here are the rules for my upcoming RPG "Facing the Titan", a GM-less Zero-prep story game featuring Companions that...

here are the rules for my upcoming RPG "Facing the Titan", a GM-less Zero-prep story game featuring Companions that will be facing a Titan. With Titans illustrated by Roger Heal.

It's a hack of SWM and Sorceress Bloody Sorceress.
http://www.gulix.fr/blog/2019/01/16/facing-the-titan-first-revisions/

I'm currently working on a game heavily influenced by SWM and "Sorceress Bloody Sorceress" mechanics.

I'm currently working on a game heavily influenced by SWM and "Sorceress Bloody Sorceress" mechanics. It's called "Facing the Titan", I'm writing it in french, but I want it to be available in english. Here is the first english draft.
http://www.gulix.fr/blog/2019/01/02/facing-the-titan-the-first-draft/

Hi all !

Hi all !
I've already spoke about that, but I'm currently writing a SWM hack. In French. As I'm french ...
But I've decided to share with you some parts.

This post is about the Powers in my game. The characters are children with Powers (X-Men like) but not unlimited Powers.

Happy to get questions, feedbacks, comments on all this ! Thanks for reading ! And please excuse my "french" english.
http://www.gulix.fr/blog/2018/07/10/in-english-swords-with-powers/

A little teaser peak at my design process for something new and very Swordsy.

A little teaser peak at my design process for something new and very Swordsy.

Warning: Rambling Thoughts

Warning: Rambling Thoughts

I've been thinking about #Starward and #GammaThrones recently, and starting to stretch those old Swords design muscles again. (This is in no small part due to the wonderful reception the speed runs have received.) I've been thinking of them as campaigns that are essentially collections of thematically appropriate rituals.

But in truth, #GammaWorld messes with some really fundamental aspects of the game. It adds a new phase and thread, it changes the whole timing mechanism aspect of the motifs, and it eliminates the end game altogether. That's perhaps a bit more substantial than a campaign.

That World Phase and Map Thread are pretty nifty, though, and wouldn't be too out of place in Swords as an advance phase and thread, like like the Lore Phase and Thread or the Mark Thread.

What's really happening here is that I'm starting to think real earnestly about what a stand-alone Swords Without Master rulebook would look like and contain. And how to think about things like additional threads and more thunderless phases. Because there's a couple more I want to introduce.
https://twitter.com/Epidiah/status/1006605882904457216?s=19

I was just now thinking about #Starward.

I was just now thinking about #Starward.

That is all.

The Hiding Phase ...

The Hiding Phase ...

I'm currently working on a game that will be a hack of Swords Without Master. I'm developing a new Phase that I present to you here. It's called the Hiding Phase.

My game is about Children, left alone, whose mothers were super-people (with super-powers). Those Children are seek after by numerous people / factions, for different reasons. It's set in late 1800s, early 1900s. With wondrous and strange technology. Think "Les Misérables" meets "X-Men Days of Future Past" / "Harbinger Wars" ...

I wanted to had this element in the game, and a Perilous Phase did not seem right in my mind. So here it is. The translation in english may not be perfect, as it is primarily developed in French.

It uses an additionnal element to the game. A board (a simple one).

Any comments very welcomed. Playtests are coming soon !

If any french reader wants to look at the french version : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tx0P7-nQsk1d5xA-UUfAm2zWXrGhNubJyr_H3IawDDY/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks !

http://www.gulix.fr/blog/spip.php?article460

http://www.gulix.fr/blog/spip.php?article460

So, here's a link to my french blog.
It's the first day of my advent calendar, with each day a "creation" or translation, related to gaming. It's coming from 8 days ago.

It's a game based on Swords Without Master. Its title is ... wait for it ... "Les enfants du Vagin", aka "The Vagina's Children" in english. Yep. Not easy, but it was a contest with a fake novel cover generator, and I got this. And I was tasked with the creation of a one-page RPG.

Now, to the game. It takes place in a uchrony. Napoleon's France and Great Britain have pursued wars during decades, and it's now the 1950s. Technology is looking at the atom, with some kind of Rocketeer. The wars are over, but the spy game is on. Both sides "control" nearly half the planets, through colonies and allies. It's another kind of Cold War.

And there's superheroes. Project Marvel for Great Britain, and the AGIN (Agence Gouvernementale des Individus Nouveaux) for France. The Ve AGIN (called the "Vagin") is a squad of only women with powers. And it has disappeared. Official news calls for treason. And you play ... the Children of these women.

