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Front Matter - Secrets

While most of the really cool stuff is found in the cultural write-ups, Near does have an array of generic Secrets available to all characters. The purpose of these Secrets is simple: they’re here to cover all the really basic stuff that should be assumed as a baseline for all characters. The color is also generic and concerns simple things like “this character hits really hard” – players should feel free to embellish here to whatever degree they want.

Another, traditional reason for the general Secret list is that it sort of sets the tone and helps newcomers get a grip on character creation. Mostly the general list provides grounding for fantasy tropes – they show simple tricks that you’d expect to encounter in the fantasy genre, providing a basis for when you want to develop more simple stuff yourself. I often set up new players with the open list, telling them to browse it through a bit to get a sense for what sorts of things characters in TSoY are expected to do and have.

Culturally the group may wish to assume that all civilizations of Near have their own tricks and heritage that is culturally different but amounts to the same thing mechanically. Thus the SECRET OF MIGHTY BLOW of a Maldorite might in the fiction represent different martial training than it does for a Khalean, for example. Alternatively, a given Secret, such as the SECRET OF BODHISATTVA, might genuinely be universal, so that two enlightened characters from opposite sides of the world recognize in each other the same truth. It depends on the Secret; I’d assume it obvious that something like the SECRET OF CONDITIONING requires some back-story specification to find out where the mechanical effect comes from for this character. I might gloss over it in practice with a group that doesn’t care, but were the issue to ever come up, having an explanation is a nice addition to the fiction.

Cultural Strengths

Later, in the actual culture write-ups, there are headings for “Cultural Strengths”. Under these I have long lists of suggestions for how to adapt some of the more generic common Secrets for the culture in question. For example, I might list “specializations”, which are suggestions for how to use the SECRET OF SPECIALTY with that culture.

Traditionally this sort of content would have been written into separate Secrets to emphasize how this culture is really good at swimming or whatever, but that goes a bit old, isn’t that helpful to you and takes a lot of space, frankly, so I stopped doing it and just listed everything in one long list. I try to separate only Secrets that have somehow strange mechanics or are otherwise notable.

One thing the players might wish to do (and which was explicitly done in earlier editions of TSoY) is to make common Secrets based on cultural strengths just the slight bit more powerful than any old implementation a player might grab. This could range from allowing an abnormally wide specialization to picking two generic Secrets under one heading. This is all fine, as the Secrets featured in Cultural Strengths are mostly pretty low-key stuff anyway. Thus, to pick an old TSoY example, the SECRET OF SWAMP LORE would be a Zaru SECRET OF SPECIALIZATION that also expanded the usage of WOODCRAFT (I) a bit.

This might go without saying, but do treat those lists of cultural strengths as a list of examples to be added to as the group’s understanding of the given culture increases. Here more than anywhere else I just sat down and typed whatever came to mind, there is no great plan behind the free association that went into this particular piece of crunch.

Mechanical Issues

While most of the general Secrets are mechanically simple, this is a good place to introduce some overriding mechanical principles I’ve worked with while editing this book to shape. Some of these are terminology issues, some are new rules, some are optional rules. See for yourself.

Spending Pool at Character Creation

This one always comes up, especially in the TSoY crunch landscape: when a player wants to start play with an Effect or a piece of equipment, do they pay Pool for it?

I used to not worry about this, but the players actually seem to be happier if the mechanics are followed in a robust manner. So yes, have the character pay Pool for each Effect you roll for him in character creation. The character starts play with somewhat expended Pools.

Real tough guys might want to craft several items for their character at character creation with the SECRET OF CREATION, as opposed to just talking it over with the Story Guide and setting appropriate statistics for the equipment. If it’s just one piece, handle it like Effects, above. If it’s several, assume that the character refreshes his Pools after each project. Equipment is so expensive to create that few characters could make more than one without refreshment.

Pool Spend Caps

I noticed in writing this book that there is a boatload of Secrets in here that work with the Solar System Pool spending limitations. It’s that small rule that says that characters can buy exactly one bonus die for an Ability check with a Pool point from the associated Pool, but no more than one, and not from other Pools.

In this text I call this rule the “Pool spend cap” of a given Ability, associated with a certain Pool. Thus, when I say that a Secret “removes the Pool spend cap”, that means you get to spend as much Pool as you want on those bonus dice. Pretty simple, I just thought it better to mention this for clarity’s sake.

