Introduction

All the worlds ended together: heavens and hells, kingdoms and wastelands, and
everything in between. As they broke apart, the Heartless Princess saved the bits
she could, shoving them together and crowning the resultant Patchwork World with
her Icy City to hold it all together.

The parts she couldn’t save (or the parts she passed on) orbit the closed-off world
in a cacophony of satellites called the Straying Quarter.

The Patchwork World asks: what you do after everything you know is destroyed or
changed? It asks if you’ll fight to make sure it never happens again, or if you’ll
hasten more change, learn to adapt, and help others do the same.
What is Patchwork World Sixth Edition?
Patchwork World is a roleplaying game. It’s made up of...
* play rules, namely the “powered by the apocalypse” (PbtA) system of rolling two
six-sided dice, adding modifiers, and using the same three bands of success
(complete success, limited/complicated success, complication) for every roll
* generation rules for players to create characters, patchwork worlds, and factions
* fantasy, namely magic, strangeness, and imagined ways of living that might seem
impossible in our current world

It’s a game for 3 to 5 players, but I bet you could play with more or less. Most
players will play a single character, creating and developing them as they play.
One player will be the GM, who is responsible for creating interesting tensions,
developing other characters, and guiding narrative movement.

If you’re already familiar with PbtA roleplaying games, you can probably start
playing with just the character sheets and moves. Go for it! The biggest difference
between Patchwork World and other PbtA games is that this game has no stats and no
playbooks. Instead, moves will ask you questions that you’ll answer for bonuses to
rolls; more on that later.

Keep reading for…

* an explanation of how games like this work
* how to safely play the game and get players on the same page

If you’re already familiar with those ideas, skip to page [xx] for character
creation or read the separate Play Materials file for character sheets and moves.
The Narrative, or How to Play PbtA Games
When playing Patchwork World, a player (often the GM) will begin to describe a
place or a situation and ask the other players to interact with it via their
characters, often by saying, “What do you do?” The players describe what their
characters do in whatever fashion is comfortable. Eventually, someone will trigger
a move. Moves are sets of fictional triggers and mechanics; all players have access
to various moves.

When the fictional trigger of a move happens (i.e. the part that starts “When
you…”), follow the instructions of the move. When the move is resolved, things will
look a little different; maybe players will have more information, maybe someone
will be changed or wounded, maybe a danger is introduced or attracted. At this
point, the GM again asks, “What do you?”
If players’ characters do something that doesn’t trigger a move, they just do it!
This might result in a new status quo, or it might just be a thing that we see them
do that teaches us more about them.

Always feel free to ask questions or negotiate things. Some actions can potentially
trigger multiple moves; pick the one that feels best, right, or most fun, resolve
it, and keep playing. There are no rules for initiative or turn order; characters
act whenever it makes sense, but after you act, ask other players if they’d like a
turn. In a fight or a chase scene, it might make sense to go around the table in
order. During a speech or negotiation, a single character might take the lead and
narrate multiple actions or roll multiple moves.

Rolls and Questions

Most moves ask players to roll. (The GM never rolls.) Nearly every time you roll,
you'll use 2 six-sided dice, like the kind that comes with most board games.
Sometimes you’ll add a static modifier, but often, you’ll “roll with the
questions.” When asked to do so, the move will usually provide the questions
immediately after. For each question you can answer “yes” to, you get +1 to the
roll.

You can negotiate whether or not you can answer “yes” to a question. For instance,
many moves ask if you prepared something ahead of time. If you’re in the middle of
a fight, the answer is probably no. However, if there were broad stretches of time
left undescribed before you made the move, you can probably say yes. If you’re
unsure, or if there’s disagreement over it, you can use the Be Prepared move to
resolve whether or not you’re prepared.

A couple other factors:

* Some moves and situations will give you a longer list of questions to ask; go
through them all (or as many as you want).
* However, you can never add more than +2 to a single roll (except in the case of a
very few situations noted in particular moves).

Once the dice and modifiers have been added together, you can match the result to
the bands of success.

On a 10+, you succeed! Some moves have specific effects that happen; choose them
and describe how it looks, and the GM will describe how the world reacts. Other
moves have something more vague, like Derring-Do’s “you avoid the danger.” The way
you triggered the move might help describe what this success looks like; otherwise,
describe it yourself or ask other players for input.

On a 7-9, you get what you want but at a cost or complication, or you get part of
what you want. This invites the GM to make moves of their own, but you can always
offer questions or suggestions. A common example is of a character inching across a
dangerous path high above the ground. If they roll a 7-9, maybe they drop something
important; do they take time to retrieve it, or do they push on without the object?

On a 6-, a complication occurs, inviting a GM move. Note that this does not have to
mean you fail. Unlike in other games, something always happens after a roll. For
instance, in some games, if you roll to pick a lock and fail, you might just be
stuck there, blocked off or free to try again. In a PbtA game, if you roll a 6- on
a move to pick a lock, it might mean that guards come around the corner and see
you, or it might mean that you pick the lock and open the door...only to find a
prepared enemy waiting for you on the other side.

Other Rolls
Sometimes, you’ll be asked to roll the dice in different ways. First is 1d6, which
is shorthand for rolling a single six-sided die and noting the result. There’s also
2d6, 3d6, and so on; roll a number of dice equal to the number before the “d6” and
then add them all up.

The other way to roll is to roll d66. This means rolling two dice and reading one
as the 10s place (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60) and the other as the 1s place (1-6). For
instance, if the first die comes up a 3 and the second a 1, the result is 31. d66
produces the following range of results:

11
12
13
14
15
16
21
22
23
24
25
26
31
32
33
34
35
36
41
42
43
44
45
46
51
52
53
54
55
56
61
62
63
64
65
66

This matrix of results is most often used to generate random places and
inhabitants. We do this in order to generate a large range of results that all have
an equal chance of occurring. The GM will often be the one rolling it; feel free to
invite the other players to roll it too, though.

Clocks and Tracks

This game uses clocks and tracks to keep, well, track of things. Clocks are circles
divided into any number of segments (often four, six, or eight) that fill as
certain conditions are met. When a clock is full, something happens!

Tracks are boxes laid out in a row. When they’re full, something happens! They’re
not that different from clocks, but they carry different vibes for me; they “feel”
different.

An example of a clock is the Random Encounter. It fills as characters roll 9 or

less in an area. As it fills, signs might appear that the danger is increasing;
when it’s full, the encounter begins.

An example of a track is a character’s Stress. It fills as a character is stressed

out, whether that’s from fighting, working too hard, or going through mental or
emotional trials.
Starting Out: What Do We Want?
Like all games (and all social situations ever), people will bring different
expectations to Patchwork World. It’s the responsibility of all players to try to
make those expectations clear and to work with the group to make sure everyone
feels safe and has fun. This section contains a few ways to streamline and
formalize that process.

Questions
Here are some open-ended questions to help players get on the same page when
starting play. They don’t necessarily have to be answered before play, and all
players don’t necessarily have to answer the same way. Their main purpose is to get
people thinking about their assumptions and to create a foundation of language to
talk about them. (These questions are adapted from The Same Page Tool by bankuei
[link in PDF, footnote in physical version:
[Link]

* What events and focuses will lead to each player enjoying a session?
* Is it okay for one player to work against the others? Or for a player to take
actions that will create consequences for the others? How or when?
* How much lead or prodding is the GM expected to give? How can the players signal
that they’re not sure what to do? How can the GM react to give them agency?
* How can players make their characters’ goals clear? How far will they go in
pursuing them?
* When should we check the rules? When is it okay to ignore them?
* How important is continuity? If something is named and positioned, is it okay to
change if that results in more fun or ease of play? What if something is only
written or thought, such as a GM’s notes or a character’s backstory?
* How can we make sure to spread the workload of helping the game to move at a fun
pace?
* Do we keep playing until the game ends naturally? How do we know when that
happens? Would a stated timeline or a climactic event work better?
* What other stories do we have in mind when planning and playing this game?
* What safety tools do we want to employ to make sure players feel safe and
comfortable while playing? (Safety tools are detailed in Appendix M.)

Making Characters
If your player group is starting a longer series of games, you’ll probably want to
spend the first session making characters and defining their world. This should be
done together (as opposed to alone) and can be done in any order. Some people like
to define the world first because it helps them decide who to play there. Others
like to make the character they want and have the world follow them.

(A little secret: making characters is making the world. You’re making disparate
characters that all belong to the same community. This means that the world is
packed with endless kinds of people that join together for an endless number of
reasons.)

Since we have to start somewhere, this text will start with making characters. Each
player gets a blank character sheet and fills it out as they please. Some
explanations and considerations:

Name
Whether you start or finish here, ask what kind of naming conventions exist, not
just in the fiction, but among the players. Will characters have the names we use
in the real world? Do people like typical fantasy names like Fafhrd and Elrond? Do
people go by epithets, such as The Gray Mouser? Are joke names okay, or will they
disrupt the fiction or become regrets?

Concept
Your concept is one or more words that describe the kind of character you’re
angling for. It doesn’t limit the moves you can pick or use, and it can change
during play. Its main use is as a signifier for who gets to answer questions about
the world during play. For instance, if a character is a Fallen Knight, the GM
might ask their player if they know the lord of a nearby town or if they can
identify a piece of heraldry. If a character is a Guardian Spirit, they might get
asked what spirits are allergic to or how they get chosen for their guardian jobs.

Feel free to start with a profession from a different game: Thief, Wizard, Ranger,
and Jongleur are all perfectly good Concepts. You can also consider modifying them
a bit—consider the difference between an Aspiring Thief, a Secret Thief, and a
Failed Thief. What knowledge would they share? What would be different?

You can change your concept at any time. If you started as a Ruffian but find
yourself loving your Tavern move, change your concept to Bartender or Carousing
Ruffian or Informant.

Look
This is what someone seeing your character for the first time might notice. Look
can include things like fashion, skin color, height, weight, general vibe, default
emotion, and more.

NOTE: Your Look has no mechanical effects—looks cannot trigger moves, answer
questions, etc. If you feel like something from your look should be having more of
an impact on the game, consider making it a Personal Tag instead.

Personal Tags
You start with two personal tags, but you can gain, lose, or change them pretty
easily. Tags are noticeable, like Looks, but they affect moves. However, they don’t
grant bonuses or penalties. Instead, they indicate to you and the GM when you might
be able to trigger a move and what kind of consequences might follow.

For instance, someone might have the Personal Tag inhumanly tall. Because of this,
the group might decide that this character can look through a window the others
can’t and is thus able to Inspect the Area on the other side of the window. If that
same character rolls a 6- while trying to sneak, though, the GM might declare that
they get spotted because there’s nothing tall enough to hide behind.

Be cautious about choosing things like race, gender, and disability for Personal
Tags. If a player wants to make a Tag using these types of attributes, they should
work with the GM to decide how this will come up.

And if you, the human player, don’t belong to a marginalized identity, don’t put it
in your Personal Tags at all.

Drawback & Benefit

The other mechanical effects that Personal Tags can have are Drawback and Benefit.
Each can be used once a session.

To mark Drawback, a player turns a roll result of 7 or higher into a 6, thereby

introducing a complication. They mark an Experience and describe how one of their
Personal Tags made this happen.

To mark Benefit, a player turns a roll result of 9 or less into a 10, thereby
succeeding completely. They describe how one of their Personal Tags made this
happen.

Goals
Characters earn Experience by completing Goals. You can write down one goal during
character creation; you can certainly have more as a character, but the ones you
don’t write down won’t get you Experience.

At the end of each session, if a character made progress toward one or more of
their goals (including accomplishing one), they mark a single Experience.

If a goal is completed or if the character gives up on the goal, they erase it and
write a new one.

Moves
All characters can potentially trigger any of the Default Moves.
Additionally, each character picks two Chosen Moves. They can be whatever they want
and don’t have to relate to Concept or to each other.

However, do note that Chosen Moves can be vastly different in tone and can lead
player behavior. If one player chooses moves that focus on dealing and protecting
from harm while another chooses a tavern and a ghost duck, make sure that
everyone’s willing to work to share the spotlight or that they’re okay with
swinging between those modes of play. If you’re swinging between them, you might
need to remind players that everyone has access to the Default Moves—the tavern
owner can still try to Wound people when they’re out causing a ruckus, and the
fighting folk can spend their time in the tavern Staring Into Eyes Not Your Own.

[in digital version, Default Moves go here and a note points to Chosen Moves; in
print version, the loose pages for character sheet and moves get inserted here?]

Tracks
Stress, Hex and Experience tracks start with 0 boxes marked. Stress and Hex are
generally marked when bad things happen, and it gets worse when they fill!
Experience is marked under a number of conditions detailed below, and it’s good
when it fills!

Stress
Stress represents your ability to continue on with your day. It fills up when
someone hurts you and when you exert yourself.

At the end of each session, erase 1 Stress. When you have time to rest up safely,
erase 1d6 Stress.

When your Stress track fills, consult the Exhausted move.

Hex
Hex is the magical radiation that flows through and pools in the Patchwork World.
It fills when you’re exposed to high levels of that magic or when you use magic.
It’s hard to get rid of.

When you have time to rest up safely, erase 1 Hex.

When your Hex track fills, consult the Hexed move.

Experience
Experience represents your learning. You get Experience from failed rolls and from
achieving personal and community goals.

When your Experience track fills, erase it and choose an advancement.

Homeland
Lastly and optionally, name and describe your character’s homeland. Chances are,
your character is not living there at the moment; this makes it easier to focus on
the other players’ characters and your current community (as defined in the next
section).

Try to keep your homeland’s description short and punchy. For instance:
“I come from (place name), a place full of (people), (flora/fauna), and
(industries). Many of the people there value (moral or material) over (other
moral/material). I am like those people because of (similarity) and unlike them
because of (difference).”

Work with the other players to decide where your homelands are. This allows players
to define their own sort of fantasy (utopian, dystopian, Iron Age, Victorian, etc)
and seed it into the wider game. It likely won’t have much influence on the start
of the game, but it’ll be fodder for future sessions.
Making a Community
The next section of the Play Materials is the Community sheet. Fill it out by
answering the listed questions, and make note of its Benefit and how it grants
Experience.

Communities provide characters a place to rest, a group of friends and/or

colleagues, and ways to earn Experience. They provide the GM with options for
giving the characters things to do and creating tension.

While a Community should never be outright destroyed as a consequence of a single

roll, individuals or factions in a Community might have requests and beliefs that
don’t align with each other, and player characters can be called on to solve this
or find compromises. For more on this, see the Changing or Abandoning Communities
heading later on.

Community Type
Below are four kinds of communities: Village, Crew, Moral Order, and Wild Folk.
Each asks questions for the members to answer, and each has a Goal that can earn
Experience for characters and a Benefit granted to the characters.

These aren’t intended as the be-all end-all of community types, and players should
feel free to rename them or create new types.

Changing & Abandoning Communities

Sometimes a Community will change. This might come about from the fiction in the
game, or it might be because the players (including the GM) aren’t interested in
the Community any longer. If this happens, players can...

Alter the Community

Change some of the Community information. Maybe some members leave or new ones
arrive. Maybe it goes from sedentary to mobile or vice versa. Maybe their
speciality is altered or they add a new one.

Switch Community Types

Tired of your Crew following you around? Turn them into a Village! Tired of being
tied to a village? Recruit a few members into a new Moral Order!
Create a New Community
You can stop associating with one Community and join another. Easy as that. Choose
the new Community’s type and answer the questions as normal, or turn an existing
group of people into a Community, answering the questions as the fiction dictates.

