Characters

There are two types of characters: player characters (PCs) and non-player characters (NPCs). Each player character is controlled by a single player, and represents a character that is superlative is more than one way; each non-player character is controlled by the narrator, and ranges widely in capabilities, from lowly peasants to kingdom-conquering villains to titanic monsters, and all points in between.
Regardless of who controls the character, all characters share a common set of attributes that define who they are. Most mechanics work the same between PCs and NPCs, with a few subtle differences that are highlighted where appropriate.

Attributes

All characters have the same set of attributes; these attributes are used in different contexts throughout the game. Players will shape their own characters through creation and upgrades to determine their values; narrators can reference the Bestiary for templates for each NPCs and modify from there.
The set of character attributes are:
  • Species: each character belongs to one of the species in the world; player characters must be one of the six mortal species, while NPCs can be mortals, fae, princes, or monsters. The character's species determines its toughness (used to resist unconsciousness), initiative (used to determine turn order), and movement (used to determine potential distance the character can cover in a turn).
  • Skills: there are 16 skills (12 common and 4 magic); all characters have access to the 12 common skills, and may have access to a subset of the 4 magic skills. All skills have a training value (for upgrading dice when making checks), and a mastery value (for adding to the final value of a check's roll). The four magic skills also have an affinity value (for improving the potency of actions taken with that skill).
  • Defenses: there are 5 defenses that a character has; each of these is added directly to the DV of any check that calls for them (e.g., Strength vs DV12+Fortitude would directly add the character's fortitude defense to the DV). The five defenses are: bravery, spirit, clarity, fortitude, and reaction.
  • Damage: there are 3 damage types a character can suffer: injury, fear, and confusion. Each of these three is recorded independently. In addition, characters have unique breakpoints for each damage type; when the character has suffered enough damage to reach their breakpoint, something will happen (the details vary by damage type).
  • Armor: there are 5 armors that a character has; each of these reduces incoming damage of the associated type by the armor's amount. Physical injury armor is determined by the physical armor mortal characters wear (non-mortal characters often have innate injury armor).
  • Conditions: after reaching a breakpoint in damage, characters may suffer a condition; in the case of injury, specific conditions may be applied (such as a "leg injury", which reduces movement by 1). In the case of fear and confusion, the generic conditions afraid and confused apply, each of which grants a specific effect.
  • Charms and Curses: a character may benefit from any number of charms or be suffering from any number of curses at any time. Charms and curses are both types of enchantments, which apply effects to the targeted character for their duration.

Player Character Specific Attributes

In addition to the above, player characters have a few more attributes that define them:
  • Story Points: throughout play, player characters accumulate story points (SP). These points are a spendable currency that allows the character to upgrade and unlock potent new abilities.
  • Virtues: there are three virtues available to all player characters; each virtue is a binary attribute - where a character always has one of the two values. Demonstrating these virtues enables player characters to benefit from various bonus effects on actions, and to make use of machines.
  • Tales: all player characters begin with a single tale, which helps to sculpt their abilities and makes the character unique. As they progress in their story, player characters may unlock additional tales, granting them powerful synergies and flexible solutions to challenges.
  • Talents: each tale consists of a set of talents; these represent special actions, upgrades, passives, recipes, and more that can be unlocked by the character. Once a character has unlocked a talent, they gain its effect.
  • Machines: any machine the character possesses
  • Research: any alchemical recipe that has been researched by the character in the research tree