In T13 any Test or Ordeal Result can be modified by Success and Failure Levels. These can mitigate the worst disasters, or act as unintended consequences on what would otherwise be a Complete Success.
These Success and Failure Levels may come from the results of the Test itself, the Facets being used, Tone, Cards in Play, Annexes, Unchanging I-Ching, Descendant or Character Edges, Player choice (“If he has a gun on me, can I add a Failure Level on my bluff, just from nerves?”), Yarn-Teller choice (“He fires the gun at you, misses but hits the gas cannister, it explodes… that’s a lot of damage… I’ll add a Failure Level call it Plot Armour… Two Crippling Wounds.”), Referee Choice (“That explosion is technically an Overload, and no one is wearing ear defenders or similar soak layers, so you can all add a Failure Level on your Soak, too. The attack will target any sensory Annexes or Personality, or creating a Deaf Loss of Sense Hitch.”) and a number of other in-game effects.
You can gain Success and Failure Levels during Tests (including Value and Rolled Tests) and Ordeals in the following ways:
- Doubles: If you roll a Die or Pool and the units and the tens match digit (e.g. 11,22,33, or 133), then that can indicate an extra Success Level or Failure Level, depending on if the roll would be a pass or fail.
- Multiples: If you roll a multiple of the Difficulty then you gain extra Success Levels, if you roll less than half, third, quarter, fifth, etc you gain Failure Levels. e.g. So if the Difficulty is only 2 and you roll 14 you would gain a Success Level for every 2 Score rolled over 4. That’s +5 Success Levels! If the Difficulty is 60 and you only roll 10 then that is less than a half (30), a third (20), a quarter (15), a fifth (12) and equals a sixth (10) of the Difficulty so you add 4 Failure Levels.
- Numerology: Optional Rule: If the digits are added together and then collapsed in the method of Geometries, that creates an additional number from 1-13. e.g. rolling 24 gives us 2+4= a 6. If this number matches the Character’s Geometry then they can gain an additional Success Level regardless of pass or fail. However if the number matches their Nemesis number then that will add a Failure Level.
- Trump and Misfit Facets: Trump Facets and Suits can affect how well Characters can do, adding Success Levels. Of course, using the wrong Facet can add between 1 and 3 Failure Levels. See the rules below.
Trump Facets and Misfit Facets
Yarn-Tellers and Referees can ask for all sorts of different things as a Test, but what they are actually after is usually a Facet Test. Normally, the Yarn-Teller won’t ask for the specific Facet they wish to Test, instead couching it in terms of what you are trying to achieve, something within the tale, not of the rules.
For example, if you state you are going to try hiding and ambushing the bad guy, the Yarn-Teller could ask you to “Roll to hide”.
Hiding is usually an Enigma Test, so using Enigma not only makes sense, but should have a +5 to the Roll / Score, +2 Pips when using a Diamond (♥) suited card during an Ordeal, and add a Success Level as well. That’s potentially 3 times using the correct Facet and card suit adds a bonus. This is because you can actually try and “hide” in a number of different ways, not just using Enigma. The Referee or Yarn-Teller should allow good (or bad) narration, use of the situation, surroundings, and Character abilities to allow other Facets to be used. Although, this is easier to do the more closely allied to the Trump Facet the chosen Facet is.
Misfit Facets add Failure Levels to the result of a Test or Ordeal by using the wrong Facet. A Facet can be wrong in 3 ways, that each add one Failure Level.
- Yin / Yang — If the Trump Facet is Yang then all Yin Facets are Misfit Facets and add 1 Failure Level, or vice versa. This may be ignored by kind Yarn-Tellers, especially if they share a Suit with the Trump.
- Red / Black — If the Trump Facet is a Red Suit then all Black Suited Facets are Misfit Facets and add 1 Failure Level.
- Anti-Facet — Every Facet has its own Anti-Facet that it is considered the opposite of. This Facet Automatically adds 3 Failure Levels if you try to use it.
Players might look at their Skills, or Talents and realise that they have a “Disguise” Skill, that Channels through Heresy, it would make sense then for them to “Disguise” themselves, rather than just “Hiding”, but if someone else has a “Hiding” Skill we would expect them to get all the Trump bonuses, where as the Disguise would not. Annexes normally use their Channelling Facet for Scores they generate. So Players should state their Score and Facet, and might want to note their Root Facet for the Annex too incase it is a better choice (although then again it can make things worse if it is opposed too so…).
Hiding is an Enigma Facet action, Enigma is a Yin ♥ Facet. This means that using any Heart is easily possible, but does not gain a Facet Trump bonus, they do gain a +2 Pip bonus during an Ordeal though. For example:
- Enigma – “I hide behind a tree. Enigma Score 12.” Which the Yarn-Teller would recognise as a 17 because of the +5.
- Heresy – “I will disguise myself as an old beggar and await them on the roadside. Heresy Score 22.” — which could add a Disbelief Failure Level.
- Jeer – “I will cloak us all in an illusion. Jeer Score 34” — which will stand.
- Liberty – “I rely on Luck to not be noticed. Liberty Score 26” — note that Liberty is Yang which should add an Unlucky Failure Level, you can’t rely on luck all the time.
- Nature – “I shall use my natural camouflage chromatophores and the forest to blend in. Nature Score 12”
- Phoenix – “I will help hide the others close to the road, and then retreat further back in the woods. Phoenix Score 14″ Phoenix is Yang and adds a Burnt Failure Level, in this case getting scratched by thorns or stung as they hide.
Any Diamonds (♦) are the next most likely to work. They don’t get any Trump bonuses, but it is normal for the opposite tao (Yin/Yang) to incur a Failure Level as a penalty (so for Enigma as Yin, all Yang Facets take an Failure Level).
- Awe – “I was a hunter in a past-life, that should let me hide pretty well. Awe Score 18.” The Yarn-Teller should note a Yang imposed Failure Level on the Result, that might result in them Flashing back, perhaps even forgetting their modern self for a while.
- Craft – “I can construct a hiding place, from some leaves and branches. Craft Score 18” The Yarn-Teller could respond, “It’ll mean a bit of extra work, I’ll have to see if you can do it in time,” because of the Extra Work Failure Level.
- Orthodox – “I’ve got training in camouflage techniques under military training. Orthodox Score 18.”
- Quiet -“I just sit down behind a wall, and keep perfectly still. Quiet Score… 8”
- Virtue – “I’ll just have to hope I’m not spotted! Virtue Score 20”
- Zeal – “I’m not good at hiding, but if I run around the corner, I should be out of sight. Zeal Score 18” The Referee notes that a Failure Level could result in them running too far away to be useful.
Then we have the Black cards, they share little in common with Enigma, generally, and so incur a penalty in the form of a single Failure Level. Additionally, Yang Facets will incur a second Failure Level.
- Burden – “I can create a crowd to hide in by throwing some cash in the air. Burden Score 23” The Yarn-Teller or Refere will note one Failure Level, with a Financial Loss being the most likely result.
- Dominion -“I can try and blend with the crowd, and use Psychology to not attract attention. Dominion Score 14” They should note 2 Failure Levels, with some sort of Scandal as a possibility, perhaps they kiss someone to avoid notice, only to attract the wrong attention.
- Fury – “Sure, I’ll hide, I’ll dive into the ditch and hide under the water. Fury Score 14” This is definitely a stretch… and the Yarn-Teller and Referee note two Failure Levels with Stress being the most likely Failure.
- Gossamer – “I’ll just grab a hold of some branches and hold them in front of me. Gossamer Score 16.” That is 2 Failure Levels with Fumbles being preferred, maybe they will drop their weapons when the Ambush actually happens.
- Inertia – “I’ll just lie here, and cover myself over with leaves and dirt so they can’t see me. Inertia Score 14” Note a single Failure Level, which may slow them down when getting out of the leaves.
- Key – “I’ll stand on the road and watch for them. It’s just me so it shouldn’t ruin the Ambush completely, and I’ll be able to time the attack perfectly. Key Score 19” The Yarn-Teller and Referee should note the 3 Failure Levels this will incur, which could be enough of a Catch to ruin the whole ambush.
- Miasma – “I can build a fire with wet leaves, that will create a lot of smoke we can hide in. Miasma Score 14” The Yarn-Teller and Referee should both note the Failure level which means the Foul Conditions might make everyone choke and cough a little.
- Rook – “I’ll find the thickest wall to stand behind. Rook Score 18.” Which adds a Failure Level, which means they should be prompted by the Yarn-Teller or Referee to explain how they are self-defeating, or have some impact imposed by the Yarn-Teller.
- Sin – “Easy, I’ll kill the nearby peasants and stack the bodies up to hide behind. Sin Score 34” That’s 2 Failure Levels that emphasise the Weaknesses of the PC (in this case his Murder-hobo lifestyle).
- Trial – “I was school hide and seek champion, and a great warrior. Trial Score 22” That’s 2 Failure Levels as Forfeits, meaning they may end up winning, but getting immediately arrested, or the Ref may give the bad guy more armour as a balancer.
- Wyrd – “I’ll cast some magic to hide us all in the Astral realm. Wyrd Score 18” That’s a single Failure Level noted, which has a Just theme, perhaps an Astral Beast will ambush them while they lie in wait…
- Yonder – “I will keep heading along the road and that should draw them into the Ambush, right? Yonder Score 21.” The Referee notes the Failure Level will be a Trip, will they stumble, or simply go too far away to be useful in the Ambush?
