Storming The Wizards Tower

Storming the Wizard’s Tower • Level 1 • Fighting Monsters
Manuscript ©2008 • D. Vincent Baker

For private distribution only
a lumpley game
Especially for:
Meg, Elliot, Sebastian;
Jordan, Chris, Dominic, David, Dani,
Josh, Dylan, Nick, Spencer, Parker, Luranna
Contents
4 • Introduction • Setting Up to Play
6 • GM • Creating a Home Town
20 • GM • Creating Adventures
26 • GM • Creating Monsters
38 • GM • Leading Character Creation
40 • Players • Creating Characters
42 • Players • Descriptions & Details
48 • Rules • The Basics
50 • Rules • Rolling the Dice
58 • Rules • Battle
78 • Rules • Characters Over Time
86 • Rules • Creating More
92 • Rules • Cards Instead of Dice
• Introduction •
• Setting Up to Play •
Storming the Wizard’s Tower is a game of communication. Where in
other games you might move your pieces on a board, or play cards onto
the table, in this game one player describes the board, and you describe
your pieces, where they are, and how they move.
You use your imagination, but that’s not where it stays. You have to
communicate what you imagine to the other players, so that they can
include it in what they imagine. The result of all this imagining and
communicating is a lively conversation, a fun free-for-all about what the
imaginary characters in the game do, where they go, and what challenges
they overcome.
The GM
When you and your friends decide to get together to play, the first thing
to do is choose who’ll be the GM.
“The GM”
In lots of roleplaying games, one player takes on a different set
of responsibilities from the rest. In Dungeons & Dragons, this
player’s called “the Dungeon Master,” or DM for short. But role-
playing games came along that don’t feature any kind of dungeon
at all, so the term “Game Master” came to replace it. The GM isn’t
always the game’s master, really, either, but the term stuck and
I’m using it for this game too.
• 4 • Introduction • Setting Up to Play
Even though they use the same term, the GM’s job varies from
game to game. To learn what the GM does in Storming the
Wizard’s Tower, read on!
The GM preps for each session of play. Choose someone who’ll commit to
creating things for the game in her free time, when you aren’t playing.
The GM is the referee. The GM has to know the rules pretty well and has
to be impartial in applying them. Choose someone who’ll learn the rules
and who has a strong sense of fair play.
The GM doesn’t get to control and play a single character, but has to be
all the non-characters and monsters in the game. Choose someone who
doesn’t mind letting other people take the spotlight.
The GM has to make sure that everyone gets a turn and that everyone’s
ideas get heard, and then has to challenge everyone. Choose someone
who can hold everyone’s attention when that’s what has to happen.
The GM has a lot of responsibilities! Everyone, do your best to make the

GM’s job fun.
The Time
A session of Storming the Wizard’s Tower lasts usually 2-3 hours.
A whole game consists of many, many sessions. The first session is fun
enough, but the game really kicks in after the first couple of sessions,
when everybody has their feet under them.
A whole game plays out over three levels, or phases of play. Level 1 is
called Fighting Monsters. Level 2 is called Storming the Wizard’s
Tower. Level 3 is called Slaying Dragons.
Level 1, Fighting Monsters, will last at least 5 sessions, and might last
as many as 10 or 15. The rules for levels 2 and 3 are still in development,
so this manuscript contains the rules for only level 1.
The Dice
This game calls for a whole lot of dice, in specific colors. Each player needs
6-8 white dice, 6-8 green dice, 4-6 red dice and 4-6 blue dice, and the
GM needs, oh, twice that many. When I run the game, I bring bricks of
36 small-sized 6-sided dice, a brick per color. They’re Chessex brand, and
you can order them online or ask for them at Greenfield Games.
If you don’t have the dice, don’t worry! You can play the game with a
double deck of regular playing cards (that is, two decks shuffled together)
instead. The rules are all but identical. See Rules • Cards Instead of
Dice for the details.
For Prospective GMs

If you want to get a sense for the game without really sitting down and
committing to play, here’s what I suggest. Look over the three example
• 5 • Introduction • Setting Up to Play

home towns in the end of GM • Creating a Home Town, and choose
whichever one seems most interesting to you. Pretend that you’re going
to play the game using that hometown, and create an adventure. Just go
through GM • Creating Adventures and GM • Creating Monsters,
following the directions as you go.
I think that by the end of creating an adventure, you’ll have a pretty clear
sense whether you’ll enjoy running the game. I hope you will!
GM: Before You Play

GM, when you’re ready to play, here’s what you need to do first, in
order:
1. Create a home town.
2. Create an adventure.
3. Guide the players through character creation.
4. Set the scene.
5. Go!
• GM •
• Creating a Home Town •
Before you play for the first time, you need to create a home town. At
the start of the game, the players’ characters all live in the same village
or town. It’s a large, prosperous village or else a small, prosperous
town – big enough to have contact and trade with the rest of the world,
but small enough that everyone knows everyone’s name. The players’
characters will be their home town’s bravest, boldest, and most capable
people. They’re integrated into the town’s society, they’re never strangers
or true outsiders.
Your home town should be, just now, at a generally positive sort of status
quo. Happy, relatively secure, growing, healthy.
Creating a home town means drawing two maps, writing four paragraphs,
creating four to six character types, and making six lists. You’ll need blank
paper for maps, town sheets and character type sheets, and a pencil. If
you’re feeling artistic, you might want colored pencils or markers to do
your maps up nice.
If you don’t want to make a home town of your own, or if you don’t have
time, you can use one of the example towns at the end of this section.
First map: where’s your town in the

world?
The world is a fantasiacal version of the Earth’s historical – not mythical!
– bronze and iron age in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Everyone is connected, however distantly. The world stretches east to

• 6 • GM • Creating a Home Town
west, north to south in a huge gradation of trade and culture. In Earth’s

history, in the courts of Greece and Egypt, you could find amber and
fur from north to the Arctic Circle, ivory and gold from Southern Africa,
bronze made from Celtic tin and copper, spices and iron from India,
Chinese silk. Language, trade, religion, art – over half the Earth, no one
was truly isolated. Everyone had neighbors, who had neighbors, who had
neighbors, and if few people ever left the village where they were born,
still some people did.
For your first map, choose some section of your imaginary version of
Africa, Asia or Europe. Sketch coastlines, mountain range, the mightiest
rivers, inland sea, island chain, vast desert, steppe, savannah or wood-
land. If you want big empires, you can mark zones showing their centers
and boundaries. Somewhere interesting, make a mark for the location of
your town.
The first map of Ellemheld is opposite, top.
Notice how empty this map is! Make yours empty too. You’ll fill it in over
the course of the game.
Mythical – impossible heroes, gods, otherworlds,

destiny.
In the mythical bronze age, the gods had children with mortals
(like Hercules) or became mortal themselves (like Jesus), and
mortals could become gods (like the Pharoahs). Natural forces
had personalities and agendas (like Thor) or heroic-human expla-
nations (like Persephone explains summer and winter). Heroes
did battle with things like death (like Chucullain) and destiny
(like Odysseus). Floods destroyed the world (like Noah’s) and the
world was born again from chaos (like Inana’s). Everything was
portentious and larger-than life, full of destiny and divinity.
Historical – empires, trade, culture, stories.

In the historical bronze age, people made cities and laws, they
expanded their civilizations into empires, they traded with each
other and raised crops and kept herds and explored the world.
They went to war and made peace afterward. If there were
heroes, they were still real people: champions, generals and
rulers who changed the course of history, but still never became
immortal and never really had the strength of ten. The gods
never became human, humans never became gods; summer and
winter happened for the same reason they happen now (the tilt of
the earth’s axis relative to its orbital plane). Death is just a fact,
not a force you can bargain with, not a person. The myths are
stories that the people of the historical bronze age told.
Fantasiacal – imagination, magic, invention, play.

When you create a fantasiacal version of something, you don’t
worry about what it was really like. You don’t worry about real
history (there doesn’t have to be an Egyptian Empire), real
geography (maybe the continents are all different), or the real
laws of nature (magical things can happen if you want them to).
Fantasy is all about inventing what’s fun and cool to you here and
now. You can start with something like the historical bronze age
and play with it, take it wherever you want to go, you don’t have
to stick with it strictly.
First paragraph: what’s it like where

your town is?
Write a few sentences describing the landscape around your town. Is your
town on the coast? Is it on a river or a lake? Is it in the mountains, at
an oasis in the desert, or on a fertile flood plain? Is your town part of a

kingdom or empire, or is it an independent city-state?
Ellemheld is on the east coast of a large island. It’s got a good harbor.
The sea is calm and narrow – Ellemheld’s on the side of the island facing
the mainland. The island has many small kingdoms on it, some no bigger
than a single walled town and the surrounding farms, and it has lots of
wild land too. Ellemheld is ruled by a duke, it’s an important town in the
local kingdom.
Second map: what’s local to your town?

Zoom in! Now draw a map on the scale of states or counties. In the
center of the sheet draw a symbol for your town: a little wall and tower,
wedge-roofed longhouses, a temple and clustered huts, a complex of
interconnected square-built clay buildings. Draw the roads and tracks
coming into it; label them “to ___” and “from ___.” Draw the outlines of
natural features.
Follow your imagination and add things that are interesting, fun and
mysterious. Ruins of former civilizations? Volcanic chasms, bottomless
swamps, mist-shrouded islands?
Ellemheld’s second map is on page 7, bottom.

Second paragraph: what’s the backbone
of your town?
Every town has a reason to exist and reasons for its important features.
Write a few sentences describing and explaining your town.
Ellemheld is a prosperous sea-trade town. Copper, tin and coal comes

from all over the island to Ellemheld’s harbor. Ships carry it in loads across
the sea, and come back with silver, amber, and beautiful furs. Ellemheld
has a castle – solid oak palisade walls around a stone stronghold – to
protect us from the sea-raiders who come down the coast.
Third paragraph: who are your town’s

neighbors?
When you write about your town’s neighbors, don’t make them all happy
and peaceful. To make a town interesting, it needs interesting neighbors,
and that means some threatening, some mysterious, some enticing, some
hostile.
I already mentioned the sea-raiders. In addition, sometimes the kings

and dukes and clan queens on the island make alliances with one another,
and sometimes they feud and go to war. Duke Ellemheld is currently an
ally of the local king, whose stronghold is further down the coast, but that
could change at any moment. Close behind Ellemheld is a deep forest. The
tracks up and down the coast, and skirting around the forest’s edge, are
relatively safe to travel, but the tracks through the forest aren’t. Strange
people live in there, and they aren’t always friendly.
Fourth paragraph: how does your

town’s society work?
Who are the important people in your town? Who makes the decisions?
Elders, priestesses, the town matriarch, judges, nobles? Are the leaders
elected, appointed, or born to it? What jobs do people have? Are some
people in the town rich and some people poor, and if so, how much

wealth separates them? Is there an army? Does everyone share the same
religion, or are there more than one? If there are more, do the people of
different religions mingle together freely or do they keep to their own?
Ellemheld is ruled by the duke, through his reeves, administrators and

magistrates. Duke Ellemheld maintains a small, highly-trained force of
soldiers, called Guardians. Lots of sailors and merchants live right in town,
and farmers and fishermen live all around. Everyone’s pretty well-off, with
even the lowest sailors’ families having meat on their table and pretty
combs to wear in their hair. Most of the people in town worship the same
gods, a civilized religion, and its high priestess is an important advisor to
Duke Ellemheld. There’s also an older, more wild religion that still survives
here, especially among the farmers and the people who live on the fringes
of the forest. Sometimes people from the forest come into town, on busi-
ness with the duke. They’re made welcome, but not really trusted.
Cliche, familiarity & accessibility

I consider Ellemheld to be a very accessible town. Most of its
elements will be familiar to my audience – I created it for a batch
of sixth-graders, including my son. It’s all dark-age and medieval
England, with just a drop of Celtica. The kids immediately
grasped it, with its duke, its guardian knights, its viking raiders,
its wagons and barges full of metal bars, its deep Robin Hoodsy
forest with druids and elves in it.
I made sure to throw in a few things that they wouldn’t be
expecting, though. The two religions, for one, especially the
civilized-but-pagan religion practiced in town, which I imagined
as Classical, something like a cult of Hestia, not Celtic or
Germanic. Also the duke’s tradition of fostering his neices and
nephews, and his having all the children in his household trained
as knights. (The girl in the group was especially happy to play a
rough-and-tumble warrior princess.)
Cliche is like the primary colors. For a more sophisticated

audience, I’d create a more sophisticated town, using a more
sophisticated – and less contemporary – palette. I’ve been
reading Rosemary Sutcliffe, so how about some details from
Song for a Dark Queen? (See the second example town, the
Horsehall, at the end of the chapter.)
It’s especially evident in my lists of weapons, armor and gear.

Notice how anachronistic Ellemheld’s lists are, compared to the
more realistic lists of the Horsehall.
What about magic? It’s important to ground the game solidly

in real-world concerns: harvests, seasons, tides, children and
families, money and trade, diseases, concrete dangers to life and
limb. These are the things that underlie the game’s adventures;
it’s their familiarity to us that gives them emotional weight. As
you add magical and fantastical details to your town, be careful to
preserve those familiar concerns. Go as far as you like to create
wonder, but if you lose touch, you get an emotional alienation, a
sense of non-identification, that doesn’t serve the game well.
The lists: names, arms, gear, maps,

spells, and townspeople
List a dozen or so male names and a dozen or so female names appro-
priate to your town.
Make lists of suitable arms, gear, maps and spells. You can use my lists
and edit them to suit, or you can make your own lists afresh.
List a dozen or so people who already live in your town or the surround-
ings, by name.
If you really want to, you can make a new spell list, or even an entire new
list of magical domains. I recommend that you wait until you’ve played at
least a few times before you undertake that, though.
The lists for Ellemheld are at the end of the chapter.
The character types

Create four to six character types for the players to choose from. Char-
acter types have five components:
• Name
• Description
• Stat recommendations
• Belongings
• Character ability
You can probably find some names and descriptions in your paragraphs
already, although you’ll want to flesh them out more. If you’re short of
your four to six, it should be easy to come up with another one or two.
For stat recommendations, say “don’t choose this if you have either
a low ___ or a low ___,” or “...if you have both a low ___ and a low
___.” Remember that a player might well roll poorly for any of the stats.
If all of your character types say “don’t choose this if you have a low
strength,” you’ll want to add a character type for people who DO have a
low strength.
For belongings, say “choose 3 from [this list], 3 from [this list], 1 from
[this list or this list], and 1 from [any list]. Also choose 1 townsperson.”
Finally, for character ability, the easiest thing to do is choose one of the
abilities that players can buy for their characters with XP (for which see
that section). You can also adapt monster abilities, if you want to, or even
make up your own abilities from scratch.
You can choose from my example character types if you want, instead
of doing all the work yourself. I think you’ll find some pretty cool ones.
Rename them to fit into your town.
Again, you need four to six, and make sure that you have at least one
suitable character type for any given mix of stats.
After play starts

Keep adding details! You can (and should) roughly alternate between
telling the players details about the town and asking them for details
about the town. It’s very effective to mix telling and asking together into
one, like “there’s a wild hermit who lives near town. Where does it make
sense for him to live, in the deep forest or up in the hills?”
After only a few sessions of play, you and all your players should feel that
the town’s a real place, solid and lived in. You may not know what’s behind
every door and under every hedge, but you should feel confident that if
you have a character go and look, something is there, and you’ll find out
what.
That’s your town! Next up: adventures.

• Ellemheld •
Ellemheld is on the east coast of a large island. It’s got a good harbor.
The sea is calm and narrow – Ellemheld’s on the side of the island facing
the mainland. The island has many small kingdoms on it, some no bigger
than a single walled town and the surrounding farms, and it has lots of
wild land too. Ellemheld is ruled by a duke, it’s an important town in the
local kingdom.
Ellemheld is a prosperous sea-trade town. Copper, tin and coal comes from
all over the island to Ellemheld’s harbor. Ships carry it in loads across the
sea, and come back with silver, amber, and beautiful furs. Ellemheld has
a castle – solid oak palisade walls around a stone stronghold – to protect
us from the sea-raiders who come down the coast.
I already mentioned the sea-raiders. In addition, sometimes the kings

and dukes and clan queens on the island make alliances with one another,
and sometimes they feud and go to war. Duke Ellemheld is currently an
ally of the local king, whose stronghold is further down the coast, but that
could change at any moment. Close behind Ellemheld is a deep forest.
The tracks up and down the coast, and skirting around the forest’s edge,
are relatively safe to travel, but the tracks through the forest aren’t.
Strange people live in there, and they aren’t always friendly.
Ellemheld is ruled by the duke, through his reeves, administrators and

magistrates. Duke Ellemheld maintains a small, highly-trained force
of soldiers, called Guardians. Lots of sailors and merchants live right
in town, and farmers and fishermen live all around. Everyone’s pretty
well-off, with even the lowest sailors’ families having meat on their table
and pretty combs to wear in their hair. Most of the people in town worship
• 12 • Example Town • Ellemheld
the same gods, a civilized religion, and its high priestess is an important
advisor to Duke Ellemheld. There’s also an older, more wild religion that
still survives here, especially among the farmers and the people who live
on the fringes of the forest. Sometimes people from the forest come into
town, on business with the duke. They’re made welcome, but not really
trusted.
Men’s Names Women’s Names

Aldwin Acha
Alric Ælfwyn
Bercthun Cælin
Cædmon Cynwise
Eadfrid Eafa
Hunwald Eni
Oeric Enna
Osfrid Hengryn
Rægenhere Octa
Redwald Oslin
Saberct Osrede
Sighere Thrydfreda
Thrydwulf Wini
Wulfhere Wulfyn
• Ellemheld •
Character types
See Rules • Characters Over Time for ability descriptions.
Guardian
One of the elite warriors guarding Ellemheld
Don’t choose this if you have a low strength.
Choose 3 arms, 3 gear, 1 map or spell, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Hammerhands
Princess or Prince
Your father is Duke Ellemheld
Don’t choose this if you have both a low command and a low strength.
Choose 3 arms, 3 gear, 1 map or spell, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Tactician
Druid
You know the ways of magic and nature
Don’t choose this if you have a low arcane or a low perception.
Choose 3 gear, 3 spells, 1 arms or map, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Wild instincts
Priestess or Priest
You are a scholar of magic and wisdom
Don’t choose this if you have both a low command and a low perception.
Choose 3 maps, 3 spells, 1 arms or gear, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Initiation
Reeve
Ellemheld’s problem-solver and overseer
Don’t choose this if you have a low perception or a low skill.
Choose 3 gear, 3 maps, 1 arms or gear, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Empathy
Person of the wood tribes

A strange person from the woods, Ellemheld’s Good Neighbors
Don’t choose this if you have both a low Arcane and a low Skill
Choose 3 arms, 3 spells, 1 gear or map, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Archery skill: Fast Shot
Arms Spells
Battleaxe (3red, 2-handed) A guiding shadow
Breastplate & helmet (2blue) A warning vision
Broadsword (2red) Arrows of flame
Chainmail (2blue) Bath of healing light
Crossbow (2red, 2-handed) Lightnings at command
Flail (2red) Luck for warriors
Greatsword (3red, 2-handed) Passage unnoticed
Handaxe (2red) Sensitivity to magic
Longbow (3red, 2-handed, bulky) Shelter of vines
Mace (2red) Strength of ten
Polearm (3red, 2-handed)
Shield (2blue) People
Shortbow (2red, 2-handed) Uufa, a healer
Shortsword (1red) Stamos, a priest
Sling (1red, 2-handed) Amberjill, a priestess
Spear (2red) Birkken, a Magistrate
Staff (1blue & 1red, 2-handed) Ricberct, a thug
Throwing Daggers (1red) Hunuald, a guardsman
Cuichelm, an elder
Aelfledda, a weaponsmith
Gear
Euphrosyne, a trader
Climbing gear (rope, hook, spikes)
Bregesuid, a crafter
Dagger (1red)
Or invent one
Fine Clothing

Healer’s kit (bandages, liquor, salves)
Default
High Boots
Otherwise, everybody gets
Hooded Cloak common clothing, including
Jewelry shoes and hat (gear), lunch &
Leather Coat (1blue) trail snacks (gear), flint steel
Lockpicks & tinder, torches if called for
Mirror & lenses (gear), and local lore (map).
Money
Provisions
Pry bar
Thick gloves
Maps
Architectural drawings
Childhood memory
Familiar spirit
First-hand account
Legends, lore & myth
Magnetic compass
Spellbook
Star charts
Trade & travel map
Treasure map
• The Horsehall •
The Horsehall is a village of longhouses, the royal village of its tribe.

