Salt & Strife

Salt
&
Strife
Salt & Strife a Powered by the Apocalypse tabletop roleplaying game
a hack of Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, and other games
Musketeer��20
Chapter 1, essentials�� 4 Gunner��23
Black Powder, Tall Ships, & Gold�� 4
Rider��26
Preparing for Play�� 4
Bravo��29
The Conversation�� 4
Merchant��32
Moves and Dice�� 4
Crafter��35
Stats�� 5
Barber-surgeon��38
Things�� 5
Scholar��41
Harm Track�� 6
Priest��44
Character Improvement�� 6
Stranger��47
Bonds�� 6
Beast��50
Downtime Moves�� 6
Subversive��53
Name, Mother Country, Religion, Company,
Harlot��56
and Looks�� 7
Leper��59
Getting Started�� 7
Conjuror��62
Chapter 2, basic moves�� 8 Chapter 4, items��65

Defy danger�� 8
Tags��65
Seize by fire & steel�� 8
Ranged Weapons��65
Parley�� 8
Melee & Thrown Weapons��66
Spout knowledge�� 8
Artillery��66
Examine surroundings�� 8
Ammo��67
Help or hinder�� 9
Armor��67
Suffer harm�� 9
Resources��67
Heal harm�� 9
Boats & Ships��67
Undertake a perilous journey�� 9
Mounts & Transports��67
Provisioning�� 9
Travel��68
Pray�� 9
Common Tags��68
Session end�� 9
Weapons table��69
Chapter 3, roles��12 Chapter 5, hired help��70

Sea dog��12
Using a Hireling��70
Worker��15
Loyalty��70
Hunter��17
Size��71
Pay��71
Index�� 104
Chapter 6, harm & healing��72
Calculating Harm��72
Marking Harm��73
Healing Harm��73
Debilities��73
Maladies��73
Chapter 7, experience��74
Chapter 8, starting out��75

When and where does this take place?��75
What things would you like to see?��75
What things should we avoid?��75
What sort of group are you?��75
What sort of enterprise are you engaged in?��75
What place, if any, does the group operate from?��76
What else?��77
Chapter 9, game master��78

Principles��78
GM Moves��79
Fronts��80
Appendix 1, glossary��83
Appendix 2, character names��85
Appendix 3, ship names��90
Appendix 4, currencies��93
Appendix 5, maladies��95
Appendix 6, fashion��97
Credits�� 101
CHAPTER 1
essentials
BLACK POWDER, TALL SHIPS, THE CONVERSATION

AND GOLD Roleplaying is a conversation. You and the other players
go back and forth, talking about these fictional characters
S
alt & Strife is a roleplaying game about a company
of adventurers from the lower classes in the early in their fictional circumstances doing whatever it is that
modern period, a time of exploration, enterprise, they do. All these rules do is mediate the conversation.
and exploitation. They kick in when someone says some particular things,
and they impose constraints on what everyone should
The early modern period spans the 1600s to the 1800s. say after.
Salt & Strife focuses on the middle period, the 1700s, but
it can be used to describe adventures as early as the time There are no rounds or turns. You follow the natural
of Rabelais and as late as the revolutionary wave of 1848. flow of the conversation, making sure each person has
an equal say.
PREPARING FOR PLAY
You need a few people—ideally three to five friends total. MOVES AND DICE
Choose one person to be the game master (GM). Everyone The particular things that make these rules kick in are
else will be players, taking the role of characters in the called moves. A move looks like this:
game (player characters or PCs). As you play, the players
say what their characters say, think, and do. The GM Defy danger: when you try to evade conflict or
describes the world around those characters. establish a positional advantage, roll+Salt. On a
10+, you do what you set out to, the threat doesn’t
Each player will need a role sheet, which contains most come to bear. On a 7-9, you do it but there’s a cost,
of the information they need to play the game. Access to complication, or choice.
this book is good, too—but it’s primarily the GM who will
be using this. You also need six-sided dice. Moves are rules that tell you when they trigger and what
effect they have. A move depends on a fictional action
4
essentials
and always has some fictional effect. In the move above, from a single move).
the trigger is “when you try to evade conflict or establish a
positional advantage”. The effect is what follows, usually When a move tells you to “gain 2 hold”, you bank that
a dice roll and the fictional outcome that results from it. number of future uses which you spend later to trigger
the thing you want. You can spend 1 hold for one effect
When a player describes their character doing something as many times as the hold you have.
that triggers a move, that move happens and its rules
apply. If the move requires a roll, its description will tell Now let’s take a look at some of the other things contained
you what to roll and how to read the results. in a role sheet:
A character can’t do the fictional action that triggers STATS

a move without that move occurring. For example, The stats are:
if Moll declares that she dashes past an axe-wielding
highwayman to the open door, she makes the defy danger Salt, meaning steady, experienced, unfazed, level-
move because it’s triggered by her attempt to “evade headed, clearthinking, alert, having steady hands
conflict or establish a positional advantage”. Moll can’t and grit.
simply say that she runs past the highwayman without
triggering the defy danger move and she can’t make the Strife, meaning aggressive, violent, strong-
defy danger move without having described the dash for willed, mean, physically and emotionally strong.
the door (which triggers the move). The fiction prompts
the moves and vice-versa. Style, meaning attractive, gracious, moneyed,
flamboyant, charismatic, smooth.
Everyone at the table should listen for when moves apply.
If it’s ever unclear if a move has been triggered, everyone Smarts, meaning sharp-witted, clever, perceptive,
should work together to clarify what’s happening. Ask educated, skilled, trained.
questions of everyone involved until everyone sees the
situation the same way—and then roll the dice, or don’t, Strange, meaning everything that comes
as the situation requires. from the dark unexplored margins of the world,
everything unexplained or unnatural.
Each move says which stat you should add to the roll. To
roll+a stat, you roll 2 six-sided dice, add them, and add THINGS
their stat number. If the sum total is 6 or less, that’s a A character’s equipment helps describe the moves
miss. If it’s 7 or more, it’s a hit. 7-9 is a weak hit, 10+ is a they make. For example, a character without a weapon
strong hit. probably isn’t going to trigger the seize by fire & steel
move when attacking a fort—bare-knuckle punches won’t
All the moves say what should happen on a hit, 7-9 or do much to the fortifications, so it doesn’t count for the
10+, so follow them. A few of them list what happens on a purposes of triggering the move.
miss, so follow those too. For the rest, on a miss, the GM
says what happens, and it probably won’t be pretty. Every Likewise, sometimes equipment will avoid triggering a
time you miss, mark experience. move. Climbing a sheer wall may be defying danger, but
with a well-secured ladder you could avoid the imminent
When something tells you to “take +1 to your next roll”, danger or calamity that triggers the move.
that’s self-explanatory. Sometimes it says to apply that +1
to the next roll you make in a specific context, in which Weapons are particularly likely to modify what moves
case that +1 doesn’t apply to any intervening moves. +1 you can trigger. A character with a dirk can easily stab
or -1 ongoing means add 1 or subtract 1 from all your a grappler on the leg, maybe triggering seize by fire &
rolls, from now until whatever’s giving you the bonus or steel, but a character aiming a loaded musket is going to
penalty changes. These bonuses aren’t cumulative unless have a much harder time bringing it to bear on such a
they come from different sources (you can get +1 three close foe.
times from three different moves, but not three times
5
essentials
Items of every sort have tags. Tags are terms to describe BONDS
things. Some tags have a specific effect on the rules Bonds are what make you a tight-knit band, not just a
(things like harm reduction on armor). Other tags are random assortment of people. They’re the feelings,
purely about the fiction (like the tag valuable). Tags help thoughts, and shared history that tie you together. You
you describe your character’s actions when the items will create and resolve countless bonds as you play.
are being used and they give the GM information about
how the items you’re using might go wrong or cause Each bond is a simple statement that relates your
complications when you fail a roll. character to another character or a group of characters.
Your role gives you a few to start with.¹ You’ll replace
HARM TRACK your starting bonds and come up with new ones through
When your character gets hurt, you mark segments in play.
their harm track. Mark one box for each 1 harm. Player
characters have six boxes in their track. At the end of each session you may resolve one bond.
Resolution of a bond depends on both you and the player
The first three boxes heal automatically with time. Harm of the character you share the bond with: you suggest
that fills the fourth and fifth boxes gets worse with time that the bond has been resolved and, if they agree, it is.
unless treated. If you suffer harm that causes you to fill When you resolve a bond, you get to mark experience.
the sixth and last box, it means that your character has
died. A bond is resolved when it no longer describes how you
relate to that person. That may be because circumstances
Typically when a character takes harm, it’s equal to the have changed—Ignacio used to have your back but after
harm rating of the weapon, attack, or mishap, minus the he abandoned you to the French, you’re not so sure. Or it
armor rating of the character’s armor. could be because that’s no longer a question—you guided
Fanny before and she owed you, but she paid that debt
Taking harm triggers the suffer harm move. The more when she saved your life with a well-timed musket shot.
harm inflicted, the worse the result is likely to be. Any time you look at a bond and think “that’s not a big
factor in how we relate anymore” the bond is at a good
Instead of taking harm, you can choose to mark a place to resolve.²
debility. You mark the debility instead of any harm
boxes. Debilities are permanent. You’re not restricted to the premade bonds on your role
sheet. Nor are you restricted to just one bond per person.
CHARACTER IMPROVEMENT Relationships often comprise multiple bonds.
You mark experience—fill in one of the little experience
boxes on your sheet—under a few circumstances in play. When something tells you to roll+bond, that means tally
When you make a move and miss, you always mark up the number of bonds you have with the subject in
experience. Sometimes you mark experience from the question and add that number to the roll.
effects of a move (“mark experience if you do this or
that”). For example, when you wrap a session up up, you’ll DOWNTIME MOVES
trigger the session end move and go back over what you Time will naturally pass between scenes. When you have
did that session, marking experience according to how the opportunity to spend that interval wisely, you reap
thoroughly you pursued your group’s goals. rewards according to the downtime moves specific to
your role.
When you mark your sixth experience box, you improve
your character. Toward the back of each role sheet are You gain resources when you spend the time in between
the rules for that character’s improvement: they can scenes being productive and resourceful. You indulge
choose new moves, increase stats, things like that. When your vice (+1 to your next roll) when you spend the time in
a character improves, clear all the filled-in experience between scenes pleasure-seeking. You rest & recuperate
boxes and start over at 0. (heal harm) when you spend the time in between scenes
quietly doing nothing in peace, with access to food and
drink.
6
essentials
The length of time needed to trigger a downtime move GETTING STARTED

is not specific—it’s at least a significant portion of a day The GM has questions to ask (CHAPTER 9, starting out),
or night, during which you are at your liberty to pursue which marks the beginning of the conversation known
your own interests. Sometimes it’s a few days, sometimes as play.
even more. Sometimes a couple hours will make sense for
triggering a downtime move. If you’re not at your liberty
(i.e. you know you will spend the unseen interval traveling
F
¹If a starting bond is particularly informative of the other person—
rough, preparing, looking out, in hostile territory, or for example, if it says they did something, behaved a certain way,
or have something—it can be a good idea to run it by them before
sleeping), then you don’t trigger the downtime move. The
writing them in the blank.
GM has the final say.
²If a character you have a bond with dies, cross out that bond unless
Downtime moves happen out of view. There’s no need to it came to an explicit resolution by that character’s death. Some
describe in great detail what you did, or exactly where, or bonds will be left hanging, in which case they can never be resolved:
with whom. you can cross them out, receiving no experience.
NAME, MOTHER COUNTRY,

RELIGION, COMPANY, AND
LOOKS
These are the details that make you unique.
7
CHAPTER 2
basic moves
E
very player character can make use of each of the • On a 7-9, they change the terms to suit themselves,
12 basic moves. or demand concrete assurance first.
F
Defy danger: when you evade conflict or establish a
F
Spout knowledge: when you consult your accumulated
positional advantage, roll+Salt. On a 10+, you do what knowledge about something, roll+Smarts. On a 10+,
you set out to, the threat doesn’t come to bear. On a 7-9, the GM will tell you something interesting and useful
you do it but there’s a cost, complication, or choice. about the subject relevant to your situation. On a 7-9,
F
Seize by fire & steel: when you use force to get what
the GM will only tell you something interesting—it’s on
you to make it useful. The GM may ask you “How do you
know this?”.
you want, roll+Strife. On a hit, you get what you want. On
a 7-9, also choose 2:
• You take harm.
F
Examine surroundings: when you look closely at
• Someone else who isn’t the enemy takes harm. something or someone close by, roll+Smarts. On a 10+,
• The enemy gains a positional advantage. ask 2. On a 7-9, ask 1.
• Something of value breaks. What happened here recently?
F
Parley: when you use words to convince or manipulate
What is about to happen?
What is the best way in/out/past?
What here is most vulnerable to me?
someone, tell them what you want and roll+Style. On What here is most dangerous to me?
a hit, they need you to promise something first. If you How can I get this thing/person to ___?
make that promise: What here is a lie?
• On a 10+, it works and whether you keep the
promise later is up to you.
8
basic moves
Help or hinder: when you help or hinder someone, keeper rolls+Style, and the lookout rolls+Salt. On a 10+:
roll+bond with them. On a 10+, they take +2 or -2 to their • The navigator reduces the amount of time it takes
roll, your choice. On a 7-9, they take +1 or -1, and you to reach your destination (the GM will say by how
expose yourself to danger, retribution, or cost. much).
F
Suffer harm: when you suffer harm, roll+harm suffered
• The supply-keeper reduces the number of resources
required by 1.
• The lookout will spot any trouble quick enough to
(after armor, if you’re wearing any). On a 10+, the GM can let you get the drop on it.
choose 1:
• You’re out of action: unconscious, trapped, gone, or On a 7-9, each role performs their job as expected: the
incoherent. journey takes about as long as expected, the normal
• It’s worse than it seemed. Take an additional 1 number of resources are consumed, no one gets the drop
harm. on you but you don’t get the drop on them either.
• Choose 2 from the 7-9 list below.
On a 7-9, the GM can choose 1:

F
Provisioning: when you go into a settlement’s bustling
• You lose your footing. market looking to buy, and it’s not obvious whether you
• You lose your grip on whatever you’re holding. should get it easily, roll+Style. On a 10+, yes, you can
• You lose track of someone or something you’re simply purchase it. On a 7-9, the GM chooses one of the
attending to. following:
• You miss noticing something important. • It costs more than you’d expect.
• It’s not available here, but you hear of somewhere
On a miss, the GM can nevertheless choose something it is.
from the 7-9 list above. If they do, though, it’s instead of • “I sold the last one to that person there!”
some of the harm you’re suffering, so you take -1 harm.¹ • “Sorry, I don’t have that, but maybe this will do
F
Heal harm: when you tend to someone's wounds, spend
instead?”
F
1 resources and roll+Smarts. On a 10+, heal 2 harm. On Pray: when you seek counsel with gods, spirits, or dark
a 7-9, heal 1 harm. Additionally, the GM will choose 1 on forces, roll+Strange. On a 10+, the GM will tell you
a 10+ and 2 on a 7-9: something useful and interesting. On a 7-9, the GM will
• They need to be physically stabilized before you give you an impression, nothing more. On a miss you can
can move them. expect terrifying visions, bad juju coming your way, etc.
• They fight you; you’re defying danger.
• They’ll be in and out of consciousness for 24 hours.
• Stabilizing them eats up your supplies; spend 1
F
Session end: when you reach the end of a session, choose
resources more. one of your bonds that you feel is resolved (completely
• They’ll be bedridden, out of action, for at least a explored, no longer relevant, or otherwise). Ask the player
week. of the character you have the bond with if they agree. If
• They’ll need constant monitoring and care for a they do, clear the bond, mark experience, and write a new
day or two. bond with whomever you wish.
On a miss, you mess up (corruption, bleeding, etc.) and Then answer the two questions related to your enterprise.
they take 1 harm. For each ‘yes’ answer, everyone marks experience.
F
Undertake a perilous journey: when you travel through
F
¹This move is unusual in that a hit is bad and a miss is good.
dangerous territory, choose one member of the party to
find the way, one to keep track of supplies, and one to
keep an eye out. The navigator rolls+Smarts, the supply-
9
CHAPTER 3
roles
T
here are 13 main roles to choose from, plus 5 Hunters are solitary frontiersmen, their
supplemental roles. The supplemental roles intimate knowledge of Mother Nature
are just like the others, but less archetypal. As providing invaluable aid to themselves
a group, decide whether any of the supplemental roles and others. They are guides, trackers, and
are appropriate for the kind of game you envision. If not, killers of game.
focus on the main ones.
Musketeers are fighters with a strong
Sea dogs are experienced seamen. They sense of brotherhood. Wherever they go,
might serve in a variety of roles on ship, they bring with them a fellowship which
such as bosun, helmsman (also called the transcends normal boundaries. Musketry
quartermaster), navigator, captain, etc. (la mousqueterie) describes a suite of skills
Sea dogs have seen everything before, quite beyond simply dashing the enemy’s brains out at a
they’re the grizzled veterans of the endless ocean, they distance.
know how to gut fish and men like it’s nothing more
than knotting a line to a cleat. Gunners spit brimstone that terrorizes
fleets and nations whole. In the Royal
Workers are helpers who devote Navy, gunners need “quite a few
their energy to others. They may be exceptional qualifications, including
apprenticed in one of a thousand trades, being expert in higher mathematics,
an old laborer, a servant, a foremastman, an excellent chemist, and a past master at logistical
or just an unskilled youth starting on considerations.” In reality, a gunner needs only a healthy
their path. To friends, they are an invaluable asset: fear of the explosive qualities of black powder.
offering help at every turn, keeping the wheels turning.
They are sometimes invisible underfoot. Plenty of experts
and veterans start out like this.
10
roles
Riders travel overland at speed, a Priests hold great sway in a time of

