What does it mean to Adventure?

The unhelpful broad answer: to take life head-on and be the steward of your own destiny! The slightly more helpful answer: adventuring means breaking from the humdrum of day-to-day life and following a goal in whatever direction it takes you until it is reached. Examples of this include: having to run a one-off errand in some remote place you’ve never been before, exploring some abandoned building to see what is in it, slaying your own literal inner demons through the madness of your own heart, or simply going camping and seeing what happens from there. The truth is, no matter what a dictionary tells you, it’s actually hard to define what an Adventure is, and it’s more of one of those “you’ll know it once you’re well into the midst of it” sort of thing.

In this game, most adventures usually fall into one of two categories: a trek through a populated area (like a city or a village and its countryside) to resolve some issue locals are having while trying not upset the law, or a trip into a dungeon of sort (possibly in the middle of nowhere or buried deep enough into a Settlement that no one could know what happens down there) that will test your ability to manage resources and navigating tight spaces. A Campaign, on the other hand, defines how long or how many Adventures you will go on within a bounded scope. We recognize these 5 Campaign types.

• One-shots are singular short Adventures that are designed to be finished all in one session (sometimes two if you really take your time or get lost). These are best for both beginners and new groups still getting to know each other. They are also especially great for people learning to GM for the first time. We probably have some fun prefabricated One-shots specifically for the Setting you are trying to jump into.
  
• Short Campaigns are singular Adventures that are designed specifically to take between 2 and 6 sessions to complete (typically giving breathing room to only meet once a week). These types of journeys can vary, where sessions can chronologically happen back-to-back, or begin to allow Long Rests in between sessions to show how much time needs to be invested in the goal.
  
• Medium Campaigns are when things start to become more complex. They typically last between 8 and 24 sessions (2 to 6 months at once a week) and can either be a focused singular Adventure or several smaller ones woven together for a singular focus. This is about as long as a singular Adventure can get before it starts to feel like your party isn’t really making substantial progress no matter what they do.
  
• Long Campaigns run between 24 and 48 sessions (6 to 12 months; please take at least one week a season off for your family’s sake) and tend to be a mash-up of the smaller Campaign types all following a shared end goal. These are usually where Campaigns get long enough that after the first Adventure the GM might have a possible roadmap at best and creates the rest of the Adventures as they are needed and based entirely on party developments. It’s hard to predict where a Long Campaign will go, even for the GM who needs to figure out what you all are doing next.
  
• Epics are too long; seriously. They are continuous journeys that can hit 50+ sessions. They can sometimes even be multiple Long Campaigns and not necessarily share a single focus. Often what binds an Epic is just that everyone at the table is still playing the same chronology, even if some members have swapped out for new players or even none of the original characters are still around anymore, like a band that is somehow still considered the same group despite no original member still alive to perform. The important part is that the narrative never stopped, though it may be hard to justify the group’s motivation after long enough.  

We highly recommend running a few One-shots and Short Campaigns in the system before you jump onto anything of real girth. It can be tempting to start your experience with an Epic your GM plans for your party, but if no one at the table has any experience in this system, you probably aren’t going to make the most of it. Now, if you find yourself the only newbie at the table with lots of experienced players to help you adjust, that’s not the end of the world.

Settlements

Settlements are everywhere, consisting of multiple homesteads to create a longstanding herd of people. A hermit in the woods or a small farm run by a single family in the middle of nowhere do not qualify as Settlements. We classify the 4 types of Settlements as follows:

• Cities are the main Settlements in the majority of Settings. While technically a City can be as small as one person if they have the charter and legal jurisdiction, we are using this as a size marker. For us, Cities begin at around 100,000 residents total and, depending on how the civilization can support it, upwards of 1,000,000 per square kilometer in multi-layer structures. Cities have almost anything you could specifically be looking for. Food and fuel tend to be more expensive, but niche goods are often much less expensive in turn. They will have multiple levels of Accommodations and could contain Adventures and Dungeons within them without you ever having to leave the City.

• Towns are between 10,000 and 99,999 residents. Sometimes they are suburbs of the Cities, and sometimes they are the center of civilization much further out from the major Settlements. They still have most things you could need, but they might be missing more niche desires. They are more likely to have local specialties. They will also typically have multiple Accommodation options, but probably won’t have anything too Luxurious.

• Villages are between 1,000 and 9,999 residents. These tend to be more rural, but can sometimes be the equivalent of a suburb for Towns that are far away from everything else. Sometimes, they might be a smaller Settlement embedded within a larger one, but have their own jurisdiction. Remote Villages are often surrounded by farmland and carry the things the farming families need. Food is often much cheaper, but tools and supplies can get a lot more expensive. Your options for Accommodations will often be very limited.

