Introduction

Remember that first time you chucked dice across the table, heroically battling orcs or goblins? Or explored a deep tomb, finding traps and horrors in every dark corner? Relive that excitement with this variant of Cortex Prime, or enjoy these types of stories as a brand new experience!

Cortex Prime Framework

To play MYTHIKAL, you need one of the Cortex Prime commercial products – the System Reference or the Game Handbook, available from Magic Vacuum Design Studio.

For this variant to best capture the feel of dungeons, swords, tunnels, dragons, sorcery, and trolls, we've made some adjustments to the base Cortex Prime setup.

Attributes

A set of six attributes is used for MYTHIKAL, that should be passingly familiar to anyone who enjoys this type of game.

Agility	Might	Vitality
Intellect	Presence	Wits

Feats

In MYTHIKAL, SFX are called feats. A starting character has three, attached to each of their distinctions. You get more through advancement, either free-floating like talents, or attached to signature assets. Any feat you've acquired through creation or advancement is always active during play.

Distinctions

Your three distinctions explicitly capture the defining characteristics of a MYTHIKAL character – heritage, expertise, and history. Each carries a single feat and informs attribute and skill advancement during character creation. They also carry the intrinsic feat where you can roll a d4 instead of a d8 to get a plot point.

Scene Distinctions

The GM can create scene distinctions, which can carry a single feat (examples in Customization).

Hit Points

This is a variation of Cortex Prime ablative life points – see the System Variant Rules for details.

Advancement

This is a simplified variation on milestones. See Advancement for details.

Hero Dice

In MYTHIKAL, hero dice with no limits are used.

Assets & Complications

Assets & Complications can be created with effect dice. Also, d6 assets can be created by spending a plot point.

Skills

The entire skill list has been retooled to invoke and support the atmosphere of MYTHIKAL.

Athletics	Running, jumping, climbing trees, swimming, hefting.
Bluff	Deceiving or conning somebody, feinting in combat, using spin.
Craft	Crafting things, like buildings, weapons, tools, magical or alchemical items.
Diplomacy	The polite way to get people to do what you want them to.
Endurance	Perseverance, raw survival ability.
Healing	Taking care of people. First aid, treatment of injury and disease, but also counseling.
Insight	Empathy, sympathy, and understanding what others are thinking.
Intimidation	The scary way to get people to do what you want them to.
Lore	General knowledge and tradition, with specifics covered by proficiencies. Just like Know, this includes a free proficiency.
Magic	Casting spells, channeling power, performing rituals, using mystical devices.
Melee	Close-quarters combat, specifically using weapons or tools.
Nature	Survival in the outdoors, insight and diplomacy for animals and plants.
Perception	Spotting, listening, searching, noticing details.
Performance	Acting, putting on a show, oration.
Ranged	Long-range combat, including thrown objects, projectile weapons, and spells.
Stealth	Sneaking around. Subverting others’ perception.
Streetwise	Survival in the city, including an intuition of location and construction.
Thievery	Disabling traps and other devices, opening locks, picking pockets, and sleight of hand.
Unarmed	Close-quarters combat, specifically if you’re using fists, kicks, and grapples.

Proficiencies

These work identically to Cortex Prime specialties, including getting a free one if you're trained in Lore.

Skill Challenges

These are (more or less) Cortex Prime timed actions. See the System Variant Rules for details.

Character Creation

A beginning character in MYTHIKAL is already highly competent, and ready to be a hero in some fashion or another. There's something about your character that gives them a chance to shine, to be the kind of person who bards tell stories about, and who historic chroniclers record the deeds of. This process will guide you through discovering exactly what those traits mean in play.

Before going through the building process, your character starts with a d4 rating in every attribute and skill. If you're not using the official character sheet (which uses pips to facilitate the character creation process), use either very light marks or scratch paper during the creation steps, since these ratings will change drastically.

Distinctions

Each distinction focuses on a classical aspect of fantasy RPG characters. Your heritage informs a lot of your cultural norms, as well as general physical characteristics. Expertise gives direction to the kinds of things you are exceptional at – your tools of the trade in combat, exploration, and social interactions. And history rounds everything out, setting you apart from others who share your vocation.

You'll see a name for every distinction, but you also get to make it your own. You don't have to be an Unleashed – you could be a Marauder of the Frozen Wastes. Are you an Elf – or a Snooty Grey Elf? There's a fair amount of meaning in Pirate, but there's more in Tràpani Blockade Runner.

Mechanically, you have a few choices to make for your distinctions. There are highlight attributes and skills for each distinction – the ones you choose are stepped up every time you choose them. This means you might have a trait or two built up to d10 by the time you're done with distinctions.

You also choose one listed feat from each of your distinctions to start the game with. You might step outside of your distinctions for feats you buy in the future, but your first three must be chosen from your base distinctions.

Finally, you choose a milestone. The suggestions are not exhaustive, and you don't have to specifically pick one that relates to each distinction – but that can be easier and quicker. In the end, you should have three milestones.

Feats

The three you pick up from your distinctions will suit a starting character just fine – you'll get more as you play and advance.

Attributes

After you've completed distinctions, you should already have six steps up in attributes. Well now you get to spend four points on more, to get your concept just right. During this stage, it costs two points to step a d10 to a d12.

Skills

In addition to what you've gained from distinctions, you get an extra nine points to spend on stepping up skill traits. Unless your distinctions have already done so, stepping a d4 up to a d6 costs two points – so it's important to try to cover your bases with your distinctions.

Proficiencies & Signature Assets

Getting close now! For this step, you're going to drill down on some of those extra dice you get to add if you're really prepared for a task.

You have five points to spend on this step. They can do one of three things (signature asset feats not included):

• Add a d6 proficiency to a trained skill (Lore gets one free)
• Add a d6 signature asset
• Step up a d6 signature asset to a d8.

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Tips: Proficiencies can make you extra good at something you're already great at, or they can shore up a weak point.

You don't need explicit equipment for everything – if you're a warrior you've got a weapon and armor, and if you're a scoundrel you've got a thief's kit. Signature assets and feats are for truly exceptional tools and resources.

Milestones

Your distinction choices should mostly take care of your milestones, but don't be afraid to make your character your own. They're guidance for roleplaying, combat, and social choices, but can also easily be a method for you to subvert any tropes that your distinctions imply. Just make sure to work with your GM on any milestones that aren't part of the standard kit. See Advancement for more details on milestones and gaining experience.

Heritage

Cambion

Whether your bloodline was cursed, or you're the offspring of a fiend and a natural humanoid, it is clear you have demonic traits. A barbed tail, horns of various sizes, hellish skin and hair coloring. But at the same time you also ooze temptation and sin.

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Sample Distinctions: Red-horned Beast; Succubus Spawn; Cambion With a Heart of Golden Flame

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Sample Signature Assets: Dramatic Horns; Flaming Rapier; Hellfire Blood

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Vitality

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Insight	Intimidation
Magic	Performance	Stealth

Feats

Bloodhunt

---

• Effect: Step up or double your attack skill against targets you've already damaged.

Diabolic Soul

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your fiendish heritage, step it up.

Fiery Rebuke

---

• Effect: When you take damage, spend 1pp to add or step up an On Fire complication to your attacker.

Fire Resistance

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore fire-related complications and damage.

Infernal Wrath

---

• Effect: Step up or double Intimidation or Performance on your next roll. Take or step up a Terrifying complication.

Milestones

• ...you disavow your demonic heritage.
• ...someone runs scared from you.
• ...someone praises your bloodline.
• ...you change someone's mind about cambions.
• ...you embrace your abyssal nature.

Dragonkin

Supposedly dragonkin aren't directly related to full dragons, but display just as much variation, and can channel a lot of the same elemental and otherworldly energy. You are part of a proud, headstrong heritage, and in general you will be honorable, responsible, and committed.

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Sample Distinctions: Longnose Blue Drakekin; Angry Red Wyvernkin; Subtle Amethyst Wyrmling

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Sample Signature Assets: Grandsire's Scale; Enormous Charisma; Vestigial Wings

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Might	Presence	Vitality

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Diplomacy	Endurance
Intimidation	Lore	Perception

Feats

Draconic Frenzy

---

• Effect: Step up or double your attack skill against targets who have damaged you.

Draconic Resilience

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore complications and damage related to the energy type you're associated with.

Dragon Breath

---

• Effect: When you damage a target, take a Collateral Damage d6 complication to reuse the damage die on another target. Step up the complication to reuse the damage die on a third target.

Dragonfear

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your aura of fear and panic, step it up.

Iron Scales

---

• Effect: When defending against a physical attack without armor, step up or double your defense skill. Spend 1pp to do both.

Milestones

• ...someone finds you inspiring.
• ...you keep a difficult promise.
• ...you bring shame to your scales.
• ...your honor gives an enemy an advantage.
• ...you put yourself in danger for honor and glory.

Dwarf

Stocky, powerful, crafty folk – who are good at having a good time once the work is done. Dwarves are, in a word, lasting – long-lived, with stonework and inventions that persist through the ages.

Whether you're from the mountains, hills, or cities, you've probably spent your life absorbing tradition, and striving for dedication, durability, and ingenuity. Oh, but you're also likely a fan of a good ale and a stirring tale!

