The T13 Roleplaying Game

Sway

In T13 Sway is used to measure how effective, powerful or expensive something is. It is a measure of a Character’s wealth, power, and destiny all at once. Sway comes in the following flavours which are used for specific tasks within the system.

Sway Types

  • Yin & Yang (Tao) Sway — Tao Sway is the smallest form of Sway and is generally known as Yin or Yang, each one equals a +/- 1 on a rolled Yin or Yang Facet Score. It can be used by most Characters to make simple purchases such as learning Proficiencies, or buying Descendants. You can read more in the Tao Sway rules.
  • Facet Sway — Facet Sway varies in name by Facet, and can behave differently based on the type of character wielding it and the genre of the Story or Game. Facet Sway varies immensely in what it can do based on the type used. Health can heal, Wealth can make purchases, etc.To find out more look at the Facet Sway rules.
  • Chi — Chi is the next most powerful form of Sway, and is generally a +/- 2 to any rolled Score. It is made from Yin and Yang being combined together. Chi can be used to make purchases, but also can bend the reality of the world, allowing precognitive effects, reloading reality back to a previous saved state and more. You can read more about Chi and how it can bend reality in the Chi rules.
  • Yarn — Yarn is to Chi as Chi is to Tao Sway. It is the most powerful Sway that can easily be produced, and allows Stories to be woven into the world, each single point of Yarn can alter a rolled Score by +/- 5. Yarn is a tool of Yarn-Tellers and is the meta-currency used by Plots to create and manipulate characters and stories. To find out more read the Yarn rules.
  • Twists — Just as Chi can be spun into Yarn, if you continue to spin Yarn you get Twists. Twists don’t even really exist they are Increated, just like those that invented them and rely on them for their continued “existence”. However, adding a single Twist to a roll will alter the Score by at least +/- 10.

Sway Table

The Sway Table is where all this information comes together and you can look up how much Chi (or Yarn or Tao Sway / rolled Score) is required to do something.

Twists / ShocksYarn / Strains
Monstrous		Chi / Stress
Bold / Pips		Facet Sway /
Intrepid 		Tao Sway /
Banal 		DurationSizeAdditional Information
Extend LimitGroupSmall SizesLocation
0000 0InstantForeverAn Individual (1)Large human (Megafauna)A single smaller individual or point target.
Descendants — Lore Lores are Descendants that are not earned or purchased by Characters, but are handed out by Revelations during Stories. Lores can range from tiny Reputations that tell you about a single aspect of a Character to enormous Legends, that tell you about their powers and accomplishments. Lores are usually treated as a standard Descendant of their Master Annex Type. E.g. A Skill Lore is just a Skill Descendant the Character has.
0.250.512 2An Action /Ordeal PhaseA MillenniaCouple (<3)Human (Megafauna)Human-sized volume (Dominion/Burden/Incarna Value Litres)
Activity — Unconscious Something usually easy, and normally you’re not even aware of, like talking, breathing, or sensing your environment.
Annexes — Proficiency A Proficiency is a unit of knowledge. It may be a single memory, or it might have come from years of dedicated research or training. Proficiencies can really, describe anything. Even Annexes built from multiple Proficiencies will also have a single Proficiency in their use.
Changes — Proficiency Change a Character or Descendant Proficiency for another one.
Changes — Score Change a Score by +/-2 or +/-1 Pip
Characters — Neechies The least powerful of the Increated, Neechies are the non-beings (they have no Annexes or Facet Boons, but do have a “Non-Existent” hitch that may vary in form) but are able to cause movements you catch from the corner of your eye. They are often willed into existence by someone spotting something that isn’t really there. When they will take the form the mind suggests for what was observed, often a small insect or animal that if closely examined might appear to be made of densely woven shadow. Neechies are generally harmless unless they find a Nightmare Fuel source…
Descendants-Pacts Membership — Belonging Membership The very lowest and cheapest membership of a Pact possible. Belonging Members have little interest in the Pact, although they may feel some connection to other members, they have no access to any Sub-Annexes, but may have access to Proficiencies from the Pact. The number of Proficiencies available equals the Tier of Belonging Purchased.
Effect — Faint The dimmest of glows, the faintest of noises, almost scentless and tasteless. The very light traces that indicate something might have happened.
Events — Half-Action Half-Actions are the smallest Events in T13. They are less than a Full-Action in that they take less time, but are less effective. A Character can roll a single dice Pool usually a Facet Die or their Proficiency dice to generate a Score. In an Ordeal they allow you to Draw or Play 1 card.
Magic — Misdirection The simplest conjuring tricks. By controlling what the target perceives, you can make wonders happen for them.
Magic — Vanish The most well known simple magical effect. Which may rely on misdirection, trickery or simple dexterity to hide something from perception. Note that the Vanished item may actually be visible, but is unperceived without a suitable Spot Test. Sometimes performed with distracting gadgets, fireworks and flare, this can be as simple as palming a coin, or pushing a handkerchief into a plastic thumb.
Magic — Trick Simple to reproduce magic, that often relies on secret knowledge and special techniques or devices. A trick can reveal a single piece of information that the target still believes is secret, such as the number or card they chose, or the word they are thinking of.
Range — Melee Melee Range is close enough to swing an arm and connect. It is usually around a half a Character’s height or about a metre.
Modifier — Haze A light haze in the atmosphere has a minor effect on visibility. It makes spotting things and targeting a little more difficult.
Rules — Success or Failure Level This is the lowest possible result of a single Success or Failure Level. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
Rules — Re-roll You can re-roll any single Facet or Annex dice-roll. You may use either score.
Rules — Mimic Ordeal Card Pip You may alter or mimic the Pips of a Card by one Pip for 1 Chi or 2 Sway. Chi Pips are usually treated as Wildcard Suit-less Pips (that directly increase the Pips of the cards they are played upon), although Penetration Pips are possible (for a more limited, combat-orientated game), or Range Pips (paying only Range costs for low-level Heroes).
Rules — Atmospheric Drama Atmospheric Drama is a small event that is simply like “Flavour-Text”, candles gutter, a coyote calls to the moon, tumbleweed blow past, etc.
Rules — Add Atmospheric Drama Dice Yarn-Tellers can add and roll an Atmospheric (D2) Drama Dice into the Drama Pool, while they are narrating.
Rules — Minimal Nimbed Effect This is the minimum effect and cost that a Nimbed Proficiency may have. Nimbed Proficiencies add additional abilities to Annexes, making them more effective. Nimbeds must be supported by Umbrals in the Annex (although the number of Umbrals required per Nimbed does vary by type). The actual effect of a Nimbed is usually based upon the Character’s Score for the Proficiency Facet.
Rules — 1 Point of RT A point of RT costs 1 Chi/Pip to get rid of it (unless you wait)
Rules — Save Storing Chi within a Chronolith hardens that moment allowing it to be more easily reloaded.
Score — Score 2 points of Banal Score
Score — Ordeal Card Pip Bold Score equivalent to 1 Pip of an Ordeal card.
Spot — Obvious Spotting something bleeding obvious and in plain sight, like a mountain, a huge giant anything, or a gaping hole in the floor at your feet
Stress — Stress Stress is usually considered the equivalent of Chi, largely because Descendants and Characters can Store Stress on their Boon Dice equal to the maximum rolled Score without becoming Overstressed or Shocked. Descendants can therefore only store Stress on Annexes, Characters can Stress on both Annexes and Facets. Stress stored on any Dice more than the Stress-Strain Limit (Minimum roll +1) can be spent to add a Strain Die to an Action.
Sway — Chi 1 point of Chi
Sway — Tao-Sway 2 points of Yin or Yang or 1 point of each.
Sway — Facet Sway 2 points if Banal, or Intrepid, 1 Point Bold
Technology — Primitive Primitive technologies include simple machines (such as the wedge, lever, and screw), ropes, knots, stones, wood, animal products, water, and fire starting. Primitive technologies exploit a simple understanding of observable mechanical physics.
Technology — Language: Names Language and the ability to communicate is perhaps our most important Technology. Intially this language consists of simple Nouns and Verbs, which are simply the names given to objects and actions.
Technology — Language: Descriptors Descriptors allowed primitive languages to identify similar objects and actions, and compare them.
0.5124 5Seconds / Ordeal StageA CenturyHandful (<5)Child-sized (Megafauna)Large piece of furniture (Wardrobe)
Activity — Trivial An utterly simple task that the character performs multiple times a day, like clicking a mouse, spotting something in plain sight, flipping a light switch, or getting a drink.
Annexes — Skill A Skill based Annex, made from two Proficiencies combining two Facets aspects and Values.
Changes — Cosmetics Change small details such as Colouration, Timbre, Logos, Brands, Tone, etc. Change a description (Diegesis) a bit.
Characters — Vex The least powerful of the Extras. Any NPC created with a single Skill Annex. They are usually used for small animals and very minor Characters.
Descendants — Skill A Skill based Descendant.
Descendants-Pacts — Group Pact The most simple Pact type. These are simply any group of people who happen to have something in common. They could be friends, family, waiting in the same queue, or just in the same Location. They may share Proficiencies, but cannot have Sub-Annexes. Group Pacts are often defined accidentally during play, rather than planned.
Effect — Simple A simple effect is noticeable usually, they include things like brief flashes of light, sharp clicks, or bleeps, a simple identifiable smell or taste such as salty. These are simple effects, easily overlooked or missed.
Events — Action An Action is using an Annex (or Facet along with Proficiencies) to generate a Score to influence the world. During an Ordeal this Score is used to Draw and Play at least 1 card.
Hitches — Quirk The simplest and least powerful Hitches are called Quirks, they represent minor inconveniences and character quirks, and may have a Boon equal to no more than half the Character’s Facet Boon. Quirks are created with a single Hitch Facet, at least one Trigger Proficiency and possibly a Gnarl Proficiency (although often the Trigger may double as a Gnarl).
Magic — Possession (Tremble) The Possessor can shake the Possessee, but little else. Inanimate objects can be knocked over, sometimes, but are more likely to wobble and settle again (Note Possession usually requires a Possession Pact).
Magic — Intuition Training or natural talents can grant mild Extra Sensory Perception, or unconscious Perception. This can reveal information that should not be revealable. Such as the feeling they are being watched, or… Do you have a bad feeling about this?
Magic — Effect A simple magical effect relies on a series of specific techniques such as prestidigitation, palming, card controls, hypnotic conditioning, and misdirection. This is more than a Trick, as it cannot be simply explained away since multiple techniques stack, but it is not “real” magic yet.
Magic — Incantation A simple saying, poem, or phrase repeated for a magical effect. Incantations are usually fairly easy things to learn and repeat. The repetition accumulates magical power, and acts to suspend disbelief slightly on the part of the magician and audience, as a form of psychological priming.
Range — Measure Measure Range is close enough to swing your weapon and connect. It is usually a little over a Character’s height adding on the Reach of the weapon and Stance. So perhaps up to 5 metres with some lances and pikes
Modifier — Lighting conditions Low light or bright artificial light can affect how and what you see, a negative lighting condition can make a minor difference, good lighting can help you too.
Remove Wound — Distract Completely remove / heal a Distract Wound from a Character or Descendant.
Rules — Draw an Ordeal Card Draw an Ordeal card from the top of the Deck (when you have no other reason to go near it).
Rules — Play 1 Ordeal Card Play an Ordeal card from your Ordeal Pool or a Style Reserve (usually considered automatic in Ordeals to the normal limit of the Action, included for completeness).
Rules — Change Stakes Alter the current Stakes. Stakes are typically raised or lowered a Step. Such altered Stakes return to normal after their Duration has expired.
Rules — Soak Layer Alter the number of Soak Layers that are effective in the Current Stakes by 1 away from normal. This can make combat more deadly or less deadly without affecting the Stakes.
Rules — Mimic Wyrd Tarot Pip When mimicking a Wyrd Tarot card effect pay 2 Chi per Pip.
Spot — Overt Spotting something different or unique, like the lone pine tree, a famous building, or a piece of furniture in the room.
Spot — Recognizable Spotting something you have seen before, like a face you recognize in a crowd, or realising you are stood in the place of your first kiss
Stress — Strain Strain is created when Stress is spent to add an Annex or Facet Strain Die to an Action. Strains are the equivalent to Yarn. Each roll of a Strain Die potentially adds 1 Strain to the Annex or Facet, and it can only store as many Strains as the Die’s minimum roll +1 (The Stress-Strain Limit). Dice that have stored Strains are considered Strained. Strained Dice add a -1 to the roll of the Facet or Annex Die for each Strain, until healed. Strains can be Healed by Pips, Chi or an equivalent Chi Extend Duration of rest, as though each Strain were Yarn.
Sway — Yarn 1 point of normal Yarn. +1 Tao Sway for Seelie or Unseelie Yarn
Technology — Animal Husbandry This technology arrived quite early and allowed human beings to tame wild animals, making them more suitable for human needs. This includes domestication, training and animal breeding in one Technology.
Technology — Grammar Simple Grammar allows more complex communications to take place, complex clauses and questions become possible, allowing nuanced and emotional communication. The ability to communicate more effectively allows us to categorise and spread information, leading to other forms of study, including arithmetic. The ability to emotionally communicate allows creation of larger social groups.
Technology — Primitive Art The ability to create representations of the physical world, and symbolic patterns and expressions of emotional states and actions. Includes painting, drawing, percussion, singing, and sculpture. Leads to increased imagination and a burst of creativity amongst the rest of society.
Wound — Distract – Higher Stakes Distract Wounds are the simplest Wound that represent a target being momentarily distracted.
0.5136 8Ordeal RoundA DecadeHalf a Dozen (<7)Toddler-sized (Megafauna)Small vehicle (Car)
Activity — Mundane Something utterly mundane that we may do multiple times daily, but that requires some conscious effort or decision making, this may have once included knapping flint or starting a fire. Today it includes logging in, getting dressed and driving a familiar route a short distance. In the future, it might mean updating your brain-apps, flying a car, or controlling a tele-presence drone. Spotting a partially obscured face or familiar object is a fairly generic example.
Descendants — Prop Props are a physical Descendant usually with a single Skill Master Annex. They often represent simple things like magazines of guns, video tapes, books, etc. Because Props are Physical they can store 1 additional Wound over normal.
Events — Phase An Ordeal Phase is the time taken for each Character in the Ordeal to take a Half-Action (and some less powerful Full Actions). More powerful Full-Actions resolve over several Phases (which is modelled through RT and GRT).
Magic — Sigil A symbol created during a ritual or spell to focus the mind of the caster on the purpose of the spell, or to identify beings or events that are being invoked. Sigils are usually charged with magical power via an incantation, or visualization technique, and may act as a spell or ritual in their own right.
Magic — Prepare Preparing a spell is a thing magicians (or more normally fantasy Wizards) must sometimes do. This can mean reading and memorising a spell, hex, incantation, or instructions, for use later in the day.
Magic — Remote-Viewing Remote-viewing hones the extra-sensory perceptions of the psychic mind, granting it communication with the conscious mind, allowing the magician to sense things as if they were present, from elsewhere, Initially remote viewing is harder over a distance (Range difficulty begins as Snapfire but rises to Prone), and uses the density of the Spirit World or Mental World Terrain rather than the physical world. With practice the distance is irrelevant, even allowing remote viewing other galaxies.
Range — Close Close Range is close enough to throw an improvised weapon and have it kill. It is usually up to about five times the Character’s height or around 10 metres.
Modifier — Light Weather Bright sunshine can can be a worse problem than artificial light usually, but add a little cross-wind, fog, or drizzle into the mix and things can get much more difficult, then again a nice tail wind might help you make a shot.
Rules — Ordeal Card Level You may add or subtract a Level of Success or Wound from a Card.
Rules — Mimic Yarn Card Pip When calculating Yarn card costs, or rewards, consider each Pip to be worth 3 Chi.
Rules — Narrative Moment Drama A Facet-based Drama, the Narrative Moment typically a social encounter for the Character.
Spot — Ambiguous Spotting something that is not as it normally appears, such as recognising someone in a different guise, mistaking a chance shadow for a human being, spotting a faint impression on a carpet caused by some missing furniture, etc
Spot — Described Spotting something when you have only had it described to you, such as a personal description, or a particular make and model of a car in a lot.
Technology — Primitive Medicine Categorisation of nature and language leads to noticing certain foods can assist with certain diseases. Primitive surgery to remove damaged parts may begin.