Go It Alone
While Communities are important to the themes of the game, it’s okay not to have
one. Maybe you’re a GM teaching new players the game and you want to minimize the
rules. Or maybe you’re tired of a Community but can’t think of a good replacement.
Get rid of it! Optional rules for gaining Experience without a Community are in
Appendix K.
Player Principles
The social skills involved in playing an RPG, whether with friends or strangers,
can be hard to navigate. Here are a few principles I try to keep in mind that I
think lead to a more fun game for everyone.

Be a Fan of the Players & Their Characters

Look out for each other, and try to find ways for everyone to have fun. People put
a lot of thought into characters, and finding ways to help other characters show
off can lead to fun bonding. Share the spotlight, and exult in each other’s
successes. (All this applies to the GM and their characters too!)

Share the Responsibility

While many older games assume that the GM will be in charge of making the world,
Patchwork World takes steps to place some of that responsibility in the hands of
the other players. This can be anxiety-inducing for some, but it’ll lead to a world
that’s informed by every player’s desires and fantasies.

(Putting this here too: if you’re not the GM, feel free to help with other parts of
the game that typically fall to the GM, such as looking up rules questions, helping
with scheduling, and so on.)

Ask Questions
It can be hard to keep everyone’s characters, all the plot info, and everyone’s
descriptions in your head, so feel free to ask questions! Wait, is the large rock
big enough to hide behind? When did we meet the medusa? Would folks be okay if I
attacked the mud monster? How’s everyone feel about leaving the cave exploration
until later?

Be Clear & Decisive

If you want to meet up with a favorite NPC, investigate a curious object, or follow
up a lead, please say so! I’ve heard so many good ideas and fun whims come up only
after a session or campaign was over.

And if you’re not sure how to say something in character, try out of character. If
you’re worried about making demands, ask a question. And if you don’t want to
disrupt a scene, write it down to bring up later.

Be Open to Change
Perhaps in direct paradox with the previous principle, be open to things going in a
way that you didn’t expect. Be open to your character not doing exactly what you
had planned (or, in a much bigger ask, don’t make plans for your character and
instead let them develop through play).
GM Principles, Moves & Advice

Principles
It can be hard to GM! Here are some broad ideas to consider before and during a
session.

Change the World

The Patchwork World is in flux. The hexes pulled in from across the universe have
vastly different needs and vastly different landscapes. If the players visit a
desert and then return months later, a river might have run through it, cascading
down from some massive hex of lake far away.

Similarly, a self-sustaining village might get an influx of refugees as time goes

on. Or two keeps from two different universes might join together as part of a
trade union.

There are no empires and no status quo. New ways of thinking and living are
permitted, and even encouraged, and people with agency and goodwill (such as player
characters) can have a say in how that world develops.

Change the Characters

As the world changes, so do the people in it. They change mentally, moving on from
what they previously thought were universal truths, but they change physically too.
Magical hex energy radiates, seeps, and flows, granting people new abilities and
changing bodies.

Provide Problems, Not Solutions

With such geographic upheaval and without the structures provided by large
civilizations, there are a lot of people who need help. They might need help
returning to lifestyles they understand, or they might need help adapting to this
new world. Those needs might fester or clash. It’s the job of the GM to show those
clashes, first through small signals and omens and then through larger collisions.

It is not the job of the GM to make sure there’s a way to fix them. You might have
a couple possibilities in mind, but players are resourceful, and they latch onto
strange things that might’ve slipped your mind. Let them decide which problems are
important to them, and let them come up with ways to approach them. And if they’re
not interested in pursuing a problem, that’s fine too; that just means it’s time
again to Change the World.

Leave Blank Spaces

The world is unexplored. Let it stay that way until the player characters enter!
Sure, you might plan a few hexes out or add locations when someone asks the
characters to go there, but don’t feel a need to fill the map in right away.

Also, let players fill the map. Ask them where their characters are from. Mark it;
maybe they’ll return there someday.

Be a Fan of the Players AND the Characters

While you’re potentially endangering the player’s characters or complicating their
lives, you’re doing so to ultimately help tell a story that everyone enjoys. The
other players should enjoy the process, and their characters should get to do neat
things and be in the spotlight.

Also, it’s partially your job to keep the players—the real human beings with you—
safe. (It’s their job too.) Stick to the ratings and content requests they’ve
established, and spend an occasional session checking in, reiterating the ways they
can let you know what they like and want.

Moves
When players roll a 7-9, they generally do what they were trying to but with a
complication. Perhaps they only accomplish part of their stated goal, or do it but
with unexpected results. But when they roll a 6 or less, they'll look to the GM for
guidance, and the GM can make a move as hard as they want.

Here are the GM’s default moves:

* Inflict Stress
* Inflict Hex
* Inflict a Tag
* Give Them a Choice
* Plant a Seed
* Take Something Away
* Show How the Community Feels
* Ask a Question
* Random Encounter
* Give Them What They Want

Unlike the moves other players get, your moves don’t require a roll and don’t have
strict results. Their vagaries hopefully allow them to be adapted to a wide range
of situations. Here are longer explanations of each along with some variations and
considerations.

Inflict Stress
Simple enough: have the player mark Stress, usually 1 to 3. You should usually have
hinted at the oncoming danger (see Plant a Seed below) before jumping to inflicting
Stress. For example, tell them a large animal is barreling at them or a corrupt
noble is trying to intimidate them (often because of a 7-9 or 6- result from a
player) and let them react. If the follow-up roll is bad, it might be time to
inflict Stress.

Even once you begin inflicting Stress, it can start low and go up as bad rolls
accrue. The large animal might swipe at a character, inflicting 1 Stress but then
holding the character in its paw. If the player rolls a 6- in trying to escape or
fight back, the animal might inflict 2 Stress by squeezing.

Inflict Hex
Probably less common than inflicting Stress, Hex usually comes from dangerous
magical sources. A swamp irradiated with curse energy, a botched spell, an angry
haunted doll, or a scorned witch all might lead to you inflicting Hex. As with
inflicting Stress, make sure you’ve telegraphed the dangers, whether by describing
the dizzy nausea of the cursed swamp or by having the haunted doll glow with sickly
energy.

Inflict a Tag
This move will probably come up less than inflicting Stress or Hex, and it’s most
commonly used to indicate a visual and/or physical difference in the character that
will likely be noted by others. For instance, instead of (or in addition to)
inflicting Hex, the witch mentioned above might inflict the tag of Shrunken. A
magical trap that tries to keep people from sneaking into a warlock’s den might
inflict the tag Glowing. If someone’s been in a real humdinger of a fight, pushing
on past when they should’ve retreated, they might be Bloody or Scarred.

Some of these tags might fade with time or once certain conditions are met. Make
this clear.

Give Them a Choice

Pursue an escaping villain or put out the fire. Get what you want or win the moral
victory. Alternately, treat your roll as a success but mark 1 Stress.

But choices don’t have to be between bad things! Use the wish cake to get the watch
chain your best friend wants or the comb your lover’s been eyeing. Take the road to
the meeting with your parents or chase down the valuable winged sapphire.

Plant a Seed
In a campaign-length game, there can be lots of possible threads to pursue, and
sometimes it’s hard to know which way to lead players. That’s the time to plant a
seed! Hint at something, have someone make a mysterious statement, show a strange
omen.

Sometimes seeds don’t come to fruition; plots might wither from disinterest or be
forgotten. But if you plant enough seeds, some will be lovingly tended by players
and grow mighty branches! Both possibilities are natural; both are okay.

Take Something Away

The classic example here is the adventurer edging their way across a rickety bridge
above a windy gorge, and they nearly slip; flinging a hand out, they hang on, but
their knife/a healing potion/the key to the villain’s base slips away into the
void.

Alternately, someone is disarmed in a fight, which leads to Giving Them a Choice:

expose themselves by retrieving the weapon? or continue fighting at a disadvantage?

An important thing to keep in mind is that there’s usually no reason for this to be
permanent or bad. Important items in the Patchwork World have a way of finding
their way back to those that lose them. Maybe the adventurer finds the villain’s
key repurposed as a fisherman’s necklace. Maybe they see the healing potion’s empty
bottle in the home of a villager now recovering from an illness.
Show How the Community Feels
If there’s not an immediate consequence to the characters’ actions, there might be
one back home. Most communities are made up of any number of people other than the
players’ characters. This means that someone will inevitably have something to say
about the characters’ actions. Maybe someone’s mad about a choice they made.
Alternately, maybe someone’s inspired; the characters perform a just and meaningful
action (while rolling a 7-9 in the bargain), and this means that a young, would-be
adventure back home sets off on her own. Do the players have a responsibility to
pursue? To help?

Ask a Question
This is a game about questions, right? The players are used to answering them. So
ask some more. If you’re not sure what move to make, ask the player something like…
* How does your character feel about this?
* What does this remind you of from your past?
* What will you do if _________ happens?

While asking a question is enough on its own, it can also fuel future moves and
inspire choices from other players.

Random Encounter
Make a little clock, divide it into four or six segments, and fill in one of the
segments. Or if you already have a clock, fill in another segment. Let the other
players see this, let them know it’s a potential encounter, and give them signs of
what it might be.

For example, as they sneak about a hidden city, let them know that guards have
sounded an alert or are searching for them one street over. As they trek through
dangerous woods, show signs of the resident triple-wolf matron searching for food
for her young.

This can also be used even if the characters are already in a scrap. It can signal
the arrival of a new faction or reinforcements getting closer.

Random encounters do not have to explode into combat when the clock fills; the full
clock is just a signal for it to interact directly with the characters. It might be
bandits asking for a toll, guards requesting they come talk to them, a sphinx
asking a riddle, and so on.

Give Them What They Want

Sometimes this is a loaded statement. “Give them what they want...so they can find
out it’s what they don’t want!” A real monkey’s paw situation.

But sometimes there’s nothing else to do past giving them what they want so that
the game can move on to other places, other moments, other goals. It feels good to
get what you want!

Faction-Based Play
One of my GM mentors told me that his philosophy of running the game was to create
an “ecology of assholes,” a group of factions that could all help the characters
but were all sort of jerks. He’d wind this ecology up, set it in front of the
players, and let them negotiate, sneak, and fight among the factions until
something was resolved.

This remains one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned.

However, I heartily believe that the ecology works just as well if all the factions
involved are neutral or kind. If there are three groups of helpful people that all
need the same thing, the players will have their work cut out for them mediating
that decision and living with the consequences.

While this isn’t the only way to set up a scenario, I find it’s a useful framework.
The basic idea is:
1. Create two to four factions
2. Create an item, place, or resource that they all want or need
3. Create a short history between them, noting what they know about each other
4. Name members of each faction (possibly introducing sub-factions with differing
interpretations of their main need)
5. Find ways to introduce the factions to the players

Faction sheets are included at the end of this book along with character and
community sheets.

Making NPCs
It can be intimidating to imagine that you, the GM player, will have to enact every
character in the world except for those of the other players. Luckily, the
characters you play are just as easy to make as the other players’ characters. They
just need a few things:
* Name
* Look
* Attitude
* Desires
* Stress Track

Name
Make sure this is something you don’t feel weird saying out loud. Make it easy to
pronounce and remember. “Elleswyth” is out; “Lumpy Todd” is in.

Look
Giving characters a single notable feature that you repeat each time they’re around
helps the other players remember who’s who. A nice cape of a specific color, big
hair, bright makeup, a cute butt, etc. If you forget to give them one, ask the
players, “What’s one thing about them that jumps out and shows you who they are?”

Attitude
Are they imperious? Babbling? Jokey? Flirtatious? One thing to note: NPCs might
only show up a few times, the other players might not be interested in them, and/or
they might be suddenly killed. Given this, don’t make stoic NPCs! Make their
desires and dislikes clear and obvious, let them talk soon and often, and have them
admire, respect, and talk to the other players’ characters earlier and often.

Desires
What do they want? What will they do to get it? Again, don’t be afraid to make
these obvious to the other players. If you want to keep secrets, you can tell what
they want and hold back the why of it.

Stress Track
Sometimes your NPCs get into a stressful situation! When this happens, you’ll need
to know how much Stress they can take before the other players use the Victory?
move. A random mook, unimportant to the story, might just have one or two marks on
their Stress Track. An important figure could match the players’ characters with
six marks. Truly legendary characters might have up to 10.

It’s important to remember that Stress is not a measure of purely physical

resistance (although that might be a factor). A noble princess standing up for the
rights of her people might exert her willpower to the point of having six Stress
marks.

Also keep in mind that you might want to inflict Stress on NPCs who the players are
friends with when those players roll 6-. Seeing friends in danger or messing up
might stress out said NPCs.

Sidebar: Where the Rubber Hits the Road

A little story:

I was putting together some NPCs for a longtime group of players, and I thought it
would be neat to have a museum curator that would ease a number of speedbumps we’d
encountered, both in the fiction of the game world and in ease of play. He could:
* buy all the weird items the players wrote down on their sheets and forgot about
* help them with research
* give them quests to track down items

I had a backstory for him, a list of errands, and a rough layout of his museum.
When I finally introduced him, I showed him on a date with another NPC, Ruby, the
players had met earlier, trying to show that the world was interconnected and
vibrant.

The players immediately decided he wasn’t good enough for Ruby.

They broke into his office in the museum and found his money and records showing
he’d inherited it from his father (giving him, I thought, a plausible reason to
have enough cash to pay the players). They decided he was a no-good trust fund baby
and colonialist, and they wanted to take him down.

I guess I could’ve tried to stop them, stepping back from the story and telling
them why I’d introduced him. But it was so fun to see the players fired up and
taking things into their own hands. So the museum curator became a sleazy artifact
thief and recurring villain.
This is all just to say that nothing written down—in this book, on a character
sheet, in the GM’s notes—is “real” until it comes out in play. So either tell your
fellow players your cool ideas or be ready to have other cool ideas override them.
Or both!

Using the Community

The NPCs of the players’ chosen community can have lots of uses beyond each
community’s listed mechanical effect. This is by no means a comprehensive list, nor
are you expected you use them all. Some players will become very invested in their
communities, while others will be uninterested in dealing with them (just like in
real life).

Fetch Quests
Plain and simple—someone needs something, and who better to get it than the
players? Maybe it’s a natural resource. But also consider giving the players a note
to bring to someone else, giving them a sympathetic contact wherever they’re going.

Alternately, give your players an immoral quest (steal something, wreck something,
etc.) and see how they react. Don’t break their trust in you as a GM, though, by
tricking them into doing something wrong. Make sure they have ample opportunities
to know what’s up.

Should the Community Dislike the Players?

It can be hard to walk the line between “community is a thing the other players
own” and “the community is made up of people who would react consistently to the
players’ actions.” If you feel like they would be hurt by what the players’
characters have done, or that they would desert or turn against them consider the
following options:
* have a community member speak out against the characters only to get talked back
around
* have some community members leave the community and be replaced by people more in
line with the characters’ actions
* have a community member call in an expert or someone from the character’s past to
try to convince them to change their ways
* have a community member agree with the character’s ways and then take them to
(il)logical next step—for instance, a community member affected by a character’s
violence becomes even more violent
* ghosts visit like in A Christmas Story

On Difficulty, Probability & Getting Hurt

When rolling two dice, the average roll will be a 7. Modifiers increase this
number. This means that, most of the time, players are likely to succeed at least
partially.

