Marketplace

Buying Items

Player characters can purchase items from shops and marketplaces in Exploration or Downtime Mode, so long as such establishments are available to them. Particularly expensive or rare items are unlikely to be available except in specialized shops or when specially commissioned.

When a character makes a purchase, their Money total decreases by the amount paid. If they don’t have enough Money, they cannot make the purchase unless the seller is willing to trade other goods or services.

Selling Items

Most merchants are not in the habit of buying items from strangers off the street. Those that do typically pay half the listed cost of the item. When a player character sells an item, they gain Money based on what the merchant is willing to pay.

Starting Money

Upon character creation, each PC has 30 Money to spend on basic equipment. Any remaining Money is recorded on the character sheet.

Burden

"Burden" is an abstraction of weight, bulkiness, and general encumbrance of items. An item can have a Burden of 1 or higher, or "L" for "lightweight," which means it has no significant weight to it. A character can carry as many lightweight items at once as they wish, within reason. For example, a Buckler has a Burden of L, but this assumes the character is not carrying an unreasonable number of Bucklers at once. The GM may determine that a significant number of "lightweight" items count as 1 or more Burden when all carried at once.

A player character can comfortably carry an amount of Burden up to their Might die size (for example, 6 Burden for a Might die size of d6). Carrying Burden in excess of this causes the character to become encumbered (see Status Effects) until they drop some weight. A character simply cannot carry more Burden than twice their Might die size.

Apart from worn items such as armor, jewelry, and other accouterments, and held items such as weapons or torches, equipment must be carried on your body in pouches, packs, cases, and similar containers. Retrieving an item in this way usually requires the character to use a maneuver to do so.

Creature Burden

On certain occasions, it may become important to know how much Burden a particular creature imposes. For instance, a player character might wish to carry their fallen comrade out of harm's way.

In general, most Medium-sized People that occupy 1 Space are approximately 5 Burden. The GM can increase or decrease this value depending on the situation and particular character. Other creatures can have lightweight Burden or immense Burden depending on their size. As a rule of thumb, assume that a creature's Burden increases by 5 for each additional Space it occupies beyond the first.

Dragging Burden

Carrying a backpack full of heavy stones is more difficult than pushing a wheelbarrow full of those same heavy stones. For this reason, any Burden that is being pulled, pushed, or dragged rather than carried counts as half that much Burden, rounded down. However, moving or traveling in this way is usually more time-consuming, or virtually impossible if the terrain is difficult.

Batches of Items

Some items are typically sold in batches and are marked as such in the names of their item entries. The listed cost and Burden values for these items represents the total cost and Burden for the given quantity of items. If a character has a number of a batch item fewer than its normal purchase quantity, the Burden value of that item becomes one step lower (e.g. 2 Burden to 1 Burden, or 1 Burden to Lightweight).

For example, the item "3 Pints of Oil" comes in quantities of three flasks of oil per purchase, at a cost of 1 Money and having a total Burden of 1. A character who purchases this item twice means they must spend 2 Money, and they would then have 6 Pints of Oil, which has a total Burden value of 2. If that character then used up one Pint of Oil, they would have 5 remaining for a total Burden value 1.

A character may choose to gain a smaller number of items when they purchase a batch of items, but this does not decrease the price; it only decreases the Burden value. If a player character wanted to, they could purchase two of the item "3 Pints of Oil" by spending 2 Money, then discard one of the pints so they're carrying 5 Pints of Oil for a total Burden of 1 instead of 2.

Batches of Ammunition. Although ranged weapon ammunition such as as arrows and bolts are usually not counted and kept track of, some GMs and scenarios might require otherwise. In these cases, a batch of 20 pieces of ammunition can be given a default cost of 2 Money and have a Burden value of 1.

Lifestyle Expenses

Maintaining a lifestyle in society costs money. Some lifestyles are more lavish than others. Some factions and organization may provide certain services for free.

Meager Lifestyle (0 Money/day): the life of a pauper—stale bread, cheap ale, and a hard bed. Sufficient for a poor Rest.

Common Lifestyle (2 Money/day): an average citizen's lot—hot meals, fresh water, and a soft bed. Sufficient for a decent Rest.

Luxurious Lifestyle (10 Money/day): the upper class experience—gourmet dining, fine wine, plush bedding, and entertainment. Sufficient for a fine Rest.

The estimates above represent a combination of housing and food expenses. If either food or shelter is already provided to a character, then the cost/day is divided in half. If both are provided, then they need spend no Money on lifestyle expenses for that day, unless they want to pay for a better lifestyle.

Armor

The most straightforward tactic for avoiding a quick death in combat is to don a suit of armor. Doing so will give you a greater chance of deflecting or absorbing physical attacks, though you will still be worn down eventually.

Suits of armor usually detract against the wearer's Stamina. Plus, the added Burden might make it more difficult for weaker characters to manage the weight without becoming encumbered. Other than that, nothing prevents a character from wearing any suit of armor they wish, and they gain the full benefits of doing so.

