The Conversation
Play is a conversation. The GM describes the world and its people. Players say what their characters do. When the outcome is obvious, it happens. When the outcome is uncertain and failure would matter, roll.
Player Reference
Rules
The universal rules for character creation, play, combat, travel, followers, property, and advancement.
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The Core Loop
- Want something: gold, safety, status, a new spell, a dangerous victory, an Oath completed, a favor, a property, a religious cause advanced, or something else that matters to your class.
- Act in the world. Negotiate, travel, steal, hire, investigate, pray, fight, research, or send someone else.
- Pay the cost. Gold leaves your purse. Followers need wages. Reputation rises and falls. Hunger matters. Harm is dangerous.
- Return somewhere safe when it makes sense. Shop, recover, train, invest, recruit, research, develop what matters to your class, and decide what you care about next.
Class First, Adventure Second
Days of Gold is not built around waiting for the GM to announce an adventure or keeping everyone together as a permanent party. A Lord may spend a session managing a business while a Priest tends a community, a Rogue works through a Contact, and a Warrior looks for someone worth fighting.
Venture outward when something you need or want demands it. If the ruins call for a Wizard or the sewers call for a Rogue and they are busy, negotiate, wait, hire help, prepare, or pursue something else. Time between dangerous ventures is part of play, and ongoing situations continue to change.
What You Need
- Two six-sided dice for each player.
- A character sheet or notebook.
- A shared map or loose sketch of the region.
- Coins, tokens, or pencil marks for Gold, Wounds, Renown, Ready Contacts, and other resources.
- One Game Master (GM).
Character Creation
- Choose one of the seven classes.
- Assign +2, +1, 0, and -2 across Might, Grace, Wits, and Presence. Use each rating once.
- Note your class's Regional Knowledge and make the choices listed under your class.
- Gain your class's Free Perk, then choose 2 of its 10 Class Perks. You begin with 3 perks total.
- Take its starting Gold and gear.
- Name your character, describe their look and background, and name one place they consider home or familiar.
- Answer your class's History Questions that place you in the world.
- Tell the GM what your character currently wants badly enough to act on.
The classes are intentionally powerful in different ways. You are not expected to solve the same problems or contribute in the same way. A Warrior is built to dominate ordinary violence, a Lord can change situations with wealth and people, and a Wizard can make impossible magic useful. Lean into what your class lets you do, and let the other characters be exceptional in their own parts of the world.
The Seven Classes
| Class | Signature | Playstyle |
|---|---|---|
| Lord | Household & House Account | Property, retainers, money, delegation, hospitality, and patronage. |
| Knight | Oaths | Accepted quests, protection, duels, service, and extraordinary rewards. |
| Warrior | Renown | Worthy victories, martial momentum, paid violence, and surviving the impossible. |
| Wizard | Spellbook & Arcane Sanctuary | Invented spells, arcane authority, impossible solutions, and a place of power. |
| Druid | The Grove | Beasts, sanctuary, living paths, healing, and nature answering in kind. |
| Rogue | Contacts | Eleven specialists, underworld access, infiltration, and lucrative work. |
| Priest | The Faithful | A portable following, rites, judgment, and divine authority. |
Familiar Faces
All player characters know each other and understand what they can get from one another. Their classes make those strengths obvious:
- Lords have money and Reputation.
- Knights have honor and provide protection.
- Warriors bring might and power.
- Wizards have knowledge and magical tools.
- Druids have healing and safety.
- Rogues have Contacts that can get any job done.
- Priests have the Faithful and can perform miracles.
Players do not need to be allies or even friends, and they do not have to start in the same area. They do have to understand that their fellow players are their best option for completing a task.
The Basic Roll
Roll 2d6 + the relevant Stat. 10+ is a strong success. 7-9 succeeds with a cost, complication, reduced effect, or hard choice. Whenever a player rolls a 6-, the GM gains 1 Dread. If the move gives a specific 6- result, resolve it; otherwise the action fails. A 6- does not itself trigger a GM Move. A situational bonus is usually +1. Add Stats, bonuses, and penalties normally, but the final modifier cannot exceed +4 unless a rule explicitly says otherwise.
10+
Strong success.
7–9
Success with a cost, complication, reduced effect, or hard choice.
6−
The GM gains 1 Dread; resolve any written 6- result, otherwise the action fails.