It’s located on a river high in craggy hills, amidst orchards and fine
pasturelands. The hills rise up to mountains behind the village, and on the
other side of the mountains is the sea. Make your way down from the hills
and gradually you’ll find yourself in scrubby moorland interspersed with
cultivated farming kingdoms and wild forests.
The wealth of the Horsetribe is, of course, its horses. They’re tough,
surefooted and fast, responsive to their riders, and not shy in battle. The
Horsetribe trades them and exchanges them as gifts to cement alliances.
The horsehall itself is a wooden palisade wall with six longhouses inside
it, arranged around a central fire pit and standing stone.
Wilder, stranger people live up in the mountains above the Horsehall,

sometimes coming down to trade; they keep shaggy little cows not much
tamer nor larger than mountain goats. The stories say that the wild
people’s grandparents were headhunters and cannibals, and that who
knows but the wild people will take those customs back up one day. The
people of the moorland below are grim and bitter; their grandparents
were driven from their fine farmland homes by foreign invaders and they
nurse the grudge. The invaders’ grandchildren are fat and pompous,
made prideful by their armies - ruthless, organized military units, unlike
the catch-as-catch-can warbands of the tribes - and by their alliances with
other, more distant kingdoms.
• 16 • Example Town • The Horsehall
The Horsehall is the royal village, where the queen of the Horsetribe
lives. Only about a hundred people live here, her family, her own personal
warriors and their families, her harpers and her priests. Everyone who
lives here has a voice in the tribe’s council, although the children and the
younger warriors are expected to defer to those older, wiser and more
experienced than they.
Men’s Names Women’s Names

Annan Aithne
Beacan Birkita
Carden Cary
Conall Emogene
Drostan Erlina
Gavain Fainya
Kembell Kaie
Mylor Kendry
Sayver Morna
Tach Newlyn
Tor Piskie
Tristan Saraid
Tuthall Shela
Weylin Unora
• The Horsehall •
Character types
See Rules • Characters Over Time for ability descriptions.
Young Warrior
You are a member of the Horsetribe’s queen’s personal warband, one of
the finest young warriors of your people.
Don’t choose this if you have a low strength or a low skill.
Choose 3 arms, 3 gear (and you must choose a horse), 1 map or spell, 1
from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Mounted Warrior. If you’re horseback, in every round of battle
your horse gives you your choice of 1 red, 1 blue, or 1 green die.
Harper
You’re a scholar of the Horsetribe, a keeper of its history and its lore.
Don’t choose this if you have both a low command and a low perception.
Choose 3 gear (and you must choose a harp), 3 maps, 1 arms or spell, 1
from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Tactician.
Swordmaiden
You’re a blessed priestess-warrior, favored by the ancestors of your
people and the goddess of battle.
Don’t choose this if you have a low arcane or a low strength.

Choose 3 arms, 3 spells, 1 gear or map, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Divine Protection. You get an additional blue die, always.
Ranger
You serve and defend the Horsetribe’s queen by scouting and hunting
the ranges of her domain.
Don’t choose this if you have a low perception or a low strength.
Choose 3 arms, 3 maps, 1 gear or spell, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Sword skill: Parrying.
Horsebound
You’re a princess or prince of one of the tribes, living at the Horsehall to
serve the queen and fulfill your tribe’s obligation to her.
Don’t choose this if you have both a low endurance and a low percep-
tion.
Choose 3 gear, 3 maps, 1 arms or spell, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Ability: Social Training.
Arms People
Broadsword (2red) Arland, the queen’s healer
Chainmail (2blue) Farrel, the horse-priest
Cudgel (2red) Ula, the winter priestess
Handaxe (2red) Kenn, the Lawteller
Longbow (3red, 2-handed, bulky) Treva, a swordmaiden
Shield (2blue) Caoimhe, the queen
Shortbow (2red, 2-handed) Caolan, the swordmaker
Shortsword (1red) Eadbald, a foreign trader
Sling (1red, 2-handed) Brietta, a crafter
Spear (2red) Or invent one
Staff (1blue & 1red, 2-handed)
Default
Gear Otherwise, everybody gets common
Climbing gear (rope, hook, spikes) clothing, including shoes and hat
Dagger (1red) (gear), lunch & trail snacks (gear),
Fine Clothing flint steel & tinder, torches if called
Healer’s kit (bandages, salves) for (gear), and local lore (map).
Hooded Cloak
Jewelry
Provisions
Pry bar

Thick gloves
Maps
Childhood memory
Familiar spirit
First-hand account
Spellbook
Star charts (memorized)
Trade & travel map
Treasure map
Spells
A guiding shadow
A warning vision
Arrows of flame
Bath of healing light
Lightnings at command
Luck for warriors
Passage unnoticed
Sensitivity to magic
Shelter of vines
Strength of ten
• GM •
• Creating Adventures •
Before every session of play, including the first, you need to create an
adventure.
An adventure is a set of monsters linked together by a common backstory.

The monsters must in some important way threaten the health, happiness
and success of the home town. Usually an adventure should include at
least three different monsters, and as a rule they should total up to at
least 11 XV. (XV means “experience value”: the more powerful a monster
is, the higher its XV.)
Sometimes I’ll refer to an adventure’s XV. An adventure’s XV just means

the total sum of its monsters’ XV.
Creating an adventure means creating all of its monsters, writing a para-

graph about their history and the threat to the home town they represent,
drawing a map or two, and thinking of some possible interesting treasures.
You’ll need a sheet of blank paper or two, some monster sheets, and a
pencil (colored pencils or markers optional).
There are a couple of example adventures at the end of this section, and
you can use one of them if you need to, but I strongly recommend that
you create your own.
Creating an Adventure
1. Create a monster. Follow the rules for making monsters in the next
chapter.
2. Make up a little backstory about how come it’s a problem for the
• 20 • GM • Creating Adventures
PCs’ home town now, when it wasn’t a problem two weeks ago. A few
sentences should do it.
3. Create new, related monsters to match your backstory. Follow the rules
for creating related monsters.
4. Keep going until you’ve created monsters totalling 11 or more XV. Stop
before your adventure totals 20 XV. (Adventures 20 XV and bigger belong
in level 2, not level 1.)
5. Write a sentence or two about what treasures the characters might find
during the adventure.
6. Draw a map or maps of the adventure’s featured locations.
For instance, (1) I create a serpent of water and metal. I write that (2)
the miners in town are refusing to work, because something down there
in the mine (the serpent) killed one of them and bit the leg off another.
It’s come into the mine because the miners opened a passageway into its
aquatic underground lair. Now it’s laying eggs in the mine and enslaving
the mine’s luck-spirits – so I (3) create two more monsters, the pools of
slime it lays its eggs in and the mine imps it’s mesmerized. With several
pools and a couple of groups of mine imps, (4) the whole lot comes to 12
XP. I figure that (5) the only real treasure in the adventure will be the mine
serpent’s carcass, of magical metal; everything else they’ll find in there
surely belongs to a miner or a miner’s family. Finally, (6) I draw a map of
the mine, and mark the mine’s location onto the map of the town.
Backstory
Your little backstories can be simply logistical, like the one about the mine
serpent. If you like, though, you can bring some real story in, involving
human conflicts and moral choices. Here’s an example:
Up in the highlands above town, the Hillclans’ feuding has gone really bad,
and it’s threatening to sweep down the river. It’s already messed up the
wool trade (the home town gets all its wool from the Hillclans). Here’s
what’s behind it: Thargood, a Hillclan king, let his son kidnap and forcibly
marry the daughter of Breka, queen of a neighboring clan. Normally this
would just be regular clan feud behavior, ultimately creating blood peace
between the clans, but Breka snapped. She’s summoned the Goddess of
Vengeance (a 10 XP fire and flesh monster aligned with the Spirit World),
and now the clans aren’t feuding, they’re exterminating one another.
The players’ characters aren’t obliged to resolve this underlying conflict

– just to fight monsters, like the game’s named – but once they’re up
there and they’ve dealt with the Goddess of Vengeance, they may decide
to solve it. Creating some of your adventures to have interpersonal or
moral conflicts underlying them can be good fun.
The Wizard and the Wizard’s Tower

Throughout level 1, while the players’ characters are fighting
monsters, drop hints about the wizard and the wizard’s tower.
Gradually reveal the wizard to be behind more and more of the
threats to the town, and have the PCs encounter more and more
people who know about and fear the wizard.
Pace it so that right about the time the group reaches level 2,
they realize just how big a problem the wizard is, and that there’s
no real solution but to storm the wizard’s tower.
Treasure
You need to consider two kinds of treasure: minor treasure like coins,
trade goods, and useful gear; and substantial treasure, which includes
magical items and materials, the opportunity to play new types of
characters, and alliances between the characters and powerful people in
the world. You need at most one substantial treasure for each full 10 XV
in your adventure, and minor treasures for the remainder – for instance,
a 15 XV adventure requires 1 substantial treasure and 5 minor treasures
– so shoot for that.
There’s an entire chapter later on about creating substantial treasures.

It’s a whole process, like creating a character or a monster (but shorter).
For now, you should have some likely treasures in mind and write yourself
a note or two, but don’t create them. Go through the treasure creation
process after the adventure, when you’ve seen what the characters have
found and what they’ve done with it. The reason is that you’re required to
give them a certain amount of treasure, no matter what happens, when
they finish the adventure. Remember the mine serpent, how I figure its
carcass is the best treasure in the adventure? Well, what if the characters
in play decide that the best way to deal with it is to sink it back in the black
water it came from? If I went through the treasure creation process now,
I’d be out all that work. Better to wait until you know.
See the section about creating treasure in the Between Adventures

chapter for more details.
Maps
Create maps like crazy.
When you create an adventure, create a master map to keep secret and
use for yourself. You can mark anything you want on it: hidden things,
ambushes, traps, secrets, notes to yourself – the works. Make sure it has
on it everything you’ll need to know.
Now, some of your players will have maps listed on their character sheets:
travel maps, architectural drawings, childhood memories, you know the
ones. You can use your master map as a reference to create these simpler
maps for them.
When you create a map for a player, remember the information it’s
supposed to convey, and go short on everything else. A map of a copper
mine, for instance, might show all the tunnels as straight, when your
detailed map shows their twists and turns. That’s because the map’s
intended to tell you when to turn left and when to turn right, NOT what
the tunnels are actually like. Same with a travel & trade map – it’s likely
to have numbers next to the roads to show how long they are, but be
utterly out of scale.
For the more arcane maps, like legends and memories and first-hand
accounts, just be prepared to make stuff up. You have the things you
need to communicate written out in front of you – the monsters and their
backstory, plus your own detailed master map – so all you need to do is
decide how to communicate them.
You can create some maps at the beginning of the adventure and give
them to the player right off, like “he points to the place on your travel
map where he saw the attack. Here’s your travel map, here’s where he
points.” Others, you can wait until the player uses it to create it. “You have
a childhood memory of this place? Well! Okay, here’s what you recall…”
When a player has her character consult a map, you’re allowed to say
no, too. “Nope, sorry, there’s no way you’d have a childhood memory /
architectural drawing / first-hand account of this place.” That’s a fair call
too.
Maps and adventures are linked. No matter what maps a player’s character
sheet lists, you shouldn’t create (or want to create, or need to create) a
map before you’ve created the adventure that calls for it.
Running the Adventure

To introduce the adventure, you need to do two things: show the players
and their characters how it’s threatening their town, and then show them
what direction the threat’s coming from.
Show, don’t tell! Use the townspeople, especially the ones listed on the
players’ character sheets. Put the problems in their mouths and their
actions, directed to the players’ characters, not directly from you to the
players:
Instead of working, the miners only sit around the town whispering with
each other. They think that Arguld (the one with his leg bitten off) is bad
luck, so they won’t even talk to him. The healer’s doing her best with him,
but when she’s alone with you [turning to one of the players] she says, “so
do you think he really is bad luck?”
Keep going like this, involving the players’ characters at every step, until
you’ve revealed just how serious the threat is, and how nobody’s going to
be able to solve it but them.
The more adventures they get under their belt, the more their reputation
will spread. Here are some people who can do things, who can protect
you, who can fight monsters and win. Use this to bring forward adven-
tures ranging wider and wider around the town – by the end of level 1,
the players’ characters wont be the heroes only of their own home town.
They’ll be the heroes of the whole district. They’ll be taking on monsters
who threaten not just their town, but all the neighboring towns as well
– and ultimately, it’ll be up to them to take on the wizard in his tower.
Anyway, after you’ve shown them the problem, step back and let the
players lead. Always be asking – what do you do? Where do you go? Now
what?
Here’s how it goes.
1. Something new is going seriously wrong for the town. Unchecked, it’ll
ruin us.
The miners won’t work, because something down there killed one of them
and bit another’s leg off. The trade in amber and wool down from the
highlands has dried up, because the Hillclans are butchering one another.
Something attacked the first copper barge out of the town in spring,
representing 4 solid months’ of the town’s wealth, and sank it in the river
in Swamp Folk lands.
2. The players’ characters are obviously the people in town upon whom
dealing with it falls. Who else, the miners? They won’t even go into the
mine. The fishwives? The barge-polers? The old men? If the players’
characters won’t take care of it, no one will, and it’ll keep getting worse.
Remember that the players’ characters aren’t zeroes, aren’t nobodies
hoping someday to be somebody. They’re already the standouts in the
town. They start the game bright, brave, and capable, and become
moreso.
3. The heroes follow up on the problem. Sometimes they follow tracks,

sometimes they talk to people, sometimes they lie in wait for the monster
to strike again. That’s up to them. As GM you don’t – can’t! – preplan what
they’ll do.
Sometimes the path from the threat to the town to fighting monsters is
just naturally short and straight. The thing biting the miners, for instance,
that’s not complicated. Go down there with torches and a map, hunt around
until it attacks you. But sometimes it’s not, there’s a little mystery, things
to discover, twists and turns along the way. Sometimes they’ll discover
that the problem isn’t – or isn’t just – what it seemed to be:
Men in Iron Armor have been raiding the Swamp Folk for slaves. They
sacrificed one of their daughter-queens to transform her into the Mother
Crow. The Mother Crow attacked and sank the barge, as she will attack
all outsiders who come into the Swamp Folk lands. She does not care,
plain does not care, that the PCs aren’t slavers, and frankly neither do the
Swamp Folk. Her only possible act is to attack and kill outsiders.
Unless they fight and defeat her, she’ll sink every copper barge they send
down the river, ruining the town.
Mystery
When an adventure includes a mystery, it’s not always obvious
how to run it. You need to give them all the cool information
you’ve created, but you also want to preserve the mystery and
create suspense. Here’s how, some things to do and things to
don’t.
Don’t lead them to the monster, clue to clue to clue. Don’t

prepare a trail of leads, or “this person tells you to talk to this
person who tells you to go to this place at midnight,” or whatever.
Don’t prepare a big reveal. When you run a mystery this way, first
of all, you’re the one solving it, not them. Also, you’re setting
yourself up for failure – what happens when they don’t follow
your carefully prepared trail? Or when they see through it, and
treat it as the manipulation it is? What if they predict your big
reveal instead of letting you deliver it?
Don’t! It’s a bad way to play this game. Instead, go now and read
the four foundational rolls in the chapter about dice. Whenever
you feel like you haven’t planned enough, read them again. If
you just play those rolls straight, especially the perception and
arcane rolls to notice and discover things, and the perception
and command rolls for interacting with people, they’ll give the
players the information they need, seamlessly and under their
control. That’s precisely what those rules are designed to do: let
the players, not you, solve the mysteries you create.
4. So yes, they do their best to solve the problem, defeat the monsters,
and deal with the threat to the town.
As GM – and this is important! – it’s your job to create a challenging

problem, and it’s absolutely not your job to solve it. Just tell them what
their characters see and hear, and play the Swamp Folk (for instance) and
your monsters according to their natural inner logic.
You don’t care how, or even whether, they find out the Crow Mother’s
backstory. You don’t care how, or even whether, they find her to fight her!
That’s their problem. All you know is, if they can’t figure out some way to
make her stop, she’ll keep sinking copper barges. As GM, that should be
cool with you, you shouldn’t mind one way or the other.
Practice saying it with me. “Hey, so the Crow Mother sinks all the town’s
copper barges from now on and the town falls into ruin? Cool with me.
Cool with me!”
Example Adventure
The Adventure of the Wolfwalkers
Two children have been stolen from the Horsehall: Carrol, 4, and Gwri,
7. Carrol is the queen’s cousin’s nephew, and Gwri is the son of a Horse-
bound princess of the Storktribe. They were returning from the low apple
orchards with Carrol’s mother, Brietta, in the dusk. Brietta suffered a
terrible mauling by tooth and claw, and crawled under the roots of a tree
for shelter; nobody found her until this morning. (This would be a good
opening scene: one of the players’ characters finding Brietta.) Arland the
healer says that perhaps worse than her torn flesh is the wound to her
spirit, her raw terror and fear for the children.
The attackers left tracks.
They were taken by wolfwalkers. Wolfwalkers are bogeymen to the people

of the moors below the Horsetribe’s land – a ghost story about a terrible
time in the moor people’s memory. The moor people were starving, and
so put their children on a raft and let them go down the river. The wolf-
walkers came back. Every generation, they come again, the story goes.
It turns out they’re real. It’s surprising that they’re up here in the hills, not
down in the moors, though.
Here’s what happened: the wolfwalkers did steal a child from the moor
people. So one riverwife of the moor people braved to confront them face
to face, and offered them the children of the Horsetribe instead, for the
taking.
The wolfwalkers make the stolen children into new wolfwalkers. They put
the stolen children into their hollow trees – that’s their “hearts,” their
human bodies. Their hearts are still alive; removed from the trees, not
destroyed, they’ll revert to human children.
See Rules • Rolling the Dice and Rules • Battle to see how this
adventure might play out.
Encounters
All of the monsters in this adventure appear among the example monsters
in GM • Creating Monsters, starting on page 38.
Wolfwalkers: the main encounter for this adventure is the hunting

group of three wolfwalkers. Since there are three of them together, this
encounter’s worth 12 XV.
The Riverbottoms: if the characters need to go find their hearts, they’re

here. This encounter’s worth 4 XV.
The Guardian Wolfwalkers: whom they might well encounter in the

riverbottoms. The two guardian wolfwalkers are Carrol and Gwri, newly
transformed. Since there are two of them, this encounter’s worth 2 XV.
The Moor People: there’s lots of good mystery in this adventure, so

I’m prepared to have them talk to the moor people. One Riverwife in
particular. So I name her Wenned. The moor people aren’t monsters so
they’re worth no XV.
Treasure
The adventure’s worth 18 XV total – a lot! – so I need to think about a
significant treasure and 8 minor treasures.
For the significant treasure, I’d dearly love to create a new character type
for treasure, “raised wolfwalker.” See Rules • Creating More for how I’d
do that. But I don’t know what the characters are going to do so I’m not
going to count on it. I could also give them a moor person new character
type or an alliance with the moor people, or maybe the wood from the
hollow trees has magical properties. Or, since the wolfwalkers are bound
by their word, they might even bind and keep one. How cool would that
be?
For minor treasure’s, there’s the gratitude of the moor people, the queen
and her cousin, and the accumulated goods of the wolfwalkers’ previous
victims.
Map
The map for this adventure is on page 79. There’s not much to it!
• GM •
• Creating Monsters •
An earlier version of these rules, adapted to old-school D&D, appears in
Fight On! magazine volume 2.
They’re all called “monsters,” indiscriminately, but you create every kind
of threat this way, including traps and dangerous locations.
Creating a monster means determining what materials it’s made of,

choosing its abilities, calculating its damage checkboxes and the dice
you’ll roll for it, giving it a weakness, and then writing a paragraph
describing it. You’ll need a monster sheet, a pencil, and dice.
To start, choose or roll (with a d12) two materials:
Natural materials
1. Bone / horn / teeth (3 endurance)
2. Fire (1 endurance)
3. Flesh (2 endurance)
4. Gas (1 endurance)
5. Glass (1 endurance)
6. Ice (2 endurance)
7. Metal (4 endurance)
8. Shadow (1 endurance)
9. Stone (4 endurance)
10. Water (1 endurance)
11. Wind (1 endurance)
12. Wood (3 endurance)
For your monster, choose endurance from either material, or else choose
an intermediate value.
• 26 • GM • Creating Monsters
The default monster

By default, your monster:
• Is worth 1 XV.
• Has damage checkboxes equal to its endurance.
• Has three abilities.
• Has one weakness.
• Rolls 5 white dice in battle (plus any red, blue and green dice it gets
for its abilities).
• Gets to make one attack per round. If it has any attack abilities, it
can use them; otherwise it makes only rudimentary attacks, with no red
dice.
• Gets to make one special move per round too, if it has any special
move abilities. A special move uses green dice.
This is the minimum monster. You can make your monster more powerful
than this – by increasing its endurance, its attacks, its special moves,
its dice, it’s abilities. A more powerful monster is worth more XV, one
additional XV for each ability you give it beyond the default 3.
Abilities
Once you have your monster’s two materials, select its abilities. Abilities
include general improvements, regular attacks, special attacks, and other
special abilities.
Select abilities freely from both of your materials’ lists, plus the list avail-
able to all materials. If you like, roll to select abilities (with a d4, d6 or d8,
depending on the list). A good way to get started is to roll the first one or
two abilities, then choose the rest.
By default, a monster gets 3 abilities. If you choose to give it more than

