The Basics

All roads lead to the City. It is a land rich with trade and culture, a land of ancient dignity. The fay and underfolk both claim that the City predated the coming of humans, but the City is now undeniably the seat of humankind. For generations, men and women of famous heritage and noble blood have ruled the City through ages of feast and ages of famine.

And then, the Underworld opened beneath it.

Beneath the world’s largest metropolis, passages in plaster mines were discovered that led to a gargantuan castle, surrounded by a ruined city, deep inside the stygian depths.

Each adventurer has a personal quest that compels them into the lightless depths. Once their quest is fulfilled, they can finally retire and rest. Until then, it is a cycle of descending into the Underworld and returning to the City to restock and rest.

The flow of the game consists of four distinct phases, each with its own style of play and rules.

Against canon

Throughout this book, there are references to an implied setting that are never elaborated on. We name and discuss people, places, and historical events without describing them in great detail. This is intentional.

Instead of providing a gazetteer with everything carefully plotted out and a hundred-and-one nonsense fantasy words for you to memorize, we’ve painted with a fairly broad brush. It’s our intention to give you a sense of scope and flavor without bogging the game down with lore to memorize or binding your story to a metaplot. The game world and the storyline are intended to vary from table to table.

It’s our hope that the implied setting of His Majesty the Worm stimulates your imagination and allows you to tell the stories that you want to tell.

As the setting details provided invoke a certain aesthetic for you, we hope that you will use them. As the setting details provided feel frustrating in their obscurity or contradictions, we hope you will change them, ignore them, or tear them physically from the book. At times, the provided material will be inherently contradictory, obliging you to make a decision about which version you want to be “true.”

During the Crawl Phase, the guild explores an interconnected network of dungeons called the Underworld. During this phase, adventurers test their wits and skills against inhospitable forces in order to fulfill their quests. During the Crawl, players charge their Bonds with their guild-mates. The Crawl is where you’ll spend most of your time.

A Challenge Phase occurs when you need to focus on the beat-by-beat action. This phase is when choices and consequences bear the hideous, overripe fruit of rotting bodies and terminated possibilities! During a Challenge, play moves from a freeform style to a tactical system. Play is split up into rounds and turns, during which people perform various specific actions.

“Many sink down and few return to the sunlit lands.”

– The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis

As the adventurers get worn down by journeys and battles, they’ll pause and use the Camp Phase. The focus of the Camp Phase is interpersonal roleplaying, drama, and connections between members of the guild. During this phase, players burn charged Bonds to rest and recover.

Each delve is punctuated by the City Phase. The City Phase resolves the entire sequence and gives the guild a chance to spend their hard-earned loot, advance their long-term agendas, and reflect on their progress.

The Four Phases

City — Turn in and take new contracts; spend wealth to restock and heal; pursue long-term schemes. 1. Death and Taxes 2. Noteworthy Deeds 3. City Events 4. Turn in Contracts 5. Upkeep 6. City Actions 7. Plan the Next Crawl 8. Restock the Underworld

Crawl — Pursue your quest; accumulate wealth and avoid hazards; charge Bonds through roleplaying and fulfilling conditions. 1. Declare you enter the quest 2. A watch passes when you travel to the next room 3. The GM draws on the Meatgrinder table each watch

Challenge — Fight the denizens of the Underworld; notch armor; gain Wounds. 1. Set the Scene 2. Draw Challenge Cards 3. Play Initiative 4. Take Turns 5. Minor Actions6 6. End the Round

Camp — Burn charged Bonds; heal Wounds; gain Resolve. 1. Camp Actions 2. Break Bread 3. No Rest for the Wicked 4. Recovery 5. End Camp Phase

Games usually take place at a regularly scheduled time and place. Finding time to play games with other busy people can be challenging. Consistent play is crucial to keeping a game alive. Most sessions have a basic flow:

At the start of a game session, a few important pieces of bookkeeping are taken care of:

Recap

One player—with help from others at the table, and with corrections from the GM as needed—recaps what happened during the last session. This gets everybody back into the game and refreshes their memory about where they were and what they’re doing.