Technology — Farming Farming Technology includes all sorts of land and crop management techniques. Specific tools may be developed to assist in planting or harvesting. Digging, mining and irrigation techniques become common. Wall and fence building for animal pens, and from field clearing, leads to creation of larger homes and villages. Larger social groups can now be supported at higher population density than ever before. Civilization is on the way.
0.5148 12A Moment (3 Rounds)A YearSeveral (<10)Cat-sized (Megafauna) A corridor/narrow hall
Descendants-Pacts — Club Pact Club Pacts are usually smaller groups, that have Sub-Skills. Clubs grant access to the Sub-Skills and select Proficiencies to certain members. Clubs are also known as Clan Pacts as they are also often used to represent families and tribes. Club Pacts are often defined by Plots as Embodiments.
Events — Stage Ordeal Stages represent a sequence of Actions towards a goal. Normally each Stage has a Difficulty that must be beaten to cross to the next Stage.
Hitches — Flaw Flaws are powerful Hitches that have a Boon greater than Half the Character’s Facet Boon, they are powerful failings and problems that a Character must face. Flaws may have additional Triggers that increase the chances of the Flaw triggering and can blend together the Hitch Types into interesting new combinations. Flaws additionally always have at least 2 Gnarls that combine to create a more powerful disturbance when triggered.
Magic — Rote-Ritual Performing a pre-learned, and practised magical ritual that secures a safe magical space, accumulates magical energy, focuses the casters minds upon the ritual’s intent, coherently releases the energies to achieve the goal, and then ideally dissipates any residual energy safely. Rituals may vary in length from a few minutes to hours and may require years of preparation or specific circumstances such as planetary conjunctions.
Magic — Blessing A positive influence from a magical, divine, Seelie, or spiritual effect. Blessings are usually quick and simple positive effects. A little bonus Score while doing a particular activity or working towards a task for example
Modifier — Higher ground Being higher up can be an advantage or disadvantage, depending upon what you are trying to do. Usually when attacking or defending the higher ground grants an advantage, although if heads are silhouetted against the sky, that can give the lower ground the advantage on their shots.
Rules — Draw and Play 1 Ordeal Card Draw 1 Ordeal Card to your Pool and Play 1 Card from your Pool (often the card Drawn).
Rules — Draw a Wyrd Tarot Card Draw an Wyrd Tarot card into your Hand whenever you like.
Rules — Alter Stakes The Stakes of the current Ordeal can be increased or decreased one level (e.g. Medium to Low or High). Typically this will last 1 Stage (or the paid for Duration) and then return to normal.
Rules — Roll Drama Pool The Character may roll the Dice of the Drama Pool, potentially creating Drama.
Spot — Obscured Spotting something that is mostly obscured by other things, such as spotting a photograph in a pile of papers, catching a reflection of something behind you in your peripheral vision, spotting a faint shadow inside a lamp, finding a sock that has gone under the bed.
Technology — Records This Technology began with tally marks in clay, and evolved into Reading and Written languages. This leads to the establishment of written social contracts and laws. Written language stabilizes spoken language across a larger population, and allows leaving of messages for others that are not present, secret communication is possible. Civilization begins.
Technology — Energy Storage Simple energy Storage technology includes the ability to convert Energy from one type to another, typically from kinetic energy to mechanical potential energy to kinetic energy (The Bow and Arrow). Other technologies that become possible include, primitive metallurgy, pottery, fine fabric weaving, sails, water wheels, and a number of traps.
Wound — Distract – Medium Stakes Distract Wounds are the simplest Wound that represent a target being momentarily distracted.
Wyrd Tarot — Crisis Creates a Proficiency Crisis.
Wyrd Tarot — Full Re-roll Allows re-rolling any dice pool including Proficiency Dice, may keep either result.
Wyrd Tarot — Friend / Foe Manipulates a Character’s perceptions of a Character to increase or decrease their Impressions of the Player.
12510 16<5 Minutes / A Short Scene / Quick Ordeal6 MonthsDozen (<14)Rat-sized (Megafauna)A room / Vehicle (Truck/Van)
Activity — Job Any task complicated enough that someone would pay you to do it for them, just so they didn’t have to. These include things like long distance driving, cleaning, writing records, searching a room for your missing keys (or a clue in a crime scene), etc. Usually they are handled with a roll, rather than an Ordeal, but a particularly difficult day or project may spawn an Ordeal.
Annexes — Talent A Talent based Annex, made from at least three Proficiencies, a Root Prof, Channel Prof and an Umbral Prof with optional Nimbed Profs. Each Umbral in a Talent may Support at least 1 Nimbed. Nimbeds and Umbrals interact with the Tangle.
Changes — Distort Minor changes, stretch, bend, reposition, alter dates of events, change a specific use or meaning of a specific word (often slang usage).
Characters — Chorus Any Extra created with a Talent Annex. These are the guys that fill the background of any scene.
Descendants — Talent A Talent based Descendant.
Descendants-Pacts Membership — Hobbyist Membership Hobbyist Membership represents a limited, non-professional, but interested membership of a much larger Pact. Hobbyist membership can grant at most a Skill to members and often grants a number of Proficiencies. The number of Skills and Proficiencies available equals the Tier of Hobbyist Membership Purchased.
Effect — Lingering A lingering effect leaves its mark hanging over a place the annex was used, it might be a lingering smell (such as the smell of gun smoke), a dust, powder, or mist that will disperse with wind and time. Many people will not notice the lingering effect, fewer still will be able to connect it to what happened, unless exposed multiple times.
Events — Round An Ordeal Round is a long sequence that describes a period of time where lots of actions have happened, often over or through several Stages, before coming to a natural break. Think of them as rounds of a competition, Sets in Tennis, or Halves / Quarters in Football.
Events — Simple Ordeal Simple Ordeals may last a long time, but they are fairly simple events for the most part.
Magic — Cantrip A small, usually less powerful, often deceptive or trickery-based charm, enchantment, or spell. Cantrips are usually palindromic reading and sounding the same backwards as forwards, and are easily memorised for later use. They are rarely truly powerful, but are magical tricks, that can impress and astound those who have no magic of their own. Sculpting smoke, changing the colour of flames, making noises change pitch, sparkles in the air, flashes of light, pops, knocking noises and voices from nowhere.
Magic — Possession (Tug) The Possessor can tug and shake the Possessee (all Possession actions use Range as a Snap Shot). This level of possession is very basic, causing the Possessee to jerk and move unnaturally and clumsily. No fine control is possible at all, the possessed being may be rigid or floppy, and can even dangle loosely in the air, possessed objects may be thrown or dashed, but cannot be twisted or aligned easily.
Magic — Casting Complete a magic ritual, or release a prepared spell to have its effect. Casting magic is often performed with a gesture, such as pointing at the target (with a gaze, finger, wand or dagger) or by naming the target aloud.
Magic — Enchanting Chant a phrase, or spell, to build magical power, and embed it into an object or person. Enchantment can affect people and objects, altering how they behave or are perceived. A strong Enchantment might make a sword supernaturally sharp for centuries, or make leather armour as strong as steel, or make those guards think these aren’t the droids they are looking for
Modifier — Bad Weather Bad Weather can stop you from doing a lot, try lighting a fire in the rain, flying a kite when the wind is gusting, or suntanning on an overcast day.
Rules — Play an Extra Ordeal Card Playing an Extra card from your Ordeal Pool when you wouldn’t normally be able to.
Rules — Umbrals Umbral Proficiencies add Facet Value (the Character’s Facet Value for the appropriate Facet) to Annexes that may increase the Boon and alter the Boon Die of the Anex, by adding some cost or limit to what the Annex can do.
Rules — Success or Failure Level This is the average effect of adding a single Success or Failure Level. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
Rules — 1 Point of GRT A point of GRT costs 5 Chi/Pips to get rid of it (unless you wait)
Rules — 2 Soak Layers Alter the number of Soak Layers that are effective in the Current Stakes by 2 away from normal. This can make combat more deadly or less deadly without affecting the Stakes.
Spot — Concealed Now spotting has moved into searching, as the spot roll is trying to find things that are inside drawers, cupboards, books, completely under furniture, rugs, carpets or loose floorboards, behind other items. These Concealed items however may be revealed by accident, knocking or bumping something might reveal them.
Stress — Shock Shocks are created when all a Character or Descendant Dice are Overstressed, or Fully Strained and they gain more Stress. Each Stress adds another Shock to the Character. Shocks can also be added by Shocking Attacks. When a Character is Shocked they must roll a Shock Pool, and depending upon the result they will either be stunned, have to take a Stress Effect, or suffer a Trauma. Shocks are roughly the equivalent of Twists (although technically Twists are each 2 Tao Sway more expensive) and GRT and are negated as such, or via rolling Shock Dice or gaining Stress or Traumas.
Technology — Primitive Chemistry Understanding of materials is developed that includes metallurgy. Alloying and simple chemistry are developed. Coloured smokes, primitive explosions, alcohol brewing, oil purification are early developments.
Wound — Flesh – Higher Stakes Flesh Wounds are Wounds that must be acknowledged, but are not permanent.
12612 21<60 Minutes / A Short Scene / Quick Ordeal5 MonthsScore (<22)Mouse-sized (Macrofauna) (~10cm / 1.0 ×10-1metres))A large room / Vehicle (Helicopter)
Descendants-Pacts — Guild Pact Guild Pacts (sometimes called Company Pacts in more modern settings) indicates a larger society usually a professional, trade organization, company or corporation that includes Sub-Talents among its annexes as well as Sub-Skills and Proficiencies. Guild Pacts includes Costs (in the form of Umbrals and Hitches) and Benefits (in the form of Nimbeds, Proficiencies, and of course Skill Annexes as well as the Talent). Guild Pacts are often defined as part of a Plot or tapestry depending upon their importance.
Events — Discovery A Discovery event is like finding a pointer towards a Clue or Revelation, it is never evidence of anything itself, but indicates something interesting is going on, or it might indicate that a specific Character has some information you need. A scientist making a Discovery initially observes something that current theories do not fully explain, this Discovery leads them to postulate a theory and test it, to codify a true scientific discovery.
Hitches — Woe The most powerful Hitches usually attract the Increated, who will swap the Yarn spun by the Woe for the Twists that they can produce. Woes usually have multiple Trigger Proficiencies, which can add additional Facet Hitches to the Hitch, and all Woes must have 3 Gnarls.
Magic — Stage-Illusion Carefully arranging what people think they can see, often so that they don’t see something else, can lead to them later claiming that they saw something impossible, like an elephant disappearing in front of their eyes, a woman being sliced into pieces and surviving, or the magician flying over their heads. Stage-Illusions usually require a lot of careful arranging of circumstances to achieve their effects, they are rarely capable of being performed ad-hoc.
Magic — Disbelief Disbelief has power in magic. If a Character does not believe that magic can do something, then that will hold true for them. A Character who believes they cannot be hypnotised will certainly be more difficult to hypnotise than one who thinks they spend half their life in a one trace or another.
Modifier — Minimal Retcon Sometimes a time-traveller, or dimension-shifter, will remember a history that no longer exists. Other times events may change someone’s personal history, just a little, perhaps altering some minor details, such as the spelling of their neighbours name. Minimal Retcons are the smallest possible changes that can be noticed as they are usually dismissed as misremembering.
Rules — Unsoakable Make one Ordeal card Unsoakable
Rules — Hazard (Minimal) Hazards represent a danger, risk or threat to the Character. They can vary greatly in type with many being more expensive than this. This represents the minimum case of a Hazard, a single imposed Failure Level.
Rules — Social Ordeal Level Altering a Character’s impression of you, in a Clique Psychosocial Space, by a single Social Ordeal Level up or down at a time.
Rules — Suspense Level Change the Suspense Level of the Current Scene up or down 1 Level. This will also alter the Change currently occurring.
Spot — Inconspicuous Worse than spotting something concealed is spotting something inconspicuous, hidden in plain-sight, it may be only partially concealed, but also be one particular thing amongst very similar things, such as a red getaway car amongst other red cars.
Sway — Twist 1 Twist can be created by magic from 2 Faerie Yarn one Seelie and one Unseelie or 2 of either. The Twist is also related to the Shock, the most powerful form of Stress. Twists are often Shocking.
Technology — Mechanics Mechanical Technology allows everything from watermills and windmills to clocks and automobiles. Although you might be looking at fairly primitive versions to start with. Initially parts are low quality and large in size, but mechanization allows creation of better tools to create better mechanisms in an slow starting J-curve.
Wound — Distract – Low Stakes Distract Wounds are the simplest Wound that represent a target being momentarily distracted.
Wyrd Tarot — Proficiency Immediately grants a new Proficiency suitable to the task being attempted.
Wyrd Tarot — Inept Cancels a Die from being rolled in a Pool (usually a Proficiency Die).
Wyrd Tarot — Aegis Discards all cards of an attack.
Wyrd Tarot — Breach Adds +10 Penetration Pips to an attack.
12714 26<120 Minutes / A Scene / Quick Ordeal4 MonthsSmall Crowd (<40)Bee-sized (Macrofauna) A couple of rooms / Vehicle (Bus / HGV)
Annexes — Power A Power based Annex or Descendant, made from a minimum of three Proficiencies, a Root Prof, Channel Prof and a number of Umbral Profs with optional Nimbed Profs. Each Umbral in a Power may Support multiple Nimbeds. Umbrals and Nimbeds interact with the Tangle.
Characters — Cast Any Extra created with a Power Annex. The Cast of a Story are those Named Characters that aren’t quite worth making a Grunt for.
Descendants — Power A Power based Descendant.
Magic — Trance The magician can affect their own mind by entering a Trance state. This is simple self-hypnosis, and can be used for a variety of purposes. The magician may use the trance to memorise or recall information quickly and clearly, or they may use the trance to ignore pain (and wound effects), to defend themselves against a Psyche attack of some sort, or to assist in focus, concentration, or perception.
Magic — Suspend Disbelief The magician is adept at suspending the disbelief of their audience, or requires them to suspend disbelief in order to complete the magical effect. Any time a normal person watching would say, “Hang on, that’s not possible” you should suspend disbelief to make them instead not worry about it.
Magic — Prayer A simple invocation of a spiritual or divine being that usually requires previous submission to that being (and often a Devotion or Duty Hitch). Prayers can invoke the powers, or more normally blessings, of the spirit or divinity contacted. For example, a neo-pagan magician priest may call upon Thor to lend them physical strength, or a Christian may call upon the holy spirit, God, Jesus, angels or saints to protect them from a devilish demon, or lend them the strength and knowledge to defeat it.
Modifier — Equipment Having the right equipment can help a lot (even if you can’t add it to a roll right now), having bad equipment can be a problem as well.
Remove Wound — Flesh Completely remove / heal a Flesh Wound from a Character or Descendant.
Rules — Prod Prods are Dramatic moments meant to focus a Hooked Embodiment on the current Plot and increase Suspense.
Rules — Ordeal Card Affect, Discard, Redraw, Ignore, a single Ordeal Card.
Rules — Drama Dice Add or Remove 1 of any type of Drama Die from the Drama Pool at any time. Dice added are rolled into the Pool.
Spot — Secured This is more about finding something that has been deliberately placed inside a lockable box, like a chest, a drawer, a gun cabinet, a safe, etc. It would usually be considered impossible to “spot” a secured document for example, but T13 is a weird place and people have weird senses, some emotionally charged object might be spotted by an empath despite being hidden in a safe, for example.
Technology — Harmonics Harmonics as a technology allow the creation of advanced structural composition, as well as aesthetic composition, in music, painting, sculpture, mechanics, and architecture. This leads to creation of new musical instruments, new tools, new art forms, new building materials and new social systems as these advanced techniques spread and are incorporated.
1.53816 32<8 Hours / Scene3 MonthsA Few Dozens (<55)Fly-sized (Mesofauna) (~1cm / 1.0 ×10-2metres)A floor of a building / Vehicle (Yacht)
Annexes — Personality Personality Annexes are the Master Annex of all Characters more important than Extras. Personality Annexes grant Characters ways of gaining Chi from their Persona and other abilities from their Core and (Resolved) Hitches.
Characters — Grunt Grunts are the name we give to any potential Protagonist or Player Character that does not have any reality-bending or Yarn-Telling abilities. That isn’t to say that a Grunt is generic, these are full detailed Characters who are more fully developed than any Extra (in fact Cast Extras that appear in Stories more than a few times should be upgraded to Grunts). Grunts are also referred to as Folk, Commoners, Plebs, Normies, Muggles, the People, and so on… These are true characters that should each have their own compelling character arc (often an actual Arc plot), or that have a sad death with unfulfilled potential, depending upon the genre and plots. Grunts are very much like the PCs of most TTRPGs, they are subject to the whims of the Wyrd, blown about by the winds of fate.
