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DAWN - The RPG β1.2

This document provides an introduction and overview of the tabletop roleplaying game Dawn. It includes a brief description of the game's inspirations and assumptions, as well as sections on character creation and gameplay. Players can choose from four sample fantasy worlds or work together to create their own custom setting. Characters have attributes in body, talent, spirit and mind that contribute to challenge rolls in unstructured play or structured combat scenarios. The rules emphasize resource management and narrative focus over dice mechanics.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

697 views113 pages

DAWN - The RPG β1.2

Uploaded by

Pedro de Souza

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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DAWN

A Diceless High Fantasy resource management TTRPG

A Game Written by Joel Vreugdenhil

If you’re interested in testing or interacting with the community feel free to join the Discord:
https://discord.gg/Wzvu7T9bmJ

DAWN: The RPG © 2024 by Joel Vreugdenhil is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

1
Table Of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................................................6
Cliff Notes........................................................................................................................................................7
Inspirations and Assumptions......................................................................................................................... 8
Inspirations................................................................................................................................................ 8
Assumptions..............................................................................................................................................8
Rule Zero, Consent......................................................................................................................................... 9
Play Materials.................................................................................................................................................. 9
The X-Card:............................................................................................................................................... 9
Playing The Game........................................................................................................................................... 9
Modes Of Play.................................................................................................................................................9
Worlds of Dawn........................................................................................................................................................................................11
Sample Settings............................................................................................................................................ 12
The Bare Essentials................................................................................................................................. 12
The World Of Sand And Stars....................................................................................................................... 13
The World Of Daggers And Dusk.................................................................................................................. 15
The World Of Faeries And Frost.................................................................................................................... 17
Setting Creation Activity................................................................................................................................19
Universal Rules.........................................................................................................................................................................................21
Always Round Up..........................................................................................................................................22
Specific Overrides General............................................................................................................................22
Attributes....................................................................................................................................................... 22
Scenes.......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Challenge Rolls............................................................................................................................................. 23
Unique Roll Types....................................................................................................................................24
Intermissions................................................................................................................................................. 24
Knockouts..................................................................................................................................................... 25
Clocks........................................................................................................................................................... 25
Influence........................................................................................................................................................26
Tiers...............................................................................................................................................................27
Campaign Scale............................................................................................................................................ 28
Character Creation............................................................................................................................................ 30
Unstructured Play Checklist..........................................................................................................................31
Structured Combat Checklist........................................................................................................................31
Example Combat Builds.................................................................................................................................................................... 32
Body Primary Characters........................................................................................................................ 32
Talent Primary Characters....................................................................................................................... 33
Spirit Primary Characters........................................................................................................................ 34
Mind Primary Characters.........................................................................................................................35
2
Unstructured Play................................................................................................................................................................................... 37
Ranks............................................................................................................................................................ 38
Skills.............................................................................................................................................................. 38
Example Skills......................................................................................................................................... 38
Abilities.......................................................................................................................................................... 39
Creating Unique Words........................................................................................................................... 39
Ability Glossary............................................................................................................................................. 40
Bonds............................................................................................................................................................ 41
Character Concepts...................................................................................................................................... 42
History..................................................................................................................................................... 42
Aesthetic..................................................................................................................................................43
Unstructured Challenge Rolls....................................................................................................................... 44
Gaining Advantage.................................................................................................................................. 44
Threats.....................................................................................................................................................44
Going All Out........................................................................................................................................... 44
Outlooks........................................................................................................................................................ 45
The Rebel................................................................................................................................................ 46
The Loyal................................................................................................................................................. 46
The Quiet................................................................................................................................................. 47
The Confident..........................................................................................................................................47
The Light..................................................................................................................................................48
The Wolf.................................................................................................................................................. 48
The Accursed.......................................................................................................................................... 49
The Blessed.............................................................................................................................................49
The Mentor.............................................................................................................................................. 50
The Apprentice........................................................................................................................................ 50
Structured Combat.................................................................................................................................................................................52
Turn Order..................................................................................................................................................... 53
Damage And Health...................................................................................................................................... 53
Wounds And Knockouts.........................................................................................................................53
Earning Influence Through Wounds........................................................................................................ 53
Armor And Evasion........................................................................................................................................54
Tension.......................................................................................................................................................... 54
Focus.............................................................................................................................................................54
Alternative Foci:....................................................................................................................................... 54
Speed............................................................................................................................................................ 54
Spaces, Movement, and Range....................................................................................................................54
Drawing Range........................................................................................................................................ 54
Special Targeting..................................................................................................................................... 55
Terrain......................................................................................................................................................55
Alternate Mode: Cinematic Combat..............................................................................................................55
Effect Listing..................................................................................................................................................56

3
Basic Actions................................................................................................................................................ 57
Combos...................................................................................................................................................57
Movement............................................................................................................................................... 57
Attacks.................................................................................................................................................... 57
Defense................................................................................................................................................... 59
Utility....................................................................................................................................................... 60
Dueling.......................................................................................................................................................... 61
Techniques.................................................................................................................................................... 63
Archetypes.............................................................................................................................................. 63
Powerhouse........................................................................................................................................................ 65
Slayer.................................................................................................................................................................. 69
Bulwark............................................................................................................................................................... 73
Altruist................................................................................................................................................................. 77
Disruptor............................................................................................................................................................. 81
Ruiner.................................................................................................................................................................. 85
Narrator Tools....................................................................................................................................................................................... 91
Specific Advice..............................................................................................................................................92
Using Influence As A Narrator................................................................................................................. 92
Resolving Conflicts....................................................................................................................................... 93
Antagonist Rules........................................................................................................................................... 94
Antagonist Points.................................................................................................................................... 94
Building Structured Combat..................................................................................................................................................................95
Enemy Rules................................................................................................................................................. 95
Enemy Tiers.............................................................................................................................................95
Creating Personalized Enemies.....................................................................................................................96
Compound Enemies................................................................................................................................96
Fodder Zones.......................................................................................................................................... 97
Antagonist Edges.................................................................................................................................... 97
Enemy Types................................................................................................................................................. 99
DPS Enemies...........................................................................................................................................99
Tank Enemies........................................................................................................................................ 102
Support Enemies...................................................................................................................................104
Engine Enemies.....................................................................................................................................106
Modifier Enemies...................................................................................................................................108
Sample Compound Enemies...................................................................................................................... 110
Sample Combat Scenarios.......................................................................................................................... 111
Defense..................................................................................................................................................111
Assault................................................................................................................................................... 111
Credits.....................................................................................................................................................................................................112

4
Introduction

The journey begins.

5
Introduction
DAWN is a grid-based, combat-focused, setting-agnostic tabletop roleplaying game (or TTRPG), inspired by battle
manga, anime, and tactical video games.

Create your heroes, discover truths of the world, face against thinly veiled metaphors in the form of fearsome overlords
or monsters, and grow—both in power and as people—in a world of your own making! Embark on an adventure with
friends, coming with its highest highs and lowest lows, bearing the greatest storms to gaze upon the beautiful DAWN.

This section is meant to introduce you—the reader—to the most basic ideas of the game. It informs you on what the
game expects from you and what you should expect from it.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis
aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat
cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

6
Cliff Notes Custom Skills
If you’ve played a number of different TTRPGs before In unstructured play players can write their own
this, you may have made some assumptions about the ‘Skills’, modifiers that can be added to rolls to make it
game’s mechanics or will start doing so as you read. easier to succeed. There is no set list that they must
pick from, only guidelines to create a sense of
Here’s a basic rundown of some of those more consistency between all Skills.
recognizable traits and shared mechanics so that you
can get an idea of how DAWN plays: "Toolbox” Character Building
Though ‘Archetypes’ exist for creating combat-ready
characters, they only serve as a way to organize and
Build Your Own World
This game is fully setting-agnostic. This means that categorize the unlockable and leveled 'Techniques’ that
you can build or play in any world, existing or original, serve a similar purpose to “Feats” in other games.
so long as it can house combat, involves the Characters can build any combination of Techniques
supernatural, and is not too concerned with realism. from up to 3 Archetypes.

XD6 Resolution System Split Unstructured Play and Structured Combat

When attempting to resolve conflict you’ll roll 6-sided A harsh divide exists between the systems of
dice (D6), treating rolls of 4 or more as ‘Hits’. You’ll ‘unstructured play’ and ‘combat play’, so that players
need some number of Hits on multiple dice to succeed. who value one over the other don't need to make any
concessions over what they choose to prioritize.

Exploding 6s
When you roll a 6 using the XD6 system it’s counted Implied Inventory
as a ‘Critical Hit’, letting you roll an additional die. This game is not concerned with the players
managing weapons, armor, or consumable items. If
you feel like your character should have a sword, they
Meta-Resource
have a sword, when they heal they could pop a
Players will gain and track ‘Influence’ throughout an
regeneration serum, use magic, or just tough it out. A
Adventure. A meta-resource that serves to reward
character’s equipment only depends on what the user
players who interact with the story. It's incredibly
finds most interesting.
important and can be spent in any mode of play.

7
Inspirations and Assumptions Assumptions
Before moving forward I—Joel, the author—feel that it's There are many assumptions I made while writing the
important to talk a little about the inspirations I had and book, and if you or your group would not agree with
the assumptions I made when writing DAWN. This way these assumptions you should discuss them with each
you can better understand what kind of game it is. other. If you can't find ways to reconcile these
problems then it may also be good to find a different
game to play.
Inspirations
Though many of these inspirations are used in how
DAWN is advertised and described—hence you may A Love For Combat
already know many of them—I feel it is important to list This game is fully wrapped in fighting from head to toe.
each explicitly. This should better set up a reader’s Its Narrative high points, mechanical focus, and
expectations for the game and its themes. general theming only really work if you as a player
enjoy the idea of combat, even if only in the context of
fiction. Your characters should be able to fight when the
Anime and Manga
game demands it of them.
This is the most clearly advertised part of the game by
far, and for good reason, many element’s of this
game's aesthetics, language, and themes are taken A Non Lethal World
from the shonen anime I watched when I was This game never forces a player to kill their characters, it
younger like Magi or Fairy Tail and the manga I still is always a choice they can make. Tension is meant to
read now like Gokuraikugai, Fire Force, and Kengan come from that character's connections and
Asura. Though that's not the full picture and does not personal stories, not from being threatened directly.
represent some more specific aspects of the game. If you don't think you could enjoy a game like that you
should discuss it with your group, since by default this
will be how the game is played.
Tactical Games
A huge part of DAWN is its focus on tactical “wargame”
combat, and this combat holds many inspirations. The A Respect For Your Group
obvious connection to make is to other tactical Although there are guard rails and incentives in place to
TTRPGs such as Lancer or the other works of Massif prevent players from ruining the game for others, there
Press. However, that comparison is only surface is nothing that can be done about players who don't
level, as I'm not actually a huge fan of most tactical communicate to or respect each other.
TTRPGs (those examples withstanding).
Especially in DAWN, as it gives a lot of opportunities for
It's more accurate to say that DAWN's combat is players to indulge in drama and have moments in the
inspired by the video games I enjoy, such as tactical spotlight. If a player wants to exploit that and isn't
RPGs like Disgaea or Waven, beat-em-up mmos like challenged then they can really take the wind out of
Elsword or Grand Chase, card games like Wildfrost or everyone's sails.
Legends of Runeterra, and pretty much any fighting
game by Arc System Works. However it's important to remember that almost no
one will do this on purpose, they may just struggle
with some social cues or not know when to stop their
Fluid Narrative TTRPGs
momentum, and because of that you should always
For the mechanics I’ve written used outside of combat
extend the same attempts at communication for them.
I take quite a few inspirations from TTRPGs I
consider more fluid and less mechanically restrictive
than some others. Some good examples of this would
be; Tenra Bansho Zero, Icon, and Fabula Ultima.

8
Rule Zero, Consent Playing The Game
Like in anything cooperative, consent is paramount in a There are two roles that need to be fulfilled to play
TTRPG. Always acting with the consent of your DAWN. One person is the Narrator, the rest are players.
fellow players is the first and most important rule of As a group you play through ‘Chapters’, instances of
the game, superseding everything else within this play that should take anywhere from one to five hours,
book or outside of it. Define lines that should not be with all connected Chapters making an ‘Adventure’.
crossed with your fellow players, if not with the table
you should do so for yourself. And always make sure Narrator: Guide the story, present challenges to the
players feel comfortable speaking up about things they group. Be a fan of the players. Ask them questions, fill
want from the game. the world with their answers.

Play Materials Player: Describe what your character does. Give

everyone a time to shine. Fill the world with your
If you want to play DAWN you’ll need the following, or
ideas. Take risks, and rise up from failures.
substitutes to fulfill their purpose.

After a Chapter ends your group can continue at

This book.
another date, or not, the decision is up to you.
Lots of dice. When this game refers to dice, it
specifically means 6 sided dice, or D6. Modes Of Play
While playing DAWN you will be in one of two ‘modes’,
A character sheet (These can be found online). unstructured play, or structured combat. These
function differently and rarely interact with each other.
A group of friends to be the players and Narrator.
Unstructured Play
The X-Card (optionally). Unstructured play occurs when the majority of players
are not fighting. In this mode rules are much looser,
The X-Card: allowing each player to use their problem-solving and
The X-Card is an optional tool (created by John Abilities to solve problems. Mechanics like ‘Skills’ and
Stavropoulos) that allows anyone in your game, ‘Abilities’ are core to unstructured play.
including the Narrator, to edit out any content anyone is
uncomfortable with as you play. structured combat
In opposition to this is structured combat. In structured
Since most RPGs are improvisational, and we won't combat each character is arranged on a 7x7 board of
know what will happen till it happens, it's possible the tiles, using strictly structured combat rules and tactics
game will go in a direction people don't want. An to take out their opponent(s). Mechanics like
X-Card is a simple tool to fix problems as they arise. ‘Attributes’ and ‘Techniques’ are core to combat.

TO USE THE X-CARD, AT THE START OF YOUR GAME, SIMPLY SAY: Joel's Notes: Asymmetrical Character Building
It’s important to note that characters should not be
“I’d like your help to make this game fun for everyone. If carrying over their features from one mode to the other,
anything makes anyone uncomfortable in any way… having an Ability that lets you stop time does not let you
[draw X on an index card] take extra turns in combat, and having 3 levels in a
…just lift this card up, or simply tap it summoner Technique doesn’t mean you can summon
[place card at the center of the table]. anything in unstructured play. You may still describe
You don’t have to explain why. It doesn't matter why. your character’s successful actions as if this were the
When we lift or tap this card, we simply edit out case, but these crossover’s from either mode can't
anything X-Carded. And if there is ever an issue, anyone provide actual mechanical benefit unless the contrary is
can call for a break, and we can talk privately." specifically stated (such as with Interact).

9
Worlds of Dawn

The land stretches out before you, one of mystery and wonder, one of your own making.

10
Worlds of Dawn
DAWN is designed to embody all sorts of high-action, fantasy stories, in worlds that the players can create
themselves. Though creating this world with your players can be fun, I understand that there are plenty of reasons why
someone may not want to. You may not know your players, they may not be comfortable with that sort of creative work,
or you may just find the process tedious.

Whether it be for one of these reasons or some other, there are a few sample settings for you to use on the following
pages! Feel free to play a game of DAWN using these as a starting point, be it purely as written, or with some alterations
that you find suitable.

11
Sample Settings The Bare Essentials
Though DAWN can be played in almost any No matter what setting you’re playing in there will be
setting—and it's recommended you experiment—it some parts of it that will be either assumed, due to the
would be incredibly difficult to write it coherently under tropes in DAWN’s inspirations, or required due to
that assumption. DAWN’s mechanics. The 3 following points are
required elements in any DAWN game.
Because of that there are three official and original
settings used in DAWN that will continue to be Magic
referenced as the book goes on. This section of the The first and most vital factor. DAWN and the idea of the
book is mostly dedicated to explaining the 3 example supernatural are deeply intertwined. Many of the abilities
settings; of both players and NPCs are explained with the
presence of some sort of magic, and due to the
The World Of Sand And Stars mechanics of the game all players are capable of
using this magic, unless they choose not to.
The World Of Daggers And Dusk
This could be magic in the traditional sense, casting
The World Of Faeries And Frost spells and all that, but it could also be complex
technology, advanced physical techniques, or any
These settings are meant to be used as a quick and other things that your heroes would have access to that
easy jumping-off-point for an Adventure of your own, as many normal people don't, or do not understand.
well as showing the breadth of worlds that can be
represented in the game. Action
At least half of this book is made to explain how you
Though they are in no way the only ways the game can punch good. This was written under the assumption that
be played nor are they recommended any more than characters will be fighting quite a lot, and that these
using a world you enjoy and/or have created, they may fights would be non-lethal and spectacle-focused. If
be a good place to start. Everyone who's read DAWN someone playing this game is completely opposed
fully should know at least a little about each, which will to the idea of fighting for fun, or as a sport, they may
not be true with all settings, especially if the players are feel uncomfortable.
not incredibly familiar with each other.
Unity
Though it’s recommended players explore different
ideas with any setting, it’s important that each one
has one unified theme or subject that any player can
come back to and use to develop their character.
These universal rules and themes should apply to all
characters bar none. The unique traits of these
characters should be based on how they subvert the
assumptions one may make or how they expand on
more vague parts of the theme, not by adding
completely new rules that would affect the other players
or contradict established parts of the setting.

12
The World Of Sand And Stars
Beneath a star strewn sky, a cosmically small speck
of dust houses millions. Those brave enough to find
the conduits required draw supernatural power from
these stars using it to elevate their position in the world
or provide for those who can’t.

This is Ka'Sha, a desert world where humans draw

power from the constellations that dot their sky. Uses
the stars to perform impossible supernatural feats of
magic. Mounted on sand skiffs, ambitious mages search
their planet for stars that, for reasons unknown, have
fallen from their constellations above .

And bravery they must have, as these fallen stars carry

a passenger, one whose terrifying form and unbelievable
power strike fear into all who bear witness.

Unity
Characters in the world of Sand and Stars might mix
thematic elements of cosmic horror, the 1001 nights,
and other desert fantasy settings, like Dune.

Magic
Within this world magic is a tool. One used by those
who are lucky or wealthy enough to find and keep hold
of a ‘Star Shard’ left by falling stars. These are most
commonly nomad adventurers, desperate outcasts, or
members of “The Empire”.

This magic is most often used in one of two ways:

through absorption or utilization.

When a character absorbs the latent energy of a Star

Shard they will likely be given an Ability or set of Abilities
that holds some power over an element of the natural
world, often sand, light, or wind.

Star Shards can also be utilized in technology, creating

all sorts of esoteric effects not limited by our knowledge
of technology.

Action
There are many threats across Ka’Sha, and the common
people are likely to be facing one of the many armored
monsters that roam the sand, the imperial soldiers
drunk with the power given to them by their utilization of
Star Shards, or the bandits that wander trade roads.

13
The Fallen Stars The Dune Runners
Building sized crystalline meteors. With each new moon An organization of ambitious nomads, each hoping to
a star falls from the sky, carrying with it a massive find fallen stars before the Imperials and absorb their
amount of power and a profit for any brave enough to shards in order to amass more and more power. They
salvage it. Most scholars on the subject suspect these use their titular Dune Runners to race over the dunes
are not actually stars, or even that far from the surface the night of a falling, praying they’re lucky enough to
world, as the destruction created from their landing isn’t find what they’re looking for. The exact motives of a
nearly as intense as one would expect from that kind of Dune Runner are dependent on the individual, some
impact, but what they actually are is still unknown. seeking out of an outright hatred for the Empire and
their monopolization of the stars, some seek to take the
Most stars are quickly taken apart by agents of the shards they find and distribute them among the less
Empire, using incredibly efficient magical tools and fortunate, and some just don’t want to pay for a shard’s
mining equipment to harvest it before the Passenger sale tax.
has a chance to retaliate. Small chunks of the crystal are
then sold to the people living in their cities, with ones of The Brass Empire
exceptional purity being auctioned to imperials at A young power who’ve been inserting themselves into
private high collar events. the lives of locals since the discovery of star power. A
few decades ago the people of Ka’Sha were diplomatic,
The Passengers with each city electing its own leaders, the only contact
Pale and alien, sleeping in a star’s core, only seeming to with their neighbors being for travel and trade. That
wake a few hours after it’s landing. Few outside of the changed when one of these leaders discovered a more
Imperial Harvesters have ever seen a Passenger, most practical use for the fallen stars, that being to power
of the stories of them coming from drunken travelers technology of brass, creating tools to ease the work
across the common cities. Some claim the passengers required for a variety of trades. This person was a
a giant white hyenas with empty eye sockets, some say scholar employed by Shahrazad, the woman who is now
a mist that wafts out of a broken star and kills any who the Empress.
inhale it, some are fanatically insistent that each star
caries beautiful gods, and that the only way to escape Over the course of the next ten years Shahrazad would
their wrath is worship en masse. The Empire and its become a trade powerhouse, using her resources to
officials have confirmed none of these rumors, and have develop and commission hundreds of pieces of
done their best to hide any clues that may have “Brasswork”, the name she gave these pieces of
surfaced through their collection. technology. It started with the now widely used Dune
Runners, and eventually developed into Brasswork
carriages, security systems, toys, and firearms. The
Example Secret Hooks: Fallen Stars and their Passengers
wealth and power this granted Shahrazad only grew,
- The stars are the broken fragments of the heavenly
eventually resulting in the sudden and violent takeover
realm, with the passengers being all that remains of the
of her rivals with Brasswork never seen before, and her
gods and their servants.
establishment of the Empire, an event she refers to as
- Ka’Sha exists in a gravitational whirlpool, ripping alien “The dawn of a new age”.
vessels from the sky and crashing them to the surface.
Their magic is highly advanced technology that its
inhabitants know little about.

- Ka’Sha was once the site of a great calamity. The stars

and their passengers are the survivors of their former
world, now battling against the new humanity that has
sprung up long after their time.

14
The World Of Daggers And Dusk
Pantomime is the world capital of an alternate Earth. It is
known for three things: its status as a massive industrial
titan, its attractive growing market, and the presence of
the “Knightly Syndicates”, criminal and corporate
alliances each meant to remove their business rivals.

Each shady alleyway and smoky club backroom is as

much a battlefield as its darkened alleys, fought with as
many biting comments as hidden blades.

The Knightly Syndicates would do anything to keep it

this way, a game rigged in their favor. Whether you use
their games to your advantage or seek to flip the table
entirely is up to you.

Unity
Characters and Syndicates in the world of Daggers and
Dusk are named and themed after Charlemagne's
twelve Paladins and the Arthurian Knights, with French
words as family names to create a sense of shared
cultural identity. This is to paint knights in a shrewd and
explicitly criminal light, inverting the classic chivalrous
fantasy.something that feels missing in a lot of fiction.

Magic
Over the last 30 years the citizens of Pantomime
—especially the Knights of the Syndicates—have been
granted a ‘Virtue’, seemingly at random. These Virtues
give their host the power to invoke a person or thing
from their history, with the personality and life of the
citizen influencing what this lets them do.

Many of those in power are either born with a powerful

Virtue or control other Virtuous. Many of said Virtues
being based upon the tyrants and monarchs of the past.

Other citizens could have almost anything, but many

end up disappointed. Someone may be blessed by the
powers of some mighty god or legendary weapon only
to have it translated as an incredibly mundane knack for
something vaguely related to it.

Action
This world is lethal. Guns and blades kill with a single
blow, with Virtues making it easier more often than not.
Hits in structured combat should be lucky grazes or
close dodges that drain the target’s stamina rather than
any trading of real harm, to maintain a feel of lethality.
15
The Mundane Past The Knightly Syndicates
In the 1990s, scientists discovered a secret in the deep
ice of Antarctica. The head researcher didn’t know at Carolingian Syndicate
the time, but that discovery made him a sort of “patient The local syndicate, with deep connections to local
zero”, the first of the Virtuous. officials and police. They blur the line between gang
activity and government sponsorship.
The current year is 2050, and though barely anyone
cares to remember its origin, this discovery has shaped A family run organization, with all the higher echelons
the lives of every person on earth. being related in some way.

Racketeering, blackmail and production of illegal

Example Secret Hooks: Mundanity’s End
produce grant them the financial power to back
- Virus found in the ice that causes mutation in people in
legitimate businesses under their employ.
their lineage.

- A Time traveler is released, creating virtues to secure “Carol Singers” is local slang for their racketeers.
their own existence in the future.
Avalonian Syndicate
- Ancient human trapped in the ice can tap into the The oldest of the syndicates, but only newly arrived
Atlantean spirit grid, so gives people Virtues to help within a generation.
them fight God.
Has constant internal friction between its entrenched
- Alien ghosts trapped in ice giving powers to humans foreign old guard and its groundswell of newer, local
based on previous hosts. membership.

The COmmon Virtues Controls shipping, smuggling, drugs trade

The life of a common citizen is a monotonous one, even Leans towards Arthurian Virtuous.
for those with virtues. Someone may be granted
impossible strength in short bursts only to use it to carry “Sending them to Avalon” is a common innuendo for
machinery for their employer. drowning someone at sea.

The few people who’re given these powers and try to The Merry Men
rise above their station—Whatever that station may Don’t think of themselves as a syndicate
be—are normally struck down by the company heads Thieves and freedom fighters.
and crime lords who’ve already reached that point, the
rich get richer and the working class are expected to Women and nonbinary members of the group are
stay where they were. always annoyed at the name.

By far the weakest of the syndicates.

16
The World Of Faeries And Frost
A deadly cold blankets the world. Despite the arid
tundra that houses it, the kingdom of Elfhame is thriving
within its walls, with its Fey Keepers lining the outside
protecting its citizens from the beasts that threaten it.

Elfhame is a kingdom the size of most countries,

housing hundreds of thousands of Elves, most of which
assuming they’re the only sentient species.

Alongside them live Fairies, magical beings that range

from the size of a fly to a small dog, appearing as
translucent and non-verbal Elves, with a sole exception,
Oberon, the black-eyed king rumored to stand at the
height of four men.

Magic
Fairies appear everywhere in the kingdom, with different
subspecies seemingly being gravitated to things that
share their natures.

A Flame Fay may happily dance around a family’s hearth

initiating their faint orange flow, where a slim and sad
Sorrow Fay may follow the journey of a young exile into
the snow, its violet-gray glow shining through the wall
sleet long after their host disappeared.

The Fey Keepers are the only citizens capable of

communicating with Fairies. Allowing for the use of a
strange magic, creating effects based on the Fairies that
accompany them. The method of communication a
Keeper has with their Fairies differs between each and is
influenced by their Teacher.

Action
Oberon is a lighthearted and colorful place, combat in
its walls is assumed to be non-lethal and for the sake of
a greater goal. This is contrasted with the wild and
dangerous outside world, where animals kill and eat to
survive.

Unity
Characters in the world of Faeries and Frost can fit into
fairly solid fantasy archetypes, knights, rouges, and
mages making up a large portion of the citizenry, with
some room for more mundane positions in the city or
students learning the mysterious arts of Keepers.