I don’t consider this “win rate” necessarily good or bad, but it is significantly
higher than many other games. If the GM is setting up interesting choices and
fostering good discussion between the players, I find the ensuing drama and
questions to be engaging enough I don’t mind a higher chance of player success.

If any of the players at the table want the game to be harder, there are Hard Mode
rules in Appendix L: Optional Rules.

Connected to mechanical difficulty (at least in many games) is the proximity of

injury and death. In Patchwork World, Stress and Hex don’t heal naturally over
time. This is partially a design response to the higher probability of successful
rolls, but it’s also because filling either meter isn’t an immediate loss state or
end to the character.

As Patchwork World is, first and foremost, built for multi-session campaigns, it
assumes that players will get many chances to engage with the lists in the
Exhausted and Hexed moves. These lists are meant to invoke a feeling of failure
that isn’t fatal, giving characters a chance to recover from smaller problems and
change because of what’s happened to them.
Making the World (and Genre Considerations)
In my heart of hearts, I want this game to be completely modular and adaptable to
any table. However, I definitely wrote it with some images, moods, and ideas in
mind, so it’ll probably be better suited to games that don’t rub up against that.
Here are some of those ideas.

Romance
You might notice that lots of moves have options for developing crushes and falling
in love. While I intend for romance in Patchwork World to be fun and consensual,
love can mean so many things to different people! When dealing with romance, be
extra sure to refer to the players’ safety choices and everyone’s principles.

Some considerations:
* Let players (including the GM) opt out of romance at any time.
* Don’t use character feelings as a vehicle for player feelings (i.e., don’t try to
use in-game romance as a vehicle for out-of-game feelings).
* Let players explore whatever kinds of love they’re interested: romantic,
platonic, monogamous, polyamorous, casual, long-term, etc.
* Don’t be a creep!

Fantasy
Patchwork World has no section on lore or history. This is because, while I
consider Patchwork World to be fantasy, I want it to be a modern fantasy about
modern concerns. When I write “fantasy,” I mean “something that people would
fantasize about,” such as:
* having power to fight back against forces that oppress you
* not having to worry about money
* being able to love whoever you want
* having a found family that accepts you for who you are

This means the game might be unyoked from the “classics” of the 20th century.
Serfdom, misogyny, slavery, and other staples of Medieval fantasy are not the
default here, and players shouldn’t justify anything in the game with phrases like
“that’s how things were in the past.”

If you’re concerned that this will suck all the tension from your game—that
characters need to be downtrodden or powerless for conflict to emerge—consider what
happens when three or more people bring their individual dreams to a game and try
to make them all coexist. Conflicting utopias provide enough tension for hundreds
or thousands of game sessions.

Tone
Tone springs from genre in a number of ways, and I’m not here to tell you how to
run or play your game. However, I’d like to flag a few things I was feeling in
writing down the moves and encounters (which are the few components of this game
that can point directly toward certain tones).

First, most playtesters have leaned into weirdness and humor. You can play a
raccoon thief who worships the god of seeing through walls, or you can play a
necromancer cursed to inhabit the body of a muppet. I think this is basically
Adventure Time? Just start with some weird and whacked-out things and eventually,
if your path leads there, do some character development.

You can also start from more traditional fantasy games. I made this game in order
to divest from that, but I’m not going to come to your house to stop you. You can
be a fighter, a thief, a wizard, and so on. I’d just ask you to reconsider why
you’d want to use this game to do that. Get strange instead!

When I was writing most of the moves, I was thinking of Icelandic sagas, Game Boy
and SNES RPGs, and ‘80s soap opera superhero comics (see Appendix N). All of these
stories take themselves very seriously. Maybe consider what this game would do if
you started by taking it seriously (while still allowing for humor, weirdness, and
your own favorite fantasy touchstones).

Emergence Over Realism

This is not a game about realism, and the tags and moves a character has should
inform the fiction rather than the fiction informing the usefulness or possibility
of a move.

For instance, in a realistic game, a character might not be able to sleep in heavy
armor, and they might be barred from entering a peaceful or formal place. This is
not the case in this game, though. Instead, figure out why the character is
absolutely allowed to keep the armor on at all times. Did the advancement that
granted them that move also teach them bodily control so that they can wear it in
bed? Are certain classes of people (particularly those to which the heavily armored
character) allowed to wear armor wherever they go? Can armor be peaceful and/or
formal? Find reasons to say yes. Find places to imagine a world that allows for the
characters the players have built.
Sample of Play
Dramatis personae:
* Aaron as the GM
* PB as Wally the necromancer/puppet
* Jeremy as Gage the innkeeper
* Emily as Rusty the decaying raccoon spy

The crew disembarks from a garbage barge into Toomuv, a large village built over
top of an abandoned dungeon. They’re looking for the ghost of Greengrass, a sage
who died in the dungeon long ago and supposedly haunts the area.

Aaron: Jeremy, since Gage is an innkeeper, what’s the nicest place to stay in town?
Jeremy: How about a bed and breakfast? And it’s repurposed a bunch of old dungeon
traps to, like, chop up and prepare food. Swinging blades and gouts of flame and
stuff.

Aaron: What’s it called?

Jeremy: I’m trying to think of a name that has “booby trap” in it. Without being
gross.

PB: What about “Cafe of Chaos”?

Jeremy: I like that. We can always change it if we think of something better.

Emily: I want to roll to see how bad I smell from the garbage barge.

Aaron: Well, there’s no move triggered by smelling bad, so you don’t have to roll.

Emily: Rusty definitely got into some heinous stuff, though. I’m just gonna roll
anyway. [rolls a die] I got a 4. I’ve smelled worse.

PB: Since we’re arriving at a new place, does that trigger the Welcome Wagon move?

Aaron: Probably! The move says “when you investigate a culture on first entering a
new area.” Are you investigating? What’s it look like?

Jeremy: To the Cafe of Chaos!

PB: Yeah, can we go order food and people-watch at a cafe? How intense does the
investigation have to be?

Aaron: I think that can be enough. Who’s rolling?

Emily: Not me. Rusty stinks, which probably means he’s not following cultural
mores.

PB: I don’t think any of us know the cultural mores. And I don’t think my
reputation precedes me. So I’m just rolling two dice with no bonus, right?

Aaron: Sounds like it.

PB: [rolls dice] Um...5.

Aaron: “Ask one but be prepared for the worst.” And don’t forget to mark
Experience.

PB: I was leaning toward “who here would be excited to meet or receive me,” but I’m
not sure about getting the worst answer to that.

Jeremy: What about, “Who is the greatest threat?” Since there’s no good answer to
that anyway.

Aaron: [did not plan for threats in this town, foolishly did not consider rolls
being made here] Um. The greatest threat is the person who built the dungeon the
town is built over. You get the sense that he’s survived somehow and still has some
control over his death machines. And he doesn’t like you rolling into town like
this. One of the flame gouts is currently cooking some kebabs, but it starts to
slowly angle toward you. What do you do?

PB: Whoa. Should I just jump under the table for cover? Or try to douse the flame?
Would that be Derring Do?

Emily: Wait. I have a plan. Rusty has a move he hasn’t used yet.

Aaron: What move?

Emily: New Friend. I make the dungeon crafter my ally.

all: [stunned silence]

Emily: Rusty says, “Hey, buddy, I have a personal interest in, like, instruments of
death. What’s your name?”

Aaron: “I am the Horror-Monger, tamer of flames and blades, worshipper of the dark
and musty voids hiding in the flesh of the earth.”

Emily: Cool. I also have that dark and musty vibe. Love it. What can you tell us
about Greengrass the sage?

Aaron: New Friend says your cohort has a need, right?

Emily: Yeah…

Aaron: “Greengrass was slain by my devices long ago. I can direct you to her body.
But first, you must retrieve my fossilized brain from what remains of my dungeon.”
Adventure
* The Heartless Princess of the Icy City at the crown of the world has detected a
source of much-needed warmth for her frozen abode.
* Her seers are clear: the warming device, a sundrop, is in a rocky badland devoid
of life.
* Bring the sundrop to the Icy City!

The Heartless Princess makes her request in person or via a small dog or ice
hologram. Offer the players a reward or ask them what kind of reward would
incentivize them.

The Heartless Princess’s rules for adventure:

* sovereignty for each
* harm to none
* benefits for all

The players have a budget for travel supplies (allow them whatever they ask for
within reason; ask them what “within reason” might mean) and are given a conveyance
of their choice. They get a map that shows roughly where the sundrop is; because of
the patchwork nature of the world, most of the map (including the destination)
lacks detail.

While they prepare, they’re approached by Ataraxy, a worshiper of the Tortoise God
of Slow Time & Real Presence. (Come up with what she looks like.) Her god died in
the cataclysm that led to the Patchwork World’s creation, but she has a holy egg.
Would the players, known to be seeking a source of warmth, be so kind as to take
this egg and hatch it in whatever heat they discover? The Heartless Princess has
made gods illegal, you see. But Ataraxy would have them bring the hatchling to her
to raise.

All Ataraxy has to offer as payment is a tiny tortoise shell that, when struck like
a gong, will calm all listeners for as long as it rings (30 seconds? as long as
someone doesn’t use their hands for anything other than chiming?).

Depending on how long you want this adventure to last, travel can be dangerous or
fully mundane and skipped. If you want it to be dangerous, supply ominous places to
inspect and strange people with eyes to stare into. If the players roll low, it’s a
good time to start a clock for random encounters. It’s a good time for new players
(GM included) to get used to moves, clocks, and random tables.

On nearing the sundrop, the players will find themselves in a region of hexagonal
basalt columns thrusting up from pink-gray sand.

The area is home to two dozen rock beings who live long, slow lives curled up like
boulders. They call themselves the Mineralists, and the sundrop is their
tool/temple/god that allows them to join together, two by two, into a new mineral,
and then split into novel siblings.

While the Mineralists are initially neutral, inquiry into the sundrop might turn
them suspicious or even aggressive.

As an additional wrinkle, nearby bandits have planted a member of their gang with
the Mineralists as a “wizard” who’s sworn to protect them. His name is Southside,
and he’s actually trying to figure out a way to use the sundrop to turn the
Mineralists into gold so that they can be broken apart and used as wealth. While he
still has a ways to go in this process, he won’t broke interference, and he’ll do
anything to turn the Mineralists against the players.

Mineralist names: Micah, Olive, Cinnabar, Aragon, Feldspar, Wolfram, Pluto, Zerk,
Galena

Mineralist daily activities:

* napping in the warm glow of the sundrop
* assisting the aged in turning over (prevents moss accumulation)
* eating (mud pies, sand bars, shell & stem salad)
* slow & grinding lovemaking away from prying eyes
* childcare

Mineralists have 1d6 Stress and the following moves:

* Throw, Call Avalanche, Immobilize, Reflect

Southside has 6 Stress and the following moves:

* Blinding Flashpaper, Holler for Reinforcements, Harness Sundrop, Escape

Consequences
If they take the sundrop, the Mineralists go into hibernation and will eventually
die out without a replacement heat source. One of them becomes a seeker of
vengeance, going after the players and the Icy City (maybe along with any remaining
bandits).

If they leave the sundrop, the Heartless Princess will understand, but the City
stays cold, and the hunt for other sources of heat continues.

If the bandit gang remains solvent, they’ll become recurring enemies of the
players, finding ways to harry and annoy them while also lusting after gold.

If the egg of the Tortoise God of Slow Time & Real Presence hatches, Ataraxy will
seek out a safe place to raise the baby god. Maybe the players can help.
Regardless, they can call on the hatchling to freeze time for a minute (relative to
the players) at some point in the future.

Of course, if the Princess finds out they’ve aided & abetted a being of apocalyptic
potential (BAP), she’ll be forced to convene a God Squad.
Default Moves (everyone gets these)
[add clearer drawbacks/hard choices to 7-9 (like instead of “choose 1,” make it
“choose 2 but” with a list of complications; change and unify wording for all 6-
results so that the players know to look to the GM]

Derring-Do
When you act to avoid danger, roll with the questions:
* Are you being flashy or impressive?
* Did you know this might happen?
On a 10+, you avoid the danger. On a 7-9, you avoid the danger but at a cost or
with a complication. On a 6-, you take the brunt of it or it gets worse.

Wound
When you strike out with the intent to cause harm, roll with the questions:
* Are you defending yourself?
* Have you witnessed them acting unjustly?

On a 10+, exchange harm and choose two from below. On a 7-9, exchange harm, choose
one from below, and the MC chooses one from to affect you. On a 6-, exchange harm
and be prepared for the worst.

By default, you deal 1 Stress. If you’re armed (with a weapon or special

knowledge), deal 2.

* inflict an extra Stress

* take one less Stress
* remove an advantage
* affect one or two extra targets
* force a change of location
* create collateral damage

Victory?
When you fill the Stress track of an important NPC (you and/or the GM decide), roll
+the number of times you’ve filled their Stress track. On a 10+, choose one from
this list:
* they reveal a key piece of information before escaping
* they turn themselves over to you; ask questions from Stare Into Eyes Not Your Own
as though you’d rolled a 10+
* they fall unconscious

On a 7-9, the GM chooses from the list above or the list below:
* they surrender but refuse to talk
* they call upon a dangerous power to assume a new form
* they die
* they fall for you
On a 6-, the MC chooses as 7-9, but be prepared for the worst.

Stare Into Eyes Not Your Own

When you look into someone’s eyes to discern their feelings, roll with the
questions:
* Have you made yourself vulnerable?
* Do you know something important about them?

On a 10+, ask two. On a 7-9, choose:

* ask two, mark 1 Stress, and the GM asks you one
* ask one, and the GM asks you one
On a 6-, ask one, mark 1 Stress, and the GM asks you one.
* What are you feeling?
* Are you telling the truth?
* What do you intend to do?
* How could I get you to _________?
* Can I hold you?
* Will you love me if I ________?

Inspect the Area

When you poke around the immediate area, roll with the questions:
* Do you take your time?
* Do you have help or specialized equipment?

On a 10+, you can ask three of the following questions. On a 7-9, ask two. On a 6-,
ask one and be prepared for the worst.
* What is being concealed here?
* What is most valuable here?
* What is the history of this place?
* Who was here recently?
* What is useful here?

[back of move hints: look at the questions the player gets to ask]

Explore the Map

When you spend a day exploring a large area, roll with the questions:
* Do you take your time?
* Have you been somewhere similar?

On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one.

* You don’t attract unwelcome attention.
* You learn something useful about what lives there.
* You find something previously unseen.
* You see something beautiful and wondrous; everyone present erases 1 Stress.

Give Yourself Up to the Will of Fate

When you only have 1 unmarked Stress left and you turn to the unseen fates for
advice, ask the other players what they think you should do. When you pursue what
one of them recommends, erase 1 Stress and take +1 to the next roll in that
pursuit.

Welcome Wagon
When you investigate a culture on first entering a new area, roll with the
questions:
* Does your reputation precede you?
* Do you know and follow the cultural mores?

On a 10+, ask two. On a 7-9, ask one. On a 6-, ask one but be prepared for the
worst.
* Who is in control here?
* Who is the greatest threat?
* Who here would be excited to meet or receive me?
* What is expected of me?
Throw Your Weight Around
When you demand something you think you deserve, erase Experience and roll
+Experience erased (max +2). On a 10+, you get what you asked for. On a 7-9, you
get most of what you asked for or something similar. On a 6-, you might get what
you asked for, but your reputation is at stake or someone has taken offense.