Superior Leverage

Many Secrets in the book reference this concept. You can read about the theoretical background I went through with it in chapter 4, but it’s better to mention it here as well.

When a character has “superior leverage”, it’s just my technical speak for the fact that his position in the fiction makes it infeasible for his opponents to engage him in conflict. For example, a character standing on top of his house and throwing rocks at his enemies has superior leverage – he can hurt his enemies, but they can’t feasibly hurt him. Superior leverage is the next step down from two circumstance penalty dice: the situation is even worse for the opponent.

When a character has superior leverage, conflict rules are not engaged at all: the opponent loses the conflict automatically, one might say. One might also take the situation into extended conflict were one so inclined, but superior leverage works there as well: if the opponent insists on attacking the superior leverage directly, he will lose every round of conflict automatically.

The proper method for working around superior leverage is not to engage in conflict; the whole idea of the concept is to formalize and speak about the situations in fiction where everybody from audience down understands that conflict is not feasible. Like escaping stormtroopers in STAR WARS, nobody in the audience questions Luke & Han’s choice to not attack and try to conquer the Death Star singlehandedly.

Rather, characters work their way around superior leverage by avoiding it. Change the conditions so you don’t need to encounter strength with weakness. If your opponent has superior leverage in a debate, stab him. If he has too many stormtroopers, try to talk them over. Or perhaps bring in your own superior leverage to match him, if you can.

Often characters can engage superior leverage meaningfully with PARTIAL conflict stakes, where the weaker party has less to win and more to lose. While the opponent might hit you with a stone and injure you, you might be able to get up to the roof to attempt restraining him in a further conflict, for example.

Last, to clarify: superior leverage is a judgment on the fiction of the game, one which the Story Guide makes when assigning stakes for the conflict. Some crunch might explicitly assign a character with superior leverage in certain situations, but this doesn’t mean that the Story Guide can’t give it to anybody by declaration. This is a normal part of the leverage evaluation the Story Guide does in the SOLAR SYSTEM rules: conflicts are only ever played out when both parties have some chance of success.

Overflow dice

Some Secrets, such as the equipment rules (chapter VI), make use of the concept of OVERFLOW DICE. These are any dice that were left over after choosing the three best or worst dice in an Ability check. So if you rolled a total of five dice, for example, then you’d necessarily have two dice left over after choosing the three that actually contribute to the check result. Those are the overflow dice.

Obviously enough, when you have overflowdependent crunch in play, don’t mess up the dice on the table when rolling. Technically, the overflow does not go away before the whole Ability check procedure ends, as it’s possible to add bonus and penalty dice into the roll several times, which also adds to the overflow again and again.

When using overflow dice, I allow players to choose freely to downgrade their result to modify their overflow. So if you really want a ‘+’ die in your overflow and have one in your standing dice, go on and switch the ‘+’ die out. I sometimes even allow desperate players to roll extra penalty dice into their check if they really must get overflow any way they can; feel free to experiment with this, these are pretty new rules compared to most of the SOLAR SYSTEM toolbox.

What you actually do with overflow dice depends on the Secrets that use them, but the general idea is that I wanted to create an array of Secrets that would make high numbers of bonus dice a bit more useful for the dedicated character. TSoY has traditionally had a pretty bonus-dicey crunch landscape, so rolling a +3 in an Ability check has not been that difficult; with the idea of overflow dice we can create crunch that rewards or punishes the excess dice.

Overflow dice that are used for some purpose are always consumed from the table. This mostly matters if you have some wacky crunch that uses the overflow in several different ways.

Aggravated Harm

Several Secrets in the book use the concept of AGGRAVATED Harm, which, as you might imagine, is always some sort of extra annoying Harm. Aggravated Harm does not shake down and is not associated with a Pool, and can’t thus be healed naturally. Often specific sources describe even worse effects.

Healing Abilities work normally on aggravated Harm. I also allow a healer to make an Ability check to turn all aggravated Harm equal or under the check result into normal Harm, which also shakes the Harm down.

Flashbacks, Flashforwards, Intermissions

A central theme of TSoY on the most primordial poetic level is the eponymous shadow of yesterday. In my play this seems to come up as all sorts of flashback mechanics and other weird non-chronological storytelling devices. They don’t make an appearance often, but they are regulars in the toolbox.

