9.Quick Reference

9. Quick Reference

Aspects

  • “Counts as an Aspect” means: can you spend Hope on it, or can the GM Compel it? (§1.1). That test matters more than what category it’s filed under. Scene/NPC/Item Aspects, Experiences, and eligible Conditions all qualify.
  • Native Aspects: flat +2 per invoke, 1 Hope each (player) / 1 Fear each (GM), stackable.
  • Experiences keep their own math when invoked (their stated bonus, not flat +2), and only their owning PC can use them. Sharing the word “Aspect” doesn’t mean sharing the number or who can use it.
  • Bookkeeping matters most for Scene/NPC/Item Aspects and their banked free invokes — the only ones with no spot on the sheet. You need a physical or digital surface (cards, whiteboard, shared doc). Experiences and identity are already written down, so they’re not the risk.
  • Soft budget: about 2–3 live Aspects per scene. More than that? Ask if the newest one actually matters, or if it’s just color. Create an Advantage (Establish)
  • Normal action roll → plant an Aspect.
  • Crit = 2 free invokes. Success with Hope = 1 free invoke. Success with Fear = Aspect planted, GM gains Fear. The Scene Clock — different from standard Countdowns (§3.5)
  • Standard Countdowns live inside the story, can run several at once or at different sizes, and can move backward (dynamic countdowns move 0–3 based on roll quality, sometimes the wrong way). They still work exactly as written — this doesn’t replace them.
  • The Scene Clock works like Pandemic’s player deck, not a Countdown: one-way only, always just one per scene, and outside the story (the characters can’t sense it) — a limit on table time, not an in-story threat.
  • Count = the sum of all Spotlight tokens spent, table-wide. No separate tracking needed.
  • Size: 3/player (Standard), 2/player (Major), 1–2/player (Climactic) — a starting point; big or high-stakes scenes get one bigger clock (sized by GM judgment, not the formula), with as many standard Countdowns running underneath it as the story needs.
  • At 0: the consequence announced beforehand locks in — not a fresh complication, a hard stop. Whatever’s unresolved stays unresolved.
  • Weigh both party size and how many complications you expect when picking a tier. Overturning an Aspect
  • Normal action roll → replace or clear an existing Aspect.
  • Crit = cleared/replaced, 2 free invokes on the new Aspect. Success with Hope = cleared/replaced, 1 free invoke. Success with Fear = downgraded, not cleared, GM gains Fear. Failure = unchanged or worse. Spotlight Tracker
  • 3 tokens/player. Refresh at scene end (or per-round, optional tightening).
  • A token is spent when a stake is resolved (roll or GM ruling). Not “any action.” Not “any resource spent.”
  • Aspect invokes never cost an extra token.
  • Applies to all scenes, not combat-only. Compels
  • Offered before a roll, or separately from one — tied to an Experience or a live Aspect.
  • Free to offer. Accept = player gains 1 Hope. Decline = no cost, no gain.
  • Can target any PC, no matter their current Hope — the 6/12 hard caps handle keeping it in check. Never a reaction to a failed roll. Ask, Answer, and Declare
  • Ask (free): unchanged from the core rules. Covers questions and simple statements alike — no separate rule needed.
  • Declare — Aspect-Justified (1 Hope): costs Hope because the player is briefly using GM-like power over the story — putting a new fact in that’s now locked in as true. That’s why it costs something, not because of the Aspect requirement itself. The Aspect requirement is just the guardrail on that power. Must point to something that counts as an Aspect (§1.1). Never grants free invokes (see §2.1’s boundary with Create an Advantage).
  • Contested declarations → Reframe Rather Than Reject (existing GM Principle, no new mechanic).
  • Optional: spend one more Hope to force a contested declaration through anyway. Golden Rule of this supplement: always tell players the stakes before they spend.

Complicate, Not Terminate (table philosophy, not an official rule — §8)

  • Weigh how bad a Failure with Fear should be against what was actually being risked. Don’t just look at which die came up higher.
  • Soft moves are the default — new info the players can still solve. Reach for hard moves only when the story has actually earned it (the core rules’ “immediate danger” examples): a big gamble, or repeated failures.

Art Reference

This dragon egg image isn’t tied to one example. It’s a standalone reference shot for the egg itself. Use it as a session-zero handout, a token image, or a check against the other prompts in this document.

🎨 Art Prompt — The Dragon Egg (Anchor Image)
a single dragon egg with dark scaled reptilian texture, held in a pair
of weathered hands for scale, roughly the size of an ostrich egg,
faint veins of golden light glowing beneath the scales, wisps of
ember-colored mist curling around the fingers, dark stone altar barely
visible out of focus behind, reverent close-up composition, painterly
fantasy illustration, single dramatic light source from above, rich
detail on scaled shell texture --ar 1:1

Consistency tip: every egg prompt in this document ties the egg’s size to a hand, or a named object — “rugby ball,” “ostrich egg,” “football.” That’s better than a vague word like “small.” It’s what keeps Midjourney from making the egg too big. If you generate more egg art later, use that same trick.