Introduction

What is This Game?

This is a game about fighting monsters. About larger-than-life, extraordinary heroes plunging into battle against terrifying, monstrous enemies.

That covers a lot! So let's get specific and talk about what this game is, and what it is not.

This game will absolutely feature dungeons. Ancient underground complexes filled with ravenous undead or creeping oozes. But it isn't a dungeon crawler. It's not about "clearing rooms." It's not a survival horror game where you must track light and food and the weight of every object you carry.

You can fight monsters in a dungeon, but the game is not about dungeons. Lots of games focus on that gameplay and do it really well! Like Shadowdark.

It's not a wilderness exploration game, aka a hex crawl. It's not about surviving in extreme weather, getting lost, or trying to navigate your way back to safety.

You can fight monsters in the wilderness, even run a whole campaign in the wilderness, but this game is not about the wilderness. We love games that focus on that fantasy, like Forbidden Lands.

You can run adventures with horror themes, but this is not a horror roleplaying game like Call of Cthulhu. Your sessions can and will feature comedy, but this isn't a comedy RPG like Paranoia.

Draw Steel is definitely a game about creating amazing stories in which the heroes fight monsters and villains using strategy and tactics. Draw Steel has a lot of other tools! But fighting monsters is sort of non-negotiable. If you're looking for a game featuring extraordinary heroes overcoming dramatic villains without the focus on tactical combat, maybe check out Daggerheart! Just right next door alphabet-wise!

We genuinely love all those games. But we love them because they focus on specific genres of gameplay and deliver on them really well.

Our game is heroic fantasy. That's its genre. Extraordinary people fighting dragons and necromancers.

But "heroic fantasy" is still a little too broad for our purposes, so we added two other keywords to explain how our game might be different from other games in this genre: tactical and cinematic.

These terms are just guidelines. A vibe. But we find them useful when trying to choose between different features. "Both of these ideas are cool, but which is the most cinematic? The most heroic?"

So let's talk about what we mean when we use these terms.

Tactical

Strategy is: "What are we trying to do?" Break a siege, free a prisoner, rescue a captive, steal a tome of ancient lore. Strategy is about long-term goals.

Tactics is about: "How are we going to do that?" We're going to … surround them! Sneak around them! Pick them off one by one! Kill their leader first. Kill their priest first! "No resurrections!"

In a tactical game, positioning matters. So our game is played on a grid. Effects and distances are measured in squares. This means all players are focused on the same problem, and there is no ambiguity regarding where the heroes and villains are in relation to each other. The hobgoblin troopers are setting themselves up in a line to stop our tactician and fury from getting into melee with the hobgoblin war mage. We're all aware of what's happening, and we can talk about what we're going to do to stop it.

That means teamwork matters. That's why the order of combat works the way it does—to encourage the players to plan! "Okay, you use Concussive Slam on that trooper, it'll push him back, and on my turn, I can use Squad! Forward! to get us all into melee with the death captain." We think focusing on teamwork also makes the game more heroic!

In a tactical game, you have many choices each combat round. You are never reduced to just swinging your sword. You have options. If we do a good job, you don't feel as if you outlasted your opponents because you wore their Stamina down before they could reduce yours to 0—you feel like you beat those hobgoblins! Through stealth and sorcery, coordination and ferocity!

As you play with the same group of characters, you learn what they can all do. You discover synergies, "combos." Some of them intended by the designers, some not! You start to learn these unique characters, and to rely on them to do their cool things. It's a great feeling when another player comes up with a cool plan that relies on your unique abilities.

You learn which characters are the "squishies" who need to be protected or healed. You learn which characters can push themselves right to the edge and keep fighting. "Don't worry about healing Barlaca. She's our fury. She's happier with 3 Stamina." Our game is not about tactics. It's not a wargame. But it is tactical.

Heroic

Our game is definitely about heroism! For us, this means a couple of things. It means we don't assume your character is primarily motivated by greed. They might be! But we don't assume that. Instead we assume you're going to do the right thing. It might take some convincing, and there might be some reluctant heroes in your party, but that's part of the fun!

You should absolutely be able to run a Chain of Acheron-style campaign where the heroes are hard-bitten mercenaries in a morally ambiguous world. But that's not the baseline assumption. The fiction and adventures that inspire us feature epic villains trying to remake the world in their image, and the dashing, unyielding heroes who strive against them even in the face of impossible odds.

So that's one component of the heroic keyword. But another component, equally important, is what kinds of things happen "onscreen," so to speak. This is closely related to the cinematic keyword.

For instance, you never see Indiana Jones having to find a local sporting goods store because he needs to stock up on ammo. You never see Katniss Everdeen have to stop and take a shower because she stinks.

