Characters

Characters represent all sentient beings in your game. While not every stranger met by the players' characters may be fully fleshed out in terms of mechanics, all characters that could be created in the game should be able to be created with these rules. In order to define who a character is and what that character can do, there are four mechanical pieces: Pools, Abilities, Secrets, and Keys.

Pools
Pools are resources the player can spend during the game in order for their character to push harder, do more, and perform amazing feats. There are three pools: Vigor, Instinct, and Reason.

Vigor represents the character's reserves of physical power, wherewithal, and mental toughness. Characters with high Vigor are often known for bulging muscles, scarred faces, calloused hands, the "thousand-yard stare," and crushing strength.

Instinct represents the character's reserves of animal-like reactions, both physical and social. This ranges from cat-like reflexes in combat to pheromone-like sexual attraction. Characters with high Instinct are often known for their graceful motion, penetrating eyes, amazing hearing, stunning appearance, or sexual prowess.

Reason represents the character's intelligence and mental power. This could range from book knowledge to an uneducated, but highly practical mind. Characters with high Reason are often known for their vocabulary, ability to identify plants and animals, skill at games of chance, or power over others.

Pools are measured in points, and each pool ranges from one to infinite points, although a pool of more than 10 points is highly unusual. During the game, these points are spent to do better than normal or perform unusual feats, but are not permanently gone. Think of each one as a container of reserves: these reserves can be spent, but you can refill the container. The scores on each player's character sheet represent the maximum points in each pool - the size of the container - and players will get a chance to refresh their characters' pools to their maximum.

Abilities
Abilities are representations of a character's skills both learned and innate. Some examples of abilities are Sailing, Tracking, Sword-fighting, and Oratory.

Abilities are always associated with a pool. This is shown by writing the name of the pool - or an abbreviation - after the ability name, like this: "Stealth (Instinct)" or just "Stealth (I)." This pool is the resource from which characters draw their strength with that ability. This pool can be used to increase one's chances with an ability. Some game effects apply to all abilities that are associated with a specific pool.

There are three abilities common to every character. These are called innate abilities. They are purely reactive, and cannot be used to initiate action. They are only used to protect your character. They are:


 * Endure (Vigor)
 * This is your character's ability to push on and persevere though pain and fatigue. It is used to test the limits of a character's physicality and fitness.


 * React (Instinct)
 * This measures the quickness of a character's body and mind. It is as much "how quick the character notices something" as "how quick the character moves."


 * Resist (Reason)
 * "Resist" is the strength of a character's will, and is used to prevent compulsion of a natural or supernatural type. This includes physical compulsion: "Resist" would be used for a character to keep her cool under torture, for example, while "Endure" would be used to see how long she could stay conscious under the same torture.

All other abilities are chosen and are actively used by characters. Most abilities will be considered open abilities, which means any character can use them, even with no skill. Some, however, will be closed abilities, which depend on a prerequisite. This prerequisite is usually the species a character is or a culture the character has been exposed to.

Abilities are ranked with adjectives. An ability can have the following ranks: Unskilled, Competent, Adept, Master, and Grand Master. These adjectives do match up with a number, which is used in resolution.

The resolution system will be explained in further detail later, but here's what you need to know:

Being Unskilled in an ability, you can try to perform tasks that fall under that ability, but you'll usually fail. You'll succeed at about two out of every five tries.

When you get to be Competent, you're now ready to really use your skills. You'll succeed over half the time; in fact, you'll succeed at more than three out of every five tries.

As an Adept, you'll almost always succeed - 85 percent of the time, at least.

As a Master, it takes a freak chance for you to fail.

Grand Masters literally cannot ever fail.

It's important to note, though, that even someone with no ability can beat a Grand Master. The odds are far against them, but they could give it a try.

Secrets
Secrets are special abilities a character can learn that augment abilities. These are often preternatural, sometimes magical, and always better than normal. In order to use Secrets, points from a pool are normally spent, meaning that Secrets can be used a limited number of times before that pool is refreshed.

Secrets can be better explained with an example:


 * Secret of the Hidden Pocket
 * This character is adept at hiding objects on her person. No matter how carefully searched the character has been, she may pull an inexpensive, small (hand-sized) item off her person with a successful Stealth ability check. There is no need for the player to have written this item on the character sheet previously. Cost: 1 Instinct.

Like with abilities, there are open Secrets and closed Secrets.

Keys
Keys are the primary method of increasing a character's abilities. These are goals, emotional ties, or vows a character has. By bringing these into the story, the player gains experience points (XP) she can use to advance the character, increasing pools and abilities, or learning new Secrets and Keys.

Again, an example will illustrate this better:


 * Key of Conscience
 * Your character has a soft spot for those weaker than their opponents. Gain 1 XP every time your character helps someone who cannot help themselves. Gain 2 XP every time your character defends someone with might who is in danger and cannot save themselves. Gain 5 XP every time your character takes someone in an unfortunate situation and changes their life to where they can help themselves. Buyoff: Ignore a request for help.

The buyoff shown above is a special bit about Keys. Whenever a player has a character perform the action shown in one of the buyoffs, the player can (this is not mandatory) erase the Key and gain 10 XP. Once bought off, a character can never have the same Key again.

Unlike abilities and Secrets, the number of Keys a character can have is limited. A character can have no more than five Keys at one time.