3, add +1XV for each over 3.
Furthermore, most of the abilities list improved effects in addition to their

standard effects. When you give a monster an ability, you can choose to
improve its effect, if you like. This adds to the monster’s XV. The ability’s
description will tell you what its improved effects are and how much XV
to add.
Bone / horn / Glass Water
teeth 1. Attack (Cut) 1. Big
1. Armor 2. Dazzle 2. Dazzle
2. Attack (Gore) 3. Jagged 3. Intangible
3. Attack (Rend) 4. Knock Down
4. Frighten Ice 5. Mesmerize
5. Jagged 1. Armor 6. Strangle
6. Knock down 2. Attack (Cut)
3. Big Wind
Fire 4. Bind 1. Attack (Batter)
1. Attack (Blast) 5. Jagged 2. Intangible
2. Attack (Burn) 6. Knock down 3. Knock down
3. Dazzle 4. Swarm
4. Frighten Metal
5. Intangible 1. Armor Wood
6. Swarm 2. Attack (Cut) 1. Armor
3. Attack (Impale) 2. Attack (Bludgeon)
Flesh 4. Big 3. Big
1. Attack (Brawl) 5. Bind 4. Bind
2. Attack (Grapple) 6. Jagged 5. Strangle
3. Big 6. Swarm
4. Frighten Shadow
5. Mesmerize 1. Drain Available to all
6. Poison 2. Frighten materials
7. Stealth 3. Intangible 1. +1 damage checkbox
8. Swarm 4. Mesmerize 2. +1 white die
5. Stealth 3. Additional attack
Gas 6. Swarm 4. Additional special move
1. Attack (Blast) 5. Suspense
2. Drain Stone 6. Terrain
3. Intangible 1. Armor
4. Poison 2. Attack (Bludgeon)
5. Strangle 3. Big
6. Swarm 4. Knock Down
Ability descriptions
+1 damage checkbox: The monster gets an additional damage
checkbox.
Improved effect: Additional damage checkboxes for +1XV each, to a

maximum of 5 additional damage checkboxes.
+1 white die: The monster rolls 6 white dice instead of 5.
Improved effect: For +2XV, the monster rolls 7 white dice.
Additional attack: The monster gets to make an additional attack each

round. For every attack it makes, roll a full set of red dice; roll and count
them separately.
Improved effect: It can make further additional attacks, for +1 XV each,

to a maximum of 6 attacks.
Additional special move: The monster can make an additional special

move each round. For every special move it makes, roll a full set of green
dice; roll and count them separately.
Improved effect: It can make further additional special moves, for +1 XV

each, to a maximum of 6. Don’t take this ability unless the monster has a
special move ability.
Armor: The monster’s armor gives it 2 blue dice.
Improved effect: It gets additional blue dice, for +1XV each, to a

maximum of 6 blue dice.
Attack (various): When it attacks with this ability, the monster rolls
2 red dice against its target. Specify the attack’s range now, when you
create the monster.
Improved effect: It gets additional red dice, for +1XV each, to a maximum
of 6 red dice.
Big: As in, really big. This monster gets 2 additional damage checkboxes,
+1 red die, and +1 blue die.
Improved effect: For +2XV, it’s really, really big. It gets another additional
damage checkbox, another +1 red die and another +1 blue die.
Bind (special move): The monster has some way to freeze, chain,
entangle, paralyze, or hold its foes in place. This can be physical, magical,
or psychological. It gets 2 green dice toward grappling its target, with a
binding strength equal to its success.
The binding happens in followthrough: if it succeeds, its target has to

make a roll vs the binding strength to escape. Choose now which stat its
target should roll: strength to break free of raw physical binding, arcane
to counterspell magical binding, command to overcome psychological
binding, skill to pick a lock, disable a trap or navigate a maze.
If the player wins the roll to escape, the character is free for the next
round. Otherwise, reduce the binding strength for the player’s hits, and
the character goes into the next round still bound. The player can roll
again in setup, instead of making any other setup move. If the player wins
the roll now, great, the character’s free; otherwise, again, reduce the
binding strength. The player keeps rolling – in action, in followthrough, in
the next setup, and so on – until the character finally escapes.
Improved effect: It gets additional green dice, for +1XV each, to a

maximum of 6 green dice.
Dazzle: The monster has some sort of power to distract, startle, mislead,
blind, or stun its enemies. Any character who attacks it, first have the
player has to make a perception setup roll vs 3, before her regular setup
move. If the player wins the roll, she gets her setup move and continues
as usual. Otherwise, she can still attack the monster, but she loses her
setup move, and each hit she fell short costs her a white die for the
round.
Improved effect: For each +1XV, it gets +1 to its side of the perception
roll, to a maximum of perception vs 6.
Drain (special move): The monster gets 2 green dice for a stat drain,
which happens in followthrough. If the monster hits a character with it,
it temporarily weakens her, reducing one of her stats by 1. Specify which
stat now, when you create the monster. The duration of the drain depends
on the monster’s success, 1 round for 1 hit. 4 hits = until the end of the
adventure. If the character gets drained down to stat=0, she’s out of the
fight.

mazimum of 6 green dice.
Frighten (special move): A monster with this ability is scary. The first
time a character attacks it in battle, the player needs to make a command
setup roll vs 3 in setup, before her regular setup move. If the player wins
the roll, she gets her setup move and continues as usual. Otherwise, she
can still attack the monster, but she loses her setup move, and each hit
she fell short costs her a white die for the entire duration of the battle.
In addition, the monster gets 2 green dice toward roaring, menacing or

intimidating a target; that target has to make the command setup roll
anew next round, vs the monster’s success.
If a character flees from a scary monster, the player gets +2 green dice
toward escaping.
Improved effect: For each +1XV, it gets +1 to its side of the command
roll, plus an additional green die for its special move and an additional
green dice for the flee bonus, to a maximum of command vs 6 and 4 green
dice.
Intangible: The monster is utterly immune to most normal weapons and
physical attacks. Magic weapons and spells with physical effects might or
might not hurt it, and more clever tactics may be highly successful, case
by case, according to your call.
No improved effect.
Jagged: Monsters with this ability have sharp, spiky protrusions that can
cut those who get too close. Whenever a character attacks the monster,
if the monster’s defense beats the player’s attack, the character takes 1
damage in followthrough.
Improved effect: For +1XV, the character takes 2 damage in

followthrough.
Knock down (special move): The monster gets 2 green dice toward
knocking its target over. At your option, can count any of its red hits as
green hits, instead of counting them for its attack. For its target, being
knocked down is a regular tactical constraint.

Mesmerize (special move): The monster can hypnotically control minds.
It gets 2 green dice toward mesmerizing a character. In the next setup,
the character’s player chooses one of these options:
• Submit. Have your character do what the monster wants. You get 1xp
for each of its green hits.
• Resist. Make a command roll vs its green hits. Each hit you fall short
costs you a white die for the round.

Poison: The monster’s attack is poisonous, toxic, corrosive or venomous.

If it has more than one attack, choose one of them. If it hits a character
with its poisonous attack, the player marks one damage from the attack
into an endurance roll checkbox, instead of into a still fighting checkbox.
Improved effect: If the monster has more than one attack, for +1XV all of
its attacks are poisonous.
Stealth: The monster ambushes the characters and attacks them by

stealth. Before joining battle, everyone has to make a perception roll (this
ability adds consequences to the perception roll ritual). Any player who
falls short of 3 hits, each hit short gives the monster +2 red dice against
that player, in action, in the first round of battle only. The monster gets to
choose its target or targets by this roll.
Improved effect: For each +1XV, it gets +1 to its side of the perception
roll, to a maximum of perception vs 6.
Strangle (special move): This monster has some way to get into your
lungs (gas, liquid, vines) and interfere with your breathing. The monster
gets 2 green dice for the attempt. If it hits a character, it does no damage,
but in the following setup the player has to make a strength, endurance,
or skill setup roll (as appropriate) vs its success, in lieu of a normal setup
move. Each hit the player scores over its success gives her one of her
white dice for the round; otherwise, the character can’t act at all. Each hit
the player falls short inflicts 1 damage.

Suspense: There’s something bad that might or might not happen in an

encounter with the monster. In followthrough in every round of battle,
have some or all of the players make a roll. If they win the roll, the bad
thing doesn’t happen, but if they lose the roll, it does.
There’s lots for you to detail up-front, right now. What’s the bad thing?
(It can be a rules thing, like a tactical constraint or extra damage, or it
can be all in the game’s fiction, like “the characters all fall asleep” or “the
character is suddenly transported back to the natural world.”) Do all the
players have to roll, or some of them, or just one? Which stat do they roll?
Are they rolling against one another (like “whoever rolls the fewest hits”),
against some number already in the battle (like “the roll has to beat the
monster’s attack”), or some arbitrary number (like “everyone who rolls 2
or fewer hits”)?
You can even forego the additional stat roll and have the badness depend
on something else that might or might not happen. “If the monster rolls
3 or more sixes amongst its hits,” for instance, or “if any character steps
up onto the platform.”
This ability is for when you already have a vision for something like this for
your monster. If you don’t, if you’re just idly considering, better to choose
a different ability.
No improved effect.
Swarm: Instead of making some specified number of attacks in a round,

the monster gets to make an attack against each enemy it can reach. If
the monster has more than one attack ability, choose now whether it can
attack each enemy with whichever attack it chooses, or if it has to make
the same attack against them all. Either way, for each attack it makes,
roll a complete set of red dice; roll and count them separately. If you’re
creating a collective monster – a swarm of undead wasps, for instance
– use Swarm to represent its many individuals’ own attacks.
Alternate effect: Instead of making some specified number of special

moves in a round, the monster gets to make a special move against each
enemy it can reach. For each special move it makes, roll a complete set of
green dice; roll and count them separately.
Improved effect: For +1XV, it gets to make both an attack and a special
move against each enemy it can reach.
Terrain: The monster’s not a monster but a place. Say which stat
the characters can use to traverse it. Strength to hack through vines,
endurance to cross vast dunes or swim through a tunnel underwater,
skill to go along a narrow slippery ledge, perception to navigate a maze,
etc. The monster’s damage checkboxes are called traversal checkboxes
instead, and it gets two rows: individual traversal and group traversal.
The monster gets a number of individual traversal checkboxes precisely
as it would get damage checkboxes. Then, by default the monster gets
twice as many group traversal checkboxes.
Improved effect: For +2XV, it gets three times as many group traversal
checkboxes as individual traversal checkboxes.
For the players, marking traversal checkboxes means that their characters
make progress through the terrain. If a player marks individual traversal
checkboxes, that means that her character alone makes progress; if she
marks group traversal checkboxes, that means that her character helps
the entire group make progress.
Creating effective encounters

I found that I had to play the game through 2 or 3 adventures
before I’d learned how to create and play a good, effective
monster. It’s not always obvious how the choices you make
will work out in action. It’s even less certain when you combine
monsters together in an encounter. The best way – the only way!
– to learn is to really play, to make choices and see how they
work out. I can give you some pointers, though:
• Avoid extra attack abilities. If your monster gets to make only

one attack, it doesn’t need both attack (stab) and attack (slash).
Just choose one.
• Going for the first extra white die is more XV-efficient than
improving an ability, usually. Going for the second extra white die
might be, it depends on your intent.
• Big and swarm are both very XV-efficient abilities. A big

swarm? That’s serious.
• In any encounter, you need enough attacks to go around. If

your monsters can’t attack everyone, choosing who they do
attack is a big deal, it’ll make or break the encounter for you.
(Attacking the warrior’s probably not your best choice, if you can
focus on who’s vulnerable.)
• Go for related ability combos. Drain is great for this: drain

endurance + poison, drain command + mesmerize.
• Think long-term! For instance, you can use a drain combo to

have one monster set another up well: a monster with drain
perception, followed later by a monster with stealth or dazzle. If
other encounters come between, so much the better.
• Remember terrain, too. Putting a monster in a dangerous lair

will divide the characters’ strengths more effectively than two
regular monsters will, because of how the rules for traversing
terrain work. Think about it: would you rather fight a brooding
pair of fire drakes, or fight a single fire drake while inching your
way along a treacherous rock ledge?
Weakness
Give your monster a weakness:
1. Can be contained
2. Emotionally attached
3. Harmed by something innocuous
4. Inanimate
5. Sees red
6. Slow-moving
7. Subject to outside forces
8. Very stupid
9. Vulnerable to an attack
10. Weak spot
Can be contained: If the characters can figure out how, they can contain
the monster. Decide now at least one way they might realistically do it. In
play, be open to other ways, if they make sense.
Examples: a wind that can be trapped in a bottle, a monstrous bird that

can be mesmerized by something shiny, a hypnotic flesh-eating mermaid
that can become fixated upon her own reflection.
Emotionally attached: There’s someone or something that the monster

loves, worships, serves, or depends upon. Threatening, controlling, or
winning over this person or thing would give the characters substantial
power over the monster. Decide now who or what it is.
Examples: a giant wolf that’s the devoted pet of the Storm-king’s little
son, a wizard’s guardian spirit, an undersea troll-mother who loves her
brutish son.
Harmed by something innocuous: There’s some common, harmless

thing that inflicts harm upon the monster. Even slight, momentary contact
does 1 damage; forcing the monster into prolonged contact with it can
destroy it outright. Decide now what it is.
Examples: a warrior of ice harmed by salt, a warrior of fire harmed by

water, a creature of shadow harmed by sunlight, an animate corpse easily
laid to rest by religious ceremony.
Inanimate: The monster doesn’t think, move, notice, or react. It won’t

change its tactics to match the characters’ at all.
Examples: a row of crossbows attached to a tripwire, a magically-created

but insensate whirlwind made of knives, most terrain.
Sees red: There’s some common thing or some easy action that consis-
tently provokes and distracts the monster. It’ll dedicate itself to having,
destroying, or avoiding that thing, over any of its other interests. Decide
now what it is.
Examples: a monstrous bull and anything red, a craven ghoul who can’t
stand being stared at, a bestial giant lulled by sweet music.
Slow-moving: The monster can’t cover ground quickly, if at all. Charac-

ters can use this to their advantage, as a tactical constraint.
Examples: a grinding stone gargantua, a vicious – but rooted – animate

tree, a rising flood of corrosive fluid.
Subject to outside forces: The monster’s not entirely under its own
power, not entirely capable of carrying out its own will. If the characters
can manipulate the forces it’s subject to, they gain power over it.
Examples: a toxic cloud blown by the wind, a monstrous dog on a chain

leash, a guardian spirit given inflexible commands by its summoner.
Very stupid: Just about any attempt to trick or misdirect the monster
will succeed. The characters can use this to their advantage, as a tactical
constraint or outside of battle.
Examples: a lumbering dim-witted troll, an animate scarcrow with scythe

blades for hands and sawdust for brains, a gaunt nightmare who must
count every grain of spilled salt or gather every scattered broomstraw.
Vulnerable to an attack: Some particular attack inflicts substantial

extra damage upon the monster – 2 checkboxes’ damage for every hit.
Decide now what kind of attack.
Examples: a monster of glass vulnerable to clubs and maces, an animate

thorn-tree vulnerable to axes, a wooden statue brought to life and vulner-
able to torches and fire.
Weak spot: The monster has a spot on its body where it’s vulnerable.
If a character knows about it and tries to hit it just there, that counts
as “fighting while ___,” so the player should declare and roll in setup
accordingly. The player does damage for her action’s success – her green
hits – as well as for her attack.
Examples: a steam-driven construct vulnerable in its soft leather vents,

an armored warrior vulnerable in its helmet’s eye slits, an enormous
scaled worm vulnerable in its fleshy gills.
Don’t get attached

Don’t get attached to your monsters. They’re going to get
massacred!
There’s a certain discipline you need if you’re a GM for Storming

the Wizard’s Tower. You need to make yourself an impartial ref.
You create these monsters not to beat the players and their
characters, but to find out who’ll win. And just so you know, the
playing field’s not even. When the players’ characters beat the
monsters, they’ll kill them like crazy. When the monsters beat
the characters, though, the monsters will still die! It’s just that
they’ll die expensively, they’ll use up the players’ characters’
resources and force them into bad positions.
So, play your monsters hard and fair, but don’t allow yourself to
prefer that they win or prefer that they lose.
The best way I know to do this is to create conceptual monsters,

not competitive ones. That is, when you roll some materials and
start looking at abilities and thinking about backstory, an idea for
a monster is going to jump into your head. Create that monster.
Make it as powerful and effective as you can, but stick within the
constraints of your vision of it. Don’t give it abilities it wouldn’t
really have, no matter how competitive those abilities are. Then
in play, have the monster do what it naturally would do, not
necessarily what would make it win.
For instance, it’s tempting to give every monster you can the
swarm ability. It’s a great ability! But really, give it only to
monsters who can swarm. A four-armed giant should get to make
four attacks per round, it should’t get to swarm.
Description
Write a paragraph describing your monster, including its place in the
adventure. For most monsters, all you need is a sentence or two describing
it physically, another sentence or two describing its habits, and a third
sentence or two about how it’s threatening the town or how it relates to a
monster that is. However, if you’re doing quirky, limited, tricky, or unusual
things with the monster’s abilities, be sure to describe them too.
When you create a trap as a monster, fully describe how to trigger it and
how to disarm it.
Example monsters
Wolfwalker
A nightmare beast-person, 5 feet tall, hunched but powerfully built, with
a wolf’s muzzle and terrible claws.
Materials: Teeth, Shadow; Endurance: 3
Abilities: Attack (rend), improved x2 (+2 XV)
Intangible (hide their hearts in hollow trees, only fire hurts them)
Stealth
+1 white die (+1 XV)
Weakness: Can be contained (they’re bound by their word)
Damage: □ □ □
White: 6
Red: 4 (rend)
Blue: 0; Green: 0
Setup: Stealth, to ambush

Followthrough: none
4 XV
Mine serpent
A big aquatic snake made out of glossy metal and slime.
Materials: Metal, Water; Endurance: 4
Abilities: Armor, improved x2 (+2 XV)
Attack (cut)
Big, improved (+2 XV)
Jagged (+1 XV)
Weakness: Weak spot (pry apart its scales, the slime of its inner body
pours out)
Damage: □ □ □ □ □ □ □
White: 5
Red: 4 (cut)
Blue: 6
Green: 0
Setup: none
Followthrough: Jagged. Attackers who don’t beat its defend take 1
damage.
6 XV
Nefr Seba
A sorcerous reflection of a stunning woman, visible in a beautiful glass
mirror from another land.
Materials: Glass, Shadow; Endurance: 1
Abilities: +1 white die, improved (+2 XV)
Dazzle (her beauty), improved (+1 XV)
Drain Command
Mesmerize
Weakness: Emotionally attached (to her mirror)
Damage: □
White: 7
Red: 0; Blue: 0
Green: 2 (drain) or 2 (mesmerize) (only one per round)
Setup: Dazzle. Command roll vs 3; characters who fall short lose white
dice. Command, not perception, just because.
Mesmerize. A mesmerized character chooses to give in (for XP =
success) or resist vs success.
Followthrough: none
4 XV
Summer Drake
A flying fire drake, slight and beautiful, greedy for shiny things.
Materials: Fire, Wind; Endurance: 1
Abilites: +1 damage checkbox, improved (+1 XV)
Attack (blast)
Dazzle
Weakness: Sees red (helplessly attracted to shiny things)
Damage: □ □ □
White: 5
Red: 2 (blast) (attacks everyone)
Blue: 0; Green: 0
Setup: Dazzle. Perception roll vs 3; characters who fall short lose white
dice.
Followthrough: none
2 XV
Creating related monsters
When you’re creating an adventure, you create a set monsters related to
each other by the same one backstory. Here are different ways you can
create them, depending on the backstory’s details.
The same-but-moreso or same-but-less-so method

Don’t roll or choose new materials, just switch up and add to, or subtract
from, the original monster’s abilities.
Here’s a same-but-less-so version of the wolfwalker:

Guardian Wolfwalker
A young wolfwalker, newly transformed and left to guard the lair.
Materials: Teeth, Shadow; Endurance: 3
Abilities: Attack (rend),
Intangible (hide their hearts in hollow trees, only fire hurts them)
Stealth
Weakness: Can be contained (they’re bound by their word)
Damage: □ □ □
White: 5
Red: 2 (rend)
Blue: 0, Green: 0
Setup: Stealth, to ambush
Followthrough: none
4 XV
The choose-then-roll method
Choose one of the original monster’s materials for this monster to have
too, then roll a new second material.
Here’s another monster to go with the wolfwalkers. I chose Shadow and

rolled Wood, so decided to create their lair:
The Riverbottoms
The shadowy, swampy forest where the wolfwalkers keep their hearts.
Materials: Shadow, Wood; Endurance: 3
Abilities: Big
Armor
Suspense (see below)

