CIRCLE OF HANDS

By Ron Edwards / Adept Press 2014

The Heartbreaker Redemption Project

Art: Phillip Simpson

This is the playtesting PDF associated with the Circle of Hands Kickstart, March 2014. If you're
not a backer, I hope what you see here will recommend your support. If you're a backer, then I'd
love to know how any playtesting you do proceeds. All comments and questions are welcome!
I'll acknowledge you in the book, where it applies, right there at the rule that you've influenced.
ron@adept-press.com / indie-rpgs.com/adept

Playtesters
Many thanks for helping me develop this game!
I recommend printing a couple of extra copies of Chapter 6, so people have ready access to the magic
rules and especially to the spell lists. Looking at the lists in the mass of rules is overwhelming, but as a
separate document they're easier to see as an easy breakdown of principles.
I'll be posting many of Dyson's images of locations as they arrive, as they are invaluable for preparation
and play. Lots of similar images by him and others are available for free on-line, so use those too when
they seem appropriate for the setting.
Please read: this game is exceptionally harsh in its setting and in its presentation. I acknowledge here
that the text may trigger trauma. Play itself is not directed toward this end, nor are the setting's nastier
features obliged to be included or depicted during play at all. As this is a playtesting draft, I am still
developing the right way to discuss both the setting and the procedures of play. This writing (3-22-14)
has undergone the first steps based on reader feedback, but it has a long way to go. Your thoughts are
welcome.
Playtesting needs
Above all, I'd like people to throw themselves into this with enthusiasm. Analysis and spot-check for
rules-breakage is much less important to me than the ease of play, the intuitive certainty of knowing what
to do next, and the willingness to bring motivation more and more into the playing of particular
characters.
I'm interested in whether the situational preparation is robust and understandable to a variety of people.
And related, I damn well know that the management of play during an adventure, and how to end one,
isn't explained well. I'm struggling with how to explain something that works easily for me in play. Feel
free to discuss it with me on-line as I work on this.
I'd like to know whether the approach to realism is accessible and fun.
You'll find a number of untested judgments about various aspects of play, including but not limited to:
If players want the Circle to return to a previously-visited location
Being actually in Amboriyon or Rbaja
More specific or concrete effects of adventures on the stability of the young king's rule in Rolke,
or on the magical war
If you find yourself playing in a situation which you don't think is adequately covered, or for which you
think the coverage is missing an opportunity, then I ask that you try something, effectively inventing a
rule for it, and let me know how it went.
I don't need help with the writing itself. What you see here will not only be revised and rewritten, it will
also receive professional editing. I need to learn more about play and about how you find the rules to
work or not to work.
Thanks again!

1: Original Metal
In 1990, I wanted fantasy role-playing and it just was not happening.
I wanted monsters and cosmic magic, certainly, but I really wanted human evil and human pain.
I wanted combat that felt like fighting, with fear and desperation just ahead of effective tactics. I
wanted damage not merely to tick down a fuel tank, or even just to penalize, but to hurt. I wanted
a knife to be a deadly weapon, as dangerous as a great-axe in the right time and place. I wanted a
reason to fight which made sense to me. I wanted wizards to be physically tough. I wanted scary,
raw, scarring spells that visibly sprayed and spattered. I wanted shocking powerful magic that
wasn't limited in multiple stifling directions. I wanted characters to be vivid at the start, but also
to be unfinished, to have somewhere to go. I wanted all of us playing to care about the
characters. I wanted to get to know the party, experience the events that would become its
collective memories, see its members develop and the whole membership change. I wanted to
see things happen in adventures, not because "the GM says if you get the silver widget, the realm
is secure," but because some player decided to do something and made it happen. I wanted
players to decide for themselves whom they wanted to kill. I wanted awesome cosmic forces in
opposition, but characters who were not pawns. I wanted stuff to happen in our very first session,
and never to let up. I wanted to look back on a game with grim pride, remembering moments of
breaking-points, fury, tragedy, and shared joy at the table.
A few influences kept me thinking I could somehow get this. RPGs like The Fantasy Trip,
Fighting Fantasy, or Prince Valiant were out of print or on the fringe, but I saw something there
which diverged from my long experience with the Hero System, GURPS, Rolemaster, and BRP.
Magic: the Gathering hit me as hard as anyone else with the perfect evocation of a setting
wracked by color-coded magical war.
Like many role-players, I have a personality disorder called "Must write games." My first real
efforts came to about six distinct designs, from 1986 to about 1994, almost all obviously founded
on whatever I was playing at the time. Soon after Magic: the Gathering was released, I wrote
one called Gray Magick and playtested the hell out of it.
It wasn't the most ambitious of those various designs that would be "Bullshit-Less Roleplaying" or BSL, from a little bit earlier but it had a lot of passion in it. It was both awful and
awe-inspiring, a true Fantasy Heartbreaker. I thought I'd totally chucked fantasy role-playing out
the window considering my long history with Champions and my disgust with mainstream
fantasy fiction of the time. But I hadn't. Like so many others of approximately my age and
approximately my pop culture history, I was trying to redeem it by "starting over," doing fantasy
role-playing "right."
Ten years later, I wrote two essays about this distinctive branch of RPG publishing called
"Fantasy Heartbreakers" and "More Fantasy Heartbreakers" you can find them in this book too,
with some annotations. Briefly, they're about publishing games which are sincerely intended to
solve mechanics associated with a well-known fantasy RPG, typically the most insitutionalized
D&D, and to inspire audiences with a home-grown fantasy setting but so strongly buy into the
assumptions of the play they're fixing that the mission is subverted. Lots of fantasy games aren't

heartbreakers, including the modern OSR, which is critically inspired by diverse versions of
D&D, but lots of them are, and especially those written at that time.
The crazy thing is that at the time of writing those essays, I totally forgot this Gray Magick thing,
which almost certainly must be some form of denial. I found it much later in a pile of old stuff,
actually while looking for BSL. Playtesting it again, I was struck by its power, and how easily
the heartbreaker-y cruft flaked off with a bit of loving care.
The world is gritty and pre-medieval, what some nowadays call "mud-shit fantasy." Natural
terrain is both beautiful and harsh; action centers on armor, monsters, swords, smoke, spells, and
blood. Briefly, the culture is very much not high and glittering chivalry, not heroic idealism in
surcoats instead, life is chiefly described by authority through force, brutal extraction, squalor,
ignorance, self-indulgence, torture, despair and resignation, the inscription upon the body, and
most importantly, there's no historical happy ending: no Renaissance, no ancient classics, no
cradle of literacy, and no end in sight.
Individual heroes in such a situation their ordeals are not going to be anything wellestablished "in-setting," not a designated nobility, not a spiritual guide or personage, not a
developed ideology, not a modern ideal. There's something, but it's the barest beginning of a
hope for a new social order. Heroism and indeed anything worthwhile is going to be discovered
and shaped through the passions of the moment and the travails of the body.
In a dialogue about my essays, Mike Holmes wrote, Everyone should write a heartbreaker,
which means their own heartbreaker, in part to expose and resolve personal ambiguities about
fantasy role-playing. Moreover, in doing so, knowing what they know now, a person may find its
heart and bring it whole into a retooled design.
Now its time to take Mike's advice for real, the way I failed to do when writing the essays. In
my case and perhaps yours too it takes the form of dusting off a manuscript from one's youth
to discover that its embarrassing features can be forgiven and forgotten, or may not be such bad
ideas after all, and that you can discover that, as Nathan Paoletta says, it's not about the breaking,
it's about the heart.

The absolute rundown

The thing about RPG rules is, everyone wants to know and understand everything all at once. So
here you are. This is everything about the game in a single massive, semi-ordered, complete datadump. After this list, everything else in this document is merely procedural explanation and
helpful detail.

The setting is equivalent to 10th or 11th century Europe it's not medieval, it's not feudal, and
it's not chivalric. I'd say "Dark Ages" except historians don't say that anymore screw it,
the term applies. Dark Ages fantasy.
The only armor is the mail hauberk, simple shields, and simple helms. No plate armor, no
limb armor, no barding for horses, and no fake-historical stuff like "leather armor."

The chief weapon is the spear. Wealthy people have swords, a single-edged weapon with no
point. Regional weapons include the great axe, the francisca, and the chained mace. There are
no such things as daggers, longswords, specialized pole weapons, or longbows.
A thrown spear, or charging into one, goes right through mail, so look out.
There isn't any heraldry and no knightly culture.
Brace yourself for human horror. It's a time when torture is ordinary, power is almost entirely
determined by immediate ruthlessness, food and shelter are more important than money, and
no one knows the first thing about hygiene, long-term agriculture, geography beyond the
immediate area, or history besides vague legends.
There's no education. People only know what their family circumstances and limited
geographical experience provide.
The map shows an extensive crescent-shaped shoreline, with the ocean to the east. The lands
along the water's edge, north to south, are forested Famberge, mountainous Rolke, and seahugging Spurr, with Famberge also including most of the inland north. The inland to the west
is wide, rolling Tamaryon. These are not nations, but subcultural regions within a single
culture.
Regions don't have governments, only local hierarchies based on raw power and immediate
history. It's mostly about villages, clans, banditry, fortified strongholds, and families, shaking
out into a stratified society based on who has the most wealth crops, animals, weaponry,
connections with most people being miserable. Petty war among ever-changing alliances is
the default condition.
Two magical forces are at war, black and white. They are savagely effective, diametrically
opposed, utterly inhuman, and ultimately destructive, represented by fanatical wizards, and
manifested in actual locations. They are destroying and stagnating the culture.
Black magic is called Rbaja, and in its extreme form, taints and scorches the landscape into
stinking pestholes filled with undead.
White magic is called Amboriyon, and in its extreme form, gathers in clouds from which
angelic beings descend and lead people into what looks like virtue until it "enlightens"
them into amorally perfect form or even erases them from reality.
The prevailing religion of the culture is not centralized, similar to minimally-institutional
Buddhism. It is opposed to the magical forces, directed toward steadfastness, endurance,
survival, and submission when it shifts to resistance, it gets crushed.
The Rolke region is newly liberated from the magical wars, united under a young king. He
has instituted extensive reforms and sworn to defy both Amboriyon and Rbaja by using
white and black magic together.
You play characters who've banded together to support the young king in Rolke, who
opposes both kinds of magic, and you are not only a bad-ass trained fighter no matter what
your social background and prior life, but you use both kinds of magic at once. This group is
called the Circle it's the only one.
The Circle is the sole institution in the setting with any glimmer of a better life free from the
not-so-Cold War between Amboriyon and Rbaja. It's also societally-unique in that no social
background is excluded.
All player-characters are outstanding physical bad-asses. If their background doesn't indicate
this, then the Circle trained them up.

The fictional culture includes sex and gender bias. Female Circle members, who are armored
fighters, are yet another society-challenging innovation of the Circle.
Everyone makes up two characters, and that's the Circle. For any given adventure, you can
play any Circle character you want, although not twice in a row. There are no Circle NPCs.
Characters are described by four attributes, two personality traits, one or more professions, a
resulting social rank, a few interesting details, and a Key Event. Other things follow from
their professions too.
There's a single GM, the same person throughout play. He or she does make up two Circle
members at the start, along with everyone else. His or her job after that is to prepare the
adventures, play the various other people and foes, and monitor the tripwires that turn a
scenario vicious and horrible.
Play does not concern events "at home," but only adventures. The young king and the
circumstances of his presence in Rolke are never seen.
Adventures are created using random components and a specialized process to combine and
refine them. An adventure offers opportunities and resources for the young king, and is
basically a mission as far as the characters are concerned.
Adventures always include local people with interests of their own and difficult locations.
They also include the chance for hidden magic, distorted beasts, and the fell influence of
Rbaja, Amboriyon, or both.
At the table, the "mission" isn't the priority and is assumed to be ultimately successful as long
as it's not tripwired into disaster. Instead, an adventure showcases the characters, reveals their
passions, and brings them to fateful conclusions.
Characters improve mechanically a little bit after adventures, but change is mostly due to
magical effects and significant personal experiences. Leveling-up or its equivalent isn't a
major part of play.
Ordinary resolution is a 2d6 roll + a character's attribute, to equal or beat a 12. For easier or
harder rolls, add or lose a d6. That's familiar I'm sure, but the whole fictional context for
rolling is pretty different from most games.
A character's social rank and professional background dictate what he or she knows how to
do. There is no "common sense" or general resolution.
In a culture based mainly on personal confrontation and immediate connections, one might
commit murder and grin one's way out of retribution, but there's no way to stop a mob from
killing you, outside of magic.
Fighting and other dynamic conflicts are organized by "clashes," a system that emphasizes
simultaneity yet preserves individual, make-or-break actions.
Clash resolution compares mutual offense and defense simultaneously, and every exchange
gives the advantage to one side or the other.
A killed Circle member becomes a haunt and still participates in the current adventure, but is
gone after that adventure's conclusion.
Weapons' different properties are expressed in terms of who gets the advantage die. A knife
is a superior weapon to a great-axe if the fight takes place between the sheets in a dark
bedroom.
Anyone may swear mighty oaths tapping into black or white magical power. Doing so brings
great power and great consequence.

All Circle members know a few white and black spells. Your character can also be a full-on
wizard, who knows all the spells. Yes, every single one.
Magic is powered by one's own bodily energy. Wizards are physically very tough, vital
characters. Magic has no other practical limiting factors no resolution roll or anything else.
Spells are rated either black or white, with values of 1 to 3. Its value is both the energy it
costs and the number of color points the caster fills in.
A character has nine "slots" to fill in with color points, from casting spells or swearing oaths.
White cancels black and vice versa, but if all nine are either white or black, then more
magical consequences appear. It's OK to do this, but the effects are permanent. Unlike
ordinary wizards, Circle members use this option tactically, not ideologically.
It's true that wizards are more powerful and flexible than non-wizards, but the wizards tend
to hurt themselves too much to run around unsupported. The two kinds of characters are the
same when it comes to plain old spear and sword mayhem.
Few non-wizardly people can stand up to a Circle member in open combat, but they do have
local social roles and status, whereas the adventuring Circle members are far from home.
Non-Circle wizards are always a threat, serving Amboriyon or Rbaja. No one knows if the
magical war is due to actual scheming overlords or to the mere accumulation of so many
scheming wizards.
Some monsters are the twisted leftovers of past magical actions. The others, the majority, are
manifestations of Amboriyon or Rbaja. Creatures of Amboriyon are unbearably pure avatars
or destructively wise eidolons; creatures of Rbaja are foul, all too cunning undead or insane,
disturbing demons.

2: Iron Folk
The Crescent land
The land itself
This is the coast of a crescent-shaped bay, so big that it might as well be called a Sea, justified as
well by a significant drop-off from a continental shelf. It's an eastern coast, so the inland is to the
west. The coast is mountainous at the innermost curve, with highlands to the inland north and
lowlands to the direct west and continuous with the southern coast. The best port is to the south.
By and large, the Crescent land enjoys two mild seasons: a long, pleasantly warm, not very
humid summer, and a rainy, foggy winter that rarely drops below freezing for long, but with
frosts at night. The highlands of Famberge are notably drier on the average, but vegetation is lush
there due to steady water supply from the mountains. On the coast, the temperature difference
between night and day is extremely marked throughout the year. Occasionally, perhaps once
every two years, somewhere on the coast is hit by a savage oceanic storm. The winter is much
harsher in the mountain range of Rolke and western Spurr, including snowdrifts and blocked
passes. To the west of the mountains in Tamaryon, fog and cold ocean air are blocked, so the
temperature is consistently more even through the day and night cycle.
The society most closely resembles 11th century central and northern Europe. It's not medieval:
there are no feudalism, no fiefdoms, no kings! The regions are merely subcultures; there are no
borders. The northern coast and the highlands to its inland are called Famberge, a hilly, forested
area characterized by small constantly-warring fiefs. The majority of the inland map, north to
south, is called Tamaryon, a region of rolling hills and winding rivers; it is mainly peasant farms
and villages. The comparatively small center of the coastline and the most mountainous region is
called Rolke, and the southern coast is called Spurr, maritime and bellicose.
Tamaryon is a plains-and-rivers countryside, dotted with farming villages and rare hilltop forts.
The culture includes the makings of an all-man's law body of practices, which could sustain a
formidable society but for the constant disorganization by white magic. Amboriyon is strong
here, with the cloud-citadels a common sight overhead. Raiders from Famberge turn the broad
northern reaches into a constant low-level hell, and river ships from Spurr establish further and
further centers of power in-land, weapons-first. Literary references: Henryk Sienkiewicz's With
Fire and Sword, Poul Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga.
Famberge is a forested land of winding low ridges and lowland swamps, with a soggy coast. It's
ruled in patches by crude fiefdoms, whose nominal rule changes hands through shocking sudden
wars and by assassination. The culture is constantly wracked by raids, counter-raids, and turf
battles, with no general rule of law it all depends what the local strongman thinks, and how
long he lives. Rbaja and Amboriyon are deadlocked here, so wizards feud constantly, interfering
with and manipulating the war culture and contributing to the local destruction and misery. The
coast is hard to settle, although a fishing culture has sprung up, subject to ruthless trade practices

and raids from Spurr. Literary referencse: Zo Oldenburg's The World is Not Enough, David
Drake's The Dragon Lord.
Spurr is mostly coastline including the best natural harbors with many direct sea-lanes to isolated
spots, as well as the best ship technology in cutters of all sizes. This has led to many independent
small estates wielding considerable local power, as well as to two or three distinctive cities
honeycombing the coastal cliffs. In these cities, cabals compete over immediate economic
decisions, freely combining trade with punitive and destabilizing expeditions, often empowered
by black magic. Rbaja is strong here; powerful wizards and even liches are found ruling towns or
consortiums, each one providing its own spin on blending profit, power, and enchantments.
Literary reference: many of Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories, especially "Undertow" and
"Dark Muse" in the Night Winds collection.
Rolke is a forested mountain land, with a rocky rough coast that nevertheless includes some
maritime communities. Most communities in Rolke formed in geographically defensible places,
with stone-reinforced fortresses and classic walled mountain towns with winding streets. The
culture is continuous with that of Famberge, but recently has unified around a young king (chief
of chiefs), has developed the beginnings of a common law, and fiercely resists intrusions, both
ordinary and magical. Many isolated areas experience problems of adjustment to the new social
developments, and the rugged mountains harbor some of the worst monsters in the Crescent land.
The coast communities struggle with raids from Spurr, but in developing ships of their own,
some have also established consistent trade there. Literary reference: Graham Shelby's The
Knights of Dark Reknown and The Kings of Vain Intent, specifically the protagonist Lord
Baldwin.
The people
Long ago, the land was inhabited by tribes of people named the Pananthuri, of whom little is
remembered. They were tall and slender, and did not forge iron. Today's population are
descended mostly from people who migrated into these lands, cleansing or absorbing the
Pananthuri. Little is left of them besides their genetic contribution and a variety of local
practices, one of which is extensive tattooing in circular patterns. The people of the Crescent
land now share a distinctive ethnic look: light-skinned ("white") which tans quite dark, straight
or wavy hair ranging from dark brown to very blonde with rare redheads, grey or blue eyes, and
high cheekbones.
In the intervening centuries, the region has seen plenty of cross-cultural contact with the wider
world. Therefore just as with historical populations, the "look" is not universal. Skin
pigmentation ranging up to mahogany-brown, eyes brown enough to be black, and different hair
textures can all be found together or separately as individual and family variations, among up to
perhaps 15% of the general population. One might meet a white-skinned person with a thick
shock of curly brown hair, for instance, or a dark-skinned person with smoky grey eyes.
The present day is an isolated, miserable time, and whatever other empires, routine travel, and
cultural effervescence may be occurring, they aren't happening here. Not many people travel into
the Crescent land, and not many people leave and come back, and the people of the Crescent

land generally know very little of other places and ways. Some foreign contact does occur, at the
far western plains reaches of Tamaryon and at the farthest maritime reach of the best ships from
Spurr, and it is presumably ongoing, but at this time, its impact on the Crescent land itself is
intermittent, and foreign-born, foreign-dressed people are unfamiliar to its inhabitants.
This results in the local diversity being far less coded and significant than one might think,
because it's not associated with other places, or correlated with social rank, economics, or
designated subcultures. Everyone is wearing similar clothes, speaking similarly by region, and
sharing the semiotic values implied by the Details list in character creation. Calling someone "the
black man," perhaps as a nickname for a person known for a notable skill or event, does not
carry an Other tag, but is similar to "the tall" or "fork-beard." The term "minority" in this case is
merely quantitative, because whatever racism the people of the Crescent land might harbor, now
or in the future, does not apply to their current strong cultural sense of "us."
Their ways
Social ranking
Society and its practices are not founded on principles-based law or authority or status, and all
power is local. The social rankings are not designed but rather emergent, nor are they even quite
understood to be as rigid as they are. They are, however, quite real.
A note to history buffs: as this is a pre-feudal society, issues of land ownership and rent are
either absent or so murky as to be merely local arrangements. It's a lot more like 11th century
Germanic-Nordic areas than anything else. Therefore "freeman," for instance, is much less
contractual than the status by that name during the 1400s. I've chosen "peasant" as the most
generic, least economically loaded term.

Peasants live by minimally skilled labor, or if skilled, inconvenient labor. Wood is

gathered, animals are herded, fires are kept burning, dung is gathered, semi-frozen fields
are broken by plow, slaughtered human bodies are gathered, and no one really notices
that the peasants are doing it. They rarely leave their home communities unless traveling
with seasonal work or fleeing from violence.
o The terms "villein," "peon," and "serf" do not apply, because members of this
social rank are not tied to a particular plot of land (albeit many never leave one),
nor forced to work, nor considered anyone's property.
o A special sort of peasant is the low entertainer, who does travel, indeed lives by
doing so, but can expect hospitality, lodging, and social treatment as a peasant.
Freemen are not above many peasants' tasks, especially farming, but they exert authority
and make decisions about these tasks, and they organize work efforts and governance,
among themselves if no one else. In groups freemen can be a considerable social force.
o Freemen include a significant fighting force, in numbers if not in organization or
general skill. A well-established community can muster a militia or be rallied to
fight with gentry.
Professionals in this coin-less society are best understood as contractors for highly
skilled, difficult, or dangerous work. They are "paid" through patronage in terms of living

space and privileged conditions, with the understanding that they might be doing
whatever it is for someone else.
Gentry enjoy the most material privileges, by definition. By modern standards, the
difference in quality of life between gentry and everyone else is slim, but it matters a lot
in terms of infant mortality and personal longevity. The qualities of gentry vary greatly,
e.g., the toughest bad-ass in town or a long-standing family association with trade in iron
ore, depending on the place.
o Many gentry do not have special titles, only famous nicknames that sometimes
approach the quality of a title. The term "baron" is used to indicate armed defense
of or control over a territory, including fortresses.

