The Lens Tables — the five-by-five

Twenty-five tables. Two questions find the right one: the column is the kind of answer you need; the row is what you're dealing with. Choose by what your character is trying to do — never by the name of a skill. How to Read a Lens Roll is the full procedure.

	What do I notice? Perceive	What do I find out? Discover	What happens between us? Relate	What happens when I commit? Act	What does it do to me? Endure
the whole scene Field	L1 Assess	L6 Canvass	L11 Navigate	L16 Infiltrate	L21 Survive
someone with a mind Will	L2 Read	L7 Consult	L12 Negotiate	L17 Deceive	L22 Tempt
one particular thing Focus	L3 Examine	L8 Question	L13 Confront	L18 Fight	L23 Reckon
something hidden, dormant, or lost Potential	L4 Search	L9 Research	L14 Bond	L19 Invoke	L24 Recover
something as it unfolds Process	L5 Watch	L10 Track	L15 Perform	L20 Chase	L25 Travel

Perceive — What do I notice?

What do I notice?

The five Perceive tables answer what a character notices or discovers through attention alone. Choose by the focus of that attention — the whole scene, one mind, one thing, something hidden, or something that only shows over time.

Perceive reveals what attention can establish directly. Discover obtains an answer by working through something — a community, a source, a subject, a body of knowledge, a trail.

The character is trying to…	Use	Ask…
Take in the whole situation	L1 Assess	What matters about this situation right now?
Understand a present intelligence	L2 Read	How is this subject meeting the moment?
Study one known physical subject	L3 Examine	What does close examination reveal?
Find something not immediately visible	L4 Search	What does the search uncover?
Observe repetition or change over time	L5 Watch	What does watching reveal over time?

Close boundaries

Whole situation, or one subject? Use Assess for the situation as a whole. Use Examine for one particular physical subject within it. Torvald studies the approaching army: Assess. Torvald studies one captured shield: Examine.

Known, or concealed? Use Examine when the subject is already present and identified. Use Search when the character must first find what is hidden, missing, or not immediately visible. Novak studies the device on his desk: Examine. Novak searches the apartment for the missing device: Search.

Present moment, or passing time? Use Assess or Read for what can be understood now. Use Watch when the answer depends on waiting for repetition or change. Novak takes in the warehouse entrance: Assess. Novak studies the doorman’s reaction: Read. Novak stays across the street to learn the delivery routine: Watch.

What are you doing with the person? Use Read for their feelings, intentions, or social behaviour. Use Examine for their wounds, condition, clothing, or other bodily evidence. Use Search for something concealed on or among their possessions. Use Watch for behaviour that develops or repeats over time.

Finding signs, or following them? Use Search to find footprints, blood, a dropped possession, or another sign. Use Track to follow those signs toward their source or destination.

Changing tables

A glance becomes Watch the moment something has to repeat or change before it means anything. A Search becomes Examine once the thing is found and the question is what it is. The first sign found is the end of Search — following it is Track. Change tables when the focus of attention changes, and never roll two for the same moment.

L1 · Assess (Perceive · Field)

Use Assess when a character takes in the present situation as a whole, usually before deciding what to do. Assess reveals how the situation is arranged, where its pressure lies, and what currently matters.

A battlefield, crime scene, crowded hall, control room, or unfamiliar chamber might all be Assessed.

Use Examine to inspect one particular subject within the situation. Use Read to understand one person or presence. Use Search to find something concealed. Use Watch when the answer depends on waiting for repetition or change.

Ask: What matters about this situation right now?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	OPEN	A useful route, position, or option is available.	I'll take it now, before anyone else sees it's open.	Clue +1
2	EXPOSED	An important person, object, or position can be reached or harmed.	I'll get between it and whoever wants it.	Exposure +1
3	ORDERED	A clear pattern reveals a routine, rule, or chain of command.	I'll use the routine as cover. I won't break it.	Control +1
4	RESTRICTED	An important route or option is blocked, limited, or controlled.	I'll go at the restriction head-on. I won't look for the way round.	Control +1
5	DEPENDENT	The situation relies on one person, object, place, or condition.	I'll put my hand on the thing it all rests on.	Clue +1
6	COSTLY	The obvious choices each gain something by giving up something important.	I'll take the loss and say what it cost me. I won't pretend it was free.	Cost +1
7	STAGED	Someone arranged what is visible to draw attention or provoke a response.	I'll play along with the arrangement. I won't let on that I see it.	Control +2
8	SHIFTING	The balance is moving; something is gaining or losing ground.	I'll pick a side while it's still moving. I won't wait to see which way it goes.	Pressure +2
9	OBSERVED	Someone or something is watching, recording, or waiting to react.	I'll give the watcher something worth reporting. I won't change what I came to do.	Exposure +2
10	HOSTILE	A present condition actively works against the character's aim.	I'll push through it now, while I still can.	Threat +2
11	RULES BROKEN	One normal rule of space, time, cause, or behaviour fails here.	I'll test the broken rule with one thing I can afford to lose.	Uncanny +2
12	ANSWERING	The situation reacts to the character's attention or intention, although nothing present could perceive either.	I'll answer it deliberately, once, and take what comes.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	A small disturbance could change or destroy it.	CAREFUL	Protects the character's position and reduces risk first.
2	VOLATILE	Contact or pressure could trigger a sudden consequence.	RECKLESS	Enters danger, provokes a reaction, or ignores the safer option.
3	CONNECTED	It leads to a wider person, place, system, or plan.	STRATEGIC	Improves position, controls timing, or brings in help.
4	FLEETING	It is changing, closing, fading, or disappearing.	URGENT	Acts before the opportunity passes.
5	CONCEALED	An important part, cause, or source remains hidden.	SECRETIVE	Hides presence, intention, or discovery.
6	OVERT	It is visible or declared to everyone involved, and any response will be too.	DIRECT	Goes straight to the clearest route, problem, or person.
7	LAYERED	The apparent answer has another part beneath it.	METHODICAL	Deals with one part before moving to the next.
8	EXPLOITABLE	It can be turned into an immediate advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses an immediate opening or weakness.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the approaching army

Torvald stands on the battlements and studies the approaching army. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 3: ORDERED
Complication 5: CONCEALED
Resistance: Control +1

Tell: Three companies change direction on the same horn-call, although no visible officer gives the signal.

Impression: This is not a mob. Someone out of sight is directing the assault.

Assess establishes how the situation is arranged and where its pressure lies. It does not reveal who commands the army or what they intend. The player records Control +1 and decides what Torvald does next.

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L2 · Read (Perceive · Will)

Use Read when a character studies one present intelligence—a person, creature, group, crowd, or responsive system—to understand how it is meeting the moment.

Read reveals the subject’s current disposition or intent, not its complete history or secret plan. A group is read as one body, not as separate individuals.

Read is not mind-reading. Show the Result through expression, voice, posture, movement, timing, action, or silence. A specific question such as “Are they lying?” belongs to the host rules or Yes/No Dice.

Use Assess for the situation as a whole. Use Examine for a person’s wounds, condition, or other bodily evidence. Use Watch for behaviour that develops or repeats over time.

Ask: How is this subject meeting the moment?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	RECEPTIVE	They are open to the approach and willing to let the exchange go further.	I’ll ask for more than I came for.	Reputation +1
2	UNDECIDED	They have not chosen their response and are waiting for something to settle it.	I’ll decide it for them. I won’t leave while it’s still open.	Clue +1
3	GUARDED	They are protecting what they feel, know, or intend and will not offer it freely.	I’ll give something of mine first. I won’t ask again yet.	Control +1
4	WANTING	They want something from the exchange strongly enough for it to shape their response.	I’ll offer it plainly and name my price.	Cost +1
5	DIVIDED	Two loyalties, needs, or outcomes are pulling them in different directions.	I’ll name the pull out loud and take a side.	Pressure +1
6	COMMITTED	They have already chosen their course and are treating the decision as settled.	I’ll get ahead of what they’ve decided. I won’t argue them out of it.	Control +1
7	AFRAID	Fear of a person, consequence, or possibility is driving their response.	I’ll speak to the fear directly. I won’t pretend I haven’t seen it.	Threat +2
8	HOSTILE	They see the character, the approach, or the aim as something to oppose.	I’ll close the distance now.	Threat +2
9	PERFORMING	Their response is designed to create an impression or satisfy an audience.	I’ll let the performance run and answer the part I believe.	Exposure +2
10	TESTING	They are withholding commitment while they probe what the character will reveal or tolerate.	I’ll give them one true thing and stop there.	Exposure +2
11	OVERRIDDEN	Their response seems directed by an influence stronger than their immediate will.	I’ll speak past them to whatever is answering.	Uncanny +2
12	KNOWS TOO MUCH	They seem to know something the character has not revealed or they should have no way of knowing.	I’ll ask them straight how they know. I won’t pretend I didn’t hear it.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Their present disposition could easily be damaged or changed.	CAREFUL	Gives them space and confirms the read before committing.
2	VOLATILE	Pressure could provoke a sudden or extreme reaction.	RECKLESS	Provokes a stronger reaction despite what it might unleash.
3	CONNECTED	Their response is tied to another person, loyalty, group, or plan.	STRATEGIC	Uses their disposition to improve position, timing, or support.
4	FLEETING	Their present disposition or opportunity will not last.	URGENT	Acts before their mood changes or their decision hardens.
5	CONCEALED	The cause of their present disposition lies outside this moment and cannot be seen from here.	SECRETIVE	Conceals what has been understood and acts indirectly.
6	OVERT	Their response is visible or declared to everyone present.	DIRECT	Addresses the apparent feeling or intention openly.
7	LAYERED	Another feeling, motive, or intention lies beneath the first.	METHODICAL	Tests the read with one small, controlled action.
8	EXPLOITABLE	Their disposition can be turned into immediate leverage or cooperation.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses their present need, fear, doubt, or openness immediately.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the laboratory technician

Novak studies a laboratory technician before asking about a missing sample. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 7: AFRAID
Complication 3: CONNECTED
Resistance: Threat +2

Tell: The technician answers routine questions steadily, but glances towards the wall camera whenever the missing sample is mentioned.

Impression: The technician is afraid, but not of Novak. Their fear is connected to whoever may be watching the room.

Read establishes how the subject is meeting the moment. It does not establish what the technician knows or who is watching. The player records Threat +2 and decides what Novak does next.

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L3 · Examine (Perceive · Focus)

Use Examine when a character studies one present, bounded physical subject: an object, body, substance, trace, or other piece of evidence. Examine a document as a physical object—its paper, ink, damage, alteration, or construction. Use Research to work with the information recorded in it.

Examine reveals its condition, construction, composition, treatment, or physical history.

Use Search when the subject has not yet been found. Use Research when working through records, archives, or accumulated knowledge. Use Read for a living subject’s feelings or intentions.

A database used as a reference while inspecting the subject remains Examine. Searching that database for records or a match is Research.

Test a specific hypothesis with the host rules or Yes/No Dice.

Ask: What does close examination reveal?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	MARKED	Someone deliberately put a sign, message, number, or identifying mark on it.	I’ll follow the mark to whoever made it.	Clue +1
2	INCOMPLETE	Part of it is missing.	I’ll go after the missing part now. I won’t work around the gap.	Cost +1
3	MODIFIED	Its original form or purpose has been changed.	I’ll undo the change and take what follows.	Clue +1
4	MISMATCHED	Two details tell different stories. At least one is wrong.	I’ll act on the one I’d rather were false.	Pressure +1
5	FLAWED	The weakness was there from the start.	I’ll press the flaw until it gives.	Threat +1
6	SWAPPED	One original part was removed and something else put in its place.	I’ll hunt the original. I won’t touch the replacement.	Control +1
7	UNRELIABLE	Damage or interference means part of it cannot be trusted.	I’ll act on the part I trust and abandon the rest.	Control +2
8	FAKE	It was made or prepared to look like something it is not.	I’ll treat it as real in front of whoever brought it.	Exposure +2
9	DISGUISED	The real thing is here, but something has been done to hide what it is.	I’ll strip the disguise here, in the open.	Exposure +2
10	SENSITIVE	A small change makes it react strongly.	I’ll provoke it deliberately, on my terms.	Threat +2
11	IMPOSSIBLE	It does something that, by everything the character understands, cannot be done.	I’ll make it happen again under conditions I control.	Uncanny +2
12	AWARE	Something that should not be aware reacts deliberately to the examination.	I’ll address it directly and wait for its answer.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Handling could damage, contaminate, or change it.	CAREFUL	Preserves the subject, isolates risk, or verifies without changing it.
2	VOLATILE	Any test that could settle the question also risks destroying the evidence.	RECKLESS	Opens, triggers, stresses, or provokes it despite the apparent risk.
3	CONNECTED	It links to a wider source, maker, victim, place, or system.	STRATEGIC	Traces its source, improves position, or involves useful help.
4	FLEETING	The subject or finding is fading, decaying, or changing.	URGENT	Acts on the discovery immediately, without further preparation.
5	CONCEALED	The subject's origin or purpose is not evident from its condition.	SECRETIVE	Conceals the discovery or investigates through private channels.
6	OVERT	The finding is plainly visible and may be apparent to others.	DIRECT	Addresses the apparent source or responsible party openly.
7	LAYERED	Another material, component, alteration, or meaning lies beneath the first.	METHODICAL	Compares, divides, or tests one part at a time.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The finding can provide access, leverage, or an immediate advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Turns the discovery into an immediate advantage.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the unidentified device

Novak has an unidentified device on his desk. He examines it using police technical references, and his host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 1: MARKED
Complication 3: CONNECTED
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: A six-character code is etched beneath the device. Its format resembles a freight-routing mark rather than a product serial number.

Impression: The device passed through an organised supply chain. The code may lead to its maker, consignee, or the shipment from which it was taken.

Examine establishes the subject’s condition and physical history. It does not establish who made the device or why. The player records Clue +1 and decides what Novak does next—perhaps moving to Research if he searches shipping or seizure records.

