Basic Tactical Abilities

Gameplay

Status Effects

Tactical Mode

Weapons & Armor

This section contains all basic Tactical Mode abilities. "Basic" abilities are generally usable by any character, assuming they meet any listed requirements and there are no other circumstances preventing them from using that ability. For example, anyone wielding a sword can Strike with it.

Remember, each participant in a Tactical Mode scene can use one ◆ action and one ⬖ maneuver on their turn, and any number of ◇ instants during the round, so long as the same instant isn't used more than once in the same round (unless it has the Reaction trait). A character can also spend their action to use an additional maneuver instead.

Boons in Tactical Mode

When you generate a boon for a roll in Tactical Mode, you can either choose a pre-packaged effect or use your creativity to improvise another benefit (subject to GM approval).

What boons can I use? The Basic Tactical boons (seen in the section below this one) are always available, no matter the situation. Some boons are associated with certain traits. For example, the Attack trait means you can use the ★ Assail and ★ Skirmish boons when you make an Attack. Some abilities come with their own set of unique boons only usable with that ability. Finally, your own abilities and items may grant you the use of additional boons for certain rolls.

Here are the basic boons that player characters can use in Tactical Mode, regardless of the type of roll being made:

★ Discern (15-20). Learn something interesting or significant about your environment, usable once per scene.

★ Quick Rally (17-20). Use the ⬖ Rally maneuver as an instant (move up to 1 Space without triggering instants and remove 1 Stress).

★ Banter (18-20). Once before the end of your next turn, you can use a basic Influence ability as a maneuver.

★ Assist (19-20). An ally of your choice gains +1 edge on a roll of their choice before the end of their next turn.

★ Critical Success (20). On a failure, the roll instead becomes a success, but the GM may use any applicable bane (except one that only triggers on a 1). On a success, the player may use any other two applicable boons (except ones that only trigger on a 20), or succeed in an otherwise extraordinary way.

Basic Actions (◆)

A character's action usually marks the most significant part of their turn in Tactical Mode. Most actions involve making a roll of some kind in order to help turn the tides of battle in the character's favor. These include Attack actions and Influence actions. The ◆ Aid action can be used to attempt to improve another character's roll, and ◆ Ready allows a character to wait for the opportune moment to use their chosen action. A character can also choose to use their action for the turn on any maneuver available to them instead of an action ability.

Attack

Requirement. You are wielding a Melee Weapon.

Make a roll based on the type of Weapon used against a target within the Weapon's reach:

—Finesse for a Light Melee Weapon
—Might for a Heavy Melee Weapon
—Finesse or Might for a Flex Melee Weapon

Success. The target takes 1 Damage.

Attack

Requirement. You have one hand free.

Choose Jab or Wrestle and roll Finesse or Might against an adjacent target.

—Jab
Success. The target takes 1 Stress, or 1 Damage if they are exhausted.

—Wrestle
Roll with -2 edge unless you make clever use of your environment or the target's weaknesses (GM discretion).
Success. Choose one of the following:

The target falls prone.
The target is grappled by you.
Push the target up to 2 spaces in a direction of your choice.
The target must choose: take 2 Stress (Taxing) or drop a held item (only if able).

Attack

Requirement. You are wielding a loaded Ranged or a Thrown Weapon.

Roll Finesse against a target within a number of spaces up to 5x the Weapon's range increment.

Roll with -1 edge for every additional range increment beyond the first between you and the target.
Roll with -2 edge if there is an enemy creature adjacent to you.

Success. The target takes 1 Damage.

Attack (trait). The Attack trait refers to an offensive ability or effect. Every Attack ability is opposed by the target's ◇ Defend instant. Defending targets typically choose to either Dodge (which uses Reflex) or Guard (which uses Might) when they do so, which affects how they are impacted by the Attack. See the ◇ Defend instant for more information.

Whenever a character uses an ability with the Attack trait, they gain access to the ★ Assail and ★ Skirmish boons for that roll.

