PDQ

SYSTEM
 Jaws of the
Six Serpents
Silver Branch Games

Written and designed by Tim Gray

Art: Cover art ‘Swords Defiant’ by Storn Cook. Six serpents art by Jon Hodgson.
Most of the interior pictures are copyright Paul Daly, used with permission. Some
artwork copyright V Shane. Some artwork copyright Louis Porter Jr Design. Some
artwork copyright Rick Hershey, All Rights Reserved. Some artwork copyright
Claudio Pozas, used with permission. Some artwork by Bradley K McDevitt.
Some art by Rick Hershey, from Standard Stock Art: Issue 1 by Small Niche
Games.

PDQ system design by Chad Underkoffler, Atomic Sock Monkey Press

(www.atomicsockmonkey.com).

© 2009 Tim Gray.

Acknowledgements: Original PDQ rules text by Chad Underkoffler; the version

here is adapted from my own Questers of the Middle Realms game line, as is a
chunk of other material. Learning Points originally from The Zorcerer of Zo by
Chad Underkoffler. Sorcery rules partly inspired by Castle Falkenstein by Mike
Pondsmith. Weakness options inspired by FATE by Evil Hat Productions.
Thanks to Chad Underkoffler, Scott Dorward, Orion Gates, Graham Spearing
and Ralf Wagner for comments on the draft, and to the following for giving it
a spin: Tim Partridge, Ed Perkins; Scott Dorward, Gaby Adnitt, James Adnitt,
Mark Dewhurst.

The Prose Descriptive Qualities (PDQ) System has been designed for evocative
simplicity, speed, and flexibility in play. The PDQ System is used under license
from Chad Underkoffler; the following materials are not necessarily endorsed in
any way by Chad Underkoffler, nor is he in any way responsible for the content
of these materials unless specifically credited.

www.silverbranch.co.uk
 CONTENTS
Introduction 3 Charmcraft 63
“Roleplaying game”? 3 Divination 64
Author’s note 4 Gear, wealth, trade 65
Indulging 69
PDQ Core Rules 7
Qualities 8 World of the Six Serpents 71
PDQ Master Chart 11 An overview 72
Task resolution basics 15 People 72
Upshifts and downshifts 17 Geography 73
Conflict rules 18 Map 74
Story hooks 24 Urges 77
Notes and options 25 Intercessors 80
Conflict example 29 Intercession 81
Peoples 82
Rules for Six Serpents 31 The misty border between 83
Character creation 32 character and setting
Peoples of the Six Serpents 33 Oaths 89
Special Quality types 34 Monsters 92
Quality inspiration lists 36 Size 93
A sample character 41 Other common Qualities 95
Fortune Points 42 Strange peoples 99
Weaknesses and Trouble 43 Fierce beasts 100
Learning Points 44 The unquiet dead 104
Dark Learning Points 46 Things from the Dark 107
Danger Levels 47
Mastery 49 GM’s Notes 109
Minions 50 Adapting to other fantasy 110
Magic 52 settings
Effects 53 Basic GM advice 115
Magic Effects Table 54 That naked princesses thing 119
Sorcery 55 Adventure seeds 123
Sorcery in play 57 Sources and inspiration 126
Charms 59 Useful charts 129
Priests and magic 60
Magical items 60 Italics refer to text in boxes.
Alchemy 61

2
 INTRODUCTION
This is an old world. Civilisations have risen and fallen; and most likely will
again. Now hunting beasts prowl the ruins of their cities and monuments, and
tribes take refuge in their shadows. They fell by cataclysm and senility, and today
we know little enough of their ways and lore. But the peoples we know began as
their scions or servants, and those that are different were made so by the
ancients’ arts to suit their purposes. Some say it was they who set the Urges on
their current course of conflict and destruction, whether by plan or sin or
mishap. It is an axe-age, a sword-age, a storm-age... where the strong prey upon
the weak and death can come suddenly.

“Roleplaying game”? Days of high

A roleplaying game (RPG) is a adventure
leisure activity for a group of
people. These players sit around
pretending to be imaginary Jaws of the Six Serpents is a self-
characters having adventures in a contained fantasy roleplaying
fictional setting. Each controls a game that aims toward the
player character (PC), except one sword-and-sorcery or pulp
who takes the role of Game fantasy side of the genre. It is a
Master (GM), setting up situations simpler, more direct - one might
for the PCs and controlling the say more macho - world than
other characters they meet (non- those of many popular fantasy
player characters, NPCs). The RPGs. Characters take on
players say what their characters adversity for reasons that are
do and the GM tells them what usually personal rather than in
happens next; they use the rules any grand cause, and triumph
to decide whether actions succeed through a strong sword arm and
or fail. The story progresses quick wits. It’s not a world where
through scenes of actions at marketplaces throng with dozens
particular locations. You’ll need of intelligent species, or where
pencils and paper and about three enchanted items can be found
six-sided dice each. under every rock.

3
 Author’s note

This game originally arose from comments about my PDQ fantasy

game Questers of the Middle Realms, which is aimed at traditional
fantasy roleplaying with a humorous twist. “That’s all very well”,
said the commenters, “but why don’t you do a serious PDQ fantasy
game?” So you can see that if there’s any blame to be apportioned for
this project it should fall on those guys.

It did, however, match up with my desire to try something a bit

darker in tone than most of the previous PDQ games. Although
designed with a particular setting, it should serve as a framework for
all sorts of games toward one particular end of the big fantasy pool.
Or, perhaps, ends. I had in mind sources from Robert E. Howard’s
robust barbarian Conan, in both story and movie versions, to the
cynical, reluctant heroes of David Gemmell’s dark fantasy. To what
extent it’s succeeded, either in breadth or depth, I leave for the reader
to judge.

Magic is present, well known and powerful, but the sorcerers who
practise it are few and often regarded with fear and hostility for the
danger they present. Large “civilised” settlements are few and far
between, and harsh environments are themselves challenging opponents
for characters. “Monsters” are usually other people; fierce beasts, often
larger and more aggressive than their counterparts in our own world; or
unnatural things that claw their way in from realms beyond or are
created by sorcery.

Jaws also aims to support darker fantasy - worlds with low technology,
some magic, supernatural creatures and - crucially - characters who are
up against it, with death a constant companion. These tales tend to have a
pragmatic and unflattering view of human nature, shared by most of the
characters in the setting, and main characters wrestle with whether they
can or should rise above this.

4
This book
Jaws has three parts.
A rules toolkit, settingout the core PDQ system and customising it
for pulpier and/or darker fantasy games.
A setting outline you can use for such games (with plenty of material
you can swipe for settings of your own).
A GM’s section with notes for customising the game to suit the
setting of your choice, and general notes to aid in play.

Who they are and what they do

Certainly in the pulpier fantasy, characters are very capable. Most are
warriors, thieves or both - but even those departing from this pattern
should be able to handle themselves in a fight against rank-and-file
opponents. They are driven primarily by their own self-interest, and if
they accomplish something in a greater cause that’s largely incidental.
On the darker fantasy side, some characters might start off more
vulnerable and focus on their emotional journey; and grappling with the
worthiness of a cause versus one’s self-interest is a well-used theme.