Success Level Effects
Success Levels can have a variety of different effects, depending on the Narrative, the action attempted, and how many Success Levels are being spent on an Effect. Success Levels vary in type by Facet, which creates a Facet Flavoured Success as follows:
| Facet | Success |
|---|---|
| Awe ⚊ ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Artistic — Artistic Success is usually measured in terms of Emotional impact on the Target Audience. 1 Artistic Success will allow you to add a 1 card Emotional Effect that will affect the Target or Audience, or can instead be used to Draw an extra card to your Ordeal Pool. 2 Artistic Successes can create a 2 card Emotional Effect on the Target or Audience, or imbue a creation with Additional Sway, Chi, Yarn or Twists (depending on Character Type) to create Trophies, Monoliths, Artefacts or Dark Matter. 3+ Artistic Successes will induce 3 card Emotional Effects in the Target or the Action may affect a Target’s Personality Annex (Soul/Spirit) directly. |
| Burden ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Material — Material Success wins you prizes, often in the form of Wealth and physical Property. Material Success means a Gain, this can be as simple as buying a loaf of bread, making the down payment on your new hill-top mansion, or putting the finishing touches to your latest suit of hero armour. 1 Material Success Gains as Wealth (a Sway Gain) or allows you to Play an extra card from your Pool, 2 Material Successes Gains as Chi or you may Draw and Play an additional card as an Echo of the Action during one of the GRT Phases of the Annex, 3+ Material Successes Gains as Yarn, or it allows the Action to target on the Target’s Physical Descendants. |
| Craft ⚊ ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Precision — Precision Successes reflect the attention to detail that comes with being a master crafter, things that you might not even notice have been done, but you’d notice if they hadn’t. 1 Precision Success can cancel any 2 Failure Levels, or allow you to Draw or Play an extra card during the Action. 2 Precision Successes allow you to Draw and Prepare a card to any of your Reserves automatically during the Action, as well as adding it to the current Action. 3+ Precision Successes allow a master crafter to alter an Annex during the Action (they can add, remove or swap Proficiencies to the Master or Sub-Annexes, and may add Sub-Annexes or Proficiencies if there is room in the Descendant. This is usually done on their own Descendants, but they can Target the Descendants of their Target (blunting their blade, setting the safety on their weapon, ejecting the magazine, etc) ). |
| Dominion ⚊ ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Realm — Realm Success represents success that covers a territory, area (of knowledge or space) or group of people. 1 Realm Success will allow Playing an additional card from your Ordeal Pool to pay for additional Targets or act as insider knowledge. 2 Realm Successes will Pull and Play a card to act as Realm Knowledge or to Pay for extra Targets. 3+ Realm Successes can make an Action affect a whole Location. The Location or Group Size affected is equal to the Character’s Size (0/1 for most Humans) + their Dominion Score + the Pips of one card Pulled and Played as an area of effect (e.g. a Bombing Action might add Dominion 4, Size 1 and 8 Pips to create 13 Yarn which would hit all of a Large Building or Vehicle at once, or affect over a hundred individuals. |
| Enigma ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Covert — Covert Success is a Success that no one knows about, at least for now. 1 Covert Success can let you Draw an extra card to your Ordeal Pool, Raise or Lower the Stakes one Level (as you like), or may add or subtract Stress from the Target, User or a die to the Drama Pool. 2 Covert Successes will allow you to Draw and Prepare a Card to keep yourself or your Actions hidden or to add a Questions Failure Level to everyone who is following, investigating, or trying to undo the Covert Action . 3+ Covert Successes allows you to Play or Prepare all cards face-down, this can make it impossible to Dodge, Block or Parry effectively (although Covert Dodging Blocking and Parrying would negate this advantage), but cards must be revealed when Soaked, or whenever Total Action Pips are calculated. |
| Fury ⚊ ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Fierce — Fierce Success is an aggressive success, these are the sorts of Successes where you might take it too far, where you just wanted to scare the guy, not murder his whole family. 1 Fierce Success lets you Play an extra card from your Ordeal Pool on the Action, and it either counts as a 1 card Negative Emotional Effect on the Target or another Opponent, or it will also set to the Tone to match that of the Action. 2 Fierce Successes lets you Draw and Play two extra cards as a 2 card Negative Emotional Effect, the larger of the Two cards may also be added to the Action you are taking. 3+ Fierce Successes allows you to Draw 4 cards and Play 3 to create a 3 card Emotional Effect that also adds all the Pips to the Action. |
| Gossamer ⚊ ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Ribbon — Ribbon Successes can be used a number of ways. 1 Ribbon Success can make a Sway Gain, or pass a short message (Card Pips Syllables) to the Target who may respond with a gesture or a one syllable word. 2 Ribbon Successes can let you make a Chi Gain, or it can be used to Draw and Play an extra card to act as binding (Restraint), pay for additional Targets (+3 Pips per Target) or to allow aerial and acrobatic movements, such as jumping while shooting, swinging on a grappling line while spell-casting, etc. 3+ Ribbon Successes can bounce attacks, as the “Ribbon” connects multiple Targets (Draw and Play a card. Card Pips give a Group Size in Chi, the Ribbon may be straight, zig-zagged, curved etc). Incoming attacks can be bounced back by 3+ Ribbon Successes toward a new Target including the Source. |
| Heresy ⚊ ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Diversion — Diversion Successes can be used to divert another some how. 1 Diversion Success allows you to Draw and Play an extra card if you Play a Distract Level card in the Action. 2 Diversion Successes create an Unsoakable Distract on the Target, or someone following, tracking or investigating the event. 3+ Diversion Successes create (Nimbed Score) Red Herring clues, such as false trails, dead ends, terrain changes and so on (Individual Clues may be Spotted as False early with a Difficulty of Nimbed Boon, but otherwise add Nimbed Score to Difficulty to Track / Find / Solve). |
| Inertia ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Continuity — Continuity Successes allow a Character to continue something from before, picking up where they left off, or putting it down in a way that they can pick up later. 1 Continuity Success will let you mildly retcon a situation (“I actually have one bullet left”) and make a Sway Gain. 2 Continuity Successes will allow you retcon more complex situations changing Descendants or Annexes for specific needs (“Just like flying a T-16… back home.”) which can also be a Chi Gain, or you may Draw and Play an Ordeal Card to continue moving in the direction you last moved. 3+ Continuity Successes can be used to perform Extreme Retcons under some circumstances (“No, my friends, this IS my house!”) with Yarn Gains being made at the same time, or a Yarn Card being Drawn to and Played from your Ordeal Pool to create Frays, Snags, Hitches or Obstacles for the Target of the Retcon. |
| Jeer ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Comic — Comic Success is meant to make something funny, which is a pure narrative effect, but Comic Successes can have other uses. 1 Comic Success can directly invoke the Rule of Funny, and change the Tone to Comedy, or empower something already funny (usually in the Referee’s opinion based on Player reactions to the Narration) by Drawing and Playing an extra card. 2 Comic Successes can be used to ignore a barrier, shield, soak-layer or obstacle, this works by Drawing and Playing an Unsoakable Wound directly on the Target for any barrier overcome by 2 Comic Successes, this can be narrated in a number of ways, including them slipping in their armour, not realising the bush they dived into for cover is filled with nettles, thorns or poison-ivy, not seeing the top of the door because of their helmet, powered armour weighing too much for the floor, etc. 3+ Comic Successes lowers the Tension Level one, this also empties the Drama Pool (if used), each die removed from the Drama Pool Relieves 1 Stress from each Character allied to the Success. If the Drama Pool is not being used, remove 1d6 Stress from each Ally and the User. |
| Key ⚊ ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Probing — Probing Successes are always useful, they can reveal pieces of information, 1 Probing Success may reveal an piece of information about a character such as their first name, age, nickname, or family name or may Draw an additional Card. 2 Probing Successes give something more interesting (such as a missed detail from an earlier Revelation and how it pertains to this Character, or an actual Clue), or Draw and Play a card that will add its Pips as Penetration to the attack. 3 Probing Successes can reveal an actual Revelation (hints from the Yarn-Teller) or you can completely ignore 1 Soak-Layer opposing the Action. |
| Liberty ⚊ ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Exceptional — Exceptional Successes can grant you extreme, lucky-breaks, coincidences, flukes and so on narratively, but Exceptional Successes can also be used to grant you freedoms and exceptions, or exemptions. An Exceptional Success might make an area of effect not touch you, a Hitch to not Trigger this one time, a card of an opposed Action to not apply to them, or might make the police not fire on you, since you are the Sheriff’s eldest child. This Exceptional Success is always couched in terms of how the Character is an Exception and a single card cancelled per Exceptional Success, perhaps the Sniper focused on aiming at the “big bad”, didn’t see the robed lieutenant transform into a demon, and so doesn’t have to take the Horror emotional effect everyone that saw it does, instead the Sniper will take a Terror effect from hearing the screams on comms. |
| Miasma ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Transformative — Transformative Successes are able to change details, objects, actions and targets in different ways. For example, a single Transformation Success could age or de-age a Character a little, make them more beautiful, slimmer, more toned, or a touch uglier than normal. Each Transformative Success is the equivalent of 1 Yarn in terms of the Sway Changes that can be performed to a Target. Uses might include altering the type of an attack. Three or more Transformation Successes can also be used to access Bulmäs Lea cards with Ordeal cards as magical transformations, which may make the Target into an animal, or target a limb for transformation, as the Yarn-Teller decides. Often in Low-Power situations Transformation Successes have a limited Duration based on their Yarn equivalence (treated as an Extend Duration 1 Transformation Success will last at most a moment, 5 would last a weekend), although High-Powered Transformation Successes are usually permanent, or limited to a Year and a Day. |
| Nature ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Gory — Gory Successes are bloody events, and narratively speaking they represent visceral descriptions and spilled blood, however that is only how they appear on the Flesh Incarna. Gory Successes are specialized by Incarna and each Character may choose up to Nature Nimbed Score Incarnas that they can affect by Proficiencies. 1 Gory Success will Raise or Lower the Level of a Wound by one, or if the Target is the appropriate Incarna you may Draw and Play an Extra card. 2 Gory Successes apply an Unsoakable Flesh Wound to the Target. 3+ Gory Successes Discard all Distract cards from your Ordeal Pool and Draw replacements, or Remove all Wounds greater than Flesh Wound from your Character instantly. |
| Orthodox ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Theoretical — Theoretical Successes may sound like they are not practical, but a Theoretical Success when shopping would represent having done your research, and finding the model you want for cheap somewhere (or a suitable replacement brand with the same features), or when throwing a punch a Theoretical Success might be used with a supposition, such as “High Impact armour is generally weak against a slower-moving, soft mass,” to negate the High Impact armour for the attack. If nothing else a Theoretical Success can offer an answer to a single yes / no question about the Target, simply make a supposition, and it will be revealed as true or false by the Theoretical Success. 2 Theoretical Successes can be traded in for a Clue or can be used to lower the Difficulty of any task effectively altering the effectiveness of the Action a level (Banal > Intrepid > Bold > Monstrous > Twisted) by making a suitable “Theoretically, if we…” statement. 3+ Success Levels can be traded for a Revelation, or can permanently shift the effectiveness of a single Action in the setting with a suitable “Theoretically…” |
