Actions Index

Assassination is the art of killing an unsuspecting NPC — a carefully planned murder meant to go unnoticed. It cannot be used against Player Characters or NPCs who have reason to expect an attempt on their life.

The GM sets the Duration at 2 weeks, modified by:

• +1 week if the target is heavily guarded, reclusive, or lives in a secure location.
• −1 week if the target has a public routine, known vulnerabilities, or you have inside access.

At the end of the Duration, Save.

Declare a single target who you intend to harm & how (kill, shove, knock out). If the defender allows it, it happens. If not, perform 1 or more Strikes; by default, characters receive 1 Strike per Attack (but may receive more through Features or other abilities).

In order to attack a target, they must be within your weapon's reach. A character's melee reach is equal to their Size by default. Ranged attacks use the weapon's listed range as its reach.

To perform a Strike against a chosen valid target, choose an available weapon & roll a Strike Save. You may not add personal Fact bonuses to a Save, but should otherwise add factors such as the environment, Conditions, & the like.

If your Strike deals enough Damage to outright kill the defender, you receive the Action you spent on your Attack back.

Ranged Weapon Rules

The following extra rules apply only to ranged attacks.

• Out of Range: Ranged attacks may be performed at up to twice a weapon's listed range, but when doing so, each Strike Save suffers a −1 penalty.
• Firing into Melee: When firing on a foe engaged in melee, the victim is chosen by random die roll from among all those visible within that foe's melee reach whose Heights are greater than half the intended target's Height.
• Cover: If the target has low/weak cover (half a character's Height), ranged attacks' Strike Saves suffer a −2 penalty. If the target has high/strong cover (covering their whole body), it's a −4 penalty.

The Angry Step

While starting an Attack Action & while not suffering any terrain or Condition that limits or alters your free movement, you may choose to move a distance up to or equal to your melee reach before making any Strikes. This extra distance is called the Angry Step & it does not count against your movement for your Turn.

You can relocate your Capital to a new Settlement or Location. The old Capital becomes a provincial seat or secondary holding; the new one becomes the administrative heart of your Faction.

If the destination is already a Location you control (a Settlement in your realm), this is a transfer of administration. If it's a new Location (a conquered or claimed site), this is a planting of the flag.

Duration

The Duration is determined by the distance between the old and new Capital, in days. Measure the time taken to travel via the Travel action, and double it. That's how long the relocation takes.

When the Duration elapses, your Capital is established in the new location.

Cost

Relocating a Capital costs $10 per day of the Duration to cover transport, supplies, and the initial establishment of offices and residences.

If the destination is a Location you already control (a Settlement in your realm), halve the costs. The infrastructure exists, you just have to shift personnel and priority.

Save

No Save is required for a Faction with 0 Families (a solo Leader or small party just moving their base of operations).

If your Faction has at least 1 Family, Save at the end of the Duration. The Save represents the legal, administrative, and diplomatic headaches of untethering your seat of power from one place and re-establishing it in another.

Apply modifiers from the standard Faction Resolution process (Institutional Knowledge, Power, Precedent, Foreign, Opposition), plus:

• +1 if the destination is already a Location in your realm (you're consolidating, not claiming)
• -1 for each hostile Faction whose territory your route passes through or whose region contains your destination
• -1 if your old Capital is more than 100 miles from the new one (distance strains administrative continuity)

Benefits

A well-chosen Capital relocation can open new opportunities — closer access to resources, better defensive position, political legitimacy in a newly-conquered region.

Capital Decay

Your old Capital becomes a Settlement (or Location) in your realm, but it loses the prestige and administrative focus that made it your Capital. It now functions as a regular Location of its type. If another Faction moves in, they may claim it as their Capital.

Casting is an Instant Save Action. There are two casting methods to follow depending on the kind of spirit you have. There are two kinds of spell-spirits:

• Spells are little spirits. They are captured or tamed & used as lenses for power by magicians of similar mindset & character.
• Souls are the spirits of more powerful entities. They are largely fixed in nature & cannot be changed simply by dumping power into them, but given an appropriate sacrifice will act on your behalf.