As to what they do... the desire for wealth, power or whatever can lead
them to theft and intrigue in the cities, or to explore the ruins left by
ancient empires. A lot of stories are basically incidental, fitting in the
loose mould of, “While you’re trying to do this, that happens” - like
wandering into a town and getting embroiled in a coup or uprising, or
entering a supposedly deserted tomb and finding monstrosities that must
not be released upon the world. Other stories might follow more of a
quest or vision route, where the characters have some burning aim to
fulfil and events are stages on the way to achieving that, like a war
against a mighty foe (winning it, or just coming out in one piece).
Opponents can be political factions, the thieves’ guild, local oppressors,
things from the outer Dark or rival characters pursuing the same (or
contrary) goals.

5
The world of the Six Serpents
The world is not what it was; and perhaps not what it will be in ages to
come. Civilised folk gather in a small number of towns and cities, and
some of these are great, but the wilderness around is greater.

On the western coast the city of Sartain looks out over the waters of the
Westmare, toiling and scheming. The forests of the southern promontory
hide ruined cities and dangerous beasts. Beyond, the city of Nilsomar on
the Sea of the Moon hides behind masks and a sweet-smelling haze. To
the east, the mountains block off such lands as might lie beyond. From
there the Blackworm River runs all the way to the west. Elsewhere in the
interior, travellers in the round desert of the Empty Cup tread the dust of
elder civilisations beneath their feet.

Everyone knows that the world is shaped by six forces or energies known
as the Urges: Fire, Metal, Wood, Earth, Wind and Water. They are
depicted as a hexagon formed by serpents, each biting the tail of the next
in a cycle of domination or destruction (Wind conquers Water, Water
conquers Fire, Fire conquers Metal, and so on). The harshness and
instability of the land is due to conflicts between these forces. Some
legends say they are actually great dragons, possibly the original creators
of the world and now entombed within it. There is much symbolism
relating the Urges to physical, mental and social phenomena. This is the
extent of the common folk’s knowledge: they leave the debate of such
things to the sages and get on with the business of daily life.

People speak fearfully of the Dark Below, generally visualised as a black

void below the wheel of the Urges, home to various unhuman and hostile
entities. Sometimes these beings are summoned by corrupt sorcerers, or
find their own way to the world, where they seek to dominate and
corrupt or to feed on lives and souls. Scholars recognise a “Dark Urge”
energy connected to this Realm and its inhabitants. Some people - notably
the priestly order of Intercessors - also talk about the Light Above, a
realm where the spirits of the Worthy Dead go and from whence these
good spirits may sometimes send aid to the living.

6
PDQ CORE RULES

7
 QUALITIES
The Prose Descriptive Qualities (PDQ) System has been designed for
evocative simplicity, speed, and flexibility in play. It has three levels of
resolution, suitable for any type of situation.

The core element of PDQ is the concept of a prose, descriptive, do-it-

yourself, wide-ranging Quality standing in as attribute, advantage, merit,
flaw, skill, or incapability. They’re rated on a simple scale of Ranks, and
the rules provide tools for comparing these when characters compete
against each other or their surroundings.

When you make a character you’ll be able to buy a certain number of

Ranks to split between Qualities as you wish. Whatever is important
about a character is written down as a Quality; they should grow out of
the character concept and game setting. This gives you great freedom to
create the character you want.

Qualities are often drawn from five general areas.

Physical. Having to do with the body, athleticism, or natural talents.
Examples: Strong, Agile, Hardy, Climbing, Knife-fighting, Roguishly
Handsome, Dancing, Perseverance.
Mental. Areas of study, intellectual acuity, education. Examples:
Quick-witted, Strong-willed, Observation, Knowledge of the
Supernatural, Medicine, Craft Metal, Fine Food and Drink.
Social. Groups the character is a member of or associates with, skills
in dealing with people. Examples: Persuasion, Trickery, Intimidation,
Alluring, Silversmiths’ Guild, Conversationalist, Order of the Star.
Professional. Knowledge and skills picked up on the job. Examples:
Warrior, Thief, Street Urchin, Spy, Scholar, Bounty Hunter.
Other. Esoteric skills, magical powers or physical resources.

8
Penumbra
Qualities represent a broad skill or field of knowledge: if a particular
Quality is relevant at all to an action or topic, the character may apply
that Quality when attempting that action or understanding that topic.
This is called the penumbra (or “shadow”) of the Quality. Therefore, a
player shouldn’t choose Qualities that are too narrow or its penumbra
will cast too narrow a shadow; too broad, and identifying the sorts of
things that should fall under the penumbra becomes pointless. The
parameters for what’s “too broad” or “too narrow” are up to the
individual GM.

Remember to make sure

you and the GM have the
same understanding of
the abilities you choose.
Write a sentence or two of
description for ones that
are ambiguous.

For example, the Quality

“Swordsmanship” would
be useful not just in
hacking away at things,
but also in cleaning and
maintaining swords, discovering the location of nearby swordsmiths and
fencing trainers, and so forth. If the player had instead selected a Quality
of “Rapier Fighting” the Quality would only be useful in fighting with
that kind of sword, and involve knowledge surrounding rapiers
exclusively.

Overlapping Qualities. If a situation falls under the penumbra of more

than one of your Qualities, all of them can help to accomplish the task.
That doesn’t just cover skills, but personality traits and motivations too -
for instance, in the right situation your “Loves Sister” or “Protector of
Tribe” Qualities can make you a deadlier fighter.

9
Ranks
Qualities have Ranks, which indicate increasing proficiency. From lowest
to highest, the Ranks are:
Poor [-2]
Average [0]
Good [+2]
Expert [+4]
Master [+6]

The numbers in square brackets following the Rank of the Quality show
the Rank’s Modifier (MOD) – how much is added to or subtracted from a
2d6 dice roll (see Task Resolution). Characters have some things going for
them (Strengths), and at least one thing working against them
(Weakness). At everything else, characters are neither noteworthy nor
inept – they have countless unspecified, invisible Average [0] Qualities.
At character creation, buying the first Rank of a Quality lets you write it
down at Good - you’ve effectively raised one of your invisible Qualities
one Rank.

See the PDQ Master Table on the next page for the Ranks and Modifiers
set out in more detail. You’ll notice that the same Ranks are used to set
difficulty for a task, and then they’re represented by a Target Number
(TN). The basic mechanic is to roll two six-sided dice (2d6), add the
results together with your Quality’s MOD, and try to beat the TN - but
that will be explained more fully after we’ve covered Qualities.

Strengths and Weaknesses

A Strength is a positive aspect (benefit, skill, talent, attribute, or power)
of a character. Come up with a word or a pithy phrase to sum up the
Strength. Examples include Fighting, Willpower, Fly Like A Bird, Find
Bargains, and Run Away!