These things do happen. No one watching Raiders of the Lost Ark thinks that Indy's gun is magic and doesn't need bullets—but we simply don't need to see Indy doing that stuff. We don't need to waste time on it.

Likewise in our game, we don't worry about stuff that heroes in fiction tend not to worry about. We don't worry how much everything you're carrying weighs. If you try to lift a bear, you might have trouble, sure. But nowhere on your character sheet are you tracking the weight of every item.

You don't track food such as rations, and you don't worry about how many torches you have. Light might factor into a specific environment, because that can be a fun tactical challenge, but the game doesn't expect that everyone is always worried about running out of light.

Basically, we worry only about those things you'd see your characters doing in a movie, or a comic, or a novel about their adventures. Assume all the tedious stuff happens off-screen. Speaking of things happening on-screen …

Cinematic

Closely tied to the heroic keyword, the cinematic keyword is about how we like abilities and features to be strongly evocative. You can imagine your character doing or saying these things. "In All This Confusion" is a good name for the shadow's ability to slip out of melee and retreat to safety. The text of the ability says how it works, but the name creates an awareness that explains how it's working.

When Sir Vanazor the dragon knight fury leaps onto a goblin war spider, cleaving through the goblins riding the creature in a single turn, you experience that action in your mind. It feels like a movie. It doesn't feel simply as if you rolled well, but like an epic scene, complete with slow motion and a Carpenter Brut soundtrack.

You should imagine your tactician character leading the battle, granting your allies free strikes, extra maneuvers. Coordinating the battle. That's what the name implies. And if we've done a good job, when you read through your character's abilities, you think, "Yes! This is what I was imagining! I can't wait to do this!"

Fantasy

Just … you know … it's got dragons and stuff.

It's worth mentioning—while everyone basically already knows what fantasy means in this context, we do imagine it a little more broadly than your average classical medieval fantasy. We like that stuff! Vasloria is our medieval European fantasy analog with knights on horseback and wizards in towers. But we also like high fantasy urban intrigue, and so we're developing Capital, the City of the Great Game, the Greatest City in This or Any Age. Vasloria is mostly humans and elves and orcs and dwarves, but Capital has dozens, hundreds of different ancestries in it.

Looking back at movies like Star Wars and the work of artists like Chris Foss, that '70s stuff now seems explicitly fantastical. There's nothing scientific or even plausible about a lightsaber or a John Berkey spaceship. But damn, they look cool!

So our setting includes the timescape—our multiverse, of which the world of Orden containing Capital and Vasloria is only one part. The timescape is more explicitly "space fantasy."

These core rules mostly cover the classic fantasy stuff. But we think Capital and the timescape will help us deliver a game where more people can see their fantasy in our worlds.

For us, fantasy includes magic, like wizards casting spells, and psionics, the natural and focused ability some creatures have to manipulate and warp reality with their minds. You know, telekinesis and telepathy! Jean Grey style!

If You're Coming From D20 Fantasy

We know that many folks are coming to this game having only experienced d20 fantasy RPGs. This section details a few key distinctions between this game and typical d20 fantasy that you'll notice right away. These aren't the only distinctions, but they're the most obvious.

• Character options are different. We strongly recommend you start exploring Draw Steel by looking through the character creation section before you decide what you want to play. You can't just assume the conduit is "basically a cleric." In some ways, it is! But in other ways, it's quite different. You might have some cool character archetype you love to play in d20 fantasy, and you're dying to see how that might work in Draw Steel. But you'll have a lot more fun if you start by browsing the Ancestries and Classes sections and getting inspired. Once you know a bit more about how the game works, you'll have a better handle on how to build your favorite character the Draw Steel way.
• Smaller bonuses and penalties. Draw Steel is built around the roll of two ten-sided dice to produce three possible outcomes—tier 1, tier 2, or tier 3. On the surface, this might not seem that different from rolling a twenty-sided die and having two outcomes—success or failure. But we've run the math. A lot. A bonus of +1 or penalty of −2 is significant in Draw Steel, much more so than in a typical d20 fantasy game. That means you should feel pretty good attempting most power rolls—the rolls you make to determine success both in and out of combat—if you have a decent characteristic bonus to add to those rolls. And if you have a specific skill that applies to a power roll made as a test outside of combat, you'll do even better.
• Abilities automatically deal damage. When you use an ability—one of the unique combat features that defines your character—you can still have a bad turn! A tier 1 outcome with minimal damage and effects is the worst outcome you can obtain with an ability. It's not awesome. But you're still always making progress. The question is: Who's making progress faster? You or the monsters? Since there's no, "I miss, who's next?" in this game, fights typically last 3 or fewer rounds. A fight that lasts 5 rounds is a long fight. Because everyone's always doing damage!
• You don't need to rest all the time. Most d20 fantasy games are games of attrition. Your spell slots and other features dwindle as the adventuring day goes on. In Draw Steel, you need to rest to regain your Stamina and Recoveries—the stats that determine how robust you are in combat. But all characters earn the capability to use their magic and other awesome abilities as they adventure, encouraging you to press on heroically.
• Our game has a lot of skills. Your character can make use of a long list of skills, but we don't expect you to memorize that list. We get into why the Tests chapter features so many skills, but the short version is that we think having a lot of skills allows you to create more distinct and specialized heroes, which supports the sort of gameplay we want to see in Draw Steel. And skills in the game aren't tied to characteristics. If you're trying to lose someone in a crowd, you can use Presence—the characteristic that represents your character's force of personality—to try to hide! Why not?
• We won't be able to point out every difference. Beyond what's noted here, don't assume that these rules work like any d20 fantasy game you've played. We don't have the space to point out every exception. So if you're in doubt about how something works, put d20 fantasy out of your mind and read our rules without those assumptions, and you'll find that things make better sense. If you're still confused, stop by the MCDM Discord and ask. We've got tons of awesome community members ready to help!
• We don't expect you to do everything to the letter. This is actually one thing Draw Steel does have in common with d20 fantasy. This is a big book of rules! Don't stress if you need to look something up or make a ruling about an edge case on the fly. If everyone's having fun, you're doing it right.