| Phoenix ⚊ ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Relief — Relief Successes are used for curative, healing, and assistance effects. 1 Relief Success can be used to Relieve 1 Shock, 2 Strains or 5 Stress instantly, or it might Stabilize any single Fresh, Untreated, Re-opened, or Festering Wound the Target has, can Remove any single Fresh Wound completely, can lower the Level of any Stabilized Wound by one, or allow you to play one extra card from your Pool to assist another’s Action. 2 Relief Successes can be used to Pull and Play a card to help another’s Action while performing your own, makes the Target of the Action Discard one card from their Ordeal Pool, Adds +5 Pips to all cards in anothers Action or can Relieve all Stress, Strains and Shocks stored on a single Die. 3+ Relief Successes can Stabilize all Wounds and Heal them all one Level simultaneously, or can completely remove one Wound, or the Target may be affected by any Umbral Effects of the Annex rather than the User, failure to pay Umbrals by the Target results in a 2 GRT/Shock penalty per Umbral, or all Stress, Strains and Shocks are instantly Relieved for the Target or User. |
| Quiet ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Unheard — Unheard Successes are for when things happen quietly, or you want to muffle a loud noise. 1 Unheard Success can Draw and Play a card if the Action is silent, or can cancel 1 card of any Emotional Effect automatically, or can allow you to Draw an extra card during your action. 2 Unheard Successes will try covering the noise with some other distraction (Draw and Play a card as a Splash 💦 Attack with both Strike and Splash Limited to Distract Wounds), cancel 2 cards of an Emotional effect, or allow an Annex to be primed to automatically activate in response to certain stimuli. When activated by the “trigger” the Annex does not use up a Descendant or Character’s action, although GRT and RT will apply normally. 3+ Unheard Successes may Draw and Play a card as a Yarn Card Snag or Fray on everyone that hears the Action, this Snag/Fray should interfere with their ability to respond to the noise even if they hear it, cancel all 3 cards of any Emotional Effect, or you may add +10 Pips to all cards currently being played in the Action. |
| Rook ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Shelter — Shelter Successes are able to cancel cards of Attack or create shelter. 1 Shelter Success can discard one card randomly from an incoming attack, lower the Stakes one Level, or you may Prepare a card from your Pool to a “Shelter” Prepared Defence. 2 Shelter Successes will Draw and Prepare a card to a “Shelter” Prepared Defence, or may place an Annex into “Passive” mode, where it will produce its Score without rolling as a Half-Action, which can Draw as Normal or Play 1 + Rook Draw cards from your Pool. 3+ Shelter Successes will allow you to find actual shelter, a small location (Yarn Based Gain) that will be appropriate for the Era and Stage/Location, or Play a Card as a Yarn Sweeping effect on yourself, or completely cancel all incoming Attacks or Actions in this Phase. |
| Sin ⚊ ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Sinister — Sinister Successes are what make dark deeds dark, exploiting peoples weaknesses and pain. 1 Sinister Success can add a level to the largest Wound on a Target or created by the Action, it can Play a card as a 1 card Emotional Effect on the Target, or if a Hitch can be Triggered on the Target you may Draw and Play an extra card on the Action. 2 Sinister Successes can create a two card Emotional effect, it can cancel the GRT and RT of the current action, or all Pips of damage caused by the Attack will Drain Chi from the Target(s) and give it to you. 3+ Sinister Successes can Draw and Play a Yarn Card, usually as a Fray, Snag, Fight or Obstacle on the Target. |
| Trial ⚊ ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Gladiator — Gladiator Successes are the little tricks of a seasoned competitor. 1 Gladiator Success can increase or decrease the Wound Limit of a card in the Attack or you may Draw an extra card to your Pool. When trying to attack 1 Gladiator Success may Play an extra card from your Ordeal Pool. 2 Gladiator Successes will cancel the GRT and RT of the current Action, and you may Pull and Play a additional card if you are attacking the Target. 3+ Gladiator Successes can Level the Playing Field, this will remove any advantage the opponent may think they have, removing any Wounds from you that the Target does not have an equivalent of (or jamming a Descendant of theirs you have no equivalent to). This can apply a Yarn Gain for you, or Pull and Play a Yarn Card as a Snag, Fray, Ordeal or Obstacle for the Target. |
| Virtue ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Radiant — Radiant Successes are guileless, impulsive successes, usually performed out of the goodness of one’s heart, or without concern. 1 Radiant Success can set the Tone of the Scene to match the current Action being taken, decrease the Stakes one level, or remove one Stress from the Target or User, or one Drama Die from the Drama Pool. 2 Radiant Successes allow a card from your Ordeal Pool to be played as a Wyrd Tarot card on yourself or an Ally or allows you to Draw and Prepare two cards to your Style Reserve while making your normal Action. 3+ Radiant Successes allows a Character to Summon or Gain an Ally, perhaps even making a “friend” during this Scene, or they may, once per Story / Chapter / Session use 3 Radiant Successes to replace all cards an Action is playing with Wildcards equivalent to Jokers. |
| Wyrd ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Judgement — Judgement Successes represent the judgement of the law or the Wyrd, they can be used for invoking the law of the land or laws of magic. 1 Judgement Success can invoke a law or precedent, or if in a liminal space or time (doorways, dusk etc) then you may Play an extra card from your Ordeal Pool . 2 Judgement Successes will allow a Character to Draw 2 Wyrd Tarot Cards to their Hand, or play an Ordeal Card or Wyrd Tarot Card as a Wyrd Tarot Card on themselves, or the Target of their Action. 3+ Judgement Successes allows you to Draw and Play a card as a Yarn Card upon yourself as a Scene Significator, Gain, Revelation, or Sweeping effect, or on your Target as the same or more often as a Fray or Snag. 3+ Judgement Successes can also be used to reverse the last decision that affected the Character, creating a Crux Event with Wyrd Score Yarn Stored in it. ` |
| Yonder ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Spatial — Spatial Successes allow the warping of space during the Action, this can alter Range, Reach and Movement Difficulties or even Teleport Characters around. 1 Spatial Success will allow a Character to play an additional Card from their Ordeal Pool to pay for a Range, Reach or Movement Difficulty (or increase a Difficulty). 2 Spatial Successes can Draw and Play a card to pay for Range, Reach or Movement Difficulties, or can Open or Close the Terrain Type by one for this Action (as Crowds suddenly part and Confined becomes Closed, or smoke engulfs the battlefield and the Open space becomes Closed). 3+ Spatial Successes can contract and warp space for an action, this can divide or multiply the distance in metres between you and any other Character or Descendant by 1 + Yonder Score (Yonder 13 divides by 5) before Range, Reach and Movement are calculated. |
| Zeal ⚊ ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Boost — Boost Successes lift and move their Targets sometimes literally. 1 Boost Success will allow a Character to Play an extra card from their Pool to move a Target (including themselves) or have a 1 card Emotional Effect. 2 Boost Successes can negate all GRT and RT of the current Action, or Draw and Play a card to move a Target (including themselves). 3+ Boost Successes can be used to create a 3 card Emotional Effect that can also move the Character or a Target as though they were Flying or immediately negate all Shocks and Strains in the Target of the Action. |
| Facet | Success |
Beyond what a Facet Success Level may accomplish there are also Generic Success Levels that you may receive from the roll or cards. Generic Success Levels behave as below.
Extra Failure Levels
Failure Levels act to mitigate your successes, complicate stalemates, and turn your failures into disasters. They can represent unforeseen consequences, complications or problems that occur to the Character, even if they pass a Test the complications may make it seem not worth it. Failure Levels work in a similar manner to Success Levels, but are usually decided by the Author, Yarn-Teller, or Referee, not the Player.
Failure levels are often typed by Facet. Each Facet has a particular style of Failure that it prefers to use. Where possible the Yarn-Teller or Referee should try to make the failure fit the Failure type of the Facet being used. Although with some Annexes you may find that the Failure type should reflect the Root, Tangle, Umbrals, or even a Nimbed of the Annex.
| Facet | Failure |
|---|---|
| Awe ⚊ ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Haunted — Haunted is an additional Psychological/Supernatural component to the failure. The Character will be plagued by this failure, seeing the faces of those who died, or reliving the events for years to come. This usually is a Psych Attack (Negative) at Soul Stakes, that may create a suitable Hitch, such as “Fear”, “Madness”, “Lament” or “Doomed” Hitch. |
| Burden ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Financial — A Financial Failure adds Economic wounds to the results, add 1 Economic Wound card per Failure Level. Economic Wounds are usually paid for with Sway or Chi, but can create Impoverished, Exposed or Lament Hitches. |
| Craft ⚊ ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Extra Work — The Failure Levels incur additional costs to the Action. This is often in the form of additional Difficulties (modifiers etc) and extra tasks, Stages or Tests that must be completed, such as gathering fresher ingredients, remaking a flawed component, helping a colleague, or simply taking longer to complete than expected. |
| Dominion ⚊ ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Scandal — Scandals can be big, with those that suffer them becoming infamous, but more normally they are small, shameful moments that Characters would wish people would forget. |
| Enigma ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Questions — Questions simply represent new unknowns that surround the action. Questions can suddenly call into doubt previous assumptions, or can be red herrings, that are irrelevant to the Story. Each Failure Level asks another Question, now Enigma itself asks Rhetorical Questions, which in the case of a Failure Level should be Questions asked by the Failing Player, and describe the nature of failure, suitable questions include, “How could I be so stupid as to…?”, “Why did I …?” or as a last resort “What’s the worst that could happen?”, questions may be suggested by any Player, the current Yarn-Teller should decide if they have been sufficiently hard on themselves or add additional Failure Levels (from other Facets) to the narration as they would with that final question. |
| Fury ⚊ ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Stress — Stress is an additional psychological component that wears a Character down. Stress Failure Levels automatically add Stress to the Character, usually adding the Fury Draw, see the rules for Stress. |
| Gossamer ⚊ ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Fumble — Fumbles vary by Facet but a Failure Level in Gossamer will usually trigger a Drop Fumble. Specific Fumbles can be triggered by drawing specific cards (a 5♠ triggers a Drop Fumble). |
| Heresy ⚊ ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Disbelief — The failure level will result in something being unbelievable. This disbelief can cause stories to be checked, or even investigated, in a worst case the failure could even cause you be convicted of some crime. |
| Inertia ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Delayed — The Failure levels cost the Character time, this might mean that they are late, or have to rush something else to complete in time. The Failure Levels may mean that a technical Success may not be realised as such at first. Normally, the time lost is based on the Difficulty of the Test taken as a Chi Limit Duration, but the Chi (or Duration if the Yarn-Teller prefers) is multiplied by the Failure Levels. |