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L4 · Search (Perceive · Potential)

Use Search when a character deliberately goes through a bounded place, container, set of physical contents, or person to find something concealed, misplaced, or not immediately visible.

Search reveals a hidden presence, object, opening, absence, or sign. Once a specific subject has been found, use Examine to study it.

Use Assess to take in the situation as a whole. Use Canvass to cover a wider area or community. Use Track to follow signs toward a moving subject. Use Research to search records or accumulated knowledge.

Ask: What does the search uncover?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	OBSCURED	Clutter, shadow, damage, or ordinary material makes it difficult to distinguish from its surroundings.	I’ll clear the ground around it, noisily if I must.	Clue +1
2	ENCLOSED	A container, covering, boundary, or layer must be passed to reach it.	I’ll open it here, before I know what lies beyond it.	Cost +1
3	USED	The hiding place, concealed route, or hidden thing has been accessed recently.	I’ll set myself where whoever used it will come back to.	Clue +1
4	PARTIAL	Only part of the thing, set, or evidence is here.	I’ll take what’s here and go after the rest now.	Cost +1
5	CRAFTED	The concealment was made with care and skill rather than by chance or haste.	I’ll leave the craft intact and take only what it hid.	Clue +1
6	ACCESS	The search reveals a concealed way in, out, through, or around.	I’ll use the way now, before I know where it goes.	Control +1
7	GUARDED	A lock, trap, ward, watcher, or other defence stands between the character and the discovery.	I’ll go through the defence, not around it.	Threat +2
8	REMOVED	What should be here is gone, but its absence or traces show that it was taken.	I’ll go after whoever took it. I won’t wait to be sure.	Pressure +2
9	PROMINENT	Once the concealment is opened, one part is easier to see or reach than everything around it.	I’ll take the easy part and treat it as though it were left for me.	Control +2
10	OCCUPIED	Someone or something concealed is still present and active, or able to act.	I’ll speak first, before it moves.	Threat +2
11	IMPOSSIBLE	The hidden space—or what it contains—cannot exist by the understood rules.	I’ll cross the boundary and confront whatever should not be there.	Uncanny +2
12	EXPECTING	Something concealed anticipated this search and responds to it, although nothing present could have foreseen it.	I’ll answer it as though it expected me personally.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The find or its evidence is easily damaged, contaminated, or lost.	CAREFUL	Preserves the scene, controls access, or searches without disturbing it.
2	VOLATILE	Moving what conceals it may collapse, spill, or scatter what is inside.	RECKLESS	Forces entry, disturbs the hiding place, or provokes whatever may be there.
3	CONNECTED	The discovery leads beyond the search area to a source, user, or other location.	STRATEGIC	Secures the area, traces the connection, or brings in useful help.
4	FLEETING	The sign or discovery will move, fade, close, or be taken if the character delays.	URGENT	Acts before the discovery disappears or the opening closes.
5	CONCEALED	Only part has been uncovered; something remains hidden beneath or behind it.	SECRETIVE	Conceals the search or discovery and continues through private means.
6	OVERT	The search or discovery is apparent to anyone nearby.	DIRECT	Goes straight to the hiding place, route, owner, or threat revealed.
7	LAYERED	One concealment lies inside another, or the evidence has several distinct parts.	METHODICAL	Searches one place, section, or layer at a time.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The discovery offers immediate access, leverage, shelter, or advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses the discovery before anyone can prevent it.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the hollow floor

Searching a locked room for a way out, the character works across the floor tile by tile. The host-system check succeeds.

They roll:

Result 3: USED
Complication 7: LAYERED
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: One tile answers with a hollow sound. The grit along one edge has been broken and pressed back into place, and beneath it a second board is set into the joists.

Impression: Something lies beneath the floor, someone has opened it before, and there is more than one layer to get through.

Search establishes what the search uncovers. It does not establish what lies beneath the floor or whether it can be opened. The player records Clue +1 and decides what the character does next.

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L5 · Watch (Perceive · Process)

Use Watch when a character keeps a person, place, route, group, or process under observation and allows time to pass.

Watch reveals routines, changes, signals, meetings, exchanges, and approaching action.

A single glance is not Watch. Something must have time to repeat, change, arrive, leave, or respond.

Use Assess for the situation as it stands now. Use Read for someone’s present feelings or intentions. Use Search to go through a place for something concealed. Use Track to follow signs left by a moving subject.

Ask: What does watching reveal over time?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	ROUTINE	An action follows a reliable order, route, or schedule.	I’ll set my move to their clock.	Control +1
2	GAP	The pattern regularly leaves someone or something briefly unattended, inactive, or exposed.	I’ll take the gap on its next turn. I won’t wait for a better one.	Clue +1
3	SIGNAL	One action, sound, light, or message causes a recognisable response.	I’ll make the signal myself and take what answers.	Clue +1
4	MEETING	Separate people, movements, or events come together for a shared purpose.	I’ll place myself where they converge and act as though I belong there.	Exposure +1
5	HANDOFF	An object, message, duty, access, or control passes from one party to another.	I’ll intercept the handoff while neither side fully holds it.	Control +1
6	ABSENT	An expected person, action, or response does not appear. The absence matters.	I’ll go looking for what didn’t come.	Cost +1
7	DEVIATION	One action breaks the established pattern and shows that something has changed.	I’ll follow the break, not the pattern.	Pressure +2
8	PREPARING	The subject is getting ready to leave, act, or change the situation.	I’ll move before they finish.	Pressure +2
9	COUNTERWATCH	Someone else is observing the same subject, area, or watcher.	I’ll go to the other watcher first.	Exposure +2
10	ALERTED	The subject suspects danger or observation and changes its behaviour.	I’ll show myself and take the meeting.	Threat +2
11	LOOPING	An event, movement, or interval repeats exactly when nothing could have caused it to.	I’ll break the repetition with something of my own.	Uncanny +2
12	WATCHING BACK	Something that should not know it is observed deliberately returns the character’s attention.	I’ll hold its attention and move closer to its source.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The sign is faint, and intervention may disturb the pattern being observed.	CAREFUL	Keeps their distance, preserves cover, and confirms what they saw.
2	VOLATILE	The watched situation may change suddenly if disturbed or approached.	RECKLESS	Moves closer, provokes a response, or continues despite the danger.
3	CONNECTED	The observed activity involves someone or somewhere beyond the watched scene.	STRATEGIC	Changes position, coordinates support, or prepares an interception.
4	FLEETING	The subject, sightline, or opportunity will soon be lost.	URGENT	Acts before the subject moves or the opportunity closes.
5	CONCEALED	An important part of the activity takes place out of sight.	SECRETIVE	Conceals the watch and looks for an indirect way to see more.
6	OVERT	The activity—or the character's observation of it—is apparent to others.	DIRECT	Reveals their presence or openly addresses what they witnessed.
7	LAYERED	Several routines, signals, or movements overlap.	METHODICAL	Records the pattern and separates one sequence from another.
8	EXPLOITABLE	What has been observed can be used against a separate target or problem.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses the opening before the pattern changes.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the warehouse watch

Novak watches a warehouse loading bay from his parked car. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 3: SIGNAL
Complication 5: CONCEALED
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: Each time a delivery vehicle turns into the street, an upstairs light flashes twice. The loading door opens a few seconds later, but nobody appears at the window.

Impression: Someone hidden inside is checking approaching vehicles and signalling whether they should be admitted.

Watch establishes the observable procedure. The warehouse may already exist in a written scenario; the roll adds a pattern and does not replace its established occupants, purpose, or defences. The player records Clue +1 and decides what Novak does next.

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Discover — What do I find out?

What do I find out?

The five Discover tables are used when the character deliberately seeks an answer through an area, a source, a subject, a record, or a trail. Choose by what the character is working through to get it.

Perceive reveals what attention can establish directly. Discover obtains an answer by working through something — a community, a willing source, a resistant subject, a body of knowledge, a trail.

The character is trying to…	Use	Ask…
Work across an area or community	L6 Canvass	What does canvassing uncover across the area or community?
Seek knowledge from a willing source	L7 Consult	What useful insight does the source provide?
Draw information from one resistant subject	L8 Question	What does the questioning bring out?
Work through records or accumulated knowledge	L9 Research	What do the records reveal?
Follow signs toward their source or destination	L10 Track	What do the signs reveal about the subject’s route?

Close boundaries

Willing, or resistant? Use Consult when the source is willing to share what they know. Use Question when the subject may resist, evade, withhold, or control what they reveal. If obtaining cooperation is itself uncertain, resolve that with your host system before either. A healer who wants to help: Consult. A clerk cooperating only as far as required: Question.

One source, or a whole community? Use Consult or Question for one source. Use Canvass when the answer is spread across many small observations, encounters, and accounts — a street, a settlement, a district, a population.

The record, or the document? Use Examine for a document as a physical object — its paper, ink, damage, alteration. Use Research for the information recorded in it. A database consulted as a reference while inspecting something is still Examine. Searching that database for entries, identities, or matches is Research.

Understanding the past, or following a present trail? Following records to understand what happened is Research. Following a sequence of records, signals, or signs toward a current source can be Track.

Found the first sign? Use Search to find footprints, a dropped possession, a first trace. Use Track once you follow it. If the subject is still in sight and moving against you, it is Chase.

Changing tables

A canvass narrows to one source — Consult if they are willing, Question if they are not. A consultation sends the character to the archive: Research. A record points to something still moving: Track. Change tables when what the character is working through changes, and never roll two for the same moment.

L6 · Canvass (Discover · Field)

Use Canvass when a character works across a wider area or community, gathering many small observations, encounters, reports, and local responses.

Canvass reveals patterns distributed across streets, settlements, districts, organisations, populations, or other connected fields.

Use Assess for one present situation. Use Read for a group encountered as one intelligence. Use Consult for one willing source. Use Question for one resistant subject. Use Search for a bounded place.

Ask: What does canvassing uncover across the area or community?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	CONSISTENT	Independent signs or accounts point in the same direction.	I'll act on the agreement before it's tested.	Clue +1
2	CONCENTRATED	Relevant activity, information, or resources cluster in one part of the field.	I'll go to the centre of it and stand there.	Control +1
3	TRAFFIC	People, goods, messages, or attention move repeatedly between two parts of the field.	I'll put myself on the route between them.	Exposure +1
4	DIVIDED	The area or community separates along a clear boundary, loyalty, or account of events.	I'll take one side openly. I won't play both.	Pressure +1
5	AVOIDED	Movement, conversation, or attention repeatedly bends around the same person, place, or subject.	I'll walk straight at what everyone is walking around.	Pressure +1
6	MISSING	An expected person, trade, activity, or presence is absent from the whole field.	I'll ask about what's missing, plainly and loudly.	Clue +1
7	CONTROLLED	One person, group, rule, or system filters access across the field.	I'll go through the point of control, not around it.	Control +2
8	CONFLICTING	Independent accounts or signs cannot all be true.	I'll bring the conflicting accounts together and force the difference into the open.	Pressure +2
9	WATCHED	The same observers, reports, or recording systems appear across separate parts of the canvass.	I'll let them see me finish. I won't cut it short.	Exposure +2
10	MOBILISING	Separate parts of the area or community begin preparing at the same time.	I'll move before they're ready.	Threat +2
11	ECHOING	Unconnected sources repeat the same words, symbols, or actions with impossible precision.	I'll repeat it back to the next source that echoes it.	Uncanny +2
12	AWAKE	Separate parts of the area or community respond together despite having no possible way to share what the character has done.	I'll speak to the whole place as if it can hear me.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Access, trust, or cooperation may collapse if pressed too hard.	CAREFUL	Builds trust, checks accounts quietly, and avoids disturbing local relationships.
2	VOLATILE	Attention may produce a sudden reaction across the area or community.	RECKLESS	Asks openly, enters difficult ground, or provokes a public response.
3	CONNECTED	The discovery extends into another district, group, route, or network.	STRATEGIC	Maps the connections, recruits local help, or positions someone at a useful point.
4	FLEETING	A source, gathering, rumour, or local opening will soon disappear.	URGENT	Pursues the freshest lead before it moves or closes.
5	CONCEALED	The important source, location, or connection remains hidden within the wider pattern.	SECRETIVE	Uses intermediaries, a cover story, or private approaches.
6	OVERT	The canvass and its subject become widely known.	DIRECT	Goes openly to the clearest location, group, or local authority.
7	LAYERED	Different parts of the area or community present different versions of the pattern.	METHODICAL	Works through one neighbourhood, group, or source at a time.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The pattern creates immediate access, cooperation, leverage, or advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses the first useful opening before local conditions change.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — rumours along the river

Torvald works through a riverside settlement, speaking with shepherds, ferrymen, traders, and children about recent trouble on the road. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 1: CONSISTENT
Complication 3: CONNECTED
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: A ferryman, a charcoal burner, and two children separately mention hearing the same three-note whistle after dark. Each heard it from the northern ridge beyond the settlement.

Impression: The reports describe one repeated signal, and its source lies outside the village.

The canvass has not identified who gives the signal or why. It has established a pattern and a direction, giving Torvald a concrete lead he can pursue.

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L7 · Consult (Discover · Will)

Use Consult when a character puts a question to a willing source who has relevant knowledge, experience, or expertise.

The source might be an expert, witness, guide, mentor, specialist, oracle, advisory group, or responsive system.

Consult reveals what the source’s knowledge adds to the character’s understanding. It does not determine whether the source is correct about everything.

Use Question when information must be drawn from someone who resists, evades, or withholds. Use Research when working through records or accumulated knowledge. Use Read to understand the source’s present disposition or intent.

If obtaining the source’s cooperation is itself uncertain, resolve that before using Consult.