Attack—★ Assail (15-20). On a failure, the target takes 1 Stress.

Attack—★ Skirmish (17-20). The target must choose: take 1 Stress (Taxing) or move 1 space in a direction of your choice as an instant, if able.

Influence

Roll Discipline or a relevant trade or culture skill against a target within 20 spaces.

Success: The target must choose to Exhaust, Be Obvious, or Unveil.

—Exhaust. Take 1 Stress (Taxing).

—Be Obvious. Declare their next action, taking 2 Stress on their turn if they then choose a different action than what was declared.

—Unveil. Reveal one of their weaknesses or special abilities, or grant +2 edge to the next Attack made against them before the end of your next turn if they have no remaining weaknesses or special abilities to reveal.

Success +3: The target takes 1 Stress.

Influence

Roll Presence or Finesse against a target within your Melee reach.

Success: The target must choose to Exhaust, Fumble, or Expose.

—Exhaust. Take 1 Stress (Taxing).

—Fumble. Choose either to drop an item (only if able) or fall prone.

—Expose. Grant +2 edge to the next Attack made against them before the end of your next turn.

Success +3: The target takes 1 Stress.

Influence

Roll Presence or Might against a target within 10 spaces.

Success: The target must choose to Exhaust, Blunder, or Flee.

—Exhaust. Take 1 Stress (Taxing).

—Blunder. Grant +2 edge to the next ◇ Defend made against an Attack from them before the end of your next turn.

—Flee. Use their next maneuver to safely move as far as possible from you.

Success +3: The target takes 1 Stress.

Influence

Roll Presence or a relevant culture skill against a target within 10 spaces.

Success: The target must choose to Exhaust, Relax, or Disarm.

—Exhaust. Take 1 Stress (Taxing).

—Relax. Use their next action to ⬖ Rally.

—Disarm. Choose either to drop or sheathe a Weapon (only if able), or grant +2 edge to the next Attack made against them before the end of your next turn.

Success +3: The target takes 1 Stress.

Influence

Roll Presence against a target within 10 spaces.

Success: The target must choose to Exhaust, Rile, or Thrash.

—Exhaust. Take 1 Stress (Taxing).

—Rile. Use their next maneuver to safely move as close to you as possible. If already adjacent, they instead grant +2 edge to the next ◇ Defend made against an Attack from them before the end of your next turn.

—Thrash. Use their next action to target you with an Attack ability and grant you +1 edge on your ◇ Defend roll.

Success +3: The target takes 1 Stress.

Choose an action or maneuver and a trigger. Until the start of your next turn, you can use that ability as an instant immediately after the trigger occurs.

If you want your ability to take place immediately before the trigger instead, roll Reflex as part of the instant to do so in time.

If the trigger involves an opposing creature, the difficulty is equal to the their Reflex. If not, the difficulty is based on the rapidity of the triggering event.

Basic Influence Boons. Whenever a character uses an ability with the Influence trait, they gain access to the following boons for that roll:

Influence—★ Muddle (16-20). On a success, remove one of the “Success” choices available to the target(s).

Influence—★ Mass Influence (18-20). Target up to two additional creatures within range.

Choose a willing creature and specify a task you expect them to make before the end of your next turn that involves a roll. Then, describe how you attempt to aid them in the chosen task.

The GM sets the aid roll's difficulty and level of effectiveness, using the rules for aiding a roll. Roll as directed by the GM.

The target creature's primary roll is adjusted accordingly the next time the target makes that roll before the end of your next turn.

Taxing Move

Move up to twice your Speed. Roll Might with a difficulty equal to 3 + your Stress and Fatigue totals.

Failure: Take 1 Stress.

