Creating a Spark

Playbooks

Your choice of playbook determines your Starting Moves, Advanced Moves, Background, and Damage Die.

The Fighter

It’s a thankless job—living day to day by your armor and the skill of your arm. To dive heedlessly into danger. They won’t be playing golden horns for the time you took that knife to the ribs for them in the bar in Bucksberg. No flock of angels to sing of the time you dragged them, still screaming, from the edge of the Pits of Madness, no.

Forget them.

You do this for the guts and the glory. The scream of battle and the hot, hot blood of it. You are a beast of iron. Your friends may carry blades of forged steel but, fighter, you are steel. While your traveling companions might moan about their wounds over a campfire in the wilderness, you bear your scars with pride.

You are the wall—let every danger smash itself to nothing on you. In the end, you’ll be the last one standing.

The Rogue

You’ve heard them, sitting around the campfire. Bragging about this battle or that. About how their gods are smiling on your merry band. You count your coins and smile to yourself—this is the thrill above all. You alone know the secret of the world—filthy filthy lucre.

Sure, they give you lip for all the times you’ve snuck off alone but without you, who among them wouldn’t have been dissected by a flying guillotine or poisoned straight to death by some ancient needle trap? So, let them complain. When you’re done with all this delving you’ll toast their hero’s graves.

From your castle. Full of gold. You rogue.

The Ranger

These city-born folk you travel with. Have they heard the call of the wolf? Felt the winds howl in the bleak deserts of the East? Have they hunted their prey with the bow and the knife like you? Hell no. That’s why they need you.

Guide. Hunter. Creature of the wilds. You are these things and more. Your time in the wilderness may have been solitary until now, but the call of some greater thing—call it fate if you like—has cast your lot with these folk. Brave, they may be. Powerful and strong, too. You know the secrets of the spaces between, though. Without you, they’d be lost. Blaze a trail through the blood and dark, strider.

The Bard

Stories and songs can do more than entertain. A properly told story can unite a community, allow you to share experiences, and convey lessons and wisdom. Likewise, songs can uplift one’s soul and inspire others to perform great deeds, or they can fill one’s heart with despair or dread.

Whether by book or word you’ve learned your share of both over the years, like the difference between a puca and a kelpie, The Three Songs of Erui, how sunlight affects the trolls of the Hagswood, The Barghest of Ulfstir, dwarven smith-chants, and the bleak poetry of the Silverbough elves.

But you know there’s more out there, much forgotten or yet to be told, and you yearn to find or write them yourself. Just think what you could learn, what they could teach, and who they could inspire?

The Druid

You can feel the pulse of the world as it beats through the ground, and hear its sibilant whispers carried by the winds. You can channel this energy to heal those deserving few, or unleash it upon any who would defy the forces of nature.

Blurring the line between man and beast, you can also shed your own flesh, assuming the shape of one of nature’s myriad children. Your form is boundless: prowl through dark forests, soar through the open sky, and swim in the vast seas.

Armed with knowledge of the wild and its primeval power, do you simply try to survive, coexist with the kingdoms men strive to carve out for themselves, or will you drag civilization back into the untamed darkness?

Survival of the fittest, and all that that entails.

The Paladin

Hell awaits. An eternity of torment in fire or ice or whatever best suits the sins of the damned throngs of Akratia beyond the Black Gates. All that stands between the pits of that grim torture and salvation is you. Holy man, armored war machine, templar of the Good and the Light, right? The cleric may say his prayers at night to the gods, dwelling in their heavens. The fighter may wield his sharp sword in the name of “good” but you know. Only you.

Eyes, hands, and sweet killing blow of the gods, you are. Yours is the gift of righteousness and virtue. Of justice. Vision, too. A purity of intent that your companions do not have. So guide these fools, paladin. Take up your holy cause and bring salvation to the wastrel world.

Vae victis, right?

The Witch

It is a little known secret that there is magic in everything, from plants to stones, to metals and animals. Names carry power, and in certain times and places it swells and coils upon itself, forming a wellspring of raw, untapped magical energy. Some learn these secrets after ceremonial induction, others through extensive instruction and trial, while the more desperate or greedy find that there is no shortage of dark entities willing to help them shortcut the process. For a price, of course.

The how matters less than the results: through your work, words, and will you gather, bind, and temper magical forces in accordance to your desires, good or ill. You can brew a concoction to heal someone just as easily as one to alter a man’s shape or desires. You can forge a talisman either to shield someone from harm, or draw ill fortune to them like a moth to a flame.

Of course you are not helpless without time and safety: with a few words you can make someone’s eyes bleed, cause even the most faithful and tame of beasts to turn on them, prevent them from speaking, or vermin to crawl forth from their screaming mouths. There is a reason others regard you with equal measure of fear and respect.