Swarm (+1 XV)
Terrain (traverse with perception) (+1 XV)
+1 damage (traversal) checkbox (+1 XV)
Weakness: Inanimate
Individual Traversal: □ □ □ □ □ □
Group Traversal: □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
White: 5
Red: 1 (does no damage – see suspense below)
Blue: 3
Green: 0
Setup: none
Followthrough: suspense
Suspense: In followthrough, everybody has to make a skill roll to stay
quite. Failure means that the guardian wolfwalkers discover the charac-
ters and attack. Instead of doing damage, the riverbottoms hinder these
skill rolls – the players need more hits than the damage the riverbot-
toms would have done.
4 XV
The roll-then-choose method
Roll a new material for this monster, then choose a second new material
to go with it. Choose one that creates an interesting link between the
monsters, but it doesn’t have to be one that the original monster has.
Here’s a monster to go with the mine serpent. I chose metal and rolled
wind, so I decided to make a mine spirit:
Corrupt Breath-of-the-mine
Breath-of-the-mine is a lucky spirit who brings fresh air to the miners,
now enslaved by the mine serpent.
Materials: Metal, Wind; Endurance: 3
Abilities: Armor
Attack (batter)
Knock down
Swarm (+1 XV)
Weakness: Very Stupid
Damage: □ □ □
White: 5
Red: 2 (batter)
Blue: 2
Green: 2
Setup: none
Followthrough: Knock down
2 XV
The choose-both method
The reason to roll for materials at all is to spark your creativity when
you don’t have a monster in mind. When you do have a monster in mind,
there’s no need to roll. Just choose!
Here’s another monster to go with the mine serpent:

Slime Pool
The mine serpent has layed her eggs in pools of toxic slime throughout
the mine.
Materials: Gas, Water; Endurance: 1
Abilities: Attack (blast) (actually its clouds of fumes)
Drain endurance
Intangible (can be hurt only by fire)
Knock down (+1 XV)
Poison (+1 XV)
Weakness: Vulnerable to fire
Damage: □
White: 5
Red: 2 (blast)
Blue: 0
Green: 2 (knock down)
Setup: none
Followthrough: Knock down and poison both.
3 XV
• GM •
• Leading Character Creation •
You’ve created your town, you’ve created your first adventure. It’s time to
get the rest of your group together and start play.
But first
Read through the rest of this book, if you haven’t. You need to have a
pretty good grasp of how the dice work, in and outside of battle, for
instance, even to help the players make their characters. Making char-
acters is quick enough that you’ll probably be playing in half an hour, so
you’ll want to be, you know, ready for that.
You can skim the chapters about what happens between adventures
– you’ll need to know that stuff after you play for real, a skim will do
for now – but read the chapters about what happens in play good and
carefully.
Making characters
Introduce your town. Hand out your town material, at least the maps,
the character type sheets, and the lists. Don’t hand out your written
paragraphs, anybody who reads them is just taking up time, but tell
everybody what they say. It’s better if you just tell them, but if you prefer
to read the paragraphs out that’s okay too.
• 38 • GM • Leading Character Creation
Be sure to emphasize these 4 points:
• The players’ characters live in the town, they aren’t strangers, drifters
or outsiders.
• The players’ characters aren’t lowly nobodies, they’re the town’s boldest
and most capable. It’s natural for the town to turn to them for help.
• The town’s a good place to live, thriving and happy overall.
• The town isn’t isolated, it’s connected to its neighbors, and they to
theirs, and they to theirs, ultimately North to South and East to West over
three entire continents.
Fill up the character sheets. Hand character sheets around. Lead the
players in working through them, point by point, following the rules for
making characters:
First, roll stats.

• Roll a die and write it on the line.
• Highest roll, write a 6 in the box. In case of a tie, choose one.
• Lowest roll, write a 3 in the box. In case of a tie, choose one.
• All the rest, 1 = 3, 2-3 = 4, 4-5 = 5, 6 = 6.
• Emphasize: when you roll, roll the number in the box. The number in
the box is your stat. The number on the line is your “stat base.”
Second, choose character types.
• Help the players read their stats to narrow their choices, as they need.
Third, calculate damage checkboxes.
• You get “still fighting” checkboxes equal to your endurance, and
“endurance roll” checkboxes equal to your endurance too.
• While you’re here, explain how to mark damage: left to right, “still
fighting” boxes first, “endurance roll” boxes after, with the roll required.
Fourth, choose belongings, people, and personal information.
• Keep the lists circulating, and help out anyone who seems stuck.
Hand someone the group sheet. Choose whoever’s done with her char-
acter first, for instance. That player’s responsible for listing everybody’s
names and their characters’ names.
Have everyone introduce their characters. Ask questions and fill in

details; you should participate as much as you can. Always be responding
actively and with enthusiasm, not critically: say “ooh!” and “cool!” to good
ideas, and say “explain that a little more” and “ooh, yes, and how about
___, does that seem cool to you?” to weak ideas. Never shoot anybody
down or reject their ideas, just work with them to make everything fit
together well.
Be sure to ask questions and fill in details about the people they’ve listed
on their character sheets, too. Those people are an important part of your
• 39 • GM • Leading Character Creation

town, so give them the attention they deserve.
Share the game. This is true when you lead the players in making their
characters, and it’s true from now on. Being the GM means that, like,
you’re bringing the ball to the game. Even though it’s your ball, it’s not
your game. It’s everybody’s! Give everybody their fair turn to play.
When everybody plays together equally, knowing and following the rules,
it doesn’t matter that you have different responsibilities than they do.
You’ll all have fun, and you’ll create exciting adventures together that you
can enjoy and be proud of.
Introduce the adventure, and you’re on

your way.
• Players •
• Creating Characters •
Grab a character sheet, a pencil, and a die (any color), and dive in!
First, roll your stats.

The stats are arcane, command, endurance, perception, skill, and
strength.
Roll a die for each stat, in order. Write the number on the line, not in the
box.
1. Find your highest number. In the box, write 6. If you have a tie, choose
one.
2. Find your lowest number. In the box, write 3. If you have a tie, choose
one.
3. Go through the rest of your stats. If the number on the line is a 1, write
3 in the box; if it’s a 2 or 3, write 4 in the box; if it’s a 4 or 5, write 5 in
the box; and if it’s a 6, write 6 in the box.
Sometimes you’ll get a weird set of rolls. That’s fine, just follow the rules
in order.
From now on, by the way, “your stat” means the number in the box,
and “your stat base” means the number on the line. You use only your
stat, only the number in the box, in play, but you use your stat base, the
number on the line, when you make changes to your character.
• 40 • Players • Creating Characters
Second, choose your character type.

By now, your GM should have told you about your characters’ home town
and given you writeups of the character types you can choose from.
Choose one now, based on your stats and on which type seems fun and
interesting.
You’ll have the opportunity to play other character types too later on, so
no need to agonize.
Just copy down all the information for your character type: how many of
which kinds of things you get for belongings, and your character ability.
Third, figure your damage checkboxes.

Your endurance stat (the number in the box!) tells you how much damage
your character can survive. When an enemy lands a blow, you have to fill
in damage checkboxes. You get two rows of damage checkboxes: first,
“still fighting” checkboxes, second, “endurance roll” checkboxes. Each
row gets a number of checkboxes equal to your endurance.
All you have to do on your character sheet is count out a number of

checkboxes equal to your endurance, starting from the left, and scribble
out any left over. Do it for both rows.
If you have a character ability that affects your damage checkboxes,

remember to take it into account.
Taking damage is spelled out in Rules • Battle.

Fourth, choose your belongings, people, and personal
information.
Your character type tells you how many belongings you get from each list
of things. Just go through and choose what seems right.
Choose your person or people (depending on your character type) from

the list of townspeople.
Choose your character’s name from the list of names, and say a few
general details about your character: how old, male or female, maybe a
few words about looks, family, home, or duties.
That’s it! Go play.

Making characters after your first
As you play, sometimes you’ll start a session by making a new character.
When that happens, follow the same rules, except:
• You might have new character types to choose from.
• If you need to create a character to fill a particular role, don’t roll for
all the stats. Instead, write a 6 on one stat’s line, of your choice; write
a 1 on another stat’s line, of your choice, and roll straight for the other
four stats.
• Add a fifth step:
Fifth, figure and spend experience.
• 41 • Players • Creating Characters

After the game’s underway, all new characters get some experience to
start with, so they don’t start out too far behind. How many XP they get is
based on the adventures of the group so far. Look at the group XP on your
group sheet. You get half that many XP (round up for odd numbers).
You can spend as much of it as you want now, before you put your
character into play. Save the rest to spend later.
If you have more than one character, you get to choose which char-
acter you’re going to play, adventure to adventure. You can wait to choose
until the GM has shown you the threat to the town.
• Players •
• Descriptions & Details •
These are sort of basic lists of many of the things that’ll generally be
available to you. However, the specific lists of the things that are actually
available to you are up to your GM to create. If you choose something
from your GM’s lists and it’s not described here, ask your GM for details
about it. If you want something from this list, but it’s not on your GM’s
lists, you can’t have it!
Arms
Battleaxe (3red, 2-handed)
Breastplate, helmet & greaves (2blue)
Broadsword (2red)
Chainmail (2blue)
Crossbow (2red, 2-handed)
Cudgel (2red)
Flail (2red)
Greatsword (3red, 2-handed)
Handaxe (2red)
Heavy Crossbow (3red, 2-handed, bulky)
Longbow (3red, 2-handed, bulky)
Mace (2red)
Polearm (3red, 2-handed)
Shield (2blue)
• 42 • Players • Descriptions & Details
Shortbow (2red, 2-handed)

Shortsword (1red)
Sling (1red, 2-handed)
Spear (2red)
Staff (1blue & 1red, 2-handed)
Throwing Daggers (1red)
Gear
Climbing gear (rope, hook, spikes)
Dagger (1red)
Fine Clothing
Healer’s kit (bandages, scissors, liquor, salves)
High Boots
Hooded Cloak
Jewelry
Lantern
Leather Coat (1blue)
Lockpicks
Mirror & lenses
Money
Provisions
Pry bar
Spectacles
Thick gloves
Maps People (level 1: townsfolk)
Architectural drawings Healer
Childhood memory Priest
Familiar spirit Priestess
First-hand account Magistrate
Legends, lore & myth Thug
Magnetic compass Guardsman
Spellbook Elder
Star charts Weaponsmith
Trade & travel map Trader
Treasure map Crafter
Or invent one
Spells
A guiding shadow Default
A warning vision Otherwise, everybody gets common
Arrows of flame clothing, including shoes and hat (gear),
Bath of healing light lunch & trail snacks (gear), flint steel &
Lightnings at command tinder, torches if called for (gear), and
Luck for warriors local lore (map).
Passage unnoticed

Shelter of vines
Strength of ten
Descriptions & Details: Arms

Maybe you want chainmail and a shield, or a sword plus a dagger in your
off hand. That’s fine.
Whenever you double up armor or weapons that way, the first one gives
you its full dice, and each additional one gives you only one die. For
example:
Chainmail plus a shield: 2blue + 1blue = 3blue.
Chainmail under plates, plus a shield: 2blue + 1blue + 1blue = 4blue.
A broadsword plus a dagger: 2red + 1red = 3red.
A dagger in each hand: 1red + 1red = 2red.
A leather coat plus a staff: 1blue + 1red & 1blue = 2blue & 1 red.
If you have only two hands, you can’t double up beyond your two hands’
worth. You can carry more weapons than you can use at a time, of
course, but even if you have them, you still can’t use them all at once.
For example:
A greatsword plus a shield: not legit.
A longbow plus a dagger: not legit.
A shortsword, another shortsword, and a crossbow: not legit.
Descriptions & Details: Gear
Tools do two things.
First, they let your characters do things they couldn’t do otherwise. For
instance, a pry bar lets your character force open a door or lever up a
big stone; lockpicks let your character pick locks; provisions let your
character eat on long journeys.
Second, they give you an extra die or two to roll when you have your
character use them. For instance, if the GM decides that you should make
a strength roll to force open the door, a skill roll to pick the locks, and an
endurance roll to survive the journey, the pry bar, the lockpicks, and the
provisions will give you an additional die or two.
The general rule is, if your character’s using it for what it’s good for,
you get two dice, but if your character’s using it for something it’s not
intended for, you get only one die.
Description & Details: Maps

Architectural drawing
Good as a map, extra good for spotting hidden doors or unusual architec-
tural elements.
Childhood memory
Can serve as a (not great) substitute for legends, lore & myth. If your
childhood is directly relevant to your current adventure, can serve as
a perfectly good substitute, and also a perfectly good substitute for
first-hand accounts, architectural drawings, maps, familiar spirits, and
whatever else, as well as a source for green dice for all kinds of percep-
tion, arcane, even skill or command rolls.
Familiar spirit
A guardian ghost, a companion spirit, your ethereal self, the eyes in the
back of your head. Make a command roll to set up any perception roll; its
hits become green dice.
First-hand account
Someone told you specifically about this. Green dice for perception,
arcane, and possibly skill or command.

You know the stories, where they came from, what they mean, and how
they vary. This can let the GM give you straight information, or it can be
a source for green dice for perception, arcane, and sometimes command
or skill rolls.
Magnetic compass
Magnetic compasses, like you’d expect, tell you what direction’s what and
they give you green dice to keep from getting lost.
Spellbook
A spellbook holds your spells and gives you 1 green die whenever you
cast one of them. A spellbook can be a book or scroll or whatever, but
it can also be a potion, staff, wand, amulet, fetish, tattoo, familiar spirit
(which may or may not also be a familiar spirit as above), salve, ritual,
relic, whatever.
Star charts
Star charts don’t just tell you where the stars are. They chart the stars’
influences on the world, and by observing the stars and comparing them
with your charts you can see what immediate influences are prevailing
against them. They act as a spellbook for casting sensitivity to magic,
and you can use them to discover magical effects even if you can’t cast
the spell. Furthermore, you can use them as a travel & trade map of the
spirit world.
Trade & travel map

A good travel map will get you where you’re going, with a minimum of
grief along the way. It may also serve as a letter of introduction – “Arguld
the wool merchant gave me this map, he recommended I seek you out.”
Use it for green dice to avoid getting lost or mistreated.
Treasure map
A treasure map is better than an architectural drawing for showing hidden
things – it’ll have notations on it like “do not step on the protruding brick”
and “shine light into the alcove to reveal the keyhole” – but not as good
as a trade & travel map for getting you there.
Descriptions & Details: Spells

If you have only one or two spells, just copy them onto your character
sheet somewhere. If you have three or more, use the back or a blank
sheet, or grab a spell sheet if there is one. Copy as much as you think
you’ll need, but be sure to copy the checkboxes over, they’re the most
important part.
A guiding shadow
The spirit world. Medium: entity; effect: revelation.
Range: self.
□ _ _ _ no miscast
Revelation: □ □ □ □ □ □ decision points
When you cast the spell, tell the shadow what you’re seeking. It will lead
you toward it, giving you guidance at any decision points you come to,

one decision point per revelation hit. The spell ends when you reach the
thing or when the shadow has used up all your revelation hits.
A warning vision
The gods. Medium: vision; effect: revelation.
Range: self.
Revelation: □ impression □ □ □ □ □ +detail
For example: Impression: “you get the impression that there’s some-
thing circling you in the darkness.” Details: “it’s a pack of 4 creatures
(1), like wolves but your vision shows you teeth and claws made of
brass(2). They’re protecting their territory (3).”
Arrows of flame
The elements. Medium: material (fire); effect: attack.
Default range: nearby
Range: □ an arrow’s flight
Damage: □ □ □ □ □ □ damage
Each damage hit does 1 damage to someone within range. Divvy out the
damage as you choose.

The household. Medium: light; effect: healing
Range: nearby; subjects: variable.
Healing: □ □ □ □ □ □ damage
Each hit in healing heals 1 damage from 1 target. Divvy out the healing
as you choose.
Lightnings at command
The elements. Medium: light (lightning), far-ranged; effect: attack.
Default range: nearby.
Range: □ an arrow’s flight □ within sight
Each damage hit does 1 damage to someone within range. Divvy out the
damage as you choose.
Luck for warriors

The household. Medium: luck; effect: advantage (red and/or blue dice).
Range: self; timing: per round.
Advantage: □ □ □ +2red
Advantage: □ □ □ +2blue
When you cast the spell, assign your advantage hits to +2red or +2blue.
Thereafter, in battle, each round spend one – exactly one – of your
advantage hits to add 2 red or 2 blue dice to your roll. The spell ends
when you’ve spent them all.
Passage unnoticed
The wilds. Medium: changes; effect: deception.
Range: self.
Deception: □ □ □ □ □ □ subjects
Each hit prevents one person from noticing you passing nearby, once.
The spell doesn’t end until you’ve affected all the subjects you can.
The senses. Medium: sensation; effect: revelation.
Range: nearby.
revelation: □ detect □ identify □ □ □ □ +detail

For example: Detect: “yes, there’s magic nearby, in the ruins.” Identify:
“it’s a magical creature aligned with the spirit world.” Details: “it’s a
creature of flesh (1) and shadow (2), and someone summoned it, it’s not
natural (3).”
Shelter of vines
The household. Medium: plant; effect: protection.
Area: nearby; default duration: no time; default protection: none.
Duration: □ 1hr □ 12hr □ 24hr
Protection: □ alarm □ hinder (-2white) □ prevent
For the spell to have any effect, you must put at least one hit in both
duration and protection.
Alarm: the shelter of vines will alert you to anyone’s approach. Hinder:
the shelter of vines gives -2 white dice to anyone trying to fight their
way in. Prevent: the shelter of vines simply prevents anyone from
coming in.
Strength of ten
Self-transformation. Medium: change; effect: stat bonus (strength)
Range: self; default strength bonus: none; default duration: no time.
Strength bonus: □ +1 □ +2
Duration: □ □ □ □ rounds
For the spell to have any effect, you must put at least one hit in both
Strength bonus and duration.
Descriptions & Details: People
When you choose a person, it’s your responsibility to describe your
character’s relationship with that person. Choose one of these:
Blood brother or sister;
Comrade at arms or partner;
Close childhood friend;
Cousin;
Daughter or son;
Estranged sibling;
Former comrade or partner;
Parent;
Rival;
Sibling;
Student;
Teacher;
Wife or husband.

• Rules •
• The Basics •
In Scrabble, what you do is take turns drawing tiles and playing words
onto the board. In Eat Poop You Cat, what you do is alternate writing
sentences for the next player to illustrate and illustrating the previous
player’s sentences. In Charades, one of you stands and acts things out,
and the rest of you try to guess what.
In Storming the Wizard’s Tower, here’s what you do.
The players’ basics

Whenever it seems like it’s your turn to talk, or when you feel like you
want to say something, choose one of these and do it:
• Say where your character goes or what your character does.
• Speak in your character’s voice. Use your hands, face, voice and words;
act like your character would.
• Ask the GM where your character is now.
• Ask the GM what your character sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels.
• Ask the GM leading questions about what’s around your character.