Glossary Index

The following rules and game terms are fully defined and expanded upon in this book. This glossary is provided to give you a definition at a glance and make your life easier as a player or Director. The page numbers after each glossary entry tell you where you can read more about the subject.

Whenever you see a rule or game term in the glossary index underlined in cross-reference style, that topic has its own entry in this section. Terms in the glossary index aren't necessarily cross-referenced every time they appear, but only when it's important to know when one rule or mechanic ties directly to other parts of the game.

Ability: Special main actions, maneuvers, and more that a creature can use to affect other creatures, objects, and the environment.

Ability Roll: A power roll made as part of using an ability. Skills can't be applied to ability rolls.

Adjacent: Within 1 square.

Advance Move Action: A main action that allows a creature to move a number of squares up to their speed. This movement can be broken up by a creature's maneuver and main action.

Agility: A characteristic that represents a creature's coordination and nimbleness.

Aid Attack Maneuver: A maneuver that allows a creature to choose an enemy adjacent to them. The next ability roll an ally makes against that enemy before the start of the aiding creature's next turn gains an edge.

Ally: A creature who is willingly friendly to another creature.

Ancestry: A humanoid creature's species. Every hero has an ancestry.

Area of Effect: The squares affected by an ability that creates an aura, burst, cube, line, or wall. (An ability that creates an area of effect affects targets simply by those targets being in its area, as opposed to a strike.)

Argument: A plea the heroes make during a negotiation to convince one or more NPCs to work with them.

Artifact: A powerful treasure that can unbalance the game.

Artisan: A follower who undertakes crafting projects for a hero.

Aura: When an ability or other effect creates an aura, that area is expressed as "X aura." The number X is the radius of the aura, which always originates from the creature or object who created it, extends from the outside of the creator's space, and moves with them.

Background: A hero's culture and career.

Bane: A situational disadvantage that gives a creature a −2 penalty to a power roll.

Bleeding: A condition that causes a creature to take 1d6 + level damage whenever they use a main action or triggered action, or make a power roll using Might or Agility.

Bonus: A positive number that increases a creature's statistics or the roll of a die.

Breakthrough: A natural 19 or 20 on a project roll. When a character experiences a breakthrough, they can make another project roll for the same project as part of the same respite activity.

Burrow: A movement mode available to creatures with "burrow" in their speed entry, or who gain the capability to temporarily burrow. Such creatures can move through dirt horizontally at full speed.

Burst: When an ability or other effect creates a burst, that area is expressed as "X burst." The number X is the radius of the burst, which always originates from the creature or object who created it, extends from the outside of the creator's space, and lasts only for as long as it takes to affect its targets.

Capital: The largest city in Orden, filled with art, culture, and intrigue.

Career: The job a hero had before becoming a hero.

Catch Breath Maneuver: A maneuver that allows a hero to spend a Recovery and regain Stamina equal to their recovery value.

Censor: A class for a hero who is a trained warrior devoted to a saint or god.

Characteristics: Statistics used to represent a creature's mental and physical prowess, broken out as Might, Agility, Reason, Intuition, and Presence. Each characteristic has a score that ranges from −5 to +5.

Charge Main Action: A main action that allows a creature to move up to their speed in a straight line, then make a melee free strike or use an ability with the Charge keyword against a target when they end their move.

Ceiling: Any solid surface above a creature.

