The Four Capacities
Every character has four capacities that define their broad capabilities. Three are primary capacities (Vigor, Wit, Zeal) that govern actions and fuel instant talents. The fourth, Protection, serves as a defensive resource.
| Capacity | What It Covers | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Vigor | Physical prowess, endurance, combat instinct | Primary |
| Wit | Mental acuity, perception, creativity, technical skill | Primary |
| Zeal | Force of personality, charisma, spiritual connection | Primary |
| Protection | Ability to avoid harm through armor, reflexes, luck | Defensive |
Three Numbers Per Capacity
Each capacity is defined by three values:
Current Score: Your immediate capability. This is the number you reference during play. It fluctuates as you take hits, spend points on instant talents, and recover. Your current score feeds directly into safe roll calculations and determines how many points you can spend on instant abilities.
Maximum: Your peak potential. Current scores return to their maximums after rest. Your maximum also caps how many action rating points you can distribute among that capacity's three actions. Maximums cannot exceed 7 during character creation.
Minimum: Your floor. Your current score cannot drop below this number. Minimums provide a safety net. Your safe rolls always have at least some chance of success. However, armor and other effects that raise minimums reduce your operational range (the gap between minimum and maximum), making it easier to trigger at-minimum conditions.
Operational Range
The gap between your minimum and maximum is your operational range: the amount of capacity you can spend or lose before hitting your floor.
Example: A character with Wit 3/7 (minimum 3, maximum 7) has an operational range of 4. They have higher safe Wit-based success chances, but can only spend 4 Wit on instant talents before hitting their minimum. A character with Wit 1/7 has range of 6 (more spending power, but they're vulnerable to low safe roll targets if their score drops).
Both characters can still distribute up to 7 action rating points across their Wit actions, because ratings are capped by the maximum, not the gap.
At-Minimum Conditions
When a capacity's current score equals its minimum, that character suffers a specific condition. The condition clears immediately when the score rises above the minimum.
| Condition | Trigger | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Exhausted | Vigor at minimum | Cannot use instant talents |
| Reckless | Wit at minimum | All rolls must be risky (no safe rolls) |
| Demoralized | Zeal at minimum | Cannot gain balance tokens |
| Exposed | Protection at minimum | All light hits become hard hits |
These conditions interact with each other in dangerous ways. A character who is both Exhausted and Reckless has lost their safety net (can't use instants) and their caution (forced into all-or-nothing rolls). Managing your capacity scores, knowing when to spend and when to conserve, is a core part of play.
The Nine Actions
Each primary capacity governs three actions. Actions are the specific approaches you use when making rolls.
Vigor Actions
Clash: Direct combat with weapons or martial techniques. Dueling with energy weapons, trading blows with cosmic pirates, coordinating tactical strikes.
Maneuver: Movement, positioning, stealth, physical coordination. Piloting through treacherous currents, creeping through gardens, scaling inverted architecture.
Overwhelm: Raw force and physical intimidation. Holding blast doors shut, smashing through bulkheads, breaking things until they work.
Wit Actions
Augur: Perception, pattern recognition, sensing hidden truths. Reading astral currents, spotting concealed traps, noticing details others miss.
Craft: Technical skill, engineering, building and repair. Repairing navigation arrays, hacking networks, building equipment from salvage.
Judge: Analysis, strategy, research, logical deduction. Studying recordings to predict tactics, analyzing intelligence, thinking through complex problems.
Zeal Actions
Assert: Leadership, command, intimidation through personality. Rallying broken crews, intimidating officials, taking command of chaos.
Cultivate: Relationship building, spiritual connection, earning trust. Earning divine favor through ritual, bonding with companions, building genuine friendships.
Seduce: Manipulation, deception, calculated charm. Charming matchmakers, lying about your heritage, presenting yourself as exactly what others want.
Action Ratings
Each action has a rating from 0 to 4. A rating of 0 means no training (you're relying on raw instinct). A rating of 4 represents advanced expertise.
Distribution rule: The sum of action ratings within each capacity cannot exceed that capacity's maximum. A character with Vigor maximum 5 has 5 total points to split among Clash, Maneuver, and Overwhelm.
How Ratings Affect Rolls
Your action rating combines with your capacity score in two ways:
Action Proficiency (safe rolls) = action rating + current capacity score. This is the target number you roll equal to or under on 1d12.
Action Luck (risky rolls) = action rating + 2. This is the number of d12s you roll, looking for any 1.
Example: A character with Clash 3 and Vigor score 5 has a Clash proficiency of 8 (succeeds on safe rolls of 8 or lower) and Clash luck of 5 (rolls 5 dice on risky attempts).
Choosing an Action
When you declare a goal, you choose which action reflects your approach. Different actions can address the same challenge:
A locked door could be handled with Craft (pick the lock), Augur (find a hidden key), Overwhelm (break it down), Cultivate (befriend someone with access), or Seduce (talk a guard into opening it). Your choice tells the table who your character is and how they think.
The most interesting moments often come when characters are forced outside their comfort zones: the scholar who must Clash when negotiations fail, or the warrior who discovers the value of Cultivate when violence isn't enough.