| Jeer ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Humiliation — Humiliation Failure Levels result in a loss of honour or prestige, they often involve being laughed at, or being publicly ridiculed, or a more serious humiliation may result in dishonour or even loss of Pact membership or similar Laments. Humiliation Failures are usually Emotional effects, that affect the failing Character negatively but Splash those around them positively. Our humiliation often amuses others. |
| Key ⚊ ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Catch — The failure levels represent some trap, snag, clause or puzzle related to the action. You might catch your blade, pulling your sword from your hand, be caught by a leading question that cannot be answered without incriminating yourself, or it might mean that when you pick a lock, you trigger a silent alarm, or cause the door to lock permanently behind you. |
| Liberty ⚊ ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Unlucky — Unlucky Failures are usually unfortunate coincidences. Perhaps you rob a bank, so you can pay your rent, only to force the bank into foreclosing the landlord’s mortgage. Or due to some manufacturing fault the round in the gun misfires, clogging the barrel, rendering the gun useless. |
| Miasma ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Foul Condition — Foul Condition Failures are quite varied. A Foul Condition Failure in combat might mean an infected wound, or a weapon being trapped by armour (a fouled blade), food and drink may be contaminated or rotten, Descendants and Characters may become dirty, corrupted or contaminated. Infections, corruption, hallucinations, poisoning, fevers, colds, fevers, drunkenness, dizziness, terrible tastes and smells can result result from a Foul Condition failure. Foul Condition Failures can cause a Character to Gain Stress, Strains, or even Shock as well. |
| Nature ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Natural Condition — The Natural Condition failure is a condition that effects the Character as a result of their action. These conditions include things like, cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, sick, etc, can result from a Natural Condition Failure. |
| Orthodox ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Misinformation — Misinformation Failures are usually down to bad information. Maybe the map was wrong, or perhaps you believed a lie, often any information you gain from the action turns out to have been out of date or even enemy propaganda. |
| Phoenix ⚊ ♥ Suit: Hearts ♥ Ordeal Trump: Healing (Survival / Magic) / Deception (Hide / Feint) / Magic (Positive) Description: Hearts represent Love, Family and the comforts of home. Hearts are the warmth of a cosy fireplace, and social wealth rather than material. In the Tarot the suit is called Cups, and represents the feminine and elemental Water. Tarot Meaning: Love, Relationships, Affections, Family, Sympathy, Peace. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Nurturing, Farming, Relationships, Medical. Hearts act as Trumps for the following Actions: Blending in, Cooking, Escaping, Healing, Hiding, Hunting, Insulting, Joke-telling, Lying, Magic, Mimicry, Riddling, Spinning a tale, Surgery, and Survival. Any type of Wound can be healed with a Heart. Parry:Locked RespiteAll unmatched Cards from the original attack are Discarded by the Defender, however with each card they Discard they may either use the card to Heal/Stabilise one of their own wounds (or damage to the Parrying Descendant), or they may use the card to slow their attacker with additional RT (Pips) or GRT (Pips/5). Soak: DisengageThe Soak Card acts as a Heal card, and is discarded along with the Attack card. This immediately Heals all Wounds in play that have less Pips, including the remaining Wounds in the Attack, by one Wound Level (discards Distracts). | Burnt — Burnt failures are some minor harm that results from the Character’s action or inaction. Examples may include actual burns (taking damage from the hot barrel of a machine-gun after firing for too long), being momentarily humiliated by a quick-witted companion, or forgetting to stir the food in the pan so that it ruins. Burns often result in a Psych or a Burn Attack. |
| Quiet ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Reserve — A Reserve failure usually results in a loss of cards from a Style Reserve or Monster Pool. One card is lost per Failure Level. These are usually quiet, undramatic failures that can appear to not even be happening at all to a casual observer. Occasionally, a reserve failure will result in a Strong emotional reaction in the Character, that can include a Psych Attack. |
| Rook ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Defensive — Defensive Failures are failures that Characters impose upon themselves to stop them from really failing at something. Examples might include, stage-fright stopping a character from going on stage and making a fool of themselves, or just the character distracting themselves over something to stop themselves trying properly. Defensive failures should be suggested by the Player whenever they are invoked, and approved or modified by the Yarn-Teller or Referee. |
| Sin ⚊ ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Weakness — Weakness Failures are amongst the most common that we all feel. Weakness Failures, might include succumbing to to a temptation, or apathy. For example while out hunting, the hunter may decide that the prey looks too sickly to be worth it, or may decide to ignore a good hind in the open, as they prefer roast boar. Often what could have been an easy victory is made more complex by the Characters weaknesses. |
| Trial ⚊ ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Forfeits — Forfeit Failures occur during games and interactions with strict laws and rules. A Forfeit failure may include conceding a penalty, or accepting a handicap (or even a Hitch), it is the proverbial “one-hand-tied-behind-your-back” that helps to level a playing field. Forfeit failures are sometimes added as examples of good gamesmanship and fair play, but can often be legal in nature, as in a situation where you won the fight, but are arrested for assault. |
| Virtue ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Noble — Noble failures are true failures that stop a Character from achieving their immediate goals, but which grant information that may eventually lead to a success. Often the Noble failure will completely cancel what could have been a success, only to reveal later it was not. In some ways the Noble Failure can be seen as delaying the eventual success, causing the Character to think that they have failed initially, or it may later reveal that the Success that was wanted was wrong for the Character in the first place. |
| Wyrd ♣ Suit: Clubs ♣ Ordeal Trump: Defence / Trade / Control / Magic (Negative) Description: Clubs represent the power of politics and a stoic, blind materialism. Clubs can be seen as a dark corrupting force on the world, crass materialism, sin, magic and anger, but the club is also symbolic of protection, law and justice. In the Tarot the Clubs are called Staves or Wands, in some traditions they represent Intellectual Air, but in most they are Fire. Tarot Meaning: Power, Fame, Politics, Ability, Money. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Wealth, Politics, Power. Clubs act as Trump for following Actions: Bartering, Controlling, Corrupting, Emotional-intensity, Guarding, Magic, Displaying might, Politics, Self-Defence, Socializing, and Trade Negotiations. Clubs can be used to defend any type of attack. Parry:DisarmAll the cards of the attack are immediately discarded, along with the Parry Card. The remaining cards of the Defender’s Parry can now each be used to cause the Attacker to drop a Descendant (starting with the attacking weapon usually), can also cut armour straps, belts etc, or steal hats. This basically adds RT equal to the card Pips to the Annex that was used to attack. Every 5 Pips also creates a point of GRT for the Character (representing how much time the Character must spend picking up, or readying the weapon again. Court cards additionally may damage the Descendant that was disarmed, as standard for the Stakes. Soak: WardThe matched Attack card, and one other randomly selected Attack card are discarded. | Just — Just Failures are failures that seem just. They may be a case of karmic retribution, poetic justice, or even just-desserts, the point is bad things happen to bad people, and these sorts of failures will punish characters for their previous actions, often having things they have done in past come back to haunt them. |
| Yonder ♠ Suit: Spades ♠ Ordeal Trump: Attack / Perception / Penetration (Opening / Navigation / Logic) Description: The Spades Suit is the suit of suffering, said to be good for the soul, but miserable for a Monday. Competition, perception, endurance and curiosity are positive aspects associated with the suit, but spades also represent destruction, betrayal, distance, might and death. In the tarot, the Suit is replaced with Swords, which (depending on the tradition) may represent either damaging Fire, or more commonly the cutting intellect of Air. Tarot Meaning: Misfortune, Suffering, Loss, Mourning, Treachery, Betrayal, War, Lawsuit, Conflict. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Confrontation (e.g. Warfare, Lawsuit), Competition (Sports, Quizzes etc), Perception (Spot Hidden). Spades act as Trumps for the Following Action Types: Attacking, Balance, Climbing, Contagion, Desecration, Destruction, Feats of Strength, Lock-picking, Navigation, Perception (Search/Spot), Staying power, and Stoicism. Spades can be used for any type of attack. Parry:Redirect-AttackThe damage from the original attack (less the Parried Card) is redirected by the Defender to the Attacker, their Descendants or their Allies. Soak: Counter-AttackThe matched Attack card is reflected back at the Attacker, or their Descendant, as Narratively appropriate. | Miss — Miss Failures are usually the result of acting at Range and does not simply mean that the Target has not been hit by the action. Instead, a Miss means something else was hit instead. This does two things, the first is create an immediate Ricochet Fumble, and the second is potentially warn the target that the shot was intended for them (especially if it ricochets off their wards or armour). A large number of Miss Failures when using a Descendant will generally cause the Descendant to target itself or the User, the User is usually the target of many Miss Failure Levels on an Annex, but Allies are sometimes sacrificed, and civilian casualties should always be a consideration for lesser Misses. |
| Zeal ⚊ ♦ Suit: Diamonds ♦ Ordeal Trump: Preparation (Research / Work / Patience) / Movement (Sneaking / Sprinting) / Listening Description: Diamonds represent the finer things of life, they are bright and sparkling. Representing the creative even spiritual aspects of materialism such as beauty and art, that transcend base materialism like wealth. Despite this the Diamonds are recognised as being the Coins suit of the Tarot, with a strong tie to Elemental Earth. Tarot Meaning: Travel, Money, Business, Contracts, Deals, Voyages. Ordeal Text: Ordeal Types: Travel (e.g. Chase, Race) / Creativity (e.g. Smithing, Painting). Diamonds act as Trump for the following Action Types: Art, Building, Charming, Crafting, Driving, Emoting, Forgiving, Keeping Your Cool, Listening, Meditation, Motion, Prayer, Preparation, Research, Sprinting and Working in general. Any type of action can be prepared with a Diamond. Parry:Seize the initiativeThe cards of the original attack (less the matched card) are immediately added to the Defender’s Ordeal Pool. They may then play as many cards as their Descendant/Annex normally plays including the Parry card (1-4) usually into one of their Style Reserve, and then immediately discard any cards over Pool Limit. Soak: ReadyThe matched Attack card is immediately Prepared by the Defender (as they wish). The Soak card is discarded. | Zealous — Zealous failures indicate that whatever has gone wrong is an example of things getting out of hand. Sometimes the Zealous failure indicates that you have succeeded too well, other times that in your haste, you have lost control of the situation. Zealous Failures cause an Action to go further than you intended, do more damage than you expected, or Negatively Emotionally impact people in unintended ways. The Zealous Failure can be what causes someone to drop dead of a heart attack in a haunted house, or for a city-wide riot to break out after someone says “I’ll whip the crowd up a bit, as a distraction.” |
| Facet | Failure |
Like Successes Failure Levels can also be Generic, and Faceted Failures can also combine with Generic Failures.