particular talent considering rampant widespread belief in higher powers.
brigandage and a lack of good roads Against the unexplained, priests provide
everywhere. They are naturally well- necessary counsel and protection.
versed in the skill of maintaining a
riding animal. Mounted warfare is a Strangers are from the margins of the
necessary side vocation. Riders are not just ostlers, but world. Geographical margins: tattooed
camel-drivers, carters, and teamsters, too. island natives, Basques, foreigners.
Psychic margins: those touched by their
Bravos are picaresque swashbuckling gods, hashish-smokers, heretics. They are
scoundrels. They are noted for their strange.
flamboyant manner. They navigate
social and physical spaces like a slippery Beasts are called such by their peers.
eel. A bravo is more a disposition than a Some beasts—hounds, dancing-bears,
role in a company. A young romantic, a haughty fencer, horses—are literally so. Others such as
a thug dandy—all bravos. slaves, outcasts, and the handicapped
are labeled frightening and beastly.
Merchants are motivated by greed in an The racial and social implications of calling a human
era of rampant opportunity. The early character a beast may preclude this role from your game.
modern period marks the beginning of
the primacy of the commerçant in all areas Subversives fight against the oppressive
of society. No matter the hustle, there’s structures of society. They harbor a
always a shrewd someone striving for the biggest share. deep ideological belief which sets them
apart. They change the course of history
Crafters make with their hands. Crafters from below—be it blowing up kings with
can have broad talents, such as being gunpowder, seizing slave ships, or distributing pamphlets
a builder, or a narrow focus, such as a in the street. You can ignore this role if you don’t like the
candlestick maker. All are possessed idea of a dedicated troublemaker in your company.
of a singular ability to create. Take, for
example, a ship’s carpenter, who is the most valuable Harlots are social artists. Not solely
person aboard. A company’s cook is yet another sort of workers of the oldest profession, they
crafter. are those who flaunt convention and
transgress what tradition expects of
Barber-surgeons are medical them. A life lived freely and an eye that
practitioners of a sort. Their cures often pierces others are the only prerequisites. If you want to
comprise rectal applicators, mercury, and avoid sexual themes, you can pass on including this role.
diverse poisons. Still, in a pinch, a barber-
surgeon is a godsend, especially if all Lepers are dying. There is no cure, but
that’s needed is a shave. there is perhaps hope, grace, or something
else for them to find before death. If you
Scholars are learned types. Natural are uncomfortable with making light
philosophers tend to believe in of serious illnesses, you can pass on
spontaneous generation, Phlogiston, and including this role.
God. Areas of study are as limitless as the
imagination. One scholar may devote Conjurors claim to speak to demons,
himself to the creation of a philosophical language angels, or ghosts. Many conjurors keep
composed of the most pure and basic units of human their purported abilities a secret. Others
thought. Another scholar may simply wonder, “Whence put on a silly hat and read fortunes in
comest eels?”. a tent for a bob. If you want to avoid
mystical themes, you can pass on including this role.
11
roles
Sea dog
12
roles
STATS DOWNTIME MOVES

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the
and Strange. intervening period fishing, gain 1 resources.
Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the

MOVES intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your
Choose 1 move to start. next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: drink, brothels, or
tobacco.)
Weatherbones: when you predict the weather by feeling
the wind in your bones, tell the GM what you hope the Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
weather will be and roll+Salt. intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided
• On a 10+, you’re right. you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm
• On a 7-9, it’s not what you wanted, but your plans box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
aren’t ruined. treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
worse.
On a miss, it’s not at all what you wanted and the GM
won’t tell you what’s coming until it’s upon you.
A story in every port: when you come to a settlement

seeking aid, roll+Salt. On a 10+, tell the GM about an old
acquaintance who lives here and how they’re equipped to
help you. On a 7-9, the GM picks 1 from one category
below, then you pick 1 from the other:
You’ve had carnal relations with…
You were engaged to marry…
You screwed over…
You owe…
...the parish priest.

...the governor’s son or daughter.
...the brothel madam.
...a very old, very wealthy widow/er.
Sea legs: when you’re on a boat, you have 1 armor when

unarmored.
Grog talk: when you parley with someone you’re sharing

a drink with, roll+Salt instead of roll+Style.
Navigation: when you plan a long voyage, roll+Salt. On

a 10+, your journey is [choose 1]. On a 7-9, your journey is
[choose 1], but is not [choose another 1].
• Fast. You know a shortcut.
• Safe. Choose something or someone you avoid.
• Pleasant. Hireling loyalty improves.
• Profitable. You find something you can profit from. THINGS
• A superstition, lucky braid, or precious tattoo
A good day to die: when you go straight into danger • Choose 2:
without hedging your bets, you get +1 armor. If you □ Musketoon (2 harm, close/far, loud)
happen to be steering a boat, it gets +1 armor too. □ Blunderbuss (3 harm, close, loud)
13
roles
□ Axe (2 harm, close, messy) IMPROVEMENT

□ Cutlass (2 harm, close) When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
□ Pike (2 harm, close, heavy) clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
• 2 resources improvements have been taken in the first category, you
LOOKS can begin choosing improvements in the second.
Choose at least 1 from each.
□ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
• Pigtails & bows, loose long hair, close-cropped, cocked □ □ □ choose a new sea dog move
hat, thrum hat, knit cap ...
• Loose clothes, threadbare clothes, fresh clothes, spit- □ choose a new sea dog move
shined buckles, ship’s canvas, bare-chested, tattooed □ choose a move from any role sheet
□ get your own ship
BONDS □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
This braid or tattoo given to me by ___ is my proudest
possession.
I have promised to tell ___ a story, having heard theirs.
Long ago, I encountered someone strikingly similar to

___ in my travels.
14
roles
Worker
15
roles
STATS DOWNTIME MOVES

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the
and Strange. intervening period doing menial labor, gain 1 resources.

intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your
next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: chocolate, snuff,
or dice & cards.)
Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided
you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm
box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
worse.
MOVES
Choose 1 move to start. THINGS
• Dirk (1 harm, close, armor piercing)
Artful dodger: once per session, you or someone else • A lantern and child’s toy
within reach may reroll a single suffer harm roll.
LOOKS
Climber: when you are up in the rigging of a boat, the Choose at least 1 from each.
pilot takes +1 ongoing. In addition, you never suffer harm
from falling: there’s always a line, branch, or other object • Natural curls, ill-fitting wig, cocked hat, cap
for you to grab hold of at the last moment. • Smartly dressed, simple clothes, second-hand clothes
Trainee: when you go to someone for advice, they must
tell you honestly what they think the best course is. If
BONDS
___ and I share an inside joke that no one else gets.
you pursue that course, take +1 to any rolls you make in
the doing. If you pursue that course but don’t accomplish
___ needs my help or else they’ll never get anything
your ends, you mark experience.
done right.
Solidarity: when you put the welfare of another PC
___ thinks they have a better lot in life than me, but I
before your own, gain a bond with them. If you already
can show them what really matters.
have a bond with them, mark experience instead.
In the background: when you take advantage of the IMPROVEMENT

fact that no one is paying attention to you to discreetly When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
do something, roll+Salt. On a hit, no one will notice clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
what you did until you're gone. On a 10+, they won’t even improvements have been taken in the first category, you
think to blame you unless you personally tell them you can begin choosing improvements in the second.
did it.
Hidden gifts: choose 3 that you are concealing: a □ □ □ choose a new worker move
remarkable bloodline, a powerful secret, a precious ...
object, or a valuable skill. You don’t have to define them □ choose a new worker move
yet. Reveal and detail one or more of your gifts to: save □ choose a move from any role sheet
the day, use it as leverage or bargaining chip, turn the □ graduate to a different role (same character, new role)
tables on someone, or get better treatment for yourself or □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
someone else.
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Hunter
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STATS quickly and they do not know they were followed. On a

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, 7-9, you find them quickly OR they do not know they
and Strange. were followed.
MOVES
Choose 1 move to start.
In the Fabian style: when you get the drop on someone

in close quarters, roll+Strife. On a 10+, choose 1. On
a 7-9, the GM will give you 2 of the following options—
choose 1 of them.
• Kill them.
• Injure them.
• Rob/disarm them.
• Capture them.
Camouflage: when you keep still in natural

surroundings, enemies never spot you until you make
a movement.
Quarry: choose a kind of animal as your area of expertise,

such as:
• sperm whales
• tropical fish
• birds
• big cats
• manatees
• great auks
• etc.
DOWNTIME MOVES
When you first encounter an important creature, place, Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the
or thing that directly relates to the animal of your intervening period in the wilderness, gain 1 resources.
expertise (your call), you may ask the GM one question Gain +1 resources if it’s a place where you can find your
about it; the GM will answer truthfully. The GM may ask quarry.
you how you learned that information.
Watchful eye: you’re never caught by surprise. When an intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your
enemy would get the drop on you, you get to act first next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: solitude, baiting,
instead. madak.)
Byways: when you are in the wilderness seeking aid, Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
roll+Salt. On a hit, tell the GM about an abandoned intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided
camp, buccaneer’s cove, uninhabited island, or hunter’s you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm
cache, etc., that contains just what you need. On a 7-9, you box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
discover someone there and they won’t share anything treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
for free. worse.
Track: when you follow a trail or track someone whose

trail isn’t cold, roll+Salt. On a 10+, you find them
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THINGS My pet likes ___, so I guess I like them too. ___

• A pet animal (hound, cat, monkey, parrot, etc.) that acts
like a hireling (devoted loyalty and is paid in food) IMPROVEMENT
• Choose 1: When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
□ Musket (3 harm, far, loud) clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
□ Bow-and-arrow (2 harm, close, quick) improvements have been taken in the first category, you
• Choose 1: can begin choosing improvements in the second.
□ Either saber (2 harm, close), cutlass (2 harm, close),
or dirk (1 harm, close, armor piercing) □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
□ Lance (2 harm, close, heavy) and 3 harpoons (2 □ □ □ choose a new hunter move
harm, close, thrown, heavy) ...
□ choose a new hunter move
LOOKS □ choose a move from any role sheet
Choose at least 1 from each. □ the ability to provision for animal hirelings in the
wilderness
• Natural hair, small wig, tattered wig, queued, cocked □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
hat, wide-brimmed hat, knit cap, feathered hat, exotic
hat
• Drab clothes, dirty clothes, tattooed, leather clothes
BONDS
___ is the only reason I stick around.
I worry about the ability of ___ to survive in the wild.
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Musketeer
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STATS Capitaine d’armes: you have an arms locker or a messy

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, bundle of weapons. When you or your friends rummage
and Strange. through for weapons or ammunition, roll+Strife. On
a 10+, you have just the thing. On a 7-9, the GM will give
you 2 of the following options—choose 1 of them.
MOVES
• You have something similar to what you’re looking
for.
• You have something that fits the bill, but it’ll only
Comrade in arms: in a fight, when you help or hinder
work once or twice before breaking.
someone, don’t roll+bond. You help or hinder them as
• You have just the thing, but it bears the mark of
though you rolled a 10+.
the owner it was liberated from: it incriminates you
if left behind or closely examined.
Battle orders: when you share a plan you’ve laid out for
• You have just the thing, but your enemy has it, too.
an upcoming scene, roll+nothing and take +1 for each
ally you have a bond with who’s planning to be in that
scene. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend hold, 1 DOWNTIME MOVES
for 1, during that scene to: Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the
• Turn someone’s miss into a 7-9 hit. intervening period in a territory with a brigandage
• Decrease the harm someone suffers by 1 harm. problem, choose 1: be a brigand or help protect against
• Reveal you brought just the thing to overcome an them, then gain 1 resources.
unforeseen obstacle.
Rally cry: when you hold aloft a symbol of your intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your
company’s fellowship (e.g. a standard) and rally your next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: cards, a romantic
allies, roll+Strife. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1: relationship with a weapon, drink.)
• They are suddenly at your side if they are willing
and able. Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
• Choose one ally who heard your rally cry. They clear intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided
1 harm box. you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm
• Those allies who heard your rally cry take +1 to their box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
next roll. treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
worse.
On a miss, you lose the symbol of fellowship to the enemy.
THINGS
Volley: when you and at least two other people with • Your prize bayoneted musket (ranged: 3 harm, far, loud,
muskets stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a line, you each melee: 2 harm, close, heavy), add 1 tag (renowned, ornate,
count as a small gang against your enemies. rifled, a sinister bayonet that’s messy and inflicts +1
harm in melee), also choose 1:
Gunpoint: when you focus your aim at a single target □ Your musket isn’t one-of-a-kind, but one of a pair.
to the exclusion of all others, roll+Strife. On a 10+, Who has the other?
choose 2: □ Your musket is adorned with things that strike
• They flee the scene to a place where you can’t see fear into a certain group of people. Who and why?
them. □ Your musket is a family heirloom; you will pass
• They momentarily freeze in place. it down yourself eventually. It can be broken but
• Take +1 to your next roll against them, which bonus never destroyed. If you ever lose your musket, it’s
you can give to a friend. right there again.
• Saber (2 harm, close) and pistol (1 harm, close, loud)
On a 7-9, just take +1 to your next roll against them, • A barrel keg of alcohol to share
which bonus you can give to a friend. On a miss, they
single you out as their foremost threat.
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LOOKS IMPROVEMENT
Choose at least 1 from each. When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
• Cocked hat, powdered wig, bedraggled wig, tied back improvements have been taken in the first category, you
• Mustache, powder & rouge, military dress, rich clothes, can begin choosing improvements in the second.
puffy slashed clothes, smart jacket, colorful cravat
BONDS □ □ □ choose a new musketeer move
___ and I will protect everyone else if we have to. ...
□ choose a new musketeer move
___ can’t shoot, so I will teach them. □ choose a move from any role sheet
□ a company of deserters (a large gang) dressed like you
Other people underestimate ___, but I appreciate their □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
true value.
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Gunner
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STATS If you don’t have access to cannons (on a ship, etc.) when
Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, you take this move, your gang comes with an artillery
and Strange. piece and accoutrements.
Hard: when a gang under your employ has their loyalty

MOVES tested and would cross you or leave, give them what for
and roll+Strife. On a 10+, all 3. On a 7-9, choose 1:
• They do what you want. (Otherwise, they refuse.)
Gun gang: you have a small gang with treacherous loyalty,
• They don’t fight back over it. (Otherwise, they do).
though they’ll never leave your employ and you don’t
• You don’t have to make an example of one of them.
have to pay them anything. They have cutlasses, grenades,
(Otherwise, you must.)
and 1 armor. Choose 1:
• They’re armed with blunderbusses and pistols
Wet fingers: when you defy danger while handling
instead.
explosive materials, there is no danger of ignition on a
• They’re devoted instead, but also loud.
miss or partial hit. Same for those handling explosives
• They’re neutral instead, replace cutlasses with dirks,
near you.
and add quiet.
• 2 options from the following list instead.
Siege gunner: when you fire artillery, choose 1:
• Choose someone who can hear you—they didn’t
And 1 more:
hear anything, say why.
• They have +1 armor.
• Your fire has temporarily removed the enemy’s
• They’re medium instead, but -1 armor.
ability to fire back.
• When the smoke clears, you and/or your artillery
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piece are somewhere else. ___ and I were the only survivors of a disaster.
• You have everyone’s attention.
Alpha hound: when you use a gang to make a move

and you get to choose from a list, choose 1 more from
the list.
Army of one: when you’re operating an artillery piece

alone, you count as a small gang.
DOWNTIME MOVES
Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the
intervening period getting up to no good with a gang,
gain 1 resources (not your vice; your vice doesn’t pay).

next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: coffee, brawling,
drink.)
box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical IMPROVEMENT
treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
worse. clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
improvements have been taken in the first category, you
THINGS can begin choosing improvements in the second.
• Choose:
□ Hand mortar (far, loud) and bag of grenades (2 □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
harm, close, thrown, area, messy, loud) (uncountable) □ □ □ choose a new gunner move
□ A brace of pistols (1 harm, close, loud) (uncountable) ...
and cutlass (2 harm, close) □ choose a new gunner move
• 2-4 angry hounds, fed gunpowder □ choose a move from any role sheet
□ □ increase the size of a gang in your employ by 1 step
□ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
LOOKS
• Close-cropped, knit cap, thrum hat, cocked hat, shining

pate
• Stained clothes, loose clothes, dark clothes, stinking
clothes
BONDS
___ is weak, and I know just what would toughen them
up.
___ stood up to me and got away with it, for now…
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Rider
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STATS • They’re exhausted.

