Step Beyond the Familiar.

Everyone · Table agreements

Keep the table together

Agree on tone and boundaries before play. Choose a nonverbal signal too; anyone can step away without explaining.

• Get the player’s consent before hurting, stealing from, restraining, or controlling their hero.
• Leave room for quieter players. Everyone gets a place in the adventure.
• Separate player and hero knowledge. Your hero knows what they’ve learned in the story.

Nobody owes the story their discomfort.

Everyone · Begin here

Learn the Basics

You need a hero and something you’re willing to try. The Character Vault walks you through the rest. No entrance exam. I misplaced it.

1. Choose your kit. Pick a class, receive its essential ability, choose one more Tier 1 ability, and pack your gear. Start with 10 HP and 10 AP.
2. Make this hero yours. The builder takes you to Your story. Add your appearance, home, beliefs, and hopes. A few words will do.
3. Finish your play page. Select Play. Add your name, two specific Knacks, and one Trouble. Then select Save hero.
4. Join your friends. Tell the Guide what you want to try. Learn the rest when you need it.

Can’t choose? Picture a moment you’d love to play: standing between a friend and danger, fooling a guard, or making something impossible happen. Start there. Your Guide can help.

Everyone · Choose your hero

Make your hero

What name will you answer to? Who will count on you? Give yourself a past and a hope for the future. You’re choosing a starting life, not planning every day of it.

A Knack helps when your experience fits. Trouble applies when your chosen flaw gets in the way; difficulty alone does not create it. Agree with the Guide before rolling. Other quirks need no extra numbers.

Explore your class options

Three Pillars, six classes. Mix their abilities freely. A class gives you skills, not a personality. Aether is the magic running through this world.

Your essential starting ability

Start with two Tier 1 abilities: your class’s included essential, plus one choice from any class. Your essential stays with you when you rebuild.

Choose your abilities → The library gives each cost, effect, and limit.

For players · Action

Take action

When to roll Fate

The Fate Die is a d20. Roll only when the action is possible, the result uncertain, and failure would change the situation. Explain your plan first.

An open gate needs no roll. Passing its guard in a borrowed uniform might.

Extra Knacks or Troubles never add dice. Use your kept result below.

Ordinary actions and turns

You can sneak, bargain, disguise yourself, pick a lock with tools, follow tracks, or attack with a suitable weapon without an ability. Roll for real uncertainty and risk. Abilities grant reliable permission, stronger effects, or extraordinary possibilities.

Write useful verbs beside gear: cut, hook, brace, distract. Running out of AP does not turn your staff into a decorative stick.

Distance and approach

Ranged effects need a clear route unless their text says otherwise.

Parley to change a mind. Improvise with the room. Retreat to change position. Clash to use force. These are starting ideas, not a menu.

Attacks and ability rolls

Apply a fitting Knack or Trouble. Pay ability AP before rolling. Roll once; there is no second resistance roll.

• Haggle: Add a price the player chooses: exposure, damaged gear, a counterattack, or another fitting problem.
• Triumph: Double damage to each target, never target count or duration. Award AP once, not per target.
• Concoctions: Roll when used against a target, not when brewed.
• Truly helpless targets: Basic attacks and Roll abilities land without rolling and deal double damage. Automatic abilities never double damage. No roll means no Triumph or Trouble AP reward.
• Hidden: Grants a Knack against an alert foe; it does not make them helpless.

Ammo and charges

Use the optional 0–99 weapon tracker for arrows, bolts, bullets, or limited wand and staff charges. Leave melee weapons and unlimited items Untracked.

• Attack spends one tracked unit, hit or miss. Rolling two dice still spends only one.
• At zero, you cannot fire. Refill manually when the story supplies ammo or charges; rests do not reload.
• Extra projectiles: Subtract them manually when an ability fires more than one.
• The tracker grants no magic and replaces no AP cost.

Read an ability

Concentration: Sustain one concentration ability at a time. Starting another ends the first. You can move and act unless directing the effect needs your action. Incapacitation ends it; damage ends it only when the ability says so.

