal Evocations: Take Exhausted d6 to double Scout when rolling to create non-stress complications with magic.

Scourge of Shapeshifters: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on a shapechanging creature (such as a werebeast, mimic, or doppelganger), add d6 and step up your effect die.

Sharpshooter (Gear): While using a ranged weapon, when you roll to make a trick shot or aim at extreme range, spend a Ⓟ to double your distinction.

Two-Weapon Defense (Gear): When a foe within reach rolls to inflict stress on you while you are wielding a melee weapon in each hand, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to your defense.

Unwind: When you first enter a wild space, spend a Ⓟ to step down one of your stresses.

Wayfinder: Spend a Ⓟ to sense which way leads to your quarry or destination, to figure out how to pilot a new vehicle, or to step up Scout on a roll to create an asset.

Wild Wisdom: Spend a Ⓟ to reveal information about a wild landscape or creature and create a related a d8 asset.

Wilderness Rover: When plants, travel, or terrain would cause you to take Exhausted or a complication, spend a Ⓟ to step down that stress or complication.

Rogue

Leveraging advanced skills and cunning tricks to gain the upper hand even in dire straits, a rogue is a stealthy opportunist who makes their own luck. Common career paths your rogue might pursue include:

▶ A thief, a specialist in robberies and heists who excels at circumventing security to get into places where they’re not supposed to be.
▶ A swashbuckler, a devil-may-care rebel who unerringly finds trouble and relies on quickness, audacity, swordplay, and panache to get out of it.
▶ An assassin, a deadly spy or hired killer who employs deception, poison, and stealth to dispatch their targets.
▶ An outlaw, ambushing travelers along highways or on the high seas, reappropriating corrupt wealth and (possibly) giving it to those more deserving.
▶ An eldritch grifter, an adventurous deceiver skilled at overcoming sorcerous challenges, supplementing their well-honed trickery with arcane spells.

Rogue Quick Roles

Scholar d6 Scoundrel d10 Scout d8 Soldier d4 Speaker d6

Typical Rogue Specialties

• Sneaking
• Traps
• Thieves’ Tools
• Pickpocket
• Climbing
• Appraisal
• Deceit
• Concealing
• Weapons
• Short Blades
• Escape Artist
• Haggling
• Reading People
• Forgery
• Arcane
• Secrets
• Flirting

Rogue Quick SFX

Sense Traps: On a roll related to noticing, avoiding, or disarming traps, immediately after rolling the dice pool, you can spend a Ⓟ to choose one die that rolled a hitch and reroll it.

Unexpected Attack: When you succeed on a roll to inflict stress with an asset you created related to stealth, deception, or speed, eliminate the asset to step up the stress you inflict.

Typical Rogue Limits

I’ll Guard the Henhouse, No Angel, Shady Backstory

Typical Rogue SFX

A Thousand Faces (Gear): Double Scoundrel or Speaker on a roll to create a disguise asset for yourself. Also, you can spend a Ⓟ to step up a disguise asset you already created.

Acrobat: When you climb, flip, or jump for tactical advantage as part of your action, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Building Momentum: When you succeed on a roll to inflict stress or complication, spend a Ⓟ to gain or step up the asset Momentum d6. If you fail any roll or make a recovery roll, eliminate the asset.

Burglar: If you are about to be discovered somewhere you’re not supposed to be, you may spend a Ⓟ to gain a d8 asset to conceal you.

Catch ‘Em Flat-Footed: When you roll to inflict stress on a target who hasn’t yet taken a turn this scene, add d8 and step up your effect die.

Con Artist: When you roll to deceive someone or maintain an existing deception, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Connections in Low Places: Spend a Ⓟ to reveal a personal connection—shared childhood, marriage relation, worked the same crew, or the like—to a person of little social standing, gaining a d8 asset related to that person.

Cunning Gambit: When your roll to inflict stress includes an asset related to deception or stealth, spend a Ⓟ to double Scoundrel for that roll and step up your effect die.

Dirty Fighter: Immediately before or after rolling against a foe, spend a Ⓟ to stoop to dishonorable tactics and inflict a d6 complication like **Sand in Eyes **or Sucker Punch on that opponent.

Elusive Dodge: Step up Scoundrel or Scout on your roll to avoid a complication or stress that affects an entire area.

Envenomed Weapon (Gear): When you succeed on a roll to inflict Damaged with a weapon while you have a poison-related asset, if your total is an even number, keep an additional effect die as a Mistrusted complication against the same foe.

Every Move You Make: While you are observing a person or situation without haste or interruption, spend a Ⓟ to double your Scout for one roll.

Exit Strategy: When you need to get out of a location or an awkward situation, spend a Ⓟ to name your escape plan and gain it as a d8 asset.

Exploit Weakness: Spend a Ⓟ to double your target’s stress die in your roll to inflict stress on them.

Fence: When you reveal that you’ve found a buyer for stolen goods or a seller of necessary (but probably stolen) goods, gain them as a d8 asset as well as the complication Disreputable d6.

First Strike: When you roll to inflict stress on a foe, if it’s the first time you’ve rolled to inflict stress on that foe this scene, step up your effect die.

Footpad: While near a populated area, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset who is an ambitious criminal desperate to build a reputation by joining your crew for one job.

Heist Planner: Immediately after you create an asset, spend a Ⓟ to step up that asset by narrating a flashback to when and how you prepared for this contingency.

Heroic Agility: When you roll to avoid stress and fail, if the opposition’s total didn’t beat yours by five or more, spend a Ⓟ to step down the opposition’s effect die.