Weapons

Anyone can heft a weapon and attack with it. The weapons provided in this section are those commonly found in the world of Senteia. Each weapon represents a broad category of specific weapons that serve the same purpose. For example, the “Sword” weapon is left purposefully generic. It could be a shortsword, a rapier, a katana, a cutlass, a kris, a saber, etc. So long as it’s a one-handed sword, it counts. The Polearm might be a halberd, a pike, a glaive, or even a trident. The Maul might instead be a giant club or two-handed hammer. It’s up to the player to decide what their weapon looks like.

Weapons often have additional boons or other traits that modify how attacks are made with them. Some, such as the Shield, Garrote, and Ranged Weapons provide new Tactical Mode maneuver and action options.

Unless otherwise specified, a player character has two hands with which to wield weapons or other items. A hand that is not holding an item or weapon is considered empty, and can be used to interact with objects in the environment, pick up items, or use the ◆ Brawl basic ability.

Weapon Traits

A weapon is defined as an item that has one or more of the following traits:

Flex Melee. A character that ◆ Strikes with this weapon can roll using either Finesse or Might.

Heavy Melee. A character that ◆ Strikes with this weapon must roll using Might.

Light Melee. A character that ◆ Strikes with this weapon must roll using Finesse.

Ranged X. A weapon with this trait can be used to ◆ Shoot at a target so long as there is a feasible path from the attacker to the target for the projectile to travel along. Ranged Weapons usually fire one or more pieces of ammunition in this way, and must be reloaded with more ammunition before they can be used in this way again. Ranged Weapons have a range increment, measured in spaces, as indicated in the Ranged trait. This isn’t the maximum distance at which the weapon can be effective, but rather the distance at which you can ◆ Shoot without penalty. Per the ◆ Shoot ability, a -1 edge penalty is applied for every additional increment of the weapon's range between you and your target. A weapon's maximum distance is up to five times its range increment. Beyond this distance, the weapon is either ineffectual, simply too unlikely to hit its target, or does not have the force necessary exceed that distance.

Harmless. Whenever this weapon would deal any amount of Damage, it instead deals 1 Stress.

Reach. While wielding this weapon with the requisite number of hands, your melee reach with it is increased to 2 spaces instead of 1.

Reload. A weapon with this trait needs to be loaded with ammunition before it can be used to attack. Ammunition is not usually tracked, but loading ammunition takes time. Each Reload trait specifies what type of turn component is required in order to do so. The most common Reload traits are ◆ Reload, ⬖ Reload, and Free Reload, which means the weapon can be reloaded for free any number of times per round. Some weapons may have even longer reload times, such as Reload (1 minute).

Thrown X. You can ◆ Shoot this weapon as if it had the Ranged trait with a range increment equal to its Thrown value, but no ammunition is used. When you do so, the Thrown Weapon lands at or near the space you targeted, and it can usually be recovered. You can attempt to throw a weapon without this trait, but doing so imposes -2 edge on the Attack roll, and the GM might impose the Harmless trait for this purpose. For example, throwing a sling at a creature is unlikely to have much effect. If the Thrown weapon also has the Flex Melee trait, you may choose to roll with either Might or Finesse when you ◆ Shoot with it. If it has the Heavy Melee trait, you must roll with Might when you ◆ Shoot with it.

Two-Handed. This weapon can be carried in one hand, but it isn't considered "wielded" unless it is being carried in two hands at once. This means a character cannot benefit from the weapon's boons, traits, or abilities while holding it in one hand, nor can they Attack with it. Releasing one or both hands from gripping a weapon can be done freely and at any time, and as part of another task such as pulling a lever or drawing another item. However, gripping the weapon again with both hands requires the ◇ Grip Weapon instant. When a Two-Handed weapon is picked up or drawn, the character can choose whether to grip it in one hand or two hands when they do so, without using ◇ Grip Weapon. Reloading a Two-Handed weapon can be done while wielding it in two hands, and doesn't cause the character's grip to change.

Weight (dX). Attack rolls you make with this weapon are made with -1 edge for each die size below its Weight rating your Might die size is. For example, a character with Might d6 would suffer -2 edge on Attack rolls made using a weapon with Weight d10.

Improvised Weapons

Sometimes a character just doesn't have the right tool for the job. When a character tries to use a non-weapon item to Attack, they typically do so with -2 edge. Improvised weapons can usually be treated as having the Thrown 3 trait, and either the Light Melee or Heavy Melee trait, depending on the size of the item. The GM might also decide that the improvised weapon gains the Harmless trait.

Magic Items

Items with the Magic trait are relatively rare, though not unheard of in most civilized places. Mage characters can use any item with the Magic trait in order to ◆ Attune their minds to magic, allowing them to cast Spells. Some Magic items are only usable by Mage characters, while others can be used by a variety of characters.

Alchemical Items

Alchemical items, while often bordering on the supernatural with the effects they generate, are not actually magical in the technical sense. Many people earn a decent living gathering, growing, or harvesting ingredients used in alchemical reactions.

Materials

Items with the Material trait are resources that can used in a variety of ways. They can often be refined or collected from natural environments.

Adventuring Gear

Some items are simply useful.