10
 PDQ MASTER CHART
AS MODIFIER AS
TARGET
RANK QUALITY TO 2D6 DIFFICULTY
NUMBER
RANK ROLL RANK
Poor Notably -2 A trivial task. 5
inept.
Average Typical 0 Straightforward 7
human task.
capability.
Good Better than +2 Complex task, 9
usual; most requiring
professionals attention to
or talented detail.
newcomers.
Expert Noted/famed +4 Intricate task, 11
professional; difficult and
talent with requiring sharp
skill to back concentration,
it up. hard for an
average person.
Master Acclaimed +6 Extremely 13
genius: talent difficult task,
with hard for most
substantial professionals.
skill behind it.

11
A Weakness is a negative aspect of the character, stemming from
ignorance, flawed understanding, physical or mental incapability, or
some other vulnerability. Pick something that will be fun or entertaining
for you the player. Come up with a word or a pithy phrase to sum up the
Weakness. Examples here include Glass Jaw, Weak-willed, Slow As
Molasses, and Shy. Weaknesses are always Poor [-2] Rank.

Depending upon the character concept, any Quality can be a Strength or a

Weakness. For example, suppose a character has “Hook-Handed” as a
Quality. If it’s ranked Average [0] or above, it’s a Strength: the character
can use his hook as a weapon (in physical conflicts) or as a threat (in
social conflicts) – or even more inventive things like picking a lock or
sliding down a rope – with an increased chance of success. But if the
character has “Poor [-2] Hook-Handed”, this is a Weakness: the character
keeps getting his hook stuck into things, forgets about it when he tries to
scratch his head, has problems holding on to things that require two
hands, and so forth. It’s all in the way you spin it. It’s even possible to
have the same Quality as a Strength and a Weakness, helping or
hindering in different circumstances.

Notes on choosing Qualities

Broad vs deep. When buying ranks of Qualities players can choose
between having more Qualities at a lower level of competency or having
fewer Qualities at a higher level of competency. If you throw everything
into one area of expertise you’ll really shine when that type of action
comes up, but you’ll be unimpressive for other things. You should also
note that because of the way the system works (explained later), such
prodigies are slightly less durable than their companions who are merely
competent but more rounded. Shine bright, burn out.

Overlapping Qualities fill a similar role to “feats”, “edges” or whatever

in other RPGs: they let you boost your effectiveness at specific types of
task by picking Qualities that work in tandem, at the expense of broader
expertise and flexibility as you use up precious Quality slots. For example
you could take both Warrior and Swordsmanship to combine when

12
fighting with a blade, but with all that training you probably didn’t get
out much.

Tweaking choices. Never fear: if, after play begins, a particular Quality
sees no use and doesn’t really add to the characterisation of a PC, a
player should feel free to change it to something that fits better – but only
after talking to the GM.

Gear
The baseline position for PDQ is that characters are assumed to have the
equipment needed to perform the skills reflected in their Qualities, but
this makes no difference to how effective they are. For instance, different
weapon types don’t, in themselves, make any difference to the damage
you do in combat - having a sword just enables you to use your Sword
Fighting Quality. The system defaults to focusing on the characters, not
the equipment list.

However, you can assign Qualities to objects, making them important to

the story. The simplest is just the general quality (small Q) of the thing,
reflecting materials, workmanship, role in the grand tapestry of fate and
the like – e.g. Good [+2] Ancestral Sword. This comes into play when the
item performs its key function(s), adding on to any other Qualities that
apply. Stuff that’s unusual, rare or expensive in the setting needs to be
taken as a Quality. In fact, any item that you want to give you a bonus for
rolls needs to be specified. Gear is covered more fully later on.

Character items. These are objects that have been bought using the
available Quality Ranks during character creation. They are effectively
part of the character. Having invested in such an item, the player should
not be permanently deprived of it - though the character might lose the
use of it temporarily if it’s lost, stolen or in need of repair (and will be
compensated by a Fortune Point - see later - for each scene they’re
without it).

13
Props. These are objects that are not part of the character, but are
available for character use for a while, like a Good [+2] Bag of Coins. You
don’t start with any: they’re gained and lost in play.

Living beings as gear. This is certainly possible: you can have an Expert
[+4] Warhorse or a Good [+2] Squire as character Qualities, for instance,
and maybe even as Props.

Powers
These are supernatural and magical things beyond what ordinary people
can do. They’re usually restricted to characters with particular sorts of
background (like trained sorcerers) and supernatural creatures. They can
also be attached to objects. Examples: Breathe Fire*, Move Objects*,
Summon Insect Swarm*, Astonishing Leap*, Create Undead*, Holy
Smiting*, Discerning Glance*. Powers for this game are explained in
detail later on.

Notation. When listed, Powers are marked with an asterisk*; it’s wise to
do this on the character sheet too, as sometimes it’s important to know
whether something’s magical.

Active Powers. When you put the first Rank into a Power that lets you do
something special like hurling lightning or changing shape you get it at
Average [0], not Good [+2]: the benefit is gaining the ability to do it at all.
(You’ll see later that this also means characters specialising in Powers are
slightly less able to soak up damage. It’s a trade-off for being able to do
fancy stuff in the story.)

Enhancements. Sometimes a Power enhances an existing capability, like

improving one’s sense of smell or making a bow more accurate. The first
Rank buys Good as normal, providing a MOD.

14
TASK RESOLUTION BASICS
When your character tries to do something, the GM will determine if the
situation is simple, complicated, or conflict. Let’s take each in turn.

Simple Situations
These are applied when the task is clear-cut, there are no outstanding
issues interfering with the attempted action, or randomness would bog
down the game. The GM looks at the PDQ Master Chart and determines
the Difficulty Rank of the task, then compares that to the character’s most
appropriate Quality Rank. If the character’s Rank is higher they simply
succeed in the task, with no dice roll required. Otherwise the task
becomes a complicated situation.

Example: Janos wants to climb a Good [TN 9] cliff using his Expert
[+4] Outdoorsman Quality. Because his Rank is higher, he simply
succeeds.

Sometimes the GM might not allow a situation to be treated as simple

and require a roll from everybody, for instance to inject some tension.

Complicated Situations
These involve a single dice roll to determine success or failure. Use them
when a character’s Quality isn’t high enough to make the task routine, or
when the story calls for a tension between success and failure.

To attempt a complicated situation roll two regular six-sided dice (2d6),

add the two results together and add on the Modifier for your Quality
Rank (zero if you don’t have any relevant Qualities). To succeed, your
total must equal or beat the Target Number of the task’s Difficulty Rank.

15
The TN might come from the GM’s assessment of abstract difficulty for a
task, or it might come from an opposing character’s Quality Rank.

Example: Following Janos up the Good [TN 9] cliff is Katryn, who

only has Good [+2] Agile to help her. As that’s equal to the difficulty
she must roll for it. With her Quality that’s 2d6 + 2, aiming for a total
of at least 9. She rolls a 3 and a 5, giving a total of 10, and scrambles
nimbly to the top.

You can use complicated situations when characters are opposed by

minor non-player characters and you don’t want to play through the
exchange in detail - just resolve it with a single roll.

Conflict Situations
These involve active resistance from another character: trying to punch a
guy in the face, out-thinking a chess player or running a race. Conflict
situations include more than just the immediate success or failure of an
attempted action. Conflict includes the back and forth of an active
contest, out-manoeuvring the competition and wearing down an
opponent’s resistance. Examples of conflict situations include combat,
seduction, haggling and debating - the same rules apply in each case.