Honor Among Thieves: When an ally fails a roll to avoid Demoralized or a complication, spend a Ⓟ to let them reroll all their dice. If the roll still fails, take Exhausted d6 to step down the stress or complication the ally takes.

Juke: When you fail a roll to evade harm, spend a Ⓟ to reroll all your dice.

Poison Expert (Gear): Spend a Ⓟ to coat your weapon in poison, creating a d8 asset, or to double your largest die on a roll to detect, identify, treat, or brew poison.

Quick Action: Spend a Ⓟ to step up Scoundrel or Scout on a roll to inflict a complication or stress. On a success, keep a second effect die as an asset for yourself related to stealth, deception, or speed.

Reliable Specialty: When you fail a roll that included a specialty of d8 or larger, spend a Ⓟ to reroll all your dice. Afterwards, shut down this SFX until the end of the scene.

Secret Language: When you roll to communicate with someone secretly, hide a message in plain sight, or decipher covert communications, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Trickster’s Spells: Take Exhausted d6 or spend a Ⓟ to step up Scoundrel when rolling to create complications based on magical trickery.

Personas

Choose one of the personas listed in the next few pages as a distinction. You can use the persona name given here or some other version of it. You can also make your distinction any word or phrase that you feel resonates with the persona. The best persona distinction is the one you find most evocative of the character you want to play.

Your chosen persona distinction comes with a milestone set. These milestones serve as springboards to introduce your character to the group dynamic. When you complete a milestone, your persona distinction does not need to change (though you certainly have the option of rewriting your distinction with all that XP you just earned).

Cipher

Whether you’re a brooding figure with a mysterious past or an unassuming farm boy caught up in tumultuous events, so far your personality is more question mark than exclamation point—whether you become more or less enigmatic as your career progresses is up to you.

Milestone: Decoding the Cipher

You’re a cryptic figure of unknown provenance and background, pursuing opaque goals for your own mysterious ends.

▶ 1 XP when you decline to reveal information about yourself but still betray stray details or clues.
▶ 3 XP when you explain your motivation for an unexpected choice or action.
▶ 10 XP when you finally reveal major details about your identity, background, or motivations in the face of a challenge with at least one d12 trait, hoping the revealed knowledge will help overcome it.

Comrade

You look out for the group, focusing on immediate needs over grandiose visions so you and your friends will still be standing when the big showdown comes round.

Milestone: Helping the Cause

Other people have more complicated motivations, but you’re here for the people around you.

▶ 1 XP when you create an asset for a friend or ally who doesn't already have an asset from you.
▶ 3 XP when you expose yourself to danger as part of a roll to create an asset to help someone or a roll to recover a stress or complication for an ally or GMC.
▶ 10 XP when an asset you earned XP for helps defeat a challenge with at least one d12 trait, or when you abandon comrades in a moment of need to pursue your own agenda.

Devotee

You have found solace and purpose in your faith and its commandments.

Milestone: Keep the Faith

Your faith guides your actions and gives meaning to your exploits.

▶ 1 XP when you take action in concordance with the dictates of your faith.
▶ 3 XP when you refuse a temptation to transgress the rules of your faith.
▶ 10 XP when the pursuit of your faith prompts you to confront a challenge with at least one d12 trait, or you refuse the challenge and abandon such a pursuit.

Disruptor

The rules don’t apply to you, and to the people who shelter within the status quo, you are a force of chaos.

Milestone: Smash the Icons

You oppose authority, chronically and possibly involuntarily.

▶ 1 XP when you publicly disrespect an authority figure.
▶ 3 XP when you undermine or outright attack an authority figure or one of their representatives.
▶ 10 XP when you destroy the credibility or power of an authority figure who has at least one d12 trait or when you accept their authority.

Loose Cannon

You see the world as stuck and slightly boring; it desperately needs a little chaos to shake it up.

Milestone: Reckless

You don’t think ahead, and you don’t really think behind very much, either—there’s stuff to do and you might as well start swinging!

▶ 1 XP when you take reckless action without consulting anyone else.
▶ 3 XP when you dismiss or diminish the fallout of your own actions.
▶ 10 XP when you risk your life without calculation or planning and the risk either succeeds in bettering the lives of many or costs you deeply (or both).

Mercenary

You’re selfish, but that’s the only reasonable response to the dog-eat-dog world you live in.

Milestone: My Motives Are My Own

You’re looking out for number one.

▶ 1 XP when you seek treasure or payment.
▶ 3 XP when you act callously to benefit yourself or when you receive payment for services rendered.
▶ 10 XP when you betray a friend or ally for a big payout, or when you agree to do so but then refuse at the last moment.

Schemer

By carefully keeping your own counsel, gathering information and resources, and applying judicious pressure to people and situations, you intend to come out on top—usually without getting your hands dirty.

Milestone: Wheels Within Wheels

Your plan is complex and delicate, but exceedingly clever, and if everybody would stop interfering with it, you’d have everything in hand.

▶ 1 XP when you keep or reveal a secret.
▶ 3 XP when you first use an asset you created before the current scene.
▶ 10 XP when you complete a complicated plan to accomplish a great deed, or abandon the plan in favor of improvisation.

Valiant

You have dedicated your life to the pursuit of a grand cause.

Milestone: In the Name Of

Your chosen cause is the singular focus of all your actions.

▶ 1 XP when you declare that your actions forward your cause.
▶ 3 XP when you create an asset representing dedication to your cause, either for yourself or others.
▶ 10 XP when you abandon your grand cause to focus on more immediate needs

Wholesome

You’re focused on making things better for other people.

Milestone: Do-Gooder

There are hurting people in the world and you know that you can help.