(“Does a servant come by? Is there a tree I could climb? Do I recognize
the woman?”)
• Ask the GM whether your character would know anything about [what-
ever you’re interested in].
• Look for opportunities to roll dice. For instance, choose a map or a tool
from your character sheet, one that you think might help your character,
and say that your character consults or applies it.
• Make decisions about your character’s appearance, history, outlook,

whatever people are asking about.
• 48 • Rules • The Basics
Choose freely! The only limits are the basic rules for how you should treat
other people: take your turn, let other people finish, treat what they say
with respect, don’t go on too long, make suggestions but don’t insist upon
them, don’t shout, stuff like that.
The GM’s basics

At the beginning of the game, and then whenever it seems like it’s your
turn to talk, choose one of these and do it:
• Describe the overall circumstance and environment. Say where a

player’s character is, who else is there, and what’s going on. Say what’s
happened in the recent past to bring this to pass.
• Speak in the voice of someone (not a player’s character). Use your face,
hands, voice, and words, like an actor.
• Ask a player where her character is or what her character’s doing.
• Tell a player what it’s like for her character to do something. Tell about
what the character senses and experiences.
• Answer a player’s questions, if it’s something the player should know or
the character would know.
• Give one player’s character information that another player’s character

badly wants. Have one player’s character meet someone important to
another player’s character. Give the player’s characters reasons to talk
to each other.
• Respond to what the players’ characters’ do, from the point of view of
the world of the game. Say what happens because of what the players’
characters do, because of what they say. Tell about doors crashing shut,
birds startling into flight, fire leaping up, people drawing closer.
While you’re doing those, here are four things to always do too:
• Look for opportunities to have a player roll dice. Learn the dice rules
and bring them into play a lot. Don’t wait for battles or big action. Roll
dice when a conversation goes tense, when someone consults a map
(especially an obscure one), whenever you can think of interesting ways
for things to go well and go poorly.
• Keep your monsters in mind. Can they see what’s going on, and how
do they react? Where are they while this is happening, and what are they
doing?
• Let the players play their characters. You can tell them what their
characters experience, but never ever tell them what their characters do
or how their characters react. That’s theirs.
• Let what happens, happen. Don’t try to control what comes next, or
especially, especially what comes after that. Don’t plan plot points, future
scenes, or any kind of story at all. Just think like the world of the game
and whatever logically comes next, that’s what comes next.
And you too need to follow the basic social rules of courtesy and gener-
• 49 • Rules • The Basics

osity. Especially, pay attention to how much time everybody gets and
keep it as equal as you can. When the characters aren’t all together, it’s
easy to pay attention to one group and skimp on the other. Instead, learn
how to cut between them – don’t wait until one group’s, like, all done
before you check in on the next.
Think of how they do it in movies. Cutting from one scene to another and
back makes both scenes more exciting, and makes sure you don’t forget
where anyone is or what’s going on everywhere.
• Rules •
• Rolling the Dice •
The GM should always be looking for opportunities to roll dice. The best
way to spot the opportunities is to know what the dice do, and the best
way to learn what the dice do is to see how they work.
A basic roll
The GM never rolls dice, except when there’s a battle between the char-
acters and one of the GM’s monsters. Even then, the GM will make fewer
rolls than any other player.
When a player rolls dice, she always rolls for one of her character’s
stats.
GM, consider calling for a roll whenever the character does
something that calls for arcane (knowledge, intuition, memory,
philosophy, magic), command (willpower, presence, strength
of character, determination, self-possessedness), endurance
(stamina, resiliance, shrugging off injury, hunger, pain or
discomfort), perception (alertness, awareness, insight, reading
people), skill (training, talent, manual dexterity, using tools
well), or strength (raw physical power).
The player takes up a number of dice equal to her character’s stat

(remember, that’s the number in the box). In battle, it matters what color
the dice are, but for a basic stat roll, it doesn’t.
If the character’s using a map or a tool, or if someone’s helping him, the

player gets to pick up an additional die or two.
GM, it’s your job to tell the player one additional die, two addi-
tional dice, or none. Rule 1: if the map, tool or person is good for
the task at hand, 2 dice; if not so good, 1 die; if terrible, no dice.
Rule 2: follow your gut, but make sure your gut’s playing fair.
• 50 • Rules • Rolling the Dice
The player rolls all the dice at once. I love the sound of a big batch of dice
hitting the table.
Every die that shows a 4, a 5, or a 6 is a hit. Discard the dice showing

1, 2 and 3, and count up the hits. (Don’t add their scores! Just count the
dice).
For instance, suppose that I’m the GM, and Meg, a player, says “my
character uses her pry bar to force open the door.” That’s a strength roll,
so Meg takes dice for her character’s strength, 5. Her character’s using
the pry bar for its intended purpose, so I tell her to add two dice; now she
has seven in her hand. She rolls them: 1 2 4 4 4 5 5. She pushes the 1
and the 2 away, and counts the 4 4 4 5 5. She got 5 hits.
So far so easy; that’s the basic roll. Interpreting the roll is where it starts
to get interesting.
Four Foundational Rolls
Here are four rolls that you should use every time they’re appropriate.
You’ll quickly learn them by heart.
Again, the GM never makes these rolls, although the GM will often call for
them. Outside of battle, the players do all the rolling.
Noticing, watching, staying alert

Whenever there’s something to notice, and your character might or might
not spot it, you roll your perception (possibly including dice for a tool).
Count up your hits and tell the GM.
• For your first hit, your character detects it. The GM will tell you what
your character detects.
• For your second hit, your character identifies it. The GM will tell you
what it is and what it means.
• For each additional hit, your character notices an additional detail about
it. The GM will tell you what the details are.
Of all the rolls, this is the one that the GM will most commonly call for
out of nowhere. After all, the GM’s the one who knows when something’s
there for your character to notice.
GM, use your knowledge of the adventure, your maps, and the off-screen
activities of your monsters to decide when to call for this roll.
I’m the GM. I’m playing with my friends Meg, Elliot and Sebastian. Their
characters are hunting some monsters who’ve carried off two of the

town’s children. Elliot has his character, a ranger, look for tracks. He
makes a perception roll.
His character’s perception is 5, so he takes 5 dice and rolls them. He rolls

2 3 3 5 6. He ignores the 2 3 3 and counts the 5 6: 2 hits.
“You can find their tracks,” I say, for his first hit (detect). “There are three
of them. They’re like wolf prints, but bigger, and the things are 2-legged,”
for his second (identify). If he’d rolled more hits, I’d have more details
to give him: the children were alive and struggling, probably unharmed;
the creature who wasn’t carrying a child kept stopping to look around;
they intentionally kept their pace slower than they needed to, so they
wouldn’t outpace the characters; and they left the tracks on purpose to be
followed. Since he rolled only 2 hits, the group won’t be forewarned about
the ambush that’s coming.
The perception roll ritual: To announce the beginning of pretty much

every encounter, GM, have everyone make a perception roll. Whoever
rolled most hits, turn to that person and say, “okay, you spot it first,” and
describe its approach.
This roll is a ritual; it serves to let everybody know to pay attention, now
it’s happening. It has a rules effect only sometimes – if they’re facing a
monster with stealth, for instance, or if any PC has danger sense or wild
instincts – but you should call for it even when it won’t have any rules
effect. It’s a good habit to get in.
What can I know about this?

Whenever your character might already know something about some-
thing, or might be able to find out about something by consulting a map
or other source of information, you roll your arcane (including dice for a
map, if you’re using one). Count up your hits and tell the GM.
• For your first hit, your character has or gets an impression. The GM will
tell you what your character’s impression is.
• For each additional hit, your character knows or learns a true, concrete
detail. The GM will tell you what the details are.
It’s always the GM’s call whether you get to make this roll, but if you think
you should get to make it, say so.
GM, use your knowledge of the adventure, its backstory and its monsters,
to create your answers. Your monster writeups in particular are full of
information that’ll be useful to the players. When a player makes one
of these rolls, hold in mind the nature of the map the character’s using
(including none) and consider all the information you have to share.
Choose information that suits the map, then give it to the player in a form
the map would use.
Meg, Elliot and Sebastian’s characters get ambushed by the creatures.

They find that they can’t really hurt the monsters, so ditch out of the fight
before they get torn to pieces, suffering a fraction of the harm they might
have. They manage to escape into a cave, with Sebastian’s character using
a fire spell to hold them at bay until Elliot’s can build a natural fire. They’re
huddled in the cave, listening to the things pace and snarl outside.
“Well, I’ve seen them now,” Sebastian says, “and I have legends, lore and
myth on my sheet. Do I know anything about these things?”
He makes an arcane roll; he gets 4 hits.
If he’d rolled only 1 hit, I’d give him an impression, something like this:
“you can’t think of anything specific. Maybe they’re called wolfwalkers?
And maybe they’re immortal? Or just really hard to kill?”
But he rolled 4 hits, so I owe him three good details. “You do know some-
thing about them,” I say. “They’re called wolfwalkers in the stories.” That’s
a gimme, I don’t count their name as one of the details I owe him. Other
circumstances, maybe I would. “According to one story, they keep their
hearts safe in hollow trees, so they can’t be killed.” That’s one detail.
“No wonder,” Meg says. “It’s not like we weren’t hitting them.”
“Another story tells how a brave riverwife burned one on a pyre and killed
it that way.” That’s two details. “But here’s an interesting one: they aren’t
natural creatures -”
“No!” Meg says. “Really! Fancy that!”
“They aren’t,” I say. “The legend is that in the bad times, the river folk
didn’t have enough food for all their children. So they put all the extra
children on a raft and floated it away, and those children became the
wolfwalkers and returned to them.” That’s the third detail I owe, so I stop
there. If he’d rolled 5 hits I’d’ve told that when the wolfwalkers came back,
it was to steal children, whom they made into more wolfwalkers. I guess
they’ll have to find that detail out the hard way.
As GM, your job is to give the players free rein and follow where they go,
not to lead their characters by their noses to the monsters’ doorstep.
When you create an adventure, you don’t create a string of clues, and
you don’t plot out how the players are going to tackle the problem (yuck,
boring!). This makes this roll extremely important – it’s your very best
tool for giving the players the information they’ll need.
Since you aren’t leading them by the nose, it’ll occasionally happens that
the players start to flounder. When it does, it’s very fair for you to say,
“hey, you’re floundering. Anybody you want to go talk to? Any maps you
want to consult?” Odds are that, yes, there’s someone they want to ques-
tion, or there’s a map someone wants to consult. Using this roll and the
roll for conversations, you’ll certainly get to tell them something they’ll
find useful, something that will let them pick a direction they want to go.
Charged conversations
Whenever your character gets into a conversation with someone who
might turn out to be an enemy, or whom your character doesn’t trust,
you roll your Perception. Count up your hits and hold onto them. Over the
course of the conversation, spend your hits to ask the GM questions, one
by one. You can:
• Ask if the person’s lying;
• Ask if the person knows more than she’s saying;
• Ask how the person feels about it;
• Ask what it would take to make the person feel a particular way;
• Ask what the person intends to do;
• Ask what the person wishes your character would do.
The GM has to answer you truthfully. The GM’s character might lie to your
character, but the GM must not lie to you.
If the GM gives you an answer to the best of her foresight, and it turns out
to be false, you get to immediately ask a replacement question, for free.
Meg, Elliot and Sebastian’s characters have come into a village of the river
folk at nightfall, having evaded the wolfwalkers. They ask for, and are
given, a warm meal (mudfish and gruel, with cress for flavor) and a place

to sleep. But before sleep, They decide to talk to their hosts about what’s
happening.
Elliot’s character takes the lead in the conversation. As the conversation’s

opening, he makes a perception roll, and he gets 3 hits. I point him to this
page in the book so he knows the questions he can ask, and we play the
conversation out.
We don’t get far! In this riverwife’s voice I’m saying vague, generally
concerned things – “two children stolen, well that’s a horror, may the gods
protect us all from such fate” – and Elliot interrupts.
“Does she know more than she’s saying?”
“Oh yes,” I say.
“Hm. What does she know?”
“Is that a question I have to answer?” I ask, pointing to the page.
“No. Okay, then how does she feel about it?”
“Desperately, desperately afraid. Like she’s been captured by murderers

and they’ve told her that they’ll let her live if she finds them two victims
to replace her.”
“Ah,” Meg, Elliot and Sebastian all say, in unison.
Elliot’s character and the riverwife talk a little more. Elliot keeps trying to
have his character lead the conversation around to what she knows, but
she keeps evading him. Finally he spends his last hit. “What would it take
to make her feel safe talking to me?”
“If you were a woman,” I say.
He scowls.
You can make this roll when your character has a conversation with
another player’s character, too. In that case, ask the other player the
questions, not the GM. The other player should answer truthfully.
Of course, that probably means that the other player’s made the roll same
as you, so she’ll be asking you questions too, and you should answer them
truthfully.
Gear and People

GM, remember the additional die or two for tools and for
people!
For conversations and giving orders, tools are kind of hard

to come by. If the character’s having a charged conversation
with someone listed on her character sheet, though, or trying
to control someone listed on her character sheet, you should
definitely give the player the two additional dice.
Controlling others
Whenever your character uses intimidation, authority, inspiration, or
manipulation – whenever your character tries to control what someone
else does – you roll your command. Count up your hits and tell the GM
that you hold that much sway over the person. You don’t get to spend
your hold, this time; instead, time and action will use it up:
• When the person commits to an action you want her to take, that uses
up 1 hold.
• When someone or something challenges her commitment to your

character, that uses up 1 hold.
• When time passes, that uses up hold: 1 hold when an hour passes, the
next when 12 hours pass, the next when 24 hours pass, and if a week
passes, that uses up whatever hold you have left.
Once your hold’s all gone, the person’s free to do as she likes, and you
can’t roll command against her again for the rest of the adventure.
GM, you’re obliged to go along with the results of this roll, fairly and with
good will. When the person commits to an action, she really commits, you
know? She’ll give it a serious, good faith go.
Don’t nitpick the player’s hold away, don’t invent challenges to her
commitment to weasel out, and don’t stall.
Meg, Elliot and Sebastian’s characters are still in the riverwife’s hut;
Elliot’s just found out what it would take for her to trust his character. He’s
scowling.
Meg (playing a male character, by coincidence; none of their characters

happen to be women) steps in. “Whatever,” she says. “I bark at her: out
with it, now. I don’t care if she trusts us, I just want her to tell us.”
She makes a command roll. She gets only 1 hit out of 5 dice, and shakes
her head.
“Well, good enough,” she says. “I slam my fist on the table. ‘Come on,
now. You know more than you’re saying and you’re going to tell it, right
now.’”
Meg’s holding 1 over the riverwife, so I have to have her go along with
Meg’s character until one of those things happens. “She’s really scared,”
I say.
“Whatever,” Meg says.
“’If I tell you, they’ll know,’ she says.”
“Whatever,” Meg says. “Tell.”
“She’s so scared her hands are shaking, and she barely says it out loud:
‘we made a deal with them.’”
“A deal?” Meg says. “What deal?”
“Nope, I owed you one action committed, and that was it,” I say. “She
won’t say any more. She takes your empty bowls, then she pulls her shawl
over her face and sits in the far corner, shaking.”
(“Well it’s obvious to me,” Sebastian says. “It’s the deal that has the
wolfwalkers stealing our children, not theirs.”)
If your group wants to use this roll when one player’s character tries to
make another player’s character follow orders, you can. It’ll work fine.
However, as a player you get an option that the GM doesn’t:
When another player makes a command roll to hold over your character,
go along with the roll, using up her hold as normal, just as long as
you choose. If at any point you want your character to defy the other
character’s orders, though, you can. The other player gets her remaining
hold back in the form of bonus dice: if she has her character right away do
something against yours that calls for her to roll – like attack! – she gets
to include those dice, and that’s the end of it.
Some time later, Meg, Elliot and Sebastian’s characters have cornered

a wolfwalker – I’ve described it as disoriented-seeming, and not as big
as the others – up against the hollow tree where it’s hidden its heart.
Sebastian’s convinced that it’s one of the children stolen from their village,
transformed; Meg and Elliot either aren’t convinced or aren’t concerned.
They’re trying to convince Sebastian to have his character blast the tree
with the same fire spell he used earlier. He’s having none of it.
“Arg,” says Meg. “You better do it. I’m going to roll command.” She does,
and gets 4 hits. “Ha,” she says.
Sebastian reads the rules carefully – I’m happy to pass him the book and
point them out, I’m very interested to find out what he’ll choose.
“Fine,” he says. “You want to attack me? Okay, you’ll get 4 bonus dice if
you do. But I’m not burning down that tree until we have our kids back.”
“Well,” says Meg, “I’m not going to attack you. But you’d better be right.”
Outside of battle and spellcasting, these four rolls –

Noticing, watching, staying alert – what can I know about
this? – Charged conversations – Controlling others – these
four rolls are the most important to know and get right.
Other Rolls
GM, call for other rolls whenever it makes sense to do so. Require 1 or
2 hits, or very rarely 3. If you like, let the player spend her hits, as in
conversations; let the player hold her hits over you, as in giving orders;
or else let her carry her hits forward as bonus dice.
Sometimes it makes the most sense to draw checkboxes before the roll,
like these. Each hit on the roll fills in one checkbox, left to right, and that’s
how you know just what the character accomplishes:
Is she impressed? □ she glances over □ □ she stops to watch □ □ she’ll

remember you □ she introduces herself
How far can you carry it? □ a few steps □ □ to the wall □ □ □ all the way
up the ladder
Making checkboxes like these a great way to go. They clarify what’s
happening and you can reuse them whenever similar circumstances come
up in the future. When I GM the game, I keep a section of my notebook
just for them.
Most of the time, rolling the dice should mean an opportunity for some-
thing cool. Some of the monsters’ powers have the player roll to try to
avoid something bad, but with no possibility of getting something good.
Otherwise, though, you should keep those kinds of rolls, eh, kind of rare.
When you do call for a badness-only roll, there are a couple of fun and
interesting ways to handle it. You can require 5 or 6 hits, and if the player
falls short, each hit short becomes some kind of badness: a penalty, a
bonus to the enemy, an addition to the hit requirement of the next roll,
lost time, or whatever makes sense to you. You can instead require no
hits, but impose this roll’s hits as a cap to next roll’s: if the player gets
3 hits on this roll, she throws away any hits over 3 she gets on her next
roll.
Let’s go back and fill in.
Example 1: This is back when Meg, Elliot and Sebastian’s characters have
been ambushed by the wolfwalkers and have just managed to escape from
the battle.
“This is bad, they’re just going to jump on us again,” Meg says. “We need
a safe place.”
“Did I see anyplace likely?” Elliot asks.
“Sure, a cave under a big rock, it looked like it opened up inside,” I say.
I’m just making this up, but it goes perfectly well with how I’ve described
the landscape, so it’s all good.
“Great,” Meg says. “Lead us.”
“You’re going to have to really book it if you want to get there before those
things catch you,” I say. “Let’s call it Strength rolls all around, you need
2 hits each.”
“Got it,” Meg says. “Got it,” Elliot says. They both look at Sebastian, who’s
shaking his three dice in his hand, looking unhappy. (But you already know
he got it, since I already told you about them in the cave.)
Example 2: This is in the cave, after they’ve managed to get their fire lit
so they have a moment to collect themselves.
“Oh hey, I just remembered,” Elliot says. “Did you get hurt?”
“Just 3 damage,” Meg says.
“Do you want to cast Bath of Healing Light?” He says.
“I’d rather save it,” Sebastian says. “You have a healer’s kit, right? How
does that work?”
“Make a skill roll, add two dice for the kit,” I say. I make up a line of
checkboxes:
Healing □ 1 damage □ □ 2 damage □ □ □ 3 damage
“So I’d need 6 hits to heal all 3?” Elliot rolls his skill +2 for the gear, 8 dice
total, and I’ll be, he gets 6 hits.
“Ha!” he says.
(If you like, you can use that same line of checkboxes for
nonmagical healing in your game, or you can make up your own.
Choose case by case, to suit the circumstances.)
Example 3: They decide that the way to get out of the cave without the
wolfwalkers attacking them is to dig and squeeze through its very narrow
back opening. “Great!” I say. “Endurance rolls for everyone!” I draw a line
of checkboxes. “Who’s first?”
Do they hear you? (no hits: yes they do) □ skill roll vs 3 □ skill roll vs 2
□ skill roll vs 1 □ no they don’t
Elliot goes first. He gets 4 hits on his endurance roll, so he doesn’t have
to make a skill roll.
Meg next. She gets 2 hits on her endurance roll, so she has to make a skill
roll and get 2 hits on it or they’ll hear. She gets 3 hits on her skill roll.
Sebastian last. He squeezes out with 3 hits on his endurance roll, so

he has to make a skill roll vs 1. He gets 4 hits on his skill roll, and their
characters sneak away, leaving the wolfwalkers frustrated by the fire in
the cave mouth.

Bookmark this page! The diagram opposite shows you how the battle
rules work.
Joining Battle
GM, it’s your job to say what the battlefield is like, tactically speaking,
where everyone is in it. Answer the players’ questions, and remember
your discipline. Make the battlefield tactically interesting, don’t just favor
your monsters all the time.
The tactical features of the battlefield naturally limit everybody’s actions.