Ask: What useful insight does the source provide?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	RECOGNISED	The source identifies a clear match with something they already know.	I'll take their word and move on it today.	Clue +1
2	EXPLAINED	The source can describe a relevant cause, function, process, or sequence.	I'll try the explanation on something I can afford to break.	Clue +1
3	CORRECTED	An earlier assumption or conclusion is wrong in one specific way.	I'll say where I was wrong, to whoever heard me say it.	Clue +1
4	PRACTICAL	The source provides a method, test, treatment, or action that can be attempted.	I'll attempt it now, with what I have.	Control +1
5	CONDITIONAL	The answer holds only while one clear condition remains true.	I'll secure the condition before anything else.	Control +1
6	LIMIT	The source identifies exactly where their knowledge or proposed method stops being reliable.	I'll go past their limit alone. I won't ask them to come.	Cost +1
7	WARNING	The source identifies a danger attached to acting on the answer.	I'll take the danger on my own account. I won't pass it to anyone else.	Threat +2
8	COSTLY	Putting the answer into practice requires significant time, resources, sacrifice, or obligation.	I'll pay it up front. I won't negotiate it down.	Cost +2
9	CONTESTED	The source's answer conflicts with another credible source or accepted account.	I'll back this one and burn the other.	Clue +2
10	MONITORED	An outside party can observe the consultation or receive its answer.	I'll break the watcher's access to the source before I leave.	Exposure +2
11	UNSHARED	The source knows a fact the character has not revealed and they could not otherwise know.	I'll ask how they know, and wait for the answer.	Uncanny +2
12	ANOTHER VOICE	A second intelligence answers through the source despite having no possible means of contact.	I'll answer the second voice, not the first.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Trust, accuracy, or the source's ability to help may be damaged by careless pressure or application.	CAREFUL	Gives the source time, protects the consultation, and verifies important details.
2	VOLATILE	Acting on the answer may provoke an immediate and forceful reaction.	RECKLESS	Demands a demonstration, acts on the first usable answer, or ignores the warning signs.
3	CONNECTED	The answer involves another person, place, organisation, or system.	STRATEGIC	Uses the source's knowledge to arrange support, improve position, or plan several steps ahead.
4	FLEETING	Access to the source—or the usefulness of the answer—will not last.	URGENT	Seeks the fastest usable answer and acts before conditions change.
5	CONCEALED	An important part of the answer cannot be stated or demonstrated openly.	SECRETIVE	Moves the consultation somewhere private or conceals its real subject.
6	OVERT	Putting the answer into practice requires a visible or openly declared action.	DIRECT	States the full problem plainly and seeks an answer that can be acted on openly.
7	LAYERED	The answer contains several stages, fields of knowledge, or possible readings.	METHODICAL	Tests one claim, stage, or instruction before moving to the next.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The advice creates immediate access, leverage, protection, or advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses the source's insight before anyone else can respond.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the wounded scout

Torvald consults an experienced healer about a black stain spreading from a scout’s wound. The healer is willing to help, and Torvald’s host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 4: PRACTICAL
Complication 7: LAYERED
Resistance: Control +1

Tell: The healer draws two circles around the wound and points to a sliver beneath the skin. “Draw the fragment out with heat first. Bind the wound before removing it, and the blackness will remain inside.”

Impression: The scout can be treated, but the steps must be completed in the correct order.

The consultation provides a usable method. It does not perform the treatment or determine whether Torvald succeeds. Any attempt to remove the fragment or treat the wound is resolved by the host system.

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L8 · Question (Discover · Focus)

Use Question when a character actively works one subject for information and the subject may resist, evade, withhold, misremember, or control what they reveal.

Question covers interviews, interrogations, cross-examinations, debriefings, and persistent enquiries directed at one person, creature, coordinated group, representative, or responsive intelligence.

Use Consult when the source is willing to share its expertise. Use Read to understand the subject’s present disposition. Use Negotiate when the exchange concerns terms or concessions. Use Confront when the character’s purpose is accusation, compliance, or direct challenge rather than information.

Question reveals what the exchange brings out. It does not automatically make every statement true.

Ask: What does the questioning bring out?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	DETAIL	A specific name, time, place, object, or action emerges that can be checked.	I'll leave now and put the detail to the test.	Clue +1
2	SEQUENCE	The order or timing of relevant events becomes clear.	I'll take the sequence to the first person or place it leads to.	Control +1
3	BOUNDARY	The questioning establishes exactly where the subject's knowledge ends.	I'll stop asking and say what I think happened.	Cost +1
4	TURNING POINT	One answer identifies the moment after which events, behaviour, or conditions changed.	I'll ask what happened at that moment, and nothing else.	Clue +1
5	OMISSION	A clear part of the subject's account is absent.	I'll name the gap out loud. I won't move past it.	Pressure +1
6	FIRSTHAND	The subject's words or details show that they directly experienced part of the events.	I'll keep them talking past the point they meant to stop.	Clue +1
7	CONTRADICTION	Two statements—or a statement and established evidence—cannot both be true.	I'll put the contradiction to them now, flat.	Pressure +2
8	REFUSAL	The subject unmistakably stops at one particular topic, name, or detail.	I'll stay on the thing they won't say.	Control +2
9	ADMISSION	The subject states a fact that damages their position, relationship, or safety.	I'll hold what they gave me. I won't use it here.	Exposure +2
10	REVERSAL	The questions allow the subject to learn or confirm something important about the character or the enquiry.	I'll give them one more thing, deliberately.	Exposure +2
11	SHARED MEMORY	The subject describes a memory belonging to the questioner or someone else present.	I'll let them finish the memory.	Uncanny +2
12	ANSWERED FIRST	The subject answers the character's next question before it is spoken.	I'll ask the question anyway, in my own words.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Memory, trust, health, or the subject's ability to continue may be damaged by pressure.	CAREFUL	Slows down, avoids leading questions, and protects the subject's ability to answer.
2	VOLATILE	One question may provoke sudden action, silence, flight, or intervention.	RECKLESS	Presses a sensitive point, makes an accusation, or provokes an unguarded response.
3	CONNECTED	The answer leads beyond the subject to another person, place, organisation, or system.	STRATEGIC	Orders the questions to expose connections or prepares to act on the next lead.
4	FLEETING	Time, access, memory, or the subject's willingness to continue is running out.	URGENT	Demands the most important answer before the opportunity ends.
5	CONCEALED	The important part appears only through implication, coded language, or silence.	SECRETIVE	Hides the purpose of the questions or moves the exchange somewhere private.
6	OVERT	The questioning or its answers are being heard, recorded, or made public.	DIRECT	States the central question plainly and requires the subject to address it.
7	LAYERED	Several accounts, timelines, relationships, or meanings overlap.	METHODICAL	Establishes one detail or part of the account before moving to the next.
8	EXPLOITABLE	An answer, hesitation, or contradiction creates immediate leverage — for whichever side saw it first.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Seizes the opening and presses it before the subject can recover.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the missing interval

Novak questions a freight clerk about a shipment that disappeared between unloading and inventory. The clerk is cooperating only as far as required. Novak’s host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 5: OMISSION
Complication 3: CONNECTED
Resistance: Pressure +1

Tell: The clerk describes the unloading at 23:40 and begins again with the inventory at 00:20. Asked about the missing forty minutes, he says that Maintenance had the bay but never gives a name or work order.

Impression: Something involving the maintenance crew occurred during the missing interval.

The questioning establishes the gap and its connection. It does not establish what happened, whether the clerk is lying, or who from Maintenance was present. The player records Pressure +1 and chooses what Novak asks next.

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L9 · Research (Discover · Potential)

Use Research when a character works through records, archives, databases, maps, manuscripts, reports, case files, or accumulated knowledge to uncover information.

Research reveals matches, origins, timelines, connections, missing records, and earlier examples.

Use Examine to inspect one document or recording as a physical subject. Use Consult to ask a willing expert. Use Canvass to gather information across an area or community.

A database consulted as a technical reference while inspecting an object remains part of Examine. Searching that database for entries, identities, histories, or matches is Research.

Ask: What do the records reveal?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	MATCH	The same identifier, detail, pattern, or event appears in another record.	I'll pull the second record and take it with me.	Clue +1
2	ORIGIN	The earliest reliable record identifies where or when the subject first appears.	I'll go to where it started.	Clue +1
3	TIMELINE	Separate records establish the order and timing of relevant events.	I'll set the order out where others can argue with it.	Control +1
4	EXCEPTION	One record does not follow the pattern established by the others.	I'll chase the exception, not the rule.	Clue +1
5	GAP	An expected record, entry, interval, or part of the sequence is absent.	I'll trace who or what should have made the missing record.	Pressure +1
6	EARLIER CASE	A similar recorded event shows what followed or how it was handled.	I'll do what worked last time, exactly.	Control +1
7	RESTRICTED	The relevant information exists, but access to it is limited, locked, sealed, or redacted.	I'll ask for it through the front door first.	Control +2
8	REVISED	Different versions of the record contain a significant change.	I'll put both versions side by side and follow the change back to its source.	Pressure +2
9	TRACEABLE	The character's path through the records can be followed back to them.	I'll finish what I came for. I won't cover my tracks.	Exposure +2
10	ACTIVE	The activity, organisation, process, or danger described in the records continues in the present.	I'll act as though it is still happening, now.	Threat +2
11	BEFORE ITS TIME	A record describes a person, object, or event before it could have existed.	I'll remove a copy from the archive before anyone knows I found it.	Uncanny +2
12	RECORDING YOU	A record created before the research changes to describe the character's present actions.	I'll write my own line into it.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The source material, data, or chain of evidence may be damaged or lost through careless handling.	CAREFUL	Preserves copies, checks where information came from, and verifies important details.
2	VOLATILE	Accessing, combining, or acting on the information may trigger deletion, lockout, alarm, or intervention.	RECKLESS	Forces access, bypasses safeguards, or acts on information before verifying it.
3	CONNECTED	The finding extends into another archive, organisation, person, place, or system.	STRATEGIC	Cross-references the material, maps its connections, or brings in specialist help.
4	FLEETING	Access is temporary, the information is changing, or the opportunity to use it is closing.	URGENT	Extracts the essential information and acts before access is lost.
5	CONCEALED	The relevant fact remains hidden inside code, redaction, an unrelated record, or an incomplete reference.	SECRETIVE	Copies the material privately or continues through channels that conceal the research.
6	OVERT	Obtaining or using the information requires a public request or visible action.	DIRECT	Goes straight to the primary record or openly requests access.
7	LAYERED	Several versions, formats, authorities, or bodies of knowledge must be read together.	METHODICAL	Establishes one source, period, or part of the record before adding the next.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The finding provides immediate access, leverage, protection, or advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses the first reliable finding before anyone can restrict or change it.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the freight code

Novak searches shipping, customs, and seizure records for the six-character code found on an unidentified device. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 1: MATCH
Complication 7: LAYERED
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: The code appears in three different systems: beneath a customs photograph, inside an impound manifest, and at the end of a repair invoice. Each system records it in a different format, but the final six characters are identical.

Impression: The same device or shipment has passed through customs, police storage, and a repair contractor.

The research establishes the repeated identifier. It does not decide why the device moved between those records or who was responsible.

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L10 · Track (Discover · Process)

Use Track when a character follows a developing course of signs toward the subject that made them, the route it took, or the place it reached.

Signs might include footprints, scent, damage, discarded possessions, disturbed ground, transactions, transmissions, engine traces, magical residue, or changes in behaviour.

Use Search to find the first sign. Use Watch when the subject remains directly observable. Use Chase when the subject is visible and actively being pursued or escaped. Use Travel when completing the journey matters more than following a particular subject.

Following records to understand past events is Research. Following a sequence of records or signals toward a current source can be Track.

Ask: What do the signs reveal about the subject's route?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	HEADING	The signs establish a clear direction or next location.	I'll press straight on and make up the distance.	Clue +1
2	FRESH	The subject passed recently enough that the trail has changed little.	I'll run it down now, while it's warm.	Pressure +1
3	SLOWED	The subject's progress faltered, paused, or became more difficult.	I'll close the distance while the subject is slowed.	Control +1
4	CHANGED	At one clear point, the subject changed direction, pace, method, or means of travel.	I'll stop where they changed and do what they did.	Clue +1
5	JOINED	Signs from another subject merge with the trail.	I'll leave the original trail and follow the one that joined it.	Exposure +1
6	SPLIT	One course of signs separates into different routes, subjects, or signals.	I'll take the harder of the two.	Cost +1
7	INTERRUPTED	Another event, movement, or force cuts across the trail and changes it.	I'll follow what cut across, not what I came for.	Control +2
8	DANGEROUS	The trail enters ground, conditions, or a system that can harm the tracker.	I'll leave the safe route and take the danger as it comes.	Threat +2
9	DOUBLED BACK	The signs return across earlier ground or approach the tracker's own route.	I'll stand still and let them come to me.	Exposure +2
10	CLOSE	The signs show that the subject is near enough to detect, reach, or affect the character.	I'll call out to them.	Threat +2
11	IMPOSSIBLE PATH	The trail continues across a barrier or distance without the passage that should connect it.	I'll follow it to the break and test the barrier myself.	Uncanny +2
12	YOUR TRAIL	Signs ahead match movements or traces the character has not yet made.	I'll reproduce the signs ahead of me and match them exactly.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The signs are easily disturbed, contaminated, or mistaken for surrounding traces.	CAREFUL	Preserves the signs, confirms the route, and maintains a safe distance.
2	VOLATILE	Following the trail may trigger a hazard or provoke a sudden response.	RECKLESS	Pushes through danger, closes the distance, or ignores damaged signs.
3	CONNECTED	The trail passes into another route, place, organisation, or system.	STRATEGIC	Predicts the destination, arranges a cutoff, or brings in useful help.
4	FLEETING	The signs are fading, changing, or falling farther behind the subject.	URGENT	Increases the pace before the trail is lost.
5	CONCEALED	A significant part of the route is masked, missing, or hidden from direct view.	SECRETIVE	Conceals the pursuit and looks for the trail through indirect signs.
6	OVERT	The trail—or the character following it—is apparent to others.	DIRECT	Follows the clearest route without disguising the pursuit.
7	LAYERED	Several trails, subjects, signals, or periods of movement overlap.	METHODICAL	Separates one set of signs from another and reconstructs each stage.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The route provides a shortcut, interception point, weakness, or immediate advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Leaves the trail to seize the advantage before the subject moves on.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — signs at the ford

Torvald follows a lone set of boot prints from an abandoned camp toward the river. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 5: JOINED
Complication 4: FLEETING
Resistance: Exposure +1

Tell: The boot prints end at the near bank. Beyond the ford, two sets of fresh hoofprints leave eastward while the rising water washes their edges away.