• Outposts are 999 or fewer residents. These can be anything from a large farm or ranch with multiple families and employees working and living on it, a military base with limited long-term residence despite the higher numbers always passing through, a standalone port or station, or even a caravan that reliably travels the same route on schedule. Outposts are scarce on options of goods and Accommodations to the point that you can’t really be picky on either quality or prices.

How these Settlements look will vary based on the Setting, but regardless, they will be where you do most of the preparation for your Adventure, even if the goal doesn’t lie there. Often these are where you will Rest, buy equipment and supplies, gather information on your journey, and possibly your ride to the next stop.

Exploration

When you make it to a new Settlement, unless a member of your Party specifically has a predefined history there or you happen to have an NPC guide with you, you will know very little about it and need to explore to learn anything of value. This will take time and likely a series of Task Checks. Depending on your goals, you may be rolling for Investigation, Navigation, or even Trading to find out what the Settlement has to offer and where it is. Any Settlement established by the Setting will have set Difficulties for these broader Task Checks, but for other places, your GM will decide the Difficulty based on the size of the Settlement, how confusing the roads are, and if there are available services, like police or info booths that can aid guests. Remember: your information and your character’s information is different, so even if you looked up what is available in a Settlement on the website, your character still needs to learn this in-game.

Shopping

Shopping is just as much a part of any Adventure as it is your everyday life. You will need things, and you can never buy or hold enough. You will eventually find yourself on a long trip where you’ve been away from the last Settlement for far too long, all your supplies are depleted, and you will be chomping at the bit to shop for literally any good, even if you don’t need it. Types of shops will vary greatly, not just between Settings, but within them as well. One thing to note is that, typically, the more advanced a society gets, the fewer opportunities you will have to bargain in shops because many of the clerks you deal with won’t have the authority to do so, but you can still almost always find a bazaar or flea market somewhere if you really want to flex those rolls. Some example types of stores you can probably expect to see in most major Settlements include:

• Grocery/General Stores will often carry the recovery options you are looking for before heading out on any journey. Sometimes it is food, but even if it is medicine, they will often have a pharmacy at the store. You will also probably find all your basic exploration equipment unless it is a very small store. Smaller Outposts may only have a unified Trading Post that serves this purpose as well.

• Arsenals are any store specialized in selling Combat gear, be it offensive or defensive. Sometimes they are split, and you’ll find different stores for weapons and armor. Sometimes different subcategories of gear will have dedicated shops. In some settings, some Department Stores double as Arsenals for certain ranges of gear. But, you should be able to find at least some combat gear in most places.

• Tailors/Clothing Stores don’t often provide Equipment with Combat bonuses, but may be necessary for different narrative occasions. Many Settlements will have details on the availability and prices of different types of clothing, but when in doubt your GM can use their knowledge of real-world apparel to fill in the gaps.

• Hardware Stores provide all the Equipment you might need for a gig that isn’t related to Combat, though some Utilities also double as Weapons. While the jobs that require these don’t usually offer as much EXP, they can provide more money or AP on occasion, so finding the Hardware Store can be a must.

• Department Stores/Malls mostly consist of the previously mentioned stores, but multiple in one convenient place. Department Stores will have a singular checkout option, which can be even more convenient but limit purchasing options, while Malls may have several different shops and boutiques, of which some may even allow bartering.

• Trading Posts/Pawn Shops are shops that buy and sell second-hand goods. What is available here can vary greatly, but it is a good place to make money selling your old stuff when you are low on funds. As mentioned before, far out in the middle of nowhere, a Trading Post may also be the only General Store.

• Bazaars/Flea Markets are “open air” (sometimes inside or underground) markets with a plethora of different vendors where bargaining is often encouraged. You never know what you will find here or even the quality of it. Probably the most fun place to shop!

Dining

Your characters need to eat… probably. Unless you’re in some class of being that doesn’t require sustenance for one reason or another, you’re going to need to eat and usually at least once a day. Outside of Settlements, you may hunt and Forage for food, but in polite society, it is often illegal to do that in City limits. You can solve this in one of two ways. The first option is to have your character use a Consumable that resembles food. If it restores HP, TP, or SP, it’ll keep you going for the day, even if it was consumed in Combat. The second option, if you want a little more than a candy bar from your local grocer, is to find a Dining establishment. Settlements will usually have some listed, either in related materials or on the website, and meals will usually come with benefits like temporary buffs or increased active EXP gains for the day. They will often be more expensive than low-end Consumables, but they also make good places for your Party to meet up and discuss the next thing they are going to do.  