Characters — Bulmäs Child The youngest of the Bulmäs, they are usually called cubs or calves, depending upon the path they walk. Bulmäs Children have only their own original soul and cannot walk the Lea (except by migratory paths that even humans can walk) until they receive a travelling soul.
Descendants — Trophy Trophies are the simplest of the special descendants. They are an ordinary Descendant that has extra Facet Sway (or Yin/Yang) stored within it. This may grant the Trophy an Edge, making it more powerful than other examples of its type. Trophies represent the customization and detail work that we put into our favourite Tools and Objects (custom paint jobs, cases, stickers and installing programs and apps are all Trophy moves).
Descendants-Pacts — Society Pact Society Pacts represent huge numbers of people working for common goals. Often large corporations and most towns or cities will fall in this tier of Pact. Society Pacts are sometimes called Town Pacts, as they often define the people of a town. A Society Pact has at least 1 Sub-Power as well as Sub-Talents and Sub-Skills as well as Proficiencies it makes available to some members. Society Pacts are often defined at the Tapestry level, rather than Plot.
Effect — Pronounced A pronounced effect is so strong that most people will notice it, like the smoke and light from a fire, or the smell of disinfectant. Most illusionary magic and special effects type things want this level of effect. Most people will notice the effect, but a few may by chance or handicaps (Hitches) not.
Events — Chronolith Chronoliths are events, moments, infused with additional Chi to make them more historically certain than usual. Heroes can utilise and manipulate Chronoliths in interesting ways, including reloading reality back to the last Chronolith, just like in a video-game. Chronoliths may have Edges to help them defend themselves from temporal meddling.
Magic — Possession (Puppet) The Possessor can move the Possessee with like a puppet on a string. The possessed being can move limbs and move in ways that can appear normal and life like, but that still somehow feel uncanny to those that see them and are perceptive enough. Some observers will be unnerved just by the presence of a puppet possession. All Possession actions use Range as Braced shot.
Magic — Charm A short ritual that usually has a lesser transformative or healing effect, or a greater protective effect. Charms can be memorised, but are usually performed from a scroll or prepared paper, written in special magically charged inks.
Magic — Pre-and post-cognition The magician or psychic can sense what happened or will happen, even though it’s not happening right now.
Magic — Binding Binding magical energy or a spell into an object, or character, for a Duration to create a ward, or stabilize an enchantment or charm for a longer period.
Magic — Hypnosis Affect another’s mind and place them in Trance. Hypnosis can allow others minds to be made suggestible (not controlled) such that they can be guided through Trance states for similar effects to those that effect the magician, additionally a suggestible Trance will make the hypnotic subject treat commands from the hypnotist as though they were their own inner monologue.
Range — Medium Medium Range is far enough away that you might want to aim to make sure you hit. Medium is up to ten times Close range, For human scale this is usually up to 100 metres.
Modifier — Secretive Trying to do things without being spotted or overheard doing them can always make a situation more difficult.
Rules — Set Stakes Set the current Stakes. This can include creating a new Custom Stake if performed by the current Yarn-Teller or Referee. Typically the Ordeal is included in the cost so the entire Ordeal is affected, or after the Duration the original Stakes will return.
Rules — Reload The Hero (or Yarn-Teller) rewinds Time back to the last saved Chronolith (usually).
Rules — Draw 3 Ordeal Cards Draw 3 Ordeal cards to your Pool.
Rules — Break (Minimal) Breaks are Drama events that lower the Suspense Level, Relieving Stress, Strains and Shocks from Characters. This is a minimal Break that does not Relieve much Stress.
Spot — Invisible Spotting something that is meant to be invisible, should be impossible, but perhaps you notice a shimmer in the air or notice the wind is blowing around, or sound is deadened by something you cannot see, perhaps their very silence somehow draws attention, like a hole in your perceptions.
Technology — Biology Categorisation of life leads to a basic understanding of biology. This leads to improvements in medicine, particularly surgery.
Wound — Maim – Higher Stakes Maim Wounds are damage that remove a Proficiency Slot until healed.
Wyrd Tarot — Fast-Talk / Enrage Add +1 Success Level or Failure Level to any Social Activity or Test.
Wyrd Tarot — Rally / Discourage Add +1 Success Level or Failure Level to any Psych Activity or Test.
1.53918 38<10 Hours / Scene10 WeeksDozens (<64)Flea-sized (Mesofauna)A floor of a large building / Vehicle (Jet – Private/Fighter)
Magic — Face-dancing The magician can affect their own form and appearance, or at least how it is perceived, recorded and remembered. This can be a combination of make-up effects, disguise, posture, perceptual changes and even physical shape-shifting.
Magic — Phantasmagoria The magician can make people see what they want them to see, hear what they want them to hear, and ideally feel what they want them to feel. Standing illusions and immersive directed hallucinations are both possible.
Modifier — Focus / Distracting Mental Focus is key to magic, and helps with almost everything else. Conversely, trying to do anything complex without adequate focus can hinder almost anything. Distractions can interfere incredibly with someone’s ability to do a task. Even causing them to… Wait, what is that smell?
Rules — Simple Obstacle Play a single Card from your Pool or Hand as a simple Obstacle that is added to the Stage of the Ordeal. Otherwise Obstacles can be created via Ordeal Cards or Yarn Cards.
Rules — Success or Failure Level This is the upper limit of adding a Success or Failure Level. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
Spot — Ethereal Spotting something that is not only invisible, but insubstantial and in many ways just not real. Useful for spotting spirits and feeling the passage of Bulmäs through the nearby Lea
Technology — Chemistry An advanced understanding of Chemistry allows the synthesis of new materials. Individual chemical elements can be discovered and categorised, “hidden” common elements such as hydrogen, silicon and germanium may be discovered. Photography and even X-ray photography is possible.
1.531020 45<12 Hours / Long Scene9 WeeksSeveral Dozens (<75)Lice-sized (Meiofauna)Half a building / Vehicle (Sub-way train)
Activity — Tricky Tricky activities are fiddly tasks that might go wrong easily, or normal jobs and tasks, that are not well explained. You might be told to clean out a room, and throw everything away, but some of the stuff in the room is actually important and if thrown away, you and the guy who told you to chuck it, would be fired. Do you spot the importance before you chuck it?
Magic — Prestidigitation Quick and hidden movements, related to those of pickpockets, are used by the magician that manipulate objects to achieve magical effects, the quickness of the hand deceives the eye. This can make objects appear to appear and disappear even from someone’s closed hand, or pocket.
Modifier — First Time Everything is harder the First Time you try. If you have never attempted something before, then it will always be harder than something that you have even tried once.
Rules — Play Two Ordeal Cards Play Two cards from your Ordeal Pool when you are not normally able to.
Rules — 2 Success or Failure Levels This is the lower limit of combining 2 Success or Failure Levels. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
Spot — Non-Existent Spotting something there, that wasn’t actually there until you spotted it. Usually this is a clue, from the Yarn-Teller (as in a Clue Wyrd Tarot card), however when wielded correctly it can reveal Descendants and even Allies (at the current Yarn-Teller's discretion). Basically, if you roll well on a spot roll you can add something that you want to find, that is reasonable to find, on top of whatever the Plot says you find. However, Yarn-Tellers can also use this Difficulty to have you “spot” an Increated, .
Technology — Electrics Electricity is a primitive harnessing of the electron. Initially power levels are low, based on DC batteries, it can be efficiently converted into other forms of energy, and back, but it takes a lot of time and experimentation to unlocks all that potential.
Wound — Crippling – Extreme Stakes Crippling Wounds remove an Annex Slot until healed.
Wound — Flesh – Medium Stakes Flesh Wounds are Wounds that must be acknowledged, but are not permanent.
Wound — Mortal – Extreme Stakes Mortal Wounds are the first Wounds that create Hitches for the Target. Mortal Wounds usually create Quirk Hitches
Wyrd Tarot — Clue Gain a hint from teh current Yarn-Teller or Ref, or Reveal or Remind a Revelation that has been previously missed.
Wyrd Tarot — Feint Immediately summons 1d6 Distract Wounds on target.
Wyrd Tarot — Surprise Ignore current GRT, RT, and initiative order to take one Full-Action immediately.
Wyrd Tarot — Surprised Immediately grants 2 GRT to a target.
1.531122 51<16 Hours / Long Scene8 WeeksA Few Scores (<85)Tick-sized Meiofauna (~1mm / 1.0 ×10-3metres)Most of a building / Vehicle (Train)
Magic — Invoke The magician draws the attention of a spirit, demon, divinity or equivalent, by use of ritual, charm, prayer or true name etc. Usually used to mimic or call upon the Invoked entities abilities or to access their knowledge. Invoking a powerful spirit can be dangerous for the magician, causing the spirit to fully possess them on the spirit’s terms.
Magic — Spell A Spell is usually a quick magical ritual designed to have a powerful, often destructive or creative effect. Spells might be used to create Wounds, Traps and similar effects, that may appear coincidental or directly caused by the magic depending upon the spell used.
Modifier — Location Being in the right Location can really help. Want to repair a car, a garage can help, but a workshop is better. Being in the wrong Location can also be a real hinderance, as any one who has tried to drink tea on a rollercoaster can attest.
Rules — Ratchet A Ratchet Dramatic Event is meant to be a direct connection between the Suspense Level and the Narrative, they probably should never be deliberately triggered without considering the ramifications on the Story, except when they are not occurring quickly enough to keep up with a rapidly rising or falling Suspense Level.
Technology — Powered Automation Mechanical Technology is expanded to create self-powered, autonomous devices that can do the work of many people. Examples include steam-power, internal combustion engines, etc. Mechanical vehicles, power tools and mass production techniques synergize to change the world. Internal combustion when invented unlocks power levels capable of sustained powered flight almost immediately.
Technology — Atomic Radiation Advanced understanding of matter reveals the structure of the atom, and an understanding of radiation. Allows creation of radio, radar, broadcast power, solar cells and primitive fission bombs (eventually). Also introduces quantum uncertainty, which is at first widely dismissed.
1.541224 59Until Dawn/ Dusk/ Noon / Midnight7 WeeksScores (<100)Tardigrade-sized (Microfauna)A building (Townhouse) / Vehicle (Airliner)
Annexes — Super-Annex A Super-Annex based Annex, made from at least two Proficiencies
Annexes — Size Size Annexes are the Master Annex of a Location Descendant (or a Kaiju Monster).
Changes — Revise Minor Shape-shifting (makeup, prosthetics etc but same casting), re-arrange positions, revise remembered minor personal events (personal retcon). Change individual words, company logos, symbols while preserving general meaning, (minor retcon)- minor Mandela Effect
Characters — Force-of-Nature The most powerful of Extras created with a Super-Annex, and often a Size Annex. They are often used to represent large scale events, such as natural disasters or weather, very easily.
Characters — Hero Some Characters are more than Grunts, they may be even more than mortals, with faery or divine powers and blood. Sometimes they are just magical beings, other times they are just another name for someone who is managing to survive or even thrive in a crap-sack universe. Heroes usually can spend Chi to augment their own actions, empowering themselves to achieve impossible things at great personal costs. A few can learn to access reality-bending, time travel, precognition, abilities that allow them to be classified as Mercari.
Characters — Mercari The Fae call some heroes Mercari, referring to the ability of Heroes to trade their future destinies with others, and their ability to make deals with Wyrd herself. The Bulmäs usually refer to Mercari as having Souls (if not True Souls or Great Souls), although they also use the term Brightling or Starborne Souls. Mercari have the ability to trade their destinies with others and manipulate reality (with access to Wyrd Tarot).
Characters — Wyrdchilde The Wyrdchilde are Faery-blessed beings, similar in power to Heroes, but they are Faery-Human hybrids with tiny amounts of Fae blood in the mix. This can often make them Mercari or grant them other magical abilities. These are usually called Cousin Souls or Starborne Souls by the Bulmäs, referring to their belief that the Wyrd is the sister of their creator goddess.
Characters — Paradox Warrior Paradox Warriors are Grunts fortified with Eusaivean Femite and Nullite Technologies to effectively turn them into Heroes, capable of surviving time-travel. Most Paradox Warriors are actually Heroes anyway, and after only a short tour of duty or even a single mission, many Grunt Paradox Warriors become indistinguishable from Heroes, Mercari or Wyrdchildes beyond the abilities they gain, and many that survive most of tour generally rise to Brass Rank.
Characters — Goblin Goblins are Grunts with access to Twists, usually as result of a Woe Hitch (or two). Goblins can be the lowest ranks of the Unseelie Fae, who have Twists rather than Yarn, but more often they are created by fusing a mortal animal with the power of the Increated or Unseelie Fae.
Characters — Bulmäs Adult Bulmäs Herd or Hunters have at least two integrated Souls and are able to walk the Lea and shape change. Adult Bulmäs are powerful beings, although their beliefs and training over lifetimes often limits those abilities, restricting them to walking specific Lea paths and wearing specific animal shapes. Later the All-Walkers beliefs lifted these restrictions on Adult Bulmäs.
Descendants — Super-Annex A Super-Annex based Descendant. These are the most powerful Descendant base type, usually created by large Pacts, Plots or Yarn-Tellers.
Descendants — Prize Prizes are Descendants imbued with additional Edges and abilities by a Hero storing Chi within them. They are considered more “Real” than normal Descendants, able to resist anachronistic events like Paradoxes, Chronoclysms, and Retcons, they are also usually able to survive side-steps without change, allowing a Hero Gunfighter to wield Prized Six-shooters against fantasy opponents without running afoul of different laws of physics or chemistry. Ancient Prize stones and gems are normally called “Monoliths” and some Fæ call all Prizes Monoliths.
Descendants-Location — Location Locations are a special type of Descendant that models a place in the Game, or Story. Some Locations are considered static (a house or a kingdom), but others can be mobile (a vehicle, or even a planet).
Descendants-Pacts Membership — Paid Membership Paid Membership indicates improved membership of a Guild, Society, Nation, Trust, League or Covenant Pact. Paid Membership includes Costs (in the form of Umbrals and Hitches) and Benefits (in the form of Nimbeds, Proficiencies, and of course Skill Annexes as well Sub-Talents). The number of Talents, Skills and Proficiencies available equals the Tier of Paid Membership Purchased.
Effect — Conspicuous Conspicuous effects include things like music, lights, bright make up and garish costumes, that you probably think there is no way anyone could not notice that (but some people would say “What fairground?”).
Magic — Possession (Rough) The Possessor can control the Possessee with natural looking, but still rough, uncoordinated motions. It is similar to wearing or wielding the Possessee, as though they were a suit of clothing. Delicate actions, such as speaking or writing are possible, but require a great deal of concentration, and will be noticeably different to the possessed beings normal voice or hand. All Possession actions use Range as a Prone shot.
Magic — Enhance/Diminish The magician can manipulate magical energy to make something more or less efficient, faster, or better/worse somehow. This is usually the equivalent of adding Chi to the action being performed.
Modifier — Terrible Weather Storms and blizzards can make it impossible to do some things. It is almost impossible to track someone in a white-out, and even standing can become impossible in a tornado.
Rules — Draw 4 Ordeal Cards Draw 4 Ordeal cards to your Ordeal Pool.
Technology — Electronics Electrical Technology combined with deeper understanding of atoms and electrons leads to electronics capable of decision switching and complex control systems. Valve technology and transistors allow electronic calculations to be performed. Programmable computers become possible.
Technology — Orbital Technologies Rocketry and aerospace sciences reach the level of primitive space-flight. First planetary orbits and later Solar and even extra solar orbits become possible. Early exploration is heavily restricted due to lifting weights up from the planet’s surface.
Wound — Crippling – High Stakes Crippling Wounds remove an Annex Slot until healed.
Wyrd Tarot — Flashback / Retcon May be used to describe moments from a Character’s past, allowing purchases to be made, or events to be changed etc. This is more than a mild Retcon, allowing a Character’s history to be altered, but cannot Retcon major historical events alone.
Wyrd Tarot — Stalemate Immediately exactly meet the difficulty of any Test or Stage of an ordeal.
Wyrd Tarot — Unbalance Immediately add +1 Success Level, +1 Failure Level to the target’s next action and 1 Unsoakable Distract to the target.
1.541326 66Until Dawn/ Dusk/ Noon / Midnight6 WeeksOver a Hundred (<151) A large building (Farmhouse) / Vehicle (Cargo ship)
Characters — Monster (I) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class I) have 1 Monster Facet.