The Templar

Through the Pentarchy is salvation, and by the Highest Face of God is immortality. You are a Templar of the Immortal Order. You must seek out the seeds of heresy and evil; you must show this vile world it can be made clean once more. Foul beasts and blasphemers shall be the kindling to your righteous fires. And if the cleansing flame grows so hot that you too must be consumed, then you will burn in contentment, knowing you leave the world closer to absolution.

The Lantern

You found this little light, or perhaps it found you. You speak with it, and sometimes it listens. It can be a guiding light, a shield to defend you or a weapon to strike the darkness. Your little light is born from the Wisest Face of God, the Hermit. Through it, you are forever linked with the Pentarchy that governs this world. But to you is given the power to decide what this means. The responsibility is yours. What will you do with this responsibility?

This little light is yours. It shines for you. And you, in turn, reflect that light and reveal a path for others to follow. You are the Lantern, the beacon against the dark, and you will shine.

The Charred

Some people pray to their gods for strength like fools; others, too smart for their own good, read books. Others, still, train with their sword-arms or their tongues. Not you, though. Somehow, somewhy, you found power through another way, one wrought in fire and pain. You made a sacrifice, then and there, freely given, for powers beyond the ken of mere mortals.

And it feels so, so good. You’re the wildcard now. The uncaged flame, burning with passion and leaving ruin in your wake. Everyone else can feel it, too; your fire stokes theirs, filling your new adventuring comrades with furor and brightening the lives of every yokel and maiden lucky enough to cross your path. You’ve never felt so alive! And so what if there’s trouble following you every which way; all the more reason to live life to the fullest, right?

Live fast, die young, and make sure you’re not the one who’s gotta pick up all the pieces.

The Frigid

Think back on your childhood. How old were you when you first touched that cold place, deep inside you? How old were you when you first drew arcane ice from your soul and used it against the bullies and braggarts who tormented you? No matter. Its been a long time since then, and you are no longer that scared little child.

Another one came up today, to the top of your mountain. Another seeking to best the cold, to defy the bite of ice. Another who received it, in full. You are Winter - cold, uncaring, and untouchable, and your domain is sacrosanct... or at least it was.

Embrace the cold, Frigid one, for you know the secrets of deepest winter and woe to any that anger you.

The Charlatan

Most of these rubes wouldn't know a real wizard if one came along and turned them into a duck. So, I come through a town, put on a little show, make a few coins. Everybody wins. I leave with full pockets, and they get a story to tell for the rest of their lives about their brush with the mystic. As a matter of fact, I'd say they get the better end of this whole deal.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it seems the villagers want to present me with some honorary pitchforks.

The Maid

In this world there are countless servants who keep things running smoothly. There are serving girls and footmen, butlers and washer women. You are a maid, a much rarer, stranger creature.

You learned your craft from the secret academy, and in doing so acquired strange, inhuman traits. The training instilled in you a deep need to serve a master, whether a great noble or someone pulled off the street for that purpose, but you gain a unique kind of strength from your master’s love and approval.

Though you wear the trappings of a humble servant, you are a creature of power and love, and you will not be stopped!

Stats

Attributes

Each character has six primary attributes: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), and Charisma (CHA). These attributes can vary at character creation between -1 and +2. They can never be increased beyond +3 and they can never be decreased beyond -3. Each primary attribute governs one Basic Move. A new character starts with the following stat array: +2, +1, +1, +0, -1, -1

Health

Health is unified across all playbooks and can be split into HP and Debilities. All characters start with a base of 10 HP, which is then modified by 5 times CON. A character with 2 CON will have 20 HP, and a character with -1 CON will have 5 HP. Each Attribute also has a special Debility track. If any one attribute reaches the fourth level of a debility track, their character is removed from the game, either having succumbed to their wounds, retired from adventuring, gone insane, etc.

Debilities are more difficult to recover from than HP. You can always choose to take a Debility, reducing incoming damage by 5 (you can do this as many times as you wish, taking numerous debilities to reduce an attack's damage to 0) - how you describe yourself taking the wound may influence which debility the GM inflicts. You may not choose to take a debility instead of suffering something laid out in the fiction. If a cleaving blade lops off your arm, you can't take a CON debility to negate that, though you could take a CON debility to negate the numerical damage that likely came with the wound. Monsters with the appropriate moves may inflict debilities instead of damage.

Load

Load is similarly unified across all playbooks and can be understood as the carrying capacity of an adventurer, though it is less comparable to how much a character can physically lift and more comparable to how much a character can comfortably carry and still adventure. For this reason, you can wear armor and carry a weapon (and something in your off-hand like a shield) for 0-LOAD, so long as they are actively equipped on your character. Any additional armor, weaponry, or off-hand items "weigh" their normal amount of LOAD. A character has 10-LOAD with which to carry equipment, food, potions, poisons, and most importantly: treasure. Unless otherwise noted, treasure worth 100-COIN takes up 1-LOAD.