17
The Wall Oberon
An enormous bare stone wall surrounding the Kingdom, Narcissistic, influential, and completely beyond the
its utilitarian plainness contrasting with the lavish reach of his citizens. Oberon claims that he existed
Pavilions inside. The top of this wall is guarded by the before the Kingdom, before the beasts of the outside
Watchers, a division of guards with armor that matches world, and before any of his citizens came to be. This
the plain gray walls they stand on. The wall could be may or may not be true depending on the Narrator's
keeping a lot of different things out, enormous interpretation, but in either case no outright proof has
monsters, the cold itself through some strange magic, come forward to prove either, at least no credible proof.
or an expelled people from the outside world.
Oberon’s Personal Guard
The Watchers Oberon is rarely seen in the flesh, and whenever he is
The Watchers are sometimes also Fey Keepers, but only forced to travel it is by a lavish caravan lined by his
at the highest ranks, most are simply well trained personal guard. This guard is entirely made up of
soldiers appointed by Oberon or his representatives. physically fit and magically proficient soldiers, each
These are the premier physical fighters of the setting, sworn to an oath of silence and is clad in spotless
they have no defined weapon or fighting style and can golden platemail.
represent any kind of physical ally or enemy aligned with
Oberon. When represented mechanically the personal guard
should be incredibly imposing. They should always roll
The Mayflies more dice in Contested Rolls related to Spirit, Body, or
In any case there are lots of people who aren't a fan of Talent, and can serve as a variety of Tank and DPS
it, the Mayflies being the most prevalent group. The Enemy Types in combat, probably a compound of two
Mayflies are an activist group who oppose Oberon and or ones of a higher Tier to show their advertised
believe that the Wall is a tool he uses to entrap the strength.
citizens. They exist on the fringes and are generally
scrappy and keep to the fringes, with worn mismatched
weapons and clothes. They can be mechanically
represented with Effect dealing

The Fey Keepers

An officially recognized order of mages using Fairy
familiars to channel their spells. A person may become
a Keeper through an apprenticeship with another who’s
already qualified, with this process often taking about 3
years to complete. Though many Keepers are seen as
essentrics and no apprenticeship is like another, the
trials one needs to take on are fully dependent on what
their master considers essential for the care and use of
Fairies. If it wasn’t obvious, Keepers serve to represent
the magical players and NPCs of your game, with the
Fairies existing fun power source for those characters.
Because of this, characters who control multiple bodies
make a lot of sense, but it is in no way required, most of
these characters will have their Fairies only serve as an
aesthetic flair for actions.

18
Setting Creation Activity Open Questions
The following activity exists for those who’re interested The person reading this section should allow each
in creating a world to play in with your group. This player to answer some questions, with their answer
activity serves primarily as a sort of ice-breaker and becoming an element of the world.
way to gauge the interests of the players, and in the
process a simple framework of your world will be Players uncomfortable with any point stated should say
created. so, as stated in rule 0.

As with the last few points, anything that comes up

Asking
naturally in conversation should be prioritized, the
First, it's important to make sure that everyone is on the
examples below only need to be used if people can’t
same page. The Narrator (or whoever else organized the
think of anything.
game if it was not the Narrator) should start by setting
some common ground.
Here are said examples:
Ask the players what kind of game they were
“Name and/or describe the best/most important
expecting or would be excited for. Something super
person/thing in X category.” X can be anything that
simple like "A fantasy game kind of like X", or "A game
exists in more than one place or time, such as a type
about Y". There are no wrong answers here and
of job, a type of creature, or a supernatural thing.
different ideas should be encouraged and explored.

“Tell me something that no one's ever done before.”

Each player should be encouraged to name
something they thought was interesting from
“Describe a massive threat to the world.”
another player's idea. This may come up naturally
when the ideas are brought up; if so that's great and
“Name something that exists in our modern world that
this paragraph can be skipped.
does not exist/is fundamentally different here.”

Agreeing
“Describe something that sounds unnatural to us, but
At this point, the players should try to agree on the
is totally normal here.”
basics. Hopefully, there was an idea the majority was
excited for, but if not, players can choose to throw out
new ideas. Joel's Notes: Building On Your Own
Though the setting creation activity is meant to be a sort
This is what the game considers “the basics”: of ice-breaker for the players and Narrator, it could also
serve as an effective world building prompt.
What’s the general tone of the story?
If you want to use it on your own just try to note down
What is the supernatural element of the world? your answer to the first four basic questions as well as 2
or 3 answers for the five more specific questions.
How do/did people get/learn/use the supernatural?

What common touchstone(s) does this remind you of?

Much more can and should be established, but that can

be done with the questions listed on the next page.

19
Universal Rules

The following rules apply to every section of the game, be sure to pay attention!

20
Universal Rules
Though there aren’t many, there are a few rules that apply to both structured combat and unstructured play. These
universal rules form the core of the game and reach out to touch every other mechanic, in ways both big and small. For
this reason this section is one of the most important to read and fully understand out of them all.

If you’re familiar with other TTRPGs this section may key you into how this game works on a fundamental level, and is a
great place to start when it comes to describing the game to others.

21
Always Round Up Assigning Attributes
As stated, when presented with a fraction it should When creating a player character you must assign each
instead be rounded up to the nearest whole number. of your Attributes as either a Primary, Secondary, or
Tertiary. This will determine the Attribute’s starting
value.
Specific Overrides General
If the specific function of any feature in this book seems A character has:
to contradict a general rule stated earlier, the specific
rule should always be used. If two specific rules One Primary Attribute that starts at 3.
contradict each other the user can choose one to use.
One Secondary Attribute that starts at 2.
Attributes
Attributes are abstract character traits that define And two Tertiary Attributes that start at 1.
their user’s best and worst approaches in a Scene. Is
your character strong? Subtle? Hopeful? Intelligent? Joel's Notes: Combat is Tall Not Wide
Attributes are meant to imply and enforce it, being given When creating and progressing your character it’s
a numeric value to rate how well it does so. important to realize that keeping your Primary high is
incredibly powerful. Most builds can turn that single
The four Attributes affect the dice you roll for nearly Attribute into a powerful offensive and defensive tool. In
every action your character makes, both in structured most cases spreading your Attributes thin will lead to
combat and unstructured play. Each Attribute is unimpactful attacks and mediocre defenses.
additionally used to calculate secondary statistics.

The four Attributes are as follows: Scenes

A Scene is a general measurement of time that lasts
Body as long as the specific Scene requires, much like how
Your physical health and strength. Affects Health and Scenes are defined in film and television. Despite its
physical power. variance and flexibility, they are used in many of the
game’s systems and are important to understand.
Talent
Your ability to move quickly and perform stunts. While the length of most Scenes can be determined at
Affects Speed and physical power. the Narrator’s discretion, there are some hard rules that
should be understood to maintain the pace of the game.
Spirit
Your natural ability to use, and/or knowledge of, the When a player is acting for any reason, it takes place
supernatural. Affects Focus and other magic. within a Scene.

Mind When there is a “Fade to black”, skip in the story, or

Your non-supernatural knowledge and/or ability to the game is otherwise brought to a halt, a new Scene
think on your feet. Affects utility actions. starts.

When the game changes modes between

Joel's Notes: Attributes Are Not Character
unstructured play and structured combat or vice
These Attributes should not influence how you, or other
versa, a new Scene starts.
players, see a character. Attributes should instead
mechanically support the actions you want your
character to take. A character with low Mind does not
need to be “dumb”. The player just doesn’t want to
focus on Mind for the scenes that character is in.

22
Challenge Rolls Hit Chances
Almost all player actions in DAWN involve a Challenge Each dice in a roll is worth ~0.5 Hits on average This
Roll. Challenge Rolls have three parts, the Reward (the should allow you to roughly figure out how easy/difficult
thing given to the roller assuming they succeed), the different Challenge numbers would be to reach for any
Risk (the thing that happens to the roller assuming they given check made by your players. As a simple
fail), and the Challenge (how difficult it is to succeed). example, Take a player’s highest Attribute, half it, and
you know they have a (slightly better than) 50/50 chance
In unstructured play Reward is normally defined by of getting that many hits in a standard roll using that
the player taking the action as they state their intent. Attribute with no bonuses.
The Risk and Challenge can then be defined by the
Narrator, stating what they think is fit in the moment. So that you don't need to do math with adding together
your players bonuses, here’s some baseline examples
In structured combat all rolls have their Rewards for unstructured play to get you started:
defined by the mechanics found in the book. Most
combat rolls don't have a Challenge or Risk, Easy for anyone, 0: Even a character with a 1 in the
instead rewarding more with more ‘Hits’. most relevant Attribute and no bonuses has a ~50%
chance to fully succeed, and it’s impossible to Fail. If
When someone takes a Challenge Roll they roll a something is this easy it’s probably not worth rolling.
number of D6 equal to their most relevant Attribute,
then count each result of 4 or more as a “Hit”. Requires some skill, 3: Characters rolling 6 dice will
have a ~50% chance to succeed. Tier 1-3 characters
If there are more Hits than the Challenge the user will require a relevant primary Attribute and a relevant
receives the Rewards. This is a “Full Success”. bonus for early game characters.

If the Hits are equal they receive both the Reward and Fairly difficult, 6: Requires 12 dice for ~50%. At this
the Risk. This is a “Partial Success”. point just having the relevant Attribute and bonus
won’t be enough even if you’re a little lucky, Tier 1-3
If the Hits are less than the Challenge the user characters will need two or more fully leveled bonuses
receives only the Risk. This is a “Failure”. to succeed.

When this game asks you to make a Challenge Roll it Impossible for most, 9: This asking for a total of 17
will often phrase it as “Roll X”, meaning “make a dice to meet a ~50% success rate, meaning that only
Challenge Roll rolling dice equal to X”, with X being characters fully kitted for this problem will succeed.
an Attribute or other statistic tracked via a number.

Critical Hits
If any dice in a Roll rolls a 6, It’s counted as a
‘Critical’ Hit (Also known as a Crit). Crits count as a Hit,
but also allow the user to roll an additional D6. Any
dice rolled as a result of a Critical Hit can also
trigger a Critical Hit themselves.

Advantage/Disadvantage
Challenge Rolls can also be modified with Advantage or
Disadvantage. When a roll is made at Advantage the
dice rolled increases with the amount of Advantage.
The opposite occurs for Disadvantage. If a Roll would
have both Advantage and Disadvantage they cancel
each other out at a 1-1 ratio.
23
Unique Roll Types Intermissions
Due to the vastly different mechanics of each, Rolls An ‘Intermission’ represents the downtime between
done in unstructured play and structured combat major events in an Adventure, normally between each
will often have vastly different rulings. Not including Chapter, but sometimes more or less often.
the rules stated in the Universal Rules section.
Intermissions remove the Wounds and Stress from
Opposed Challenge Rolls every character involved, and let those characters
Challenge Rolls can also be “Opposed” when two develop their ‘Bonds’.
characters are directly opposed to one another.
Though this is not a hard rule, and a Narrator should
In an Opposed Challenge Roll Challenge there is no set feel free to supersede it for pacing reasons, it is also
Challenge. Instead, both participants Roll at the same recommended that players are given an opportunity
time and treat their opponent’s Hits as their to flesh out what they’re doing during their
Challenge, with the character who got the most Hits Downtime. A character could chat with another to
winning and receiving their Rewards. further explain their Bonds, or go train a specific Skill
relevant to their last fight, it could really be anything the
If both characters Roll the same number of Hits they group finds interesting in the moment.
rebound and must reroll. Alternatively, if the Rewards
are not mutually exclusive the Narrator may have both
parties receive their Rewards.

Team Rolls
When two or more player characters are doing the
same thing and want to work together, they can
make a ‘Team Roll’ instead of a normal Roll, each of
them making their own Roll, with the player who rolled
the most Hits having theirs counted against the
Challenge.

Speed Rolls
When two or more player characters are doing the
same thing but approach it in different ways, they
can make a ‘Speed Roll’ instead of a normal Roll. Each
participant acts at the same time, and the character with
the most Hits is able to act first, having their Hits
counted against the Challenge. If all players fail their
opponent acts first and snuffs out their plans.

Joel's Notes: Team & Speed Rolls

You might have noticed that, mechanically, Team Rolls
and Speed Rolls are almost identical. In both, multiple
players roll and the highest result is counted against the
Challenge. But I still think that both are important to
distinguish the vastly different implications they have for
the narrative, and I encourage using it in unstructured
play to create a clear visual without an explanation.

24
Knockouts Clocks
In both unstructured play and structured combat, player When the PCs face a complex obstacle, the Narrator
characters can get Knocked Out and removed from the can choose to draw a Clock.
current Scene.
Clocks are circles divided into an even number of
The specifics of how this is done is different between segments (Normally 4, 6, or 8) that can be filled over the
each mode, but in both cases players can stop it by course of time.
putting something ‘On The Line’.

Putting It On The Line

Though normal Knockouts are implied to be non-lethal
and temporary, there are ways a player can incur
permanent injuries if they choose to take the risk.

Any time a player would be Knocked Out, they can

put something On The Line instead. When a player When a Clock is made it should be given a defined
does this they’re set to 2 ‘Stress’ (explained in result for when it is filled, either by the Narrator or by the
“unstructured play”) and restore their ‘Health’ (explained rules of a feature that creates it. This result can be good
in “structured combat”). If a player is Knocked Out again or bad depending on what created the clock.
in the same Scene the thing they put On The Line is lost
forever and they gain 3 Influence. A harmful clock might be progressed through failing,
bringing you close to some looming danger. Where a
The things a player can put On The Line are as follows, positive clock will often be filled by succeeding, with
if they get Knocked Out while risking any of the each small victory bringing you closer to your reward.
options they chose again:
Clock Categories
A ‘SkillI’ of your choice. All Clocks can fit into two categories, though they both
function identically they serve very different purposes:
An ‘Ability’ of your choice.
The first is a Set Clock. These are associated with
A ‘Boon’ from one of your Outlooks. different abilities written in the book, possessing fixed
effects, and fixed methods of progressing them.
Your character’s life.

The second is a Story Clock. These Clocks track any

granular task that is not explicitly defined by the rules
written in this book. A Story Clock could be used to
track the number of clues found in an investigation, the
distance traveled in a chase scene, or the time left until
something arrives.

25
Influence
In structured combat and unstructured play there are
situations where players will be given Influence. This is
the only resource that is shared between both
modes of play, and it has different uses in each mode.

This Influence is kept between Scenes and Chapters,

with no upper limit for each player.

Players should receive an Influence when one of the

following things happens:

The Chapter starts and they have no Influence.

Their character receives a Stress or Wound.

Their character breaks a Bond.

They take an Influential Action.

Spending Influence
In both unstructured play and structured combat
players can spend 1 Influence when they take a
Challenge Roll to “go All Out”.

All Out: Reroll a Challenge Roll. For that roll, all dice
with a value of 3 or more are counted as Hits.

When doing so in unstructured play there are some

additional requirements that will be detailed in its own
section, and there are a lot of other more specific uses
for Influence (namely Duels in combat and specific Boon
effects in unstructured play), but All Out is the most
common and widely useful way to spend Influence.

Joel's Notes: Fluid Influence Exchange

Though it is not recommended for groups who don’t
personally know each other, DAWN can be very fun
when the Narrator and players freely throw Influence
around the table. This includes the Narrator giving out
Influence for more minor contributions from the table (ie.
suggesting names for people and places, making a
good joke), as well as players offering to spend
Influence on things that aren’t defined in the game’s
mechanics (ie. spending Influence to have a flashback
or conveniently know a character or solution to a
problem at hand).

26
Tiers Optional Rule: Slower Tiers
Like most RPGs, characters in DAWN will grow in The previous Tier rules assume you’ll be playing with a
strength over the course of an Adventure. This is done group for a shorter amount of time. You’ll probably be
through increasing their Tier, which starts at 1. gaining a Tier every two or three Chapters, which means
you’ll be reaching your peak after ~15 chapters. If you
Experience plan to play with the same group for a really long time or
Each player character gains Experience at the end of a your game is more grounded this may not be ideal, for
Chapter. Gaining 3 by default, and one more for each that reason there are a few optional rules for slowing
Influence a player spent in the Chapter (not including down the Tiers.
Influence that was refunded for any reason).
The first and most obvious is to increase the Experience
When a character gains 10 or more Experience they required to Tier up, normally to 15. This requires the
lose 10 and their Tier increases by 1, up to a least legwork but you might find that the time between
maximum of 6. When a character increases their Tier your Tier ups are few and far between.
they gain each of the following benefits:
The other and more complex method is to double the
+1 to two different Attributes. maximum Tier, increasing it to 12, and making it so even
Tier ups (Tier 2, 4, 6…) give you 2 of the 5 benefits, with
Two Levels to spend on new/existing Techniques. your odd Tier ups (Tier 1, 3, 5…) giving the remaining
two rewards. The players can choose whatever benefits
Two Character Ranks that can be spent on they want to take, but they cannot choose the same one
new/existing Skills/Abilities now or later. two times in a row.

A new Boon from any Outlook (so long as you don’t

exceed your 3 max Outlooks).

5 Additional Health.

Awakening
In addition to increasing your Tier the conventional way,
a character can ‘Awaken’ once per Adventure. When a
player uses Influence they can choose to Awaken by
spending an additional Influence.

When a character Awakens they immediately increase

their Tier by one and gain all the benefits they’ve
prepared beforehand, as well as removing all Stress and
Wounds. Awakening puts your character into
‘Burnout’ making them lose the next 10 Experience
they would otherwise gain when ending a Chapter.

Joel's Notes: In-The-Moment Awakenings

If a character Awakens suddenly without preparing they
may be given time to assign their features, however this
does interrupt the game and a Narrator is fully in their
right to have them put it off till the end of the Chapter.

27
4: Established Elite
E.g. Final Fantasy 12, LOTGH, Triangle Strategy
Campaign Scale
This game can present a lot of different stories with their
A person in some sort of position of power, whether it
own threats. You may be rookies on the path to
be due to official authority, or the respect of those within
greatness or near gods grappling with equally enormous
your line of work.
responsibilities.

At this point player characters have wide-reaching

Normally this scale is determined by what strength the
responsibilities, either being able to directly affect social
players are when the game starts, these strengths
groups like towns or specific subcultures, or having
being sorted into Tiers, and in the following section
ways to indirectly affect the world at large.
examples of “Scale” will be given for games that start
from Tiers 1-6.
5: Best Of The Best
E.g. Overlord, DBZ, Naruto Shippuden
Joel's Notes: Scale Is Fluid
To clarify, characters will not change the scale of your Not only are you recognized and respected by your
story just by increasing to the Tier shown for it, these peers, but the world at large.
Tiers just show where you should start if you want to
recreate the feel of that scale. Reaching the peak of the established setting, with
abilities that can affect entire nations, the threats you
However, feel free to change the scale as a story moves may face may break the fundamental rules of your
along if it feels appropriate, especially since scale has setting in order to be an actual danger.
no actual effect on the game’s mechanics, it just serves
as a guideline. 6: Legendary
E.g. DBS, Xianxia Novels

1-2: Underdog Story

E.g. The Hobbit, Naruto, Avatar You’ve broken out of convention, far above the
mundane world and average person. A long term game
A group of complete newbies just starting to learn about within this scale is not recommended.
the world that they’re engaging in.
Both structured combat and unstructured play in this
Characters in an Underdog Story will rarely be affecting scale require some silly things to make anything in the
the world outside their inner circle. Their struggles are world a danger for your protagonists, so it’s not
often personal and relating to their growth. recommended to start at this Tier.

3: Up-and-coming
E.g. JJK, Fairy Tail, Lord of the Rings

Novices, students, and journeymen, people who have at

least some knowledge and experience, but who may
not be ready for the things that lie ahead.

The recommended scale for those experienced with

TTRPGs or who have played this game before.
Characters in this scale will likely be involved in the lives
of other NPCs, helping with a problem in their
hometown or taking small-time missions, but these can
easily expand out as they climb in Tier.

28
Character Creation

A complete guide on the creation of player characters, for both unstructured play and structured combat.

29
Character Creation
The following is a two part guide on creating a character for DAWN,
placed front and center as it is the most important part of playing the game for a lot of players.

When read from front to back, this section will be missing context.
Feel free to come back to this section after reading the rules in full.

30
Unstructured Play Checklist Structured Combat Checklist
When creating a character for unstructured play you’ll When creating a character for structured combat you’ll
need to get all the following things. need to get all the following things.

A Concept to communicate the bare essentials of Techniques to gain new ways to interact with combat.
your character and their characterization.
Attributes to focus those Techniques into one or two
A set of Abilities and Skills to enforce what things defined groups.
your character excels in.
And your default statistics to codify the options
An Outlook to define how your character interacts you’ve selected.
with their Concept.
1. Select Your Techniques (Page X)
And Attributes to enhance all the features above.
Gain 5 Technique Levels from up to 3 different
Archetypes. Techniques are the main combat features
1. Establish A Concept (Page X)
for player characters, they are each split into 3 Levels
Important characters may be created with a
and contribute to that character’s overall build. These
‘Concept’, a set of four words the player chooses to
Techniques will also shape what Archetypes you can
describe a character’s History and Aesthetic. These
pick from when choosing further Techniques.
Concepts are an important aspect of using Influence
and should be thought over to make sure you can use
2. Assigning Attributes (Page X)
your character as you would like.
Assuming you haven’t already made the unstructured
play portion of your character, you must assign each of
2. Spend Your Character Ranks (Page X)
your Attributes (Body, Talent, Spirit, and Mind) as
Every player character starts with 8 Character
either a Primary, Secondary or Tertiary. A character has:
Ranks. At least four must be spent on Skills, the
mundane things your character excels at. The remainder
One Primary Attribute that starts at 3.
can be spent on Abilities, the supernatural things your
character is capable of. Your initial 8 Character Ranks
One Secondary Attribute that starts at 2.
can't be saved for later.

And two Tertiary Attributes that start at 1.

3. Choosing Your Outlook (Page X)
You can now choose one of the Outlooks, as well as
3. Determine Default Stats (Page X)
two Boons from that Outlook. An Outlook illustrates a
At this point you’ll be able to set up your Guts, Health,
character’s perspective and way they interact with
Speed, and Focus. These are the passive statistics
others. Each is paired with an Outlook that represents
used to run combat, and no choices past what’s already
its opposite. Boons are the unlockable benefits a
been done that need to be made to calculate them.
character gets for choosing an Outlook.

Your starting Guts is 4 plus half your Body.

4. Assigning Attributes (Page X)
When creating a player character you must assign each
Your starting Health is Body + Body + 5 x Tier.
of your Attributes (Body, Talent, Spirit, and Mind) as
either a Primary, Secondary or Tertiary. A character has:
Your starting Speed is 2 plus a half of your Talent.

One Primary Attribute that starts at 3.

Your starting Focus is 1 plus half your Spirit.

One Secondary Attribute that starts at 2.

And two Tertiary Attributes that start at 1.

31
Example Combat Builds

Correctly choosing what Techniques your character will use can be a difficult process, for that reason this book provides
a few premade sets, these sets serve as both builds that players can pick up and play at Tier 1 and as examples of
common play styles that can be recreated using the Techniques in the game.

Body Primary Characters

Honor-Bound Knight / Big-Body Bouncer Cavalryman / Brazen Biker

Archetype(s): Bulwark Archetype(s): Powerhouse / Bulwark / Slayer

Attributes: Attributes:
Body: 3 Talent: 1 Spirit: 2 Mind: 1 Body: 3 Talent: 1 Spirit: 1 Mind: 2

Techniques: Techniques:
Stalwart Sentry 2 Stone Crusher 2 Lancer 2 Battle Jockey 2

Preemptive Posture 1 N/A Skirmisher 1 N/A

Summary: Summary:
A bodyguard focused on area denial. With “Sentry” Quick mounted fighter. With the mobility and range
and “Preemptive Posture” this build can end turns provided by “Jockey” and “Lancer”, this build allows
near allies and dish out insane damage to any for attacks that come from any angle, while retaining
enemies who attempt to engage. the bonuses of traditional Skirmish-based fighters.

Battle Rager / Reckless Thug Dust Gunman / Grade 1 Mercenary

Archetype(s): Powerhouse Archetypes: Bulwark / Powerhouse

Attributes: Attributes:
Body: 3 Talent: 2 Spirit: 1 Mind: 1 Body: 3 Talent: Spirit: Mind:

Techniques: Techniques:
Berserker 3 Flagellant 2 Absolute Bastard 3 Gunslinger 2

N/A N/A N/A N/A

Summary: Summary:
A tanky bruiser who benefits from taking Wounds. One of the few paths to take for a ranged Body build.
Both of your Techniques will make it so receiving a With “Gunslinger” this build is fairly basic in its usage,
Wound is less punishing, more beneficial, and easier, you attack and you attack until you run dry. At which
letting you get into scraps even with the most point you can take a turn Investigating and Taunting
damaging enemies without it being a huge risk. via “Absolute Bastard”, triggering a reload.

32
Talent Primary Characters

The Professional / Shadowy Archer Martial Monk / Peaceful Pugilist

Archetype(s): Slayer / Ruiner Archetype(s): Powerhouse

Attributes: Attributes:
Body: 2 Talent: 3 Spirit: 1 Mind: 1 Body: 1 Talent: 3 Spirit: 1 Mind: 2

Techniques: Techniques:
Distant Killer 3 Hollow Soul 2 Martial Artist 3 Equilibrium 2

N/A N/A N/A N/A

Summary: Summary:
Taking out their enemies in a single shot, safely A quick and versatile brawler. “Martial Artist” serves
dealing burst damage from a long range. This build is as a strong base for any build that plans to do melee
made almost entirely to enable all three levels of combat, it gives a suite of mobility and disruption,
Distant Killer, a Technique that allows for some of the and with the addition of “Equilibrium”, a decent
highest single attack damage in the game, at the cost amount of sustainability.
of lacking mobility and constant preparation.

Cruel Brigand / Deadly Dancer

Sword Saint / Deft Duelist
Archetype(s): Disruptor / Slayer
Archetype(s): Slayer
Attributes:
Attributes:
Body: 1 Talent: 3 Spirit: 1 Mind: 2
Body: 1 Talent: 3 Spirit: 2 Mind: 1
Techniques:
Techniques:
Bloodletter 2 Knife Juggler 2
Blade Master 3 Cunning Fighter 2
Skirmisher 1 N/A
N/A N/A
Summary:
Summary:
An incredibly mobile mid-ranged Slayer build. Using
The archetypical Slayer build. A sword saint is built the free movement provided by “Bloodletter” 2 and
around setting up a situation where they can best “Skirmisher” 1 it can get extra free attacks, extra AP,
utilize their high reward combo, “Divide In One and even more free movement so long as it places its
Motion” from “Blade Master”. Cunning FIghter allows weapons from “Knife Juggler” 2 in spaces it can
for additional Breath uses via investigating their access.
opponent, and with those Beathes they can easily
enter their sword stance and wreak havoc.

33
Spirit Primary Characters

Healer Of The Cloth / Combat Medic Bolt Blade / Witch Hunter

Archetype(s): Altruist Archetype(s): Powerhouse / Ruiner / Slayer

Attributes: Attributes:
Body: 1 Talent: 1 Spirit: 3 Mind: 2 Body: 1 Talent: 2 Spirit: 3 Mind: 1

Techniques: Techniques:
Heavenly Saint 2 Talisman Caster 2 Spell-Sword 2 Thunder Blood 2

Chronomancer 1 N/A Cunning Fighter 1 N/A

Summary: Summary:
A classic healer-support. The combination of A teleporting electric duelist. This build focuses on
“Talisman Caster” and “Healer” lets you place a “Spell-Sword”, promoting the combination of Casts
marker on allies, letting you heal them at any range, and Skirmishes, the other two Techniques are here to
and with “Chronomancer” on top you can provide support that. “Thunder Blood” lets your Casts teleport
some other buffs along with the healing. you to your target, meaning you can Skirmish after to
gain the benefits of Spell-Sword, with “Cunning
Fighter” you can take free Breathe actions to gain the
Phoenix Child / Incendiary Expert resources needed to use Thunder Blood.