Descendants-Location — Seat Seats are Locations that store extra Sway and are granted an Edge because of it. Seats represent the customizations, adaptations, and work that we do to our property to make them ours.
Descendants-Pacts — Nation Pact Nation Pacts are huge cultural and economic Pacts that are have a Super-Annex (often a Super-Talent or Super-Power) as well as a selection of the Sub-Powers, Sub-Talents and Sub-Skills from the list available. Nation Pacts are sometimes called Species Pacts as they can be used define entire Species of Characters, such as Eldritch god, Mountain Dwarf, Wood Elf, Black Dragon, Martian, etc. in Fantasy, Horror and Science-Fiction
Magic — Spell-Weaving The magician can create or learn a repeatable magical effect that is usually constructive and creative (making or summoning something) or destructive (damaging or harming something). These spells can be more powerful than normal spells when created for a specific target or effect, or be less powerful but more generic in effect like a normal spell.
Magic — Hex The magician uses a “Spell” with a particularly nasty, often curse-like, effect. Hexes are often powerful transformative or destructive effects, that can wound and create new hitches.
Modifier — Darkness Try to do some things while you are blind, in the dark, or deaf, and it gets a lot harder. Conversely, detecting a single photon is possible with the human eye, if you are in real pitch darkness.
Rules — Facet Boon Modifying a Facet Boon up one or down one Boon (which also moves the Anti-FacetBoon down one or up one) costs the current Facet or Anti-Facet Boon in Chi, whichever is higher, so this represents the minimum cost to moving a Facet Boon.
Rules — Unlink Facets Unlinking a Facet and its Anti-Facet so that each may be moved up or down independently costs the higher of the two current Facet Boons (with a minimum of 13 Chi) in Chi.
Rules — Distress Cards Distress Cards are created from Ordeal Cards by Shock Dice. Distress Cards each have a Stress Effect and special rules that follow. If a Character cannot match the Pips with Stress then the Distress Card becomes a Trauma.
Technology — Miniaturization Advanced tooling and electronics enable miniaturization to begin. All technologies begin to shrink and/or grow in efficiency. Transistor technology allows pocket radios and Liquid crystal display televisions. Miniaturization of tooling allows improvements in all technologies.
Technology — Nuclear These Technologies allow exploitation of the inherent energy in matter, specifically the radiation caused by matter loss in radioactive isotopes. Harnessed correctly these can make clean, long-lasting power sources, incredibly accurate clocks (allowing the creation of GPS navigation systems) and also very powerful thermonuclear and fission-fusion bombs.
1.541428 74Until Dawn/ Dusk/ Noon / Midnight5 WeeksA Couple Of Hundred (<250)A large public building (Museum) / Vehicle (Car Ferry)
Magic — Rite A Rite is a grand ritual, usually of a religious nature, that may have a powerful magical effect. Rites can have profound protective or transformative effects on the subject of the rite, which may be a Location, Character, or Pact Descendant as well as a Descendant.
Magic — Shape-shifting The magician can change their own shape, rearranging limbs, becoming animals usually, in some cases they can even become inanimate objects for a while.
Modifier — Luck Luck, whether good or bad can have an almost incredible impact on any test,
Rules — Wyrd Tarot Affect, Discard, Play, Redraw, Change or Alter a single Wyrd Tarot card.
Rules — 2 Success or Failure Levels This is the average of combining 2 Success or Failure Levels. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
Technology — Microelectronics Advanced Electronics, super miniaturisation allows creation of digital computing. Micro-electronics quickly shrink towards becoming nano-electronics. Quantum effects predicted are now observed leading to advances in technology such as LED.
Technology — Coherence Coherence in science allows creations of new technologies and understanding across all sciences, standardizations of measurements and experimentation lead to accelerated developments. All Technologies and Sciences accelerate development in the new paradigm. Lasers become possible. Understanding of Quantum effects leads to break through technologies such as digital cameras. Computers can interconnect to share information and computation. Email and remote access terminals are the first signs of what is to come.
Wound — Carnage – Extreme Stakes Carnage Wounds usually create Flaw Hitches for the Target
Wyrd Tarot — Prop / Drop Prop Target immediately loses, gains, fixes or replaces a Prop
Wyrd Tarot — Failure Target immediately gains +2 Failure Levels (or a complete Failure).
Wyrd Tarot — Rise Target immediately gains +2 Success Levels.
1.541530 83Until Dawn/ Dusk/ Noon / Midnight4 WeeksA Few Hundred (<375)Eurkaryotic cells / Mid Infrared (0.1mm / ~100µm / 1.0 ×10-4metres)Very Large building (Office block) / Vehicle (Liner)
Activity — Hard Job You know that job that you put off because it’s harder than everything else you have to do? Chances are that is your Hard Job activity. It might be doing the accounts, or calculating a course, maybe it is the gourmet dish that only the head chef personally handles, or maybe you just have a really hard to do job, like being Public Relations manager for a criminal gang, or trying to find something deliberately hidden in a room, when you don’t even know what you are looking for. Hard Jobs are often rolled, but are worth an Ordeal the first time you are thrown into them.
Magic — Dynamic-Balancing The magician is able to sense and balance elemental or magical forces in the atmosphere and landscape around them. Dynamic-elemental balancing can be used to manipulate weather over time, can be used to condense, freeze or evaporate water, can cause burning, and in extreme cases can cause earthquakes and even throw lightning.
Remove Wound — Maim Completely remove / heal a Maim Wound from a Character or Descendant, and allow re-purchasing of Maimed Proficiency.
Rules — Play 3 Ordeal Cards Playing an Extra 3 cards from your Ordeal Pool when you wouldn’t normally be able to.
Technology — Nano-electronics Nano-electronics allow smart phones and similar technologies, low power computation is possible, high powered super-computers are also possible. Big-data processing and artificial intelligence learning algorithms are capable of performing some tasks at human level. Quantum computation becomes possible.
Wound — Carnage+ – Extreme Stakes Carnage+ Wounds usually create Woe Hitches for the Target
Wound — Flesh – Low Stakes Flesh Wounds are Wounds that must be acknowledged, but are not permanent.
251632 92A Weekend / Until Moon Changes Phase21 DaysA Good Crowd (<500)A Skyscraper / Vehicle (Corvette)
Annexes — Pact Pact Annexes are the Master Annex of a Pact Descendant and is governed the most powerful member, the total number of members and the type of Pact.
Changes — Alter Moderate Shape-shifting (including recasting the actor), re-arrange positions, alter remembered personal events. Change word, logo and symbolic meanings, (medium retcon), minor social changes – medium Mandela Effect
Characters — Renegade Heroes that have at least one Woe Hitch are usually called Renegades (although they are also called Wargus, Warlock, Hobs, Devils and Demons depending upon their allegiances). They can generate and use Chi and Twists as normal, and may use them as they have been trained or learned.
Characters — Demoniac Heroes that are possessed by Increated, Unseelie Fæ or powerful evil spirits are called Demoniacs. There is a great deal of variation in these Characters with some representing a being in conflict with itself, while others invite the possession for power. They can generate and use Chi and Twists as their Possessor desires.
Characters — Cambion Cambions are very rare, a blend of mortal and Increated that can only occur when the Increated is granted a Succubus or Incubus Nightmare form. Cambions occasionally live in secret among mortals, but most have been taken to Shades. Cambions can generate and use Chi and Twists (if they have at least one active Woe). Cambions are also capable of converting Chi into Twists and back, which makes them very valuable to their Increated parents, but also difficult to control.
Characters — Hobgoblin Goblins that have at least three Woe Hitches are called Hobgoblins, they are more powerful than other Goblins and closer to Heroes in power level. They can generate Chi as well as Tao Sway and Twists to subvert the Narrative. Hobgoblins can be either low-ranked Unseelie Fae or powerful creatures created by fusing mortal flesh with Increated and Unseelie energies.
Characters — Dæmon The Rank and File of the Increated, devious and desperate for existence these Increated usually have experience of the real world and understand how to cultivate the Nightmare Fuel Twists that they desire. Most Dæmons serve individual Princes, or Lords in the strange hierarchies of Shades, but some operate as “Uncivil Servants” within the Twisted Bureaucracy called “Blakkhall” and “The Parliament of Shades”, where they are tasked with gathering and managing the Souls of the damned.
Characters — Fæ Commoner The Commoners of the Færy folk, who shift continually between Seelie and Unseelie forms as days and the seasons pass. They all have access to Wyrd Tarot, and add +2 Cards to their Hands compared to a similar human Hero. Fæ Commoners will have access to Twists only when they are Unseelie, otherwise they behave as Mercari.
Characters — Bulmäs Adult Broccen Adults of the Broccen Bulmäs can walk any of the Lea Paths. They are omnivores themselves, and keep territory, they do not migrate from place to place. Broccen are also capable of creating new Lea Paths, which also creates a new creature to fill the niche if there is none available. Broccen are also capable of partial transformations.
Characters — Eelafin / Fæ Hybrid A blending of mortal and immortal beings, the Eelafin are a particular example of Faery Mortal Hybrid. Eelafin means “Traveller” in their own language. They add +1 Card to their Hand, but are otherwise similar to Fae-commoners.
Descendants-Location — Real Estate Real Estate is what we call a Location with Chi stored within it. Real Estate is considered more “Real” than other Locations, making it harder to be destroyed and altered significantly by Yarn-Tellers or Time Travel.
Effect — Commotion A commotion is a loud noise, usually, along with flashing lights and so on, like automatic gunfire or emergency vehicles something that grabs attention.
Events — Expanded Ordeal Expanded Ordeals (where we have multiple simultaneous Ordeals or complex systems in play) tend to be around here.
Magic — Possession (Finesse) The Possessor can control the Possessee with a finesse that looks natural, but is purely physical. It is as though they had perfectly become the possessed victim, but they have no access to the victim’s thoughts, memories or feelings (unless they have another ability to do that). Finesse possession actions incur no penalties for range.
Magic — Telepathy The Magician or psychic can use the powers of telepathy to read surface thoughts, speak without words, and stare with purpose. They can also try more complex telepathic tricks, such as empathic emotions, psychic rapport (where two or more minds combine power for a single purpose), or even possession effects.
Magic — Summon The Magician can call forth, summon, or conjure something or someone from a different location. This may be a psychic summoning, felt by the creature summoned, who may choose how to respond. Sometimes the magician is the one that has the ability to call forth spirits from the spirit-world, other times it is the spirit that has the power to travel between worlds, and the summoner simply calls them. Props and Descendants can also be “apported” from distant locations, and this may even be the simpler action of the two.
Modifier — Minor Narrative Issues / Irrelevant Sometimes what you are trying to do goes against the Story that is being told. Perhaps the tale is about finding a kidnapper and the victim, within a strict time-limit, and a character says they are going to bed instead of working through the night, well they might just find that sleep does not come as easily as normal, same if they try to spend time in the kitchen making a family dinner, the story demands that it comes first in these cases by adding a difficulty to those distractions.
Modifier — Limited Retcon Altering History in a way that directly affects a limited amount of people and space, such as changing the history of one family, or the history of one Location. This assumes the Location or Group do not butterfly affect anything major.
Rules — Draw 5 Ordeal Cards Draw 5 Ordeal cards to your Ordeal Pool.
Technology — Mimetic Engineering Computational power, networked society and psychology meld to create an ability to control thoughts and reactions remotely in some populations. Massive changes can be created within social systems by anyone with the technology, causing social disruption, not all uses are effective at this time and are never more than 80% effective.
Wound — Maim – Medium Stakes Maim Wounds are damage that remove a Proficiency Slot until healed.
Wound — Mortal – High Stakes Mortal Wounds are the first Wounds that create Hitches for the Target. Mortal Wounds usually create Quirk Hitches
Wyrd Tarot — Chi Target immediately pulls another card gaining the Pips as Chi.
Wyrd Tarot — Lose Chi Target immediately loses 8 Chi.
Wyrd Tarot — Psst Move a card from your Hand to the Target’s Hand and draw 2 cards.
Wyrd Tarot — Doom-theft Remove a random card from target’s Hand and add it to your own. The Target may redraw.
251734 101A Weekend / Until Moon Changes Phase18 DaysA Good Crowd (<600) A Shopping Mall / Vehicle (Frigate)
Magic — Psychokinesis The magician or psychic can use the power of their mind, or emotions, to move things at a distance, bend bullets, levitate, and basically manipulate forces like magnetism, or gravity around themselves. Such forces are easily targeted by the mind, so that there is little to no wasted energy around the event.
Range — Long Long Range is far enough away that you might need to use a rifle with sights, take a moment to prepare and aim. This is usually any range up to five times Medium Range, which is 101-500 metres or so.
Rules — Snag Snags are narrative complications based on a single Yarn Card. Snags are slightly cheaper than a single Yarn Card as they are quite limited in effect.
Technology — Artificial Intelligence Assistance Big Data sets and computational algorithms create Learning systems that can examine data in new ways that exceed human capabilities. These Artificial intelligences are not yet sentient or self-aware, but are learning skills humans cannot. Voice control and similar systems are perfected.
251836 111A Weekend / Until Moon Changes Phase16 DaysA Good Crowd (<700)A Stadium / Vehicle (Destroyer)
Magic — Polymorph The magician can change the shape and form of another being. This allows them to turn mice into footman and horses, pumpkins in carriages, and princes into frogs amongst other things. Often favoured in Fantasy Curses, the Polymorph can be a fine punishment for someone who mistreats animals.
Rules — Obstacle Play 2 Cards from your Pool or Hand as an Obstacle in the Ordeal Stage. Otherwise Obstacles can be created via Ordeal Cards or Yarn Cards.
Technology — Personalisation Personalization is the moment where technology is AI designed for you. Pharmaceuticals are created with your personal genetics borne in mind, clothes and even tools can be manufactured as though personally tailored for you by AI. This can reduce the negative side effects that may result from your personal circumstances, but also allows perfect tailoring of advertising and political messaging that can be directed at individuals as well as large social groups.
Wyrd Tarot — Ambush The Target is intercepted or Ambushed immediately.
Wyrd Tarot — Safe Passage The Target may move to another Location immediately ignoring the Stage Difficulty, etc
Wyrd Tarot — Distractions The Target takes 1d4 Unsoakable Distract Wounds
Wyrd Tarot — Shake-off The Target may remove all Distract Wounds instantly.
251938 121A Weekend / Until Moon Changes Phase15 DaysA Good Crowd (<800)A Building Complex / Vehicle (Cruiser)
Magic — Curse The magician creates a magical, spiritual or divine effect that has a powerful and potent negative effect. Usually associated with Curse attacks, the curse can act to restrict a character and their choices (occasionally making them an animal), add new hitches, or remove annexes or proficiencies.
Rules — 2 Success or Failure Levels This is the upper limit of combining 2 Success or Failure Levels. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
Rules — Hurdle Facet Hurdles are a narrative complication that complicates the current Scene. Scenes can have multiple Facet Hurdles.
Technology — Moving Holograms Manipulation of coherent laser light, and similar technologies allows the construction of free standing projected three dimensional images.
252040 131A Weekend / Until Moon Changes Phase14 DaysA Good Crowd (<900)Larger Bacterial cells (~10µm / 1.0 ×10-5metres)A Super Skyscraper / Vehicle (Battleship)
Activity — Interesting Interesting activities are those odd situations that turn up during a normal job that just ask a lot more of us. Like when your IT or phone system dies, but you still have things to do, or maybe you have to hand deliver the data-stick with the product on it to an address you’ve never visited. Interesting Activities are usually handled as Ordeals
Magic — Real Hard Magic If filming the magic would require low-budget special effects (such as wires / flying harnesses / hidden mirrors / Double Exposure photography / model shots / static illusions) and it is not something that could be easily achieved with a Stage Illusion, then it is considered Real Hard magic. This is where most fantasy magic lies, throwing fireballs, crackling lightening hands, polymorphing rays, flying cross-country on a broomstick, you know that kind of stuff.
Rules — Play 4 Ordeal Cards Play 4 cards from your Ordeal Pool when you wouldn’t normally be able to.
Rules — Trauma A Trauma is a combination of a Wound and a Psych Effect, usually created by Shock and Stress. Traumas can have powerful long term effects upon Characters.
Technology — Claytronics Programmable Matter, a shape-shifting, physical Technology that allows matter to be shaped for specific tasks. You might have a knife/sword that you can turn into a hammer for example. Initially the technology is limited to none-moving parts/components and is primitive and error prone.
Wyrd Tarot — Disaster The Target immediately takes 4 Failure Levels and their current Score becomes -1.