Either they make some actions possible and others impossible, or else
they advantage some combatants over others. In this latter case,
advantaged combatants get additional red or blue dice, as appropriate
(usually 2 dice).
Tactical features are usually physical things, landmarks, like who’s behind
a wall, who has to fight uphill, who’s flanking whom, who’s up in a tree,
who’s well back behind the break raining arrows in. They can be intangible,
though: is one side well-rested with full bellies, and the other exhausted
and hungry? Is one side well-armed and disciplined and the other a rabble
with sticks and rocks? Those are tactical features of the battlefield.
Read the example battles that follow to see how this works.
Players, it’s your job to say what your characters do in the moments before
the battle joins. You can also ask the GM about the tactical features she’s
mentioned, of course.
After battle joins, it plays out in rounds. Some battles last only a single
round, some last several. Few should last five rounds or more, but
occasionally one will.
A Round
Each round of battle has 5 steps:
1. Declare yourself
• 58 • Rules • Battle
2. Setup: marshal yourself.
3. Action: drive it home.
4. Followthrough: the consequences.
5. Regather yourself.
Step 1 – Declare Yourself

Each player, say whether your character’s fighting or doing something
else. If fighting, say who your character’s attacking. If doing some-
thing else, say what your character’s doing.
GM, for each of your monsters, say who it’s attacking. If it has a special
move, say also who it’s making its special move upon.
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There’s no order to this step, and nobody’s required to commit before they
know what everyone else intends. In his game Sorcerer, Ron Edwards
calls this “free and clear,” so I’ll do the same. Declare your character’s
intentions, and you’re free to revise them if someone else says something
that demands it. You do have to commit! Once you go on to step 2, you
can’t revise your character’s intentions anymore. No fair waiting to see
how well the monsters roll to decide which you’ll attack.
Once everyone’s clear what every monster and character will be

doing, go on to step 2, setup.
Step 2 – Setup: Marshall Yourself

Step 2 •
Some monsters and characters have abilities that affect what happens in
setup. Be sure to apply them. When an ability contradicts the basic rules
here, follow the ability.
Materially, marshalling yourself means gathering up the dice you’re about

to roll. Sometimes you’ll roll dice here in setup, to find out how many dice
you’ll get to really roll; don’t get distracted by that. At the end of setup,
going into action, you need to have a batch of dice in your hand, poised
to throw.
If your character’s fighting

Fighting •
Start by taking white dice equal to your strength. Add red dice for your
weapon and blue dice for your armor (your weapon and armor should
already say how many of each). These dice are your hand.
Red dice are for your attack, blue dice are for your defense, and white
dice, for fighting overall, contribute to both. You might also roll some
green dice, if you’re making a special move as well as fighting.
Now you have some fun choices to make.
Do you want your character to just plain fight? Great! You get to
Plain •
choose to brace or charge. Bracing means fighting defensively: grab a

blue die and add it to your hand. Charging means fighting offensively:
grad a red die and add it to your hand.
Examples would be “I brace for its attack!” and “I charge it!”
Do you want your character to rally her comrades, give orders,

Rallying •
or shout out warnings? Great! You’ll take some red, blue, or green
dice and pass them to the other players, to reflect the advantage of your
character’s action. To find out how many dice you can pass out, roll your
command. Each hit lets you pass out one die. You choose which color
– red, blue, or green – and you choose which player to pass it to. That
player adds it to her hand.
You may not keep any of these dice for yourself.
Examples would be “Wulfhere – your left!” “Steady, everybody, hold

steady...” “To me! To me!” “For the Oestrebourn, comrades! The Gods of
our ancestors will honor us!” And “duck!”
Do you want your character to fight while attending to something

While ___ •
else? Great! Make a perception roll – it’s a perception roll because your
character needs to pay close attention, needs to avoid getting distracted
by the plain business of fighting. Each hit lets you add one green die to
your hand. Green dice are for the success of your special move.
Examples would be “I fight my way to the door.” “I fight without spilling

the bucket of seawater.” “I fight the monster off while I try to pick the
lock.” “I fight, but stay in the light.” And “I fight, and I’m going to get my
sword into one of its leg joints if I can.”
You can’t normally have your character fight while casting a spell. There’s
an ability called “battle magic” that allows you to; look it up if you’re
interested.
Do you want your character to manipulate the battlefield’s tactical
Tactical Features •
features? Great! Make a skill roll. Tell the GM what your character’s doing
and how many hits.
It doesn’t require a setup roll to just submit to the battlefield’s already-

established tactical features. However, you can make a skill setup roll
to a) ignore or overcome an existing tactical feature (like jumping up to
shoot over a wall); to b) take advantage of a tactical feature you wouldn’t
normally get to diving behind a wall you’re not already behind); or to c)
impose a new tactical constraint onto your opponents (like if two ogres are
attacking you, circling to keep one between you and the other). You can
even d) make your character into a tactical feature (like “I get between
him and Wulfhere – he wants Wulfhere, he has to come through me.”)
More examples would be “I climb up to the platform with my bow.” “I

get back up to my feet.” “I crawl out from under its body.” “I hide in the
grass until they come close, then spring.” “I get my back to the rocks so
they can’t get behind me.” “I draw them onto the broken ground where
they’ve got no footing.” And “I keep my distance and rain arrows down
on them.”
GM, it’s your job to take the character’s action and the player’s skill hits
and interpret them into dice to put in the player’s hand. Here are your
options:
If it would let the character make a move she couldn’t normally, the
player’s hits now cap her roll in step 3.
If it would take away an action someone else would normally get, the
player’s hits now directly reduce theirs in step 3.
If it would give the character a general advantage, the player’s hits add
red or blue dice (whichever’s appropriate) to her hand, one for one.
If it would give the character an advantage over only a particular oppo-

nent, the player’s hits add green dice to her hand, one for one. In step
3, she should count them as red or blue, according to the nature of the
advantage, against only that opponent.
If your character’s casting a spell instead of fighting

Spellcasting •
Take green dice equal to your arcane. Add more green dice for your
spellbook, if any, and add blue dice for your armor, if any.
You get no white dice and no red dice. The blue dice are for your defense,
and the green dice are for your special move, which is to cast the spell.
If for some reason you need to make a roll in setup, you can. The outcome
might prevent you from casting your spell, but the mere fact of making
the roll doesn’t.
If your character’s not fighting or casting a spell, but doing

Something Else •
something else
Take green dice equal to your appropriate stat – the GM will tell you which
stat. Add more green dice for any appropriate tool your character’s using.
Add red dice for your weapon, if your character can hold a weapon while
doing what she’s doing, and blue dice for your armor, if any.
You get no white dice. The red dice are for any opportunistic attacks your
character might be able to make. The blue dice are for your defense, and
the green dice are for your special move.
If for some reason you need to make a roll in setup, you can. The outcome
might prevent you from making your special move, but the mere fact of
making the roll doesn’t.
GM, use the same standards for deciding which stat that you use when-
ever you call for a roll:
Arcane for knowledge, intuition, memory, philosophy, magic;
Command for willpower, presence, strength of character, determination,
self-possessedness;
Endurance for stamina, resiliance, shrugging off injury, hunger, pain or
discomfort;
Perception for alertness, awareness, insight, reading people;
Skill for training, talent, manual dexterity, using tools well; or
Strength for raw physical power.
And use the same standards for giving dice for a tool, too: if it’s what the
tool’s for, usually two dice; otherwise, usually one die.
If you’re the GM
You’re the GM •
GM, you don’t have to make any decisions or any rolls for your monsters.
Just gather up the dice listed on your monster sheets, white, red, blue
and green. Make an individual pile for each monster, so you can roll them
separately.
Gather ‘em quick and step in to help any player who needs it.
Once a player’s gathered up her hand of dice, adjust them for the tactical
features of the battlefield. Do no make up any tactical features now. Go
strictly by the ones you’ve already described. It’s perfectly fine to have
entire battles where you don’t give anyone any tactical feature dice, when
nobody takes advantage of the tactical features you’ve described.
Pass by any players who have just made skill rolls to have their characters
manipulate the tactical features of the battlefield, too. They already have
their tactical feature dice.
Here are the rules for tactical feature dice:

Tactical Dice •
If a player’s character has an offensive tactical advantage, give the player

additional red dice. If a monster does, take additional red dice yourself.
If a player’s character has a defensive tactical advantage, give the

player additional blue dice. If a monster does, take additional blue dice
yourself.
Generally give two dice, except when you’ve already established that this
particular tactical feature is worth one or three. Never give more than
four.
Step 3
If someone has multiple tactical advantages, go ahead and add them up,
but to a maximum of three red dice and three blue dice.
Once everybody has a hand of dice, go on to step 3, action.
Step 3 – Action: Drive It Home

•
Everybody rolls! It’s like thunder, that many dice hitting the table all at
once. I love it.
Go through your dice. Discard all the 1s, 2s and 3s, as usual. Group your
dice by color. White dice at the center, red dice to one side, blue dice to
another side, green dice to a third side.
Your attack equals all your white hits plus all your red hits.
Attack, Defend, Effort •

Your defend equals all your white hits plus all your blue hits.
Your effort equals all your white hits plus all your green hits.
If you don’t have any hits of a particular color, that’s fine, just count 0 for
that color. Most notably, if your character isn’t fighting, you don’t have
any white hits, so you’re relying on your blue, green, and possibly red dice
exclusively.
Now compare in order to determine what happens with each exchange of

blows and each thing undertaken:
If your attack beats your target’s defend, your character hits her target,
Damage, Success •
with damage equal to the difference.
For each incoming attack, if your defend beats your attacker’s attack
against you, your character’s attacker can’t land a good blow and deals
0 damage.
If your effort beats the highest attack against you, your character
accomplishes her special move, with success equal to the difference.
If your attack beats your target’s effort, your character stops her target
from accomplishing a special move, giving your target 0 success.
If you’re trying to compare your numbers and there’s nobody who rolled
against you in the relevant way, just compare your number against 0. If
you’re making a special move and nobody’s attacking you, for instance,
compare your effort against 0. Your success equals your effort minus 0.
You follow? To deal damage, roll better attack (white + red) than your
target’s defend (white + blue). So to avoid damage, roll better defend
(white + blue) than your attacker’s attack (white + red). To make a
special move, roll better effort (white + green) than the highest attack
against you (white + red). So to stop someone’s special move, roll better
attack against them (white + red) than their effort (white + green).
The purpose of all these colored dice and the what-beats-what
is to make every combination of outcomes possible. Inflicting
damage, avoiding damage, accomplishing a special move,
preventing another from accomplishing a special move – each
time you roll, you might do all four, none of the four, or any
combination inbetween.
Once everybody’s sorted, counted, and compared their dice, go on
to step 4, followthrough.
Step 4 – Followthrough: the Consequences

Step 4 •
GM, it’s your job to say what happes between the characters and
monsters.
Don’t consider everybody’s actions to be simultaneous. Instead, order

them as makes best sense of the rolls’ results. Furthermore, the action
and followthrough phases are as long, fictionally, as they require – maybe
a few seconds, maybe minutes, it all depends on who’s doing what and
what comes of it.
Damage
Damage •
Everyone who took damage, mark damage checkboxes on your character
sheet. Left to right, starting in the “still fighting” row; once the “still
fighting” row is all marked, go on to the “endurance roll” row.
If you’re marking boxes in the “endurance roll” row, then immediately

after taking damage, make an endurance roll to see whether your
character’s out of the fight. Look at the rightmost box you’ve checked. It
has a number under it; that’s your target for your endurance roll. If you
get at least that many hits on the roll, your character’s still in the fight
and can continue freely. (There are no penalties for being hurt, although
it may count as a tactical constraint.) If you roll fewer hits, though, your
character’s down and out of the fight.
If your character’s out of the fight, the GM can’t do her any more harm.
However, the GM is allowed to have her come to, later, in a place and
under circumstances entirely of the GM’s choosing. Your only protection is
the other players: if their characters are able to take yours with them, or
stay with yours, then she’ll eventually come to and be with them.
GM, your monsters don’t have “still fighting” and “endurance roll” rows,
just checkboxes. When you check the last checkbox, the monster’s
defeated for good. You can choose whether it’s killed, disabled, driven off,
or what, but no matter what you choose, it can no longer be any kind of
threat to the players. It’s all done.
Special Moves
Special Moves •
Some characters’ and monsters’ abilities have specific, listed effects in

followthrough. Those happen now. If they include rolls, make those rolls
now.
If anyone was making a special move without pre-listed effects, resolve

it now too. Use the usual rules for rolls: GM, require a success of 1 or 2,
or very rarely 3. If you like, let the player spend her success as hits, as
in conversations; let the player hold her success, as hits over you, as in
giving orders; or else let her carry her success forward as bonus dice.
Make a line of checkboxes whenever it’ll help.
Spellcasting
Spellcasting •
If your character’s casting a spell, now is when it happens. Follow the usual
rules for spellcasting in the next chapter, except that instead of spending
your hits on the spell’s effect, you get to spend only your success – your
green hits minus the highest attack against you.
Once you’ve resolved all the consequences of action, go on to step

5, regather yourself.
Step 5 – Regather Yourself

Step 5 •
Are you still in the fight?
Are any monsters still in the fight?
Then the battle continues! Go on to the next round, step 1, and

declare yourself.
Otherwise, the battle ends.
When the Battle Ends

If the players’ characters won the fight, then every player whose character
was in the fight gets XP (experience points). You all get the same number:
the sum of the XV of the monsters in the battle.
While you’re at it, someone should add the same number to the group XP
on the group sheet.
The players’ characters don’t have to kill all the monsters dead to win the
fight. All they have to do is deal with the monsters successfully, so they
won’t be a problem again in the future. That might mean killing them, of
course, but it might mean driving them off, trapping them somewhere
safe, seizing command of them, or anything else.
If the monsters win and the characters run away or all get killed, then the
monsters remain a problem and the players get no XP.
An Example Battle
Remember the game I’m running for my friends Meg, Elliot and Sebastian?
Let’s go back and see that ambush.
I’ll use the players’ names exclusively here in the example. In real play,
whenever I address myself directly to a player’s character, I use the
character’s name, and whenever I’m talking about real-world things like
character sheets and dice, I use the player’s.
“The wolfwalkers’ tracks are getting clearer, you’re quite close to them
now. You’re picking your way down along a rocky, jumbled place where a
river used to run, and everybody make a perception roll!”
“I think we caught them,” Meg says. “1 hit.”
“4 hits,” Elliot says.
“3 hits,” Sebastian says.
“Well you didn’t exactly catch them. More like they’re jumping down on
you from the rocks above.” I go straight into declaring myself: “One’s
attacking each of you. The one on you, Meg, gets 4 extra red dice because
of your perception roll.”
“Seriously help,” Sebastian says.
“I’m going to lunge and grab the one on him, haul it off of him,” Meg says.
“Can I do that?”
“Sure,” I say. “Make yourself a tactical constraint between the monster

and him. You’ll make a skill roll and subtract your hits from the monster’s
attack. What are you going to do, Sebastian?”
“I need to get out of this while Meg’s distracting it. I’ll try to get up onto
the rocks?”
“No problem. You’re going to, like, defend yourself while you’re with-
drawing? Or just drop your weapons and run?”
“Defend myself,” he says.
“Makes sense. Make a perception roll, take the hits as green dice.”
“I’m going to watch them carefully while I fight,” Elliot says, “maybe learn
something?”
“Cool,” I say. “Make a perception roll, take the hits as green dice.”
Meg gets 3 hits on her skill roll, so the wolfwalker attacking Sebastian’s
character will lose 3 from its attack. Elliot gets 3 hits on his perception
roll too, so he grabs three green dice. Sebastian gets 4 hits on his, so he
grabs 4 green dice.
We fill up our hands.
Meg: 6 white, 3 red, 3 blue.
Elliot: 6 white, 2 red, 3 blue, 3 green.
Sebastian: 3 white, 1 red, 2 blue, 4 green.
Me, against Meg: 6 white, 8 red(!).

Me, against Elliot: 6 white, 4 red.
Me, against Sebastian: 6 white, 4 red, minus 3 hits because Meg’s
character’s interfering.
We roll, sort, and count up our dice.
Meg’s got 4 white hits, 2 red hits, and 2 blue hits. Her attack is 6 and her
defend is 6.
Elliot’s got 3 white hits, no red hits, and 3 blue hits, 1 green hit. His attack
is 3, his defend is 6, and his effort is 4.
Sebastian’s got 3 white hits, 1 red hit, 1 blue hit, and 3 green hits. His
attack is 4, his defend is 4, and his effort is 6.
For the wolfwalker attacking Meg’s character, I’ve got 4 white hits and 4
red hits. Its attack is 8 and its defend is 4.
For the wolfwalker attacking Elliot’s character, I’ve got 4 white hits and no
red hits. Its attack is 4 and its defend is 4.
For the wolfwalker attacking Sebastian’s character, I’ve got 3 white hits
and 3 red hits. Its attack would be 6, but Meg’s character’s interference
brings it down to 3, and its defend is 3.
Meg’s attacking 6 (attack) to 3 (defend), and defending 6 (defend) to 8

(attack).
Elliot’s attacking 3 (attack) to 4 (defend), defending 6 (defend) to 4
(attack), and paying attention 4 (effort) to 4 (attack).
Sebastian’s attacking 4 (attack) to 3 (defend), defending 4 (defend) to 3

(attack), and withdrawing 6 (effort) to 3 (attack).
“No blue dice for them, huh?” Meg says. “This shouldn’t be so bad.”
I decide to start action with my highest attack. “The one you’re ignoring,
Meg? It tears into you with teeth and claws. You take 2 damage.” (Here’s a
place where in real play I’d’ve used Meg’s character’s name, not Meg’s.)
“But I hit the other one, right?” she says.
“You hit it. You get a solid chop right into its back. It doesn’t seem to
care. Sebastian, you hit it too – it was attacking you, now it’s much more
interested in Meg – anyway you hit it too but same thing. No blood, no
pain, no damage. You manage easily to get out of the fighting and up
onto one of the big rocks, though.” (Here’s another place I’d use the
characters’ names.)
Elliot’s been comparing the remaining dice for himself. “Looks like I’m a
draw,” he says.
“Yep,” I say. “You keep it off you but you can’t land a blow – not that
it would care – and you’re too busy fighting to notice anything but the
obvious.”
“The obvious is enough!” he says.
In followthrough, Meg marks her 2 damage checkboxes, and that’s it.

Nobody’s out, so the fight continues to round 2.
“Okay,” Elliot says. “Presumably these things have some weakness, but
we can’t just hope we’ll find it. Let’s retreat.”
“Yes,” Sebastian says.
“How?” Meg says.
“A fighting retreat would mean a perception roll for green dice,” I say.
“You can just cut and run if you want, but you’d probably roll fewer dice
anyway and they’d mostly be green. And, like, there are two of them on
you, Meg, and one on you, Elliot, and I’m sure they’d be plain delighted if
you rolled mostly green dice.”
“Fighting retreat,” Meg says.
“Of course,” Elliot says.
“You’re attacking the same ones you attacked last round?”
“Like it matters,” Elliot says. “But sure.”
“I can cover you out,” Sebastian says. “Let’s see. How badly would I be
misusing Shelter of Vines to cast it around those things to keep them
in?”
“Sounds good to me,” I say. “If Meg and Elliot both successfully withdraw,
you can cast it inside out around the wolfwalkers like that. Oh by the
way, you get 2 blue dice for the tactical advantage of being up above the
fighting.”
“Great!”
Meg nails her perception roll for 4 hits, so she grabs four green dice. Elliot
gets 3 hits on his perception, so he grabs three.
Meg: 6 white, 3 red, 3 blue, 4 green.

Elliot: 6 white, 2 red, 3 blue, 3 green.
Sebastian: 4 blue, 7 green (6 for his arcane, 1 for his spellbook).
Me, against Meg #1: 6 white, 4 red.