My general principle for playing scenes in nonchronological order is to refuse to engage in retooling character sheets. We just use the character exactly as he happens to be. This makes certain sorts of narrative sense (that is, this is how movies work), and it saves work, too. If a character is different enough in two time-frames, my solution of choice is to write him up as a new character when necessary.

Players always play their own characters in all scenes when I play, even if we’ve sort of established that they did some things in the past that they now need to re-enact. I remind the players of what we already know, but they play their characters freely; that’s one of the dangers of a real flashback scene.

When non-chronological scenes contradict established facts, a character who is telling the story or experiencing the memory gets to make a STORYTELLING (R) check so we can find out how believable this version of the events is. Others can conflict the story, of course. I’ve never had this happen, but I suppose that this method could be used between time-frames to find out which timeframe is actually the primary one if the game timejumps (in memories, non-chronological telling or actual time travel) a lot and the players are confused.

Lastly: the Story Guide can always opt to replace a narratively difficult scene with a CUT SCENE: instead of playing a scene, one player (often the Story Guide) makes an expository monologue before the game continues. This is always the case when there are no player characters in the scene.

Limited Effects

This is a variant rule I’ve found worth considering in TSoY, at least for some groups. The idea is that while Near is supposed to be pretty grim at times, the game mechanics actually provide quite a kick for characters if the players start really working with all the crunch available. Effects from SOLAR SYSTEM rules can especially be leveraged in some interesting ways with the crunch in this book. Gift dice don’t fare well in this environment, as their impact is lessened by players wielding large inherent dice pools.

If the group feels that their game has too many bonus dice floating around, they might consider LIMITED EFFECTS: have Effects spent for bonus dice be limited to one die per check, just like Pools are. For an extra-grim take, count each Effect under the Pool spend cap of the Pool it derives from (rather than allowing one die from each Effect). In this latter method Effects are still worthwhile in that they save Pool for the character and might allow a character to tap on the Pool spend caps of several Pools when an Effect is applicable to a situation where the Effect and the Ability are from different Pools.

It would also make sense to apply this rule only in extended conflict, akin to how support checks from secondary Abilities are limited.

I’ve played both with and without this rule, and it’s not nearly mandatory. Rather, just like all alternate rules, it’s something to take up when and if the problem (too many dice in this case) comes up in play.

Fragile Effects

Another variant rule in the same vein concerns Effects in another use, as direct resistance against Ability checks in conflict. Some crunch in TSoY provides characters with potentially pretty powerful Effects that protect them from other characters. Gorenite RITUAL WORKINGS, Ammenite ALCHEMY and giant ONE-EYES are good examples; they can be very unforgiving, almost a done deal against a low-Ability character.

If the group starts to feel that such Effects protect characters too much and result in dramatic duds, they may consider FRAGILE EFFECTS: under this rule all Effects that participate in conflict directly lose an Effect level regardless of the conflict outcome; thus Effects ablate in use. If the opponent wins and tries to destroy the Effect, it is immediately destroyed, just like always.

Circumstance Penalties to Effects

One last variant rule concerning Effects, or rather a Story Guide option. When a character encounters adverse circumstances, he suffers circumstance penalty dice to his Ability check. This same rule can be extended to Effects in advanced play by considering the Effect’s value to be one level less for each level of current circumstance penalty. Thus an AMAZING (4) angry mob might operate as just GREAT (3) in horrid weather conditions. Simple.

I wouldn’t worry about these details with a soft beginner-type group, but if the group is playing hard-ball with some of the more advanced applications of the rules, this might become worthwhile.

Game Balance

Because this comes up pretty often both in play and discussions, I feel that I should mention it explicitly here: the purpose of SOLAR SYSTEM crunch is usually not to be “balanced” in the sense of providing all players with different characters a fair shot at overcoming each other or some imaginary opposition in a wrestling match. To the contrary, different crunch provided in the game is nothing more or less than what it seems like: itemized points of contact between the fictional matter and mechanics of the game. The only balance here concerns upholding meaningful gameplay while focusing attention and inspiring outcomes.

I’ve discussed this in the actual SOLAR SYSTEM rules, but it really is important: the very idea of playing TSoY is to deck up a couple of bad-ass fantasy heroes and bash them together until one’s brains come out. A themeful story is created when we, as audience, make judgments not only of who was stronger, but also who was more in the right and who would have deserved to win. This has nothing to do with game balance, having a hero doomed to lose because his cultural crunch sucks in comparison to his opponent just stacks the deck towards a certain story outcome. This is good, because in SOLAR SYSTEM we enjoy those points of contact and don’t want equalized 50/50 chances.