Wyrd Tarot — Miracle The Target immediately gains 4 Success Levels and their current dice roll is maximised.
Wyrd Tarot — Wound The Target must draw and take 1 Unsoakable Wound.
Wyrd Tarot — Relieve Wound Remove the largest Wound from the Target.
2.562142 142Upto 7 Days13 DaysSeveral Hundreds (<1000)A Street / Field / Copse / Vehicle (Large Freighter)
Changes — Transformation Major Shape-shifting of self (recasting as different ethnicity), geographical changes to your Locations, minor social changes, alter meanings of sentences (transformative grammar), retcon personal history or unimportant social events – Major Mandela Effect
Characters — Yarn-Tellers As Heroes are beyond Grunts so Yarn-Tellers are beyond Heroes. Heroes have stories told about them, Yarn-Tellers narrate their own tales, weaving new narratives into the universe as they go, often through Yarn-powered magic. Yarn-Tellers are able to spawn Plots and create entire worlds by altering reality with their Yarn-enhanced abilities.
Characters — Gestalt Mercari Mercari that have accumulated multiple Alternate personalities, and have coalesced at least two personalities into a gestalt, are able to manipulate reality in ways that go beyond even the simple Wyrd Tarot abilities of the Mercari. Gestalt Mercari can manipulate narratives directly as a Yarn-Teller, as well as stepping between their own native realities often at will.
Characters — Solo A special type of Gestalt Mercari where all their Alternates are completely integrated. Solos are always themselves in any universe that you may encounter them. Some Solos get there by killing Alternates that will not join the Gestalt. Their power-level is broadly similar to Gestalt Mercari, although they are usually more focused and specialised, granting them advantages in their field, but disadvantages beyond it.
Characters — Brass When Paradox Warriors get older and more experienced they are usually promoted (or dead). Either way, this gives them access to Executive Nullite Commands (or Eusaivean Narrative Technologies or Yarn-Telling). The dead ones are usually designated as Cyberwraiths, but are considered similar in Rank, and have additional abilities due to their computational nature.
Characters — Bulmäs Vermis Vermis is the Bulmäs lord of the dead, and is a Solo. Every Vermis Bulmäs is an aspect of Lord Vermis himself, although recently they have begun to differentiate themselves from each other, somewhat. This seems to have occurred as a Personality Schism in the original personality of Vermis following his involvement in the Paradox War. Vermis Bulmäs notably having unique abilities, like their Wyrm or Dragon form, that breathes fire, flies and likes treasure, that they use for harvesting all the Bulmäs Souls from a world.
Characters — Inactive Alternate Trying to affect the Personality of any Character’s Alternates in another universe is a pretty tricky thing to manage.
Characters — Monster (II) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class II) have access to 2 Monster Facets.
Descendants — Artefact A Descendant granted Yarn by a Yarn-Teller (or another Weaver such as a Plot) is called an Artefact and has a lot of Edges and perhaps, a few powerful Glows.
Descendants-Location — Province Locations that have been imbued with Yarn directly are like Real Estate, turned up to 11. They have multiple Edges and a few powerful Glows.
Descendants-Pacts Membership — Executive Membership Executive Pact Membership represents powerful people in huge, or influential, pacts (Societies and Nations usually). This grants them a Power Annex. Those who have the Power Pact Membership would be influential within the corporation or town. They will have access to Skills, Talents and a Power from the Pact. The number of Powers, Talents, Skills and Proficiencies available equals the Tier of Executive Membership Purchased.
Effect — Blatant A blatant effect is something no one could reasonably ignore happening. Explosions so loud that you feel them in your body and rupture eardrums, lights so bright that they leave scars on your retina for hours, smells that are so strong you can taste them, or multimedia extravaganzas like fireworks displays.
Events — Yarn Event Yarn Cards and the Spreads used by Yarn-Tellers can create complex narrative Events that are important to Characters and Descendants, more powerful than most Chronoliths, but fall beneath the level of Crux Events. Yarn Events are typically narratively important to specific Characters and Sides of a Conflict, representing a narratively important turn of events. Heroes and Grunts may refer to Yarn Events as “Historically/Personally Important Events”, “Coincidental Incidents”, “Heroic Moments” or “Programmed Events” depending upon the setting and so on.
Magic — Ceremony A complex, often religious, ritual designed to have a powerful effect, ceremonies can bind souls for eternity (or life) to each other, dedicate a being’s life to a particular god, or determine the future of a country, or at least the ruler. Ceremonies are not normally destructive, but more often are constructive, transformative, or protective in nature.
Magic — Possession (Full) The Possessor can literally inhabit the Possessee. The Possessor has full control over all non-autonomous bodily functions, and has access to the Possessee’s memories and thoughts (where appropriate). The Possessor may spend all Sway as though they are the Possessee. Often the Possessed victim will remember this possession as though it was a dream, unsure why their body and even mind was doing what it was doing. Guilt can cause the possessed victim to try and keep secret the possession and their actions, as they may even believe and rationalise that they chose to do these things.
Modifier — Hostile Environment Maybe its noxious gases, dangerous heat or cold, or acidic fog. Sometimes the environment itself is out to stop the Character from doing what they want.
Rules — Yarn Card Affect, Discard, Redraw, Change, Ignore or Alter a single Yarn card.
Rules — Fray Frays are amongst the simplest and easiest to create “Scenes” simply because they can be created with a single Yarn Card.
Rules — Draw 6 Ordeal Cards Draw 6 Ordeal cards to your Ordeal Pool.
Rules — 5 Success or Failure Levels This is the lower limit of combining 5 Success or Failure Levels. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
Technology — Artificial Sentience Computational power and advanced A.I. techniques allow creation of a learning sentient machine (may occur accidentally with sufficiently powerful or unusual computational systems). Sentience is usually limited to human levels of intelligence at first.
Wound — Carnage – High Stakes Carnage Wounds usually create Flaw Hitches for the Target
2.562244 153Upto 7 Days12 DaysSeveral Hundreds (<1200)An Aircraft Hanger / Vehicle (Large Freighter)
Magic — ESP Extra Sensory Perception allows the magician or psychic to sense things that they don’t actually have the senses for. This can express in a number of ways, bat-like sonar, tingly danger-senses, sudden flashes of visions or unknown knowledge.
Rules — Mantra: Emotional Theme A Tapestry may have any number of Emotional Themes, although it is usual to focus on only a few during any particular Tale or Game. Emotional themes indicate emotions that are intrinsic to the Tapestry, such as “Horror”, “Terror” or “Fear” are part of a Tapestry in a Horror setting. Emotional themes are explored by Characters and Plots that are embedded in the Tapestry, or can be expressed as a “Mood” where the audience is the where the intended target of the emotions.
Rules — Mantra: Conceptual Theme A Tapestry may have any number of Conceptual Themes, although it is usual to focus on only a few during any particular Tale or Game. Conceptual themes are often questions about aspects of the human condition, although they can also be phrased as “What if…?” often too. A good conceptual theme can usually be expressed as “What is the importance of …?”. Examples often include Friendship, Ethics,
Technology — Bio-nano-technology Programmable Matter that can even infiltrate, interface with, and improve biological systems, creating things like Neural Computer Interfaces, Ballistic Dermal Armour, and laser eyeballs. Initially the technology is very error prone, but eventually the Eusaiveans create stable Nanites that can interface with biological systems. The technology is perfected by the Nihonese before they gain access to Eusaivean Femite Technology, allowing nano-cloning and programmable mutagenics.
Wyrd Tarot — Hitch The Target may ignore their Hitches or gain double Chi by activating a Hitch whilst affected by this Wyrd Tarot.
Wyrd Tarot — Double Bluff Closes or opens a slot where Wyrd Tarot cards can be played for the Target.
Wyrd Tarot — Charm The Target may add +2 Success or Failure Levels to all social activities whilst atop pile, may also create or close a Style Reserve called “Charm” that can be used for social activities.
Wyrd Tarot — Gun The Target may ignore Range Difficulties and add +1 Success Levels to all actions at Range or add +2 Failure Levels and +36 Range Difficulty to all actions.
2.562346 165Upto 7 Days11 DaysSeveral Hundreds (<1400)A Large Factory / Vehicle (Super Freighter)
Magic — Accumulate The magician can draw and store magical, probability, or elemental energy from the environment, this allows them to accumulate magical power in a Location or object for later use, or in a character for use later perhaps. Accumulating magical power in this way can be dangerous if the subject is not prepared for the magical energies that will begin coursing through themselves and their environments.
Rules — Mantra: Motif A Tapestry may have any number of Motifs, from musical Leitmotifs to recurring Characters or Descendants. Each Motif can only occur once per Narrative and cannot occur in two consecutive narratives.
Rules — Mantra: Motto A Tapestry may have any number of Mottos. Mottos reflect some aspect of the Tapestry that informs specific Plots and Locations. Mottos can be as vague or as specific as the Yarn-Teller wishes, from “In the Key of Death” and “Keep the guessing” to “Child Characters are functionally immortal until their 18th birthday”
Technology — Seed Technology Nanotechnology becomes capable of building almost everything by planting a seed. Seeds use nanotechnology to gather resources from the nearby environment to construct an AI that then creates a house, or a vehicle, or a generator, or a tinned meat tree, as the creator and programmer desires. Military applications lead to seed robotics that become capable of exploring space beyond the solar system.
2.562448 177Upto 7 Days10 DaysSeveral Hundreds (<1600)A Park or Common / Vehicle (Supertanker)
Magic — Evoke The magician can call forth elemental energy in a raw, or somewhat stable, form. This can allow a magician to coat their hands in fire, throw lightning, cast winds and raise waters depending upon the exact elemental energy and their proficiency.
Rules — Mantra: Synopsis A Tapestry may have only one Synopsis. The Synopsis is a brief, concise and often abstract summary of the Tapestry’s purpose. Think of it as an elevator pitch for the whole setting, although the Synopsis leaves out the Mottos, Themes and Motifs, as they are specified elsewhere. Example Synopsis could include “Once upon a time…”, “In a Galaxy…”, “The Dream City of Dylath-Leen”, “The Court of Brenin Llwyd”, “Undersea adventures” or “Within the old star port sprawl”.
Wound — Crippling – Medium Stakes Crippling Wounds remove an Annex Slot until healed.
Wound — Maim – Low Stakes Maim Wounds are damage that remove a Proficiency Slot until healed.
Wyrd Tarot — Smith The Target add +2 Success or Failure Levels to all creative activities, technology, creation etc.
Wyrd Tarot — Double Score Double or Half the Score generated by one Die as long as this Wyrd Tarot is played upon them.
Wyrd Tarot — Plan +2 Success Levels while working alone, or +1 Success Level to all Characters working toward the “Plan” and creates a “Plan” Style Reserve.
Wyrd Tarot — Spot Hidden The Target add +2 Success Levels to all Perception or Hiding Activities.
2.562550 190Upto 7 Days9 DaysSeveral Hundreds (<1800)Smaller Bacterial Cells / Visible Light Wavelengths (~1µm / 1.0 ×10-6metres )A Factory Complex / Vehicle (Aircraft Carrier)
Magic — Manipulate Probability The magician can manipulate probability itself. This can make likely things almost impossible, and with careful use, something unlikely to happen, but possible (such as snow on a summer’s day, randomly shuffled cards thrown in the air landing in perfect order, or for all the photons in a light bulb to suddenly decide to travel in the same direction creating a coherent laser beam, or for Brownian motion to cause a drink of tea to levitate six inches above the cup), can be made to happen again and again.
Rules — Play 5 Ordeal Cards Playing 5 cards simultaneously from your Ordeal Pool when you wouldn’t normally be able to.
2.572652 203Until next full/ new/ gibbous/ crescent moon/ <28 Days8 DaysCouple of Thousand (<2000)Virus / Ultra Violet Wavelengths (~100nm / 1.0 ×10-7metres)A City Block / Village / Small Wood / Large Park / Vehicle (Heavy Launch Vehicle
Changes — Polymorph Major Shape-shifting (recasting as a different species), geographical changes, retcon important historical, political, economic or social events – Major Mandela Effects
Characters — Archfiend When Yarn-Tellers have a Woe Hitch they become incredibly powerful beings known as Archfiends. Archfiends who are allied with the Increated in anyway are known as “Demon-Lords” and are often only a step in power below the true Increated Dæmon-Princes, with many of them serving as Generals, Royalty and Bureaucrats in the hierarchy of Shades. These beings can deal in Yarn and Twists as they see fit.
Characters — Ogre It is said that Ogres gain their power by eating people, specifically eating souls in a dark parody of the Bulmäs. It is certainly true that Hobgoblins that eat enough, gain enough strength and power to become able to manipulate Yarn as well as Twists. Ogres come in variety of sizes and specific forms (including Bogeymen, Crones, Grendels, Hags, Orcs, Vampires, Wendigo, Werewolves, and Zombies), but are always hungry, usually carnivorous, and often cannibalistic.
Characters — Myrddin / Archmage When a Cambion rises in power to where they can manipulate Yarn as well as Chi and Twists they are described as Archmages, and are often given the name, Ambrosius, Emrys, Myrddin, or Merlin. Such beings rarely occur in Shades, as they rarely are granted the chances to improve themselves and learn, and because holding a Archmage is practically impossible. Archmage is however often the goal and destiny of secretive Cambions in the mortal world. In some circles and settings the alternative name for an Archmage is an Antichrist.
Characters — Fæ Noble The most powerful members of Færy society are called the Fæ Nobles. Nobles are always Yarn-Tellers, Doom-weavers, and magicians of some sort, and always have a Wyrd Monster Facet. Fæ Nobles may store +2 Cards in their Wyrd Tarot Hand automatically.
Characters — Bulmäs Labyrinthine The most powerful members of Bulmäs society are the so-called Lost Souls. They live in the knotted Lea that most Bulmäs ignore and avoid, which also coincidently is knotted by human paths. The Labyrinth is the Lea of Urban environments, and cross-connects them in both time and space, bound in the centre of the urban labyrinth is the city of Cæster a transdimensional metropolis. Labyrinthine Bulmäs have an ability to both find lost things, and lose anything (including themselves), which can allow them to counter and match the power of Twists, allowing them to fight and beat Increated.
Characters — Eelané Amongst the Eelafin there are those who are called the Eelané which means “Travel-sure”. Some Eelané are the result of strong noble bloodlines, or years of magical or spiritual training, others are the result of curses, or Demonic influences, such as the Parratonerre. Eelané are able to create Twists from Faery Yarn for additional effects. Parratonerres are a special class of Eelané created by powerful curses for each of the Houses (and many of the extended families) of Eelafin. Parratonerres are gifted with additional abilities, such as additional magical, fairy or Doom-weaving abilities, in exchange for which they are made the lightning-rod for all the bad luck of the family.
Characters — Monster (III) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class III) have access to 3 Monster Facets.
Descendants-Pacts — Trust Pact Trust Pacts have additional Sway stored in them, representing the Trust between all members as they each sacrifice something to the Pact beyond mere membership. This sacrifice (whatever it is and they vary immensely between Trust Pacts) will grant these Trusted members an Edge. Note that a Trust Pact may have both Trusted Members and Untrusted Members (who do not gain Edges).
Descendants-Pacts Membership — Courtier Membership Courtier Membership represents the very highest tiers of the very largest Pacts. The members of a Nation Pact with this Membership are members of the king’s court and council, secretaries of state, Lords, or Parliament members. Members at this level get access to the Pact Super-Annex as a Super-skill (note this is not necessarily the original form of the Super-Annex) as well as a selection of the Sub-Powers, Sub-Talents and Sub-Skills. The number of Annexes and Proficiencies available equals the Tier of Courtier Membership Purchased.
Effect — Unforgettable Something truly special and unique for those that experience it, usually such events are life changing, in that they colour every decision the Character makes from then on. Like having a car stolen because you left it unlocked. That level of unforgettable.
Events — Crux Cruxes are events, moments, where a single choice can change the direction of history, they are essentially Chronoliths made with Yarn (often as Prophetic events or by Character Deaths). Yarn-Tellers can utilise and manipulate Cruxes in interesting ways, including using them to create new time-lines and alternative worlds. However, Cruxes can only represent a single choice, with only a few (often only two) potential results. Cruxes may have Edges and Glows that they grant to specific Characters during their Event. Heroes and Grunts may refer to, and understand Cruxes as “Tipping-points in History”, “Prophesied Moments” or “Chronologically Strategic Events” depending upon setting and so on.