Social rank is set by what you do; it's only hereditary insofar as people learn what to do from
their home communities and family associations even for gentry. Although perceived as a
fundamental and immutable aspect of one's identity, and although it's certainly consequential in
every way, it's more mutable than the stereotype of Dark Ages society. Yes, most people remain
in the professions and social rank in which they were raised and everyone thinks "that's the way
it is," but as much as 10% of the population shifts social rank from their parents' at any given
time.
Respect and authority across the social ranks is emergent from circumstances, whether positive
like a shared effort to repel wolves during winter, or negative like the fear of starvation and
torture. Language like "lord" doesn't exist, nor any concept of "gentle birth" or "good breeding"
for humans. The equivalent of "sir" merely acknowledges authority for the moment, and the most
common word for someone with consistent authority is "chief." "Knight" is a surprisingly
generic term that does not even carry the implication of combat, let alone hereditary status.
"King" is nothing more than a temporary executive status accorded to a chief by other chiefs.
Clothing and hair are specific to professions, which are tightly constrained by social rank. Most
men cut their hair short or bob it beneath the ears, with not much distinction among the social
ranks, and trimming one's facial hair in various ways is an individual thing, although shaving
one's face entirely typically indicates skilled work or education. Most women wear their hair
long and braid or bun it close to the head, with very definite social rank indicators.
In this society, everyone wears pretty much the same things in terms of basic design, but the fit,
the quality of the cloth, the extent and material of trim, and other details are fine-grained
indicators of relative positions in society. Men typically wear a sleeved, long-skirted shirt, belted
to serve as a kilt or tunic, over an undershirt (singlet) and sometimes with a mantle or heavy
cloak over it. Pants are worn for appropriate work such as riding horses and when the weather
turns cold. Fancier men's clothes are more robe-like but follow the same design. Women
typically wear sleeved dresses with low-cut tops, sometimes not even reaching over the
shoulders, over a blouse or singlet; over-wear such as mantles or cloaks are similar to men's but
may be cut differently as a gender tag.
A common feature of clothing is a circular patch worn to one side of the chest, displaying simple
symbols that indicate a bit of information: family, a region, a profession, or anything else similar.
It's not very complete and isn't a snapshot of a person's whole life, but to people in the same

community, it's a strong orienter. The Circle knights all wear such an emblem indicating their
membership, as well as any other a particular character wants to retain from his or her former life
(see Details in character creation).
Money and wealth
Money barely exists. Food, clothing, shelter, and all the basics of life are produced and and
exchanged in a way that's difficult for modern people to understand. It's not "barter" in the sense
that three chickens equals a pig equals half a goat, nor is it communitarian in an organized or
fairness-oriented sense. Everyone's living and working and using the stuff that results as a matter
of relationships and proximity.
Coins exist, but not as disposable currency. Coins are credit tokens, similar to wax seals on a
contract, accepted only among very specific people who know one another's reputations. Having
any without being these people or their known associates is regarded as theft, and it wouldn't do
you any good anyway, because such things are not used in general exchange, and they're
absolutely worthless to anyone else.
It sounds pretty nice in some ways; if you're part of a community, you're going to be busy doing
daily work and you'll have a place to live and food to eat. Leadership and negotiations yield
more organization for it in a given area. For example, a merchant is a person who's really good at
organizing multiple exchanges across a single area. However
Force, cruelty, and misery
This is not nice fantasy. The world is cruel. True, most communities, most wielders of force from
any level of society, and most parties in the exchange of goods and services would prefer to live
their lives without being murdered, raped, or tortured. The "Dark Ages" stereotype isn't true:
people aren't shuffling around covered in filth, their skin weeping with sores, ignorant to the
point of grunting and bumbling. People love one another, do skilled work, celebrate community
accomplishment, observe holy days, sing, and make art.
However, written law does not exist, and pragmatic law emerges from immediate community
standards and from force of arms, both of which have a limited "decency and justice" hit rate.
Therefore brutality is consistent and atrocious enough to become part of the norm. All too often,
people live in the context of inflicted pain or its threat. Cruelty and misery are present, if not in
every village, then often enough. In a community, people who run afoul of social approval can
be ostracized or expelled, either one functionally a death sentence, especially when accompanied
by amputation or branding. Whole communities are treated as private reserves if they can't
defend themselves, or if caught in a dispute, butchered and scattered by raids and reprisals. The
gentry fight one another, and if you lose, you can expect to be hung from your feet and
eviscerated, so you can look at your guts while you die. Or castrated and kept naked on a leash in
your enemy's hall; or given no food and raped daily until you starve. The people who fought with
you died like dogs, transfixed by spears from horseback, or they fled to nearby areas, their
children dying of exposure in the night as they traveled.

Power emerges from cooperation and a sensible division of labor. It also emerges from torture,
extraction, enforced hunger, "examples," and "messages." The pole always spoken of in
exactly that way is a sharpened and greased stake about ten feet long, inserted into a person's
anus and then posted into the ground, such that the person's weight slowly impales him or her.
Death by the pole can last many days in unimaginable agony. Crucifixion has nothing to do with
nails, but similar to the pole, it relies on gravity. The person's arms are strapped to a framework
in such a way that he or she cannot breathe effectively given the pull of his or her weight, for
death by slow suffocation. Canting the frame slightly back and providing a very slim shelf to
support the feet don't change the outcome but rather make it even slower. These are very public
methods, socially tuned to instill fear and obedience into communities, and they work exquisitely
well toward that end.
In a land without much institutional memory and without accountable social responsibilities, the
latter methods are as common as the former, and few organizations exist to reverse or prevent
misery. Making people watch their friend or family member or a respected leader die like this,
and leaving the body rot in place, is standard "law" enforcement in all too many places.
Even the nicest characters have seen a person killed, often for no imaginable reason. Many of
them, the nicest I mean, may well have done it.
Spirituality
The culture is religious, but religion is not very institutionalized and more often than not is
disconnected from overt social power. The doctrine is similar to textual Buddhim: life is grim
and nothing protects you from pain, the best one can do is develop practical ethics and arrive at a
heartfelt, personal decency. It is pragmatic and not particularly metaphysical, although it
includes many symbolic details regarding spiritual things. Both Rbaja and Amboriyon are called
out as direct threats, and avoiding both their uses and their dangers is a high priority. Priests, as
the word is used, are not set-off sharply from most of society in any way, but rather are those
individuals who counsel others effectively using this doctrine. A priest's status arises directly
from his or her success at this social utility. That's why religion is not very centralized; the
closest would be some famous teaching centers, usually because someone well-respected lived
there and has left behind a community legacy which keeps up the discussion and practices and
welcomes visitors.
At first glance, it's a loser's creed: suffer, keep your chin up, and don't make waves. Perceiving it
as such is probably why priests are permitted to live in the first place. Under the surface, though,
the religion serves as a social connector and as a language for steadfastness, the ability to endure
overt abuse while developing and maintaining practical power.

Technology and weaponry

No system of roads connects the regions of the Crescent land, and within a region, usable roads
emerge mainly through use; civic road work is strictly a matter of local effort to shore up an
embankment or maintain a bridge. Long-distance travel therefore includes extensive stretches on

tracks, barely distinguishable from the area they pass through, and many areas are traversed only
through trails or "ways" which are known only to locals.
Farming is the core of human sustenance, from little plots next to huts to common fields worked
by most of the able-bodied inhabitants. Herds of meat and draft animals are also universal, with
many of the former being wild deer and elk, followed rather than herded. Arriving at a
community, one does well to walk straight into whatever threshing or planting is going on and to
lend a hand, to be asked questions only later, around the hearth-fire. Everyone helps farm, a bit,
although those who do nothing else, without leadership or skill, are thought of as little better than
draft animals themselves.
The people live in cottages, gather in longhouses, and sometimes hold multi-community
negotiations in special halls. Of the powerful, the warlike build forts, whether a wooden palisade
on a hilltop or an altered and stone-reinforced cliff-face. They serve as temporary refuges and for
battened-down defense, but are not necessarily permanent structures, or of much interest at
peaceful times.
A modern visitor to the Crescent land would be struck by the time and effort expended regarding
fire and heat. The defining feature of a home, rather than a hut or wretched warren, is the hearth,
built of stone and featuring a chimney even if it's hardly bigger than a modern oven, it's there.
Bigger building like longhouses and halls are only functional insofar as their hearths burn wood,
at multiple points in the building. Hearth fires are kept going all day, every day, all year long; in
hot weather they may be no more than charcoal embers, but they don't go out. Constant tasks
concern wood: gathering it, carting it, chopping it, stacking it; chipping tinder, making charcoal,
laying aside promising pieces for construction and tools
Light is primarily a matter of daylight. Although blowing glass is a known art, it's mostly for
jewelry windowpanes and casings for lamps are not present. Therefore lamps are not much
more than a long-burning candle set in oil. The most sophisticated are wheel-made clay oil
lamps, open at the top but with a rolled, almost closed spout for the wick a lot like a modern
gravy boat. Poorer folk use cruder, hand-made simple saucers with one or more pinches to hold
wicks. Once the sun goes down, most industrious activity ceases across the various strata of
society.
No human culture has lacked its drugs and alcohol. Unsurprisingly, the humble potato yields its
well-known magic throughout the land in a thousand locally-infused varieties, and local beer and
mead are produced so widely and constantly that a community without them easily available
would be a strange place indeed.
Smoking is represented mainly through burning the desired dried plants over a low flame in an
enclosed space, and rare specialty devices that bubble the smoke up through water are greatly
admired. The hookah has not been invented, so inhaling remains more about the room than about
sucking it directly from the flame. Pipe smoking is an available technology, but in the absence of
tobacco and other suitable plant substances, it isn't widely practiced. The preferred substance is
cannabis, which grows poorly in most areas of the Crescent land and therefore is a prized import,

utilized in small amounts. Other more-common herbs are smoked as well because they smell
good, but without narcotic effects.
This is an Iron Age land, its primary metallurgy being iron smelting in thick stone furnaces,
either vertical or horizontal, called bloomeries. The technique is almost to melt iron ore or pig
iron, running red-hot slag out of the sides and producing a spongy mass of iron and slag (the
"bloom") inside. Doing it repeatedly produces varying percentages of each, toward the end of
whatever item is planned, and the bloom is then worked by hand into whatever shape is desired,
often a bar for later heating and shaping. The resulting object is said to be made of wrought iron,
which is the common specialty metal material of the Crescent land. It's used for mail, cone
helms, arrowheads, bolt-heads, knives, spear-points, most axe-heads, the chained mace, knives,
and plenty of pieces of equipment used widely throughout the society. Iron ore and pig iron
ingots are a fundamentally valuable good, produced in large amounts where ore can be acquired
and carted all over, and the smith with his bloomery is one of the fixtures of society.
Steel production is in an early stage, by carburization: heating shaped wrought-iron pieces in
charcoal, then quenching them in water, which turns the outer layers into steel. It's the single
most valued metal. For weapons, swords are carburized steel, as are the frames for spangenhelm
and some great-axe heads. A very few other specialty tools are produced this way, each one
prized by its owner above all other possessions.
Technologies not yet known, if ever, include water-powered foundries, the crucible technique,
and whatever sophistications produced Wootz or Damascus steel. Cast iron is only beginning to
be developed in Rolke, and is many steps short of decarburized steel, which is melting cast iron
and wrought iron together to get steel.
Tools of violence
Context matters: there are no "armies" in the Crescent land. Able-bodied people in a community
organize themselves for raids, defense, or feuds, gentry rally local freemen to raid and fight one
another, and some people effectively live by being available to fight for someone who provides
lodging and food, in bands no larger than a dozen people. Nor are weapons manufactured in bulk
and distributed as such, instead, your spear-point was probably made no more than ten miles
away. There is no systematic effort or policy directed toward developing the technology;
developments are emergent and local.
The only metal armor is mail, fashioned as a loose rustling hauberk (tunic) that reaches to about
the elbows and knees, sometimes with a coif (hood), worn over a similar cloth garment called a
gambeson. There are no such things as scale or ringmail, no "leather armor," which is a fictional
thing anyway, or plate armor. No special limb armor is worn, let alone gauntlets or articulated
chausses. Only the wealthiest and most powerful people in a region have mail, and a few people
they trust. A person who owns mail also typically uses the relatively sophisticated spangenhelm,
built on a steel framework. A recent fashion has added ornamental face-masks to the
spangenhelm in Famberge.

Everyone else fights without protection beyond a parma, a round wooden shield, easily
manufactured, or its smaller version, a buckler; and head protection not much different from a
wrought iron pot, called a cone helm. People with mail and spangenhelm also use these shields,
as well as the newer kite design when on horseback. All shields are made from wood and are
considered throwaway tech, as a shield hardly ever survives a fight.
The main weapon is the spear, used overhand to stab down or to throw. There is no design
distinction between infantry and cavalry spear, and no such things as the ultra-long or jousting
lances, or the footman's pike. Spears are dangerous enough as they are thrown or used in a
mounted charge, they go right through mail as if it didn't exist.
Swords are only observed among the gentry, being the ultimate specialty item of this culture.
You fight with it only after you lose your spear. There are no greatswords. The sword is at most
a yard long, with a single edge and no point. Shortswords are not present either, probably due to
the lack of mass production and distribution, as there is no "military" and massed training and
weapons supply are flat out of the picture. Similarly, there are no "daggers," including
misericordes and other armor-specific forms. An ordinary knife is a tool, not a dedicated
weapon.
Axes are employed as weapons, especially in Tamaryon where the Danish-style great axe is used
by the gentry and their loyal fighters; it is not, however, a fantasy-style double-bitted monster but
rather a bit lighter than a woodsman's axe. The area is better known for the widely-used and
wicked francisca, a smaller axe that can be thrown at lightning speed. The chained flail is
characteristic of the gentry in Spurr, with two or more long chains with small heads, well-suited
to teamwork among armored fighters.
Short bows are common but used in war only regionally in Rolke, and there are no longbows at
all. Crossbow technology is simple and cumbersome and they are used only briefly in battles;
however, the revolving nut mechanism has recently been invented in Spurr

The war and Rolke

The world is also a battlefield between profoundly opposed magical forces: one of altruism,
healing, and love called Amboriyon, against one of bitterness, death, and hate called Rbaja. As
an abstract force, each is powerful and ruthless, knowing no compromise. The lands reflect the
conflict, in that some areas are blasted, blackened, and full of grim pockets of chaos, whereas
others actually reside on the high-floating clouds, clear of worldly troubles. However, most of
the lands are pretty much like the ones we know, consisting of mountains, forests, rivers, seas,
and communities of various sizes. The competing forces are eager to bring these lands under
their control.
Wizards can be found throughout the lands, and it is certain that each is up to something, usually
thwarting one another's plans. One of the mysteries of magic is whether Amboriyon and Rbaja
are respectively ruled by personifications of their warring magics, and whether people with high
tally scores are actually sworn to their fealty. It may be that the war is a direct contest of wits and
power between unthinkably abstract Black and White entities, with the most powerful wizards as

loyal agents and the others as useful idiots. Or it may be that the war is merely the cumulative
by-product of so many scheming wizards. Few visit either realm and return to tell much about it.
Magic's morality might seem rather clear-cut: white magic is nice and good, and black magic is
evil and bad. Comparing the Total Cure or Warding spells to Pestilence or Sacrifice is usually
straightforward. In most places, white wizards can expect praise and black wizards can expect
fear. Rbaja's presence unquestionably yields outright horror, provoking aversion and terror, and
its wastes disgorge abominations whose acts are too awful to recount. Tales abound of avatars
swooping down to defend against such things, as well as to right wrongs and smite evildoers.
However, the truth is more grim. The fate of lands dominated by the Amboriyon mages and
overseen by the cloud kingdoms is just as destructive, if more slowly. White magic is cleansing
in the worst sense prompting bizarre social norms and laying waste to human passions,
ultimately to be purified into inhumanly abstract forms. The cloud citadels are as dangerous and
toxic to ordinary lands as the blasted, stained areas. A unicorn is a fine and ruthless ally against
an infestation of undead, sure, but once they're gone, it will simply continue to look for the next
thing which profanes its notion of purity, which, in the absence of undead, is likely to include
you. Communities which welcome Amboriyon wizards typically wind up silent forever, the
children murdered in their beds and the adults sitting together, dead by suicide, smiling.
Religious people do their best to stay low and to avoid the worst effects of magic, and doctrine
correctly warns that even benevolent-seeming magic hides ultimately horrifying effects.
Sometimes, priests can become effective organizers to cope with local disasters associated with
either type of magic or both, leading to a culture of defiance. Such efforts typically come to sad
ends against magic itself, but they can also topple or rearrange the local power structure.

Tamaryon as a whole is the most consistently religious and most organized region,
particularly vs. Amboriyon influences
Famberge priests are either close to and protected by a local baron, or utterly radical out
there in the woods
Spurr is not a welcoming environment for the doctrine, so priests typically act in secret
and try to keep people safe
Rolke is subtly wracked by religious disagreement over the recent political changes,
producing the only crisis of heresy in the Crescent land.

The new ruler of Rolke is a young man who wrested control of the realm from warring chiefs,
themselves manipulated by competing white and black wizards. One of the principles by which
he rules is to avoid falling under the sway of either Amboriyon or Rbaja, for whichever is
ascendant in an area tends to draw the attention of the other and lead to cataclysm. His chief
advisor in this matter is a wizard who beyond anyone's comprehension has been practicing magic
for decades without following either path.
The king has issued a widespread proclamation to expand the ranks of the Rolke gentry through
fealty to himself and through deeds of merit, as opposed to deeds that gain color tallies. This
revolutionary concept is causing quite a stir across the lands. People travel to join the cause, and
the hardest, most committed of them become Circle knights.

The term "knight" does not mean anything like most literary usage, instead reaching back to the
word knecht which literally means servant or committed person. The equivalent word would be
Kreisknechten, "sworn to the circle." (Words like gesith and thegn may also apply.) In addition
to ranking among the deadliest fighters known in the Crescent land, they practice white and
black magic simultaneously.
The player-characters are the core bad-asses in the Circle created by the young king in Rolke.
Some may have helped him in his rise to power; others have arrived since, drawn by the new
ideals. Play focuses on the actions they take to secure the gains made by the new regime, to
combat the forces of Amboriyon and Rbaja at their worst, and to open inroads to others who
might listen.
And thats where the Arthurian stops. Instead of heroic noble icons stiffly posing on tapestries,
these characters are products of their age and backgrounds perhaps striving for something new
and different, but producing it more in the crunch and by the sacrifice of their bodies and minds,
rather than by clear design. Stories and play should be more reminiscent of Kurosawa's ronin
films the political and epic background permit us to step into the utterly personal and utterly
passionate local story. The Stars Spartacus series also qualifies in just the same way. A good
way to look at it is that the characters are committed to the mission, but play is less concerned
with the mission's success than with the passions and actions of the characters in the moment.
The ideals of the Circle are one thing, but its human agents and their personal fates may be
another.
The system is built to dramatize these issues, most especially in its magic mechanics. Therefore
for every character, the route taken depends on what the character does during the course of the
game.

3: Forging Steel
The rules are built for a group ranging from three to six people, one of whom will serve as "game
master" (GM) throughout the course of play. An adventure is typically begun and completed in a
single session of play, from two-and-a-half to four hours depending on its complexity and the
events developed in the moment.
The group meets to create the Circle knights who will serve as a pool to draw upon when the
adventures begin.

Creating the Circle

The player-characters are veteran Circle knights, not recruits or newcomers. They are
experienced and committed, the core. The Circle includes others but none so proven, and those
characters do not figure into the adventures.
Everyone including the GM makes two characters, to form the veteran inner core of your game's
Circle. In the first adventure, you play one of the characters you made up. Thereafter, per
adventure, you play any one of them, created by anyone, of your choice. Player ownership of
characters is complete within this fictional unit, but otherwise absent. The GM never plays any
members of the Circle.
Reminder
If you're the person organizing play, do not fail to stress this point to everybody: forget nearly
everything you know about the word "knight." There are no squires, no chivalry, no flowery
language, no feudalism, no kingdoms, no castles, no code of honor, no plate armor, no heraldry
on shields or anywhere else, no jousting, no warhorses, no Crusades, and no Catholicism.
Character construction
Attributes and Traits
Actions in the game are treated by the direct use of four attributes. They are Brawn the exertion
of force and motion, Quickness reactivity of the body and mind, Wits logic, memory, and the
making of mental connections, and Charm emotional connections and influence upon others'
behavior.
All of them are both mental and physical, e.g., Brawn is the will to push through pain and fatigue
as well as simple muscle; Quickness applies to attention to changing circumstances as well as to
physical speed; and so on. If you want to be really Schopenhauer about it, all four are actually
manifestations of Will.
The ordinary human undistinguished value for an attribute is 3. Player-characters' values are
determined by d6 + 1. Player-character Brawn, however, is always treated as if the die came up
5, so roll only for the other three. Use three six-sided dice, one black, one white, and one red.

Roll and assign the black value to Quickness, the white value to Wits, and the red value to
Charm. Again, all the rolls including the imaginary one that yielded 5 for Brawn, are added to 1.
Time to make the first of two characters. I roll black 3, white 3, red 3, resulting in B =
1+5, Q=1+3, W=1+3, C=1+3.
The resulting values are then finalized by choosing two of the following traits.

Brave (+2 Q): retreat is not the first option

Cunning (+2 W): surprise and deception, every time
Romantic (+2 C): the delusion of narrative, for oneself and others
Ambitious (+1 Q +1 W): toward achieving the social rank just above ones own
Brutal (+1 B +1 C): at home with physical and emotional pain

Given an even spread of values like this, nothing immediately suggests itself for shoring up
or optimizing. Out of sheer enjoyment of the Trait descriptions, I choose Brutal and Brave,
adding +2 Q, +1 B, +1 C, for final values of B 7, Q 6, W 4, C 5.
Traits are not synonyms for or merely extreme versions of attributes; they represent a characters
primary context for making decisions, habits of thought, and well-earned reputation among
others. The traits set some expectations for play: not quite a thespian lockdown, but definitely a
player commitment in terms of attitude. A character may act outside his or her traits, but not
without complaining or otherwise expressing discontent that such behavior is necessary.
Similarly, not having a trait does not designate its opposite, but rather that doing or not doing
stuff along those lines is not emotionally reflexive for the character. Anyone can be brave, for
instance, but the trait designates who is unthinkingly brave.
Homeland
If B is highest, youre from Tamaryon, whose people have broad backs
If Q is highest, youre from Famberge, where people fight to live
If W is highest, youre from Spurr, where treachery is trust
If C is highest, or if the highest score is shared by one or more attributes, then youre from
Rolke, because it rounds things out
This character is from Tamaryon. Looking over the descriptions in the text, I think of a
farming society constantly subverted by white magic from the overhanging cloud citadels,
with a steadfast people and well-established priesthood.
Professions and social rank
A player-character has one profession per 4 W or fraction thereof.

Artisan

o Some applications: valuable crafts (smithying, leatherworking, shipwright),

assessment of materials, repair, invention
Entertainer (low)
o Some applications: rope-walking, juggling, exhibitionist dancing, improvisational
humor, dirty fighting
Entertainer (high) literacy, history
o Some applications: literacy, highly technical singing and dancing, playing a rare
musical instrument, knowledge of poetry, high drama, and literature
Farmer
o Some applications: agriculture, draft and meat animals, field medicine, practical
natural history
Outdoorsman
o Some applications: short bow, small axe, hunting, living with minimal shelter,
practical geography, swimming, knowledge of animals and plants, horses and
dogs
Martial (low)
o Some applications: staff, dagger, short sword, spear, camping, basic animal care,
field medicine, looting
Martial (high)
o Some applications: sophisticated armor, longsword, great sword, battle axe, mace,
chained mace, lance, command organization, battle-relevant decision-making,
signalling
Merchant
o Some applications: literacy, finances, trade-relevant geography, varying customs,
practical languages, appraisal of merchandise, people management
Priest
o Some applications: liturgical literacy, theology, symbology, doctrinal history,
people management of all kinds, medical care
o To be a Circle knight, one has broken with the traditional priesthood and to some,
is effectively a heretic
Scholar
o Some applications: literacy, philosophy, languages, official history, map-based
geography
Wizard
o Some applications: literacy, magical sensing, knowledge of other wizards,
knowledge of magical creatures
o Wizard cannot be a character's sole profession.
Although I know "knight" doesn't mean the usual imagery, I still want someone who
matches it as close as the setting allows, so I choose martial (high).

Social rank is set by the character's lowest profession according to the following lists.

