Basic Rules

Broadly speaking, the party will have some goal or objective they're trying to accomplish. This can be anything from overthrowing the king of an evil country to discovering the perfect recipe for a spicy beef sandwich. In situations where this goal is simple, or there isn't any real tension or conflict, things play out pretty easily. When something challenges the party, or matters get tense, the party must work to get what they want.

In all cases, the Talespinner (TS) - what we call the game master to be unique snowflakes - sets the stage. The TS explains the situation at hand - including any recap of previous actions the party took, or interesting opportunities they may wish to remember - then the party decides what they want to do, and how they intend to accomplish it. The TS describes the results, including an updated description of the current situation, and the cycle repeats. This is the fundamental pattern the game takes. The characters drive the story forward in a direction of their choosing, but the TS may describe complications or setbacks that occur along the way.

While talking in character, or describing character actions, all descriptions must be in first-person and all speech is considered to be directly from the character's mouth. A character's statements can be summarized, and don't need to be expressed word-for-word, but all talk during the game is considered to represent something your character is doing or saying.

The exception to this is anything involving game knowledge - this includes questions or discussion on the rules, as well as clarifying what a character knows, sees, understands... you get the idea.

Finally, a player may only take character actions while wearing or holding a prop they have designated as their character prop. This may be a hat, jacket, knife, or anything that clearly represents their character. This can be worn, held, used to gesticulate wildly as you detail your diabolical scheme; whatever best expresses your character.

When the entire party decides their actions and the Talespinner resolves them, this is a Round.

When a handful of Rounds take place, and determine whether the party succeeds or fails at a smaller-scale objective, the entire process is called a Scene.

Several Scenes eventually tell the story of how a party tries to accomplish an overall goal. These are Chapters, oftentimes giving the heroes a chance to rest and prepare while doing so.

When this larger sub-plot is resolved, the whole thing is referred to as an Act. Acts are usually punctuated by a bit of downtime for the heroes, letting them set some affairs in order before continuing on to the next step in their journey.

Different things can make you more or less likely to succeed on an action. These usually do so by giving you Good or Bad Luck.

For each time you have Good Luck on a flip, you flip an extra card and may choose which one to use for your result. For each time you have Bad Luck, you flip an extra card but must use the lowest card from the bunch. If you have Good Luck and Bad Luck on the same flip, one of each cancel out until you just have one kind (or none) left.

Once the TS describes the scene, they will announce the Difficulty of the round. This is how hard it is for the characters to make progress.

After a player describes what their character is trying to do and how, the player notes which Skill they want to use (and hopefully the TS agrees with the logic). The player flips a card, adds their character's ranks in the Skill to it, and if the total is higher than the difficulty then they succeed. If they beat the difficulty, they succeed. If they beat the difficulty by 3 or more, they Excel, which carries a higher degree of success - progressing more along the scene, avoiding negative effects, or something like that.

Most actions are kinda tricky. To compensate, characters can have Good Circumstances, which represent a particularly effective action. Trying to bluff past guards, disguised as traveling merchants, BUT also having an official writ from the mayor that says you’re merchants? That’s a Good Circumstance. It’s when you have something that fits the situation very well. Having a Good Circumstance give a Good Luck on the action, and you can only benefit from one Good Circumstance for a given action.

Similarly, you can have Bad Circumstances. Same thing, but when your action is suffering particularly - trying to win over the person you just insulted, using fire magic against a water creature, etc. Bad Circumstance gives Bad Luck on the action.

Death or Glory!

If you would be removed from the Scene for losing all of your Stamina or Willpower, instead you may invoke Death or Glory!

Remove two of your Wounds of your choice, gain 3 Spirit, set your Stamina and Willpower to each of their maximums if they're below them. However, for the rest of the Chapter your life is on the line - if you are reduced to 0 Stamina or Willpower, your character will be permanently removed from the game. The exact narrative reason for this should be negotiated with the TS to allow for an appropriate character exit, and may not happen immediately, but the character will not be playable regardless.

At the start of a campaign, everyone will gain a Personal Quest. Usually this is done at random, although on occasion the TS might assign specific Quests to characters. Everyone in the party must have completed their Personal Quests before the party is allowed to Hand them In.

In addition, the party will almost always have a Party Quest. This is a single Quest that the entire party shares, and represents the current overall goal the party has. This will have objectives as determined by the TS for the story, and will be completed, Handed In, and replaced with a new one as the TS sees fit. Aside from that, it largely functions as any other Quest, rewarding the party with Experience for completing goals - in this case, ones related to the main story of the game.

Experience is a resource gained by the party, used to improve their various talents. Experience can be spent at any time.

Experience costs for abilities are as follows:

• Skills: Each rank in a Skill costs Experience equal to that rank. The first rank costs 1 Experience, the second costs 2, and so on.

• Aspects: Each Level of an Aspect costs 5 Experience.

• Techniques: Each Technique costs Experience equal to 2 times its Level. A Level 2 Technique costs 4 Experience, a Level 3 one costs 6, and so on.