Be Prepared
When you encounter something that you might have prepared for, roll with the
questions.
* Do you know someone that could have helped?
* Did you have adequate access to what you need?

On a 10+, you got the item you need or you did the legwork. On a 7-9, you got the
item or did the legwork, but mark 1 Stress. On a 6-, you got the item or did the
legwork and mark 1 Stress, but the situation isn’t as simple as it seemed.

Session End
At the end of a session, each player looks at their goals. If they made progress
toward at least one of them, they mark 1 Experience.
Track Moves

Exhausted
When your Stress track fills, you fall unconscious or become otherwise unable to
act until you’re healed or until a new scene or day; erase all Stress and mark one
of the options below.
* treat your next roll as a 6-
* gain the question, “Am I motivated by my brush with death?”
* declare your undying love for someone
* become scarred; add a personal tag
* learn from your troubles; gain a new move
* you’re changed; erase a personal tag and choose a new one
* you’re changed; trade a random move for a different random move
* you owe a supernatural force or powerful organization for your return
* you retire at the end of the session; make a new character
* you become a ghost or angel
* you die, only to return unexpectedly in the future
* you die, never to return

Hexed
When your Hex track fills, erase all Hex and choose one:
* you mutate; gain a random personal tag
* you mutate; trade a random move for a different random move
* you leak; everyone present marks 1 Hex
* you attract unwanted supernatural attention

Advancement
When your Experience track fills, erase it and choose one:
* gain a new move
* gain or erase a personal tag
* add a new Goal (max 3)
* abase yourself, gaining forgiveness from someone you have wronged
Chosen Moves
[add clearer drawbacks/hard choices to 7-9 (like instead of “choose 1,” make it
“choose 2 but” with a list of complications; change and unify wording for all 6-
results so that the players know to look to the GM]
[print them to cut out; back sides have design notes on the move, options for 6-,
etc]

COMPATRIOT
These moves involve an ally, friend, or assistant.

Actively Loving Parent(s)

You have one or more parents that are alive; they love you, and they communicate
with you regularly. When you can spend 24 peaceful hours with them, heal 1d6
Stress, and your allies present can heal 1 Stress. Once a session, you can ask them
one question from Give Yourself Up to the Will of Fate; the GM will answer from the
point of view of your parents.

Parent Name(s): ______________

Parent Look(s): ______________

Blue Merchant Contract

You have an ongoing arrangement with tall, blue-skinned merchants that live just
sideways of the places we know. When you need a rare object or dangerous contraband
and have time to draw up a contract, one of the merchants will step forth to help.
Choose up to 3 from the list below and roll with the number of options marked.
* Give over a valuable object.
* Reveal a secret to the merchant; mark 2 Stress.[a]
* Channel magical energy to the merchant; mark 2 Hex.
* Lose a memory to the merchant; erase 1 Experience.
* Wear a sigil of the merchant (patch, sandwich board, etc); it’s embarrassing.
* Sacrifice future possibilities; make your next roll at -1 instead of rolling with
the questions.
* Give over your heart; you are in love with the merchant.

On a 10+, you get the object you need. On a 7-9, choose 1:

* The object is a loan and must be returned in the same condition else you anger
the merchants.
* The object is an artful counterfeit that will stand up to casual observation but
will be discovered as a fake in 1d6 weeks.
* The object is infested with a spiritual parasite that collects and distributes
the stories of your soul. PCs near the object must mark 1 Hex whenever they roll or
else treat that roll as a 6-; NPCs get sick and sad.

Merchant names: Kreg, Grigg, Brugh, Gredd, Droob, etc.

Double-Bodied
You are two people who, for some reason, can’t be seen together. Choose one:
* crime twins
* students of the same murdered master
* forbidden lovers
* magical doppelgangers
* split in two by a curse
You are functionally interchangeable, with the same skills and knowledge. Add the
following to your Exhausted track:
* Your other self dies or disappears; lose the Double-Bodied move.

When you want to be somewhere that would be inconvenient or impossible for you to
be at (if you are trapped, immobilized, or otherwise inconvenienced, for instance),
roll with the questions:
* Did you leave a message as to where you’d like to be?
* Is your other self nearby or able to travel quickly?

On a 10+, you show up despite your inconvenience and have the advantage of
surprise. On a 7-9, you show up but bring new trouble. On a 6-, be prepared for the
worst; perhaps your other self is in ironically similar trouble.

Duck Soul
The lightest part of a duck’s spirit, the bit which sheds ghostly feathers that
rise to mallard heaven, has cooled and collected around you. It's simultaneously
airy and moist, making it adept at dodging blows, striking quickly, and boiling its
passions at celebratory bonfires.

When you use the duck soul’s intuition to dodge a weapon strike, tell the GM to
secretly set a single die to one of its faces. Do the same; if you picked the same
number as the GM, you mark no Stress.

Add a new option to your Exhausted move:

* Erase all XP and black out; you awaken at the last bonfire you rested at. If you
reach the spot you died at, mark XP equal to the XP you erased.

Grandma’s Ghost
You are a vessel for your grandmother's spirit. Your grandma was a:
* troll
* witch
* pirate
* pugilist
* something else: _____________

When you take this move, choose an additional move that your grandma has. Assign
her a separate goal. When your Hex meter fills or when you roll a 6-, your grandma
might take over. She can use Default Moves and her moves. You can spend Experience
to teach her moves.

Add the following to your Exhausted list:

* Your grandma is taken by ghost hunters or spirit merchants and must be rescued.
* Your grandma moves on from you; why? Lose the Grandma’s Ghost move.

She'll relinquish control only after she:

* teaches you humility
* helps you find love
* gains vengeance on her enemies
* eats her favorite food
* [work with the other players to write your own]

“Horse”
You have a loyal mount. It starts a simple beast that can run at a decent clip.
When your Experience track is full, you can choose to erase it to grant your mount
the following abilities. They must be gained in order.
* It can attack. Describe how.
* It can talk. Is it to everyone, or only to you?
* It gains chitinous armor, reducing the damage it takes by 1.
* It can run across water.
* It can walk on walls and ceilings.
* It can fly. Describe its means of locomotion.

Talk with your GM and fellow players about violence toward animals. Can your mount
be attacked? (If not, it probably shouldn’t attack, in which case you can skip that
advancement above.) Can it be otherwise menaced or endangered?

New Friend
When you turn an acquaintance into an ally, you can choose to lose this move and
gain a Cohort move. This cohort has a skill, such as blacksmithing, cartography,
translation, or singing; when the cohort is with you and their skill would help
with a move you roll, you can add +1 (max +2) to that roll.

Your cohort is working on a project that will eventually be useful to you and the
cohort. When you trigger the Advancement move, you can choose to fill a segment of
the clock instead of the listed advancements. Work with the rest of the table to
decide what happens once the project is completed.

Your cohort will probably have at least one need, such as money, food, affection,
or resources. If the need goes too long unfulfilled (such as if the cohort is
involved in a roll of 6-), you won’t be able to get help from them or advance their
project.

Name:
Skill:
Wants:
Longterm project:

[clock]

Porter
You start with 2 points to spend on how you store and transport things. The options
tagged as NPC should be given names; they can’t be killed or have gory violence
inflicted upon them, but they might be captured, be chased off, or require payment
or promises from you in dire situations.

You can spend a full Experience to gain 2 more points; you can also “turn in” your
previous choices and spend those points on something else. What happens to the
things and people you turn in?
* mule (1 point, compatriot, mobile)
* cart (1 point, mobile, encumbering)
* ergonomic & complicated heap of backpacks, baskets, etc (1 point, personal)
* sled (1 point, mobile, encumbering)
* dogs (1 point, compatriot, mobile)
* unpickable lock (1 point, add the secure tag to any non-compatriot option)
* extended family (2 points, compatriot, mobile, demanding)
* hidden vault (3 points, secret, storage)
* foldable pocket dimension (3 points, discreet, personal)
* walking statue (3 points, mobile, combat-ready, compatriot?)

When you reach into your storage to retrieve an object you need that you could
conceivably have, roll with the questions:
* Is it cheap, common, or easy to find?
* Have you put money into the right hands?

On a 10+, it’s there. On a 7-9, you grab something that could potentially be useful
but not in the way you intended.

Stoned Investigator
Your friend is between 3 and 4 feet high, always has a pipe to share, and spends
their free time pursuing mysteries and conspiracies.

Names: Rongo, Lumbo, Frogoo, Burk, Mallah, Doc, Furry, One-More-Thing

Look: hobbitish, goblinish, gnomish, animalian

When you smoke and talk with your friend in order to mull over a problem you have,
roll with the questions:
* Did you bring a gift?
* Is the problem uniquely intriguing?

Instead of or in addition to rolling with the questions, you can erase an

Experience to add 1 to the roll (max +3). If you do, the investigator will tell you
about a particularly thorny case, and you’ll provide a key insight into solving it.

On a 10+, the investigator gives you advice that is immediately helpful.

On a 7-9, choose 1:
* the investigator gives you advice that is hazy but potentially helpful
* the investigator can give you helpful advice but only after you help them with a
convoluted case

On a 6-, be prepared for the worst; you might overindulge, or the investigator
might accuse you of being complicit in an ongoing case. If you spent Experience,
your name might become known to a criminal element.
EQUIPMENT
These moves give you items that help you (usually).

Big Suit
You’ve created/found/stolen (choose one) a suit that allows you to navigate the
spaces between the Patchwork World and the pocket realms hiding in its seams. It
provides 1 Armor and allows you to travel to said pocket realms.

When you travel to a pocket realm, roll with the questions.

* Have you done your research?
* Have you taken time to prepare a gateway?

On a 10+, you get all three. On a 7-9, choose two. On a 6-, choose one.
* You don’t attract attention on the way and when you arrive.
* You can bring someone along safely.
* Time passes at the same rate at home and in the pocket realm.

Look: ______________
Material (choose one and specify or write your own): [wood] [metal] [stone]
[energy] [biological] [crystalline]

Card Duelist
You have trained in the sometimes-deadly art of card fighting, and you have a deck
of cards useful in gaming and as a reference tool. The cards might describe and
picture animals, monsters, criminals, royalty, plants, books, or any other class of
being or item with a complicated taxonomy.

You can use the cards as a weapon.

You’ll encounter others with their own decks of duel cards. When you summon forth
the ectoplasmic images of the things your cards portray in order to pit them
against an opponent’s deck, mark 1 Hex and roll with the questions:
* Do you know the items or strengths of your opponent’s deck?
* Have you spent most of your money on your cards?

On a 10+, choose 2; on a 7-9, choose 1:

* Erase 1 Hex.
* Your opponent marks 1 Hex.
* Your opponent marks 1 Stress.
* You claim one of your opponent’s cards; describe it and gain 1 hold. You can
spend this hold to gain +1 (max +3) on the next roll you make with your cards.

When you defeat a powerful being whose taxonomy is represented in your deck, you
can mark 1 Hex to add a card representing the being (or the being itself?) to your
deck. Gain 1 hold; you can spend this hold to gain +1 (max +4) on the next roll you
make with your cards.

Enhanced Limb
You replace or lace a limb with something not-you. Maybe write a personal tag for
it.

Material (choose one and specify or write your own): [wood] [metal] [stone]
[biological] [crystalline]

Choose an effect:
* Stronger (add the question “Can my enhanced limb help me?” to Wound)
* Faster (add the question “Can my enhanced limb help me?” to Derring-Do)
* Mesmerizing (add the question “Do they like my enhanced limb?” to Stare Into Eyes
Not Your Own)

You can take this move up to three times.

Eye Helmet
You have a helmet that is also a big eye. It lets you see through solid material.
It also protects your head, I guess. These things usually belong to servants of the
Optic God, so think about how you got it.

When you Inspect the Area, optic obstructions no longer matter to you (unless it’s
lead; you can’t see through lead). You can ask questions about things on the other
sides of walls, doors, floors, etc.

When you try to harness the power of the Optic God, roll with the questions:
* Do you serve the Optic God?
* Have you seen something previously unseen in the past day?

On a 10+, choose one. On a 7-9, choose one but expect a request from the Optic God.
On a 6-, instead of seeing, perhaps you are the one that is seen.
* The next time you would mark Stress, mark 1 less.
* You can ask questions from Explore the Wilderness as though you’d rolled a 10+.
* The stars speak to you in glimmering luminosity; you can trigger Give Yourself Up
to the Will of Fate.

Look: ______________
Material (choose one and specify or write your own): [wood] [metal] [stone]
[energy] [biological] [crystalline]

Heavy Armor
You wear bulky, protective armor. Describe it and gain the personal tag slow.

The first time someone harms you in a scene and your armor could protect you, you
don’t mark any Stress. After that, all harm is reduced to 1.

Look: ______________
Material (choose one and specify or write your own): [wood] [metal] [stone]
[biological] [crystalline]
Journal
When you make time to diligently document the day’s interactions with those you
love when you should be doing something else, take +1 forward interacting with
someone you wrote about and choose 1:
* You better understand your feelings; erase 1 Stress.
* You better understand the feelings of the person you wrote about; ask them a
question from Stare Into Eyes Not Your Own.
* You have the beginnings of a brilliant plan to bring people closer; describe
who’s involved and fill in a segment of the clock.

[clock]

When the clock is filled, you hold a party or create an unlikely meeting that seems
coincidental. Everyone involved shares time and space, and you and they all erase
up to 2 Stress.

Lucky Coin
When you trigger a move, if you have time in-game to flip a coin, you can do so in
real life. Instead of rolling with the questions, choose heads or tails and flip a
coin; if you chose correctly, you get +2; if you chose incorrectly, you get +0.

Look: ______________
Material (choose one and specify or write your own): [wood] [metal] [stone]
[energy] [biological] [crystalline]

Magnificent Weapon
You wield a weapon of particular craft or lineage. Detail its looks, range, and
material.

Whenever you use the weapon to harm Stress, deal +1 harm.

You can take this move multiple times, getting a new weapon each time.

Look: ______________
Range (choose one): [melee] [missile]
Material (choose one and specify or write your own): [wood] [metal] [stone]
[energy] [biological] [crystalline]

You can spend a full Experience track to add one of the following abilities to the
weapon:

Wedded to Flesh: When holding the weapon, it can’t be taken or knocked from your
grip. You always know the distance and direction you are from the weapon.

The Blade Special: When you share a moment of emotional intimacy with your weapon,
roll no modifier. On a 10+, you get +1 forward to the Wound move. On a 7-9, you get
+1 forward to Wound but only if the blade approves of your choice of target. On a
6-, the MC can choose to have the weapon defect to an opponent. It will return to
you after it cuts you or you convince it you’re a better wielder.

Honor Graft: When you use your weapon to cut a promise or debt from someone, roll
with the questions:
* Was the obligation created under duress?
* Is there a large gulf of power between the promiser and the promised?

On a 10+, choose 3. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a 6-, choose 1, and prepare for the
worst
* the debt doesn’t transfer to you
* you don’t deal harm to the person holding the debt
* the Promise Keepers, those judges who track debt and promises with sacred knots,
aren’t alerted to your actions

Slicing Up Eyeballs: As long you aren’t wielding the weapon, it’s invisible to
everyone else.