If this player does an exceptionally good job, the GM may give them a point of Resolve. They may keep this Resolve or give it to another player who needs it.

Returning players

If anyone misses a session during the Crawl Phase, their adventurer is assumed to be about one room away, trailing behind the main guild. They have been slowed down performing a Camp Action. When the player returns, they tell the table what activity they performed, receive the benefit from it, and rejoin the main group. Some actions (e.g., Fellowship, Train) logically require another adventurer to be “absent” with the returning player; only choose activities that make sense for the circumstances.

“Pataphysics means ‘beyond metaphysics’; It is the science of imaginary solutions that studies the exceptions rather than laws and aspires to provide imaginary solutions to practical problems.”

– Italo Calvino

A typical game session flows between the different phases. Over the course of many game sessions, play will follow this sequence:

• Decide to pursue one adventurer’s quest.
• Adventure through the Underworld (Crawl Phase).
• Struggle against the strange denizens of the Underworld (Challenge Phase).
• Rest as well as possible in the lightless depths (Camp Phase).
• Return to the City, broken and bleeding (City Phase).
• Spend accumulated wealth to heal, stock up on equipment, and pursue long-term projects in the City.
• Pick up a contract to finance the next crawl.
• Descend back into the Underworld in continued pursuit of the current quest while working on their contract (Crawl Phase).
• Repeat.

Play can end after any phase or simply at a specified time. It’s best for the GM to close play when there’s a good stopping point—when one scene has just ended, or just after introducing a new scene (so the players have something to look forward to next week).

The GM can take time at the end of play to get feedback about what the players want to do or where they want to go next. Reminders about when they’ll play next, who might be absent, etc., can be dealt with at this time.

An RPG is a conversation between the GM and the players. The GM describes a scene and the players describe their actions inside the scene. The GM and the players ask questions of each other to further define their shared textual reality.

The GM adjudicates how the adventurers’ actions impact the world. To this end, GMs are armed with the following four stock phrases:

• “Yes, you can do that.”
• “Say more about what you’re doing.”
• “Draw to see if you can do that.”
• “No, you can’t do that.”

These phrases (and their variants) are the four basic responses that a GM has for answering a player when they ask, “Can my character do…?”

“Yes, you can do that”

The player describes their adventurer’s actions and the GM simply describes what happens. If there’s nothing preventing the adventurer from succeeding, they simply succeed.

• “It doesn’t seem that the door is locked. You open the door slowly and carefully.”
• “Sure, you can climb the tree. There're plenty of handholds.”
• “You know that it will take a few minutes of hard work and it'll make a shit ton of noise, but of course you can use your felling axe to hack down the wooden door.”

Players portray members of the unfortunate caste called “adventurers.” As such, they have the skills and abilities that you’d assume adventurers would have by default.

In practice, this means you ignore all the uninteresting parts of adventuring. You never test fate to see if an adventurer knows how to kindle a bonfire—they’re competent travelers. Don’t worry about what weapons an adventurer is proficient in—they’re competent fighters.

Even difficult tasks can be resolved without a test of fate as long as: 1. there’s no interesting risk; 2. the adventurer has plenty of time; 3. they have the appropriate tools.

If one of these factors is missing, it’s time to move to one of the other responses.

If an adventurer's actions would incur some sort of penalty, the GM should make that clear and give them a choice.

• If an adventurer’s actions would take a long time to complete, the GM should make this clear. If the player elects to spend the time, the GM draws on the Meatgrinder table to represent time passing; similar to the Moving carefully rules. Draw from the major arcana—torches gutter on a result of I-V.
• If an adventurer's actions would create a lot of noise, the GM should give that info. If the player elects to risk the noise, the GM draws on the Meatgrinder table to represent an interested predator investigating the disturbance; similar to the Loud noises rules. The GM draws from the major arcana—a random encounter occurs on a result of XV-XX.

“Say more about what you’re doing”

Sometimes it’s not exactly clear what actions the players are describing or what their intentions are. In these cases, the GM should ask for clarification.

• “How exactly are you searching for traps?”