Peasant: Farmer, Entertainer (low)

Freeman: Outdoorsman, Martial (low), Priest
Professional: Scholar, Artisan, Merchant, Entertainer (high)

Gentry: Martial (high)

If one of the character's Traits is Ambitious, consider choosing Professions from adjacent social
ranks.
Given Martial (high) as the sole profession, this character is a member of the gentry,
which in Tamaryon, means a family whose members consistently serve as local chiefs and
organizers of multiple communities in times of need. Slow-simmering feuds punctuate the
family's history in the region, and hilltop forts mark the centers of power.
Social rank is instantly and accurately perceived by any and all members of the culture. It cant
be faked except through Entertainer skills or magical deception.
A few points of interest: there is no such thing as a "free farmer," professionals can have Martial
(high), such as mercenaries or others who've risen in military command through merit, and
gentry who can do anything other than fight are clearly not real gentry. Also, wizardry is
neither a fixed social status nor a leveler.
Sex
The rules do not distinguish between men and women, although the setting is a highly gendered
culture, notably lacking in understanding or inclusion of non-traditional options about sexual
preference and gender roles. The game gets away with this due to the in-fiction uniformity for
Brawn among Circle members. Simply, women who join the Circle are either already or become
outstanding physical specimens, and the Circle subculture is such that commitment comes first,
all else second.
The player-characters are therefore less intolerant than most people in the setting, not due to
modern ideals so much as to fire-forged bonds of defying a common enemy, both in pre-Circle
experience and shared adventure since. This permits you to assign details of this sort as you like.
It strikes me as interesting for this character to be female, one of the few who gain
martial respect in an unforgiving society. Perhaps she even disguised herself as a man to
fight. For whatever reason, I begin thinking in terms of widowhood.
Magic
Eighty spells are listed in the magic section. They are rated from one to three points and are
either black or white magic.
Wizards know all the spells. Non-wizards are trained by the wizards of the Circle, so they begin
with points of spells equal to Wits, which must include both black and white magic
My eyes light upon Semblance (black, 1 point), and I say "Ah ha," my thoughts on
disguise becoming more concrete. I also choose Magic Blank (white, 1 point) and

Glamor (white, 2 points), the latter because I like the idea of this character brandishing a
white-flaming sword. Her Wits = 4, so that's all.
Details
Roll the black die and white die. Add the black result to C for Demeanor; add the white result to
C for Feature.
Demeanor
3-4 Shy even if everyone else has spoken once already, or stepped forward to be noticed
5-6 Friendly a bit distrusted in this culture in the absence of shared hardship
7-8 Blunt not vicious or insulting, merely lacking in graces
9-10 Formal not bowing and scraping, merely according closely to clear class-based social
boundaries
11-12 Fierce not hostile or angry, but clearly ready for action
13-14 Stoic not silent or self-effacing, but rather undemonstrative and rock-steady, an acquired
virtue from foreign lands
15-16 Serene an unmistakable sense of place and presence, wherever he or she is, without any
specific expression or need to establish it
Feature
3-4 Tattooing non-representative, a lot of nested circles and spirals; a leftover, absorbed detail
from Pananthuri culture
5-6 Mismatched eyes a common genetic quirk
7-8 One piece of bright clothing not necessarily always the same one
9-10 Blaze another common genetic quirk
11-12 Emblem denotes family, region of birth, or a profession; this is in addition to the Circle
emblem ordinarily worn by the player-characters
13-14 Facial scar at least two inches long
15-16 Well-groomed notably clean, combed, and kempt, a practice introduced by travelers
from foreign lands
Each list is presented in ascending value of cultural favor, which should give you an idea of the
values held uncritically by most people. For example, a scar of this kind merits respect and is not
considered disfigurement.
I roll 6 for Demeanor and 5 for Feature, resulting in Demeanor 6 + 5 = 11 Fierce; and
Feature 5 + 5 = 10 Blaze. That does seem just right and my character concept takes on a
full image in my mind.
In play, these are definitely thespian instructions, but see the notes to understand their precise
meanings, and especially consider that they are the character's habits, not utterly locked-in
obligations.
Name

Peasants use a single name, always in the diminutive form (the bulleted entries).
Freeman have a full name but are often called the diminutive form, if available, with no real
distinction between the uses. Some freemen use their region or a descriptive nickname as a
surname.
Professionals use names similarly to freemen, but always use a surname as well, whether a
parent's name, a husband's, the profession, or some adjective related to the profession.
Gentry only use full names, not diminutives, as well as a surname derived from the least recent
family member associated with power typically a couple of generations back. The surname is
used in a general way toward buildings and symbols of power in the local area, and gentry might
address one another by surname in the context of local authority.
Male names
ADALBERT adal "noble" beraht
"bright"
ADALWULF adal "noble" wulf
ALBRECHT
ALWIN
ANSELM ans "god" helm "helmet,
protection"
ANSGAR ans "god" gar "spear"
ARNOLD arn "eagle" wald
"power"
ARNDT
ARNE
ARTUR
BALDUR bald "bold"
BARTHOLOMUS
BERNHARD bern "bear"
BENNO
BERND
BERTHOLD beraht "bright" wald
"rule".
BERTRAM beraht "bright" hramn
"raven"
BJRN "bear"
BRUNO brun "brown"
BURKHARD burg "protection"
hard "brave, hardy"
CONRAD kuoni "brave" and rad
"counsel"
CORD
DETLEF eud "people" and leib
"heritage"
DIETER "warrior of the people",
eud "people" and hari "army"
DIDI
DIEDERICH, DIETRICH,
DIETERIK

FRIEDRICH
FRITZ
GEBHARD geb "gift" hard "brave,
hardy"
GEBBERT
GERD, GERT
GEORG
JRG
JRGEN
GERALD, GERHOLD,
GEROLD ger "spear" wald "rule"
GERO
GERFRIED ger "spear" and frid
"peace".
GERHARD, GERHARDT
GEERT
GERNOT ger "spear" hnod
"crush".
GERULF ger "spear" wulf "wolf".
GILBERT gisil "pledge, hostage"
and beraht "bright"...
GISBERT beraht "bright"
GREGOR
GNTER, GUNTER, GNTHER,
GUNTHER gund "war" hari "army,
warrior"
GUNTRAM gund "war" and hramn
"raven"
GUSTAF
HAGAN
HARALD
HARTMANN hard "brave, hardy"
with man
HARTMUT "brave mind", hard
"brave, hardy" and muot "mind,
spirit".

KOLMAN, KOLOMAN
KONRAD
KORD
KURT
KUNIBERT kuni "clan, family"
beraht "bright"
KUNO
LAMBERT, LAMPRECHTland
"land" beraht "bright"
LAMMERT
LANZO
LEBERECHT lebe "live" recht
"right"
LEOPOLD leud "people" bald
"bold"
LOTHAR hlud "fame" and hari
"army"
LUDOLF hlud "fame" wolf "wolf".
LUDWIG hlud "fame" wig
"warrior"
LUTZ
WIEBE
LUITGER ger "spear"
LUDGER
MANFRED, MANFRIED magan
"strength" frid "peace"
MARWIN
MEINARD, MEINHARD magan
"strength"
MEINE, MEINO
MENNO
MEINRAD magan "strength,
might" rad "counsel"
ORTWIN ort "point" win "friend"
OSKAR
OSWALD os "god" weald "rule"

 DIRK, DIERK
TILL, TILLO
DIETFRIED eud "people" and frid
"peace, protection"
DIETHELM eud "people" helm
"helmet, protection"
DIETMAR eud "people" and meri
"famous"
EBERHARD eber meaning "wild
boar"
EBBE
ECKBERT "edge of sword,"
"bright"
EKKEHARD, ECKHARD,
ECKEHARD, ECKART,
ECKHART, ekka "edge" hard
"brave, hardy"
EDMUND ead "rich, blessed" and
mund "protector"
EDUARD
EGON eg, "edge of a sword"
ELMO
EMMERICH ric meaning "power"
ENGEL "angel"
ERDMANN
ERHARD, EVERARD "honour
and bravery", era "honour, respect"
hard "brave, hardy".
EVERT
ERICH, ERIK
ERNST
ERWIN Hariwini, hari "army" win
"friend"
EWALD ewa "law, custom" wald
"rule".
FALK "falcon".
FILIBERT filu "much" and beraht
"bright"
FREJ
FRIEDEMANN frid "peace" and
man "man".
FRIEDHELM frid "peace" helm
"helmet, protection".
FRIEDHOLD frid "peace" wald
"rule"

HARTWIG hard "brave, hardy"

wig "battle".
HARTWIN hard "brave, hardy" and
win "friend".
HEINO
HEINRICH
HENRIK
HEINER
HEIKE, HEIKO
HEINZ
HINRICH
HEILAGR "holy, blessed".
HELGE
HELM helm "helmet"
ELMO
HELMFRIED, HELFRIED helm
"helmet" and frid "peace"
HELMUT, HELMOLD helm
"helmet" and muot "spirit, mind"
MALTE, MALTHE
HENDRIK
HENNING
HERBERT, HERIBERT hari
"army" and beraht "bright"
HERMANN
HERMENEGILD
HILBERT, HILDEBERT hild
"battle" and beraht "bright".
HILDEBRAND hild "battle" brand
"sword"
HORST "wood, thicket"
HUBERT hug "heart, mind" and
beraht "bright"
HUPPERT
INGO
INGE
INGOLF, INGULF ing "god" lfr
"wolf"
ISIDOR
IVO iv "yew"
KAI
KARL, KARLMANN
KASIMIR
KASPAR
KNUT kntr "knot"

OTMAR, OTTMAR,
OTTOMAR od "wealth, fortune"
ODO, OTTO
RAGIN "advice, counsel"
REIN
RAIMUND, REIMUND
RAINER, REINER
RALF
RAMBERT hram "raven" and
beraht "bright".
ROBERT
RUPRECHT
RODOLF, HRODOLF
ROLF
RUDI, RUEDI
ROGER, RUDIGER "famous
spear" hrod "fame" and ger "spear"
ROLAND hrod "fame" land
SIEG sigu "victory"
SIGI
SIEGBERT sigu "victory" and
beraht "bright"
SIEGFRIED
SIEGHARD, SIEGWARD sigu
"victory" and hard "brave, hardy"
SIGISMUND
SIGISWALD sigis "victory" wald
"rule"
SREN
TORBEN
ULRICH uodal "heritage" ric
"power"
UTZ
UWE
VEIT
VOLKER folk "people" hari "army".
WERNER warin "guard" hari
"army"
WERTHER wert "worthy" hari
"army
WIELAND wela "skill" and land
WULFGANG
WULF
WOLFRAM wulf "wolf" hramn
"raven".

GERTRAUD, GERTRUD,
GERTRUDE ger "spear" and ru
"strength"
GISELA
GISA
GUDRUN gu "god" and rn

KATJA
KLARA
KORA
KRIEMHILD, KRIEMHILDE,
KRIMHILDE grim "mask" hild
"battle"

Female names
ADELA, ADELE
ADA
ADELHEID
ADELINA, ALINA
ALEIDA, ALIDA

 ALEIT
ELKE
HEIDA, HEIDI
AGATHE
ALFREDA
ASTRID
AVA avi, "desired"
BERTA, BERTHA beraht "bright,
famous"
BRIGITTA, BRIGITTE
GITTA, GITTE
BRUNHILD, BRUNHILDE brun
"armour, protection" hild "battle"...
DAGMAR dagr "day" mr "maid".
DIETLINDE eud "people" linde
"soft, tender"...
EBBA
EDITH ead "rich, blessed" gy
"war"...
EMMA, IRMA ermen "whole" or
"universal"
IMKE, IMMA
ERIKA
ERMENTRUD
ERNA
FRAUKE "little lady".
FREJA
FRIEDA, FRIEDE fried, frid
"peace".
FRIEDERIKE
FRITZI
GERDA
GERHILD ger "spear" and hild
"battle".
GERLINDE ger "spear" combined
with linde "soft, tender"

"secret lore"
GUNDULA gund "war"
GUNDA
HEDWIG hadu "battle, combat"
wig "war"
HEDY .
HEILWIG heil "happy, hearty,
healthy" wig "war".
HEINRIKE
HEIKE
HELGA, HELLA
HENRIKE
HERMINE
HERTA, HERTHA
HILDA, HILDE hild "battle"
HILDEGARD, HILDEGARDE, hild
"battle" gard "enclosure"...
HILTRAUD, HILTRUD hild
"battle" ru "strength"
HULDA hulda "hiding, secrecy"
IDA id "work, labor"
INA
INGE, INGA
INGEBORG ing "god" bjrg
"protection, help"
INGRID ing "god" frr "beautiful"
IRMENTRUD
IRMTRAUD, IRMTRUD
IRMHILD ermen "whole,
universal" hild "battle"
IRMINGARD ermen "whole,
universal" and gard "enclosure".
IRMGARD
ISOLDE
JESSIKA
KARLA
KASIMIRA

KUNIGUNDE kuni "clan, family"

gund "war"
KINGE
LINDA
LUITGARD, LUTGARD leud
"people" and gard "enclosure"
LULU
MARTHE
MATHILDE, MECHTILDE
ODA
ORTRUN ort "point" and rn
"secret"
RAIMUNDE
ROSWITHA hrod "fame" and
swin "strength"
SABINE
SASKIA
SIEGHILD sigu "victory" and hild
"battle".
SIEGLINDE sigu "victory" and
linde "gentle, soft"...
SIGI
SILKE
SWANHILD swan and hild "battle".
TABITHA
TABEA
THERESE
ULRIKA, ULRIKE
RIKE
UTE
VILMA
VERENA
VRENI
WALBURGA wald "rule" and burg
"fortress"
WALTRAUD wald "rule" thrud
"strength"

As gentry, she does not answer to any diminutive versions, and I note that Krimhilde
means "mask" and "battle" which is her past to the letter. As gentry, she uses a
surname based on a recent ancestor, and I choose Falk. Other gentry and people
inclined toward formality might call her "Baron Falk."
Armor and weapons
If this were a naturalistic setting-based game, then fighting skills and arms would be derived
strictly from professions, as follows:

Other social ranks do not react well to peasants with obvious weapons. An entertainer
(low) typically carries a concealed knife and can fight with a staff as well. A farmer uses
the knife and hand axe in working tasks.

Freemen are familiar with the staff and with weapons pertaining to their jobs. An
outdoorsman is necessarily skilled with the sling, bow, and hand axe, carrying whatever
is needed that day.
Every character with martial (low) can use the staff, hand axe, sling, spear (on foot), bow,
and crossbow. He or she is armored with the buckler or round shield. Such characters
from Tamaryon are also familiar with the francisca.
A professional without either martial profession is unskilled in fighting, but playercharacters receive Circle training (see below).
A professional character skilled with martial (high) can use any shield and fight on foot
or mounted, using the spear in either case, as well as the bow and crossbow. Armor adds
the cone helmet and in Rolke, the gambeson. Hailing from Tamaryon adds the great axe
and francisca; from Spurr, the chained mace.
Gentry necessarily have martial (high). They are armored with mail, spangenhelm, and
whatever shield they want; they are skilled both on foot and mounted with sword, spear,
and bow, as well as relevant weapons from their home region however, they do not
fight with staff, sling, crossbow, or hand axe.

However, Circle knights have received training independently of their individual backgrounds.
First, determine from the list above what kind of arms or fighting is appropriate for the
character's profession prior to joining the Circle. If necessary, then add a single professional or
gentry weapon, usable either on foot or mounted. If in doubt or if you don't care, choose the
spear. Such characters are also trained in the use of mail, cone helmet, buckler, and parma.
As gentry with martial (high), Krimhilde is already skilled with the spear, sword, and
bow; she is armored with the kite shield, mail including a gambeson, and spangenhelm;
coming from Tamaryon also grants the great axe and francisca; and like everyone she
has a personal knife. She doesn't carry around all this stuff personally, but rather
chooses whatever she likes from this list at any given point.
Key Event
Look over the character and consider exactly when and why he or she would have become
completely committed to the Circle. Dont describe it philosophically or in the abstract. Describe
the scene in 100 words or less. Do not include summaries or directives of the character's current
behavior.
It comes together quickly in my mind for Krimhilde. A high-status, forceful woman, her
husband was a chief killed in a series of raids from Spurr. She learned the black spell
Semblance to conceal her husband's death and to fight in his guise to rally the local
communities against the next raid. In this scene, she kills the demon whose presence made
these raids so horrible, only to see her own men corrupted and betray her, leaving her for
dead.
It can be tempting to conclude the Key Event description with a motivational or summarizing
statement. Resist this. Describe the scene, and that's all.

I also make up a second character.

My dice rolls are black 4, white 4, red 5, resulting in B = 1+5, Q=1+4, W=1+4, C=1+5.
This is quite a good roll. In this case, I decide the two lower scores need some help, and
it strikes me that I could optimize one of the higher scores as well. Therefore I choose
Romantic and Ambitious for Traits, adding +1 Q, +1 W, +2 C, for final values of B 6, Q
6, W 6, C 8. The character is from Rolke, meaning that he probably participated in
helping the young king to power.
The character gets two professions, and thinking that it works well to have two from
adjacent social ranks for an Ambitious character, I choose Priest and Scholar. I recall
that all characters will be competent fighters, and also that to be a Circle member, a
priest needs to have become heretical regarding magic.
The character's social rank is Freeman, with a strong desire to be Professional.
I decide that he is male; the character begins to take form in my mind.
For his six points of spells, I choose Summon Demon 1, Black Speech, Stimulant, Repair,
and Perfect Senses.
For his Demeanor, I get 2 + 8 = 10 Formal; for his Feature, 4 + 8 = 12 Emblem. The
character clicks further: of course, he's formal, he cares about the niceties of social rank;
of course he wears an emblem showing off his scholarship, as that profession goes with
the social rank he desires.
His name is Meinrad Good, with the surname arising from his priestly background.
He has no prior martial background, so his combat skills were trained entirely by the
Circle, resulting in a spear, buckler, cone helm, mail (gambeson underneath), and a
personal knife.
His Key Event: During the young king's rise to power, Meinrad hid and protected people
to avoid the fighting and controversies, but his church was overrun by valkyries a
fighter for the new order died to save him and some of the people, living just long enough
to teach him some magic to finish the battle himself.

Finalizing the whole Circle

Divide the characters into the half with higher total scores and the half with lower total scores.
Each of the latter gets +1 to any score the player chooses (this doesn't affect homeland,
professions, details, or anything else). The single character with the lowest total scores gets a
Tally item of the player's choice (see Magic).
Ties are easy: both get whatever that value gets.
Assuming a GM and three players, our Circle is composed of eight player-characters,
including Krimhilde and Meinrad Good. The rolled and Trait-modified totals for the six
other characters are 29, 21, 24, 18, 27, and 14. Putting them in order with our two makes
18, 21, 22 (Krimhilde), 24, 24, 26 (Meinrad), 27, 29. The lower half is 18-24, with both
characters with 24 included due to the tie. These characters each get +1 to be placed as
desired, and I increase Krimhilde's C to 6. The lowest-scoring character with a total 18,
now 19, also gets a color tally of the player's choice. As a member of the higher half of
scores, Meinrad's numbers do not change.

During an adventure, characters are accompanied by a small functioning support staff, such as
horse and mule handlers, haulers, financiers, hunters, or guides. Therefore itemizing ordinary
equipment such as lanterns or bedrolls by character is not necessary.
Playing my character
For the group's first adventure, each player chooses one of the two characters he or she made up.
For all adventures after that, each player chooses any character from the Circle, made up by
anyone, with the only limitation that the same player may not play a character twice in a row.
When you choose a character to play, it's yours. You don't have to consult the person who
initially made up the character for approval, or stick to any written or spoken generalizations
about the character. All you need to consider are the character sheet, the character's past history
in play, and your own sense of engagement during play.
From the sheet, here are the things to consider.

The character's homeland provides a distinct accent (no need to role-play it, but the
characters hear it), recognizable minor details of dress and grooming, regional familiarity,
and minor expected stereotyping by others, e.g., that people from Spurr are greedy, or
people from Rolke are a bunch of wild-eyed revolutionaries. Each area also connotes a
particular range and type of influences from Amboriyon and Rbaja.
Social rank + Professions are probably the most important. They comprise the bulk of
every character's learned values, skills, social connections, wealth, and even the literal
perspective of the moment when they look at anything, what they see is couched in the
variables of these two things. Again, social rank cannot be faked without magic.
Changing the way you play based on which character you pick comes right out of this
combination.
Traits + Details are fun for playing your character's habitual way of dealing with things.
Circumstances might lead to them acting differently, but if they do, people will notice
that it's a big shift for them.
The Key Event is unique to the character. It really changed him or her, leading to total
commitment to the Circle. It may be over and done with, as the character sees it, or it
may be an open psychological wound which an adventure may expose. Look over that
Event and remember that to the character, this is now who he or she really is.

Although all characters are identifiable in terms of homeland, social rank, and often profession,
Circle members are a bit different in their own way. For one thing, they are competently armed
and armored in ways that socially diverse characters would never otherwise be. They all wear the
emblem of the Circle. They may display evidence of both white and black magic, again, not only
unfamiliar but actually unbelievable to those versed in the matter.
By definition, social tensions or contradictions among Circle members are treated as secondary
to their shared commitments and are not built to be automatic sources of conflict between player-

characters. They may be either expressed as given during ordinary interaction, or openly set
aside and ignored due to genuine respect, or whatever else arises organically from play.
From past play, here are the things to consider.

Honor what's been played for the character already. The default is to continue with the
aims and details as previously displayed.
However, you are also empowered to consider the limits of these aims and details as
provoked by events, as you see fit, in the moment.

Adventures and situational preparation

GMing Circle of Hands has some familiar features: this designated person provides "what do you
see" information, typically initiating units of play in the form of locations and "casting," serves
as the arbiter of time throughout play, conducting rules in a do-this-next role, and owning or
finalizing narrations.
What makes it different is that the GM is not the story manager or even the primary entertainer.
All of these tasks are merely one part of the division of labor among people who've gathered to
play together.
This principle is nowhere more apparent than here in the rules for the preparation for play. For
this game, feelings like "I'm not sure where this is going to go," or "I don't know where to go
with that," are good things, not to be "corrected" by locking down prepared events and plot
outcomes.
The GM does prepare the location and beginning situation, independently of the players. It's
good to come to a play session with this material in hand; it should not, for instance, be prepared
in the knowledge of which characters will be chosen for play. Similarly, the players will choose
which characters to play only in the context of specific, limited details about the situation.
Begin with the location: roll 3d6, black, white, and red as you did for character creation. If they
display all different numbers, then the location is in Rolke, the most likely place for Circle
knights to address problems. If any two or all three match, then the location is as follows, based
on the value of the matched dice:

1-2: Tamaryon
3-4: Famberge
5-6: Spurr

Examples: 4 1 3, Rolke; 5 6 6, Spurr; 2 3 2, Tamaryon

Assess the same roll to arrive at one to three of the following components, selected by writing
down the black result, then adding the white result to it, and finally adding the red result to the
previous sum. Ignore all results higher than 7 and apply the numbers that are left from the
following list.

1. Humanitarian crisis
Could be pretty bad!
Circle Knights are always trying to solve obvious problems to garner good will
2. Ordinary local-power tensions at a crisis point
Family, ambition, wealth, status, romance
Circle Knights have family and other ties to people
3. Opportunity for Rolke
A chance for peace, trade, cooperation of any kind
Circle Knights are sent to secure clear possible advantages for Rolke
4. Hidden knowledge
A magic resource, a historical fact, or something similar
Circle Knights are sent to secure clear possible advantages for Rolke
5. Monster or similarly dangerous specific threat
Big beast, monster-beast, enchantments, avatar, undead point is that it's already
there, acting on its own, and has a relationship with the community
Circle Knights are always trying to solve obvious problems to garner good will
6. Rbaja interference, covert or overt
Pure horror, nightmare fuel black magic wizards, demons, an Rbaja zone
Circle Knights are at war with Rbaja
7. Amboriyon interference, covert or overt
The light which blinds white magic wizards, eidolons, an Amboriyon zone
Circle Knights are at war with Amboriyon
The lowest-numbered item is always accurately known to the characters, if not in full detail, at
the outset of the adventure. This is what the GM tells the players, as well as the location, once he
or she has prepared the components' details a little bit more.
From the above examples:
4 1 3 yields 4 5 8, for hidden knowledge and monster (in Rolke)
3 6 6 yields 3 9 15 for opportunity (in Spurr)
2 3 2 yields 2 5 7, for humanitarian crisis, monster, and Amboriyon interference
(in Tamaryon)
I'll use the first for the rest of the examples. I'd tell the players there's hidden knowledge
in Rolke, although with relevant details as I'll explain in a moment.
Where exactly? Each region includes lots of variety, so pick the kind of location you like, and
start filling it in. Come up with evocative place-names if you're good at that.
Each component must include the following
One to three named characters with needs, agendas, and clout if one component, then
three; if two, then two each; if three, then one each
Confusing and potentially dangerous locations this is what the little maps are for
Tripwire simple conditions which would provoke extreme actions or an event

Throughout the process, the preparer needs to integrate the details within each components, tune
them to the details of the location, and to make sure to normalize the equivalent material for
components that are not included. The situation always has to be problematic in the sense that
people have their reasons not simply to give the Circle knights whatever they want.
That said, the key concept is not to tie all the characters and situational features into one
perfectly-integrated, Swiss watch, interlinked back-story. The various named characters don't
have to know one another or be allied or enemies, for example. I especially recommend not crisscrossing the whole components in any detailed way.
When making the named characters, keep the following in mind:
Do not double-dip characters across the components; make separate ones for each
Always conceive of them relative to the components and be sure to give them names
Think in terms of the Crescent land values: social class, relative wealth, kinship, social
authority and reputation
Brainstorm a bit about special interests, past history, problems, strong emotional
attachments; no need to get more than one or two thoughts going at this point
Add one more named character to a given component if you think it needs a little more
casting
At this point, set their scores, using 8 5 4 2. The only relevant mechanics lie in Brawn and
Quickness, but assign the other two to help you develop your sense of the person. For the single
most problematic individual, give him or her a sum of scores equal to that of the highest-sum
Circle knight currently in play. If the people in the preparation include a wizard, then he or she
has tallies equal to the number of knights in the adventure (see Magic).
For everyone else, use the names list if a character seems to you to need upgrading from a face in
the crowd.
When I play, I use index cards in a diagrammatic technique. For each component, I lay three
cards in a row, putting each component beneath it for a maximum of three-by-three. The first
card for each component lists the named characters and scores, the second describes the location
and any key words to help me remember its features, and the third states the tripwire.
At the outset of play, the player-characters would only know about the hidden knowledge.
What is the knowledge? I'm thinking about a weapon, perhaps a knife of completely
foreign origin, so a real dagger, made of Wootz steel. Such a thing would cause quite a
stir in Rolke, and although it probably couldn't be reverse-engineered, it could prompt
some fruitful experimenting.
What is the monster? Given the hidden knowledge component, I could go all-out and
bring in a wyrm it's just an animal, but with distinctive, problematic habits concerning
such things as the dagger, and once in "go" mode, it's a shocking threat.

