The Archetypes

Guardian, Healer and Shadow are archetypes, and there are fourteen more. An archetype gives you permissions the way any Title does, and it’s got a mechanic of its own, something only that archetype can do. Ash is an Elementalist, so one of her dice can be a burst of fire that catches every guard in the doorway, and she’s the only one in the crew who can do that.

Start with how they work, then find your two in Picking Your Archetypes. After that, every archetype has a section of its own, in alphabetical order: what it does, what 1 Aura gets you on it, and an example.

How Archetypes Work

Your Title is the name you give your archetype. Bram’s a Guardian, and his Title is The wall that held the harbour gate. Write the archetype next to the Title on your sheet. The Title’s got to be real and specific, one role or one school of magic (Archmage is too wide, so pick the school you’re known for), and it counts 1 on any roll it fits, the same as a permission.

• You start with two archetypes, each with a Title and three permissions. They don’t have to be different archetypes. Vesk’s a Shadow twice over, as The best cat burglar in the city and Raised by the Guild.
• Permissions have to fit inside the Title they’re on, and a Title holds six at most. Two of those slots can hold a Boon instead. There’s more on writing a good one in Permissions.
• A new archetype comes when your Aspiration climbs past d12. You name a Title for it, and it starts with one permission. That’s another Title, so your Resolve maximum goes up by one as well.
• Your mechanic is the thing only your archetype can do, and it’s spelled out in that archetype’s section. When a mechanic has you roll, you build the dice the usual way, from the set action that fits how you’re doing it. Bram’s orders come off his Talk, the same as anything else he says.

1 Aura on your mechanic

The 2 goes on the number you rolled, so a 4 on a d6 becomes a 6. A Warrior’s die still explodes when the +2 takes it to its top face or past it, but there’s no Aura for it. A few archetypes don’t get a +2 at all: the Oracle takes more steps off, the Bloodsworn clears boxes on their own Hurt track, and the Teleporter opens a portal. Each section says what you’ll get.

What only one archetype does

A few things in the game belong to one archetype, and if you’re not that archetype, you can’t do them:

• Leading is the Leader’s: handing your steps out to friends. Anyone can put their action into a friend’s roll as a combo.
• Areas are the Elementalist’s. A Sweep weapon goes at everyone in your reach whoever’s swinging it, and threats have areas of their own (see Area).
• Heal rolls are the Healer’s. Anyone can quick heal for 1 Aura.
• Catching souls and summoning are the Summoner’s.
• Pulling more than one enemy’s attack onto you when you Defend is the Guardian’s. Anyone can Defend and pull one.

Picking Your Archetypes

If you’ve got a Title in your head already, pick the archetype that fits it. If you’d rather start from what you want to do at the table, here’s what each one’s for, and the Title ideas that suit it. The ideas are full of example Titles and permissions to build from. They’re only suggestions, though, so if the Title you write fits a different archetype better, go with that one.

The crew’s archetypes

Here’s how the six ready-made characters come out. Each Title’s the name they’ve given their archetype.

Vesk and Wren have each taken one archetype twice, so they’ve got +3 for their 1 Aura: Vesk on her Shadow, and Wren on her Hunter. Bram, Dorrie and Ash get +2 on each of theirs, and Isolde gets +2 on her Study and 2 more steps for her Oracle.

Bard

The Bard’s for nerve. You’re the one keeping the crew’s Confidence up, and answering fear, lies and pressure for everyone who can hear you.

Lift them. Spend your action, and every friend who can hear you goes up a size of Confidence, as far as d10. The last push to d12 has to be their own.

Hold them. When fear, lies or pressure come at you or friends who can hear you, answer all of it with one roll of your song, as your action. Each telegraph your roll beats is stopped, and each one it doesn’t lands at once, the same as any answer you lose. Anyone who had all of it stopped goes up a size, as if they’d stopped it themselves.