Some day, years after the disapperance, the Nurse (some kind of intendant for your mothers) comes to you. You are in danger. Bad people will look to you. You must run and hide ... and discover the truth !

That's it for the background. It will be rewritten and expanded / corrected in a future version, but that's what I provided to the contest. And it uses the SWM engine.
Perilous Phase see the Children running away from danger, or maybe confronting it.
Discovery Phase is about looking for the truth and discovering the world. The children have not seen much about it.
Rogues Phase become Children Phase, where Children ... well ... do Child Things against bad adults.

It's a start, as the Phase are strictly the same. The tones, however, are different : Espiègle / Responsable, or in english : Mischievous / Responsible. I think that reflects the "Orphan Children" tone of the game.

Also, the Heroic Feats have been tweaked. The Children don't have powers ... but the Nurse give them some Stim, that can provide bursts of power with them. That's what copy the Feats.

Whoa, I've written more than I thought ^^. The game is in french (cause, well, I'm kind of french), but if there is interest in it, I will try to provide advancements about it here.

Thanks for reading !

http://www.gulix.fr/blog/spip.php?article460

I've been gone for a while, but here's Shades Without Mirror's current version.

I've been gone for a while, but here's Shades Without Mirror's current version. The City Phase has only been playtested once, and I hope the conspiracy phase makes more sense now that I've rewritten it a few times. Perilous and 'punks are unchanged as far as I can recall, but are there for handy reference.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2zUNNY6lEmaQ2pWdTBfcnJxRTg/view

Folks! Check out this review of With Great Power!

Folks! Check out this review of With Great Power!

Originally shared by Ron Edwards

Last month, I got in a shiny airplane and flew ‘cross the waters, this time to Italy, because people were covering the expenses for me to talk about role-playing, as they do.
http://adeptpress.wordpress.com/2017/05/07/with-more-power/

Has anybody tried running/playing SWM without an Overplayer?

Shounen without Master

Shounen without Master
About exactly two years ago, some people talked about how well shounen anime would work using SWM. I'm a little late to the party, but I've been on the hunt for a suitable rpg system for telling satisfying shounen stories for a long while now, and SWM would do it excellently.

The entire game would work, as is (with only some rare genres demanding a swap of tones). I do believe, however, that shonen tales would need at least the addition of Epidiah Ravachol's Ritual of the Ceaseless Tale and Ritual of the Grudge (both from #GammaThrones linked at the end of this post ) as well as the following ritual. Other thematic suggestions for using tricks/rituals/tales/phases follow the Ritual of the Next Power-up.

Ritual of the Next Power-up
In a shonen game, craft your Feats Heroic to not only characterize your character, but also to trace the steps of their developing levels of power throughout entire saga arcs. Since you may only use a single Feat Heroic once per session, you may use this ritual only once per session.

When your shonen is ready to manifest a new level of power, employ one of your Feats Heroic and resolve the dice as usual, but showcase a new aspect or manifestation of your style, form, power, species, gimmick, etc. Boldly announce the new manifestation, technique, or transformation using a unique evocative name, ideally in theme with your character’s other named manifestations.

Cross off the used Feat Heroic, but write the name of the new manifestation on your list of named. This new manifestation is now a part of your identity and available to you in the future whenever the need arises.
-----------

In addition to what I see as the vital rituals above, a shonen game would also likely benefit from the following:
—the World Phase of #GammaThrones , if needed.
—frequent use of the Respite phase, the Ritual of Interlocution, and the Ritual of the Companion.
—Shonen stories should strongly encourage Shonen Players to frequently and freely add elements to their lists of named to enmesh their shonen in vast webs of characters (possibly including frequent use of Born in Fire as an Overtrick).
—Liberal use of Trooping and Scale ideas.
—Maybe use of the Ritual of the Binding Clan/Ritual of Nakama (described below).
—Finally, shonen stories usually need a ritual for flashbacks or other sorts of freeze-frame access to sudden dramatic motivation. This could work as a normal Discovery phase, but it is more poignant if it comes up immediately amidst the dangers of a Perilous Phase, with added dramatic weight of being the thing that makes the difference. Maybe the Ritual of the Backward Glance (described below).