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, • Their numbers have been thinned by hazards along
and Strange. the way.
• You have made good your escape.
MOVES Smashing: when you’re on your mount and you smash
your way through scenery (such as breaking through a
wall or packed crowd), roll+Strife. On a hit, the scenery
Charger, palfrey, nag: when you’re in a settlement
is moved or smashed, also choose 1:
in need of a mount, roll+Style. Hit or miss, there is a
• A path stays open for your friends.
mount available to you (and your friends, if you like). On
• A path stays open for your enemies and then
a 10+, it’s free and it’s a fine animal. On a 7-9, it’s free so
closes, trapping them.
long as you return it unharmed. On a miss, it’s free but
sickly or a beast of burden and they won't take it back.
On a 7-9, choose 1 more:
• You or your mount take 1 harm.
Charge!: when you lead the charge into combat, those
• Leave something behind or bring something
you lead take +1 to their next roll.
unwanted with you.
Cuirassier: ignore the heavy tag on all armor.
What’s that, friend?: when you first enter a scene,
your mount instantly notices something important and
Steeplechaser: when you lead the enemy on a breakneck
communicates it to you—ask 1 question from examine
chase, roll+Style. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1:
surroundings for free.
• You lead them to a place where they get stuck.
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DOWNTIME MOVES After what they did for us, me and my mount would
Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the both run through hell for ___.
intervening period being useful in a place with stables,
or where goods, people, or messages need transporting, ___ and I have been on many long journeys together.
gain 1 resources.

next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: racing, gambling,
dueling.)
worse.
THINGS
• Choose 1:
□ Horse, donkey, mule, pony, or camel
• Choose 1 tag: friendly, fearsome, handsome, strong,
clever
• And 1 more: stinking, temperamental, messy,
ravenous, deaf
□ Team (2-4 animals) with wagon or carriage
• Choose 1 tag: fast, orderly, comfortable, strong,
affectionate
• And 1 more: temperamental, loud, fragile, IMPROVEMENT
cumbersome, shy When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
• Saber (2 harm, close) clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
• Choose 1: improvements have been taken in the first category, you
□ Cuirass (2 armor, heavy) can begin choosing improvements in the second.
□ Pike (2 harm, close, heavy)
• Choose 1: □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
□ Musketoon (2 harm, close/far, loud) □ □ □ choose a new rider move
□ Dragon (1 harm, close, loud) ...
□ choose a new rider move
LOOKS □ choose a move from any role sheet
Choose at least 1 from each. □ retire your mounts to safety and create a stud farm
from their stock
• Cocked hat, powdered wig, long wig, crested helmet, □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
simple helmet, tied back
• Riding wear, rich clothes, military dress, smartly
dressed, drab clothes
BONDS
___, my mount, is my closest friend and confidant.
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Bravo
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STATS Duelist: when you challenge someone to single combat

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, to defend or take control of something important,
and Strange. declare the terms of combat and roll+Style. On a 10+,
they agree to the terms of combat and won’t cheat unless
you cheat first. On a 7-9, they can agree or decline as they
MOVES
like, but if they decline the challenge you choose 2:
• They are ostracized by their peers.
• You gain favor with their peers.
Escape artist: when you make a flamboyant escape,
• You partially succeed in defending or taking control
name your escape route and roll+Style. On a 10+, you’re
of the important thing.
gone with a flourish. On a 7-9, you can go or stay, but
if you go it costs you: leave something behind, or bring
Gallant: if a character you have a bond with is captured,
something with you (the GM will say what). On a miss,
you may immediately resolve a bond you have with them,
you’re caught vulnerable, half in and half out.
mark experience, and write a new bond (I will rescue ___).
All according to plan: when you reveal that you had
planned for this all along, roll+Style. On a 10+ yes you DOWNTIME MOVES
did and all the details of your plan are in place, on a 7-9 Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the
you set it up but there is some hitch, delay, or unforeseen intervening period indulging your vice, you can choose
consequence. On a miss your plan goes horribly wrong. to gain 1 resources instead of +1 to your next roll.
Reputation: when you tell someone your real name, Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the
roll+Style. On a hit, they’ve heard of you, and you say intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to
what they’ve heard (the GM has them react accordingly). your next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: carousing,
On a 10+, take +1 to your next roll for dealing with them gambling, torrid romance.)
as well. On a miss, they’ve heard of you, but the GM says
what.
Braggadocio: when you boast about your future deeds

and your boast proves true, take +1 to your next roll.
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locks, flop hat, exotic hat, lucky hat

Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the • Pointed beard, mustache, powder & rouge, lace, gold-
intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided embroidered clothes, silk clothes, skin-tight clothes,
you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm cloud of perfume, boutonnière, colorful clothes
treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any BONDS
worse. ___ seems impressed by my talents and I just can’t help
showing off in front of them.
THINGS
• Smallsword (2 harm, close) and dueling pistol (1 harm, In order to show I care, I will defend ___’s honor at the
close, loud) merest slight.
• A golden locket containing ___
• Perfume (name one person, now or later: they find the My lost love is ___’s relation—a delicate matter between
scent irresistible) us.
• A bottomless pocket of lace kerchiefs (uncountable)
IMPROVEMENT
When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
can begin choosing improvements in the second.

□ □ □ choose a new bravo move
...
□ choose a new bravo move
□ choose a move from any role sheet
□ become the singular obsession of a powerful figure
such as a monarch
LOOKS
• Powdered wig, colorful wig, precarious wig, flowing
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Merchant
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STATS • They choose how they pay: in resources, in kind, or

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, in favors.
and Strange. • They’re hooked on your stuff. Next time they
indulge their vice, it must be through you.
MOVES If you take advantage of your own supply to indulge your
Have this move to start:
own vice, take +2 to your next roll instead of +1. However,
you exhaust your supply and can’t purvey that vice again
Appraisal: when you inspect something of possible
until you stock up.
value, roll+Style. On a 10+, ask 2. On a 7-9, ask 1.
How much is it worth?
Investments: at session start, roll+Style to see how your
Where is it from?
business has been doing. On a 10+, gain 2 resources. On a
Where will this sell for the highest profit?
7-9, gain 1 resources. On a miss, you can’t use this move
How can I make this mine?
again until you put your business in order (the GM will
say what the problem is).
On a miss, your face and body language betray your
interest to anyone who’s paying attention.
Tastemaker: when you loudly proclaim the virtues of a
valuable or useful possession of yours, choose someone
And choose 1 more:
present. They will do anything they can to obtain your
item or one like it.
Vice dealer: choose a player character’s vice (it can be
your own)—you are now a purveyor of that vice and its
Master hawker: when you go into a settlement’s
sundry things. When another player character indulges
bustling market looking to sell, roll+Style. On a 10+,
that vice and you provide the hook-up, choose 2:
plenty of people are buying. Choose the higher of the
• Gain a bond with them.
two dice rolled—gain that many resources. On a 7-9,
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one person is buying. Choose the lower of the two dice Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
rolled—gain that many resources. intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided
Mercantilist: when you make the session end move, box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
also ask yourself: Do I have more resources than I started the treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
session with? If the answer is ‘yes’, choose 1: worse.
• Mark experience.
• +1 resources. THINGS
• Name an NPC. They lost money this session and • A speaking-trumpet and exotic folding fan
the GM will show it next time you encounter them. • One thing from an unclaimed role
• Samples of wares
Drinks are on me!: when you throw a big party, spend 1 • 4 resources
resources and roll+nothing, +1 for every extra 1 resources
spent. On a 10+, choose 3. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a miss,
you still choose one, but things get really out of hand (the
LOOKS
GM will say how).
• You befriend a useful NPC.
• Powdered wig, towering wig, wide-brimmed hat, cocked
• You gain useful information.
hat, feathered hat
• You become a minor celebrity thereabouts.
• Clothes ready to burst, rich finery, gold-embroidered
• You indulge your vice, as do all other PCs in
silk, bejeweled cravat, lace kerchiefs, flowing layers, the
attendance.
latest textiles, exotic patterns, colorful clothes, simple
clothes
BONDS
I once ripped off ___, but I don’t think they recognize
me.
I owe ___ money.
___ would be so much better off if they had what I’m

selling.
IMPROVEMENT
DOWNTIME MOVES □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
Gain resources: when time passes and you spend □ □ □ choose a new merchant move
the intervening period transacting business, gain 2 ...
resources if it’s in a bustling settlement or 1 resources if □ choose a new merchant move
it’s with village folk, tribes, rustics, etc. □ choose a move from any role sheet
□ be granted a monopoly by some government
Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: gambling, finery,
spices.)
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Crafter
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STATS Once you’ve accomplished the necessaries, you can go

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, ahead and accomplish the thing itself. The GM will stat
and Strange. it up, or tell you more about it, etc.
And choose 1 more:
Reliable & prepared: when you search your bags or

chests for something, roll+Smarts. On a 10+, you
happen to have just the thing, or close enough. On a 7-9,
you happen to have something pretty close, unless what
you’re looking for is rare, in which case no such luck.
On a miss, you used to have just the thing, but it was left
behind.
This is ___, isn’t it?: when you closely examine something

for sale and say “This is ___, isn’t it?”, divulging some
detail of your own invention unknown to the seller, the
price is halved (round up).
Art of mechanics: when you spend some time studying

MOVES a man-made thing, roll+Smarts. On a 10+, ask 2. On a
Have this move to start: 7-9, ask 1:
What is this thing’s function?
Workspace: choose 3 that your workspace includes: an What maker’s mark reveals the identity of the crafter?
oven or forge, skilled help, a junk pile of raw materials, a How can I safely dismantle or copy this?
large cart, an overflowing chest of tools, a turnspit dog or Is something wrong with this? If so, how can I fix or
donkey power, diagrams & books, interesting curios, an exploit it?
unfinished long-term project under canvas.
On a miss, something happens to go wrong with the
When you go into your workspace and dedicate yourself object or your examination of it.
to making a thing, or to getting to the bottom of
something, decide what and tell the GM. The GM will tell Saboteur: when you circumspectly cause damage to
you “Yes, but...” and then 1 to 4 of the following: something such as a structure or a machine, roll+Smarts.
• It’s going to take hours/days/weeks/months of On a 10+, all 3. On a 7-9, choose 2:
work. • The work is much quieter than it should be.
• First you’ll have to get/build/fix/figure out ___. (Otherwise, it makes some noise.)
• You’re going to need ___ to help you with it.
• It’s going to cost you a lot of resources.
• The best you’ll be able to do is a bad version of the
thing, weak and unreliable.
• It’s going to mean exposing yourself (and helpers)
to serious danger.
• You’re going to have to add ___ to your workspace
first.
• It’s going to take several/dozens/hundreds of tries.
• You’re going to have to take ___ apart to do it.
The GM might connect them all with “and”, or might

throw in a merciful “or”.
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• It takes a very short time. (Otherwise, it takes a Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the
while.) intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your
• The damage is hidden from casual inspection. next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: stealing, operating
(Otherwise, it’s not.) a still, food.)
Jesus was a carpenter: you can suffer 1 harm in order to Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
reconstitute an utterly destroyed item, unspike a cannon, intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided
patch a nearly-sunk ship, or perform other miracles of you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm
handiwork that seem impossible, causing the object to box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
function normally for the rest of the scene. At the end of treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
the scene, the item is finally, irreparably destroyed. worse.
Inventor: when you put the finishing touches on a THINGS

creation for the first time which seems inappropriate • A mark or disfigurement from practicing your craft
to the time period, mark experience. • An axe (2 harm, close, messy)
• Tools of your trade
LOOKS
• Powdered wig, close-cropped, natural hair, cocked hat,

knit cap, thrum hat, wide-brimmed hat, tied back
• Loose clothes, plain clothes, sweat-stained clothes,
leather apron
BONDS
I’m always happy to make or fix anything for ___.
I think ___’s idle hands are the devil’s playthings.
I never sit down for a meal unless ___ is right beside me

with an equal portion.
IMPROVEMENT

□ □ □ choose a new crafter move
DOWNTIME MOVES ...
Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the □ choose a new crafter move
intervening period crafting saleable things in a place □ choose a move from any role sheet
where they can be bartered or sold, gain 1 resources. Gain □ □ □ □ □ immediately finish crafting a work in
+1 resources if you have a bond with someone who takes progress
care of the selling for you (if they’re a PC, that’s how they □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
spend their downtime, and they gain +1 resources too).
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Barber-surgeon
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STATS On a miss, you find something terrible and worrying.

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts,
and Strange. Angel of death: when someone dies in your care, take +1
to your next roll.
Butcher: when you heal harm and describe in detail

the truly disgusting or horrible treatment involved (i.e.
drinking mercury, clyster injections, engorged leeches),
as long as the majority of players agree the treatment is
disgusting or horrible, heal +1 harm.
Prognosis: when you heal harm and hit, you—not the

GM—choose from the list.
Infirmary: you have a kitted-out space of your own

where you can execute your dark duty, a ship’s cockpit or
a back room somewhere. It probably has an apothecary,
an expanded medicine chest, and a few helpers. Take
the Crafter’s workspace move and use it to perform
advanced medical/surgical functions (diagnosing and
curing disease, wooden limb replacements, antidotes,
etc.—fiction first stuff that goes above and beyond simply
MOVES healing harm).
Have these moves to start:
Deathbed manner: when someone dies in your care,
Medicine chest: you have a medicine chest. It contains: they will answer any one question for you truthfully in
a clyster syringe, plasters, medicines, probes, blades, and the moment before their death.
sinister implements. This fills a large chest marked with
your personal seal. When you use it, you can spend its DOWNTIME MOVES
stock in place of resources to heal harm. You can spend Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the
1 resources to gain 2 stock if your circumstances allow intervening period providing basic treatment to
you to buy or barter for medical supplies. It starts with the local population, gain 1 resources, or in the event
6 stock. that your patients are destitute (GM says), gain a bond
reflecting your service instead.
When you heal harm using your medicine chest, your
patient never suffers harm on a miss. Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the
Badge of office: when you are caring for people or next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: dosing yourself
getting them to safety, not fighting, you have 2 armor. with your own medicine, vivisection, bleeding.)
And choose 1 more: Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
Art of physick: when you spend time examining a you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm
patient, alive or dead, roll+Smarts. On a 10+, ask 2. On box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
a 7-9, ask 1: treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
What is wrong with them, and how might I help? worse.
What is their emotional state right now?
How and when did this happen?
THINGS
What do I know about the thing that caused this?
• A medicine chest with your personal seal
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• A physic garden of curative plants which produces 1 have to do something about it.
stock for your medicine chest per session
• A stool and collapsible operating table I want to peer inside ___.
• Amputation knife (2 harm, close)
IMPROVEMENT
LOOKS When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
Choose at least 1 from each. clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
• Powdered wig, threadbare wig, simple cap, cocked hat can begin choosing improvements in the second.
• Long leather coat, tiny spectacles, tinted spectacles,
stained clothes, dark clothes, fine clothes, simple clothes, □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
leather apron □ □ □ choose a new barber-surgeon move
...
BONDS □ choose a new barber-surgeon move
___ is scared of me, but I can change that. □ choose a move from any role sheet
□ hold 1; spend 1 hold to resurrect a dead patient
I’ve been observing ___’s bad habits for a while now and □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
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Scholar
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STATS First among peers: when you display your superior

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, knowledge of a subject when spouting knowledge, you
and Strange. may adjust the detail the GM gives you in some way. You
may not contradict it.
MOVES
Haute société: when you first enter a settlement where
a fellow scholar or noble who is aware of your work
and respects the customs of scholarly society lives,
Expertise: choose a field of study, such as:
they will take you in as their guest. They have a library
• natural philosophy
which you may use.
• insects
• languages
If you like, roll+Style as well. On a 10+, your host accepts
• theology
your friends as guests, and enjoys their company. On a
• Christian theology
7-9, your host accepts your friends, but reluctantly. On a
• medicine
miss, your friends make an uninvited appearance/grave
• chemistry
faux pas that jeopardizes your position.
• botany
• alchemy
Human sextant: as long as you can see the sun or stars,
• trigonometry
you always know precisely where you are.
• astronomy
• spontaneous generation
Hit the books: when you spend time using a library to
• Phlogiston
research someone or something, roll+Smarts. On a 10+,
• etc.
choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1:
• Ask the GM one question (they must answer
When you first encounter an important creature,
truthfully).
place, or thing covered by your expertise (your call),
• Gain a bond with the target of your research, or
you may tell the GM any one detail about it; the GM
someone directly pertaining to it.
will incorporate that detail into the fiction to their
• Take +1 to your next roll.
best ability. The GM may ask you how you learned that
• You discover an unexpected way that your field of
information.
study pertains to the matter.
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Aristotelian inquiry: when you closely examine I like them plenty, but ___ is truly mistaken about a lot.
something through a lens, roll+Smarts. On a 10+, ask
as many as you like. On a 7-9, ask only 1: With work, I think I may be able to show ___ around in
What is this made of? polite company.
Why does this look this way?
What made this look this way?
What is this?
DOWNTIME MOVES
intervening period tutoring others, gain 1 resources.
Gain +1 resources if you tutor while someone’s esteemed
guest thanks to Haute société.

next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: coffee, purging,
book collecting.)
worse.
THINGS
• A cumbersome chest containing: charts & maps, books
on diverse subjects, sketchings, empty bottles, lenses &
grinders, correspondence, a long-lost pair of spectacles,
a small stuffed and mounted animal specimen, things
loaned to you but never returned
IMPROVEMENT
• Choose:
□ Smallsword (2 harm, close) and pistol (1 harm, close,
loud)
□ Musketoon (2 harm, close/far, loud)
LOOKS □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)

Choose at least 1 from each. □ □ □ choose a new scholar move
...
• Headwrap, powdered wig, exotic hat, wide-brimmed □ choose a new scholar move
hat, stiff hat, long wig □ choose a move from any role sheet
• Professorial gown, brass buckles, tasteful cravat, □ a field of study, principle, or method is named after
immaculate cuffs, black clothes, threadbare clothes, rich you and enters common parlance
clothes, stiff clothes, bespectacled □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
BONDS
___ doesn’t give me the respect I deserve.
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Priest
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STATS What are your present intentions?