“OK, because of the Linguist talent, you definitely speak the myconid language, but you know that their language is expressed entirely in the medium of spore bursts. How do you intend to communicate with the fungoid?”

• “How can you read the text if you don't have any light?”

Sometimes there is a miscommunication in what the GM has described—the GM might be picturing one thing but the players have understood something very differently. Sometimes there's ambiguity in what the player is trying to do. Asking for clarification keeps the shared hallucination of the game consistent by syncing information between the GM and the player.

The GM can also ask clarifying questions about the tactics that the character would be employing. A player’s statement that they want to “Perform a coup de grace on the vampire” might be more successful depending on the precise methods employed—the GM may want to know what weapons are used, what exactly is done, etc.

Once the GM has achieved clarity with “Say more,” they can then shift to one of the other three basic responses.

“Draw to see if you can do that”

When an action is fraught with danger or its outcome is uncertain, it’s time to test fate. For an overview of tests of fate.

Tests of fate should be relatively rare and relatively tense. Don’t call for tests of fate for inconsequential actions—only when something of importance hangs in the balance.

• “The door is locked. If you have lockpicks, you can test Pentacles to try and pick the lock.”

“No, you can’t do that”

Sometimes, actions are not possible or will automatically fail based on the logic of the narrative world.

• “No, you can't really try and tame a dangerous wild beast with a single test of fate. Something like that would need to be done by breaking it over the course of several weeks. You can try and capture it, though, if you want...”
• “No, if you don't have any tools, you don't have any way to pick the lock. There's not any, like, bits of wire just lying around your jail cell.”

The Challenge Phase

It's worth noting that the rules of the Challenge Phase are more bounded than the freeform nature of standard play. The Challenge Actions and the player's hand of cards usually determine what an adventurer can and can't do. The GM still adjudicates what the players try to do when there's ambiguity:

"Oh, you're trying to squeeze past the slime as they squelch down the hall? Well, there's not really space to Avoid it — it takes up the entire corridor. Do you want to do something else instead?"

A single tarot deck is used in His Majesty the Worm to create random results. A tarot deck in its entirety consists of seventy-eight cards of two types: major arcana and minor arcana. The GM uses the major arcana cards except the Fool. The major arcana are numbered and have evocative names like Magician [I] and Wheel of Fortune [X]. Therefore, the GM’s deck has 21 cards, numbered I–XXI.

Players use the minor arcana cards plus the Fool, which is borrowed from the major arcana deck. There are fifty-six minor arcana cards—reminiscent of a more traditional deck of poker cards—with four suits of fourteen cards. The four suits are Swords, Pentacles, Cups, and Wands. The minor arcana are numbered I–X, and each suit has four face cards.

Each card in the minor arcana has a value. A card’s value equals the number shown on the card. The Fool has the value of 0. Aces have a value of 1. The face cards have the following numeric values:

• Page - 11
• Knight - 12
• Queen - 13
• King - 14

At the beginning of each session, separate the minor and major arcana into the two separate decks and shuffle each. Place the major arcana deck near the GM. Place the minor arcana deck (with the Fool shuffled into it) in a central location where all the players can reach it.

There are two discard piles—one for minor arcana and one for major arcana. As cards are played, place them into the appropriate discard pile. (Occasionally, certain rules will call for you to look at the top card of a discard pile, so it can be important to note this.)

Whenever the Fool is drawn, both decks are reshuffled at the end of the round.

No tarot?

One of the reasons His Majesty the Worm separates the major and minor arcana decks is to compensate for the fact that not everybody who wants to play this game necessarily has a tarot deck lying around. The mechanics can be replicated, in a pinch, by using a twenty-sided die (a d20) as a stand-in for the GM’s deck and a standard deck of playing cards (with one joker to represent the Fool) for the players. The numbers will be a little different, but the logic and game balance will be the same.

Random number generation

You can replicate the randomization of polyhedral dice with tarot cards if you so wish.

• The major arcana can act as a d20 (if you redraw when you get the World [XXI]).
• The minor arcana suits can replicate a d4.
• The minor arcana is essentially a d14.
• Dividing the minor arcana in half gives you a weird d7. This can act as a d6 if you redraw on the queen and king.