Clarity: The talent's Heroic Resource. Unlike other Heroic Resources, clarity can go below 0, leaving a talent strained.

Class: A hero's current role, which largely determines how they interact with the game's rules.

Claw Dirt: An ability that uses a maneuver to allow a creature without "burrow" in their speed entry to burrow.

Climb: A movement mode that allows a creature to climb without using additional squares of movement. A creature without "climb" in their speed entry or the temporary ability to climb must use 2 squares of movement to climb 1 square.

Combat Round: A segment of a combat encounter in which each creature participating in the battle takes a turn.

Complication: A dramatic narrative twist that deepens a hero's backstory and gives them a rules benefit and drawback. Complications are an optional rule.

Concealment: A state where a target has their form entirely covered in a concealing effect that doesn't block line of effect, such as darkness or fog. While a target has concealment, strikes used against them take a bane.

Condition: A negative effect that applies to a creature and uses a universal shorthand name. Bleeding, dazed, frightened, grabbed, prone, restrained, slowed, taunted, and weakened are conditions in Draw Steel.

Conduit: A class for a hero who is the devoted spellcasting priest of a saint or god.

Consequence: An impactful setback suffered by a creature when they make a test. A consequence can occur whether or not the creature making the test succeeds or fails.

Consumable: A treasure that can be used a limited number of times before it is expended.

Cover: A state where a target has at least half their form, but not all their form, blocked by a solid obstruction. While a target has cover, damage-dealing abilities used against them take a bane.

Crafting Project: A downtime project undertaken to create a treasure, a vehicle, or some other object.

Crawl: A movement mode that allows a prone creature to move. A prone creature must use 2 squares of movement to crawl 1 square.

Creature: Living and unliving beings, including constructs and undead.

Critical Hit: When a creature rolls a natural 19 or 20 on an ability roll made as part of a main action, that creature gains an additional main action that they can use immediately. An ability roll made as part of a maneuver can't score a critical hit.

Cube: When an ability or other effect creates a cube, that area is expressed as "X cube." The number X is the length of each of the area's sides. A cube effect might last only as long as it takes to affect its targets, or it might have a duration specified by the effect.

Culture: The community in which a hero was raised.

d3: A three-sided die, often rolled using a d6.

d6: A six-sided die.

d10: A ten-sided die.

d100: A hundred-sided die, usually rolled using two d10s.

Damage: A harmful effect that reduces the Stamina of a creature or object.

Damage Immunity: A trait that allows a target to reduce damage they take of a specific damage type. Damage immunity is expressed as "[damage type] immunity X," or "damage immunity X" to represent immunity to all damage. Damage of the specified type dealt to the target is reduced by X.

Damage Type: A classification often given to elemental and supernatural damage sources. Acid, cold, corruption, fire, holy, lightning, poison, psychic, and sonic are damage types in Draw Steel.

Damage Weakness: A trait that makes a target increase damage they take of a specific damage type. Damage weakness is expressed as "[damage type] weakness X," or "damage weakness X" to represent weakness to all damage. Damage of the specified type dealt to the target is increased by X.

Damaging Terrain: An area of obstacles that deal damage to creatures who are in the area or move through it. A creature can't shift into or out of damaging terrain, and can't jump out of damaging terrain.

Dazed: A condition that limits a creature to doing only one thing on their turn: use a main action, use a maneuver, or use a move action. A dazed creature also can't use triggered actions, free triggered actions, or free maneuvers.

Defend Main Action: A main action that allows a creature to impose a double bane on all ability rolls made against them until the start of their next turn. Additionally, the creature has a double edge on tests when called for to resist environmental effects or a creature's traits or abilities.

Devil: An ancestry from the Seven Cities of Hell.

Difficult Terrain: An area of obstacles that are difficult to move through. It costs 1 additional square of movement to enter a square of difficult terrain. A creature can't shift into or out of difficult terrain, and can't jump out of difficult terrain.

Dig Maneuver: A maneuver that allows a creature with "burrow" in their speed entry or the temporary ability to burrow to move a number of squares equal to their size vertically through dirt.

Director: The player who prepares, presents, and adjudicates the game for all the other players, who each create and run a hero.

Discipline: The null's Heroic Resource.

Disengage Move Action: A move action that allows a creature to shift 1 square.

Distance: The number of squares away that a creature using an ability can affect targets with that ability. The "Distance" entry in an area ability also includes the type of area of effect created by that ability.

Double Bane: When a creature has two or more banes and no edges applied to a power roll , they have a double bane on the roll. A double bane applies no penalty to a power roll, but instead automatically decreases the tier outcome of the roll by one tier.