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, What do you not want me to know?
and Strange.
Molochizer: you can sacrifice not only self-harm, but
harm inflicted on a living creature in exchange for
MOVES
blessing, holding 1 blessing per 1 harm inflicted.
Go with God: when you send an NPC away to undertake
Blessing: when you ritually sacrifice your own resources
a planned future action for which no PC will be present,
or harm to your god, hold 1 blessing per 1 resources or
spend 1 blessing to ensure they are completely successful.
harm spent. When you trigger a move, you can spend
blessing, 1 for 1, to take +1 to your roll. The maximum
blessing you can hold is equal to your Strange.
A higher standard: at the end of the session, when you

would normally resolve a bond, instead consider each of
the other player characters and decide whether or not
they were good people. All that were, tell them to mark
experience. You can tell none of them, any of them, or all
of them as you see fit.
And choose 1 more:
Lay on hands: when you go through the corpses after

a fight, roll+Strange. On a hit, pick someone who was
seemingly dead and they’re alive instead. On 7-9 they’re
alive but permanently disfigured, maimed or disabled.
Ministration: when you spend a period of time

ministering to someone who is critically hurt (has their
fourth or fifth harm box marked), roll+Strange. On a
10+, they get better with time as if they only had their
first three boxes marked. On a 7-9, they don’t get better
but they don’t get worse. Ministering includes reading
over them from a holy book, chanting, etc. If it’s an NPC
who’s hurt, on a hit they get better.
Wise counsel: when a character comes to you for

advice, tell them what you honestly think the best course
is. If they do it, they take +1 to any rolls they make in the
doing, and you mark experience.
Mother Confessor: when you engage in a conversation

with someone, you can ask them a question from the list DOWNTIME MOVES
below. They must answer it truthfully, then they may ask Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the
you a question from the list. If you lie, you cannot use intervening period ministering to the sick, poor, or
this move on them ever again. faithless, gain 1 resources.
For what does your character crave forgiveness, and of
whom? Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the
What punishment do you believe you deserve? intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your
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next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: penitence, lust, BONDS
destroying false idols.) It would be unseemly of me to reveal my true feelings
for ___.
intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided I will convert ___ or die trying.
box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical I think ___ has more divine favor than me and I must
treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any find out why.
worse.
IMPROVEMENT
THINGS When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
• A holy book and accessories (censer, ritual herbs, etc.) clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
□ Staff, walking stick, or cane (1 harm, close) can begin choosing improvements in the second.
□ A zealous hireling (devoted loyalty and paid in
absolution of sins) with cutlass (2 harm, close) □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
□ □ □ choose a new priest move
LOOKS ...
Choose at least 1 from each. □ choose a new priest move
• Natural hair, skullcap, wide-brimmed hat, powdered □ a mandate to create a religious order after your
wig, long wig, exotic hat teachings
• Black clothes, austere clothes, tattered clothes, exotic □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
clothes, rich clothes
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Stranger
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STATS paper and hand it over.

and Strange. Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the
next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: hashish, opium,
MOVES memories of how things were.)
Choose 1 move from any role to start. Choose 1 more:
Watcher: when you silently witness someone in one of
their most private moments, perhaps sleeping or in a
state of undress, gain a bond with them.
Evil eye: when you stare at someone without blinking,
worse.
roll+Strange. On a 10+, they freeze until you blink
or someone touches them, and afterwards they don’t
remember anything unusual happening. On a 7-9, they
still freeze, but only if you do strange hocus pocus stuff
the entire time (and they’ll definitely know something
weird happened afterwards).
Far vapors: when you take drugs and pray, automatically

score a 10+.
Giveth & taketh: when you go into battle, roll+Strange.

On a 10+, name someone who will live and someone
who will die. On a 7-9, name someone who will live OR
someone who will die. Name NPCs, not player characters.
The GM will see that your vision comes true, if it’s even
remotely possible. On a miss you see your own death and
consequently take -1 ongoing throughout the battle.
Guide: when you undertake a perilous journey within

your mother country, you can perform all three roles and
automatically hit each with a 10+. Additionally gain +2
resources when you spend downtime being resourceful
within your mother country.
Eyes of the outsider: when you look closely at the secrets THINGS
swimming in someone’s eyes, roll+Strange. On a 10+, • Choose 1:
ask 1. On a 7-9, ask 1 but you make a social faux pas in □ Bow-and-arrow (2 harm, close, quick)
so doing. □ Pike (2 harm, close, heavy)
What would they do to me if no one was watching? □ Musket (3 harm, far, loud)
What have they done to others like me? • A musical instrument from home
What are they afraid of? • A mysterious pendant from home
• A snuffbox containing drugs
DOWNTIME MOVES • One thing from an unclaimed role that isn’t a weapon
Gain resources: when time passes and during the
intervening period you disappear inexplicably and
tell no one what you did while you were gone, gain 1
resources. If the GM asks, write what you did on a piece of
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LOOKS IMPROVEMENT
• Exotic hat, natural hair, queued, simple wig, cocked hat improvements have been taken in the first category, you
• Exotic clothes, breech-cloth, dark clothes, drab clothes, can begin choosing improvements in the second.
tattooed
BONDS □ □ □ choose a new stranger move
I have questions for ___, who has seen my mother ...
country much more recently than I. □ choose a new stranger move
I will no longer put up with ___’s misconceptions about □ secret knowledge of the location of a great treasure
me and my people. □ return home for good (need: 20 resources)
If I take drugs with ___, I will understand them better.
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Beast
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STATS • It doesn’t take a very long time.

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, • Nothing of value is damaged.
and Strange. • You can fix the thing again without a lot of effort.
Death throes: when you fill your sixth and final box
of harm, roll+Strife. On a 10+, you remain alive until
the end of the scene or until you suffer harm again,
whichever comes first. On a 7-9, you can perform a single
action before dying. On a failure, you simply die.
Friend to all children: children will always treat you as a

friend unless you harm them or their friends.
DOWNTIME MOVES
intervening period playing with others or frolicking,
gain 1 resources.
MOVES Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the
Choose 1 move to start. intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your
next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: violence, raw
Summonses: there is a particular call that summons you. meat, drink.)
Once per session, when someone calls, you can choose
inexplicably to arrive on the scene, when a moment Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
earlier you were somewhere else. intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided
Hear me: when you look to the heavens and let out box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
an unintelligible cry, roll+Strife. On a hit, everyone treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
around you freezes for a split second. On a 10+, also name worse.
someone who heard you—they must run helter-skelter as
far away from you as possible until they think they’re THINGS
safe. • Choose 1:
□ Piercing unarmed blows (1 harm, close, armor
Seek: when you chase someone at breakneck speed, piercing)
roll+Strife. On a 10+, you overtake them easily. On a □ Powerful unarmed blows (2 harm, close)
7-9, choose 1: • A lucky gold coin from someone kind (1 resources)
• They have one chance to get away. Ask how they
try, and decide with the GM whether they lose you. LOOKS
• They lead you to a place of their choosing. Ask Choose at least 1 from each.
where.
• They think they’ve escaped, but you settle in for • Ill-fitting wig, long flowing hair, close-cropped, tattered
a long haul, and come upon them later, when they hat, threadbare cap, hooded, bare
aren’t on guard against you. Ask where they are • An iron collar, scars of past mistreatment, exotic
then. clothes, simple clothes, bare
Bend bars, lift gates: when you use pure strength to BONDS
destroy an inanimate object, roll+Strife. On a 10+, Anyone who hurts ___ hurts me.
choose 3. On a 7-9, choose 2.
• It doesn’t make an inordinate amount of noise. I struggle to keep my worse nature hidden from ___.
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...
___ saved me from a cruel master. □ choose a new beast move
IMPROVEMENT □ your likeness becomes the favorite graffito of the
When you mark your sixth and final experience box, street people of some settlement and you pass into
clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all legend there
improvements have been taken in the first category, you □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)

□ □ □ choose a new beast move
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Subversive
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STATS • They will agree to perform one action of your

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, request.
and Strange. • They don’t bear any permanent, visible marks of
what you’ve done.
• They won’t tell anyone what you did to them.
Co-conspirators: when you put the call out for help

in a settlement, roll+nothing and take +1 for each PC
(including yourself) who believes in your ideology. On
a 10+, there is a group of people here who share your
ideology. They have a safe place for you and will join
you as hirelings if you merely ask. On a 7-9, there is
only one of the faithful remaining here. They can tell
you something useful or give you something, but they
don’t want to be seen with you. On a miss, there are sworn
enemies of your ideology here and they noticed your call.
Tread carefully.
MOVES
Have this move to start:
Ideology: you have a belief in something religious,

political, or personal which differs from the prevailing
norm. Write down what. When another PC is converted
to your ideology, you automatically gain a bond with
them. When a session ends and every PC believes in your
ideology, you all mark experience.
And choose 1 more:
Defiant: when you defy danger, roll+Strife instead of

roll+Salt.
Burgher-Slayer: inflict +1 harm to anyone rich or

prestigious.
Gaoler’s lament: as long as you possess a scrap of clothing,

you are always able to hide a dirk, dagger, or poignard
on your person. When you attack with a dirk, dagger, or
poignard, inflict +1 harm.
Like kin: once per session, you can use a move belonging
to a PC who shares your ideology. DOWNTIME MOVES
Gain resources: when time passes and you spend
Turning of the screw: when you have someone the intervening period doing something illegal in
completely at your mercy and deliberately cause them a settlement or spend it secretly in the company of
pain, roll+Strife. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1: fellow ideologues, gain 1 resources.
• They will agree to say exactly what you want them
to say. Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the
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intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to • Black clothes, dark clothes, poor clothes, cloaked
your next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: pyromania,
revenge, pamphleteering.) BONDS
___ has troublesome beliefs, but I think they’ll see
Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the reason.
you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm ___ knows my secret, now I must find out one of theirs.
treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any ___ will be first against the wall if they’re not careful.
worse.
IMPROVEMENT
THINGS When you mark your sixth and final experience box,
• A poignard (1 harm, close, armor piercing) clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
□ 3 throwing daggers (1 harm, close, thrown) can begin choosing improvements in the second.
□ 3 grenades (2 harm, close, thrown, area, messy, loud)
• A dark lantern □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
• A sheaf of pamphlets □ □ □ choose a new subversive move
...
LOOKS □ choose a new subversive move
Choose at least 1 from each. □ choose a move from any role sheet
□ a detailed map of the headquarters of your ideological
• Cocked hat, knit cap, natural hair, powdered wig, tied enemy
back, hooded □ retire to safety (need: 20 resources)
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Harlot
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STATS When the answer is yes, take +1 to your next roll.

and Strange. Observer of human nature: when you arrive in a new
place you may tell everyone about any local customs,
traditions, or aspects of the culture that give you or your
MOVES friends an advantage. When you do so, take +1 to your
next roll, so long as you are within that same area when
you trigger a move.
Inamorata: when you have time and solitude with
someone, they become infatuated with you. Roll+Style.
Gossip eater: when you look piercingly with examine
On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1.
surroundings, you can always ask “What have they been
• They give you something you want.
saying about me?” for free, even on a miss.
• They act as your eyes and ears.
• They fight to protect you.
Snake charmer: when you make eyes at someone, they
• They do what you tell them to.
will do anything they can to be alone with you.
• You gain a bond with them, or they with you.
This happens now, or at an opportune time later. On a DOWNTIME MOVES

miss, they choose 1 against you. Gain resources: when time passes and you spend
the intervening period in very private company or
Poisoner: choose a poison from the list below. You start escorting someone in high society for all to see, gain
with three doses of that poison. Whenever you have time 1 resources. Gain +1 resources if you or your companion
to gather materials and a safe place to brew, you can make have a bond with the other.
three doses of your poison for free (up to a max of 3).
• Aqua Tofana: A clear and odorless arsenical Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the
concoction stored in a bottle of Manna of St. intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your
Nicholas. The victim who ingests a dose falls ill with next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: ether, sweets,
a horrible illness and dies within a few days. lavish parties.)
• St. Ignatius’s beans: Strikes the victim with
violent fits of back-arching full-bodied convulsions Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the
before suffocation within minutes. The beans are intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided
rendered into an oil that works directly upon the you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm
blood (by prick or cut). box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical
• Henkiller: An ingested dose of herbage produces treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any
exaggerated symptoms of drunkenness: reeling back worse.
and forth, giddiness of the limbs, loss of good sense,
a sense of flying. A night’s rest restores the mind. THINGS
Outright kills all animals except for pigs, which are • A poignard (1 harm, close, armor piercing)
affected as humans. • A concealable pistol (1 harm, close, discreet, loud)
• Ether: Incapacitates for up to an hour anyone who • A chest of vials and decanters containing cosmetics
inhales its fumes. Highly flammable. A clear and looking like an alchemist’s kit
smelly liquid like alcoholic spirits. • A chest of clothes
• A small locked box that can never be opened without a
Paphian armor: you are impervious to poisons, key. You have 1 key and someone else has its copy.
intoxicants, and venereal diseases. Also, you can always • Your trove of treasures, choose 1:
ask the following questions for free and the GM must □ Gems and precious jewelry
answer truthfully: □ Scandalous letters full of secrets
Is this poisoned? □ Sentimental tokens from your past
Is this person intoxicated?
Does this person have a venereal disease?
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LOOKS IMPROVEMENT
• Tiny perched hat, elaborate wig, towering hat, improvements have been taken in the first category, you
headwrap, natural hair, colorful wig, braided, veiled can begin choosing improvements in the second.
• Powder & rouge, cloud of perfume, flowing clothes,
glittering clothes, modestly attired, shimmering satin, □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
rubies & gold, arsenic & lace, high-collared, tightly □ □ □ choose a new harlot move
corseted, exotic clothes, furs ...
□ choose a new harlot move
BONDS □ choose a move from any role sheet
I know ___’s Achilles heel. □ deed to a molly-house, brothel, or coffee-house
I’m never alone with ___ if I can help it.
If ___ thinks I need saving, they’ve got another thing

coming.
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Leper
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STATS • Invulnerability to fire and extreme cold.

Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, • Senses that pierce lies.
and Strange. • Senses that pierce darkness.
• A noticeable aura of divine grace and a place of
privilege in the eternal hereafter.
MOVES
If you do something that’s incompatible with your quest
(such as doing bad when you strive to do good), you lose
Dying: you suffer from an incurable disease that will
your boon until you get back on track.
eventually kill you. It manifests in myriad symptoms
and gets worse all the time. Choose 1 symptom:
Foul inheritance: after you die, you can choose an
□ an extra body part
existing NPC and declare they have contracted your
□ oozing sores
disease. If you do, say how it happened, and make them
□ lumps
your new PC (they are a Leper). Start play with 3 hold
□ sloughing skin
which you can spend at any time, 1 for 1, to take +1 on
□ a cough
any roll.
□ stink
□ swollen face
And choose 1 more:
□ loss of hair
□ excessive hair
Gone too soon: when you die, everyone marks experience.
□ itching
When they next resolve bonds, they may resolve all they
□ canine appetite
had with you and mark experience for each one.
□ partial paralysis
□ bulging eyes
Exertion: when you roll, you can choose to roll+symptoms
□ visions
instead of the proper stat, but mark an additional
□ strange growths
symptom afterwards.
□ vermin
□ a rising vapor
Sticks & stones: take -2 on all suffer harm rolls.
□ hunch & lameness
□ blindness
Scabrous: when you make an exaggerated show of
□ painful jolts
sickliness to someone, roll+Strange. On a hit, choose 1:
• They are disgusted with you, and leave you alone.
At the start of every session, roll+symptoms (the number
• They pity you, and do you a kindness.
of symptoms you have). On a hit, mark 1 additional
• They freeze.
symptom. On a miss, you don’t get any worse.
• They loathe you, and pursue you until you’re
driven away.
When you mark your sixth and final symptom, you are
in your death throes and will die a natural death by the
On a 10+, also take +1 to your next roll, which bonus you
end of the session.
can give to a friend.
Quest: your affliction has given you a renewed sense of
Mortal sense: you have a close relationship with death
purpose. Choose what drives you in the face of death:
and are able to sense when someone is sick or dying. Tell
• Do good works:___
the GM how you are able to tell and they will let you
• Take revenge:___
know whenever it comes into play.
• Find a cure:___
• Die in a meaningful way:___
Reason for living: when you share a moment of
• Something else:___
intimacy with someone, be it physical or emotional,
hold 1. Whenever you roll+symptoms, spend 1 hold to
Then choose a boon your clarity of purpose bestows:
automatically miss by recalling that moment of intimacy.
• You don’t need to eat, drink, or sleep to survive.
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DOWNTIME MOVES BONDS

Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the I am in debt to ___ for giving me food and shelter when
intervening period in a settlement begging for alms, I had nothing.
gain 1 resources.
I worry ___ will leave me behind.
intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your ___ came close to me when no one else would dare.
next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: cheese, laudanum,
romance novels.) IMPROVEMENT
Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the clear the track and choose an improvement. Once all
intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided improvements have been taken in the first category, you
you have peace, quiet, and food and drink, clear 1 harm can begin choosing improvements in the second.
treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any □ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)
worse. □ □ □ choose a new leper move
...
THINGS □ choose a new leper move
• A club or walking staff (1 harm, close) □ choose a move from any role sheet
• A sack or wooden wheelbarrow containing (choose 1): □ a charter and 20 resources in donations for the
□ Tattered books purpose of establishing a Lazar-house
□ Trash that can be used as stink-pots (close, thrown, □ retire to die in peace & comfort (need: 20 resources)
area) (uncountable)
□ An aging cheese wheel wrapped in cloth
□ Your child
LOOKS
• Hooded, wide-brimmed hat, cocked hat, tattered wig,

long wig, heavy make-up, masked
• Wrapped in bandages, cloaked and shadowy,
threadbare clothes, filthy clothes, simple clothes
61
roles
Conjuror
62
roles
STATS When you fail to do this, the spirit can threaten to depart
Allocate +3, +2, +1, 0, -1 to Salt, Strife, Style, Smarts, in order to spur you, it can negotiate, wheedle, give you
and Strange. time, or it can end its service at once.
Secret knowledge: when you pray to your bound spirit

(seek its counsel), it will give you an impression even on
a miss. You can never pray to anything other than your
bound spirit.
N.B.: If a move has a blank space in the name, fill it in

with the name of your bound spirit. You cannot perform
these spirit moves if you have no bound spirit.
And choose 1 more:
Vile oath of ___: when someone promises you that