Oracle Deck
You have a deck of cards made up of four suits that help guide your actions. Draw
four personalized sigils on four notecards. Assign each one an ability:
* you or an ally deal +1 harm
* reduce incoming Stress to you or an ally by 1
* grant an ally +1 forward
* cause an enemy to flinch or stumble
When you trigger a move, you can choose to mark 1 Hex to draw a card. The card’s
effect applies to the next applicable moment in the fiction. Then shuffle your
cards.

Riding Leek
You can ride a leek. It grows to a comfortable size to sit on, and you can fly on
it. Each time you use it, mark one in order:
* Your fellow leek riders come out in support.
* You look impressive silhouetted against bright celestial bodies.
* Your leek sputters and rots, only getting you halfway there.

Once all three have been marked, you must grow or find a new leek.

Smoke-Powered Vehicle
You have a conveyance that seats up to six. It moves as fast as a “horse.” What
does it look like?

You must burn something to make it move:

[long-compressed corpses] [memories] [stories & songs] [wood] [bones] [a specific
food]

It has its own Stress clock; as long as it’s not full, the vehicle moves and
protects those inside from harm.

[clock]
You can spend a full Experience track to add further abilities.
* It can go in reverse.
* It can jump 10 feet high and 15 forward.
* When out of fuel, it can be pedaled at a slow pace.
* You can use it to Wound; describe the ominous attachment you give it.
* It can operate under and atop water.
* Gain another fuel type.
* It can play music.

LOCATION
These moves are places that you have some control over or say in. They might
produce resources for you or grant you new abilities.

Castle
You have a castle. It’s probably secure against anything smaller than an army. It
can sustain itself in typical circumstances. In unusual circumstances, the
population may demand something of you.

When your Experience track is full, you can erase it to fill in a piece of the
clock below. When the clock is full, the castle attracts a specialist: a skilled
artisan, scholar, leader, etc. Name and describe them.

[clock]

When you consult your castle’s inhabitants, roll with the questions:
* Have you maintained your reputation as a good leader?
* Do they have a fulfilling day-to-day life?
You can also add +1 if a specialist with experience applicable to your consultation
is present.

On a 10+, you can make a request of them from the list below. On a 7-9, you can
make a request, but it comes with strings attached. On a 6-, you can make one
request, but they’ll need something from you first.
* Tell me what you think I should do about _____________.
* Bring me _______________.
* Prepare a fine party and/or banquet that all are welcome to attend. (Attendees
heal 1 Stress.)
* Show fine hospitality to _______________.
* Spread word of my recent escapades.

Look: ____________________
Population (up to a couple hundred maybe?): ________________
Specialists: _______________ _______________
_______________ _______________

Crystalline Garden
You can grow crystals as easily as others grow food (which isn’t that easy). You
can harvest them in a variety of colors and shapes. At the start of each growing
season (roughly every 3 months), roll with the questions:
* Have you planted a crystalline seed?
* Have you tended it with love and care?

On a 10+, choose a form and a benefit. On a 7-9, choose a form. On a 6-, be

prepared for the worst, such as a crystal humanoid that is your enemy, a crystal
blight, etc.

What color and cut are the crystals?

Forms & Benefits

Benefits fade after a single growing season.
* Humanoid (can carry things, follow simple orders, and stand in the way)
* Benefits: can attack, is as intelligent as a smart dog, can siphon away 1 Hex
at the end of every session, can self-destruct
* Charm (valuable, signifies wealth and/or magical competency)
* Benefits: reduce Stress marked by 1 (to a minimum of 1), reduce Hex marked by
1 (to a minimum of 1), can be used once a session when a move says “mark 1 Hex,”
can be destroyed in lieu of marking something on your Exhaustion track
* Weapon (valuable, can be used to cause harm)
* Benefits: deals 1 Hex when used to wound, deals 1 extra Stress when used to
Wound, dispels magic instead of causing harm
* Snack x6 (important source of vitamins & minerals, maybe full of crystal juice,
can be passed around)
* Benefits: erase 1 Hex, erase 1 Stress

Long-Reaching Seedlings
You’re in a symbiotic relationship with a commune of seeds hidden deep within the
earth.

When you call for the seeds to send up trees, mark 1 Hex and roll with the
questions:
* Have you prepared the earth or found a fertile plot?
* Do you have time and a quiet place to speak the slow, quiet language of trees?

On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1.

* You can add the question, “Are you working for the benefit of the seeds?” to the
moves you make this session.
* The trees bring forth filling & healthful fruits, enough food for 6 people for a
day.
* The seeds grow dense hedges, providing plain spears and a moderate barrier,
enough to protect a village from mundane attacks for a day.
* Roots produce a bit of buried treasure from the earth.
* Ask a question from Explore the Map.

Observatory
You own a tall building topped by a device containing carefully shaped lenses that
allow you to observe the sky. What does your observatory look like?

When you use the device to Inspect the Area or Explore the Map in your vicinity,
you can roll at +2 instead of rolling with the questions.

When you use the device to peer up into the now-empty sky and observe the ghosts of
the stars that once were, roll with the questions:
* Have you taken new precautions?
* Have you paid upkeep on your device?

On a 10+, gain 2 hold. On a 7-9, gain 1 hold. Spend your hold within 14 days to:
* Gain a flash of a possible future of someone you know.
* Grant +1 to the roll of yourself or an ally.
* Glow with disturbing light.
* Foretell a natural disaster.

On a 6-, be prepared for the worst; for instance, a ghost star might crash to the
ground to hunt you down.

When you use this move, lose all previous hold.

Tavern
You own a tavern, bar, common house, or other location used for inebriation,
venting, and socializing. It’s normally self-sustaining.

When you work the bar or go to an employee for information, roll with the
questions:
* Have you kept the workers happy?
* Are you in good standing with the community?
On a 10+, you gain [rumors]. On a 7-9, you gain [rumors], but it costs you; choose
one:
* erase 1 Experience
* mark 1 Stress
* you owe a debt that must be repaid soon
* you attract unwanted attention

[rumors] can be a specific piece of information that you were looking for, or it
can be a generic currency that you can spend later to add +1 to you or an ally’s
roll that might be helped by knowing a rumor (max +3).

Name your tavern: ______________________

STRANGE ABILITIES
These moves encompass the rare and bizarre magics and mundane exceptionalisms of
the Patchwork World.

Ancestral Library
When you consult the memories of your ancestors, which live on inside you, you can
read any ancient language.
You can also mark 1 Hex to answer yes when rolling with a question; an ancestral
memory gives you the relevant knowledge. Which ancestor helped?

Animal Friendship
When you help an animal understand that you mean it no harm, mark 1 Stress or 1 Hex
and roll with the questions:
* Are you alone?
* Have you exposed yourself to the animal’s dangers?

On a 10+, the animal trusts you and will perform a small service such as revealing
a secret passage, distracting an enemy, or turning over some hoarded food. On a 7-
9, the animal is wary; it won’t attack as long as it doesn’t feel threatened, but
it won’t help either. On a 6-, the animal won’t attack, but it remains aggressive;
it might make a display of power or loudly flee, potentially alerting nearby
enemies.

Bean Counter
When you infuse energies into a bean, mark 1 Hex; that bean gains 1 hold at the end
of each session. When you eat or throw the bean as part of a move, spend the bean’s
hold 1 for 1 to:
* increase the harm you deal
* reduce the harm you take
* give yourself +1 to the move’s roll (max +4)
When you do this, you lose the bean and all its hold.

Become Cats
When you burst into 1d6 cats, roll -CATS. On a 10+, you retain control of all the
cats, and each can act individually. On a 7-9, you retain control of the cats, but
they must move and act as a herd. On a 6-, 1 cat gains independent sentience and
must be befriended before you can meld back into your original body.

Bee Resonance Version I

There’s bees in you. When you’re wounded or distressed, they emerge to fight in
your defense. Why is this?

When you mark Stress, roll +Stress marked. On a 10+, bees emerge and deal your
attacker an equal amount of harm. On a 7-9, they deal 1 harm. On a 6-, those bees
are mad, but maybe they emerge at the wrong time and wreak their vengeance on the
wrong target.

Bee Resonance Version II

You are a queen of insects. Once a week, you produce or are brought half a gallon
of fresh honey.

When you try to command insects, roll with the questions:

* Do you vibrate and/or dance in their language?
* Have you recently made them offerings?

On a 10+, choose one. On a 7-9, choose one, but you’ll have to pay them back.
* the insects attack or distract someone of your choosing
* the insects bring you important information
* the insects lead you to something you need

Birdcaller
When you call to the birds for information on faraway people and places, mark 1 Hex
and choose one of the following moves:
* Explore the Wilderness
* Inspect the Area

You make the move as normal, but roll with the following questions instead:
* Have you made an offering to the birds?
* Do you have something from the person or place?

You can also mark additional Hex to gain additional bonuses on a one-to-one basis
(max +2).

If you roll a 6-, the consequences may be bird-based instead of those normally
associated with the moves.

Channeler
When you harness your Hex to cause harm, roll +Hex (max +3). On a 10+, choose two.
On a 7-9, choose one. On a 6-, be prepared for the worst.
* Inflict Stress equal to Hex rolled and mark 1 Stress.
* Erase Hex rolled.
* Do not attract attention from the Pall.

Cocoon
When you cover yourself in impervious material in reaction to marking Stress, roll
+Stress marked. On a 10+, you’ll mark no further Stress until after you move,
speak, or use a move, and you remain aware of your surroundings. On a 7-9, choose
one:
* as above, but when you leave the cocoon, the GM adds a personal tag
* you as a player must become unaware of the game (leave the room, take out your
headphones, stop reading chat, etc); as long as you do, you don’t take harm
On a 6-, you lose all awareness (taking no harm in the process) and reawaken in a
disadvantageous position.

Cower
When someone attacks you, roll with the questions:
* Are you showing fear or weakness?
* Are you unarmed?

On a 10+, the attacker momentarily stops their attack. On a 7-9, choose one:
* they take you prisoner; mark Experience
* their attack is shifted to an ally

On a 6-, they take advantage of your weakness.

Demon Tongue
You can talk like a demon (an old word for a being driven from their home). Maybe
you are one. Choose one:
* You can speak and understand any language.
* You can speak directly into the ear of someone you can see; no one else will
hear.
* Look into someone’s eyes and mark 1 Hex; you will speak a single word that
describes the person’s greatest desire.

You can take this move multiple times.

Diplomat
When you commit a faux pas and you want it forgiven, mark 1 Stress and roll with
the questions.
* Is this your first mistake with these folks?
* Have you brought gifts?

On a 10+, your mistake is forgiven. On a 7-9, your mistake is forgiven only if you
do something for the highest status observer. On a 6-, it’s as 7-9 except locals
will continue to poke fun at you until you perform a great act for their culture.

Empower/Enervate
You can help allies accomplish their goals and/or stymie your enemies. What methods
do you use to do this? Choose one and describe it: [magic] [biological] [good talk]

When you help an ally (potentially by debuffing an enemy), roll with the questions:
* Are you placing yourself in danger to do so?
* Did you offer important insight?

On a 10+, choose one. On a 7-9, choose one but at a personal cost. On a 6-, be
prepared for the worst.
* Your ally gets +1 to a roll they just made or to their next roll.
* An instance of incoming harm to Stress is reduced by 1.

Escapist
When you try to escape a dangerous situation, roll with the questions:
* Have you caused a distraction?
* Are you in familiar territory?

On a 10+, you make it to the nearest safe area and choose 2. On a 7-9, as above but
choose 1.
* You can bring someone with.
* You don’t drop anything.
* You don’t mark 1 Stress.

On a 6-, be prepared for the worst.

Expeditious Drapery
Making curtains is like breathing for you. When you see an uncurtained window, you
can choose to curtain it. When you use any move, you can choose to create a curtain
anywhere you can see as part of the move. Describe the curtain and roll with the
questions:
* Is the curtain description novel and exciting?
* Would you benefit from hiding something here?

On a 10+, choose one, and the curtain is permanent. On a 7-9, choose one, but the
curtain dissolves into mist in 30 seconds. On a 6-, maybe it’s curtains for you.
* Someone is blinded or their movement is stymied.
* Someone is impressed with your decor.
* The temperature in the immediate area drops by 10 degrees.

Explosive
You cause things to combust. Choose how: [chemical] [magical] [emotional]

When you cause an explosion, mark 1 Hex or Stress and roll with the questions:
* Are you angry?
* Could it hit multiple targets?

On a 10+, choose three. On a 7-9, choose two. On a 6-, choose one.

* It deals great harm.
* It only affects what you want it to affect.
* It doesn’t continue to burn.
* You are not revealed as the source.

Fisher
When you cast your rod or net while sitting with a friend and telling them
something about yourself, roll with the questions?
* Have you already told them the thing you just told them?
* Are the waters calm and peaceful?

On 10+, hold 3. On 7-9, hold 1. On 6-, hold 1 but choose 1:

* lose a piece of equipment or 1 hold
* drag something bad up from the water or your memories; the player (but not
necessarily the character) describes the memory
* lose track of time

Spend hold as follows:

* 1 hold for +1 to your next Fisher roll
* 2 hold to fill your mouth with snack or drink; your next roll is made without
modifiers
* 3 hold to see a sight of sublime beauty; describe it in plain & stoic terms and
erase 1 Stress
* 4 hold for the song of your choice to come wafting over the water
* 5 hold for a small catch
* 6 hold for a weighty catch
* 7 hold for a minor treasure: old jewelry, well-loved toy, shiny key, etc
* 8 hold for a message in a bottle written by another player (but not necessarily
from their character)
* 9 hold to learn a secret from the water or someone else on it
* 10 hold for the legendary fish that everyone’s been seeking for years: name it,
tell a story you’ve heard about it, and tell how you almost caught it before
* 11 hold to have another character fondly remember this moment forever
* 12 hold to have you and another character fondly remember this moment forever
* 13 hold to kiss (only if you have consent)

After making your roll and spending hold, if you ever hold 7 or more, someone with
rights to the lake (human or otherwise) appears and asks for payment for the use of
their territory.

Flesh Sculptor
You treat flesh and bone like clay, possessing the ability to add or replace
biological tags on biological beings. When you try to alter the flesh of a
biological being or object, roll with the questions:
* Do you have consent?
* Did you double check about that consent?
On a 10+, you can change a biological tag or add a tag if they have fewer than
three. On a 7-9, as above, but mark 1 Stress. On a 6-, be prepared for the
biological worst.

Forceful Exhalation
Big strong lungs! You can probably hold your breath for a day, and you can breathe
fine in any gas.

When you try to blow people away, mark Stress and roll +Stress marked (max +2). On
a 10+, everyone in the arc of your exhalation is blown back 15 feet, knocked over,
and mark 1 Stress. On a 7-9, they can’t approach any closer to you. On a 6-, be
prepared for the worst, such as collateral damage.

Fungal Weirdness
You are infected with fungal growth; mushrooms, slimes, etc grow from you. Add a
personal tag to describe it.

When you try to harness the fungus, mark Hex and/or Stress and roll +Hex/Stress
marked (max +3). On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one. On a 6-, choose one
and be prepared for the worst.
* deal 1 harm to someone near you
* cause someone to be incapacitated with coughing, blindness, or hallucinations
* harvest fungus for medicinal or recreational purpose
* erase 1 Hex or Stress that you marked

Goat Legs
You have hooves and hairy legs. Gain the tag “ungulate.” You can walk up all but
the most frictionless surfaces at a decent if zigzagging pace. You can balance
easily atop small, uneven surfaces, even if they move a bit. As long as you can
run, you can’t be caught (unless you allow yourself to, or unless you run yourself
into danger).