Double Edge: When a creature has two or more edges and no banes applied to a power roll l, they have a double edge on the roll. A double edge adds no bonus to a power roll, but instead automatically increases the tier outcome of the roll by one tier.

Downtime Project: A task a hero undertakes during one or more respites.

Dragon Knight: An ancestry with a draconic heritage.

Drama: The troubadour's Heroic Resource.

Dwarf: An ancestry with stone skin and short stature.

Dying: A state a hero enters when their Stamina is 0 or lower but doesn't reach the negative of their winded value. While dying, a hero is bleeding and they can't use the Catch Breath maneuver in combat. A hero dies when their Stamina equals the negative of their winded value.

Echelon: A grouping of heroic levels that informs players of the types of heroic deeds the heroes can achieve. There are four echelons of play: 1st echelon (1st to 3rd level), 2nd echelon (4th to 6th level), 3rd echelon (7th to 9th level), and 4th echelon (10th level).

Edge: A situational advantage that grants a creature a +2 bonus to a power roll.

Elementalist: A class for a hero mage who wields the elemental forces of the timescape—earth, green, fire, the void, and more.

EoT: An abbreviation used in an ability tier outcome for an effect that lasts until the end of the affected creature's next turn.

Enemy: A creature who is hostile to another creature.

Enhancement: A property given to an armor, implement, or weapon treasure that a hero creates as part of a crafting project.

Escape Grab Maneuver: A maneuver that allows a grabbed creature to make an ability roll to escape.

Essence: The elementalist's Heroic Resource.

Experience (XP): A hero's Victories convert to Experience when they finish a respite. Experience permanently increases a hero's capabilities by allowing them to increase in level.

Falling: When a creature falls 2 or more squares, they take 2 damage for each square they fall (to a maximum of 50 damage) and land prone. A falling creature can reduce the effective height of their fall by a number of squares equal to their Agility score (minimum 0).

Ferocity: The fury's Heroic Resource.

Flanking: When two or more allied creatures are adjacent to and on opposite sides of an enemy, those creatures are flanking that enemy. A creature flanking an enemy gains an edge on melee strikes against that enemy.

Fly: A movement mode available to creatures with "fly" in their speed entry, or who gain the capability to temporarily fly. Such creatures can move through the air horizontally or diagonally at full speed and remain in midair. If a flying creature is made prone or has their speed reduced to 0, they fall.

Focus: The tactician's Heroic Resource.

Forced Movement: When an ability or effect compels a creature to move, usually against their will. There are three types of forced movement: a pull, a push, and a slide. Forced movement is always along the ground unless noted as vertical. Forced movement can be reduced by stability.

Follower: An NPC dedicated to helping a hero. Many of the actions of a follower are controlled by a player.

Free Maneuver: A maneuver that doesn't count against the one maneuver per turn a creature can take. A free maneuver can only be used by a creature on their turn.

Free Strike: The simplest and most basic weapon attack any creature can make. A free strike is most often used on another creature's turn, when a rule gives a creature not taking their turn an opportunity to make a quick hit against a foe. A creature can also make a free strike as a main action, but it's not the best bang for buck.

Free Triggered Action: An action a creature can use on any turn, including their own, but only when a specific trigger occurs. There is no limit to the number of free triggered actions a creature can take during combat.

Frightened: A condition that causes a creature to take a bane on ability rolls against the source of their fear. The creature can't willingly move closer to the source of their fear, and that source gains an edge on ability rolls made against the creature.

Fury: A class for a hero warrior who courses with the ferocity of the Primordial Chaos.

God: A deity who grants power to their most devout worshipers through saint intermediaries.

Grab Maneuver: A maneuver that allows a creature to make an ability roll to make another creature grabbed by them.

Grabbed: A condition that reduces a creature's speed to 0 and causes them to take a bane on abilities that don't target the creature, object, or effect that has them grabbed.

Ground: Any surface a creature could typically stand, sit, or lie upon.

Group Test: Two or more creatures attempting to overcome a single, simple task together can make a group test. If half or more of the creatures succeed on their individual test, the group test succeeds. Otherwise the group test fails.

Guide: A manual that gives a downtime project a specific number of project points without requiring a project roll.

Hakaan: An ancestry with stone giant blood.

Heal Main Action: A main action that allows a creature to target an adjacent creature to make them feel better. The target can spend a Recovery to regain Stamina, or can make a saving throw against one effect.

Hero: A player character, created and run by a player other than the Director.

Heroic Ability: An ability used by a hero that costs a Heroic Resource to activate.

Hero Tokens: A group resource that is shared by all heroes, and which can be spent to gain surges, succeed on saving throws, reroll tests, or regain Stamina.

Heroic Resource: A measure of a hero's combat power that increases during battle, and which can be spent to use abilities or improve their effectiveness.