(Some gaming groups might not want to use the conflict situation
mechanics to resolve social interactions, and will want to rely on pure
roleplaying instead. This is fine – the rules structure is there if a group
wishes to use it.)

Conflict situations progress through a series of exchanges where

characters compare the results of 2d6 plus Modifier rolls; the higher
successful result wins and does “damage” to the loser. PDQ uses an
abstract form of damage that reflects reducing ability to influence the
course of the story rather than simulating cuts, bruises and other forms of
harm. The conflict goes back and forth, with opponents wearing each
other down until one of them is out of the contest. There are more
detailed rules for this in a couple of pages.

16
Upshifts and Downshifts
Sometimes the Rank of a Quality gets modified by circumstances or
special abilities before determining the result of a situation.

Upshifts
These cause a roll to be made as if the Quality were one Rank higher,
essentially giving an additional +2 to the roll.

If a player describes an attempt to perform an action in a particularly

flavourful and entertaining way the GM can give an upshift for that
action. So, rather than “I hit the sailor”, the player says something like “I
grab the sailor’s shirt with one hand and pull him closer to punch him in
the face with my other fist!”. If the PC had a Good [+2] Pirate Quality this
would change the roll from 2d6+2 to 2d6+4, as if he were Expert [+4].

Upshifts above Master Rank add an extra die to the character’s roll - so
instead of 2d6+6+2 you roll 3d6+6. A further upshift would be 4d6+6, and
so on. Once you get to these dizzy heights, results should be impressive.

Downshifts

These cause a roll to be made as if the Quality were one Rank lower,
essentially giving -2 to the roll. (While functionally the same thing as a
Weakness, the reasons behind them are different.)

Downshifts can work well to reflect changes in the complexity of a

situation, but GMs should try not to overuse them as situational
modifiers. Games tend to run more smoothly if you just set the Difficulty
Rank of a task appropriately. For example, if the PCs are climbing a Good
[TN 9] cliff and it starts to rain, a downshift makes sense - but if it’s
already raining when they begin, make it Expert [TN 11] from the start.

Downshifts below Poor Rank mean automatic failure in that task.

17
 CONFLICT RULES

Initiative
Conflicts proceed as a series of Turns, during which every character has
chance to take an action and react to the actions of others.

Within each Turn, figure out who goes first – that is, who has Initiative. It
follows a number of broad brackets, in the following order. (The order
might adjust after the first Turn, but then usually stays the same.)
It may depend on the situation. If a character attacks without
warning – taking the victim by surprise – the attacker automatically
goes first. (Some sort of stealth vs perception check is often used to
see whether the target is surprised. If the target is caught totally
unawares defence can only include passive Qualities, e.g. Tough as
Nails but not Fancy Footwork.) In many cases the initiator of a
conflict goes first even without surprise, for the first Turn at least.
Characters with a “speed” or “reaction time” Quality relevant to the
situation (Fastest Sword in the East, Jumpy, Quick Wits) act in order
of their Ranks.
Characters with no special speed act.
If any characters happen to be unusually slow, they act last of all.

Within each of these brackets the GM can count down from Master to
Poor if necessary. Player characters go before non-player characters. If
you need to break a tie, each party rolls one die and the highest number
wins Initiative. Characters with a higher Initiative may “hold their
actions” for as long as they want, in order to react to what happens, but
after the last character has done something they need to take that held
action or lose it.

After everyone involved has taken an action (or chosen not to), the
characters can start a new Turn. This continues till the conflict is resolved.

18
Moment of Truth
The character whose turn it is will be called the attacker; the character who
is the target of the attacker’s action is called the defender. The attacker’s
player explains what the attempted action is, and the defender explains
how they’ll try to counter that action. Then both of them roll 2d6 and add
the appropriate Modifier(s). PDQ looks at the overall “goodness” of
attack and defence in one go: accuracy, power, evasion, resistance to
harm and whatever other factors might be in there. Throw all the MODs
in together.

If the attacker gets a higher total, damage is applied to the defender; if the
defender’s result is higher, no damage is done. A tie is just that – nobody
wins, nobody loses - but they are both slightly fatigued or discomforted.

Damage
Damage (be it physical, mental, emotional, or social) is the loss of
capability. As a character takes damage, they are less likely to be able to
perform at peak efficiency. This is shown by a number of damage Ranks,
effectively downshifts to the character’s listed abilities that last at least the
length of the current conflict. If damage wipes out all of a character’s
Quality Ranks they “zero out” and lose the conflict, with whatever
consequences might follow.

Failure and Damage Ranks

There are actually two types of damage: Failure Ranks and Damage
Ranks, caused by different kinds of harm. A character can suffer both
types in the course of a conflict situation. They are functionally the same
thing during a conflict, but Failure is recovered quickly and Damage can
trouble the character for longer.

19
In mental, social, and some physical conflicts, loss of capability is usually
temporary and is represented by Failure Ranks. Examples include a
chess match, witty repartee, or running a race. Failure Ranks are almost
always completely recovered at the end of a scene (and might be easier to
recover within a scene).

In many physical conflicts loss of capability is more enduring and is

represented by Damage Ranks, which can persist over several scenes.
Examples here include not just combat with weapons, but also
environmental damage taken by running through fire, falling off a roof,
or starting to drown. (Non-physical conflicts might sometimes produce
Damage Ranks for persistent effects, like a serious social setback.)

Applying damage

In a successful attack, the difference between the attacking and defending

totals determines how many Failure or Damage Ranks are done to the
defender. If the roll results are tied, both characters take a single Failure
Rank.

Each point of damage reduces one Quality by one Rank: it will function at
that lower Rank until the character recovers from the damage. The
character’s player selects which Qualities takes the damage, and can
spread the damage out across several abilities at once. (It may only be
applied to abilities listed on the character sheet, not to “default” Average
Qualities.)

Example: Kortak has got into a bar fight with a local thug. He has
Expert [+4] Brawling, and the thug also has Brawling, but at Good
[+2]. Kortak, being a player character, gets his swing in first and rolls
2d6+4 for a result of 10. The thug’s defence is 2d6+2 for a result of 8.
The difference is 2, so the thug takes 2 Failure Ranks (as it’s unarmed
combat). If he allocates those to his Brawling Quality they’ll take it
down from Good to Average to Poor.

Whichever Quality is allocated the first hit of damage in a conflict

generates a Story Hook, a complication for the characterʹs life (see
below).

20
Zeroing out

Characters eventually hit bottom in one of their Qualities and “zero out”.
When all Qualities are reduced to Poor and there are more damage Ranks
to allocate, one Quality gets dropped to a “zeroed” level below Poor (any
further damage is unimportant) and the character cannot continue the
conflict. This means they lose the conflict theyʹre in, or are at least
uninvolved with the rest of the scene.

Zeroing out like this could mean the character has totally flubbed the
seduction attempt, been knocked unconscious in combat, or run out of
test-taking time and must put down his quill. If possible, the player
describes how and why the PC is out of the scene; if unable or unwilling,
the GM can depict the loss of the conflict. If the Scene continues after the
character falls, for instance if there are other heroes yet fighting on, the
GM lets the player know if/when they can return to the Scene (see below,
Recovering from Damage).