Both kinds of casting are dangerous.

After you cast a spell, you cannot heal HP until you spend at least a full day Resting.

Spell-casting

To cast a spell, you must have at least one personal Fact that resembles the nature of the spell. A geomancer needs to be Obsessed With Mathematics before he can use an organizational spell. An avian wizard needs to be Flighty to fly. The relationship can be poetic. More than half the relevant Players, GM included, have to agree. A Fact stating you are part of a Tradition that possesses the spell is always acceptable.

Assuming this condition is met, the process is as follows:

1. Have a Totem containing a spirit held in a hand in front of you (it doesn't have to be your hand), with one of your hands free for gestures & invocation.
2. Decide how many Spell Dice you want to invest into the casting.
3. Roll all invested SD & determine the spell's effects (i.e. choose targets). The number of SD you invest is the [Dice] variable; the sum of all rolled values is the [Sum] variable.
4. For each pair of doubled results rolled on your SD, suffer a Mishap from the Mishaps table. If you only invested 1 SD, a 6 causes a Mishap.
5. Each invested SD that rolls 4–6 is exhausted.

Soul-casting

To cast a soul:

1. Have a Totem containing a soul held in a hand in front of you (it doesn't have to be your hand), with one of your hands free for gestures & invocation.
2. Take Damage equal to the spirit's Power. This Damage is called your sacrifice.
3. Choose a benefit you wish to invoke from the spirit's list of Features:
4. Roll a single d6 die. On a 1, the spirit-casting fails. On a 6, you suffer a Mishap from the Mishaps table. On any other value, the casting works as expected.

Mishaps

Move at least & up to 3× any of your Speed scores in a straight unobstructed line & then perform an Attack at the end as per the Attack Action's rules. At the end of the Attack, the target, if less than half your Weight, must Save or Panic.

A Coraler army can blockade a circular region of ocean. A blockaded oceanic area is considered to be controlled by an army for the sake of supply chains and trade.

For every mile in the radius of the blockade, 10 BR is required. If the army's BR is reduced below the minimum viable army size for the desired blockade, it shrinks to match.

It takes 1 day to establish a blockade. Once established, a blockade can be maintained indefinitely in warm waters. In cold waters, a supply chain to a friendly base is required. In rim waters, blockades are impossible.

When a blockade is established, the operators may choose to allow trade routes or supply chains on an as-needed basis. They could, for example, extort payment from any component of the supply chain.

To create a new Subfaction, you must:

1. Promote a Leader: Promote one of your Retainers or someone else you know to the position of Leader.
2. Define its role: Determine the nature of the Subfaction. This has a direct impact on its actual ability to serve you; you are shaping the structure of the institution, and that's limited by what your realm is actually capable of supporting.
3. Gift a Capital: A physical Settlement or other Capital (such as a castle, or a building or district inside a larger Settlement) suited to its nature must be gifted to the Leader. The new Capital must:
4. Transfer assets: You may need to transfer assets such as Settlements located within the territory granted to a Subfaction.

The Duration for creating a new Subfaction is set based on the table below & the Followers in the new Capital.

When the Duration elapses, the Subfaction is automatically formed; no Save required.

Break Engagement with any number of enemies. If you don't also move to a location outside their melee reach by the end of your Turn, you'll be Engaged again.

Drop to the ground (becoming Prone) & simultaneously remove your own Burning Condition. As a Minor Action, recover from the Burning Condition by dropping to the ground & rolling.

Lots of weird Faction actions won't cleanly fall into any other niche. In these cases, a GM may determine a Duration based on the nature of the act & use the Success Save template table to determine the general outcome.

When the Duration elapses, Save.

When presented with a challenge that character off-screen planning may have addressed, the player may state an action their PC took in advance and make a Foresight Save.

