Research Projects¶
Heroes can undertake many different types of research downtime projects, which can involve seeking out new lore, improving existing knowledge with study, uncovering rumors or secrets, and more.
Unless a project has an event table of its own or a special event entry, the Director uses the Crafting and Research Events table for research project events.
Discover Lore¶
Item Prerequisite: None
Project Source: Texts or knowledge related to the subject you wish to research
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason
Project Goal: Varies (see the table)
If you want to track the location of a lost treasure, decipher a ritual, or trace the lineage of a royal family to find the next heir to the throne, you can start a downtime project to delve into whatever mysteries you seek to unravel. You might start a project to discover lore because the information can't be discovered through a single test, or you could do so because you failed a test to recall information and now want to learn it through research.
When you start a downtime project to discover lore, you choose the lore you want investigated and the questions you want answered. The Director tells you if the lore you seek amounts to common, obscure, lost, or forbidden knowledge. The more esoteric the knowledge, the more project points are required to find the answers you seek.
Discover Lore Project Goals Table¶
| Project | Goal |
|---|---|
| Common knowledge | 15 |
| Obscure knowledge | 45 |
| Lost knowledge | 120 |
| Forbidden knowledge | 240 |
Common Knowledge¶
Common knowledge is generally easy to discover with a day or so of research. It's not known by every passerby and takes time to uncover, but with plentiful local sources for the information, you don't need to spend a lot of time searching. It could be that you need to question several members of a rumor mill to figure out who a noble is not-so-secretly courting, or you might need to spend a few hours in a temple to find the particular religious text that carries a seldom-used alternative name for a deity.
Obscure Knowledge¶
Obscure knowledge is known only to specialized sages and is typically of interest only to those scholars. As such, precious few tomes are written on obscure subjects. Finding the right expert to interview or the best book to read typically requires several days of research. Uncovering the details of a ritual used to open and close a portal to the Sea of Stars isn't easy information to come by, but there are people out there who know how to do it—and who wrote the instructions down.
Lost Knowledge¶
Lost knowledge is so esoteric that even among a field's most dedicated scholars, there might be only one or two individuals who have dug deep enough to know that lore. Lost knowledge could come from a time so long ago that only a single text in a dead language now holds the lore you seek. Such lore often takes more than a week to hunt down. The location of a legendary steel dwarf's workshop is most likely lore that is lost—except for one map hidden in a private collection.
Forbidden Knowledge¶
Forbidden knowledge is lore that a powerful individual or organization is attempting to keep secret. Those who know the secrets speak of them in whispered codes after passwords are exchanged, and write texts using ciphers. Hunting down leads and making sense of them typically takes weeks. The location of the dagger that slit the throat of the god of death is hidden behind layers of encoded text and written in a dead language known only to that god's most devout followers.
Go Undercover¶
Item Prerequisite: Special
Project Source: None
Project Roll Characteristic: Intuition or Presence
Project Goal: 15
Going undercover to spy on a group of people is a cheap and easy way to find information you're looking for. Choose an organization when you undertake this activity. Completing this project grants you access to maps, knowledge about an organization's operations, or some other piece of knowledge that would be considered common or obscure (see the Discover Lore project).
At the Director's discretion, you must have a disguise, a signet ring, a special tattoo, or some other indication that you belong to the organization in order to start this project. Additionally, the Director can decide that the knowledge you seek can't be gained through this project, but must be sought out by infiltrating the organization as part of an adventure.
Complications¶
This project has its own special complications. The first time you complete this project for an organization, you have a 25 percent chance of being caught. Each time you complete this project again with the same organization, the chance of being caught increases by 25 percent and the project goal increases by 30. If you are caught while going undercover, members of the organization pursue you ruthlessly as the Director determines.
Additionally, while you work to complete this project, you might be called upon by the organization to complete a task you might not want to do. Failure to complete the task leads to you being caught. You can avoid the task by fleeing the organization, but this prevents you from completing the project and makes it impossible for you to undertake this project again with the same organization.
Hone Career Skills¶
Item Prerequisite: None
Project Source: None
Project Roll Characteristic: Intuition
Project Goal: 240 if your career granted you two skills, or 360 if your career granted you three skills
You revisit your previous life to freshen up on the experience it provided you. When this project is complete, you gain an edge on tests made using the skills provided by your career.
Hone Career Skills Events Table¶
| d10 | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | Before the roll, an old colleague from the hero's past asks the hero to give up adventuring and come back to their former career. A hero who reaffirms their intent to remain a hero gains a hero token. However, if they do so—or if they lie to say they will return to their old career—the project goal increases by 50 points as their old colleague refuses to help them. |
| 2 | After the roll, the hero is hurt on the job. They end the respite with 1 fewer Recoveries than usual. |
| 3 | Before the roll, the hero stumbles upon an individual seeking guidance about entering the same career as the hero. If the hero forgoes their project roll to help this NPC, the individual becomes one of the hero's followers, which they gain in addition to any followers acquired through Renown or other means. The follower is an artisan or a sage depending on the hero's career, as the Director determines. |
| 4 | After the roll, the hero finds inspiration from their old life that helps out with a different project they or another hero are currently working on. The hero working on the second project can immediately make a project roll for that project. |
| 5 | Before the roll, the hero stumbles into a negative aspect of their career that they forgot was particularly grueling. If the project roll is 11 or lower, it is halved. |
| 6 | After the roll, the hero learns rumors of a treasure of the Director's choice that other members of the hero's previous career are seeking. If the hero doesn't seek the treasure ahead of time, they automatically determine where the treasure is to be found when they complete their project. |
| 7 | Before the roll, a vaguely familiar stranger in the same career asks if they can work with the hero on their project. If the hero accepts their help, the stranger makes one project roll for the project with a +2 modifier. Only afterward does the hero learn whether the stranger supports their motivation for working on the project or whether they work for the campaign's villain. |
| 8 | After the roll, the hero strangely feels 5 years younger. Any character familiar with psionics recognizes the phenomena as a chrono-anomaly. The hero grows younger each time they make progress on the project—but will cease to exist if they complete the project without first finding and stopping the source of the anomaly. |
| 9 | Before the roll, the hero stumbles upon an old memento from when they worked their former career. They can choose between gaining an automatic breakthrough on the project roll or gaining a hero token. |
| 10 | After the roll, the hero gets back into the rhythm of their former career. They can make two additional project rolls. |
Learn From a Master¶
Item Prerequisite: None
Project Source: An NPC of a higher level, or records of such an NPC's teachings in a language you know
Project Roll Characteristic: Your highest characteristic
Project Goal: Varies
When you seek to learn from a master, you choose the goal you wish to work on as well as the benefit you would gain from it. The Director tells you whether the master or the materials they've left behind are able to teach you what you want to learn.