Consequences. Just because a character zeroes out in a physical conflict

doesn’t mean they die. However, it does mean that they are unconscious
or otherwise helpless, and at the mercy of an opponent. Sometimes
zeroing out is just the prelude to a character being shoved into a villain’s
deathtrap! In situations other than physical battle an opponent might
inflict other kinds of harm on a helpless foe, like destroying their
reputation.

Environmental damage
This comes from stuff like falling, jumping through a fire, drowning, or
other complicated situations. The damage is assigned a Rank and the
character attempts to resist its TN with a suitable roll. If they succeed
they’re unharmed; if they fail, the difference between roll and Target
Number is the number of Damage Ranks taken. A hazard might take
effect just once, or repeat at intervals - e.g. a poison or disease might have
to be resisted once per day until a week passes, the character resists three
times, or some such.

21
Recovering from damage
At the end of a scene damaged characters begin to recover lost Ranks.
How many they get back depends upon whether they are still in the
middle of a dangerous situation or have completed that bit of the story.
Momentary Danger. If nothing else is going on, and the character is
otherwise safe, relaxed, and lacking any time constraints, all Failure
and Damage Ranks are removed, restoring Qualities to their normal
levels. In other words, the scene just gone was pretty much self-
contained as a part of the story. Examples: a random bar-fight, a
chase on horseback, a seduction attempt.
Continuing Danger. If the scene just gone was part of an
overarching situation that is risky, stressful, or under deadline,
characters recover all lost Failure Ranks but only 1d6 lost Damage
Ranks. The player chooses which Qualities’ Ranks are restored (and
will probably pick those they think they’re about to need most). The
character will not recover any more Ranks until the next scene ends
or some other factor comes into play (like supernatural healing).
Examples: a difficult journey to get an injured person to a doctor,
chasing down a monster, assaulting a villainʹs secret headquarters.

Judging which of the two applies can sometimes be tricky. If in doubt,

allow automatic full recovery only at the end of a story (or perhaps story
segment), or on reaching a place that’s specifically designated as safe.

Special damage recovery

Intrinsic Qualities. In Continuing Danger, a Strength like Quick Healer

should allow the character to gain back the standard 1d6 Damage Ranks
plus its Modifier between scenes. A Weakness like Poor [-2] Slow Healer
would mean that the character rolls 1d6-2 (minimum of zero Ranks back).

Mundane aid. Another character can use appropriate Qualities to help.

Because the system is so flexible the GM can allow anything that sounds
right for the situation, like Healer to address wounds or disease, or
Oratory to restore flagging spirits, or an item like a Good [+2] Herbal

22
Salve. So these come into play at different times, e.g. if the situation is a
tense negotiation with no physical injuries Healer wouldn’t be any good.
Emergency aid - the GM might sometimes allow things like First Aid
and Oratory to help mid-scene in appropriate situations, healing up
to MOD Failure Ranks but not Damage Ranks.
Thorough aid - this takes at least several minutes, and perhaps
equipment and facilities. It adds MOD to the number of Damage
Ranks the helped character recovers between scenes.

Supernatural aid. Spells or items with suitable powers work the same as
mundane aid, with the benefit that they take effect instantly (so
potentially within a scene as well as at its end). Their use might have
some sort of cost, or there might be a limit on how often they can be used.

Understanding PDQ damage

What it simulates. Just this: declining power to affect the direction

and outcome of the action. It’s abstract. There’s no requirement for the
allocation of damage to Qualities to “make sense”. So if you’re
wondering why getting stabbed with a knife damages your
relationship with your clan, don’t worry about it. That said, if you
want to come up with justifications to add a bit of colour you’re
entirely free to do so. (“My clan uses ritual knife-fights to settle
disputes, so getting beaten means I lose face.”)

Applying it. In any conflict Qualities can be thought of as useful for

either “attack”, “defence” or “absorption.” Say your character has
Good [+2] Rank in the Qualities of Brawling, Debating and Scribe. In
combat (a physical conflict) you will probably opt to keep Brawling at
Good [+2] and apply Damage Ranks to Debating and Scribe. In an
argument (a social conflict), you will want to keep Debating high for
as long as possible, and take Failure Ranks on Brawling and Scribe
first. If being audited by the King’s Revenue Service (could be a
mental, social or professional conflict, depending on how the GM
spins the situation), you would protect Scribe, try to keep Debating at
Good [+2] as long as you could, and sacrifice Brawling.

23
 STORY HOOKS
This feature of PDQ helps the players and GM come up with exciting or
interesting subplots, complications, and events for their characters. They
might manifest straight away, but the GM will usually store them up for
after the current scene.

In conflict situations, whichever Quality the player selects to take the first
hit of damage generates a Story Hook. Some GMs might also wish to use
the ability that the PC chooses when zeroing out of a conflict (that is,
when any one of the character’s Qualities drops below Poor [-2] Rank) as
a source of Story Hooks.

Examples:
“A young swashbuckler challenges you to a duel!” (Swordsman,
Famous);
“A message arrives from your old teacher - he needs your help
urgently!” (Organisation, Relationship with Teacher);
“Armed men step out of the shadows - the woman has led you into a
trap!” (Amorous, Enemy of the Order of the Star).

Story Hooks are normally a cue for future events, but you can use them to
trigger a flashback to past events instead. This can be useful when there
are only one or two players, or if your game’s story has only just got
started. This inserted scene is played out with the GM and players
temporarily taking over any involved NPCs. These characters interact
until they hit a suitable point like a crisis of some kind, then the action
returns to the original conflict.

24
 NOTES AND OPTIONS
Overlapping and stacking
Characters can certainly have Qualities with overlapping penumbras, like
Warrior and Axe Fighting. If a situation matches both, then both
contribute to rolls. In fact, this is a very simple way to model specific
areas of a skill or talent where the character performs particularly well.
The downside, of course, is that fewer Ranks are available to buy other
Qualities to round out the character.

All Upshifts and Downshifts on a given Quality are cumulative, possibly

cancelling each other out or - if you Upshift beyond Master - giving extra
dice. When combining different Qualities you could technically work out
the Ranks and possible extra dice (e.g. adding a Good [+2] is effectively
the same as an Upshift), but it’s less fiddly to just add all the MODs
together rather than working out how many extra dice to use. As a rule of
thumb, apply Shifts to the primary Quality you’re using and add the
MODs for any secondary, assisting Qualities - so you could end up with
rolls like 3d6+10!

Characters working together

If multiple characters team up to perform a task, they can all chip in
MODs from relevant Qualities. Only one of them actually makes the roll
(usually the character with the higher Initiative).

Example: Zandra (Expert [+4] Merchant) and Birtol (Good [+2]

Minstrel) decide to work together to try to convince an Expert [+4]
Theatre Owner that Birtol is worth signing up as part of the
entertainment. Zandra will make the roll of 2d6+4+2; she gets a 4 and
a 6, for a total of 16 against the owner’s TN of 11, and he’s sold.