MOVES they will do something and you place a mark on them,
Have these moves to start: roll+Strange. On a hit, each of you gains a bond with
the other. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend hold,
Spirit binding: when you succeed in binding a spirit (a 1 for 1, to inflict harm (armor piercing) on the target as
demon, angel, ghost, natural force, etc.) to your will— long as they haven’t completed the promised task.
either compelling it to serve you for what you hold over
it, or else bargaining with it for an exchange of services— Frightful seal of ___: when you are left undisturbed
it becomes your bound spirit. A ritual to bind a spirit to mark a bounded area with the symbols of your
requires preparation, paraphernalia, and privacy. bound spirit, whisper someone’s name (it can be your
own). For as long as that named someone is within your
If the spirit serves you because you hold something over circumscribed area, all their rolls are automatically
it, then should you ever lose what you hold over it, the helped or hindered (choose 1) by you as if you’ve hit each
spirit’s service is ended. Examples: time with 7-9. You are exposed to danger, retribution, or
• You know its binding-name. cost, but only once. The symbols lose their potency after
• You have a piece of its body or a token of its life. a day and do not disappear.
• You have a threat that you could execute against
its servants. Penetrating glare of ___: by speaking with your bound
• It is philosophically or ideologically required to spirit, you can examine surroundings concerning people
serve you. or places that are not close by, nor visible to you. The
• It owes you service for some past consideration. spirit will refuse to answer your questions unless you
suffer 1 harm or tell it a secret it doesn’t already know.
If you overly inconvenience or put upon the spirit, it
might decide that the consequences are worth ending its Dissembler: when you parley, roll+Strange instead of
service. roll+Style.
If the spirit agrees to serve you as long as you continue to Shepherd of black sheep: when you come to a settlement
do a particular thing for the spirit, then if ever you fail to for the first time, or an old one that’s significantly
do it, the spirit’s service is ended. Examples: changed since you last visited, name someone gullible
• Pursue an unachieved ambition on its behalf. or someone sinister who lives there. This figure will
(Should you achieve it, the spirit remains in your welcome you and defend your reputation no matter what.
service, and now you hold it over it.)
• Perform rituals on its behalf. Dominion over death: when you fill your sixth and
• Sacrifice things to it. final box of harm, roll+nothing. On a 10+, clear the
sixth box and escape death having glimpsed something
63
roles
of what lies beyond. On a 7-9, a spirit offers you a dark THINGS

bargain: if you accept, clear the sixth box and escape • A crystal ball, looking glass, skull, or other talisman of
death. You always come back marked in some way. On a the occult
miss, instead of dying you flee the scene and become an • A special chess set
insane NPC. • Dagger (1 harm, close, armor piercing)
• Choose 1:
DOWNTIME MOVES □ Dark tomes
Gain resources: when time passes and you spend the □ Books full of nonsensical ‘spirit writing’ you
intervening period communing with spirits, gain 1 falsely claim you can read
resources. • Choose 1:
□ A keepsake from your mentor
Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the □ A keepsake that belonged to the conjuror who you
intervening period indulging your vice, take +1 to your now masquerade as, which would incriminate you if
next roll. (At game start, choose 1 vice: killing, lying, found
mystic curios.) • Choose 1 that you possess:
□ Knowledge that your powers are a sham
Rest & recuperate: when time passes and you spend the □ A real belief in your own power
intervening period in rest and recuperation, provided □ Doubts
box. The fourth and fifth harm boxes require medical LOOKS
treatment—they don’t clear, but nor do they get any Choose at least 1 from each.
worse.
• Hooded, cocked hat, skullcap, wide-brimmed hat,
powdered wig, long wig
• Black clothes, simple clothes, heavily ruffed, half-cape,
flowing cloak, lace
BONDS
___ is on to me.
I’ve seen a darkness in ___ that I can nurture.
When push comes to shove, I know where everybody

stands except ___.
IMPROVEMENT

□ □ □ choose a new conjuror move
...
□ choose a new conjuror move
□ be redeemed and change to a different role (same
character, different role)
64
CHAPTER 4
items
TAGS Muskets and pistols can have rifled (grooved) barrels
E
ach piece of equipment has a number of tags. which increase accuracy. Rifles came to prominence
These tell you something about how the during the American Revolutionary War and the
equipment affects the character using it or suggest Napoleonic Wars. In earlier periods, rifled pistols were
something about the way it is used. Like everything else, more common than longarm varieties.
these guide the fiction you’re creating in play. If a weapon
has slow reload, it might mean that you’re stuck reloading A hand mortar is a primitive grenade launcher that fires
it for a long time after you fail that seize by fire & steel grenades farther than they can be thrown. It is rare; as
roll. with rifled weapons, it can’t be found in shops.
Feel free to come up with your own tags.
RANGED WEAPONS
Firelock muskets are the most common longarm of the
period. A musket is relatively inaccurate on its own but
devastating as part of a volley. A shorter carbine version,
the musketoon, is used by mounted cuirassiers and naval
types. It has a slightly flared barrel that accommodates
ball or buckshot. The blunderbuss, also called a boat gun,
is essentially a primitive shotgun with a wide flared tip.
Firelock pistols have limited range and limited use. A

pistol is typically discharged at the beginning of a melee
engagement and tossed aside rather than reloaded. A
flared blunderbuss pistol is called a dragon.
65
items
MELEE & THROWN WEAPONS beast.

The cutlass is used at sea, the saber is used on land, and
the smallsword is used in civilized company. The cutlass Grenades are small powder-filled iron balls with fuses.
hacks and stabs like a machete. The saber slashes. The Stink-pots can be as simple as a cloth wad dipped in
smallsword runs its victims through like a rapier. fetid combustibles and set alight. More advanced stink-
pots issue a discouraging sulfurous cloud; the smell can
Axes are useful when storming a fortified position. Besides last for days. All of these varieties can maim or vex the
maiming and killing, they can breach fortifications. enemy.
Pikes were the premier land weapon of the 1600s (the ARTILLERY
‘pike & shot’ era). In later periods, they were common at A cannon is a long-range smoothbore artillery piece that
sea. A pike is about ten feet long with a spiked or leaf- accommodates every type of shot.
shaped point. A formation of pikes is used to defend
against an assault. A row of bayoneted muskets works the A carronade is a short-barrelled short-range cannon. It
same. is cheaper to produce and easier to load than a normal
cannon, being originally designed for merchantmen
Dirks (stabbing daggers, or poignards) are widely issued but finding widespread use as a close-up ‘smasher’.
but rarely used except as tools. Someone with a knife is Carronades sit on a wooden bed with a slotted sliding
disadvantaged against nearly anyone else. The Dutch mechanism.
and Malay are noted dagger wielders.
A swivel cannon is a miniature cannon that can be
Harpoons and lances are tools of whalers and other operated and fired by a single person. It sits on a swiveling
hunters. A lance is specially weighted but otherwise stand. The small bore makes it mostly an anti-personnel
resembles a pike. The lance, held in hand, delivers the weapon.
killing blow to a whale; harpoons merely ensnare the
66
essentials
A mortar provides indirect fire to enemy positions. It sits night engagements, this is useful for lighting enemy
on a stationary bed or a rail. positions. A bomb is very dangerous to handle. It has
nearly the range of ball shot but poor accuracy.
Except for a swivel cannon, no one person can use an
artillery piece without help. ARMOR
Due to firearms, armor has gone away by the 18th
To disable an artillery piece, a metal spike can be driven century. The only armored troops are mounted troops
into the touch-hole. Unless a miracle occurs, a spiked such as cuirassiers. Musketeers never wear armor, and
artillery piece can never be fired again. any seaman with so much as a heavy coat on risks being
drowned the moment he goes overboard.
AMMO
Ammo is treated as a temporary tag which is applied to RESOURCES
a weapon when it’s loaded and lost when it’s discharged.¹ Resources are a nonspecific measure of wealth. They
Ammo implies things such as range, area of effect, and aren’t necessarily coin, nor goods: sometimes when
what a hit looks like, in addition to whatever tags are you gain resources it’s tokens of appreciation or social
already on the weapon itself. capital. When you run out of resources in the wilderness
you may be in danger of starving. When you run out of
Ball shot is the standard. It flies true and has the farthest resources in town you’re destitute. Wherever you are, it
reach. It is armor piercing. takes resources to survive comfortably.
Buck and grape shot affect large areas. Both have a BOATS & SHIPS
singular purpose: to maim or wound as much as possible. Ships have a size and come with tags. Ship size dictates
what a ship’s full complement looks like: a small, medium,
or large gang (concerning gangs, see: CHAPTER 6, hired
help). Most sailing ships can operate in safe conditions
with just a handful of sailors—a small gang. In trying
circumstances, a ship below its complement invites
disaster.
Ship sizes:
• Small (sloops, ketches, fishing boats)
• Medium (brigs, xebecs, galleys, snows)
• Large (frigates and larger)
A jolly boat or canoe doesn’t merit a size.
A ship can have any tag that makes sense: quick (as in its
speed), overfilled (overcrewed or heavy-laden), valuable,
maneuverable (good in shallows), loud (creaky, shouty,
Distance is short-range and penetration is minimal. requiring drums to keep time), 2 armor, etc.
Chain shot is two halves of a cannonball connected by a MOUNTS & TRANSPORTS

length of chain. Chain is mostly used at sea to cut rigging, Horses, mules, and donkeys are widespread. Camels are
masts, and sails. The effect on bodies is gruesome. Chain common in desert climes across Africa and Asia. Exotic
is relatively short-range and imprecise. riding animals such as elephants, zebras, and ostriches
are extremely rare. Teams of animals (horses, oxen, etc.)
A bomb or carcass is an incendiary cast iron shell filled draw wheeled transports such as wagons.
with flammable materials and fired from a cannon,
carronade, or mortar. The shell bursts on impact, A riding animal can have any tag that makes sense.
spreading its incendiary contents over an area. During
67
essentials
Coaches are the same (a sturdy wagon might have 1 them; the container is depleted on a miss or as a
armor). A team of animals might be a small gang. result of a GM move
• valuable: it’s worth more than normal
TRAVEL
Journeying require supplies, which consumes resources. • close: within arm’s reach or comfortable speaking
distance; a few feet
• A short journey consumes 1 resources from • far: too far to close the distance in a short span,
every PC on the journey (i.e. one town to the next, you might be able to hear a shouted word or two; the
overland or piloting by coast). far side of a room and beyond.
• A medium-length journey consumes 2 resources
from every PC on the journey (i.e. through open • ball: a heavy stone or metal ball; works like armor
country or open water, within the bounds of a single piercing (ignores armor)
land or to a neighboring land). • buck or grape: a cloud of projectiles; works like area
• A long journey consumes 4 resources from every (affects multiple targets)
PC on the journey (i.e. from one land to a land well • chain: a length of chain that swings around
beyond its borders, ocean-crossing). unpredictably; works like messy (rips things apart)
• bomb: a shell that explodes and burns; works like
When undertaking a perilous journey, the navigator area (affects multiple targets)
and supply-keeper can decrease the number of resources • arrow: a simple arrow, which can be loosed silently,
consumed by shortening the trip or smartly managing quickly, poisoned
supplies. Hazards can increase the number of resources
consumed along the way. F
¹Unless the characters are in a survival situation with dwindling
resources and that’s central to the fiction, ammo should not be
COMMON TAGS tracked. Running out of ammo happens on a miss, it happens as
• area: its effects are spread over an area, not a single a result of a hard move from the GM. It may be that there are no
target; it fully affects everyone and everything there. more bullets in a character’s cartridge box, or all of their remaining
• armor piercing: ignores armor, inflicting full harm powder gets wet, or a saber has sliced open their sack and caused
• discreet: something easily concealed or appearing their cartridges to be lost.
harmless
If you really must know, a musketeer’s cartridge box (or gargoussier)
• heavy: cumbersome or weighted; if you’re holding contains two wooden blocks that hold 9 paper cartridges each. A ship
or wearing anything heavy and you go into the or fort carries tons of cannon shot.
water, good-bye.
• loud: everyone hears it, startling those close by and Thrown weapons can and should be kept track of, however. A
character can only carry a few harpoons or grenades.
alerting those at distance.
• messy: it does damage in a particularly destructive
way, ripping people and things apart.
• quick: it’s fast-firing; takes hardly a moment to
reload or bring to bear again.
• rifled: possessing a grooved barrel, rather more
accurate than a smoothbore. A rifled weapon is also
valuable.
• slow reload: it takes more than a moment to reset
it for another attack. All black powder weapons
including artillery have an implicit slow reload tag
unless they have quick.
• thrown: intended to be thrown (you can throw
anything, but this tag really helps)
• uncountable: applied to a container of things that
have no fixed number: there are simply many of
68
essentials
RANGED WEAPONS TAGS AMMO

Musket 3 harm, far, loud ball
Musketoon 2 harm, close/far, loud ball/buck
Blunderbuss 3 harm, close, loud buck
Pistol 1 harm, close, loud ball
Dragon 1 harm, close, loud buck
Bow-and-arrow 2 harm, close, quick arrow
Hand mortar far, loud grenade/stink-pot
MELEE & THROWN WEAPONS TAGS

Cutlass, saber, smallsword 2 harm, close
Dagger, dirk, bayonet 1 harm, close, armor piercing
Axe 2 harm, close, messy
Pike, lance, bayoneted musket 2 harm, close, heavy
Harpoon, throwing spear 2 harm, close, thrown, heavy
Grenade 2 harm, close, thrown, area, messy, loud
Stink-pot close, thrown, area
Club, butt-of-a-gun, unarmed 1 harm, close
ARTILLERY TAGS AMMO

Cannon 5 harm, far, loud, heavy ball/grape/chain/bomb
Carronade 5 harm, far, loud, heavy ball/grape/chain/bomb
Swivel cannon 4 harm, far, loud, heavy ball/grape
Mortar 5 harm, far, loud, heavy bomb
Powder barrel 4 harm, close, area, loud, heavy
ARMOR TAGS
Heavy buff coat 1 armor, heavy
Cuirass 2 armor, heavy
69
CHAPTER 5
hired help
N
on-player characters are usually created and The guide for describing harm suffered by NPCs may
controlled by the GM according to the fiction. apply:
Hirelings—hired NPCs—are a little different,
and sometimes they form groups of NPCs treated as a • 1 harm takes out a common person
single unit called a gang. • 2 harm takes out a petty criminal or guard
• 3 harm takes out the highly trained or extremely
Hirelings are hired by provisioning in a place where help tough
can be bought or bartered for. • 4 harm takes out an elite soldier
• 5 harm takes out pretty much anybody
USING A HIRELING
Hirelings are passive helpers most of the time. Just like LOYALTY
items, theirs is a presence that allows you to do things in Loyalty determines what a hireling does when things go
the fiction you couldn’t do alone. wrong. Loyalty comes in three grades: treacherous, neutral,
devoted. A hireling’s starting loyalty depends on how good
By ordering a hireling to interpose themselves, you can the pay is, how much the locals like you, and how well
perform an action using them like an item. When you you rolled to provision when purchasing their services.
trigger a move and you use a hireling to do the action, The GM chooses a starting loyalty to match.
roll like you would normally. If it’s an attack, harm is
based on the weapon the hireling is holding. A hireling When a hireling isn’t paid when they were promised, or if
can suffer harm for you (decreased by their armor), or they find themselves in an untenable situation different
defy danger in your place, etc. If failure or consequences from what was expected, they may cross you or leave.
arise from your roll, you and your hireling can both Crossing you means attacking you, demanding what’s
be affected. When a hireling suffers harm, that’s an owed, helping the enemy. Leaving means standing aside
opportunity for the GM to make a move. or going away.
70
hired help
A treacherous hireling won’t hesitate to cross you if you Gang size:

fail to meet your end of the bargain. • Small
• Medium
A neutral hireling probably won’t cross you as long as you • Large
treated them fairly, or if things were out of your hands.
They’ll leave and maybe take something with them. When a gang suffers harm, use the following as a guide:
A devoted hireling will almost never cross you and they’ll • 1 harm takes out some rabble
put up with a lot before leaving. • 2 harm takes out an ill-equipped and loose-knit
mob
When a bad thing happens to a hireling, their loyalty • 3 harm takes out a good group with a designated
may decrease one step. When a good thing happens to a leader
hireling, their loyalty may increase one step. • 4 harm takes out a big, good group with an
imposing l eader
Hireling loyalty: • 5 harm takes out a strong company of well-ordered
• Treacherous soldiers
• Neutral
• Devoted Size and loyalty are merely tags. Hirelings can have any
other tag that makes sense.
SIZE
When you hire more than a handful of individual helpers, PAY
your hirelings may be treated a gang. Gangs are groups Hirelings aren’t always paid cash money in resources. You
of NPCs. Gangs under your employ work like individual can promise them glory, friendship, food, knowledge, or
hirelings (items to be used when moves are made). You a share of something. When, where, and what should be
can seize by fire & steel, defy danger, parley, suffer established when they’re first engaged. Upholding that
harm, and so on using your gang as a weapon or tool agreement is necessary to keep them from crossing you
or leaving. When the pay isn’t forthcoming, that’s a sign
Gangs inflict harm according to what sort of weapon for the GM to make a move.
most of them are using. If most of them are wearing
armor, subtract that from the harm they suffer.
In addition to loyalty, gangs also have a size. Up to 12

individuals is small, a dozen to 50 individuals is medium,
50+ is large.
Additionally, if there’s a size mismatch, the bigger gang

inflicts +1 harm and gets +1 armor for each step of size
difference:
• Against a lone individual, a small gang inflicts +1