God Inside
You have a godliness in you; whether it’s part of you or you carry it is up to you.
Add a personal tag to describe how it affects you.
When you access your personal spark of divinity in order to pass the consequences
of a 6- roll onto your surroundings, mark 1 Hex and roll with the questions:
* Does your action speak to the properties watched over by your divine self?
* Has your anger or jealousy been roused?

On a 10+, the bad things happen to your surroundings, and it isn’t linked to you.
On a 7-9, the effects are passed on, but observers know it came from you. On a 6-,
prepare for the worst; the fates or gods are after you in addition to the extant
negative effects.

Haunted
Angels (an old word for a yearning piece of spirit left behind when someone dies)
are drawn to you. (Consider adding a personal tag if you’re visibly affected by
these hauntings.) When you want to be haunted by an angel, tell the MC.

When you’re haunted by an angel and the sun sets or a session ends, roll with the
questions.
* Have you spent the day in rest?
* Have you prepared a gift?

On a 10+, you get all three. On a 7-9, choose two. On a 6-, choose one.
* You make headway in communicating with the angel; fill in a clock segment.
* A suspicious orthodoxy doesn’t hear your screams.
* You don’t take -1 ongoing the following day.

[clock]

When you fill the clock, the angel reveals its desire and ceases to torment you.

When you fulfill the angel’s desire, choose one:

* Mark Experience.
* Erase all Hex.
* Find a gift left by the angel.
* Ask a question from Stare Into Eyes Not Your Own about a single person regardless
of distance.

You can now ask to be haunted by another angel.

Hemokinesis
You have some control over your blood.

You can mark 1 Stress and 1 Hex to use some of your blood to create three red-
skinned, jockey-sized servants. Choose two traits:
* shark teeth, vestigial wings, hooves, horsetail, bat nose, oaty scent

They follow your orders and can carry you if they work together. You can choose to
see through their red-filmed eyes or hear through their womby ears but at the loss
of your own sight or hearing.
When you would mark Stress, you can instead choose to sacrifice one of the
servants.

You can mark Hex and Stress to send your blood flying into the air; roll
+Hex/Stress marked (max +2).

On 10+, a single ally or all of your minions know your location and learn a message
up to 25 words carried in your blood. On 7-9, they know your location and a single
word. On 6-, they know your location, but so does something dangerous.

Hidden Heart
You have hidden your heart (or other vital organ) somewhere away from your body.
When you would mark Stress, you can choose to instead mark Hex.

Whenever your Stress track fills, fill your Hex track.

Remove the following options from your Exhausted list:

* you become a ghost or angel
* you die, only to return unexpectedly in the future
* you die, never to return

Ill-Fated
Whenever you roll, you can choose to mark 1 Stress to roll +Hex (max +3) instead of
rolling with the questions or the indicated value.

Inheritance
You can only take this move if someone would leave you their inheritance. When that
person dies, choose 1:
* It’s larger than you expected.
* It includes an object you’ve coveted.
* It brings you closer to an estranged relative.

And choose 1:
* Other relatives plot against you to get a share.
* It comes with a child or vulnerable adult you must care for.
* It reveals a secret that lowers the esteem of you, your family, or the deceased.

You can take this move multiple times; each time, it can only be triggered once.

Life In Death
Add one of the options below to your Exhausted list. This move can be taken
multiple times.
* Gain fame or recognition as the story of your peril spreads.
* The story of your peril spreads.
* The authorities are hunting you.
* One of your secrets is revealed.
* You enter a new body; remake your character, trading out all your tags and moves.
* [work with the other players to come up with one]: ______________________________

Mapmaker
You can’t get lost if you can see the sky.

When you Explore the Map, you can roll with +2 instead of rolling with the
questions.

When a player rolls the Welcome Wagon move, you can describe a geographical or
visually noteworthy feature of the area.

Mark
When you try to attract the attention of an enemy, roll with the questions:
* Do you look like a bigger threat than whatever holds their current attention?
* Do you leverage personal knowledge to make them angry with you?

On a 10+, the enemy can’t harm or distress any ally. On a 7-9, as 10+, but mark an
extra Stress when the enemy harms you. On a 6-, be prepared for the worst; maybe
you can only attack the enemy you taunted, or maybe you can’t harm or distress
them.

Merry Carouser
When you party with others, roll with the questions:
* Did you provide food, drink, or song?
* Does everyone feel safe enough to loosen up?

On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1.

* Everyone present erases 1 Stress.
* Meet a new friend or acquaintance who can offer insight to a current problem; you
describe the problem and friend, and the GM will give the insight.
* Flirt & crush (and fall in love?)
* Circulate a rumor.

On a 6-, choose 1:
* You overindulge, and your next 1d6 rolls are made at -1 instead of with the
questions.
* Choose 1 of the final three options from the list above, but it comes with a
complication.

Muto
When you trigger the Hexed move, roll without any modifier. On a 10+, you can
choose an option from the list below instead of from the Hexed move. On a 7-9, you
can choose a mutation from the list, but if you do, you lose this move. On a 6-,
the GM chooses a mutation from the list.
* your gender changes
* you grow gills that allow you to breathe underwater
* one arm grows huge; write a personal tag about it
* you grow third lung; when recover Stress, recover 1 extra
* you have bird claws for feet; you can climb walls
* you get a shock of miscolored hair
* your eyes glow a color of your choice; you can see in the dark
* you grow a donkey’s tail; you stink
* your teeth and nails turn black; enemies mark an extra Stress when you attack
them without any weapons
* you grow antlers; you have a hard time getting through doors

Parallel Universe Architecture

Your building expertise has transcended space and time. You always recognize when
something has been built (as opposed to being natural). When you Inspect an Area
with architecture, add the following to the list of questions you can ask:
* Who built this and when?
* What is this architecture’s purpose?

When you focus your transcendent knowledge of buildings on a specific area, roll
with the questions:
* Did I successfully name five architectural flourishes/features in as many
seconds?
* Do I have time to survey the area?

On a 10+, you summon an architectural feature of your choice into the immediate
area. On a 7-9, you summon the feature, but something else comes with it. On a 6-,
be prepared for the worst.

Pharmaka
When you try to harvest herbs from the flesh or blood of a godlike being, roll
without adding anything. On a 10+, hold 2 herbs. On a 7-9, hold 1. On a 6-, hold 1,
but the blood demands something of you.

You can spend a held herb in lieu of marking Hex.

When you use the magic herbs to transform someone, roll +herbs spent (max +2). On a
10+, choose 3. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a 6-, choose 1.
* Their transformation doesn’t leave them in endless pain.
* Their new form makes their petty imperfections obvious to all who gaze upon them.
* No one knows you were responsible.
* You don’t mark 1 Stress from shame.

Poetry
When you’re given space to speak and you spout poetical nonsense, roll with the
questions.
* Do you know something important that those present don’t know?
* Do you possess an incising insight into the person you’re speaking to?

On a 10+, choose 1:
* You gain the romantic affection of someone present.
* You confuse the royalty and aristocrats present; optionally, inflict 1 Stress on
them.
* You spread word of recent news or someone’s reputation through the land.

On a 7-9, choose 1 from above, but the GM can complicate it in some way:
* The results include an unintended target.
* Your message is twisted in some way.
* A friend or ally is implicated in negative reactions.

On a 6-, be prepared for the worst.

Point of View
Choose a question from the list below or work with the table to write a new one.
When rolling with the questions, you can ask this question in addition to any
others. (You still can’t roll with more than +3, however.)

Mark the question you take:

* Are you enacting the will of your master?
* Are you resisting the defilement of the natural world?
* Are you protecting someone who can’t protect themselves?
* Are you helping someone come to terms with a hard truth?
* Are you showing off for potential love interests?
* Are you [write your own]?

Poisoner
When you deal harm to someone with a weapon or prepare food or drink for them
without being seen, gain 1 hold over them (max 1). You can spend your hold in the
next 24 hours to:
* have them fall unconscious
* be overcome with illness
* tell an embarrassing truth or disclose a deeply held secret

How do you do this? [biologically] [magically] [alchemically]

Resurrectionist
When you discover that you’re cursed with unending resurrection, gain 1d6 hold.
Spend 1 hold for an NPC to have known you in a past life; when you do, mark 1 to 3
Stess as you recognize them and roll +Stress marked. On a 10+, choose 1:
* They feel honorbound to help you.
* You recall something embarrassing or damaging about them.
* They’ve been saving an important item or piece of information for you.

On a 7-9, choose 1 from the list above and the GM chooses 1 from the list below:
* They’re waiting for a chance to kill you.
* They know a weakness of yours that you aren’t aware of.
* Something stronger and more dangerous is watching you out of their eyes.

On a 6-, the GM chooses 1 from any list.

Sin-Eater
When you eat someone’s sins, tell everyone how it looks and then roll with the
questions:
* Did you get consent?
* Did you prepare a ritual space?
On a 10+, their sin leaves them and is digested into nothingness through you. On a
7-9, the sinner is cleaned but a stain is left in you. On a 6-, the sin becomes a
major component of your personality and/or motivation; add or change a personal
tag.

Sneaky
When you try to pass through an area unseen and unheard, roll with the questions:
* Are you moving slowly?
* Are there noises or sights to distract from you?
On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one. On a 6-, be prepared for the worst.
* You pass unnoticed.
* An ally can follow in your tracks.
* You see something you weren’t meant to see.
* You gain an advantageous position.

Tactical Grid Perception

When the Heartless Princess wove the world together, she laid down an invisible
grid of leylines to assist with mapmaking, property disputes, surveying, and other
matters of measurement. You can sense these lines.

When you call upon the power of the grid, roll with the questions:
* Do you have a clear view of the area?
* Can you bring your surveyor’s tools to bear?

On a 10+, choose 1:
* you move someone up to 50’ along the ground (this can’t hurt them)
* you bind someone in place
* you switch the positions of two beings you can see
* you see the tracks of anyone who’s passed this way in the last 24 hours

On a 7-9, choose 1 from the list above and 1 from the list below:
* mark 1 Hex
* mark 1 Stress
* you earn the notice and ire of a Royal Grid Overseer
* you suffer the an effect from the list above (GM’s choice)

On a 6-, the GM chooses one from the second list.

Target
When you’re taken captive by a powerful enemy and then freed by your allies, you
all mark 1 Experience.

Unhex
When you try to banish someone’s Hex, roll with the questions:
* Have you taken time to prepare?
* Are you hungry?
On a 10+, reduce their Hex by 2. On a 7-9, reduce their Hex by 1 or 2 and mark the
same amount of Hex. On a 6-, reduce their Hex by 1d6, mark the same, and be
prepared for the worst.
Unlicensed Reality Patch
While the Heartless Princess is the only person legally allowed to patch the world,
you illegally practice similar arts with bootleg code. When you try to add
something to the world, mark 1 Hex and roll with the questions:
* Do you create chaos and resist the lure of order?
* Do you seek to spark joy in yourself or others?

On a 10+, roll on the Patch table below; you can spend 1 Hex to adjust the second
die (the “ones” place) up or down by 1.

On a 7-9, roll on the Patch table and the Glitch table; you can spend 1 Hex to
adjust the second die up or down by 1. You choose the details of the Patch, and the
GM chooses the details of the Glitch unless otherwise noted.

On a 6-, the GM can choose a Glitch.

Patch:
11. place a door
12. place a 10’ pit
13. place an animal; it acts naturally
14. place a 10’ x 10’ x 2’ stone wall
15. a being of your choice can pass through solid objects for 10 minutes
16. a being of your choice erases all Stress
21. place a large tree or towering vine
22. place a single object, weapon, or device no larger than 5’ in any dimension
23. set something on fire
24. paralyze someone for up to 10 minutes
25. teleport up to 50’ in any direction
26. all your lies are believed for 1 day
31. you sense all lies for 1 day
32. completely remodel a single room or outdoor area no larger than 20’ square
33. you can speak to and understand either plants or animals for the next 1 hour
34. a being of your choice deals +3 harm for the next 10 minutes
35. place a “save point;” you can rewind to this moment once in the next year
36. a stranger visits you with a gift (GM’s choice)
41. grant +1 to someone’s next roll (max +3)
42. choose any 2 questions; you use them for your next roll
43. beautiful music plays at your command for the next 24 hours
44. place a feast
45. change up to 20 gallons of liquid into another liquid of your choice
46. permanently change a person or place’s name; no one remembers the old name
51. return life to a single dead being
52. you can walk on water for 1 day
53. summon a person you’ve met
54. you can see 20 feet in all directions regardless of light level and line of
sight for 10 minutes
55. the world is updated to a higher resolution (visually)
56. the world is updated to a higher resolution (spiritually)
61. you or an ally mark no Stress for 1 hour
62. place a pleasure dome
63. place a constellation
64. an enemy becomes an ally
65. the world pauses to load; you learn an important fact
66. create the conditions to trigger an ally’s move of their choice
Glitch:
11. rain of fish
12. an item is duplicated
13. a being is duplicated
14. a massive pyramid haunted by a mummy erupts from the ground
15. you or an ally are turned inside out (mark 1 Stress)
16. bells within 1 mile crack and peal dissonant notes
21. your voice comes out as a loud and crackling hiss for 10 minutes
22. you become a baby until the next sunrise
23. you become stuck in a wall, rock or other object until an ally falls asleep at
least 1 mile away
24. you can’t lie for 10 days
25. a swarm of hungry insects appears
26. you or an ally fails their next roll
31. for 10 minutes, everything you touch becomes pixelated and brightly colored
32. you immediately become drunk
33. your head and limbs become invisible and intangible for 10 minutes
34. flowers sprout and die in your footsteps for 2 days
35. a duplicate of you (but inverted in color) appears, declares you their nemesis,
and runs off to plan your demise
36. you are blind for 1 hour
41. all of your equipment and clothing (except undergarments) become
invisible for 1 hour
42. milk within 1 mile turns sour
43. statues within 1 mile cry blood
44. a haunted cemetary erupts from the ground
45. your third eye opens for the next hour; it can only see the bad in things
46. the next time you sleep, you and your allies become trapped in a dream dungeon,
unable to wake until you escape
51. mark an option of your choice from Exhausted
52. your Hex track fills
53. you awaken a buried monster
54. an ally becomes an enemy
55. the next thing you attack can’t be killed by normal means
56. something nearby explodes
61. an angel appears; it doesn’t like you
62. 20 cats appear and follow you until something distracts them; they meow
constantly
63. everything you’re carrying and wearing is deleted
64. you appear before your greatest enemy
65. cross off all options in your Exhausted track except “you die, never to return”
66. local reality crashes, rebooting at the last place you slept

Whale Ate My Parents

When you kill a whale, roll +WHALES KILLED. On a 12+, you find your parents, shaken
but alive, inside the whale; replace this move with another. On a 10+, you find one
parent, shaken but alive, inside the whale; replace this move with another. On a 7-
9, heal all harm. On a 6-, weep into the sea and take -1 to your next roll.