It's more important to think within each component rather than across them. So, for
example, monsters are by definition embroiled in a community, not merely threatening it.
I'm thinking about someone who's allied with the wyrm, supplies it periodically with neat
items, and uses it against enemies; I'm thinking about Rolke, and that anyone like this
should be in a remote area, ungoverned by the allied communities who support the king,
which means in the mountains. That person would also have to be a considerable badass, and I'm thinking about a freeman who's fought in many, many battles for others, and
now leads a community far from gentry. Mountains wyrm chief with followers that
component is starting to come together, I'm seeing a guy who preys upon a trade route,
not to kill or to loot entirely, but for rare valuables which he gives to the wyrm (once
every six months or year is enough), at the very least to keep it off his small community's
neck.
In this case, the concepts of the hidden knowledge and the wyrm are already linked, so
it's important that the second component is its own thing, not merely a subset of the first.
Therefore the dagger should be in the community but not yet in the hands of the chief. It
is good practice not to ram all the components' features into one small spot, e.g. putting
the dagger into the wyrm's collection. That is called "writing," which is to say, "And then
the player-characters have to fight the wyrm!" as part of prep, and it is precisely what
not to do for this game. So I'm thinking now about how such a cool, wyrm-worthy thing
would not be in its lair or already in the hands of the guy allied with it. It belonged to a
traveler, but somehow wound in someone's hands rather than the chief's take.
My next job is to make two named characters per component with needs, agendas, and
clout. Here's where this really turns into "scenario" creation, because effectively, I'm
casting parts.
Monster: I've developed a strong mental image of the scarred, cynical, older chief
now, and of the community of perhaps a hundred people who look to him for
leadership. To me, the obvious associated character would be his wife, twenty
years younger, and something of a handful, perhaps desiring that he will send the
wyrm against former enemies or communities she doesn't like. Looking over the
name list, I decide he is Eckhart and that she is Vreni.
Hidden knowledge: a scholar who's been through the area and had his stuff taken,
but a fellow there kept the dagger from the chief. Hubert is a great name for a
scholar and Tren is the guy who has the dagger, who is a little murky in my mind
at the moment, but that may come together soon.
The toughest character seems to be Eckhart and assuming Meinrad Good is the highestsum player-character, he gets 26 points: B 6, Q 8, W 4, C 8. His profession is Military
(low), and his social rank is Freeman.
The other named NPCs each get 8-5-4-2 distributed appropriately.
Vreni, the chief's wife, freeman: 4 2 5 8
Hubert, the scholar, professional: 2 4 8 5 I'm getting the idea that he's the guy
who brought this news to the Circle, hoping to get the dagger back

Tren, the guy with the dagger, peasant: 2 8 5 4 I'm seeing him now as a shifty
guy, tired of living in the rugged mountains

I have to think about Tren a little bit more. He could be a straight-up cutthroat, one of
the worst people associated with Eckhart, perhaps expelled from his home long ago. He
wants the dagger as an item of wealth for when he leaves and has assembled a band of
equally unsavory individuals preparing to do so.
Beware habits of story-making! Again, my treacherous mind instantly suggests that I tie
him to Vreni, making them siblings or enemies or whatever. Don't do that, I admonish
myself; instead, tighten up each component internally.
Now I need one dangerous location per component. For the wyrm, no problem here this
is a mountain pass flanked by a fortress including a rampart spanning the pass. It's long
unused, in crap shape, but it could be restored. It seems a fine thing to have the chief and
his band utilize the complex on the right, with its better access to the outlying areas, and
for the wyrm to be laired right there (!) across the rampart, in the scarier, more isolated
section. Damn, these people freaking practically live with the thing good thing it sleeps
most of the time.

Art by Dyson Logos

I have another dangerous location to make, the location of the dagger. I'm thinking of a
bolt-hole or camp for Tren, nowhere exotic but very difficult for outsiders. I can leave
this one abstracted, partly because I don't have another mountain map handy. I might do
a little web searching for topo maps or something similar; in my mind, I am basing these
mountains on the Trinity Alps in California, so one of the wilder ridges well off the

Pacific Crest Trail would do the job. "Mountain lake, no good trails in, lots of potential
for ambush."
Finally, I come up with the two tripwires for extreme actions/events. In play, these are
both tipping-points for the inherent problems of the situation to boil over, and ways in
which the Circle's mission can be compromised.
Monster: if the wyrm's private lair is disturbed. This doesn't mean the wyrm is
irrelevant until that happens, because Eckhart could exploit his alliance with it at
any time. Tripping the wire, though, means that the wyrm goes wild with rage, a
much different problem.
Knowledge: if Tren is attacked or provoked to violence, his disgruntled band
just large enough to be a dangerous group, about 25 people turn on the rest of
the community, striking viciously and unexpectedly from within.
Tripwires aren't there as goals. Their conditions may never be met in play and various
interactions and decisions yield just as climactic results, or more so. It's not my job as GM to
drive toward them or manipulate players into them. They're merely there.
Here's what to keep in mind during prep so you don't mess up play:
Don't designate a bad guy or final boss. This is hard not to do, so really work at it.
Don't pre-plan named characters' opinions of the Circle knights; those will come directly
out of the player-characters' actions and the players' rolls.
Do think viscerally, sympathetically with the NPCs' priorities, and understand why they
are the way they are. Even if they are cruel, vicious, selfish, violent people, don't make
them psychopaths.
Eckhart can be a mean guy but mainly wants to live out his life in peace. Vreni isn't mean but
is absolutely committed to Eckhart's well-being and social position, and she'll do anything to
protect him. Hubert is staking his whole life on getting that dagger to Rolke and finding a
new life there. Tren is extremely vicious and latches onto perceived possible allies and
possible enemies very hard.
Tell the players about the first component with the few details that a low-tech, limitedinformation can include.
I tell the players that a disheveled scholar has brought news to the king that strange
bladed weapon made of impossibly hard steel was taken from him in the remote mountain
wilds of Rolke. He is leading the knights who volunteer there to recover it. Hubert is not
concealing anything from the Circle; he simply doesn't know any more than this.
We do not play in Rolke or do any sort of role-playing about this description instead, the
players simply choose which characters they want and we pick up play some days' travel along
the road.
Try it yourself!

4: Circle of Steel
The primary skill in play, for everyone, is to convey content through naturalistic descriptions of
what is happening. The setting itself must be made vivid and to grow more so through use.
Statements of one's character's actions should be based on viable, exciting imagery rather than
sifting through a mountain of context-free options.
Think for a moment about role-playing together. I think such imagery and imagined context is
about invocation, not bloviating you are not replacing or sending messages into others'
imaginations, you are fueling them to be more active. So long windy descriptions are the wrong
way to go, in favor of sharp, powerful details which in combination inspire others to fill in
whatever is needed to hold them together.
Think too about the purpose of what's being said. Everyone needs to feel grounded, not
wondering what someone is like or whether a thing is over there or where one's character is
standing. The actual content of the spoken word, at the table, should concern space, motion,
position, nuance of expression, the components of the adventure, and the useful details of the
character sheet.
I like to think of this game as extremely realistic, but I need to explain what I mean by that. I'm
thinking of how Mike Holmes says it: realism isn't what the mechanics do, but how you say what
they do in fictional terms. We could be flipping a coin for the system as long as what everyone
says matches whatever we want to call realistic.
So it's not about the game making disinclined people be realistic through canned descriptions.
Instead, it's about not putting in mechanics which are going to screw up the inclined people from
doing it. I've designed the game for the mechanics and the descriptive text to help toward this
end.

The big picture

Start in the middle of traveling to the adventure location, with no play back home at all, no
briefing scene or anything of the sort. Circle knights travel with what might be called a support
staff, including a couple of outdoorsmen if the knights don't feature that profession, mainly
people who tend the animals, pack supplies along, scout ahead, arrange lodgings with
communities, and similar activities. These characters are assumed to be around throughout the
adventure, but they are not named or played, and if circumstances are such that the GM
absolutely has to threaten them, he or she treats them as a single target.
This band of people begins play well out of the main citadel in Rolke, into areas beyond its
immediate reach. Descriptions begin with the transition into these areas, continue with further
travel, and end with the transition into the destination. The GM's job at this time is landscape and
scenery porn, establishing the integrity of the imagined geography and providing the players with
a sense of what it's like to travel in these lands.

Culture can also be introduced at this time in play, especially the way characters from different
social ranks perceive things. A peasant will instantly see whether the peasants and freemen of an
area are content, miserable, or perhaps plotting to kill the outsiders in their beds. A member of
the gentry won't notice anything about that, but will see without thinking about it whether battles
have been fought here, or whether the current arrangements at the longhouse are welcoming or
suspicious.
Ordinary free play does not begin until the characters arrive at the location of the adventure. Play
consists of character interactions, scene transitions, statements of observation or purpose, and
general movement throughout the immediate area.
The GM has two main tasks during this time. The first is flatly saying exactly where the
characters are, who is there, and what everyone is doing, and equally flatly, at some point,
shifting in space and time to do the same thing again, later and somewhere else.
He are she should have in mind one solid entry point into the adventure: location, people
there, what's going on and use it.
From there, the GM and everyone else goes with what people say their characters do.
That might necessitate a shift in scene, it might imply that nothing changes in this scene
and therefore a new one is called for, or it might develop the events in this scene into any
number of outcomes requiring resolution with dice.
The second task is within the first: describing the actions and responses of all characters except
the Circle knights, and staying on top of when the resolution system is supposed to be used. The
GM is encouraged to develop a certain brutality of thought in playing the various people in the
adventure, in that these are people who expect certain behaviors, mostly based on social rank,
and they either want things to stay as they are, or they want things to change in specific ways. In
this culture, such views are not necessarily held privately, and if a person feels that he or she is
acting with social backing, that person may be startlingly aggressive about it.
Several named people are created as components of preparation; so you already have them. They
should each have:
Special interests, past history, problems, strong emotional attachments
Social class, relative wealth, kinship, social authority and reputation
By definition all non-Circle wizards are in this category, as they only come into play via the
preparation components. These characters are incredibly powerful and are certainly already
affecting the lives of every person in the situation.
You may notice that a third task often associated with GMing is absent: story management. In
this game, driven character action and system outcomes are the only determinants of plot. No
set-pieces, confrontations, or revelations should be planned in any way, and techniques which
assume "investigation" of back-stories and big-boss climactic fights with designated villains are
not compatible with the system.
As events proceed

Player-character actions and interactions are likely to provoke extreme responses, including
attacks or other intrusive actions. Another way to look at it is that all play is best considered a
setup for dice rolls to resolve committed actions, even if indirectly and without planning.
Interaction, oaths, fighting, are magic are all charged and consequential, so embrace it. These
things have consequences like changes in behavior, injury, and death. Crucially, whatever
happens in a scene absolutely and definitely alters what scenes may then be framed and what
any/all NPCs choose to do. That's why planning even multiple forking paths isn't a good idea for
this game. You aren't setting up roads to Rome so much as discovering, gee, what kind of
story did we just begin?
The pace of events in fictional time is not fixed. Sometimes, the adventure occurs in only hours
of fictional time; other times, months. Go with whatever makes most sense based on what has
just been said and done.
Ending the adventure
An adventure ends not because a designated villain has been defeated, or because a given set of
the landscape has been thoroughly explored, but because play has reached a crisis point with
sufficiently exciting content and with a satisfying look at the Circle knights' personalities and
abilities. That means that play can be finished for the session under circumstances that for other
games would be considered incomplete.
I call the necessary finishing process a wrap-up, meaning that we play out some of the aftermath
of the impressive or exciting events, and then stop. Certain situations and problems may still be
occurring, but play doesn't have to run down every last detail once something like this has
happened. What this also means is that unless something incredibly drastic has occurred, play
assumes that the mission largely succeeds in the long run.
One marker is the adventure component with the highest numerical value, using the numbers
from when they were rolled. If the events of play effectively finish off that component as a crisis,
then it's time to wrap up.
Sometimes it's an easy finish. The right C vs. 12 roll or the application of a particular action nails
that component to the wall, and even the others if any are looking likely to be resolved fast. If
this happens, that's all right. That adventure can be wrapped up and if the play-session is still
young, another one can begin.
Most adventures tend toward not so easy a finish. Events give the whole adventure emergent
properties: new alliances, new developments, and new goals for characters. When this happens,
remember the difference between the mission (what the characters are doing) and the fiction of
interest (what we care about). If and when the Circle knights' actions provide a worthy climax in
fictional terms, then it's time to wrap things up.
Similarly a tripwire may be invoked, game-changing the whole situation into a specific threat.
Furthermore, if every tripwire is hit, the mission fails, almost the only way for this to happen.

Typically dealing with the tripwire's content, even if it means merely escaping it, is sufficient to
prompt a wrap-up.
Between adventures
Circle knights who survived the adventure have a chance to improving their attributes. For each
one, roll 2d6. If the result is higher than its current value, improve its value by 1.
New adventures
As mentioned previously, for the second adventure and all thereafer, play any of the characters
you want excepting the one you played last time. The GM briefly describes one of the
components of the upcoming adventure and says what region it's in, and then you pick.
When you choose the new character, if he or she is not a wizard, you may trade out the spells as
you like, maintaining points equal to Wits, always both white and black.
For the GM: it is possible to return to the location of a previous adventure and to use characters
who were previously established as important there, if the rolled components seem to fit very
nicely. The only point to remember for sure is to make new characters as well.
Ending play
My vision of play does not require the adventures' outcomes actually change the setting. My
thinking is that the new regime and new ideas in Rolke are strengthened by the Circle, by and
large, and that this is best taken as a given and not modeled or monitored in play. That's why
play maintains a certain remoteness to the king and his holdings, too, such that adventures set in
Rolke still require a fair amount of travel.
Since there is no resulting arc of accomplishment from a string of adventures, the only real
payoff is internal in each one: moments of pure character expression and pure risk, ending in
triumph or disaster.
Maybe if that result is reliable enough without forcing it, then the game needs a larger arc. My
current thinking is not, and play should end primarily because everyone playing thinks that the
dramatic outcomes within adventures have hit a high point, serving as an intrinsic climax.

Resolution
All of the following material is integrated with the setting, so you may want to cross-reference
with Chapter 2 as you go.
The ordinary roll to achieve something is 2d6 + the relevant attribute. The target number is 12
if you get it or higher, the character succeeds. This resolution is wholly binary; it either works or
it doesn't. There are no fumbles, no criticals, and no degrees of effect.

Modifications handled by dice reductions, typically to a single die. If situational and magic
modifiers take a character to no dice, that's pretty much an indicator that the character is now out
of his or her league with this task and no roll can be made.
Bonus dice are not assigned for advantages in ordinary tasks, but magic may provide them, and
there's an advantage die intrinsic in the combat system. If the character is acting with such an
advantage, and if it's not a fight, then forget the roll, he or she does it automatically.
Helping
Characters may cooperate in several ways.
If the action could be done by one of the characters, but the other's help is relevant or makes it
easier, then dice are rolled for both characters, and if either succeeds, the job is accomplished.
If the action can only be done because the characters are cooperating, then dice are rolled for
both characters and both must succeed for the job to be done.
If the participation of the helping character is crucial, for example introducing a necessary
profession, then the job automatically succeeds once the help is employed.
Noticing
If no fight situation is going on, then noticing is automatic per profession. At first that sounds
great: if a person doesn't have a relevant profession, then they're terrible noticers, and whoever is
trying to do something gets away with it. It also means that if one is, for instance, a scholar, then
finding the right book or noticing which one looks funny requires no roll.
However, it also means you don't get to sneak past guards if they're guarding, then they see
you. There's no "sneaky guy" profession, so forget it. (All right, I admit, the outdoorsman would
qualify if the context is outside but nothing else!)
I suggest that "roll to notice" isn't relevant to this game, because such concerns are always
wrapped up in some other, more concrete problem, like getting bludgeoned or falling into a trap.
Since every attribute is mental and emotional as well as physical, the basic roll to deal with the
problem necessarily includes whatever noticing would be involved.
Professions rules
There are no individually-designated skills in the game. Instead, the character's professions
define the scope of his or her deliberate actions, and the relevant attribute is used in the required
dice roll.
There is no general education in the culture. Life is tough people don't have time or
opportunities for side hobbies and developing skills outside of their demanding daily tasks.

Therefore if your character doesn't have a profession relevant to an intended action, they
effectively can't do it.
This is one of the more obvious differences between characters in this game and modern people.
We receive general education, we can observe other social classes in action, and we have
adapted many professional tasks into leisure activities, so we consider many things subject to
"common sense" which in this setting are indeed profession-specific. Rolling a big rock aside
requires practical knowledge of rocks, soil, and brute force, none of which is a feature of the
gentry (who are quite limited in professions), for example, or a merchant. An outdoorsman,
farmer, or arguably a low-martially trained person would know what to do.
This goes double for weaponry. Without one of the two martial professions, characters are
extremely limited in their fighting ability, often to the point of being entirely incapable. There
are a few exceptions, such as stabbing someone in a brawl, an outdoorsman's skill with a bow,
and the quarterstaff, justly famous as the "all man's weapon."
Keep the exceptions extremely rare. Exceptions would be the most basic unskilled human
actions, which require a roll only under very adverse conditions, and in which case the relevant
attribute score may be used. In my playtesting, no such roll has yet been employed.
Dealing with people
To review: the initially-prepared characters have scores 8 5 4 2 allocated to the four attributes,
and for the single most problematic individual, his or her sum of scores is equal to the sum of the
highest-sum Circle Knight currently in play. The Wits and Charm scores are almost entirely roleplaying reminders, as interacting with these characters outside of combat is still a matter of
ordinary rolling. These scores are only rolled in reference to certain spell effects that call for it.
In combat, their B and Q are utilized just as the Circle knights' are. Ascended characters are
similar, once given a stronger identity during play; they have scores 4 4 4 4, although the GM
may re-allocate if the fictional circumstances call for it (e.g. we know the character is the
toughest man available).
All other NPCs are unnamed and dealt with strictly through vs. 12 rolls. If a player-character
wants to stop or change what any of these people is doing, that requires a vs. 12 roll. If
successful, this is a completely effective action. Even killing an unnamed character isn't combat,
it's a vs. 12, and any fictional difficulty or details should arise from that person's fictional
identity. Magic has special effects for these characters too, mainly taking the spell to its
maximum possible effect without nuances like penalties to specific attributes.
However, don't discount them entirely. Circle knight or not, you're usually on their turf, and
going straight up to them and using an attribute against them will only employ a single die. You
can get the full two dice if you do something appropriate to social rank or indisputably effective
first, or after you manage to make a penalized Charm roll, perhaps with magical help. This
applies even to "I kill him" rolls don't think you can kill a person that easily on terrain they've
worked all their life. The helpless peasant you're chasing down on horseback knows where the
woodchuck holes are.

The context for all these interactions with local people is the Charm vs. 12 roll, which is serious
business. It's always made during the first interactions with named people, and it works
especially well as parallel rolls to have one's acts well-regarded. The GM should play every other
character quite strictly according to C roll results to date:

No roll as yet: completely in line with interests as stated in back-story preparation or

implied by social class, relative to current events will not participate in efforts for or
against the character
Successful: sympathetic up to but not including the point of self-sacrifice or kin-betrayal
Unsuccessful: deeply unsympathetic, seeks alliance against the character, capable of
treachery and violence against him or her

Overrides all other considerations. All appeals, orders, agreements are subject to these results.
Yes, given successful Charm rolls, a character can get away with blatant murder. That's what life
is like.
Sometimes a player specifically seeks to overcome the prior impression, or to maintain a positive
one in the event of blatantly contradictory actions. The GM must judge whether intervening
actions have created enough of a new context for such a roll to be made.
Groups and scale
Affecting or stopping a group is much harder. Public opinion and mass action are literally
unstoppable through the ordinary resolution system; if twenty people want to kill your character,
they simply do no roll, no save, no argument. Magic like the Inspire Throng spell, or Wrath if
you're a psychopath, is the primary recourse.
This is a serious consideration during play. Using ordinary interaction, it behooves the Circle
knight to find and influence key individuals in the community, which is the only way to buffer
the consequences of pissing off a whole sector of society. Identifying such people is a good
candidate for a W vs. 12 roll.
Third, a group implies a lot of individuals, and individuals can be "ascended" into full named
NPC status during play. This happens in several ways.
A player might seek an individual implied by previous activity: "I go find that guy we
talked to earlier," or similarly, the GM might do the same: "It's the same guy you talked
to earlier." Doing this requires a W vs. 12 roll.
A player might seek an individual previously unknown, but reasonably inferred to be in a
current group: "Send me your toughest man!" or "I look for one of the scholars who
seems like he knows what he's doing," or "Which guy looks like he might be in charge?"
Doing this requires a W vs. 12 roll.
An unnamed character may have a score-relevant spell cast on him or her, either
individually such as Grow or Scar, or as a group member such as Cloud of Hate. In either
case, the GM may apply the usual maximum-effect for unnamed people, or he or she
might decide to ascend him or her (or one of the group) and use the spell's listed

quantitative effects. If it's a group-affecting spell, only one character may be ascended
this way.
When this happens, be sure to grab a name from the list in the Forging Steel chapter. In fact, one
good indicator that ascension is called for is when a player-character asks someone in a crowd or
otherwise known only in terms of group membership, "What's your name?"
Money and wealth
Some of this repeats or provides logistics for stuff in Chapter 2.
Members of the gentry are never expected to provide anything or make restitution for services
like food and a place to sleep. It's merely the "way" that when they go places, other people make
their lives liveable. This assumption carries interesting consequences sometimes, as when a
peasant family cuts the guy's throat and butchers his horse for food for the village, but most of
the time it plays out as expected.
Professionals pay and get paid in very similar currency a combination of food, shelter, general
social care, and respect but on a basis of pure service. They can do things others can't and
therefore, such things will have to be done. A traveling professional is expected to put in a little
work or if possible, to exchange techniques and other information with those who can understand
it. Not doing this is considered bad citizenship, for lack of a better term, and such a person will
find that word travels well ahead of him or her on the road.
Freemen simply provide all of what they do directly, first to their families and kin and fellow
participants, and then to their immediate communities. It's not really "exchange," but effectively,
if someone works for and with you, then they end up being fed and sheltered just like you are,
and worthy of some attention and consideration from everyone around.
Peasants are surprisingly similar to gentry, in a grubbier, less comfortable way. They don't travel
much, unless seasonal work takes them along familiar routes, and they are allowed to live and to
eat insofar as they keep to themselves, without anyone hesitating to put out a bucket of food or
failing to keep a lot of straw in the outlying huts of the community. It's more or less a civic task
to make sure that the peasants of the area have such resources available, even if no one troubles
to find out their names or ask their opinion about anything.
It's hard to imagine how unconstructed most of this is. There are no servants, there are no inns,
there are no retailers, there are no markets, although commerce does occur wains of iron ore
are pulled from the mining village as far around and about as is practical, for example. So
carrying currency and paying for services isn't really part of the culture at all; characters aren't
carrying wallets and counting their change. As long as one is operating in the context of social
rank, then typically, everyone else understands and accepts that context.
Animals

As with everything else, this is matter of profession. A person who tries to handle an animal
without the right background is simply asking for an injury, which will result from a failed W vs.
12 roll and even success on that roll doesn't mean the animal is obedient.
Given the right profession, animal handling is still a tough business.
An untamed, defensive animal requires an ordinary W vs. 12 roll
And untamed, hostile or hungry animal requires a W vs. 12 roll penalized to a single die
A tamed animal, for ordinary things it does, does not require a roll
A tamed animal, for things they don't want to do, requires an ordinary W vs. 12 roll; a
failed roll turns it hostile
Adversity
Torture
When torture is employed to make a person more compliant or to instil enough fear in them to
change their actions, then it has debilitating effects, but can be recovered from. Such things
include waterboarding (a very old technique, well-known to the Crescent land), sleep
deprivation, regular simple beatings such as kicking someone in the ribs ten or twelve times at a
given time of day, and forced isolation. A person subjected to this treatment becomes dazed and
cooperative after a few days, and really isn't very good for doing anything competently, to the
extent that any task he or she attempts will be outright failed or done so poorly it effectively
fails. Given time and better treatment, the person recovers both their competence and volition;
there is no way to render a person hyper-suggestible and competent at the same time.
More severe treatment such as restraining a person for extended periods, providing unhealthy
food and drink, withholding care for illness, or taking any of the above techniques to the point of
injury, results in ruining a person's health. Such a person is reduced to B 2 and Q 2, possibly
permanently, and may well suffer any of a number of behavioral disorders as well, certainly
decreasing C by two points.
Other, more brutal things to do to people are merely ways to kill them. No one survives
crucifixion or the pole.
Breaking physical objects
Nothing is necessarily crappy about crafted items in the Crescent land, but they aren't modern
industrial grade either. Clothing, horse trappings, pens, shoes, and anything the characters might
use, all get beaten up over time. For purposes of play, this may remain completely incidental,
although as an opening for interaction, it makes perfect sense for someone to stop by a
leatherworker's workplace and inquire about a new belt.
What does matter during play are weapons and armor. Not only can they break during combat
given a crap roll, but they will always be battered enough after combat to become worthless
unless they are tended to. Relevant professions will do the job, such as Martial (low) or Artisan,
as will the Repair spell.