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Sample Distinctions: Gruff Mountain Dwarf; Party Hardy Hill Dwarf; Orc-hating Dwarven Defender

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Sample Signature Assets: Oversized Maul; Endless Tankard; Most Impressive Beard

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Might	Vitality	Wits

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Craft	Endurance	Insight
Lore	Streetwise	Unarmed

Feats

Cast Iron Stomach

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore poison or intoxication related complications and damage.

Master Craftsdwarf

---

• Effect: When your Craft roll includes a proficiency, step up your effect die.

Stand Your Ground

---

• Effect: Once per scene, step back an attack skill to step up a defense skill for the rest of the scene.

Stonecunning

---

• Effect: When dealing with stonework, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Sturdy As Stone

---

• Effect: When you are about to reach 0 hp you may spend a plot point to negate the damage. You then step back Endurance for the rest of the session.

Milestones

• ...something you crafted helps an ally.
• ...you invoke ageless feuds.
• ...you share a drink and a tale.
• ...you point out splendid details in craftsmanship.
• ...congratulate yourself on a job well done.

Eldar

Though you share a number of traits with elves, you are a touch more alien. As far as humans are concerned, your goals and wants are at times unfathomable, seemingly too deep into the fae realm to apply to the mortal realm. Yet... here you find yourself.

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Sample Distinctions: Glowy-eyed Eldar Mystic; Arrogant Fae Princeling; Ambassador of the Fae Realm

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Sample Signature Assets: Otherworldly Charm; Cold Iron Sabre; Centuries of Experience

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Wits

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Diplomacy	Insight	Lore
Magic	Perception	Performance

Feats

Eldar Education

---

• Effect: Once per session when you fail a roll, you may spend 1pp to immediately gain, roll, and add an appropriate proficiency. You retain this proficiency for the rest of the scene.

Eldar Resilience

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore charm effects or mind control related complications and damage.

Fae Radiance

---

• Effect: When you use your otherworldly seeming to your advantage, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Fae Step

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to teleport a short distance.

Trance

---

• Effect: When you take a complication representing exhaustion or sleep effects, spend 1pp to step it back and rename it.

Milestones

• ...you display the natural superiority of eldar.
• ...someone stands in awe of your radiance.
• ...an enemy exploits your few fae weaknesses.
• ...you outwit a mentally challenging enemy.
• ...you recall a relevant situation from your very long life.

Elf

Your ancestors may have come from the fae realms, but your people have made beautiful, elegant homes from the deep forests and enchanted glades of the mortal realms.

Long centuries of adaptation have given you better tools for understanding and manipulating the natural world than even most mortals.

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Sample Distinctions: Sharp-eyed Wood Elf; Elven Worshipper of the Moon; Sylvan Champion of the Wild

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Sample Signature Assets: Centuries of Study; Enhanced Senses; Map to Forgotten Places

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Intellect	Wits

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Healing	Lore	Nature
Perception	Ranged	Stealth

Feats

Attuned to the Wild

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to being one with the natural world, step it up.

Elven Accuracy

---

• Effect: When you're not satisfied with an attack roll, spend 1pp to reroll your dice.

Group Awareness

---

• Effect: You may spend plot points for any nearby ally when they make a roll that includes Perception.

Longview

---

• Effect: When your keen eyesight gives an advantage, step up or double Perception. Spend 1pp to do both.

Wildstep

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore a complication related to difficult terrain or hampered movement.

Milestones

• ...you have trouble dealing with an aspect of urban life.
• ...your mastery of nature benefits your whole party.
• ...you notice something before anyone else.
• ...someone disparages your wild semblance.
• ...you reference history as if it happened yesterday.

Gnome

You are part of an interesting people – sort of a blend of several other heritages. As industrious as dwarves, but instead of durability you focus on innovation. As magical as eldar, but interested in illusion and technology. As playful as halflings, but more towards pranks than song and drink. As comically intense as humans, but quite a bit more distractible.

All put together, you're unique and – above all – just want to have a bit of a laugh.

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Sample Distinctions: Gnomish Jester; Obsessive Gnome Tinker; Gnome-body to See Here

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Sample Signature Assets: Utility Belt; Constant Glamour; Handbook of Punning and Wordplay

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Intellect	Vitality

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Craft	Magic
Perception	Stealth	Streetwise

Feats

Casual Illusionist

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to compulsive chicanery, step it up.

Fade Away

---

• Effect: When you take damage, spend 1pp to give or step up an illusion or invisibility related complication for your attacker.

Gnomish Resistance

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore illusion related complications and damage.

Natural Cantrips

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp – and name a cantrip – to ignore a complication.

Trickster's Cunning

---

• Effect: When you use your natural connection to deception and illusion, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Milestones

• ...one of your pranks is successful.
• ...nobody notices your presence for a whole scene.
• ...you get an appropriate moment to cackle maniacally.
• ...someone underestimates you based on height.
• ...your tricks get you in trouble with an ally.

Halfling

Though you're often mistaken for human children, you're just as cunning, well-trained, and dangerous as any other heritage. You also carry an interesting dichotomy in both a very strong sense of hearth and home, and a powerful interest in voyages and wandering.

You're likely to be both a source of comfort and homeliness, and somewhat of a resource for your typically much larger and louder allies.

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Sample Distinctions: Diminutive Halfling Sneak; Charming Debutante – In Miniature; Pint-size Adventurer

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Sample Signature Assets: Cooking Supplies; Keepsake From Home; Well-maintained Sling

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Presence	Wits

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Healing	Perception
Ranged	Stealth	Thievery

Feats

Fearless

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore fear related complications and damage.

Irrepressible

---

• Effect: When you leverage your optimism and cheer, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Lost in the Crowd

---

• Effect: When trying to lose a tracker, step up or double Stealth. Spend 1pp to do both.

Second Chance

---

• Effect: When you're about to take damage, spend 1pp to reroll your defense.

Underfoot

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your itty bitty size, step it up.

Milestones

• ...you convince your allies to take some rest and relaxation.
• ...you lament your lack of home comforts.
• ...you use your size to your advantage.
• ...your size prevents you from doing something.
• ...someone treats you like a child.

Human

You may think you know a thing or two about humans, being one yourself (presumably). But what do other heritages think of them? Utterly entertaining, humans are go-getters, daredevils, and ultimately, comic relief. Ambitious, unpredictable, and decisive, humans basically think they can and should do whatever they want.

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Sample Distinctions: LEEROY JENKINS; Out of Control; Extremely Driven

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Sample Signature Assets: Steely Reserves; Powerful Ambition; Uncanny Luck

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Vitality

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Craft	Diplomacy	Endurance
Performance	Streetwise	Unarmed

Feats

Action Surge

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to go first in any action scene. On your first action, you may reroll any spoilers instead of accepting a plot point.

Defiant Luck

---

• Effect: Take or step up a complication to reroll your dice. Both 1s and 2s count as spoilers on the reroll.

Heroic Effort

---

• Effect: When you hurtle into ill-advised action, replace your skill die with a d4. If your roll is successful, gain a hero die equal to the skill’s normal rating.

Innovative

---

• Effect: When you do something with no known precedent, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Versatile

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to use a complication as an asset for one action; step up the complication afterward.

Milestones

• ...you seize control of something, no matter how small.
• ...you succeed at something overly perilous.
• ...someone ridicules your risky plan.
• ...you rush into a dangerous situation with no preparation.
• ...your unpredictability puts an ally in danger.

Orc

With the proud combative traditions your ancestors embraced, you are perceived by other heritages as somewhat... dangerous to be around. Not to say that you aren't, but it's still a cruel stereotype.

Orcs are actually fairly versatile, as essentially physical paragons of the player heritages – you're perfectly suited for any of the more martial pursuits, and yet are not to be underestimated in your cunning.

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Sample Distinctions: Big Green Fighting Machine; Monster's Face, But Angel's Heart; Brutal & Efficient

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Sample Signature Assets: Muscles on Muscles; ANGER; Claws & Tusks

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Might	Vitality

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Endurance	Intimidation
Melee	Nature	Unarmed

Feats

Darkvision

---

• Effect: Step back darkness related complications when you get them. Spend 1pp to remove one entirely.

Ferocity

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your fierce and ruthless nature, step it up.

Furious Assault

---

• Effect: Replace an attack skill with a d4. If you still hit, add your regular attack skill to your damage dice.

Orcish Resilience

---

• Effect: Step up or double Endurance for recovery rolls. Spend 1pp to do both.

Swift Charge

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Athletics to an attack roll, also keep an extra effect die.

Milestones

• ...you surprise someone with your intelligence.
• ...your manners or personal habits disgust the scrubs.
• ...you drown out the anger with conviction.
• ...you change somebody's opinion of orcs.
• ...you allow your savage instincts to take over.

Siren

Sirens are surprisingly flexible, and can throw themselves into just about any role and situation and manage to make the best of it. Unable to fly like true Avians, you still retain several vestigial signs of a common ancestor, including a coat of down and feathers.

Unlike the ancient legends, you're part of a group that's scattered across the world. Though – giving truth to the legends – your voice carries a bit of magic, and it's difficult for folk of any background to turn their ear away.

