Attributes

You have three attribute scores, which can be reduced as low as 0 and increased as high as 18. When you try something that has a chance of failure, you must make saving throw by rolling a d20 under or equal to the relevant attribute. The character taking the most risk makes the save.

These scores describe how you perform under pressure and do not define your innate physical or mental qualities, or necessarily indicate how to role play a character.

Strength (STR): Power, endurance, physicality. Dead at 0.
Dexterity (DEX): Reflex, finesse, flow state. Paralyzed at 0.
Control (WIL): Concentration, mental resilience, presence. Delirious at 0.

All characters can suffer direct damage to their attributes. This damage is usually temporary and may be healed over time.

Guard

Your Guard (GD) is your ability to avoid damage in combat while on guard. Guard can be reduced as low as 0 and starts at a range of 1-6. Reduction of Guard represents near misses, stunning blows, stamina depletion, scratches and bruises, and so on. Damage that goes beyond Guard deducts from your Strength score (representing serious damage to the body).

All Guard is replenished after a brief rest and eating a ration or meal.

Armor soaks damage before it hits Guard. Any damage taken is first subtracted by the target’s armor value. Armor is capped at 3.

Skills

Backgrounds imply skillsets, and explicit skills may also be laid out and trained.

To perform a task, you must have skill, time, and tools. There may be situations where environmental factors or opportunities substitute for tools or skills and appropriate help can substitute for time.

If you have one or none, the attempt cannot be made. It automatically fails.
If you have two, you must roll a save or the referee will roll a die of fate, with odds improving based on any mitigating circumstances.
If you have all three, you automatically succeed.

The referee should make clear the consequences of failure, which could include

Damaging a tool
Endangering a party member
Time lost and a new complication introduced
Suffering damage or Fatigue

The impact of success or failure may also have nuance based on the skill level of the adventurer.

Always err on the side of fiction first and consider what the consequences of failure are and if they are even interesting enough to require rolling.

Yield

Whenever a task produces a yield (harvesting, hunting, brewing, curing meat, cooking), use a dice chain to determine the quantity. The dice chain starts at d4 and improves with skill, time, tools, and environmental factors up to a maximum of d12.

Burden

Burden is your inventory of 10 slots. If all 10 slots are filled, you are reduced to zero Guard, signifying encumbrance.

Petty items take up 0 slots. Carrying a massive amount of petty items may take up a full slot, per referee’s judgment.
Bulky items take up 2 slots and must be carried in two hands.
Some items can be bundled together. For example, “rations 3/3”.
500 coins take up 1 slot. The first 500 coins can be considered as petty (does not take up a slot).
Burden slots can also be occupied by Wounds, Fatigue, Spellburn, Symbiotic Fungi, or other permanent and semi-permanent things.

Deprivation and Fatigue

When you cannot get a crucial need, such as food, water, or sleep, you are Deprived. You cannot recover Guard, damage to Attribute Scores, or burden slots from Fatigue.
If you are Deprived for more than a day, add a Fatigue to your burden, one for each day.
Fatigue may be taken to perform special abilities, cast spells, or from environmental conditions.
If you must add Fatigue to your burden but have no free slots, you must drop an item from your inventory.
All Fatigue is removed after a full night’s rest.

Die of Fate

To represent the randomness of the game world, roll 1d6. Higher results (typically 4-6) favor the adventurers while lower results do not.

Time

Rounds: The amount of time it takes to attack once and move around in combat. ~10 to 15 seconds.
Scenes: The amount of time it takes to move carefully through a few rooms or explore one in great detail. ~10 to 60 minutes.
Watches: The amount of time it takes to explore acres or travel several leagues. ~6 to 10 hours.
Cycle: The amount of time it takes to progress a project or recover from an injury. ~1 to 4 weeks.

Light

Adventurers and other people in the world can be assumed to carry flint and steel or some other spark-making device on them at all times, whenever it would be reasonable to have one.

Maintaining light is a job (and not resource tracking). One character must provide light at the expense of doing anything else thoroughly. Light sources can be set down during combat and provide illumination, but torches and candles are vulnerable to snuffing. Oil lanterns are safer from snuffing, though perilous when knocked over.