And, lastly, one of the most random and evocative types of generation you can get from the tarot is inspiration. If you’re familiar with the “meanings” of the tarot, you can use those meanings to inform the environments, characters, and events of your game. If you’re not familiar with the traditional tarot interpretation, you can just look at the cool art and feel inspired.

When an adventurer’s action within the game's narrative is uncertain, the GM calls for a test of fate.

Adventurers have four attributes, rated 1-4. Each represents an “approach” towards problem solving, and says a lot about how an adventurer achieves their goal.

The GM determines which attribute is most relevant to the test’s outcome. To do this, they ask questions of the player to find out how, exactly, they are attempting the action. The player's description will inform which attribute is being tested.

Attributes

Swords: Swords represents strength and skill with weapons. Test Swords to bend the bars of your cell or tip over a heavy bookshelf onto an unsuspecting goblin.

Pentacles: Pentacles represents swiftness and slyness. Test Pentacles to sneak past a deathknight or slip the sea witch’s conch into your bag without her noticing.

Cups: Cups represents wisdom and training. Test Cups to activate an ancient clockwork mechanism or coax a wild winter wolf to accept a gift of meat from your hand.

Wands: Wands represents willpower and charisma. Test Wands to convince an art critic that your petrified companion is actually avant-garde art or overcome the dominating gaze of a vampire.

If the player describes being sneaky or quick, the GM will call for a test of Pentacles; if the player describes being mystical or eloquent, the GM will call for a test of Wands—and so forth.

To test fate, the player draws a minor arcana card and adds the associated attribute to the value of the card.

Example

• You test Pentacles and draw a IV of Pentacles. Your adventurer’s Pentacles score is a 2. Your total value is 6.

• You test Pentacles and draw a Knight of Wands. Your adventurer’s Pentacles score is 2 and a Knight has a value of 12. Your total value is 14.

There are four possible outcomes to a test of fate.

Success

If the total value is 14+, the result is a success. The GM describes how the adventurer succeeds in their stated goal.

Failure

If the total value is 13 or less, the result is a failure. The GM describes how the adventurer fails and asks what they want to do next.

Great success

If the total value is 14+ and the player drew the suit being tested on the initial draw (not from pushing fate or another source), the result is a great success. Not only does the adventurer succeed, but they succeed extremely well, going above and beyond what was expected.

The GM should invite the player to embellish how impressive, how effortless, how quick, or how thorough their success was.

Great failure

If the player pushes fate and the total value is still 13 or less, the test is a great failure. The GM describes a new significant setback, bad situation, or harmful repercussion as a result. See “Pushing Fate.”

Additional advice for the GM on adjudicating tests of fate can be found under The blessing of chaos.

Challenge Actions

The Challenge Phase is a subsystem for handling dangerous situations blow-by-blow. Challenge Actions have occasional similarities to the test of fate rules—for example, favor and disfavor can adjust a Challenge Action’s total value. However, there are many important differences: for example, Challenge Actions are not bound by fate and you cannot push fate on Challenge cards. For the specific rules on how the Challenge Phase handles actions, see Challenge Actions.

If the result of the test is a failure, the player may opt to push fate. Pull an additional card and add its value to the original total. If the total result of the two cards plus the attribute is 14+, the test succeeds as normal. You can never achieve a great success if you push fate. If the total result is 13 or less, the test becomes a great failure.

When you push fate and achieve a great failure, you not only fail to achieve what you set out to do, you make things even worse.

Narratively, a great failure creates new obstacles to overcome or severely hampers the adventurers’ path forward. For example, if a thief achieves a great failure while picking a lock, the sound of the broken lockpick jammed in the door alerts a passing guard, who catches the thief red-handed. Or, if a templar suffers a great failure when attempting to intimidate the ogre, the ogre flies into a rage and sucker-punches the templar in a surprise attack.