Confectionary
You’re in charge of a bright, sweet-smelling storefront that makes and sells
candies, ice cream, and/or phosphates. You are a friend to children, and they’re a
friend to you. (This must never be made creepy, else they will turn on you, destroy
you, and take over your shoppe.)
Enforced Stillness
(keep someone from moving)
Appendices
These are a series of tables, extra options, and designer notes. The tables can be
used as oracular devices or inspiration when making their characters and setting.
Choose a favorite, roll d66, or drop a die or coin on the pages and accept the
result it lands on.
[spread these charts across a spread so that they can be dice drop tables too;
provide blank charts for people to fill in]
[reorder these from most useful to least; group by GM/other players if possible]

Appendix A: d66 Personal Tags

11. compact
12. elfin
13. sulking
14. long-limbed
15. shock-haired
16. insectile
21. literally made of wood
22. jaunty
23. finely dressed
24. gnomish
25. pointy-toothed
26. sloppy
31. rail thin
32. fat
33. wild-bearded
34. twitchy
35. sniffly
36. scaled
41. glowing
42. pained
43. stinky
44. giggly
45. imperceptive
46. bright-eyed
51. really hot
52. immaculate
53. hairy
54. grinning
55. loud
56. masked
61. sleepy
62. berobed
63. limping
64. muscular
65. decaying
66. winged

And more: heavy makeup, six-fingered, naive, long-striding, distrustful, agender,

limping, split-tongued, beaked, furred, horned, hooved, sultry, crowned, double
jointed, flamboyant, gassy, depressive

Appendix B: d66 Character Concepts

11. failed thief
12. sporting entertainer
13. mortician/gravedigger
14. resigned porter
15. spoiled noble
16. penitent
21. hopeful researcher
22. ship captain (secret pirate)
23. herbalist
24. con artist in training
25. soldier for a lost cause
26. adrenaline junkie
31. moon-worshipper
32. aspiring deity
33. rag-picking scavenger
34. maze builder
35. gourmet chef
36. castellan
41. night witch
42. accidental magician
43. snooty historian
44. jaded warlord
45. mutant outcast
46. full-time parent
51. creature in search of a creator
52. inspirational speaker
53. venture capitalist & event planner
54. ditch digger
55. revolutionary
56. last of a fallen order
61. vengeance seeker
62. sensualist
63. lost boi
64. amnesiac
65. composite being
66. wealth redistributor

And more: butcher of creatures dangerous & mundane, black widow (spider or spouse-
killer), questing for as many arms to attach to me as possible, courier,
bugcatcher, root wrangler

Appendix C: d66 Random Encounters

11. a gambling mummy riding in a mobile stone tower; its massive wheels are hollow,
powered by the animated corpses of those who lost the mummy’s games
12. a stolen tugboat driven by greedy raccoons who insist they’re humans trapped in
these bodies by a cruel warlock; they’re seeking donations to pay to have the curse
removed
13. nudist gnomes floating by in a bioengineered living dirigible; they don’t flash
anyone, but they do drop clothes down to show their commitment to the lifestyle
14. a talking lion who lost all her teeth and can only speak backwards because of
it; hungry, sad
15. dueling knights secretly in love with each other, but their ironclad loyalty to
opposing lords demands they fight to the death; they’ll take any excuse to delay
the duel
16. a crocodile disguised as a merchant; he comes from a land in famine and is
looking for a group to travel with in order to eat them
21. an animate sawhorse, unable to speak but bent on the destruction of all things
22. a powerful wizard who was eaten and excreted by a mythical being who absorbed
most of the wizard’s magic as it digested; wizard lives on as a talking pile of
waste and will pay for vengeance-takers
23. the greatest pea farmer of all time, laden with sacks of dried peas of every
color; looking to sell peas, might need an escort
24. a small (private) graveyard being defiled by graverobbers, either:
* evil opportunists
* very in need of cash
* possessed by ghosts trying to get to their bodies
25. a service station whose owner is trying to get rid of the last of her stock
(canned food, tools, seeds) so that she can join a bicycle gang
26. a rude moose saddled with a valuable, handcrafted saddle with silk tassels and
gold thread
31. an army of small creatures (all your favorite monsters) made poorly of clay;
each has a knife
32. you from a week in the future
33. the first sentient flower lies dying, accidentally crushed by an ox; will you
transplant it to your skull, letting it feed on your dreams so that it can live,
but at the cost of your life (after 3-6 weeks)?
34. a stampede of small dogs that cannot be stopped or reasoned with, only avoided;
perhaps escaping from an evil puppy mill, startled by a sudden noise, or just
migrating
35. the pea-killer, whose parents died choking on peas, seeks to kill all peas,
their growers, their cooks, and their advocates
36. a flock of butterflies lands on a dead tree, sanctifying it as holy ground for
all insects, thereby angering the nearby frog demon, who lets loose with a
thunderous ribbit
41. a massive dragon of rusted metal, inanimate and with its maw gaping open
like a cave; inside, depressed & nihilistic dwarves try to jumpstart the dragon,
which is actually a doomsday machine of their invention
42. an unshelled clam king (idiotic, telepathic) has shaped its amorphous flesh
into a bad facsimile of a train engine, hoping to lure creatures to their deaths by
acidic-clam-flesh consumption
43. a caterpillar has learned to fly at subsonic speeds and is refusing to turn
into a butterfly, annoying its peers (just trying to cocoon) and parents (such a
disappointment); also, it’s 6 feet long and covered in venomous spurs
44. the ancient ghost of a seagull is terrorizing people trying to build a village
on what was once, thousands of years ago, an ocean
45. a floating stone megalith inscribed with purple runes that absorb people into a
torturous micro-world of sharp amethyst; it was made by ancient humans to save them
from a disaster that never came, and it needs its untended inner world to be
smoothed; has a hard time communicating
46. a robbery victim with a vague description of who robbed them
51. the last living mammoth
52. a triceratops necromancer who kills mammals and uses their bones to build
hodgepodge, ambulatory dinosaur skeletons
53. a god on the run from people who want to imprison her in the Icy City; she
would rather die but doesn’t know how
54. a sweating member of an aristocracy, recently escaped from a worker uprising,
willing to sell his expensive clothes, accessories, and cigars for cheap
55. a witch had her magical hat of disguise blown off by a freak gust of wind; can
you help her find it? her old eyes are just no good these days, and it was made by
her wife (now deceased), and she’d hate to track down and curse anyone who found
and kept it
56. a woman, angry at being tricked by a disguised wizard, is using her powerful
lungs to blow the hats off everyone she sees; collateral damage is high
61. a portly fellow is holding lizard races on a small track; bet on a lizard
62. a troupe of actors whose plays are strangely parallel to the characters’ pasts;
each player can describe how a memorable moment is enacted
63. a pile of garbage brought to life by the memories released by a dying family
64. seven-year-old survivalist, expert in traps and a crack shot with a slingshot,
refuses to talk about the past
65. flying tusked whale whose exhalations are narcotic to most
66. brigand cursed with swords for arms, hateful that he can never lovingly caress

Appendix D: d66 Hex Features

Because of the way the Patchwork World was constructed, typical geological laws
have no place here. While time, gravity, and the weather will eventually have their
way with the landscape, it is, for the moment, a hodgepodge of biomes. Here’s a
list of landscapes for developing your patchwork world (or when players
unexpectedly veer to a new place).

11. gentle river with leaning trees

12. thrusting basalt columns
13. rusting copper pipes
14. bones poking through dirt
15. pastoral village
16. cracked salt flat
21. hilly tundra
22. towering firs in sandy soil
23. frog-filled swamp
24. lifeless soil like tofu pumice
25. a town cut promptly in half
26. where ferns grow massive
31. a bit of hell, perhaps with lava
32. a slice of heaven, all puffy clouds
33. canyons with pearlescent strata
34. sharp-grassed prairie
35. caves!
36. pungent herbs
41. buzzing insects
42. mysterious sky objects
43. orchards
44. graveyard
45. neolithic stone homes
46. duelling wizard towers
51. crusty desert
52. kind creek
53. a lake with an island
54. roaring brown river
55. crumbling mountains
56. sweaty, vine-filled jungle
61. blue ocean with a bit of coastline
62. a single massive storage building
63. moors filled with tragic lovers
64. a city of minarets
65. farmlands of uncommon crops
66. steaming earthen vents

Appendix E: d66 Questions to Ask Players on Entering a New Place

Here are questions for the GM to ask when the players enter a new area. Doing so
allows the players to help define the world. Consider asking a single player a
question (based on their concept or history) to give a stark mood of the new area,
or ask each player a question to create a more developed place.
11. Who does crime?
12. What is sold on the black market?
13. What virtues are most valued?
14. What folk customs are observed?
15. What superstitions are feared?
16. Who hunts, and what is hunted?
21. What populations are marginalized?
22. What arts are valued?
23. What separates the upper classes from the lower ones?
24. What do people take pride in?
25. What was built here recently?
26. What signature dishes are cooked?
31. What paths are most traveled?
32. What does magic?
33. How are people healed?
34. What does the land remember?
35. How are the dead treated?
36. Who gets to speak, and who is silenced?
41. What family names hold sway?
42. What’s in fashion?
43. How are transgressors treated?
44. How is affection shown?
45. How is the land treated?
46. How do people blow off steam?
51. What legends are told?
52. How much do they know of the world beyond?
53. What do they celebrate?
54. What will the weather hold?
55. Who resists the social order?
56. What resources are held in surplus?
61. What resources are lacking?
62. What do children do?
63. What do the elderly do?
64. Where do people go to hook up?
65. How is courtship performed?
66. Who’s in charge?

Appendix F: d66 Names

11. Beaubee
12. Karkas
13. Sophia
14. Rita
15. Tallow
16. Wallander
21. Hemlock
22. Grundy
23. Marlene “The Strangler”
24. Agrat
25. Bufo
26. Kolveg
31. Aud
32. Thomasina
33. Cointoss
34. Badiat
35. Long Walden
36. Amanda Shockhead
41. Falteen
42. Griz
43. Null
44. June
45. Carlton Beerjug
46. Nancy
51. Trimble
52. Wisp
53. Gloam
54. Bertie
55. Prester Roger
56. Cicera
61. Jimmy Hooves
62. Benoite
63. Willa
64. Newton
65. Leaflet
66. Dewey

Appendix G: 1d6 Sample Characters

If you want a random character instead of building your own, roll 1d6. Alternately,
the GM can use these as NPCs.

1. Lolly (she/her), Soldier on the Mend

Looks: dark skin, big hair, bright colors
Tags: grinning, broad, slow
Moves: Heavy Armor, Become Cats, Journal
Homeland: Lolly comes from a sparsely populated coniferous forest whose main export
is blessed pine cones. Lacking a green thumb, she signed up for the defense force.
She hated fighting, though, so she quit. Oh, and she can become cats.

2. William-Is-Nigh (he/him), Remembrancer

Looks: pale wrinkly skin, stringy hair, incisive eyes, nice big jacket
Tags: old, visibly grumpy
Moves: Ancestral Library, Crystalline Garden
Homeland: William grew up in a non-space bubbled separately from reality where time
passed differently. He and his people were experiments run by a capricious god; as
his people died, their memories lived on in him. These days, William just wants to
garden and also gain vengeance on his parental deity.

3. Grumbo “Geoff” Goblin II (he/him), Anti-Investigator

Looks: tobacco smell, orange skin, riding clothes
Tags: short, dapper
Moves: Diplomat, Poetry, Stoned Investigator
Homeland: Geoff always wanted to escape his sleepy goblin village, imagining
himself as something of a bon vivant. And escape he has! But despite his best
efforts, he’s repeatedly drawn into mysteries, which he begrudgingly solves with
the help of his dad, Grumbo Senior.

4. Widdershins Petrichor (she/her), Witch for Hire

Looks: small nose, turnip hat, youthful, brown skin
Tags: stinky, really hot
Moves: Riding Leek, Poisoner, Birdcaller
Homeland: Widdershins has no homeland! She chooses to live in the skies! She offers
her services to whoever will pay, and she absolutely refuses to bathe.

5. Wally (they/them), Cursed Puppet

Looks: purple fuzz, big eyes
Tags: unsettling, noodly
Moves: Hidden Heart, Point of View (“Am I acting for the benefit of others without
thought to my own interests?”)
Homeland: Wally trafficked in strange magics in a land of mist and bones. They
reached too far for power, though, and are trapped in a pauper’s toy until they
learn selflessness.

6. Saint Teresa of the Hooks (she/her), Holy Fisherfolk

Looks: tall, masked, berobed
Tags: snagging, jangling
Moves: Fisher, Whale Ate My Parents
Homeland: Teresa was born on a boat, never touching land until after a leviathan of
the sea swallowed her parents, when she sought help in finding them.

Appendix H: d66 Sample Organizations

examples from each community, plus more
11. Union of Bricklayers: clay collectors, building bakers, and expert tossers of
bricks at those who oppose workers’ rights
12. Seed Librarians: covered in layers of damp cloth containing crop seeds, plant
cuttings, and seeds of ideas
13. The Zero Monks: they seek to cease all movement and are often asked to keep
people from escaping; some achieve full stop, flying from the rotating earth
14. The Homers: they steal housing materials from the rich and affix them to the
houses of the poor; you might wake up with a new bathroom or three-season porch
15. The Ungulates: a union of hooved beings encompassing goats, cows, satyrs, and
hooved demons who lobby for hoof rights
16. Lost Scions of St Christopher: dog-headed followers of the dog-headed saint,
forever looking for a lost island
21. Ink Thieves: to provide untraceable materials for spellbooks and illicit
contracts, they steal ink from writers, tattooed limbs, and confused squid
22. Bile Drinkers: bilious vampires who collect that spiteful fluid from others to
keep the peace; but they take without asking!
23. Not Enough Cooks: adventuring chefs who teach scattered people to cook the
strange new raw foods of this world
24. Order of the Hammer: knights of the hammer deity, for whom everything looks
like a nail (some are hammerhead sharks)
25. The Parfumists: collectors and curators of scents, including many banned and
cursed smells; know them by the clink of bottles
26. Belief Encyclopedists: they travel the world, seeking to record the beliefs of
the many cultures; they get a lot wrong and rightfully have many enemies
31. Squirrel Migration Cartographers: can find paths that never touch the ground
32. The Druids of the Tall White Hat: geomancers who use their powers of earth-
hacking for good, not evil
33. The Contusions: mercenaries for hire who have sworn off the blade; fists and
sticks will do; their skin is a blossom of bruise colors
34. Investigators of Criminalless Crimes: when someone is hurt by fate itself,
these folks are on the case!
35. The Brewers & Coopers: they’ll build a barrel around anything, let it ferment,
and sell/drink the results
36. The Doula Players: using a mix of dance and theater, they tell all the stories
of how the world was born
41. Lunar Exterminators: they hated the moons; they seek out all places where
moons are present in the world...to destroy them
42. Moon Fuckers: worshippers of the now-fragmented moons who seek out all moon
pieces to make love on
43. A Morel Order: humans who seek valuable mushrooms; many find ways to gain pig-
like attributes to assist their quest; they hunt wild mushroom folk
44. The Hex-Men: changed by magical radiation, this diverse group of young people
train to master their strange abilities and keep evil magic from overtaking the
world
45. The Lindas: when the world was cobbled together, a Linda started gathering her
name-twins...but to what purpose?
46. Freedom to Flesh: these masked rogues seek to win fair funding for any being
who works their body for a living (which is almost everyone working); know them by
their silver cleavers
51. Trash Gang: people should be comfortable with mess, so the trash gang reverse-
steals garbage, dropping it off where it’ll do the best work; some people don’t
like this, obviously
52. The Armored Choir: hear them clanking up to your home to insistently sing the
hymns of their self-destructed god; no one will take these songs from them!
53. Spear Witches: they ride spears and turn things into spears; your husband? a
spear now; your shoes are spears; ouch!
54. The Cruel Editors: angry at the Heartless Princess’s arrangement of the
Patchwork World; they use fire to make change (no offense meant to editors,
especially mine)
55. Kids These Days: with numberless orphans after the numberless apocalypses, the
children have unionized for a better future
56. The Infested: bugs will make for a better future, so let them grow and hatch in
you and drive you like a beautiful carriage; maybe you’ll get pheromone senses or
extra arms
61. The Brain Trust: a secret cabal of spell-writers with their own obfuscated
language; led by two disembodied voices that whisper from a perfect marble cube
62. Knights of House Terrebonne: sealed into their hulking armor by restrictive
rune, these three women deal justice while seeking spell-breaking methods to free
themselves
63. Architexters: they are in love with buildings; they break in to seek out their
deepest crevasses and transcribe them into love poems; keep an eye out for these
architectural perverts
64. The Quilters: proficient in all needles and in connecting disparate pieces into
a cohesive whole; they can give you a new arm, for instance
65. Fundamental Geometrists: they believe the world should come in more digestible
shapes; they build and fill out complicated frames to make themselves into platonic
solids
66. Soda Jerks: rude carbonators