Hide Maneuver: A maneuver that allows a creature to hide from other creatures who aren't observing them.

High Elves: A fey ancestry in tune with innate magic that affects how others interact with them.

High Ground: A creature has the advantage of high ground when they use an ability against a target while standing on the ground and occupying a space that is fully above the target's space. This advantage grants the creature an edge on the ability roll.

Hover: A creature who has "hover" in their speed entry (commonly alongside "fly" or "teleport"), or who gains the ability to temporarily hover, can remain motionless in midair. They don't fall even if they are knocked prone or their speed is reduced to 0.

Human: An ancestry much like humans in the real world, except that they can sense magic.

Humanoid: Creatures who are of similar size to, have similar limb arrangements as, and have sapience on par with humans.

Implement: A piece of jewelry, a staff, an orb, a wand, or some other object used by a creature to channel supernatural power.

Insight: The shadow's Heroic Resource.

Interest: A negotiation statistic that determines how interested an NPC is in helping out the heroes.

Intuition: A characteristic that represents a creature's instincts and experience.

Item Prerequisite: Raw materials, a foundational object, or some other item that must be obtained before a downtime project can be started.

Jump: A creature can automatically long jump a number of squares up to their Might or Agility score (their choice). The height of their jump is automatically 1 square as part of that movement. A creature who wants to jump farther or higher must make a Might or Agility test.

Kit: A fighting style that comes with equipment to match. Kits are available to most heroes who wield weapons and wear armor.

Knockback Maneuver: A maneuver that allows a creature to push away an adjacent creature.

Level: A measure of a hero's, creature's, or effect's overall power. The higher the level, the more powerful the hero, creature, or effect. Level 1 is the lowest level in Draw Steel, and level 10 is the highest.

Leveled Treasure: A treasure that can be used at will, and which increases in power as its hero wielder gains new levels.

Line: When an ability or other effect creates a line, that area is expressed as "A × B line." The number A denotes the line's length in squares, while the number B equals the line's width and height in squares. When you create a line area of effect, the squares in that area must be in a straight line. A line effect might last only as long as it takes to affect its targets, or it might have a duration specified by the effect.

Line of Effect: To target a creature or object with an ability or other effect, a creature must have line of effect to that target. If any solid object, such as a wall or pillar, completely blocks the target from the creature, then the creature doesn't have line of effect.

Main Action: An activity used to accomplish the most impactful endeavors a creature can accomplish during combat. A creature can also use their main action to use a maneuver or move action instead.

Malice: A combat resource the Director can spend to activate specific monster features. See Draw Steel: Monsters

Maneuver: An activity that requires less focus and exertion during combat than a main action.

Manifold: A world or plane of existence.

Melee: Melee abilities require a creature to make contact with a target using the creature's body, a weapon, or an implement.

Melee Free Strike: A free strike made using a melee ability.

Memonek: An ancestry of machine people.

Might: A characteristic that represents a creature's strength and brawn.

Montage Test: Heroes making a series of different tests that represent them working together over time to accomplish a common goal.

Motivation: A negotiation trait an NPC has that determines what type of arguments could more easily sway them.

Mounted Combat: Special rules that apply when one creature rides another into battle.

Move Action: An activity that allows a creature to move around the battlefield.

Movement: The act of moving on an encounter map, measured in squares.

Mundane: Used to describe an ability, creature, object, or effect that isn't magic or psionic. The opposite of supernatural.

Natural 19 or 20: When the result of a power roll is 19 or 20 before adding any modifiers. A natural 19 or 20 always achieves a tier 3 outcome on a power roll. On an ability roll with an ability that uses a main action, it is also a critical hit.

Natural Roll: The result of a power roll before adding any modifiers.

Negotiation: A social interaction encounter where the heroes attempt to make a deal with an NPC.

No Action: Denoting a very simple activity that can be done anytime during combat, and generally without limit. A creature can undertake "no action" activities even when it isn't their turn.

NPC: A nonplayer character, usually created and run by the Director.

Null: A class for a hero who is an unarmed psionic warrior with the ability to dampen supernatural effects.

Object: Inanimate matter, including walls, rocks, vehicles, and corpses (the kind that can't move around and bite you), as well as living non-creatures such as plants.

Objective: A goal the heroes have during a combat encounter that must be achieved to end an encounter victoriously.

Opportunity Attack: When an adjacent enemy willingly moves away from a creature without shifting or teleporting, the creature can make a melee free strike as an opportunity attack against the enemy.

Opposed Power Roll: Two creatures with opposed goals each make a test to see who wins out. The test totals are compared, and the higher total succeeds while the lower fails.

Orc: An ancestry of people with magic blood in their glowing veins.