▶ 1 XP when you promise to help someone or you unexpectedly aid someone who thought all hope was lost.
▶ 3 XP when you take d8 or greater stress trying to fulfill your promise to help someone.
▶ 10 XP when you you confront a challenge with at least one d12 trait as part of fulfilling a promise, or when you inform someone that your attempt to help them has proven too difficult for you.

Other Personas

These distinctions capture a wide range of archetypal character types seen in many fantasy stories. However, if none of the distinctions and/or milestones capture the persona you have in mind. Start by choosing such a milestone (or working with your GM to create an original milestone based on these examples), and then come up with a descriptive persona distinction that reflects the milestone you chose.

Aligned Characters

Whether by choice or by fate’s machinations, some characters align with cosmic forces of Law or Chaos, or with the balancing powers in-between. This alignment is not a moral code or ethical ideal; rather, it is a metaphysical orientation, a manifestation of impersonal cosmological influences. In some cases, a character’s conduct and outlook on the world may reflect these influences. You may decide your character has an alignment in the universe’s greater struggle between anarchic entropy and harmonious order. While their persona doesn’t need to correspond with this alignment, if you want it to have an effect, you can consult the table below.

This table also identifies how mainstream society is likely to categorize a character on a scale of perceived morality. Since mortal ideals often judge people by how much they prioritize either benefiting others (behavior many would label as “good”) or benefiting oneself (more often associated with “evil”), the table lists how folk tend to view the personalities along that spectrum, including which ones are just somewhere in the middle (more “neutral”).

	Aligned with…
Perceived as…	Chaotic Forces	Neutral Forces	Lawful Forces
“Good”	Valiant	Wholesome	Comrade
“Neutral”	Loose Cannon	Cipher	Devotee
“Evil”	Disruptor	Mercenary	Schemer

Limits

Choose two of the Limits listed here for your character, based on your distinctions. Your profession lists a few suggested Limits for characters with that distinction, but you can choose any two you wish.

Like all Cortex Lite characters, you also gain the Hinder Limit for your distinctions.

GM Activation

Unlike normal SFX, Limits can be activated by the GM as well as the player. Even when the GM does so, you still make all the choices and earn all the rewards listed for that Limit.

For example, the We’ve Got History Limit lets you earn a Ⓟ by revealing that a GMC was formerly your friend, ally, or lover. If the GM activates the Limit, you still decide whether the GMC in question was your friend, or your ally, or your lover, and you still earn the Ⓟ. The Limit says you also take d6 Demoralized or Enthralled stress, but it is you who decides which of those two stresses you take, not the GM.

Reveals

Some Limits allow you to reveal information about the scene or setting. When you do so, your character explains a fact about the story that is true, a fact you create just like the GM would. Just as the GM might have a GMC say “These kobolds wear the symbol of the red dragon Infernax”, which establishes a truth about the world for everyone at the table, you have your character say something similar. Either way, the revelation changes the story, editing the narrative of your current scene to make the information you revealed true.

In the fiction of the game, what your character reveals is based on their existing knowledge or current observations. As a player at the table, however, you actually get to invent these new details for your character to share, creating new information that changes the story.

Some GMs and players prefer not to use these kinds of Limits. If your group doesn’t want them, you can ignore Limits that call for player reveals.

All the Limits that explicitly require a player reveal are marked with an asterisk (*).

Limits List

Ammunition (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ and step down an asset for a ranged weapon, representing a need to conserve ammunition. Whenever the GM activates a hitch on a roll you make with the stepped down asset, they can choose to shut down the asset instead of giving you a complication. Whether the asset is stepped down or shut down, recover it when you refresh your ammo supply.

Beholden (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ by revealing that an entity you have a pact with has made a demand on you, then take a related d6 complication like Must Perform a Sacrifice at Midnight, Sworn to Procure the Tome of Unbecoming, or similar. At the end of each scene, you can step up such a complication to earn another Ⓟ. When the GM agrees you have fulfilled the demand, eliminate the complication.

Bleeding Heart (Limit): When you expose yourself to danger by showing compassion, earn a Ⓟ and take an Mistrusted d6 complication.

Cataphract (Limit): When you dismount a steed, step down or shutdown a relevant asset for the scene to gain a Ⓟ.

Code of Conduct (Limit): When you take an action that violates the honorable code of behavior you have pledged to live by, earn a Ⓟ and take Demoralized d6.

Conspicuous (Limit): When your actions or your flamboyant magic attract unwanted attention, take an Mistrusted d6 complication to earn a Ⓟ.

Curiosity (Limit): Take a d6 complication related to indulging your curiosity in a dangerous situation to earn a Ⓟ.

Dark Omens (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ by revealing how the current situation is more dangerous than it seems and/or how a past tragedy is on the verge of repeating itself. You then take Demoralized d6 or Enthralled d6.

Deeply Flawed (Limit): When you use Hinder on a roll, after the roll is resolved, you can step up one existing stress you have to earn a Ⓟ.

Dig Too Deep (Limit): When you’ve started something and it’s probably a bad idea to keep working at it, but you stick with it anyway, take a Stubborn d6 complication to earn a Ⓟ.

Distressingly Familiar (Limit): Reveal a detrimental detail about a situation, location, or monster that you’ve encountered before to earn a Ⓟ, then take a related d6 complication.