Appendix I: d66 Places

Locations you can use (or steal names from)
11. Black Bart’s Privateer Pub & Steakhouse: pirate-themed, i.e. other diners will
steal your food
12. Skull Island: a big skull with grassy “hair” where cow folk live, bedeviled by
a giant badger called The Great Sykes
13. Shelby the Giant Tortoise: trundles along slowly, led by Belinda the dwarf with
a carrot on a stick
14. Big Nicola’s Pegamoose Farm: the big lady spends all year making gifts for
those in needs, delivering them on winged moose
15. Fort Westwall: walled village run by short-tempered gnomes that turn into
vicious dire moles under the new moon
16. The Giftschrank: a jail for evil books, such as An Autumn of Razors (serial
killer book) and Silent Grammar (prison for Zagram the beer demon)
21. Her Offering: bar tended by the last worshipper of Silence, so everything is
whispered
22. Whistling Crab Swamps: giant hermit crabs fell and carve out trees for shells;
wind whistles melodically through them
23. The Milkfed Forest: a gate to the condensed realms of the Hidden Folk; feed the
loamy ground different milks to travel to different realms
24. Sister Serenity’s Home for Recovering Deities & Demons: where powerful
supernatural forces go to divest themselves of their abilities and learn to live as
a mortal
25. The Hell Well: used to go to Hell when Hell existed; still full of weird and
dangerous stuff
26. The Black Carapace Express: a bug ship in the process of being built by those
who insist there must be more world out there
31. Moondust: a desaturated drug den run by the bug-eyed & antennae’d moon elves
32. Hot Mud Baths: relax with some reptilian spa masters, try to steal their
healing muds
33. The Eye: whoa, can you open this massive closed eyelid in the ground?
34. Bone Bank: skeletons use all sorts of bones as money and for bodily
augmentation; store bones here, take out a loan, don’t steal the pens; rare bone
heist!
35. Small Puppet Town: to enter, you must put your soul in a little toy; many small
secrets hidden here
36. The Garlic Farm: garlic-headed people grow their futures; garlic of every
color, each granting super-chefs a different power
41. Bit o’ Sun: too hot to get near, but surely that can be circumvented;
what can we use the sun for?
42. The Painted Caves: guaranteed to survive the next apocalypse, these caves are
covered in the painted stories of visitors; guarded by neanderthals with refined
tastes
43. Blood Village: honestly just an unfortunately named place; it would take too
much work to change all the signage; nothing sinister here; consider a vacation in
Blood Village (paid for by the Blood Village Board of Tourism)
44. The Steps: a beautiful butte, home to artisanal shoemakers, cobblers, and
people who step on others for money and pleasure
45. Living Lake: a water spirit got too big and old and turned into a lake; tended
by suspicious sirens; swim in it for good dreams, drink it to change your inner
self
46. Ooze-Sheath Cannon: get in a bullet coated in protective goo, get shot
somewhere else
51. Oatsmobile: general store in a covered wagon run by two talking donkeys
52. Dessert Island: confectionary houses built by witch-bakers; taste tests and
baking competitions held regularly
53. The Crashed Duchess: a massive metal boat shipwrecked miles from any water;
hippo people run it as a hotel
54. Circuit Tree: grew from an automaton’s head; very tall now, with windows that
glow with threatening light; what knowledge is locked inside?
55. Unepipe Village: small furry folk grow nice drug plants and try to solve
mysteries; also famed for their bacon and jerky
56. Big Rotty: a mean old giant died, and a coalition of intelligent vultures and
maggotaurs are working to hollow out the corpse and turn it into a center for
culture and mercantilism
61. Buddy Boa’s Funarmed Park & Joy Zone: a great place to learn about snakes, go
on rides, and experience the unlimited potential of being a long thing with no
limbs
62. Hidden Calculator: Ursula the Octopus has killed hundreds and stored them in an
undersea cave; she uses electric eels to move the corpses, turning them into a
massive boolean graveyard that will soon solve the ultimate question: how can
octopi take over the world?
63. The Hobbelier: a winery owned by small criminals, all answering to the
enigmatic Hobfather
64. The School of Angles & Blind Alleys: hardworking students connecting the places
that go nowhere; can’t waste space in the Patchwork World!
65. Crow Court: everything is a crime somewhere, and these feathered barristers
will try any case if the money is right
66. Caves of Catsup: a powerful wizard lost their apprentice to a tomato allergy;
they have packed the underground with the sweetened slurry of vengeance; tomato
lovers beware

Appendix J: Moves for NPCs

These are things that NPCs can do when PCs engaging with them roll a 9 or less.
11. teleport
12. steal
13. swallow
14. hold in place
15. trip
16. explode
21. burn
22. terrify
23. befuddle (lose questions)
24. direct (a single action)
25. soliloquize
26. create barrier
31. learn secret
32. conjure ally
33. alert others
34. lure into danger
35. take to the skies
36. become invisible
41. spring trap
42. consume vitality
43. infect
44. foretell doom
45. move the earth
46. switch defenses
51. limit a sense
52. change shape
53. become vicious
54. reveal connection
55. dirty trick
56. reveal hidden weapon
61. rally observers
62. collateral damage
63. grow
64. threaten bystander
65. bribe
66. wound in being wounded (acid blood)
[sample NPCs from other media]

Appendix K: Optional Rules

Hard Mode: rolls start at -1 instead of +0; additional -1 if more than 3 Stress
are marked
players can cash in on a benefit but then rolls of 12+ are bad? Or maybe they just
are, pushing players to not cash in every available question?
Other Experience Rewards
If your players have a hard time creating personal Goals or don’t want to use the
Community rules, here are some other ways to award Experience.

Per Session
Add “mark 1 Experience” to the End of Session move.

Mission-Based
Players mark an Experience when they advance or finish a “mission.” For example, if
the players have been tasked with returning the Babbling Chalice to its original
crafters, the Smile Foragers, players might mark an Experience on recovering the
Chalice and then on returning it.

Achievements
Work with the players to figure out their favorite parts of the game, including
social interaction outside of the fiction. Maybe players mark Experience…
* for the best joke made during a session
* for the most out-there plan that actually worked
* for using three different Advanced Moves in the session
* for playing a character the GM would normally play

Optional Rule: Bad to Good

The table can decide that Benefit can only be marked if Drawback has already been
marked. If that’s the case, an arrow from the Drawback box pointing to the Benefit
box might help you remember. Does these mean that good things can only happen after
bad things? Is that too depressing? Up to you, I guess.

[explain that the moves below can be done via a combination of default moves, but
sometimes it’s more fun to tie it all to a single roll]

Take Someone on a Date

When someone consents to going somewhere with you for you to show them you like
them, but you’re not sure how they feel about you, roll with the questions:
* Do you know what sorts of things they like?
* Are your friends hiding nearby to give you advice?
On a 10+, you get all three. On a 7-9, choose two. On a 6-, choose one.
* They understand what you mean now matter what you say.
* Regardless of what happens, you’ll remain friends.
* Outside chaos is minimized.

Needlessly Complex Plan

When the players spend 5 or more minutes making a plan, one of them can roll with
the questions:
* Does the plan rely on the unlikely presence of a specific person or thing?
* Does it rely on immaculate luck?
On a 10+, the group holds 2. On a 7-9, they hold 1. Spend your hold on the
following.
* Against all odds, a specific person or object is where you need it to be.
* Turn a roll of 6- into a 7.
* A neutral passerby points out a flaw in your plan.
On a 6-, be prepared for the worst.

I Know About This

[roll if someone wonders if they know about a thing]

Appendix L: Why This is the 6th Edition (An Editorial)

fiction version, Genesys version, PbtA version 1, D&D version, Troika version, this
one

Appendix M: Safety
Roleplaying games, like other forms of fiction, can involve topics and situations
that might be uncomfortable and/or triggering to some. Before starting play, it’s a
good idea to agree to at least a rough rating so that everyone knows what to
expect. This system uses American movie ratings and assumes most are familiar with
them. Those ratings are:

G: You’d trust that the content wouldn’t cause anyone involved to balk or be
triggered.
PG: Some mild forays into the harshness of life, but nothing is described too
explicitly.
PG-13: Being a teen is honestly really hard, and this rating recognizes that
transition from childhood to adulthood.
R: The average adult knows tough things exist and could watch this game without
gasping in shock or being made sick.

Assign a rating to each of the following categories. Feel free to create more
categories if need be.

Language (swears):
Violence (how much it’s described, how often it’s inflicted):
Sexual content (how much sex is had, how much is described, how common flirting and
physical affection are):
Traumatic events (torture, addiction, drug use, mental illness, racism, and more;
each definitely deserves to be discussed individually, especially at higher
ratings):

In assigning the ratings, the lowest rating supersedes the others. That is, if one
person is okay with an R rating for violence and someone else wants PG, everyone
agrees to keep their violence to a PG level.

These are rough guidelines, and words like “average” are doing a lot of heavy
lifting! They’re meant to start the discussion, not to end it.

In addition to general ratings, players need ways to specify content that they
don’t want explored deeply and don’t want to appear at all. One way to approach
this is lines and veils; a line is a hard line that won’t be crossed, and a veil is
an obscuring device that limits appearance and description. As these things can be
hard to say aloud, especially in the presence of strangers, players should have a
way to state these things anonymously, such as by putting notes in a hat or adding
things to a shared document.

It’s a good idea for each player to think of at least one thing they want behind a
line or veil, even if they don’t consider that thing particularly traumatic. This
helps normalize spreading responsibility for the game’s content among all players
and giving non-GM players some veto power. (An example: I don’t want sexual
violence in games I play, and I’m only okay with animal endangerment in a
slapstick/comedic way.)

Lastly, players should be able to pause the game, take a break, and leave the game,
and in doing so, they should be able to indicate whether they want to talk about
why or not. A card or other nonverbal signal (such as a raised fist) can be a good
signal for these moments in person, and an x or other agreed-upon character can
work in online play.

Every group is different, and some safety tools might not work for everyone.
Luckily, there are a wealth of them on the internet. If you want more or different
tools, check out the TTRPG Safety Toolkit:
[Link]
usp=sharing

Appendix N: Inspirational Media

Fiction:
Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
Borne by Jeff Vandermeer
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
Circe by Madeline Miller
Hav by Jan Morris
A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar

Nonfiction:
The Night Battles
Sagas of the Icelanders

Comics:
Doom Patrol by Rachel Pollack, Linda Medley, Ted McKeever, et al
Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont, et al
The Marchenoir Library and other works by A. Degen
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

Roleplaying Games:
Apocalypse World
The Veil
Pasión de las Pasiones
Jared Sinclair’s 6E
Pipedream
Sagas of the Icelanders

Videogames:
Super Mario World
Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Planescape: Torment
MUGEN/Salty Bet

Audio:
The Twilight Mirage: Friends at the Table soundtrack by Jack de Quidt
Machinarium OST by Tomáš Dvořák
Character Sheet
Community Sheets
Village
A group of people joined together by family ties, political concerns, shared
resources, or some other connection. They can be sedentary (settled in a group of
buildings), mobile (perhaps traveling in wagons or some other conveyance), or a
mix.

Village name:
Population (usually 100-300):
Notable citizens (each player, including the GM, names and describes one):

Goal: When you enrich the lives of the villagers (like something worth throwing a
party over), each of you marks Experience.

Benefit
When you rest in the village for a day or more, erase 1d6 Stress.

Crew
A devoted cadre of employees, colleagues, or servants, a mix of dependable and
sturdy folk who might also be specialists. They might travel with you, or they
might live out of a home base that bolsters their skills.

Crew name:
Specialty:
Members (each player, including the GM, names and describes one):

Goal: When you bring them better equipment or advance their specialty, each of you
marks Experience.

Benefit: Each player chooses an Equipment or Location move they have; that move can
never be mutated, traded, or taken away involuntarily. If the move has questions,
add the question, “Has my crew recently performed upkeep on this?”

Moral Order
A formalized group of people with a specific goal and often with a powerful leader.
They might be similar to knights, monks, a guild, or a secret society. It’s up to
you how big they are; maybe you’re the only members other than a mysterious
commander, or maybe you have cells of allies scattered across the world.

Order name:
Patron:
Secret signs:
Morals (work as a group to write one or two):

Goal: When you hold to your morals despite it making things harder or more
dangerous, mark Experience.

Benefit: Each player chooses a move (including a basic move) and adds the question,
“Does my membership in the order help me?”

Wild Folk
A loose coalition who mostly meet and act outside the places normally considered
habitable. Members might include people, animals, and/or spirits. They might be
outcasts, religious adherents, or wilderness protectors.

Coalition name:
Membership population:
Reason(s) for banding together:

Goal: When you protect the wilderness or help it spread, mark an Experience.

Benefit: Derring-Do, Inspect an Area, and Explore the Map gain the following
questions when triggered in wilderness: “Are there signs that my people have passed
through here before me?”

Questions
After choosing a Community, answer any applicable questions below and ask and
answer follow-up questions. (GMs: You can also use these questions to develop other
parts of the world.)

* What is financially/materially valued here? How is wealth abstracted, displayed,

and traded?
* What is the landscape like?
* How are decisions made here?
* Who is respected here?
* What happens when someone breaks the law or commits a taboo action?
* What animals live here? What plants grow here? Which of them do people eat?
* What is worshipped here? What festivals are celebrated?
* Who holds power here? How did they get that power? Who is that power wielded
over?
* What surpluses are there? What is lacking?
* What building materials do people use?
* How many languages are spoken here?
* How often do people fight? When is it acceptable?
* What do people think about magic? What does it look like?
* What colors do we often see?

Faction Sheets
Faction name, initial demeanor, surpluses, wants; optional tracks for when PCs help
one group, they can alienate the other; if alienated, they will [blank]; if they
win, they will [blank]; if they lose, they will [blank]
Thanks/dedication
[probably put at front of book]
Special thanks to Quinn Murphy and Adam Vass
Thanks to playtesters Alex, mv, Michael, PB, Ellen, Emily, Sarah, Kegan, Maxwell,
John, Adam, Tony, Jeremy, and Madeline.
Thanks to the Brain Trust

[a]make this clearer that you must do both; sometimes you can't pick one because of
fictional reasons