Ritual of the Backward Glance
Whenever you employ the Ritual of the Telling Blow by standing to difinitively cast your dice, you may also invoke the Ritual of the Backward Glance by dramatically highlighting a brief flashback to a poignant moment or relationship in your shonen's, or the story's, past that has bearing on the present. If your roll results in a stymie, Moral, or Mystery, you may record one significant name from your flashback on your list of named.

Ritual of the Binding Clan/Ritual of Nakama
If all players agree, the shonen may be members of a shared crew, clan, family, guild, monastic order, or any other community can write that clan on their list of named. Each individual may remove it from their list, but the existence, culture, and philosophy of the clan itself is protected by the affordances and constraints as long as it remains on any shonen’s list of named.

Each session, the clan and its immediate situation is treated as a thread at the start of the game. Write and resolve the clan’s thread as either a dramatic question like a Mystery, or a Moral the clan aims to instill in its members.

Finally, members of the clan may choose a shared trick for the clan that works like an Overtrick for shonen whose list of named includes the clan. Good options for Clan Tricks are Compact, Undenied (with a Feat Heroic for each tone written for the clan, available to all clan members), as well as Haven, Ill Fate, Doom, or Born in Fire.

-----
As an example of how some shonen stories would work with SWM, One Piece would play wonderfully with the vital three rituals stated at the top, and the story would largely be comprised of Tales of Friendship (same effect as Romance), of New Beginnings, of High Adventure, of Teamwork (like High Adventure but with the Ritual of the Companion), of Wonder, of Fabulous Treasure, of Intrigue, of Pirates, etc. on into later Tales of Dangerous Seas, of Marines, of Giants, of Tragedy, etc.

DBZ stories meanwhile would thrive on the Ritual of the Grudge and the Ritual of the Next Power-up, the method for extending conflicts beyond single scenes (the Ritual of Duels and Dogfights from Starward) and the story would largely be comprised of Tales of Contests, Championships, and Mysteries, with frequent use of tricks such as Born in Fire, Adroit Prowess, and Unparalleled.

Andy Hauge, Tim Franzke, Nathan Black

This is my first draft of my #200WordRPG supplement which is actually 100 words.

This is my first draft of my #200WordRPG supplement which is actually 100 words. It is an attempt to capture what made the White Wolf game Werewolf good but leans heavily on the idea that the reader knows the Swords without Master rules.

Feedback on whether it is too terse or not very welcome.

Children of Two Mothers

A skin for Swords without Master.

The two tones are Rage and Spirit.

Your character has a human and animal form. Name all that is worthy for both.

Create a feat for each form and one for each tone.

The Perilous phase is unchanged. The Rogues phase is the Pack phase; gameplay is unchanged.

The Discovery phase is the Quest phase, in it the Children attempt to discover the disquiet that corrupts the world. On a Moral, the discovery is ruinous but mundane. On a Mystery, the discovery is corrupt but the characters trust it as true to the cause.

Veles Svitlychny, Andy Hauge, i have some questions in addition regarding handling the intrigue phase - after...

Veles Svitlychny, Andy Hauge, i have some questions in addition regarding handling the intrigue phase - after Fastaval i have promised to play some... I mean a lot of Shades Without Mirror.

I may need some help.

I cannot put my finger on it, but to me, it seems as if the intrigue phase has a higher skill level needed to really make nice questions. The limits it imposes are nice, but having some additional concrete examples to show people would be nice.

Since the questions should implicate the punk too, or draw them in, i could imagine that stifling the player. I could imagine the overplayer/Mr. Smith help with the implicating part. Akin to the overplayer helping with escalation? 
How have you done it?

-----
For the un-inducted, here is the intrigue phase, copied directly from Andy's vampire post.

The Intrigue Phase
This phase corresponds to the Discovery phase, but is focused on figuring out what your Vampire is entangled in, providing avenues for action.

When you, a Vampire, are handed the dice, roll them and narrate your Vampire coming across some information--maybe they're shaking down a contact, listening to one of their spies, or hypnotizing a mortal for information. Then, ask the Overplayer a loaded question about one of your Vampire's entanglements in politics--either one you've already uncovered, or one you're improvising off the cuff. Something like "Why do they owe me?"

(Tip: other players' Named connections, if you have their consent, make great entanglements!)

The Overplayer ends the phase once you have entangled the Vampires sufficiently to have an idea of what happens next, and it's usually a Perilous phase.