Archetype(s): Ruiner
Skilled Summoner / Drone Commander
Attributes:
Archetype(s): Ruiner / Disruptor
Body: 1 Talent: 1 Spirit: 3 Mind: 2
Attributes:
Techniques:
Body: 2 Talent: 1 Spirit: 3 Mind: 1
Flame Heart 3 Ritualist 2
Techniques:
N/A N/A
Sellsword’s Call 2 Servant’s Call 1
Summary:
Cryomancer 1 N/A
A single target DPS built to stand still, charge up their
spells, and sacrifice their health for damage. This is Summary:
possibly the simplest route to take when building a
mage-eque build, with “Ritualist” this character is A fragile mage commanding a giant swarm. This build
really good at standing in one spot and attacking at is incredibly simple so long as you’re willing to check
range, from there you add in almost any other the narrator’s tool section, using “Sellsword’s Call”
Technique that enhances your Casts, this one is fire and “Servant’s Call” it can create and control a
flavored and uses “Flame Heart”. number of enemies equal to double its Tier, so long
as they take a Cast to summon each.

34
Mind Primary Characters

Alchemist / Apothecary Mad Scientist / Scrap Savant

Archetype(s): Altruist / Powerhouse Archetype(s): Slayer / Bulwark / Ruiner

Attributes: Attributes:
Body: 1 Talent: 2 Spirit: 1 Mind: 3 Body: 2 Talent: 1 Spirit: 1 Mind: 3

Techniques: Techniques:
Alchemist 3 Improvisational Fighter 2 Modified Meister 3 Runic Aegis 1

N/A N/A Long Draw 1 N/A

Summary: Summary:
A combat ready and versatile support character. Two A risky sniper with variable ranges, damage, and risk.
words, breath and interact. When you Breath you can To run this build you mostly need to worry about
use “Alchemist” to create some helpful (and preparing with “Long Draw”, as it gives additional
sometimes debilitating) potions that you can apply to range and advantage at the cost of your extra actions.
other characters using Interact, “Improvisational Once you’re ready you can attack using “Modified
Fighter” makes using those Interacts cheaper. Meister” to get a Mind-based bonus to your damage.
“Runic Aegis” only exists to protect you a little.

Charming Bard / Mystic Dancer

Battle Tactician / Shrewd Investigator
Archetype(s): Altruist / Slayer
Archetype(s): Slayer
Attributes:
Attributes:
Body: 1 Talent: 1 Spirit: 2 Mind: 3
Body: 1 Talent: 2 Spirit: 1 Mind: 3
Techniques:
Techniques:
Bardic Talent 3 Cunning Fighter 2
Dim Mak 3 Cunning Fighter 1
N/A N/A
Skirmisher 1 N/A
Summary:
Summary:
An area of effect support who serves to increase the
damage and actionability of their allies. Using Breath One of the few options for a fully Mind invested DPS
this character can prepare a giant song using “Bardic character. This build is mostly focused around
Talent”, the song can be debuffing, buffing, or letting triggering the effect of “Dim Mak” to gain a Mind
more actions from your allies. No matter what the based bonus on their Skirmishes. “Cunning Fighter”
song does, you can prepare it faster and with more naturally synergizes with “Viper Strike” as both
utility by using “Cunning Fighter” to get free utility receive their primary benefits when using Investigate,
actions along with Marks from your Investigates. on top of that it and “Skirmisher” lets the user trigger
“Viper Strike” more easily, as it can provide the
movement needed to use its damage bonus.

35
Unstructured Play

The rules that dictate the non-tactical elements of DAWN, use these to get immersed and create tension in the narrative.

36
Unstructured Play
The purely narrative portion of an Adventure, the place where players are free to chat in-character and think of all sorts of
solutions to the puzzles presented to their character, be they literal or metaphorical.

The Rules of unstructured play mostly center around the use of Challenge Rolls and how they can be enhanced,
avoided, or interpreted, mostly through the ‘Skills’ and ‘Abilities’ players create for their characters. And when these rolls
create situations that put characters together ‘Bonds’ can be created to show how that meeting affected them.

37
Ranks Example Skills
The primary three features used in unstructured Skills can be tough to think of, and harder to approve as
play—Skills, Abilities, and Bonds—all have an a Narrator, because of this DAWN provides a set of
associated numeric Rank that represents their ‘Example Skills’ to give you an idea of how Skills are
strength. This number can range from 1 to 5. Skills and formatted and split between the Attributes.
Abilities can be upgraded by spending Character Ranks,
8 of which being given at character creation. Bonds are Body Skills
ranked passively over time.
Intense ______ training.
When a character is created they are given 8 starting Built like a brick shithouse.
Character Ranks, spending at least 4 on Skills. Poison taste tester.
Talk shit, get hit.
Your initial Character Ranks can't be saved for later, but Master of the seventh form of Ken-Ryu.
the two you receive from increasing your Tier can. Defender of the weak.
Chivalrous combat.

Skills
Talent Skills
Skills reflect a character’s capabilities as a result of their
training, lifestyle, and/or upbringing. You may spend
The ______ technique.
one Character Rank to gain a new Skill or Rank up
Whirling Dervish.
an existing Skill, with each Skill increasing up to a
Sneak and smuggle.
max Rank of 5. You may gain or upgrade Skills at any
Master Burglar.
point in a Chapter, even in the middle of a roll.
Race the sun.
Straight shooter.
Skills are custom written by their user and should
Rooftop parkourist.
follow the following guidelines:

Spirit Skills
Short And Sweet: The Skill should be 5 words long at
most, and 2 words long at least.
Natural ______ ability.
In all heaven and earth, I am the enlightened one.
Not Too General: It should be obvious where a Skill
The monster within.
can’t be used.
Sharpened senses.
Second student of the Archmage.
Skills, Not Abilities: A Skill should be something
Fae whisperer.
anyone is capable of without the assistance of
Alien physiology.
supernatural elements.

Mind Skills
Skill Attributes
Each Skill must be assigned to an Attribute. The one
A ______’s knowledge.
you decide on effects when it can and can’t be used, for
Pillar of the community.
example, being physically restrained may stop you from
First Strategist of the House of Blood.
using Body or Talent Skills but not Mind or Spirit Skills.
Grease monkey.
Gift of the gab.
Master of disguise.
Gaslighting girlboss.

38
Abilities Creating Unique Words
Most player characters are also created with one or Even if you follow these rules a player who wants to
more Abilities. Abilities are things that a character make custom words for their Abilities must brief their
can always do that are impossible for a “mundane” Narrator and get their approval.
person. Each Ability can also be upgraded and must be
given an associated Attribute just like Skills. However, both to make judging the quality of these
words easier for Narrators and to make the creation
Creating Abilities easier for players these more concrete guidelines exist.
However, unlike Skills, you can't just spend a Character
Rank and gain any Rank 1 Ability. Impact And Access
Every word in an Ability, no matter if it is a Verb, Noun,
To obtain an Ability you must spend a number of or Condition, can be judged in one of two distinct
Character Ranks equal to the Ability’s total cost, with a categories, the words Impact and its Access.
minimum of 1 (After purchasing an Ability it can still be
upgraded normally up to 5, spending 1 Rank for each). Verbs: These words are possibly the most important
ones in an Ability, and when creating a new one a
player must ask “How Impactful is this word.”
Joel's Notes: Not Always Effortless
Though it is assumed that an Ability’s user can use it at
A Verb’s Impact describes how much it can change in
will with no roll, It is important to know that the Narrator
a story when used at its most extreme. The Verbs
can always oppose actions that would dramatically
“Obliterate” and “Create” share the highest cost
change the story or seem far-fetched based on their
among all Verbs, this is because when combined with
understanding of the Ability. This is normally by having a
Nouns like “People”, “Gravity”, or “Heat” it can be
player make a Roll in order to achieve their goal.
used to completely alter the course of a story.

This is also why Ability Ranks exist, to show the extent

Nouns: Often the most descriptive and flavorful word
of control a character has over their Abilities and how far
of an Ability, Nouns are often connected to the user’s
they can stretch the uses of that Ability.
Aesthetic and need to be judged based on their
Access.
All Abilities follow the format of:
A Noun’s Access describes how many different and
“You can [Verb] [Noun], so long as [Condition].” important things are under their umbrella. It is not a
coincidence that only Nouns are tagged with the “✝”
On the following page there is a list of terms that can be symbol, as that symbol lets a player directly lower the
used to fill in those bracketed sections, and a cost number of things their ability effects while still keeping
associated with each. The total cost of an Abilities Verb, the importance of those things.
Noun, and Condition adds up to the cost of the Ability.
Conditions: Paradoxically the least interesting and
Optional Rule: Tight Ability Systems most important part of an ability, Conditions are
This game assumes that Abilities are varied across your complex and utilize both Impact and Access.
world and that most characters can access them, hence
the wide range of possible effects. To further explain, here is an example. “You build it” is
a condition that limits the Impact your other words can
However, some settings may have a more limited pool have, since no matter what you want to do it has to fit
of effects players have access to, and in these settings in the limit of “being buildable”. “You touch it” instead
the Narrator may limit the pool of Nouns to 1—4 affects how often your character can use that Ability,
options, and reduce the cost for each by 1. with no effect on what it can do.

39
Ability Glossary

You can [Verb] [Noun], so long as [Condition].

Verb Cost Noun Cost Condition Cost

Breathe ✢ 0 Ghosts 0 You roll a 6 on a d6 -2

Eat ✢ 0 Weather ✢ 0 Your life is in danger -2

Sense ✢ 0 Food 0 At a Specific Time -1

Become ✢ 1 Traps 0 You’re wearing it -1

Locate 1 Plants ✝ 1 It’s Not For Your Sake 0

Enhance 1 Melee Weapons ✝ 1 You Build It 0

Launch / Grab 1 Sound ✢ 1 You Carry It 0

Repair / Heal 1 People ✝ 2 You Sign On It 0

Damage / Bruise 1 Machines ✝ 2 You Aren’t Seen 0

Conceal / Reveal 2 The Four Elements ✝ 2 You Touch It 0

Control 2 Light / Shadow ✝ 2 You Hear / Smell It 1

Stop / Immobilise 2 Animals ✝ 2 You Dance 1

Duplicate 2 Heat ✢ 2 You Understand It 1

Enlarge / Shrink 2 Mana / Electricity ✢ 2 You Speak To It 1

Cut / Break / Melt 2 Meat / Bone 2 You Draw It 1

Teleport 2 Ranged Weapons ✝ 2 You Explain It 1

Create ✢ 3 Yourself ✢ 2 You Hold Your Breath 1

Obliterate 4 Gravity ✢ 3 It Can Hear You 1

Fuse X and ☾ X Fluids / Solids / Gases ✝ 3 You See It 2

Transform X Into ☾ X Anything 4 You Remember It 3

✢ (If you pick any part that is marked like this your Ability ends after the Noun, not requiring a Condition)

✝ (These Nouns represent a category, you may reduce its cost by 1 by picking only one thing in that category)

☾ (You must choose another Noun to represent X, the X in its cost becomes the chosen Noun’s Cost)

40
Bonds
Bonds—like Skills and Abilities—are Ranked features
that can be used to gain Advantage on Rolls in
unstructured play. However, unlike the other features,
Bonds are not solely based on the traits of a
character, they instead represent the relationship
they share with another character in the game.

They can represent any sort of connection or

relationship, be it compassionate, competitive, or purely
antagonistic. The only consistent element of a Bond’s
nature is that a Bond is always a one-way-street and the
subject does not need to share these feelings.

During Intermissions, player characters can choose to

form a Bond with any other named character that they
can speak to or have spoken to in the time between that
Intermission and the last, as well as increasing the
Rank of any Bonds that also fit that criteria,
Increasing them up to the maximum Rank of 5.

Breaking Bonds
For one reason or another, someone may decide that
their Bond has been ‘Broken’, something has changed
in their perception of that character. Doing this
removes all Ranks of that Bond and gives the user
an equal amount of Influence. Once a PC has broken
a Bond with a character, they lose the ability to gain
Influence by breaking a Bond with the same character.

Joel's Notes: Returning Characters

Once a non player character is Bonded with they should
be considered an important and central element of the
story by the Narrator. And if you are a Narrator you
should always consider making these characters
relevant at multiple points in the game.

If the players leave the city that character lives in,

consider having them meet again, with that character
being given a new reason to travel that they can explain
to the character they’re Bonded with.

41
Character Concepts
Important characters may be created with a ‘Concept’. This always includes players, as well as major villains and
other important non-player characters. These Concepts are an important aspect of using Influence and should be
thought over to make sure the player can use their character the way they would like.

A Concept is made up of two parts: a character’s ‘History’ and ‘Aesthetic’.

History
A History is a descriptor of a character’s past. It’s meant to be incredibly general and imply the broad strokes of their
experience. It can be used as a justification for having certain items in unstructured play and are used when
gaining Influence via Influential Actions. A History may be determined using the roll table below, by combining an
Adjective, Noun, and Flair.

2D6 Roll Table

Adjective Noun Flair

2: Kind / Cruel 2: Sage / Mage 2: Looking For God

3: No-Nonsense / Carefree 3: Noble / Politician 3: Selected By The Academy

4: Money-Grubbing / Charitable 4: Abomination / Beast 4: Of The Seven Seas

5: Charismatic / Closed Off 5: Warrior / Soldier 5: Out For Revenge

6: Mysterious / Famous 6: Inventor / Mechanic 6: Of The Noble Knights

7: Wandering / Local 7: Student / Squire 7: From The Badlands

8: Naive / Wise 8: Gunslinger / Cannoneer 8: From The Past / Future

9: Young / Elderly 9: Priest / Nun 9: With A Heart Of Gold

10: Loyal / Traitorous 10: Doctor / Medic 10: Who Dug Too Deep

11: Chosen / Oathbreaker 11: Dancer / Bard 11: Born To Ruin

12: Inquisitive / Dense 12: Alchemist / Scientist 12: Who’s Out Of Their League

Joel's Notes: A Non-Exhaustive List

A character’s History is really just what the player thinks is cool or fun to show with their character, it may tie into other
aspects of the character’s Aesthetic, but it’s not a requirement. The options above can just serve as examples, and the
same is true for the following page and its examples of Aesthetic.

42
Aesthetic
This half a Concept is more abstract than the first, and is made up of two parts: the ‘Motivation’ and ‘Theme’.

A character’s Motivation should summarize a character’s main goal in their story, or a major flaw that they must
overcome, normally in three or fewer words.

A Theme, on the other hand, is purely fluff. It guides how the player wants to represent their actions aesthetically.

2D6 Roll Table

Motivation Theme

2: Altruism 2: Time / Gravity

3: Competition 3: Body Horror

4: Repentance 4: Nature

5: Discovery 5: An Animal

6: Community 6: Raw Strength

7: Freedom 7: An Element

8: Revenge 8: Martial Arts

9: Responsibility 9: Possession

10: Idolization 10: Magical Weapon

11: Love 11: Light / Darkness

12: Greed 12: Robotics / Puppetry

Joel's Notes: Using Aesthetic For Non-Characters

If you’re having a hard time creating something as a Player or GM, such as a hook for your game, a special weapon or
ability, or some sort of story relevant NPC, try rolling on the Aesthetic table.

If this thing is related to an existing character you could try keeping one of those characters parts and rerolling the other,
that way you always have a similarity to turn to when it comes to relating that character to it.

A player who’s themed around their “Curiosity and Wealth” may be compelled to form a Bond with or otherwise interact
with a fearsome antagonist who mirrors their focus on Wealth, but rather than “Curiosity” uses it along with “Fear” or
“Greed”.

43
Unstructured Challenge Rolls Threats
The most important thing to know about running The effect of a Threat is mostly self-descriptive, at any
unstructured play in DAWN is the following: point the Narrator can tell the players that something
bad is going to happen, and that they have a chance to
The Narrator should not roll dice in most Scenes, as do something about it.
they are not in control of mechanical characters, they
are in control of the story itself. Instead, Narrators Dramatic Irony
should present the players with Threats. It’s important that players know when their
characters are under Threat, and in most cases,
Gaining Advantage what that Threat is. This is due to rule zero, having a
In almost all Challenge Rolls the player making the Roll player regret a decision because the Narrator refused to
will want some way to gain Advantage. tell them something is a worst-case-scenario. Though
this is true, the characters themselve don't need to
When a character takes a Challenge Roll in unstructured know any of this information. Assuming the players are
play they may gain Advantage equal to the total Ranks considered an audience, this is “dramatic irony”.
of one Skill, Ability, and Bond they have.
Responding With A Challenge Roll
In most cases a player can respond to a Threat by
Example Of Play: Gaining Advantage attempting a Challenge Roll, in that case the Threat
Narrator (Played by Olivia): “Alright, you’ve made it past becomes the Risk for their roll.
the wall without being noticed, what now?”
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any character can
Yvon (Played by Noah): “Sick, I’m going to make my way respond to any Threat no matter what their features
into the warehouse.” may say they can do, these features are meant to
Narrator: “After opening the door you see a guard, who enhance their relevant actions rather than restrict others.
looks like they’re waking up from a nap on the clock due
to you entering. How’re you gonna deal with the Threat Responding With Stress
of them finding out there’s someone here?” All player characters track their Stress in unstructured
play, it serves as a general measure of their mental and
Yvon: “Oh lord, well I’ll quickly try to duck behind some physical stamina. When a player would be forced to
cover before he realizes I’m here, can I roll for that?.” take a Risk via failing a Roll or would otherwise be
Narrator: “Sure, there’s probably a crate nearby you forced to take a Threat, they can choose to receive 1
could use, and that sounds like a Talent Roll. You got Stress instead.
any bonuses for that?”
If a character ever reaches 3 Stress they're
Yvon: “Yeah, could I add my “Hidden in plain sight” Skill "Knocked Out”, removed from the scene, and are
or my “Become Shadow” Ability?” then set to 2 Stress. When a character receives a
Narrator: “The first doesn't really sound applicable since Stress, they also gain 1 Influence.
there’s nothing to distract them, but the second is fine,
make a Roll with Advantage from that Ability.” Going All Out
While in unstructured play and taking a Challenge Roll
Yvon: “Alright (rolls 4 dice from his Talent and 5 more
players can spend 1 Influence to go “All Out”. When
from his max Rank Ability) 3 Hits, how’d I do?”
they do so they must also reference an element of
their ‘Concept’ or one of their ‘Bonds’, giving some
Narrator: “Oh that’s a fail, you duck away and disappear,
reason why it relates to the current scene.
but end up knocking over a spare paint can as you
move, the sound puts the guard on edge and you see
All Out: For a single Challenge Roll (Before or after it is
them pull out a radio to contact someone.”
rolled), all your rolls of 3 or more are counted as Hits.

44
Outlooks
Each player character is created with one of the following ‘Outlooks’, the one they choose serving as their
‘Primary Outlook’. As a character increases their Tier they can advance that Outlook or branch into new ones. Any
Outlooks gained after character creation are considered ‘Secondary Outlooks’. A character can have up to three
total Outlooks, one of them their Primary and two of them their Secondary.

A character’s Primary Outlook provides them with two ‘Boons’ and three ‘Influential Actions’. Boons are features
that can be used in unstructured play to gain an advantage. Influential Actions are things that the player can do to gain
an Influence. Each Influential Action can be used once per Chapter.

An Outlook also comes with a small piece of fluff text listing the things they can “always do”. It’s important to know that
this can't provide mechanical benefit or restrict those without the Outlook, it is entirely meant to give a stronger
mental image of the Outlook and prompt players with ideas of how it functions.

The ten Outlooks are as follows:

The Rebel The Wolf

You believe in the power of action. All of your problems You try not to get too involved with others, dark and
came from a lack of it, and you won’t let that happen brooding. You have a hard time bonding with those
again. It’s time for you to take your life into your own around them, and prefer to work on your own in all
hands. things, whether it be for efficiency or for the safety of
those around you.
The Loyal
You're a person who’s dedicated yourself to a cause. The Accursed
This oath may have been taken on your own or to align Doomed by the narrative, granted power you never
yourself with a greater organization, in either case its asked for. You’re capable of things seemingly
tenants are your lifeblood. impossible, and most people aren’t happy about it,
often including yourself.
The Quiet
You’re one of the little people in other’s stories. You may The Blessed
be talented, you may be intelligent, but you’re not You’ve lived your life with all the benefits you could
important, at least in the eyes of the average person, possibly want. You were born privileged, be it by fate,
and this is your time to change that. some higher being, or the society they live in, in any
case those benefits tend not to last long.
The Confident
You must make yourself known, you’ve been The Mentor
disrespected too much. The Confident lives for the Wise for your years, sometimes physically older, but it is
limelight and the risks that come with it. in no way a requirement. You live to teach and to
prevent the calamities they experienced or have
The Light knowledge of.
Impossibly optimistic, kind, or protective of those in
need. You’re a light post for those who’ve lost their way, The Apprentice
determined to do what they can to defend and help Bright-eyed greenhorns and kids looking to make a
those in need. name for themselves. You’re starting small, but hold big
ambitions for the future, and no matter what happens
you’ll never lose that.

45
The Rebel The Loyal
You believe in the power of action. All of your problems You've dedicated yourself to a cause. You may have
came from a lack of it, and you won’t let that happen done it on your own or to align yourself with a greater
again. It’s time for you to take your life into your own organization, in either case its tenets are your lifeblood.
hands.
The Loyal may always…
The Rebel may always… - Be respected by the wealthy and powerful.
- Be respected by the common person. - Be given the power of those with authority.
- Destroy the power of those with authority. - Condemn those who oppose tradition.
- Condemn those who follow tradition.

Influential Actions
Influential Actions When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence.
When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence.
Abandon something or someone to follow your Oath.
Chase your Motivation using violence.
Use your Abilities to enforce your Oath.
Show your Aesthetic or History in battle.
Form a Bond with the antithesis of your Oath.
Form a Bond with someone who’s attacked you.
Inherent Boon
Boons The Oath: This must be taken in addition to your two
Until My Last Breath: When at 2 Stress or higher, you starting Boons if you choose “The Loyal” as your
gain 3 advantage on Body and Talent Rolls. Outlook. This Boon can't be taken after Tier one. You
no longer have a Motivation, you instead have an
Simple And Clean: When you only have one Ability, Oath, a single word that you must embody at all times.
that Ability counts as being 2 Ranks higher when used
in a Roll (this can surpass the Rank 5 maximum). Boons
The Family Arts: Choose a Noun for an Ability, your
Supernatural Deafness: You can't gain Abilities or Abilities must use this Noun. Gain 4 Character Ranks
use other supernatural equipment. In exchange, you that can be spent on Abilities.
can't be affected by Abilities or other supernatural
equipment. Durandal: You’ve been entrusted with some sort of
massively important weapon or tool. Note what it is
Overpower: At any point in unstructured play you can and what it excels in as if you were creating a Skill.
spend 1 Influence to attempt to overpower another When your tool is applicable in a Challenge Roll, gain
character, presenting them with a Threat as if you were 2 Advantage (stacking with Skills, Abilities, and Bonds)
the Narrator. Rolls resulting from this Threat have a and you may go “All Out” by gaining 2 Stress instead
Challenge equal to your Tier + 2. If your target is not a of using Influence.
player they roll 3 dice plus your Tier, if the target is an
Antagonist they can spend their Antagonist Points to “My Master’s Teachings”: Once per Adventure, per
gain Advantage at a 1 Point to 3 Advantage ratio. Tier, you may flash back to a scene of you being
taught something only known by those with your Oath.
Overexertion: When you make a roll you may go All Doing so lets you immediately gain a new Skill at a
Out by taking a Stress instead of spending an Rank equal to your Tier that matches your description.
Influence (this does not give you Influence). If this is done in the middle of a Roll you may stack
this Skill’s bonus Advantage with one other Skill.

A New Perspective: Once per Adventure when you

spend Influence, you may declare that you’re changing
your Oath, changing it to any other word. Doing so
gives you 3 Influence.

46
The Quiet The Confident
You’re one of the little people in other’s stories. You may You must make yourself known, you’ve been
be talented, you may be intelligent, but you’re not disrespected too much. The Confident lives for the
important, at least in the eyes of the average person, limelight and the risks that come with it.
and this is your time to change that.
The Confident may always…
The Quiet may always… - Use their strength to terrify or impress.
- Appear somewhere they’re not supposed to be. - Draw attention from those they might not expect.
- Be ignored by passers by. - Assume everyone knows who they are.
- Assume no one knows who they really are.

Influential Actions
Influential Actions When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence.
When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence.
Use your Aesthetic to show off or instill fear.
Engage in your Motivation or History with subtlety.
Hide your character’s History through confidence.
Reveal your Aesthetic in a moment of truth.
Form a Bond with someone who hates you.
Form a Bond with someone who got to know you.
Boons
Boons Pride: When you take a Roll without help despite help
The Talent: When you create a relevant Skill in the being available, you gain 2 Advantage.
middle of a Challenge Roll, you gain 3 Advantage.
“Just try to stop me!”: Once per Chapter when you
The Sneaky Superposition: At any time where your take a Contested Roll with someone else, you may
exact position is unclear you may gain 1 Stress to give them a handicap. This gives them 2 Advantage
appear somewhere else within reason. and gives you 1 Influence.

Reversal Of Fortune: When you successfully respond Chatty: When you perform a contested Roll, you can
to a Threat coming from another character with a Roll begin talking, be it monologuing, quipping, taunting or
and get at least 1 Crit, you may reverse the situation. ranting, gaining 2 advantage plus any Bond ranks you
When you do so you levy the Threat you were have with your opponent. If you fail this roll your
responding to against them, the narrator must either character receives 1 Stress.
have them receive its effects or give you 2 Influence.
“I’ll handle this.”: When you attempt to do something
Gearhead: You can now create Gadgets by spending that someone else in the Scene has failed at, you gain
Character Ranks. They are treated as Abilities for their 3 Advantage.
creation, costing, Ranking, and usage in Rolls. Unlike
Abilities, Gadgets are physical and can be given to, Perspective Of A Lancer: Wherever you have a Bond
and used by other characters in Rolls, others gain one at Rank 2 or higher you may choose to treat them as
less Advantage than what you would gain. Your your ‘Rival’. Once per Chapter when your Rival takes
Gadgets can be permanently destroyed through the Stress or is removed from a Scene, you gain an
Risks you receive, but also refunding you any Influence.
Character Ranks you spent on them. Gain 3 Character
Ranks to spend on Gadgets.

Knacks And Hobbies: You gain 3 Advantage on all

rolls that don't oppose or relate to another character.

47
The Light The Wolf
Impossibly optimistic, kind, or protective of those in You try not to get too involved with others, dark and
need. You’re a light post for those who’ve lost their way, brooding. You have a hard time bonding with those
determined to do what they can to defend and help around them, and prefer to work on your own in all
those in need. things, whether it be for efficiency or for the safety of
those around you.
The Light may always…
- Resolve conflict without killing. The Wolf may always…
- Appear innocent or harmless to strangers. - Know the location of those closest to them.
- Question the systems that cause conflict. - Appear dangerous or violent to strangers.
- Fall victim to the systems that cause conflict.