Shields and gambesons: fix after a fight, or they're automatically ruined

Cone helm, mail, and most weapons: tend after a fight, or negate the advantage die in
further use
The Spangenhelm and sword are effectively invulnerable as long as they receive routine
care (which doesn't have to be role-played) and are not targeted by magic such as the
Ruin spell.

Getting lost
This is not a map culture. Only scholars even know what maps are, and the few they have
available are extremely limited in scope. Locals know their regions exquisitely well; outsiders
need local help or risk getting lost. Getting lost anywhere is very bad news; unless one is or is
with an outdoorsman, you're not getting un-lost by yourself, and no one else knows how to catch
game or which berries to eat any better than a modern person. Weather and exposure are a
constant danger, never far from anyone's mind, as a freezing rain can kill a person out in the open
as surely as a spear-thrust.
Similarly, running around at night is simple stupidity. Even a sprained ankle is enough to
threaten one's life in the wrong place or in the wrong weather.
Every adventure includes at least one tough location, notable for specific dangers, confusing
passages or obstacles, or both. This is another situation in which Wits is the key attribute,
whether to orient or to understand or to anticipate.
Drowning and falling
Never mind all that Hollywood splashing about and calling for help real drowning is silent and
above all, quick. Outdoorsmen know how to swim, and players may decree that their characters
have some experience with water, enough to paddle around and stay oriented if submerged.
Anyone else, bluntly, tries to breathe, fills their lungs, and dies.
Mail is no good either. Even a swimmer is shit out of luck if he or she goes into deep water
unexpectedly wearing mail. Anyone in this situation needs friends' help, fast.
Fighting in water? Forget anything but the knife or if you have at least some chance to breathe,
the spear. Against an aquatic creature, it will have the advantage.
I don't know if you've ever fallen off a horse, but I have. It's not good for you. Falling that sort of
distance is not fatal, but it will put a person right out of action for the rest of the scene. A Q vs.
12 roll can stave off that fate, but only if the person drops everything, and even then it's
penalized to a single die. Only low entertainers and gentry can roll 2d6 for this. And everyone,
bar none, is screwed if he or she is wearing mail you're flat out of the current situation no
matter what, and make a B vs. 12 roll or be too badly hurt to move much (Q drops to 0).

Higher falls that aren't instantly lethal require the same roll for anyone not wearing mail, and for
the people who are well, that's an instant kill. And if you didn't know already, at heights that
kill, water is just as lethal as a solid surface.
Drugs and alcohol
Cannabis is widely smoked using bowls, although it is not readily available due to limited
cultivation and hardly ever highly potent. Its mechanical effects are minimal at most a reduced
die roll for Quickness, lasting only for the current situation.
Booze in quantity, on the other hand, impairs a person pretty thoroughly, reducing dice rolls for
all actions for at least a day. Oddly, however, in small amounts, indulged among a group, it
provides improvements to Charm rolls for interactions within that group. All sorts of infused
high-alcohol concoctions are available, everywhere, along with mead and beer.
An alcoholic is typically penalized in both W and C regardless of his or her current state even
completely sober.
Plant-derived opiates are at present unknown, but then again, there's the dried paste derived from
the exudate of the red pode. This stuff is most often smoked as well, but can also be moistened
and rubbed onto one's gums for a similar effect. The resulting rather intense high begins with
heightened W for about an hour, then settles into a long lazy phase with a penalty to both Q and
W. The characteristic, easily-recognized drawl during this phase is a frequently imitated standby
for humor or reference to an over-indulgent personality.
A pode addict experiences no long-term mechanical effects but see the description of the red
pode in Chapter 7 for certain other considerations.
Disease and medicine
Medical knowledge is minimal to absent in the Crescent land culture. There is no germ theory of
disease, no knowledge of microbes at all. People have a practical if clumsy understanding of
contagion, and a general aversion to decay or to fouled water, but they are helpless against
undetectable sources.
Folk remedies are worthless. Alcohol is not a bacteriacide, nor do various herbs like fennel or
garlic have health-aiding properties. Quite horribly, the only effective defense against contagion
is quarantine, which is best understood as posting sentries and killing anyone who crosses a
fenced-in boundary.
Fortunately, this is not a disease-ridden culture. The most well-known and feared disease is
smallpox, but the ecology does not support reservoir populations so it does not reach epidemic
levels. Influenza hits seasonally and is a known infant-killer, but given low contact with other
cultures, is not as virulent as observed in the modern day. Syphilis and plague are unknown.

The real microbial killer is infection of injuries by environmental bacteria. The people know
nothing of disinfection or sterile technique, and a person with an infected wound either survives,
perhaps with a permanently-disabled limb, or dies of gangrene. This is one of the primary
reasons influences from Amboriyon get welcomed into communities.
Gender and sexuality
These issues are discussed here as adversity because whole groups have opinions about them,
and whole-group action matters greatly. Individual matters among the Circle knights are their
business and need not lead to conflicts during play.
Gender roles and expectations are deeply entrenched. On the one hand, women own property and
the culture does not prevent a woman from, for example, speaking in a public discussion, but on
the other, a daughter's sexuality is thought to be under her parents' control, and a wife's is
thought to be under her husband's. In practice, "thought to be" is not true at all. Sometimes that is
not problematic, and sometimes it leads to simmering social strife, punctuated by murder and
feuds.
As far as social authority goes, women do in fact wield power all over the Crescent land, but in
two ways: (i) being the brains and force alongside a "face" husband, and (ii) through remarkable
personal force, in some cases even participating in armed combat. Both ways work, and neither
is actually exceptional, but they are typically perceived as individual cases, i.e., more exceptional
than they really are.
A female Circle knight can expect to encounter some confusion but not direct opposition. She is
unmistakably an armed fighter in an "among the guys" way, rather than the obvious leader of a
warband. This confusion is compounded by the more general uncertainty people feel about
Circle knights' social status, especially since each one's social rank of origin is evident. Female
Circle knights are not subject to social censure differently from male Circle knights and playing
one does not encounter special mechanical adversity. As with the men, once they earn local
respect in any way, people will accept their presence and decision-making power without qualms
thereafter.
At first glance, the culture of the Crescent land seems prudish. Women cover their hair and wear
full-length dresses, men do not strut about bare-chested. The body is almost never exposed,
except during work in hot conditions. However, it is not a puritan culture, merely modest. Sexual
matters are not topics of shame but reserved for specific situations.
A woman typically covers up thoroughly when dressed and reserves nudity for privacy, but if she
were nude or partially so in ordinary events, like changing clothes, and someone walked in
accidentally, she wouldn't scream or feel ashamed. A man changing his clothes doesn't care
whether others are in the room or not, but he'll turn away and everyone else will happen not to
look in that direction. Similarly, certain public actions are considered not "really" naked or
immodest. Women and men who would never fail to stay covered when dressed also bathe nude
in the same river, perhaps in sight of one another, but not at the exact same spot, and with a
different point at the shore for each group.

A local community in the Crescent land is tied together tightly by kin, economic necessity, and
shared history, much of it violent. Therefore sexual activity is a big deal; everyone cares about
who's doing what with whom. Circle knights' actions are under scrutiny and judgment. The
characters are plot-armored regarding romantic commitment and pregnancy, such that players
can choose what happens either way. A character could well end up married during or following
an adventure, for example. The events leading up to it, though, may well incur individual and
community responses which would have been a big part of the adventure.
An unpleasant reality must be addressed without sugar-coating: rape is real. In a war-raid or
other circumstances of social and physical disempowerment, some of the men commit rape,
toward men and women, sometimes horrifically, sometimes including murder. This culture has
no over-arching rule of law: if raw force can be exerted, then rape is simply available and
unaccountable. It fits right into the prevailing use of cruelty and intimidation as social order.
The result is not a "rape is OK" culture, far from it. It's a constant fear, not an accepted norm
most people hate it at a knowledgeable, visceral level. That means that "unaccountable," above,
can be overcome. Any degree of social support for the targeted persons can prompt both
prevention and retaliation. Group action may well ensue, and as described above, not even gentry
status helps against that. Even the most powerful person, who counters group retaliation with
group action of his or her own, can expect a knife in the dark sooner or later.
The core issue for play is that sexual assault and similar topics are not obliged to be present. Do
not fail to consider the following points.
Whether the experience is to include this content, which should model the best literary
and cinematic example rather than gore-porn, misery porn, or exploitation.
If present, the degree of explicit presence in the imagined material.
There is no right answer; it's a specific issue for the table. A flat "no" to the first is just as good a
way to play this game as any other. And be careful: there are bad ways to do it, and avoiding
them is a matter of awareness, maturity, and genuine commitment to a great outcome. The two
bullet points are separate issues, for example, avoiding explicit content while still being
exploitative is not a solution.
Direct contact with Amboriyon and Rbaja
Amboriyon is literally present in the clouds, as translucent or gleaming white battlements and
complex edifices. When the clouds gather low, the land beneath is directly affected such that
substances of all kinds and even the air take on a streamy, silvery quality, and objects' details
become distinct and clear to the point of fascination. These effects prefigure events such as the
whole area becoming part of the clouds, or disintegrating into a smooth plain, or anything else
which removes it in some beautiful but abstract fashion.
When Amboriyon is visible in the clouds, eidolons are easily summoned without knowledge of
magic, although it still costs B. No natural disease or infection can persist.

Rbaja is literally present in the form of charred, stained, and generally blasted-looking
wastelands. Just outside the boundary of such areas, the land is notably foul: rotten things are
notably more pustulent or oozing, ordinarily solid things flake from their surfaces and break
easily under stress, the air is clotted and feels like breathing grease, and water is nasty in a
hundred different ways. These effects prefigure the gradual expansion of Rbaja across the
landscape, usually too slow to notice, but sometimes quite rapid.
In this periphery, corpses become zombies unless they are mutilated too badly to function, or
burned. Both the Sacrifice and Curse spells can be cast without spending B.
See Chapter 7 regarding interacting with avatars, eidolons, undead, and demons. They are flatly
obsessive, acting only in complete commitment to the relevant ideology.
Characters with tallies (Chapter 6) are vulnerable to influences from these areas. None of these
outright dictate behavior, nor can they be used accidentally.
Receive a single-use bonus die per tally of the corresponding color
Cast 1-point spells of the appropriate color for no Brawn cost
Regain B and Q to their full values upon injuring creatures of Rbaja or any character with
tallies of the other color
Each time a person makes use of any of these, he or she must make a W vs. 12 roll or simply
disappear into the clouds or the murk, permanently.
If a person has tallies of both colors, a condition available only to Circle knights, then the colors
cancel out 1:1, so that he or she will have at most a single tally as far as these effects are
concerned.
Being actually in Amboriyon, up in the clouds, or in Rbaja, within the stained wastlands, is not
possible in play, best understood as a social contract thing.

5: Killing
In this game, extreme effects like decapitation or getting knocked off your feet are less
influenced by what's established before the dice rolls although there is one thing that does, as
you'll see and are instead utilized as narration effects based on the rolls' outcomes. This feature
cuts way down on "can I can I" table-talk, because attempting something in a specific way is not
subject to a raft of subtle modifiers, and you don't have to say anything except how the action
starts. Attacks, for instance, should be stated as pretty straightforward, as in, "I throw my axe at
him," and then the effects, as indicated by the severity of the damage or whatever, may include
nuances of how it was delivered.
The GM must take point and be absolutely forthcoming with these kinds of descriptions,
modeling for everyone how it's done and saying outright, "Do it like that."
It also helps a lot for some other person at the table to know the rules well and to act as bookexpert during play.

Fighting
Positioning
Play doesn't use a hex or grid table-map, but as you'll see, terrain, movement, and immediate
circumstances are primary factors in combat. The only way to make this functional, without
people shouting out positions to bully for advantage, is to work strictly from "the known."
"The known" begins solely with the GM describing the circumstances of the opening of the fight.
So if someone cries out "I attack him," the group doesn't move right into resolution, but rather
gives the GM a moment to set up the physical circumstances as indicated by anything that was
known right and anything he or she was personally imagining at the moment of the
announcement. This setup is non-negotiable; one cannot shout "I move over to the left!" or "I'm
on the roof!" as part of this process. Also, everyone needs to be willing to pipe up with "I'm not
sure where I am" as needed.
From that point forward, the actions of a fight will indeed be mechanically affected by
circumstances, strictly as consequences of successful and unsuccessful actions along the way,
and the nuances of the immediate terrain will matter too. But all of these are already embedded
in the resolution mechanics and cannot be influenced by extraneous narration.
Announcements and timing
When two or more named characters all want to act at once, which certainly includes fights,
begin with a communal announcement of what every character is doing. The best way to think of
it is that in the fiction, it's all going to happen simultaneously, not in a string of three-section
actions, and therefore every character is launching at once. It's called the "fair and clear"
intention phase, because none of the characters are acting yet, and people can announce in any

order regardless of the characters' relative speeds. These announcements do not concern the
entire fight or situation, but merely what each character is doing right at this moment.
Everyone can speak openly, with each person adjusting what they want to do as they see fit until
everyone is ready, or on the honor system, in which everyone privately decides, then states what
it is. An enforced honor system with written work is possible, but too much of a pain in practice,
and I have found the open version to be completely functional.
Then and only then, the fiction kicks in hard. The sequence of actions is set by raw Q score. If
you see a Q tie, first check to see whether who goes first matters to any aspect of the situation. If
not, resolve them separately but consider them simultaneous in the fiction; if it does matter, then
the player-character goes first. If both are player-characters, the respective players decide; if
neither is, then the GM decides.
A character's position in the sequence is altered in two ways.
If it's not the character's turn yet, spend 1 B and pop him or her to the top; anyone can do
this at any time. This is the only way to get your action done before being sucked into a
clash, if your Q is lower than your attacker's.
If you're injured and your Q is reduced, you instantly drop in the order to the proper place
based on your new number.
So, the actions proceed in that order. All actions that aren't physical attacks are conducted as
usual: rolls vs. 12, automatic successes for ordinary professions-based actions, and spells being
cast.
Physical attacks have a special status called a clash, in which distinct offensive and defensive
numbers are generated. If one person's attacking with a weapon and the other's doing something
else but hasn't gone yet, the second person is "sucked in" to the clash. That person has a choice
either participate in the clash, using offense and defense, but lose his or her intended action; or
focus entirely on defense, by definition doing nothing else, and if he or she survives, continuing
with his or her stated action in the proper order. If the action in question is itself initiating a clash
with someone, that's fine too, it begins when the order gets us there.
All this is easy to map out before anyone rolls.
A, B, and C are fighting D, E, and F. Let's say their Q values follow the alphabetical
sequence, with A being fastest. Here are the announcements: A attacks D with a spell, B
attacks F with a spear, C attacks D with an axe, D is doing something else requiring a vs.
12 roll, E attacks A with a spear, and F attacks B with a spear. Draw it and see!
So, running it down, A's spell goes off against D with no hassles. B sucks F into a clash
(F chooses to fight back, not merely defend), C sucks D into a clash (but D chooses
merely to defend), D rolls vs. 12 to do the thing he intended, E sucks A into a clash (A is
free to fight), and that's it, because F's attack on B vanished when F chose to fight in B's
clash.

The above text assumes that all the characters survive their various travails to perform
their stated actions. If D had been vaporized by A's spell, he wouldn't have been sucked
into C's clash, and so on. If a character's action is annulled by such events, as with C's
attack on the now-vaporized D, then the character does not get to state an alternate
action.
Now try it with the Quicknesses reversed, so that F is fastest, E next fastest, and so on. In
this case, with the same announced actions, it goes like this. F sucks B into a clash (B
chooses to defend only), E sucks in A (A merely defends, hoping to preserve the spell), D
rolls to do the thing without any hassles, C sucks D into a clash (D is free to fight), B
sucks F into a clash (the second in the round for these two characters, it's hard core over
there) , and finally, A's spell gets cast.
More practice: using the above announcements, roll 1d6 for each character to set the
order of Quickness, and work out the sequence yourself. Designate A, B, and C to be the
player-characters to give you practice with ties, too.
It is allowed, at the moment of your character's turn, to say he or she aborts the action. This
affects nothing else about the ordering sequence and does not permit an alternative action to be
announced or attempted.
Ranged attacks and clashes.
The "sucked in" concept is helpful here. If an archer or someone throwing a weapon is targeted
by someone else, in any way, he or she is in a clash at the attacker's turn. This may result in
suddenly altering one's intended bowshot (for instance) to target the attacker, in which case the
situation is treated as an ordinary clash.
If the person using the ranged attack is not targeted, and is aiming at someone who is not able to
strike back, then the action becomes a simple Q vs. 12.
Continuing
There are no rounds or units of fights above the level of individual actions. Play continues by
wrapping to the top of the order again, or if you like, you can think of each person's action in the
order putting his or her next action at the bottom, to be encountered on schedule as the new top
when we get there.
Noticing and surprise
You may have noticed above that no one ever gets attacked without being able to defend. Does
that mean no one is ever surprised? Does everyone see everything all the time?
No. The solution is that the existing possibility of surprise is baked into the resolution system
already, such that "I attack from surprise" is a valid announcement. It follows the ordinary
resolution mechanics, i.e., it doesn't get a free pass from being resolved as a clash, defense and

all. The surprise attack is merely folded into a conflict, its only advantage being exactly that, the
advantage die.
Narration takes care of the realism. If the surprise attack succeeds, especially if it succeeds very
well, the action is narrated as taking the target by surprise which is no more nor less than what
you'd expect to say. If it fails, then ipso facto, the target noticed in time to defend effectively, and
the narration includes the attempted but failed surprise. If it barely succeed, then noticing barelyin-time might be said to have played a role in that outcome.
Inside clashes
To review for a second, a clash occurs when a character attacks another with a weapon. The
attacked person is in the clash too, "sucked in."
Each player rolls 2d6 once but uses the resulting value twice, once for offensive and once for
defense. The character's Quickness is added independently to each, and the resulting offense and
defense totals are matched against the other character's defense and offense, respectively.
The advantage
In clashes involving one or more Circle knights, theres always an advantage die.
Don't amass a huge list of minor advantages and disadvantages per character. Instead, look at the
situation and decide what single feature matters the most, and to which character the advantage
therefore falls.
Sometimes it's incredibly obvious who gets it and that's that. Weapons and terrain matter most. If
nothing else suggests itself, then who sucked whom in is a good yardstick.
You cannot whore for the advantage, because it cannot be tweaked using colorful narrations or
by describing tactics. The GM is the only person who assesses for advantage and is looking only
at those gross, single features of the situation.
Allocation
Prior to the roll, a character may reduce defense for offense, or vice versa. Committed: write it
down.
Example
The character sheet features a design on its edge so you can allocate the points and then
juxtapose the values with the other character's by arranging the sheets' edges together.
Example

One may reduce one of the values all the way to 0, if desired. If you reduce offense to 0, then the
character is considered not to be attacking at all, and will do no damage regardless of the rolls'
outcomes.
An attack succeeds if its value exceeds the defense value. Successful attacks record the
difference between offense and defense.
Try it yourself! Allocate points, roll the dice; allocate differently, roll the dice
Multiple participants
Various people may be attacking the same target almost simultaneously, which is handled ain the
ordinary sequence but should be assessed fairly for advantage. Being flanked (hemmed in) by
more than one attacker typically puts one at the disadvantage, as does facing two or more people
with weapons that work well together. However, if the attackers are not specifically working
together, they'll lose the advantage by getting in one another's way.
In some circumstances like a big pile-up with weapons waving in all directions on chancy
terrain, Q vs. 12 rolls are called for to avoid mishaps.
Injury
On a successful strike the difference between the offense and defensive totals, plus the attacker's
current Brawn, is called BQ.
Example from above
Armor deducts from BQ. Protection is a bit abstracted in the mechanics. Obviously not
everything coming at you hits you on the head just because you're wearing a helm, but go ahead
and stop the helm's listed BQ anyway.
BQ that gets through armor is divided evenly as reductions to the loser's Brawn and Quickness.
In the event of an odd-numbered total, the "extra" point further reduces Quickness.
Divide BQ that gets through armor between B and Q, odd goes to Q; reduces their values.
Example with and without armor
If either B or Q is brought to 0, but the other is positive, then the character is visibly fatigued and
battered, and unless some remarkable other circumstance is at work, is considered to be at a
disadvantage.
Example
Unarmed combat

I'll put this into two categories: battering or otherwise brutalizing someone into submission,
humiliation, and helplessness; and killing them, but without a weapon handy, therefore being
forced to do the former category first. Some situations can be treated as weapon damage, if it
seems reasonable.
The game mechanics do not distinguish among striking, grappling, shoving, throwing, choking,
and all that stuff. The only mechanics feature is that damage is accumulated normally, but being
brought to Brawn 0 and Quickness 0 does not kill a person, but renders them helpless. Such
damage is healed exactly as an injury.
Therefore, beating someone to death is an extremely deliberate act. First you render them
helpless and possibly in complete surrender, then you deliver enough damage to do it all over
again. For this second "phase," use the victim's (no longer opponent's) original B and Q, but only
as banks to compare with the inflicted BQ. The victim has no points to allocate to defense, so the
mechanics lead to immense BQ. Given one or two ruthless actions, bringing the victim's B and Q
banks both to 0 (again) will do the job. It's a nasty, degrading thing to do, and few things are
more sickening to watch.
Weapons and armor
Weapon
Knife
Francisca
Staff
Sword
Spear

B
2
2
2
3
3

Chained mace
Great axe
Shield strike
Shield slash
Short bow
Crossbow

4
5
3
3
2
3

Mechanics
Thrown
+1 defense in a clash
+1 point in a clash
Thrown, mounted
charge ignore mail
Entangle (optional)
+1 BQ in a clash
Opponent falls
+1 BQ in a clash
+6 BQ not +B
Bolt ignores mail

Advantage suggestions
Surprise, brawl, intimacy
Thrown

Reach

Fleeting targets

Incidental weapons
The knife is a tool for eating and small, daily tasks. It's considered part of one's clothes much as
modern people think of their shoes. It's not very big, not very sturdy, and not very sharp. There
are no daggers, misericordes, or throwing knives. The equivalent of the Norse scramasax, Bowie
knife, K-bar, or Japanese tanto, which are more in the range of the gladius anyway, doesn't exist
here either.
It's true, the knife is not a battlefield weapon. But there's nothing like it in a spontaneous,
personal fight. If a knife gets involved, you can bet that everyone is going to be cut including its
wielder, and often in places where shallow slices do horrible damage: eyes, wrists, and the sides
of the neck. In a brawl with everyone jostling and pushing, a knife goes right into the solar

plexus or delivers multiple body stabs with no defense possible. If you've been wondering how it
is a group always kills an individual victim in this game, that's the reason and it only takes one
person among them.
That's why, hands-down better than any other weapon, the knife is ideal for murder. The way to
get killed by a battlefield weapon is to be on a battlefield or in the path of a raid; if you're not
there, it won't happen. Whereas knife-murder can happen anywhere, planned or unplanned,
delivered from surprise or hidden in the middle of mass action. I'll tell you why: because until
antibiotics were invented and quite a bit even since, body puncture is fatal: an inch into the chest
or abdomen and that's it, the person is dead. If it's in the chest, then in minutes by pneumothorax;
in the guts, in a week or so by unstoppable infection.
Spears, swords, and axes do the job for wholesale slaughter, especially in groups: ethnic
cleansing, raids (i.e. theft), or striking against other powerful groups. But when you absolutely
want to remove a single specific person from the living, bring a knife, the more ordinary, the
better. And in this culture, as mentioned above, everyone has one.
Another tool easily adapted toward personal violence is the quarterstaff, typically associated with
daily tasks of forestry and farming. It's just as good as any other, more technologically
specialized weapon for purposes of defense, and often better if you don't want someone to hit
you, punch them in the center of the body with one of these from eight or ten feet away, and they
can't.
Killing with the staff uses the mechanics for unarmed combat, in that the opponent is first
rendered helpless, but what goes unappreciated is just how agonizing these horrible things can
be. I don't care how tough you think you are, if you take a whack from a staff on the point of
your elbow or the sciatic nerve along your thigh, then immediately on the crown of your head,
and then the other end sweeps your feet, you will hit the ground weeping and begging for the guy
to stop.
The staff is also one of the most versatile objects around, so more direct killing is available to the
imaginative fighter. Stick or toss one into the legs of a running horse, and you have a half-ton of
hysterical good-for-nothing-but-food, and a rider with a broken neck.
For-killing weapons
The primary weapon in the Crescent land is the spear, the same weapon used on foot or mounted,
whether tipped merely by sharpening the wood, or with a cheap wrought-iron simple point. The
lance, the pike, and ornately-tipped pole-arms do not exist. A spear is a deadly thing, easy to
learn, held overhand with or without shield. Thrown or employed in a mounted charge, it ignores
mail (the only metal armor), in which case it's also abandoned after a successful strike because
it's gruesomely transfixing a corpse or near-corpse. Due to its reach, it is the hands-down best
option against bestial or monstrous foes, who ignore arrows long enough to kill you. And if you
don't want to kill or maim someone outright, it doubles as a quarterstaff.