Distrust of Cities (Limit): When in a large settlement or other bastion of "civilized" ways, take a related d6 complication or Demoralized d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Draconic Reverence (Limit): When you pursue a lead on the location of a dragon, take orders from a dragon, or reveal that any detail of the game is connected to dragons, gain the complication Fervor d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Eager for Attention (Limit): When you perform for an audience or show off in front of strangers, take Enthralled d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Encumbering Armor (Limit): When your armor interferes with your movement, gain a related complication at d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Hard on My Gear (Limit): Shut down a signature asset to earn a Ⓟ. To restore it, succeed on a special test against the GM.

Head in the Clouds (Limit): When you are distracted by a torrent of information provided by your magic, research, or supernatural insights, take Enthralled d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Hoarder (Limit): When you could trade or spend money to make things easier, but you refuse, take a Possessive d6 complication to earn a Ⓟ.

I’ll Guard the Henhouse (Limit): When you play up the air of danger that surrounds you, take the complication Mistrusted d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

It Can’t Be This Easy (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ by revealing why an opponent must have already anticipated your current course of action and/or why your seeming moment of victory is only temporary. You then take Demoralized d6 or Enthralled d6.

Misunderstood (Limit): When you feel the burden of others’ assumptions about you, take Demoralized d6 or a Mistrusted d6 complication to earn a Ⓟ.

No Angel (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ by revealing how a past misdeed has come back to haunt you in the current scene, or that you must now separate from the group to deal with the fallout from a bad choice you made. You then take Demoralized d6 or Enthralled d6 stress.

Not Safe Yet (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ by revealing why you and your allies cannot yet escape or stop and rest, and/or that you’ve become aware of someone following or watching you. You then take Demoralized d6 or Enthralled d6 stress.

Outrage (Limit): When you loudly condemn someone who has broken your culture’s traditions or disrespected you, earn a Ⓟ and take an Enraged d6 complication.

Perfectionist (Limit): When you fail at something, take Demoralized d6 or Enthralled d6 stress to earn a Ⓟ. (This is in addition to any stress you take from a failed dice roll.)

Relatable Hero (Limit): When you are tempted to give into fear, desire, social pressure, or the instinct to acquire more power, take Demoralized d6 or Enthralled d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Righteous Urgency (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ when you reveal how a situation is likely to harm vulnerable people, how you must address an affront to your beliefs, or why you feel compelled to help someone who deserves punishment. You then take your choice of Demoralized d6, Enthralled d6, or an Enraged d6 complication.

The Road Goes Ever On (Limit): When your homesickness threatens to overwhelm you, or you complain about your lack of creature comforts, take Demoralized d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Sacred Ground (Limit): Whenever you enter a space sacred to your culture, take Enthralled d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Seeing Red (Limit): When anger prompts you to focus all your attention on a single object or person, take Enthralled d6 to step down all your other complications and stresses.

Shady Backstory (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ by revealing that a GMC or group knows a dangerous secret, or that they are after you for a past crime or perceived betrayal. You then take Demoralized d6 or Enthralled d6.

Standing on Ceremony (Limit): When you pay deference to an ancient, exalted, or royal being, take Enthralled d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Sunlight Sensitivity (Limit): While in sunlight, you hitch on ones and twos.

Sworn Enemy (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ by revealing that a misdeed committed by a GMC or faction now urgently requires you to bring them to justice, take vengeance on them, or save someone they endangered. You then take Enthralled d6 or an Enraged d6 complication.

Toss a Coin (Limit): When you expend effort to solve someone else’s problem, take Exhausted d6 to earn a Ⓟ. If you actually get paid fairly for doing so, gain another Ⓟ.

Unwanted Attention (Limit): When you arrive somewhere new, earn a Ⓟ and gain a d6 complication related to someone you hadn’t met before already deciding they hate you, they want to use you, or they have unreciprocated affection towards you. Instead of just going away at the end of the scene, the complication automatically goes away at the end of the session.

Wanderlust (Limit): When your urge to go experience new places threatens to overwhelm you, take Enthralled d6 to earn a Ⓟ.

Weapon Focus (Limit): Whenever you are unarmed or have a complication that impairs your use of a weapon, shut down a related (Gear) SFX to earn a Ⓟ. Recover at the start of the next scene.

We’ve Got History (Limit): After a new GMC is introduced, you can earn a Ⓟ by revealing that the GMC was once your friend, ally, or lover, until you parted on very bad terms. You then take Demoralized d6 or Enthralled d6.

Wild Rage (Limit): When "civilized" folk offer insults, or when someone deceives, goads, or angers you, take Enthralled d6 or an Enraged d6 complication to earn a Ⓟ.

Working On It (Limit): Earn a Ⓟ by revealing that you can’t complete an urgent task because you are missing something crucial that’s difficult to obtain or because you need much more time than is currently feasible. Then take Demoralized or Enthralled stress.

General SFX

In addition to SFX associated with certain peoples and professions, players can choose and gain any of the following SFX for their characters.

SFX List

Abjuration Wards: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Soldier when rolling to cast protective magic or to dispel or exorcize supernatural influences. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Adaptable: Step down and double one die of your choice in your pool.

All-Out Attack: Spend a Ⓟ to target multiple opponents when you roll to inflict Damaged. For each additional target, add a d6 and keep an extra effect die.

Armor Expert (Gear): When your roll to avoid Damaged fails, if that roll included an armor asset, step down the stress you take, then step down the asset until it is repaired.

Art of Invocation: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Scholar or Soldier when rolling to control elemental forces or to inflict stress using raw magical power. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Barroom Brawler (Gear): When your roll to inflict Damaged includes a temporary improvised weapon asset you created during the current scene, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Battle Caster: When you succeed on a roll to inflict Damaged with magic, keep a second effect die as a complication or another form of stress against the same foe.

Blood Magic: Take Damaged d6 to step down your Exhausted.