Ever it was that the descendants of mighty families would hold up in their stone halls, weaving their intrigues and...

Ever it was that the descendants of mighty families would hold up in their stone halls, weaving their intrigues and sowing the battlefields with our bones. Such was the nature of order, the world carved into fiefdoms by the swords of knights, watered by the blood of the conscripted and the sweat of toiling serfs. And such it would remain until the night of the new gods and their glittering starwind. Its shimmering warmth passing through wall and flesh, kissing the blessed among us regardless of heritage, awaking strange sorceries in our blood.

And now all has changed. What does a woman made of rock have to fear from a sword? What lord can make a knight who summons storms kneel before him? What binds a peasant who can fly to their field? A new day has come and with it a new war for the #GammaThrones.

Gamma Thrones is an endless fantasy saga hack of Swords Without Master (www.SwordsWithoutMaster.com) set in a pseudo-and-absolutely-not-rigorously-medieval world where upon one fateful night a burst of comic-book-style gamma radiation rained down on the many kingdoms granting random denizen wondrous powers and awakening ancient artifacts of super-science.

INFLUENCES

Endless Fantasy Sagas
For the ceaseless stream of fiction. For the soap opera style of editing that shifts our focus just as things are heating up. For the Gordian knots of intrigues and relationships.

MedievalPOC 
http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com
For the tireless defense against whitewashing history. For eidolons and simulacra.

Golden & Silver Age Comics
For fantastic powers. For gonzo disregard of sensibility. For eidolons and simulacra. 

THE UNKNOWN TRUTHES

Before the starwind, magic was not but chicanery and superstition. The noble families of the world plotted to advance their position acquire more lands. They held the power, some better than others, some more kindly than others, some more wisely than others. There was war, assassination, famine, and disease; but what stability there was, was held by the thrones of the world. 

On the night of the starwind, an interstellar ark shattered in orbit around the known world. The ship’s cracked engine core, suddenly unshielded and exposed, showered the planet with gamma radiation, awakening wondrous and monstrous powers in a small percentage of its inhabitants.

But that is not all that awoke. Buried deep within the planet are the ruins of lost civilizations where once mighty creations of super-science slumbered for eons until bathed in the starwind. Now they crawl towards the surface, many driven senseless by the corrosive effects of time. 

The remains of the ark still orbit the planet, appearing as new gods wandering the night sky and occasionally obscuring the sun during the day. It is a new dawn for those who inhabit the surface of the known world as the balance of power has been upturned by the strange new powers and abilities visited by the starwind’s blessing on a seemingly random selection of people. 

THE WORLD PHASE

Before play begins in earnest, gather your fellow players, lots of paper and materials to write and draw with. You will be mapping the known world.

In this phase there is no Overplayer or thunder. You will pass the dice and make demands of your fellow players as you would in a Rogues' Phase, but instead of demanding to see what Rogues are up to, you should demand:

• a border, town, or natural feature be drawn on the map.
• a place of historical significance be noted on the map.
• to hear of traditions or customs the originate from a specific spot on the map.
• to hear of a ruler, their family or the people they rule over.
• to hear of recent intrigue, old grudges, or important battles.
• to hear rumors of strange sorceries or awoken super-sciences.
• to have anything else of interest related to the land or its people spoke of or drawn upon the map.

You simply make a demand of someone and pass them the dice. They roll for their tone and answer the demand in that tone. Continue until someone request the end to the phase.

Stymies and threads still apply. If you roll a stymie when you have to drawn something on the map, you may, for instance, draw where it once was before it vanished or indicate that none such thing has ever existed.

Map Threads
Mysteries, Morals and any completed Motifs created in this phase are Map threads. They, along with anything written or drawn on the map itself (which is also considered a Map Thread), are available throughout the game and can serve any purpose threads normally serve.

As you play, when you have a Moral or a Mystery that directly relates to something on the Map, add that thread to the collection of Map threads as well.

MASTERS, ROGUES & ALL OTHERS

Instead of making a single rogue for this game, players should make a stable of at least three characters. You may have rogues among them, but you are now free to create masters and the mastered along with the masterless.

As your saga unfolds, the game will jump around from one storyline to another, changing scenes, characters, and Overplayer as it does so. The characters you personally make will not normally come in contact with one another, but will certainly come in contact with other players’ characters along the way.