harm and gets +1 armor. A medium gang inflicts +2
harm and gets +2 armor, and a large gang inflicts +3
harm and +3 armor.
• Against a small gang, a medium gang inflicts +1
harm and gets +1 armor, and a large gang inflicts +2
harm and gets +2 armor.
• Against a medium gang, a large gang inflicts +1
harm and gets +1 armor.
71
CHAPTER 6
harm & healing
T
here are a few ways a player character may to change their mind, since they should have known.
suffer harm, such as:
If the established weapon doesn’t have a listed harm,
• They defy danger, the player rolls and gets a 7-9, make a quick, simple judgment of its seriousness. Use
and they get an outcome that includes suffering these examples for a guide:
harm.
• They seize something by fire & steel and end up 0 harm:¹
exchanging harm. • a scuffle
• The outcome of a move, either their own or
someone else’s, includes suffering harm. 1 harm:
• They’re fighting in a gang and the gang suffers • small weapons (pistol, knife)
harm. • a tumble down the stairs (armor piercing)
• The GM makes a move. • a ricochet
• being out in the burning sun all day with no water
CALCULATING HARM (armor piercing)
Harm equals the inflicter’s weapon’s harm minus the
sufferer’s armor. If the weapon has armor piercing, ignore 2 harm:
the armor. • someone with a weapon of any size up to a musket
• being thrown from a horse
When you’ve already established what weapon the • falling rocks
attacker’s using, obviously use its harm. Occasionally, • a one-story fall (armor piercing)
though, you’ll get this far without having already
established what weapon the attacker is using (the player 3 harm:
responds: “wait, she’s got a poleaxe, not a poignard?”). In • musket balls
those cases, establish it now and check if anybody wants • a two-story fall onto rough ground (armor piercing)
72
essentials
getting hit straight-on by a carriage or a horse is critically hurt. They will get worse with time. As time
(armor piercing) passes between or during scenes, the GM may tell you to
mark additional harm if you’re critically harmed and not
4 harm: receiving treatment.
• a grenade in your lap
• a musket volley right at you DEBILITIES
• a fall from the top of a building onto your head When a player character suffers harm, the player can
(armor piercing) choose to mark a debility instead. If they do, they get
• indirect cannon fire the debility rather than marking any boxes of harm.
Debilities are permanent. They are:
5 harm and more: • Shaky: -1 Salt
• big explosions • Lame: -1 Strife
• direct cannon fire • Disfigured: -1 Style
• being strappadoed and hacked to bits • Addled: -1 Smarts
• drowning (armor piercing)
MALADIES
MARKING HARM When a player character suffers from an illness, disease,
For each 1 harm a character suffers, the player marks one or other such malady, they suffer -1 to a stat.²
box in their harm track.
• A malady that affects clearheadedness, mettle,
The first three boxes are less serious, the two after that are wisdom: -1 Salt
more serious. When the sixth and final box is marked, • A malady that affects strength, vitality,
the character dies. redbloodedness: -1 Strife
• A malady that affects appearance, one’s odor, one’s
pride: -1 Style
• A malady that affects intelligence, memory, wits:
-1 Smarts
A malady is the same as critical harm: it doesn’t get better

on its own, and as time passes without treatment, the GM
may tell you that the malady progresses—in which case,
suffer another -1 to that stat (max penalty -3).
F
¹Occasionally a player’s character will suffer 0-harm. A 2-harm
attack against 2-armor, for instance. When that happens, the player
will roll+0 for the suffer harm move.
Similarly, when a 1-harm attack against 2-armor leads to a hit, the

player will roll-1 (that’s minus one). In these cases, only a hit matters.
HEALING HARM A miss means nothing new.
The first three boxes get better with time. ‘With time’
depends on what that time is spent doing. If a character ²A malady is contracted by exposure through the fiction or as a
result of a GM move.
with three harm boxes marked is able to rest for a full day
or night in a safe place with food and drink, they may
clear a box. If they are safe but kept busy—such as with
work, worry, or travel—then they may be only partially
healed.
A character with their fourth or fifth harm box marked
73
CHAPTER 7
experience
M
arking experience means marking one clear the track and choose an improvement, marking the
box in the experience track. You mark one you choose. An improvement is an upgrade to your
experience: character such as increasing a stat or gaining a new move.
• When you make a move and miss. After you mark all of the first five improvements (in
• When a move tells you to mark experience, e.g. the any order), you begin marking improvements in the
session end move. second category. This second tier of improvements is
• When the GM tells you to mark experience. more impactful. Each role has a unique second-tier
improvement that impacts the fiction in a big way.
74
CHAPTER 8
starting out
Y
ou—the GM—start the first session by asking the sparks their interest in the established time and place.
players questions: Talk about playing styles.
• When and where does this take place? WHAT THINGS SHOULD WE
• What things would you like to see? AVOID?
• What things should we avoid? Get a consensus on: supernatural elements, historical
• What sort of group are you? accuracy, tone, sexual themes, violence, colonialism, and
• What sort of enterprise are you engaged in? race. Table behavior is another thing that’s important to
• What place, if any, does the group operate from? discuss beforehand. If even one person doesn’t want to
• What else? see something in the fiction or at the table, their motion
carries.
WHEN AND WHERE DOES THIS
TAKE PLACE? WHAT SORT OF GROUP ARE
Encourage nebulous answers rather than specific ones—a YOU?
general time frame rather than a specific year. You’re not Tell them that their characters have decided to form a
restricted to historical play. If the group wants to play company together—not necessarily a trading company,
in a fantasy world, everyone contributes world-building nor anything legally chartered, but a group of like-
details. minded souls agreed upon a shared venture. What and
why? Also “what is your group called?”
WHAT THINGS WOULD YOU
LIKE TO SEE? WHAT SORT OF ENTERPRISE
Also “what people would you like to see?” “what places?”. ARE YOU ENGAGED IN?
Talk about what interests them in role-playing games Have them choose an enterprise from the list below as it
generally and this one specifically. Zero in on what fits the answers so far:
75
starting out
Colonization (ex. Found a frontier settlement. Convert • A hardnosed lieutenant who takes care of things
natives to your religion. Establish political authority.) when you’re gone, no problem.
When you make the session end move, answer: • A renewable supply of vagrant errand boys.
Did we make a foreign land more like home? • A secret way in/out and a hidden cache.
Did we convince someone important of the rightness • Defensible positions, +1 armor to those fighting
of our ways? in its defense.
Commerce (ex. Run an import-export house. Sail a • A well or spring, resistance to fire and thirst.
merchantman. Keep a shop.) When you make the • A noteworthy religious icon.
session end move, answer: • An animal mascot, widely loved.
Did we expand the scope of our business?
Did we overcome a rival? Expanding your holding later is matter of doing it
Discovery (ex. Explore unknown territory. Search for through the fiction.
something that can be exploited. Reveal a secret.) When
you make the session end move, answer: Your holding has a problem with (choose 1):
Did we travel to strange new places? • Vermin.
Did we learn something new and important? • Idle help.
Production (ex. Run a manufactory. Oversee a mine. • Hostile neighbors.
Put on stage plays.) When you make the session end • A recurring miasma.
move, answer: • A landlord.
Did we impress someone important with our goods?
Did we overcome disaster?
Skullduggery (ex. Be an urban street gang. Engage
F
Your ship is small (like a sloop) and comes with a full
in piracy. Fight as sellswords.) When you make the complement, a small gang. It has a handful of cannons
session end move, answer: port and starboard (2 to 4 each). Your ship also has a
Did we break the law or transgress the morals of local few boons to start with. Choose 3:
society? • The patronage of someone important.
Did we overcome a notable enemy? • Always the number of jolly boats you need.
Stewardship (ex. Expand a farmstead or village. Rebuild • A hardnosed lieutenant who takes care of things
a fort. Run a highway inn.) When you make the session when you’re gone, no problem.
end move, answer: • Twice as many cannons but the extras are fake
Did we expand our holding? wooden ones.
Did we overcome disaster? • Hidden compartments.
• Coppered hull, add the tag quick.
WHAT PLACE, IF ANY, DOES • A bow or stern chaser (choose 1: carronade,
THE GROUP OPERATE FROM? mortar, swivel cannons).
According to the answers so far, it may make sense for the • A noteworthy figurehead.
players to start with a holding or a ship. If they start with • An animal mascot, widely loved.
neither—wandering adventurers, say—it should be made
easier for them to get one later on. Let them personalize Getting a bigger ship (or altering the one you have) is
their HQ: something you accomplish through the fiction.
Your holding is modest (e.g. a single dockside Your ship has a problem with (choose 1):
warehouse, a large but decayed fort) and comes with • Rats.
just a few loyal hands. Your holding also has a few • Roaches.
boons to start with. Choose 3: • Flies or fleas.
• The patronage of someone important. • Mold & rot.
• Stables with mounts and choose 1: • A supercargo.
• A few rickety wagons.
• A nice carriage.
76
essentials
WHAT ELSE?
Bonds, things, and moves all contain character backstory
if you ask the right questions. “How did you two first
meet?” “What is the meaning of your mysterious
pendant?” “How did you learn how to do that?” Each
answer informs the world and highlights what you
should focus on.
Get from the players details for the opening scene to

come. Start small and let the scene come together: “What’s
the weather?” “Are you inside or outside?” “What region,
locale, or country are you in?” “Why?” Then make sure
everyone’s role sheets are filled out before play begins.
77
CHAPTER 9
game master
PRINCIPLES is a villain—every bureaucrat, soldier, philosopher-king.
P
rinciples are the rules that help keep you focused Draw the lines clearly between upper and lower classes.
on what matters. There are textural principles Deals with authority should be like deals with the devil.
(how to evoke flavor, feeling, theme) and And remind them: no matter how high they go, there’s
structural principles (how to direct the game). When you always a bigger fish.
follow the principles, the conversation just flows. Neglect
either category, and you’ll see things stall or fall apart. Cast down Great Men. It’s important that your stories uplift
those people who don’t make it into the history books.
• Keep the characters always striving against those who Give ‘great’ figures fatal flaws and yank their pants down
hold power at every opportunity. Try to frame the fiction in such a
• Cast down Great Men way that spits in the faces of political-military figures.
• Make the time and place come alive Ignore history’s ‘greats’ or let the players kill them.
• Give everyone a name and a want
• Always come back to their enterprise Make the time and place come alive. Point out strange smells,
• Ask lots of questions

F interesting dress, cultural norms, laws, the sound of
languages, the people living their day-to-day lives around
the player characters. Use historical fact sparingly, make
• Address the characters, not the players up plenty.
• Let everything flow from the fiction
• Be a fan of the player characters Give everyone a name and a want. An NPC without either is
• Play to find out what happens just a stick figure. Like in the real world, everyone’s called
something and everyone wants something.
Keep the characters always striving against those who hold
power. The early modern period is a time of robber empires Always come back to their enterprise. If you pay attention,
and kidnap societies. Anyone in a position of authority you’ll hear the players constantly telling you what
78
game master
interests them in the fiction—the group’s enterprise is and you never roll dice. Use a GM move:
the biggest hint, the central thing that should prompt
what stories you tell in the conversation. Everything • When a player makes a move and misses.
orbits around the enterprise. • When the players are waiting passively for
F
Ask lots of questions. If you don’t know something, or you
something to happen.
• When the fiction demands it.
don’t have a good idea, ask the players and use what they Never speak the name of your move to the players. To
say. Ask them about feelings, thoughts, reactions, but them, a GM move should simply look like a continuation
also what they can see, why that NPC did that, etc. It’s of the fiction, which it is anyway.
a conversation; make sure everyone has their equal say.
• Separate them
Address the characters, not the players. Speaking this way • Put someone in a bind
keeps the focus on the fiction, not the table. • Make them hurt
• Trigger their disadvantages
Let everything flow from the fiction. Everything that • Test loyalty
happens comes from and leads to fictional events. When • Make them pay for it
the players make a move, they first do a fictional action • Turn their move back on them
to trigger it, then they apply the rules and get a fictional • Announce an unseen/future peril
effect. When you make a move it always comes from the • Move forward or backward in time
fiction. • Tell them the prerequisites or consequences and
ask
Be a fan of the player characters. You’re not their adversary. • Make a danger move from one of your fronts
You should be as excited about the player’s victories as
they are. Failures are an opportunity to spotlight their Separate them: separating them means physically
characters, not to punish them. Say “yes, and” or “yes, driving them apart, isolating them when they need help,
but”, never “no”. Lastly, kill your darlings (NPCs you dropping tantalizing breadcrumbs at a forked path. You
love) whenever it keeps the fiction interesting. can separate them from each other, from the wider world,
or separate them from their stuff.
Play to find out what happens. Come up with a premise
rather than a plot. Have ideas for scenes but don’t Put someone in a bind: a bind is a situation which forces
presume how the characters will get there. You should them to make tough choices. Put them, or something
always be as surprised and entertained by the direction they care about, in between a rock and a hard place.
of the fiction as the players are.
Make them hurt: inflict harm as established by the
fiction or find ways to make them hurt in other ways:
give them a malady, hurt their feelings, etc.
Trigger their disadvantages: consider their character

details—their vice, bonds, profession, skin color, gender,
religion, possessions, maladies, debilities. Point to a way
these details compromise them in the current situation.
Build off of each character’s details and twist them to
complicate their lives.
Test loyalty: meaning their loyalty to each other or to

something in the fiction. The loyalty of NPCs is tested
GM MOVES when things go wrong. Treacherous hirelings would rather
You enforce your principles by making moves. Your cross the characters than leave, neutral hirelings would
moves are like player moves but they’re self-explanatory rather leave than cross them, devoted hirelings never cross
79
game master
them but sometimes leave. • Add 1-5 portents for each danger.
• List dramatis personae.
Make them pay for it: using up their stuff, including but • Write 1-3 stakes questions.
not limited to resources. If they want to do something, • Pick the appropriate direction on the compass rose
they have to give something. Feel free to give them an and put it there.
opportunity then dangle the monkey’s paw.
Step 1: Name the front.
Turn their move back on them: think about the benefits
a move might bestow and give them to someone else Step 2: Write 1-3 dangers, including type and what each
instead, such as an enemy. Consider what a backfire looks wants.
like.
One or more dangers comprise a front. A danger is what
Announce an unseen/future peril: think offscreen. acts and therefore drives the front. A danger falls into
Remind them that the world exists outside the scene by one of four types: faction, individual, place, or affliction.
moving around chess pieces where no one can see (but let The different types have different GM moves that come
them hear the pieces moving). Lay the seeds for future with them. When you have an opportunity to make a GM
dangers, hint and tease, foreshadow. move, you can use any of those moves listed for the types
of dangers in play (hence make a danger move from one
Move forward or backward in time: let time pass of your fronts).
between two scenes. Show the consequences in the later
one, or go back and re-establish the stakes in a previous Faction (a nation, company, institution, a family, rivals,
one. friends, foes)
• Destroy or drive out something smaller
Tell them the prerequisites or consequences and ask: • Outflank, corner, or encircle
make clear what they need to do and what will happen, • Replace a friend with a foe
then see if they’re still willing. • Seize something without regard to consequences
• Negotiate a deal
Make a danger move from one of your fronts: each Individual (a person, animal, ship, a leader or follower,
danger in each front comes with extra GM moves. Bring an object)
a danger to bear by using its moves. Whenever you have • Reveal a connection to something larger
an opportunity to use a GM move, look to those as well. • Stall, isolate, or misdirect
• Make plans for later
After every move, ask “what do you do?”. • Act with self-preservation
• Appeal to their humanity
FRONTS Place (a town, fort, ocean, nation, a single building, single
A front represents a threat to the player characters and room, obstacle)
the things, people, and places they care about. A front is • Bar the way in, out, or past
like a zone of activity, theatre of war, a looming theme. • Enforce behavior, or else
• Play a shell game using people or things
Fronts are made by the GM outside of play. Their content • Smash together opposing forces
is a mixture of player input (what occurs during play) and • Harbor a faction, individual, or affliction
GM invention (what will be interesting to encounter). Affliction (societal rot, injustice, war, disease, prejudice,
They are organizational aids that help GMs improvise in weather)
play. • Get worse or spread elsewhere
• Upend the natural order
How to make a front: • Hurt someone or something important
• Name the front. • Cause self-destructive, fruitless, or hopeless
• Name 1-3 dangers, including type and what each behavior
wants. • Spawn other afflictions
• Choose an impending doom for each danger.
80
game master
A danger also wants something, representing if not Come up with a list of NPCs relevant to the danger. They
conscious desire then a kind of inertia. Their GM moves can be just names, or archetypes, or whatever.
are triggered in aim of achieving that goal.
Step 6: Write 1-3 stakes questions.
Step 3: Choose an impending doom for each danger.
The stakes should be clear at this point. Think of the
The impending doom is what happens, big picture, if the questions regarding those stakes that you want to see
danger gets what it wants. It’s what the player characters answered. The questions should be concrete and lead to
need to keep from happening. irrevocable changes when answered. Your agenda as a GM
is to “play to find out what happens”—stakes questions
Step 4: Add 1-5 portents for each danger. are a way of finding that out, answering things you as the
GM find uniquely interesting.
Portents are the steps on a timeline which occur if the
danger goes unchecked. One portent can be a chain of Step 7: Pick the appropriate direction on the compass
things or single event. A portent doesn’t have to lead rose and put it there.
logically to the next in line, but it often may. When you’re
not sure what to do next, push your danger forward by The compass rose is how you organize your fronts in the
bringing a portent to pass. mindspace of the game. The four-pronged compass rose
comes unlabeled: name two opposing directions Near/
When a portent is thwarted, you cross it out and as long as Far, and the other two In/Out.
the danger is still threatening, write some new portents.
The timeline branches. A portent resolved, or not, can • Near fronts are clearly apparent, immediate
have ripple effects on other dangers and fronts, too. problems that affect the surroundings of the player
characters, or something close by.
Step 5: List dramatis personae. • Far fronts are threats off somewhere else, separated
by something like a great distance, or they’re more
81
essentials
rarefied problems that are present but hard to touch. Dangers can exist independent of fronts. Write up
• In fronts are threats among the ranks of the player a danger and place it on the periphery, perhaps in a
characters, their friends and circles, or inner lives. direction on the compass rose, perhaps not. You can link
• Out fronts are those that enclose the player group the danger to one or more fronts—a loose association.
from everywhere else, or they’re more nebulous Maybe it become its own front or a part of an existing
ideas, conceptual threats, even from heaven or hell. one later. Maybe it stays a free agent.
Some directions may have no fronts, others may have You can add more prongs to the compass rose and name
multiple (organize the more important fronts closer them what you want. If you’re a more literal thinker or if
to the compass rose itself, with the less important ones the game is centrally located in the world, you can even
farther behind them in the same direction). If a direction use North/South/East/West instead of Near/Far/In/Out.
on the compass rose has no fronts, you can highlight
that in the fiction: make the group feel hemmed in from A front is resolved when it’s no longer a threat in
the directions that do have threats, make clear that the the fiction. A front can be resolved even if its dangers
empty directions are places of refuge, or places they can weren’t. Perhaps one resolved danger resolved the rest
expand to or explore. like tenpins, or they all scattered to the wind and the
front dissolves, etc. Remember to note how the world
Fronts can move from one direction to another. When is permanently changed after you resolve a front—
the group goes on a long journey, what’s far becomes near especially if any portents came to pass.
and what’s near becomes far. When the group chases out
the threat among their ranks but it’s still a threat, it goes
from in to out. You can even spin the compass rose and
F
¹Hold off on making fronts until after the zeroth session—or better
let the fronts rearrange where they may. yet, after the first or second session. Let them come up naturally and
leave blanks.
82
APPENDIX 1
glossary
A
n explanation of some period terms whose to hide the light.
meanings may not be clear from context. firelock: A category of firearm in which the
powder is ignited by sparks. For example, the matchlock
baiting: A bloodsport in which animals are pitted and later flintlock. None can fire when wet.
against one another. Bets are placed on the outcome: Jansenist: Calvinist, more or less.
which animal will win, and how quickly. Examples Lazar-house: A hospital for the incurable and
include rat-baiting (a terrier versus a number of rats), terminally ill, typically lepers.
bear-baiting (a chained bear is attacked by bulldogs), and madak: Opium cut with tobacco. Smoked.
bull-baiting (a chained bull is attacked by bulldogs or a molly-house: A brothel for homosexual men.
bear). Papist: Catholic.
black powder: Gunpowder. plaster: A hot or cool sticky mixture, sometimes
bleeding: Deliberate bloodletting to release caustic, smeared on the skin and left to dry in order to
foul humors from the body. Done by scarifier, lance, or ‘draw out’ illness from within.
leeches. Women, per their cycle, balance their humors purging: Deliberate vomiting to release foul
naturally. humors from the body.
breech-cloth: A loincloth. queue: A braided pigtail or ponytail.
clyster: A huge enema syringe for injecting snuff: Fine tobacco powder kept in a snuffbox.
warm solutions of medicine (say, mercury, or a decoction Sniffed by the fingerful.
of herbs) into the anus. The most frequently used tool in strappado: A kind of torture where the victim
a barber-surgeon’s chest—a cure-all. is suspended by straps from their wrists, dislocating the
cocked hat: A hat with one or more sides ‘cocked’, shoulders.
or turned upwards. For example, a bicorne (two sides supercargo: A ‘bond company stooge’ who
turned up) or a tricorne (three sides turned up). accompanies a cargo in transit to protect the interests of
corruption: Infection. the cargo owner or insurer, to the great inconvenience of
dark lantern: A lantern with a shuttered aperture whoever is transporting it.
83
appendix: glossary
thrum hat: A moppish shaggy pointed cap worn