Additionally, a great failure inflicts a mechanical penalty on the adventurer who failed. If the situation is a dangerous situation, the GM can inflict a Wound on the adventurer. If the situation isn’t life threatening to begin with, an effect—representing frustration, sorrow, madness, exertion, or some other emotional state—might be more appropriate. For example, the GM might say that until the adventurer’s next encampment they become Exhausted (suffering the Exhaust effect) because they have overexerted themselves.

Pushing fate with the Fool

The Fool has a value of 0.

• If you pull the Fool initially during a test of fate, you can push fate as normal. This could turn the test from a failure to a success or to a great failure.
• If you pull the Fool when pushing fate, your result automatically becomes a great failure.

When the Fool is drawn, remember to shuffle both the minor and major arcana decks.

GM: The black dragon seems to be asleep. A rattling snore issues from its nose, as if it’s congested. Its eyes are closed, and occasionally it licks its lips with a long, forked tongue.

Phynn: And you said that my cup is under it?

GM: Yeah, like, not right under it—but on its bed of gold, which is all spread out around the dragon. So it’s near it. You can reach the cup if you’re careful.

Phynn: OK, I want to sneak up to the bed of gold and steal my ancestral cup.

GM: OK, that will be a test of fate. Test Pentacles.

Phynn draws from the minor arcana deck and gets an 8 of Swords. He realizes that the odds are good since he needs a total of 14.

Phynn: That’s an 8 of Swords plus my Pentacles score of 2. That’s a 10 total. I’m gonna push fate.

Phynn draws again and gets a 10 of Wands.

Phynn: Awesome. That’s 20 total. That’s a success.

GM: Awesome. You sneak closer and closer to the dragon. At one point, the snoring stops and becomes a choking cough. A little cloud of acid fog smokes out of the dragon’s nostrils, but then the snoring begins again. You reach out and grab your cup. Now you have your ancestral cup in your hands, and you’re still sitting in a room with a sleeping dragon. What do you do now?

Sometimes circumstances can influence a test of fate positively or negatively.

When beneficial factors would aid an adventurer, they are said to have favor. Favor grants +3 to the total value in a test of fate.

When negative factors would hinder an adventurer, they have disfavor. Disfavor subtracts –3 from the total value in a test of fate.

Favor and disfavor are not cumulative. You do not apply additional adjustments for having multiple helpful or hindering factors. For example, if you have several favorable factors, just note that you have favor and add +3.

Favor and disfavor cancel each other out. If there are both helpful and hindering factors, you simply make the test of fate as normal. Because favor and disfavor are not cumulative, you do not consider how many factors weigh on either side; multiple favorable factors may be canceled out by one disfavor factor.

Relevant motifs

If one of your motifs is meaningfully related to the test of fate, you gain favor on the test of fate. See Motifs for more information.

Resolve

Resolve represents an adventurer’s fortitude as they pursue their quests—fortitude that dwindles as you go deeper and deeper into the Underworld. You may elect to spend a point of Resolve prior to a test of fate in order to gain favor on that test. See Resolve for more information.

Aiding others

It is usually assumed that adventurers fill various niches and take on different roles during the Crawl. One is the scout and always does the reconnaissance, another is typically the watchman for the group, and another always forages for herbs. In these cases, the adventurer most suited for the task simply makes the test of fate. Sometimes, however, players will have the opportunity to work together on a test of fate.

If two players can collaborate meaningfully, the acting player gets favor (+3) on the test of fate.

Adding more people to the mix isn’t necessarily helpful. It’s usually best to let the best-suited adventurer take point and have aid provided by the person most interested in helping.

The caveat about aiding another is that both participating adventurers are affected by the consequences of the test. If the test of fate is successful, both succeed. If the test fails, both adventurers fail. However, it’s important to note that the player who takes the lead and actually draws gets to determine whether or not they push fate. In the case of great failures, both adventurers are affected equally.

Example test of fate with favor

Dorian: Alright, I’m going to try and pick the lock on the door with the crank on it.

GM: Sure. You have lockpicks right? Go ahead and test fate with Pentacles.

Chirm: Can I try and help?

GM: How would you help?

Chirm: Uh, like, standing beside Dorian and watching what he does and giving him advice.