ForwardApplies to the next applicable roll, then ends.
OngoingApplies to every applicable roll for as long as the stated condition or duration lasts.
| Stat | Used For |
|---|---|
| Might | Strength, close fighting, forcing, lifting, physical endurance, resisting fear and pain. |
| Grace | Speed, balance, stealth, precision, ranged attacks, escaping. |
| Wits | Observation, planning, knowledge, medicine, craft, investigation. |
| Presence | Leadership, bargaining, deception, intimidation, charm, social authority. |
Face Danger
When you do something risky and need to avoid danger, detection, or disaster, roll +Grace.
Disaster covers sudden risks such as leaping a gap, balancing, escaping falling rocks, or grabbing something before it drops. Danger covers direct hazards; detection covers stealth and avoiding notice.
10+
You do it gracefully.
7–9
You do it, but a complication arises.
6−
You fail to avoid the danger.
Get the Upper Hand
When you attack someone who is unsuspecting or helpless, ask the GM whether you can miss. If you cannot, choose one:
- Inflict your attack's Harm.
- Subdue the target.
Read the Moment
When you stop and carefully assess a tense or dangerous situation unfolding around you, roll +Wits. Take +1 forward when acting directly on an answer.
- What is the greatest immediate danger?
- What is about to happen?
- What here is hidden or being overlooked?
- What here isn’t what it seems?
- What is my best way in, out, or through?
- What can I use to my advantage?
10+
Ask 3 questions.
7–9
Ask 1 question.
6−
Ask 1 question, but you miss something important.
Read the Person
When you closely observe or speak with someone to understand what lies beneath the surface, roll +Wits. You can hold questions throughout the conversation until the situation ends.
- Are they telling me the truth?
- What do they really want?
- What are they really feeling?
- What do they wish I’d do?
- How can I get them to ___?
- What are they intending to do?
10+
Ask 3 questions.
7–9
Ask 1 question.
6−
Ask 1 question, but you miss something.
Sway Someone
When you try to get an NPC to do something and you have believable leverage - reason, status, an offer, a threat, or something they want - roll +Presence.
After rolling, before the result is resolved, you may ask the GM what could bribe them. If you provide the concrete price the GM names, add +1 to the roll. Some people have no bribe that can buy the request.
10+
They agree if the request is within reason.
7–9
They need:
- Reassurance.
- Proof.
- Payment.
- A favor.
- A smaller request.
- Protection.
6−
They refuse or will not agree under the current terms.
Fight
When you fight someone who can meaningfully fight back, roll 2d6 + your weapon stat. You and your enemy exchange Harm regardless of the result.
- Deal +1 Harm.
- Reduce the Harm you take from the exchange by 1.
10+
Choose 2.
7–9
Choose 1.
6−
Deal 1 less Harm and take 1 additional Harm from the exchange.
Command a Battalion
When a battalion under your command clashes with an enemy force, roll 2d6 + its Quality. The battalion and its enemy exchange Harm regardless of the result.
- Deal +1 Harm.
- Reduce the Harm the battalion takes from the exchange by 1.
If you are personally Fighting the same enemy force your battalion is clashing with, roll Fight and Command a Battalion at the same time. Resolve your Fight exchange and the battalion’s exchange separately as parts of the same clash. Taking Harm: Reduce Harm by the battalion’s Armor. Each remaining Harm removes one member as dead, badly wounded, routed, captured, or otherwise out of the fight, as the fiction demands. Recalculate its size as members are lost. With fewer than 3 members, survivors use ordinary NPC rules. A single named follower uses ordinary NPC rules.
10+
Choose 2.
7–9
Choose 1.
6−
The battalion takes 1 additional Harm from the exchange.
Endure
When you resist fear, poison, exhaustion, coercive magic, spiritual pressure, or pain that would stop you, roll +Might. On a 10+, you hold. On a 7-9, you hold but choose one:
- Take 1 Harm.
- Lose or drop something.
- Hesitate long enough to give someone an opening.
- Accept a lasting condition until you recover.
On a 6-, the force overcomes you.
Help or Interfere
When you help or interfere with someone who's making a roll, roll +whatever Stat is appropriate, as determined by the GM. On a 10+, they take +2 if you help or -2 if you interfere. On a 7-9, they take +1 if you help or -1 if you interfere. On a 6-, you're unable to help or interfere and the GM gains 1 Dread as normal.