Universal Secrets in Near

These Secrets are known all over Near. Some of the bunch are little more than frameworks that allow the players to model details as they wish.

Secrets - Universal

Blessing
The character can bless endeavors, tools and places with a ritual of his faith. The player makes a PRAY (V) check to create the blessing as an Effect which is then moved to the recipient’s character sheet. Blessing Effects are spent as bonus dice; usually they manifest in the fiction only subtly, but when Keys are activated simultaneously, supernatural light effects or such might happen as well. Blessing Effects are not affected by Pool spend caps under the LIMITED EFFECTS variant rule.
Cost: as per normal for Effects.
Conditioning (Pool)
The character has been especially conditioned in one of his Pools, either intentionally or by cruel fate. The Pool spend cap is increased by one for the Pool; while others can only spend one Pool point per Ability check on bonus dice, this character can spend two from this Pool. This Secret can be purchased multiple times.
Contacts
The character is well-traveled and knows people in many places. A VAGRANCY (I) or LOCAL (R) check is enough to establish that the character has in fact visited a given place in the past. The player may also activate this Secret to establish that his character has a pre-existing relationship to another character in the game; the player describes the relationship with a short phrase, while the controller of the other character establishes the attitude of the other character and the current state of the relationship.
Cost: 1 POOL for locations, 3 for characters, Pool mix chosen by the Story Guide: VIGOR for buddies, INSTINCT for lovers and REASON for colleagues, for example.
Counsel
The character knows how to heal broken spirits. Sometimes this is taught, but most often it is instinctual kindness. When the character advises another and the advice is accepted, the player may make an appropriate emotional Ability check such as PRAY (V), MUSIC (I) or STORYTELL (R) to heal mental or social Harm for the target.
Cost: 1 appropriate Pool
Culture (specify)
The character loves his people. He can use any CULTURAL STRENGTHS listed for the culture in question as if he had the corresponding Secret.
Cost: 1 POOL appropriate to the situation.
Dark Rhetoric
The character may impose the KEY OF DESPERATION upon another character with a successful SPEAK (R) check. The target may RESIST (R), of course. The target pays for the Key normally, going into Advance debt if necessary.
Cost: 2 Instinct.
Requirement: KEY OF DESPERATION
Day Labor
The character does not pay Pool to create Effects with the HARD WORK (V) Ability as long as he doesn’t possess any Vigor-based Effects.
Enhancement (Ability)
The character has a heroic Ability that does not have a Pool spend limit. This might be because of specialized initiation, exotic training or simply from being so cool. Regardless, the Pool spend cap for this Ability is lifted altogether: the player can buy however many bonus dice he wants for this Ability.
Experience
Whenever the character does something notable, the player may choose to record his Ability check as a free Effect under this Secret. These Effects are free of Pool costs, but they cannot be used during the session they were recorded. Later the Effects can be used normally when the character encounters situations similar to his past experience.
Herbal Medicine
The character has studied natural remedies. A WOODCRAFT (R) check allows him to know and locate suitable herbs to treat most injuries and illnesses. The check may directly heal Harm or allow further checks to treat the patient (e.g. HOUSEWORK (R)).
Cost: 1 REASON
Home Set (specify)
The character has a milieu particularly important to him. The player can make an appropriate LOCAL (R) check to force the next scene to happen there. The Story Guide can make the obligatory scene a cut scene if he wants. Cost: 1 INSTINCT
Inner Meaning
The character’s art has an expressive spark to it regardless of his level of skill. A piece of art created with CRAFTWORK (I) or other suitable Ability, when turned into an Effect, may at the player’s choice influence anybody witnessing the art emotionally, akin to how MUSIC (I) would. The target may resist the influence with RESIST (R) against the Effect value.
Cost: 1 REASON per check forced.
Knockback
The character may send others flying with his powerful blows. In extended conflict this can end the conflict if the player’s check was the highest of all during a round; such a conflict ends without resolving the stakes, making for an opportunity to back off.
Cost: 2 VIGOR
Language (specify)
The character knows an extra language in addition to his own. If no character in the campaign has this Secret, then it’s up to the Story Guide to decide how much pain in the ass he wants language to be, case-by-case.
Luck
When the character gets GIFT DICE from others, the player gains an equal number of dice into his own Gift Pool to redistribute. Even if the group is not using Gift Dice, other players can still each give one Gift Die to this character to any checks they want.
Mighty Blow
