Game Length

Each installment is typically an hour or less, with the aim to run multiple installments in a game session.

Primary Characters

Background is a concise description of the character’s role in the story, outlined by the Keeper. Casting is the look and tone of the character, up to 25 words, written by the Player.

Traits are ratings for how good a character is in a certain area.

• Flesh: all aspects of a character’s physicality
• Brains: mental faculties
• Tongue: charisma and the “gift of gab”
• Guts: willpower

Rating options:

• A: 2, 1, 0, -1
• B: 1, 1, 1, -1
• C: 1, 1, 0, 0

Ratings:

• -1: underdeveloped
• 0: average
• 1: very gifted or well trained
• 2: master or expert

Traits rated 1+ have an equal number of Descriptors, reflecting areas of expertise or talent. Traits rated -1 have a Flaw, reflecting an area of weakness. These subtract 2 from the result of an Intention when applicable.

Supporting Characters

Mundane SCs are regular people and are summed up with one number, the SC Rating. Principal SCs have the same four Traits as Primary Characters, but without Descriptors.

Ratings:

• 0: Normal
• 1: Good
• 2: Great
• 3: Enhanced
• 4+: Supernatural

Intentions

Roll per rating:

• >0: roll 2+rating d6, sum highest 2
• 0: roll 2d6, sum
• <0: roll 2+rating d6, sum lowest 2

Each Benefit adds 1 to the rating of the Trait being tested. Each Obstacle subtracts 1 from the rating of the Trait being tested.

If an action is opposed by a Supporting Character, its effective SC Rating is subtracted from the Trait rating. These stack, with -1 for each, to a minimum of -3.

Results:

• 2–6: The Keeper narrates failure; character is put in a worse position.
• 7–9: The Player narrates failure or the Keeper narrates complicated success.
• 10+: The Player narrates success.

The Keeper may request a Rewrite in response to a Player’s narration. They must start the narrative over again, fixing anything that was out of line. One Grave Token is removed from the pool and is collected by the Player’s character.

For PC-vs-PC Intentions, roll as normal and compare:

• If both fail, the Keeper decides what happens.
• If one fails and one partially succeeds, the failer suffers a -1 penalty.
• If both partially succeed, they continue but with a -1 penalty each.
• If one succeeds and the other doesn’t fully, the succeeder wins.
• If both succeed, it’s a draw; the characters continue.

Characters cannot attempt the exact same Intention again after failing at it.

Grave Intentions are dire, potentially lethal, and cannot occur during Act 1.

• If a character fails, the Player must roll two dice, modified:
  • -1 for every two Grave Tokens the character has collected
  • -2 if the installment is currently in Act 3
• Results:
  • Up to 4: game ends for the character; usually death or madness
  • 5 or more: non-game ending, but character is far worse off than before
• If only one PC remains, automatic non-game ending result

Confrontations

As with any Intention, actions are big picture; the end result is determined, details narrated. PCs act first, unless there’s a clear reason they shouldn’t.

If lives are in danger, use Grave Intentions, with the Keeper making it clear which characters are in harm’s way. The Keeper rolls for Grave Failure when needed.

Acts

Act One is the story’s setup. We meet the PCs and establish who they are, what they do, and what their situation is. It ends with an inciting incident.

Act Two is where the PCs try to deal with the ramifications of the inciting incident.

Act Three is the climax of the tale, where the main tensions of the story are brought to their most intense point and resolved, one way or another.

Collected Grave Tokens can potentially be purged after each Act.

Grave Tokens

A communal Grave Token pool is initially populated with a number of tokens equal to the number of Players, plus 2.

Grave Tokens can be spent (and then collected by the character) to:

• Edit a scene
• Boost an Intention roll by 1 (must be spent before rolling dice)

By exploiting a word, phrase, or sentence of a PC’s sheet, and explaining how it affects the action(s), boosting can be increased:

• Exploiting Background or Casting, the Token adds 2 to the Intention
• Exploiting a Descriptor, the Token adds 3 to the Intention

(Optional) After-Boosting: Players may boost after an Intention roll; every two Grave Tokens grant a +1 boost to the final result. Players cannot exploit when after-boosting.

A Grave Token is added to the pool when:

• The Keeper triggers a Flaw
• Once per Act, each Player can voluntarily trigger a Flaw
• If a character does something particularly clever, true to the genre, or that drives the story forward in an entertaining way

At the end of each Act, each Player may try to purge their character’s collected Grave Tokens. For each token, they roll a die; any 5 or 6 result purges a token, removing it from the game.

Collected Grave Tokens:

• Before a Player rolls for Intention, the Keeper may up to three collected Grave Tokens to give a -1 penalty to the Trait for each token
• The Keeper can remove a collected Grave Token to force a reroll of a die, up to three, declared together

Skulls

Skulls are a rating of each installment’s quality and entertainment value, from 0 to 5. Each installment has a list of things that will add or subtract Skulls should they occur. These are kept secret from Players.

Skulls are disclosed at the end of an installment, and determine the starting pool of Grave Tokens for the next installment.

A guaranteed way to earn a Skull is to include gratuitous content (excessive gore, sexuality, etc. other sordid material).