Food

Rations are required for restoring Guard between moments of danger. During exploration, taking a scene to rest and eat a ration restores all Guard.

Meals can be used like rations, but they also remove Fatigue. A meal takes up 1 slot (whereas 3 rations fit in a slot).

Simple meals (like a cooked fish or vegetable) remove 1 Fatigue.
Balanced meals consisting of a protein, vegetable, and carbohydrate remove all Fatigue.

Otherwise, food is not tracked as a resource, meaning that players need not mark off food at regular intervals.

Panic

An adventurer must make a WIL save against panicking under any of the following conditions:

surrounded by enemies
in complete darkness, unable to see
facing one of their greatest fears
suffering damage to WIL

When panicking, an adventurer is at 0 Guard and all of their attacks are impaired.

Combat

Time spent in combat is measured in rounds. Each round represents the amount of time it takes to move several paces, move a few paces and swing a sword, shoot a bow, cast a spell, hide behind a barrel, leap over a chasm, or perform similar actions.

Initiative and Surprise

A side’s actions all occur simultaneously. Determine which side acts first based on the fiction. When who acts first is in doubt, roll for initiative: Each adventurer who was not surprised by an ambush must make a DEX save.

The turn order commences as follows, alternating until the fight is over:

Any adventurers who pass their initiative (DEX) save
The enemy
All adventurers
The enemy
All adventurers…

Remember that not all encounters may result in combat.

Actions

On your turn you may move and perform an action, such as

casting a spell
attacking
taking something out of your equipment (including switching weapons)
making a second movement
making a maneuver, like tripping, disarming, grappling, or climbing a massive monster

Minor actions like picking up a small object, dismounting a horse, or calling out do not count as an action.

Players declare what actions they will take before rolling any dice. If they attempt something risky, the referee will call for a save from the appropriate party.

Then player actions are resolved. All actions, attacks, and movements are resolved roughly at the same time. This is followed by the enemies attacking.

Attacking

To attack, the attacker rolls their weapon die for the damage and the target subtracts their Armor bonus, if any.

The rest of the damage hits the defender’s GD first. Any excess damage is dealt to the defender’s STR. They must then make a save versus Critical Damage using the new STR score.

Some attacks may directly affect STR, DEX, or WIL. When this happens, there may be a save required to avoid some effect.

Impaired and Enhanced Attacks

When an attacker fights from a position of weakness (with bound hands or through cover), their attack is impaired. Impaired attacks inflict 1d4 damage. Unarmed attacks do 1d4 damage.
When an attacker fights from a position of strength (with a daring maneuver or attacking a defenseless foe), their attack is enhanced. Enhanced attacks inflict 1d12 damage.

Multiple Attackers and Weapons

If multiple attackers target the same defender, all attackers roll their dice and only the single highest result is applied to the defender.

If attacking with two weapons at the same time, roll both damage dice and keep the single highest result.

Blast

Attacks with the blast quality affect all targets in the noted area, rolling separately for each affected character. Blast refers to anything from explosions to huge cleaving onslaughts. If unsure how many targets can be affected, roll the related damage die for a result.

Ranged Attacks

Ranged weapons can target any enemy near enough to see the whites of their eyes. Attacks against especially distant targets are impaired.
Ammunition is not tracked unless otherwise specified.

Retreat

Escaping a doomed situation requires a successful DEX save and a safe destination in order to get away.

Morale

The enemy side must make a morale save (WIL) to remain in combat when suffering major setbacks.

Lone foes must save when they’re exposed (reduced to 0 GD).

Groups of foes must save when

they take their first casualty
they lose half their number
they lose their leader

Some groups may use their leader’s WIL in place of their own. Some NPCs never make morale saves. Ally NPCs also make morale saves. Adventurers never make morale saves.

Detachments

Large groups of similar combatants fighting together are treated as a single detachment. Use the same stat line as the individual version but add detachment and follow the below additions:

When a detachment suffers Critical Damage, it is routed or significantly weakened. When it reaches 0 STR, it is destroyed.