The Homeland & the Price of Wandering
As a group at the start of the game, choose the three or four areas on your map you wish to play in first. Each player should make a character that starts the game in each of these areas. Each player may pick one of these areas to exclusively overplay. You need not make a character for an area you exclusively overplay. No two players should exclusively overplay the same area.

Masters and mastered characters must name their homeland among that which deserves a name. The masterless may name their homeland, but should draw a line through it. Though the masters and mastered are bound to their homelands in ways that the masterless are not, they may wander the world for a price.

Each time you play a master or mastered character and a motif thread is completed before you return to your homeland, place a tally mark next to the name of their homeland. Once you gain a third tally mark, draw a line through your homeland.

When a homeland has a line drawn through it is no longer considered deserving of a name for that character. It is no longer granted the affordances and constraints that come along with that.

After you initially make a character, you can only restore a homeland to a named list in play during a Discovery or Rogues’ Phase (see “That Which is Named” on pages 26 & 29).

Eidolons & Simulacra
If a character has been blessed by the Starwind, they must have at least one eidolon or simulacrum that is a character from the golden or silver age of comic books whose powers they possess. Not all characters need to be blessed by the Starwind. And indeed, not even all the characters with golden and silver eidolons need to possess powers, just as not all characters from those ages did.

Tricks & Feats Heroic
You have one trick and two feats heroic to divide among all your characters as you see fit. You may give them all to one, as you would a rogue in Swords, or you may spread them among all your characters. You may even give your glum feat heroic to one character and jovial feat heroic to another. Between sessions, should you desire, you can reassign your trick and feats heroic among your surviving characters however you wish.

THE RITUAL OF THE GRUDGE

If two or more players have characters that wish to do battle with each other, it must be done in a Rogues’ Phase. If you end a phase, you may declare a grudge and demand the next phase be a Rogues’ Phase in which your characters can have it out. The offer of death is always on the table during such Rogues’ Phases.

When you play out the Ritual of the Grudge, make demands that cede glory to your foe. “Show me how you repel my raging assault.” “Show me how you drive me to the brink of the cliff.” “Show me how you make me work for your blood.” Let the dice, the tones, and the threads determine the victor.

THE RITUALS OF THE ENDLESS SAGA

The Ritual of the Shifting Overplayer
Whenever you fill a Motif thread, it is the responsibility of whoever can end the current phase to do so, no matter how much you desire to see the current phase through.

The Mantle of the Overplayer is now passed to a new player who starts the next phase as a new scene at a new setting with different characters involved. This is done as you would start any phase in Swords by rolling for Overtone, choosing the phase, setting the scene, and letting peal the Thunder. The new Overplayer tells us who is there and why, but each player should make sure they have an appropriate character present.

The Ritual of Necessity
If you do not have a character who would be present in the current scene, take a moment to create one. This character will have no tricks or feats heroic to begin with, though you may grant them some between sessions if you desire. They start only with their own name on the list of that which deserves a name, but may add to that list in play (see “That Which is Named” on pages 26 & 29) or between sessions.

The Ritual of the Ceaseless Tale
Unlike Swords, there are no end game rules for #GammaThrones. At any point in which you should pass the Mantle of the Overplayer to a new player, as a group you may decide you are done for the current session. Next time you play, you will pick the game up where you left off, with a new Overplayer starting a new phase.

There are new rules for the Motifs in ceaseless tales:
• All threads, including Mysteries, Morals and Map threads, may be echoed in a Motif, not just elements from the previous Motif threads.
• Even the first Motif thread of a session must have one element that echoes a previous thread.
• The last Motif of a session and any threads that were echoed in the Motifs of that session are carried over into the next session along with the Map threads and any threads players preserve with their tricks.

For anyone interested, I've started a #Starward board on Pinterest for Eidolons and Simulacra: https://www.pinterest.

For anyone interested, I've started a #Starward board on Pinterest for Eidolons and Simulacra: https://www.pinterest.com/stalwartip/starward-eidolons-simulacra/

I'm more than happy to add people to the board. Just contact me over there so I'm certain I'm adding the right person.
https://www.pinterest.com/stalwartip/starward-eidolons-simulacra/

I thought some more about how I would use SWM to do Doctor Who, and came up with this idea...

I thought some more about how I would use SWM to do Doctor Who, and came up with this idea...