Influential Actions
When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence. Influential Actions
When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence.
Use your History to relate to or help someone.
Hide your History from someone too close.
Offer your Motivation to someone else.
Show regret or distaste for your Motivation.
Form a Bond with someone hurting.
Break a Bond with a friend.
Boons
Saint: You have 2 Advantage on Rolls against Inherent Boon
characters who have no negative feelings towards Lone Wolf: This must be taken in addition to your two
you. starting Boons if you choose “The Wolf” as your
Outlook. This Boon can't be taken after Tier one. You
Friendly And Approachable: You may form a Rank 1 can only have 3 Bonded characters at a time, you
Bond with any character at any time, so long as you always know where someone you’re Bonded with is.
know their name. Breaking Bonds with characters you
Bonded with using this Boon does not give you Boons
Influence, and bars you from Bonding with them again.
The One Thing You Can Rely On: You may form
Bonds with weapons as if they were characters,
Performance Artist: Choose one of your Skills, it
breaking a Bond with a weapon makes you lose it
gains an additional Rank. When first get a Full Success
permanently. Weapons created by your Abilities are all
with your chosen Skill in a Scene, anyone Bonded with
counted as the same weapon for this Boon.
you can remove 1 Stress.
Dark Urge: When you attempt to use an Ability in a
True Hero: The first time in each Chapter you
Challenge Roll you may choose to gain 4 Advantage,
successfully help someone when it does not directly
but if you roll an odd number of Hits your Narrator can
benefit you, you gain 1 Influence.
force you to use any of your Skills or Abilities on a
character you weren’t targeting, you can resist this
Books And Their Covers: When you offer to befriend
effect by taking 2 Stress. Gain 4 Character Ranks that
someone who’s tried to kill you before, you may spend
can be spent on Abilities.
1 Influence to force the Narrator to either have them
accept the offer or give you 3 Influence. If this is
Outgunned: When you’re working against more
attempted on the same character more than once the
enemies than you have allies, you gain 2 Advantage on
Narrator can deny it without giving you Influence.
all Rolls.

Loyal: When you only have 1 Bond, the Rank of that

Bond is treated as being 2 Ranks higher when used in
a Roll (this can surpass the Rank 5 maximum).

48
The Accursed The Blessed
Doomed by the narrative, granted power you never You’ve lived your life with all the benefits you could
asked for. You’re capable of things seemingly possibly want. You were born privileged, be it by fate,
impossible, and most people aren’t happy about it, some higher being, or the society they live in, in any
often including yourself. case those benefits tend not to last long.
The Accursed may always… The Blessed may always…
- Use their abilities without preparation. - Get something new and expensive between sessions.
- Hide their true appearance from others. - Substitute skill or subtlety with wealth.
- Reject their name and history. - Use their name and history to their advantage.

Influential Actions Influential Actions

When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence. When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence.

Distinguish yourself from your History. Compare the world around you to your History.

Have your Abilities cause you permanent damage. Deny the easy road to pursue your Motivation.

Form a Bond with a “normal” person. Form a Bond with someone who mirrors your History.

Boons Boons
Volatile Blood: When you go All Out while using an A Web Of Connections: When you use Influence, you
Ability, you may change one word on the Ability you’re can identify an unnamed NPC in the Scene. You gain 2
using to another word with a lower, equal, or a 1 cost Advantage on Rolls where that NPC is relevant.
higher word for the duration of the scene.
Trust Fund: You have 10 ‘Funding Tokens’, when you
Uncontrollable Power: Your abilities are now make a Roll you may spend any number of Funding
formatted as “You [Verb] [Noun] When You Tokens to explain how you use your wealth to help you
[Condition]”. Meaning their effects are always applied and gain equal Advantage. Gain 5 more Funding
when the condition is fulfilled. Gain 4 Character Ranks Tokens when you Tier up.
that can be spent on Abilities.
Convenient Transport: You always have access to
Sacrifice: You may use this Boon after any Roll to some sort of all-terrain vehicle or mount that can carry
make it a full success by sacrificing one of the up to 8 people.
following (It can't be restored, only replaced).
‣ Your eye. Prestigious Training: When you go All Out, you may
‣ Your arm. flash back to a Scene where you learned a skill
‣ Your leg. relevant to your roll, doing so grants you 3 Advantage.
‣ Your tongue.
‣ Your life. “Do You Know Who I Am?”: When you dramatically
introduce yourself around unnamed characters, you
Turning Over A New Leaf: When a problem occurs may use this Boon to prompt them to: gasp, become
that could be easily solved using one of your Abilities interested in you, or make fun of you (Narrator’s
you may lose 2 Stress and choose not to use your choice). When you get a reaction you haven’t before
Ability instead. gain an Influence.

Tainted Body: One or more of your limbs or eyes are

wrapped in bandages or otherwise concealed from
other people. Once per Adventure when you spend
Influence you may reveal this body part to gain 3 +
your Tier Character Ranks to spend on gaining and/or
Ranking up a new Ability.

49
The Mentor The Apprentice
Wise for your years, sometimes physically older, but it is Bright-eyed greenhorns and kids looking to make a
in no way a requirement. You live to teach and to name for themselves. You’re starting small, but hold big
prevent the calamities they experienced or have ambitions for the future, and no matter what happens
knowledge of. you’ll never lose that.
The Mentor may always… The Apprentice may always…
- Do something “impossible” effortlessly. - Get back up faster than others expect.
- Answer a question with another question. - Impress someone who thought little of them.
- See their mistakes repeated by your juniors. - Present revolutionary ideas.

Influential Actions Influential Actions

When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence. When you do one of the following, gain 1 Influence.

Reveal your History to teach or help someone. Try something new and fail.

Return to how you were in your History. Become curious about something related to your
History or Aesthetic.
Form a Bond with a character who’s learning from you.
Form a Bond with someone more important than you.
Boons
Old, Calloused Hand: Write two “Calluses”, a negative Boons
event that you’ve dealt with before, leaving you "Never Give Up!”: When you fail a Challenge Roll and
stronger. When you’re presented with a Threat related use a Stress, you may immediately retry the Roll with 1
to your Callus, you may lose 1 Stress. Advantage for every point of Stress you have.

Past Your Prime: You may only choose this when Amazing Potential: You may only choose this when
creating your character. You start with 12 Character creating your character. You start with 6 Character
Ranks for Skills and Abilities rather than 8, and must Ranks for Skills and Abilities rather than 8, but you
spend at least 8 on Skills. Gain one less Character only need to spend 2 on Skills. Gain one extra
Rank every Tier. Character Ranks every Tier.

An Organized Style: When you use one of your Land Among The Stars: When an opponent rolls
Abilities in a way you’ve never used it before, you can more dice than you in a Contested Roll, you gain 1
give that specific usage a name to gain 3 Advantage. Influence.

A Power That Must Never Be Used Again: Choose Plenty To Learn: When you go All Out, you may flash
one of your Abilities, it can now instantly kill any NPC back to a Scene where you were taught something
standing in front of you regardless of context. If you relevant to your current Roll. Doing so grants you 4
ever use the effect of this Boon you lose three Bond Advantage.
Ranks with a character of your choice. If you lose all of
your Bonds you lose control of your character A Step Behind, But Still Running: You may Awaken
permanently. twice in each game. You can't Awaken while in
Burnout.
Perspective Of A Teacher: Wherever you have a
Bond at Rank 2 or higher, you may choose to treat
them as your “Student”. When you use an Influence
with your Student present they gain an Influence. You
can't do this with another character with this Boon.

50
Structured Combat

The tactical layer of DAWN, build up powerful and fun characters to combat the threats of your world.

51
Structured Combat
The tactical element, the most game-like part of DAWN, meant to be used when two evenly, or almost evenly,
matched groups face each other in battle. And though combat’s risks can create some tension, it’s mostly done for
fun and to reinforce the player character’s aesthetics in ways that can only be shown in combat.

In structured combat players are asked to optimize builds, handle threats, and control whatever variables they can to
defeat their enemies as efficiently as possible, the way they use their Actions and choose their Techniques
determines whether they live or die as well as implicitly enforcing their character’s themes and aesthetic.

52
Turn Order Damage And Health
Structured combat is made up of ‘Actions’, ‘Reactions’, All interactions in structured combat will be motivated
'Turns’, and ‘Rounds’. A Round consists of the Turns by damage, whether it’s to avoid it or deal it. Damage is
of all involved players and at least one Enemy Turn how this game tracks progress in its fights.
for each, these Turns contain a player’s Actions.
Health
Actions And Action Points Characters all have a maximum Health that determines
When a Round starts all player characters receive 3 their durability in combat, resetting at the end of each
‘Action Points’ (AP), losing any they had remaining Scene. As characters are Attacked and take damage
from the last Round. These Action Points can be spent they lose their Health. Health can go as low as 0.
on any of the Basic Actions detailed on page X. Each
Action has a listed AP Cost (sometimes shortened to A character's maximum Health is equal to:
Cost) that must be spent to take said Action. Body + Body + 5 per Tier (including Tier 1)
(A negative Body Attribute is treated as 0.)
Reactions can be used outside of a turn when
certain conditions are met, and also cost AP (this is Guts
why AP is gained at the beginning of a Round and not Your character’s Guts is a statistic equal to 4 plus half
at the start of a Turn). So long as you have the resources your Body that increases the number of ‘Wounds’ you
needed to use Reactions you can take as many as you can take before being ‘Knocked Out’.
want in a Round.
Wounds And Knockouts
Action Limit and Swift Actions A Wound symbolizes a long-lasting injury that weakens
A character can't use the same Basic Action more those who have it.
than once each Turn unless that Action was ‘Swift’,
an attribute often granted by the effects of Techniques. You receive a Wound for every 3 damage you take
when at 0 Health, or when otherwise specified.
Taking Turns
Players and NPCs both treat the Turn order differently. A character is Knocked Out and removed from
Each method will be described below. combat when they reach Wounds equal to their
Guts. A character with 0 Guts (this includes all Enemies)
When combat starts all players must decide amongst is Knocked Out as soon as their Health drops to zero.
themselves who should take the first Turn.
Characters lose their Wounds when they take an
After this is determined that player takes their first Turn, Intermission.
taking Actions until they can’t or don’t want to anymore.
Earning Influence Through Wounds
When a player ends their Turn an enemy of the
When you receive a Wound—from a source other than
Narrator’s choice that has not yet taken their Turn
yourself—you also receive an Influence.
takes theirs, if all enemies have taken their Turn an
enemy who has already acted can take a Turn instead.
Spending Influence In Structured Combat
In combat you can spend 1 Influence to ‘go All Out’ an
After this enemy Turn ends the last player who acted
Influence Move that’s also available in unstructured play.
can choose a player who has not yet taken their
Turn, that player then takes theirs, this repeats until all
All Out: For a single Challenge Roll (Before or after it is
players have taken their Turns.
rolled), all your rolls of 3 or more are counted as Hits.

53
Armor And Evasion Speed
Though most characters don’t have access to it by All characters have a Speed statistic that determines
default, some have one of the following defensive stats. how far they can move with an Action. Player characters
Each one passively reduces incoming damage. have Speed equal to 2 plus a half of their Talent.

Armor Spaces, Movement, and Range

If a character has an Armor value, damage they take
from Attacks is reduced by its value (minimum of 1).
Setting Up
Combat should almost always take place on a 7 x 7
Evasion space board, no smaller and no larger. With players
If a character has a Evasion value, all Attacks that target ‘Deploying’ on the edge (outermost spaces) opposite to
them and use Roll can’t Succeed unless the attacker the enemies.
rolls more Hits than the defender’s Evasion.

Movement
Tension When moving characters must measure space
Tension is a resource that starts at 0 at the start of cardinally (like a chess board), can’t move through
every combat, as it increases players and enemies opponents or ‘Terrain’, and can’t end movement in a
become more powerful and gain new options. It is Space another character occupies.
shared between all characters, players and enemies.
Adjacency
Tension increases when one of the following happens. The spaces cardinally closest to a character are
considered “adjacent”. A character entering these
A Round ends. spaces enters “adjacency”. You cannot be adjacent to
yourself, even if you take up multiple spaces.
An enemy is Knocked Out.

A player character is Knocked Out.

Teleporting
When a character Teleports they move from one
space to another without passing through the
Focus spaces between. This still qualifies as movement.
Focus is a resource used for powerful Attacks and some
more specific features. When combat starts player
Moving In Straight Lines
characters have their Focus set to 1 plus half their
As will be described in the following page, straight
Spirit, and they can regain more by using specific
lines can be drawn cardinally or diagonally, counting
Actions, with no upper maximum.
diagonal spaces as being one space apart. When a
character has to move in a straight line they also follow
Alternative Foci: these same rules.
Though all characters use Focus by default, some—via
the effects of their Techniques—will exchange it for an
Drawing Range
alternate resource under a different name.
Just like movement, actions that target at specific
ranges draw that range using connected cardinal
These resources will come with their own unique effects
spaces, meaning an Action with 5 range can target
and conditions, but unless otherwise specified they
any space you could move to with 5 Speed (Ignoring
can all be spent and gained as if they were Focus,
any restrictions that may apply to your movement).
but not other Focus alternatives.

Targeting Allies
A character can only have one of these resources at
Some Actions will tell you that you must target an “ally”.
a time, and if they would have access to multiple they
These are the characters—player or NPC—that you’re
must choose one to use.
working with, but notably not yourself.

54
Special Targeting Terrain
There are some effects that will have you target Terrain is an object on the battlefield that blocks
something other than a single target in a range, most movement or attacks, but not a line of sight. Terrain
calling for specific shapes and patterns, those shapes can be destroyed, and has a set Health based on its
will be illustrated in the following section for clarity. With size. A piece of Terrain’s Health is equal to 10 times the
this targeting, and any other form of multi-character number of spaces it takes up, unless stated otherwise.
targeting, attacks are rolled once, with that one roll
being shared for all targeted characters. Cover
When a piece of Terrain is between an attacker and their
Zones target and the target is adjacent to it, the target gains a
A Zone is a shape listed as “YxZ” (ie. 2x2, 3x3) with Y +3 bonus to their Evasion.
and Z representing how many spaces it can be wide or
tall (they may be swapped freely). When creating a Difficult Terrain
Zone in a targeted space the user can place any part Some spaces are considered Difficult Terrain. When a
of said Zone within that space. The following character enters a space of Difficult Terrain their Speed
examples are valid ways to place an adjacent 2x2 Zone. is reduced to 0 until the end of the turn. This also
ends any movement they are currently taking.
Characters who started their turn in Difficult Terrain
become immune to all connected pieces until the end of
their turn. Climbing a sheer surface counts as
entering Difficult Terrain.

Alternate Mode: Cinematic Combat

There exists a second mode of structured combat, and
it’s recommended for fights between smaller groups,
or if you would rather not need to spend so long in
combat scenes. This mode is called ‘Cinematic
Combat’.

Lines In Cinematic Combat, all characters are placed along

A Line expands from any of the cardinal or diagonal a 7 space long line, with allies Deploying on the 2
directions from its user, unlike normal range, Lines leftmost spaces, and enemies Deploying on the
count diagonals as being one space apart. The opposite 2 spaces.
following is an example of all possible 3 space long lines
you could make in the center space of the board. Unlike in standard structured combat, any number of
characters can fit in one of these spaces, and
characters can move through their opponents, but
moving into an enemy’s space counts as Difficult
Terrain (Unless the movement would normally be able
to pass through enemies).

Standard targeting and Line targeting can only target

one character in the spaces it targets, however actions
that target multiple spaces other than Line targeting
must target all characters in the spaces it targets.

55
Effect Listing
Effects represent all sorts of ongoing benefits and status. Characters lose their Effects when they end their turn,
unless it’s stated otherwise. Effects can't be removed in this way on the Turn they’re applied.

Positive Effects:

Banish: You can't target any non-Banished characters, other characters can't target you, and you can take up the same
space as another object. Lose this Effect at the beginning of your turn. (When a character applies Banished all other
characters that have been Banished by them lose it.)

Hasten: Your Speed is doubled. When you move in a way that doesn't rely on speed you may move twice as far.

Invisible: You may choose to remain Hidden when you would otherwise lose it, or become Hidden as an Action with no
cost. Doing so removes this effect.

Regenerate: Regain Health equal to your Tier when you end your Turn. This is not removed at the end of your Turn.

Reinforce: You gain Armor equal to your Tier.

Strengthen: Your Attacks gain Advantage equal to your Tier.

Negative Effects:

Blight: Lose Health equal to your Tier when you use an Attack. This is not removed at the end of your Turn.

Daze: You start your Turn with 1 less AP. (Enemies are instead prevented from taking more than one action each Turn.)

Fear: Your Attacks that target the character who applied Fear to you have Disadvantage equal to your Tier.

Immobilize: You can’t willingly move. You can't benefit from Evasion.

Launch: You can't take your turn before any of your non-Launched allies. If you are Attacked the attacker may choose to
‘Spike’ you, giving them Advantage equal to their Tier and removing this Effect from you.

Mark: Attacks that target this character gain Advantage equal to their Tier.

Shred: You can't benefit from Armor.

Snare: When a character applies this you’re pulled adjacent to them. While your Snare-er is on the board, you can’t
willingly move, when they move you are pulled adjacent via the path of least resistance. You can't benefit from Evasion.

Taunt: Your Attacks that don't target the character who applied Taunt to you have Disadvantage equal to your Tier.

Weaken: Your Attacks gain Disadvantage equal to your Tier.

56
Basic Actions Movement
The following are a set of basic Actions and Reactions
to be used in structured combat. Actions can only be Jump
used on your turn, but Reactions can be triggered
when specified. AP Cost: 1

Move a number of spaces in a straight line equal to

Combos
your Talent. This movement ignores enemy spaces
As a character gains Techniques and progresses they
and Difficult Terrain.
may gain ’Combos’. A Combo is a string of two or
more Actions formatted as “[ X → Y ]” that results in
some bonus effect when performed with no other
Stride
Actions in-between. If a Technique level starts with a
Combo its effects only happen if that Combo is used. AP Cost: 1

Move a number of spaces across the ground equal

By default, a Combo can only be performed once per
to your Speed. This movement can be saved and
Scene and is only interrupted when the user breaks it
used after taking other Actions.
by taking another Action or ending their Turn.

57
Attacks
Unlike other Actions, when targeted by an Attack, a
character can respond with a Defensive Reaction.

Cast

AP Cost: 1

Choose an enemy in 5 spaces of you, make a Spirit

Roll with a Challenge of 1.

Reward: You deal damage to your target equal to

the number of Hits you rolled.

Finisher

AP Cost: 2

Choose an enemy adjacent to you, spend Focus up

to the current Tension and make a Roll using any
Attribute with a Challenge of 1. This Roll gains
Advantage equal to the Focus Spent.

Reward: You deal damage to your target equal to

double the Hits you rolled.

Skirmish

AP Cost: 1

Choose up to 2 enemies adjacent to you, make a

Body or Talent Roll with a Challenge of 1. You may
also perform this action as a Reaction to a character
attempting to leave adjacency with you. This
method of Skirmishing is called a Punish.

Reward: You deal damage to your target equal to

the number of Hits you rolled.

58
Defense
When a player is targeted by an Attack they can
respond using one of the following defensive
reactions (this must be done before the attacker rolls).

Two of the three are completely free, and have the

possibility of reducing damage at the risk of taking more
damage.. Attacks can't be responded to by more than
one defensive reaction at a time.

Block (Reaction)

AP Cost: 0

When you’re targeted by an Attack, Gain Armor

equal to your Body for the duration of the Attack
and get pushed one space away from the attacker.
If you take more than 1 damage your guard is
broken and you become Shredded.

Clash (Reaction)

AP Cost: 0*

*To use this Reaction you must spend 2 Focus.

When you’re targeted by an Attack, where the
attacker is in range of your Skirmish or Cast, start
an Opposed Roll using the amount of dice you
would roll while using either your Skirmish or Cast,
the opponent rolls what they roll with their Attack.
The winner resolves their chosen attack against the
loser as if the Opposed Roll was their Attack Roll.

Dodge (Reaction)

AP Cost: 0

As a Reaction to being targeted by an Attack, you

may move up to 2 spaces and make a Talent or
Mind Roll with a Challenge of 1. If you can't move at
least 1 space you can't take this reaction.

Reward: Gain Evasion equal to double the Hits for

the duration of the Attack, if the attack still hits you
it deals additional damage equal to your Tier.

59
Utility
Actions that don't directly affect the damage being dealt Investigate
or taken. This category of Actions is rarely directly
referenced, with most features referencing specific AP Cost: 1
Actions in the category.
Choose an enemy in a range equal to your Mind,
You Mark them and you may ask the Narrator for
Breathe any of their statistics, and they must tell you.

AP Cost: 1

Gain one Focus.

Charge

AP Cost: 2

Make a Spirit Roll with a Challenge of 0.

Reward: Gain Focus equal to the number of Hits

you roll (minimum 2).

Hide

AP Cost: 1

Make a Mind Roll with a Challenge of 2.

Reward: You are ‘Hidden’. While Hidden, characters

can't target you with Attacks unless they are
adjacent, and enemies will not target you unless you
are the only character in their movement and attack
range. If you Attack a character, you must Hide
again as a Reaction or lose Hidden.

Interact

AP Cost: 1

Take a Mind Roll with a Challenge of 2.

Reward: Use your unstructured play features or the

environment to do something. This exists to let you
affect combat in a way you could not with others
actions, so long as the Narrator approves, here are
some basic applications of it.
- Create a piece of Terrain adjacent to you.
- Inflict an Effect on a character adjacent to you.
- Remove an Effect from an adjacent character.

60
Dueling

The ultimate representation of personal drive and motivation in structured combat. A moment where a player can break
free from the confines of combat’s structure to put the motivations of their character at the forefront.
A single moment where it’s just you against them.

This element of structured combat is its most esoteric, because this rule exists; structured combat can fluidly meld into
unstructured play. If you’re a player try to make use of this to emphasize the most emotional moments of your combats.

What Is A Duel Failing A Duel

During your Turn, so long as they haven’t Attacked on When you fail a Duel you lose the ability to Duel until
their Turn, a player can initiate a “Duel” as an Action your next Intermission and return to combat in a space
by spending 4 Influence rather than AP. This of your choice on the board’s edge, refunding any
Influence cost is reduced by the current Tension, to Influence you spent on the Duel. The enemy you
a minimum of 1. targeted does the same afterwards.

This removes said player and an adjacent opponent Succeeding In A Duel

from the Scene, moving both to unstructured play. When you succeed in a Duel you’ll return to structured
They remain in this state until the start of your next Turn combat with your target in any two spaces of your
(unless there are no other enemies in the Scene, in this choice at the end of the next Round. When this happens
case execute the Duel immediately). you’ll also be able to choose one of the following
rewards.
Executing A Duel
When their next Turn starts they execute the Duel, Finishing Blows: Deal 3 damage to your target X
initiating a Contested Challenge Roll between the player times where X is your Hits from the Duel’s Roll.
and enemy removed/ The player can use any Attribute
they want. Said opponent rolling 5 dice plus their Tier, Heartfelt Speech: Choose an enemy, the Narrator
if the opponent is an Antagonist they may spend any may remove that enemy from the combat, if they
number of Antagonist Points to gain an equal amount of don’t, you regain your spent Influence and gain Focus
Advantage. equal to the number of Hits you rolled.

This will always be more dice than you will be rolling Restrain: Immobilize, Daze, and Weaken your target.
before bonuses, so in order to beat this you’ll want to
use a variety of methods to gain the advantage. Like
any unstructured Roll you can use an Ability, Skill,
and Bond to gain Advantage when applicable.

And on top of all that there are a few ways you can gain
Advantage that are specific to Duels.

All For One: If you Break a Bond during a Duel you

gain Advantage on its Roll equal to the Bond’s Rank.
You can only use this effect once per Duel

One For All: When you take a Duel any of your allied
players can spend any amount of Influence to grant
you 2 Advantage for each. This gives one Experience
to each player who participates.

61
Example Of Play: Duels
- Round 3 of combat, the Tension is at 6.

Narrator (Played by Olivia): “And with that it’s come to

your turn Noah, what’re going to do?”

Yvon (Played by Noah): “You know what, I’m kind of

getting sick of this monster, I’m going to use a Stride to
get over to it, then I’m going to start a Duel.”

Narrator: “Oh alright, do you want to describe that?”

Yvon: “Yeah! I’m going to dart in between the mooks in

front of it, slicing them as I do, since I’ve got Speed
Demon. When I get over I give them a strong knee to the
chest, knocking us both a good distance away from the
rest of the fight.”

Narrator: “Wonderful, spend that 1 Influence it’s costing

you, and I’ll remove you both from the board.”

- Round 4 of combat, first Turn.

Mayflower (Played by Leo) : “I say we give Noah the first

Turn, I want to see what he’ll do in that Duel.”

- The rest of the table agrees.

Narrator: “Alright Noah, you have the floor. Tell me what

you’re doing in this Duel and tell me what bonuses you
want to use at the end of it.”

Yvon: “Ok, I’m going to keep the momentum going from

the knee I talked about earlier, as they keep flying I’m
going to try to catch up on foot and slash em’ up, using
my “Become Shadow” ability to do it faster. I’m going to
be rolling Talent, using my “Knife FIghting” Skill and my
“Become Shadow” Ability for a total of 12 dice.”

Narrator: “Alright, this is just an unnamed enemy so

they’ll be rolling 7 dice, I have a feeling you’ll win this
but let's see how well.”
- Both roll their dice.

Yvon: “Let's go! I got 10 hits to their 6, and I’m going to

use the “Finishing Blows” option as my reward.”

Narrator: “That’ll do it, 3 damage 10 times, so 30 total.

The enemy’s been Knocked Out and you can return to
the combat in a space of your choice.”

62
Techniques Archetypes
In structured combat, player characters are defined by Each player character is created with one of the
their use of ‘Techniques’. Techniques are the main following ‘Archetypes’ to serve as their ‘Primary
combat features for player characters, with each Archetype’. When a character is created or Tiers up
contributing to that character’s overall build. They they can gain Techniques from their Primary Archetype
are mostly passive and serve to add new effects to the or up to two other Archetypes, when you take a
statistics and Actions given to all players by default. Technique from another Archetype it becomes one
of your ‘Secondary Archetypes’.
The following block is an example of a Technique:
A character can have up to 3 total Archetypes, one of
them their Primary and two of them their Secondary.
Berserker | (1) ★ | (1) Revenge, Wounds, Tanking
The six Archetypes are as follows:
(2) They stood their ground. A breathing, bleeding wall
between the people they had sworn to protect, and the
coming darkness. The Powerhouse
Techniques effective in sustained fights. Often requires a
(3) 1: Revenge: When you take a Wound, you may
high Body Attribute for Attacks, or Talent if you want to
spend 1 Focus to immediately take an Action with a
cost of 1 at no cost and with Swift. be a little more frail and fast.
(3) 2: Take A Beating: Double your Guts, you now
receive a Wound when you take 2 damage at 0 Health The Slayer
rather than when you take 3 damage. Techniques effective at defeating single targets. Often
(3) 3: Cornered Dog: When you receive an effect, you requires a high Talent to get into and escape
may choose to ignore it and take a Wound instead. skirmishes.

1: Complexity Stars And Tags The Bulwark

Each Technique has 1-3 complexity stars and some Techniques effective at tanking for a team. Can build for
tags. Complexity stars represent the number of choices almost any Attribute, as all provide an option to survive
that must be made to acquire or use the Technique. longer, but Body is the most common.
tags show the most broad effects and synergies the
Technique has. These things have no effect on what The Altruist
the Technique does and are meant to summarize its Techniques that mainly benefit your allies. As many of
complexity and effects respectively. these Techniques don’t need to deal damage, Mind is
often your best Attribute.
2: Flavor Text
A short piece of fiction that is in some way related to the The Disruptor
Technique in question. These blocks of text have no Techniques that restrict, metaphorically or literally. As
effect on the mechanics of the game and exist only many of these Techniques trigger their controlling
for fun. effects when Casting, they value a high Spirit Attribute.

3: Technique Levels The Ruiner

Each Technique has three Levels, and when gaining Techniques with high impact and cost. Almost all of
a Technique you only gain one Level at time, starting these Techniques give you high damage setups for
from 1 and going up to 3. Player characters are given 5 Spirit Finishers, Spirit is a must.
total Technique Levels when they’re created.

63
Techniques

A glossary that lists each Technique, separated from the rest of the book for easy access.

64
Powerhouse

Fiery and violent, dive into battle like a meteor. Techniques effective in sustained Fights.
Often requires a high Body Attribute for Attacks, or Talent if you want to be a little more frail and fast.