Magic — Possession (Autonomous) The Possessor has complete possession of the Possessee, and can exert control over normally autonomous bodily functions (such as heart beat, immune system, kidney and liver function) and can also add a Skill Annex and Hitch (the Root, Channel and Hitch are all one Facet) to represent the extreme control they have over the body (such as a “Balance” skill or “Exceptional senses”) .
Magic — Dimensionally Transcendental The magician can use Magic to warp space-time, allowing them to put big things into small boxes, like umbrella stands in carpet bags, or time-machines in police boxes. This can also work the other way, causing a castle on the outside to be a hut on the inside.
Modifier — Lost Being Lost can be a significant problem, and if you think getting lost on the way to a party is bad, imagine ending up in Cæster when trying to find the bathroom in your hotel room.
Rules — Draw 7 Ordeal Cards Draw 7 Ordeal cards to your Ordeal Pool.
Technology — Cyberwraith Nanotechnology combined with Artificial Sentience allows the storage of living minds in digital form. Perfected by the Eusaiveans who call them Cyberwraiths. Cyberwraiths are able to transfer themselves through advanced computer systems between “bodies” that can be as different as a drone and a battleship. Eventually all Eusaiveans become Cyberwraiths upon their death, but initially it is only a very select few.
Wound — Carnage+ – High Stakes Carnage+ Wounds usually create Woe Hitches for the Target
Wyrd Tarot — Escape The Target add +2 Success or Failure Levels to all motion Activities while affected.
Wyrd Tarot — Heal Wounds The Target add +2 Success or Failure Levels to all healing attempts and activities.
Wyrd Tarot — Mage The Target add +2 Success or Failure Levels to all magic and creates or closes a “Magic” Reserve.
2.572754 216Until next full/ new/ gibbous/ crescent moon/ <28 Days7 DaysCouple of Thousand (<2250)A couple of City Blocks / Large Village / Small Wood / Airport
Magic — Legendary Magic The magician can cast legendary magic, of the types famed by mythological wizards and trickster gods. Basically if the movie would need a good budget for these special effects (In camera special effects, good model shots, believable illusions, cheap CGI) then it is legendary.
Remove Wound — Crippling Completely remove / heal a Crippling Wound from a Character or Descendant.
Rules — Serious Obstacle Play 3 Cards from your Pool or Hand as a serious Obstacle in the Ordeal Stage. Otherwise Obstacles can be created via Ordeal Cards or Yarn Cards.
2.572856 230Until next full/ new/ gibbous/ crescent moon/ <28 Days6 DaysCouple of Thousand (<2500)A few City Blocks / Small Town / Small Wood / Dockyards
Descendants-Pacts — League Pact League Pacts have additional Chi stored in them, usually by Hero level Characters. League Members are granted additional Edges by the Pact. Note a League Pact may have League, Trust and common (untrusted) members.
Descendants-Pacts Membership — Sovereign Membership Sovereign is the highest membership of a Pact possible, they are the leader of the whole Pact, whether it is a Club, Guild, League or Covenant. Sovereign is similar to Courtier Membership, but they gain access to the Super-Power or Super-Talent of the Nation rather than just a Super-Skill version. The number of Annexes and Proficiencies available equals the Tier of Sovereign Membership Purchased.
Magic — Manipulate Time The magician has some control over time, making them able to stop things happening, make them happen backwards, or happen slower or faster than normal, or happen over and over again. This sort of temporal manipulation can create paradoxes and while easier and safer with magic it is essentially the same as time-travel technologies (in fact it may be simply the manipulation of Tachyon Nullites via the magic interface they have built in).
Rules — Plight A limited 3 Card Spread that creates a History – Situation – Solution Plight that complicates the current Narrative.
Wyrd Tarot — Success The Target add +2 Success or Failure Levels to all actions
Wyrd Tarot — Ignore Wounds The Target may ignore all Wound effects or Wound effects are doubled while affected.
Wyrd Tarot — Trap The Target add +2 Success or Failure Levels to all activities to do with traps, and Ordeal cards may be played as “Obstacles” into the Stage, or taken into a “Trap” Style Reserve.
Wyrd Tarot — Death Adds +21 Pips to all attacks or defences by the Target, raises the Limit of any card to Mortal Wounds or lowers them to Crippling, and may raise or lower the Stakes by one, and affects what Hitches may be created by Wounds.
2.572958 244Until next full/ new/ gibbous/ crescent moon/ <28 Days5 DaysCouple of Thousand (<2750)Several City Blocks / Smallish Town / Woods / Space Station
Magic — Quantum Wizardry The magician is able to invoke the magic of the quantum realm. Spooky action at a distance, instantaneous communications or travel (teleportation), phasing matter through other matter, and inter-dimensional shenanigans are possible by manipulating the Quantum Realm with enough confidence and expertise. At this level magic can seem to bend, if not break, laws of physics.
Rules — Quest A Quest is a specific 6 Card Hexagram Quest Spread.
2.573060 259Until next full/ new/ gibbous/ crescent moon/ <28 Days4 DaysCouple of Thousand (<3000)Several City Blocks / Town / Small Valley / Vehicle (Colony Ship)
Events — Causal Nexus A Causal Nexus is a more powerful Crux Event that occurs when multiple Yarn-Tellers create overlapping Cruxes. Causal Nexuses can have many potential outcomes not a limited number of choices. Yarn-Tellers working together can create much more diverse time-lines. Causal Nexuses always have Edges and Glows that they lend to the Yarn-Tellers that create them. Heroes and Grunts may refer to, and understand Causal Nexuses as “Hardened History” or “Static Chronological Events” depending upon setting and so on.
Magic — Transmutation The magician can change the actual nature of something. Turn water into wine, lead into gold, or paper into steel. Incarna can be altered as can Hitches and Annexes by the transmutation magics, and all sorts of reshaping or bending of physical forms are possible.
Rules — 5 Success or Failure Levels This is the average of combining 5 Success or Failure Levels. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
2.573162 274Until next full/ new/ gibbous/ crescent moon/ <28 Days3 DaysCouple of Thousand (<3500)District or Precinct of City / Market Town / Small Hill
Characters — Monster (IV) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class IV) have access to 4 Monster Facets.
Modifier — Moderated Retcon Sometimes history gets changed in a significant, but relatively minor way. History books will be a little different now, but only by a paragraph or two. A battle may be won, but the war is still lost (but dragged on longer, etc). Sometimes agencies will interfere with history to create Moderated Retcons out of larger Retcons, in an attempt to keep history on track (as they see it). Other examples include, “I was sure they spelled their name with an E”, “Huh? Where did that restaurant we used to go to go?” and “I thought they were dead already?!”. These changes to history are large enough to be noticed by some people, but are still easily dismissed as misremembering.
Rules — Geas A specific 6 Card Yarn Spread, that creates a Geas or a Quest, Revelation and Lore from the same Cards.
383264 289A Season (13 Weeks)2 DaysA Few Thousand (<4000)Enzymes Extreme ultraviolet Wavelengths (~10nm / 1.0 ×10-8metres)A Large Town / Hill / Vehicle (Primitive Generation Ship)
Activity — Complex Complex Activities are those problem solving tasks that just don’t show up in normal day-to-day life. Maybe you have a hacker in your system, and have to hunt them down, perhaps you have a bomb to dispose of, or an invisible intruder is in the building and needs dealing with, or maybe you are trying to create a new magic spell. Complex Tests are usually handled as two or more interlocking Ordeals.
Changes — Mutate Alter a species details or anatomy, redraw maps, rewrite history, alter Facet Sway Potency Levels for a new Era.
Characters — Battle Toon Crafted from force-fields and holographic technology originally, Battle Toons are adaptable chaotic battle engines that can mess up the carefully laid plans of any general, and for the Eusaiveans often are the Generals. Battle Toons are usually programmed with Nullite Executive commands, allowing them access to Twists as well as Yarn. Eusaivean Battle Toons are almost indestructible beings made from data, photons, electrons, tachyons, and virtual matter. Battle Toons are capable of generating forms that have Size Annexes.
Characters — Giant Giants are the largest of the Færy races, and are usually associated with natural elements, such as the invisible wind giants that can be observed running through forests bending the trees, the rumbles of earth giants passing beneath during tremors, or storm giants crossing the heavens. Many Færy nobles will grow in size, with both age and elemental power accumulated, until they have grown so far that they need a Size Annex to represent this.
Descendants-Pacts — Covenant Pact Covenant Pacts have additional Yarn stored in them by powerful Characters like Yarn-Tellers. Covenants are often supernatural Pacts, and grant the members all manner of Edges and Glows. It is possible that a Covenant may have League, Trust or Common (untrusted) members as well, but this is less likely.
Effect — Unforgivable Something unforgivable, is worse than just unforgettable. Imagine meeting your hero, and then they pulled out guns and shot your whole family around you, that’s unforgivable.
Magic — Possession (Uncanny) The Possessor has autonomous Possession of the Possessee, and can also add 2 Skill Annexes and 2 Hitches (the Root, Channel and Hitch are all one Facet).
Modifier — Deadly Danger Sometimes the mere presence of danger in a situation can make it harder to do. Putting your life on the line can have a strong impact on people’s ability to cope. This is the reason that removing the safety net is such a thrill for the audience. Even the easy crossword can seem a lot more cryptic if your life depends upon it.
Technology — Force-fields Sonic and energy manipulation allows the construction of solid feeling force-fields. Advanced forms of the technology can even function in vacuum, creating solid planes of force from manipulations of the Higg’s field, or restructuring electrons and photons via tuned quantum resonance. Advanced engines utilizing these principles can create Bussard Ramjets, allowing deep space flight at most 12% of light-speed. At these speeds journeys to Proxima Centauri take around 40 years, with an 82 year round trip.
Wound — Mortal – Medium Stakes Mortal Wounds are the first Wounds that create Hitches for the Target. Mortal Wounds usually create Quirk Hitches
383366 30515 Weeks41 HoursA Few Thousand (<4500)A Large Hill / Bay / Vehicle (Void Runner (Splinter Class))
Rules — Yarn Spread Adjust, redraw, alter or rearrange the cards of any single, unprotected Yarn Spread. Yarn-Spreads are usually protected by the Descendant, Character or Plot that played the cards, which potentially matches the Difficulty to alter the Yarn-Spread to the Difficulty to affect the protector.
383468 32116 Weeks35 HoursA Few Thousand (<5000)A County Town / Foothills / Vehicle (Void Runner (Daisy Class))
Rules — Hazard (Maximal) This is the largest a Hazard should ever be (for normal Characters depending upon genre and setting), able to create entire Yarn Spreads to create new dangers for the Character, or turn a whole town against them.
383570 33818 Weeks30 HoursA Few Thousand (<5500)A Small City / River Gorge / Vehicle (Void Runner (Tulip Class))
Characters — Monster (V) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class V) have 5 Monster Facets.
Magic — Epic Magic The magician can create Epic magics of the types normally reserved for High Fantasy Wizards. This sort of magic requires CGI and a huge budget to film, such as portals to other realms, reality warping, observed shape-shifting, turning invisible while being observed. In general, you can usually get these effects without this level of investment, but the magician will have to be more careful about how the magic is observed, where as if they commit to Epic magic they can just lob spells about with impunity.
383672 35520 Weeks28 HoursA Few Thousand (<6000)A Small City/ Lake / Vehicle (Void Runner (Hyacinth Class))
Wound — Crippling – Low Stakes Crippling Wounds remove an Annex Slot until healed.
383774 37322 Weeks26 HoursA Few Thousand (<6500)A Small Biome such as Marsh or Moor/ Vehicle (Void Runner (Rose Class))
Rules — New Tapestry Create a new Tapestry for a Game or Narrative. A Yarn-Teller Character can create a new Tapestry, or Setting for the Narration they are giving. New Tapestries are often created as a result of travelling beyond the edge of the current Tapestry, often such travel beyond the Tapestry is a portal fantasy.
393876 39124 Weeks24 HoursSeveral Thousand (<7000)Carbon Nanotubes / Soft X-Ray Wavelengths(~1nm / 1.0 ×10-9metres)Small Biome such as Meadowland or Woodland / Vehicle (Void Runner (Chrysanthemum Class))
Characters — Ettin The largest Ogres become giant-sized creatures, always hungry for meat, and call themselves Ettins (or Trolls, Fomorians, Cewri, Gogmagog, Jabbirun, Nephilim, or Titans). Ettins can also occur when Fæ Giants gain a Woe Hitch, although these usually Unseelie Giants are more properly named Jotunn, and feature heavily in the myths of the Norse. Jotunn or Ettin are both essentially Ogres with a Size Annex, able to manipulate Yarn and Twists with ease.
Characters — Immortal Unageing, even undying, beings that look human, but are far from it. Some humans may become Immortals, but most are born that way. Immortals come in several types. Some do not age, others cannot die by any means (although they can suffer greatly). Immortals are usually immune to Mortal and Carnage Wounds of the “Dying” and “Dead” types.
Magic — Possession (Eerie) The Possessor has autonomous Possession of the Possessee, and can also add 3 Hitches, 2 Skill Annexes and a Talent Annex (the Root, Channel, Umbrals, Nimbeds, and Hitch are all one Facet).
Modifier — Narrative Issues / Plot Armour Sometimes a Story is actually out to get you. Maybe the story is meant to be about a Character’s tragic fall from grace, yet they keep succeeding… This is where Narrative issues step in. Narrative issues can also act as Plot Armour if needed, keeping a plot significant Character alive through events they could not otherwise survive. Be wary of this one, it can break games if used injudiciously.
393978 4096 Months22 HoursSeveral Thousand (<7500)Small Biome such as River Valley or Bay / Vehicle (Jump Freighter)
Characters — Monster (VI) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class VI) have 6 Monster Facets.
394080 4287 Months20 HoursSeveral Thousand (<8000)Medium Sized Urban Sprawl or Biome (such as Conifer Forest) / Vehicle (Warp Hauler)
Magic — Portal The magician can use Magic to connect distant locations, this isn’t creating stable wormholes, hyperspace tunnels or inter-dimensional portals, they require technology and are harder to achieve. Magical portals are in some ways safer to travel through, although they can be harder to target and keep targeted than some technological solutions.
Technology — Artificial Gravity This lets you have people walking around on spaceships. It also lets you have thruster-less hovering “anti-gravity” vehicles. Gravity warping drives pre-date more advanced space warping drives, but can generate speeds theoretically up to 99% light-speed. In practice however the technology rarely achieves higher than 76% light-speed. At these speeds trips to Proxima Centauri take about Five years, seven months, call it 6 years including acceleration and deceleration time.
394182 4488 Months19 HoursSeveral Thousand (<8500) Motorway/Interstate, A Rift Valley or Coastline / Vehicle (Talbot Class Starship)
394284 4679 Months18 HoursSeveral Thousand (<9000) Medium Sized City / Vehicle (Elizabeth Class Starliner)
Characters — Monster (VII) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class VII) have 7 Monster Facets.
Wound — Carnage – Medium Stakes Carnage Wounds usually create Flaw Hitches for the Target
394386 48810 Months17 HoursSeveral Thousand (<9500)Small Ecoregion (River Delta) / Vehicle (Hoxton Class Neptunian Battleship)
Remove Wound — Mortal Completely remove / heal a Mortal Wound. Applied Hitches may be converted or lost depending upon the Healing Method.
394488 50811 Months16 HoursSeveral Thousand (<10,000)Larger Atoms / Soft X-Ray Wavelengths(~1.0 ×10-10metres)Mountain and Foothills / Small Metropolis / Vehicle (U-Space Freighter)
Range — Far Far Range is far enough away that if you start now you might get there in a few minutes. To shoot Far Range shots you probably need a good rifle, telescopic scope, and to shoot prone and the wind and even spin of the planet may effect a longer shot. This is usually anything more than five times Long range. Basically at human scales anything over half a kilometre is what we’re talking about.
3.5104590 530Year and a Day15 HoursA Big Crowd (<15,000)Smaller Atoms / Hard X-Ray Wavelengths (~1.0 ×10-11metres)Open Moor, Large City, Forest / Vehicle (Space Elevator)
Changes — Warp Locally alter dimensions, change direction of gravity, distort Cartesian space.
Characters — Monster (VIII) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class IIX or VIII) have 8 Monster Facets.