Basic Maneuvers (⬖)

Most maneuvers allow a character to move at least 1 space to cover ground on the battlefield, or otherwise help a character set up for their action, or prepare themselves for the rest of the round. Note that if a character uses the ◇ Exert instant and uses their action on a maneuver, they would effectively be able to use three maneuvers in a single turn. While not very effective in most situations, this is a good way to move quickly across the battlefield. Or, in the case of a creature being grappled, they can have three opportunities to try and ⬖ Escape from the effect holding them in place.

Move

Move a number of spaces up to your Speed.

Move

Move up to 1 space without triggering instants (except those you allow) and remove 1 Stress. If you use your action for this ability, remove 3 Stress instead.

Move

In any order, remove the prone status effect and move up to 1 space.

Difficult Terrain. Entering a space of difficult terrain costs one additional space of movement.

Swim, Climb. You can swim or climb as part of movement, and doing so counts as difficult terrain. Roll Might to resist danger or consequences (if any).

Jump. You can jump as part of movement. Roll Might for jumps longer than 2 Spaces in length, jumping a number of spaces up to half the result (minimum 2). Roll with +1 edge if you had a running start of 2+ spaces.

Move

Move up to half your Speed and crouch behind an area of adequate cover such as the edge of a wall, a large boulder, or a cart.

Until the start of your next turn, you have +2 edge on ⬖ Hide rolls and ◇ Defend (Dodge) rolls made against Attacks originating from the other side of the cover.

If you use both an action and a maneuver to use this ability during your turn, you cannot be targeted at all by Attacks originating from the other side of the cover for the duration.

Move

Move up to your Speed -1. Before or during this movement, target one adjacent creature or hazardous effect that you intend to move through and roll Finesse against the target's Might or Reflex (the target decides which).

Success. For this movement, you can move through the target's space(s) as if they were difficult terrain.

Move

Requirement: You are not prone.

Move up to half your Speed. Until the start of your next turn, when a creature uses a Move ability to leave a space within your Melee range, you can use an instant to ◆ Brawl or ◆ Strike against them before they leave that space.

Move (trait). This ability or effect allows you to intentionally move 1 or more spaces.

Taxing (trait). This ability or effect is energy-intensive. It cannot be used or chosen if you are exhausted.

Veiled (trait). This ability or effect has an effect that is not immediately obvious to you. The GM makes a hidden opposed roll to determine the roll's difficulty, which means you do not know whether your roll was a success or a failure.

Veiled Move

Requirement: You are not being directly observed by creatures you want to be hidden from, or you can use concealment or cover to obscure your location from them.

Move up to half your Speed and roll Guile. You become hidden against all creatures with a Discipline value equal to or lower than your result. Creatures that were unaware of your presence continue to be unaware.

Veiled

Move up to half your Speed and roll Discipline. You learn the locations of all hidden creatures or objects within 5 spaces that have a detection difficulty (Guile for hidden creatures) equal to or lower than your result. If you already knew the location of any of these creatures or objects, they are no longer hidden to you.

Taxing Attack

Target one creature or effect you are grappled by. Roll Finesse or Might against the grappling creature's ◇ Defend (Guard) or the escape difficulty of the effect.

Success. You are no longer grappled by the target.

Success (+2): You may move up to 2 spaces. If you do, this ability gains the Move trait.

You gain +1 edge the next time you ◆ Shoot or use an Attack with the Ranged trait before the start of your next turn. You can benefit from this ability more than once per Attack.

You may do one or both of the following, in any order you choose:

Stow one or two held items.
Retrieve and draw one or two carried items. You may wield the retrieved item(s) if you have enough hands available to do so.

Basic Instants (◇)

Instants are unique in that a character can use any number of instants in a single round (and even on other turns), so long as the same instant is not used more than once in that round. The exception to this are Reaction instants, which can be used any number of times.

The most common instants are ◇ Defend, ◇ Focus, and ◇ Resist, since they are the primary methods a character uses when attempting to negate incoming effects on them.

Reaction

Trigger: You are targeted by an Attack effect.

Choose Dodge or Guard.