Combat Rolls
Fight handles a character personally exchanging Harm with an enemy and uses the character’s weapon Stat. Command a Battalion handles a battalion exchanging Harm with an enemy force and uses the battalion’s Quality. Personal Fight perks and weapon effects apply to the character’s exchange; battalion effects apply to the battalion’s exchange. Apply each rule only when its trigger fits.
Combat Spotlight
Combat follows the fiction rather than initiative or a fixed turn order. The GM moves the spotlight to whoever is under pressure or has a clear opportunity. When several people act at once, follow the most urgent fictional action and its consequences. Use Fight when a character personally exchanges Harm with an enemy. Use Command a Battalion when a battalion clashes with an enemy force. When the character and battalion face the same enemy force together, make both rolls as part of the same clash and resolve the two exchanges separately. Neither move creates initiative.
Player versus Player
When two players fight one another and both can meaningfully fight back, both roll Fight for the same exchange. Resolve only one exchange of Harm. Each player applies the result of their own Fight roll to the Harm they deal and take.
If one player attacks another who is caught unaware or otherwise unable to meaningfully fight back, the targeted player rolls Face Danger to avoid the attack while the aggressing player rolls Interfere against them. If the targeted player fails to avoid the danger, the aggressing player may either deal their attack's Harm or subdue them, as established by the fiction.
Outside of combat, when one player directly acts against another, use whatever move fits the action. The opposing player rolls Interfere when the fiction allows them to resist or disrupt it.
Players always decide what their own characters think, believe, or choose. Sway Someone cannot force another player to agree, obey, or change their mind. When Sway Someone is used against another player and the roll succeeds, they may still refuse, but take -1 ongoing for the rest of the session if they do.
Player versus Player Death
If a player dies because of another player's actions or decisions, it is usually a good idea to let the conflict die with them, even if the character does not remain permanently dead.
Player-versus-player conflict can be dramatic, but an endless cycle of revenge rarely stays fun for long. Treat a character's death as a natural breaking point: a chance for old grudges to end, relationships to change, and everyone involved to return with a new perspective.
A character who survives death does not have to forgive what happened, but the table should avoid turning one violent conflict into a permanent loop that can never be resolved.
Wounds
Every player has 6 Wound boxes. Harm that gets through Armor marks that many Wounds. Wound conditions stack: reaching a new condition keeps the penalties and requirements of the earlier conditions unless the rule says otherwise.
| Marked Wounds | Condition |
|---|---|
| 0-2 | Fine. You can act normally. |
| 3-4 | Wounded. Take -1 ongoing to all rolls. |
| 5 | Broken. Keep the Wounded penalty and take an additional -1 ongoing, for -2 total. Ordinary healing cannot clear Wounds. |
| 6 | Dying. Broken still applies. Ordinary healing cannot clear Wounds. If you are not reduced below 6 Wounds by the end of the next session, death comes. Any Harm beyond 6 means death comes immediately. |
Armor
When you take physical Harm, reduce it by your Armor before marking Wounds. Armor 1 reduces the hit by 1; Armor 2 reduces it by 2. Harm cannot be reduced below 0.
Typical Harm
| Source | Harm |
|---|---|
| Fists, improvised nuisance | 1 |
| Knife, club, animal bite | 2 |
| Longsword, spear, battleaxe, bow | 3 |
| Great weapon, heavy crossbow, charging warhorse | 4 |
| Monster, siege engine, catastrophic fall | 4+ |
Healing
Ordinary Healing: While you have 1-4 Wounds, First Aid, healers, temple treatment, rest, and other normal sources of healing can clear Wounds as described. At 5 Wounds (Broken) or 6 Wounds (Dying), ordinary healing cannot clear Wounds. You need a source of healing that specifically says it can heal someone who is Broken or Dying.
First Aid
When you have a few uninterrupted minutes, spend 1 use of a healer's kit and roll +Wits to treat someone with 1-4 Wounds. The use is consumed when you roll, regardless of the result.
10+
Clear 1 Wound.
7–9
Clear 1 Wound, but the GM chooses a cost:
- Treatment takes much longer.
- The patient cannot safely be moved yet.
- You expose yourself to danger or attention.
- Another immediate complication follows.
6−
No Wounds are cleared.