Events — Cascade Cascade events are created by the thousands of social and physical interactions of history. They may begin with a Crux, or Casual Nexus, but events flow from that moment and grow in power as things unfold. Even experienced, powerful Yarn-Tellers can struggle to even influence a Cascade meaningfully once it is under way, and many will either be swept along, or create a new Causal Nexus or Crux to escape to a new time-line. Grunts and Heroes may refer to Cascades as “The Tide of History” or “Immutable Chronological Events
Magic — Miraculous Magic These magics are powerful effects usually performed by the invoked power of a deity, and are best thought of as a special effects extravaganzas such as you might get at the climax of a blockbuster movies. They include effects like Summoning a forgotten God, and then banishing it back by crossing the streams. Miraculous magic can raise the dead, sink an island nation, or transfer a city through time.
Magic — Possession (Preternatural) The Possessor has autonomous Possession of the Possessee, and can also add 4 Hitches, 2 Skill Annexes and 2 Talent Annexes (the Root, Channel, Umbrals, Nimbeds, and Hitch are all one Facet).
Rules — 5 Success or Failure Levels This is the upper limit of combining 5 Success or Failure Levels. Success Levels positively affect the Action, or Character performing it, or negatively affect the Opposition. Failure Levels negatively affect the Action or Character, or positively affect the Opposition.
3.5104692 55116 Months13 HoursThrongs of people (<20,000)
3.5104794 57320 Months12 HoursA Big Crowd (<25,000)
3.5104896 59624 Months11 HoursA Big Crowd (<30,000)
Characters — Monster (IX) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class IX) have 9 Monster Facets.
Wound — Mortal – Low Stakes Mortal Wounds are the first Wounds that create Hitches for the Target. Mortal Wounds usually create Quirk Hitches
3.5104998 61928 Months10 HoursTens of Thousands (<35,000)
3.51050100 64332 Months9 HoursTens of Thousands (<45,000)
3.51151102 667<3 Years8 HoursTens of Thousands (<50,000)Gamma Ray wavelengths (~1 picometres / 1.0 ×10-12metres)Tiny Geo-region (Swamp) / A Citystate / Vehicle (Guild Exploration Ship)
Characters — Eternal The most powerful Immortals with Yarn-Telling abilities are known as Eternals. The cost to affect or change an Eternal is always far greater than expected, making them effectively immune to Maiming, Crippling, Mortal and Carnage Wounds (requiring at least 51 Pips to summon any of these Wounds on an Eternal). However the minimum cost for an Eternal to change anything about themselves always adds +11 Chi to the cost. This means Eternals are also largely unaffected by a Crisis, with only every thirteenth Crisis allowing them to add a Proficiency as normal.
Characters — Monster (X) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class X) are exceptionally powerful monsters with 10 Monster Facets.
Rules — Genre-Bending Add a single Character Archetype, Descendant, Annex or Proficiency to the Setting from another Genre.
Technology — Space Warping Careful manipulation of energy fields lets this technology warp space beyond gravity compression. More advanced than Gravity Warping as the warp can stretch space behind the ship as well as compress it in front of the ship through manipulation of virtual and negative masses. This allows faster travel, initially at over 70% light speed but rising to faster than light travel eventually.
3.51152104 691
Wound — Carnage+ – Medium Stakes Carnage+ Wounds usually create Woe Hitches for the Target
3.51154108 742
Characters — Monster (XI) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class XI) are incredibly powerful monsters with 11 Monster Facets.
3.51158116 849
Characters — Monster (XII) Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least a single Monster Facet. Monsters are usually created by Plots as a more powerful form of character Embodiment, granting the character additional powers based on the Monster Facet. This type (class XII) are incredibly powerful monsters with 12 Monster Facets.
41259118 877<6 Years4 HoursA Huge Crowd (<150,000)(~1.0 ×10-13metres)Constituency / City / Rural Parish / Vehicle (Galactic Cruiser)
Characters — Kaiju Enormous Monsters that are built with a suitably large Size Annex that causes them to create massive amounts of collateral damage as they move around. Kaiju have a size that defies all laws of physics and usually the Kaiju will use enormous amounts of Twists and Yarn just existing (although for ease of play we never usually calculate exactly how impossible a Kaiju might be, although you are welcome to try), they will often have a little spare for breath weapons, Twisted attacks, and the like. Kaiju typically destroy famous world monuments, and may trash Tokyo, New York, or another metropolitan area during use, your results may vary.
Characters — Boss Monster Boss Monsters are characters of any type that have been given access to at least 13 Monster Facets by an exceptionally powerful Conflict and Plot. Boss Monsters are among the most powerful characters in the game, and are capable of so much due to the their numbers of Monster Facets, they are intended to be the culmination of at least a Volume of an Epic or Cycle, as they are so devastating.
Magic — Possession (Eldritch) The Possessor has autonomous Possession of the Possessee, and can also add 5 Hitches, 2 Skill Annexes and 2 Talent Annexes and one Power Annex (the Root, Channel, Umbrals, Nimbeds, and Hitch are all one Facet).
Modifier — Hellish Conditions Traditionally we’re talking fire and brimstone, but any truly awful place would make if much more difficult to do what you want.
Rules — Genre-Shifting Add multiple Archetypes, Descendants, Annexes, Proficiencies and Atmospherics from another Genre to the Setting, that have a profound effect upon the feeling of the setting.
41263126 993
Wound — Carnage – Low Stakes Carnage Wounds usually create Flaw Hitches for the Target
41264128 1024<9 Years3 HoursA Small City Population (<220,000)(~1.0 ×10-14metres) Constituency/ Larger City / Rural County / Vehicle (Intragalactic Liner)
Remove Wound — Carnage Completely remove / heal a Carnage Wound. Applied Hitches may be converted or lost depending upon the Healing Method.
41366132 1087<12 Years (Decade)2 HoursHundreds of Thousands (<300,000)Proton Size (~1 Femtometre / 1.0 ×10-15metres)Super-Metropolis / Conurbation / County / Vehicle (Orbital Station / Imperial Star Destroyer)
Activity — Investigation / Unravelling Investigations and Unravelling mysteries are usually Stories in their own rights (although sometimes they are just a sub-plot). Maybe there was a crime committed, or perhaps you just want to know what the neighbour is doing in his new shed. Investigations may get more Difficult as the criminal, a monster, a rival or the Plot may be working against the investigators. Unravelling a mystery can also face complications, often in the form of deepening mysteries and exposing conspiracies. In effect an Investigation or Unravelling is a series of Ordeals across a Story.
Characters — Paragon Any Character that reaches Scale 13 is known as a Paragon of its type. Paragons may always roll dice or draw cards twice and keep whichever they prefer (usually the highest). Cards should be dealt to them in pairs and they may choose between them, automatically discarding the alternate.
Modifier — Retcon History has been rewritten, it might not have changed the entire world, but it has had a significant impact. History books will have different Chapters and even different titles. These sorts of Retcons are usually limited to altering a single Era (most often the most recent). Examples might include, “Taured is not a country!”, “That’s not who won the war!”, “What do you mean? The logo was always like this.”. These sorts of changes are too large for “misremembering” and look more like a serious psychological issue, such as paranoid schizophrenia, or fugue states.
Technology — Alcubierre Warp Drive Spatial warping is perfected to allow Faster-Than-light travel via a “warp bubble” or Lorentzian Manifold. Void Runners and other Warp ships require enormously powerful generators (that can consume the energy output of multiple suns or consumption of huge amounts of matter such as the entire visible universe), powerful tachyonic shielding systems, or special warped space lanes swept free of debris. Even with these shields, etc, it would never be advisable to enter a solar system at FTL speeds as the collapse of the Warp bubble will create a destructive wave ahead of the ship, capable of vaporising the ship and any planet in the way, to say nothing of striking the planet in collision directly.
4.51474148 1358<30 Years (A Generation)60 MinsHalf A Million (<500,001)(~1.0 ×10-16metres)Small Geo-region (Forest / Rolling hills) / Vehicle (Orbital Platform / Mothership)
Characters — Dæmon-Prince The most powerful of the Increated, secondary only to the Patron Dæmons, these Increated characters are aligned with at least one and often two or more of the Patron Dæmons, serving them as in various roles. . While they are called Princes in fact various Ranks exist such as King, Prime-Minister, Arch-Duke, Grand-Prince, Duke, Prince, Marquis, Count, Earl, Viscount, Baron, Baronet, Minister, Patrician, General, Judge, Author, and even Knight all of which may all be feminized if appropriate. Ranks are usually assigned according to duties and sometimes do not reflect the power of the Increated at all. Prince ranks usually grant a “Prince of …” Lore Descendant that reflects the duties they have been tasked with, such as “Prince of Darkness”.
Modifier — Major Narrative Issues / Greater Plot Armour Turns out you were the chosen one, after all. When a Character is meant to be the focus of a story and do their best to completely ignore it then we can be looking at modifiers like this. Major Narrative issues could include an Embodiment Character getting wiped out in a car accident in the first act (where we would hope for Greater Plot Armour). Then again, maybe the Plot calls for the villain to die (or appear to die at least) in the Second Act of the Story, but he just keeps rolling so well, he’s going to win).
Rules — Genre-Mashing Merge two genres, including all archetypes, atmospherics, descendants, hazards, proficiencies etc into the same Setting. This is a non-syncretic mixing that does not create new elements.
Technology — U-Space Bubble / Jump drive Quantum Foam manipulation and Vortex control allows matter to exit a universe and exist in the space within the Multiverse, between realities. The reality bubble then rides a current to reach a destination that may be within the same universe or another nearby one. U-Space currents are reasonably stable over months and even years, but do vary with time, often moving across planets over decades, or even across systems over centuries (and are believed to be related to the Bulmäs’ Lea). Only a few stronger currents are active for millennia or more. This can lead to “window-areas” and “vortex-zones” where jump craft may be sighted as they navigate U-space, as they rely on stronger, known or mapped currents for trade routes. Without up-to-date maps, a Bulmäs Navigator, Nullite interfaces, or a bunch of careful probe missions, navigation can be very hit or miss, with only luck guiding your travels in time and between worlds, stars or universes.
4.51478156 1508<45 Years (Working Life)45 MinsMost of a Million (<750,001)
Changes — Reform Alter major social conventions, languages, nature of leadership, etc.
Wound — Carnage+ – Low Stakes Carnage+ Wounds usually create Woe Hitches for the Target
4.51583166 1707<60 Years (A Revolution)30 MinsA Million (<1,000,001)Quark radius (~1.0 ×10-17metres)Medium Geo/Eco region (Archipelago / Mountain Range) / Vehicle (Dyson Platlet)
Rules — Genre-Smashing Merge two genres, including all archetypes, atmospherics, descendants, hazards, proficiencies etc into the same Setting. This is a syncretic mixing, where elements from both genres should interact and create new elements not present in either Genre.
Technology — Hyperspace Technology Hyperspace Technology allows travel via the “higher-dimensions” that are normally closed to us (folded “flat” in our space-time). These closed or curved dimensions are radically different to the normal three spatial dimensions, and via careful targeting and manipulations of Calabi-Yau Manifolds, can allow travel through these higher dimensions that appear to side-step spatial travel at light-speed, allowing for FTL travel. However, such Hyperspace travel requires incredibly complex navigation calculations and usually a Hyperspace gate being constructed at both ends (creating a stable Hyper-lane through Hyperspace) although some ship classes are capable of generating a Hyperspace gateway themselves, at an incredible cost in power and computational resources. Depending upon the Hyperspace variant used, events in Hyperspace can be instantaneous, simultaneous or complex in nature, with normal laws of physics being completely suspended during the transition (resulting in death or inability to return in many scenarios). Hyperspace is not to be messed with, but it is slightly easier to target than wormhole technology.
4.51590180 2010A Century20 MinsCity population <2,000,000)(~1 attometre / 1.0 ×10-18metres)Large Geo/Eco region (Jungle) / Duchy / Large County / Small Country / Vehicle (Dyson Platlet)
Remove Wound — Carnage+ Completely remove / heal a Carnage+ Wound. Applied Hitches may be converted or lost depending upon the Healing Method.
51692184 2103<130 years (A Lifetime)15 MinsA Couple of Million (<3,000,000)(~1.0 ×10-19metres)Small Island Nation / Principality / Vehicle (Small Dyson Plate)
Technology — Portal / Teleportation Booth Technology Portal technology is a limited wormhole technology that allows two surfaces to be connected hyper-geometrically. Portal style wormholes have significant restrictions on the technology. Both portals must exist within the same relativistic reference frame (no time travelling), and an absolute maximum range of around 13 Nano-Parsecs (a little over 400,000 km or less than 2 light seconds) transfer between the portals is nearly instantaneous, but limited by light-speed. Portal technology is similar to teleportation in difficulty, implementation and results. Teleportation technology uses energy-matter beams to read and construct matter remotely (and rely on estimating particle position and velocity to reasonable accuracy to avoid Heisenberg Uncertainty). Crude Teleportation of matter is possible with this technology, although it requires a “booth” at either end for matter assembly. Teleportation can have a longer range and does not require target and destination to be in the same relativistic frame, but is restricted to light-speed propagation.
517101202 2548200 Years7 MinsA Few Millions (<5,000,000)(~1.0 ×10-20metres)Small Nation State / Duchy / Vehicle (Advance Colony Ship)
Activity — Invention / Discovery Discovering something no one has ever known before, or inventing something new is perhaps the ultimate Activity. Invention activities are usually Prototype Descendant Creation Ordeals, where they will have a specified difficulty that may even be higher than that suggested (or lower). Discoveries can often occur as the result of random chance, rather than guided investigation, and sometimes desperation can lead to false discoveries, that do have positive impacts, such as how before Germ Theory was proved medicine followed Miasma theory, believing that bad smells caused illnesses, this lead to greater cleanliness which decreased infections.
Events — Keep A Keep event is when an event has been fixed in history, by magic, prophecy, time-travellers, or similar. All Yarn-Tellers that enter a Keep event become Keepers of the event in order to gain access. Any attempt to alter the Keep event will immediately eject the Yarn-Teller into another time-line without the Keep event. Grunts and Heroes may understand and refer to Keep events as “Fortified History” or “Protected Chronologies” depending upon the setting etc.
Magic — Impossible Magic The magician attempts magic so impossible that it would be impossible to replicate even with the most expensive CGI, we’re talking revolving hyper-geometries, re-ordering the laws of physics to make light move slower than sound, connecting two planes of existence directly without a portal, or meta-magics that alter what magic is even capable of in the local reality.
Modifier — Major Retcon A huge change has been made to the history of the world. The level of this change is enough to divert history significantly, but not quite change everything about the world. Examples include “The Theocratic States of America”, “The Luna Penal Colonies”, “Last Pharaoh of Australia” and “Ultra-terrestrials sign peace accord”. Revealing that you remember these time-lines after the retcon will have the same effect on most mental healthcare practitioners as declaring you are Napoleon Bonaparte, Gaius Julius Caesar or Yeshua Ben Yusef of Nazareth.
Technology — Teleport beam An improvement on Teleportation booths that allows a single unit to both read and construct matter at a distance (usually restricted to about 1 light second range ~ 299,800 km), but such units can transfer data over larger distances by handing the data from unit to unit. This allows teleportation from a planet’s surface to a low orbit satellite, then transferral to radio data, which is passed to a Martian satellite (for example), which can then beam construct the material on the Martian surface. This technology is very prone to error and numerous safety systems are recommended before use (such as confirmation data has been received before destruction of the source material). Additionally beamed matter creation requires vast amounts of power, as well as all materials (such as heavy metals, carbon atoms, etc) to rebuild the target being present within the beam’s effective range. Energy or matter can be reclaimed somewhat from reusing or annihilating matter from previous targets.
518111222 3105500 Years (Social Epoch)3.5 MinsA Few Tens of Millions (<50,000,000)(~1 zeptometre / 1.0 ×10-34metres)Megacity / State / Kingdom / Colony / Vehicle (Colony Ship)
Rules — Break (Maximal) This is the maximum effect of a Dramatic Break on a normal Character, which can even remove Carnage+ Wounds from the Character. Although such a powerful Break would normally only be appropriate in the strongest Plots, for some Characters it may not .
5.519121242 3730A Millennia2 MinsTens of Millions (<100,000,001)(~1.0 ×10-22metres)Large Island Nation / Vehicle (TTF Cityships / The Magpie)
Characters — Lesser Divinities The Lesser Divinities are the greatest, most powerful of spirits. They are also known as Loa, Angels, Small Gods, Nephilim and Great Spirits, amongst other things. They are impressive individuals of great age, that are imprinted upon the operating system of the universe. They are tasked with guarding and guiding groups and important individuals according to the Wyrd’s memories of the future. Lesser Divinities are usually immune to Sway based effects (including Facet or Annex-based (Dice roll) Scores, Ordeal card Pips, Wounds, and Wyrd Tarot effects, except where Hitches, Annex Umbrals, Nimbeds, Monster Facets or I-Ching may interfere). They can be affected by Yarn and Twists, and many are affected by Chi-based effects (although not all). Lesser Divinities may have Monster Facets, and can occasionally even have all Monster Facets (allowing all their Actions to act at Divine Yarn level). Lesser Divinities are often a guardian, patron or protector of some place, person, lineage, occupation, proficiency or some other aspect of the society that worships them. These are usually created as a “Tutelary Spirit of …” Lore Descendant of any type, that can be won, lost, transferred, stolen, traded and gifted.