Me, against Meg #2: 6 white, 4 red.
Me, against Elliot: 6 white, 4 red.
Meg’s got 3 white hits, no red hits, 1 blue hit, and 3 green hits. Her attack
is 3, her defend is 4, and her effort is 6.
Elliot’s got 6 white hits, no red hits, 2 blue hits, and 1 green hit. His attack
is 6, his defend is 8, and his effort is 7. (He points to his dice, beaming.)
Sebastian’s got 2 blue hits and 3 green hits. His defend is 2 and his effort
– his spellcasting – is 3.
For the first wolfwalker attacking Meg’s character, I’ve got 4 white hits
and 1 red hit. Its attack is 5 and its defend is 4.
For the second wolfwalker attacking Meg’s character, I’ve got 2 white hits
and 2 red hits. Its attack is 4 and its defend is 2.
For the wolfwalker attacking Elliot’s character, I’ve got 5 white hits and 1
red hit. Its attack is 6 and its defend is 5.
Meg’s attacking 3 (attack) to 4 (defend), defending 4 (defend) to 5
(attack) and 4 (defend) to 4 (attack), and making her retreat 6 (effort) to
5 (highest incoming attack).
Elliot’s attacking 6 (attack) to 5 (defend), defending 8 (defend) to 6

(attack), and making his retreat 7 (effort) to 6 (attack).
Sebastian’s not attacking or defending, but he’s casting his spell 3 (effort)
to 0 (highest incoming attack).
“Did we make it?” Meg says. “We made it!”
“Yep,” I say. “Meg, one of the two attacking you gets in a swipe with its
claws for 1 damage, but you both manage to put some space between you
and them. Sebastian, how’s that spell?”
“Well,” he says, “it’s okay, I think. I’m going to make the miscast roll -”
he rolls a 5, no miscast, and sighs relief. “That’s good. I’ll put one hit in
duration, so the shelter will last an hour – otherwise it lasts no time – and
two hits in protection, so it’ll hinder them. It says they get -2 white dice,
but I hope it gives us a chance to escape instead?”
“You have about one minute,” I say. “They’re tearing at the vines to get
out. Oh and by the way nobody gets any XP for this.”
“This is bad, they’re just going to jump on us again,” Meg says. “We need
a safe place.”
“Did I see anyplace likely?” Elliot asks.
...And we’ve already seen what happens next.
“Battling” Terrain
Traversing hostile terrain uses the same basic battle rules as fighting
monsters. For the GM, the exact same rules: the GM creates the terrain
as a monster. It gets 5 white dice by default, and it gets to attack, defend,
and make special moves, same as any monster does.
For the players, if you declare in step 1 that your character’s fighting to
cross the terrain:
In setup: When you gather dice into your hand, don’t necessarily take
white dice for your strength. Instead, the GM will tell you what stat will
give you your white dice: strength to hack through vines, endurance to
cross vast dunes or swim through a tunnel underwater, skill to go along a
narrow slippery ledge, perception to navigate a maze, etc.
Furthermore, you get red dice from maps or gear, if any applies, not from
your weapons. You still get blue dice from your armor.
In action: Roll, count and compare your dice as normal.
In followthrough: Terrain has traversal checkboxes, not damage

checkboxes. When your attack beats the terrain’s defend, you still mark
a number of checkboxes equal to the difference – the damage – but
they don’t represent damage. Instead, they represent your character’s
progress through it.
Now, when you damage terrain, you get to choose which of its traversal
checkboxes to mark: individual traversal, which represent your own
character’s progress alone, or group traversal, which represent your
entire group’s progress together. GM, track individual traversal separately
for each character who needs it.
If you mark all of its individual traversal checkboxes for your character,
your own character’s through it. The terrain monster stays in the fight
against the other characters, but can no longer attack or do special moves
against yours. The other characters will have to get through it too before
it’s really done.
If you mark all of its group traversal checkboxes, or if every player marks
her full set of individual traversal checkboxes, the entire group is through
it and it’s well and truly defeated. It’s out of the fight for good. The group
can cross it again in the future with no battle, and everybody gets XP.
Otherwise, a terrain monster hits you if its attack beats your defend, and
it does its special move on you if its effort beats your attack, no different
from any other monster.
An Example Battle Against Terrain

The forest in the riverbottoms is a terrain monster. Meg, Elliot and
Sebastian’s characters are trying to make their way into it, to find
the hollow trees where the wolfwalkers hide their hearts. I’ve already
described how they can hear the forest’s two guardian wolfwalkers calling
to one another as they prowl.
“Traversing the forest calls for perception,” I say, “so that’s what you’ll roll.
But also you’re going to have to make skill rolls to keep quiet; otherwise
the guardians will be able to find and attack you. I mean, if you don’t want
them to find and attack you, that is. You in?”
They’re in.
In the real world, I very rarely put my players’ characters up
against terrain with no attack abilities. Almost all the time, I
give my terrain attacks, or else pair it with other monsters
with attacks. Encounters where the monsters can’t hurt the
characters, only stymie them over and over, can really suck the
energy out of a session.
“All right. You make your way down into the woods. They’re tangled,
wet, mucky, with rattling dead cane and hanging willows. Silent, except
the occasional calls of the wolfwalkers, even the river sounds like it’s
creaking, not burbling. Almost at once it’s trackless, with just gray mist
rising up between the trunks and cane. You’re helping each other through,
right? Who’s leading?”
Elliot’s character is.
“Great. The woods are attacking all of you. It’s not like an attack, it’s just
the stinging cane and the mud and the tripping roots and the thorns and
so on – it does no damage but will count against your attempts to stay • 69 • Rules • Battle
quiet. Anyhow, setup?”
“We can hear the river, right?” Elliot says. “Let’s follow the sound until we
reach it, try not to get turned around.”
“That’s a skill roll to take advantage of a tactical feature, for red dice?”
“Yep,” he says. He gets 4 hits, for 4 red dice.
“If I cast a guiding shadow, will that give me red dice?” Sebastian asks.
“Absolutely. 2 red dice per checkbox.”
“I’ll cast it. You two won’t leave me behind, right?”
“I’ll hold onto your belt,” Meg says.

“Good,” I say. “That means you’ll be marking off the group traversal
checkboxes. Meg, you have a setup?”
“I’ll charge,” she says. “That just means that I’m focusing on getting
through, right? I’m not literally charging through the woods.”
“Right,” I say.

Elliot: 6 white, 2 red, 3 blue.
Sebastian: 2 blue, 7 green (6 for his arcane, 1 for his spellbook).
Me: 5 white, 1 red vs Meg, 1 red vs Elliot, 1 red vs Sebastian, 3 blue.
We roll, sort, and count up our dice. Bad rolls all around!
Meg’s got 1 white hit, no red hits, and 2 blue hits. Her attack is 1 and her
defend is 3.
Elliot’s got 2 white hits, 1 red hit, and 2 blue hits. His attack is 3 and his
defend is 4.
Sebastian’s got no white or red hits, 1 blue hit, and 1 green hit. His attack
is 0, his defend is 1 and his spellcasting is 1.
Fortunately for them, I’ve got no white hits, 1 red hit against Elliot only,
and 1 blue hit. My attacks are 0, 1 and 0, and my defend is 1.
Meg’s attacking 1 (attack) to 1 (defend) and defending 3 (defend) to 0

(attack).
Elliot’s attacking 3 (attack) to 1 (defend) and defending 4 (defend) to 1

(attack).
Sebastian’s defending 1 (defend) to 0 (attack) and casting his spell 1

(effort) to 0 (attack).
“Wow, terrible,” I say. “Okay. Elliot, you’re able to lead them into the
woods down toward the river. The mist makes the going treacherous but
you make some progress. 2 progress, to be precise – 6 will bring you to
the river, and you need 12 all told. Sebastian, the spell?”
“Not great,” he says. “I’ll make the miscast roll -” he rolls a 4. “Well,
okay,” he says. “The spell goes off next round, not this round. I’ve got 1
checkbox is all.”
“Fair enough,” I say. “Now, skill rolls to stay quiet while you go. You need
more hits than the woods’ non-damage damage, so that means you each
need at least 1 hit.”
Meg gets 2, Elliot gets 3, and Sebastian gets 1. Good enough! “The calls
of the wolfwalkers doesn’t change. They don’t realize you’re here,” I say.
“Round 2!”
“We’re still following the sound of the river,” Elliot says. “Do I roll again?”
“Nope,” I say. “Now that it’s an established tactical feature, it’s worth 2
red dice to you, no roll required.”
“To each of us?” Elliot says.
I consider this. “Sure,” I say. “You’re all using it, you all benefit.”
“Fanatastic!” he says. “I’ll charge.”

“Me too,” Meg says.
“I’m going to brace,” Sebastian says. “I don’t want to mess up that skill
roll.”
Sebastian: 4 white, 3 red, 3 blue.
Meg’s got 1 white hit, 2 red hits, and 2 blue hits. Her attack is 3 and her
defend is 3.
Elliot’s got 4 white hits, 1 red hit, and 1 blue hit. His attack is 5 and his
defend is 5.
Sebastian’s got 3 white hits, 2 red hits, and 1 blue hit. His attack is 5 and
his defend is 4.
I’ve got 1 white hit, 1 red hit against Elliot and 1 against Sebastian, and 1
blue hit. My attacks are 1, 2 and 2, and my defend is 2.

(attack).

(attack).
Sebastian’s attacking 5 (attack) to 2 (defend) and defending 4 (defend)

to 2 (attack).
“Sweet,” Elliot says.
“You make it to the river,” I say, “and follow it downstream.” I mark off 7
more group traversal checkboxes – there are only 3 left. “The trees are
getting older, they’re old, big brittle willows and half-submerged oaks. The
barks and howls of the wolfwalkers are loud and clear down here – make
those skill rolls. I still can’t catch a break so you still need only 1 hit.”
Meg rolls 1, and Elliot and Sebastian both roll 2.
“Round 3,” I say. “Oh and Sebastian your spell goes off.”
“There’s a shadow?” he says, “and it guides?”
“Yes. It’s like a crow, the shadow of a bird, cast on the mist by no light. It
tips its head at you like ‘where?’” • 71 • Rules • Battle
“Cool,” he says. “Lead us to the wolfwalkers’ hearts.”
“You aren’t following the sound of the river anymore so no 2 red for that.
Sebastian, you get 2 red for the guiding shadow. What’s your setup?”
“Charge this time,” he says. Elliot and Meg too.

Sebastian: 4 white, 3 red, 2 blue.

Meg’s got 2 white hits, 1 red hit, and 1 blue hit. Her attack is 3 and her
defend is 3.
Elliot’s got 4 white hits, 1 red hit, and no blue hits. His attack is 5 and his
defend is 4.
Sebastian’s got 4 white hits, 2 red hits, and no blue hits. His attack is 6
and his defend is 4.
I’ve got 3 white hits, 1 red hit against Meg and 1 against Elliot, and no blue
hits. My attacks are 4, 4 and 3, and my defend is 4.

(attack).

(attack).
Sebastian’s attacking 6 (attack) to 4 (defend) and defending 4 (defend)

to 3 (attack).
I mark off the last 3 group traversal checkboxes. “The shadow flies low
to the ground into a ghostly grove of dead trees, all cracked open and
whispering. The guardian wolfwalkers are so close by that you can hear
them breathing when they aren’t calling – they must be right outside the
grove. Skill rolls. Meg, you need 2 hits, because the woods’ attack beat
your defend by 1.” I cross my fingers, and Meg rolls only 1 hit. Elliot rolls
1, and Sebastian rolls 2.
“Oh, yes,” I say. But I don’t say it for the reason they think! I say it
because I know something about the guardian wolfwalkers that they don’t
know – but that Sebastian’s about to guess...
• Such arms as they might
bear in the Horsehall •
• The Adventure of
the Wolfwalkers •
• Rules •
• Spellcasting •
When your character casts a spell, roll your arcane (plus a spellbook, if
you have one) and spend your hits on the spell’s effect.
For instance, let’s say that you get 3 hits on your roll to cast Luck for
Warriors:
Luck for Warriors
The household. Medium: luck; effect: advantage (red
and/or blue dice).
When you cast the spell, assign your advantage hits to
+2red or +2blue. Thereafter, in battle, each round spend
one – exactly one – of your advantage hits to add 2 red
or 2 blue dice to your roll. The spell ends when you’ve
spent them all.
Because you got 3 hits, you get to mark 3 of those boxes. You might mark
the “no miscast” box – if you don’t, you have to roll for a miscast. You
might mark some “+2red” boxes – each one you mark gives you 2 red dice
in your next battle. And you might mark some “+2blue” boxes – each one
you mark gives you 2 blue dice in your next battle.
So let’s say that you play it safe. You mark the “no miscast” box, one
“+2red” box, and one “+2blue” box. You don’t have to roll for a miscast,
and you get 2 red and 2 blue dice in your next battle.
For another example, let’s say that you get 2 hits on your roll to cast
Shelter of Vines:
Shelter of Vines
• 74 • Rules • Spellcasting
The household. Medium: plant; effect: protection.

Area: nearby; default duration: no time; default
protection: none.
For the spell to have any effect, you must put at least
one hit in both duration and protection.
Alarm: the shelter of vines will alert you to anyone’s
approach. Hinder: the shelter of vines gives -2 white
dice to anyone trying to fight their way in. Prevent: the
shelter of vines simply prevents anyone from coming in.
Here’s an interesting choice. In order to get any protection, you need to

mark one of the “protection” boxes, and in order for the spell to last any
time, you have to mark one of the “duration” boxes. You rolled 2 hits, so
you can do that … but that’ll mean leaving the “no miscast” box unmarked.
It’s your choice: go ahead with the spell and risk the miscast roll, or else
avoid the miscast roll but get no effect from the spell.
And finally, let’s say your character’s casting Lightnings at Command at an
enemy on the horizon, and you get 4 hits on your roll:
Lightnings at Command
The elements. Medium: light (lightning), far-ranged;
effect: attack.
Default range: nearby.
Range: □ an arrow’s flight □ within sight
Each damage hit does 1 damage to someone within
range. Divvy out the damage as you choose.
When you mark boxes in a line, always start from the left and go right-
ward. Thus, to mark the “within sight” box and have the lightning reach
your distant enemy, you’ll have to spend 2 of your hits on range: 1 for the
“an arrow’s flight” box and a second for the “within sight” box.
This leaves you 2 of your hits to mark in the “damage” boxes, to harm
your enemy.
Casting a Spell Again

Every time you cast a spell in any adventure, the harder it gets to cast
that same spell again. See how there’s one “no miscast” box, then three
little lines? Each time you cast a spell, take one of those little lines and
draw it into a box. When you cast the spell again, now you have two “no
miscast” boxes, each representing a roll to miscast if you don’t mark it.
So, after you’ve cast Luck for Warriors once, it looks like this:
Luck for Warriors
and/or blue dice).
□ □ _ _ no miscast
spent them all.
And if you cast it a second time, change it to look like this:
Luck for Warriors
and/or blue dice).
□ □ □ _ no miscast
spent them all.
When you cast a spell, you have to make a miscast roll for each “no
miscast” box that you leave unchecked, and you suffer the consequences
of each. Now you have the potential to make up to 3 rolls on the miscast
table.
For instance, suppose your character’s cast Bath of Healing Light twice
already in this adventure. She casts it again and you get only 2 hits on
your roll:
The household. Medium: light; effect: healing
Range: nearby; subjects: variable.
□ □ □ _ no miscast
Healing: □ □ □ □ □ □ damage
Each hit in healing heals 1 damage from 1 target. Divvy
out the healing as you choose.
Only 2 hits!
Well let’s make it easy: your two fellow players’ characters each need
1 damage healed to stay in the fight. So you spend your 2 hits there: 1
damage healed for friend number one, 1 damage healed for friend number
two. You leave all 3 “no miscast” boxes unchecked, so you have to roll 3
times on the miscast table. You roll ... a 5, a 2, a 5.
Look them up on the miscast table: the 2 drains 1 from your arcane until
the end of the adventure, but the two 5s do you no harm. Whew! That
could have gone worse.
Miscasting a spell
Miscasting in battle
Roll a die:
5-6: No miscast.
4: The spell goes off in followthrough next round, not this round, but
you can do other stuff next round.
3: The spell will take two full rounds to cast. If you want to do some-
thing else next round, you’ll have to abandon the spell.
2: Casting the spell drains 1 from your arcane until the end of the
adventure.
1: The spell hits you for 1 damage, in addition to its effects.
Miscasting outside of battle
Roll a die:
5-6: No miscast
4: The spell will hang uncast in the air around you for fifteen minutes or
so, then go off.
3: The spell will require you an hour’s solid effort to cast. If anything
interrupts you for more than a minute or two, you’ll have to abandon the
spell.
2: Casting the spell drains 1 from your arcane until the end of the
adventure.
1: The spell hits you for 1 damage, in addition to its effects.
If you abandon the spell, you still have to add a “no miscast” box for this
casting.
At the end of the adventure, erase all of the “no miscast” boxes you’ve
added to your spells, leaving only the first one each.
• Rules •
• Characters Over Time •
Characters are dynamic. As you play, your characters will develop and
improve, and you’ll get to create and play new characters as well. Here’s
how.
Healing
Pretty much as soon as your characters start taking damage, you’re going
to want to find ways to heal them. There are a variety of ways: magic, like
the Bath of Healing Light spell; first aid using a skill roll, like the example
in the earlier chapter; submitting to the care of a healer; time. Here are
how these latter work.
Between adventures, suppose that your character has time to rest and
recover, and the support and care of her home town, including its healers.
Clear all of your damage checkboxes.
However, if during the adventure you took damage in even one single
“endurance roll” checkbox, that means that your character suffered
a significant wound with lasting harm. Your character must skip one
session’s play in order to recover. Create a new character. If you already
have more than one character, you can choose another characters to play
instead, if you want.
In the middle of an adventure, if your character has time and access to
a healer’s care, you can have her clear some of your character’s damage.
Make an endurance roll. Submitting to the healer’s care lets you clear as
many damage checkboxes as the hits you roll. Clear them in reverse order
• 78 • Rules • Characters Over Time
– from right to left, starting on your “endurance roll” row.

However, three things. First, if it’s more than two checkboxes healed,
this requires a full day and night’s attention – so if you can’t spare the
time, your character’s limited to two checkboxes healed. Second, your
character’s able to be healed this way only once in any given adventure.
Third, if the healer’s one to charge her patients money, 1 treasure (that
is, 1 minor treasure) per checkbox cleared is a common and appropriate
rate.
If an adventure spans more than one session, your character heals
naturally between the sessions, but not much. At the beginning of every
session after the first, clear one “still fighting” damage checkbox. “Endur-
ance roll” damage checkboxes don’t clear naturally this way.
In-town Sessions
Every few sessions it’s fun to have a session without an adventure, just to
develop the town, its people, and their relationships. GM, be sure to give
every PC some spotlight time, alone or in groups.
These sessions are worth XP too. You get 1 XP for your character if you
have her:
• Pursue some personal interest or ambition;
• Work for the material good or defense of the town;
• Explore some new region near the town; or
• Have personal conversations with some people close to her.
But these sessions aren’t worth any treasure or group XP.
Multiple Characters
If you have more than one character, you get to choose which character to
play, adventure to adventure. After the GM has introduced the adventure
by showing you the problems it’s causing for the town, choose which
character you’re going to play.
If one of your characters is sitting the session out to recover from serious
wounds, don’t choose her, of course.
Only the one character you’re playing gets XP for an adventure.
For in-town sessions, don’t choose one character. You’ll get to play each of
your characters for a scene or two (except the ones sitting out to recover,
as always).
Treasure
There are two kinds of treasure here at level 1. The first kind is minor
treasure. Minor treasure is simple money, trinkets, trade goods, useful
gear, the familiar kinds of things that come and go from everyone’s lives.
Minor treasure is measured in 1s – the GM might say “there’s a gorgeous
beaten silver horn worth 3 treasure,” for instance, or “they’re just cut
glass, pretty as they are, worth 1 treasure the sackful at best.”
As a group, you can spend your minor treasure on whatever you need.
1 treasure will buy anything from any of the standard lists, when it’s

available. GM, it’s up to you what else the group can buy with its treasure,
case by case.
The second kind is substantial treasure. Substantial treasure is much

more significant than just things of value, it’s advantages or opportunities
for the whole group. A substantial treasure might be a material thing,
like an enchanted spear, armor made from dragon scales, a powerful
spellbook, or it might be non-material, like the ability to play a new type
of character or an alliance between the group and a powerful local priest.
You never spend your substantial treasures, you have and use them.
The GM will create the substantial treasures your group gets. GM, you’ll
find the rules for this in the Creating More chapter.
Experience
When your character fights a monster, you get XP, experience points.
Keep track of them on your character sheet. Make simple marks in the
boxes to show the XP you gain, then completely fill in the boxes to show
the XP you’ve spent.
Spending XP
Spend 1 XP to buy something from the standard lists: arms, gear,
maps, spells, people. On your character sheet, just mark that you’ve
spent the experience point and add the thing.
Spend 5 XP to increase a stat base by 1 – the number on the line,
not the number in the box! You improve your stats by improving your
stat bases:
Stat base 1 = Stat 3
Stat base 2-3 = Stat 4
Stat base 4-5 = Stat 5
Stat base 6 = Stat 6
If you have a stat base of 6, you can spend 15 XP to make that stat
heroic. Now the stat base is H and the stat is 7.
Spend 5 XP to buy a stat ability. To buy a stat ability, though, your stat
base for that stat has to be at least 5.
Stat Abilities
Arcane Abilities
Alignment (plus learn 1 domain)
Creating Spells (plus learn 1 domain)
Combat Magic (plus learn 1 domain)
Learning Domains (learn 2 domains).
Command Abilities
Initiation
Iron Intention
Tactician
Daunting presence
Endurance Abilities
Ironhide
Tireless
Surviving extremes
Iron will
Perception Abilities
Wild instincts
Empathy
Danger sense
Skill Abilities
Quickness
Counterstrike
Social Training
A Weapon Skill
Strength Abilities
Feats of strength
Hammerhands
Knockdown
Intimidating Presence
Arcane Abilities
Alignment (plus learn 1 domain)
Creating Spells (plus learn 1 domain)
Combat Magic (plus learn 1 domain)
Learning Domains (learn 2 domains).
Whenever you buy an arcane ability, your character learns the rudiments
of working with one of the magical domains (two, for Learning Domains).
Choose which domain now, and keep track on your character sheet of the
domains your character knows.
The magical domains are blood, the elements, the household, self-trans-
formation, the senses, the spirit world, and the wilds.
Alignment
Buying Alignment means that your character has aligned herself closely
with one of the magical domains. She’s defining her magical life by lining
it up with the qualities of that domain.
So first, choose the domain. Choose one of the domains your character
knows.
Alignment to a domain gives you:
• Sensitivity to Magic within your aligned domain. See the perception

ability for details.
• The ability to communicate with entities who share your aligned domain,
even entities who have no way to communicate normally.
• 1 free hit to your side of any roll involving something of your aligned
domain. This includes spellcasting rolls and everything.
You can buy alignment again in the future, but that changes your
character’s alignment, it doesn’t add alignment to a second domain.