Rest
A full safe night with food clears 1 Wound while you have 0-4 Wounds. At 5 Wounds you are Broken, and at 6 you are Dying; rest is ordinary healing and cannot clear Wounds at either condition. Resting while starving clears nothing.
When Death Comes
When your character would die, death does not have to be the end. Choose one of the following:
| Choice | What Happens |
|---|---|
| Die | Your character dies. Describe their final moments and what, if anything, they leave behind. |
| Lose Something Precious | You survive, but something important is permanently lost. This might be a treasured possession, property, wealth, followers, a relationship, or something else that matters deeply to your character. Work with the GM to determine what is lost. |
| Become Someone Else | You survive, but the experience fundamentally changes you. Choose a different class and become it. Keep the parts of your character's history, possessions, relationships, and accomplishments that still make sense, but replace your old class with the new one. |
| Owe Your Life | Someone or something saves you when you should have died. The GM tells you who or what intervened and what they expect in return. You survived, but your life now comes with a debt. |
Currency
Prices use gold pieces (gp), silver pieces (sp), and copper pieces (cp). 10 cp = 1 sp. 10 sp = 1 gp. Track meaningful wealth in gp; use silver and copper for small purchases when they matter.
Food
Every character must eat each day. One ration feeds one person for one day. If you reach the end of a day without eating enough, mark 1 Wound. Hunger Harm ignores Armor. Continued starvation keeps causing 1 Wound each day. The Lord's Household provides food while they stay there. The Druid's Grove provides food while inside it.
Advancement
Advancement happens through the world. Gold becomes property, equipment, followers, training, Reputation, Connections, and new possibilities tied to your class.
Class Perks: Choose 2 at character creation. Each unchosen Class Perk can later be purchased for 2,000 gp.
Lifestyle
| Lifestyle | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| None | 0 gp/session | You pay no Lifestyle cost. Secure food and shelter through the fiction, such as staying as another character's guest. If you go without food, mark 1 Wound at day's end; sleeping rough or on the street leaves you exposed to danger. |
| Poor | 5 gp/session | Bare food and shelter in a settled place. Respectable or wealthy circles may deny access or ignore you. |
| Common | 10 gp/session | Ordinary meals, a clean bed, decent clothes, and basic comfort. |
| Wealthy | 15 gp/session | Excellent meals, fine rooms, good clothing, and servants where appropriate. You can enter respectable social spaces without your appearance becoming the obstacle. |
Paying Lifestyle in a settled place covers ordinary food and lodging for that session. On the road, track rations normally. Lifestyle also changes how people read you: clothing, lodging, and visible comfort can open or close social doors.
Connections
A Connection is a person you have an established relationship with who gives you access to something valuable. They might be a family member, friend, former associate, professional acquaintance, or simply someone with whom you have a useful understanding.
Write down who they are and what they give you access to. A Connection does not need to personally solve every problem; they give you a reliable door into their part of the world. For example:
- A city guard can help you navigate the law, learn about crimes or investigations, reach other guards, or get access to places normally closed to the public.
- A noble can arrange audiences, use their influence on your behalf, provide political protection, or potentially help fund an expensive undertaking.
- A ship captain can provide passage, transport goods, know ports and sailors, or help arrange transportation elsewhere.
- A scholar might provide research, academic access, rare knowledge, or introductions to other experts.
- A merchant might locate goods, buyers, suppliers, or commercial opportunities.
A Connection must also have a reason to value their relationship with you. Connections are two-way relationships, not free servants. Consider what you provide that makes keeping you around worthwhile. A wealthy noble may have little reason to maintain a relationship with someone who offers nothing they cannot already obtain, but a skilled Rogue willing to handle illegal problems could be extremely valuable to them. A guard might value a healer who has treated their family, while a merchant might value a Warrior who has protected their caravans.
You must sometimes do things for Connections in return, or even make a Sway Someone roll to convince them to do something. If they find themselves scratching your back without any benefit, they may stop being your connection.
New Connections are gained through play when a relationship becomes useful and meaningful enough to record: favors exchanged, introductions, shared interests, repeated dealings, major deeds, or simply two people discovering they can benefit from knowing one another.
When someone you'd want to establish a connection with comes into your life, ask your GM: “Can I make this person my connection?” The GM should consider or even ask what you have to offer them that they don't already have or might want.
At character creation, choose 1 Connection appropriate to your character's life. Lords begin with 2 Connections instead.