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Sample Distinctions: Voice of the Heavens; Just... a Little Birdlike; Bewitching Agent of Demeter

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Sample Signature Assets: Understanding Nature; Enchanting Heartsong; Polyglot

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Heritage Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Presence	Vitality

---

Heritage Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Diplomacy	Insight
Nature	Perception	Streetwise

Feats

Dilettante

---

• Effect: When you use a skill at d4, spend 1pp to use Bluff or Streetwise instead.

Empathic

---

• Effect: When you work to bridge heritage relationships, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Feathers and Claws

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your birdlike traits, step it up.

Knack For Success

---

• Effect: If you roll any spoilers, spend 1pp to reroll your dice.

Song of the Siren

---

• Effect: Double or step up Presence while singing. Spend 1pp to do both.

Milestones

• ...you help people who clash understand each other.
• ...your friendly familiarity gets you in trouble.
• ...you invoke the myths of the ancient Sirens.
• ...your voice means the difference between life and death.
• ...you break into spontaneous – and ill-timed – song.

Expertise

Animist

You serve the wilds and nature, first and foremost. The plants and creatures are your tools, yes, but also your friends.

Your command of natural spirits defines you in combat and out. This sometimes puts you in odd situations around more cosmopolitan allies, but you are undisputed in your element.

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Sample Distinctions: Druid of the Old Ways; Skinwalker of the Bear Spirit; Sentinel of the Wild

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Sample Signature Assets: Wolf Companion; Blessing of Gaia; Ironwood Staff

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Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Vitality	Wits

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Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Healing	Lore
Magic	Nature	Unarmed

Feats

Natural Magic

---

• Effect: While casting in a natural setting, step up your effect dice. While in a manufactured setting, step them back.

Primal Guardian

---

• Effect: When you fail a roll while protecting the wilderness, spend 1pp to gain a hero die equal to the skill you used.

Summoner

---

• Effect: When you summon a creature or construct, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Wild Empathy

---

• Effect: Step up or double Nature when interacting with plants & animals. Take or step up a complication for both.

Wild Shape

---

• Effect: When you enter a beast form, step back Intellect and Presence and step up Might and Agility for the rest of the scene.

Milestones

• ...you choose the safety of an animal before a sentient.
• ...you remain wild shaped during a social interaction.
• ...your wilderness friends help your allies.
• ...someone threatens the wilds & you vow to protect them.
• ...you destroy a symbol of civilization.

Ascetic

Not every ascetic truly embraces austerity – the common thread is actually a reliance on self, on physical and spiritual peak performance. You tap into stores of personal excellence that most people don't even know exist – and you can almost make it seem like a sort of magic.

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Sample Distinctions: Traveling Monastic Scrapper; Spartan Pugilist; Disciplined Wushu Specialist

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Sample Signature Assets: Mystical Tattoos; Impeccable Calm; Tiger Style

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Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Might	Wits

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Endurance	Lore
Perception	Stealth	Unarmed

Feats

Always In Motion

---

• Effect: When your action involves rapid movement, step up or double Athletics. Spend 1pp to do both.

Balance in Everything

---

• Effect: Once per scene, step back any attribute to step up any other attribute for the rest of the scene.

Blur of Strikes

---

• Effect: When you are dealing with multiple foes, double Unarmed. Remove the highest rolling die and keep a second effect die.

Channel Ki

---

• Effect: Spend a hero die to create an asset of the same rating for the rest of the session.

Stunning Fist

---

• Effect: When you inflict a complication as a result of rolling Unarmed, step it up.

Milestones

• ...you perform a tool-assisted task using only your body.
• ...you disarm an opponent.
• ...you eschew material possessions.
• ...someone underestimates you for being unarmed.
• ...someone joins you in your meditation.

Champion

As far as your chosen deity is concerned, you're not just a follower, or an evangelist – you are a crusader. Those who strive to tear down the works of your deity are targets of your wrath, and those upholding your principles is a potential ally.

You don't necessarily follow the divine will of a supposed "good" or "lawful" being, but their guidance is paramount to every action you take.

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Sample Distinctions: Blade of Athena; Ishtar's Vanguard; Tempest of Tefnut

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Sample Signature Assets: Devoted Disciple; Exalted Broadsword; Glorious Aura

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Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Might	Presence	Vitality

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Diplomacy	Endurance	Healing
Insight	Intimidation	Melee

Feats

Divinity's Shield

---

• Effect: You may spend your plot points for nearby allies' defense rolls.

Lay On Hands

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to step back a disease-related complication, or to use Presence as if it were your effect die in a Healing roll.

Righteous Radiance

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore complications and damage created by a foe actively working against your deity.

Smite Enemy

---

• Effect: When you attack in the name of your deity, replace your skill die with a d4. If successful, add Intimidation to the damage dice. Success or not, if the GM deems your target unworthy of smiting, gain or step up a complication.

Spirit of Virtue

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• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your fanatical devotion to your deity, step it up.

Milestones

• ...you protect someone who cannot protect themself.
• ...you take vengeance against those who defy your deity.
• ...your righteousness inspires someone.
• ...your devotion forces you to make a difficult choice.
• ...an adherent of a different deity challenges you.

Channeler

There is raw force and energy coursing through your body. Whether you were born with it, or it manifested slowly as you came of age, it's an innate part of you.

You might channel storm energy, or you have the blood of dragons, or you were imbued with magitek. Your magic tends to be explosive and chaotic, but thematically focused.

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Sample Distinctions: Elemental Adept; Scion of the Mystic Bloodline; The Storm's Convergence

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Sample Signature Assets: Focusing Dagger; Otherworldly Aura; Empowered Staff

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Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Vitality

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Diplomacy	Endurance	Intimidation
Magic	Ranged	Streetwise

Feats

Elemental Magic

---

• Effect: When channeling your power, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Inner Power

---

• Effect: When using your power forcefully, add Presence to your roll. Remove the highest rolling die and add three dice together for the result.

Overwhelming

---

• Effect: When the use of your power results in a complication, step it up to gain 1pp.

Power's in the Blood

---

• Effect: When you take damage, step up the damage dice to gain a hero die equal to the largest damage die.

Wild Magic Surge

---

• Effect: When you roll an even number of spoilers, you gain an asset instead of a complication. It is named by the GM, and does not grant you a plot point.

Milestones

• ...you hurt an ally when you take your power too far.
• ...you show signs of losing your own psyche to the magic.
• ...you intentionally risk yourself for a more intense effect.
• ...you hold back in order not to hurt someone.
• ...someone threatens to steal your power.

Hunter

You are cunning, intimidating, and above all else, extremely mobile. Your moves in a fight are designed to annoy, hamper, and disable your opponents, while rapidly returning to a safe distance.

Outside of battle you are a keen tracker, able to stalk practically any prey, and then you are fully capable of capturing or killing it.

---

Sample Distinctions: Ranger of the North; Single-minded Harrier; Frontier Scout & Trapper

---

Sample Signature Assets: Laminate Longbow; Twinned Blades; Copious Hunting Trophies

---

Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Might	Wits

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Melee	Nature
Perception	Ranged	Stealth

Feats

Dedicated

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Endurance to your next roll, also step back a related complication.

Natural Explorer

---

• Effect: When you draw on your knowledge of the wild, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Quarry

---

• Effect: When silently tracking or hunting another character, step up or double Stealth; spend 1pp to do both.

Running Attack

---

• Effect: While attacking, spend 1pp to ignore a complication related to positioning.

Twin Strike

---

• Effect: When your attack roll includes a weapon asset, replace it with a d4. If you still hit, add your regular asset die to your damage dice.

Milestones

• ...you track your quarry after they've already evaded you.
• ...you land a bowshot that seemed impossible.
• ...someone manages to track you.
• ...someone else catches your quarry first.
• ...your wilderness knowledge directly helps your allies.

Mage

Mages and wizards manipulate the very fabric of space through the focusing of their will. Some casters fall into it naturally, and some spend years or decades of study to even come close to their own expectations.

Channelers and pactbound stumble across their powers – you've actually taken control of the building blocks of reality.

---

Sample Distinctions: Wizard of the Red Tower; Absentminded But Brilliant Caster; Inventive Artificer

---

Sample Signature Assets: Musty Spellbook; Raven Familiar; Dragon-whisker Wand

---

Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Wits

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Craft	Healing	Insight
Lore	Magic	Perception

Feats

Alchemy

---

• Effect: When you spend a plot point to create an asset, you may give it this feat: "When this asset is part of a successful attack, destroy it to give the target a complication one step larger than the asset." The complication name must be chosen when the asset is created.

Arcane Bond

---

• Effect: Choose a signature asset. When that asset is in your dice pool, ignore a complication.

Careful Spell

---

• Effect: Step back your skill die while casting. Reroll any spoilers that occur.

Heighten Spell

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to step up or double your skill die while casting. Take or step up a complication to do both.

School Specialization

---

• Effect: Choose an arcane school. Step up or double your skill die when using spells or rituals from this school, but step it back when doing so from other schools.

Milestones

• ...you invent a new spell.
• ...you magic your way through an impossible solution.
• ...your arcane manipulations crack reality.
• ...you rely on magic for mundane tasks.
• ...someone's highly impressed by your command of magic.