Generic Success and Failure Levels
Success and Failure Levels can also be Generic, although they come in a variety of types, classes and categories.
| Level | Category | Type | Description | Rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Failure | Cards | Lost Opportunity | Sometimes a failure can close a window of opportunity that was previously open to us. | Character must Discard one Card from their Ordeal Pool. |
| 1 Failure | Cards | Limit Divergence | Sometimes a failure when you are trying to pull your punches, or mitigate a blow, will cause you to do more damage. Conversely, sometimes you swing for fences, but get only a glancing blow. | A current Attack’s Wound Limit is altered one step up or down by the Failure (usually down unless the Wound is on the Character or they are trying to capture the target alive). |
| 1 Failure | Combat | Wide Open | Sometimes a small mistake in how you stand or move can grant your opponent an opening. | When the Character is next Attacked, 1 card will be made Unsoakable. |
| 1 Failure | Communication | Mumbled | Sometimes when you are communicating a single word or phrase can be mumbled and not understood. | Typically a single word (or short phrase) is “deleted” from the communication, a sound is heard there, but not understood as any word. |
| 1 Failure | Complexity | Mistargeted | Large complex machines and systems can be very complex to use. Sometimes a small user fault can create a situation where a complex system ends up doing whatever it does on the wrong person. | Typically the system or machine will target the wrong Character initially. This is usually randomly determined. |
| 1 Failure | Descendant | Drop | Try as you might to use a Descendant, sometimes they just slip through your fingers. | At the end of the Action, regardless of the rest of the result the Descendant being used currently is dropped. Recovering the Dropped item is usually a single action. |
| 1 Failure | Dramatic | Blunder | A blunder is a dramatic failure that is caused by a Character acting as though they could not see or do not understand what was going on. Such blunders can include a Character thinking they are on a different side to the one they are on. | For NPCs a blunder is usually a mistake but for PCs, rather than causing a Player to look foolish, or stupid and destroying Player agency, Blunders reveal a Turn in the Plot. Causing a Character to change sides or even for the Central Conflict to alter. Dramatic Blunders can be very complicated to improvise, and should not be attempted unless you are experienced at using Turns. |
| 1 Failure | Emotional | Upset | Sometimes a failure is a minor emotional upset. | Character is affected by a 1 card Negative emotional affect, may also Splash to affect Allies. |
| 1 Failure | Environmental | Specific | Sometimes some specific aspect of the environment around a Character or the Location they find themselves in causes an error in their actions. These are usually things overlooked, or easily forgotten about the Location, like the ground being slippery, the location being too loud to communicate easily, or space being filled with cobwebs. | Specific Failures have specific consequences that should generally have a cost of up to 9 Chi. Examples include: Pulling and playing an Ordeal card to move the Character in the wrong direction, or injure them; increasing or decreasing Wound Limits on an attack; adding an additional Soak Layer (such as the cobwebs, tight quarters, mists or foliage); or causing damage from an attack to Splash unexpectedly. |
| 1 Failure | Investigation | Overlook | In an investigation the simplest mistake can be to overlook a piece of evidence and never collect it. | 1 piece of evidence or revelation is completely ignored and effectively discarded by this Character. It may be found later by another Character, if important enough. |
| 1 Failure | Logical | Inconsistent | An inconsistent logical failure usually occurs when two propositions cannot both be true at the same time. Often these sorts of logical failures occur when lying, a Character may admit to having seen something that they should not have been. | Inconsistent failures add a chance of Disbelief to any action. Disbelief of some part of the Action will not negate the whole action, but it can render that disbelieved part moot. |
| 1 Failure | Narrative | Tonal Dissonance | Sometimes an action is not strictly a failure, but alters the Tone of the Scene making similar actions harder afterwards. A sniper that shoots a target, regardless of whether he succeeds or fails, is likely to put everyone on the defensive. | The Tone of the Current Scene is altered to match the current Action’s Anti-Facet. |
| 1 Failure | Proficiency | Ineffective | Sometimes a failure may make a Character question if they even know a subject at all, and perhaps go and refresh their knowledge of a subject. | Character must delete or remove 1 Proficiency as they question their own knowledge on the subject. |
| 1 Failure | Psychosocial | Perturbing | Sometimes a failure will effect the impression that others have of you negatively. | Reduces the Impression that the Character has of you by 1 Social Impression Level. |
| 1 Failure | Score | Pathetic | Sometimes a failure level can only lower the Score that the Action created. This is the least useful or fun result you can choose. Honestly, it probably shouldn’t even exist as an option, but occasionally it is the only Failure that makes sense. | A single Failure Level will lower the rolled Score by 32 Banal Tao Sway (-8 Pips/Chi). |
| 1 Failure | Stress | Stressful | Any amount of failure in any situation can always be stressful. | The Character Gains Stress, this is can be upto 9 Stress, but should never fill a Character with Stress (and can be as low as 1 Stress or a normal Stress Gain). |
| 1 Failure | Stress | Strained | A failure when doing something physical can result in a strained muscle, but you can also strain your mind, heart and soul. | The Character Gains Strains on the Annex or Facet Die that is being rolled for the Action. This Failure can add upto 3 Strains to a single Die, but not to the Stress-Strain Limit. |
| 1 Failure | Stress | Shocked | A failure can be a shocking event, causing a Character to hesitate, freeze, or even collapse. Sometimes failure can even be traumatic. | The Character Annex or Facet Die rolled is now Shocked. This is often regardless of Stress or Strains. |
| 1 Failure | Sway | Loss | When a Character is generating and accumulating Sway for any purpose they may sometimes lose some of that value along the way due to minor failures. | A single failure level will cost Sway equivalent to the Character’s normal Sway Gain (and up to 9 Chi equivalent at maximum). |
| 1 Failure | Transformation | Blemish | When a desired transformation goes a little bit wrong we get an undesired, disfiguring blemish. Some part of the surface that is the wrong colour or texture. | A Blemish will reduce the value of a Descendant by ⅓, such that a Descendant normally costing 30 Chi will only be worth 20 Chi if Blemished. |
| 1 Failure | Wellness | Injury | Failure when performing any physical task can result in a pulled muscle, and with perfect timing a pulled muscle could distract you, cause you to fall, hit your head badly, and even die. | The Character is attacked by a 1 Ordeal Card Attack at the current Stakes. This Attack may be soaked as usual. |
| 1 Success | Cards | Extra Effort | Success can make a Character try harder than ever before, even more than some thought possible. | Play an additional 1 Ordeal Card from your Ordeal Pool on the current Action. |
| 1 Success | Cards | Limit Divergence | Success when you are trying to hurt someone can mean you have targeted some weak spot, or internal organ. Or perhaps if you were on the receiving end of a punch, you might want to reduce its power somehow. | The Wound Limit of the current Attack the Character is making or taking can be raised or lowered by one. So a Maiming Wound could be reduced to a Flesh or potentially increased to Crippling. Note that this does not alter the Pips required at the current Stakes. |
| 1 Success | Cards | More Choice | Success can offer a Character more choices, opportunities and chances. | Draw an additional 1 Ordeal Card to your Ordeal Pool. |
| 1 Success | Combat | Create Opening | Success in combat can allow a Character to create an opening in their opponent’s defence, even momentarily. | The Character may make one card of their attack Unsoakable. |
| 1 Success | Combat | Deadliness | Success in combat can allow a Character to alter how deadly their attack is, or how deadly the hit they took was. | The Character may Alter the Wound Limit card a level on the Attack they are making or an incoming attack. |
| 1 Success | Combat | Fend Off | Success in combat can allow a Character to fend off the worst of an Attack. | The Character may Discard one card from an incoming attack. |
| 1 Success | Communication | Expressive | Success in communication can allow you to communicate more than just a single piece of information. It is possible to even communicate one innocuous message to one person and a secret message along side it to a friend, ally or co-conspirator. Expressive communication can also have psychosocial effects or create emotional responses. | Expressive Communication can either
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| 1 Success | Complexity | Subtle | Success when using complex systems or devices can be a subtle effect. Simply making it harder to trace back through the system. If five people are fighting in the dark, does anyone know who swung the first punch? | The effects of the Action are Obscured and Secured by the Complexity of the system or machine or have become more difficult to trace back to the Character. This is the equivalent of Spot Obscured to even detect something is wrong, Spot Secured to actually unravel the system. |
| 1 Success | Descendant | Impediment | A Descendant can often be used to create an Obstacle for another Character, at least with a Successful use. A gunshot for example can start a stampede, drop a security gate, or set off fire suppression systems. | From the Ordeal Cards of the current Action one may be used to create a suitable 1 card Obstacle for anyone following the Character. |
| 1 Success | Dramatic | Managed Expectation | Success can mean a lot of things, especially in a dramatic situation, with a climbing Drama Pool and sense of impending incidents. Success here means lowering that drama before it strikes. | The Character can remove one die from the Drama Pool. It is usual to remove the die with the lowest number of faces. Yarn-Tellers may reroll the Pool after (which may create Drama), but this costs 1 Yarn. |
| 1 Success | Emotional | Emotive | Emotional success can stir emotions in others, making them laugh, fume, or cry. | The Character may play a 1 Card Psych effect upon another Character (or Characters). This will typically be a positive emotion if played on a friend or ally, and a negative emotion if played upon an enemy or opposition, but the choice is the Player’s. |
| 1 Success | Environmental | Situational | Sometimes a Success means spotting something in the environment and using it to your advantage. This can lead to swinging across rooms, dominoing book cases, dropping chandeliers, or broken glass on people, or realising the hacker’s computer is plugged into your systems next to you. | Situational Successes can typically add some additional benefit for the Character based upon the Location and what it contains. This benefit may have a cost up to 9 Chi, which could allow a Character to alter their appearance completely, or move them 9 Pips closer to their target, add an Obstacle, keep themselves hidden, etc. |
| 1 Success | Investigation | Discovery | A Success during an investigation can mean you have made a Discovery. A Discovery is often not quite a Clue, but might point us towards where a real CLue may be found. | Discoveries are pieces of information, that while not Clues in their own right, are revelatory in nature. They often lead a Character to an Location where a Clue might be found, or to Character who knows something useful, but not essential. Discoveries are at best supporting evidence, but are never important enough to build a case on. |
| 1 Success | Logical | Validity | Sometimes Success can make something sound correct, regardless of whether it really is. Logic and reason can build cases for almost any action, and it can be hard to use moral or ethical objections on a well constructed logical arguments. Logical Validity is its own form of truth, and for some Characters the only truth they will believe. | Characters that hear the argument or see the Action believe it to be true. This means they must actively disbelieve this “truth” before they can undo its effects. |