Reputation
Reputation is tracked separately for places and groups that matter: a town, a noble house, a temple, a guild, a mercenary company, a criminal organization, and so on. It ranges from -5 to +5.
| Rep | Standing | Typical Effect |
|---|---|---|
| -5 | Hated | No normal trade or aid. Members may actively seek your ruin. |
| -4 | Hostile | Prices about 50% higher when anyone will deal with you. No favors. |
| -3 | Resented | Prices about 25% higher. Access is restricted. |
| -2 | Disliked | Prices about 10% higher. People are suspicious and slow to help. |
| -1 | Wary | Normal prices, but little trust and almost no discretionary help. |
| 0 | Unknown | Normal prices and treatment. |
| +1 | Known | Minor courtesy, small favors, easier introductions. |
| +2 | Liked | About 10% lower prices; routine help and information. |
| +3 | Respected | About 15% lower prices; restricted goods or meaningful help may become available. |
| +4 | Celebrated | About 20% lower prices; serious aid, audiences, and institutional support become plausible. |
| +5 | Beloved | About 25% lower prices. People may take real risks for you or defend your interests without being asked. |
Buying Goodwill
Public spending can build lasting goodwill with a city or town. Every 500 gp you publicly spend for the people there increases that settlement's Reputation with you by 1, to a maximum of +5. Feed neighborhoods, repair streets, cover debts, fund festivals, rebuild public works, distribute coin, or support something else the settlement can plainly feel.
Track this spending cumulatively for each settlement; it can build across many sessions and many smaller gifts. This changes the opinion of the settlement at large. Named individuals and factions still judge you through what you actually do with them.
Followers
Typical prices: 5 gp for basic labor, 10 gp for a trained professional, 15 gp for an adventuring specialist, 20 gp for an elite professional, and 25+ gp for dangerous, unusual, secretive, or magical work. Wages cover food and ordinary expenses. See Hirelings and Services for current prices.
Followers are people who regularly work for you: guards, servants, apprentices, scouts, healers, porters, mercenaries, specialists, companions, and similar NPCs. Give important ones names, wants, and lives beyond your orders.
| Loyalty | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | New hire. Works for agreed pay and normal duties, but has no personal loyalty yet. |
| 1 | Reliable. Steady pay and decent treatment have built trust; modest danger is part of the job. |
| 2 | Loyal. They expect to remain in your service and will accept serious risk for you. |
| 3 | Devoted. Personal loyalty beyond wages, built through time, exceptional generosity, rescue, kinship, belief, or a similarly strong bond. |
Newly hired followers begin at Loyalty 0. Loyalty grows when serving you is worth it. Good treatment can make up for lean pay, and generous pay can make harsh work worth enduring. When both pay and treatment are strong, Loyalty can rise quickly. When treatment is harsher than the compensation justifies, Loyalty falls; when both pay and treatment are poor, it falls fast. If a follower at Loyalty 0 would lose Loyalty again, they leave your service as soon as they reasonably can. Loyalty 3 reflects a bond strong enough to survive more than an ordinary employment dispute.
Test Loyalty
When you ask a follower to face exceptional danger, severe stress, or something far beyond their normal duties, roll 2d6 + Loyalty. On a 10+, they do it. On a 7-9, they hesitate or object, but they will do it if you insist; repeated demands like this can lower Loyalty by 1 when the strain becomes a pattern. On a 6-, they refuse. You can still force the issue through authority, threat, or leverage, but if they go through with it their Loyalty drops by 1.
Giving Orders
If a loyal follower is ordered to do something routine and within their role, they do it and the GM decides the outcome from the fiction. Do not roll. If the order is frightening, extremely dangerous, contrary to their values, or likely to get them killed, use Test Loyalty.
Battalions
The House Account cannot be used to hire or pay the ongoing wages of armed followers, mercenaries, Guards, Veteran Guards, or other combat hirelings that could form or contribute to a battalion. These must be paid from the character’s personal Gold.
Three or more comparable followers can fight as a battalion. Record its number of members, Quality, Harm, and Armor. Quality measures training, discipline, coordination, and how well the group acts together; it does not determine equipment. Determine base Harm and Armor from the weapons and protection the battalion actually carries.
| Size | Members | Size Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 3-10 | +1 Harm and +1 Armor vs an individual |
| Medium | 11-29 | +1 vs Small; +2 vs an individual |
| Large | 30+ | +1 vs Medium; +2 vs Small; +3 vs an individual |
When a battalion fights smaller opposition, apply its size bonus to both Harm and Armor for that clash.