Impression: The person Torvald followed met someone with horses and continued east. The river will soon erase the trail.

The roll establishes the additional traveller and the trail’s direction. It does not establish who the rider is, whether the meeting was planned, or where they are ultimately going.

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Relate — What happens between us?

What happens between us?

The five Relate tables are used when the character’s action depends on how another intelligence, audience, relationship, or social structure responds. The other side might be a person, a creature, a group, an institution, an artificial intelligence, a collective mind, or any other entity that can answer back.

Perceive and Discover reveal information. Relate changes or tests the character’s position among other intelligences.

The character is trying to…	Use	Ask…
Move through a social structure or culture	L11 Navigate	How does this social field receive the character?
Establish terms between competing interests	L12 Negotiate	What terms emerge from the exchange?
Press or challenge one subject directly	L13 Confront	What changes when the character presses the subject?
Develop trust, loyalty, or intimacy	L14 Bond	What does the shared moment establish between them?
Carry an act through before an audience	L15 Perform	How does the audience respond as the performance unfolds?

Close boundaries

Social terrain, or physical passage? Use Navigate when moving through a social order — a court, an institution, a hierarchy, a custom. Use Travel when moving between physical locations. Working through a lord’s household to reach the lord: Navigate. The road to the lord’s hall: Travel.

Terms, or a demand? Use Negotiate when both sides are exchanging terms, concessions, or guarantees. Use Confront when the character makes a demand, accusation, warning, or threat without offering meaningful exchange.

Reading a relationship, or changing it? Use Read for someone’s present feelings and disposition. Use Bond only when the relationship itself is changing — trust deepening, loyalty forming, a duty taken on. Helping someone does not automatically require Bond.

An audience, or one subject? Use Perform when holding an audience’s attention through a sustained act — a speech, a song, a ceremony, a rallying cry. Use Confront when pressing one subject directly, even before a crowd.

A performance, or a lie? Use Perform when the audience knows it is witnessing a presented act. Use Deceive when they are meant to accept it as true.

Pressure, or violence? Use Confront while the character is accusing, threatening, warning, or challenging and violence remains only a possibility. Use Fight once exchanging harm or force becomes the main action.

Changing tables

A petition (Navigate) becomes a bargain (Negotiate) the moment terms appear. A bargain becomes a confrontation when one side stops offering and starts demanding. A confrontation becomes a Fight when harm becomes the action. A quiet moment after any of these may become Bond. Change tables when what passes between the two sides changes, and never roll two for the same moment.

L11 · Navigate (Relate · Field)

Use Navigate when a character works through the customs, roles, ranks, rules, or expectations of a social setting.

The field may be a court, community, institution, military unit, ship’s crew, criminal network, religious order, artificial society, or unfamiliar culture.

Use Travel when moving between physical locations. Use Navigate when moving through a social order. Use Assess to understand the situation as a whole. Use Canvass to gather information across a community. Use Negotiate to exchange terms. Use Confront to challenge someone directly. Use Deceive when maintaining a false identity or story is the main action.

Ask: How does this social field receive the character?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	ACCEPTED	The character's presence, role, or reason for being here is treated as legitimate.	I'll use the welcome now, before it's examined.	Reputation +1
2	PROTOCOL	A clear custom or procedure provides the next accepted step.	I'll take the next step exactly as it's done here.	Control +1
3	PLACED	The social order assigns the character a clear position relative to those present.	I'll accept the place they've given me and speak from it.	Reputation +1
4	BACKED	A person or group openly supports the character's presence, standing, or request.	I'll spend their support on the one thing I came for.	Reputation +1
5	OBLIGATED	Taking part creates an expected duty, service, payment, or return.	I'll take the obligation openly. I won't pretend I haven't.	Cost +1
6	PRIVILEGED	The character's position grants access, freedom, or protection denied to others.	I'll use the privilege in front of those denied it.	Control +1
7	SCRUTINISED	The character's conduct, background, or right to participate is placed under close attention.	I'll give them something to look at, and keep working.	Exposure +2
8	LIMITED	A social rule, accepted role, promise, or status now limits what the character may do.	I'll break the smaller rule to keep the bigger one.	Control +2
9	SINGLED OUT	Someone gives the character special recognition, attention, responsibility, or treatment.	I'll accept it publicly. I won't ask what it costs.	Reputation +2
10	CHALLENGED	Someone openly disputes the character's presence, status, conduct, or right to act.	I'll answer the challenge where it was made.	Threat +2
11	DEAD CUSTOM	Everyone present performs the same lost custom exactly, although there is no possible source from which they could have learned it.	I'll perform it with them, and get one part deliberately wrong.	Uncanny +2
12	REMEMBERED	Strangers remember a shared history with the character that never happened.	I'll agree with the memory and let them fill it in.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Acceptance depends upon precise conduct, uncertain standing, or someone's dignity.	CAREFUL	Observes first, preserves everyone's standing, and tests the accepted way forward.
2	VOLATILE	A mistake or challenge could bring humiliation, exclusion, punishment, or conflict.	RECKLESS	Ignores restraint, claims a place, or forces others to respond.
3	CONNECTED	What the character does here will be reported to, or judged by, a wider body beyond those present.	STRATEGIC	Works through the right intermediary, rank, obligation, or source of authority.
4	FLEETING	The chance to enter, speak, petition, or gain recognition will soon pass.	URGENT	Acts before the gathering, proceeding, mood, or opportunity changes.
5	CONCEALED	The character's purpose, loyalty, standing, or connection cannot safely become known.	SECRETIVE	Reveals only what is necessary and works through indirect or private channels.
6	OVERT	Any recognition, privilege, obligation, or rejection will be publicly visible.	DIRECT	States the character's identity, role, claim, or request openly.
7	LAYERED	Several ranks, customs, duties, or competing expectations apply.	METHODICAL	Addresses each requirement in order and secures acceptance one step at a time.
8	EXPLOITABLE	A custom, privilege, rivalry, or social expectation provides an immediate advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Invokes that rule, relationship, or privilege before the opening disappears.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the lord’s hall

Torvald reaches a lord’s hall after nightfall and asks for shelter for his companions. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 2: PROTOCOL
Complication 6: OVERT
Resistance: Control +1

Tell: The doorward points to the weapon rack. Before the assembled household, he asks Torvald to surrender his sword and name his lineage and business.

Impression: Torvald has not been refused. Entry requires him to follow a public custom and declare who he is.

Navigate establishes the character’s recognised place, access, duties, and social limits. It does not reveal anyone’s private feelings or intentions. The player records Control +1 and decides what Torvald does next—including whether the name he gives is true. A false one moves the continuing action to Deceive.

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L12 · Negotiate (Relate · Will)

Use Negotiate when parties with competing interests exchange terms, concessions, or guarantees.

The other party may be a person, group, faction, creature, artificial intelligence, or other intelligence capable of making and keeping an agreement.

Use Consult when a willing source provides knowledge. Use Question when drawing information from a resistant subject. Use Navigate when working through social rules or status. Use Confront when making a demand without offering meaningful exchange. Use Tempt when the important question is how an offer presses upon the character’s desires.

Negotiate establishes the terms that emerge. The host system determines whether either party accepts, fulfils, or breaks them.

Ask: What terms emerge from the exchange?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	COMMON GROUND	The parties identify one outcome that both can accept.	I'll close on it now, before either of us thinks again.	Reputation +1
2	EXCHANGE	Each party must give one clear thing to receive another.	I'll hand mine over first.	Cost +1
3	CONCESSION	One party yields on one point to preserve the rest of the agreement.	I'll take the concession and stop asking.	Cost +1
4	PRIORITY	The exchange reveals that one term matters more than all the others.	I'll trade everything else away to hold that one.	Clue +1
5	CONDITIONAL	The agreement holds only while one stated condition is met.	I'll put the condition in my own keeping.	Control +1
6	GUARANTEED	A deposit, token, proof, or hostage is accepted as assurance.	I'll offer mine before they ask for it.	Reputation +1
7	ONE-SIDED	Most of the cost or risk falls upon one party.	I'll say out loud who is carrying it.	Cost +2
8	EXCLUSIVE	Accepting these terms closes another alliance, route, or opportunity.	I'll accept, and close the other door myself.	Control +2
9	ENFORCED	A present power, mechanism, or held advantage can punish a breach.	I'll name what enforces the terms and make them acknowledge it.	Control +2
10	ULTIMATUM	One term permits no counteroffer and carries an explicit consequence.	I'll answer it now, in one word.	Threat +2
11	IMPOSSIBLE PRICE	Something is offered or demanded that cannot be possessed, surrendered, or performed under the understood rules.	I'll agree to the price and work out later what I've given.	Uncanny +2
12	BINDING WORDS	A stated term begins enforcing itself before either party acts upon it.	I'll say the term again, deliberately, and mean it.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The agreement depends upon exact wording, a small concession, or fragile trust.	CAREFUL	Clarifies the terms and avoids committing until the limits are understood.
2	VOLATILE	A refusal or counteroffer could abruptly end the exchange or provoke retaliation.	RECKLESS	Makes an extreme offer, rejects caution, or stakes more than is safe.
3	CONNECTED	The agreement affects or depends upon another person, faction, place, or system.	STRATEGIC	Trades a lesser priority for a greater one, uses leverage, or arranges support.
4	FLEETING	The offer will soon be withdrawn or its circumstances will change.	URGENT	Closes the agreement before the opportunity passes.
5	CONCEALED	An important cost, implication, or piece of leverage has not been stated openly.	SECRETIVE	Keeps priorities or private terms hidden while bargaining.
6	OVERT	The terms must be declared, witnessed, or made publicly visible.	DIRECT	States the demand and the best available offer plainly.
7	LAYERED	The agreement contains stages, linked duties, or later conditions.	METHODICAL	Settles one term at a time and establishes what each party owes.
8	EXPLOITABLE	A concession, loophole, or weakness offers an immediate advantage.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Seizes the favourable term before it can be withdrawn.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the gate after dark

Torvald asks a gate captain to open the gates after dark so his companions can escort a supply wagon into the fortress. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 5: CONDITIONAL
Complication 6: OVERT
Resistance: Control +1

Tell: The captain agrees, but calls the assembled guards forward as witnesses. Torvald must swear that the company and wagon will return before moonrise.

Impression: The gate will be opened, but the condition is public. Everyone will know if Torvald breaks it.

Negotiate has established the proposed terms. The host system decides whether Torvald accepts them, whether any further check is required, and what happens if the oath is broken. The player records Control +1 and chooses whether Torvald swears before the guards or seeks another way in.

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L13 · Confront (Relate · Focus)

Use Confront when the character directly presses or challenges one present intelligence through an accusation, demand, warning, threat, or show of authority.

The subject may be a person, creature, coordinated group, artificial intelligence, or gestalt entity. It does not need to speak, but it must be capable of recognising and responding to the challenge.

Use Question when the main aim is to obtain information. Use Negotiate when both sides are exchanging terms. Use Read when studying disposition without pressing the subject. Use Fight once inflicting or avoiding harm becomes the main action.

Ask: What changes when the character presses the subject?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	STANDING	The subject accepts that the character has the right, authority, or strength to challenge them.	I'll press the advantage while they still grant it.	Reputation +1
2	YIELDING	The subject gives ground on one immediate action, position, or demand.	I'll take the ground and ask for more.	Control +1
3	POSITION	The subject openly commits to one claim, side, person, or course of action.	I'll hold them to what they just said.	Clue +1
4	STAKE	One concrete thing the subject could lose becomes part of the confrontation.	I'll name what they stand to lose. I won't threaten it.	Cost +1
5	LINE DRAWN	The subject states what they will do if the character continues pressing.	I'll cross the line once, and slowly.	Control +1
6	CHOICE	The confrontation leaves the subject with two clear courses of action.	I'll put both choices to them and make them choose now.	Pressure +1
7	PROOF REQUIRED	The subject will give no further ground without evidence, a witness, or a demonstration.	I'll show them everything I have and lose the advantage of holding it.	Control +2
8	PRICE	Further compliance requires the character to risk, surrender, or provide something important.	I'll pay it, and say what it was.	Cost +2
9	COUNTERED	The subject answers with an accusation or demand that the character must now address.	I'll answer their charge before I return to mine.	Exposure +2
10	ESCALATED	The subject moves the conflict into a more dangerous and immediate form.	I'll go where they've taken it.	Threat +2
11	COMPELLED	Something with no understood power over the subject forces an answer or action from them.	I'll press them again, quickly, while it holds.	Uncanny +2
12	ANSWERED ELSEWHERE	A distant or absent intelligence responds to the confrontation without any possible means of communication.	I'll direct the rest of it to whatever answered.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Too much pressure could damage a relationship, position, captive, or fragile opportunity.	CAREFUL	Narrows the challenge and leaves the subject a safe way to respond.
2	VOLATILE	Further pressure could provoke violence, flight, destruction, or retaliation.	RECKLESS	Presses the most dangerous point without leaving room to retreat.
3	CONNECTED	The subject's position depends upon allies, authority, resources, or a larger system.	STRATEGIC	Challenges the support behind the subject or chooses the most useful moment to press.
4	FLEETING	The chance to confront the subject will soon pass.	URGENT	Makes the accusation, warning, or demand immediately.
5	CONCEALED	Pressing the central point would reveal the character's source, knowledge, or intention.	SECRETIVE	Applies pressure without revealing how much the character knows.
6	OVERT	The confrontation is public, recorded, witnessed, or impossible to keep private.	DIRECT	States the accusation or demand plainly and requires an open response.
7	LAYERED	Several claims, loyalties, grievances, or consequences are involved.	METHODICAL	Presses one point at a time and requires a clear answer to each.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The subject exposes a weakness, contradiction, or loss of support.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses that opening immediately to force further ground.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the missing evidence

Novak confronts a fellow officer about an evidence bag that disappeared from storage. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 7: PROOF REQUIRED
Complication 5: CONCEALED
Resistance: Control +2

Tell: The officer’s smile disappears. He taps the recording light on his body camera and says, “Show me what you have—or say who told you.”