Accomendations

As you adventure, you will eventually need lodging so you can Rest. If your adventure takes place entirely within the area you live in or you have some kind of mobile HQ, this is simple, and you don’t have to worry about it. On the other hand, many great adventures take place far from home, and many Settlements won’t let you sleep in an RV on the side of the street or in a parking lot. In many cases, you will need to find a place to stay while you are in the area. You functionally have two options when within Settlements: rent a room at a place of business or seek refuge with a local.

The latter option will vary a lot depending on the culture of the Settlement and your party’s Luck. If you have a specific NPC’s attention already (a stranger you met, a duke you are working for, a relative in the area, etc), then you don’t need to have to worry about step one. If you don’t, then you need to do an Investigation in the town with a Difficulty either established by data in the Setting’s Guide, the Codex on the website, or your GM. After you’ve found someone who might let you crash at their place, you’ll need to do a roll with a Difficulty established similarly to the previous Task Check, subtracted by your CHM+LCK+(Applicable Reputation Bonuses). Depending on how your GM feels about the NPC’s tolerance, maybe each member of the party can try once, or maybe one Player gets a single shot. You can only do an Investigation for this once between Short Rests, but if you happen to meet an NPC naturally through your progress, then you can potentially ask them for lodging in the same way.

If you can’t find someone to quarter you, then renting a room becomes your only option (or possibly trekking back out of the Settlement far enough they don’t care that you set up camp). There may be hotels, inns, bed and breakfasts, or anything in that general category, but all of them will provide you with a bed and shelter, some even your own room. We can’t give you fixed prices here since Settings vary far too much, but there are typically 4 types of rooms. It is important to know, because the quality of your borrowed lodging can affect how much EXP you receive when you cash in during your Short Rest. These same standards will be applied by your GM to NPC lodging as well.

• A Rundown Room will give you no bonuses at all, and whatever EXP you have banked is what you get when adding to your total.
  
• A Kept Room will give a +50% bonus to the amount of EXP you get when adding to your total.
  
• A Fancy Room will give a +100%  bonus to the amount of EXP you get when adding to your total.
  
• A Luxury Suite will give you a +200% bonus to the amount of EXP you get when adding to your total.

Don’t count on all of these types of Accommodations being available in every Settlement, especially the smaller ones. It is fair to expect more options the larger the Settlement is, but the best way to play is not to demand a Luxury Suite, but instead ask your GM what might be available, what your character knows about the area, or if you can do some Investigation.

Taking a Rest

In this system, a lot of progression mechanics are centered around Resting. So much so that even when you are Resting, you still need to pay attention to when you have the ability to do so. There are three terms related to Resting that you need to look out for, which include Opportunity to Rest, Short Rest, and Long Rest. Each one of these has different game mechanics attached to it that will influence the growth of your character. 

The Opportunity to Take a Rest

If you see the Opportunity to Take a Rest or the Opportunity to Rest, this is what it is talking about. Maybe you don’t have the capacity to Rest for some reason, possibly due to being short on time, or narratively it wouldn’t make sense for your characters to do so, but this means you could if it was a viable option. Another way of looking at this is through the lens of Safe Zones or Sanctuaries. It could be a hotel, a campsite your team spent time properly clearing and setting up, or a spot in a cave with a hot spring and no possible traffic, but your GM will announce to you that you currently have the Opportunity to Rest.

The Opportunity to Rest is necessary for changing Vocations, certain quick forms of Crafting (Cooking, Repair, or anything that takes less than a day), and specific Abilities that mention it. Importantly, Vocation Equip Abilities, like the Vocation’s Unique Constant and Unique Command Abilities, cannot be used during an Opportunity to Rest if you switched Vocations during that period until you’ve either taken at least a Short Rest or continued on your Adventure past this current Opportunity to Rest for at least 1 Combat or in-game hour (whichever comes first). This is specifically to prevent meta-gaming players from abusing the Vocation system by swapping to different ones to regain all their resources back for free without taking a Short Rest and then swapping back to the one they want to currently develop. Best advice for GM’s is to not allow more than 1 swap per Opportunity to Rest, though if they want to swap and swap back just to learn an ability, it should be fine with the Vocation Equip Ability restriction in place.