Attacks against detachments by individuals are impaired (excluding blast damage).
Attacks against individuals by detachments are enhanced and deal blast damage.

Some monsters (like dragons) are treated as detachments and are indicated as such.

Critical Damage

When combat damage takes a target below 0 GD, they suffer damage to STR and must make a STR save (with their new reduced STR) against suffering Critical Damage.

When a target suffers Critical Damage, they are out of the action, grasping for life. If given aid and rest, they will stabilize and be able to get back into the action. If left untreated, they die within the hour.

Some enemies may have special abilities triggered by failing a Critical Damage STR save. These effects can be instantly fatal.

Scars

When an adventurer suffers damage that takes them to 0 GD exactly (after Armor), the adventurer takes a scar. Compare the amount of damage taken against the numbered item in the scar list below. In the fiction, the scar should be described by the referee based on the type of damage suffered.

N.B. This is the damage taken, not the damage rolled. For example, you have 2 Armor and 5 Guard. The enemy rolls a 7 on their damage die. Your Armor absorbs 2 damage. The remaining 5 is applied to the Guard, leaving you with 0 Guard and inflicting a scar. Since you suffered 5 damage, you refer to item 1-6 from the scar list.

Damage Taken	Advancement
1-6	After resting for 1 day, roll 1d6. If the total is higher than your max Guard, take the new result. Otherwise, add 1.
7-9	After resting for 1 day, roll 1d6. Add the total to your max Guard.
10-12	After resting for 1 day, roll 2d6. If the total is higher than your max Guard, take the new result. Otherwise, add 1.

Guard cannot go higher than 18.

Healing

Resting for a scene (~10 to 60 minutes) and eating a ration restores lost Guard but risks exposing the party to danger.
Resting and eating a ration also stabilizes anyone suffering Critical Damage, allowing them to recover lost Guard (but not any damage to Attribute Scores).
A good night’s rest will remove all Fatigue from your burden.
A full day’s rest will recover 1 point for any reduced Attribute Score, up to its max. Ability restoration is faster when facilitated by someone with medical expertise or by supernatural means.
A simple meal restores 1 Fatigue and may act as a ration for the purposes of recovering Guard. A balanced meal restores all Fatigue.

Death

When an adventurer dies, have a funeral for them later. As soon as possible, have the player roll up a new character and introduce them immediately.

Alternatively, a hireling or retainer may be played by the player until the next time a new character can be rolled up. Ideally, the player should take on the role of someone else’s hireling or retainer (not their own).

Blaze of Glory

When appropriate, a player character may go out in a blaze of glory, or take death as an opportunity to provide a benefit to the rest of the party. This could include

inflicting enhanced damage in your final struggle,
providing a distraction for your party to get away,
or inspiring grief-stricken rage in the party over your demise and granting them some boon.

A player character may also choose a party member and give them their final words. If the adventurer was eaten by a dragon or disintegrated or something similar, the party member can receive the message some other way, such as via a diary, an unsent letter, or an estate attorney.

Remember me: Give them a parting gift. It could be something from their inventory or something invented for the moment.
Make sure they get this: Give them an item to deliver. Depending on the difficulty, this task earns the chosen PC 1 XP.
Promise me you’ll keep them safe: Name an NPC (new or existing) and have the PC swear to protect them. Saving the NPC the first time in a moment of peril earns the PC 1 XP.
Avenge me: Name the thing that killed you, its master, or collaborator and have them swear revenge. Fulfilling that revenge earns the PC 1 XP.
Mysterious final words: Mumble something (maybe something you decide on later) and work with the referee and the witnessing PC to determine its meaning.

Magic

Spells always count as petty. They exist in two forms:

Scrolls, which are single-use but can be copied into a Grimoire
Entries in a Grimoire

Scrolls

Scrolls can be written on things other than actual paper scrolls, such as pieces of bark, stone tablet, a long ribbon, or a floorboard.

Grimoires

Spell scrolls may be copied into the Grimoire.

Spend a full watch copying the spell.
Use magical inks (costs 70 silver).
The scroll is destroyed in the process.