Orden: The prime manifold, where humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs share a world with dragons, goblins, kobolds, and dozens of other speaking peoples.

Patience: A negotiation statistic that determines how much time and effort an NPC is willing to expend listening to and arguing with the heroes.

Penalty: A negative number that decreases a creature's statistics or the roll of a die.

Perk: A feature available to all heroes that helps with exploration, investigation, negotiation, and more.

Piety: The conduit's Heroic Resource.

Pitfall: A negotiation trait an NPC has that determines what type of arguments will not work on them.

Polder: An ancestry of short folk who can slip into shadows to hide.

Potency: A value that determines if a target has a characteristic low enough to be affected by an effect.

Power Roll: A roll of 2d10 plus a characteristic score that has three different possible tier outcomes—tier 1, tier 2, or tier 3. A power roll can be an ability roll or a test.

Presence: A characteristic that represents a creature's force of personality.

Project Event: An event that can occur when a hero undertakes a project roll for a downtime project.

Project Goal: The number of project points that must be accrued to complete a downtime project, providing a rough representation of the effort required to complete the project.

Project Points: Points earned by a hero toward a project goal.

Project Roll: A special test a hero makes while working on a downtime project during a respite. A project roll doesn't have any tier outcome. Instead, its total is earned as project points toward completing the project.

Project Source: Lore that must be obtained before a downtime project can be started.

Prone: A condition that causes a creature to become flat on the ground. Strikes made by a prone creature take a bane, and melee abilities used against a prone creature gain an edge.

Pull: A form of forced moved that pulls a target toward a creature or effect, moving them in a horizontal straight line.

Push: A form of forced moved that pushes a target away from a creature or effect, moving them in a horizontal straight line.

Ranged: Ranged abilities can be used to target creatures or objects too far away to make direct contact with.

Ranged Free Strike: A free strike made using a ranged ability.

Reactive Test: When the Director asks for a test without context to see if a hero can react to an event or effect they are unaware of.

Reason: A characteristic that represents a creature's logical mind and education.

Recoveries: A limited healing resource that all heroes have, allowing them to regain Stamina lost to damage.

Recovery Value: The amount of Stamina a hero regains when they spend a Recovery, equal to one-third of their Stamina maximum.

Renown: A measure of a hero's fame.

Research Project: A downtime project undertaken to discover lore or learn something new.

Respite: A 24-hour period of focused rest that allows heroes to regain Stamina and Recoveries, and to work on downtime projects.

Respite Activity: An activity that can be undertaken during a respite. A hero can take one respite activity per respite.

Restrained: A condition that reduces a creature's speed to 0 and prevents them from using the Stand Up maneuver or being forced moved.

Retainer: A follower who adventures alongside a hero.

Revenant: An undead ancestry. Revenants return to the mortal world to complete unfinished business they had in life.

Reward: A helpful boon granted by succeeding on a test, gained in addition to the creature making the test accomplishing what they set out to do. A creature always gains a reward on a test that is a natural 19 or 20.

Ride Move Action: A move action that allows a rider on a mount to move the mount up to the mount's speed, taking the rider with them.

Rolled Damage: Variable damage determined by the outcome of an ability roll. Effects that grant bonuses to rolled damage have no effect on damage that is dealt without an ability roll.

Sage: A follower who undertakes research projects for a hero.

Saint: A legendary disciple of a god who can grant divine power to creatures who venerate them.

Save Ends: An effect noted as "(save ends)" lasts until the creature affected by it succeeds on a saving throw, or until a combat encounter ends.

Saving Throw: A creature makes a saving throw to end a "save ends" effect at the end of their turn. They roll a d10, and if the roll is 6 or higher, the effect ends.

Search for Hidden Creatures Maneuver: A maneuver that allows a creature to make a test to locate nearby creatures who are hidden from them.

Shadow: A class for a hero who is an expert infiltrator and thief utilizing magic.

Shift: A movement mode that doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. Whenever a rule allows a creature to shift, they can choose to make a regular move of the same number of squares instead.

Side: A group of creatures working together in a combat encounter.

Signature Ability: An ability a character can use without spending a Heroic Resource, or that a monster can use without the Director spending Malice.

Size: An indication of a creature's space and their overall weight and height relative to other creatures.

Skill: Special knowledge or training that can be applied to a test. When a skill applies to a test, it grants a +2 bonus to the power roll.

Slide: A form of forced moved that slides a target in any direction, moving them along any horizontal line.

Slowed: A condition that reduces a creature's speed to 2.

Space: The number of squares taken up by a creature or object in length, width, and height, and the area of the same size that a creature or object occupies on an encounter map.

Speed: A measure of how many squares a creature can move when taking the Advance move action during combat.

Square: The smallest unit of measurement on an encounter map. Distance, space, and speed are all reckoned in squares.