65
Berserker | ★ | Revenge, Wounds, Tanking Dragonslayer | ★ ★ | Weapon, Body, Anti-Armor

They stood their ground. A breathing, bleeding wall “That thing was too large to be called a sword. Too big,
between the people they had sworn to protect, and the too thick, too heavy, and too rough, it was naught but a
coming darkness. heaping hunk of iron.”
1: Revenge: When you take a Wound, you may spend 1 1: Speed Is Weight: Your successful Body Finishers
Focus to immediately take an Action with a cost of 1 at Shred your target after dealing damage.
no cost and with Swift. 2: Wide Arc: When you spend 3 or more Focus on a
2: Take A Beating: Double your Guts. You now receive Body Finisher, you can have it target a 2x2 Zone placed
a Wound when you take 2 damage at 0 Health rather on yourself, without targeting you.
than when you take 3 damage. 3: Titanic Heave [ Breath → Body Finisher ]: The
3: Cornered Dog: When you receive an Effect, you may Finisher counts all dice as Hits, pushes enemies it hits 2
choose to ignore it and take a Wound instead. spaces back, and Weakens you after it resolves.

Breacher | ★ ★ | Weapon, Body, Displacement Dual Wielder | ★ ★ | Weapon, On-Skirmish Triggers

“A hundred pellets at 1600 feet per second hurts about “My lord used to beat me for my left handedness.
as much as you would expect.” When I killed him I used both hands. Out of respect.”
1: Buck Shot: Your Skirmishes can target a character in 1: Twinned Blow: When you Skirmish and only target
4 spaces rather than targeting two characters. Your one character, you may “Flurry”, repeating the Attack
Skirmishes Against targets in 2 spaces push your target with Swift at no cost. This reduces the dice rolled for
1 space away on a success. both to half (before applying Advantage / Disadvantage).
2: Both Barrels: When you Skirmish, so long as you're 2: Frenzied Barrage: When you spend 2 or more Focus
not Weakened, you can choose to fire ‘Both Barrels’. on a Finisher, you may substitute it with three Swift
Doing this gives the Attack Advantage equal to your Skirmishes used one after another.
Body, but also Weakens you after it resolves. 3: Varied Blades: Your Skirmishes have an additional
3: Annihilate: Your Body Finisher can now target two effects that alternate every time you use Skirmish,
characters up to 3 spaces away and can use the effect resetting at the start of your Turn (first Skirmish uses
of “Both Barrels”. When you use “Both Barrels” with a effect A, second uses effect B, third uses effect A
Skirmish or Body Finisher, you may target a 2x2 space again). Choose two of the options below as effects:
Zone adjacent to you instead of your normal targeting. - Astral: Gain Focus equal to half your Tier.
- Blazing: Deal half your Tier damage to your target.
- Umbral: Teleport in a range equal to your Tier.
- Vorpal: Restore Health equal to half your Tier.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dumbass | ★ ★ | Wounds
- Phasing: This attack ignores its target’s Armor.
- Whirling: Move your target spaces equal to your Tier.
“The stars are in alignment! My moons are in retrograde!
My victory has been decided by the fates themselves!
What do you mean moons can’t be in retrograde?” Deft Duelist | ★ | Skirmishes, Tanking, Effects
1: Just Lucky: When you roll a 1 in any Challenge roll,
you may spend 2 focus or receive a Wound and treat it “What’s wrong, can't you hit me? You were so adamant
as a 6 instead, converting it to a Critical Hit. you would only need one strike. So go on. Strike me.”
2: Adrenaline Rush: When you gain a Wound, you may
1: Riposte [ Block → Skirmish ]: The Skirmish lets you
move up to your speed in any direction.
move 3 spaces before targeting and Taunts your target
3: Ace in the Hole: You may use the effect of “Just
on a Success.
Lucky” on any roll that comes from a Finisher,
2: Parry: Using Block against an adjacent character
regardless of value.
Dazes your attacker.
3: Deflecting Blow: When you use Block on an Attack
from a range of 2 or more, you may spend 1 Focus to
Skirmish a character within 5 spaces of the attacker.

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Equilibrium | ★ ★ | Effects, Tanking, Versatile Improvisational FIghter | ★ ★ ★ | Interact, Terrain

Born under the twin stars, Qayid Āl-Rashid existed in a “I’ll take all you bastards on! I’ll flatten your whole
state of extremes; his life oscillating between terrible damned Pavilion! You’ll rue the day you slighted me!
misfortune and unforgettable luck. It was only after he And the record of it will be written with your scars!
came of age that he learned to balance these chaotic
Well… I would say if I still had my longsword. Until then,
forces, and channel them in battle.
a concussion and some splinters will do.”
1: Mind Made Manifest: While you have Strengthened,
1: Everything’s A Tool: You can always use Interact to
gain 2 Armor. While you have Haste, gain 3 Evasion.
create a piece of 10 Health Terrain in 5 spaces of you
2: Of Two Worlds: When you use an Attack Action or
—identifying some mundane object to do so—or
Clash, gain 1 ‘Wrath’. When you use Breathe, Charge, or
remove adjacent Terrain you’ve created to make a Swift
a Defense Technique (excluding Clash), gain 1 ‘Peace’. If
Skirmish or Cast action using any Attribute for its Roll.
you end your turn with an equal amount of Wrath and
2: Oh! That One Hurt!: You may Interact at no cost
Peace (minimum 1 each) you may spend 1 of each to
once per Round, so long as it doesn’t result in an
gain both Strengthened and Haste.
Attack, your free Interacts are Swift. Attacks coming
3: Sublime Equanimity: You may trigger the end of turn
from Interact have 3 Advantage.
effect from “Of Two Worlds” even if there is a difference
3: Last Resort: Once per scene you may attack using
of 1 in your Wrath and Peace.
“Everything’s A Tool”, even if there isn’t a piece of terrain
to remove. This use gains additional Advantage equal to
the current Tension.
Flagellant | ★ | Revenge, Self-Effects, Attacks

“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” Lancer | ★ | Weapon, Body, Range
1: Thrill: When you receive a Negative Effect, you may
also Strengthen yourself. “Mankind is a friend to the spear. We grew in wisdom
2: Blood Rush: The first time you Skirmish each Turn, and technique alongside our oldest defender. Know this,
before targeting, you may Blight yourself to move up to vile foe: this thrust carries the weight of all human
2 spaces in a Line. If your target is Adjacent You gain 2 history behind it!”
Advantage for each space moved. When you Blight
1: Pierce: Your Skirmish and Body Finisher can target
yourself while already Blighted using “Blood Rush” you
one enemy up to 2 spaces away instead of targeting
Mark yourself and may move one additional space.
two adjacent characters. Your can Skirmishes gain up to
3: Bled Dry: You are unaffected by Negative Effects, so
3 Advantage based on your target’s distance from you.
long as you have 3 or more Wounds.
2: Phalanx: Your Skirmish and Body Finishers can
target an enemy up to 3 spaces away instead of
targeting two adjacent characters. Skirmish targets all
Gunslinger | ★ | Weapon, AOE, Range enemies between yourself and your original target(s),
dealing half damage to each.
“Adept fixers know their guns as well as they know 3: Cannon-Arm [ Breath → Skirmish ]: The Skirmish
themselves; each part maintained and accounted for. can target a space in 5 spaces and raises the maximum
Famous fixers just need to let shots fly.” Advantage from “Pierce” to 5. If the attack had 5 or
more total Advantage it additionally targets all spaces
1: Big Iron: You now use ‘Bullets’ instead of Focus. You
adjacent to the original, dealing half its damage to all
start all Scenes with 6 Bullets. When you Skirmish you
targets. Each affected space becomes Difficult Terrain.
must spend at least 1 Bullet and can only target 1
character in 4 range. For every additional Bullet you
spend you may gain 1 Advantage, or target an
additional character.
2: Lock And Load: When you end your turn without
Attacking, you can set your Bullets to 6.
3: Bullet Juggle: When you Skirmish a single character
while spending 3 or more Bullets, you Launch them.

67
Martial Artist | ★ ★ | Skirmishes, Versatile, Effects SpellSword | ★ ★ | Skirmishes, Casts

“I’m pretty experienced myself y’know, 15 years of Baji “Versatility is a power you can’t buy. It must be learned
Quan, 11 years of Aikido, and a semester of Capoeira. through a complete mastery of all of its parts.”
Oh sorry we should be dueling about now, I’ve got a bad 1: Spell Blade: Wherever you use a Skirmish or Finisher,
habit of bragging when I don’t think I’ll be seeing you may spend 1 Focus to have it benefit from your
someone again.” Techniques that would normally affect Casts, not
1: Art Of The 8 Hammers: When you successfully including the other levels of “Spellsword”.
Skirmish or use a Body / Talent Finisher without using a 2: Twin Suns [ Cast → Skirmish ]: The Skirmish is
Technique with the Weapon Tag, you can do 1 of the Swift, has its cost reduced to 0. When using it you can
following. Each can be used once per Round.
Teleport to a space in 3 range before Targeting.
- Quick Step: Move up to 3 spaces.
3: Witch Hunter [ Cast → Finisher ]: If the Finisher
- Binding Blow: Snare your target.
- Rising Knee: Launch your target. targets the same character as the Cast, it gains
- Iron Shoulder: Push your target 3 spaces. Advantage equal to the Tension.
2: Flow-State: “Art Of The 8 Hammers” gains the
following option.
- Exploit: Can only be used if your target is Snared or
Technician | ★ ★ | Combos, Charge
Launched. Skirmish at no cost at half damage.
3: Unlimited Blows: When you roll at least 1 Critical Hit
“A fighter is not their body, but a collection of
on a Skirmish or Finisher, “Art Of The 8 Hammers”
techniques and experiences.”
triggers an additional time.
1: Stretch: When you Charge, you “Refresh” each of
your Combos. When Combos are Refreshed they regain
their once-per-scene use.
Warring Ascendant | ★ ★ ★ | Delayed, Versatile
2: Repetition: When you complete a Combo, you gain 1
AP. This can't trigger more than once per turn.
“My dearest brother, born on the battlefield. I know you 3: Final Blow [ Skirmish → Finisher ]: The Finisher
expect more, but I implore you. Lend me your strength, gains Advantage equal to the Tension x 2.
and feel the air on your skin. I call upon you in my time
of greatest need, heed, o’ Durandal!”
1: Heavenly Arm: Choose a Technique with the Weapon
Unbroken | ★ | Revenge, Wounds, Influence
Tag. Once per Scene, when you Charge while there’s at
least 2 Tension, you may ‘Transform’. When you
“You must not give in, you cannot. Claw and bite like a
Transform, push all enemies within 2 spaces of you 3
cornered rat, it’s the only option you have left.”
spaces away. While Transformed you count as having all
three Levels of the Technique you chose. When you are 1: Get Back Up: Once per Scene, when your character
reduced to 0 Health while Transformed, you lose the is Knocked Out, you may spend an Influence to return to
Transformation and become Dazed, 0 Health and heal Wounds until you are one Wound
2: Esoteric Blades: Choose one other Technique of any from death. Doing this makes you lose the ability to gain
kind, while you are transformed you count as having the Influence for the remainder of the Scene.
first two Levels of that Technique. 2: Furious Revival: When you spend an Influence in a
3: Saintly Sword, Durandal: You may choose to lose combat Scene you may take an Action with a cost of 1
your Transformation when you use your Finisher, if you for no cost with Swift.
do so that Finisher gains Advantage equal to the 3: Phoenix: When you revive using “Get Back Up” you
Tension and can target a ∞ space long Line where at may heal all your wounds but 1.
least one targeted space is adjacent.

68
Slayer

Quick and precise, eliminate your targets at breakneck speed. Techniques effective at defeating single targets.
Often requires a high Talent to get into and escape skirmishes, can alternatively use Body for some builds.

69
Acrobat | ★ ★ | Movement, Avoidance Assassin | ★ ★ | Attacks, Avoidance

“Obstacles are found everywhere. In overcoming them “A bloodied coin spends just as well as any other.”
we nourish ourselves.” 1: Ambush: Immediately after Deploying, you may take
1: Flying Kick [ Jump → Skirmish ]: The Skirmish the Hide Action at no cost without rolling to succeed.
gains Advantage equal to the number of spaces you 2: Assassinate: Attacks you make while Hidden gain
moved during your Jump. This only applies to Attacks Advantage equal to your Tier, and the dice rolled during
made while adjacent to your target. can Crit on rolls of 5 or 6.
2: Wall Jump: When you end a Jump’s movement 3: Speed of Dark [ Hide → Stride ]: The Stride has no
adjacent to a piece of terrain or board edge, you may cost and grants you Invisible when used.
move an additional 3 spaces in a straight line and gain 1
Evasion until the start of your next Turn. This additional
movement is considered part of the Jump’s total
Blade Master | ★ ★ | Weapon, Talent, Breathing
movement. You can only “Wall Jump” once per Turn.
3: Weightless Body: You may “Wall Jump” any number
“A weapon’s strength is secondary to the strength of
of times in a Jump. The Evasion gained from doing so
those who wield it.”
can be stacked indefinitely. You can't use the effect of
“Wall Jump” on the same terrain or board edge more 1: Draw Stance: When you Breathe or Charge, you may
than once per Jump. enter ‘Draw Stance’. This effect ends after you Attack,
Stride, or Jump. When you use a Talent Finisher in Draw
Stance you can Crit on rolls of 5 or 6.
2: Divide In One Motion [ Breath → Jump ]: The Jump
Aerial Ace | ★ | Movement, Versatile
does not end Draw Stance. After using the Jump, you
may use a Talent Finisher at no cost. The Finisher
Once, the mysteries of green silk were known only to targets all characters you moved adjacent to or through
hidden sages, carefully weaving each small patch into during your Jump.
the wondrous flying carpets of yore. Today though, it is a 3: Take Focus: When you enter Draw Stance or begin
foolish clan head who does not keep a few green silk your Turn in Draw Stance, you may spend any amount
coats in their armory, lest their rivals gain uncontested of Focus to Teleport to a space in a range matching the
control of the skies. amount spent. When you end your Turn in Draw Stance
1: Soar: When you Jump, you may ‘Take Flight’ rather you Strengthen.
than moving. While Take Flight is active, increase your
speed by 2 and force Disadvantage equal to your Tier
on all incoming Attacks. Take Flight ends when you use Cunning Fighter | ★ ★ ★ | Investigate, Mind, Utility
an Attack.
2: Over And Around: Increase your Speed by half your
“Heavy Build. Tall. Reach advantage. Confident,
Talent. While Take Flight is active, you ignore the effects
capable. Trained in the four forms of Cavalcabo.
of Terrain you move into and can move through enemy
spaces. Their salute will transfer into a sudden flèche. This has
3: Falling Ax Strike: The Attacks you use while Take served them well against inexperienced opponents. Bind
Flight is active can roll dice equal to your Speed rather the attack, then transfer to a quick glide. During their
than an Attribute. shock, apply knee to groin. Begin gloating.”
1: Plan and Execute: When you Investigate a character
you haven’t Investigated in the current Scene, you gain
a use of ‘Cunning Plan’. Once per Turn, you may expend
a Cunning Plan to take any non-Attack Action, reducing
its cost by 1 and gaining Swift.
2: Tactical Genius: You gain a use of Cunning Plan at
the end of your Turn.
3: Plans in Plans: You may use up to three Cunning
Plans during your turn, as long as you have uses
remaining.

70
Dim Mak | ★ ★ ★ | Investigate, Mind, Attacks Egomaniac | ★ ★ | Attacks, Movement, Avoidance

Topple the Goliath, find the minute weaknesses in “Only the most conceited, self-important, piece of
everyone you face, disassemble their idiot stances, fight sho’vah grit could do what you do.”
dirty, and have a plan to kill everyone you meet. “No, that’s not a damn compliment!”
1: Study Weakness: Your Investigate is Swift if you 1: Peak Condition: You track ‘Style’, a 4 Segment Clock
target only one character with it on your Turn. When you that’s emptied after every Scene. The first time you deal
Investigate a character, you may designate a ‘Weak damage using a unique Action or feature each Scene,
Point’ in an unoccupied space adjacent to them. Weak you fill two Segments. When you’re hit by an Attack or
Points move to match their host’s movement and remain end your turn without filling a Segment you empty one.
adjacent (even if their new position is occupied). When When you fill the Clock, empty it, move up to 2 spaces
you attack a character while standing on one of their in a straight line, and gain 1 AP.
Weak Points, you may remove that Weak point to gain 2: Taunt, Flaunt, Daunt: When you fill your Style Clock,
Advantage equal to half your Mind. you may forgo the AP gained to Taunt or Fear all
2: Field Investigation: When an attack fails to hit you, Enemies within 3 spaces of you.
you may Swiftly Investigate at no cost. When you trigger 3: Finale: When you Charge, you may fill Segments on
“Study Weakness” you gain 2 Evasion until the start of your Style Clock equal to double the Tension, these can
your next Turn. carry over between Clocks. After you do this you lose
3: 4-Point Execution: Track the number of times you the Style Clock for the remainder of the Scene.
trigger “Study Weakness” on each character in a Scene.
When you trigger “Study Weakness” 4 times on a single
target you may Teleport to any unoccupied space
Knife Juggler | ★ ★ | Weapon, Movement
adjacent to them and perform a Mind Finisher on them
at no cost.
“Though it’s fallen slightly out of favor, thrown weapons
have been a part of our culture for hundreds of years,
and it’s time people start respecting that”
Distant Killer | ★ ★ | Weapon, Talent, Range
1: Throw: You now use ‘Weapons’ instead of Focus.
You start all Scenes with 4 Weapons. When you
“The unseen attack is unrivaled in its lethality.” Skirmish, you can choose to ‘Throw’, spending 1
1: Long Shot: Your Talent Finisher can target characters Weapon, reducing its cost to 0, and letting it target one
up to 5 spaces away. character up to 4 spaces away.
2: Bunker Down: When you end your turn without 2: Resupply: When you use Throw, place a ‘Weapon
Attacking you may “Bunker Down”, gaining Immobilized. Marker’ in the space you targeted or an unoccupied
While you’re Immobilized your Talent Finishers gain 5 space adjacent to it. When you move into a Weapon
additional range and Crit on rolls of 5 or 6. Marker’s space you may remove it to move 1 space in
3: Deadeye [ Hide → Talent Finisher ]: The Finisher any direction, recover 1 AP, and gain 1 Weapon.
gains Advantage equal to the Tension, deals one 3: Chaser: When an enemy moves outside a Weapon
additional damage for each Critical Hit, and targets all Marker, you may Teleport to the marker and use a Swift
enemies between yourself and your original target. Skirmish on them (paying its costs), this Skirmish can't
use Throw.

71
Malicious Mimic | ★ ★ ★ | Dodge, Attacks Skirmisher | ★ ★ | Skirmishes, Movement

“Impossible… she only saw that technique once!” “Float like a butterfly…”
1: “Anything You Can Do…”: After successfully 1: Perpetual Motion: When a Skirmish would cause you
avoiding an Enemy's Primary Attack using a Dodge or to be moved adjacent to an enemy you may move 1
Clash you gain an ‘Impression’ with the same name as additional space in any direction.
the enemy. As an action with no cost you may use any 2: Shifting Blows: You may move up to two spaces in a
of your Impressions to use the indicated Enemy's straight line before or after using a Skirmish.
Primary Attack as if you were an enemy. All Impressions 3: Rebound: If movement provided by Skirmish makes
are lost at the end of a Scene. you leave adjacency with a character, you may target
2: Rehearsed Movements: When you attempt to them with said Skirmish in addition to your normal
Dodge an enemy while you hold an Impression targets. Targets added via “Rebound” take half damage.
matching their name you gain 4 Advantage.
3: “…I Can Do Better”: When using “Anything You Can
Do…” you may spend 1 AP to use the enemy's Ace
Speed Demon | ★ | Movement, AOE
rather than their Primary Attack.
“It was over before it even started. I don’t know who you
pissed off, but they moved like nothing that I’ve ever
Modified Meister | ★ ★ | Skirmishes, Mind, Wounds seen.”
1: Fade: You can move through enemies. You still must
You feel the vibration of whirring chains, the sound of end your movement in an empty space.
spinning gears, the buckling of mismatched plating and 2: Flash Step [ Breath → Stride ]: The Stride lets you
loose screws, it almost feels like it’s alive. triple the distance you can move.
1: Running Hot: You now use ‘Heat’ instead of Focus. 3: Flash Strike: When you move out of a character’s
You start all Scenes with 0 Heat, you can't gain Heat space using “Fade” you may deal damage to them
using Breath or Charge, but you gain 1 Heat when you equal to your Talent (this is not an Attack). You can't use
use Skirmish or a Finisher. If your Heat increases to 10 this on the same target more than once each Turn.
or more it is immediately reset to 5, and you explode, When you trigger this while using “Flash Step” you may
dealing damage equal to double your Mind to yourself Launch any characters you damage.
and all adjacent opponents.
2: Overload: When you successfully Skirmish or
Finisher you may “Overload”, gaining Advantage equal
Untouchable | ★ | Avoidance, Movement
to half your Mind, Blighting the target(s), and receiving 1
Heat for every dice that was not a Hit.
“And what's this! It looks like she can’t be hit! They’re
3: Last Resort [ Investigate → Mind Finisher ]: The
moving at speeds I can’t even keep up with! Champ
Finisher must Overload and has double the base dice
looks like she’s boxing ghosts!”
rolled at the cost of doubling any Heat you would
receive from it. 1: Duck: Gain Evasion equal to half your Talent.
2: Weave: Increase the spaces moved when using
Dodge to three spaces. Failed Dodges no longer make
you take additional damage.
3: Fighter's Instinct [ Dodge → Skirmish ]: The
Skirmish lets you move 3 spaces before targeting and
lets you Crit on rolls of 5 or 6.

72
Bulwark

Stoic and resolute, mitigate incoming damage to defend others. Techniques effective at tanking for a team.
Can build for almost any Attribute, as all provide an option to survive longer, but Body is the most common.

73
Absolute Bastard | ★ ★ | Investigate, Tanking Giant Frame | ★ | Body, Skirmishes, Range

“You’re an expert at making strangers hate you, huh?” “Woah. You’re bigger in person. Like. Way bigger. Oh
1: Easy To Hate: When you Investigate an enemy you right, the armor, right away sir!”
may use this Technique to Taunt them. This can only be 1: Big Arms: When you use a Body Finisher you may
used 3 times per Scene. spend 1 additional Focus to have it target each
2: Bully: Once per turn when you Taunt a character you character in a 2x2 Zone adjacent to you so long as at
may move up to 3 spaces towards them, if you move least one of those spaces are adjacent to you.
adjacent to them, you may Snare them and gain 1 AP. 2: Immense: You may choose to take up a 2x2 section
3: You’re Boring Me: Your Attacks against characters of spaces rather than a single space when you Deploy.
you’ve Taunted gain Advantage equal to your Tier. Gain Guts equal to your Tier. When you choose your
size you must stick with it until your next Tier up.
3: Shockwave: When you use a Body Finisher you may
spend 1 Focus to have it target all spaces adjacent to
Battle Jockey | ★ ★ ★ | Tanking, Displacement
you, deal half damage, and have it Launch its targets.
One of the most fearsome gangs is Pantomime, the
infamous “Cavalry”, riding diesel guzzling steeds. These
petty criminals are known across the guild city for their Grappler | ★ | Finishers, Body, Restricting
“Night rides”, driving around their turf and encircling
anyone who dares standing in their way. “Make way for Pantomime’s blazing star!”
1: Trusty Steed: At the start of every combat Scene you “The killer king with the inescapable pin!”
may create a Mount Summon with a Tier equal to your
Tier adjacent to you. “The one, the only… Raphaël Blaise!”
2: Grasping Jaws: When your Mount attacks an enemy 1: Restrain: When you Successfully Body Finisher,
you may have it Taunt them. Snare your target.
3: Roaring Entry: Once per Scene when your Mount 2: All Eyes On Me: When you have a character Snared
would take its Turn you may have it Roar instead. When they can't take any actions that target characters other
your Mount Roars it deals Daze to all enemies in 3 than you if you are also a valid target.
spaces of it, pushing them to the nearest space 4 3 Finishing Move [ Body Finisher → Jump ]: Instead
spaces away from it. of moving with this Jump you and your target disappear
from the board, at the start of the next round you both
return to the board in the same space, Launching all
enemies in 2 spaces of you, and letting you Body
Beastial Ascendant | ★ ★ ★ | Delayed, Versatile
Finisher the initial target at no cost.
“Don’t worry, this happens to everyone your age.”
1: Beastly: Choose two Enemy Types (as listed in the
Narrator’s Tools). Once per Scene, when you Charge
while there’s at least 2 Tension, you may ‘Transform’.
When you Transform, push all enemies within 2 spaces
of you 3 spaces away and restore 2 x your Guts in
Health. While Transformed you can use your Enemies'
Primary Attacks as an Action with 1 Cost. When you are
reduced to 0 Health while Transformed, you lose the
Transformation and become Dazed.
2: Inheritance: Choose one of the two Enemies you
chose when gaining “Beastly”. You gain that enemy’s
Passive while Transformed. If the Passive triggers when
the user is Knocked Out, it triggers when you end your
Transformation instead.
3: Apex: When you’re Transformed you can use one of
your enemies’ Aces by spending 2 AP. Each of your
Aces can only be used once per Scene.

74
Guardian Angel | ★ ★ ★ | Tanking, Spirit Juggernaut | ★ ★ | Displacement, Body, Movement

“I don’t exactly know where it came from. I just know it His physique spoke to me.
protects me when I need it. It’s given me this one It said “Get the fuck out of my way.”
chance to change things for the better.” 1: Wild Charge: When you Jump, you may move
1: Two Bodies: Upon Deployment, your character is spaces equal to your Body instead of your Talent and
split into two separate spaces: the ‘Guardian’ space and pull any characters you passed through or moved
the ‘Defendant’ space. When you move, you move both adjacent to, placing them in a space adjacent to you.
the Guardian and Defendant separately. When you Cast, 2: Violence: When you pull characters using “Wild
it must draw its range from the Defendant space. When Charge”, you may deal damage to them equal to your
you Skirmish, it must draw its range from the Guardian Body and Launch them.
space. When the Defendant receives damage, it is dealt 3: Hard Turn: When you Jump, you may reduce the
directly as Wounds, as if they had 0 Health. number of spaces you move by 2 to make it so you can
2: Together In Life: When you successfully Cast, the move without moving in a straight line.
target becomes Weak. When you successfully Skirmish
a Weak character, you Launch the target(s).
3: Together In Death: Your Health and Guts now scale
Mana Numb | ★ ★ | Revenge, Body, Tanking
off your Spirit instead of your Body. If an ally is Attacked
within 4 spaces of the Guardian, you may spend 1
“Their body has no presence, no signature of any kind.
Focus to have the Guardian teleport adjacent to them
Just who am I fighting?”
and become the target of the Attack.
1: For What The Spirit Lacks: You now use ‘Tenacity’
instead of Focus or AP. You start each Round of combat
with 1 Tenacity + half your Body, and you must spend it
Iron Bodied | ★ | Tanking, Body
in place of Focus and AP. You can't gain Tenacity using
Breath or Charge. You can't use Cast or Spirit Finishers.
Mushir Ahmed has a reputation for his displays of 2: In The Face Of The Beyond: When you are targeted
confidence. Most famously is his armor, one that covers by an Attack, you gain 1 Tenacity.
his legs and arms but leaves his chest bare. A choice 3: To Fill What Is Hollow: When you Breathe or Charge,
that baffles advisors and opponents alike, less for its you may Taunt a number of characters equal to the
stupidity and more for the lack of scars he shows. Focus you would have gained within 4 range. When
1: Tough As Stone: You can never take more damage rolling for Charge, you may Roll Body instead of Spirit.
than 4 + your Tier in a single instance (after all forms of
damage reduction).
2: Resilience: Gain Armor equal to half your Body.
Rising Challenger | ★ ★ | Talent, Tanking, Support
3: Stainless Stride: You can never have a Speed lower
than 3 and can always move using your own Actions,
Two swordsmen lock blades silhouetted by moonlight,
ignoring all other rules to the contrary. At the beginning
the impact reverberating throughout the streets, blowing
of your Turn you may Immobilize yourself. While
out a nearby streetlamp.
Immobilized, the text of “Tough As Stone” reads: “You
can never take more damage than 2 + your Tier in a Two children manipulated into spiting each other for
single instance (after all forms of damage reduction)”. crimes neither committed.
One survivor lives on regretting every second of it.
1: Drama And Spite: Gain Advantage on Clashes equal
to your Tier.
2: “You’ll Have To Get Through Me!”: You may Clash
with Attacks that target allies in a range equal to your
Talent. When you Clash, you may Teleport to a space
adjacent to the character who initiated the attack.
3: Perfect Deflection: When you perform a successful
Clash, you gain 1 Focus and can move a number of
spaces equal to your Tier.