Spears are easy to make and cheap. They are brought to a fight in bundles, even wagonloads, so
when you break or throw your spear, or if it's stuck in somebody, you run over and get another,
or grab one from the ground, because after a bit the whole place looks like spear pick-up sticks.
Skilled weapons combat in this culture has nothing to do with which weapons can most
effectively split a stationary wooden post with a dummy head perched on top. None is "better"
than another; they all work gruesomely well.
Fighting is not just standing there and chopping. In all cases, striking with the weapon is
integrated with shoulder blocks, off-hand grabs or clotheslines, elbows, and effective sweeps via
foot placement. Full swings are reserved for opening moves and when the opponent is off
balance. If it seems tactical and chess-like, that's true, but it's also done at full physical effort in
strength and speed, in microseconds, so it's as visceral and intuitive as anything can get. Also,
against a spear on foot, unless a spearman can take advantage of terrain, anyone using one of the
following weapons is good enough on his or her feet to negate the advantage in reach.
There is no greatsword, rapier, or shortsword in this culture. Swords are at most a yard long
including the hilt, used either two-handed (grasping the crossbar and pommel) or one-handed at
the hilt; they are sharpened on one edge only and have a rounded, blunt tip. Sophisticated
longsword techniques have not been developed, nor are there schools of swordsmanship.
However, that doesn't mean swords hack at one another edge-to-edge. Instead, their flats slide on
each other a lot once the initial striking gets going, changing angles with the combatants often
surprisingly close to one another. Don't imagine big chopping arcs, but rather lightning slices,
with full body twists, more often than not from the current position rather than from some
dramatic pose. One can even seize the top, unsharpened part of one's blade at the halfway point
and use it like a bayonet; the small point of impact can wind an opponent or even break bones.
The great-axe is rightly feared as a damage monster, breaking bones as much as cutting, or more
so. It is shorter than popular fiction depicts, about a yard long, used two-handed or one-handed
with a shield. The head is about three pounds and looks like a woodsman's axe-head, only
thinner and with a distinctive "bearded" edge. Gentry in Tamaryon have them made with
carburized steel, resulting in weapons with reputations of their own.
The art lies in moving with the axe's arc and still striking unexpectedly, without having to fight
the weapon's momentum. The best axe-fighters don't have to dodge incoming blows, because
they never go where the opponent expects them to. To give you an idea: if you use it twohanded, choking up with one hand gives you a short, sturdy staff ideal for body-checking, then
stepping out along the haft's vector while sliding your top hand down to join the bottom one as
the axe-head drops, pulling at the exact second the haft is horizontal into a 180 body turn,
resulting in a 360 horizontal arc guaranteed to maim anything in its path. Or if you use it with a
shield, think of stepping in sideways to off-balance the foe with the shield, turning 180 as
described above to strike with the axe, and then completing the 360 and moving along the arc of
the strike to follow through with a shield-slash.

Because mass infantry tactics are not employed, no one has yet combined features of spear and
axe into halberds, glaives, or similar.
The chained mace, or flail, is a misunderstood weapon, especially for a culture without plate
armor. It's not about beaning people with the heads at all, nor about penetrating armor instead,
it's about whipping with the chains, which fucking hurts, rattling heads inside their helms,
ruining technique with other weapons, entangling and off-balancing for a wicked shield-strike or
for someone with a spear to nail the guy. Therefore the haft is a bit short, the chains are pretty
long, and the heads are relatively small and blunt, sometimes merely slightly-heavier rings,
solely to increase the chains' momentum.
As far as melee weapons go, don't discount the shield, used as a reinforced shoulder-strike which
can take a foe off his feet, or as a slashing hit with the edge which doesn't deliver mere
unarmed "stun" damage, either. Either strike reliably gives the next person to clash with that
character the advantage. Even with only a shield, a skilled fighter is still deadly even to an
opponent with a full array of weapons.
Ranged weapons
The spear and francisca are greatly feared as thrown weapons. For both, the throwing hold is
exactly the same as that for hand-to-hand fighting, so there's no change-up necessary. The spear
is typically thrown with a running start, and with a center-hit, it kills a person dead faster than
anything else in this setting, including decapitation. The francisca does not ignore mail like the
spear, but it is thrown without the running start and with a lightning wind-up, in practice
instantaneously as fast as a modern expert pistol shot. You might dodge a thrown spear, but
you have only a split second to see a francisca coming, and an expert knows to throw it when the
target is looking at something else, like fighting one's ally.
The only problem with the tactic is not having your weapon afterwards, which is why groups
bring lots and lots of weapons with them, and why their metal parts are relatively simple and
made of wrought iron. The concept of one's personal weapon, carried as a sidearm when not in
use, is a modern misconception except for swords. For Circle knights, often traveling far from
home, the francisca is harder to replace than the spear, so if one favors the former, keeping one
of the latter around is a good idea.
The classic bow-and-arrow is mainly a hunting weapon, constructed with a simple recurve and
drawn to the body, not the cheek there is no longbow in this culture. Arrows may be shot
quickly one after the other, but they lack penetration, as their purpose in hunting large game is
not the instant kill but rather disorienting the quarry through pain and making it easier to run
down due to eventual blood loss. As a weapon against people, it is certainly effective, especially
against unarmored targets, but tends to make people scatter rather than killing them outright.
Crossbows exist in a simple form, not much more than a recurved bow on a stock, most requiring
hand-drawn action per shot. The resulting bolt attack is another sure killer, ignoring mail. In
Spurr, the revolving nut mechanism has recently been invented or rediscovered, permitting the
bow to be drawn and locked into place.

However, crossbows do not enter into many encounters. The strategic problem is construction,
supply, and organization. Remember, in this culture there is no "army," no command structure,
no depot, no training and supply centers, and no designated ranks or division of (fighting) labor.
Mass manufacturing, provision, and training with a standardized weapon simply doesn't happen
yet; given the opportunity for them, widespread crossbow employment might be expected to
develop in the next century or so.
So as it stands, one guy with a cool crossbow shoots one bolt, and that's it for the crossbow
drama in this fight. On the plus side, that means a small fighting group who know one another
and do use crossbows in habitual armed encounters are a formidable threat, as they can lay down
a coordinated bolt storm before dropping the things and closing in. Such action is found only
among the professional social rank.
Armor
As a general point, armor in this setting is not designed literally to stop a weapon in its optimal
strike. The best available, mail, doesn't defend against high-impact puncture anyway. Instead,
mail, shields, and helms do their best work in augmenting the fighter's defensive motions and
posture, so that the sliding sword-slash skates by, or if one's lean-back almost evades the axehead's arc, one's helm keeps the last of it from opening one's scalp.
As with so much in the game, use the mechanics to define your narration: a ton of BQ damage
even after armor can be described as a strike to unarmored body parts this reverses the usual
logic of calling or determining the strike's target before the dice-roll.

Gambeson
Mail (includes gambeson)
Cone helm
Spangenhelm
Buckler
Parma or kite shield

BQ
stopped
3
6
2
3
3
4

Q penalty out
of combat
-1
-3
-1
-2
-1
-2

This is not an armored culture. For most people, fighting against designated foes means grabbing
a spear and maybe a shield if you go somewhere to do it, you have time to pick up a cone helm
if any are available. The only people with mail are the gentry and some professionals.
Mail itself is not what many people think of as armor. There are no shaped metal pieces or
articulations. It is nothing but a one-piece tube of interlinked wrought-iron chain, partly closed at
the top to hang on the shoulders, open at the bottom to make a skirt almost to the knees, with
loose sleeves to the elbows and sometimes an attached hood, or coif. It's worn over a similar
garment made of heavy cloth, called a gambeson. Contrary to other expectations, it does not go
cling-clang, but rather rustles, like shuffling through dry leaves. There are no gauntlets, no
chausses, no mail-trousers, no greaves, and no shoon.

Mail is a highly specialized garment. It does not impede combat motions, as that would defeat
the purpose, but it does make any other activity more annoying, and it's too heavy to wear in any
other circumstances. One does not ride around in one's mail, but keeps it in the pack-horse's
luggage and pulls it on in the knowledge of upcoming combat. For surprises, too bad grab your
shield and go, just like everyone else.
In this setting, gambesons are usually made along with the mail, so wearing the gambeson by
itself is not widely observed. However, freemen in Rolke have recently taken to making and
using the gambeson this way, and some Circle knights have adopted it from them. Anywhere
else, doing so looks weird, as if you'd put on your underwear but not your pants.
Neither mail nor gambeson protects against a thrown or charging spear, or from a crossbow bolt.
The culture includes two kinds of helms: the cone helm, a simple but functional wrought-iron
cap; and the spangenhelm, a framework of carburized steel with wrought-iron sheets inserted.
Given the technology, the latter is only found among gentry. Helms are quite annoying and no
one, but no one, wears one unless they are about to enter a fight.
Ornamental facemasks are sometimes used by gentry in Famberge; they don't actually do
anything for defense, but they do scare the shit out of people who aren't combat-hardened, and
that's whom the gentry in Famberge spend a lot of time scaring and killing.
Long-term injury, recovery, and death
For physical injury of any kind, recovery occurs at 1 BQ per day per missing Brawn, i.e. if a
character with Brawn 6 is reduced to Brawn 2, that's -4, then he or she needs 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10
days to get it all back. If either Brawn or Quickness was taken down to 0, then calculate the time
this way and then double it.
However, Brawn reduced by spellcasting all comes back with any scene transition, or if you
want to look at it in-fiction, when the character gets a breather.
Player-characters are plot-armored against the real killers in the setting, which are internal
hemorrhage and non-magical infection.
Death
When a character is reduced to 0 Brawn and 0 Quickness, but not simultaneously, he or she is
immobilized through shock, stun, and fatigue. Clinical death happens later, and in this culture,
once taken this far on that path, there's typically no coming back, unless one receives help right
away or is aided by magic.
When a blow takes both scores down to 0 at once, the person playing the attacker has the option
to state that the effect is instantly or near-instantly lethal.

A Circle knight who is killed during an adventure becomes a wraith, a unique status for Circle
knights due to their command of both colors of magic. A wraith is not technically undead and
has full mental faculties and volition of the person when alive, rather than the warped and colorspecific caricatures produced by ordinary magic. The character continues to participate in the
adventure, until it is finished, at which point the character is gone forever.
A wraith is present in any played scene, which permits a kind of scene not otherwise observed in
this game, with no living player-characters present. A wraith cannot take ordinary physical
action, but it is not helpless at all. Unmanifested, it can only be detected by magic senses. It can
manifest visibly to anyone and in that form it can speak to other Circle knights. It cannot be
affected by physical means, but can be targeted by relevant magic.
A wraith casts spells as normal using the character's ordinary Brawn, which exists as a resource
mainly toward this purpose. Its Quickness is used for ordering when necessary, also as normal.
Significantly, its tally abilities all apply, even those which were physical effects such as silver
dragon transformation or beast shape the effect manifests physically for the current situation
and permits physical action, and then the wraith reverts to its insubstantial form.
Some bits and pieces
Flesh isn't tinder and is not consumed by flame. Burns hurt and the tissue is damaged badly, but
a person does not go up in flame when struck by a torch or upon falling into a campfire. Undead
flesh is no different and arguably is even less effective because such a creature feels no pain.
Dirty tricks like blinding may be treated as weapons attacks with no particular modifiers, but
with the feature of seizing the advantage.
Weapons cannot be poisoned.

6: Gray Magic
Metaphysics
Color points and tallies
On the character sheet is a simple chart divided into two sides, labeled Rbaja and Amboriyon.
Under each, you draw in little circles in a row during play, to indicate the color points the
character has gained by using magic. The circles under Rbaja should be filled in, and the ones
under Amboriyon should be open.
Points are added to the chart until a total of nine is reached. If these nine include both black and
white points, then gaining further tokens changes the color of the tokens present, never
exceeding nine.
Example: a character has three points in Rbaja and two in Amboriyon. He casts a black
spell worth three points, so adds three more to Rbaja, for a total of eight points. Later, he
swears a white oath and gains five white points from it during a fight. One gets added to
Amboriyon for a total of nine, so for a moment he has six in Rbaja and two in Amboriyon.
The remaining four white points are now added, and four of the black points are erased
as they have been replaced. The character's total is now two for Rbaja and seven for
Amboriyon. He will continue to have nine points, no more nor less. If he then casts a
three-point black spell, three of the white points become black, for a total of five for
Rbaja and four for Amboriyon.
If at any time, the entire lot of nine is a single color, then the Points are all removed and the
character gains a tally of the appropriate color. Tallies indicate a profound shift in the character's
being, as he or she becomes more magical rather than merely using magic.
If the spell which brings the diagram to nine points of a single color is of a value that would
exceed nine, then the extra points are ignored.
From the end of the last example, the character has five points for Rbaja and four for
Amboriyon. He then casts two three-point black spells. The first brings him to eight
points for Rbaja and one for Amboriyon; the second turns the white point black with two
left over. The diagram is considered completed for a tally for Rbaja, all the color points
are erased, and the extra points were ignored.
Tally results (all listed "effective" spells have no Brawn cost)
White
2: Bestow instant recovery as per three meals and a night's rest
3: C rolls may be made vs. groups
4: Command fire and light at will, not including ignition
5: Effective Dazzle when you speak the truth, with C vs. 12 roll

6: Upon a person's death (including killing them), release their Spirit Warrior under your control
until sunrise or sundown
7: Pegasus companion
8: Talk to beasts, big beast companion, and little ones like you
9: Convert an unnamed NPC into an unquestioning follower with a C vs. 12 roll, once per
adventure
10: Shape-shift into small silver dragon once per adventure, +1 to both B and Q
11: C vs. 12 for effective Restore Dead, upon successfully harming undead in combat
12: Demons cannot touch you or direct attacks toward you during the first exchange of a combat
situation
Also roll 1d6 each time you gain a white tally:
1-3: no additional visible effect
4: Hair turns thick and silky, becomes nearly impossible to cut
5: Palms of hands glow when performing gentle or helpful acts
6: Voice becomes two-toned when raised or emphatic
Black
2: Kill nearby small animals at will; +1d6 to B rolls including damage
3: Disgorge snakes who make effective spies, W vs. 12 operates as your eyes and ears in a stated
location in the adventure; they cannot be detected without magic
4: Undead like you, can call up a few per location with C vs. 12 roll, duration as per prolonged
spell
5: Acquaintance with an ancient lich who provides indirect help once per adventure with a C vs.
12 roll, failure results in it adding itself to the adventure against your efforts
6: Summon nightmare via dreaming, with C vs. 12 roll; ordinary binding rules apply
7: Effective Mind Rip by tasting another's blood, living or dead
8: Limb or facial feature becomes grotesque and gains bonus die for using it
9: Breath of disease, effective Pestilence, with B vs. 12 roll
10: Shape-shift into mutant wolf effective Beast Shape spell, once per adventure
11: Restore 1d6 Brawn when someone dies in your presence
12: Anyone you kill becomes a zombie in your service with C vs. 12 roll
Also roll 1d6 each time you gain a black tally:
1-3: no additional visible effect
4: Eyes turn murky red
5: Upper and lower canine teeth become somewhat pointed
6: Nails become claws
Oaths
One oath may be sworn per character per adventure. State the goal, designated by color. The GM
has the final ruling over whether the oath qualifies. "Kill him" isn't a color-coded action, for
instance, it depends upon whom and towards what end.

White: healing, restoration, social order

Black: ruin, corruption of nature or behavior, anarchy

If no one can identify a suitable color for it, then it isn't an Oath. On the other hand, plenty of
very similar actions could be coded by either color: to murder an abusive war-leader horribly is a
black-oath goal, but to preserve the lives of his war-band and/or his victims by killing him is a
white-oath one.
From that point forward, you can add 1d6 to any roll which is directly relevant to the oath (again,
GM's call), and the resulting value on that die also provides the same number of Color Points of
the appropriate color, i.e., of the oath. The 1d6 bonus from an Oath is rolled separately every
time it's used. It is not an advantage die (see Chapter 5) and operates completely independently
from the quantitative combat mechanics.
To end the oath during the adventure, either fulfill it or formally renounce it. Unfulfilled oaths
remaining at the adventure's end result in permanent -1 to an attribute of the player's choice.
Wizards' senses
All wizards sense the following, in the range of normal senses:

Nearby spellcasting
A currently-active spell or enchantment
Whether a creature was created by magic
The color of a spell, either as it's cast or encountered in ongoing form

This sense is active and used only at the player's announcement, i.e., the GM does not
proactively have to account for it during play.
This sense is not limited by darkness, ambient noise, or any other input to the ordinary senses. It
is only "blinded" by a sufficiently strong Magic Blank spell, which is not itself detected by the
character and therefore cannot be pumped against.
No other characters have these senses, not even the non-wizard Circle knights who know a little
magic.
Spellcasting
Spell knowledge
Player-character wizards may cast any and every spell listed, exactly as described. Playercharacters without the wizard Profession begin play with five points of spells, choosing anything
from the list they like adding up to 5 points, as long as both colors are represented.
For perspective and contrast, non-player-character wizards, i.e. "normal" magic, are limited to all
spells of one color (Rbaja wizards also know white spells with points equal to W, which they
cast with Warp.) Their Tally results are always determined randomly, and filling up with the

wrong color is disastrous. Typically they Tally up pretty hard, as an expression of their
ideological commitment.
By contrast, the Circle Knights' view of magic is crassly utilitarian. Tallies are considered a
strategic choice and utterly not loyalty-based, rather to the contrary. This view baffles other
wizards. They can't see how you could "earn" or "be given" a Tally without doing ideologicallyappropriate things, and they consider acquiring opposed-color Tally items to be abominable.
Timing of spells
Unless it's a ritual, casting a spell operates as an ordinary action. In a complex situation, when
everyone ordered by Q for hitting one another and that sort of thing, the spellcaster is included
right in there by Q as well to set the ordinal position of his or her spell among the other actions.
A spell is not cast within a clash, however; if one wants to cast a spell but is sucked into a clash,
then the only option is to allocate all of one's point to defensive and then to survive, emerging
from the clash to cast the spell in the determined order.
What it looks like
Spellcasting is a symbolic act and employs a variety of ritual items: stone weapons, worked or
polished bone, smeared or scattered oil, and smoke, in the appropriate color for the spell in
question. It's one of the reasons a wizard can always identify a lot about a spell being cast.
None of this has anything to do with imposing a resource or timing factor into the spellcasting
mechanics. All of these details are merely there to mine as one describes the character's actions,
toward the ends of reinforcing the setting and rejecting the stereotyped image of the mage
wiggling his fingers and shouting weird syllables, and to no other purpose. Nor is a detailed
narration required; if you forget about it once in a while, that's fine.
These details could play heavily into the hours-long process of ritual spellcasting, which I
imagine certainly deserves a little enthusiasm in colorful description.
Spellcasting color mechanics
Each spell is designated either white or black, and rated from one to three color points,
themselves of the indicated color. During play, when a character casts a spell, that precise
number of color points yields the same number of colored tokens to that character's sheet.
Spellcasting resolution mechanics
Casting a spell requires no dice rolling. It does require spending a required amount of Brawn,
typically the same value as the spell's listed color points. Brawn lost this way does count as
damage against the character, although unlike physical injury it will return in full given a break
in play which implies the character has had a chance to rest.

The spell description states the scope of the spell whether it affects only the caster, a single
targeted person or other eligible thing, or an area. In all cases, the target must be within the range
of the caster's immediate senses. If those senses have been extended through magic or in any
other way, the rule still applies and therefore the spell may strike at a farther distance than usual.
Spells are cast when the B is spent. Some spells require subordinate dice rolls to determine
specific effects, but not to establish whether the spell works.
Spells effects can be increased by pumping: donating more B to their power. Pumping is
instantaneous and does not increase Color points. Some spells may be resisted if the target
Pumps B. Pumping is instantaneous in the fiction and does not require an action.
The duration and details of a successful spell fall into three types.

Instant: the magic operates only for a moment, although its effects remain. Blast is the
perfect example: the magic manifests, hurts a person, and then is gone, leaving behind an
injured person. An instant spell is only vulnerable to oppositional magic during the
moment it is cast.
Prolonged: the magic operates until the next sunup or sundown, and typically its effects
vanish at that point. A prolonged spell is vulnerable to oppositional magic both at casting
and throughout that duration.
Creation: the magic's effect, which is to bring a being or object into existence, lasts just
as a prolonged spell, until the next sunup or sundown. Until then, the created entity
cannot be made to vanish with oppositional magic. A creation spell is only vulnerable to
oppositional magic at the moment of casting.

Some spells are also designated ritual spells, which require approximately one hour per color
point to cast. The required Brawn for a ritual spell is spent at the end of the process. Oppositional
magic may disrupt the casting at any point during the casting process.
Oppositional spells
Some spells are oppositional: Absorb Spell, Countermagic, Reflect Spell, and Warp Spell, as
well as the pairs Bless/Curse, Soothe/Berserk, and True Way/Trailtwister, if cast toward one
another. Oppositional magic targets other spells in several ways.
Absorb Spell, Reflect Spell, Warp Spell, and Bless/Curse may be cast either:
toward a currently-active prolonged spell
toward any spell in the moment of its casting
In the latter case, the caster must be acting earlier than or tied with the targeted action in the
ordering sequence.
Re-do all this: in fair and clear, you see that the other guy is casting a spell, so say "vs. spell," or
"vs. [color] spell" if you're a wizard; a spell is only named when it goes off, but Reflect Spell
(which needs a new target) can specify at that moment.

Characters can pump B to alter the B totals between opposed spells, perhaps resulting in an
immediate bidding war. Such a contest is instantaneous in fictional time. The oppositional spell
must only match the incoming spell in Brawn; e.g., a default Curse is countered or reversed by a
default Bless, and vice versa. Whereas to function as intended, the incoming spell must be
pumped to a Brawn total above that of the oppositional spell.
Countermagic and Magic Sink are prolonged spells, cast upon a target person or area
respectively. Both initiate an immediate B comparison and possible bidding contest,
Countermagic toward incoming spells toward that target, and Magic Sink toward both currently
active spells and new castings.
Enchantments
Prolonged and creation spells may be cast as an enchantment if the caster sacrifices the Brawn
for the spell permanently. Casting a spell as an enchantment requires ritual casting, i.e., about an
hour per Color Point. The Preserve, Statue, Distort, Wrath, and Raise Lich spells are typically
cast as enchantments. When a spell is cast as an enchantment, the caster gains twice the color
points he or she would otherwise.
An enchantment lasts forever unless it is broken by other magic, and its resistance to such
breaking may be bolstered with pumped and also permanently lost Brawn. An enchanted object
is also disenchanted if it is physically broken, or a person, if he or she is killed.
Some spells differ slightly from their ordinary description when cast as enchantments, in that
they may affect mobile or immobile objects, or similar logistic factors.
Once cast, enchantments cannot be targeted by Absorb, Reflect, Counter, Warp, or Sink.
Unnamed characters
Unnamed characters are affected differently from others. Many spells simply the spell hit with
maximum imaginable effect without quantification: Blast instantly kills a person, for example.
Subtler spells which interact with attributes, however, force the character into immediate
ascension they become named characters. In a few cases, the GM has an option to do so with
one NPC in a group-affecting spell, as with the prior example using Cloud of Hate.
Spell list
One white color point
Beacon (i). A highly visible column of light blasts upward from the casters hand; similarly, any
wizard within miles (functionally, any wizard who can participate in the current adventure) is
magically alerted to this spell being cast and knows approximately from what direction.
Cat (p). The target gains nearly perfect balance and coordination, gaining the combat advantage
bonus in appropriate conditions and permitting actions usually reserved for professional
entertainers.