Stacking and helpers: Duplicate effects do not stack. Use only the strongest damage reduction; never combine a reduction with halving. No extra turns unless explicitly granted. Helpers use your action unless their text says otherwise.

Conditions: Hidden, prone, pinned, and blinded describe the situation. They can change what you can attempt or bring a fitting Knack or Trouble. They add no hidden number modifiers; follow each ability’s end condition.

Escape a hazard

With no attacker—a fire or falling beam—each affected hero makes one reflexive roll, with a fitting Knack or Trouble. It does not spend your next turn. Usual Triumph and Trouble AP rewards apply.

For players · Shared challenges

Trials, chases, and long roads

Use a Trial for a shared challenge with several approaches: a chase, a mountain crossing, an escape from rising water. Before rolling, the Guide states what success achieves and failure changes.

Choose the matching tracker. Each contribution uses a distinct approach and one roll, with a fitting Knack or Trouble.

Roll every contribution. An ability that solves the whole danger ends the Trial; otherwise, it sets up an approach and you roll for what remains uncertain.

There is no prize for rolling dice after you’ve solved the problem.

Help a companion

Outside Trials, a helper who can meaningfully assist and share the consequences may grant the acting hero a Knack. It does not stack with another Knack. Failure should leave something new to play, not a demand to repeat the same roll.

For players · Recovery

HP and Adventure Points

Start with 10 maximum HP and 10 AP. HP measures harm; AP pays for abilities. Neither measures how brave you sound.

Regroup

All recovery lives in the sheet’s Regroup panel. Ask the Guide whether you have the safety and time to rest, then choose one button.

Sit down. Catch your breath. We needn’t form a committee about it.

• Full Rest is one action on the sheet. Select an earned ability and it works immediately. No separate Hearth, session-closing, or resume step.
• Resting never awards Marks. Every five earned Marks resolves once; leftover Marks and unspent choices stay yours. Repeated clicks grant no extra levels or choices.
• A scene is one continuous situation with a question to settle. Track abilities’ once-per-scene limits at the table; no scene-reset button is needed for resting.
• Example: at 2 HP and 3 AP, Short Rest brings you to 5 HP / 3 AP; Full Rest brings you to 10 HP / 10 AP. Short Rest leaves 7 HP at 7.

Harmless flourishes

A tiny use of a learned ability is free only when it carries no risk and no meaningful advantage. No roll is needed.

Ask the Guide if the line is unclear. Useful exploration magic costs its listed AP. Enjoy the fluttering coat; pay for Fly across the chasm.

Death is an agreed stake

Agree before play and check again when death becomes possible. At 0 HP you remain Incapacitated. If you suffer further harm before rescue, you choose death or a lasting change of comparable weight. Never remove a hero through an unagreed rule. Champion’s Tier 5 Restore Life keeps its time limit and consent requirement.

For players · Growth

Learn and level up

Earn Marks on the road. A Full Rest turns them into new tricks.

Open your next tier

Each class has five tiers. Tier 1 is open in all six classes. Each tier has three abilities: 15 per class, 90 abilities in all.

Starting choices count. Count each ability only in its own class. Spend one choice to learn one ability from an open tier; learn each once. Lower tiers stay available, and no ability requires a specific earlier pick. Levels do not increase maximum HP or weapon damage.

Earn Marks during play

Record awards when the Guide gives them. Both kinds enter your personal total.

Every five Marks banks one advancement. Gain the level and ability choice when you press Full Rest in Regroup. Browsing spells can wait until nobody is chasing us.

Your Ideal may inspire a deed worth these same Marks; it grants no separate award. Acting out an Ideal or Trouble gives no AP by itself. Knack and Trouble affect fitting rolls, including attacks; they never automatically earn Marks. See Trouble AP rewards.

Full Rest and new abilities

When the Guide agrees you can rest, press Full Rest in Regroup.