Impression: The accusation has landed, but Novak cannot press further without producing evidence or exposing his source.

The confrontation has not established whether the officer is guilty. That specific fact remains with the scenario, host rules, or Yes/No Dice. It has established what Novak’s successful pressure forces the officer to do next. The player records Control +2 and chooses whether Novak produces the discrepancy, names the source, or steps back.

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L14 · Bond (Relate · Potential)

Use Bond when a shared moment may create or deepen trust, loyalty, friendship, affection, duty, or intimacy.

The relationship itself must be changing. Helping someone does not automatically require Bond; use it when the important question is what that help establishes between them.

Use Read to understand someone’s present feelings. Use Consult or Question when seeking information. Use Negotiate when exchanging terms. Use Navigate when status or social custom governs the interaction. Use Perform when the character is primarily addressing an audience.

Bond is read from the active character’s side.

Ask: What does the shared moment establish between them?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	FAMILIAR	A shared experience, value, habit, place, or concern gives them common ground.	I'll say the thing we have in common out loud.	Reputation +1
2	ENTRUSTED	One gives the other responsibility, access, or something important to keep safe.	I'll take it, and give something of mine back.	Reputation +1
3	CONFIDED	One shares a private fear, hope, memory, or concern.	I'll answer it with something of my own that costs me.	Exposure +1
4	RECIPROCATED	A gesture of trust, care, or loyalty is answered with one in return.	I'll go one further than they did.	Reputation +1
5	OBLIGATED	What passes between them creates an expected duty or return.	I'll name the debt before it's assumed.	Cost +1
6	PROMISED	One makes a specific commitment that the other may rely upon.	I'll make my promise specific enough to be broken.	Control +1
7	VULNERABLE	One now holds trust, access, or knowledge that could seriously harm the other if misused.	I'll give them one more thing that could hurt me.	Exposure +2
8	TESTED	The relationship now depends upon an immediate act of trust or loyalty.	I'll act as though I already trust them.	Pressure +2
9	CONFLICTED	The growing bond clashes with an existing loyalty, duty, promise, or relationship.	I'll tell the other side what's happening.	Cost +2
10	CLAIMED	One treats the relationship as giving them a right to demand, decide, protect, or possess.	I'll let the claim stand for now. I won't correct it here.	Control +2
11	SHARED MEMORY	Both remember an event they could not have experienced together.	I'll ask them for a detail I never said.	Uncanny +2
12	BOUND TOGETHER	A feeling, injury, sense, or condition passes from one to the other, and nothing could have carried it between them.	I'll take more of it, deliberately.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The connection depends upon respecting a limit, private disclosure, or fragile trust.	CAREFUL	Offers support without demanding more and protects what has been shared.
2	VOLATILE	Closeness could provoke conflict, dependence, jealousy, fear, or overwhelming emotion.	RECKLESS	Reveals too much, makes a sweeping promise, or demands an equal commitment.
3	CONNECTED	The relationship affects or depends upon another person, group, duty, or allegiance.	STRATEGIC	Strengthens the bond through useful help, a shared aim, or mutual support.
4	FLEETING	The chance for honesty or connection will soon pass.	URGENT	Says or does what matters before the moment closes.
5	CONCEALED	The relationship or what has been shared cannot safely become known.	SECRETIVE	Keeps the connection private and communicates away from witnesses.
6	OVERT	The bond requires public acknowledgement or a visible commitment.	DIRECT	States the trust, feeling, loyalty, or promise openly.
7	LAYERED	Past hurts, unequal power, conflicting duties, or several relationships are involved.	METHODICAL	Builds trust through one limited promise or dependable action at a time.
8	EXPLOITABLE	Something gained through the relationship can immediately advance another aim.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses the opening to secure trust, aid, access, or commitment now.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the broken arrow

Torvald shares the night watch with Edda after their company escapes an ambush. His host-system check succeeds, creating a quiet moment between them.

He rolls:

Result 3: CONFIDED
Complication 1: DELICATE
Resistance: Exposure +1

Tell: Edda takes a broken arrow from inside her coat. It bears her brother’s colours. She tells Torvald that she left him wounded at the river crossing and has told no one else.

Impression: Edda has trusted Torvald with something she fears the company will judge her for.

Bond establishes what has developed between them. It does not decide what either character must feel, and it does not guarantee that a promise will be kept. The player records Exposure +1 and chooses how Torvald answers her.

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L15 · Perform (Relate · Process)

Use Perform when a character holds an audience’s attention through a speech, song, story, dance, ceremony, display, or other sustained act.

The audience may be one person, a crowd, a military unit, a court, a broadcast audience, or a responsive intelligence. Use Perform when the important question is how the relationship between performer and audience develops during the act.

Use Confront when directly pressing one subject. Use Bond when a mutual relationship is changing. Use Negotiate when exchanging terms. Use Deceive when maintaining a false identity or sustained lie is the main action. Use Invoke when producing a supernatural or reality-changing effect is the main action.

Ask: How does the audience respond as the performance unfolds?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	ATTENTIVE	The audience becomes quiet, focused, and willing to follow the performance.	I'll give them the difficult part now.	Reputation +1
2	JOINING	Part of the audience answers, repeats, sings, chants, or participates.	I'll hand the next part to them.	Reputation +1
3	MOVED	One shared emotion becomes openly visible across the audience.	I'll hold the moment past comfort.	Pressure +1
4	RECOGNISED	The audience connects one part of the performance to a known person, event, place, or tradition.	I'll name it openly and take the consequence.	Clue +1
5	DIVIDED	Different parts of the audience respond in clearly different ways.	I'll play to the smaller half.	Pressure +1
6	EXPECTANT	The performance creates a clear expectation that the character will continue, answer, or act.	I'll give them what they're waiting for.	Cost +1
7	INTERRUPTED	After the audience is engaged, a person, event, or competing display breaks in and demands attention.	I'll bring the interruption into the performance.	Control +2
8	MISREAD	Part of the audience gives one secondary image, phrase, or gesture an unintended meaning.	I'll lean into the meaning they found.	Exposure +2
9	CLAIMED	A person or group uses the performance to support their own status, cause, or demand.	I'll reclaim the performance before they finish using it.	Control +2
10	PROVOKED	The audience turns its emotion into immediate and potentially dangerous action.	I'll stop performing and put myself in the path of what I've provoked.	Threat +2
11	ALREADY KNOWN	Members of the audience know or repeat words, movements, or music they could never have learned.	I'll change the next part and let them follow it.	Uncanny +2
12	MADE REAL	Something represented in the performance becomes physically real, although no craft, power, or mechanism present could produce it.	I'll touch the thing I made, and keep performing.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The response depends upon precise tone, timing, trust, or restraint.	CAREFUL	Watches the audience closely and adjusts without breaking its trust.
2	VOLATILE	The audience's emotion could become anger, panic, frenzy, or uncontrolled excitement.	RECKLESS	Heightens the emotion, crosses a safe limit, or commits completely to the moment.
3	CONNECTED	The wider response depends upon a leader, faction, symbol, channel, or influential observer.	STRATEGIC	Directs the performance toward the person or group that can move the rest.
4	FLEETING	Attention is fading or the chance to deliver the important moment is closing.	URGENT	Delivers the central line, image, or action immediately.
5	CONCEALED	The performance carries a hidden meaning, or the intended audience cannot respond openly.	SECRETIVE	Hides the message within the performance and directs it toward those meant to receive it.
6	OVERT	The performance is public, recorded, or visibly commits the performer to its message.	DIRECT	States or displays the central message without disguise.
7	LAYERED	Several audiences, meanings, stages, or traditions must be handled together.	METHODICAL	Builds the performance one clear part at a time before reaching its climax.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The audience's attention or emotion creates an immediate opening.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Changes or extends the performance to use the audience's present response.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the song in the hall

Torvald sings an old song before a hall of frightened refugees and exhausted soldiers. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 2: JOINING
Complication 3: CONNECTED
Resistance: Reputation +1

Tell: The veterans at the rear take up the final verse. The younger archers begin to join them, but keep looking toward their captain.

Impression: The song has reached the hall, but the captain’s response will decide whether the archers truly rally.

Perform establishes the audience’s response. It does not replace the host system’s judgement of the performance’s quality or decide whether the audience carries that response into later action. The player records Reputation +1 and chooses where Torvald turns the next verse—toward the captain, or to the whole hall.

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Act — What happens when I commit?

What happens when I commit?

The five Act tables are used once a character commits to doing something under active resistance. Choose by what the action is really engaging — a defended field, another mind’s belief, one opponent, an extraordinary power, or a pursuit — not by the ability, weapon, or method being used.

Your host system answers does the action work? The Act table answers what does that action bring into play? Act does not replace checks, attacks, damage, movement, spell effects, or any other host rule. Use it at meaningful turning points, not after every minor action.

The character is trying to…	Use	Ask…
Get through a protected place, organisation, or system	L16 Infiltrate	What happens as the character gets further inside?
Make another intelligence accept something false	L17 Deceive	What follows once the deception takes hold?
Exchange violence with one opponent or coherent force	L18 Fight	What does this exchange change in the fight?
Bring an extraordinary capability into play	L19 Invoke	What else becomes true when the power takes effect?
Catch someone, or get away	L20 Chase	What changes as the pursuit continues?

Close boundaries

Infiltrate, or Deceive? Use Infiltrate when a disguise, lie, forged credential, or technical trick is a means of getting through security. Use Deceive when maintaining the falsehood under another intelligence’s attention is the important action. At a guarded checkpoint, ask which response is missing: what does passing the checkpoint bring into play? is Infiltrate; what follows once the guard accepts the cover story? is Deceive.

Fight, or Confront? Use Confront while the character is accusing, threatening, warning, or challenging and violence remains only a possibility. Use Fight once exchanging harm or tactical force becomes the main action.

Chase, Track, or Travel? Use Chase while the target or pursuer is actively moving against the character. Use Track once contact is lost and the character must follow signs. Use Travel when moving between places with no active pursuer.

Invoke, or Fight? Using a power during combat does not automatically require Invoke. Use Fight when the important question concerns the changing battle. Use Invoke when it concerns the power’s manifestation or its additional effects. The same action never receives both.

Deceive, or Perform? Use Perform when the audience understands it is witnessing a speech, song, ceremony, or display. Use Deceive when the audience is meant to accept the performance as something true.

Changing tables

A scene may move through several Act tables as its pressure changes. A character begins by Infiltrating a secured building. Stopped by a guard, the scene becomes Deceive. An alarm sounds and the character runs: Chase. Someone blocks the escape and violence begins: Fight. Activating an extraordinary device moves the next meaningful moment to Invoke. Change tables when the central resistance changes, and never roll two for the same action.

L16 · Infiltrate (Act · Field)

Use Infiltrate when a character enters or moves through a protected place, organisation, or system without being stopped.

This includes physical intrusion, covert entry into an organisation, and unauthorised access to a secured network. Use Infiltrate when the defended field as a whole is resisting the character’s progress.

Use Travel when moving between places without active security opposing the journey. Use Deceive when maintaining a false identity or story is the main action. Use Navigate when legitimately working through social rules or status. Use Search when looking for something concealed. Use Examine when dealing with one particular security device. Use Chase once discovery produces active pursuit.

Ask: What happens as the character gets further inside?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	COVER	A nearby feature, crowd, noise, signal, or activity hides this part of the intrusion.	I'll use the cover for more than I planned.	Control +1
2	ACCESS	The character reaches a route, position, channel, or permission that leads further inside.	I'll go further in than I meant to.	Clue +1
3	BLIND SPOT	One particular area or action is not being observed by the present defences.	I'll do the loud thing here.	Clue +1
4	ROUTINE	An ordinary delivery, shift change, procedure, or system process carries the character further.	I'll ride it to the end of its run.	Control +1
5	SEPARATED	Progress places a barrier, distance, or secured boundary between the character and outside help or retreat.	I'll go on and stop counting the way out.	Pressure +1
6	PRICE	The way forward requires giving up, spending, damaging, or leaving behind something useful.	I'll pay the price and treat what it costs as gone.	Cost +1
7	CHECKED	The current step succeeds, but continued progress meets an active inspection, challenge, test, or verification.	I'll walk into the check as though I belong.	Control +2
8	TRACED	The successful intrusion leaves evidence that can be connected to the character.	I'll finish first and clean after.	Exposure +2
9	DIVERTED	Progress continues, but the defences force the character away from the intended route, timing, or immediate objective.	I'll take the diversion further than they intend.	Pressure +2
10	ALERTED	The current step succeeds, but security begins searching, containing, or intercepting.	I'll go deeper, not out.	Threat +2
11	WRONG INSIDE	The interior's space, distance, or arrangement cannot fit within its exterior, and no known design, system, or power could make it so.	I'll follow the wrongness to its furthest edge.	Uncanny +2
12	ADMITTED	The protected place identifies and admits the character in a way nothing and no one could have arranged.	I'll go in without stopping at the threshold.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Entry depends upon leaving a lock, trace, appearance, or timing undisturbed.	CAREFUL	Tests the next defence, preserves cover, and keeps a route back.
2	VOLATILE	A mistake could trigger an alarm, collapse, lockdown, or immediate attack.	RECKLESS	Forces the next barrier or moves through before the danger can respond.
3	CONNECTED	Access or security depends upon another person, system, location, or operation.	STRATEGIC	Improves position or timing, or brings in useful help, before going further.
4	FLEETING	A patrol gap, open route, valid credential, or system window will soon close.	URGENT	Moves immediately, accepting that some risks remain unchecked.
5	CONCEALED	The character's true objective or method must remain hidden even if their presence is noticed.	SECRETIVE	Conceals the real target and leaves a believable false purpose.
6	OVERT	The next step requires a visible action or passing openly through a controlled point.	DIRECT	Takes the clearest route through the controlled point without further preparation.
7	LAYERED	Several linked barriers, identities, zones, or security systems remain.	METHODICAL	Defeats one layer at a time and confirms what lies beyond it.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The character's current position creates a separate opportunity beyond getting further inside.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses an immediate opening, even if that means abandoning the planned route.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the service tunnel

Novak enters a restricted distribution centre through a service tunnel. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 2: ACCESS
Complication 7: LAYERED
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: The service hatch opens onto a narrow maintenance corridor. A colour-coded wall diagram shows a route to the loading floor, but two separately locked bulkheads lie between.