• Must not require information the PCs had absolutely no way of knowing.
• Must not contradict anything established in the game world.
• No other PC has attempted foresight for this specific obstacle.

• No penalty: Ordinary action, ample opportunity, trivial or cheap with foreseeable benefits.
• −2 penalty: Complex action, several moving parts, reliance on Retainers or unguaranteed events.
• −4 penalty: Exceptionally elaborate, specialized, or implausible; relies on unestablished facts about the world; tenuous opportunity to acquire critical information. (Secretly, by GM's judgement: relying on an entity that wanted to betray you.)

Bonuses from Facts and other relevant modifiers apply normally.

If you have at least one free hand, you can Save to Grapple an opponent. Use the adjacent Weight modifier table in addition to any other modifiers.

Grappling is a Condition that affects both characters. Neither character can move except by Shoving the other, which is also the only way to break a Grapple. Melee attacks gain a +2 to hit anyone in a Grapple, even if the attacker is outside the Grapple.

Characters who are more than twice the Weight of the largest opponent in a Grapple may freely move around, dragging the Grapple with them.

If your Faction has its Capital located inside a Settlement & only has Families equal to a portion of that Settlement's total Families, you may attempt to raise your number of Families by converting more people within the Settlement to follow you, an ally, one of your Retainers/Subfactions or your Liege.

Describe to the GM how you are plausibly attempting to convert people & to whose side. It doesn't have to be your Faction; you can work on someone else's behalf.

The Duration is 2 months for low switching costs (commodities & entertainment), 4 months for medium (guilds & banking, mercenary services), & 8 months for high switching costs (ethnic associations, religious faiths, nobility).

When the Duration elapses, make a Success Save to determine the base number of how many Families could be gained.

Reduce the amount gained to at most:

> ([Settlement's Families] - [Competitors' Families]) / 2

A Competitor is a Faction in the same Settlement that shares the same financial niche as you — whether that be a mercantile, banking, legal, government, military, magical, educational, industrial, or entertainment niche matters not.

Examples abound: Two bakeries serving the same artisan niche; a messenger guild & a cult serving a divine messenger; two gate/guard societies; two banking houses; two divisions within the same company (they can't share employees). When in doubt, ask: "Would a customer choosing Faction A have any reason to also patronize Faction B?" If not, they're Competitors.

If you want to try to claim Families from a Competitor, you should try Sabotage, warfare, or other forms of attack. You can also differentiate your offerings so that you're not directly competing with entrenched forces — for example, a revolutionary movement would struggle to make open headway against an established town police force, so they can differentiate by instead going underground & only move to the open after growing in numbers.

When a Party deliberately searches for a specific creature in a biome where it's known to exist, the GM sets a Duration based on the creature's Rarity Tier:

The Duration is modified by the local terrain's distance multiplier:

Save

At the Duration's end, Save. In addition to any ordinary modifiers (i.e. Facts), you receive +1 modifiers to your Save for each of the following that are true:

• At least one participant in your Party has a Fact that is specifically relevant to hunting this kind of creature.
• Harpy aerial scout
• Local knowledge about the creature in question
• Bait or lure appropriate to the creature's wants
• You brought 10 or more people to hunt a Common creature
• You brought 20 or more people
• You brought 50 or more people
• You brought 100 or more people

You suffer a −1 penalty for each of the following being true:

• You brought 10 or more people to hunt a Rare, Legendary, or Unique creature
• You brought 20 or more people
• You brought 50 or more people
• You brought 100 or more people
• The area was pillaged, raided, or beseiged within the last month.

Finally, subtract a penalty equal to the Distance Multiplier of the searched area's terrain.

Swap items around in your hands, sheathe or draw a weapon, pick up an item within your reach, or interact with something nearby (lever, door, etc). Light a torch, lantern, or flask.

As a Minor Action, attempt a jump. Horizontal jumps cover a number of feet equal to half your Run score on a running start, or one quarter standing still. Vertical jumps reach one quarter of those distances. Characters who are encumbered halve their effective jumping distance.