Command a Battalion: When a battalion under your command clashes with an enemy force, roll 2d6 + its Quality. The battalion and its enemy exchange Harm regardless of the result. On a 10+, choose 2; on a 7–9, choose 1: deal +1 Harm, or reduce the Harm the battalion takes by 1. On a 6−, the battalion takes 1 additional Harm from the exchange.
If you are personally Fighting the same enemy force your battalion is clashing with, roll Fight and Command a Battalion at the same time. Resolve your Fight exchange and the battalion’s exchange separately as parts of the same clash.
Taking Harm: Reduce Harm by the battalion’s Armor. Each remaining Harm removes one member as dead, badly wounded, routed, captured, or otherwise out of the fight, as the fiction demands. Recalculate its size as members are lost. With fewer than 3 members, survivors use ordinary NPC rules. A single named follower uses ordinary NPC rules.
Property
Record each property you own and what it is used for. Homes provide shelter, warehouses store goods, fortifications protect people and possessions, and operating businesses produce session income.
An operating business pays its listed Net Income at the start of each session while it remains staffed and functional, subject to Business Management if you own more than 3 income-producing businesses.
Property is optional and never required to keep a class working. Leaving a home or business does not turn off a class Signature. Property remains useful because it provides services, income, storage, hospitality, authority, and people or problems worth returning to.
Work the Job
When you spend at least 4 hours personally working at a functioning business you own, roll +Wits. You may Work the Job up to twice per session, at the same business or at different businesses.
A Work the Job complication never stops the business's normal passive income by itself.
10+
Gain another full payout of that business's Net Income.
7–9
Gain half of its Net Income.
6−
Gain no extra gold, and a business complication prevents you from Working the Job at that business again until the complication is resolved.
Business Management
You may own as many businesses as you can afford and establish in the fiction; there is no hard business limit. If you own more than 3 income-producing businesses, choose 3 as your core businesses. Those 3 operate normally and are unaffected by this roll.
At the start of each session, roll 2d6 +Wits for all income-producing businesses beyond your core 3.
A 6- creates one broader problem rather than a separate complication for every business: blocked trade routes, labor problems, guild disputes, taxation, organized crime, supplier collapse, war, political interference, or something similar.
A few businesses remain simple to own. A larger commercial empire becomes its own piece of play, with Wits determining how well the wider network performs.
10+
All businesses produce their full Net Income.
7–9
Your core businesses pay normally. All businesses beyond them produce half Net Income this session.
6−
Your core businesses pay normally. All businesses beyond them produce no income, and the GM introduces one shared circumstance affecting the wider holdings. Those affected businesses cannot generate income again until the problem is resolved.
Journeys
Safe, familiar travel can be handled by stating the time, paying any ordinary costs, consuming food when necessary, and arriving. Make a Journey roll when the route itself is dangerous, uncertain, or important enough to deserve attention.
A Journey is one meaningful stretch of travel: crossing bandit country, following an old road through a cursed valley, navigating a ruined district, pushing through deep forest, or reaching a remote shrine.
Regional Knowledge
Every class has one kind of Regional Knowledge. When your Regional Knowledge applies to Journey or Get the Lay of the Land, choose 1 additional option or question, regardless of the result of the roll.
A hired guide has one Regional Knowledge appropriate to the route. While traveling with the group, their knowledge can provide the additional Journey option.
| Class | Regional Knowledge | You know how to move through and read… |
|---|---|---|
| Lord | Inner Cities | Noble wards, palaces, castles, courts, embassies, council chambers, high markets, guildhalls, academies, and walled estates. |
| Knight | Outer Cities | Gates, walls, barracks, stables, labor districts, poorer wards, slums, militia yards, roadside suburbs, watch posts, and crowded outer markets. |
| Warrior | Roads and Battlegrounds | Highways, old roads, mountain passes, bridges, border trails, military camps, battlefields, siege lines, ruined forts, and mercenary camps. |
| Wizard | Ruins | Collapsed keeps, abandoned temples, buried streets, old tunnels, dead cities, arcane wreckage, sealed vaults, and forgotten roads. |
| Druid | Forests | Old-growth woods, hunting trails, hidden springs, deep thickets, wooded hills, animal paths, forest swamps, clearings, and remote groves. |
| Rogue | Backstreets | Alleys, sewers, undercities, docks, rooftops, black markets, hidden passages, criminal dens, abandoned tenements, and crowded side streets. |
| Priest | Sacred Sites | Temples, shrines, monasteries, cemeteries, pilgrimage roads, catacombs, holy springs, consecrated ruins, forbidden chapels, and ancient burial grounds. |
Journey
When you undertake a dangerous or uncertain Journey, one traveler leads and rolls +Wits.