The Ritual of Regeneration
Before your first tale begins, the Overplayer must choose an eidolon for The Doctor. Then each player, in turn, selects a Trick for The Doctor. Write these down. The Overplayer then adds All That Deserves a Name. In play, anyone may describe The Doctor and their Named, and once per session, instead of using their own Trick, a Companion may choose for The Doctor to use one of their Tricks instead. Each Trick, as always, may only be used once, and The Doctor may only use one Trick per tale.

If The Doctor has used all of their Tricks, the Overlord may, at the conclusion of the Perilous Phase, trigger the Ritual of Regeneration again.

And a new Trick...
Solace: When you reincorporate a thread, you may give something from your list of Named to The Doctor, or take something from their list of Named. If you do, give The Doctor an additional Trick of your choosing.

Yesterday morning, three brave souls—Michael Miller, Keith Stetson, and Stras Acimovic—joined me for a ...

Yesterday morning, three brave souls—Michael Miller, Keith Stetson, and Stras Acimovic—joined me for a #SundayAMSwords  experiment where we veered a little left of sword & sorcery and tested #Starward , my new space fantasy mash-up of Swords Without Master and Vast & Starlit.

Mr. Miller has very capably recapped those adventures here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MichaelMiller1000/posts/7D3LdHNPFTU

It was a fucking blast. And I wanted to share some of my thoughts on it right quick before they fade from my mind like so many Roy Batties in the rain.

• The Ritual of the Opening Crawl was easy and powerful. Three sentences and we were in. We started with the greater situation and zoomed into the immediate situation for our rogues. I may nudge those rules around a bit to ensure that happens every time.

• The Ritual of the Wandering Tone was a delight. We visited the Cascades, twin planets rotating so close to each other that water falls between them. Immediately, I swapped Glum out for Drenched and it led to all manner of trouble for the crew and especially their ship.

• Speaking of ships, I'm tempted to let folks add a Tone to an environment using the same rules for adding something to your Named during the game (pages 26 & 29 in Issue 3 of www.WorldsWithoutMaster.com), because by the end of the session, I was kind of jonesing for a Tone aboard the Lazerhawk.

• Speaking of the rules for adding to your rogue's Named list during the game, the Ritual of Duels & Dogfights pretty much guarantees that you have a chance to do just that with your foe should you want to. How cool is that?

• I need to add a Ritual of the Cliffhanger which let's everyone know that the session is supposed to end with open questions and in media res. 

• I'm going to build a campaign style based  the Novella (page 45 in Issue 3 of Worlds Without Master) but every session should end with a cliffhanger instead of an epilogue.

• I am also tempted to build a giant list of Tones that people can roll on and mash together in order to generate planets and other significant environments.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4nYXSvbVX-AZ2JLTTFpN241MDg/view?usp=sharing

The galaxy is vast and starlit, peopled by multitudes on its myriad of strange and wondrous worlds.

The galaxy is vast and starlit, peopled by multitudes on its myriad of strange and wondrous worlds. There is darkness among the stars, where we can hide among the thousand-thousand secrets and seek our fortune between the grasping claws of tyranny. This is why the restless, the hungry, and the dispossessed turn ever #Starward…

Starward is a space-fantasy hack of Swords Without Master (www.swordswithoutmaster.com) set in the universe of Vast & Starlit (www.dig1000holes.com/vast-starlit).

INFLUENCES

Leigh Brackett's Skaith Trilogy & the Flash Gordon comic & serial
For wondrous aliens, worlds and cultures. For battles with swords and ray guns alike. For a healthy dose of sorcery with our high sciences. For the opening titles crawl from the Flash Gordon serial.

Kurosawa & Seven Samurai
For gathering a crew of masterless rogues. For tense and decisive sword fights. For something a bit more complex than powerful strangers coming to help.

WWII Aviation Films
For turbulent and nail-biting dogfights. For tense bombing runs. For a handful of crewmembers holding a stubborn craft together with elbow grease and a few prayers.

THE RITUAL OF THE OPENING CRAWL
Each session begins with the Overplaying reciting the opening crawl, a brief introduction to what has gone on before and what it about to happen. In the opening crawl, the Overplayer must answer at least two of the following:

• What is going on in the greater struggle?
• What has happened just before now?
• What machinations have lead to the beginning phase?

The opening crawl need not tightly knit previous adventures with the current one.

THE RITUAL OF STRANGE & WONDROUS ENCOUNTERS
(All but nine words taken verbatim from Vast & Starlit.)