25
Multiple targets
If you want to take on multiple targets in a single action you can split
your attentions between them, but spreading yourself thin like this makes
you less effective. For each additional target selected, apply a Downshift
to the Quality Rank. Once you reach Poor you can’t split any further.

You never need to split your defence this way, even if you face multiple
attackers: you get the full thing each time you’re attacked.

Example: Kortak (Expert [+4] Brawling) is fighting two eerily silent

black-garbed assassins. If he tries to take them both out with
powerful blows he’ll only be at an effective Rank of Good [+2] for his
attacks on each.

Time, Range and Movement

Time in Conflict

Scenes are an entire bit of action in a given location at a given time, often
coinciding with working through a particular conflict.

Each character takes a turn or action: that’s when they make their move,
say their piece, throw a punch, etc. (If Turn is capitalized, it generally
means the set of all characters’ next actions and reactions.)

Other characters react during a character’s turn – saying something back

or performing a defence, usually – but their reactions can only be in
response to the actions of the character whose turn it currently is. They
cannot initiate actions until their turn.

26
Range in Conflict

In general, GMs can be really flexible with distance. Ranges are either
Near (can punch it), Middling (can run up and punch it), Far (can throw
or shoot at it), or Too Far (out of range). If one really wants to connect
numbers to this, Near would be any distance up to a yard, Middling
would be between 1 and 3 yards, Far would be between 3 and 60 yards,
and Too Far is anything over 60 yards.

Movement in Conflict

PDQ tends to leave movement rates for characters abstract and up to the
discretion of the GM (like requiring a character to make a roll using a
speed or movement Quality vs. a reasonable Difficulty Rank).

If you want a concrete rate, characters can move 4 yards plus the sum of
all involved Quality Modifiers per turn.

27
Poor Qualities in conflicts
If a Quality is reduced to Poor by damage, you can simply choose not to
include it in rolls even if it would be relevant (unless it is specifically
targeted somehow, e.g. as a difficulty for someone else’s action). This is
different from a Weakness, which is a permanent Poor Quality for the
character - these must always be figured into an applicable roll, reducing
effectiveness. If applying the Weakness leads to damage that generates a
Story Hook, you might wish to make it more intense than usual.

Downshift options
Sometimes you’ll encounter an option to downshift a particular Quality
in order to do something special. This is a way of limiting the number of
times that thing can be done per scene. You do it, and then temporarily
reduce the Quality one Rank. Once it reaches Poor, you can’t do that
thing any more. So if the Quality is Good, one use takes it to Average,
then a second use takes it to Poor and it’s temporarily used up. At the end
of the scene these downshifts go away and it can be used again.

Although it’s kind of like damage Ranks, you should record it differently
as it doesn’t behave quite the same as either Failure or Damage. For
instance you might mark them as D, F and S (for Shift).

28
 CONFLICT EXAMPLE
Let’s get a clearer picture of how conflict works with a straightforward
sword fight. Here are two characters, fully statted out. (Callum is the
example character you’ll see created in the next part of the book.) Some
sort of cross purpose has arisen, and they draw steel.

Callum
People: Earth Tribes of Kalet
Strengths: Expert [+4] Warrior, Good [+2] Strong as a Bear, Good [+2]
Agile as a Mountain Lion, Good [+2] Tougher Than “Civilised” Folk,
Good [+2] Outdoorsman, Good [+2] Fiery Will, Good [+2] Seeks Renown
as a Great Warrior
Weakness: Poor [-2] Hot-tempered

Kylar
People: Cliff People of Narrowhome
Strengths: Good [+2] Streetwise, Good [+2] Cunning, Good [+2]
Ambitious, Good [+2] Agile, Average [0] Alchemy*, Expert [+4] Weapon
Fighting, Good [+2] Assassin
Weakness: Poor [-2] Low Self-esteem

Turn 1. Initiative is straightforward. Neither has a Quality relating to

reaction speed, so they roll a die each and Kylar goes first.

Kylar attacks. Weapon Fighting definitely comes into play. Assassin

doesn’t because there’s nothing sneaky about the situation. This
particular GM says that Agile won’t contribute to a straightforward
attack but is likely to add to defence. (A different gaming group might
have a different view.) So that’s a total of +4 to the attack - with a roll of 8
that totals 12. Callum’s player has been looking at defensive Qualities,
and goes for Warrior and Agile as a Mountain Lion, giving 2d6+4+2=13.
Kylar just missed.

29
Callum attacks. Warrior [+4] and Strong as a Bear [+2], with a good roll of
10 gives 16. Kylar uses Weapon Fighting [+4] and Agile [+2] with a roll of
6 for a total of 12. Kylar takes 4 Damage Ranks. He looks at the Qualities
he doesn’t need right now: 1 Rank takes Alchemy* from Average to Poor,
2 Ranks on Ambitious takes that to Poor, and 1 Rank on Streetwise takes
that to Average. The GM makes a note that Alchemy needs a Story Hook,
as the first Quality that took damage. It would probably kick in later, but
could be a broken potion bottle right now (with or without side effects).

Turn 2. They roll dice again and Callum goes first.

Callum attacks. Not messing with a winning formula, Warrior and

Strong as a Bear for 2d6+6=12. Kylar’s player is thinking hard about what
more he can do, but only comes up with Weapon Fighting and Agile
again for 2d6+6=10 - a poor roll. That’s another 2 Damage Ranks. He takes
Streetwise down to Poor and Assassin from Good to Average.

Kylar attacks. Inspiration strikes, and he tries a manoeuvre of pretending

to react to something behind Callum to distract the northerner. This
brings in Cunning [+2] on top of Weapon Fighting [+4] - with a good roll
of 11 that’s 17. If this was a matter of willpower Callum could add in his
Fiery Will for defence, but it’s more about intelligence and insight to see
through the ruse and he has nothing like that. So defence is still Warrior
[+4] and Agile as a Mountain Lion [+2], with a roll of just 6 for a total
of 12. Callum has to take 5 Damage Ranks. That puts Outdoorsman and
Seeks Renown... at Poor, and he uses the last Rank to take Tougher than
“Civilised” Folk to Average. (He’s not using that because it’s to do with
resisting hardship when being compared to soft southerners - the
situation’s not quite right and Kylar’s not quite civilised.) Outdoorsman
was the first to take a hit, so gets noted for a potential Story Hook.

Taking stock. Both characters have lost a lot of the Quality Ranks that
they didn’t really need in this conflict. Now it gets serious, as further
damage will make them less effective in the fight. We’ve also seen that
they’re pretty evenly matched. Callum has a bit more attack power, but
Kylar’s better suited to coming up with clever moves to gain an
advantage. It’s likely to be decided on the luck of the dice and the
inventiveness of the players.

30
 RULES FOR
SIX SERPENTS

31
 CHARACTER CREATION
So, ready to make a new character? Here’s what you need to sort out.
A character sheet to record your character’s abilities can be downloaded
from www.silverbranch.co.uk, though a sheet of lined paper will do fine.