75
Runic Aegis | ★ | Tanking, Mind, Support Vanguard Defender | ★ | Tanking, Body, Support

“Sir, Vilhelm the Invulnerable has requested an “If I get hurt, don’t stop running.”
audience. Yes sir, we tried. Every arrow was broken 1: White Knight: You may Block Attacks that target
before it touched him.” allies in a range equal to your Body, when you do so
1: Blast Parry: If the Armor increase from your Block you Teleport to a space adjacent to the ally being
reduces an Attack’s damage to 1 or less you Launch targeted and become the target instead.
your attacker(s). 2: Steel Angel: The first Block you use each Round
2: Runic Barrier: Your first Block in a Round grants can't Shred you so long as you’re Blocking for your
additional Armor equal to your Mind. allies.
3: Temporal Wall: When you use Charge you may place 3: Inspire Courage: When you start a source of
a 1 by 3 line of terrain anywhere on the board. It has 30 movement by moving out of adjacency with an ally they
Health and Armor equal to your Body or Spirit, your may move to a space adjacent to your new location and
allies cannot have their targeting or movement affected Reinforce.
by this terrain, and it can only provide your allies cover.

Mecha Pilot | ★ ★ ★ | Tanking, Versatile

Stone Crusher | ★ | Weapon, Body, Effects
“Get in the robot Shinji”
“It’s said that in order to effectively counter an oncoming
force, one would need 5 times the force to stop it. I 1: Rune Core Engine: You enter all combat Scenes with
assure you… I have that.” a “Suit” adjacent to you. This is a 2x2 piece of terrain
with 50 Health and Armor equal to your Tier. By
1: Debilitate: Your successful Skirmishes Weaken your Interacting with it, you may put the Suit on, making the
target. terrain disappear and granting you additional Armor
2: While They’re Down: When you Successfully Attack equal to your Tier.
a character with Weakened you Reinforce. 2: Autonomous: The Suit is now a Summoned Enemy
3: Reckless Demolition [ Stride → Body Finisher ]: of your choice with a Tier equal to yours so long as you
When you use the Finisher you lose Reinforced and your don’t have it on. When your Summon takes its Turn you
target loses Weakened, the Finisher gains 3 Advantage may choose to Skirmish a character adjacent to it in
for each Effect removed. place of one of its Attacks.
3: Perfect Sync: Even when you are in the suit, it may
still take Turns as a Summon, sharing your space and
Stalwart Sentry | ★ ★ | Skirmishes, Displacement moving you when it moves.

“Nothing gets past me, at least not in one piece.”

1: Guardian: So long as you haven’t moved your turn.
The spaces diagonally connected to you count as being
adjacent when it would benefit you.
2: Stalwart: You may spend 2 Focus when performing a
Punish to have it not cost AP.
3: Zone Of Influence: You may Punish characters when
they attempt to enter adjacency with you.

76
Altruist

Friendly and versatile, enable your allies to overrun the enemy. Techniques that mainly benefit your allies.
As many of these Techniques don’t need to deal damage Mind is often your best Attribute.

77
Alchemist | ★ ★ | Breathing, Interact, Effects Bardic Savant | ★ ★ ★ | Breathing, Mind, Support

“Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of “Doesn’t it all seem to have a rhythm to it? When the
dog, Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg bullets are flying and everyone else is in chaos, that
and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a rhythm guides me.”
hell-broth boil and bubble.” 1: Musician: When you Breathe, you gain a ‘Verse’ of
1: Quick Mix: When you Breathe, you can make one of your choice from the list below. You can hold up to 5
the following ‘Potions’. You can always use Interact to Verses at a time (Including repeated verses). When you
use one of these potions on an adjacent character. use Charge, you may expend all the Verses you are
1: Pure Water: Remove any Effect(s) from the target. holding and grant the effects listed on them to
2: Fury Vapors: Strengthen the target. characters in a range of your Mind + your Tier.
3: Growth Serum: Give Regenerate to the target. - Harsh: Allies Strengthen.
4: Adrenaline Stim: Hasten the target. - Soothing: Allies gain Health equal to your Mind.
5: Stoneskin Balm: Reinforce the target. - Inspiring: Allies gain 1 Focus.
6: Vilethorn Poison: Blight the target. - Raucous: Enemies are Shredded and Weakened.
2: Administer: You may use potions on characters up to - Frantic: Affected allies may choose to use any
4 spaces away. non-attack with 1 cost action at no cost.
3: High Intensity Mix: You may forgo the Focus gained 2: Quick Composition: Once per Turn, when you
from Breathe to trigger “Quick Mix” two more times, Breathe you may forgo the Focus given to reduce its
randomly determining the potion with a D6 roll for each cost to 0. Your Breaths are Swift.
rather than choosing. 3: Encore: When you Charge, you may forgo the Focus
given to reduce its cost to 1.

Artist | ★ ★ ★ | Interact, Versatile, Support

Battle Instructor | ★ ★ | Breathing, Influence, Support
The 7th Battalion has been described as “Avant-garde.”
Both meanings are equally accurate. “Keep your back straight!”
1: Stroke Of The Brush: You can always use Interact to “Strengthen your footing.!”
‘Paint’ on an adjacent space in a ‘Color’ of your choice. “Remember what we spoke about!”
Each Color has a specific effect that triggers when you “...”
or an ally enters its space or starts their Turn in it for the “That was good, keep at it kid.”
first time in a Round. The Colors are as follows. 1: Strike Order: When you Mark a character, you may
- Red: Strengthen yourself. choose an ally, that ally may move up to 3 spaces
- Yellow: Teleport to another Colored space. towards the character. Your Investigates are Swift.
- Blue: Gain 2 Focus. 2: Teaching Moment: When an ally makes a Roll, you
- White: Push any number of enemies in 3 spaces 3 may spend an Influence to form a Bond with them or
spaces away from you. upgrade their Bond Rank and allow them to reroll, taking
- Black: Pull any number of enemies in 5 spaces into the highest of the two results.
spaces adjacent to you. 3: Remember Your Training: Once per scene when an
2: Canvas Of Flesh: When you Interact with an ally, you ally’s Attacks who you have a Bond with, you may
may spend 3 Focus to create a ‘Seal’ on them, granting spend 2 Focus to give their attack Advantage equal to
them the effect of one of your Colors every time they your Tier plus the Bond Ranks you have with them.
end their Turn.
3: Brush-Brand: When you Skirmish a character you
may ‘Brand’ them with a Color of your choice until the
end of your next Turn. When you or an ally successfully
Attack a Branded character they gain the effect of the
chosen Color.

78
Chronomancer | ★ | Casts, Investigate, Support Gourmand | ★ | Interact, Mind, Support

Time until death: T- 2 minutes 4 days 10 days 2 weeks “Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there
1 month 1.5 months 3 months 5 months 1 year 5 years are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many
6 years 6.5 years 10 years 25 years flavors—it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.”
1: Accelerate: When targeting an ally with Cast you 1: Healthy Meal: You can always use Interact to hand
don't deal damage, and instead Hasten them. an adjacent character a ‘Meal’, you have one Meal that
2: Decelerate: When Investigate a character you may you may refresh at each Intermission. A character given
spend 1 Focus to make it so their Effects can’t be a Meal can eat it immediately or save it and eat it when
removed until the end of the Round. they Breathe. When a character eats one of your Meals
3: Time Stop: Once per Scene, When you Charge you they can restore a Wound and gain Health equal to your
may choose an ally with Haste, that character loses Tier plus your Mind + 10.
Haste and can take an additional turn after yours. 2: Bottomless Pantry: Gain two additional Meals per
Intermission.
3: Shared Experiences: When someone you’re Bonded
with eats one of your Meals you both gain Focus equal
Dancer | ★ ★ | Movement, Utility, Support
to your Mind.

The intimacy of combat is something that’s difficult to

recreate. That intoxicating passion has drawn more
people together than you can possibly know. Heavenly Saint | ★ ★ | Casts, Spirit, Support
1: Dance Partner: You may always Interact with a
“When allies falter, your presence is the whispered
willing character to set them as your ‘Partner’. You may
promise of safety—a testament that even in the throes of
only have one Partner and lose them if you end your
chaos, salvation is found in compassion.”
Turn outside of adjacency. When a Partner moves
willingly their Partner may move to a space adjacent to 1: Strength Of Prayer: You now use ‘Faith’ instead of
them and gain Haste. Focus. You start all Scenes with Faith equal to your
2: Hearts In Tandem: When a Partner uses Hide, or Spirit + 3, you can't gain Faith using Breath or Charge,
gains Focus, their partner gains the benefits in addition. but you gain 1 Faith every time you target an ally with an
3: The Prestige: When a Partner uses a Finisher their action or the effect of a Technique.
Partner may Daze themselves to give the Finisher 2: Cleansing Light: When targeting an ally with Cast
Advantage equal to their Tier + the Tension. Using this you don't deal damage, and instead heal Health equal
effect makes the user lose their Partner status. to the damage you would have dealt and your target(s)
have all Effects of their choice removed from them.
3: Grand Restoration: Your Spirit Finisher gains the
effects of “Cleansing Light”. When using a Spirit Finisher
Fog Walker | ★ ★ | Avoidance, Breathing, Support
on an ally they begin Regenerating and lose a Wound
(The Wound healing can only be done once per
When the fog rolls off the river Undine, the city streets character per Scene).
are empty. For the darkened hunts would find those who
do not flee, meeting those who carry a smile as easily as
a blade.
1: Blowing Smoke: When you Breathe, you may forgo
the Focus gained to create a ‘Fog Cloud’ in a space
adjacent to you. At the end of your turn you may move
all your Fog Clouds up to 2 spaces in any direction. If an
ally moves into a Fog Cloud or vice versa the ally
becomes Hidden.
2: Mystic Mist: When an already Hidden ally moves into
a Fog Cloud or vice versa they become Invisible and
may Teleport to another unoccupied Fog Cloud.
3: Stinging Steam: Your Breaths are Swift. When you
Charge you may forgo the Focus gained to move your
Fog Clouds up to 2 spaces and deal 2 damage to
enemies every time a Fog Cloud passes through them.

79
Last Hope | ★ | Avoidance, Spirit, Support Opportunist | ★ ★ | Skirmishes, Talent, Support

He felt stupid, there it was, his face plastered on the “You were really expecting a fair fight?”
gray brick in front of him, a blurry picture of it, but his 1: Pack Tactics: Once per Turn, when an ally resolves
face nonetheless. Ogier—despite his intentions—was an Attack on a character within a range equal to your
seen as a hero by the common folk of his district, these Talent, you may Swiftly Skirmish targeting them at no
posters seem to be put up by someone he’s helped, Cost. If you are outside the Skirmish’s range you may
claiming he was some mythic savior. A reputation would Teleport to an unoccupied space adjacent to the target.
only make his life harder, and what annoyed him was 2: Hungry Eyes: When an ally in a range equal to your
that someone else knew he wasn't going to stop. Talent targets a character with an attack, you may
1: Notably Absent: At the start of any Combat Scene spend 1 Focus to Mark the target.
you may choose to be ‘Absent’ from the fight, removing 3: Launcher Combo: Once per turn, when an ally
you from the board. If the Tension reaches 3 you must inflicts an Effect to an enemy in a range equal to your
return to the board on an edge space. When you take Talent, you may use the effect “Pack Tactics” on the
your Turn while Absent you may only take the three same target. This level has a separate once per Turn
following Actions (All of which are Swift). limitation from the one in “Pack Tactics”.
- Inspire: You may let an ally move a number of spaces
equal to your Spirit.
- Eureka: You may Strengthen, Hasten, or Reinforce an
Replicator | ★ ★ | Attacks, Support
ally. These effects can't be lost so long as you are not
on the board.
An infinite barrage of bullets and blades. A force that
2: Heroic Return: When you return to the board you
resembles an army but was born from a single hunter
gain all the Positive Effects on your allies. These Effects
with a mage at their side.
can't be removed until combat ends.
3: Explosive Return: As soon as you return to the board 1: Echo Form: When you Cast or Finisher targeting a
you may take a Turn, even if it would interrupt the turn of single ally or yourself, you don’t deal damage. Instead,
an Enemy. If this would interrupt an allies Turn you must create an “Echo” adjacent to them. Echos are Terrain
wait for them to finish. pieces with 1 Health that can be moved through. If a
character has an Echo they may treat its position as
their position when drawing range for Attacks.
2: Symmetry: When a character with an Echo moves
Precognizant | ★ | Expensive, Mind, Support
they may move their Echo an equal number of spaces.
3: Full Sync: Characters with an Echo start the Round
“I already won.” with 1 additional AP per Echo they have. Characters
1: Flash Of Insight: After any Roll from an enemy or benefiting from this give Swift to their Attacks so long as
willing ally you may spend 1 Focus to force its initiator to each draws its range from a different Echo.
reroll it. This can only be a number of times per Scene
equal to your Mind.
2: Take Advantage: When using “Flash Of Insight”
Talisman Caster | ★ ★ | Casts, Spirit, Versatile
against an enemy’s Attack the attack’s target gains
Evasion equal to your Tier until the end of the Round.
Every surface is covered in small intricately detailed
3: Hurl Into The Infinite: When you hit a character with
papers. This sort of obsessive protection seemed silly to
your Mind Finisher you may spend 2 additional Focus to
her, but when removing one of these seals resulted in
Daze and Immobilize them.
voices echoing around the room she reconsidered.
1: Sacred Seal: When you Breathe, you may place a
‘Talisman’ on an adjacent character or space. Spaces
and characters with these Talismans on them are always
valid targets for your Casts, no matter the distance.
2: Tossed Talisman: When using “Sacred Seal” you
may place Talismans in 3 Range, and when you Charge
you may do this three times in a row.
3: Exorcize: Your Spirit Finisher can target all characters
and spaces with a Talisman on them at once.

80
Disruptor

Sadistic and calculated, chain down the enemy’s options. Techniques that restrict, metaphorically or literally.
As many of these Techniques trigger their controlling effects when Casting, they value a high Spirit Attribute.

81
Autophage | ★ ★ | Attacks, Body/Spirit, Effects Cryomancer | ★ | Casts, Spirit, Restricting

“The Students of Mardrus were widely renowned in their “Each incantation is a flurry of frozen elegance,
day, creating the doctoring profession as we know it. conjuring storms of ice and swirls of snow.”
Such a shame their achievements are overshadowed by 1: Flash Freeze: When you Successfully Cast or Spirit
the human cost of their good work.” Finisher you Immobilize your target(s).
1: Transfusion: You no longer use Focus. When you 2: Shard Rain [ Breath → Spirit Finisher ]: The Spirit
would gain, spend, or lose your Focus you use an Finisher can target all enemies in a 3x3 Zone centered
equivalent amount of your Health instead. When you on a space within 5 spaces and it deals half damage.
successfully Attack a character with two or more 3: Shatter: When you use a Spirit finisher without using
different Status you begin Regenerating. “Shard Rain” on an Immobilized character, you may
2: Overexert: When you successfully Attack a character remove Immobilized to gain 5 Advantage. When doing
you may take 5 damage to roll a D6. Apply an Effect to this you can't trigger “Flash Freeze”.
your target depending on the result of the roll. When you
have 0 Health you may use this level at no Health cost.
1-2: Blight
Cutpurse | ★ | Movement, Talent, Avoidance
3-4: Daze.
5-6: Immobilize.
“It’s an easy job, in-and-out, no need for worries, no
3: Born Of Mutable Flesh: When you have 0 Health
need for anyone to get hurt. You bump into Āl-Amir just
your attacks gain Advantage equal to your Tier. When
after sunset and slip your hand into his waist pouch. Be
you trigger “Overexert” using a Finisher you may take 7
sure to apologize and offer him something, historically
damage rather than 5 to add all 3 Effects.
he’ll refuse. Oh, and most important of all, good luck.”
1: Fast Hands: When you move out of adjacency with
an enemy, you may immediately end your movement to
Bloodletter | ★ | Weapon, Talent, Effects
do one of the following.
- Disarm: Weaken them.
“I don’t kill people, doctor. What I do is much worse.” - Trip: Immobilize them.
1: Bleeding Edge: Your successful Skirmishes and - Steal: Gain 2 Focus.
Talent Finishers Blight the target. 2: Snatch: When you inflict certain Negative Effects on
2: Bloodhound: When a non-adjacent enemy takes an enemy, you may gain its positive version. The Effects
damage from Blight you may move up to 3 spaces. If this applies to are as follows.
this brought you adjacent to them, you may remove - Blight: Regenerate.
their Blight and Swiftly Skirmish them at no cost. - Immobilize / Snare: Hasten.
3: Rupture [ Skirmish → Breathe ]: If the Skirmish - Shred: Reinforce.
targeted a character with Blight, make a Talent Roll and - Weaken: Strengthen.
trigger the effect of Blight a number of times equal to 3: Thief In The Night: When you use the Hide Action,
the Hits rolled. the effects of “Fast Hands” no longer force you to end
your movement. This lasts until the end of the Turn.

Constrictor | ★ | Weapon, Body/Talent, Restricting

“Whips, garrotes, nooses, you’d be surprised how many

people are killed with glorified string.”
1: Wrap: Your Successful Skirmishes that only target 1
character Snare the target. At the end of your turn, you
can move all characters you've Snared up to 5 spaces
in any direction.
2: Choke: Your Body and Talent finishers can always
target characters you've snared. Your Finishers have 4
Advantage on Snared characters.
3: Centrifugal Force: If the effect of “Wrap” causes
characters to be moved adjacent to each other, those
characters receive damage equal to your Talent.

82
Earth Speaker | ★ ★ | Casts, Spirit, Terrain Inner World | ★ ★ ★ | Breathing, Spirit, Restricting

“You lost the moment you touched the ground.” “Nah, I’d win.”
1: Tectonic Shift: When you move another character or 1: Gaze Deeply: When you Charge and get 3 or more
piece of Terrain you didn’t create, you create a piece of Hits you may forgo the Focus you would gain to
Terrain with 20 Health and 0 Armor in the space it left. Immobilize all enemies in a range equal to the Focus you
2: Earthen Shards: When you destroy or move a piece would have gained.
of terrain you may deal damage equal to your Tier to all 2: Domain Of Control: Once per scene when you Inflict
enemies adjacent to its new position. Each enemy can an Effect to another character you may Teleport them
only be damaged by this effect once per Turn. and yourself to any space in your ‘Inner World’ a
3: Stone Soldiers: When you Cast or use a Spirit separate 3x3 board that no other characters have
Finisher you may move a piece of terrain adjacent to access to. Once you K.O. them or they deal a Wound to
you into a space adjacent to your target, doing so gives you, you must Teleport all living characters in your Inner
the Attack 3 Advantage and destroys the terrain after World to a space on the edge of the normal world.
the Attack resolves. 3: Home Turf: While in your Inner World you gain 4
Advantage on all attacks. You may willingly cancel your
Inner World during your turn, doing this refreshes the
once per scene use of “Domain Of Control”.
Gale Strider | ★ ★ ★ | Casts, Spirit, Displacement

“True freedom doesn’t exist in this world. Even the wind

cannot blow on forever.” Mage’s Array | ★ ★ ★ | Breathing, Spirit, Restricting
1: Growing Winds: When you target a space with a
Cast or Spirit Finisher, that space, and all spaces “Look at where you’re standing. Perhaps it’s more
adjacent to it, become a ‘Typhoon’, replacing all other accurate to say you “were” winning. In the afterlife,
Typhoons you’ve created. When any character ends practice situational awareness.”
their turn in a Typhoon you may move them, and other 1: Inscribe: When you Breathe, you may place a ‘Rune’
characters in it, 1 space in any direction. on a space 4 range. When you Charge and have at least
2: Updraft: If you Jump in the middle space of a 3 Runes you may attempt to connect any number of
Typhoon that Jump has no cost, if you do this or Cast Runes you’ve placed with straight lines to form a
targeting the middle space of a Typhoon it is expanded polygon, and then Spirit or Mind Finisher targeting all
1 space in every direction. spaces in this polygon (including its lines) at no cost,
3: Cyclone Drill [ Jump → Spirit Finisher ]: If the Spirit this removes the Runes used.
Finisher targets a character in a Typhoon you may 2: Readjust: Before connecting the lines when using
remove it and gain 1 advantage per space removed. “Inscribe” you may Teleport any/all of your Runes up to
3 spaces in any direction.
3: Prison Of Your Own Design: When you use the
Charge portion of “Inscribe” you may choose to leave
Inhuman Strength | ★ ★ | Body, Displacement, Terrain
the lines on the board until you next use that feature. So
long as these lines are on the board the spaces they
“Mom always said the best way to move people is with
cover are considered difficult terrain for your opponents.
words, but picking up that bus seemed much faster.”
1: Strong-Arm: You can always use Interact to push an
adjacent character or piece of Terrain up to 5 spaces in
a straight line. If you push them adjacent to an
opponent you may Launch all characters involved.
2: Piston Fist: When you Successfully Skirmish or Body
Finisher a character, you may push spaces equal to your
Body Attribute - their Armor (if any).
3: Smash Through: When you cause a character to be
pushed into a piece of terrain, both that character and
the terrain take damage equal to your Body. If the terrain
is destroyed, the character continues moving for
another 3 spaces. This additional movement can only
be triggered once per push.

83
Reaper | ★ ★ | Weapon, Effects, Displacement Siren | ★ ★ | Investigate, Effects, Avoidance

The people of the Gardens knew well to put out their “Lure and tempt, free them all of their inhibitions, show
offerings at solstice. For as the days grew long, the them that the world holds better things for you and
Harvesters of Krouses would make pilgrimage, seeking them, before you rip it all away.”
homes lacking piety to become their bloody crop. 1: You wouldn’t hurt ME, would you?: When you
1: Sow: When you successfully Skirmish a single Investigate an enemy you may use this Technique to
Character you may Teleport them to another space Fear them. This can be used 3 times per Scene.
adjacent to you. The first time you use this each Turn 2: Irresistible: Once per turn when you Fear a character
you Mark your target. you may force them to move up to 3 spaces towards
2: Tend: Enemies in 3 spaces of you don't lose Marked you, if they move adjacent to you, you may Daze them.
when they end their turn. 3: A little help over here?: When you successfully Spirit
3: Reap: If you start your turn in 5 spaces of a Marked or Mind Finisher a character you may have all enemies
enemy you may spend 3 Focus to Teleport to an affected by Fear move their Speed towards your target
unoccupied space adjacent to them and use a Finisher and Attack them with Skirmish or their Primary Attack if
on them at no cost. If you are then in 5 spaces of they are adjacent.
another Marked enemy you may repeat this effect at a
Focus cost of 1 using a Skirmish instead of a Finisher.
This cannot target the same enemy more than once.
Wave Rider | ★ ★ | Casts, Displacement, Support

Yvon was never known for much, didn’t make a fuss,

Street Fighter | ★ ★ | Skirmishes, Body, Effects didn’t make enemies, and didn't make a name for
himself. But there were places where his name was
The Laurent Family’s penchant for the phrase: “All’s fair whispered in reverence. Old knights told tales of the boy
in love and war” is never in reference to actual fairness. most free, never chained down, no kings, no clients, no
It asks if the speaker is justified in what they do. masters. Never lingering, he appeared silently and
passed through crowds like flowing water. Though
The answer is rarely “Yes”.
sometimes this reputation bothered him, he felt his life
1: Bloody Brass: When you successfully Skirmish a could do with a little more attachment.
character without using a Technique with the Weapon
1: Gentle Waves: When you target an empty space with
Tag, you may choose not to deal damage to Daze your
a Cast or Spirit Finisher you may place a ‘Wave Seal’ in
target instead.
that space, up to a maximum of 4 + your Tier Wave
2: Break And Bruise: Your first Skirmish using “Bloody
Seals placed at a time. When an enemy, willing ally, or
Brass” each Turn is Swift. When you use “Bloody Brass”
you start their turn in or move into a space with a Wave
to deal Dazed to an already Dazed character, it deals
Seal you may remove it to do one of the following:
normal damage and has Advantage equal to the number
- Move them up to 2 spaces in a straight line.
of different Effects on your target.
- launch them.
3: Brutalize: You may now trigger “Break And Bruise”.
2: Momentous Waves: When you move yourself or an
The Finishers gain double the Advantage bonus in
ally with the effect of a Technique, the character who
addition to Immobilizing and Snaring their target(s).
was moved gains 2 Advantage on their next attack on
their Turn (stacking indefinitely).
3: Aqua Cage: Your Casts that don't target a character
are always Swift. If an enemy has a Wave Seal in each
of their adjacent spaces you may remove those Seals to
Launch, Daze, and Immobilize them. Each enemy can
only be affected by this once per scene.

84
Ruiner

Ambitious and impactful, build up your ultimate spell and obliterate. Techniques with high impact and cost.
Almost all of these Techniques give you high damage setups for Spirit Finishers, Spirit is a must.