Make a non-commodity physical asset, such as a statue, building, fortress, bridge, or road.

The Duration is equal to the asset value in $ times 6, divided by your number of Families.

Alternatively, you can invest $5 per month (or ~$0.17 per day) per Family to calculate the Duration.

The minimum Duration is 1 day per $1,000. Even if you have liquid capital (i.e. silver, gold) on hand, expensive assets require extensive negotiations as well as search & construction periods.

When the Duration elapses, Save.

Move a distance up to one of your Speed scores (Run, Dig, Swim, Fly) across the appropriate medium. Keep in mind:

• You may not take other Actions while in the middle of a Move; you must end your Move first.
• Be mindful of Engagement & Grappling, which punish & prevent normal movement respectively.
• You may not move through space occupied by a foe or stop within space occupied by an ally.

Negotiation is defined by an exchange with a target of something you have for something you want. Consider:

• Value: Does the target believe what you're offering provides sufficient value relative to what you're asking, given their current priorities and available alternatives?
• Is your offer noticeably better/worse than alternatives?
• If you're intimidating the target, do they believe that the demand is worse than the harm you'll inflict?
• Trust: Does the target believe you can and will fulfill your commitments?
• Is there clear means and motive by which you might violate the agreement?
• Do you have the means and motive to carry out a threat?
• Do you have a proven record of trustworthiness and/or obvious means by which you would suffer for failing to fulfill the deal?

If both are true, the target will accept your offer. If neither are true, the target will refuse. If only one is true, a Save is required.

When you try to persuade a target of something meaningful, consider two axes:

• Consistency: Does the information jarringly contradict anything the target already believes?
• Is it immediately and obviously false based on currently observable data?
• Does it upset/disrupt their existing worldview, life context, history, or biases?
• Do they believe you would be likely to lie about this?
• Incentive: Does the target have an incentive proportionate to the scale of the claim to believe you?
• Is the target's life made easier (or prevented from getting worse) by believing you?
• Does the target like you?
• Do they believe you to be an authority on the topic?

If both are true, the target will believe you. If both are false, the target will never believe you. If only one is true, a Save is required.

If you suffer one or more Disbelief Penalties, the GM rolls secretly on the table below.

To plunder a controlled Settlement, you must order an Army whose BR is at least equal to the Settlement's Families to do so.

You may simultaneously plunder any number of smaller nearby controlled Settlements so long as they aren't closer to a Settlement larger than the main target. Add 1 day to the Duration for each additional Settlement plundered in this manner.

The Duration for plundering in days is equal to the Army's number of troops divided by the total plundered Families (across all afflicted Settlements), minimum 1 day.

At the end of the Duration, you & your Army gain $5 × 3d6 × [Families plundered] in $. Afterwards, each affected Settlement's Families score is halved & you may destroy any notable landmarks within the plundered Settlement(s). No Save is required.

You can repeatedly loot Settlements. If you want to obliterate them & all surrounding farmland, it takes 4 times as long as usual & turns all Settlements into voided ruins with 25% of their original SHP value (if any).

Reload or unjam a crossbow or windgun.

Resting is performed by individual characters or whole Factions. The resting party
remains idle (no strenuous activity) until the end of the intended period or until
interrupted.

Duration: The rest period's Duration is set by the group Leader as the intended length of the rest.

• No Wounds.
• Good food & drink available (travel rations don't count; monsters cooked fresh do).
• Rested for 8+ hours (overnight) in a bed or sleeping bag. If met, restore all exhausted Spell Dice.
• Rested for a day or more.
• Rested for a week or more.
• Rested for a month or more.

Multiply the number of true conditions by Power. If the result exceeds current HP,
HP increases to match it.

Repairing Armor Points: When you heal any HP by resting, reset AP to your best Armor × Power,
up to at most as much HP was healed.