Brace and Aim (Gear): If you haven’t moved yet during your turn, spend a Ⓟ to give yourself a d8 asset related to aiming with a ranged weapon. Remove this asset if you move more than two paces during a single beat.

Brilliant Under Pressure: Spend a Ⓟ to add your Demoralized or Exhausted to your roll to create an asset. If the action succeeds, step down the stress you used.

Combat Veteran: When your roll to inflict Damaged or Demoralized during a battle includes Soldier, step down the largest die in your pool to add d8. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Conjuration Mastery: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Speaker when rolling to summon and control something from elsewhere, or to use teleportation or planar portals. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Distracting Presence: When you roll to inflict Enthralled by distracting someone, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Dual Wield (Gear): When you wield a weapon in each hand on a roll to inflict stress, step down the pool’s largest die to keep an extra effect die.

Empathy: Step up Speaker on a roll to create an asset related to trust, reading people, or reassurance.

Energetic: When you would take Exhausted stress, spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress you take. If this steps the stress down below d6, you take no stress at all.

Evading: When you roll to create an asset or recover stress, spend a Ⓟ to keep and step up a second effect die as an asset for yourself related to avoiding physical harm. This asset immediately ends if you roll to inflict stress or complications, but while you have it, if an SFX would allow someone to inflict stress on you by spending a Ⓟ, you ignore that stress.

Flanking: While you and an ally are both within reach of the same foe, but not within each other’s reach, you both add d6 to your rolls to attack that foe.

Flash of Insight: When you fail a test to obtain information, you may spend a Ⓟ or take Enthralled d6 to obtain that information by other means.

Focused Stillness (Gear): If you haven’t moved yet during your turn when you roll to use a ranged weapon that you’re wielding with two hands, you can step up one asset in your pool and step up any stress you inflict.

Have a Little Faith: When you would take Demoralized stress, spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress you take. If this steps the stress down below d6, you take no stress at all.

Hidden Truths of Divination: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Scholar when rolling to create to gain information or reveal knowledge with magic. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Hinder: Roll d4 instead of d8 for a distinction to earn a Ⓟ.

Hunting the Dark: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on the undead or a creature of shadow, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Impossible to Ignore: Spend a Ⓟ to target multiple opponents when you roll to inflict Enthralled. For each additional target, add d6 and keep an extra effect die.

In Harm’s Way: When another character near you takes stress, you can step down the stress they would take, then take d6 stress of the same type yourself.

Inquisitive: When you fail a roll to obtain information, spend a Ⓟ to reroll all your dice.

Inspiring Leadership: Add a d6 and step up your effect die when you roll Speaker to create assets for allies.

Journey Adept: Double Scout or Soldier on a roll to maneuver a vehicle or mount, or to outrun someone or avoid falling while mounted. If the roll succeeds, step up your effect die. Also, you don’t take stress from the Opportune Attack SFX while mounted.

Keen Intellect: Add a d6 and step up your effect die when you roll Scholar to create an asset related to recalling or researching information.

Mage’s Bane: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on a spellcaster, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Magical Recovery Meditation: Take Enthralled d6 to step down your Exhausted.

Master of Illusion: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Scoundrel when rolling to manipulate others’ senses with magic. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Master Plan: Spend a Ⓟ to add a die to your pool equal to the largest complication anyone has in the scene. After the roll fails or succeeds, step down that complication.

Misdirection: When you use Scoundrel on a roll related to escape, deception, or stealth, step down the largest die in your pool to add d8. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Natural Leader: When someone besides you rolls an asset you created in their pool, spend a Ⓟ to double that asset. If that roll succeeds, and step up its effect die.

Network: While in a populated settlement, spend a Ⓟ to create d8 asset in the form of a GMC who provides free room and board for you and your allies. As long as you don’t overstay your welcome or cause trouble, the GMC will even help hide your presence.

Opportune Attack (Gear): When a foe willingly moves out of your reach without teleporting, spend a Ⓟ to inflict Damaged d6 on that creature if you have a melee weapon in hand.

Outmaneuver: When your roll to inflict Damaged or Exhausted while outdoors includes Scout, step down the largest die in your pool to add d8. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Palm It (Gear): When you roll to hide a one-handed weapon or make a sneak attack with it, step up and double the smallest die in your pool if you aren't wearing armor or using a shield.

Path of Necromancy: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Scholar when rolling to create or affect undead, or when manipulating the energies of life and death. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Peacemaker: If you have Damaged inflicted by another character in the scene when you roll to de-escalate a conflict, double Speaker in your dice pool. If the roll still fails, take Demoralized d6.

Polearm Training (Gear): When you attack with a hafted weapon, step up the smallest die in your pool. On a success, keep an extra effect die as a complication on the target related to battlefield positioning.

Position of Privilege: While in a populated settlement, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset who is an attendant or guide, seeing to basic needs and logistics while you’re in the area.

Reassuring Comrade: Step up or double Speaker in your dice pool when helping others recover Demoralized . You can also spend a Ⓟ to step down your own or a nearby character’s Demoralized .

Reckless Gambit: When you roll dice, add a die to your pool equal to the largest stress or complication anyone has in the scene. Take a complication at d6 if the roll succeeds, or d8 if it fails.

Reliable Memory: Spend a Ⓟ to reroll a dice pool focused on memory or recall that included Scholar.

Seasoned Sea-Dog: When you roll to swim, to create an asset related to your career at sea, or to inflict a complication or stress on a sea creature, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Skill Focus: When your pool includes a specialty, you can replace two dice of equal size with one die one step larger.