1. Recover. Restore all HP and AP to at least 10. Unused concoctions expire. Resting supplies no ingredients or ammunition.
2. Advance. Each new group of five Marks grants one level and one ability choice. Resolve several at once; keep leftovers. Seven gives one level and two Marks left over. You began at Level 1, zero Marks, with your essential and one chosen Tier 1 ability.
3. Choose. The ability selector opens if you have earned choices. Learn from any open tier. The new ability is active immediately; there is nothing else to finish or confirm. You may keep a choice for later.

The sheet keeps your earned choices available. New Marks earned after resting wait for another Full Rest before granting further choices. Short Rest never advances your hero.

Class Marks still have a two-per-session limit. Resting does not reset it. At the start of a new tabletop session, use Start a new session inside the Marks award guidance to reset only that allowance. It does not heal, restore AP, award Marks, or unlock abilities.

What earns a Class Mark?

Reward meaningful attempts, including failures. Give quieter companions room to name theirs. Heroes may earn through any class and learn from any open tier.

Choose your abilities again

During a Full Rest, the Guide may agree to a rebuild in legal tier order. Keep your level, Marks, essential, and choice budget: two starting abilities plus one per resolved advancement. Banked choices remain yours; no new rewards or refunds. Unused concoctions still expire. The rebuilt choices work immediately.

For players · Brewing and engineering

Brewing, inventions, and equipment

A bottle, a clever little mechanism, and something picked from a suspicious hedge. Now we have options.

Make a concoction

1. Choose a learned effect. Alchemist starts with Scavenge; its other Tier 1 options are Healing Potion and Pipe Bomb. Tinker and Boon potions arrive at Tier 2.
2. Find fitting material. Scavenge costs 1 AP and a quiet minute to find material for one small project in a plausible place. The Guide says what you find; record it in Inventory. Bought or found materials work too. Your starting kit includes ordinary reagents. Explain the fit to your Guide; ingredient names are examples, not shopping lists.
3. Take a quiet minute; pay AP once. Remove the material from Inventory and record one dose. No separate supply counter, random recipe roll, brewing roll, or cleanup timer. If interrupted before finishing, nothing is made or paid for. Select Make concoction when you finish.

Carry it, share it, use it

Brew it. Build it. Put the two together.

A timer releases a flask. A pressure rig launches it. A clockwork courier brings medicine to someone you cannot reach.

The device delivers the concoction; it does not multiply it. Use its normal effect, action, and roll. Reusable devices need plausible parts and fitting reagents, not another resource meter. Keep the written limits: one action remains one action.

Carry and share your gear

• Track what matters: notable, magical, bulky, limited, or story-important gear. Ordinary pocket clutter needs no ledger.
• Trade in the story: friendly settlements usually offer food, clothes, tools, and lodging. Scarcity matters when established; trade valuables, favors, work, or promises for special goods.
• Read special gear: any hero may carry suitable weapons. Scrolls and unusual items must state their effect, whether they are consumed, and who pays AP. A grand name grants no extra attacks.
• Use Inventory: keep gear, important objects, and consumables in the Item / Quantity rows. Other list fields use commas; quote an item containing a comma.
• Weapon links: creating a weapon also adds it to Inventory as equipped. Pasting an inventory item does not equip it. Clearing a weapon slot keeps its item; removing its inventory entry also unequips it.

For players · Ability reference

Find an ability

The ability library gives every cost, effect, and limit. Search by name or effect, check your open tiers, and read the whole entry. Especially the part about how long you can fly.

Browse all 90 abilities →

For the Guide · Running the game

Guide the adventure

Describe what’s clear, what seems odd, and what needs a decision. Give people wants; show danger before it strikes. If clever play avoids your fight, let it. Their choices are the adventure.

Before a roll: possible, uncertain, consequential. Establish stakes, agree on Knack or Trouble, and resolve the attempt once.

Leave room for wonder

Flour disturbed by a claw. A spoon shifting without a hand. A warm room with a cold fireplace. Give players a detail that offers a question, a clue, or something to use. Then let them investigate.

Powers and experiments

• Check type and limits. Psychic and magical effects use different defenses; consult the ability. No power overrides another player’s consent.
• Give experiments room. Make safe work time, approaching danger, and resupply opportunities clear. Judge reagents by useful properties, not exact recipes.
• Keep the same limits. Used flasks are spent, gifts occupy slots, and devices grant no extra turns or free AP. See Brewing.