Intangible forms of harm — trade deals, subterfuge, espionage, debt, political & religious conflict, & other forms of intangible & indirect conflict — are handled via this action. To commit Sabotage, explain the plausible means by which you would conduct it. You need a valid attack vector on the target & the tools & methodology to exploit the weakness.

The Duration is set to 1 month from the day that planning begins.

When the Duration elapses, Save.

Search a backpack or other bag for a specific item & pull it into your hand.

Set something down gently without damaging it — especially bags, backpacks, or fragile items.

Save to shove a target in any direction that moves them further away from you. Use the adjacent Weight modifier table in addition to any other modifiers.

Shoving may break Engagement & Grappling automatically if the shover wishes; the shover may also follow the shoved into the space they used to occupy if desired.

Sum the defending armies' BR along with the Location's Families & SHP. Divide it by the attacking armies' BR & multiply by 100. The result is how many days out the Duration should be set for.

At the end of the period, Save.

When the Location is captured, resolve casualties by hosting a Battle between the two sides — sans any Families, SHP bonus, or terrain/defensive fortification bonuses. Flight for the defenders is considered surrender instead of escape.

Assaults

An assault is a rapid assault of a fortification. It is played out as a Battle with each Turn covering 1 day of events. Add the assaulted Location's Families & SHP to the defending side's BR.

Move at least & up to 3× any of your Speed scores, turning no more than 45° throughout the entire distance. You must Save to pass through any form of difficult or slowing terrain without falling.

As a Minor Action, become Prone or recover from the Prone Condition.

Travel by a Party or mobile Factions (such as Armies) is resolved via free movement tracked on a map of the campaign world by the GM.

In order to travel, you must have a route & destination in mind. The route may be a path or a direction. The destination can be a literal place or a time-based trigger such as "three days north". Announce both to the GM.

Travel Procedure

1. The GM determines if the route can actually take you to the destination.
2. The GM measures out the path to the destination & determines the total distance that either must be traveled (to reach a target place) or that will be traveled (to travel for a certain period of time).
3. The GM determines if there's possible overlap with any other Faction movement based on relative Speeds & routes taken. If there appears to be a point of encounter, the GM (secretly) alters the destination to instead be the encounter & recalculates travel distance & time.
4. The GM sets a (secret) Duration as the time at which the destination will be reached.
5. For each week of travel (or at the midpoint, if less than one), the GM calls for PCs in a traveling party to check for an Exhaustion Save if necessary & simultaneously rolls on the Discoveries table.
6. When the Duration for a Travel Action expires, the Party has arrived at the destination.

Exhaustion Save

Each week, each PC in a party should check if any of the following conditions are true:

• A PC or their followers are carrying less than 2# of supplies each & are also not in a farmland, pastures, or otherwise settled region.
• None at all.
• The terrain is barrens/wasteland where food & water cannot be found easily.
• Your mounts are unfit for the biome (horses in the desert, camels in the arctic).

For each true condition, each affected PC in the Party must perform an Exhaustion Save. Add leadership, quartermastery & hunting skills as +1 bonuses.

Discoveries Table

The GM rolls once on the Discoveries table per week (or part thereof) that a Party spends traveling.

Measuring distance & time taken

Characters can travel ~1 mile per day across a medium for each 1' of Speed score they possess. A human with a Run of 25' can travel 25 miles per day. A bird with a Fly of 40' can travel 40 miles per day.

Divide the effective distance in miles by the slowest Speed score among all traveling Party members. Remember: If any part of the route is off-road, the Speed of all wheeled vehicles is halved & if any Party member is Encumbered, their Speed is halved too.

The result is the number of days until the Duration (at which point the Party reaches the destination).

Visibility

Aia is a flat disc & Glass is not an exception. Your view is not limited by the curvature of the Earth. Atmospheric scattering, weather, and terrain irregularities are the primary limiter of vision.

The basic determinant of view distance is observer height.

Multiply by the following (all armies carry telescopes):

• Hazy: ×0.5
• Foggy: ×0.25
• No telescope: ×0.5