Pactbound

You took the “easy” path to power. Someone or something with a whole lot of it offered you a deal, and you figured it was worth it. You might serve yourself, your party, and your home, but in order to continue to use this power, you must also continue to serve your patron.

These are pacts made not with gods, but with demons, ancient spirits of the fae, unthinkable creatures from another reality, or monarchs and archmages from the deep past.

---

Sample Distinctions: Deal With the Devil; Starry Eyes for Great Old Ones; Pledged to the Will of an Archfae

---

Sample Signature Assets: Manual of Summoning Sigils; Wand of Radiance; Mirror to an Eldritch Hellscape

---

Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Presence	Vitality

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Lore	Magic
Ranged	Stealth	Thievery

Feats

Curse

---

• Effect: If you fail an attack, spend 1pp to use your effect die to give your target a complication anyway.

Eldritch Transference

---

• Effect: When your actions align with your patron's, double Magic. Remove the highest rolling die and add three dice together for the result.

Pact Boon

---

• Effect: When you use your specific gifts granted by your pact, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Patron's Vestige

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication while channeling your patron, step it up.

Shadow Walk

---

• Effect: Step up your effect die when using Stealth.

Milestones

• ...your patron requires action you find unpalatable.
• ...someone is shocked as they realize how you got power.
• ...you declare your patron proudly.
• ...someone curses you and your patron.
• ...you revel in the power you've been granted.

Priest

With priest as your expertise, you don't just serve your deity – they also impose their will through you. You have powers and abilities others don't, because you channel the divine energies granted by a divine being.

You have a very different focus than the champion, who becomes the direct weapon of the gods. Instead, you're a healer, a helper. Someone who builds on the works of your deity, not breaks down the enemies thereof.

---

Sample Distinctions: Agent of Enki; Priestess of Osiris; Chantico's Torchbearer

---

Sample Signature Assets: Holy Symbol; Power of Faith; Consecrated Mace

---

Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Might	Presence	Wits

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Diplomacy	Healing	Insight
Lore	Magic	Melee

Feats

Blessing

---

• Effect: When you spend a plot point to make any asset last until the end of the session, step it up.

Channel Divinity

---

• Effect: When you spend a hero die serving your deity, step it up. Take or step up a complication to maximize it.

Divine Magic

---

• Effect: When you channel the will and power of your deity, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Domain Focus

---

• Effect: Choose a divine domain. Step up or double your skill die when using spells or rituals from this domain, but step it back when doing so from other domains.

Healing Word

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to apply a Healing roll to every nearby ally.

Milestones

• ...you help heal multiple people in a scene.
• ...you evangelize your deity to others.
• ...your prayers help a disbeliever.
• ...someone curses your choice of deity.
• ...someone praises you and your deity.

Raconteur

You don't just tell stories, or play songs – that's the purview of the thespian history. Raconteurs actually spin their performances into mystical effects – astounding, delighting, and terrifying their audiences.

There's clearly a use for this in social situations, but your utility in battle is nothing to sneeze at. Putting your will behind a battle cry, or lacing a marching drumbeat with power, or simply dazzling your foe with fancy footwork – it's all part of the show.

---

Sample Distinctions: Traveling Magical Minstrel; Inspiring Skald; The Pied Piper

---

Sample Signature Assets: Songwood Lute; Silver Tongue; Singing Sword

---

Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Intellect	Presence

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Craft	Diplomacy	Lore
Magic	Performance	Streetwise

Feats

Acoustic Magic

---

• Effect: When you channel magic through oratory or music, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Deceptive Duelist

---

• Effect: When you use Presence to create an asset or complication in combat, step up your effect dice.

Enchanting

---

• Effect: When directly interacting with one person, spend 1pp to step up or double Presence on your next roll.

Jack of All Trades

---

• Effect: The first time you use a skill at d4 in a session, spend 1pp to step it up to d6 for the rest of the scene; take or step up a complication to add a proficiency as well.

Signs of Influence

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication because someone recognizes you as a raconteur, step it up.

Milestones

• ...your charms convince someone to join your cause.
• ...you inspire your allies with a story or song.
• ...someone asks you to perform for them.
• ...you spin magic and performance into battle.
• ...your stories hold the key to a current dilemma.

Scoundrel

As rogues, thieves, and assassins, scoundrels excel at doing a bunch of damage without ever being seen. Well, and taking things without ever being seen. Or disabling traps or hearts. Except you want to be seen doing that last bit.

Your bread and butter is bound in shadows, distractions, and secrets. Focus on that and you'll come through the other side with a decent score.

---

Sample Distinctions: Shadowy Stalker; Master Infiltrator; Conniving Thief

---

Sample Signature Assets: Masterwork Thieves Tools; Way Too Many Throwing Knives; Holdout Crossbow

---

Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Intellect	Presence

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Melee	Ranged
Stealth	Streetwise	Thievery

Feats

Cunning Sneak

---

• Effect: When making a roll with Bluff, Stealth, or Thievery, spend 1pp to use a complication as an asset for one action; step up the complication afterward.

Distracting Strike

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Presence to your next attack roll, keep an extra effect die, which much be used for a complication.

Surprising Strike

---

• Effect: When you succeed on an attack roll with an asset or complication representing surprise or unawareness, add the asset or complication die to your damage dice.

Trap Sense

---

• Effect: Step back trap related complications when you get them. Spend 1pp to remove one entirely.

Uncanny Dodge

---

• Effect: When you take damage, spend 1pp to negate it. Step back your attribute and skill dice on your next roll.

Milestones

• ...you take something you don't need, because you could.
• ...you defeat a foe who didn't know you were there.
• ...your knowledge of traps and contraptions saves an ally.
• ...you convince someone to join you on a heist.
• ...you speak with someone silently using thieves cant.

Unleashed

You get angry. And you're very good at it. When you're "in the zone" you're a more effective combatant than even the warrior or the hunter.

The flip side is that you're a hammer, and everything looks like a nail. You have to take care in situations where your anger might cause more problems than it solves.

---

Sample Distinctions: Whirlwind of Death; A Few Anger Issues; One Mean Spawn-of-a-Hellhound

---

Sample Signature Assets: Comically Huge Axe; Killer Reputation; Impressive Battle Cry

---

Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Might	Vitality

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Endurance	Intimidation
Melee	Ranged	Unarmed

Feats

Berserk Fury

---

• Effect: Gain a Rage asset equal to your Vitality. If you can't use it as an asset, it becomes a complication for a roll. Each time Rage is used as a complication, step it back. Rage cannot be extended beyond the scene.

Bloody Triumph

---

• Effect: When you strike down a foe, spend 1pp to gain a hero die equal to your largest damage die.

Fearsome Bearing

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Intimidation to your next roll, also step up your effect dice.

Indomitable

---

• Effect: When you take damage, take or step up an appropriate complication to step back the damage dice.

Persistence

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to take a limited action while taken out, you still keep two dice for your total.

Milestones

• ...your anger hurts someone you care about.
• ...you strike down multiple foes in one action.
• ...you use Rage in a scene, but never as a complication.
• ...you strike down a foe while taken out.
• ...you apologize for something you did while angry.

Warrior

What is your role on the battlefield? Yes.

Seriously though, even if other expertises – like the unleashed or hunter – are good at hitting things, you are the undisputed master of toe-to-toe combat. Possibly to the detriment of other things, but you gotta do what you gotta do in order to survive the dangers of a high fantasy world.

---

Sample Distinctions: Dedicated Axe Fighter; Grizzled Mercenary; Unstoppable Warrior

---

Sample Signature Assets: Heirloom Chain Armor;
A Weapon For Everything; Duelist's Badge

---

Expertise Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Might	Vitality

---

Expertise Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Craft	Endurance
Melee	Ranged	Unarmed

Feats

All-out Attack

---

• Effect: Choose a weapon type. Step up or double your attack skill when using that weapon, but twos count as spoilers.

Defense Mastery

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Melee or Unarmed to your defense roll, also step back any damage dice.

Precision Attack

---

• Effect: Replace your attack skill with a d4. If you still succeed, keep an extra effect die.

Second Wind

---

• Effect: When you benefit from healing, step up or double your skill die for your next roll. Spend 1pp to do both.

Vengeful Guardian

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to defend against an attack intended for a nearby ally. If you take any damage, step up or double your attack skill for your next roll.

Milestones

• ...you defeat a foe in single combat.
• ...you finish a fight in which you were taken out.
• ...your display of weapon skill impresses another warrior.
• ...your warrior's reflexes eliminate a diplomatic solution.
• ...you or your adversary start monologuing during a duel.

History

Brigand

You've found yourself either hounded by the authorities – or working for corrupt ones. Either way, your habits and techniques are the same: breaking laws, navigating the underworld, and doing your best to not get caught.

---

Sample Distinctions: Agent of the Crown; City's Most Wanted; Just Out of Prison

---

Sample Signature Assets: Agent's Marque; Friends In Low Places; Infiltration Gear

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Intellect	Vitality

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Intimidation	Melee
Stealth	Streetwise	Thievery

Feats

Contacts

---

• Effect: When relying on your social network, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Double Agent

---

• Effect: When you change sides in an argument, double Bluff or Intimidation for the action. Take or step up an appropriate complication.