Stability: A measure of a creature's immovability. When a creature is forced moved, the distance they can be force moved is reduced by a number of squares equal to their stability.

Stamina: A measure of a creature's health and vitality. When a hero's Stamina is reduced to 0 or lower, they are dying. When a nonhero creature's Stamina is reduced to 0, they die or are knocked unconscious, as determined by the creature who reduced them to 0 Stamina.

Stand Up Maneuver: A maneuver that a prone creature can use to end the prone condition on themself. Alternatively, a creature can use this maneuver on a willing adjacent prone creature to end the prone condition on them.

Strained: A state the talent enters when they have clarity below 0, and which effects their abilities.

Strike: An ability that deals damage to or imposes an effect on specific chosen targets. (A strike is different this way than an ability that produces an area of effect.)

Subclass: A choice each hero makes at 1st level that determines a specialization within their class.

Suffocating: A state that a creature who needs to breathe suffers if they aren't able to breathe.

Supernatural: Used to describe an ability, creature, object, or effect that is magic or psionic in nature.

Surge: A universal benefit any hero can gain and spend to deal extra damage with an ability or to increase an ability's potency.

Surprised: A creature who is surprised can't take triggered actions or free triggered actions, and ability rolls against them gain an edge.

Swim: A movement mode that allows a creature to swim without using additional squares of movement. A creature without "swim" in their speed entry or the temporary ability to swim must use 2 squares of movement to swim 1 square.

Tactician: A class for a hero who is a brilliant strategist and weapons expert.

Talent: A class for a hero who is a master of psionics.

Taunted: A condition that causes a creature to have a double bane on ability rolls that don't target the creature or effect that taunted them.

Target: A creature or object affected by an ability or other effect. The target of an enemy's ability typically takes damage, has a condition or harmful effect imposed on them, or both. The target of an ally's ability typically gains some beneficial effect.

Teleport: Moving from one location to another instantaneously. Teleporting requires line of effect to the space where a creature ends up, bypasses obstacles, and doesn't provoke opportunity attacks or other effects triggered by moving.

Temporary Stamina: An additional pool of Stamina that decreases first when a creature takes damage, and which disappears at the end of an encounter if not already lost.

Test: A power roll made by a creature to affect or interact with the world around them that doesn't use an ability. Skills can be applied to tests.

Tier Outcome: The three possible effects for a power roll, based on the total of the power roll.

Tier 1: The worst tier outcome of a power roll, achieved when the total of the roll is 11 or lower.

Tier 2: The second-worst tier outcome of a power roll, achieved when the total of the roll is between 12 and 16.

Tier 3: The best tier outcome of a power roll (other than a critical hit), achieved when the total of the roll is 17 or higher.

Title: A special reward that a hero can earn while adventuring, and which grants benefits or new abilities.

Time Raider: An ancestry of four-armed psionic folk with ocular sensors instead of eyes.

Timescape: A multiverse of worlds, also know as manifolds, connected by the Sea of Stars.

Treasure: A piece of supernatural equipment, from weapons and armor to implements and more.

Triggered Action: An action a creature can use on any turn, including their own, but only when a specific trigger occurs. Each creature can use one triggered action per round.

Trinket: A treasure that can be used at will without any reduction in its power.

Troubadour: A class for a hero who is a storytelling swashbuckler.

Turn: A creature's turn in combat consists of a main action, a maneuver, and a move action.

Unattended Object: An object that isn't worn, held, or controlled by a creature.

Underwater combat: Special rules that apply when creatures fight beneath the sea, in rivers or pools, in underwater lairs, and similar areas.

Untyped Damage: Damage dealt by an ability or other effect that has no damage type associated with it.

Vasloria: A forested, feudal-medieval continent in Orden.

Vertical: When any form of forced moved is noted as vertical, the creature performing the forced movement can move the target up or down (though not into the ground) in addition to horizontally.

Victories: A measure of a hero's increasing power over the course of an adventure, earned by triumphing in battles and overcoming other challenges.

Walk: The most common movement type, used to move over solid ground. Walking can incorporate ambulating on legs, rolling, slithering, or any other default method of movement.

Wall: When an ability or other effect creates a wall, that area is expressed as "X wall." The number X is how many squares are used to make the wall. Each square must share at least one side (not just a corner) with another square of the wall. A wall effect has a duration specified by the effect, or it lasts indefinitely or until destroyed.

Weakened: A condition that causes a creature to take a bane on power rolls.

Wealth: A measure of a hero's material worth.

Winded: A state a creature enters when their Stamina is equal to or less than their winded value (half their Stamina maximum).

Wode Elf: A fey ancestry in tune with magical forests.

Wrath: The censor's Heroic Resource.