Student of Dracology: When you roll to inflict a complication or stress on a dragon or a creature that is kin to dragons (such as a drake, wyvern, kobold, or draechen), add d6 and step up your effect die.

Sudden Yet Inevitable: When someone betrays you or deceives you, or you betray or deceive someone, spend a Ⓟ to create a d8 asset related to having planned for it.

Team Player: When you witness an ally rolling a heroic success, you can step down your own or another witness’s Demoralized .

The Uses of Enchantment: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Speaker when rolling to influence others’ mental states with magic. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Touché: When you acknowledge an opponent’s success against you, step down the complication their roll inflicts and take Demoralized d6.

Tough: When you would take Damaged, spend a Ⓟ to step down the stress you take. If this steps the stress down below d6, you take no stress at all.

Trained Physician: Step up or double Scholar in your dice pool when helping others recover Damaged. You can also spend a Ⓟ to step down your own or a nearby character’s Damaged.

Transmutation Studies: Take Exhausted d6 to step up Scholar when rolling to magically alter the form or physical properties of creatures of objects. If your roll succeeds, step up your effect die.

Undaunted Determination: Step up or double Scout for one roll. If the roll fails, take Exhausted stress equal to the largest die in your pool.

Versatile Grip (Gear): When you roll to use a weapon that can be wielded one-handed or two-handed, if you wield it with two hands, you can double your attribute. If you fail, step up the stress you take from failing.

Vicious Contempt: When you roll to inflict Demoralized with mockery or contempt, add d6 and step up your effect die.

Vigilant Eye: Spend a Ⓟ to double Scout in a pool related to following a trail, aiming at a distant target, or spotting something far off.

Watch It All Burn: Add a die to your pool equal to the largest stress or complication anyone has in the scene and step up your effect die. Succeed or fail, you take Enthralled d6.

Wicked Feint: When you succeed on a roll to inflict Enthralled, keep a second effect die as Damaged against the same foe.

What’s the Worst That Can Happen: When you roll to create an asset for a desperate or dubious plan of action, explain to another character what the worst-case failure scenario looks like to step up your largest die and step up your effect die. The GM sets aside a die equal to your effect die, which they can assign to you later as a complication if you fail at executing the plan.

Spending XP

Once experience points are earned via Milestones, they can then be spent for the benefit of your character. TorchLite uses the following table for the most common uses of Experience Points:

Spend 1 XP to:

▶ Start the next game session with one extra Ⓟ. (You can’t start a game session with more than 5 Ⓟs.)

Spend 3 XP to do one of the following:

▶ Replace an existing distinction with a new one.
▶ Add or replace a Limit.
▶ Add a new d4 specialty or signature asset
▶ Upgrade an existing specialty or signature asset from d4 to d6.

Spend 5 XP to do one of the following:

▶ Add a new d6 specialty.
▶ Convert a temporary asset into a d6 signature asset.
▶ Replace an existing SFX with a new one.

Spend 10 XP to do one of the following:

▶ Upgrade a d4 role to d6.
▶ Add a new d6 signature asset.
▶ Upgrade an existing d6 specialty or signature asset to d8.

Spend 15 XP to do one of the following:

▶ Upgrade a d6 attribute or role to d8.
▶ Upgrade an existing d8 specialty or signature asset to d10.
▶ Add a new SFX.

Spend 20 XP to do one of the following:

▶ Upgrade a d8 attribute or role to d10.
▶ Upgrade an existing d10 specialty or signature asset to d12.

Spend 25 XP to:

▶ Upgrade a d10 attribute or role to d12.

How Distinctions Evolve

The starting spreads of distinctions in TorchLite are very simplistic and can be elaborated as you play. Here’s three methods you can use whenever you spend XP:

Combining Distinctions

When you want a new distinction (3 XP), you may combine existing distinctions to make room. The two distinctions Elf and Wizard can be combined into one distinction, Elf Wizard. The SFX from both these distinctions get listed under the combined distinction. The new distinction goes into the newly freed-up space.

There is no hard limit to how many times distinctions can be combined, but you should always aim for distinction names that have a sort of holistic sense to them, and aren’t just a grab-bag of miscellaneous traits.

Rewriting Distinctions

Replacing an SFX (5 XP) or adding a new SFX (15 XP) also allows you to add to or rewrite the distinction or asset that it is attached to. A character with Elf who is adding the Glade Keeper SFX might rewrite the distinction to Wood Elf.

As your character’s backstory develops, you can incorporate its geographical places: Frostheim Dwarf, Cavetown Gob, Human of the Dale. New SFX can also flesh out that backstory, such as adding the Cataphract SFX and explaining that the humans of the Dale are known for their equestrianism.

If the SFX reflects new training or institutional access, you might revise a distinction by adding the place or faction that taught you: Highchurch Cleric, Midnight Academy Hexknight.

Replacing Distinctions

You can also replace distinctions as normal. Not having the Elf distinction doesn’t mean your character is no longer an elf; it just means you’ve decided that being an elf isn’t one of the most important parts of your character’s story.

Epic Characterization, One Bite at a Time

One of the great joys of fantasy roleplaying is the sense that you are a fascinatingly complex character, deeply intertwined with an epic story playing out in a vast and colorful world. You struggle against challenges, you have terrible moral quandaries, you grow and change as a person and as a heroic figure in the setting. This may seem like an intimidating goal for something you do with your buddies in your free time, but evolving your distinctions can help you get there without a lot of fuss.

Starting TorchLite characters are built out of parts that are not just basic, but reductive. Starting distinctions of “Scheming Elf Fighter” may feel insufficient to fully describe your character, and that’s on purpose. Starting distinctions aren’t intended as the final word on your character—they’re the first words on your character. Introducing your character in the first session focuses on the broad strokes: Scheming. Elf. Fighter. That’s all you need to start.