Espionage

---

• Effect: Step back an asset related to surveillance, investigation, or intelligence gathering in order to reroll your dice in appropriate situations.

Everyone For Themself

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when you abandon an ally in a time of need to further your own agenda.

Plans B Through Z

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to step up and rename an asset.

Milestones

• ...you get recognized by law enforcement.
• ...someone refuses to interact because of your reputation.
• ...you infiltrate a location unnoticed.
• ...someone else takes the fall for something you did.
• ...you have a chance to say "they don't suspect a thing."

Cavalier

You are an essential part of the chivalric system that includes highborn and serfs – you serve as protection for both. As a likely member of the lower nobility yourself, you are unlike most mercenaries or common infantry – your gear is top-notch, and you were trained in an honorable and valiant tradition.

---

Sample Distinctions: Knight of the Round Table; Sworn Vassal of the Duke; Heavily Armored Equestrian

---

Sample Signature Assets: Loyal Steed; Impeccable Honor; Shiny Suit of Plate

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Might	Presence	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Diplomacy	Endurance
Intimidation	Melee	Performance

Feats

Chivalry

---

• Effect: When interacting with others who live by your code, step up your effect dice, but also step up theirs.

Feudal Obligation

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your knightly duties, step it up.

Gallant

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Diplomacy to your next roll, also ignore an appropriate complication for the roll.

Martyr

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when you put yourself directly in danger's path to protect others.

Trustworthy

---

• Effect: Double or step up Diplomacy when establishing trust with someone. If you ever break that trust, take or step up an appropriate complication.

Milestones

• ...your honor is challenged.
• ...your lord requires you to fulfill a duty.
• ...you give orders to your own vassals.
• ...you enter into a formal duel.
• ...you betray your code.

Clergy

As opposed to the priest expertise, members of whom directly channel the sacred power of a divine being, clergy are simply the dedicated followers of those divine beings. By making this your history, your devotion to your deity is a central part of your life, even if it's not your primary methodology.

---

Sample Distinctions: Cultist of Sobek; Devotee to Naamah; Curate of Apollo

---

Sample Signature Assets: Book of Scripture; Holy Icon; Personal Crusade

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Craft	Diplomacy	Healing
Insight	Lore	Performance

Feats

Amongst the Flock

---

• Effect: When interacting with those of your faith, spend 1pp to double or step up Diplomacy, Insight, or Performance.

Empowering Faith

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Insight to your next roll, also step up a related scene asset.

Irrational Faith

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when your confidence in your deity puts you in inordinate danger.

Sheltered Past

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when your naïveté embarrasses you or your allies.

Shrine's Hospitality

---

• Effect: When seeking the aid of your faith's clergy, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Milestones

• ...you share a parable from your temple training.
• ...your trust in your deity is vindicated.
• ...your trust in your deity is heavily tested.
• ...you interpret an omen as your deity's will.
• ...someone is inspired to join your order.

Craftswright

You make things. Then, in general, you sell them. You might be more of a broker, selling others' pieces – or you are an artist, and you let dedicated merchants take care of the financials.

Either way, you really know your products, and you appreciate the skill and dedication people put into masterwork tools and artistic works.

---

Sample Distinctions: Traveling Merchant; Master Metalsmith; My Work Is Art

---

Sample Signature Assets: Communal Forge; Mule & Cart; Coat Full of Wares

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Craft	Diplomacy	Insight
Lore	Perception	Streetwise

Feats

Assessment

---

• Effect: When appraising or haggling, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Frugal

---

• Effect: If an asset you create doesn't get used in a scene, it can continue to the next scene without spending 1pp.

Guild Member

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your membership in the merchants or crafts guild, step it up.

Professionalism

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Craft to your next roll, also step up your attribute die.

Quality Stock

---

• Effect: When you adjust someone's equipment, spend 1pp to give them a hero die equal to your Craft.

Milestones

• ...someone buys your wares.
• ...you impress someone with your artisanship.
• ...something goes very wrong with your creations.
• ...your guild ties get you special treatment.
• ...someone destroys something you spent time creating.

Gladiator

At your core, you are a performer – except your costars tend to be death and pain and blood. Before adventuring, you've gotten by in life by fighting for show, whether in one-on-one situations in a ring, or bloody free-for-alls in a massive coliseum.

You've managed to survive this long, so you must have been at least good enough to engage the crowd, while keeping yourself from dying.

---

Sample Distinctions: Conqueror of the Coliseum; Crowd Favorite; At One With the Dust and Sweat

---

Sample Signature Assets: Worn Gladius; Flair for the Dramatic; Hodgepodge Armor

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Might	Presence	Vitality

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Endurance	Intimidation
Melee	Performance	Unarmed

Feats

Are You Not Entertained

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Performance to a combat roll, also keep an extra effect die, which is used to create an appropriate asset.

Death Smiles

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to take a limited action while taken out, step up your effect dice.

Fear and Wonder

---

• Effect: When you combine combat with putting on a show, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Shadows and Dust

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to the inevitability of death, step it up.

Strength and Honor

---

• Effect: When outnumbered, step back your attack skill. When facing a single foe, step up or double your attack skill.

Milestones

• ...you wax poetic about coliseum philosophy.
• ...you fight for an audience.
• ...someone cheers your name while you're fighting.
• ...you thank a foe for providing an entertaining fight.
• ...you pick a bad time to stay in character.

Grifter

You're out to pick up a score, a con, a grift, a scam. If people weren't so gullible, it wouldn't be as easy as it is to find so many marks, johns, rubes, saps, and dupes.

Turning this dubious but lucrative skill towards adventuring is really just the first step in your latest long con.

---

Sample Distinctions: Consumate Con Artist; Swindler Without Scruples; Everyone's a Sucker

---

Sample Signature Assets: List of Aliases a Mile Long; Marked Deck of Cards; Eyes You Can Trust

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Intellect	Presence

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Diplomacy	Insight
Perception	Streetwise	Thievery

Feats

Carouser

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to drinking and making merry, step it up.

Compulsive Thief

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when stealing something worthless or mundane gets you in trouble.

Lucky Dog

---

• Effect: When you buy an opportunity, remove the complication instead of stepping it back.

Pretty Face

---

• Effect: When you rely on your looks to accomplish something, step up or double Presence. Spend 1pp to do both.

Snake Oil

---

• Effect: When you create an asset while working a con, step it up. If the con goes south turn the asset into a complication.

Milestones

• ...you pull off a scam.
• ...someone good-naturedly picks up on your con.
• ...someone gets angry when they pick up on your con.
• ...someone manages to pull one over on you.
• ...you incorporate a scam into the party's plan.

Highborn

You are part of this world's aristocracy. That could mean you have a hereditary title, passed to you from your ancestors, and you're expected to provide heirs. Perhaps you or a family member is an elected official – in some cultures, a senator has as much power as a duke. Or your time as a merchant has elevated you to a measure of status.

Whatever the reason, you have little experience with the lives of the common folk, yet have a sense of entitlement or responsibility towards them.

---

Sample Distinctions: Contessa di Tuscany; Spoiled Dandy Out of Their League; “If My Father Finds Out...”

---

Sample Signature Assets: Impeccable Style; Bulging Coinpurse; Faithful Man-servant Hecubus

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Craft	Diplomacy
Insight	Lore	Performance

Feats

Blue Blood

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your highborn lineage, step it up.

Estate

---

• Effect: When you harness your considerable resources, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Out of Touch

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when you find yourself having a "let them eat cake" moment.

Political Maneuvers

---

• Effect: When heavily politicking, double Presence; remove the highest rolling die and keep three dice for the result.

Talking Points

---

• Effect: When you spend a plot point to create a social or political asset, also step back a related complication.

Milestones

• ...you "make it rain"
• ...you have a peasant experience for the first time.
• ...you get preferential treatment just for being highborn.
• ...someone treats your station with disdain.
• ...your behavior changes someone's opinion about highborn.

Local Hero

You started small, but you're thinking big! Somehow, you've already impressed the people you grew up around – either through pure altruism, or being in the right place at the right time, or maybe you even set up a scene that played out perfectly. In any case, you have a reputation to live up to.

---

Sample Distinctions: Hero of Canton; Rescuer of Orphans; Unofficial Protector of the Township

---

Sample Signature Assets: Admirer's Keepsake; Key to the City; The Public's Support

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Presence	Vitality	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Diplomacy	Endurance	Intimidation
Nature	Streetwise	Unarmed

Feats

Ambitious

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your lofty aspirations, step it up.

Arrogant

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when your hubris grates against other characters.

Rustic Hospitality

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore a complication related to dealing with common folk.

Social Duty

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when you agree to go out of your way to help someone.

Strong Roots

---

• Effect: When you pull reserves from your past, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Milestones

• ...a total stranger recognizes you.
• ...you leverage your fame.
• ...someone loses faith in you as a hero.
• ...your actions gain you another admirer.
• ...your heroism results in collateral damage.

Mariner

Your whole world is the sea. Whether your vocation has been fishing, or trading, or naval, there are few in the world who have a deeper connection to the salt air, the ocean breeze, or the tug of wind on the rigging.

You're used to relying on your crewmates to work together and get where you're going. You're better traveled than most, though that's pretty much through port visits.