Build an opponent

Give each a want (their goal), tell (what reveals them), trick (what they can do), and break (what makes them bargain, flee, or surrender). Even someone blocking a door should have a reason to stay there.

NPC attack rolls

Roll where everyone can see. Use this table for NPCs, not the hero Fate table.

Do not apply hero Knacks or Trouble to the Guide’s die. Hero reactions can still reduce damage. Opponents gain no automatic HP or damage when heroes level up; change their plans, tools, and positions. Stop combat when its conflict is settled.

Prepare situations with choices

• Know the truth, the pressure, and each person’s wants. Give a location three useful things to interact with.
• Put required clues where looking finds them. Roll for cost, speed, or risk—not whether the adventure may continue.
• Keep other routes alive. If the heroes miss one, the people and problems keep moving.

Guide only · First-adventure spoilers

Tallowmere and the first adventure

Players, leave these pages to your Guide. You’ll meet the fox soon enough. The people behind the borrowed faces are more fun to discover yourself.

Guide, these are the opening adventure’s facts. The dream offers glimpses of them, not instructions or guaranteed outcomes. Keep the heroes free to investigate, help, bargain, or walk another way.

Airship clearing and road

Elira Vale, a merchant aboard the descending airship, begs the heroes in a forest clearing to deliver a closed chest to Mayor Sven in nearby Tallowmere. The Dawn Lantern travels inside this silver-trimmed brass chest. Elira lends her matching key and asks for it back. The Mayor holds the other key; either opens the case. He usually lights the Lantern, but anyone can light its wick.

First the heroes find Pip in a snare beside the road. Farther along, Crik and Tubble ransack a wagon. Defeating them yields a shared loot pouch: 12 silver coins, a polished amber stone, and two travel rations.

The FoXXin' Flagon

Loxxi is the very flirty human owner and bartender. She knowingly covers for the goblins because, good or bad, they buy plenty of food and drink. Lantern light leaves her human. Pip is Mayor Sven's ordinary pet red fox, with a green ribbon and a brass tag bearing the tavern’s name; reveal his owner after the rescue. MNO, Loxxi’s eleven-year-old relative, is hiding in the pantry. They have a small psychic gift for moving objects; its source is unknown.

Four goblins wear human glamours. They hold the real Mayor in the kitchen’s storage cellar. Their leader, Nib Knucklebone, wants the Lantern and a way out through the rear window. He also seeks an old entrance, but does not know it lies behind the fireplace.

Let the heroes notice clues: someone names the Lantern before being told about it; a claw print marks spilled flour; Pip distrusts a familiar-looking guest. Lantern light strips away glamour. Looking can reveal clues without a roll; roll only when the attempt brings real risk.

Keep the two routes separate:

• Kitchen hatch: the ordinary storage cellar where the Mayor is captive.
• Cold fireplace: thin brick fills an older supporting stone arch. Beyond it, stairs descend to the Echo Landing in the Catarynths. Save this descent for a later session.

After the tavern confrontation, free Sven from the cellar. Pip runs to him, revealing their bond. Sven happily lets his fox tag along if the heroes promise to feed him and give him tummy rubbles. Once everyone is back upstairs, a loud crash comes from beneath the fireplace, followed by a howl. End today's session there.

Beyond the tavern

The Catarynths are ancient chambers beneath Tallowmere, not creatures. Their greater purpose remains unknown. The Hollow Crown backs Nib’s smugglers and their enchanted glamour pins; the pins’ maker is unnamed. Couriers headed for Briarwatch Tower keep disappearing. Leave their fate for a later adventure.

When Nib is trapped, Defeated, or gone, the other goblins may give up or flee. Check where the Lantern, Mayor, MNO, and smugglers are now, and what each wants. Follow the consequences of the heroes’ choices. Nobody needs to arrive at an ending merely because you prepared it.

Credits and copyright

Credits

Briarbound’s setting and original writing are © 2026 NeonWindmill.