Magic — Eldritch Magic The magician attempts magic that cannot even be accurately described by any Yarn-Teller, they may unleash naked singularities, create big-bangs, create new fractal entropic systems, turn atoms inside out, etc.
5.520131262 4427An Era (~40,000 Years)60 SecsHundreds of Millions (<1,000,000,000)(~1.0 ×10-23metres)Large Nation / Vehicle (Large Dyson Plate)
Range — Horizon Horizon Range is hitting something that is out of sight over the horizon, or just visible at the horizon. Such shots are legendary with a rifle, but far easier with ballistic caluclators and artillery pieces. At human scale Horizon shots are usually around 4.8 km at sea level, although in mountains much longer ranges are possible.
Technology — U-Space Drive By careful balancing of real matter to exotic U-space matter, a vessel can be made to sink into U-space, without an inherent reality bubble. Manipulation of the U-Space fluid can allow travel with and against the currents of U-Space. Allowing for much finer control of U-Space vessels and much easier navigation to any desired destination (although not always, the currents of U-Space can be very strong especially around active supermassive black-holes).
621142284 5282An Age (~500,000 Years)30 SecsThousands of Millions / Billions (<5,000,000,000)(~1.0 ×10-24metres)Continent / Enormous Ecoregion (Arctic / Antarctic) / Small Moon / Vehicle (Rising Sun / Lord of Heaven)
Technology — Femite technology (Eusaivean Upgrades) Programmable Matter not smart enough for you? How about programmable particles. Electrons (and other leptons) that carry tech and information inside them. Femite technology is created by Magic, not strictly speaking Science, and is an aspect of the Prime Anomaly, that has a lower security clearance and is “discoverable” throughout the Omniverse. Allows matter to be programmed in the past via stable Nano-wormholes, amongst other things.
622153306 6234~1,000,000 Years15 SecsTens of Billions (<20,000,000,000)(~1.0 ×10-25metres)Small Planet, or Moon / Vehicle (Worm Freighter)
Technology — Baryonite technology (Meta-elemental Exotic Chemistry) Programmable Neutrons and Protons, the ultimate in Programmable matter. Create unbreakable, weird materials from Comic-books, all sorts of Exotic matter, and even extract information from Quark Soup and Quantum Foam. Allows matter to pass through stable nano wormholes, or stabilize larger wormholes, amongst other things.
623165330 7389~5,000,000 Years7 SecsA Hundred, Thousand, Million /Hundred Billion (<100,000,000,001)(~1.0 ×10-26metres)Large Planet / Vehicle (Terran Trade Federation Capitolship)
Changes — Remake Alter physical laws, properties, nature of existence etc.
Modifier — Unfathomably Complex Some things are so complex that you cannot hope to figure it out alone and quickly. It might take a team of people working together years to accomplish this. You might even need a team just to work out who you are going to need in the actual team.
6.524177354 8673A Geological Age (~37,000,000 Years2 Secs / 1 Ordeal PhaseA Billion / Trillion (<1,000,000,000,000)Neutrino Size (~ 1 yoctometre / 1.0 ×10-27metres)A Ringworld or Mini-system (Jovian Moons) / Vehicle (VIC Solar Eclipse)
Rules — Remake Tapestry Remake the Tapestry of a Game or Narrative. This might add or remove fundamental rules of the universe, such as turning magic (including Nullites and Twists) completely off.
6.525190380 10217A Galactic Revolution (~230,000,000 Years)1 Sec / 2 ActionsBillions / Trillions (<1,000,000,000,000,000)(~1.0 ×10-28metres)A Solar System (or Dyson Sphere) / Vehicle (VIC Total Eclipse)
Modifier — Extreme Narrative Issues Extreme Narrative issues can mean that a Character who was essential to the Plot has actually died, or someone that was meant to die has survived (murder mysteries can be attempted-murder mysteries, but honestly they are not as exciting). It may be possible, but difficult to move on with the Story, and generally it would be better if the Yarn-Teller or Hero rewound time and took another run at it, but sometimes you just cannot do that. This can lead to situations where with the Chosen one dead, her neighbour now has to save the world, or whatever.
726203406 11931A Billion Years1 ActionTrillions / Quintillions (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000+)(~1.0 ×10-29metres)Multi-stellar System, Parsecs of Space
Events — Sacrosanct A Sacrosanct event is an event created by a divine being, usually the birth or death of the same, although transferrals of godhead and crowning of high priests or pontiffs may also qualify. Sacrosanct Events are not generally understood by Heroes and Grunts except as being of “Religious Importance”.
727216432 13824A few Billion YearsHalf ActionEntire Population(~1.0 ×10-30metres)Interstellar Empire
Characters — Gods They might be divine beings, or the ultimate in Toon technology, no one is really sure if there’s a real difference any more. They are completely immune to all but the largest Twist and Yarn based effects. Sway in any form and Chi simply cannot effect them, unless they choose, and exert effort in letting it. Gods create Divine (or Færy) Yarn as Facet Score for all Facets (as though all their Facets were Monstrous). Gods usually patronise some aspect of the society that worships them. These are usually created as a Power or Super-Annex (depending upon their power level) “God of …” Lore Descendant, they can be lost, transferred, traded and gifted.
728230460 16074Several Billion YearsMicrosecondsEntire Populations / Species(~1.0 ×10-31metres)Galaxy
Magic — Godhead Magic The magician attempts magic that is usually reserved to God-like, divine, abilities. These are magics that can take anything, including nothing and create other things from it, examples might include creating a new living being, popping a new city into existence, or a new planet, or universe.
Modifier — Chronoclysm (Extreme Retcon) Someone broke history. Almost everything about the world has changed, most of history is now completely different. Examples include “Elizabeth Regina-Venefica”, “Christopher Columbus? Who’s that?”, and “The Dinosaurs never died.” Remembering the lost time-line may even cause people to want to murder you now, rather than just want to lock you up, as they unconsciously react to avoid even contemplating the Chronoclysm.
Plots — Scene The least powerful of the Narrative “Dæmons”. Scenes are the massed ranks of Privates of the Plot army. They examine a single aspect of a Conflict (often a meeting between two or more sides). A Scene may represent the moment when our Heroes first meet, a conversation with their allies, or the final showdown with the Villain. Scenes do what they are told by larger Plots, and while they may have a little lee-way in how they accomplish it, they cannot change that goal.
Rules — Genre New genres can be created wholesale, rather than just combining pre-existing genres. Genres are a collection of Atmospherics, Proficiencies, Annexes, Descendants and Character Archetypes.
Technology — Multiversal Connection Contact other universes directly, at any “distance” through U-space, and share information with them. Possibly even travel there.
7.529244488 18555Almost as old as the Universe.NanosecondsMost Individuals(~1.0 ×10-32metres)InterGalactic / Galactic Cluster
Modifier — Rules Lawyer Rules Lawyers like to remind Refs what the Rules are, bet you don’t remind them about this Difficulty Modifier.
Modifier — Temporal Paradox (Predestination) If a mysterious notebook appears with details to build a time-machine and you build it, do you then send the notebook to yourself? If you do, where did the notebook come from originally? Who designed the time machine? Well, understandably the universe is not keen this kind of loop, and tries to stop it from occurring.
Plots — Act Acts are the NCOs of Narrative Army they marshal Scenes into the Frame, Loom, Zenith structure. The Frame sets up the Story (or Chapter), The Loom is the meat of the Story (or Chapter) and Zenith represents the climax. Acts work for their Chapter and Story above them, and have more ability to respond to the Character actions than the Scenes they command, but not as much as the Chapter or Story.
Plots — Sub-Plot Sub-Plot Dæmons can create a new Conflict that Presses on the Pressed side of the current conflict in a new way. This is often only a single Facet Conflict for each Side and is typically just 2 Sides Pressed and Dominant (although that may a different Dominant to the main Conflict).
7.530259518 21486Current Age of the UniverseNevertime DurationAlmost All (at least 90%)String theory 1- dimensional String length (~1.0 ×10-33metres)Known Space / Visible Universe
Characters — Patron Dæmon The Increated rulers of Shades, notable amongst the Increated for all having single Syllable names, like “Blakk”, “Baal”, “Tokk”, “Ah!” etc. Each Patron has a Facet that they rule (or co-rule) over; Blakk is the Patron of Dominion having shortened the original name he was given “Ba’al’Akkad’narram-sin” as he climbed in power. The Ruler of the Facet may generate Facet Scores in Twists for that Facet allowing them to achieve god-like things. This Patronage is represented by a Patron Annex created as a Super-Annex “Patron Dæmon of …” Lore Descendant, that can be won, lost, transferred, stolen, traded and gifted.
Modifier — Temporal Paradox (Grandfather) If you thought Predestination time-loops were bad, what happens if the time-traveller goes back in time and shoots their own Grandparent, before their parent was born? Suddenly they have removed themselves from history, but then who came back in time and killed? Well, the universe hates that. Any attempt to interfere with your own existence (or that of the time machine) directly will invoke the Grandfather Paradox clauses in the universe’s warranty (you did keep up the payments on that, right?).
Plots — Chapter Chapter Dæmons examine a single Conflict to tell part of a Story, usually as part of a larger Arc. You can think of Chapters as the Acts of an Arc, or as the Scenes (Tracts) of a Volume. Chapters may not be complete, their individual Conflicts may be unresolved, just like Chapters in a book, or episodes of TV Shows. Chapters serve a larger Plot, but they have quite a lot of latitude in how they achieve that. A Chapter can add, remove and replace Embodiments to preserve the Arc’s overall Conflict, as long as it affects only the part they are examining.
Plots — Story Story Demons that examine a single Conflict to tell a single Story, with limited Characters and Locations. Stories can be little more than an Extended Ordeal, or be sprawling multi-faceted delights, but are always complete in themselves. Stories are occasionally part of a Volume, Epic or Cycle, but rarely part of an Arc. They are like Short Stories or episodes of some TV shows. Stories are considered autonomous, they may be directed by a larger Plot, but they really don’t have to listen.
7.531274548 24715Older Than TimeInstantaneousAll bar a few (99.9999%)(~1.0 ×10-34metres)Whole Universe
Plots — Arc Arc Demons organize Chapter Demons (or occasionally Stories) into Plot Arcs. Arcs examine two or more Conflicts usually at least two Chapters work together to create an Arc. Arcs can be Scenes (Tracts) of an Epic, or Acts of a Volume. Think of an Arc as a two part episode, or a movie, there’s more going on than just one Story. Arcs are semi-autonomous, they will always defer to a larger Plot, but don’t always have to, sometimes creating unconnected “What If?”, “It was all a dream…” and “Meanwhile…” Arcs that do not have to completely follow the original plan.
Technology — Nullites Programmable Light (and Tachyons), which may, or may not, be how magic and Gods work… They are a sufficiently advanced technology for almost any purpose.
832289578 28259EternityReversing timeAllPlanck Length (1.6 ×10-35metres)Local Multiverse
Events — Boundless Boundless events are unlimited in scope and are called immutable (although technically they are not, they may as well be). They may include mixtures of other event types and Retcons like Chronoclysms, for example. Usually these are creation events of entire multiverses, our own local Big Bang for example, this single Boundless event, set the rules of physics across our local multiverse, allowing quantum reality to work across them all.
Magic — Even Gods Would Dream The magician attempts to use magic for something that magic cannot be used for. Of course, what magic can or can’t achieve varies by setting, genre, and universe, and this difficulty would apply to all of those. In the Omniversal terms magic is performed by Nullites, so it can’t do anything that Nullites can’t do, and they can do pretty much everything, if you can provide enough power. We’re talking complete control over every aspect of the universe, on a whim.
Plots — Volume Volume Demons organize Arc Demons like they were Acts of a Story, and Story and Chapter Demons like they were Scenes (Tracts). Volumes can tell complex inter-weaved Stories that you just can’t fit into a movie. They are best though of as a Season of a TV show (or a Novel’s worth). Volumes should bring their main Stories to a satisfying conclusion, but Volumes may be an Act of an Epic, or just a Scene (Tract) within a Cycle.
Technology — Quantum Information Travel Extremely advanced Nullite technologies allow all information of matter and energy to be reprogrammed. Including updating the current location of the matter or energy to allow instantaneous translation through Space-time or between universes. This level of technology now advances as Magic.
833305610 32406All Alternate Histories and FuturesTravelling in TimeAll and All AlternatesSingularityLocal Omniverse
Characters — Secondary Anomaly / Supreme Gods Secondary Anomalies are the Great gods. These Divine beings carry echoes of the Prime Anomaly, which is why in their own universe they are considered Creator Gods. They usually lead pantheons or councils of gods, or establish Monotheistic religions, with Lesser Divinities filling the roles of the other gods. Supreme gods can generate Divine-Yarn or Twists with Facet Actions. The supreme gods always have Super-Annex “Supreme God of …” Lores in at least two mortal spheres. For example, Odin could have Lores in Lightning and Runes (amongst others), Norridi has Lores in Computation and Technology.
Plots — Epic Epic Demons organize Volume Demons into longer series. Epics represent a full and complete work. Epics can also be Acts of a Cycle. Think of an Epic as the entire TV series (assuming the show got more than one or two) but probably not including the following movies or the reboot.
834321642 36954All Alternate Histories, Futures and PresentsAll Time SimultaneouslyAll and All AlternatesSub-Singularity (imaginary space)Omniverse
Characters — Prime Anomaly / The Ref The original paradox that creates the whole Omniverse, and later herself. (See the Paradox War Trilogy). The Ref represents the whole Omniverse during play, and can invoke this if they need to. All Scores generated by the Prime Anomaly are Sway, Chi, Yarn and Twists at the same time, calculating Difficulties as preferred.
Plots — Cycle The greatest of the grand plots. The summation of everything smaller than themselves, they hold together whole imaginary multiverses, containing potentially billions of Characters, Locations and individual Stories. Cycles bind whole book series, plus all the unpublished background material, encyclopaedia entries and the fan-fiction together. Cycles form the entirety of the DC and Marvel franchises, comic-books, TV shows, Movies and the games played by costumed kids, or with toys from that Cycle. All the Stories, Novels, Movies, TV shows and Fan-fictions that touch on the Cthulhu Mythos, or Greek Mythology, or Vampire lore could all be within a single Cycle.
Twists / ShocksYarn / Strains
Monstrous
Chi / Stress
Bold /
Pips		Facet Sway /
Intrepid 		Tao Sway /
Banal 		Extend DurationLimit DurationGroup SizeSmall SizesLocation SizeAdditional Information

Calculating Difficulties

T13 uses the Sway Table to calculate the Difficulty of everything and anything that the Characters try to do within the narrative. The way that Difficulty is calculated by the Referee or Yarn-Teller depends on the dice roll method that is being used in the game for that Action, as well as details about the setting, character and genre.

It should be noted that Yarn-Tellers and Referees have a number of ways that they can calculate a Difficulty to make something harder or easier depending upon factors in the setting and character. For example, if you are playing in an epic space-opera universe then you would probably expect all technology to calculate Difficulties as if it were Bold (as Chi), where as in a modern day setting technology may be considered Intrepid for most purposes, but a few hundred years ago technology would always use a Banal Difficulty. This doesn’t just apply to technology, as everything in the system can also have differing Difficulties.

If you are playing a Wizard Character, for example, then magic may be almost non-existent, or all powerful, with Difficulties reflecting these differences. Additionally, the Single Roll Difficulties for magic can vary greatly, with how the magic is performed in the world being reflected in the Difficulty that the Wizard must generate to cast a spell. In one setting summoning a spirit may be considered Epic magic that involves portal magic, in another it may simply be a summoning charm, both would also add the Master Annex Boon or Personality Boon of the Spirit in question, but a summoning charm will always be easier to perform than epic portal magic. Indeed magic can be so easy that throwing fireballs in some settings is as simple as being from the right nation and swinging your arms around to just make a “Fry Attack”, in others it will require training from a mage-guild to at least level 5 as well as learning and specifically memorising the right spell.

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