by sailors in cold climes.
touch-hole: the ignition hole at the rear end of
a cannon which is lit by match or linstock. A cannon is
disabled by breaking something off in the touchole: e.g. a
special metal spike or bayonet.
turnspit dog: A short-legged dog that runs on a
wheel which cranks a meat-spit over a fire.
84
APPENDIX 2
character names
R
oll 1d6 for culture (on a 6, roll again). Once 5
you have culture, choose (first column) or
1: Russian
(second column) and roll 1d6. Or just choose
at every step. 2: Scandinavian
3: Sephardic Jew
1 2
4: Somali
1: Akan 1: Carib
5: Spanish
2: Bakongo 2: Chinese
6: Swahili
3: Barbary 3: Coromandel Indian
4: Basque 4: Dutch Akan A large population on the Gold Coast of Africa, who
make up a fair proportion of slaves and Maroons in the New
5: Benin 5: French World.
6: British 6: German 1: Konan 1: Phibbah
3 4 2: Quashey 2: Juba
1: Inca Peruvian 1: Mayan 3: Cudjoe 3: Mimbah
2: Irish 2: Mughal Indian 4: Quaccoe 4: Cubah
3: Iroquois 3: Ottoman Turkish 5: Mayfangoe 5: Obah
4: Italian 4: Persian 6: Quoffey 6: Bennebah
5: Malabar Indian 5: Portuguese
6: Malay 6: Polynesian
85
appendix: character names
Bakongo Kikongo speakers of the Kingdom of Kongo, ruled British Xenophobic soldier-mariners with silver tongues.
by Portuguese-collaborationist rulers turned Catholic. 1: Jonathan Random 1: Moll Carter
1: Lukinda Nzinga 1: Ndona Betelisi 2: Richard Rainborowe 2: Fanny Halloran
2: Nzinga 2: Luyinda 3: Ned Jones 3: Flora Bird
3: Mbo a Pemba 3: Ndona Zabela 4: Walter Hogg 4: Nora Tidd
4: Nganga Zumbu 4: Kimpa Lukinda 5: Huw Weedy 5: Elizabeth Bottomley
5: Manoka 5: Kitoko a Bangi 6: Thomas Fly 6: Anne Perkins
6: Ndom Zuau 6: Matadi
Carib Canoe marauders of the West Indies and South America.
Barbary Sabir-speaking pirate slavers whose galleys control 1: Kynoro 1: Zulmeira
the Mediterranean.
2: Jakuwa 2: Iwoya
1: Abdurrahman Assan 1: Fadma al-Sfaqiyya
Ali 3: Oko 3: Aina-patora
2: Ali Ghazi ad-Din 2: Sayyida 4: Putukusi 4: Okoa
3: Achmet Abu Bakr 3: Zira al-Kahina 5: Kurupi 5: Obah
4: Mehemet al-Wajdi 4: Sura bint Ali 6: Aikupo 6: Amyija
5: Saeed Abdoul 5: Lalla Aicha Mayyara Chinese Accommodating hosts who live in square towns with
6: Moulay Lutfullah 6: Umamah bint Hamdun impervious walls.
1: Ah Wong 1: Jin Yue
Basque Globe-trekking whalers and cod fishers from the Bay
of Biscay 2: Hong Tsai 2: Su Mengshi
1: Ignace Hoyarçabal 1: Jimena Zabala 3: Cheng Yang 3: Fang Weize
2: Baptiste Ellisalde 2: Lourdes Ochoa 4: Li Hong Ji 4: Ke Yining
3: Zorian Aguirre 3: Joane Fortúnez y Elorza 5: Feiyin Pang 5: Fu Mei
4: Lore Navarro 4: Dolore de Garro 6: Muyan Yi 6: Ku Xihua
5: Ruy Diaz Diarrieta 5: Isidore de Salaberry Coromandel Indian A majority Hindoo conglomeration of
6: Martin de Rosteguy 6: Alize Ellisalde cultures on the east coast of India and Ceylon, whose minority
Tamil Muslims bring riches from across the Bay of Bengal.
Benin A plurality of cultures centered around Edo-ruled 1: Pingali Brahmendra 1: Rukmini Ram Kumar
Benin City, cosmopolitan ‘City of Walls’.
2: Panjru Shastri Nadar 2: Suryanarayanamma
1: Esi N’Oyo 1: Idia
3: Moodoosudun Gooptu 3: Moodoocunamma
2: Navrey 2: Emotan
4: Uday 4: Rangamma Seethapathi
3: Ogun N’Igun 3: Iden
5: Poondi Subramaniyan 5: Poongulali
4: Asoro N’Ubinu 4: Nkwoja Ogun
6: Chinna Rajaratnam 6: Kavita
5: Obasogie 5: Omuromi N’Udo
6: Ogbebor 6: Omote
86
Dutch Shrewd Jansenist merchant-mariners. Irish Papists displaced and increasingly anglicized by
1: Ignatius Vandal 1: Anneke Brant centuries of Protestant British oppression.
2: Joos de Jonge 2: Geertje van den Noort 1: Rory MacCrory 1: Mary Alice O’Leary
3: Jan van Timmerman 3: Lijsbet Kip 2: Kirwin Crosbie 2: Sibella Gray
4: Bart Boongaard 4: Stincken de Doot 3: Éamonn O’Shaughnessy 3: Mary Clare MacMoyer
5: Eben Fijnkens 5: Katrijn Overlander 4: Redmond Lawless 4: Finola Floyd
6: Dirck de Rijnwijk 6: Eva Smits 5: Art Doggett 5: Morrine

MacGillipatrick
French Amiable fighters always with a bon mot. 6: James O’Faddigan 6: Evelin Talbot
1: Jacques Rennebecq 1: Marie Mandrin
Iroquois A culturally diverse political coalition of eloquent
2: Arsène d’Arsac 2: Louise Caval fur-traders and captive-takers.
3: Jean-Jérôme 3: Charlotte Malo de 1: Oronhiatekha 1: Athondinon
L’Archevêque Fleury
2: Shoronia 2: Degahyonhage
4: Pierre Jolly 4: La Femme Yolande
3: Kahonwes 3: Gonwagatentsi
5: Alexandre Florin 5: Guyonne Corday
4: Sawatis 4: Gajijyawaks
6: Bettremieu du 6: Henriette de Ravaillac
Royallieu 5: Tekanatoken 5: Thiweza
6: Tahaswongalolas 6: Tekakwitha
German Industrious philosopher-laborers from a war-torn
empire in Central Europe. Italian Sly Papists who look out for their own.
1: Johann van Eicken 1: Margarethe Möller 1: Tommaso Nullo 1: Alessandra Ferrara
2: Konrad Kinkhorn 2: Else Martin 2: Andrea Costa 2: Bartola Tornaparte
3: Cunz Hoffmann 3: Anna Wilhelm 3: Mercurio Leopardi 3: Filippa Scarlatti
4: Ehrhart Lorenz 4: Ursula van Eggenberg 4: Arcangelo Grossi 4: Rosa Bon
5: Hugo Hesse 5: Katharina Scheidt 5: Giovanni Battista della 5: Bella Carlotta della
6: Brazilius Wormbuch 6: Thekla van Beck Torre Pietà
6: Pietro Saltarelli 6: Portia di Giulio
Inca Peruvian Clever earth-shapers: monument builders and
vertical farmers. Malabar Indian People of the west coast of India who gather
1: Topa Huallpa 1: Anahuarque exquisite diamonds, spices, and silks for trade with other
Hindoos, Muslims, Yogis, Jews, Christians, and more.
2: Uritu 2: Cuxi Huaco
1: Laxman Murbadkar 1: Chindhi
3: Quehuar 3: Micay
2: Jyotirao Patkar 2: Rakhama Ranganathan
4: Acahuana 4: Chuqui Ocllo Rao
5: Huamanpallpa 5: Cavahuarque 3: Ram Chandra 3: Kittur
6: Kui 6: Huillac 4: Mohanlal Samartha 4: Retnamayi
5: Aditya Ratna Rao 5: Unniyarcha
6: Arjunan 6: Nulini Krishnan
87
Malay Cunning seafarers from the diverse islands of the East Persian Prideful Central Asians, whose ranks include shi’ized
Indies. and assimilated Caucasians.
1: Lukman Syed 1: Katijah binti Hamzah 1: Ruhollah 1: Nakihat
2: Abdul bin Rasyid 2: Mayang Sari 2: Qolam Heydar Zahedi 2: Tamar-i-Aliya
3: Ganggang 3: Mas Ayu 3: Alireza Azeem Abadi 3: Roxana
4: Kao Tak 4: Haryati 4: Hossein Cherkes 4: Mahd Esfahani
5: Budiarto 5: Suriyong Gagananga 5: Farhad Mazloomi 5: Zahra Baji
6: Perang Che 6: Chantra Sopha 6: Nader-i-Zanjan 6: Soraya
Mayan Rebellious indigenes of Central America. Portuguese Peerless nautical scientists greedy for spices and
1: Yya Nacuaa 1: Xoc slaves.
2: Wak Kimi 2: Sak K’uk 1: Diogo Afonso 1: Maria Rita Álvares
3: Ho’ K’an 3: Wak K’an 2: Lopo da Cunha 2: Luísa Rosa
4: Chan Chikchan 4: Multun 3: Nuno Gonçalves 3: Margarida da Silva
5: Waxac K’an 5: K’ayam 4: Simon Mascarenhas 4: Leonor Nunes
6: Okib’ 6: Muwaan 5: João Acevedo 5: Eugênia Pereira de

Sousa
Mughal Indian A populous, highly urbanized society of 6: Estêvão Pereira de 6: Violante Carvalho
Muslim Indo-Persians in northern India. Sousa
1: Bagh Mal Rai 1: Ismatun
Polynesian The greatest navigators in the world, who settled
2: Hak Parekh 2: Nurjahan in paradise.
3: Sher Zuberi 3: Qudsiya 1: Pau 1: Loa
4: Abiddudin 4: Zeenat 2: Havea 2: Hina
5: Kalim Allah 5: Zainabadi 3: Hitihiti 3: Ainalani
6: Sayyad Qurban Ali 6: Bilqis 4: Tupaia 4: Ka’ana’ana
Ottoman Turkish A powerful urban Muslim society—the 5: Ruatara 5: Napua

‘bogeymen’ of Christendom. 6: Aoutourou 6: Rarahu
1: Salih al-Ghafiki 1: Fatima bint Fatima
Russian Upstart rustics from a land of shadows in the
2: Kara Mustafa 2: Hafza Hatun farthest reaches of Europe.
3: El-Hac Rami Sinan 3: Safiye bint Kamal 1: Ivan Atlasov 1: Zdelana Petrovna
4: Osman bin Musa 4: Sara bint Hoshkadem 2: Feodor Rostovskii 2: Elena Borisovna
5: Hassan ibn Abd Allaah 5: Zuhal bint Ali 3: Bartko Makhno 3: Natalya Staritskaya
6: Timurhan bin Aslihan 6: Sultana bint Osman 4: Nikola Yakimov 4: Irina Ilyinicha
5: Nikitich Minin 5: Elizabeta Ivanova
6: Vasily Petrov 6: Xenia Bunina
88
Scandinavian Staunch Lutheran mountain folk with plain, Spanish Pious traditionalists with an inbred Papist
fair looks from the far north of Europe. appreciation for rich food, wine, and gold.
1: Sven Svensson 1: Sigrid Slots 1: Ignazio de Zarate 1: María del Canto
2: Axel Bronk 2: Brita Matsdotter 2: Pedro Sanz 2: Catalina de Céspedes
3: Feddersen Bang 3: Ebba Clodt 3: Zizare El Cano 3: Ana Pizarro
4: Mats Carloff 4: Lisbetha Andersdatter 4: Alvaro de Váez 4: Margarita la Roja
Toller 5: Lope de Juancho 5: Ana Mariana de
5: Jorgen Grubbe 5: Greta Gyllander Santander
6: Ole Ove Sivertsen 6: Kari Arne 6: Julio Gábalo 6: Isabel Marita
Sephardic Jew Iberian conversos who practice their faith in Swahili Prosperous Bantu people who live in great numbers
secret, scattered to Northern Europe, North Africa, and the along the Swahili coast in polities such as Magadoxo, Zanzibar,
New World. and Sofala.
1: Gaspar de Palacio 1: Leonora Toro 1: Ojuang Mtoro 1: Ajuang Mtoro
2: Cohen Henriques 2: Mira Mendes 2: Odhiambo Kengia 2: Bi Sadi Panya
3: Diogo Ribeiro 3: Simha Pereira 3: Ramadhani 3: Mwaiuma
4: Uriel da Costa 4: Gracia de Pinto 4: Sitambuli 4: Bi Sala Mkisi
5: Abraham Amigo 5: Anna de Medina 5: Bon Amedy 5: Mishi wa Abdala
6: Zacuto Benalcazar 6: Rachel Nuñez 6: Bastola 6: Shamsa Muhashamy
Henriques
Somali Muslims of the Benadir coast who comprise the

backbone of Muscat and Oman’s maritime economy from
Zanzibar to China.
1: Adeer Waraabe 1: Bati Jamaladdin
2: Moalim Mursal 2: Xawa bint Bahro
3: Umar Din 3: Waris Asma’u
4: Ugas Abdirahman 4: Kadisha bint Omar Awo
5: Nuur al-Jabarti 5: Asha bint Haji Awis
6: Maxamuud Warsame 6: Suda al-Barawiyya
89
APPENDIX 3
ship names
R
oll 1d6 twice for culture. Once you have Barbary ships
culture, roll 1d6. Or just choose at every step.
1: Aia Jouan
1-2 3-4 2: Ain Sara
1: Barbary 1: Inca Peruvian 3: Matza Franka
2: Chinese 2: Malabar and 4: Albyk

Coromandel Indian 5: Tazir
3: Dutch 3: Malay 6: Mahametta
4: British 4: Mughal
Chinese ships
5: French 5: Muscat and Oman
1: Fengshen Bang
6: Haida 6: Ottoman Turkish
2: An Ji
5-6 3: Hui Kang
1: Portuguese 4: Qing Yuan
2: Polynesian 5: Chang Ning
3: Scandinavian 6: Gaihai
4: Slaver
5: Spanish
6: Venetian
90
appendix: ship names
Dutch ships Inca Peruvian ships

1: Snuffelaar 1: Tokoyrikoq
2: Waakzaam 2: Hatun Guara
3: Scharlaken Hoer 3: Chaka
4: Fortuyn 4: Yaku Kumar
5: Gulden Zeepaert 5: Pichqa Pachak
6: Zeewijk 6: Mamaqucha
British ships Malabar and Coromandel Indian ships