Creating Spells
Buying Creating Spells lets your character create new spells within the
domain or domains your character knows.
If you’re considering buying this ability, ask the GM to tell you how
creating spells works, or look ahead to the Creating More chapter.
When your character creates a spell, it costs you 1 XP to add it to your

character sheet, same as getting any new spell.
Combat magic
Buying Combat Magic lets your character cast spells while fighting.
Follow the normal rules for doing something while fighting:
• In setup, roll your arcane. Each hit gives you a green die.
• In action, your success equals your white + green hits, minus the white
+ red hits of the highest attack against you.
• In followthrough, spend your success on the spell’s effect.
Learning Domains
Buying Learning Domains simply lets your character learn how to work
with two magical domains, of your choice.
You can buy this ability as often as you like, until your character knows
all the domains.
Command Abilities
• Initiation
• Iron Intention
• Tactician
• Daunting Presence
Initiation
Initiation is priesthood. Buying it means that your character’s been
initiated as a priest or priestess into the service of a god, gods, or
pantheon.
It lets you use your Command instead of your Arcane for any purpose
aligned with the household or the spirit world, including casting spells and
getting powers. For instance, you can cast the spell A Guiding Shadow (a
spell of the spirit world) and roll your command instead of your arcane.
You can also buy arcane abilities if your command base is 5 or more
(which presumably it is), even if your arcane base is only 1.
Iron Intention
In setup, make a command roll. Each hit gives you a red die. Replaces
charging.
Daunting Presence
In setup, make a command roll. Each hit gives you a blue die. Replaces
bracing.
Tactician
In setup, when you rally your comrades, each command success gives you
two dice to hand out instead of one.
Endurance Abilities
• Ironhide (+blue die)
• Tireless
• Surviving extremes
• Iron will
Ironhide
Ironhide gives you an extra blue die, always.
Tireless
Whenever you make an endurance roll outside of combat, in addition to
the effects of that roll, hold onto your hits. They become bonus dice to
your next roll.
Surviving Extremes
Surviving extremes lets you hold your breath for a really long time,
endure the dead of winter without shelter, hold on to a red-hot iron, and
things like that.
Furthermore, you can make an endurance roll to survive something that

would kill or disable a normal person (including marking your last damage
checkbox). You can also plain ignore something that would require a
normal person to make an endurance roll (including marking a damage
checkbox on your “endurance roll” row). However, taking damage on your
“endurance roll” row still means that this character has to sit out the next
adventure to recover.
Iron Will
Buying Iron Will lets you roll endurance instead of command for any
mental or emotional rolls. This includes rolling to resist monsters’
mesmerize or fear abilities, but not social rolls like rolling to control other
people by giving them orders.
Perception Abilities
• Wild instincts
• Empathy
• Sensitivity to Magic
• Danger Sense
Wild Instincts
In setup, if you aren’t making any other roll, make a perception roll. Each
hit gives you your choice of a red or a blue die.
This replaces bracing or charging, and it also gives you red or blue dice
if your character’s casting a spell or doing something else instead of
fighting.
Empathy
Buying Empathy lets you roll perception before you make a command roll.
Your perception hits give you bonus dice to the command roll.
Sensitivity to Magic
Buying Sensitivity to Magic lets you make a plain perception roll to detect,
identify, and reveal details of magic, as though your character had cast
the spell of the same name, but with no possibility of miscast.
Danger Sense
Before joining battle, make a perception roll (this ability adds conse-
quences to the perception roll ritual). Your hits become bonus white dice
to your first round’s action. You get them even if you wouldn’t normally

roll any white dice.
Skill Abilities
• Quickness
• Counterstrike
• Social Training
• A Weapon Skill
Quickness
Buying Quickness gives you two moves in setup. You can brace AND
charge, or whatever two setup moves you choose. It doesn’t give you two
attacks.
Counterstrike
If your defend is greater than your attacker’s attack (not just equal to it!),
in followthrough you do 1 damage to your attacker.
Social Training
Buying Social Training lets you roll skill before you make a social roll, like
the perception roll for charged conversations or the command roll to give
someone orders. Your skill hits give you bonus dice for the social roll.
Weapon Skills
You can use weapon skills whenever you’re fighting with the appropriate
weapon. You can buy as many weapon skills as you like (for 5 XP each, of
course):
Sword skills
Lightning Blade – in action, you get a second sword attack at the same
target. Roll two full sets of red dice.
Parrying – a sword gives you a blue die in addition to its red dice.
At One with the Blade – all swords of any type, not just greatswords,
give you 3 red dice.
Mastery of the Art – any stick, broom or boat oar in your hand counts
as a sword.
Club / mace skills

Swordbreaker – when you hit your enemy in battle, if your red + white
hits include two or more 6s, your character breaks her enemy’s weapon
or armor (GM’s call).
Shieldbreaker – when you fail to hit your enemy in battle, if your red
+ white hits include two or more 6s, your character breaks her enemy’s
weapon or armor (GM’s call).
Skullbreaker – in battle, count each 6 amongst your red + white hits as

two hits, for purposes of attack only. (In other words, white 6s don’t count
double for defend or effort, just for attack.)
Archery skills
Fast Shot – in action, you get a second shot at the same target. Roll two
full sets of red dice.
Trick Shot – a trick shot normally requires a perception roll in setup, for
green dice. Now, instead, you get green dice equal to your skill, no setup
roll required. (A trick shot is any shot you intend to accomplish something
other than, or in addition to, damaging your target.)
Shield skill
Shield Wall – as your setup move, say who you’re going to protect. You
can protect as many people as you want, provided that their own actions
aren’t going to bring them out from behind your shield. In action, every
blue hit you roll counts as a blue hit for each of them as well.
Strength Abilities
• Feats of Strength
• Hammerhands
• Knockdown
• Intimidating Presence
Feats of Strength
In setup, you can manipulate the tactical features of the battlefield with a
strength roll instead of a skill roll. Examples include shooting your arrows
much farther than normal; lifting, moving, or toppling features of the
landscape by main strength; throwing your enemies down or lifting your
allies up.
Hammerhands
Hammerhands gives you an additional red die, always.
Knockdown
When you hit your enemy in battle, if your red + white hits include at least
one 6, in followthrough your character has knocked her enemy down.
(Being knocked down is a tactical constraint, as normal.)
Intimidating Presence
Buying Intimidating Presence lets you roll strength instead of command
for social rolls. This includes rolling to control other people by giving
them orders and rolling in setup to rally your comrades, but not mental
or emotional rolls like rolling to resist a monster’s mesmerize or fear
abilities.
Advancing to Level 2: Storming the

Wizard’s Tower
To advance to level 2, Storming the Wizard’s Tower, your group
needs:
• At least 50 group XP on the group sheet
• At least one character with at least one heroic stat
• At least one character with an alignment
• At least one new character type available

• Rules •
• Creating More •
Creating Substantial Treasures
The GM is the one who creates substantial treasures. At the end of every
adventure, GM, you need to create a substantial treasure for every full 10
XV in the adventure.
Here are your choices:
A new character type. Create it as you did the original character types
for your home town. Make it follow naturally from the events of the
adventure. If no new character type comes naturally, choose a different
kind of treasure to create.
Example:
Wolf-raised
You were stolen by wolfwalkers as a child and lived as a wolfwalker for

many years. Now freed and returned to humanity, you don’t remember
your time as a monster, but it still shapes you.
Don’t choose this if you have low arcane or low strength.
You get 3 maps, 3 spells, 1 arms or gear, 1 from any list, and 1 person.
Character ability: Sixth Sense. In setup, if you aren’t making any other
roll, make an arcane roll. Each hit gives you your choice of a red or a blue
die. This replaces bracing or charging, and it also gives you red or blue
dice if your character’s casting a spell or doing something else instead of
fighting.
An alliance with someone powerful. Have the players add the powerful
person to their group sheet. Make it follow naturally from the events of
• 86 • Rules • Creating More
the adventure. If no alliance comes naturally, choose a different kind of

treasure to create.
Example:
Alliance with the river folk
The group can always find shelter and sanctuary with the river folk. Anyone
who comes to them in the name of Meg’s character, Elliot’s character, or
Sebastian’s character, they’ll take them in, hide them, protect them, heal
them, feed them – whatever they require.
Weapons or tools that grant abilities. Choose any of the stat abilities,
adapt a monster ability, give a straightforward stat bonus, or create a new
ability of your own.
Since a significant treasure should benefit the group, not just one char-
acter, try to invent these so that the characters in the group can share
them, or so that several of the characters get related weapons or tools
at once.
Example:
Cool things made from the scales of the mine serpent
A dagger made from its iron tooth, which gives the bearer the counter-
strike ability.
A magical focus (effectively a spellbook) made from its tongue, worth 2

green dice when casting spells that create sensations.
A mail shirt made from its scales, which gives the wearer +1 defend in
battle (not blue dice!).
An item of portent. Invent something that’s unique and clearly impor-

tant, but of unknown power and significance. When you create treasure
like this, it’s a promise to the players: this isn’t useful now, but in the
future it’ll be key. Sometime in the future, you should create an adventure
designed to fulfill this treasure’s promise.
Example:
5 fire drake eggs, packed closely in straw to keep them warm, glowing
with their warm inner light.
A significant material improvement. This can be for the group as such

or for the entire town.
Example, for the group:
Title & estates
The duke is so impressed with you that he makes you his special wardens,
granting you title to estates and the right to tax and muster the people

living on them. You’re now to be called “sir” or “madam,” and the Duke’s
law backs you if you insist upon your rights.
Example, for the town:
New trade with the undersea kingdom
The undersea kingdom, which once menaced the town’s ships, now
considers the town a worthy partner in trade. The town is suddenly rich in
beautiful coral, pearls, and the sunken treasures of ancient civilizations.
Creating New Spells
The GM can create spells by herself, or in conjunction with a player – in
that case, the player creates the spell in outline, and the GM creates its
details.
Players
You can buy a power that allows your character to create new spells.
Without that power, your character can’t create new spells.
When you have the power and your character creates a new spell, here’s
what to do:
1. Choose the domain.
You have to choose a domain already written on your character sheet.
For instance, my character Annah is going to create a spell. She’s a

priestess of the Wilds, so I choose that domain.
2. Choose what the spell creates and what effect, from the ones listed for
the domain. Choose in either order, based on what you want the spell to
do.
Annah wants a defensive spell. The Wilds doesn’t include direct protection
spells, but it includes advantage spells, so that’s what I choose. I decide
that it creates changes.
3. Write a description of what you want the spell to do, roughly.
I write “this spell gives the caster a defensive advantage by changing her
skin to be as hard as solid oak.”
4. Give your choices and your description to your GM. Your GM will create
the spell the rest of the way and give it back to you.
5. Spend 1xp to add the spell to your character sheet.
GM
If you’re creating a spell to give as treasure or to play a part in an adven-
ture, go ahead and follow steps 1-3 as though you were a player, above.
Choose any domain that seems right.
When you have domain, creation, effect and description, either from a
player or of your own, continue here:
Choose checklists:
1. Always include this one:

2. Choose at least 1 more, up to 3 more. To start with, choose from
the ones listed with the effect. You can modify them - always consider
removing boxes to create more limited lists.
As you play the game and see how things work, you can start to create
your own new checklists.
A spell should always have at least 6 boxes available, and it should usually
have exactly 7. Some spells are more flexible; they can have more than
7 boxes.
If a creation can be lasting or far-ranged, look at the checklists for those

too.
Now I’m the GM, finishing Annah’s spell. I choose these checklists:
Miscast: □ _ _ _ no miscast
Advantage: □ +1blue/round □ +2blue/round
Duration: □ □ □ □ +rounds
Choose defaults:
Sometimes a spell has only one range, for instance; instead of giving it a
range checkbox, just say what its range is.
Sometimes a spell has a checkbox that improves upon some baseline;

be sure to say what that baseline is. (That’s what +rounds means, for
instance.)
For Annah’s spell, I choose these defaults:

Range: self; default advantage: none; default duration: 1
round.
Write a precise description:
The checklists don’t tell the whole story. Write a description to tell the
rest. You can follow the examples of the starting spells.
For Annah’s spell, I write:

When you cast the spell, your skin becomes as hard as
solid oak. 1 hit in advantage gives you +1 blue die per
round; 2 gives you +2 blue dice per round. By default the
spell lasts only 1 round, but hits in duration extend it.
Give the completed spell back to the player, or else keep it yourself.
Here’s Annah’s finished spell:

Oak-skin
The wilds. Creates changes in order to give an
advantage.
Range: self; default advantage: none; default duration: 1
round.
Advantage: □ +1blue/round □ +2blue/round
Duration: □ □ □ □ +rounds
When you cast the spell, your skin becomes as hard as

solid oak. 1 hit in advantage gives you +1 blue die per
round; 2 gives you +2 blue dice per round. By default the
spell lasts only 1 round, but hits in duration extend it.
The Domains
Blood, the elements, the household, self-transformation, the senses, the
spirit world, the wilds.
Blood The Senses
Its spells... Its spells...
Create: Create:
Sensations Visions
Changes Sensations
Breath In order to:
In order to: Give a stat bonus
Attack Give an advantage
Heal Reveal
Sustain
Give a stat bonus The Spirit World
Its spells...
The Elements Create:
Its spells... Lights
Create: Sounds
Materials Visions
In order to: Dreams
Attack Entities
Give a stat bonus Luck
Give an advantage In order to:
Travel Protect
Attack
The Household Sustain
Its spells... Reveal
Create: Deceive
Lights Travel
Sounds
Materials The Wilds
Runes Its spells...
Entities Create:
Luck Changes
Plants Entities
Animals Plants
In order to: Animals
Protect In order to:

Heal Attack
Sustain Sustain
Give an advantage Give a stat bonus
Give an advantage
Self-transformation Reveal
Its spells... Deceive
Create:
Sensations
Changes
Breath
In order to:
Protect
Heal
Sustain Which creations can be lasting?
Give a stat bonus Materials, runes, changes, entities, plants,
Give an advantage animals.
Reveal Which creations can act at far range?
Deceive Lights, sounds, luck.
The Effects
All spells: no miscast
Give an advantage: advantage, subjects, duration
Advantage: □ □ □ □ □ □ +1white
Advantage: □ □ □ □ □ □ +2die (say what color, not white)
Advantage: □ +1die/round □ +2die/round (say what color)
Subjects: □ □ □ □ □ □ subjects
Duration: □ □ □ □ □ □ rounds or +rounds
Attack: hits, range, targets
Damage: □ □ □ □ □ □ hits
Range: □ touch □ nearby
Targets: □ □ □ □ □ □ targets
Deceive: instances, duration, conviction, subjects
Instances: □ □ □ □ □ □ instances (say what an instance is)
Conviction: □ uncertain □ firm □ unshakeable
Subjects: □ 1 subject □ a small group □ a large group □ a population
Heal: hits healed, range, subjects
Heal: □ □ □ □ □ □ hits
Range: □ touch □ nearby
Protect: protection, duration, area, criteria
Protection: □ □ □ □ □ □ hits
Protection: □ 1hit/round □ 2hits/round □ 3hits/round
Area: □ a room □ a house □ a neighborhood
Area: □ self □ a small group □ a large group □ a population
Criteria: □ □ □ □ □ subjects
Criteria: □ 1 kind □ 2 kinds □ 3 kinds □ 4 kinds
Reveal: instances, extent
Instances: □ □ □ □ □ □ instances (say what an instance is)
Extent: □ detect □ identify □ □ □ □ +detail
Extent: □ impression □ □ □ □ □ +detail
Give a stat bonus: subjects, bonus, duration

Bonus: □ +1 □ +2
Duration: □ □ □ □ □ □ uses
Sustain: subjects, duration, quality
Subjects: □ 1 subject □ a small group □ a large group □ a population
Quality: □ bare survival □ comfortable □ luxury
Travel: destination, speed, obstacles bypassed, return
Destination: □ a nearby place □ a distant place □ an alien place
Destination: □ an intimate place □ a known place □ a named place
Destination: □ a nearby Otherworld □ a distant Otherworld
Speed: □ natural □ unnatural □ instantaneous
Obstacles bypassed: □ □ □ □ □ □ obstacles
Return: □ with natural effort □ easy □ at will
Lasting: duration
Duration: □ 1round □ 1battle □ 1session
Duration: □ 1day □ 1week □ 1month
Far range: range
Range: □ an arrow’s flight □ within sight □ beyond sight
Or create your own.
• Rules •
• Cards Instead of Dice •
If you want to play with cards instead of dice, here’s how.
• Use two decks of cards shuffled together. Don’t include the jokers.
• The GM can deal cards, or any other player can.
• Give everybody a copy of the card mat, opposite. The GM will need more
than one so have some extras.
• Whenever the rules call for you to roll dice, have the dealer deal you that
many cards, face down. Turn them face up all at once.
• Ignore the black cards. Count the red cards as hits.
In battle, use the card mats. When you would normally take dice of a
certain color, have the dealer deal the cards into the appropriate section
of your battle mat. Cards in “white” for white dice, cards in “red” for red
dice, cards in “blue” for blue dice, and cards in “green” for green dice.
Keep the piles separate when you turn them up. Count red cards as hits
and ignore black cards.
Two more notes:
• Shuffle the deck between every round of battle. Shuffle a lot.
• Some abilities call for you to notice how many 6s you rolled amongst
your hits. Count 10s, jacks, queens and kings as 6s. Only if they’re red,
• 92 • Rules • Cards Instead of Dice
of course.
• Red •
• Blue • • Green •
• White •

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Storming the Wizard’s Tower • Level 1 • Fighting Monsters

Manuscript ©2008 • D. Vincent Baker

The GM has a lot of responsibilities! Everyone, do your best to make the

For Prospective GMs

• 5 • Introduction • Setting Up to Play

GM: Before You Play

First map: where’s your town in the

Everyone is connected, however distantly. The world stretches east to

west, north to south in a huge gradation of trade and culture. In Earth’s

The first map of Ellemheld is opposite, top.

Mythical – impossible heroes, gods, otherworlds,

Historical – empires, trade, culture, stories.

Fantasiacal – imagination, magic, invention, play.

First paragraph: what’s it like where

an oasis in the desert, or on a fertile flood plain? Is your town part of a

Second map: what’s local to your town?

Ellemheld’s second map is on page 7, bottom.

Ellemheld is a prosperous sea-trade town. Copper, tin and coal comes

Third paragraph: who are your town’s

I already mentioned the sea-raiders. In addition, sometimes the kings

Fourth paragraph: how does your

• 9 • GM • Creating a Home Town

Ellemheld is ruled by the duke, through his reeves, administrators and

Cliche, familiarity & accessibility

Cliche is like the primary colors. For a more sophisticated

It’s especially evident in my lists of weapons, armor and gear.

What about magic? It’s important to ground the game solidly

The lists: names, arms, gear, maps,

The lists for Ellemheld are at the end of the chapter.

The character types

After play starts

That’s your town! Next up: adventures.

• 11 • GM • Creating a Home Town

I already mentioned the sea-raiders. In addition, sometimes the kings

Ellemheld is ruled by the duke, through his reeves, administrators and

Men’s Names Women’s Names

Person of the wood tribes

• 15 • Example Town • Ellemheld

The Horsehall is a village of longhouses, the royal village of its tribe.

Wilder, stranger people live up in the mountains above the Horsehall,

Men’s Names Women’s Names

Don’t choose this if you have a low arcane or a low strength.

• 19 • Example Town • The Horsehall

An adventure is a set of monsters linked together by a common backstory.

Sometimes I’ll refer to an adventure’s XV. An adventure’s XV just means

Creating an adventure means creating all of its monsters, writing a para-

6. Draw a map or maps of the adventure’s featured locations.

The players’ characters aren’t obliged to resolve this underlying conflict

The Wizard and the Wizard’s Tower

There’s an entire chapter later on about creating substantial treasures.

See the section about creating treasure in the Between Adventures

Running the Adventure

Here’s how it goes.

3. The heroes follow up on the problem. Sometimes they follow tracks,

Don’t lead them to the monster, clue to clue to clue. Don’t

As GM – and this is important! – it’s your job to create a challenging

The attackers left tracks.

They were taken by wolfwalkers. Wolfwalkers are bogeymen to the people

Wolfwalkers: the main encounter for this adventure is the hunting

The Riverbottoms: if the characters need to go find their hearts, they’re

The Guardian Wolfwalkers: whom they might well encounter in the

The Moor People: there’s lots of good mystery in this adventure, so

Creating a monster means determining what materials it’s made of,