Impression: The service route leads further inside, but the intrusion must pass through several distinct security zones.

Clue +1 is recorded. Novak’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Infiltrate establishes the changing shape of an intrusion. It does not replace checks for locks, guards, hacking, disguise, or other discrete obstacles.

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L17 · Deceive (Act · Will)

Use Deceive when a character causes another intelligence to accept a false identity, story, appearance, intention, or belief.

The subject may be a person, creature, group, artificial intelligence, surveillance system, or other intelligence capable of being misled.

Use Infiltrate when moving through a protected place or system is the main action. Use Navigate when legitimately working through social rules or status. Use Perform when presenting an act to an audience that knows it is a performance. Use Negotiate when exchanging terms. Use Confront when applying direct pressure.

Whether a subject believes a particular lie is resolved by the host system or Yes/No Dice. Roll Deceive only when the falsehood takes hold.

Ask: What follows once the deception takes hold?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	ASSUMED	The subject adds one unstated detail that fits the false identity, story, appearance, or intention.	I'll take the detail they gave me and use it.	Clue +1
2	REPEATED	The subject passes the falsehood to another person, group, or system as though it were true.	I'll let it spread. I won't correct anyone.	Exposure +1
3	SUPPORTED	A present fact, coincidence, or third party appears to confirm the falsehood.	I'll build on the coincidence out loud.	Clue +1
4	EXPECTED	The apparent role or story requires the character to display particular knowledge, behaviour, or ability.	I'll perform the part I don't have.	Cost +1
5	MISDIRECTED	The subject's attention or action turns away from the character's real purpose or target.	I'll move on the real thing now.	Control +1
6	ACTED ON	The subject makes a concrete decision, commitment, or movement because of the falsehood.	I'll let them commit. I won't soften it.	Pressure +1
7	TESTED	The deception is accepted, but continued trust requires an immediate answer, proof, or demonstration.	I'll answer without pausing.	Control +2
8	RECORDED	The falsehood enters a lasting record or communication tied to the character.	I'll leave it standing and get out.	Exposure +2
9	COLLATERAL	Someone not originally involved is now treated, blamed, trusted, or endangered because of the falsehood.	I'll get them clear, even if it costs the cover.	Cost +2
10	CORNERED	Maintaining the deception now requires a dangerous action or a deeper lie that cannot easily be withdrawn.	I'll tell the bigger lie.	Threat +2
11	BECOMES TRUE	One false detail becomes physically true although nothing present could have changed it.	I'll act on the invented detail as though I always meant it.	Uncanny +2
12	OTHER SELF	The invented identity acts, communicates, or leaves evidence independently although nothing and no one could be doing so.	I'll go to where the other one was seen.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The falsehood depends upon an exact detail, fragile timing, or limited scrutiny.	CAREFUL	Keeps the story close to known facts and says or does no more than necessary.
2	VOLATILE	Exposure could provoke immediate violence, panic, destruction, or retaliation.	RECKLESS	Makes a bold claim or presses the deception further despite the risk.
3	CONNECTED	The deception can be checked against a person, record, or event the character cannot control.	STRATEGIC	Uses preparation, supporting evidence, leverage, or help to strengthen the deception.
4	FLEETING	The deception will fail once evidence arrives, someone returns, or circumstances change.	URGENT	Pushes the deception forward immediately, before it can be checked.
5	CONCEALED	The character cannot openly coordinate with someone who must behave consistently with the deception.	SECRETIVE	Keeps the lie narrow, avoids unnecessary explanation, and hides the real aim.
6	OVERT	The falsehood must withstand a visible statement, action, or demonstration.	DIRECT	States the simplest claim plainly and behaves as though it is already accepted.
7	LAYERED	Several roles, claims, past actions, or pieces of evidence must remain consistent.	METHODICAL	Builds the story one supported detail at a time and checks for contradictions.
8	EXPLOITABLE	A separate weakness, assumption, or opportunity can be used alongside the deception.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Builds the deception around an immediate weakness, assumption, or opening.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the false audit

Novak tells a records clerk that he is investigating missing evidence transfers. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 4: EXPECTED
Complication 6: OVERT
Resistance: Cost +1

Tell: The clerk turns the monitor towards Novak, opens an official audit form, and asks him to enter his identification number and certify the request while two members of staff watch.

Impression: The clerk accepts the audit story, but Novak’s apparent role requires him to perform a visible official action.

Cost +1 is recorded. Novak’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Deceive establishes what an accepted falsehood sets in motion. It does not determine whether later events expose the deception or whether the character can meet the expectations it creates.

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L18 · Fight (Act · Focus)

Use Fight when a character commits to violence against one immediate opponent or coherent opposing force.

The opponent may be a person, creature, squad, swarm, vehicle, starship, artificial intelligence, or gestalt entity. Use Fight once exchanging harm, force, or tactical control becomes the main action.

Use Confront while violence remains a threat rather than the main action. Use Assess to read a battle before committing. Use Chase when pursuit or escape becomes more important than exchanging attacks. Use Survive when the environment or the character’s own body is the principal danger.

The host system determines attacks, damage, wounds, defeat, death, and mechanical combat conditions. Fight adds narrative developments around those outcomes. Roll at meaningful exchanges or turning points, not after every attack.

Ask: What does this exchange change in the fight?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	GROUND	The character gains a better position, distance, or route within the fight.	I'll press from where I am now.	Control +1
2	FORCED	The opponent must shift their position, attention, or immediate plan to answer the character.	I'll take what they gave up to answer me.	Control +1
3	PATTERN	A repeated movement, defence, attack, or reaction becomes clear.	I'll set myself for it and let it come once more.	Clue +1
4	FOCAL POINT	The fight shows that one person, object, position, or system matters because someone moves to reach, protect, or avoid it.	I'll go for the thing their movement made important.	Clue +1
5	SEPARATED	One combatant is cut off from support, cover, retreat, or the rest of their force.	I'll settle this before the separation ends.	Pressure +1
6	COLLATERAL	A person, object, or location that was not the main target comes under immediate threat from the violence.	I'll put myself in front of it.	Cost +1
7	LOCKED	The combatants become trapped in a position where breaking away gives the other side a clear opportunity.	I'll hold the lock and make them break it.	Control +2
8	REVEALED	An important capability, weakness, identity, weapon, or allegiance becomes visible during the exchange.	I'll name it out loud, mid-fight.	Exposure +2
9	ESCALATED	A more dangerous weapon, tactic, combatant, or level of force becomes active.	I'll match it.	Threat +2
10	COLLAPSING	A structure, vehicle, formation, defence, or part of the battlefield begins to fail around the combatants.	I'll use the collapse.	Threat +2
11	REPEATED BLOW	The same exchange happens twice in exactly the same way, and everyone involved remembers both, and nothing could have repeated it.	I'll do something different the third time.	Uncanny +2
12	ABSENT ATTACKER	A blow, shot, or attack comes from a position where no attacker could exist, and nothing present could have delivered it.	I'll strike back at the empty place.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The advantage depends upon exact distance, timing, restraint, or control.	CAREFUL	Guards position, limits commitment, and confirms the opponent's response before pressing.
2	VOLATILE	A weapon, emotion, crowd, vehicle, or environment could make the violence spread or intensify suddenly.	RECKLESS	Closes distance, uses overwhelming force, or accepts danger to press the attack.
3	CONNECTED	What happens here will immediately affect another fight, location, system, or objective.	STRATEGIC	Improves position, controls range or timing, and coordinates available support.
4	FLEETING	An advantage, escape route, or chance to end the fight will soon disappear.	URGENT	Acts immediately before the opponent can recover or the situation changes.
5	CONCEALED	An important combatant, weapon, threat, or purpose remains unseen.	SECRETIVE	Hides position, intention, or capability and strikes indirectly.
6	OVERT	The violence is publicly visible or certain to draw witnesses.	DIRECT	Closes with the main opponent or acts against the clearest threat.
7	LAYERED	Several combatants, positions, objectives, or defences interact at once.	METHODICAL	Deals with one immediate threat or obstacle at a time while maintaining a defensible position.
8	EXPLOITABLE	An immediate weakness in the opponent's position, rhythm, equipment, or surroundings can be used.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Abandons the plan to seize whatever advantage appears.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the processing room

Novak exchanges fire with an armed guard in a processing room. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 4: FOCAL POINT
Complication 2: VOLATILE
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: As the guard recoils, he keeps himself between Novak and a red cutoff lever. Each shot makes vapour from a ruptured pipe flash blue near the floor.

Impression: The cutoff lever matters, and continued gunfire could ignite the leaking vapour.

Clue +1 is recorded. Novak’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Fight establishes how the violent situation changes. The host system retains authority over the successful attack and any damage, injury, or combat effect it caused.

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L19 · Invoke (Act · Potential)

Use Invoke when a character deliberately brings a power into play: a spell, miracle, psychic gift, supernatural rite, extraordinary technology, or another capability that changes what is normally possible.

Do not use Invoke for ordinary equipment or routine skill use. Use Examine to study a power or device. Use Perform when the audience’s response to a rite is the important question. Use Fight when an ordinary attack is the main action. Use Survive when the character is enduring an uncontrolled force.

The host system determines whether the invocation works and resolves its intended effect, damage, duration, range, and resource costs. Invoke establishes what else becomes true when the power takes effect.

Magic, psychic ability, and extraordinary technology do not automatically require the d12. Use the d10 when the power behaves within the setting’s understood rules. Use the d12 only when the answer may break those rules.

Ask: What else becomes true when the power takes effect?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	REACTION	The target's reaction exposes a hidden property, boundary, or connection.	I'll do it again, harder, on the same spot.	Clue +1
2	ANCHORED	Part of the effect attaches to one person, object, place, or point.	I'll keep myself tied to the anchor.	Control +1
3	SIGNATURE	The invocation leaves a distinctive physical or sensory trace that can be tied to its source or user.	I'll leave the signature where it will be found.	Exposure +1
4	LINGERING	A secondary sign or influence continues after the intended effect ends.	I'll stay with it until it stops.	Pressure +1
5	OPENED	The effect creates a route, access, or line of contact that did not exist before.	I'll go through before it closes.	Clue +1
6	DRAINING	The source, tool, or user shows visible strain that will worsen if the power is used again.	I'll use it once more, now, while I can.	Cost +1
7	CONDITIONAL	A continuing part of the effect now depends upon one contact, position, action, or maintained condition.	I'll keep the condition myself and give up whatever else it prevents.	Control +2
8	NOTICED	Another intelligence, system, or active power becomes aware of the invocation or its source.	I'll finish what I started and let it watch.	Exposure +2
9	UNSEALED	The invocation opens, wakes, or releases another force that was already present.	I'll speak to what came out.	Threat +2
10	BACKLASH	The power produces a dangerous secondary effect at its source or in the surrounding area.	I'll take the backlash on myself.	Threat +2
11	IMPOSSIBLE SOURCE	The invocation draws power from a person, place, or object with no possible connection to it, and nothing can bridge the gap.	I'll draw on it again, and pay whatever it asks.	Uncanny +2
12	CHOOSING	The effect deliberately changes its target or purpose although nothing capable of making that choice is present or connected.	I'll let it choose, and follow where it goes.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The effect depends upon exact wording, aim, timing, strength, or position.	CAREFUL	Limits the power, checks the target and boundary, and preserves a way to stop it.
2	VOLATILE	The power could flare, spread, overload, or provoke a dangerous reaction.	RECKLESS	Uses more power or speed than is safe and accepts the risk of losing control.
3	CONNECTED	The invocation affects or depends upon another person, source, system, or place.	STRATEGIC	Improves the conditions, chooses the most useful point, or arranges support before invoking.
4	FLEETING	The source, target, alignment, charge, or permission will soon be lost.	URGENT	Invokes immediately without completing every preparation or test.
5	CONCEALED	An important source, limit, influence, or secondary effect cannot be perceived directly.	SECRETIVE	Hides the preparation, source, intended target, or full capability.
6	OVERT	Using the power requires a visible gesture, spoken command, exposed device, or obvious preparation.	DIRECT	Applies the power to the clearest target in the simplest available way.
7	LAYERED	Several effects, sources, targets, or rules interact at once.	METHODICAL	Activates or tests one part at a time and watches how each part responds.
8	EXPLOITABLE	Part of the power can be redirected, but doing so would weaken or alter its intended effect.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Redirects the available power towards an immediate advantage, even if that changes the original plan.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the chapel ward

Mara invokes a protective ward across the doorway of a ruined chapel. Her host-system check succeeds. Protective magic follows the setting’s understood rules, so she rolls the d10 rather than the d12.

She rolls:

Result 2: ANCHORED
Complication 1: DELICATE
Resistance: Control +1

Tell: Pale light gathers around a single iron nail in the threshold. When the loose doorframe shifts in the wind, the light stretches thin but does not break.

Impression: The ward is working, but it is anchored to the nail and depends upon the threshold remaining undisturbed.

Control +1 is recorded. Mara’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Invoke establishes the power’s manifestation and additional consequences. The host system retains authority over its intended effect and mechanical operation.

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L20 · Chase (Act · Process)

Use Chase when a character pursues a moving target or flees an active pursuer, and distance, route, and momentum are changing over time.

The chase may be on foot, mounted, through vehicles, between starships, or across another system where one side is actively trying to catch the other.