---

Sample Distinctions: Retired Naval Officer; At Home on the Sea; First Mate of the Tilted Duck

---

Sample Signature Assets: Port Passpapers; Surprising Amount of Rope; The Tilted Duck

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Vitality	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Craft	Endurance
Lore	Perception	Unarmed

Feats

Crew Mentality

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to being part of a tightly knit team, step it up.

Rigger

---

• Effect: When you're working with rope, canvas, or pulleys, double your skill die. Remove the highest rolling die and add three dice together for the result.

Sea Legs

---

• Effect: Step back balance, unsteady ground, or nausea related complications when you get them. Spend 1pp to remove one entirely.

Ships Passage

---

• Effect: When you're pulling favors at the docks or at sea, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Superstitious

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when you change your plans because of signs and portents from old wives' tales.

Milestones

• ...you recall a tale of a port or ship you're dealing with.
• ...your superstitions come true.
• ...your wayfinding benefits your allies.
• ...you step on a ship after way too long on land.
• ...your worthless trinket from afar has value to someone.

Militant

Your experiences include serving in a formal military of one kind or another, with ranks, tactics, uniforms, and organized training. Whether this was as part of a massive systemic military complex, or a small village militia is up to you.

Allies will look to you for consistency, battle plans, and split second decisions. On the other hand, the reason you're adventuring now instead of soldiering might be to get away from all that.

---

Sample Distinctions: Veteran of the Summoner Wars; City Guard Cadet; Traumatized Former Soldier

---

Sample Signature Assets: Insignia of Rank; Standard Issue Blade; Military Handbook

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Might	Vitality

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Endurance	Intimidation
Melee	Ranged	Unarmed

Feats

Coordinated Strike

---

• Effect: Step up any dice you lend to an ally; step up any complications you receive as a result.

Flashbacks

---

• Effect: Gain 1pp when something sends you into post-traumatic shock.

Military Rank

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your military experience, step it up.

Tactician

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to use a complication as an asset for one action; step up the complication afterward.

Tenacity

---

• Effect: When making a defense or recovery roll, spend 1pp to roll Endurance and add it to your total.

Milestones

• ...you instinctively salute someone.
• ...someone unironically calls you by your rank.
• ...someone sarcastically calls you by your rank.
• ...your tactics result in fewer casualties & spent resources.
• ...someone recognizes and appreciates your service.

Pirate

Stuck somewhere between the mariner and the brigand, you are more than the sum of those parts, borne from the unique nature of nautical larceny and life as a maritime fugitive.

Whether you work for a government with a privateer's letter of marque, or with a scalliwag crew sailing from a skull-shaped island, you are exceptional at boarding craft, destroying ships, and subduing other sailors.

---

Sample Distinctions: Low-down Buccaneer; Unscrupulous Privateer; Nought But a Humble Pirate

---

Sample Signature Assets: Pitted Cutlass; History In Tattoos; Secret Peg-leg Compartment

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Might	Presence

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Bluff	Intimidation
Melee	Perception	Thievery

Feats

Drink Up Me Hearties

---

• Effect: When you use booze to ease social interactions, step up or double Presence on your next roll. If you fail, step back Presence for the rest of the scene.

More a Set of Guidelines

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to step back and rename a complication related to your morality or reliability.

Parley

---

• Effect: When negotiating terms of a verbal contract, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Really Bad Egg

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to being a stinky filthy pirate, step it up.

Such a Pretty Boat… Ship!

---

• Effect: When performing illicit activities in plain sight, step up or double Bluff. Spend 1pp to do both.

Milestones

• ...you "commandeer" a vessel of some sort.
• ...your past eliminates an opportunity for your party.
• ...you fight your way onto another vessel.
• ...you act against your own code.
• ...you use a bizarre nautical metaphor.

Ragamuffin

You are practically the opposite of the highborn. You may not necessarily be defined by poverty, or homelessness, but you're certainly used to being a "have-not" – for good or ill.

This makes you, among other things, a natural survivor even when you have nothing but the shirt on your back. Maybe you're an orphan, perhaps a kidnapping victim, or even just the (hopefully last) in a long line of low-born street folk, living off scraps and rags.

---

Sample Distinctions: Street-corner Beggar; Prinxe of Thieves; Diamond In the Rough

---

Sample Signature Assets: Secret Hideout; Friends In Low Places; Lucky Tuppence

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Intellect	Vitality

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Bluff	Endurance	Perception
Stealth	Streetwise	Thievery

Feats

Better on My Own

---

• Effect: When you refuse a lent die from an ally, gain 1pp and take a complication equal to the lent die.

City Secrets

---

• Effect: When you're surreptitiously gathering information, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Forgettable Face

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to just being part of the rabble, step it up.

Scrounger

---

• Effect: When an ally fails a roll to create an asset, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Untrusting

---

• Effect: When you gain a complication related to your inability to trust others, step it up to gain 1pp.

Milestones

• ...being unnoticed is exactly what you needed.
• ...someone tries to get too emotionally close for comfort.
• ...you surprise someone by turning trash into treasure.
• ...you run into someone from your past.
• ...you break a law doing what you need to to survive.

Recluse

Despite your role in an adventuring crew now, you've spent a lot of time on your own. Maybe in a cave in the hills, or a cabin in the woods, or even boarded up in a manor in a bustling city.

Whatever brought you out of seclusion must have been important, for one does not lightly leave a live so filled with peace and self-reliance.

---

Sample Distinctions: Mountaintop Hermit; Values Their Privacy; Tremendously Self-sufficient

---

Sample Signature Assets: Trusty Walking Stick; Really Impressive Calluses; Loyal Corvid

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Vitality	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Craft	Endurance	Healing
Lore	Nature	Perception

Feats

Agoraphobia

---

• Effect: When you gain a complication related to dealing with crowds of people, step it up to gain 1pp.

Everything Has a Use

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to step back an equipment-based asset, then turn it into two new assets, available to any ally.

Mental Balance

---

• Effect: When you spend 1pp to add Perception or Insight to your next roll during a skill challenge, also step up your effect dice.

Serenity

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp at the beginning of a skill challenge. During the skill challenge, you may reroll each 1 once.

Survivor

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore a complication when rolling Craft, Endurance, or Nature.

Milestones

• ...you manage to get some quality time to yourself.
• ...you refuse a creature comfort others are enjoying.
• ...you find yourself relying on somebody else.
• ...you regale others with wisdom gained from seclusion.
• ...you push someone away who's trying to help.

Scholar

Your claim to fame is knowledge – pure distilled information and understanding. It may have come from years of monastic or academic study, or passed to you through a soul-binding ritual, or maybe you just have a photographic memory.

You act as the party's source of information and facts, and their conduit to contacts such as scholarly colleagues and mentors.

---

Sample Distinctions: Archivist of the Eternal Grove; Dusty Old Sage; Platonic Academy Alumnus

---

Sample Signature Assets: Personal Library; Masterwork Scribe's Tools; Eidetic Memory

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Intellect	Presence	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Craft	Healing	Lore
Magic	Nature	Perception

Feats

All Nighter

---

• Effect: When your exhaustion results in a complication, step up the complication to gain 1pp.

Researcher

---

• Effect: When you fail a Lore check, take or step up a complication to know where to look to find the answer.

Sesquipedalian

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your incredible command of language, step it up.

Wait, Listen

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to take the first action in a scene before weapons are drawn. For that action, reroll any spoilers instead of accepting a plot point.

Wisdom of the Ages

---

• Effect: When history or myth guides you, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Milestones

• ...you know the answer to a particularly vexing problem.
• ...your research keeps you from conventional recreation.
• ...someone explicitly challenges your depth of knowledge.
• ...your trivia and minutiae prevents a deadly combat.
• ...you find someone staring at you in incomprehension.

Thespian

While raconteurs are actually able to spin magic from performance, thespians tend to be the ones who are actually on stage. Or busking in the street. Or jesting for a monarch.

Your natural home is the theatre – but as they say, all the world's a stage. Wherever you go, your performances are a part of who you are, how you see the world, and how you seek to change it.

---

Sample Distinctions: Headliner; Dramatic Orator; "I... Am a Professional"

---

Sample Signature Assets: Costume Box; Voice to Fill a Hall; The Compleat Works

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Presence	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Diplomacy	Insight
Lore	Perception	Performance

Feats

Acrobat

---

• Effect: When you perform a feat of tumbling and dexterity, double Athletics. Remove the highest rolling die and add three dice together for the result.

By Popular Demand

---

• Effect: When looking for a place to perform or stay, spend 1pp to create an appropriate d8 asset.

Perfectionist

---

• Effect: Reroll any 1s. For each die you reroll, take or step up a Frustrated complication.

Sharp Tongue

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your biting wit, step it up.

Story For Any Occasion

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore a complication while participating in social interaction.

Milestones

• ...your name opens a door for your allies.
• ...a scene from your plays is applicable for a current issue.
• ...someone takes your cue and says the next line.
• ...you manage to involve an audience.
• ...you monologue your way through a tense situation.

Wildling

"Civilized" society might consider you savage. What is truly savage is the decadence and waste that these societies engender.

You might have come from a poorly understood civilization, or no civilization at all, or perhaps a small tribal settlement, or maybe you were even a lone wolf. No matter how this manifests, you find yourself a stranger and an outsider to modern culture.