Glow (p). A gleaming light source appears of whatever color the caster desires, either from a
small object or as a hanging, drifting globe. It may be extinguished before the duration is up, if
the caster wishes. It is the only way to create light within a Shadow Cloud.
Healing (i). The targets B and Q are both restored by the result of a 1d6 roll; e.g., a roll result of
3 returns 3 to each characteristic. A characteristic may only be restored to its original level with
this spell, not increased above its base level. Healing only affects physical injury, not Brawn lost
to spellcasting. If it is cast upon oneself, the Brawn spent to cast it offsets the gain to B.
Instant Craft (i). 1d6 is added to any single roll involved in making something, or the spell
permits such a roll to be made in the absence of suitable materials. Both effects can be achieved
simultaneously by expending two Brawn points. The spell can affect the casters efforts, or
someone elses.
Magic Blank (p). The casters designated magical target a person, place, or thing does not
emanate magical vibrations and cannot be perceived as magical by a wizard. However, it can still
be perceived as magical by the target of a Perfect Senses spell.
Perfect Senses (p). The casters target person has perfect sensory abilities excluding pain and
balance. He or she may see in near-total darkness, hear whispers through walls, smell or taste
poison without ingesting enough to be hurt by it, and otherwise sense the barest possible
stimulus. The spell permits the target to operate normally in conditions which provide some
stimuli, e.g., fighting in darkness.
Repair (i). A broken object or weapon is entirely restored. If it was broken by a Destroy Object
spell, then the outcome is decided by expended Brawn, including pumping.
Shimmer (p). The target person gains 1d6 bonus to his or her defensive Q total during combat.
Summon Beast 1 (c). A 1-point beast of the casters choice appears (see Beasts). It obeys the
summoners commands until its B or Q is reduced to 0 or below, after which it can be forced to
obey with a C vs. C roll.
Waft (i). The target person is arrested in a fall or potential fall. Waft does not permit powered or
directed flight.
Warding (p). The target object serves as an alarm to warn its holder of nearby intent to harm or
otherwise interfere with him or her. The caster may set the warning to be visible, audible, tactile,
psychic, or any combination of these.
Two white color points
Absorb Spell (i). The target spell of value 2 or lower is canceled and adds the Brawn used to
cast it to the casters. Absorb Spell may be used to counter an instant spell or to cancel a current
prolonged spell. It is always opposed by the target caster in a comparison of expended Brawn,
including pumping.
Armor (p). The target person's garments shimmer and provide 1d6 BQ armor score.
Blade (p). An ordinary sword is created.
Bless (p, r). The target person, beast, or avatar gains 1d6 to the attribute of the casters choice,
which may exceed its ordinary value. This is effectively a mini-Oath for that attribute, without
gaining color points via the bonus. Alternatively, Bless counters Curse.
Soothe (i). Attempts to calm the target receive 1d6 bonus; alternatively, counters Berserk.
Command Plant (p). Existing vegetation twists and grows according to the casters will: a wall,
a net, or anything else physically possible. The plant may grow to twice its size; it does not
become animated.

Countermagic (p). Cancels incoming spells powered by 2 or fewer Brawn upon the target
person, place, or thing. Either caster may pump Brawn to overcome the other. Rule:
Countermagic must equal the targeted spell to stop it; the targeted spell must be pumped up past
Countermagic in order to work.
Dazzle (i). Target person's Q rolls lose a die, including in combat, but he or she also gains a
bonus die to W rolls during that time. The affected person may also pump 2 Brawn to cancel the
effect, which in this case requires a full action.
Glamor (p). Target person gains 1d6 C.
Grow (p). Target person, beast, demon, or avatar visibly increases to between one-half again and
twice its usual size; also adds 1d6 bonus to the targets Brawn rolls and to Brawn for purposes of
BQ.
Purge (i). The target person is cleared of poison and recovers quickly from its prior effects.
Purify (i). The target substance or object is purged of poison, decay, or other impurities. It does
not make an inedible substance edible, nor does it reverse the effects of Noxify.
Store Power (c, r). The 2 Brawn spent are added to a storage pool, which appears as a glowing
nexus of energy (it may float or be bound into a staff, gem, or anything similar). After casting,
the caster may recover normally and spend the stored Brawn to cast white spells at any point
throughout the spells duration. Once used, the Brawn is gone. A person cannot have more than
one Store Power operating at once.
Summon Avatar (c). An avatar of the casters choice appears (see Avatars). To obey the caster,
the avatar must be befriended or placated, depending on its type.
Summon Beast 2 (c). A 2-point beast of the casters choice appears (see Beasts). It obeys the
summoners commands until its B or Q is reduced to 0 or below, after which it can be forced to
obey with a C vs. 12 roll.
True Way (i). The target person perceives the route which affords the least immediate danger.
Alternatively, True Way counters Trailtwister.
White Light (p, r). Undead and demons may not easily cross the boundaries designated by the
caster in any fashion (e.g. flying, burrowing). Such a creature may pump Brawn against the spell
to cross, but even if successful, the boundary remains and the creature incurs 1d6 BQ damage.
Three white color points
Calm Elements (p, r). Target natural or magical storm, landslide, eruption, or similar
phenomenon is quelled.
Righteousness (p). Target armor protects for an additional 1d6 BQ and provides Countermagic
for the wearer with no additional Brawn cost or color points; or target weapon inflicts 1d6
additional BQ damage and provides Absorb Spell for its wielder with no additional Brawn cost
or color points.
Inspire Throng (p). Target person uses the ordinary resolution rolls when addressing a group of
people, including increased volume for voice and improved visibility. The bonus only applies in
motivating them to act; it will not calm.
Link (p, r). The caster and one designated person, avatar, demon, or beast may use one anothers
character points as bonuses at will; a given characteristic point may only be used by one
character during a round.
Preserve (p, r). The target person or beast is protected from continuing harm or decay of any
kind (not from newly inflicted damage), including aging.
Restore Undead (i). The target undead is restored to true death; it may pump Brawn to resist.

Sink (p). A stationary, swirling magical well is created in the air; all magic cast in the Sinks
proximity costs 2 additional Brawn; prolonged spells currently running must have 2 Brawn
pumped to them immediately or dissipate.
Spirit Warrior (p). A glowing white semblance steps from the casters body (not a target
person's) and may act independently, as if his or her personality were present in both bodies. Its
B and Q are both +1 to the casters, and its C is +3. It has an armor score of 10 and Perfect
Senses. It may not cast spells nor can it be healed by any means. It may be resorbed at the
casters discretion at any time prior to the durations end. If it is brought to 0 Brawn, it dissipates
and the caster must succeed in a W vs. 12 roll to remain conscious.
Statue (p). The caster animates and commands a specially-prepared statue of clay or metal; it has
B 9, Q 6, and armor 9. Its Q is not reduced by damage. Although Statue is not a ritual spell, if
you don't have a statue handy, then building one is a lengthy and expensive project.
Summon Eidolon (c). An eidolon of the casters choice appears (see Eidolons). To obey the
caster, the eidolon must be befriended or placated, depending on its type.
Total Cure (i, r). The target person or beast is cured of all disease, fatigue, and injury, and he or
she also regrows missing or maimed body parts. If cast upon oneself, the spells cost is not
restored.
Vision (i, r). The casters player asks the GM a single yes-no question, which he or she answers
truthfully.
Wrath (i). All unnamed characters and generic beasts in the immediate area are killed, and an
Amboriyon zone is created of a size of the caster's choosing between a patch big enough to cover
a small room, and about a quarter acre.
One black color point
Animate Dead (c). The target corpse becomes either an undead skeleton or zombie (see
Undead), depending on its current state. It obeys the casters commands without fail.
Confuse (i). The target person or beast becomes incapable of targeting other characters in any
way, or of speaking, until he or she pumps at least one point of Brawn to counteract the effect.
Contort (i). The body of the target person or beast becomes sufficiently malleable and flexible
of joints including the pelvic symphysis and the fused skull bones to permit passing through
frighteningly small openings. All items worn or carried are affected as well.
Envenom (p). The target weapon or other object (such as clothing) inflicts 1d6 BQ upon its user,
or in the case of a weapon, upon suffering ordinary BQ damage from it after armor. Alternately,
instills food or drink with a poison undetectable by ordinary senses.
Itch (p). The target person or beast sustains 1 injury to Q, beginning with and accumulating per
physical action he or she takes throughout the duration of the spell.
Noxify (i). The target organic substance becomes disgusting and unusable; it has no effect on
living targets, nor can it target anything currently Purified.
Paralyze (i). The target person, beast, demon, eidolon, or avatar becomes unable to change
position significantly or move coherently enough to attack until he or she pumps at least one
point of Brawn to counteract the effect.
Semblance (p). The target person looks, sounds, and smells like anything else of the casters
choice, subject only to size constraints; to fool an observer who has reason to doubt the
semblance, the target must make a W vs. 12 roll. This spell is completely ineffective against
Perfect Senses, and even pumping Brawn has no effect. The spell does not confer any abilities.

Shadow Cloud (c). All light sources in the immediate area are extinguished, and all target
actions in that area receive a 1d6 reduction, as does attempting to leave the area of effect.
Countered by Perfect Senses.
Summon Demon 1 (c). A 1-point demon of the casters choice appears (see Demons).
Web (i). The target area is covered with sticky webs; individuals in the webbed area must
succeed with a B vs. 12 roll to escape it. Multiple webs reduce the dice of the roll, one per
additional spell.
Two black color points
Berserker (p): The target person suffers no Q penalty from BQ damage and may neither all-out
defend nor retreat. For the duration of the spell, he or she is incapable of speech and cannot make
W rolls.
Black Speech (p): The target may communicate with undead he or she did not raise; undead
respect this spell and listen for at least one round. Note that there is no 2-point raise dead spell.
Blast (i): The target person, beast, demon, eidolon, or avatar suffers 2d6 BQ damage per 2
Brawn spent by the caster. The damaged area has a characteristic blackened, fried look without
being burned.
Cloud of Hate (p): People or beasts within the area will attack one another at random. To behave
differently, one must succeed with a W vs. 12 roll; this roll must be made per intended action as
long as one is in the area.
Curse (p): Target person or beast loses a die for all rolls using an attribute of the casters choice;
Curse may be made more severe by 1 characteristic point per extra B spent by caster; Curse
counters Bless.
Dominate (p): The target person may apply C vs. 12 rolls to beasts and peasants.
Drug (p): Target person or beast suffers 1d6 BQ damage immediately and another at the end of
the spells duration; the latter effect is counteracted if he or she receives another Drug spell prior
to that point; Drug cast upon a Drugged target inflicts no damage.
Fake (i): A fabricated object of the casters choice is created weighing 20 lbs or less. It looks
serviceable and even tests well, but will crumble when it is used in earnest.
Infect (i): The target person or beast contracts a non-fatal, mildly or non-contagious disease that
acts normally in all ways.
Reflect Spell (i): The caster diverts a spell being cast by another onto a target of the casters
choice. Has no effect on spells after the action of their casting.
Ruin (i): The target non-living object is broken; maximum size is approximately human.
Scar (i): Disfigures target person, removing 1 die of effectiveness with Charm, or 2 dice with an
additional 1 point of pumped Brawn; the effect recovers similar to injury.
Stimulant (p). The target person or beast adds 1d6 BQ (which may exceed original values);
when the spells duration is over, he or he suffers 2 BQ injury, i.e. -1 B and -1 Q.
Summon Demon 2 (c): A 2 point demon appears (see Demons). The act of casting the spell
entails a specific deal between caster and demon.
Trailtwister (p): People and beasts in the target area will go anywhere, even backwards, except
where they wished to go. Once affected, a person or beast may try a W vs. 12 roll to overcome
the effect.
Wall of Flesh (p): Given one or more corpses, the caster creates a wall with strength equal to the
bodies combined original Brawns. If damaged, it will regrow 5 B per action. The bodies used do

not necessarily retain their original integrity, such that the wall is about 5 by 5 per human-sized
body.
Warp Spell (i): The target instant or prolonged white spell being cast by anyone is transformed
into a black spell, i.e., it confers black color points upon its caster. The caster of Warp Spell may
also pump 2 points of Brawn to change the spells effect into a Curse.
Three black color points
Beast Shape (p): The target person is transformed into a bestial form with B+3, Q+3, armor 6. In
combat, the person is Berserk as per the spell. The subject may end the spell prior to its duration
with a W vs. 12 roll.
Die (i): Compare the current Brawn of the caster and a nearby target person; both characters lose
the lower of the two. This spell costs no other Brawn unless it is pumped.
Distort (c, r): The spell creates an Rbaja zone in the immediate area, of a size of the caster's
choosing between a patch big enough to stand on, and about a quarter acre. All corpses within
the designated area become zombies.
Eruption (i, r): The ground bursts forth in a miniature (20 tall) volcano, with attendant effects
depending on the situation. Anyone in the area of effect must make a Q vs. 12 roll or suffer 2d6
BQ damage.
Mind Rip (i): The caster may ask one question of the target person, which the subject must
answer truthfully to the best of his or her knowledge, but limited to a single word; the target also
suffers 1d6 BQ damage.
Pain (p): For every BQ point inflicted by the target person, 1 point of B is made available to the
caster of the spell for casting black spells; these points must be utilized during the current scene
or they dissipate.
Pestilence (i, r): The target person, beast, small area, or object is infected with a normal
contagious disease of the casters choice.
Puppet (p, r): The target person obeys the caster's willed, non-verbal orders, resisting with a W
vs. 12 roll.
Raise Lich (c, r): The caster dies and transforms himself or herself into a lich, given the
appropriate materials (see Undead).
Sacrifice (i): The caster must kill a person or beast to cast this spell. The victims Brawn is
stored as per Store Power, usable by the caster except for black magic rather than white. The
stored Brawn may be used for an enchantment, in which case the caster suffers no permanent B
loss.
Storm (p, r): A storm is raised in the area, complete with darkness, rain, lightning, and thunder;
if cast in an arid location, raises a sandstorm. Anyone in the area of effect suffers reduced
visibility, reduced movement, and d6 penalties to actions.
Summon Demon 3 (c): A 3 point demon appears (see Demons). The act of casting the spell
entails a specific deal between caster and demon.
Vampirize (p): Target person loses 1d6 Brawn as a physical injury and the caster gains this
amount for the duration of the spell. If lost through injury or spent to cast magic or for anything
else, it does not recover. This spell costs no Brawn unless it is pumped.

7: Creatures of Light and Darkness

Descriptions during role-playing are harder than they look. I don't think using game terms and
names by themselves is fun, as it seems flat. And long-winded purple prose is no fun either. So
here's my advice. You're not the animator or the movie screen, providing the full visuals and
motion so that others may soak them in. Instead, you're only talking so that others' imaginations
have enough to work with.
Don't identify a creature by name right away. Describe it in pieces, focusing on the familiar, then
on the unfamiliar. Exhaustive panorama is your enemy. Describe its actions with one or two
details, then if it gets injured, describe that with one or two details.

Ordinary and everywhere

Peasants and incidental animals
Peasants are human beings. However, as far as everyone else is concerned, and as far as peasants
who don't know one another are concerned, they are incidental people part of the landscape and
more of an ecological actor than a social one.
In game terms, peasants fade into the background. They do not act as reactive groups, and unless
the player-character is a peasant, he or she can't ascend one or even use an interactive attribute
toward them. They are automatically affected to the maximum interpretation by magic, and one
can be ascended via inclusion in an eligible spell.
If a player-character is a peasant, and if he or she does single out or interact with a peasant
character, then use the People section below. If no player-character comes from this rank, then
peasants will most likely be no more than moving parts of the background.
Incidental animals are similarly a constant part of life: domestic dogs and horses, wild animals
including many small mammals, wolves, bear, deer, and plenty of birds from sparrow to hawk to
pheasant. In regional terms, Tamaryon is associated mainly with boar and oxen, Famberge with
wolves, smaller wild pigs, and horses, Spurr with snakes and hawks, and Rolke with a distinctive
regional panther.
Animals in this category are not a big deal in play and serve mainly toward reinforcing the
experience in terms of setting. For them to matter more, a character has to be seriously in their
space and seriously doing something they don't like, which effectively means ascending them to
the Beast category (below) in a specific situation.
People
Most of the characters present in fictional terms are unnamed but present and active, whether
seen in the moment or not. "A bunch of villagers," "four armed men, mounted," "women singing
as they bring their baskets to the wagons" all qualify.

Such characters' actions are not assessed for failure. They do stuff appropriate to their social rank
and professions, and you role-play them as individuals as you see fit, thinking in terms of their
relationships to the named NPCs and to some extent improvisationally.
If a player-character wants to stop or change what an unnamed person is doing, that requires a
vs. 12 roll. If successful, this is a completely effective action. Even killing one of isn't combat,
it's a vs. 12, and any fictional difficulty or details should arise from that person's fictional
identity. Magic has special effects for these characters too, mainly taking the spell to its
maximum possible effect without nuances like penalties to specific attributes.
However, don't discount them entirely, for three reasons. First, Circle knight or not, you're
usually on their turf, and going straight up to them and using an attribute against them will only
employ a single die. You can get the full two dice if you do something appropriate to social rank
or indisputably effective first, or after you manage to make a penalized Charm roll, perhaps with
magical help. This applies even to "I kill him" rolls don't think you can kill a person that easily
on terrain they've worked all their life. The helpless peasant you're chasing down on horseback
knows where the woodchuck holes are.
Second, group action is horrifically effective. Public opinion and mass action are literally
unstoppable through the ordinary resolution system; if twenty people want to kill your character,
they simply do no roll, no save, no argument. Magic like the Inspire Throng spell, or Distort if
you're a psychopath, is the primary recouse.
This is a serious consideration of play. Using ordinary interaction, it behooves the Circle knight
to find and influence key individuals in the community, which is the only way to buffer the
consequences of pissing off a whole sector of society.
Third, a group implies a lot of individuals, and individuals can be "ascended" into full named
NPC status during play, as described in Chapter 4.

Named non-player characters and important beasts

Named people
Several named people are created as components of preparation; so you already have them. They
should each have:
Special interests, past history, problems, strong emotional attachments
Social class, relative wealth, kinship, social authority and reputation
By definition all non-Circle wizards are in this category, as they only come into play via the
preparation components.
To review: the initially-prepared characters have scores 8 5 4 2, and for the single most
problematic individual, his or her sum of scores is equal to the sum of the highest-sum Circle
Knight currently in play. The ascended characters, given an identity during the course of play,
have scores 4 4 4 4, although the GM may re-allocate if the fictional circumstances call for it.

Review Chapter 4 for the nuances of dealing with unnamed characters, groups, and named
characters.
Beasts
These are not "just an animal," but rather the nonhuman version of named NPCs, as placed into
an adventure by the preparation system. Such a creature has attributes and acts as a character,
with motivations and relevance to the human community. Therefore it's completely naturalistic
and understandable, but problematic. Beasts recognize individual people and form strong, wideranging connections with them, such as protectiveness, friendship, and hatred.
Beasts attack extremely strategically. If they initiate a violent encounter, then they always begin
with the advantage die.
Small beasts 1
This is any ordinary animal from cat-size up to the size of a human, such as a hawk, serpent,
small boar, small panther, wolf, et cetera. It typically has Q 6 and Armor ranging from 0 to 2. If
it's little, like a housecat, then its B is 2; if it's capable of damage and actions similar to a human,
then its B is 4.
Another sort of small beast is a swarm, as of insects or rats or similar. In this case, it's rated by
units equal to how many people it can hit at a time. Its B = 1 per unit, Q 6, Armor 0. It always
acts at full offense (+10/+0). Hitting it successfully only removes a unit.
Large beasts 2
Any natural creature larger than a human, up the size of a bear, horse, ox, rhino, lion, or alligator.
It typically has B 9 and Q 6, with Armor ranging from 0 to 6. Generally placid and focused upon
its ordinary eating habits, this sort of creature is capable of berserk fury when provoked.
Tamaryon
Ocker
An ocker is an aquatic tentacled beast which lives in shallow water, whether fresh or salt, as long
as its home is connected to larger bodies of water, because its eggs only mature in the open sea.
People sort-of domesticate ockers living in water near communities by feeding them and
approaching them cautiously, partly because an ocker can be helpful in heavy physical tasks at
the shore, and partly in preventative self-defense.
B 6 Q 9, armor 3. Ockers are fast and dangerous! If they grab you, you're in the water, drowning.
Famberge
"Forest man"

The forest man is a strangely benign bipedal beast in the thick forests who resembles a slight,
short shambling person with long hair hanging from most of its body. Sometimes they help lost
travelers, leading them to safer areas or to usable paths.
B 3 Q 6, armor 0. The sad thing is that its meat is excellent and tasty, and even provides an
effective Healing, so people have been known to hunt it for food. Eating forest man meat once or
in an emergency has no long-term effect, but making a habit of it makes a person eligible to
become a ghoul upon dying. Forest men fight back when hunted, but given their facility with the
terrain, they prefer to escape if they can.
Rolke
Panther
The Rolke panther is instantly recognizable due to its unusual mottled gray-and-tan coloring and
its somewhat demonic facial structure. It is is not very big as far as large cats go, weighing about
100 pounds, but it's incredibly dangerous able to recognize individual humans and remember
what they have done, and a patient, observant, ambush-oriented hunter. Usually it's content to
take down rabbits or deer, but if it is attacked or if its family unit is threatened, or if its hunting
territory is regularly encroached upon, it becomes a highly personal nemesis.
B 6 Q 6, armor 3. Given its hunting tactics, it is practically guaranteed to begin an encounter
with the advantage die.
Spurr
Rats
These animals are unknown outside of the coastal communities of Spurr, transported there by
ship's cargo. The modern horror of rats as filthy disease-ridden psychopaths does not exist, but
they are regarded as creepy mainly because they're characteristic of Spurr.

Monsters
These creatures are much like beasts, but they have human-like features or features which
prompt specific behaviors in humans. They don't think like people and are generally predatory or
indifferent to people personally, but the way they interact with people or human practices
produces unique problems for a community.
Spurr
Mansnakes
People who have taken sick in Spurr sometimes tell of fever dreams in which a huge, sinuously
gliding snake has come to speak with them, and of waking to a remarkable recovery as
promised, if they were to murder a specific person, always already known to them. Sometimes
other people remind the recovered person of the snake, in their speech or mannerisms.

