Sorcerer
Start with only the common moves. Gain one each time you complete each of the first four acts of your arc.
Determining level of arcane complexity: The arcane moves below use the level of arcane complexity to determine how difficult and risky it is.
To determine the complexity, start with the number of primes and praxes involved then:
- add 1-3 for extreme scales (small, tiny, micro, big, huge, enormous)
- add 1-3 for area of effect (room, city, continent)
- add 1-3 for extreme precision (use your judgement)
- whatever other complexity you think is worth a level
Arcane Comprehension
When you push your conciousness into the temporal primes and praxes to comprehend their secrets:
Ask the GM what you want to find out.
Determine the level of arcane complexity. The GM decides which, if any, are risks and what those risks are. The remaining levels of complexity are the number of hits needed for a full clear answer.
Roll as many dice as you want.
You may use hits to avoid risks. The rest determine how much you learn. If there are hits left but fewer than you need for a full clear answer, the GM will give you a partial and obfuscated true answer.
Check for arcane fallout.
Arcane Manipulation
When you manipulate temporal primes and praxes describe the set of effects you want to create and how you'll manipulate the primes and praxes here to do it. Describe the outcome or outcomes you want those effects to have.
For each prime or praxis manipulated
Roll as many dice as you want. For each hit choose:
- Achieve an outcome
- Avoid a risk
Check for arcane fallout.
Arcane Production
When you maniulate temporal primes and praxes you may also add any primes and praxes you like to the area for your effects.
Arcane Specializationin
You may gain this move more than once. Each time you gain this move choose a prime, a praxis, large scale, small scale, area of effect, or precision. The complexity of arcane moves involving your choice is one level less complex.
Arcane Resiliency
You may gain this move more than once. You may treat any die as a 5 when checking arcane fallout.
Arcane fallout
When you check for arcane fallout sum up the highest 3 dice from your roll and follow the instructions on the tables bellow.
| total | outcome |
|---|---|
| 3-7 | You are cold, weak, and nauseous until you can sleep for 10 hours. |
| 8-10 | As above but too weak to move |
| 11-12 | You enter a coma until you can recover in a calm stable place for 8 hours |
| 13-14 | As 11-12, but you wake up cold, weak, and nauseous for 24 more hours |
| 15 | As 13-14, but you also develop a permenant troublesome mutation |
| 16 | As 13-14, but you also develop two permenant troublesome mutations |
| 17 | As 13-14, but you also develop a permenant extreme mutation |
| 18 | You mutate so dramatically you lose humanity or die. Retire the character |
| 2d6 | Troublesome Mutation |
|---|---|
| 2 | Candle and firelight dims slightly in your presense |
| 3 | Your eyes tear up at the slightest provocation |
| 4 | You taste nothing but ash |
| 5 | Your speech echos more powerfully than is natural |
| 6 | All your hair turns a wiry stark white |
| 7 | Your skin takes on a mottled sickly appearance |
| 8 | You have an allarming amount of trouble getting through doorways |
| 9 | You taste nothing but salt |
| 10 | You feel the pain of those you hurt |
| 11 | You have serious trouble with balance |
| 12 | Your hands and feet age 55 years |
| 2d6 | Extreme Mutation |
|---|---|
| 2 | Your legs wither to the bone. You require assistance from either an attendant or a device to move around |
| 3 | 7 eyes of 7 beasts emerge crowding your forehead |
| 4 | You grow a crown of gnarled horn |
| 5 | Your saliva turns to murcury on contact with air |
| 6 | A milky dull eye emerges from your non-dominant forearm |
| 7 | A milky dull eye emerges from your dominant forearm |
| 8 | You float and drift when sleeping |
| 9 | You are not illuminated by sunlight |
| 10 | You and what you carry are neutrally buoyant in all fluids and gasses |
| 11 | A mouth opens up on your neck below your jaw. It tends to gurgle, grind its teeth, and mutter in a forgotten language |
| 12 | Every hair follicle on your body sprouts a tentacle |
Arc
Let your curiosity about the questions in the following acts pull you towards their answers. Don't decide on the answers, play to find them out. Let the table know what questions you're curious about. If you find it helpful, write the current questions you want to focus on on note cards and keep them available for the rest of the table to reference.
Remember all the other PCs have their own similar questions. Cultivate curiosity about theirs. Play to find out the answer to theirs as well. If there is a question about another character you are particularly curious about let them know but be careful not to impose on their character arc.
Feel free to write your own questions where you are inspired. These are drawn from classic archetypes as a framework but go for the arc you're interested in.
When you complete each of acts 1-4, gain a move from your Path.
The enemy
The archetypal enemy of the Absolute Tyrant. An Absolute Tyrant weilds absolute control over their domain by any effective means and they aim to expand their domain to the entire world. (editors note: Maybe there is a threats, or monster manual type section with this information)
Act One:
Focus: Understanding your home or mundane life and your place within it. (note to self: are these MC moves?)
Answer 4 to move to Act Two.
- What makes your home seem small?
- How do your caregivers or colleagues react to your willfullness?
- What naive lie do you believe about dominance?
- What about your home is unfulfilling?
- What about your home keeps you complacent?
Act Two:
Focus: Disruption of your home or mundane life by an Absolute Tyrant. Create it as a world anchor. (designers note: Its cool that this is flexible enough to either have different enemies for each PC, or to have different aspects of the same enemy relate to each PC. For instance: if there is a fighter and sorcerer the absolute tyrant could also be a dragon, or there could be a dragon and a separate tyrant. Just different kinds of stories. Is one better? Feels like a single enemy with facets for each character is more cohesive and more epic fantasy... How do I describe this?!?)
Answer 4 to move to Act Three.
- What inner conflict do you have about controlling your environment?
- What happens that you can't ignore or abide?
- What responsibilities do you try to avoid and why do you fail?
- What enemy threatens your home and what status quo does the enemy prey on?
- What draws you away from home and who must you defeat before you return?
Act Three:
Focus: Difficulties that challenge your sense of identity. Struggles that force personal growth.
Answer 4 to move on to Act Four.
- What situation are you surprised to lose control of?
- Who questions your motives and how do you challenge them?
- What failures cause self reflection?
- What challenges expose your potential for discipline, apathy, and tyrany?
- What mistake forces you to reflect on your villainous inclinations?
Act Four:
Focus: The seemingly insurmountable struggle to controll the self and to gain some advantage over an enemy.
Answer 4 to move to The Climax
- How does the search for an advantage over the enemy take you even further into the wider unknown world?
- What false victory do you have against the enemy and how do you discover that you haven't won?
- How do you struggle to control the situation the enemy is creating?
- What value or belief do you betray for a desperate false victory?
- How is the false victory hollow and how does it ruin your aims?
- What fruitless act of domination causes self reflection?
The Climax:
Focus: A true ultimatum. One or the other will back down for good.
Answer this, win or lose, to move on to Act Five
- How do you finally, once and for all, who will dominate the other?
Act Five:
Focus: The lessons you learned about control and understanding who you really are deep down
Answer all of the following
- Do you embody your own identity, separate from your dominant instincts? How?
- Do you you love yourself more than the safety of control? How?
- Do you sacrifice your control and embrace love? How?
- Are you empowered by love? How?