Use Track when the target is no longer present and the character is following signs. Use Travel when moving between places without an active pursuer. Use Fight when exchanging attacks becomes the main action. Use Infiltrate while avoiding detection inside a defended field. Use Survive when the environment or the character’s body becomes the principal opponent.

The host system determines speed, movement checks, crashes, damage, capture, and escape. Chase adds developments during the pursuit. Roll at meaningful turns, not after every movement action.

Ask: What changes as the pursuit continues?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	GAINING	The distance, lead, or position shifts clearly in the character's favour.	I'll spend everything to turn the advantage into an ending now.	Control +1
2	READABLE	The opposing side's route or next movement can be anticipated from what they are doing.	I'll move for where they'll be, not where they are.	Clue +1
3	CUT OFF	The character closes one route or option available to the opposing side.	I'll close the next one before they reach it.	Control +1
4	MOMENTUM	The character's present movement carries them beyond the last easy place to stop, turn, or change course.	I'll commit and stop looking for an exit.	Pressure +1
5	OBSTACLE	The pursuit reaches a barrier, crowd, terrain change, or obstruction that must be passed or avoided.	I'll go straight at it.	Pressure +1
6	TRADE-OFF	Continuing requires leaving behind, risking, damaging, or giving up something useful.	I'll give it up and keep moving.	Cost +1
7	SPLIT	Participants, targets, or routes divide, and the character cannot follow them all.	I'll commit to the one I want, not the one easiest to reach.	Pressure +2
8	TRACEABLE	The pursuit leaves a clear trail, recording, damage, or witness account that can be followed later.	I'll keep going and wear the consequences.	Exposure +2
9	CONVERGING	Another threat, force, or hazard is moving towards the same point as the pursuit.	I'll get there first.	Threat +2
10	FAILING	A body, mount, vehicle, route, or system shows clear signs that it cannot sustain the pursuit much longer.	I'll run it until it breaks.	Threat +2
11	LOOPED	The pursuit returns to a place already passed without anyone turning back, and no route, turn, or trick can account for it.	I'll break off the route and go straight.	Uncanny +2
12	DUPLICATED	The same pursuer or quarry occupies two separate positions at once although nothing could have made a second.	I'll follow the one that shouldn't be there.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	The lead or control depends upon exact speed, distance, timing, or handling.	CAREFUL	Protects the body, vehicle, companions, or cargo and avoids becoming unable to stop or turn.
2	VOLATILE	Traffic, unstable terrain, weapons, panic, or crowd movement could make the pursuit suddenly more dangerous.	RECKLESS	Takes a dangerous route, pushes beyond safe limits, or forces a way through.
3	CONNECTED	The pursuit's outcome will immediately affect another location, system, conflict, objective, or person counting on the character.	STRATEGIC	Predicts the route, controls important junctions, or coordinates another mover.
4	FLEETING	A chance to gain, escape, intercept, or end the pursuit will soon close.	URGENT	Commits to speed and movement immediately without checking every hazard.
5	CONCEALED	Part of the route, quarry, pursuer, or destination cannot presently be seen.	SECRETIVE	Breaks observation, hides the destination, or uses cover and misdirection.
6	OVERT	The pursuit is obvious and is drawing attention from those nearby.	DIRECT	Takes the clearest line towards the target or escape and relies upon speed or force.
7	LAYERED	The pursuit passes through different environments or forms of movement with different demands.	METHODICAL	Handles one route or hazard at a time and keeps track of the participants' positions.
8	EXPLOITABLE	A weakness in the route, timing, or opposing side's movement provides an immediate opening.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Changes route or target to use whatever opening appears.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — through the transit station

Novak pursues a fleeing courier through a crowded transit station. His host-system check succeeds.

He rolls:

Result 2: READABLE
Complication 3: CONNECTED
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: The courier ignores two street exits and follows the blue maintenance markings towards a restricted platform. A station diagram shows that the platform connects with the freight line beneath the building.

Impression: The courier’s route can now be anticipated, but the chase is moving into the freight system below the station.

Clue +1 is recorded. Novak’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Chase establishes how an active pursuit develops. The host system retains authority over movement, capture, escape, crashes, and damage.

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Endure — What does it do to me?

What does it do to me?

The five Endure tables are used when pressure bears upon the character through danger, desire, consequence, recovery, or passage. Here the world acts on the character rather than the other way round — choose by the form the pressure takes.

Your host system determines whether the character survives, resists, heals, recovers what was lost, or reaches the destination. Endure establishes what that experience leaves them dealing with, or carrying forward.

An Endure roll does not mean the character failed. A successful action may still leave a mark, create a dependency, reveal an opportunity, or change what happens next.

The character is trying to…	Use	Ask…
Endure an environment, hazard, or a body under strain	L21 Survive	What becomes important as the character endures the danger?
Face an opportunity, desire, or offer that is hard to refuse	L22 Tempt	What makes the temptation matter to the character?
Face one consequence that has already arrived	L23 Reckon	What form does the consequence take now?
Rest, treat, repair, or prepare after pressure	L24 Recover	What develops during the recovery?
Move between places across meaningful time or distance	L25 Travel	What does this stage of the journey bring with it?

Close boundaries

Immediate danger, or the passage? Use Survive when the surroundings or the character’s own body are the principal danger right now. Use Travel when the passage itself is the pressure. A journey moves to Survive the moment it enters immediate danger.

Still in danger, or safe? Use Survive while the danger remains immediate. Use Recover once the character reaches safety and begins restoring what was lost.

A consequence, or the situation it made? Use Reckon to give one consequence its present, concrete form. Use Assess to take in the whole situation that results. The consequence must already be present — Reckon never creates one from nothing.

Facing it, or facing them? Use Reckon when the consequence itself must be faced. Use Confront when directly answering the person responsible.

An offer, or a bargain? Use Negotiate when parties are exchanging terms. Use Tempt when the important question is how an offer presses on what the character is willing to do. Whether the offer is genuine, safe, or a trap is resolved by your host system or the Yes/No dice.

Physical passage, or social order? Use Travel for the road. Use Navigate for the court, the institution, the custom at the other end of it.

Changing tables

A journey (Travel) enters danger: Survive. The character reaches shelter and the danger is behind them: Recover. What happened on the road must now be answered for: Reckon. Somewhere in the aftermath, something is offered that would make it all easier: Tempt. Change tables when the form of pressure changes, and never roll two for the same moment.

L21 · Survive (Endure · Field)

Use Survive when the character endures immediate pressure from an environment, hazard, deprivation, contamination, or their own body.

The danger may be weather, fire, flood, vacuum, radiation, disease, hunger, exhaustion, unstable terrain, or another surrounding condition.

Use Travel when passage rather than immediate danger is the main concern. Use Fight when an opposing intelligence is exchanging violence with the character. Use Examine to diagnose one injury, substance, or source of danger. Use Recover once the character reaches safety and begins restoring what was lost.

The host system determines damage, injury, exhaustion, conditions, resource loss, and whether the character survives the immediate test.

Ask: What becomes important as the character endures the danger?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	SHELTER	One available position, structure, material, or condition reduces the immediate danger.	I'll take the shelter and give up the ground I held.	Control +1
2	PATH	One route through or away from the danger is safer than the others, though not completely safe.	I'll take it now, at speed.	Clue +1
3	ADAPTED	A repeated action or available protection clearly reduces the character's exposure.	I'll keep doing the thing that's working, past the point it's dull.	Control +1
4	BURDENED	Continued safety requires carrying, holding, watching, or maintaining something that occupies the character.	I'll carry it myself. I won't hand it to anyone.	Cost +1
5	STAINED	The danger leaves a visible or detectable trace upon the character or their equipment, but the trace is not itself harmful.	I'll leave the mark on and keep moving.	Exposure +1
6	SEPARATED	The danger cuts the character off from help, supplies, retreat, or companions.	I'll stop waiting for help and move alone.	Pressure +1
7	TRAPPED	The safest available position is difficult or dangerous to leave.	I'll leave it while I can still choose when.	Control +2
8	CONTAMINATED	The character or their equipment carries part of the danger onwards into another place.	I'll warn whoever I reach before I touch anything.	Exposure +2
9	WORSENING	The surrounding conditions intensify or spread faster than expected.	I'll move now, into it.	Threat +2
10	FAILING	The character's body, equipment, or shelter shows that it cannot withstand much more.	I'll spend the last of it in one go.	Threat +2
11	SELECTIVE	Two physically identical things receive exactly the same exposure; one is harmed and the other untouched, although no known rule or power can distinguish them.	I'll take the untouched one with me.	Uncanny +2
12	PURSUING	The danger changes direction or position to follow the character although no intelligence, force, system, or power could direct it.	I'll stop running and turn to face it.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Safety depends upon exact position, timing, handling, or a fragile protection.	CAREFUL	Conserves strength and supplies, tests the way ahead, and avoids unnecessary exposure.
2	VOLATILE	The danger could flare, spread, collapse, or change suddenly.	RECKLESS	Pushes through by the fastest route and accepts greater exposure or damage.
3	CONNECTED	The character's survival is tied to someone or something else that is also at risk.	STRATEGIC	Uses preparation, terrain, equipment, or available help to improve the position.
4	FLEETING	The danger is shifting, and the present chance to move or act will soon close.	URGENT	Moves or acts immediately before the body or situation worsens.
5	CONCEALED	The source, full extent, or first signs of the danger cannot be detected directly.	SECRETIVE	Uses concealment, insulation, silence, or masking to reduce exposure and leave fewer signs.
6	OVERT	The safest route leaves the character visible or exposed to another danger.	DIRECT	Takes the clearest route through the danger and relies upon available strength or protection.
7	LAYERED	Several hazards or forms of exposure interact at once.	METHODICAL	Deals with one hazard at a time and checks each protection before continuing.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The danger can be turned against another obstacle or threat.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses an immediate feature of the environment to gain an advantage.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the flooded engine room

Mara crosses an engine room flooded with electrically charged coolant. Her host-system check succeeds.

She rolls:

Result 2: PATH
Complication 2: VOLATILE
Resistance: Clue +1

Tell: A line of exposed support rails remains above the flooded floor. Each time the damaged pumps cycle, blue arcs jump closer to the rails.

Impression: The rails provide a route across the room, but the electrical surges are becoming unpredictable.

Clue +1 is recorded. Mara’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Survive establishes the character’s position within an immediate danger. The host system retains authority over injury, damage, conditions, and survival.

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L22 · Tempt (Endure · Will)

Use Tempt when an opportunity, advantage, desire, need, or offer presses upon what the character is willing to do.

The temptation may come from another intelligence, an object, a discovery, a substance, a power, or the circumstances themselves.

Use Negotiate when parties exchange terms. Use Deceive when the important question is whether a falsehood takes hold. Use Read to understand the intentions of whoever made an offer. Whether the temptation is genuine, safe, cursed, or deceptive is resolved separately by the host system or Yes/No Dice.

Tempt does not decide whether the character accepts. Apply any host-system rules for temptation, fear, compulsion, addiction, or self-control. Otherwise, the decision remains with the player.

Ask: What makes the temptation matter to the character?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	RELIEF	Accepting offers immediate escape from present pain, danger, debt, exhaustion, or responsibility.	I'll take the relief and settle up later.	Cost +1
2	WITHIN REACH	The temptation places within reach something the character previously sought, lost, or was denied.	I'll reach for it before I decide.	Pressure +1
3	ADVANTAGE	Accepting would directly advance the character's present aim or remove a known obstacle.	I'll take it for the aim, not for myself.	Control +1
4	PERMITTED	A rule, promise, authority, or past example gives the character a defensible reason to accept.	I'll say the reason out loud before I act.	Control +1
5	BELONGING	Accepting offers recognition, affection, status, membership, or a place among others.	I'll stay where I'm wanted a while longer.	Reputation +1
6	POWER	Accepting offers greater control, freedom, access, or authority.	I'll take the smallest part that serves me.	Control +1
7	EXCLUSIVE	Accepting closes another path, relationship, duty, or opportunity.	I'll shut the other door myself, now.	Cost +2
8	REFUSAL COSTS	Refusing would immediately forfeit or damage something the character already possesses or protects.	I'll refuse, and pay the cost openly.	Pressure +2
9	LAID BARE	Either acceptance or refusal will expose a private need, loyalty, fear, or weakness.	I'll name the need plainly before my choice exposes it.	Exposure +2
10	CRAVING	Contact, partial use, or even brief acceptance creates a continuing physical or emotional need.	I'll give in once more, and only once.	Threat +2
11	KNOWS YOU	The temptation presents a private desire or memory that no present or connected intelligence, system, or power could know.	I'll ask it where it got that.	Uncanny +2
12	ALREADY CHOSEN	Before the character decides, the opportunity changes them or takes its price as though they had accepted, although nothing could have chosen for them.	I'll accept it aloud, so it was mine to choose.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Accepting safely depends upon an exact limit, condition, time, or manner of use.	CAREFUL	Tests the offer and protects existing commitments before accepting anything.
2	VOLATILE	Acceptance or refusal could provoke immediate conflict, harm, panic, or retaliation.	RECKLESS	Takes the offered advantage immediately and ignores its apparent price.
3	CONNECTED	Another person or group will share the benefit or cost of whatever the character chooses.	STRATEGIC	Uses the offer to improve the wider position before making a final commitment.
4	FLEETING	The offer or opportunity will soon be withdrawn, taken, spoiled, or lost.	URGENT	Seizes the opportunity before its full cost can be examined.
5	CONCEALED	The true cost, source, ownership, or full terms cannot presently be known.	SECRETIVE	Conceals the desire and pursues the opportunity privately.
6	OVERT	Taking the opportunity requires a public act, declaration, or visible commitment.	DIRECT	Names what the character wants and answers the temptation openly.
7	LAYERED	The temptation combines several benefits, costs, conditions, or loyalties.	METHODICAL	Separates the benefits from the costs and considers one condition at a time.
8	EXPLOITABLE	Part of the offer can be used without accepting all of it, but doing so still creates a tie or obligation.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses the immediately valuable part without committing to the whole.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the unregistered token

Novak’s investigation has stalled. In seized evidence, he finds an unregistered access token for a sealed case archive. No host-system check is required for the opportunity to exist.