| 1 Success | Narrative | Tonal Resonance | After a Narrative Success the whole tone of a situation can change, as perhaps a Sniper shoots someone and everything becomes combative. | The Tonal Resonance Success sets the Tone of the Current Scene to the Facet of this Action. The Tone may later return (especially if there is a Tone Embodiment), but this will usually require another Tonal Resonance Success (or a Dissonant Failure). |
| 1 Success | Proficiency | Breakthrough | A great success when using Proficiencies can result in a Breakthrough. These Successes can teach a Character new information, or allow them to combine their knowledge in new ways. | Breakthrough Successes allow Characters to either combine the Proficiencies they just rolled into an Annex (often a new Skill), as though they had rolled a Proficiency Crisis, or to learn new Proficiencies. Breakthrough Successes are often used earlier in the game as Characters are pushed to learn new abilities by Mentors. |
| 1 Success | Psychosocial | Popular | Sometimes Success can mean a Character becomes more well liked and popular. Of course, such popularity is often short-lived and may become notoriety in time, but for now people should think well of them. | Move the Target Psychosocially (the equivalent of 9 Pips). For example, a Popular Success could increase or decrease the Target’s Impression of the Character one Social Ordeal level. |
| 1 Success | Score | High-score | If all you are doing is generating Score then Success just means more Score. | High-score Success adds 32 Banal Tao Sway (+8 Pips) to the Score |
| 1 Success | Stress | Relief | Sometimes a small win is all we need to relieve the stress, strain or shocks we have been feeling. | A Relief Success Level can Relieve upto 9 Stress, 3 Strains or 1 Shock at a time, technically it can Relieve 1 Shock, 1 Strain and 2 Stress at the same time. |
| 1 Success | Sway | Gain | Sometimes Success means a little something extra for you, be it extra Health, Wealth or whatever. | A Gain Success causes the Character to Gain Sway equal to their normal Gain (and no more than 9 Chi equivalent Maximum). |
| 1 Success | Transformation | Functional | Sometimes the best we can hope for when converting something between forms, is that the thing actually works in its new form. | Functional Successes can be used to provide access to suitable Annex Slots in the new form. Upto 4 Skill Slots, 1 Talent and 2 Skill Slots, or 1 Power and 1 Skill Slot can be unlocked with a single Functional Success. If these Annexes are from the original form then they may be used as normal, Annexes specific to the new form will have to paid for (Annex Boon + Proficiencies) |
| 1 Success | Wellness | Healing Surge | Sometimes Success means you are able to shrug off lesser wounds, as though they never happened. | A Healing Surge Success can completely heal and remove 1 Flesh Wound and 1 Distract or 4 Distract Wounds instantly. |
| 2 Failures | Cards | Doomed | Failures can mean destiny has other plans for you. | The Yarn-Teller should Pull and Play a Wyrd Tarot Card upon the Failing Character. The Card should be played in the least useful way on the Character. |
| 2 Failures | Cards | Forgotten Dream | Failures can affect your unconscious mind, snatching away futures you once considered possible. | Forgotten Dream Failures make a Character Discard 1 Wyrd Tarot Card from their Hand. |
| 2 Failures | Cards | Sucker Punched | Failures can combine and the moment you let your guard down, you get hurt again. | Sucker Punch Failures allow an opponent to immediately Draw 3 Cards into their Pool and then immediately play 2 Cards from their Pool, usually as an Attack on the Character. |
| 2 Failures | Combat | Enemy Reserves | Failures during combat can mean that the enemy gets some reinforcements. | The enemy can Summon additional troops (this may be magical, telepathic, technological, pre-arranged, called, whistled, etc.), typically this is one Demon, Goblin, Hero, or Force-of-Nature Extra; or two Grunts or Cast Extras; or 3 Chorus Extras; or upto 9 Vexes. This should be balanced against the ability and power level of the Character, and may include a Monster (I). |
| 2 Failures | Communication | Miscommunication | Failures in communication can compound making a Character believe you said the exact opposite of what you thought you were saying. | The exact nature of the message you were trying to convey is inverted or reversed, and understood as the opposite. Sometimes a miscommunication will not be a complete inversion of the message, but only if there is some contextual way the message can be interpreted that is actually worse than a complete reversal of intent. |
| 2 Failures | Complexity | Misapplication | Complex systems have a chaotic nature and that sometimes means you can’t know what to expect. Sure that teleporter device can move you through space, but did you know that one small mistake and it could send you through time, clone you, gene-splice you with a fly, teleport you to a Dark mirror dimension, or you could arrive inside out? | Whatever the normal effect of the system or machine is changed on this application and target. For example if the system is a complex weapon, then rather than attacking them in this instance it may heal or defend the target. |
| 2 Failures | Descendant | Jeopardise | You know what’s worse than dropping a weapon on the floor? Missing the floor and watching it fall into darkness, or hitting the floor an breaking? Either of them is worse. | The Character must either Draw and Play one Unsoakable Card on the Descendant, or Discard it “Permanently”, which actually means they will have to purchase it back (as though it were one more commonality higher than normal, up to Ubiquitous) if they want to find it again. |
| 2 Failures | Dramatic | Dramatic Hurdle | Sometimes failures can create Hurdles in the Character’s way, complicating the Narrative they are Embodied within. | Dramatic Hurdle Failures create a Facet Hurdle that the Character must face during the Scene. |
| 2 Failures | Emotional | Disquieted | Sometimes failures create strong emotions for the Character who failed, or those observing them. | The Character will suffer a 2 Card Negative Psych Effect, or an opposed Character will take a 2 Card Positive Psych Effect. |
| 2 Failures | Environmental | Obstacle | Failures can compound and create an Obstacle that gets in everyone’s way. | Creates a 2 Card Obstacle in the current Stage or Scene. |
| 2 Failures | Investigation | Spoilation | Sometimes a Character can make so many failures in an investigation that they end up destroying evidence accidentally. | Spoilation Failures can alter the facts of a case, making some piece of evidence that they have already discovered actually a red herring. |
| 2 Failures | Logical | Fallacy | Multiple failures of logic usually mean a logical fallacy. Whatever conclusion the Character has come to it is wrong somehow. | Fallacy Failures indicate that the Character has made some mistake in their logic. If they have come to some conclusion then it is incorrect. This can create Red Herrings, mildly ret-con information, and invert already discovered facts. |
| 2 Failures | Narrative | Snag | Sometimes failures accumulate and create a problem that must be overcome before proceeding. | The Current Scene adds a Snag for the Character’s Side, typically the Snag is selected by the Yarn-Teller from one of the Cards just played in the Character’s Action, or the card atop the Discard Pile. |
| 2 Failures | Proficiency | Incompetence | Sometimes failures in knowledge can compound, creating a crippling incompetence. | Incompetence Failures cause a Character to take an Unsoakable Crippling Wound, such a Wound should target the largest Annex that was used. |
| 2 Failures | Psychosocial | Mindgames | Psychosocial Failures can accumulate and create a situation where a Character’s own mindscape begins to turn against them. They may find themselves ambushed by mental Characters that represent their own resentments, previous failures, concerns and worries. | The Character is ambushed within their mindscape Psychosocial Space, with their internal representation Character beset by Internal Characters, such as Archetypes or Monsters from the Id, that represent their fears, concerns and previous failures. Such a situation may create Nightmares or cause expressions of those Archetypes which negatively impact other Character’s |
| 2 Failures | Score | Pitiful | When all you are trying to do is amass Score each Failure is going to steal some. | The Action loses 92 Banal Tao Sway Score (-16 Chi/Pips). |
| 2 Failures | Stress | Stressful | Compounding Failures are a formula for additional Stress. | The Character Gains 16 Stress rather than their normal Stress Gain. |
| 2 Failures | Sway | Costly | Sometimes failures can mean you get out of breath, or empty your bank account. | The Character must pay / lose 32 Facet Sway. |
| 2 Failures | Transformation | Weakened | Failures when transforming something can compound upon the transformed Character or Descendant. | Creates a new Hitch, or increases a pre-existing Hitch by 1 Bane, or decreases 1 Facet (or Annex for a Descendant) by 1 Boon. |
| 2 Failures | Wellness | Hurt | Failures can compound, creating a more grievous injury. | Hurt Failures Draw and Play 2 Cards as an Attack on the Character at the current Stakes. This Attack can be Soaked as usual. |
| 2 Successes | Cards | Destiny | Flashes of inspiration can come at any time, bringing a glimpse of a single possible future. | The Character may Draw an additional Wyrd Tarot Card into their Hand. |
| 2 Successes | Combat | Snap-fire | Compounding success in combat can create a situation where the Tide of Battle is decided by a snap-fire decision, a single shot, or single blow. | The current Ordeal spawns a separate Snap-fire Ordeal. The Snap-fire Ordeal decides the Tide of Battle for the original Ordeal, usually based on a single Snap-fire Phase. |
| 2 Successes | Communication | Rapport | Sometimes communication can go so well that two people seem to have an almost telepathic communication, reading micro-expressions, unconscious communication channels, shared contextual clues, code phrases and the like. | The Communication allows two Characters to speak about one subject, or even remain silent, while exchanging notes separately. These notes cannot be intercepted, except potentially by actual psychic abilities. The Characters can respond to the note physically at the end of the exchange, or may coordinate actions with a “Now!” or whatever. |
| 2 Successes | Complexity | Havoc’s Hope | Success in complex situations can create opportunities within the chaos. Where some see chaos, confusion, bedlam, turmoil, pandemonium, and havoc, others see chances, convenience, benefits, tactical options, possibilities and hope. | Havoc’s Hope Successes alter an Ordeal, offering some alternate route through the Ordeal. This is often a 1 Card “shortcut” of some sort, that cuts out at least two Stages or 1 Stage and an Obstacle. |
| 2 Successes | Descendant | Back-up | When using a Descendant, Success can sometimes mean finding a spare battery, a second clip or even a duplicate weapon. | The Character typically makes a Gain of either a duplicate of a Descendant they are already using, or a suitable Descendant to replace, reload or recharge that Descendant. |
| 2 Successes | Dramatic | Distressing | Dramatic Successes can compound and reinforce, making this very distressing for those also in the Scene. | The Character may upgrade 1 of the Ordeal cards they played on another Character (typically as a Psych Attack) into a Distress Card. This works as usual, but if the target does not have enough Stress to purchase the Distress Card, they instead of taking a Trauma add the Pips as Stress and Discard the Distress Card. |
| 2 Successes | Emotional | Effusive | Emotional Successes can compound, making a Character seem over-flowing with emotions that others cannot help but be swayed by. | Creates a 2 Card Psych Effect (such as Wonder or Terror) on all other Characters that are present. Typically this will be a Positive emotion for the Character (Wonder, Trust, Assured, etc) and their Allies and a Negative emotion (Terror, Unsatisfied, Concerned) for their enemies. |
| 2 Successes | Environmental | Paradigm Shift | Sometimes a succession of Successes can usher in a change of enormous proportions, that changes everything. These are known as Paradigm Shifts. | During a Paradigm Shift the culture or Location makes a Change of Social Age. The Yarn-Teller typically selects the Social Age that has now begun from one of the Cards played in the Action, or the card atop the Discard Pile. |