Learn From a Master Events Table¶
| d10 | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | After the roll, the hero experiences a revelation and all their training snaps into place. The hero makes two additional project rolls for this project. |
| 2 | Before the roll, the master dies midway through training, or the lore they left behind is found to be incomplete. To complete the project, the hero must seek out another master who was trained by the first master, or find another copy of the records of their teaching. Before the roll, the hero discovers that although the master's knowledge is sound, |
| 3 | they are less adept at the teaching of that knowledge. The project requires an additional 50 project points to complete. |
| 4 | Before the roll, the master requires the hero's aid with manual labor before their training can begin. The hero must spend this respite completing that labor, earning a hero token for their efforts instead of making a project roll. |
| 5 | Before the roll, the hero must undertake the master's grueling training regimen. The hero rolls an additional d10 for the project roll during this respite, but at the end of the respite, they regain 1 fewer Recoveries than usual. |
| 6 | After the roll, the hero's relationship with the master deepens. In addition to the current project, the master provides information relevant to the hero's goals, another project, or a surprising connection to a mystery from the hero's past. |
| 7 | Before the roll, the hero discovers that the master has been working with an enemy of the hero by covertly providing them information about the hero's activities. The hero can continue learning from the master, but risks exposing themself and their allies to danger by doing so. |
| 8 | After the roll, an accident, fire, or other natural disaster disrupts the hero's training. The project points rolled for this respite are halved, but if the hero acts to stop the disaster, their heroism sees them earn 1 Renown. |
| 9 | After the roll, the master gifts the hero with an item prerequisite for a crafting project. |
| 10 | After the roll, the hero uncovers a secret in their studies, something that the master had never anticipated or that their teachings hadn't covered. The project goal is halved. |
Learn from Master Project Goals Table¶
| Project | Goal |
|---|---|
| Hone ability | 120 |
| Improve control | 500 |
| Acquire ability | 1,000 |
Acquire Ability¶
You gain one signature ability of your choice from the master's class (gaining a second signature ability if the master is of the same class as you). If the master is a tactician, you can gain the Strike Now ability instead. You can't gain this benefit again for the same class.
Hone Ability¶
You sharpen the effectiveness of one of your abilities of your choice. Choose between adding a +1/+1/+1 damage bonus to the ability, or improving the distance of a ranged ability by 2. An ability can be honed only once this way.
Improve Control¶
You learn to use one of your heroic abilities more efficiently, reducing its baseline Heroic Resource cost by 1 (to a minimum of 1). An ability can only be improved this way once.
Learn New Language¶
Item Prerequisite: None
Project Source: Texts or instruction that teaches the language you want to learn
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 120
When you start this project, choose a language taught by the project source. When the project is complete, you understand the language.
Learn New Skill¶
Item Prerequisite: None
Project Source: Texts or instruction that teaches the skill you want to learn
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 120
When you start this project, choose a skill taught by the project source. When the project is complete, you have that skill.
Perfect New Recipe¶
Item Prerequisite: Varies
Project Source: A recipe in a language you know, or someone who can tutor you in that recipe
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 100
When you start this project, you choose a recipe for a specific type of dish. The item prerequisite for the project is the ingredients required, which depend on the recipe and which might be difficult to acquire depending on the recipe and its place of origin. You gain a +3 bonus to the project roll if the recipe is one from your culture.
When you complete the project, you can make five servings of food from the recipe as a respite activity whenever you have access to the ingredients. You and other creatures taking a respite with you can eat a serving of the food and gain its benefits (see below).
A creature who eats a serving of food from a particular type of recipe gains one of the following benefits, which lasts until the creature takes another respite.
- Comforting: When the creature fails a saving throw, they can choose to succeed instead. This benefit then ends.
- Hearty: The creature increases their Recoveries by 1 at the end of the respite in which the food is consumed.
- Supernatural Power: The creature temporarily increases one of their characteristic scores by 1 (to a maximum of 6).
A creature can benefit from the food of only one recipe at a time, and can't benefit from more than one serving of a recipe at a time.
Recipe Table¶
| Type of Recipe | Item Prerequisite | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Modern | Common ingredients (flour, carrots, beef, and so forth) | Hearty |
| Vintage or home | Key ingredients (starfruit, kindleseeds, oarfish, and so forth) | Comforting |
| Ancient or lost | Rare or extinct ingredients (honeylilies, steel apples, and so forth) | Supernatural power |