—Dodge
Roll Reflex.
Success: The triggering Attack fails against you.

—Guard
Roll Might and take 1 Stress.
Success. The triggering Attack effect fails against you, but still inflicts Stress and Damage to you as if it had succeeded. Block 2 Stress. If the attacker is within your Melee reach, they also take 1 Stress.

★ Counterattack (19-20). Use a basic Attack action against the attacker, if able.

Reaction

Trigger: You are targeted by an Influence effect.

Roll Discipline.

Success. The triggering Influence effect fails against you.

★ Center (19-20). You have +1 edge on rolls made to ◇ Focus for one minute.

Reaction

Trigger: You are targeted by a Toxin effect.

Roll Might.

Success. The triggering Toxin effect fails against you.

★ Immunize (19-20). For the next 24 hours, you have +2 edge on ◇ Resist rolls against Toxin effects with the same name.

Note: Choosing the Guard option with the ◇ Defend instant gives the user 1 Stress, but does not have the Taxing trait. This is intentional. If the defender is exhausted, they may still choose to Guard when they ◇ Defend, and they simply gain no Stress as a result, per the normal rules for exhausted. However, the -3 edge penalty from being exhausted still applies, as normal. This effectively means that a heavily armored character can continue to ◇ Defend (Guard) even while exhausted and still stand a chance of deflecting incoming attacks.

Reaction

Trigger: You fall from a height greater than 1 space.

Roll Reflex. You take an amount of Damage equal to the height of the fall in spaces, minus half the result of the roll (minimum 0), and you fall prone.

★ Soft Landing (18-20). Reduce the Damage by an amount equal to half your roll's result and take that amount of Stress instead. If the Damage is reduced to 0, you don’t fall prone.

Reaction

Requirement. You are not suffocating.

You gain the breathless status effect.

Reaction (trait). This instant can be used any number of times per round, rather than just once.

Flourish (trait). You cannot use more than one Flourish ability or effect in the same round.

Taxing

Requirement: It is currently your turn.

Take 1 Stress and use a maneuver. You cannot choose a maneuver that allows you to remove Stress in this way.

Requirement. You are holding a Two-Handed Weapon in one hand with the other hand free.

You grip the Two-Handed Weapon in two hands, and are considered to be wielding it.

Taxing Flourish

Trigger: You just used an action to use a basic Attack ability.

Take 1 Stress. Choose one of the following, and make the roll with -2 edge.

◆ Strike or ◆ Shoot using a Weapon you didn’t use with the triggering action.
◆ Brawl using an empty hand.

Speak up to around 5-6 seconds worth of communication to anyone within hearing distance.

Requirement: It is currently your turn.

You gain the prone status effect.

Drop a held item in your space or an adjacent space.

Other Basic Abilities

Some basic abilities have special requirements that are not met by the majority of player characters, or that only come up circumstantially. For example, a creature without wings would be unable to ◇ Glide or ◇ Hover, and a creature without a mount would be unable to use any of the Mount abilities. Less commonly used abilities such as these are grouped together in this section.

Mount

You guide your willing mount, choosing what action the mount will use this turn. You may also take 1 Stress to guide the mount to ◇ Exert, using a maneuver of your choice.

Move Mount

Move up to half your Speed and mount a willing creature (typically a Mount), or dismount and then move up to half your Speed.

A creature that is mounted or dismounted in this way must also use a maneuver to help with the process, otherwise this ability fails.

Mount

You guide your willing mount, choosing what maneuver the mount will use this turn.

Move Taxing

Prerequisite: You must have the Gliding or Winged trait.

Trigger: You would fall from a height of 2 or more spaces.

Take 1 Stress. You safely descend 3 spaces. During this movement, you may also move up to 2 horizontal spaces in any direction.

If you are still in midair after this movement, you may choose to remain in that space until the end of your next turn, at which point you would fall and therefore may use this ability again. You may also choose to fall at any time during your turn to use this ability or otherwise.