GM: Usually lockpicking is sort of a solo activity just because of, like, space considerations. Do you have a motif that would justify giving advice?

Chirm: I mean, she is a “Wealthy Artificer.”

GM: Sure, as an artificer, I can see her knowing a lot about locks and mechanisms. Dorian, take favor.

Dorian’s player draws and gets an Ace of Wands.

Dorian: Oh no. I got a 1. OK, even with favor and my Pentacles score, that’s only a 7 total. Do we want to push?

Chirm: I don’t know. I don’t really want to risk it.

Dorian: Me neither.

GM: OK. So even with Chirm’s advice, Dorian, the door’s lock seems really inscrutable. The two of you can’t figure it out. If you can’t pick the lock, what are you all going to do?

Whether you succeed or fail, your results are bound by fate. You cannot retry the same test unless the circumstances significantly change. If you fail to pick a lock, that lock is beyond your adventurer’s abilities. If you fail to climb a wall, that wall is unclimbable.

But maybe the warrior in the company can bash down the door. And maybe the sorcerer has a magical cloak that allows you to fly over the wall. You’ll have to find another way past an obstacle if you fail in the test.

You can also attempt a test again if the circumstances significantly change. Significant change usually means new ideas, new tools, or a new twist on an old situation.

Because His Majesty the Worm is a fundamentally collaborative game, fellow guild members are also bound by fate. If one person attempts something and fails, it’s established that it cannot feasibly be done at present. No fair having each guild member try successively until somebody succeeds. However, additional guild members can attempt alternate methods to bypass the obstacle.

It’s important to note the GM is also bound by fate. The GM may not call for multiple frivolous tests to see if an adventurer can accomplish a single task. The more times a successful test is reattempted, the more chances the player has to fail. The GM may only call for repeated tests when the situation meaningfully changes.

In the face of discrete challenges, it’s best to have one adventurer be bold and test fate. There are times, however, when the entire guild must test their fates together. For example, the entire guild must sneak into the Tower Gnostic to steal an artifact or must perform the Operetta d’Serpentis perfectly for the master of the Broken Smiles Opera House. In such cases, the GM calls for a group test.

Group tests are accomplished by having two adventurers test fate: the one most qualified and the one least qualified. If there are apparent ties, talk it out to determine who should make the tests.

• If one of the adventurers succeeds in a test of fate, they give 1 hit to the group test. If they get a great success, they give 2 hits.
• If one of the adventurers fails in a test of fate, they give no hits to the group test. If they suffer a great failure, they subtract -1 hit.

The GM totals the amount of hits to determine the success of the group test.

• 2 hits: Success for the entire group.
• 1 hit: The group comes short of succeeding and are put in a tight spot.
• 0 hits: Failure for the entire group.
• <0 hits: Disaster for the entire group.

Like other tests of fate, group tests are bound by fate.

Example group test

GM: OK, so what I’m hearing is that you’re all going to try and hold the door closed as the peryton slams into it. I think that’s a group test. Can I get the highest and lowest Swords people to draw?

Dorian: I’m a 3 Swords.

Chirm: I’m 2.

GM: OK, that’s you, Phynn and Chirm.

Chirm’s player draws from the minor arcana deck and gets a IX of Pentacles. Adding her Swords 2, that’s a total of 11. Chirm pushes fate and gets a IV of Wands. That’s a total of 15. A success.

Chirm: OK, I got a 15 total. That succeeds.

Phynn’s player draws a V of Swords from the minor arcana deck. With his Swords 4, that’s a total of 9. He also pushes fate and draws again, drawing a III of Swords. Despite having the higher Swords score, he only gets a 12 total. That’s a critical failure.

Phynn: Jesus Christ. I thought I had it. But no, critical fail.

GM: OK, that critical failure will reduce the success that Chirm generated, so you get 0 hits. The door buckles under the conflict between you and the peryton. Shards of wood and bits of the iron hinges shriek as they break. Phynn, take a Wound as the peryton gores you with its horns. You’re staring it in its weird, blank eyes. What do you guys do?

Terms that describe consequences that happen to characters or objects things like Blind, Destroy, and Heal are called Effects. Each effect has its own rules and implications, explained in the list below.