| 2 Successes | Investigation | Evidence | Successes in an investigation can lead a Character to unearthing actual evidence, something that shows a truth, a clue to what really happened. | Evidence Successes unearth Clues, which can indicate a hint from the Yarn-Teller or Referee, or reveal a missed or overlooked Revelation. |
| 2 Successes | Logical | Syllogism | Compounding Logical Successes can lead you from two propositions to a final conclusion that also must be true. | Syllogism Successes allow a Character to make a “true” statement that will be treated as true by the Setting (subject to the Settings rules, the Yarn-Teller, etc), the statement must come as a conclusion based on two propositional sentences, that have been agreed by the Character and Yarn-Teller. |
| 2 Successes | Narrative | Conflict-working | Compounding Narrative Successes can work the central conflict directly, grant a Character a sense of relief and rest from a Weft Scene, or their opposition being granted a Warp Scene. | The Character may be granted a Weft (which may also include a Gain, or Revelation). Alternatively the opposed Embodiments may take a Warp Scene instead (including both Snag and Fray). Warp or Weft the Scene is usually defined by the Ordeal Cards the Character played (or may be drawn by the Yarn-Teller and Played for free). |
| 2 Successes | Proficiency | Creative | A multiplicity of success can sometimes not just grant you knowledge of a subject, but grant you knowledge of a subject that did not even exist until you just thought of it. This is how new subjects for study are discovered, invented and explored. | The Character can Gain a new Proficiency that they create for this specific situation. New Proficiencies must be suitable to the Tapestry, including Era, Setting and Genre. |
| 2 Successes | Psychosocial | Impressive | Whenever a Character displays great mastery at something, even if they do not actually succeed, it can have a powerful impact of people’s impressions of you. | All Characters that witnessed the Action improve their Impression of the Character by 2 Levels. |
| 2 Successes | Score | Mighty | If all you are doing is accumulating Score then at least you can try to Score a Mighty Success. | Mighty Successes add 92 Banal Score (+16 Chi/Pips). |
| 2 Successes | Stress | Respite | Successes can stack causing a massive respite from stress and tension. | Respite Success Relieves 16 Stress, 5 Strains, or 2 Shocks, or 1 Shock, 2 Strains and 6 Stress simultaneously instantly. |
| 2 Successes | Sway | Chi | Multiple Successes can generate Chi for the Character. | The Character makes a normal Chi Gain for their type. |
| 2 Successes | Transformation | Smooth | During a Transformation, multiple successes combine to make the transformation smooth. This is not always a perfect transformation, but it is consistent, and painless. | Smooth Successes indicate a transformation that is pain-free and difficult to spot. Whatever the Character or Descendant has transformed into it has broadly assumed that form, and function (including all the Annexes normally associated with that form). A Character who has become a blackbird would look like a blackbird at least to anyone who wasn’t also a blackbird, and they should be able to fly and sing. |
| 2 Successes | Wellness | Stabilized | Sometimes Success when you are injured or wounded, can just mean that things don’t get any worse for you, at least for a little while. | All Fresh Wounds the Character has are instantly Naturally Stabilised, they will count as though they were one Wound Class lower until they can be healed or fixed. |
| 5 Failures | Cards | Condemned | Sometimes a whole load of failures can stack up, creating truly terrible consequences for the Character. They may find themselves condemned to prison, bound by a geas, or occasionally put to death. | The Yarn-Teller may use any cards the Character has played as Yarn-Cards to create a Plight, Quest or Geas upon the Character. If the Yarn-Teller doesn’t feel up to creating a whole Spread then they could just alter the Significator of the current Scene. Or create a Fray, Snag or Warp for the Character instead. |
| 5 Failures | Cards | Blinded | Sometimes a catalogue of failures can result in a Character becoming momentarily blinded, doom-blind, or confused. | Cards in the Ordeal Pool and Wyrd Tarot Hand, should be immediately shuffled together and then dealt back out, facedown on the table. These cards may only be played blind (with new Draws also face-down) until all face-down cards have been played (especially from the Wyrd Tarot Hand). Doomblind Characters must assign Wyrd Tarot Cards or Yarn Cards to targets or effects, before revealing the card. In the case of Wyrd Tarot, they can be then reversed |
| 5 Failures | Combat | Contact | It is said that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, or to put it another way, everyone has a plan, until they get hit. A great combat plan makes no difference if the enemy don’t respond as you predicted, and the only good planning is levels of contingency and not relying on a single soldier. | Contact Failures cause all of the Character’s Prepared Cards, including their Style Reserve, (but not Wyrd Tarot Hand, Monster Pool or Ordeal Pool cards) to be discarded. |
| 5 Failures | Communication | Misunderstanding | When multiple failures occur during communication, Characters can get entirely the wrong idea about what you are trying to communicate. This can be a simple inversion, but is usually much worse than just the wrong way around. | The original message is completely destroyed. Instead a new message that has no bearing on the original context at all is created. This new message is often completely antithetical to what was originally intended, without just being the opposite, and usually has some emotional impact (up to 2 cards). E.g. “Please, my family and I need food” is misunderstood as “My family are animals and we are trying to rob, murder and eat you” with a side order of 2 cards of Terror. |
| 5 Failures | Complexity | Havoc | Complex systems are especially noted for their ability to become completely unstable, chaotic and run out of control. Multiple failures while trying to control the complex can result in a situation where the machinery or system will not respond to any attempt to control it, and it begins operating at random. | Complex systems can fly out of control. Selecting a random target(s), and affecting them with random Annexes, or random effects that are still based upon the Root or Channel of the Annexes being used. Typically a system that is suffering Havoc Failure cannot have control regained, and must be at least tactically Maimed, carefully Crippled or just destroyed to stop it. |
| 5 Failures | Descendant | Exploded | Descendants can go wrong in spectacular ways, sometimes. For example, fail to clean a gun properly, fail to load it properly, with imprecise manufactured bullets, add some dodgy electronics, no firearm safety instructions, and then hand said gun to an idiot and see what happens. These sorts of Descendant Failures are quite rare and should only be used if a Character has not been maintaining a Descendant properly, before the compounded Failures. | The Descendant Draws and Plays 5 Cards as an attack upon itself and its user (as an additional target). |
| 5 Failures | Dramatic | Dramatic Hazard | Drama can creates Hazards, both big and small, but when lots of failure swirls in the air, and something Dramatic is happening, you can bet that a Dramatic Hazard is on the cards for someone, and they usually aren’t looking at a little Snag that is going to be a minor complication. | The Character must take a Hazard, as though they had rolled a Hazard Drama. However, due to the extreme nature of the Dramatic Hazard Failure this Hazard will be at least a Plight or Fray, and can create a Sub-Plot, Geas or Quest. |
| 5 Failures | Emotional | Heart-wrenching | Emotional failures can compound in ways that can lead Characters to the very depths of heart-wrenching feelings, emotions so powerful that Characters can wish they were dead rather than experiencing them. Or their enemies may experience such a high that they chuckle or smile, whenever they remember it, for the rest of their days… | The Character will take a 3 Card (Extreme) Negative Psych Effect or an opposed Embodiment Character will take a 3 Card (Extreme) Positive Psych Effect. |
| 5 Failures | Environmental | Catastrophe | Sometimes failures in a Location can have a detrimental effect on the Location, usually a few failures will have limited effect on the Location, perhaps creating a few marks or something, but enough failures, all at once, can have a powerfully negative effect on the environment, even wiping the Location from existence. | The Location Draws and Plays 5 cards upon itself and every Character within, as an environmental attack, such as an avalanche, collapse, cave-in, earthquake, fire, flooding, landslide, sky-fall, tsunami, etc. Sometimes Catastrophe Failures will instead of creating a single attack they will instead create a Force-Of-Nature Monster (upto VII) Extra, or a Giant to represent the Catastrophe. This Force-Of-Nature or Giant will usually have a Size similar to the Location targeted (a little bit smaller or larger than the Location as the Yarn-Teller requires). For example, a Forest Fire will not start out as large as the forest, but grows larger over time, as more is burned; a mudslide or avalanche off a mountain will be smaller than the mountain, but still much bigger than the hotel on the slopes. |
| 5 Failures | Investigation | Misinformation | Make enough mistakes in an investigation, treating misinformation as information, red herrings as clues, and clues as red herrings and you will come to a completely incorrect conclusion. What is more, once you share your inaccurate conclusion, it will be misinformation itself. | Misinformation Failures cause a Character to come to an incorrect conclusion. The Yarn-Teller may narrate this incorrect conclusion directly, or simply misinform the Character of the “facts” and allow the Player to come to some incorrect conclusion. It should be noted though that Misinformation Failures also create a moderated retcon, that changes some aspect of the history, so the original facts cannot be recovered (even by time travel) this can create an unresolvable paradox. |
| 5 Failures | Logical | Logical Hitch | Enough Logical Failures can cause a Character to internalise these failures, which can of course lead to ongoing biases and even irrational behaviours. | Logical Hitch Failures involve a Character talking themselves into a new Hitch with Bane 7 (spending 30 Chi to increase the Bane of a new Quirk). |
| 5 Failures | Narrative | Monstrosity | Sometimes a number of narrative failures can compound, such that a Character finds things out about themselves that they never wanted to know, most people are uncomfortable enough when another views them as a monster, imagine how terrible it must feel to realise you really are the monster. | Monstrosity Failures typically create a 6 Card Yarn Geas Spread, that includes a Quest, Revelation and Lore, that will usually include a Monster Facet or five. The Quest defines the monstrous goal of the Character and the Lore defines some Monstrous Annex the Character develops. |
| 5 Failures | Proficiency | Dangerous Knowledge | It is said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, multiple small mistakes can create a terrible result for the Character. | Dangerous Knowledge Draws and Plays 5 Cards as an Attack on the Character, as a result of their dumb choices. |
| 5 Failures | Psychosocial | Pariah | Multiple failures in any social context can make a Character a pariah who no one wants to be around. This can even extend to their mindscape where their Self can become a pariah among their inner lives. | The Yarn-Teller can pull and play 5 Ordeal Cards upon the Character in any Psychosocial Space. This can alter Social Ordeal Levels or create Obstacles around their Self in the Mindscape, that should negatively impact their social life. |
| 5 Failures | Score | Collapse | When multiple failures occur when you are trying your hardest, you can mostly end up getting in your own way. | Collapse Failures cause the generated Score to be Halved. |