When you set out on adventure, choose your free load equipment (armor, main hand and off hand). For everything else (Ammo, Food, Potions, Adventuring Gear, etc), whenever you need something, simply pay its cost in COIN, mark off a LOAD box and pull it from your pack. Once you have marked all of your boxes, you are unable to pull any more equipment from your pack. For any slots that have been "used" (eaten food, spent ammo, drained potions, etc), you may fill those LOAD boxes with treasure or scavenged items to return to town with.

Characters can increase their LOAD in two ways: hiring followers and purchasing pack animals. Followers in your service have 10-LOAD just like you, but must eat at the same rate you do and expect payment of some kind. Pack animals (perhaps with carts or wagons) can carry far more LOAD, but slow travel down and become a target for the more organized monstrous races in Akratia. Below are basic guidelines for armor and weaponry when not equipped.

• Large Weapon - 4-LOAD
• Medium Weapon - 3-LOAD
• Small Weapon - 2-LOAD
• Hand Weapon - 1-LOAD

• Leather/Chain Armor - 2-LOAD
• Scale Mail - 4-LOAD
• Plate Mail - 6-LOAD
• Shield - 2-LOAD

Drives

When creating a character, you will also choose a Drive for them. When determining XP gain for the move End of Session, if you fulfilled your Drive at least once, Mark-XP. Pick one of the following drives or write a new one with the permission of your GM. The following drives were created by Jeremy Sandberg.

Contempt

Offend an NPC of importance with your brutish ways.

Melancholy

Let a problem escalate while you brood, drown your sorrows, or express your disgust.

Mirth

Cause trouble for your allies by indulging in revelry, romance, or celebration.

Honor

Keep an oath that you have made to an NPC.

Pride

Refuse an order or request that is beneath you.

Fame

Ensure that others will spread word of your name or deeds.

Drama

Provoke conflict between others.

Romance

Share a passionate moment with another.

Wisdom

An NPC acts on your advice.

Wonder

Expose someone else to a thing of beauty, majesty, or awe.

Ambition

Gain recognition from or hold a debt over an NPC of importance.

Charity

Bring relief to an NPC who is suffering.

Evangalism

Instruct an NPC in the tenets of your faith.

Inquisition

Reveal the failings or falsehoods of another.

Orthodoxy

Start trouble (for yourself or others) by adhering strictly to doctrine.

Cultivation

Help an NPC learn, grow, or improve themselves.

Detachment

Act (or refuse to do so) in a way that harms an ally or bystander.

Heritage

Unnerve another with your strange ways and stranger rites.

Preservation

Convince others to protect something of the natural world.

Restoration

Deface, destroy, or bury a symbol or artifice of civilization.

Challenge

Provoke a fight with a notable enemy, just you and them.

Glory

Show off in front of NPCs who can go on to tell your tale.

Peace

Settle a dispute or end a fight without bloodshed.

Pride

Put someone in their place (or their grave) for disrespecting you.

Vengeance

Avenge a wrong or hurt done to you or your allies.

Courage

Lead another to act despite fear or doubt.

Doubt

Question the tenets of your faith, the law, or your order.

Mercy

Forgive a helpless enemy and set them free.

Justice

Capture or punish a criminal or evildoer.

Sacrifice

Suffer pain and hardship so that someone does not need to.

Companionship

Alienate someone by putting your companion’s desires above theirs.

The Hunt

Slay a creature of considerable might or cunning.

Liberty

Free someone from bondage, figuratively or literally.

Tenacity

Doggedly pursue a course of action, to your or your allies detriment.

Wonder

Show someone a place or thing of natural beauty that they have not seen before.

Defiance

Stand up to a bully or tyrant.

Conscience

Forego comfort or advantage in order to do the right thing.

Excitement

Cause trouble for your allies by taking an unnecessary risk.

Greed

Increase your wealth or power at someone else’s expense.

Trickery

Get someone to act on false information

Curiosity

Cause trouble by touching, opening, or tinkering with something.

Cunning

Set up a ploy and then take advantage of it.

Eccentricity

Alienate an NPC with your strange behavior.

Mystery

Deflect or evade an inquiry into your doings.

Obeisance

Get an NPC to acknowledge your superiority.

Fervor

Spread a dangerous new idea.

Hunger

Wantonly consume a limited resource.

Exuberance

Cause widespread destruction or collateral damage.

Provocation

Spur another into unplanned decisive action.

Vehemence

Sacrifice an unwilling victim to the flames.