Blind

Blinded creatures cannot see or gain any visual information.

• Blinded creatures make all tests and Challenge Actions with disfavor.
• Blinded creatures can’t make missile attacks at all.
• All harmful actions against Blind creatures have favor.

Control

Controlled creatures obey the order given to them. As soon as the order is completed, or if it cannot be completed, the effect ends.

• During Challenges, Controlled creatures immediately perform the commanded action. The total value for the Controlled action is equal to the value of the action used to Control it.

Curse

Curse is a generic term for “bad thing” as determined by the GM. Turned to stone by a medusa? Fused with a party member? Changed into a baby? These are all Curses. The GM will tell you what it means.

Deafen

Deafened creatures cannot hear or gain any auditory information. Speak Incantation is made with disfavor.

Destroy

Destroyed objects are broken and unusable.

Disarm

Disarmed creatures drop one held item of their choice.

• A dropped item requires a Recover action to retrieve during Challenges.
• If an adventurer is carrying neither a melee weapon or shield, all attacks against them gain favor.

Displace

Displaced creatures are moved to another zone, as determined by the initiating creature or effect.

Exhaust

Exhausted creatures make all tests and Challenge Actions with disfavor.

Heal

Healed creatures instantly remove one Wound from a condition.

Inspire

Inspired creatures must immediately role-play one of the seven Dispositions to the best of their ability, following the basic guidelines. The Dispositions are: anger, distaste, sadness, joy, surprise, trust, fear.

Grow/Shrink

Grown creatures and objects double their original height. Shrunk creatures and objects half their original height.

Gain favor when this would be advantageous (squeezing into holes, sneaking around) and disfavor when it would be disadvantageous (contests of strength).

Knockout

Knocked-out creatures are unconscious and incapacitated. They cannot take any actions.

Notch

When an item suffers an attack that compromises its durability, it is Notched. After suffering a certain number of Notches, the item is Destroyed.

• Fragile items are Destroyed after one Notch.
• Items intended for durability are Destroyed after two Notches.
• Items made of tempered steel are Destroyed after three Notches.
• Notched items can be repaired with a tinker's kit or in the City.

Root

Rooted creatures cannot move from the spot on which they are standing.

• They cannot Avoid, Dash, Dodge, or Move.
• Anybody engaged with a Rooted creature immediately disengages.

Shroud

Shrouded creatures are invisible. Shrouded creatures are impossible to see without the aid of magic or special senses.

• Typically, if a Shrouded creature stands still and stays quiet, they cannot be deliberately targeted by creatures who can’t see them.
• However, if the Shrouded creature is moving and interacting with their environment, they can be targeted, though all such attempts are made with disfavor.
• Shrouded creatures make harmful actions with favor against creatures who can’t see them.

Silence

Silenced creatures cannot make any vocal sounds. As such, they cannot cast spells because they cannot Speak Incantations.

Stun

When Stunned, immediately choose and discard a Challenge card from your hand.

You do not need to Recover from being Stunned. It is an instantaneous effect.

Trip

Tripped creatures fall prone.

• Prone creatures cannot Avoid, Move, or Dash.
• Melee attacks against prone targets have favor.
• Missile attacks against prone targets have disfavor.
• Anybody engaged with a Tripped creature immediately disengages.

Not just for Challenges

Many effects have important ramifications during Challenges. However, effects are not “combat only” rules. For example, outside of a Challenge, a trap with the Displace effect can knock an adventurer into a spiked pit. If that adventurer survives, a sorcerer can cast Gust of Wind to give the Displace effect and pull them back out. The GM adjudicates how effects resolve during the normal flow of the game.

The GM and the players interpret the flavor of how effects interact with the world. For example, a dart envenomed with sleeping poison and a blow to the back of the head might both Knockout the target—however, shaking the sleeping person might be enough to wake them up, whereas the person hit in the head would need medical care.

Effect names

Note that capitalized effect names change conjugation depending on how they're used in game text, but all mean the same thing. For example, a Blinding attack Blinds a creature, after which they are Blinded.