B 6 Q 9, armor 0, if such a thing existed, with the effect of Total Cure. Good thing it's just a
legend.
Famberge
Manticores
This is my favorite monster. A manticore has a lion's body and limbs, but a huge and swollen
scorpion's tail with sting. Its face is that of a senile old man. It lairs in smelly places, like swamps
or cliff faces coated by bird droppings. A manticore is about as intelligent as a wild pig and
cannot speak, but if it eats a victim's brains, it can imitate his or her voice and utilize certain
memories, those most useful to lure people closer. Therefore after picking off someone out in the
wilds, it travels to lurk near that person's home community and uses its ability to hunt people
known to the victim one by one.
B 9, Q 6, Armor 3. It only stings when circumstances of combat make a +12/+0 split feasible,
typically either upon ambushing someone or late in an encounter against a badly wounded
opponent or prey. If the sting hits, the target must make a B vs. 12 roll or be effectively
Paralyzed. Since really big cats are not known in the Crescent land, its lion-like physique and
startlingly long pounce are a bad surprise. It is also remarkably stealthy for such a big obvious
creature.
Spider-hags
A spider-hag lives alone in deep forest thickets or submerged in isolated ponds. It has long
spindly human limbs as well as four even longer and more spindly spider-limbs, and multiple
human eyes, but is not capable of human social interaction or language, with the exception of its
own name and learning others' names.
B 3, Q 6, Armor 3. A spider hag is not hostile or predatory and fights only if cornered, but it can
be dangerous as all those legs are very hard for a human to fight face-to-face, and it delivers an
effective Envenom with its bite. Both males and females desire sexual contact with humans,
which is quite an experience or so I'm told. Not only do one's fellow humans find this
objectionable, but when and if two spider-hags do find one another and mate, each will become
thoroughly hostile to its partner's former lovers and spider-hags can smell that on you, no
matter how much you wash.
Tamaryon
Wracker
A wracker is a huge lizard with a wide flat head and rounded snout which results in a disturbing
or possibly cute human; its long torso is just the right height for hanging many saddlebags or
trunks from its ridged, narrow back. Properly fed and managed, it's an excellent beast of burden.
B 9, Q 3, armor 6. Individuals are also trained for sport fighting one another, essentially
cockfighting with creatures the size of two horses end-to-end. Deaths are not too common, as the
creatures are durable, but they are gory and sometimes dangerous for the onlookers as the beasts

rear, tear at one another, fall crashing down, and thrash in lizardlike fashion. Perhaps worse are
the feuds that can result from arguments about the betting.
Rolke
Pode
A pode is a squishy creature which wedges itself into the bottom of natural cavities and crevices,
or if necessary, digs itself a hole. At adulthood it is merely the size of a pancake, but nothing
feeds on podes and they are long-lived, so it is not unusual to encounter one whose clotted,
puddling mass exceeds twenty feet in diameter. The ochre or beige male of the species is passive
and offers no harm to anyone except the microbes it absorbs from soil, but the female alters its
lair to trap prey, especially large mammals. It is almost always gravid, which turns it a dark red
color. A red pode is a nasty thing to encounter, especially after an ankle-breaking fall.
B 3, Q 6, Armor 0 but it is impervious to harm from ordinary weapons and must be fought with
fire or magic. It lashes out with pseudopods with an effective Paralyze due to its stickiness.
The pode would be at most a beast, except for the remarkably wonderful relaxing recreational
drug that can be distilled from its exudate. It's a widely-appreciated trade good in Rolke, and
anywhere else it gets to, but given the necessary resource, not very common. The majority of
people using it experience no recognizable effects aside from a few hours of mellow high, but a
few people become addicted. Such a person eventually runs off with a crazy urge to mate with a
female pode, and that doesn't go well.
Wyrm
A wyrm is a a cranky, vicious beast which sleeps most of the time and rouses only to cause
mischief and carnage. It is mostly serpentine, with two or four short muscular legs, which it uses
to anchor and augment its slithering, coiling, or climbing, or to fight.
B 6, Q 6, Armor 9. A wyrm is malevolent in its habits, but bestial and not especially smart. It has
a free attack to lash with its tail at anyone behind it, defined as making a Q vs. 12 to avoid falling
down. Some are winged and although they cannot fly, they can flap to elevate their ordinary
movement, and some can spit venom. The venom acts as an ordinary attack, but at considerable
range.
A wyrm is no more intelligent than a horse, but it is also strangely attracted to valuable items. As
there is no "treasure" in the Crescent land (heaps of coins, ruby necklaces), think of things like
folios with relevant history, philosophy, or technological techniques such as crucible steel, or
provocative items like Wootz steel dagger, unfamiliar in both materials and design. How the
creature can recognize such things is a mystery, but it is capable of singling an individual
carrying such an item, killing everyone else, and slithering off with this person, or part of this
person, to bring the thing it wants to its lair.
A wyrms can even recognize people who bring it such things, and sometimes horrible bargains
are struck, if the person is clever enough. It cannot speak, of course, but it can recognize quite
fine-detailed things and understand concepts like "kill the people who pass by here," or "attack

when I wave this banner." Like a horse or dog, it readily understands that if it does a desired
thing, it will get what it wants in return.
Throughout the lands
Ogres
Ogres are extremely large, about eight feet tall, living in small family groups, with no language
or technological capabilities at all, not even fire. They are extremely human in appearance aside
from obesity well beyond the range of people in the Crescent land, and aside from being
typically bald or with only patches of hair. They unfortunately perceive humans as just another
species of edible mammal, of just the right size. They do not hate or abuse people, but merely
hunt them much as they would hunt deer.
B 9, Q 6, no armor. They are ferocious enough in defense and will fight to the death if cornered,
but they panic and cry at pain, far too human-like for most people to stand killing. Typically they
are driven away instead, perhaps with the loss of young, but sooner or later they come near to
human communities again, and people are so much easier to catch.
Occasionally, bitter, scarred older ogres break the cycle and actively seek vengeance upon a
specific community, with nightmarish cunning and determination.

Creatures of Amboriyon
Avatars
These may be summoned, but they also emerge spontaneously from the clouds of Amboriyon to
wander around. Avatars embody Purity; they typically interact in initially helpful ways, then
incrementally escalate into extreme actions. They do not speak, but they understand whatever is
said to them, and they act in such assertive ways that their intention is clearly communicated. To
gain an avatar's help, one must gain approval by earning a white tally or fulfilling a white oath
while it observes.
Avatars bleed ordinary blood, but its appearance on their perfect forms evokes such dignity that
all opponents except for creatures of Rbaja must make C vs. 12 rolls in order to strike them after
that.
Unicorn 2
A unicorn is a bit smaller than a horse and dainty in its details. It uses its horn to Purify at will
and is itself Purified; it will not Purify or otherwise aid anyone with black color points. If
removed from the unicorn, the horn has none of these properties.
B 6, Q 9, Armor 6. A unicorn's horn qualifies as a spear in terms of combat mechanics, and it
also moves per the Cat spell.
A unicorn is a murderous cleanser of evil, cruelty, and eventually, any strong emotion. It
typically begins its activities when befriended by a person who has been victimized, especially

by black magic, upon which it kills the perpetrators. The trouble is that it will never stop, so the
eventual result of a unicorn's presence is a community of impaled corpses.
Pegasus 2
A pegasus is a gorgeous winged horse. It can of course fly and has an effective True Way. Upon
summoning or encounter, it must be befriended with a C vs. 12 roll and only if the person has no
black Color Points; otherwise it avoids the person or if unable to, attacks. Without a rider, a
pegasus soon leaves the situation and flies back to the clouds.
B 6, Q 6, Armor 9. Its rider shares its Armor score if he or she has less than 6 armor. Fighting
from the air, a pegasus is incredibly dangerous, as it swoops down and "runs" on its opponents,
against which the only real defense is to hurl oneself flat. Furthermore, its rider, if any, may fight
normally during the same action.
Valkyrie 2
A valkyrie is an idealized, inhumanly beautiful woman-seeming thing, active only in an existing
battle situation, whether arriving from Amboriyon in groups of three or four, or if individually
summoned. If summoned with a pegasus, the valkryie is riding the pegasus and benefits from its
Armor. If arriving spontaneously from Amboriyon, they are always riding pegasi.
A valkyrie provides supplicants from any side in the fight with Blessings, which turn into Curses
with no duration limit unless the targets gain white color points through Oaths within the
Blessings' duration. Color points gained by casting spells do not count.
B 9, Q 6, Armor 6. A person may convince it to fight physically on one side with a C vs. 12 roll,
but only to aid people with white tallies, and even then it will continue to accept supplication for
Blessings from anyone.
Eidolons
Eidolons are not encountered and must be summoned, and to remain permanently, enchanted.
However, in or near an Amboriyon zone, both spell-equivalents may be performed without
magic or B cost.
Eidolons are eloquent and conversational, as altering human behavior is their first priority. Their
effect on unnamed characters is frightening effective; resisting a direct suggestion requires a C
vs. 12 roll. When they are summoned, they observe and listen to the people present, withholding
approval until someone earns a white tally or swears or fulfills a white oath. They respond to
people with black color points and/or tallies by focusing their proselytizing on them.
Eidolons do not bleed, but when they are wounded, they give off coruscating light effects which
operate as both Calm Elements and Inspire Throng.
Guide 3
A guide is a slender, pleasant-appearing, rather generic and androgynous humanoid, dressed in a
simple robe and barefoot. It is protected from magic by a permanent Absorb Spell. It persistently,

tirelessly enlists people to the immediate cause of Amboriyon, automatically succeeding for
unnamed NPCs; anyone else resists with C vs. 12. It administers the Heal spell with ordinary B
cost to anyone when asked, and actively seeks to do so for injured people with black color
points.
B 6, Q 6, Armor 0. A guide never fights. It is easily killed by physical and most magic means,
but always reappears at dawn or dusk with its scores intact, but displaying the wounds it received
including the above-mentioned effects, particularly Inspire Throng which makes it extremely
dangerous. Each such event also establishes an Amboriyon zone, or if one is present, extends it.
The only way to get rid of a Guide is to kill it in or near an Rbaja zone, or with black magic.
Lammasu 3
A lammasu is a shining, massive lion with eagle's wings and a classically handsome human face.
Its body is itself a small Amboriyon zone with all the resulting effects.
A lammasu fixates upon a single person, if possible the one with the most black color points. It
will prophesy for this person with currently only black Color points, in an insightful rhyme.
Hearing the rhyme functions as a Vision, which the person remembers later, involuntarily, at
dusk or dawn, upon making a W vs. 12 roll. The rhyme also enchants one item carried by the
person with a 1-point white spell. The lammasu protects this person fervently. However, if the
person gains further black color points or otherwise deviates from the lammasu's intentions in the
area, the lammasu attempts to kill him or her with equal fervor.
B 9, Q 6, Armor 6. In combat, a lammasu remains earthbound, using frightening tactics like
twenty-foot horizontal leaps and wing buffets that encompass thirty-foot arcs on either side,
usually retaining the combat advantage. It flies only to travel.
Lammasus despise manticores, and if any are in the area, a lammasu makes it its business to hunt
them when it's not occupied with the person it's mentoring.
Silver dragon 3
A silver dragon is an astounding, bewildering presence. No one could mistake one of these for a
wyrm. Although wingless, it hovers or rockets through the air, coiling and spiraling in perfect
circles within circles.
There is no control or negotiation roll with a silver dragon. It immediately allies with whoever
has the most white tallies, or immediately attacks a summoner who lacks them. It unerringly
locates people with black tallies and annihilates them as soon as it can, but if anyone with current
black color points requests, it does not kill him or her but rather removes the points from
existence. It does not care a bit about what a person without black points does or does not do.
B 9, Q 9, Armor 9. A silver dragon is a combat horror. Limbless, it fights by coiling around
opponents and biting. It does not swoop down, so it can be fought normally although it is
technically in the air. It casts 1 point white spells as if it were a wizard. It may attack by
breathing pure white flame that acts as a Dazzle spell, by spending 2 Brawn. Perhaps its most
dangerous feature is that it can fight groups as if they were individuals.

Creatures of Rbaja
Demons
Demons must be summoned; they do not emerge spontaneously from Rbaja zones. However, a
person in or near such a zone may perform an effective Summon without knowing the spell, as
well as Sacrifice, which must be used too. Demons remain permanently if enchanted.
Interacting with demons is a matter of the emotional state each one represents, produces, and
exploits. They are flatly insane and pursue their ends, acting in accordance with the mechanics
below, without fail.
Demons bleed colored or metallic ichor a lot, it gets everywhere, forcing Q vs. 12 rolls not to
slip or drop stuff. Unless quickly cleaned off, the gunk dries black and sticks stuff together,
which can only be corrected with the Purify spell.
Doll 1
A doll is an obedient, low-affect Uncanny Valley humanoid which serves as the sex partner of its
summoner or anyone the summoner designates, without negotiation and with complete
compliance to its partner's wishes. Sexual contact with the doll is an effective Drug spell. A doll
vocalizes only during sex and does not actually speak.
B 3, Q 6, no Armor. A doll does not fight voluntarily, although it can bite if cornered or ordered;
its bite is an effective Envenom.
Imp 1
An imp is a small, winged grotesque humanoid. It automatically and involuntarily provides a 3point Brawn battery for its summoner's or designated master's magical use, once between each
dawn and dusk (and vice versa), at no harm to itself. It is a supernaturally effective spy, and an
imp's master may be presumed to know anything and everything about the current activities of a
person of his or her choosing, with a slight time lag, once having assigned the imp to the matter.
B 3, Q 6, Armor 3. Imps do not attack and always allocate full Q to defense, i.e., +12. They are
unfortunately articulate, rarely silent, and given to extensive personal commentary toward others.
Splotch 1
A splotch is a nasty, icky wet patch of rotten-seeming dark stuff. A splotch does not speak or
otherwise communicate; it simply does whatever its summoner tells it, to the extent of its limited
capabilities, without negotiation.
B 3, Q 6, Armor 0. It attacks all-out (+12 offense), doing damage and also attaching to its target.
Once attached, it continues to attack, and at that point, armor doesn't protect against it. Only
blunt weapons hurt it, to splatter it. It is really really hard to detach, requiring a B vs. 12 using a
single die, and it Noxifies materials as per the spell. These effects are in addition to the common
effects produced by injuring a demon.

Nzagg 2
A nzagg is a vicious, brutish, ape/dog/boar thing with a tendency toward atrocity and sudden
rage. Its summoner must control it with a W vs. 12 roll immediately, and it can only understand
"rend" and "guard." Once controlled, it is unswervingly obedient and cannot be influenced by
any other interaction or magic. Failing the roll means it attacks the summoner and if events
proceed to its satisfaction, it then looks about for anyone else who might order it around. Failure
means you get the idea.
B 9, Q6, Armor 3. A nzagg does not speak, but its intentions are typically quite clear. It is also a
supernaturally good tracker, and can readily find whoever it is ordered to rend or guard, if he or
she is not present.
Nightmare 2
A nightmare is an apparently iron horse with flaming hooves which can gallop across any
medium, including air, excepting running water. It must be ridden to accept commands, which
requires a single B vs. 12 roll. If its rider engages in combat, the nightmare attacks the same
opponent with jets of flame from its nostrils. Every round, its rider loses 1 B to fatigue, as if
casting a spell.
B 9, Q 6, Armor 6. It will rebel against commands that are neither attacking nor running at full
speed, and in this state can be brought back under control with a W vs. 12 roll. When and if the
nightmare rebels, or if it simply happens not to be ridden at the moment, it will alternately run
about randomly and attack whoever is closest.
Angel 3
An angel is a beautiful humanoid whose dark wings typically enfold it like a cloak. It is usually
only visible to a single person of C 4 or lower, appearing to him or her in dreams and providing
intense comfort and affection. If such a person resists this relationship, it responds with its
terrible claws (per the Scar spell), then leaves to find someone more suitable. If such a person is
not provided by the summoner, including himself or herself, then the angel instantly vanishes,
only to appear in the dreams of a suitable person nearby.
Given a continuing relationship with the right person, the angel regularly attacks people with C 6
or higher whom its lover (or whatever you call it) knows. It wraps them in a winged embrace,
which is an effective Paralyze spell, and then drains 2 BQ per round if it has the leisure to do so.
If the damage brings the victim to B and Q 0, he or she dies; if it brings only one to 0, the angel
continues to visit that target night after night. Failure to continue to suggest suitable targets is
also grounds for the angel to Scar its lover and leave.
B 9, Q 6, Armor 3. Attacking an angel requires a successful C vs. 12 roll each round, as it
murmurs sympathetic blandishments about one's emotions and relationships.
Yoggoth 3
A yoggoth is a black-and-violet cloud, usually a surrounding fog, with many tooth-filled maws
and dangling tentacles. It can attack and defend in an area, against everyone in the area at once.

B 1, but replace that with 1d6 per creature Sacrificed (as per the spell) in its summoning. Q 6,
Armor 6. Its horrifying appearance overcomes opponents on its turn as per the Confuse spell
unless they roll W vs. 12. Its normal attack seizes a victim (doing normal damage) and the next
round it tries to swallow him or her whole, resisted by B vs. 12. Inside it is an Rbaja zone, with
all the consequences for example, if the victim is killed by the attack, a zombie emerges.
A yoggoth does not speak or communicate, nor does it care about its summoner. The usual tactic
is simply to summon it and get the hell out of there
Dancer 3
A dancer is a nine-foot-tall, beautiful female-appearing warrior with crazy, gleeful berserk
features and multiple arms. It may be summoned only into a current combat situation, and it will
begin to fight as soon as it is summoned, without a control roll, instantly perceiving who is on
whose side.
B 9, Q 9, Armor 6. In clashes, its offense allocation is always set to double its defense (12/6). Its
combat companions will go berserk as per the spell unless they make a W vs. 12 roll. At the
beginning of its second round in combat, and each round thereafter, the summoner must make a
W vs. 12 roll, or it switches sides. Controlling the dancer in this way is a full action for that
round.
A dancer can speak, but it does not make sense, babbling about strange things like the personal
experiences and recent ordinary actions of those it is fighting. It does not converse.
Undead
1-point undead are created by magic, enchanted if they're wanted long-term. 2-point undead
occur under certain circumstances, especially in or near an Rbaja zone. 3-point undead make
themselves using magic, typically enchanted as well.
An undead being always wants something to the point of stark insanity, no matter what. Zombies
and skeletons remorselessly, relentlessly kill, a ghoul obsessively eats, a haunt wants to resolve
the circumstances of its death or else, and a lich wants something extravagant that in living, the
person could not have.
Zombie 1
To raise a zombie, the wizard needs a fresh, at least mostly whole corpse. Alternately, a corpse in
or near an Rbaja zone becomes a zombie at the next dawn or dusk, or immediately if the Distort
spell was employed. A zombie is a walking corpse but it is no pushover, walking at normal speed
although it never runs. A zombie does not move weirdly or stiffly; it is not clumsy and can, for
example, climb a rope. Its expression is always and solely one of natural-seeming determination.
It reeks with a baked, desiccated smell of death old stale decay, not rank bacterial rot.
It has B and Q of the person when he or she was alive, and Armor 0. Arrows and bolts have no
effect on it, but hand-held weapons do ordinary damage, assuming the attacker is striking to

break and sever rather than, for instance, against blood vessels. It takes damage only to its
Brawn, not to its Quickness (half of the BQ of the attack is lost), and it will fight until hacked
apart (a total of twice its Brawn). Its insides are doughy and stuck together; it does not bleed. It
will also reknit its wounds at 1 B per round until it is destroyed by extensive dismemberment or
by fire. The reknitting process is not terribly concerned about conforming precisely to the
anatomical arrangement prior to being wounded.
It has very little memory of its former life; a person who questions a zombie using Black Speech
must make a W vs. 12 roll to get anything useful out of it. It obeys its summer's or master's
commands unquestioningly, but it is wholly malevolent and unless commanded specifically to
kill, becomes inert and useless. Zombies do not experience hunger or any other sensation, and
they do not eat anything.
Skeleton 1
A skeleton is almost identical to a zombie, with the following exceptions: it is more fragile and
shatters at Brawn 0, it can be ordered to guard with license to kill, it cannot communicate
information of any kind, and it doesn't stink. To raise a skeleton, the wizard needs to have one
handy. The other ways to get a skeleton are to bleach a zombie, or to keep an enchanted zombie
around for a year or so.
Haunt 2
A haunt is not created by a spell but rather by a dying person's C vs. 12 roll as he or she swears a
mighty, passionate black oath. Ordinarily this roll is made at 1d6, but in or near an Rbaja zone
adds 1d6. The resulting spirit looks like an idealized, translucent version of the person. Although
it retains the original person's mannerisms, it only concerns itself with the fulfillment of the oath.
It cannot affect anything material, and vice versa; the only spell which affects it is Restore Dead.
It is tied to a person, place, or object and gains its aim by convincing the living to help. It
voluntarily manifests itself only to people whose appearance or circumstances correspond
roughly to events in the former person's life, but the Black Speech spell can force it to manifest.
If denied, mocked, or thwarted, which includes the aforementioned spell, it becomes a B 12, Q 6,
Armor 6 thing intent on revenge and destruction, now tied to its target. Its B is available for
pumping to resist the Restore Dead spell. Once the target is destroyed the haunt resumes its
original appearance and location.
Ghoul 2
A person who routinely practiced cannibalism may rise from death as a ghoul with a successful
C vs. 12 roll, made with 1d6, or 2d6 if in or near an Rbaja zone. It appears to be a withered,
fanged version of the person, with feculent, pustulent breath. It retains mannerisms and rote
memory from life, resulting in a ravenous caricature of the original person; left to its own
devices (i.e. not commanded otherwise using Black Speech), it devours helpless or dead people
regardless of anything else happening. Quite horribly, ghouls which persist for some time begin
to adopt habits approximating those of the living, wearing clothes, living in houses, and carrying
out mundane tasks in a mockery of life.

A ghoul has the B+1 and Q+1 of the person when he or she was alive, and Armor 3. It attacks at
a distance with its chilling howl, which is resisted by W vs. 12. If the target is affected, he or she
loses a die of effectiveness to all actions, or in combat, must cede the advantage die. A target
may only be affected by one ghoul's howl at a time. It cannot howl when engaged in ordinary
combat. A ghoul suffers BQ damage normally and does not regenerate as do skeletons and
zombies.
Lich 3
A lich is created voluntarily, typically by casting the Lich spell on oneself, which is also
committing suicide. The spell may be cast as an enchantment, furthermore, it may utilize Brawn
gained from Sacrificing something or someone else. If cast in or near an Rbaja zone, the spell is
automatically an enchantment. A lich looks like the person in life at first. Beginning swiftly
and proceeding slowly, death withers and hollows its face and body until it becomes all
desiccated, with the fibers of its muscles stuck to its bones, covered with the paper-like remains
of its skin.
The lich's B is equal to the wizard's black Color points at the time of death (including the casting
of Raise Lich), and all other scores are the same as when the wizard was alive. It retains black
tally items, if any were present. A lich has no intrinsic armor but may wear ordinary armor. If B
and Q are brought to 0, it will spatter and disperse into muck and dust, which also happens at the
end of the spell's duration. However, if Raise Lich was cast as an enchantment, it will re-form at
the next dawn or dusk unless the remains are destroyed utterly or targeted by Purify or Restore
Undead.
A lich has all of its original mental faculties, although one may fairly say those were already
deranged to be casting the spell in the first place. It is not commanded, although it is subject to
the ordinary interaction rules. A lich can cast all the black spells, but may only cast white magic,
if it knew any originally, along with a Warp spell.

Concluding thoughts
I was playtesting Circle of Hands, and Sarah's character had narrowly managed to dismount an
attacking rider and slam him to the ground. "Run," her character growled; Sarah rolled Charm
and beat the 12, so he did. "Charm?" she asked me, puzzled. "Yes," I said. "In this culture,
effective brutality wins admiration." She went quiet. "Gets the blood pumping, doesn't it?" I
asked. "Yes," she replied. "Yes, it does."
I was playtesting Circle of Hands, and Brian was playing a character who'd been created and
played once by someone else. An eidolon, a Guide, turned away from her, and Brian cried out,
"Oh man, don't turn your back on her!" and took appropriate action thrilled that his own play
of the character validated the original creation, making her both players' joint labor of love.
I was playtesting Circle of Hands and a desperate outlaw, rather tragic when you knew his story,
yet an out-and-out bully and murderer, was fighting Joe's character, a former midwife turned
Circle knight. She hacked him apart with her axe; as he stumbled about, cursed by the mechanics
to be dying on his feet and fully conscious, a member of the watching crowd choked out, "God
above, finish him." She did.
I was playtesting Circle of Hands with Rasmus, Rickard, and Johan, and halfway through the
session we realized that the most macho male Circle knight and the witchiest, twitchiest female
Circle knight were thoroughly and entirely silently in love with one another.
I was playtesting Circle of Hands, and Mark's character saw his fellow Circle knight savaged by
a summoned wolf, and heard the charging hooves of the unicorn who'd just murdered an old
woman it had deemed to be impure. He swore a black oath and leaped, his sword describing a
ten-foot arc, to chop the wolf in half. He turned just in time for the unicorn's horn to take him in
the chest, killing him but the oath had filled his slots with all black marks, so his wraith got a
black tally which enabled him to raise the dead. Vengeance ensued.
I was playtesting Circle of Hands and when I read Gray Magick again, this time I appreciated
the young man who'd so carefully suffered over its writing twenty-two years ago. He was onto
something.
Some acknowledgments
To Steve Perrin and Greg Stafford for RuneQuest and its supplements Cults of Prax and Cults of
Terror, published by The Chaosium
To (the American) Steve Jackson, for Melee, Wizard, and The Fantasy Trip: In the Labyrinth,
published by Metagaming
To (the British) Steve Jackson, for Sorcery! from Fighting Fantasy, originally published by
Penguin Books
To Greg Stafford for Prince Valiant: the Story-Telling Game, published by The Chaosium

To Jonathan Tweet for Over the Edge, published by Atlas Games

To Richard Garfield for Magic: the Gathering, alpha and beta especially, published by Wizards
of the Coast
To the bands Hawkwind and Uriah Heep, one of whose songs inspired the game title
Partners in crime
Jake Norwood, author of The Riddle of Steel
Paul Czege, author of Thy Vernal Chieftains
Vincent Baker, author of Apocalypse World: Dark Ages
Erik Bernhardt and Marek Jones, authors of Crone
Thanks
To my friends John Marron and Margie Klugermann lo these many years past, in play and
design!
To the playtesters!
Gray Magick ~1993: Margie Klugermann and several people whose names have passed
from memory
Gray Magick, 2012: Peter Charnley, Megan Pederson, Sam Rivier
Circle of Hands, 2013: Rasmus Lundholm, Rickard Elim, Johan Kemi, Sarah
Richardson, Brian Wille, Mark Malone, Mark Delsing, Joe Beason
To Chris Chinn and Keith Senkowski!
To the Kicksnarkers! (you wretched, ruthless bastards), especially Eric Franklin and Caius Ward!