When the character deals injury to another by violence, the player may choose to increase the level of Harm caused by paying VIGOR: 1 point per one level of increase. The maximum level of Harm is MORTAL (6), however.
Cost: 1+ VIGOR
Past
The character has a rich and meaningful past. Whenever this backstory comes up in play, the player may choose to frame a flashback scene revealing a part of it. Play the scene as cut scene if appropriate.
Cost: 1 INSTINCT
Prophecy
The character gets prophetic flashes. Either the player or the Story Guide may activate this Secret to have the player make a PRAY (V) check; the player may call for his character to RESIST (R) the vision, however. Success indicates important visions of the future or far away places, narrated by the player who called for the prophecy. The check result may be made into an Effect by anybody the prophecy pertains to (whether present or not); anybody who hears of the prophecy can duplicate the Effect by paying for it, making it viral. The prophetic Effect provides bonus dice normally, and may also be used for penalty dice on pertinent opposing checks.
Cost: 1 VIGOR
Prophecy #2
The player can make a PRAY (V) check to get a look at the Key Elements list in advance. The Story Guide shows him as many Key Elements as the level of his check indicates.
Cost: 1 VIGOR
Quest (specify)
The character has a treasure map, plan or other precepts for achieving a major goal, which probably involves gaining some rare Secret or Key or such. This Secret is replaced with the target Secret after three successful conflicts towards the goal: the Story Guide includes the quest in the stakes of appropriate conflicts. He also determines whether losing the conflict risks the whole plan or not.
Retrain (Ability, Pool)
The character has undergone some special training or exotic conditions related to the Ability in question. For example, he might practice a Reason-based musical style taught in old Maldorian art academies. The Ability is now associated with both its original Pool and a new Pool. The two Pools have separate point spend limits for this Ability. The player may also rename the Ability at this point to reflect the changing emphasis; this might be useful in moving between cultures that have similar but separate Abilities, for example.
Scribing (specify)
The character knows how to read and write in one writing system. If no character in the campaign has this Secret, then it’s up to the Story Guide to decide how much pain in the ass he wants literacy to be, case-bycase.
Shrew
The character is skilled at tugging at the heart-strings of others with their manipulation. The player may opt to spend a successful social Ability check result as penalty dice against the target character if the target opts to act against the advice given by the shrew. This works even for social Effects created in earlier scenes. The shrew does not have to be present to spend the dice, as long as the target remembers their earlier interaction.
Sidekick (person)
Choose an amiable secondary character that has no Abilities higher than the character’s highest. The secondary character is now assumed to stick with the player character and help him out of loyalty to common motives, payment or other suitable motive. The sidekick follows instructions for the most part; the Story Guide may contest individual commands with a RESIST (R) check. The secondary character has KEY OF SERVANT for free, but may not use any other Keys; the player character may not gain experience due to interaction with his sidekick. Should the sidekick decide to leave, he decides whether the master gains back the Advance spent on this Secret.
Specialty (focus)
The character has focused his skills to a specific direction. Choose a specialty that is narrower than an Ability. The character gains a free bonus die to any Ability check made within the specialty.
Sudden Knife
The character is practiced as a killer. When the player activates this Secret in a violent conflict, death for the losing party becomes a part of the stakes. Either party may voluntarily de-escalate, but as long as the assassin continues to seek death, he gains a boon: for each ‘ ‘ overflow die in his Ability check, he causes a penalty die for his target’s check (opposed checks only in extended conflict).
Cost: 3 from the Pool associated with the current conflict Ability, 1 from each other Pool.
Synergy (Ability, Ability)
The character has learned to combine the two Abilities seamlessly in situations that utilize both. The character may use either Ability to support the other in extended conflict as a normal support chain that does not expend a round. In normal conflicts check both Abilities simultaneously and have the worse check support the better, regardless of other conditions.
Vagabond
The character has lived among different cultures through his life. For each time the player takes this Secret he may add one background culture for his character, allowing him to use crunch from several cultures in character creation and later development. The cultures have to border each other geographically or be otherwise connected. (Note that characters can gain crunch from other cultures without this Secret in play. The Secret just formalizes the fact that the character has spent a long while with a culture and can improvise crunch from it like he were native.)