---

Sample Distinctions: Literally Raised By Wolves; Southern Bear Tribe; Only Survivor of the Frozen Wastes

---

Sample Signature Assets: Survival Kit; Tribal Blessings; Grisly Hunting Trophies

---

History Attributes

Choose Two:
Agility	Vitality	Wits

---

History Skills

Choose Three:
Athletics	Craft	Endurance
Nature	Perception	Ranged

Feats

Bonds of the Clan

---

• Effect: When you create an asset or take a complication related to your closeness to your people, step it up.

Claustrophobia

---

• Effect: When you gain a complication related to dealing with closed, tiny spaces, step it up to gain 1pp.

Heartland

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to ignore a complication while you are in familiar territory.

Natural Selection

---

• Effect: When you take damage from a Melee or Unarmed attack, step up the damage dice to also apply them to your attacker.

Nomadic Adaptation

---

• Effect: When you first enter an unfamiliar place, spend 1pp to add a proficiency to a skill for the rest of the session.

Milestones

• ...your manners or customs are perceived as barbaric.
• ...you surprise someone with your modern knowledge.
• ...you procure sustenance where your allies saw none.
• ...you have trouble understanding the ways of city folk.
• ...you remark how this situation is different to your home.

Signature Assets

Unless you're devoted to austerity, your character is going to have tools they rely on. For the most part, this is built into the fiction – for example, if you have a d10 Magic, part of that die comes from having the appropriate spell components. Your signature assets on the other hand are something special.

Mundane Equipment

Even though your character

Masterwork Weapon

Custom made for you, your style, and your plans.

Supreme

---

• Effect: When you attack with your Masterwork Weapon, spend a hero die equal to or greater than your target’s defending skill to maximize your dice without a roll.

Trick Attack

---

• Effect: When you try to perform a near-impossible feat, step up your attacking skill for the action. If the action fails, step back your attacking attribute until the end of the scene.

Magical Artifacts

Very much a part of the fantasy spirit, magical

Ring of Protection

As long as you wear this, you have a magical barrier against, well, bad stuff happening to you.

Perfect Deflection ②

---

• Effect: Once per scene, when you lose hp, negate the damage.

That Wasn’t So Bad

---

• Effect: When you gain a complication for any reason, spend a plot point to step it back.

Conceptual Assets

These are the types of signature assets you really cannot describe as "equipment" – like a familiar, a winning smile, a spy network, etc.

Animal Companion

Ferocious, helpful, and powerfully loyal.

Eyes and Ears

---

• Effect: Spend 1pp to step up or double Perception or Stealth for one action.

Loyal to the End

---

• Effect: When you are about to reach 0 hp you may disable Animal Companion to negate the damage. It remains disabled until you can take action to restore it.

Advancement

Instead of progressing through discrete levels, with specific and limited character options, MYTHIKAL provides a very fine granularity of advancement. You choose what to advance and when, and you should be able to improve something about your character after every session – if not during a session when an opportunity for training or acquisition presents itself.

Gaining Experience

Your character gains xp through the use of milestones. Milestones are a continuation of the sentence "Gain 1xp when..." – on your character sheet they should look something like this:

• ...you infiltrate a location unnoticed.

The GM you're playing with will have a few milestones they'll be watching for, but you're responsible for your own. Each time a milestone triggers, you get 1xp. Right then. It's that simple.

Now, that's not to say that you're allowed to describe your character walking in and out of a shack in the middle of nowhere to grind the example milestone. Pay attention to both the intention of the milestone, and the viability in your fiction – it should be part of the characters' natural actions to trigger a milestone.

Good milestones for your character are going to be ones that trigger between one and three times during every session. If it's really bad (triggering never, or way too much), your GM should let you swap it for free – if it's working right though, you'll have to pay for that privilege.

Leveling Up

Spending your xp can take place any time it makes sense. If you're flitting from action scene to action scene, there's not much chance to build anything up, so much as just recover. But downtime, shopping trips, travelling with a master – all perfect times to spend xp.

“Multiclassing”

You'll notice there are two different reward tiers for gaining a new feat. So what does "fit your distinctions" mean? It means it's more expensive to pick up options that are outside your wheelhouse – but that wheelhouse might be fuzzier than you think.

For example, as a Champion, it would be feasible to pick up a Warrior feat for 10xp, but you'd have to pay 15xp for most Mage or Thief feats. A Pirate could grab Brigand or Mariner feats, but a Mariner should pay more for Brigand feats. Certain heritage feats should be impossible for other heritages to gain.

For every advancement you want your character to take that you're not fully certain about, it's always a good idea to discuss with your GM.

XP Rewards

1xp	Gain 1pp – this can be done up to five times per campaign, and each time increases your starting plot points for each session, resetting to 1 when the campaign ends.
3xp	Exchange a milestone for another one.
5xp	Exchange a feat for another one.
	Gain a new proficiency for a trained skill.
	Convert a persistent asset into a d6 signature asset. (even if it's stepped higher)
	Gain a d6 signature asset, but the GM tells you what it is. (this is good for surprise treasure)
10xp	Gain a new feat – this can be an signature asset feat, or a character feat that fits your distinctions.
	Step up a skill from d4 to d6.
	Step up a signature asset from d6 to d8.
15xp	Gain a new feat that doesn't fit your distinctions.
	Step up a skill that's already d6 or higher.
	Step back one attribute to step up another.
	Exchange an expertise or history distinction for another one. (see sidebar)
25xp	Exchange a heritage distinction for another one.
30xp	Step up an attribute.

GM Milestones

You should come up with some milestones that fit your campaign, if you're acting as GM. Most of these should apply to the entire party at once, but some might single out a character for roleplaying or story rewards.

• ...the party overcomes an easy challenge.
• Gain 2xp when the party overcomes a difficult challenge.
• Gain 3xp when the party overcomes a mighty challenge.
• ...the party achieves a quest goal.
• ...a monetary reward is given to the character.

Customization

So it turns out, everything about your character is heavily customizable. Even if you never see this page, distinction names, proficiency names, signature asset names – you write them yourself. But all the other stuff? Your expertise, heritage, history, feats, milestones, etc? It's all free game too.

Distinctions

There's a lot going on here. A complete distinction – heritage, or expertise, or history – will include three attributes, six skills, five feats, three sample names and assets, and five sample milestones. Or! If you're building a one-off to play yourself, you only need to design the elements you choose: two attributes, three skills, and one feat. Always talk to your GM first though!

Building distinctions has a method to it. Every choice should exemplify the fantasy trope or subversion thereof that you want to see in your game.

Feats

There should be a lot of guidance in the Cortex Prime Game Handbook for building new SFX. The xp costs for related and unrelated feats still stand – if your custom feat is too far outside your character's basic "theme" you shouldn't be too surprised if your GM bumps it into "doesn't fit" territory.

The important custom parts to remember for MYTHIKAL are:

• We can point rules at damage dice, hp, and healing (as well as manipulating how effect dice interact with them).
• Keep in mind – skill challenges work a little different from timed tests, making effect dice more interesting than beat manipulation.
• You can make a feat more powerful, or have no downside by using ② – this is more for signature assets, but "advanced" distinction feats could use it too.
• "Gain a plot point when..." SFX are best suited for milestones, or for history feats.
• As in base Cortex Prime, a second trait from a trait set can be bought with a plot point – MYTHIKAL takes this a step further and has several feats which ride on this effect (see Alleys and Rooftops on this page).

GM Notes

Even without player customization, there are chances of a concept not fitting with the party, or the possibility of a feat or milestone seeing zero play. As the GM, part of your job is to minimize this – and there are a few ways to do so.

If you have a very clear picture of what your campaign is about, and what kind of challenges your party will face, you should guide your players towards a certain play style. A combat-focused wilderness campaign is not a great place to use social feats and milestones that are better suited for urban intrigue, for example.

On the other hand, your players are choosing their character options for a reason – that's the character they want to play! You can build your campaign, or at the very least sessions, around the choices your players have made. Put them in situations that warrant the tools they have.

In the end – and this is a mirror of the player advice – you want to make sure the character resources are being used, and the players are having fun. So if something's not working at all, redesign it or swap it out, without an xp cost.

Scene Distinctions

Not every scene needs a distinction, but it adds some flavor to both the scene and actions taken within it. They work just like character distinctions, in that you can use them as a d8, or a d4 while gaining a plot point. If your players are particularly imaginative, they can use a character distinction and a scene distinction in the same roll – but one must be a d8, the other a d4, and there is no plot point reward (it's effectively used to purchase the extra d8 distinction).

Not every scene distinction needs a feat, but it emphasizes the uniqueness of whatever situation the players find their characters in.

---

Elven High Council

When you create an asset or take a complication related to political wheelings and dealings, step it up.

---

Densely Packed Forest

Step up effect dice when using Nature or Stealth. Step back effect dice when using Perception.

---

Alleys and Rooftops

When you spend 1pp to add Streetwise to your roll, also step up your effect dice.

---

On the Open Sea

Gain 1pp when you are knocked overboard.