The trick here is that as you play, you get to know your character. As you make decisions based on those distinctions—to roll as a d8 or d4, is this an Elf thing or a Scheming thing, and so on—you’re developing a more nuanced understanding of your character’s distinctions. And the best part is, this requires no intention on your part. It just happens, over and over again, because of how the game works.

Eventually you’ll want to add an SFX to one of these reductive distinctions you’ve been using. And that’s when you can pivot the trait’s reductive name to something more precise. If you’re adding the Seasoned Sea Dog SFX to Elf, maybe you rename that distinction to Sea Elf. If you’re adding Veteran Soldier, maybe you’re not so much a Fighter as you are a Mercenary. Or maybe the SFX you’re adding isn’t related, but you’ve discovered through play that Schemer isn’t as accurate as Tactician would be.

You may have started out with a rough sketch of a Scheming Elf Fighter, but you’ve discovered through play that your character is more accurately described as a Sea Elf Mercenary Tactician.

This works outside of distinctions, too. Shifting dice between roles can refine your sense of their competencies. Adding specialties allows you to highlight specific aspects of their training or background. Turning assets that you found on an adventure into signature assets that stick around cement the character’s place in the unfolding story.

As you play, your character develops from reductive tropes to specific characteristics, becoming a fleshed-out, three-dimensional character. Each little in-the-moment choice is simple, almost petty. Looking back, though, you might recognize the game as a process of figuring out what it means to be an elf, in this world, in this story, at that table.

You are also collaborating with the GM; see Epic Worldbuilding, One Bite at a Time.

Additional Milestones

These are examples of individual milestones one PC might take on based on their own more personal journey or story arc, and which they might pursue while also assisting their allies in a larger quest. You can also reference these as examples when creating milestones of your own.

Aggressive

▶ 1 XP when you are the one who starts a conflict or you take charge in the midst of one.
▶ 3 XP when you teach an ally to make them more formidable in the kinds of conflicts you consider your expertise.
▶ 10 XP when you take over leadership of your group in a time of danger or leave your current group to join a more aggressive one.

Bad Influence

▶ 1 XP when you try to convince an ally to commit or cover up an unlawful or antisocial act.
▶ 3 XP when you try to convince someone to accept their own past misdeeds, true nature, or current infamy.
▶ 10 XP when you decide to change your ways for good, or when you commit a transgression too egregious for your allies to forgive.

Empathetic

▶ 1 XP when you create an asset for an ally without them having to ask.
▶ 3 XP when you succeed on a roll to create an asset for an ally in a situation where it is dangerous to do so.
▶ 10 XP when an asset you earned XP for helps defeat a challenge that had at least one d12 trait, or when failing against such a challenge prompts you to leave the group and learn how to be practical or self-reliant.

Glory Hound

▶ 1 XP when you take out an opponent after you dramatically declared them your target.
▶ 3 XP when you attempt a reckless but glorious deed, or when you abstain from such a deed out of caution.
▶ 10 XP when you assume leadership responsibilities due to your impressive deeds, or stand alone against a foe with at least one d12 trait.

Hiding in the Shadows

▶ 1 XP when you take action to stay out of the spotlight.
▶ 3 XP when you leave the shadows to accomplish something important.
▶ 10 XP when you step into the spotlight in front of a large group in order to accomplish something important, or when you try to leave your group to survive alone.

Intuitive

▶ 1 XP when you share insights based on looking at the big picture or create an asset based on perceiving deeper connections.
▶ 3 XP when you succeed on a roll to create an asset based on spontaneously changing plans in the moment or doing something surprising.
▶ 10 XP when an asset you earned XP for helps defeat a challenge with at least one d12 trait, or when failing against such a challenge prompts you to ask for guidance on how to be more logical or methodical.

Lone Wolf

▶ 1 XP when you leave your allies to face a dangerous or hated enemy, or when you create an asset that requires taking time alone.
▶ 3 XP when your actions prompt criticism or dismay in your allies, or when you issue a threat that risks alienating an ally.
▶ 10 XP when you finally take out someone you’ve been hunting on your own that has at least one d12 trait, or when you give up your chance at doing so to achieve something greater.

Looking for Redemption

▶ 1 XP when you point out someone else's wrongdoing or express regret for your own.
▶ 3 XP when you refuse to grant leniency, or when you choose not to punish a wrong-doer.
▶ 10 XP when you announce that you feel you have finally paid for your crimes, or when you announce your final acceptance of the fact that you never will.

Mending Fences

▶ 1 XP when a long-time friend, family member, or loved one rejects you in some way, or when you try to get them to let you back into their life.
▶ 3 XP when you try to get closer to someone you care about by taking on a new role or obligation.
▶ 10 XP when you are stressed out while trying to protect or be closer to the person you care about, or when you destroy any progress you’ve made by stressing them out.

Methodical

▶ 1 XP when you create an asset based on planning ahead or attention to detail.
▶ 3 XP when you succeed on a roll to create an asset based on noticing a flaw or using deductive reasoning.
▶ 10 XP when an asset you earned XP for helps defeat a challenge that had at least one d12 trait, or when failing against such a challenge prompts you to follow the example of someone who is more flexible, intuitive, or spontaneous.

Natural Leader

▶ 1 XP when you give orders to allies (whether or not they listen).
▶ 3 XP when you create an asset based on working together or talking people into things.
▶ 10 XP when your group officially recognizes you as their leader, when a rival claims a leadership role you believe should've been yours, or when you announce your realization that you’re not the leader your group needs.