Short Rest

A Short Rest is defined as the minimum amount of time a Race needs to complete a cycle of deep sleep; to be able to collect their experiences and incorporate them into permanent memory. It can vary from Race to Race, with some not extreme cases not even needing to complete a cycle of deep sleep, but for game mechanics’ sake we go off a Human’s necessities, which is at least 4 hours on average. But we know that Humans typically need 2 cycles of deep sleep to be fully rested, so Short Rests are broken down as follows.

• A Short Rest of 1 deep sleep cycle will restore half of your HP, TP, and SP, as well as cash in your Experience Points for Levels. It will move from your banked EXP to your total whenever you Rest, so you can’t just hold out to wait until the next Luxury Suite.
  
• A Short Rest of 2 deep sleep cycles will restore the remainder of your HP, TP, and SP, as well as giving you a +50% ATN bonus for the first CoS Roll that requires it.

The condition of your Rest also matters. Similar to how the conditions of your lodging in the earlier section can affect your EXP cash out, sleeping conditions can improve or reduce the rate your resources return. Your GM will declare what the conditions are, which will either come from the information on the Campaign or Setting they are running, or at their discretion in homebrew or other appropriate situations. Sometimes, even a hotel that fits all the right criteria is actually awful, and you end up with worse sleep than you expected. Whatever your GM says goes.

• Terrible Conditions means that your character is very uncomfortable, because they lack decent shelter or bedding. In this case, they lose -50% of the benefits of each deep sleep cycle, they lose the ATN bonus, and gain a Status called Groggy for the first two hours after they wake up. Groggy lowers all Stats aside from HP, TP, and SP by -10%, and can’t Rest again for the next 12 hours, even after Groggy has worn off. This can happen if you decided to sleep outside in questionable weather or if you felt like taking a nap in a damp, drafty dungeon right on the floor.
  
• Subpar Conditions, or Below Average Conditions, means that your character is a little uncomfortable, because they found either decent shelter or bedding, but not both. In this case, they lose -25% of the benefits of each deep sleep cycle, as well as the ATN bonus from the second cycle. This applies even if you are indoors if your character has to sleep on the floor, in a chair, or a car seat. Depending on your character’s temperament, you might be able to argue to your GM that they would prefer a firmer surface, like a rug or a billiard table, but they should never let you get away with an uncovered floor. They may slide on the shelter part if your nap is midday in nice sunny weather and someone is keeping watch.
  
• Normal Conditions mean that your character can feel comfortable enough to get an average night’s sleep. They get the exact benefits as described above. These conditions include some form of shelter, be it inside a building, a cave, a tent, or a lean-to you made, and some kind of soft bedding, such as packed leaves, a sleeping bag, a futon, or if you happen to have found furniture, like a bed or couch. Many large vehicles like RVs, mobile HQ’s, and ships fall into this category.
  
• Superb Conditions, or Above Average Conditions, means that your character feels very comfortable, like sleeping in their own bed with the air conditioning on. In this case, your character gains an extra +50% from a single cycle of deep sleep and doubles the ATN bonus from both cycles of deep sleep. You can find these conditions in decent hotels, the houses of strangers that are willing to quarter you, or larger ships that may function like a full-sized house.
  
• Amazing Conditions means that your character has had an exceptionally good sleep, maybe one of the best sleeps in their entire life. In this case, your character gains an extra +100% from a single cycle of deep sleep. The sleep was so good that you feel you don’t even need the second cycle and get the +100% ATN bonus anyway. But if you do take the second cycle of deep sleep, the ATN bonus lasts for 5 rolls instead of 1. You will probably only get this type of Rest at top luxury hotels, magical lodgings, or the homes of the divine.

Just assume a Race requires the same time as a Human unless it is specifically stated otherwise in the Race’s information. If a Player is using a Race with a distinction here, then a Party’s Short Rest must still match the minimum length of the longest cycle of deep sleep among them. If for some reason they are somehow all playing rare Races that do not require deep sleep, then a minimum of 1 in-game hour of meditation or something, per cycle equivalent, is still required for game mechanics’ sake. Sometimes, you may only ever need a single cycle of deep sleep because your characters aren’t that low or tired, and that’s okay.

Long Rest

A Long Rest is defined as the amount of time to physically and emotionally recover from being on campaign. This is the equivalent of being on holiday. After long adventures, war, or even just working a stable job all season, Humans typically need between 1 and 2 weeks of Rest. This does not mean a week of no activity; it just means no strenuous activity. This is your time to do some shopping, catch a festival, learn some new Talents, do some light Crafting, or maybe just catch up on sleep. A Long Rest will also remove most long-standing debuffs that don’t have specific requirements or are attached to a permanent Disadvantage, like illnesses that directly affect your Stats. It is also required to remove the Near Death Experience Status gained after being on Death’s Door.