85
Dramaturge | ★ ★ | Spirit/Mind, Finishers Flame Heart | ★ ★ | Spirit, Casts, Effects

“Why so glum, you’re living in hallowed times! I’ve even “Brother, trust that this hurts me almost as much as it’s
graced you with my presence! It’s important to enjoy gonna hurt you.”
things while you still can.” 1: Rev Up: When you Breathe you may "Ignite",
1: All Eyes On Me: Anytime you roll a Crit for any receiving up to 6 damage and Blighting yourself to
reason you may spend 1 AP or 3 Focus to ‘Elevate’ the receive an additional Focus for every 2 damage taken.
roll. When you Elevate describe how your character You receive half the damage from Blight.
2: Damning Impact: If you Cast or use a Spirit Finisher
adds some dramatic flair or additional detail to the roll
while Blighted, you gain Advantage equal to the
they’re taking and increase the Tension by 1. Tension, and it inflicts Blight to your target. When you
2: Snatch Their Fire: Enemies can use one less Ace per would Blight an enemy who’s already Blighted you deal
Round (Eg. if the tension is 1 they can use 0 Aces). damage equal to your Tier instead.
3: Power In Presentation: When you Elevate specific 3: Ashes To Ashes: Your Spirit Finisher has a range of 5
actions they receive a bonus: and, on a success, removes Blight from its target and
yourself, gaining 3 Advantage for each Blight removed.
- Finisher: Deal additional damage equal to the Tension
(counting the Tension added via Elevate).
- Charge: Gain AP equal to the AP spent on this Action
Grim Ascendant | ★ ★ | Delayed, Spirit, Casts
(not including AP spent on Elevate).
- Interact: You may Mark, Immobilize, Taunt, or Fear It started from the extremities furthest from his heart.
your target, if multiple Crits were rolled choose one
Beat by beat, Otes lost feeling in his fingers and toes.
additional option for each Crit.
After legs came his sight, he must rely on his instinct.
And finally it enveloped him, a dark blessing, a grim
Ego Arm | ★ ★ ★ | Spirit, Finishers, AOE perversion of the natural world, an immoral exploitation
of his masters, and the only chance he had had left.
Two minds as one, united in a pursuit of glory. 1: Impermanent Power: Once per Scene, when you
1: I Am Your Sword: When you begin combat with, or Charge while there’s at least 2 Tension, you may
Breathe adjacent to, a willing ally you’re Bonded with ‘Transform’. When you Transform, push all enemies
within 2 spaces of you 3 spaces away and lose all your
you may ‘Transform’, becoming a weapon or tool they
Health, gaining double the Health lost in Focus. While
can use. So long as you’re Transformed you always take Transformed your Casts are Swift and damage / healing
up the same space as your partner, can't be targeted by you receive affects your Focus rather than Health. When
any Action, and can't willingly move. If your user is you are reduced to 0 Focus while Transformed, you lose
Knocked Out you are also Knocked Out, and either of the Transformation and become Dazed.
2: Drain Life: When you use a Spirit Finisher while
you can split at the start of either of your Turns, placing
transformed you may choose to deal half the normal
you in an unoccupied space adjacent to them. Each
damage to begin Regenerating on a Success.
character can only use one Ego Arm at a time. 3: Umbra: When you lose your Transformation you may
2: Show Your Targets: When your user Ends their turn Knockout yourself to use a Spirit Finisher targeting a
you may spend 2 AP to place a ‘Damocles Marker’ in 3x3 Zone centered on yourself.
the space of every enemy they attacked on their turn.
When you use your Finisher you may have it deal half
damage to have it target all enemies on spaces with
Damocles Markers.
3: And I’ll Become Irreplaceable: When you use a
Spirit Finisher targeting Damocles Markers you may
spend an additional 1 AP to remove them and gain 1
Advantage for each Marker removed.

86
Long Draw | ★ ★ | Weapon, Talent, Movement

“Eros, a $20k compound bow custom made for easy

disassembly and shots from a distance upwards of 2000
meters. It boasts a draw weight of 200 lbs and the ability
to pierce the armor of most vehicles or military grade
armor. It’s Mayflower’s calling card, and one of the only
things that proves they ever existed.”
1: Nock The Arrow: Gain a new action “Prepare”.
Prepare costs 1 AP, is always Swift, and when you use it
you gain one stack of Prep, when you use a Skirmish or
Talent Finisher spend all your Prep stacks and gain 2
additional range and Advantage for each stack spent.
2: Sharpshot: Once per turn when you Skirmish or
Talent Finisher a character at the attack’s maximum
Range (minimum 2 spaces away) you may double the
Advantage gained from “Nock The Arrow”.
3: Feather Step: Once per turn when you Prepare you
may Teleport to a space not adjacent to any character.
When you trigger “Sharpshot” Immobilize your target.

Mana Blades | ★ ★ | Casts, Skirmishes

“My spirit was focused, ready. I have honed it into a

sharpness few things have ever known. It is almost
disappointing that most will only see it once.”
1: Call Arms: Wherever you use a Cast or Finisher you
may spend 1 Focus to have it benefit from your
Techniques that would normally affect Skirmishes, not
including the other levels of “Mana Blades”.
2: Tools Of The Fallen: When you successfully Cast
using “Call Arms” you may place a “Fallen Blade” in an
unoccupied space adjacent to your target. When you
enter the space of a Fallen Blade it disappears, and you
Strengthen.
3: Saintly Sword, Excalibur: Choose a Weapon
Technique that you don't have, when you Attack while
Strengthened you can use all three levels of your
chosen Weapon Technique as if you had it.

87
Rapid-Fire Sorcery | ★ ★ | Casts, AOE Sellsword’s Call | ★ ★ ★ | Casts, Spirit, Expensive

“Don’t look away! This is a master at work!” “The Keepers of the Lear Pavilion keep some of the
1: Proliferate: When you Cast or Finisher you may strangest partners. The Fairies rarely take the shape of
spend 1 Focus to ‘Rapid Fire’. While Rapid Firing you us elves, seeming to prefer the look of hounds and
may target any number of different characters or spaces rodents. And if you’d believe it, their reputation for
in your attack’s Range, but you must divide all damage violence is worse than those animals they imitate.”
you deal between each target, you don't need to divide 1: A Warrior’s Reprise: When you Cast targeting an
this damage equally. If you fail to deal at least 1 damage empty space, you may spend 1 Focus for each empty
to a space or character you are no longer considered space and create a Tier 1 Ranger, Slayer, or Viper
targeting them, losing any benefits or drawbacks you Summon there. The Summon has 1 Health. You can
may receive from doing so. only have a number of Summons from this Technique
2: Scorched Earth: When you deal damage to an equal to your Tier at a time.
empty space you may turn it into Difficult Terrain. When 2: Battle Hymn: When you Charge you may forgo the
enemies move into or start their Turn in Difficult Terrain Focus gained to have your Summons move or use their
created by you they receive damage equal to your Tier. Primary Attack.
1: Endless Fire [ Charge → Cast ]: The Cast gains 3: Supreme Sellsword: Once per Scene when you use
Advantage equal to the number of different characters a Spirit Finisher targeting a single empty space, or start
you’re targeting + the current Tension. a combat Scene, you may spend 3 Focus and create a
DPS Summon of your choice with a Tier equal to yours.
That enemy is a named character who has a Rank 3
Ritualist | ★ | Breathing, Spirit, Casts Bond with you.

“Glyphs intertwine, paths converge—within this

mesmerizing dance of foci, magic finds purpose.” Servant’s Call | ★ ★ ★ | Casts, Spirit, Expensive
1: Ley Lines: When you Charge you may place a ‘Spell
Circle’ in your current space, removing any you’ve Tybalt’s Fairy is a strange thing, its pale gray glow is hard
already created. When in a Spell Circle space you can to notice when he’s smoking, and it stays hidden
spend up to Tension + 2 Focus on Spirit Finishers. whenever it can. The fairy’s ability to shield and mend is
2: Arcane Artillery: When effected by a Spell Circle invaluable for an imperial guard like Tybalt, but he
your first Spirit Finisher each Turn has 3 additional range worries that something's wrong with it, with every beast
and gains Advantage equal to Tension. they fend off it stares at the body a little longer, and
3: Fractal Etchings: If you Charge while on a Spell when tensions rise Tybalt swears he hears sobs.
Circle, you may enhance it for the Scene, doubling the Tybalt worries it’s learning what death is.
effects of “Enhancement”. A Spell Circle can't be
1: A Subordinate’s Honor: When you Cast targeting an
enhanced multiple times.
empty space, you may spend 1 Focus for each empty
space and create a Tier 1 Guardian, Slime, or Paladin
Summon there. It can only do 1 damage when it
attacks. You can only have a number of Summons from
this Technique equal to your Tier at a time.
2: Hero’s Hymn: When you Charge you may Teleport
one of your Summons into a space adjacent to you, until
the start of your next turn that Summon must be
targeted instead of you if you’re targeted by an attack.
3: Supreme Servant: Once per Scene when you use a
Spirit Finisher targeting a single empty space, or start a
combat Scene, you may spend 3 Focus and create a
Tank Summon of your choice with a Tier equal to yours.
That enemy is a named character who has a Rank 3
Bond with you.

88
Void Soul | ★ ★ | Avoidance, Spirit, Movement Thunder Blood | ★ ★ | Breathing, Spirit, Casts

“You’ve been told you’re hard to notice, easy to “Plenty of kids in this country have spent sleepless
ignore—if only they knew how right they were.” nights watching the White Hounds, sparks flying down
1: Return To Nothing: When you Teleport you may mountains and trees, descending from the clouds.
Banish yourself, making this feature unusable until the Inevitably they’ll be told by those older and wiser that
end of your next Turn. there’s no such thing, and when I was that age I almost
2: Fade Away: The first time you Dodge or move to the listened. Thank god I didn’t, the wind against my face is
edge of the board each round, you can spend 2 Focus so exhilarating at this height.”
to Teleport to another unoccupied space on the edge of 1: Raiden: When you Breathe you receive two ‘Static
the board and Banish yourself. Charges’. So long as you have a Static Charge you are
3: Hollow Heart: When you Teleport or become immune to the effects of Daze.
Banished you gain a stack of ‘Void’, when you use a 2: Energized Incantation: When you successfully Cast
Spirit Finisher lose all stacks of Void and gain equal you can spend a Static Charge and Daze yourself to do
Advantage. one of the following:
- Blink: Teleport to a space adjacent to your target
- Shock: Inflict Daze.
- Chain: Use a Swift Cast on a different enemy in 5
War Caster | ★ | Casts, Spirit, AOE, Expensive
spaces of your initial target at no cost.
3: Overcharge: Double the Static Charges gained from
“YOU’RE UNSTOPPABLE! BREAK YOUR LIMITS!
“Raiden”. Your Spirit Finisher can now target all spaces
SHOW THOSE BASTARDS WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF!”
in 3 Range, gains Advantage equal to The Tension, and
1: Explosion!: Your Spirit Finisher can now target a on a success inflicts Daze.
space in 5 Range and all spaces adjacent to it.
2: Explosion!!!: When you use a Spirit Finisher you may
choose to spend 1 additional Focus, doing so makes
Student Of Stars | ★ | Casts, Spirit, Expensive
your Spirit Finisher target every space in 2 spaces of
your initial target.
3: EXPLOSION!!!: When you use a Spirit Finisher you “Feel the power flow into you, the ears ring pops and
may choose to spend 2 additional Focus, doing so snaps, the forearms go numb and the feet are rooted,
makes your Spirit Finisher target every space in 3 with the earth below being your last resort in case
spaces of your initial target. (This does not stack with everything else goes wrong. Remember your teachings
level 2.) and chants, only when every single one fails will you
really know what you’re capable of.”
1: Power Unleashed [ Charge → Finisher ]: The
Finisher has its cost reduced to 1. When you use this
Finisher you spend up to triple the Focus you would be
able to spend normally.
2: Formless Strength: When you use “Power
Unleashed” you can have it target an ∞ length Line or a
2x2 space Zone adjacent to you.
3: Moment Of Truth: If you enter a Duel with 6 or more
Focus you may expend all of it to gain Advantage in that
Duel equal to half the Focus you spent.

89
Narrator Tools

This section is for those who want to run an Adventure themselves, good luck!

90
Narrator Tools
Unlike many of the sections prior, this section is meant to give suggestions to its reader rather than explaining
hard-and-fast rules. What things CAN you do, what things might be most interesting, and how you could run an
interesting game of DAWN as a Narrator.

Outside of some rules meant to explain how NPCs operate in structured combat, this section contains advice and
optional rules for Narrators to use in their games, and is not necessary to read for most players.

91
Specific Advice Suggest Uses For Influence
Running a TTRPG is incredibly difficult and there are Many players — especially new players — will struggle
many skills that help with doing so that are shared with using their Influence effectively and end up
between most games, this section will not be telling you hoarding it. On a game design level this should be
about those skills. disincentivized by the free Influence given to players
when they start a Chapter with none, meaning that
There are plenty of videos and books that can help with players benefit from spending all of their Influence every
general tips for Narrators, GMs, or DMs, but I would like Chapter.
to take this page to explain some of the things a
Narrator will need to know for DAWN that may not apply However, this does not mean that players will always
to other games with different mechanics and intentions. remember this or that they will realize it’s most effective
to spend, for this reason it’s recommended that
Narrators suggest or remind players about specific
Using Influence As A Narrator
uses for Influence when they feel it would help.
It’s important to know that—as the Narrator—your
judgment has a priority over the actual rules of the
Human Foes
game, and though the book is made to minimize the
This game has multiple mechanics that benefit from
amount of judgments you’re forced to make, this
antagonists being their own people with their own
sentiment holds especially true for how you use and
motivations and stories behind them.
distribute Influence for your players.

If the ultimate evil of your story, or just the story of a

Reward good Character
specific Chapter, is a nameless monster then some
Influence is essentially the sole resource that carries
mechanics, especially those relating to Bonds, are
over between all parts of your game. Most of the time
literally impossible to use, and hence removes
a player who plays an especially entertaining or
interaction from the game.
enthralling character at the table won’t be able to
translate that to direct advantage. If you give those
Even if your villains are simple you should be sure to
players Influence from the former so they can spend it
create them with the same amount of care as a player
on the later you can change that, and encourage
character, give players things to latch onto and a story
interesting play.
to invest themselves into.

For this reason it’s recommended that Narrators give

Breaking The Power Ceiling
out Influence to their players freely, largely ignoring
Power is a fundamental part of this game, the game and
Influential Actions unless they are brought up by a
the choices it gives to players exist to give that player
player, as Influential Actions are largely a way to
power over a specific part of the game, in order to
show players how they can interact with their
provide a matching “power fantasy”.
character’s identity and are not meant to be their
sole source of Influence in unstructured play.
This is partly to emphasize its inspiration’s obsessions
with power as an element of storytelling, the powerful
Influence can also be awarded for more more
exploit the weak and the players need to become strong
miscellaneous helpful things players do, like:
to stop them.

Thinking of a name for something you didn’t plan to

For this reason many non player characters will attempt
include and hence didn’t have a name ready for.
to establish a “power ceiling”, a limit to how strong
someone can be, and a common way to make the
Choosing to recap the last session, especially if it was
viewer excited for a character is to have them break
especially funny or dramatic.
that ceiling, denying the beliefs of the villains. This
can of course be inverted if the players attempt to set a
Bringing snacks.
power ceiling of their own.

92
Resolving Conflicts Puzzle Fights
Throughout all parts of DAWN players are likely to get Not all fights can be resolved by punching the hardest.
into fights, whether they started them or not, and Some foes host abilities so intricate or plans so well
depending on the style of your game, attitude of your thought out that they can threaten the players without
players, and the weight that conflict has on your story, directly entering structured combat. This is not a real
that conflict should be resolved in different ways. rule, nor does it need to be used only in unstructured
play, it is more so a set of guidelines for using NPCs
The ways you can resolve these conflicts largely range that would rather not face their opponent’s head on.
from “Short, Simple, and Isolated”, to “Extended,
Complex, and Group-Focused”. A puzzle fight is defined by the player’s distance from
their opponent, either literal or figurative. It’s
Though many of the examples that will be shown are far recommended that a Narrator tracks the players’
from official rules or modes, they should cover most of progress via a Clock, with successful solutions to the
the ways you are intended to resolve combats in the problem(s) presented by the NPC progressing the Clock
game’s systems. by at least 1 segment.

Puzzle fights can be used when you want to spring an

Unstructured Strikes
Antagonist on players without them noticing, you want
Almost all conflicts should be established in
to establish a character uniquely, or you want to add a
unstructured play as it is seen as the game’s default
change of pace for your game.
state. Though it might seem natural to transition to
structured combat to resolve this conflict, structured
combat can take upwards of an hour even for Structured/Cinematic Combat
experienced play groups, and many players will rightly When playing DAWN you are expected to enjoy tactical
not be ok with doing this multiple times per Chapter. combat on some level. That’s what structured combat is
They may feel that by the time they made it partway for. It lets you show off an interesting build, or
through the Scene the tension was lost. characterize your creation in ways that may feel
showboat-y or selfish in unstructured play. It should not
For this reason it is recommended to resolve some be seen as the “real” way to resolve conflict, and should
conflicts through making the player take a Contested or only be used if the Narrator thinks the players would
uncontested Challenge Roll against their opponent, enjoy it.
narratively represented by a single clash between the
participating characters, with the result of this roll However, there is some granularity in how you choose
determining how the fight goes. to run these structured combat Scenes.

For this reason, when dealing with a conflict that is; Structured combat will take longer, with a greater focus
initiated by a single player without the support of the on tactical play. It should be used when all players are
others, between two characters with a massive disparity involved and ideally if no other structured combat has
in strength, or in another more important conflict. happened in that Chapter.

(Note that this system is effectively the same function as In cinematic combat the story is more important than
a Duel in combat, just without the same rewards.) tactical decision making, so is usually resolved faster. It
should be used when the whole table is not involved
directly in the combat or players have gone through a
structured combat already.

93
Antagonist Rules
Most major conflicts in an Adventure will be caused by
an Antagonist, a non-player character (NPC) opposing
the players. Antagonists can vary widely in scope, as
small as the leader of an opposing gang, or as large as
a world-ending threat. One of the only consistent
elements is that an Antagonist is always named.

Antagonist Points
When an Antagonist is introduced the Narrator should
decide on a number of Antagonist Points for them to
have. Generally, someone important enough to become
an Antagonist should have at least 5, with the most
powerful having the maximum of 30.

Antagonist Actions
These points can be spent on one of the following
Antagonist Actions. Taking any of these Actions grants
every Player present in the Scene 1 Influence. The
Actions are as follows.

Lethal Blow: This Antagonist can present a Threat

that costs 2 Stress to resist rather than 1.

Present Problem: The Antagonist can create a 4

segment Clock that represents a problem they’ve
created. So long as the Clock exists, players have one
of the following effects applied to them.
- Players have disadvantage equal to their Tier on
Rolls that don’t attempt to progress the Clock.
- The players can't use Abilities.
This Clock can be progressed by 1 segment by a
player character taking a Challenge Roll to do so.

Foil: This Antagonist can negate a Reward for a player,

so long as it directly relates to them.

Escape: The Antagonist leaves the scene with one of

the following: a new plan, a permanent injury, or a new
Bond.

Awaken: The Antagonist reveals some hitherto

unknown plan or element of their character. An
Antagonist may only do this once, but doing so allows
them to regain all their Antagonist Points.

94
Building Structured Combat
Enemy Rules Summons
As described in the Turn Order section, enemies Some enemies will be created as “Summons”, this
alternate with Players, taking Actions until one side is means that they are created by an allied character.
taken out. Summons take their Turn immediately after their
Summoner ends their Turn, without other characters
However, unlike PCs, enemies always take the same taking turns in between. Summons cannot take Turns in
Actions on their turn. When an enemy takes their Turn any other way and are immediately Knocked Out when
they can do the following: their ally is Knocked Out.

- Move a number of spaces equal to their Speed. Enemy Tiers

All enemies have a Tier, and are generally balanced to
And/Or be about as strong as a player with the same Tier. For
each Tier all their numbers with a ‘(+X)’ next to them
- Perform their “Primary Attack”. are increased by X. If a number increases by ‘(+½)’ it
effectively means it increases every other Tier, and on
If an enemy does not use one of these options on their the even Tiers specifically.
turn they may use the other option twice.
Elites
Swarm Actions Generally, an enemy is as powerful as a player with a
When there is more than 1 enemy with the same name Tier equal to their Tier, but if there is an enemy with a
they become a “Swarm”. When one member of a Tier higher than all other enemies, that enemy
Swarm takes their Turn, the rest can take theirs becomes an ‘Elite’.
immediately after, without players in between. A
single Swarm can only take a set of Turns like this once Elites have double the Health they would have normally
per Round. and when they enter a Scene they instantly increase the
Tension by 1.
Enemy Aces And Tension
Every enemy has an ‘Ace’, an Action that they can Unless otherwise specified summons can't be created
take when Tension reaches a certain value. as Elites.

An enemy’s Ace is formatted as follows: “[Ace:TX]

Name: Effect.”. The “X” is the amount of Tension
required for the Ace to be used. Once per Scene, when
an enemy starts their Turn while Tension is at or above
X they may use their Ace in place of their two Actions.

Enemy Intent
All enemies are also given an ‘Intent’. An enemy's Intent
determines how it wants to use its Primary Attack, if an
enemy can attack more than one character it will
prioritize the one who best fits the intent, if an
enemy can't attack any character it will move to a
position that best lets it fill out its intent.

95
Encounter Design Creating Personalized Enemies
There are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to how Most enemies are fairly generic by their nature. Their
you want to create combat encounters for your players, mechanics are sourced from a set of templates that
but there are expectations. —while varied in their own ways—have few means to
differentiate themselves from others of the same Type.
Basic Setup
It was implied in the section explaining enemy Tiers, but There are options for creating personalized enemies
an enemy with a Tier equal to a player is what a player outside of their Type. This customization comes in two
should be expected to fight. So the easiest way to main forms: full custom Types and modified enemies.
create a combat is to set the Scene with one enemy for
each player, all with equal Tiers. Creating an enemy Type may seem daunting but it’s
quite simple, and can be done by following a few basic
Turning The Dial guidelines.
However, not all characters are made equal, and your
table may have players who’re not so accustomed to Start with one of the more simple existing enemy
tactical games or players with far more mastery over the Types of the category you’re trying to create. Good
game’s systems, and can create incredibly optimized examples of this are the Viper for DPS enemies, the
characters because of it. The Simplest way to increase Paladin for Tank enemies, the Healer for Support
or decrease difficulty is to: a) increase or decrease the enemies, or the Baron for Engine enemies.
Tiers of one or more enemies, or b) make the number of
players and enemies uneven. Don’t change the fundamental strengths of the type of
enemy you’re building, DPS enemies have double-Hit
The amount you choose to change will depend on your damage to make them a threat to all players, Tank
table and on how dangerous you want combat to be, enemies have ways to take damage more than their
but here are some numbers that may help. allies, Support enemies have ways to make their allies
deal damage better or for longer, and Engine enemies
Each Tier for an enemy gives them: can provide value to their side without attacking.

Plus ~0.5 bonus damage per attack. Choose one central mechanic you understand or enjoy
more than others and make it the passive, Ace, and or
Plus ~5 additional HP. the secondary effect of the enemies primary attack.

A Tier 1 enemy has: If you’d rather not make a new enemy type for the
character you’re planning on introducing to the combat,
~2.5 damage per attack. you can also differentiate them by using one of the
following modifiers and applying it to an existing enemy
~12 HP. Type.

Joel's Notes: Variety, The Spice Of Life

It’s important to know that every enemy in this game
provides a specific challenge, and threatens specific
kinds of play more than others. When designing a fight
be sure to make at LEAST half of the enemies threaten
the strengths of your players. If none of the players have
Armor you might not want to use a “Slayer”, an enemy
who specifically deals Shred, an effect that reduces
Armor.

96
Compound Enemies Fodder Zones
When the narrative calls for it, a group of Enemies When the narrative calls for a high number of
can be replaced with a single, more powerful Enemy. expendable foes that don’t match up to the players, the
These special Enemies are called Compound Enemies. Narrator can set Fodder Zones.

A Compound Enemy is a powerful character that is Fodder Zones are special pieces of Difficult Terrain,
mechanically represented by a group of Enemies that they can be targeted as enemies with 1 Health, they
share the same space. don't take Turns and don't occupy space.

When a Compound Enemy is created the Narrator When Enemies end their Turns the Narrator moves
must choose two or more Enemy Types to serve as each Fodder Zone up to 2 spaces. When the Round
its ‘Parts’. Each Part can take its Turn separately and ends each Zone may deal damage equal to highest Tier
functions as if it was an independent character. among its allies to a player they’re within 1 space of.

Perform the following steps to create a Compound Antagonist Edges

Enemy: There are times when Antagonists will be Deployed into
a structured combat as an enemy, sometimes because
- A Compound Enemy is considered on target and has they are a unique character established before the
a single Health total equal to the sum of its Parts’ combat, and sometimes because this combat is their
Health values. Effects applied to it apply to all Parts. introduction.

- Divide its Health by its number of Parts. The result is In any case, it is recommended that these enemies are
its ‘Health Gate’. When the total damage a Compound given access to one of the following Antagonist Edges.
Enemy takes reaches a multiple of its Health Gate, all
other damage it would take past that point is reduced An Antagonist Edge is a set of activatable features, that
to 0 and the Tension increases by 1. the enemy using it can activate a number of times per
scene equal to their current Antagonist Points (activating
- A Compound Enemy has a single Speed equal to the them does not spend points).
most common Speed of all its Parts (if there is more
than one most common value, take the highest). When an Edge is given to Compound Enemy it’s
features should be given to every Enemy Type in the
- A Compound Enemy inherits the highest Armor or compound, as Compound Enemies are meant to be a
Evasion among its Parts (if both are equal the Narrator single character in the narrative of the game.
chooses one).
The Antagonist Edges are as follows:
- A Compound Enemy inherits each of its Parts’
Passives. If a Passive would trigger at the start or end
Joel's Notes: Mutable Edges
of its Turn, it only triggers when that Part does so.
Though you may expect Edges to be a consistent
element of an Antagonist’s rap sheet, almost like their
- When any Part of a Compound Enemy moves, all do.
class, this isn’t exactly true. I recommend letting
All Parts must always be in the same space.
Antagonists swap between Edges as it suits the story or
gameplay.
Joel's Notes: Last Legs
Because fractions are universally rounded up, the final An “All-Seeing” enemy may reveal their true face when
“block” of health on a Compound Enemy will often be exposed to a stressful situation, becoming a
less than its Health Gate. For this reason it can be fun to “Wild-Eyed” enemy. You could even try making
describe it making a dramatic last stand or doing a antagonists compound enemies with their Edges
villainous breakdown before receiving a Knockout. attached to their multiple profiles!

97
All-Seeing | Engine, Control Swift-Stepping | DPS, Evasive
“Predictable”: When this enemy would be Attacked Enter Shadow: When this enemy would be Attacked
they may roll double their Tier in dice and gain double they may roll double their Tier in dice and gain double
the Hits in Evasion. If the Attack misses this Enemy may the Hits in Evasion. If the Attack misses this Enemy
move up to 3 spaces in any direction. teleports to a space on the edge of the board and
becomes Hidden (as described in Hide).
Piercing Vision: When this enemy is at least 4 spaces
away from a player and the player gets attacked this Dominate: When this enemy begins its Turn it may
enemy may Mark them (before the attack is rolled or choose a character that hasn’t been attacked since the
advantage is determined). start of its last turn, that character becomes “Marked
For Death”. When this enemy attacks a character who’s
Always Prepared: When a player moves for any reason been Marked For Death they deal additional damage
this enemy may have them notice a trap placed before, equal to double their Tier and remove the effect.
the player must then make a Talent Roll as if they were
Dodging with a challenge equal to their Tier. If the player Chase: When a player moves out of adjacency with this
fails this roll they are immobilized. Enemy it can chase them, teleporting to an unoccupied
space adjacent to that player when they finish their
movement.
Wild-Eyed | Tank, DPS
Vicious Interception: When this enemy would be Cruel-Hearted | Engine, Effects
attacked they may force the attacker to Clash with it
instead. Body Of Thorns: When this enemy would be Attacked
they may gain Armor equal to double their Tier. If the
Beastly Roar: When this enemy begins its Turn it may Attack’s damage is reduced to 1 the Attacker is inflicted
‘Roar’. When it Roars it clears all Effects on it, deals with Blighted.
Daze to all opponents in 3 spaces of it, and pushes
them to the nearest space 4 spaces away from it Sadist: When this enemy begins its Turn it may clear
Blight from any number of characters in the scene,
Grasp: When a player moves out of adjacency with this doing this Strengthens this Enemy and deals damage
Enemy it can attempt to grab them, the player must then equal to double its Tier to all character’s affected.
make a Talent Roll as if they were Dodging with a
challenge equal to their Tier. If the player fails this roll Weakening Toxin: When a player afflicted with Blight
they are Snared by this Enemy. moves for any reason this enemy may reduce the
number of spaces that player can move to one. A
character can only be targeted by this ability once per
Turn.
Iron-Willed | Tank, Support
Guardian: When any enemy would be attacked this
enemy may teleport adjacent to the attacker and gain World-Renowned | Support, DPS
Armor equal to double their Tier and force the attack to
target them. Hero’s Interception: When any enemy would be
attacked this enemy may teleport adjacent to the
Jabbing Insults: When this enemy begins its Turn attacker and force the attacker to Clash with it instead.
adjacent to a player they may Taunt them.
Inspiring Presence: When another enemy begins its
Imposing Frame: When a player moves into adjacency Turn this enemy may have it Attack or move an
with this Enemy it can attempt to stop them, the player additional time.
must then make a Talent Roll as if they were Dodging
with a challenge equal to their Tier. If the player fails this Locked Blades: When a player moves out of adjacency
roll they are stopped as if they entered Difficult Terrain. with this Enemy it can Attack them, If the Attack hits the
player has their movement prevented and becomes
Immobilized until the end of their Turn.