Description. You’ll need a name for your adventurer, and at least basic
impressions they give to people who meet them for the first time. You can
add much more information about their background if you like. For
sword and sorcery the most important thing to bear in mind throughout
is that they should be iconic - interesting and appealing enough that
readers of their stories would come back for more. That includes
evocative Quality names like ‘Swift as a Serpent’ instead of ‘Fast’.

Required Qualities. You must take one Rank (i.e. Good) in each of these:
Most Jaws games assume that all characters are human and that
cultural groups have certain common traits. These Peoples have lists
of associated Qualities. Choose your character’s People and pick one
Strength from the list to reflect their birthright.
A personal Faculty, an innate talent like Brawn, Wits or Perception.
A Driver that will motivate the character to action: a personality trait
like an ambition, attachment, virtue or vice.

Open Qualities. You have 5 Ranks to allocate to whatever Qualities you

wish. Buying a Quality at Good takes one Rank, Expert takes two and a
Master Rank takes three. (For supernatural powers the first Rank you buy
is Average.) You can add Ranks to your Required Qualities. You might
want to take some of the other People Strengths. It’s best to have at least
one broad one like an occupation, at least one Quality that’ll help in a
fight and at least one kind of action you’re really quite good at.

Weakness. You must also take one Quality at Poor [-2] for an area where
your character has difficulties - find one that’ll be interesting to play.

Make sure you have space to record Fortune Points and Learning Points
- coming up shortly - and you’re ready to go!

32
Peoples of the Six Serpents
Here are terse versions of the Quality lists for the Peoples that appear
in the setting section later on. Fuller information is available there.
(Weaknesses are just suggestions - you don’t have to pick one of these.
The Urge Qualities allow characters to boost actions associated with
that Urge energy. Charms are modest single-purpose magics.)

Devilfolk of Ahaan
Strengths: Night Vision, Arcane Lore, Dark Urge, Mysterious
Weaknesses: Vulnerable to Temptation, Outsider
Other: Sorcery* available. Charms possible. Urges not Fire or Wood,
and may not exceed Dark Urge Rank.

Witchfolk of Belimaur
Strengths: Intelligent, Perceptive, Secretive, Trader, Traveller
Weaknesses: Curiosity
Other: Open Quality Ranks can be spent on Charm* (specify) and
Charmcraft*. Their most common Urges are Fire and Wind.

Earth Tribes of Kalet

Strengths: Wood Urge, Warrior, Oratory, Alchemy*
Weaknesses: Impulsive, Uncivilised
Other: The Urges of Earth and Fire are also relatively common.

Cliff People of Narrowhome

Strengths: Improvising, Climbing, Bargaining, Streetwise
Weaknesses: Pushy, Scruffy
Other: The most common Urges are Earth and Wind.

Masked Folk of Nilsomar

Strengths: Inscrutable, Misdirection, Trade, an art or performance
skill, Alchemy*
Weaknesses: Civilised
Other: The most common Urges are Water, Fire and Wood. Sorcery
and Charms are also found with average frequency.

33
 Water People of Quegin
Strengths: Semi-aquatic*, Swimming, Boating, Water Urge
Weaknesses: Uncivilised, Vulnerable to Dehydration (from dry heat)
Other: They don’t have much truck with magic. Shamans typically
have modest levels of Divination* and maybe a couple of Charms.

Freemen of the River Towns

Strengths: Steady, Practical, Craft (specify), Trader, Boating, Fisher
Weaknesses: Inflexible, Unimaginative, Civilised
Other: Earth and Metal Urges are the most common. Magic is rare,
and frowned upon; occasional “craft secret” Charms.

Citizens of Sartain
Strengths: Streetwise, Profession (specify), Connoisseur, Intrigue
Weaknesses: Civilised, Unprincipled, Vain
Other: Urges uncommon and usually limited to low Ranks, most often
Metal. A few noble bloodlines are more attuned.

Owl-men of Temisarum
Strengths: Nocturnal, Keen Senses, Stealth, Hunter, Spirit Lore
Weaknesses: Sensitive to Light
Other: The most common Urges are Water and Metal.

Special Quality types

Only introduce these if a character concept seems to require them.

Fate

Some sword and sorcery characters have a long-standing appointment

with fate: something’s going to happen later in their story, for better or
for worse. Maybe they are destined to become a king, or doomed to die
by drowning. If a character seems to require it, here’s how.

34
Making this available to generate Story Hooks is obviously important, so
it needs to be a Strength. Instead of adding its MOD to rolls, allow it to be
triggered up to MOD times per game session to give a Fortune Point for
immediate use if the situation relates to the fate, e.g. if trying to depose
the corrupt existing king. This gives a character whose fate is currently in
play a bit of extra spotlight.

Record these in the form “Good [+2] Fate: Bring freedom to my people”.
Whether a character’s fate can ever be fulfilled once and for all, and what
happens then, is a matter for your individual game.

Fame

Giving the character a reputation is a simple use of Qualities. It affects

social interactions when it comes into play, either as a Strength or a
Weakness.

It’s suggested that you always specify the community that the Quality
covers, by occupation and/or geography, e.g. criminals, River Towns,
swordsmen. It’s often good to specify the nature of the reputation too,
like “honoured” or “feared”. So for instance “Good [+2] Enemy of the
Thieves’ Guild”. You might want to put a ceiling on the Rank if the
characters are supposed to be fairly new to their adventuring careers.

Possessions

Gear is covered in more detail under Gear, Wealth, Trade at the end of this
section of the book. If you want a “magic item”, check with the GM about
the level of magic in the setting. The more sword and sorcery end of
fantasy generally doesn’t have these lying about. You could certainly
invest a Quality in an item to reflect its workmanship or importance to
the character, giving extra effectiveness when it’s used and preventing it
from being lost permanently - though even that’s a bit unusual.

35
Quality inspiration lists
PDQ character creation is very open and flexible, letting you invent
pretty much any Quality you like. However, that can be a bit daunting -
especially if you’re new to the game or the inspiration isn’t flowing.

In the tables on the following pages you’ll find ideas for occupations,
innate talents, learned skills and personality traits. You can scan them for
inspiration, and pick Qualities from there or new ones that get sparked
off in your grey matter. Alternatively you can pick them randomly: roll
two six-sided dice and read one as tens and the other as units.

These aren’t intended to be restrictive. If you have a strong, clear

character concept (and the GM approves) by all means go for it!

36
Occupation

What the character spent their 31 Haulier, Wagoner,

time doing before they started Boatman
adventuring is a key choice - 32 Herder
lots of other things can hang on 33 Hunter/Guide
this. 34 Innkeeper, Bar staff
35 Merchant, Trader
11 Animal Handler 36 Miner
12 Beggar, Vagrant 41 Mountebank, Con
13 Crafter - Smith, Mason, Artist, Gambler
Carpenter 42 Mystic
14 Crafter - Shoemaker, 43 Noble
Tailor, Weaver, Dyer 44 Official, Clerk
15 Crafter - Baker, 45 Pirate, Smuggler
Brewer, Butcher, Cook 46 Priest
16 Crafter - Tanner, 51 Prospector, Scavenger,
Thatcher, Cooper, Beachcomber
Ropemaker 52 Sailor
21 Crafter - Jeweller, 53 Scholar
Instrument Maker, 54 Servant
Glassblower 55 Soldier
22 Physician, Healer 56 Sorcerer
23 Entertainer - Musician, 61 Spy/Assassin
Singer, Minstrel, 62 Thief, Burglar,
Storyteller, Actor Pickpocket
24 Entertainer - Acrobat, 63 Thug, Enforcer
Dancer, Juggler, Knife 64 Tinker
Thrower, Conjuror 65 Warrior, Knight
25 Farmer 66 Watch Officer
26 Fisher

37
Talents
These are some possible innate abilities for characters; Qualities that
make them naturally good at doing certain kinds of things.
(Remember, these aren’t limited to Good at character creation.)