System Variant Rules

Rolling the Dice

Always start a dice pool with an attribute and a skill – they're the prime trait sets for MYTHIKAL. Then add one appropriate distinction, one appropriate proficiency, any number of appropriate assets, and any number of appropriate complications. Hero dice only get rolled after the results of the standard roll are known.

Sample Attribute + Skill Combos

• Dodge an attack: Agility + Athletics/Melee/Unarmed
• Recall a relevant myth: Intellect + Lore
• Bend bars/lift gates: Might + Athletics/Endurance
• Talk down an angry mob: Presence + Diplomacy
• Resist poison: Vitality + Endurance/Healing
• Find a secret door: Wits + Perception

Plot Points

Ways to Gain Plot Points

• Begin a session with 1 (or more, depending on xp spent)
• The GM buys a spoiler when you roll a 1 on a die
• Use a distinction as a d4
• Trigger a feat that contains "gain 1pp when..."
• Spend 1xp

Ways to Spend Plot Points

• Activate a feat that contains "spend 1pp to..."
• Create a d6 asset for the scene
• Make a scene asset last through the session
• Make your scene asset available to anyone
• Add an additional appropriate attribute or skill to a pool
• Add a die to your total
• Roll a hero die and add it to your total
• Keep an extra effect die
• Take a partial action while taken out

Damage, Assets, & Complications

When you succeed at a test or contest, your effect die influences exactly how it ends. In the case of a direct attack – using Melee, Ranged, or Unarmed – your effect dice become damage dice. You reroll them, with any applicable feat effects, and subtract the new total from your target's hp.

Tests that are simply overcoming an obstacle (picking a lock, climbing a wall) don't result in an asset – likewise, contests to simply determine who comes out on top (arm wrestling, dance-offs) don't produce complications.

Tests to create assets (a lasting spell effect, a good first impression) and contests to inflict complications (knocked prone, embarrased in court) must be declared as such while assembling the dice pool.

When using a direct attack, extra effect dice beyond the first can either be used as damage dice – which could bring in extra targets – or complications (poisoned, cut achilles).

Skill Challenges

Sometimes, a scene goal for the party will have enough moving parts to it that it demands more than a simple check. The basic idea here would be that you might require your players to come up with a number of effect dice within a certain number of beats, using fictionally appropriate tests.

Sample Skill Challenges

---

• Fix a broken wagon: 6d6; 6 beats
  Craft, Endurance, Lore, Thievery

---

• Convince a politician to back your play: 2d12; 5 beats
  Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight, Performance

Casting Spells

This takes nuance, and a bit of adjudication from the GM. Especially if you're coming to this game from a system where the power of magic users is tempered by having a list of extremely specific effects for extremely specific costs.

Direct attacks in combat (like a shard of ice, or a bolt of flame) work just like any other contest – beat the defense of your target, and use the effect die. Unless you're using an attack skill, the effect dice must be used for complications.

Other simple spells (conjuring food, summoning an ally) are easily set up as assets – either through a test or by buying one with 1pp. But what happens when what you expect from a spell is clearly more than the benefit from a single asset die? Make it a skill challenge.

Sample Spells

This section is not meant to be exhaustive – it's possible there will be a magic supplement in the future, but these examples are just guidelines for helping determine difficulties and effects at your table.

Simple Spells

• Ray of Frost: Agility + Ranged
• Barkskin: Vitality + Magic/Nature
• Shield: Intellect + Magic
• Cure Wounds: Wits + Healing/Magic
• Charm: Presence + Magic/Performance

Advanced Spells

---

• Fireball: difficulty 3d10 Magic; d10 effect die
  (you're effectively giving yourself a temp. feat for an action)
  Then make a standard Ranged contest, with an extra d6 and kept effect die per target.

---

• Group Flight: difficulty 3d10; d8 effect die per target
  (you're effectively making a bunch of assets)

---

• Polymorph: add d8 for a willing target, d12 for an unwilling target; d12+ effect die
  (you're effectively taking out the target)

---

Resurrection: multiple test challenge, 4d10 effect dice

difficulty 4d12 Lore

difficulty 3d10 Craft or Streetwise

difficulty 3d10 Healing

difficulty 4d12 Magic

Pathways World Creation

Generating a setting for your players to explore is something that might be easy for some people, but gets very difficult for others, especially if you want to please all your players. This process is optimized to give everyone an equal say in what goes into the campaign, and what definitely doesn't.

Big Picture

All players settle on an overall idea for the campaign space. This can be as specific as everyone is comfortable with, and might include a Microscope-style bounding timeline (e.g., from Fantasy to Heroic Fantasy to Mercedes-Lackey-Style Heroic Fantasy to The Saga of the Bard-Mages of the Court of Light to The Canticle of the Time of Long Shadows and the Birth of the Star Prince). It can also include space for intentions to mash things up (e.g., Phase-Style Sci-Fi/Fantasy Dimensional Crossover or Medieval Occult with Cyborgs or Dieselpunk Sailor Scouts vs. Cthulhu or I don’t know what you’re into, okay?).

If everyone can nail down a fairly specific framework here, great. If all you can agree on is the broadest strokes, that’s fine too (you’ll nail it down further with the palette). The important thing is to rein in the possibility space to give you some initial tropes to consider/delete and have some limitations to push off of with your characters.

The GM, despite the insanity of trying this experiment in the first place, does have veto power here if the suggestion is absolutely not in their wheelhouse as a storyteller. (“I don’t care how funny you think it sounds, I’m not running Anthropomorphic Animal Sex-Mages.”)

You can grab a template to start from right here.

Palette and Pathways

Each player goes around the table in the following rounds (do each substep of the round for everyone before moving onto the next; e.g., everyone puts down an Add before connecting their character to an Add). This is done on a big blank sheet of paper (or a big blank Google Drawing).

Round 0

• Place your player character (inside a double circle). You just need a name or general concept at this point (e.g., Liam of the Red Branch; Midnight Jenny; Song Mage; Ambassador from a Foreign Court).

Round 1

• Place an Add (inside a star). This is a trope that isn’t excluded by the Big Picture, but isn’t outright guaranteed by it either. For example, if your Big Picture is Heroic Fantasy, then your Adds might be The Monarchy is Generally Good and Just; Some Magic is Corrupting by Its Nature; Song Magic is Non-Corrupting; There are Anthropomorphic Characters (there’s always one player). Anyone’s Add can be vetoed by a unanimous vote and the player has to pick one that doesn’t annoy the rest of the table.
• Draw a line from your player character to any Add except your own. Define how something about your character supports this trope. For example, (in the same order as the Adds above) Loyal Bodyguard of the Princess; Witch Hunter; Court Bard; Homonid Wolf.

Round 2

• Place a Ban (inside an octogon). This is a trope that might be implied by the Big Picture, but isn’t guaranteed by it, and you want to make sure it doesn’t show up in the campaign. For example (continuing the same example), your Bans might be No Proof of the Divine; No Heritages that are Always Evil; No Meddling Old Mages Distributing Quests; No Magical Technology. Like Adds, Bans can be vetoed by a unanimous vote.
• Draw a line from your player character to any Ban except your own. Define how something about your character subverts this trope. For example, Recent Convert to the Cult of the Dawn; Donates to the Goblin Orphanage; Spymaster Gathering the Latest Threats; Fears Magic, Uses Guns.

If all the players still have ideas to Add and Ban, you can repeat rounds 1 and 2 again. You probably shouldn’t repeat them a third time unless you want players with very busy character concepts.

Round 3

• Add an Element: an NPC (inside a circle), a location (inside a square), or a McGuffin (inside a pentagon).
• Connect the Element you just created to any of the tropes (Add or Ban) and define how it supports the Add or subverts the Ban.
• Connect your PC to one of the Elements someone else created and define the relationship.
• Connect an Element that you didn’t create to any other Element or Trope and define the relationship.

Repeat round 3 until you feel you have enough campaign background and character concept and connections.

Threats

Extras

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Goblin Skulker6 hp

tiny, creepy, and green... (rewrite this you doof)

---

Cunning • Cowardly
d8 Agi	d6 Int	d4 Mig	d4 Pre	d6 Vit	d4 Wit
d6 Ranged		d8 Sneak		d6 Thievery

---

Orc Warrior12 hp

big, scary, and green... (rewrite this you doof)

---

Vicious • Skilled • Nothing to Lose
d8 Agi	d6 Int	d10 Mig	d4 Pre	d10 Vit	d6 Wit
d10 Athletics		d10 Endurance		d10 Melee

Mobs

---

Orc Horde25 hp

big, scary, green, and... plural (rewrite this you doof)

---

Vicious • Pack Tactics • Fight to the Last
d8 Agi	d8 Int	d10 Mig	d4 Pre	d10 Vit	d8 Wit
3d8 Athletics		3d8 Endurance		3d10 Melee

---

For every 10 hp lost, reduce skill dice by one.

Bosses

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Magic Eye Demon34 hp

nope, nothing to behold here... (rewrite this you doof)

---

So Many Eyes • More Magic Than You • Devious
d8 Agi	d12 Int	d4 Mig	d10 Pre	d10 Vit	d10 Wit
d8 Bluff		d10 Intimidation		d12 Lore Aberrations
d12 Magic Complications		d12 Perception		d10 Ranged Disintegrate

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When using Magic, keep any number of effect dice to create or step up complications.