| 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.) |