In continuous Campaigns, especially weekly ones, it is actually recommended to design your sessions, as best as you can manage without ruining your group narrative pace, in such a way that you end your sessions back at a Settlement in which a Long Rest is possible, so their characters can be set to do these things in between sessions. If you structure your sessions this way, it will feel like time never stops moving and can greatly improve the flow of the narrative if done well.

Traveling

Once you are geared up and ready to go, it’s time to hit the road. Plan out your route and how long it will take you to get there. You may need to make several Navigation Task Checks along the way, but if you have a map, they can be easier, and sometimes not even necessary if there is only one highway to where you are heading.

How you get somewhere can make all the difference. Do you have a vehicle? Are you hitching a ride? Are you just walking there? Your rate of Travel will determine how often you have to stop along the way. You typically have to take a Short Rest every other day, though if you skip a day, the next Rest is one tier lower in comfortability than it would be. But, if you are in a vehicle and more than one person can drive, you can take shifts without any additional debuffs. You also need to take time to make sure you eat. In a vehicle, you could dedicate a Large Storage Slot or two to rations you purchased, or, just like with walking, you can stop to hunt for some food, but this will take an hour or two out of your Travel. This can be accomplished through either Survival Task Checks for hunting or Foraging Task Checks for gathering edible vegetation and fungus.

You also have to be wary, as the longer you travel, the more often you will run into Events. We enjoy Random Encounters over here, so prefabricated Campaigns or GMs like the guy who wrote this ruleset might make you roll every day you are out, but some GMs may just give you things to do as they feel appropriate. These can range anywhere from running into friendly NPCs to Combat Encounters, and can get pretty wild. When you finally make it to your next destination, it is either time to repeat the Settlement section, or it’s time for some Dungeoning.

Dungeons

Dungeons are almost like big Events that are made of many smaller Events. Or a better way to put it is that while in Settlements and when Traveling, time tends to move more quickly and pass as needed; Dungeons are a lot more strict on time, and everything you do causes it to tick forward into possibly increasing danger. Unlike out there where we typically limit Task Checks to a single attempt, you can try as many times as you can survive, but each attempt will end up costing you more and more time. If you want a simpler experience, you can sort of spitball areas that aren’t strictly executing Event turn order and let it flow as your Party decides to do things, but we highly recommend using Dungeon Turns through the entirety of your Dungeoneering experience. 

Dungeon Turns are very easy to manage. When you enter the Dungeon, everyone rolls Initiative once, as described back in the Basics chapter. Then, Players take actions in that order, not allowed to do anything that may take more than 30 seconds without the express permission of the other Party members waiting their Turn, but most actions take between 1 and 5 seconds before the next Player goes. The active Player can invite the other members of the Party to join them in any action that would otherwise permit it.

Every action lasting 1 to 5 seconds causes the Dungeon State to move forward by 1 turn. If an action takes longer than 5 seconds, divide the action’s length in seconds by 5 (rounding up to the next interval of 5) and move the Dungeon State forward by that many Turns. This may not affect many Dungeons, but particularly pernicious ones will have enemies consistently hunting you down the longer you take to do anything. Some of them may even have a roaming Elite Enemy or Boss that will give you trouble as you progress.

If at any time an Enemy enters your Zone of Attention while in a Dungeon, regular Dungeoning ceases and Combat begins. This does not stop the Dungeon State from progressing, and neither do other strict Events, like Traps. After Combat resolves, you’ll pick back up with Dungeon Turns, with a fresh set of Initiative rolls, in the current Dungeon State. This back-and-forth will repeat until the goal of the Dungeon is attained.

Within Dungeons you may also find Safe Zones. These are areas where you can either fortify the entrance securely enough that you don’t have to worry about Enemies, or traffic is so non-existent that Enemies wouldn’t pass through here anyway (this will be mentioned in material for the Setting, but the GM should declare why the area is safe if they made the Dungeon). Safe Zones should almost be treated like you are in the Travel state temporarily, unless you are on a tight time limit for any reason. Regardless, it is an Opportunity to Rest. Any time you spend in here should affect the Dungeon State, but what that often means for Dungeons where you can take a Short Rest is that whatever Enemies are still alive have probably roamed enough to reset their position to their initial Dungeon State (where they are and what they are doing is ultimately up to your GM). Or maybe they were on your trail when you fortified the space and are camping outside the entrance waiting for you to leave. The world can be cruel like that.

< 6. Equipment | 8. Events & Combat >