Title ideas: Bard · Faith

Bloodsworn

The Bloodsworn gets more dangerous every time they’re hurt.

Every Hurt you take adds 3 steps to your action. Take one on purpose as you act and the steps go on that roll. Take one any other way and they go on your next action.

Title ideas: Warrior · Hexer

Elementalist

The Elementalist hits everyone in an area at once, like fire across a doorway or lightning down a corridor.

Areas are yours. One of your dice can be your area instead of an intent. Say its shape, roll it with the rest, and the number’s how far it goes:

• Burst: that many squares out from a point.
• Cone: that long the way you face, and as wide at the end.
• Line: twice as far, straight out.

It takes one of your splits, and it doesn’t cost Aura. Everyone the story puts in it defends against your other die, and you can always make it smaller, which you’ll want when your friends are in it. Without a grid, 1 or 2 is everyone close to the target, 3 to 5 is everyone within a few steps, and 6 or more is the whole room. There’s more in Area.

Title ideas: Fire · Storm · Kinesis

Face

The Face gets into a threat’s head, so its own attacks go where you say.

Spend your action and build your dice the usual way, but don’t roll them. Put them on a threat as influence, and they stay until you use them or the scene ends. At any point before one of its telegraphs lands, roll your influence against it. Each of its dice that your best influence die beats is yours: say what it does instead, as long as it fits the story, like hitting one of its own or the ground. Then the influence is spent.

Title ideas: Face · Courtier · Streetwise · Enchantment

Guardian

The Guardian stands in front of the crew and takes what’s coming at them.

When you Defend, every attack aimed at friends within your stride comes at you, whichever enemy it’s from. Roll your Armour once for each die, or your Confidence against fear, lies and pressure, then choose which roll blocks which. To get past you, threats have to pull the crew apart.

If you’re a Teleporter as well, your Defend reaches every friend within 10 units (see Teleporter).

Title ideas: Guardian · Warding · Faith

Healer

The Healer patches people up in the middle of a scene, so you don’t have to wait for downtime.

Only a Healer can make a heal roll. It’s an action rolled against the patient’s wound die, a d6 that’s a size bigger for each Catch on their Hurt track: a d8 with one, a d10 with two and a d12 with three. Each die that beats it clears a box. It can clear any box, even one in a bar with a Catch, but the Catch doesn’t go anywhere.

A heal reaches one person. Split it to clear more boxes, or to reach a second person you can touch. Anyone can quick heal, though: 1 Aura clears one box on one person, no roll, but it’ll take your action (see Healing).

Title ideas: Healer · Mending · Faith

Hunter

The Hunter marks the prey, and everyone who goes at it rolls an extra die.

Spend your action and roll against a creature to mark it. Win and it’s Marked, a special condition carrying the die you won with. It doesn’t give a step and nobody spends it. Instead, anyone who acts against it rolls the Mark die too, as one more die against it. It fades a size every round like any condition.

Title ideas: Ranger · Investigator

Illusionist

The Illusionist makes threats believe in things that aren’t there.

Spend your action and roll your illusion dice against the threats’ Challenge. Meet or beat it and they believe your illusion until they interact with it or try to get through it: a clone of you for them to hit, a wall to run around, a crate to hide under. To see through it before then, a threat has to beat what you rolled. A tie’s yours here, and you don’t pay Aura for it.

Title ideas: Illusion

Leader

The Leader hands their own steps out to the crew.

Only a Leader leads. An order or a rallying song is an action: build it from your set action, then hand its steps out however you like to friends who can hear or see you. They add them to their own rolls this round, and the steps don’t have to fit. Steps you’re handed don’t give you a split. A lead can be a combo too, with friends putting their actions in before you hand it out.

Title ideas: Captain · Courtier · Sailor

Maker

The Maker gives an item something extra for the scene.

Spend your action and roll against the item’s size: a d4 for something tiny like a ring, a d6 for something small like a dagger, a d8 for something medium like a shield, a d10 for something large like armour, and a d12 for anything intricate. Each die that beats it gives the item a tag for the scene.