| 5 Failures | Stress | Snapped | Stress can build up very quickly when small mistakes are being made, and faster when the mistakes are larger, a few people can cope with this level of stress but for most this will result in a camel’s back and straw situation. | Snapped Failures cause the Character to take 3 Shocks, 8 Strains or 32 Stress in one heap of failure. |
| 5 Failures | Sway | Debt | Sometimes when you are trying to generate a little wealth quickly, you can end up owing more than you borrowed in the first place. Now imagine what happens when you make that mistake repeatedly. | Debt Failures allow a Character to create the normal amount of Sway. However, the Character has placed themselves in debt somehow to create that wealth. The Debt must be paid in full within the Extend Duration, or a whole Sub-Plot will be triggered about the Debt. These Debts usually have an interest rate that causes the Debt to compound every time the Limit Duration expires. E.g. Generate 41 Chi and you have 8 Months to pay it back, however every 19 Hours the debt adds another 41 Chi. |
| 5 Failures | Transformation | Abomination | If there is one time when failure is a terrible idea, it is when you are shape-shifting or transforming someone else. | The Yarn-Teller is free to make the transformation as miserable as possible with A Hitch of 9 Banes (45 Chi), Monster Facets or a 6 Card Geas Spread. |
| 5 Failures | Wellness | Wrecked | Too many failures can be bad for your health. | Wrecked Failures Draw and Play 3 Ordeal Cards on the Character at the current Stakes. These cards are Unsoakable, and may be split into separate WOunds or combined as the Yarn-Teller decides. |
| 5 Successes | Cards | Yarn-Spinning | Sometimes things go so well that it can almost feel like magic. | Yarn-Telling Successes allow Characters to play cards as Yarn Cards, creating Yarn Spreads on the Target, or the current Scene. This is often used to change the Significator of the current Scene. Yarn-Tellers may narrate the result of their Yarn Card Play otherwise the exact interpretation will up to the current Narrating Yarn-Teller or Referee. |
| 5 Successes | Combat | Counter-Offensive | Successes in Combat can place a Character in exactly the right place at the right time to completely disrupt an enemies plans with something as simple as a taunt or punch on the face. | The Target is staggered by the Counter-Offensive, causing them Discard all Ordeal Pool cards and cards Prepared for active Actions (you can keep the cards you spent digging in, putting on your field plate armour, or piling sandbags). |
| 5 Successes | Communication | Psychosocial-nexus | Compounding communication successes goes beyond normal levels of rapport and enters the areas of actual telepathy, at least it can feel like it. Such closeness can allow subconscious and even psychic (Setting allowing) communication channels to open between two Characters. | Characters that are this close have their Psychosocial Mindscapes connecting, usually becoming Attached to each other, they are normally connected via Folks, but other connections are possible, such as Humour, Passions or Darkness functioning as the bridge state. |
| 5 Successes | Complexity | Convoluted | Complex systems and machines can achieve amazing things when they are used correctly, they can do things that no one even originally imagined they could, with a little successful fiddling here and there. Great successes when working with such systems can create convolutions that impede the targets from even working out what is happening until it is too late. | Convoluted Successes can make a system capable of using magical difficulties even if technological, increasing the capabilities dramatically for a while. Additionally the Convoluted Success can create a Serious Obstacle (3 Cards) that can impede the target even understanding they have been targeted. |
| 5 Successes | Descendant | Virtuosity | Great success when using a tool or instrument, is known as virtuosity, and can make even the simplest tools seem capable of amazing things. | Virtuosity Successes allow a Descendant to Draw and Play an additional 5 Cards. However they can play up to 3 of these cards as Unsoakable, or they may play 3 as an Psych Effect upon those that witness to the Action, or they can play 3 as a new Serious Obstacle in the Stage. |
| 5 Successes | Dramatic | Tempest | Dramatic Success can create a situation where it can seem that everyone seems to get some Drama around the Character. | The Character may Draw 7 Ordeal Cards and play them as Drama cards on any Characters present in the Scene, including themselves. This will Relieve Stress as usual for the Characters effected by the Drama cards. The Tempest Success also empties the Drama Pool as though Drama had been rolled. |
| 5 Successes | Emotional | Exalting | When enough emotional successes stack a Character can powerfully effect multiple other people’s emotional states. | Exalting Successes typically cause those Characters who are witnessing the Action to be affected by a 3 Card Psych Effect (soaked as usual). The Succeeding Character can decide whether they wish to cause a Positive or Negative Emotion, and may split so that allies feel Positive emotions and enemies Negative emotions if they wish. |
| 5 Successes | Environmental | Transcendent | When everything about a place is just perfect a place can take on a sacred, sublime, numinous, hallowed or even utopian aspect. Great Success can generate this same feeling, as though the world has been stretched thin and the gods shine through the fabric. | Transcendent Successes can make a Descendant (including a Location or Pact) feel as though it has been touched by the divine. This can allow a Character to attune to the Location or Descendant as though they were the owner or a member, allowing them to gain access to Edges and Glows the Descendant may have (if only for a short time). Transcendent Successes can also allow a Character to alter their type Extra to Grunt, Grunt to Hero, Hero to Yarn-Yeller, etc. |
| 5 Successes | Investigation | Cracked-It | Sometimes multiple successes can reveal the complete story of what happened, who did it, and even why. | The Character may Draw and Play 5 Cards as a Revelation Spread, this Spread should be focused on revealing the truth about the situation they are investigating, who the bad guy really is, and perhaps what their weaknesses are, although the current Yarn-Teller can throw in additional details if they wish. |
| 5 Successes | Logical | Argumentation | The amazing thing about Logical successes is that while each component has a simple task such as exposing some fact or draws a conclusion from logical premises, each Success is also building upon the last, joining facts together into a network of logical conclusions, that define a logical argument. | The Character may Draw 6 and Play 5 Cards as a Logical Argumentation. This is a special logical Attack that represents both a Psych Attack and a “Magic” Attack, that has a goal of convincing the Target of an arguments truth, this is most often done with Lecture attacks. Rather than “Wounding” in the traditional sense, the Attack tries to convince the Character of the argument (and can move them in their own Mindscape, affect them with Emotions, or create Hitches as required). |
| 5 Successes | Narrative | Accomplishment | Sometimes the accumulated successes accomplish something for the Character that they were not even trying to achieve. | Accomplishment Successes cause a Character to achieve something they were not attempting with their Action. At its simplest a Character should make a Gain based on the Card atop the Discard Pile, or a Revelation based off the Cards they played or the Wild Pool, although they could just pass a Test they are not consciously attempting (such as passing some moral exam when they refuse to finish off their opponent). |
| 5 Successes | Proficiency | Maven | Those truly adept at something, the aces, wizards and mavens of their field can accomplish things that others would never attempt. | Maven Successes allow a Character to purchase new Proficiencies during an Action, this can allow them to add a Proficiency Die (up to 3), or add additional Proficiencies into an Annex they are currently using, adding Umbrals, Nimbeds or Extra Slot Proficiencies. Maven Successes have and effective Chi of 42 and the costs to add Proficiencies vary as follows, Skill = 3 (can only fill Extra Slots), Talent = 6 (Aura Slots and Extra Slots), Power = 8 and Super-Annex = 13. A Maven Success can therefore add at most 14 Skill Extra Slots, 7 Talent Profs, 5 Power Profs, or 3 Super-Annex Profs. Additionally Hitches can also store Proficiencies and a Maven Success should top any missing Hitch Proficiency Slots too. |
| 5 Successes | Psychosocial | Transmundane | Great Success when dealing with a Psychosocial plane can lead a Character to experiencing that plane directly. This can involve a Character experiencing their mindscape or some spirit world or underworld overtly, seeing it around them, noting its denizens and seeing their paths. For the Bulmäs they may perceive a Character’s Soul-Path, seeing memories replay from past-lives. | The Character is effectively moved from their real world position to some Psychosocial State (or back). Typically they still exist in the real world, but this is dependant upon the Yarn-Teller. Their perceptions fully reveal the Psychosocial Space, letting them view things in the distance, see Archetypes or Psychosocial Characters in that space and travel consciously where ever they wish. They may still have some residual comprehension of the real world if they are actually conscious during this experience. |
| 5 Successes | Score | Two-fold | Sometimes successes can compound and expand and instead of the result you sought you get something much better and bigger, twice as successful as you thought. | A Two-fold Success doubles the Score rolled, regardless of other factors (this can cause shifts in the number of Failure and Success Levels). |
| 5 Successes | Stress | Second-wind | Sometimes when you are working hard, you might hit a wall where you feel you cannot go past it and have to stop, other times this wall will melt away, and you get a second wind. | Second-wind Successes allow a Character to Relieve all current Stress, Strains and Shocks instantly. |
| 5 Successes | Sway | Inflection-point | Sometimes great activity and profound works can lead to a sea-change, paradigm-shift or inflection point after which the world seems always different. | Inflection-point Successes allow a Character to alter the Setting. Typically this is used to make the Facet Sway being generated have greater Potency in the setting (although it can also limit Potency too). For example if Support is Banal in the Setting then an Inflection-point Success could make Support Intrepid from now on, as the Character succeeds in some sort of political or democratic reforms. |
| 5 Successes | Transformation | Protean | Transformation is normally about making one thing into something else, mostly they are permanent and static transformations. Protean transformations are neither permanent nor static. | Protean Successes grant the target of a Transformation Action the ability to transform between the selected new form and their original form, or the transformation can be continuos for the Duration allowing the target to change shapes. |
| 5 Successes | Wellness | Shrug-off | Sometimes success means that the Character may be hit, struck down, and all may seem lost, but then they come surging back, driven by some powerful need for retribution, or desire to protect another, shrugging-off bullets and explosives as scratches. | Shrug-off Successes Remove all Wounds the Character currently suffers from below the level of Carnage. Carnage Wounds typically require a Retcon event at least to undo. |
| Level | Category | Type | Description | Rules |
Proficiency Crisis and Success Level effects
It is normal when having a Proficiency Crisis to end up with both Success and Failure Level Effects, whenever possible Yarn-Tellers and Referee should try to not have the two effects cancel each other.
If a Superior Success grants the character Sway, then they should not lose Sway from the Failure levels they also incur. Instead, apply the Loss to an Ally, or as a Gain to an enemy. If Facet Sway rules are being used then loses can be in a different Facet Sway to gains instead, a loss of Breaths, for example may gain you some Surges.
Card play does not quite work this way, since the cards will probably not directly oppose each other. You may draw and play an Ordeal card and an opponent may also draw and play at the same time, they may interfere, but it is unlikely they will directly cancel, and will probably create a more interesting narrative if they do interfere somehow.