(slang for penis) (slang for vagina) 1: Darya
1: Maypole 1: Mother of All Saints 2: Bhavani Prasad Grab
2: John Goodfellow 2: Spitfire 3: Maha Lakshmi
3: Clatterdevengeance 3: Cinque Ports 4: Ruparil
4: Rantallion 4: Best in Christendom 5: Salam Atras
5: Roaring Jack 5: Black Ace 6: Sutanpurse Culi
6: Cranny Haunter 6: Fly Trap
Malay ships
French ships 1: Faiz Baksh
1: Zélée 2: Bachtera Kita
2: Coq-a-lane 3: Hamah Ah
3: Pas-bon-roi 4: Hang Tuah
4: L’Huit Amis 5: Owun Da
5: La Supèrieure 6: Waikelo
6: Pourvoyeuse
Mughal ships
Haida ships 1: Fateh Muhammad
1: Yaalth Tluu 2: Fakir ul-Maghrib
2: Loo Taas 3: Naqd-i Sawai
3: Yasmaqac 4: Qaisar Baksh
4: Cummashawa 5: Fath-e Islam
5: Qquuna 6: Salamati
6: Xhuuyaa
91
essentials
Muscat and Oman ships Scandinavian ships

1: Fattah 1: Gotiske
2: Badda Cas 2: Fenix
3: Ali Rah 3: Flink och Färdig
4: Mirbat 4: Tre Kronor
5: Juwara 5: Svarta Örm
6: Manica 6: Leoparden
Ottoman Turkish ships Slave ships

1: Mukademme 1: Minerva
2: Lutf-u Humayun 2: Othello
3: Fazlullah 3: African Queen
4: Ay Bagcelli 4: Enterprize
5: Selimiyeh 5: Paquete Africa
6: Seyfi 6: A Liberdade
Portuguese ships Spanish ships

1: Nossa Senhora do Cabo 1: Treinta-y-Tres
2: Nossa Senhora da Conceição 2: San Apóstol
3: Nossa Senhora da Luz 3: El Gran Grin
4: Nossa Senhora das Necessidades 4: La Anunciada
5: Nossa Senhora da Vitória 5: Nuestra Señora del Barrio
6: Nossa Senhora da Misericórdia 6: Nuestra Señora del Rosario
Polynesian ships Venetian ships

1: Tainui 1: La Zustignana
2: Takitimu 2: Gerusalemme
3: Tohora 3: Leone e Fenice
4: Uenuku 4: Giglio d’Oro
5: Torea 5: Leon Incoronato
6: Marangai 6: Principessa
92
APPENDIX 4
currencies
C
ommon is the denomination which most German currency
people handle in all transactions, rich is a Common Rich Rare
denomination which is thrilling to possess, and
rare is a denomination which normal folk will never Pfennig Kreutzer Gulden
possess.
Guinean currency
British currency Common Rich Rare
Common Rich Rare Baysa (cloth) Adila (bar of Mithqal (gold
Farthing Pound Guinea salt) dust)
Chinese currency Iroquois currency

Common Rich Rare Common Rich Rare
Wen Tael Sycee White wampum Black wampum Wampum belt
Dutch currency Kongo currency

Doit Stuiver Guilder Nzimbu (cowry) Luhusu (raffia) Portuguese coins
French currency Malabar and Coromandel Indian currency

Denier Livre Écu Cash Fanam Pagoda
93
appendix: currencies
Mughal Indian currency

Common Rich Rare
Pie Rupee Mohur
Muscat and Oman currency

Common Rich Rare
Paisa Rupee Thaler
Ottoman Turkish currency

Common Rich Rare
Asper Para Piaster
Persian currency
Common Rich Rare
Dinar Abbasi Toman
Portuguese currency
Common Rich Rare
Real Cruzado Peça
Scandinavian currency
Common Rich Rare
Öre Mark Riksdaler
Spanish currency
Common Rich Rare
Real Real de a ocho Escudo
Venetian currency
Common Rich Rare
Denaro Lira Ducat
94
APPENDIX 5
maladies
R
oll 1d6 twice (on the first, roll again when 6) 5
or just choose.
1: Scarlet fever
1 2 2: Scurvy
1: Ague 1: Cholera morbus 3: St Vitus’s Dance
2: Bilious fever 2: Collicke 4: Stones & gravel
3: Black jaundice 3: Consumption/phthisis 5: Tympany
4: Bloody flux 4: Costiveness 6: Yellow fever
5: Brain fever/etc. 5: Dropsy Ague: an intermittent malarial fever
6: Calenture 6: Falling of the characterized by fits of shivering cold and rigor. -1 Salt.
fundament Bilious fever: a fever with great nausea and
vomiting. -1 Strife.
3 4 Black jaundice: an aching fever, blood-red eyes,
and splitting pain in the head. -1 Smarts.
1: Falling sickness 1: The Itch Bloody flux: the unrelenting passage of bloody
2: French pox 2: Jaundice stool. Dysentery. -1 Strife.
Brain fever/camp fever/gaol fever: a high fever
3: Green sickness 3: King’s-Evil
marked by episodes of stupor and delirium. Also splitting
4: La Grippe 4: Lung fever headaches and a rash. -1 Smarts.
5: Hecktick fever 5: Megrim Calenture: feverish delirium caused by heat
stroke. -1 Smarts.
6: Iliac passion 6: Palsy Cholera morbus: stomach sickness accompanied
by nausea and diarrhea. -1 Salt.
95
appendix: maladies
Collicke: abdominal pain and cramping. -1 Salt.

Consumption/phthisis: coughing and struggling
to breathe leading to a wasting away of the body. -1
Strife.
Costiveness: retention of stool in the body to
the point where they become hard-packed and powdery,
needing to be fished out with a spoon-like implement. -1
Style.
Dropsy: the swelling of the body with fluid. -1
Salt.
Falling of the fundament: prolapsus ani. -1
Style.
Falling sickness: periodic swooning with
convulsions. -1 Salt.
French pox: a venereal disease of eruptive
pustules and mental derangement. Syphilis. -1 Smarts.
Green sickness: greenish-yellow pallor, lethargy,
and weakness. An illness “peculiar to virgins”. -1 Strife.
La Grippe: a fever with lethargy and sore throat.
The flu. -1 Strife.
Hecktick fever: extremely intermittent fever
with chills, flushing, and sweating. -1 Salt.
Iliac passion: a reversal of the natural passage
of stool, by which “the excrements are thrown up in the
mouth by vomiting”. -1 Style.
The Itch: lice, etc. -1 Style.
Jaundice: a yellowing of the entire person
accompanied by itchiness. -1 Style.
King’s-Evil: the growth of prodigious swollen
lumps on the throat. -1 Style.
Lung fever: fever, coughing, and constriction of
breathing. Pneumonia. -1 Strife.
Megrim: splitting headaches. Migraine. -1
Smarts.
Palsy: a weakness or tremor in an extremity. -1
Strife.
Scarlet fever: sore throat, fever, large red rash. -1
Style.
Scurvy: bleeding gums and utter fatigue. -1
Strife.
St Vitus’s Dance: an uncontrollable dancing
mania. -1 Salt.
Stones & gravel: painful stones in the bladder
leading to stranguary. -1 Salt.
Tympany: the swelling of the body with gases. -1
Salt.
Yellow fever: a jaundiced appearance with
bleeding from the mouth and eyes, accompanied by
bloody black vomit. -1 Strife.
96
APPENDIX 6
fashion
R
oll 1d6 for one or more details of a character’s Arab fashion ( )
dress ( or ) or just choose.
1: Djellaba (hooded wool robe)
Arab fashion ( ) 2: Batoola (individualized face mask)
1: Djellaba (hooded wool robe) 3: Henna tattoos
2: Dishdasha (ankle-length light tunic) 4: Waqayah (waist-length fringed shawl draped over
head)
3: Izar (belted skirt)
5: Ornate jewelry (1: shamber, a headband of small
4: Litham (facewrap showing only the eyes)
silver coins, 2: mafraq, a headband with heart-shaped
5: Henna-dyed hair and kohled eyes centerpiece, 3: dinar, a large silver coin pendant over
6: Ceremonial dagger forehead, 4: banajiri, 1d6 bejewelled spiked bracelets, 5:
halq, innumerable silver earrings with pendant chains, 6:
khawatim, 2d6 finger and toe rings)
6: Veil
97
appendix: fashion
Chinese fashion ( ) (N.B. Chinese men of most ethnic European fashion ( ) (N.B. any European man who goes
groups must shave their forehead and tie their remaining bareheaded in a settlement is breaking a taboo and sometimes
hair in a queue or face execution) the law, too)
1: Doushi (conical bamboo hat) 1: Bag wig (a powdered wig with the hair in the back
2: Changpao (ankle-length robe) stuffed into a taffeta drawstring bag, bow-tied)
3: Magua (frog-buttoned jacket with or without sleeves) 2: Justaucorps (a knee-length coat with flared ‘skirt’)
4: Falsified buzi (embroidered rank badge denoting 3: Codpiece

civil or military office, where ninth-rank is the lowest 4: Pantaloons
position, 1: ninth-rank Unskilled Soldier from the 5: Hose
Bordered Blue Banner army, represented by the water
horse, 2: eighth-rank Runner Courier of the Xin’an 6: Powdered wig
District Second Postal Relay Station, represented by
the paradise flycatcher, 3: seventh-rank Junior Blind European fashion ( )
Musician in the Office of the Music Master in the 1: Beauty patches (black velvet patches on the face,
Ministry of Rites, represented by the oriole, 4: fifth- concealing blemishes)
rank Eunuch Sub-Commissioner in the Provincial
Gunpowder Office, represented by the silver pheasant, 2: Mob cap (frilly cloth bonnet fastened by a ribbon)
5: third-rank Guardsman of the Firearms Brigade from 3: Patten shoes (wooden over-shoes on metal stilts to
the Plain Red Banner army, represented by the tiger, keep the wearer’s shoes clean)
6: first-rank Seasoner in Charge of Salts, Sauces, and
4: Hooped petticoat (ankle-length skirt widened by
Mincemeats in the Imperial Court, represented by two
in-sewn hoops)
white cranes)
5: Cardinal (long, hooded red travel cloak)
5: Kuzhe (baggy blue or black cotton trousers)
6: Sleeveless bodice
6: Qun (blue or black cotton skirt)
Indian fashion ( )
Chinese fashion ( )
1: Lungee (skirt)
1: Ru (close-cuffed blouse)
2: Kurta (loose shirt)
2: Baizhequin (‘hundred pleats’ skirt)
3: Jama (jacketed robe with flared skirt)
3: Dudou (corset-like undershirt binding the breasts
and stomach) 4: Pagdee (turban in the local style)
4: Mati (shoes with a ‘horse-hoof’ platform extending 5: Jewelry (1: bajuband, an armlet matching romantic
from the center of the sole) partner’s, 2: bhikbali, an earring, 3: malas, bead
armlets/bracelets, 4: kadas, bangles, 5: haar, bejeweled
5: Kuzhe (baggy blue or black cotton trousers)
many-chained necklace, 6: kalgi, bejeweled brooch or
6: Chang-ao (wide-sleeved draping gown) turban ornament)
6: Nude (1-3: bare chest, 4-5: bare feet, 6: fully nude
save for loinwrap)
98
appendix: fashion
Indian fashion ( ) Malay fashion ( )

1: Dupatta (veil shawl) 1: Sarong (cloth wound around the waist)
2: Saree (cloth wound around the waist to make a long 2: Bare-chested
skirt, then flung back over the shoulder) 3: Blangkon (tied cap)
3: Cholee (midriff-baring bodice) 4: Tanjak (intricately arranged headtie)
4: Gharara (trousers flared at the knees) 5: Ao dai (blue knee-length tunic)
5: Henna tattoos 6: Chong kraben (cloth wrapped around the waist and
6: Jewelry (1: jadanagam, or ‘plait-serpent’, a long gathered in the middle to make baggy trousers)
bejeweled pendant intertwined with a braid , 2:
kadas, bangles, 3: bajuband, an armlet matching Malay fashion ( )
romantic partner’s, 4: nath, a nose ring, 5: oddiyanam, 1: Sarong (cloth wound around the waist)
a bejeweled belt, 6: jhumkas, 1d6 pendant earrings
comprising a disc and bell) 2: Kemben (torso wrap baring the shoulders)
3: Bare-chested
Iroquois fashion ( )
4: Tanjak (intricately arranged headtie)
1: Ahtaquaoweh (beadwork moccasins)
5: Kembang goyang (hair fork with flower design)
2: Giseha (thigh-high leggings)
6: Jilbab (belly-length modest headscarf)
3: Gakaah (leather kilt with porcupine quill fringe)
4: Roach (crested headdress of dyed hair) Ottoman Turkish fashion ( )
5: Gustoweh (hat of hawk, turkey, or pheasant feathers, 1: Jelick (collarless vest)
with eagle feathers arranged to indicate one’s tribe) 2: Dolama (knee-length gown belted by a sash)
6: Piercings (1d6 wampum ear and nose piercings) 3: Nemed (modest felt coat)
Iroquois fashion ( ) 4: Aba (loose-fitting striped wool poncho)
1: Giseha (knee-high leggings) 5: Tarpush (cylindrical felt hat)
2: Beaded cloth tiara 6: Tumans (wrestlers’ leathern breeches, i.e. hot pants)
3: Ahdeadawesa (a tunic overdress belted at the middle Ottoman Turkish fashion ( )

and flared below)
1: Jelick (collarless vest)
4: Ahtaquaoweh (beadwork moccasins)
2: Tarpush (cylindrical felt hat)
5: Silver brooch (1: ogahaeye, a plain disc, 2:
deyodehaieda, an ornate star, 3: aweyasa, a plain heart 3: Zibin (waist-length jacket unbuttoned at the bust)
shape, 4: ogojia, an ornate heart, 5: joawadasho, a 4: Salwar (puffy pantaloons)
square, 6: gayasa, an abstract semi-triangular shape)
5: Curdee (loose sleeveless robe)
6: Silver tinklers (cone-shaped noisemaker ornaments)
6: Veil
99
appendix: fashion
Polynesian fashion ( ) Slavic fashion ( )

1: Tattoos (1: lips, 2: chin, 3: full-face, 4: chest, 5: arms, 1: Sarafan (sleeveless, collarless overdress)
6: full-body) 2: Kokoshnik (for married women, a tall wide-crested
2: Breech-cloth tiara in the local style) or povyazka (for unmarried
3: Leaf cape women, a kokoshnik but open in the back)
4: Feather cloak 3: Zupan (tight frock coat with wooden buttons and
bell-shaped bottom)
5: Over-the-shoulder barkcloth shawl
4: Stanik (bodice)
6: Barkcloth headwrap
5: Vyshyvanka (richly embroidered tunic shirt with
Polynesian fashion ( ) talismanic properties)
1: Tattoos (1: lips, 2: chin, 3: full-face, 4: chest, 5: arms, 6: Perednik (embroidered apron with lace trim)
6: full-body)
West African fashion ( )
2: Feather skirt
1: Kaftan (poncho-like long robe)
3: Greenstone pend

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Chapter 2, basic moves����������������������������������� 8 Chapter 4, items������������������������������������������������65

Chapter 8, starting out�������������������������������75

Chapter 9, game master�����������������������������78

Appendix 2, character names�����������������85

Appendix 3, ship names������������������������������90

BLACK POWDER, TALL SHIPS, THE CONVERSATION

A character can’t do the fictional action that triggers STATS

The length of time needed to trigger a downtime move GETTING STARTED

NAME, MOTHER COUNTRY,

On a 7-9, the GM can choose 1:

Riders travel overland at speed, a Priests hold great sway in a time of

STATS DOWNTIME MOVES

Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the

A story in every port: when you come to a settlement

...the parish priest.

Sea legs: when you’re on a boat, you have 1 armor when

Grog talk: when you parley with someone you’re sharing

Navigation: when you plan a long voyage, roll+Salt. On

□ Axe (2 harm, close, messy) IMPROVEMENT

I have promised to tell ___ a story, having heard theirs.

Long ago, I encountered someone strikingly similar to

STATS DOWNTIME MOVES

Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the

In the background: when you take advantage of the IMPROVEMENT

STATS quickly and they do not know they were followed. On a

In the Fabian style: when you get the drop on someone

Camouflage: when you keep still in natural

Quarry: choose a kind of animal as your area of expertise,

Track: when you follow a trail or track someone whose

THINGS My pet likes ___, so I guess I like them too. ___

I worry about the ability of ___ to survive in the wild.

STATS Capitaine d’armes: you have an arms locker or a messy

Hard: when a gang under your employ has their loyalty

Alpha hound: when you use a gang to make a move

Army of one: when you’re operating an artillery piece

Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the

• Close-cropped, knit cap, thrum hat, cocked hat, shining

___ stood up to me and got away with it, for now…

STATS • They’re exhausted.

Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the

STATS Duelist: when you challenge someone to single combat

Braggadocio: when you boast about your future deeds

locks, flop hat, exotic hat, lucky hat

□ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)

• Powdered wig, colorful wig, precarious wig, flowing

STATS • They choose how they pay: in resources, in kind, or

I owe ___ money.

___ would be so much better off if they had what I’m

STATS Once you’ve accomplished the necessaries, you can go

And choose 1 more:

Reliable & prepared: when you search your bags or

This is ___, isn’t it?: when you closely examine something

Art of mechanics: when you spend some time studying

The GM might connect them all with “and”, or might

Inventor: when you put the finishing touches on a THINGS

• Powdered wig, close-cropped, natural hair, cocked hat,

I think ___’s idle hands are the devil’s playthings.

I never sit down for a meal unless ___ is right beside me

□ □ +1 to a stat (max +3)

STATS On a miss, you find something terrible and worrying.

Butcher: when you heal harm and describe in detail

Prognosis: when you heal harm and hit, you—not the

Infirmary: you have a kitted-out space of your own

STATS First among peers: when you display your superior

Indulge vice: when time passes and you spend the

Chapter 2, basic moves�� 8 Chapter 4, items��65

Chapter 8, starting out��75

Chapter 9, game master��78

Appendix 2, character names��85

Appendix 3, ship names��90

THINGS My pet likes _, so I guess I like them too. _