98
Enemy Types Captor | DPS, Displacement, Ranged

DPS Enemies 8(+5) Health, 3 Speed

Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the

Bruiser | DPS, Displacement, Tank
opponent farthest from itself.

10(+5) Health, 3 Speed, 1(+½) Armor

Primary Attack: Choose a character in 5 spaces. Roll
4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Passive: If this enemy’s Primary Attack can't push its
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits, and
target the full distance the target is Dazed.
Snare them.

Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the

[Ace:T1] Sticky Bomb: Indicate an opponent in 5
opponent closest to itself.
spaces. On this enemy’s Primary Attack it targets all
characters in 3 spaces of that character. Characters hit
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
by this are pulled adjacent to the targeted character and
4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
are Snared by them instead of this enemy.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits and
push the target 1(+1) space(s).
Ranger | DPS, Evasive, Ranged
[Ace:T2] Decimate: This enemy indicates a 3x3 Zone
centered in a space 2 spaces away from it and 8(+5) Health, 2 Speed, 1(+½) Evasion
Immobilizes itself. On this enemy’s Primary Attack they
target all opponents in said Zone and gains (2+1) Passive: If this enemy is Deployed by the Narrator they
Advantage, this removes it. must also place a 2x2 or 3x3 space of elevated Terrain
somewhere below the Ranger. (Terrain that must be
climbed to get on to, as per the difficult terrain rules).
Behemoth | Modifier, Displacement
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
8(+5) Health, 4 Speed
opponent with the lowest maximum HP.

Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the

Primary Attack: This enemy Immobilizes itself and
opponents closest to the middle of the board.
chooses a character in 5 spaces. Roll 4D6(+1) with a
Challenge of 1. This deals double damage if the target is
Primary Attack: Choose up to two characters within 6
at least 4 spaces away from this enemy.
spaces. Roll 5(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the Hits and place a
10(+1) Health 0 Armor Terrain adjacent to them.
[Ace:T3] Headshot: Choose a character this enemy can
see, the next time they’re hit by this enemy’s Primary
[Ace:T6] Meteor: This enemy Teleports to the middle of
Attack they receive triple damage.
the board. At the start of its next Turn it attacks all
characters that would not benefit from Cover, instantly
Knocking them Out.

99
Viper | DPS, Effects, Quick Cannoneer | DPS, One-Shot, Slow

10(+5) Health, 4 Speed, 1(+½) Evasion 8(+5) Health, 1 Speed

Passive: This enemy can use its movement to Teleport *Passive: This enemy can use its Ace every Turn.
to any space by abandoning its ability to Attack on that
turn. Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
opponent with the highest maximum HP.
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
opponent furthest from its other allies. Primary Attack: This enemy gains 1 “Preparation”, 2
stacks if it didn’t move this turn.
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1. *[Ace:TX] Unload: Lose 4 stacks of Preparation, if you
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and couldn’t this action fails. Choose a character in 10
Blight the target. If they were already Blighted deal 1 spaces. Roll 5(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Wound. Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits
three times.
[Ace:T4] Knife In The Dark: This enemy is removed
from the board. At the start of this enemies next Turn it
uses its Primary Attack to teleports adjacent to and
Primary Attacks all players without an adjacent ally,
reappearing on any space thereafter.

Witch | DPS, Displacement, AOE

8(+5) Health, 2 Speed, 1(+½) Evasion

Passive: This enemy’s Attacks target all characters in a

2x2 or 3x3 Zone in the space they target.

Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the most

number of opponent’s possible.

Primary Attack: Choose a space in 5 spaces. Roll

4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits and
push them to the closest space outside of the targeted
Zone.

[Ace:T2] EXPLOSION: Create a 4x4 Zone anywhere on

the board, on this enemy’s next turn it may use its
Primary Attack and target all its opponents in the Zone,
this removes the Zone.

100
Assassin | DPS, Evasive, Squishy Ronin | DPS, Versatile

8(+5) Health, 3 Speed 8(+5) Health, 5 Speed, 1(+½) Evasion

Passive: This enemy starts all combat Scenes ‘In Passive: This enemy can use its Primary Attack twice
Shadow’, meaning it does not appear on the board and per turn by default, three times if they didn’t move.
can't be targeted, In Shadow is lost when this Enemy
takes an Action. Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
opponent closest to itself.
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
opponent furthest from its other allies. Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits.
2(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1. If this was used In
Shadow this enemy can Teleport to a space adjacent to [Ace:T2] Thunderclap And Flash: This enemy indicates
any character before targeting, and gains 3(+1) up to 4 Lines connected at the ends where at least one
Advantage on its Roll. is connected to the enemy. At the end of this enemy's
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits, this next turn it moves across each line until it reaches the
damage is doubled if the target has no other adjacent end of the final one, using its Primary Attack each time it
characters. moves over or adjacent to an opponent, targeting that
Opponent.
[Ace:T3] Disappear: This enemy re-enters In Shadow.

Pugilist | DPS, Debuff, Squishy

Slayer | DPS, Debuff, Slow
12(+5) Health, 5 Speed, 1(+½) Evasion
10(+5) Health, 4 Speed
Passive: When this enemy successfully Attacks they
Passive: This enemy is unaffected by Effects that gain an additional effect based on the number of times
attempt to lower its speed. they’ve successfully attacked in the scene, resetting
when they reach the final one. The effects are as
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the follows.
opponent with the highest maximum HP. 1: Push the target 3 spaces, then move to follow.
2: Snare the target.
Primary Attack: When this enemy attacks without being 3: Launch the target.
“Charged”, they become Charged instead. While 4: If the target is Launched, gain double Advantage from
Charged this enemy has their Speed reduced to 1. Lose Spiking them.
Charged. Choose an adjacent character. Roll 8(+2)D6
with a Challenge of 1. Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits. Shred opponent closest to itself.
the target.
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
[Ace:T3] Bifurcate: This enemy indicates an opponent 4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
and becomes Charged. At the start of this Enemies next Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits.
Turn it moves adjacent to that opponent moving through
as few spaces as possible. This enemy then uses its [Ace:T5] Martial Perfection: For the rest of combat this
Primary Attack targeting the opponents it moved enemy triggers their passive twice on each attack.
through or adjacent to .

101
Tank Enemies Guardian | Tank, Displacement, Slow

Duelist | DPS, Tanking, Squishy 20(+5) Health, 3 Speed, 1(+½) Armor

10(+5) Health, 3 Speed Passive: The spaces adjacent to this are counted as
difficult terrain for its opponents.
Passive: Characters who Attack or are Attacked by this
enemy are Taunted by it. Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
opponent closest to its other allies.
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
opponent closest to itself. Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1. push them 2 spaces away.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
move 1 space. [Ace:T1] Guardian Shield: This enemy Immobilizes
itself and Taunts all its opponent’s within 4.
[Ace:T3] Disassemble: Choose a character and place a
weak point in the furthest space adjacent to the
Slime | Tank, Debuff, Versatile
character from this enemy. When this enemy Attacks
that character while standing in the weak point it does
5(+5) Health, 3 Speed, 1(+½) Armor
triple damage and may immediately use this Ace again.

Passive: When this enemy is Knocked Out it creates

2(+1) Fodder zones in 2 spaces of it.

Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the

opponent closest to itself.

Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll

3(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
Weaken the target.

[Ace:T3] Consume: This enemy attacks a character, if it

hits the reward is changed to “Consume the target,
removing them from the board. Until this enemy is
Knocked Out that character can't take their turn.”.

102
Paladin | Tank, Support, Slow Swarm | Tank, Support, Displacement

15(+5) Health, 3 Speed, 1(+½) Armor 0* Health, 0* Speed

Passive: When this enemy attacks their allies they don't *Passive: When this enemy would Deploy 4(+2) Fodder
deal damage, healing the same amount instead. Zones instead. When this enemy takes its turn it counts
as being in every space a Fodder Zone occupies. This
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the enemy is Knocked Out when all Fodder Zones are
opponent closest to its other allies. Knocked Out.

Primary Attack: Choose up to 2 adjacent characters. Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
Roll 4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1. opponent closest to its other allies.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
Daze the target if it’s an opponent, or give Regenerate if Primary Attack: Choose up to 3 allies or opponents in
it’s an ally. the same space as a Fodder Zone, if this targets an ally
Reinforce them, if this targets an opponent roll 5(+1)D6
[Ace:T1] Weal and Woe: This enemy uses its Primary with a Challenge of 1.
Attack against all characters in 2 spaces of it. Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
Immobilize the target..

Cocoon | Tank, Engine, Slow

[Ace:T4] Reinforcements: Create 2(+1) Fodder Zones
on spaces on the edge of the Board.
25(+5) Health, 4 Speed, 2(+½) Armor

Passive: This enemy starts combat Scenes in a ‘Docile’ Mount | Tank, Support, Movement
state. While Docile, it can't willingly move or attack, and
when it ends its turn it gains 1 ‘Growth’, when this 10(+5) Health, 4 Speed
enemy starts its turn with 3 Growth it regains 20 Health
and is no longer Docile. Passive: At the start of combat or when this enemy is
summoned it may have a willing adjacent character
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the ‘Mount’ it. While a character is Mounted on this they
opponent closest to its other allies. combine and move as if they were Compound Enemy. If
its rider is targeted this enemy is targeted instead.
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
6(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1. Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits and opponent closest to its other allies.
moves up to 3 spaces in a straight line. If this movement
moves it adjacent to an opponent it may deal 2(+2) Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
damage to that opponent and move again. 5(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits.
[Ace:T4] Quick Growth: This enemy gains 1 Growth.
[Ace:T3] CHARGE: This enemy moves up to its speed
in a straight line. When this movement ends its rider
may use its Primary Attack or a Skirmish with
Advantage equal to its Tier.

103
Support Enemies Shade | Support, Engine, Slow

Healer | Support, Evasive, Slow 10(+5) Health, 2 Speed

8(+5) Health, 2 Speed Passive: At the beginning of each Round this enemy
can designate a space, for the remainder of the Round,
Passive: At the beginning of this enemy's Turn it may non-Shade enemies in that space can't be targeted.
choose an ally to be its ‘Guardian’. So long as it’s
adjacent to its Guardian and the Guardian can be Intent: This enemy has no Intent.
targeted this enemy cannot be targeted.
Primary Attack: Choose any character, Teleport them
Intent: This enemy has no Intent. to the designated space, or Teleport a character in the
designated space to another space.
Primary Attack: Restore 2(+1) Health to an enemy in 3
Range. This healing is doubled against its Guardian. [Ace:T5] Mother Of The Void: For the rest of this Scene
this enemy can designate 2 spaces with its passive.
[Ace:T2] Savior: This enemy removes all effects from
their Guardian and they begin Regenerating. Coordinator | Support, DPS, Squishy

Builder | Support, Displacement, Versatile 8(+5) Health, 3 Speed

10(+5) Health, 3 Speed, 1(+½) Armor Passive: This enemy's allies in 4 spaces count as
having Strengthened during this enemy’s Turn.
Passive: This enemy can move through terrain.
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the opponent closest to its other allies.
opponent closest to its other allies.
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
Primary Attack: Choose a character in 6 spaces. Deal 1 5(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Damage to them and place a 10(+1) Health 0 Armor Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
terrain adjacent to them. have an ally move their speed or use their primary
attack on a character who hasn’t been attacked this
[Ace:T4] Army Of Stone: Turn all pieces of Terrain on turn.
the board into allied Fodder Zones.
[Ace:T4] Coordinated Charge: All other enemies in 5
spaces can move their speed or use their primary attack
on a character who hasn’t been attacked this turn.

104
Rifter | Support, DPS, Squishy Doppelganger | Support, Evasive, Squishy

8(+5) Health, 2 Speed 6(+4) Health, 5 Speed

Passive: When this enemy initiates any form of Passive: This enemy can use the effect of its Primary
movement (even involuntary movement) it creates a Effect before Deploying into combat.
“Rift” in the space it left and the space it moved to.
When another Character moves on to a Rift they may Intent: This enemy has no Intent.
remove it and move to another unoccupied Rift.
Primary Attack: This enemy ‘Imitates’ one of its allies,
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the replacing their non-Health stats and Primary Attack with
opponent furthest from its other allies. the chosen ally’s. This Imitation lasts until this enemy
receives damage, in which case this enemy can Teleport
Primary Attack: Teleport to a space in 5 spaces, and to an unoccupied space within 6 spaces of it. A
target all adjacent characters. Roll 5(+1)D6 with a Doppelganger cannot Imitate the same enemy two
Challenge of 1. Turns in a row.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits.
[Ace:T5] Diplopia: This enemy creates two copies of
[Ace:T4] Implode: All Rifts explode, performing the itself in unoccupied adjacent spaces with the same Tier
damaging portion of this enemy’s Primary Attack on all and Health.
characters adjacent to those Rifts.

Illusionist | Support, Displacement, Evasive

Martyr | Support, Engine, Squishy
10(+5) Health, 2 Speed
8(+5) Health, 4 Speed
Passive: When this enemy starts their Turn, they may
Passive: At the end of each Round this enemy restores swap any enemy’s position with another enemy. This
4(+2) Health. counts as Teleporting for both.

Intent: This enemy has no Intent. Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack as many
opponents as possible.
Primary Attack: This enemy deals 2(+1) damage to
itself, until the end of this enemy’s next Turn all allies Primary Attack: Choose any number of adjacent
within 4 spaces of it gain 3(+1) Armor. characters. Roll 4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits. The
[Ace:T5] Sacrifice: This enemy knocks itself out, target is in ‘Flux’. When a character in Flux starts their
restoring Health to all allies equal to double the allies Turn this enemy may use its passive on them as if they
Armor. This triggers automatically if this enemy is were an enemy, doing so removes Flux.
knocked out while their team has an Ace use remaining.
[Ace:T2] Shattered Skies: This enemy Immobilizes
itself. At the start of its next turn it uses its Primary
Attack on all its opponents.

105
Engine Enemies

Baron | Engine, Tank, Slow

10(+5) Health, 2 Speed, 1(+½) Armor

Passive: At the start of its turn, this enemy names

“Skirmish”, “Cast”, or “Finisher”. It can't name the same
one twice in a row. When a player takes an action that
matches the last one this enemy named, this enemy can
Teleport to an empty space adjacent to them (If there is
one) and use its primary attack on it. This can only
happen once each Round.

Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the

opponent closest to its other allies.

Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll

6(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
Weaken the target.

[Ace:T5] Absolute Sovereignty: For the rest of this

Scene, this enemy may name two actions when it
triggers its Passive. It gains unlimited uses of its Passive
every Round.

Berserker | Engine, DPS, Slow Cultist | Engine, One-Shot

15(+5) Health, 3 Speed 8(+5) Health, 2 Speed

Passive: For every 5 damage this enemy takes it can Passive: When Cultists are Deployed the Narrator must
move 1 space in any direction and use its Primary choose an enemy type and level. A ritual counter is then
Attack (assuming its attack has a target in range). set to 0, if the counter reaches the chosen level x2 every
Cultist is killed and the declared enemy is summoned in
Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the one of their spaces. If a player uses this ability they may
opponent closest to itself. choose the enemy type and the level is set to 1 level
above their Tier.
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll
5(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1. Intent: This enemy has no Intent.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
push them 1 space away. Primary Attack: Immobilize yourself and progress the
ritual by 1(+1).
[Ace:T5] Last Stand: This enemy sets its Health to
10(+3), and its Passive changes to move it two spaces [Ace:T4] Quick Casting: This enemy immobilizes itself
for the rest of the Scene. and progresses the ritual by 2(+1).

106
Enchanter | Engine, Debuff, Squishy Hound Master | Engine, Displacement, Slow

8(+5) Health, 3 Speed 10(+5) Health, 2 Speed

Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the Passive: At the beginning of each Round this enemy
opponent furthest from its other allies. can target a character 4 or more spaces away and
create a “Seeker” in an adjacent space. Seekers are
Primary Attack: Choose a character in 5 spaces, Fear pieces of Terrain with 1 Health that move 1 space at the
or Taunt them. end of every Turn. If a Seeker moves adjacent to the
character that was targeted when it was created it
[Ace:T3] By My Command: This enemy chooses a disappears and deals 5(+1) damage to all adjacent
Taunted or Feared character, that character gains 2 AP characters.
and must take a Turn where they Attack one of their
allies or they receive 3 Wounds. Intent: This enemy has no Intent.

Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character. Roll

Necromancer | Engine, Support, Slow
5(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits and
8(+5) Health, 2 Speed, 1(+½) Evasion
push them 2 spaces away.

Passive: Enemies who’re Knocked Out when the

[Ace:T3] Wild Hunt: This enemy creates 3 Seekers
Necromancer is on the board leave a ‘Corpse’ on their
targeting the same character.
space.

Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the Privateer | Engine, DPS, Squishy
opponent closest to its other allies.
8(+5) Health, 4 Speed
Primary Attack: Choose a character in 5 spaces. Roll
3(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1. Passive: When an ally attacks an opponent in this
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits, Fear enemy’s range, this enemy can use its Primary Attack
the target. on the same target.

[Ace:T4] The Danse Macabre: This enemy revives 2 Intent: This enemy always attempts to attack the
Corpses as Bruisers, Vipers, or Rangers with Tiers equal opponent with the lowest maximum HP.
to this enemy’s minus 1 (min 1).
Primary Attack: Target all characters in a 2 space Line.
Roll 4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits.

[Ace:T5] Gear Change: For the rest of this Scene this

enemy can move 1 space at the end of every
character’s turn.

107
Modifier Enemies Giant | Modifier, Tank
These Enemies are not meant to serve as normal
Enemies. Modifier Enemies are meant to vary the 20(+10) Health, 2 Speed
gameplan or game state for other Enemies they are
Deployed alongside in a more passive way. Passive: This Enemy can only be a Compound Enemy.
This enemy takes up 2x2 spaces.
They are still designed to be as impactful as a normal
enemy and can be equated to one when balancing Intent: This enemy always attempts to move through as
encounters, but they should never be Deployed without many opponents as possible.
other—more standard—enemy types.
Primary Attack: This enemy moves up to 4 spaces in a
Unless specified otherwise Modifier Enemies don't have straight line ignoring opponents. Any opponents who’re
access to an Ace. moved through are pushed to unoccupied spaces
adjacent to this Enemy’s new location and are
Artillery | Modifier, DPS, AOE Launched.

8(+5) Health, 0 Speed

Haven | Modifier, Displacement
Passive: After this enemy Deploys, they choose one of
*N/A Health, 0 Speed
the following shapes: two ∞ length Lines so long as
they have no adjacent spaces, a 3x3 Zone, a 2x5 Zone,
*Passive: When this enemy would be Deployed indicate
all the spaces on the board's edges. At the end of this
a 3x3 area instead. This enemy is Knocked Out when it
enemy’s Turn and after it Deploys it may indicate its
has no allies on the board. This enemy must always take
chosen shape anywhere on the board. This enemy must
the last Turn out of its allies.
always take the last Turn out of its allies.

Intent: This enemy has no Intent.

Intent: This enemy always attempts to target as many
opponents as possible.
Primary Attack: This enemy deals damage equal to the
current Tension to all Opponents outside of the
Primary Attack:. This enemy targets all spaces it
indicated Zone. This enemy moves the Indicated Zone
indicated with its Passive. Roll 5(+1)D6 with a Challenge
anywhere on the board.
of 1. Remove the indicated shape.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits.
Joel's Notes: Last Turn Enemies
Multiple Enemies in this section share the rules text
VIP | Modifier, Versatile, Support “This enemy must always take the last Turn out of its
allies.”. If you Deploy multiple Enemies with this text,
8(+5) Health, 4 Speed your players will hate you. If you’re still going to do it,
you may have them act after their other allies without
Passive: If this Enemy is Knocked Out all Players are that rule instead.
Knocked Out. This enemy cannot be targeted so long
they’re adjacent to another non-VIP Player.

Intent: This enemy has no Intent.

108
Contagion | Modifier, Displacement Gargantuan | Modifier, Tank

*N/A Health, 0 Speed 20(+10) Health, 0 Speed

*Passive: When this enemy would be Deployed, Passive: This Enemy can only be a Compound Enemy.
indicate a player character instead. This enemy is All other Parts connected to this have their Speed
Knocked Out when it has no allies on the board. This reduced to 0 and cannot move for any reason. When
enemy must always take the last Turn out of its allies. this enemy would be Deployed, indicate a board edge
and expand the board one space in its direction instead
Intent: This enemy always attempts to target as many (making the board 7x8). This enemy takes up every
opponents as possible. space added by this expansion of the board.

Primary Attack: This enemy deals damage equal to the Intent: This enemy always attempts to target as many
current Tension to all Opponents within 3 spaces of the opponents as possible.
indicated player character (not including said character).
Choose a new player character to nominate. Primary Attack: This enemy targets up to two 2x2
Zones anywhere on the board, removing any terrain
created by this Attack, destroying any Terrain there,
Isolation | Modifier, Displacement
pushing all characters out, and placing terrain in those
spaces. When these terrain pieces are targeted the user
*N/A Health, 0 Speed
targets this enemy instead. This enemy and its other
Parts can draw its range from the Terrain it has created.
*Passive: When this enemy would be Deployed,
Roll 4(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1.
indicate a player character instead. This enemy is
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the Hits to characters
Knocked Out when it has no allies on the board. This
moved by this Attack.
enemy must always take the last Turn out of its allies.

Intent: This enemy always attempts to target as few Legion | Modifier, Support
opponents as possible (min 1).
*X Health, 0 Speed
Primary Attack: This enemy deals 4(+1) damage
multiplied by the number of player characters to all *Passive: This enemy’s health is equal to the number of
Opponents within within 3 spaces of the indicated player characters Deployed x 20. This enemy cannot
player character (not including said character). This take damage from any Feature outside of this Passive.
damage is divided by the number of characters Every time another enemy is defeated this takes 10
receiving it. This enemy moves the Indicated Zone damage. Whe this enemy is Knocked Out all other
anywhere on the board. enemies are Knocked Out. This enemy does not need to
be Deployed.

Intent: This enemy has no Intent.

Primary Attack: This enemy returns an enemy who has

been Knocked Out to a space on the board’s edge at
half Health.

109
Sample Compound Enemies Supreme Sniper | DPS (Ranger / Assassin)
Compound enemies are the most complex opponents
possible, and will often represent the most important 16(+10) HP, 8(+5) Health Gate, 3 Speed, 1(+½) Evasion
Antagonists and opponents for the players. For this
reason, here are some examples provided to make the Passive: If this enemy is Deployed by the Narrator they
creation of Compound Enemies easier to create. must also place a 2x2 or 3x3 space of elevated Terrain
somewhere below the Ranger. (Terrain that must be
Golden Gladiator | DPS (Slayer / Captor) climbed to get on to, as per the difficult terrain rules).

Passive: This enemy starts all combat Scenes “In

18(+10) HP, 9(+5) Health Gate, 4 Speed
Shadow”, meaning it does not appear on the board and
can't be targeted, In Shadow is lost when this Enemy
Passive: This enemy is unaffected by Effects that
takes an Action. This enemy can't take a turn until the
attempt to lower its speed.
start of the second Round.

Slayer Turn
Ranger Turn
Primary Attack: When this enemy attacks without being
Primary Attack: This enemy Immobilizes itself and
“Charged”, they become Charged instead. While
chooses a character in 5 spaces prioritizing those with
Charged this enemy has their Speed reduced to 1. Lose
the lowest maximum HP. Roll 4D6(+1) with a Challenge
Charged. Choose an adjacent character prioritizing
of 1. This deals double damage if the target is at least 4
those with the highest maximum HP. Roll 8(+2)D6 with a
spaces away from this enemy.
Challenge of 1.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits Shred
the target.
Ace: Choose a character this enemy can see, the next
time they’re hit by this enemy’s Primary Attack they
Ace: This enemy becomes Charged and does not
receive double damage.
reduce their speed. This ace does not use the enemy’s
Attack Action.
Assassin Turn
Captor Turn
Primary Attack: Choose an adjacent character
prioritizing those furthest from its other allies. Roll
Primary Attack: Choose a character in 5 spaces
3(+1)D6 with a Challenge of 1. If this was used In
prioritizing those farthest from itself. Roll 4(+1)D6 with a
Shadow the enemy can Teleport to a space adjacent to
Challenge of 1.
any character before targeting, and gains 3(+1)
Reward: Deal Damage equal to double the Hits, and
Advantage on its Roll.
Snare them.
Reward: Deal Damage equal to the number of Hits, this
damage is doubled if the target has no other adjacent
Ace: Choose an opponent in 5 spaces, at the end of the
characters.
Enemy’s next turn it may use its primary attack on all
characters in 3 spaces of that character. Characters hit
Ace: This enemy re-enters In Shadow.
by this are pulled adjacent to the targeted character and
are Snared by them instead of this enemy.

110
Sample Combat Scenarios Defense
The standard objective in a combat Scene is to There’s some sort of area or device that the player’s
Knockout all Enemies in the Scene before the player success hinges upon. The players succeed by reaching
characters are Knocked Out. This is not a hard and fast a specific amount of Tension without an Enemy starting
requirement though. Narrators should feel free to their turn in the indicated gold area.
change the victory condition of any individual combat.
This could be because of the game’s narrative, or just Due to the lacking reliance on enemies, an additional
because they feel it would be more fun. “Legion” could be added to any given enemy comp
without significantly turning the numbers in their favor.
The exact nature of these changes are up to the
Narrator in question but there are common ideas that’ll
end up in more than one game. This page is meant to
show some good examples of it.

Legend
The board setup before Deployment will be shown for
some of these examples. The colors shown in the
diagrams below have the following meanings:

Blue Spaces: Player Deployment zone.

Red Spaces: Enemy Deployment zone.

Grey Spaces: Standard Terrain.

Assault
Gold Spaces: Unique Terrain. Will be explained in the
The inverse of the previous example. The players
example’s description.
succeed by reaching a specific amount of Tension
without an Enemy standing in the indicated gold area
The white spaces make up the remainder of the board
and with at least one of the player characters in it.
and are treated as standard empty spaces.

Due to the lacking reliance on enemies, an additional

“Legion” could be added to any given enemy comp
without significantly turning the numbers in their favor.

111
Credits
Formatting:
Joel V.

Writing:
Joel V.
Wolfgang Eastman (Technique fluff text)
Moth Mouse (Technique fluff text)

Copy Editing:
Kendall Harper

Playtesters:
(g)Nat Hunter
IGKU (controls food by damaging it)
1in3
Gold
ScoutxD
“C”
Cappachronic
Razor Roy

Artists:
Comixian: @cosmixian
Skycrime: @SkyCrimeDraws
Horology: @horoart
YoungWeb: @youngweb5
Francesco Silva: @francescolobo
Kyo Yukanna: @Kyo_Yukanna
Saka: @sakasukiyaki
Shig: @Shigezie0
AlezzioArts: @AlezzioArts
BBUREDO: @bured0
Pit: @pitganart
Distr: @Distrbeachboy
Okaysureyeah: @okisurya70
Somerdrop: @smrsltdrpkck
Mag: @maggotmicrowave

112

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