To create a Grimoire, you will need

4 uses of magical inks.
A spell scroll (as the first spell of the Grimoire, sacrificed in the process).
A blank book.
A full watch, after which you are deprived.

Spellcasting

Hold a Grimoire or Spell Scroll and cast the spell.
Available Magic Dice (d6) are equal to your available burden slots, up to a maximum of 4. Choose how many to invest. Some spells may note {dice} for the number of invested Magic Dice and/or their {sum}. Some magic items grant additional Magic Dice beyond 4.
Roll. For each magic die that resulted in 4, 5, or 6, add a Fatigue to a burden slot. On a 1, 2, or 3, the magic die does not inflict a Fatigue.
On doubles, you suffer a mishap. On triples, you suffer a doom. Some spells have special mishaps and dooms.

When spellcasting under duress or in the middle of combat (without adequate protection, e.g. not behind cover, visible, in the fray of melee), spellcasting requires a WIL save. On a failure, a random mishap occurs (but the spell still goes off).

Mishaps and Dooms

Spellcasting is dangerous. Mishaps and Dooms are the result of over-channeling magical power.

If you roll doubles on your magic dice, a magical mishap occurs with the spell behaving as written. If multiple doubles are rolled, the highest number takes precedence.
If you roll triples on your magic dice, you receive 1 doom. The spell behaves as written. If multiple triples are rolled, all dooms are counted.

A mishap and a doom can occur on the same roll, but this is rare (5 dice would have to be invested).

Mishaps

d6	Mishap
1	For the next 24 hours, you receive Fatigue on 3-6 of the Magic Dice when casting spells.
2	A splitting headache strikes you. Suffer 1d6 WIL damage.
3	You suffer terrible magic burns. Adds a Spellburn to your inventory. Must be healed.
4	Your nerves tingle. You are deprived until you rest for a Watch.
5	You cannot cast spells until the next day.
6	The spell has a chain reaction, determined by the referee. Take an additional Fatigue.

Dooms

Dooms are progressive.

The first doom overchannels the spell and all Fatigues in your inventory are turned into Spellburns, but the spell has an additional benefit.

Depending on the spell and the circumstances of the casting, the referee will determine the two remaining dooms.

The second doom will have a permanent benefit and downside.

The third doom may result in losing the PC, whether through death or a significant

Probability

#d6	Mishap chance (%)	Doom chance (%)
1	0	0
2	17	0
3	44	3
4	72	10
5	96	19
6	99	32

Relics

Powerful magical items are known as relics. These typically have charges with recharge conditions. Some have the effects of specific spells, but they usually don’t risk the possibility of mishaps and dooms.

Identifying relics, what they do, their recharge properties, and any curses requires skill, time, and tools. Narratively, adventurers can experiment with the relic to discover things about it over the course of a watch, but it may prove risky. Researching or seeking expert advice during downtime cycles can also be used to identify relics and carries little risk.

Advancement

Non-diegetic increases to attribute scores and Guard are based on ranks and titles as Meddlers.

Diegetic advancement is directly tied to the fiction of the game. These advancements may grant the adventurer special abilities and skills outside of Meddler rank increases, and can also in some cases come with a downside. Diegetic advancement includes:

Interacting with a strange artifact or object
Exposing yourself to magic and other strange effects
Being changed by a monster (werewolf bite, losing an arm, cursed)
Striking a bargain with a powerful being like a deity or faerie lord
Injury or contamination
Learning through trial and error, like using a particular tactic during combat until it is perfected
Training, which could yield specific appropriate background or profession benefits, or weapons training (and which also requires a teacher and downtime)
Advancing within a particular faction, like learning the secrets of a cult or swearing an oath to a knightly order
Resolving a major mission, with all the boons that may entail

Outside the Rules

This SRD provides a light framework of rules for running a game. When anything may ambiguous or a procedure is unclear or just can’t be remembered at the moment, remember the principles.

For consequences, threats, and disincentives, use fiction first, but also consider imposing mechanical penalties like Panic, Deprivation, Fatigue, Wounds, and suffering Direct Damage to Attribute Scores.