Whenever you need an alien species, culture, or environment hold the action, step out of the game, and follow these steps:

Create Your Base
Alien species—One player selects 2 types of animals they are familiar with.

Alien culture—One player selects a culture or subculture they are a part of.

Alien environment—One player selects a location & a climate all are familiar with.

Deviate Aspects
The next player picks an aspect of the base, such as a cat’s aloofness, the pettiness of oˆce politics, or a half-frozen bog. Then the next player chooses to tweak, reverse, or exaggerate this. Repeat this step 3 to 5 times until it feels alien.

Combine & Synthesize
The next player makes a coherent whole from only the deviated aspects, not the base.

THE RITUAL OF DUELS & DOGFIGHTS
When you stand against a worthy foe with sword or pistol, or when you scream across the sky in frantic battle with enemy aces, it never ends as it begins. If your dogfight or duel ends up part of an element on a Motif, your struggle cannot be resolved in just one phase.

If the current phase is the first phase featuring this particular dogfight or duel, you must wait until this phase ends and the next one begins before ending it. Additionally, the Overplayer must attempt to follow the current phase with the next phase on the chart below (though this may be subverted by a Trick).

• Follow a Perilous Phase with a Rogues' Phase
• Follow a Rogues' Phase with a Discovery Phase
• Follow a Discovery Phase with a Perilous Phase

If the duel or dogfight has already lasted through more than one phase, you may resolve it whenever.

THE RITUAL OF THE WANDERING TONE
The base Overtones are Glum & Jovial. Planets, spacecraft housing three or more crew, and other significant environments may have one or more alternative tones, like below. 

The jungle planet of Ul-Gallaroon:
• Lush
• Cacophonous
• Claustrophobic
• Misty

The Golden Moon:
• Opulence
• Austerity

The Princess May, the star galleon of Captain Ceres and her stardogs:
• Brutal
• Treacherous
• Vibrant

A space freighter in chronic disrepair:
• Clunky

Such environments have their own die as well. When first you come upon a significant environment with alternative tones, the Overplayer chooses one of the tones already in play and swaps it for one of the environment's tones as they swap the tone's die for the environment's die. 

As the rogues wander through fanciful vistas, the tones will wander with them. Once swapped, the new die stays in play until swapped out by another. All who roll must now adhere to the new tone, though their Feats Heroic and certain Tricks may affect this. Unparalleled rogues ignore any new tone that replaces the tone they have already replaced, but must adhere to tones that replace the other. For example, Captain Ceres is Unparalleled—she is Raucous instead of Jovial—and if aboard The Princess May the Overplayer decides to swap Jovial with Vibrant, her tones remain Glum and Raucous; but if the Overplayer swaps Glum with Treacherous, her tones become Treacherous and Raucous. She will always have Raucous as one of her tones as long as she's Unparalleled. 

You will only ever have two tone dice in play and whenever you come upon an environment without its own tones, the Overplayer may swap Glum or Jovial back into play.

THAT WHICH IS DESERVING OF A NAME
Occasionally the story is as much about the ship or companions or gear of the rogues as it is of the rogues themselves. When you create your Feats Heroic, if one of your Feats features something named on your rogue's sheet, you may choose a second Trick for your rogue that also focuses on this named thing.

The stardogs are a group of rowdy space pirates that Captain Ceres holds to her command and has named on her rogue's sheet. Her Glum Feat Heroic is to "Commit a loyal stardog to a doomed course of action that just may save The Princess May." Because she features the stardogs in her Feat Heroic, she can have another Trick (in addition to the previously mentioned Unparalleled) as long as that Trick also features the stardogs. She chooses Ill Fate and writes the lesson "Never fully trust your second in command."

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Title

Tones are difficult. There is something ineffable about their choice, the way they position the fiction, the way they orient the players’ imagination. They are the seed crystals of the players’ words, the heroes’ actions, the story’s motion.


Tones must be broad. Broad enough to contain multitudes. Broad enough that the dice do not simply decree the next moment of the tale. Broad enough that every player may find their own vision reflected in their meanings, hear how their own voice could sing in that tone.


Tones must be focused. Focused enough to drive the game where it must go. Focused enough that no tone might ever be confused for another of its ilk. Focused enough that a player is never lost, always drawn by the clarion call of the perfect tone.


Tones are impossible ... until they are obvious.