When your Regional Knowledge applies to Journey or Get the Lay of the Land, choose 1 additional option or question, regardless of the result of the roll.
- You avoid danger. Otherwise, the danger finds you.
- You make good time. Otherwise, something slows you way down.
- You find supplies along the way. Otherwise, each traveler consumes 1 ration.
- You discover a useful opportunity, landmark, rumor, or resource for the future. Otherwise, you are too focused on survival to notice one.
- You keep your passage hidden. Otherwise, someone or something may learn where you went, where you came from, or how to follow your route.
- Upon arrival, you spot something useful to act upon. Otherwise, you miss it entirely for now.
10+
Choose 2, plus 1 additional choice for every other player traveling with you.
7–9
Choose 1, plus 1 additional choice for every 2 other players traveling with you.
6−
Choose none, plus 1 additional choice for every 3 other players traveling with you.
Get the Lay of the Land
When you spend meaningful time exploring, listening, and asking around in a place, roll +Wits. If your Regional Knowledge applies, ask 1 additional question, regardless of the result.
10+ Ask 3 questions.
7–9 Ask 1 question.
6− Ask 1 question, but you miss something important.
- Where can I find a particular person, item, service, or route?
- Which person, group, or location matters most here?
- What useful opportunity is here?
- What has changed recently?
- What behavior is expected, forbidden, or likely to draw attention?
- What danger or problem are people here most concerned about?
Use Read the Moment for an unfolding tense or dangerous situation, Read the Person for someone’s motives or intentions, and Get the Lay of the Land for time spent learning about a place. Use Journey when the travel itself is dangerous or uncertain.
Wilderwise and Revelation each grant 1 additional question when you use that perk, in addition to any question from Regional Knowledge. Their once-per-session limits still apply.
Dread & Fortune
The GM holds two resources: Dread and Fortune. Each ranges from 0 to 10 and carries between sessions until spent. Any gain beyond 10 is lost. When a player rolls a 6-, the GM gains 1 Dread. Resolve any specific 6- result written by the move; otherwise the action fails. A 6- never gives the GM an automatic GM Move. Each class lists a Fortune trigger. Gain +1 additional Fortune for each other PC who meaningfully contributes to accomplishing that trigger, whether fictionally or mechanically. Multiple class triggers can award Fortune from the same sequence of events.
Gold Creates Fortune: Once the characters have spent a combined 500 gp during a session, the GM gains 1 Fortune. Gold spent by any character contributes to this total, regardless of what it is spent on. The GM can gain Fortune this way only once per session. Additional gold spent after reaching 500 does not carry over to the next session.
Spend Dread or Fortune
At any time, choose Dread or Fortune, spend 1 to 3 points, and roll 2d6 + points spent. The points are spent before the roll. One roll produces one GM Move.
10+
Major Move: a large, decisive turn.
7–9
Moderate Move: a serious but contained turn.
6−
Light Move: a smaller turn that still changes the situation.
Dread Moves
- Light
- A few lesser enemies appear; someone is slowed, separated, exposed, or disarmed; a minor resource is damaged or lost.
- Moderate
- Reinforcements approach; an enemy gains +1 Harm; an enemy produces an area attack or dangerous new ability; a serious complication appears.
- Major
- An ambush is sprung; an attack gains up to +2 Harm; a major threat enters the scene; followers suffer catastrophic losses; something important is captured, destroyed, exposed, or taken.
Fortune Moves
- Light
- A useful opening appears; a minor helper arrives; gain +1 Harm or Armor for an exchange.
- Moderate
- Meaningful reinforcements arrive; gain +1 Harm or Armor for a conflict; an escape route or enemy weakness appears.
- Major
- Powerful allies arrive; a major threat is compromised; a crucial resource appears; the situation turns sharply in the characters' favor.