He rolls:

Result 3: ADVANTAGE
Complication 5: CONCEALED
Resistance: Control +1

Tell: The token’s status light shows that its archive access remains valid, but its ownership and issue history have been erased.

Impression: Using it could advance Novak’s case immediately, but he cannot tell who prepared it or what using it might expose.

Control +1 is recorded. Whether Novak uses the token remains the player’s choice.

Tempt establishes why an opportunity exerts pressure. It does not determine the character’s decision or establish whether the opportunity is truthful or safe.

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L23 · Reckon (Endure · Focus)

Use Reckon when one action, decision, failure, success, loss, verdict, or revelation has produced a consequence that the character must now face.

The consequence must already be present. Reckon does not create consequences from nothing, decide whether an authored event occurs, or advance an authored timeline.

Use Assess to understand the resulting situation as a whole. Use Confront when directly answering the person responsible. Use Survive when the consequence is an immediate physical danger. Use Recover when restoring what was lost is now the main concern.

The host system or scenario establishes the original event and any defined penalties, rewards, legal decisions, faction responses, or losses. Reckon gives the present consequence a concrete form.

Ask: What form does the consequence take now?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	ACKNOWLEDGED	An affected person or group acknowledges what happened and the character's part in it.	I'll take it as it's given. I won't soften my part in it.	Reputation +1
2	OWED	The consequence creates a specific debt, duty, payment, service, or act of repair.	I'll take on the whole debt and begin settling it now. I won't bargain for less.	Cost +1
3	TRACEABLE	A witness, record, or physical detail connects the consequence to the character or their action.	I'll go straight to whatever links me to it. I won't interfere with the trace.	Exposure +1
4	CLOSED	One route, resource, position, privilege, or relationship is no longer available.	I'll try to reclaim what closed. I won't look for a substitute.	Control +1
5	DIVIDED	Two duties, relationships, values, or necessary responses now pull in incompatible directions.	I'll honour the claim I must answer now. I won't explain myself to the other.	Pressure +1
6	OPENING	One concrete action could repair, answer, redirect, or limit part of the consequence.	I'll take the opening half-ready. I won't wait until I'm sure.	Clue +1
7	BLAMED	A person, group, or institution holds the character responsible and begins treating them accordingly.	I'll answer the blame openly. I won't hide behind anyone else.	Reputation +2
8	SEIZED	A person, group, or institution takes control of a resource, position, freedom, or responsibility because of what happened.	I'll take it back before they settle into it. I won't ask who authorised it.	Control +2
9	WIDENING	The present consequence makes an existing problem broader, more urgent, or harder to contain.	I'll cut the part that's spreading. I won't try to hold all of it.	Pressure +2
10	RETALIATION	Someone already affected by the event acts against the character now.	I'll meet it directly. I won't put anyone between us.	Threat +2
11	BEFORE THE CAUSE	The consequence bears a date, history, or physical age placing it before the already-established event that caused it, although nothing can account for that order.	I'll follow the consequence back to that earlier point. I won't trust the order I remember.	Uncanny +2
12	ONLY YOU REMEMBER	Everyone the character can reach denies the event, and every available record of it is gone, although its physical consequences remain.	I'll say what happened aloud and watch who reacts. I won't pretend to have forgotten too.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Addressing the consequence could damage a fragile relationship, position, recovery, or piece of evidence.	CAREFUL	Confirms what is owed or threatened and limits further harm before responding.
2	VOLATILE	Any response could trigger conflict, panic, further loss, or a harsher reaction.	RECKLESS	Answers immediately and visibly, accepting that the response may deepen the fallout.
3	CONNECTED	Any way of resolving this consequence will create a separate cost, duty, or problem elsewhere.	STRATEGIC	Protects the long-term position, gathers support, and addresses the most dangerous effect first.
4	FLEETING	A chance to repair, answer, appeal, or contain the consequence will soon close.	URGENT	Acts before the judgement, damage, or response becomes fixed.
5	CONCEALED	The full cost, responsibility, or range of affected people cannot presently be seen.	SECRETIVE	Handles the matter privately, hides involvement, and limits who learns more.
6	OVERT	The consequence is public, official, witnessed, or impossible to handle privately.	DIRECT	Acknowledges what happened and addresses the clearest demand openly.
7	LAYERED	Several debts, losses, judgements, or responses are linked together.	METHODICAL	Separates the immediate consequence from later ones and addresses each in order.
8	EXPLOITABLE	Another party is already using the consequence to press a separate claim, conflict, or agenda.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Uses the changed situation to gain an immediate advantage or redirect the blame.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the damaged vehicle

During a pursuit, Novak damaged a civilian vehicle. The host system has already established the damage.

He rolls:

Result 2: OWED
Complication 6: OVERT
Resistance: Cost +1

Tell: A formal repair notice bearing Novak’s name appears on the station board beside photographs of the damaged vehicle. Several colleagues stop to read it.

Impression: The incident has become a specific and publicly recorded debt that Novak must answer.

Cost +1 is recorded. Novak’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Reckon establishes the present shape of a known consequence. It does not alter the event that caused it or replace consequences already defined by the host system or scenario.

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L24 · Recover (Endure · Potential)

Use Recover during rest, treatment, repair, resupply, reflection, or downtime when lost strength, stability, readiness, or resources may return.

Use Survive while danger remains immediate. Use Examine when diagnosing one injury, fault, or condition. Use Bond when the relationship created through care is the important question. Use Reckon when the consequences of what happened must be faced.

The host system determines healing, repaired damage, restored resources, removed conditions, and the time required. Recover establishes what develops around that recovery.

Ask: What develops during the recovery?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	COMFORT	A familiar person, place, object, or routine provides stability during the recovery.	I'll stay in it an hour longer than I should.	Control +1
2	SUPPLIED	A source of an ordinary resource needed for recovery or preparation becomes available.	I'll take more than I need.	Clue +1
3	CLARITY	Rest or treatment brings one overlooked fact, memory, need, or priority into focus.	I'll act on it before the clarity goes.	Clue +1
4	MENDED	Time permits one damaged but nonessential item, space, or support to be made usable again.	I'll mend the thing that isn't mine.	Cost +1
5	PREPARED	The character has time to make one concrete preparation for a likely future pressure.	I'll make the one preparation and stop there.	Control +1
6	AIDED	Another intelligence openly offers practical care, shelter, supplies, or assistance.	I'll accept it, and say what it's for.	Reputation +1
7	INTERRUPTED	A person, demand, or event ends the safe recovery period before everything can be addressed.	I'll go, and leave the rest undone.	Control +2
8	DEPENDENT	Continued recovery relies upon one particular person, place, substance, device, or condition.	I'll secure the one thing and tell no one which it is.	Cost +2
9	DISCLOSED	The character's location, weakness, need, or condition becomes known to an intelligence outside the recovery.	I'll act before whoever knows can use it.	Exposure +2
10	DEEPER HARM	The immediate problem eases, but a sign points to something more serious beneath it.	I'll go on as though the sign weren't there.	Threat +2
11	HARM MOVED	An injury or condition disappears from the character and appears in another person or object, although nothing could have carried it across.	I'll go to where the harm has moved.	Uncanny +2
12	ANOTHER'S HEALING	The character recovers bearing the marks, habits, or memories of someone else's convalescence, although nothing could have shared them.	I'll keep their habits and let them lead.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Recovery depends upon quiet, precise treatment, careful repair, or fragile safety.	CAREFUL	Conserves resources, protects the recovery period, and tests limits before returning to action.
2	VOLATILE	Treatment, repair, pain, emotion, or unstable equipment could trigger a sudden setback.	RECKLESS	Returns to action early or pushes the body, mind, or equipment beyond safe limits.
3	CONNECTED	The character's recovery changes what another person, group, or system is able or expected to do.	STRATEGIC	Arranges supplies, assistance, preparation, and future support during the downtime.
4	FLEETING	One source of comfort, treatment, shelter, or support will not remain available after the recovery period.	URGENT	Secures the most important recovery or preparation before the opportunity ends.
5	CONCEALED	The injury, need, weakness, location, or recovery itself cannot safely become known.	SECRETIVE	Recovers privately, hides the condition, and limits who is allowed to help.
6	OVERT	Recovery requires openly withdrawing from duties or asking for time, space, or help.	DIRECT	Admits the need and asks openly for specific treatment, rest, repair, or assistance.
7	LAYERED	Several injuries, needs, emotions, repairs, or resources require attention.	METHODICAL	Addresses one problem at a time and checks each improvement before continuing.
8	EXPLOITABLE	The place, treatment, helper, or repair process offers an opportunity unrelated to recovery.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Ends or redirects part of the recovery to use an immediate opening.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the flooding shelter

Mara rests in an abandoned roadside shelter after crossing flooded hills. The host system resolves the benefits of the rest.

She rolls:

Result 5: PREPARED
Complication 4: FLEETING
Resistance: Control +1

Tell: The shelter’s stove gives enough heat to dry her cloak and rewrap her supplies, but floodwater is already spreading across the lowest step.

Impression: Mara has time to make one useful preparation, but the shelter will not remain usable for long.

Control +1 is recorded. Mara’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Recover establishes what develops around rest, treatment, or repair. The host system retains authority over restored health, conditions, resources, and mechanical readiness.

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L25 · Travel (Endure · Process)

Use Travel when characters move between locations across meaningful time or distance and the passage itself matters.

Travel may be on foot, mounted, aboard a vehicle or vessel, through space, or by another form of transport understood within the setting.

Use Chase when another side is actively pursuing or fleeing. Use Track when following signs left by a target. Use Survive when an immediate hazard becomes the principal danger. Use Navigate when moving through a social order rather than physical distance.

The host system determines navigation, fatigue, supplies, travel speed, encounters, and arrival. Travel adds developments during the passage. Roll once for a meaningful stage or turning point, not for every mile or hour.

An extraordinary form of transport still uses the d10 when it follows the setting’s understood rules. Use the d12 only when the journey may break those rules.

Ask: What does this stage of the journey bring with it?

d10/d12	Result	What it reveals	Impulse	Resistance
1	BEARING	A landmark, measurement, sign, or observation confirms the travellers' position or direction.	I'll press on through the next stretch without stopping.	Clue +1
2	RHYTHM	The repeated pace or routine creates time for a quiet task, conversation, or preparation.	I'll use the quiet on the thing I've been avoiding.	Control +1
3	WAYPOINT	A place offering shelter, supplies, contact, or a useful pause becomes available along the route.	I'll stop, even though I could go on.	Clue +1
4	COMPANY	Another traveller, group, vessel, or moving presence shares the route long enough to affect the passage.	I'll fall in with them.	Pressure +1
5	DETOUR	Progress continues by a longer, slower, or more costly route.	I'll take the long way and say nothing about it.	Cost +1
6	WORN	A body, mount, vehicle, supply, or piece of equipment shows strain that will worsen if the journey continues unchanged.	I'll push it one more stage.	Cost +1
7	DELAYED	Arrival remains possible, but it will occur later than expected or hoped.	I'll change the plan now to account for arriving late.	Pressure +2
8	TRACEABLE	The passage leaves a trail, record, damage, or witness account that others can follow later.	I'll go faster and leave the trace untouched.	Exposure +2
9	NO RETURN	A return route or alternative path closes behind the travellers.	I'll go on without looking back at it.	Control +2
10	HAZARD	The journey reaches an immediate environmental danger that must now be crossed, avoided, or endured.	I'll cross it now, ready or not.	Threat +2
11	DISTANCE BROKEN	The journey covers a distance that cannot fit the route or elapsed time, and no road, vessel, or passage can account for it.	I'll take the gained time and use it.	Uncanny +2
12	EXTRA TRAVELLER	One more traveller is present than set out, and no one can say when they joined or who they are, although nothing could have added them.	I'll travel beside them and ask their name.	Uncanny +2

Pressure — d8

d8	Complication	The Result is complicated because…	Approach	The character instinctively…
1	DELICATE	Progress depends upon exact pace, load, timing, handling, or a fragile means of travel.	CAREFUL	Conserves supplies, checks the route, and protects the slowest or most vulnerable traveller.
2	VOLATILE	Weather, terrain, traffic, machinery, animals, or tension could change suddenly.	RECKLESS	Takes the fastest dangerous route, pushes the pace, or ignores needed rest.
3	CONNECTED	The timing or outcome of this journey will directly alter a separate plan, deadline, or event.	STRATEGIC	Chooses routes, stops, supplies, or companions to improve the later position.
4	FLEETING	Transport, permission, tide, weather, daylight, or another travel window will soon be lost.	URGENT	Presses onwards before the route or means of travel becomes unavailable.
5	CONCEALED	The journey's purpose, destination, route, or passage cannot safely become known.	SECRETIVE	Hides the trail and destination and avoids the routes others would expect.
6	OVERT	The passage is visible, announced, recorded, or certain to draw attention.	DIRECT	Takes the clearest route and accepts being seen along it.
7	LAYERED	The journey contains several legs, borders, environments, or forms of transport with different demands.	METHODICAL	Divides the journey into stages and confirms supplies and direction at each one.
8	EXPLOITABLE	A stop, crossing, or change in route offers a separate opportunity unrelated to reaching the destination.	OPPORTUNISTIC	Changes the route or schedule to use an immediate opportunity.

Worked example — forwards reading

Example — the blocked mountain road

Mara guides a wagon towards a mountain settlement. Her host-system check succeeds.

She rolls:

Result 5: DETOUR
Complication 7: LAYERED
Resistance: Cost +1

Tell: A landslip blocks the road ahead. A marked forestry track still climbs towards the settlement, but it crosses a loose scree slope before descending through a shallow river.

Impression: The wagon can continue by a longer route, but the detour contains several different stages and hazards.

Cost +1 is recorded. Mara’s next action remains the player’s choice.

Travel establishes what develops during a meaningful passage. The host system retains authority over navigation, fatigue, supplies, encounters, and arrival.

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