Obscure Knowledge

▶ 1 XP when you share an insight based on your knowledge of academic subjects or niche trivia.
▶ 3 XP when you express an embarrassing amount of excitement over encountering a thing or person you’ve learned a lot about.
▶ 10 XP when your obscure knowledge saves a teammate from disaster, or when you quit the team because your contributions aren’t appreciated.

Proving Yourself

▶ 1 XP when you talk to a more experienced ally about your insecurities or about the difficult challenges you’ve already overcome.
▶ 3 XP when a more experienced ally grants you an asset, or when you turn down a more experienced ally's offer of help.
▶ 10 XP when you take an instrumental role in your group’s defeat of a much more powerful enemy, or when you are stressed out while acting recklessly to try to defeat such an enemy.

Seeking Justice

▶ 1 XP when you declare a crime has been committed or pledge to help someone find justice.
▶ 3 XP when you declare you are taking charge of an investigation or successfully track down a wrong-doer.
▶ 10 XP when you leave behind a larger duty to focus on your current obligations, or vice-versa.

Unworthy?

▶ 1 XP when you or an ally vocally question whether you belong in a group.
▶ 3 XP when you dramatically succeed or fail in a situation where your allies depend on you, or when you inflict a non-injurious complication or stress on an ally who doubts you.
▶ 10 XP when you are faced with the final decision: either step up and declare that you are worthy to be a part of the group, or leave the group because you believe you’re unworthy.

Quick Character Creation

You can quickly generate an entire, playable TorchLite character by making three and a half choices. Each of these choices give you a distinction—a core trait of your character—and then a number of other traits that populate your character file.

You don’t need to understand any of the moving parts, here: just follow the steps to get a character that is ready to play. After you’ve played a session or three and understand how things go together, it is a simple matter to modify your character and fine-tune your experience going forward.

This option is ideal for getting right into play. For a more detailed option, see the full rules for Character Creation.

Choice 1: Pick a People

The people from whom you descended and who probably raised you are your people. This lineage gives you a set of cultural competencies and characteristics associated with that people (which you’ll also flesh out in play). This choice defines your basic body shape and determines how most mortals will perceive you.

Choose one: cambion, dwarf, elf, goblin, gnome, halfling, human, ogre, or wyrmkin

Your people choice gives you a distinction, an SFX, your attributes, and your signature assets.

▶ Write the name of your people in the first Distinction slot on your character file.
▶ Copy the Typical SFX from your people’s spread onto your character file, under your people distinction.
▶ Copy the Quick Attributes from your people’s spread onto your character file.
▶ Gain the top three signature assets listed on your people’s spread. Each is rated at d6.
▶ Your character also begins play with an adventurer’s kit signature asset. Copy the sample adventurer’s kit and rate it at d6.

A quick reminder on signature assets: remember, these aren’t the only items your character has in hand when they begin their first adventure. They are merely the most important, which is why they have a die rating. Your character can also be assumed to have other incidental items that would be plausible for them to carry. Those items just don’t get dice.

Choice 2: Pick a Profession

Adventurers begin play with at least a little training—formal or otherwise—in a broadly-defined profession. This includes basic skills and background knowledge. It also implies connection to, if not formal membership in, organizations and institutions in the setting, such as churches for clerics or theives guilds for rogues.

Choose one: bard, cleric, fighter, hexknight, mage, mystic, paladin, ranger, or rogue.

Your profession choice gives you a distinction, two SFX, your limits, your roles, and your specialties.

▶ Write the name of your profession in the second Distinction slot on your character file.
▶ Copy the two Typical SFX from your profession’s spread onto your character file, under your profession distinction.
▶ Copy the names of the first two Limits listed on your profession’s spread, and then copy the rules for those limits from the Limits.
▶ Copy the Quick Roles from your people’s spread onto your character file.
▶ Gain the top three specialties listed on your profession’s spread. Each is rated at d6.

Choice 3: Pick a Persona

At the core of your character, deeper than the lineage of their people or the training of their profession, is their persona. This is a short descriptor of how they act, think, and move through the world.

Chose one: cipher, comrade, devotee, disruptor, loose cannon, mercenary, schemer, valiant, wholesome.

As essential as this choice is, it is also fundamentally changeable, and you might later have a change of heart (or a series of them) which changes your persona. This choice is only for how your character will start play.

Your persona choice gives you a distinction and your first milestone.

▶ Write the name of your persona in the third Distinction slot on your character file.
▶ Copy the milestone listed on your Persona’s entry.
▶ For your second milestone, ask the GM for the session milestone for the next or current adventure. If the GM doesn’t have one (or if you don’t have a GM), take the Levelling Up milestone.

Choice 3½: Pick Name and Pronouns

Lastly, decide the name and pronouns that your character gives to their fellow adventurers. There’s no pick list here; the sky’s the limit!

Okay But What If I Want…

As you copy things over onto your character file, you might want something a little different. Maybe a little more of one trait or a little less of another. Maybe not this SFX but another one from the same spread. Luckily, there is a little wiggle room.

▶ For signature assets, you may select any two from your people spread, not just the top two.
▶ For specialties, you may select any three from the Professions spread, not just the top three.
▶ Within each trait set (Attributes, Roles, Specialties, Signature Assets), you may step up one trait while stepping down another. You may only do this once per set, and doing so cannot step up any trait to larger than d10.
▶ Instead of taking the default SFX, you may take any other SFX on the same page spread.
▶ Instead of taking the default Limits, you may take any other Limits listed on the same page spread.