A tag is a special property, and it follows the same rules as a permission. A ring that gives you an extra step to dodge is fine, and a ring that gives you haste isn’t. Whoever’s holding the item can break a tag instead of taking a Hurt.

Title ideas: Tinker · Artifice

Oracle

The Oracle sees what’s coming and makes it smaller before it lands.

Spend your action and build it from your set action, but don’t roll. Take its steps off the threats’ telegraphs however you like. Every step takes a telegraph’s die down a size, so 2 steps turn a d8 into a d4, and a die with no steps left is gone.

Title ideas: Divination · Warding · Medium · Hexer

Scholar

The Scholar’s Study can make something true.

Everyone’s Study finds a hidden tag or a straight answer. When you win a Study, you can introduce a truth instead: something that wasn’t obvious to anyone else. Say it, and it’s true and it matters here. It counts as a permission for the crew this scene, and since it can’t sit on a set action, it counts free on any roll it fits.

Title ideas: Scholar · Investigator

Shadow

The Shadow notices things from where nobody’s looking, and what they’ve seen is worth dice later.

When you get into hiding, the dice you rolled to hide go into your shadow pool. They’re the things you noticed while nobody was looking. Add them to any roll after that, talking and Study included, as their own dice or as steps (a d8 is 4 steps). A die’s gone once you use it, and the next time you hide, your pool starts again with the new dice.

Coming out of hiding gives you an extra action, the same as it does for anyone. It’s one extra action, even if you’re Unseen as well.

Title ideas: Rogue · Face · Streetwise · Veil

Shifter

The Shifter takes on what animals can do, whether that’s wings or a breath attack.

You collect animal tags, the way a Summoner catches souls. Spend your action, pick one and roll your Shifter dice against its die: most are a d4, swimming’s a d6, flying’s a d8 and a breath attack’s a d12. Beat it and the tag’s yours until downtime. It lets you do what the animal does, and it counts as a line when it fits. Split to go for more than one, and strip one of your animal tags instead of taking a Hurt if you want to.

Title ideas: Wildcraft

Summoner

The Summoner catches the souls of fallen creatures and calls them back out when there’s work to do.

Catching souls and summoning are the Summoner’s, and nobody else can do them. Here’s what you’ll need at the table, and the rest is in Summoning.

• Your souls live in your summoning attunement, on the same three stages as an attuned item: 1 at Awakened (2 with a Catch), 2 at Tempered (4 with a Burden) and 3 at Perfected (6 with a Burden and a Catch). Starting souls are d4s.
• Your Summon dice are a set action like any other: your Title, the permissions that fit, and the action.
• Catching a soul: when a creature falls, spend your action and roll your Summon dice against its Challenge. Beat it and its soul goes into one of your utility slots. Miss and it’s gone. In downtime, put it into your summoning attunement.
• Summoning takes your action, and it needs a reason in the story. Roll your Summon dice against your souls’ dice, and each of your dice brings out one soul it beats. Split to go for more.
• A soul is what it was. A caught courtier talks and a hound tracks. Summons act in the round like anyone, and one hit takes one out. Its soul goes back to its slot, ready to call again.

Title ideas: Medium

Teleporter

The Teleporter jumps from spot to spot, and opens portals for the crew.

Your stride can be a teleport of up to 10 units. If you’re a Guardian as well, your Defend reaches every friend within those 10 units, because you jump to each of them.

Title ideas: Phase

Warrior

The Warrior’s for fighting, with dice that don’t stop at their top face.

Your dice explode when you fight. A die that lands on its top face gives you 1 Aura as usual, then you roll it again and add the new number on, the only time dice add apart from moving. It keeps going as long as it keeps landing on top, so a d8 that comes up 8, then 5, is a 13.

Title ideas: Warrior · Sailor · Kinesis