Some have obvious opposites, and some don’t. In any case you can
take a positive Quality at Poor to show that you’re particularly bad at
that thing or to show that it goes wrong for you, like being so strong
that you break things by accident. Conversely, an apparently
“negative” trait could actually be a Strength - maybe Cowardly helps
you to flee from danger. You can certainly take a paired Strength and
Weakness in the same thing, showing that it helps and hinders in
different situations. Just be sure, as usual, that you and the GM are
clear about your intent for your Qualities.

11 Agile Clumsy 41
12 Attractive Ugly 42
13 Brave Cowardly 43
14 Calm Nervous 44
15 Charismatic Insignificant 45
16 Charming Obnoxious 46
21 Cunning Guileless 51
22 Eloquent Tongue-tied 52
23 Intelligent Stupid 53
24 Knowledgeable Uneducated 54
25 Nimble-fingered All Thumbs 55
26 Perceptive Oblivious 56
31 Quick Slow 61
32 Rugged Sickly 62
33 Shrewd Gullible 63
34 Strong Weak 64
35 Strong-willed Weak-willed 65
36 Tough Fragile 66

38
Skills

Here’s a list of learned areas 34 (weapon) Fighting

of expertise. It’s not 35 Intimidation
exhaustive, but it does cover 36 Martial Arts
most of the staples of
fantasy gaming. The skills 41 Forgery
are loosely organised into 42 Locks and Traps
thematic groups (so you 43 Sleight of Hand
could pick a group and just 44 Stealth
roll the units die). 45 Streetwise
46 Theft

11 Etiquette 51 Animal Handling

12 Music (specify) 52 Climbing
13 Oratory 53 Seamanship
14 Persuasion 54 Survival
15 Socialising 55 Swimming
16 Trickery 56 Tracking

21 Alchemy 61 Carousing
22 Arcane Lore 62 Craft (specify)
23 Herbalism 63 Gaming
24 History 64 Language (specify)
25 Medicine 65 Notice
26 Natural History 66 Riding

31 Archery
32 Athletics
33 Brawling

39
Personality traits
These are about what the character is inclined to do, not what they’re
able to do, but they can still give a bonus or penalty to actions. You
could use these as a springboard for Strengths and Weaknesses.

The list is a set of pairs of opposites or complementaries, each

representing a scale of one aspect of personality. Go for middle
ground, renaming and tangents if you like, and remember that any of
these could be a Strength or a Weakness.

11 Addicted Ascetic 41
12 Ambitious Retiring 42
13 Authoritative Submissive 43
14 Compassionate Self-centred 44
15 Conventional Eccentric 45
16 Disciplined Disorderly 46
21 Fierce Timid 51
22 Generous Greedy 52
23 Honest Deceitful 53
24 Honourable Self-serving 54
25 Jolly Gloomy 55
26 Logical Passionate 56
31 Loyal Independent 61
32 Prudent Impulsive 62
33 Serious Easygoing 63
34 Sociable Reserved 64
35 Subtle Forthright 65
36 Trusting Suspicious 66

40
 A sample character
We’ll go for something simple - a warrior with
northern barbarian roots, in a homage to Conan,
but young and brash.

The character is for the Six Serpents setting, so the

most suitable People is the Earth Tribes of Kalet.
We have to pick one of the listed Strengths, and
Good [+2] Warrior fits. For the mandatory Faculty
let’s pick Good [+2] Strong as a Bear, and for his
Driver we’ll have Good [+2] Seeks Renown as a
Great Warrior.

Now we have 5 Open Quality Ranks to use. He can stand as much

physical beefing up as we can afford, so let’s add Good [+2] Agile as a
Mountain Lion and use one Rank to raise Warrior from Good [+2] to
Expert [+4]. We don’t want to make him one-dimensional, though, so let’s
add Good [+2] Outdoorsman for a bit of skill and Good [+2] Fiery Will for
alarming adversaries and overcoming adversity. We have one more Rank
to spend. Looking up the Kalets in the setting section, we could take a bit
of herb-based Alchemy* but it doesn’t quite fit. We could have stuff like
Thief or Brigand, but that seems further on in his adventuring career. For
an interesting play with penumbras, what about Good [+2] Tougher Than
“Civilised” Folk? That’ll come into play for resisting hardship, but only
when he’s somehow being compared to soft southerners.

Now we just need a Weakness. Let’s go for Poor [-2] Hot-tempered,

though Uncivilised for making him ill-at-ease in cities would be good too.

Callum
People: Earth Tribes of Kalet
Strengths: Expert [+4] Warrior, Good [+2] Strong as a Bear, Good [+2]
Agile as a Mountain Lion, Good [+2] Tougher Than “Civilised” Folk,
Good [+2] Outdoorsman, Good [+2] Fiery Will, Good [+2] Seeks Renown
as a Great Warrior
Weakness: Poor [-2] Hot-tempered

41
 FORTUNE POINTS
These are a mixture of self-esteem, destiny and dramatic importance.
They’re earned in play and spent to do various things that make the story
more interesting and help characters survive and succeed. Once spent
they’re lost until you get some more. Minor scenes shouldn’t have much
Fortune changing hands; in dramatic and important scenes it should flow
more freely. It’s a pretty loose economy; fine-tune to suit your group.

Most minor non-player characters don’t have Fortune. Player characters

have it because they’re the protagonists. (Some of them might even be
heroes, but that’s not a strict requirement.) Other important characters
might have it too, in varying amounts according to how important they
are: a trusted lieutenant might have 2, a notable villain 5 (or 1 + the
number of players facing them, or whatever).

It’s helpful to measure Fortune with some sort of tokens on the table in
front of you – many gamers like coloured glass pebbles for this kind of
thing – and only alter it on your character sheet to keep track at the end of
a session (otherwise the paper soon gets thin and messy).

Spending Fortune
You can spend a Fortune Point to do any of the following.
Luck – after getting a bad result on a dice roll you can make it again,
rolling 1d6+6 (or 2d6+6 etc if you were rolling more than the usual
two dice due to upshifts) and keeping whichever result you prefer.
Hell for Leather - before making a roll you can decide to put your all
into an action. Downshift a Quality that’s related to what you’re
doing in some way - often a personality trait or motivation - and
gain an extra 1d6.
Narration - determine one plausible coincidence or minor fact that
happens. These are usually related to scenery or objects, sometimes
minions, and less often to main characters. They might be useful

42
 tactically, affecting what Qualities can and can’t be brought into play
and possibly even triggering upshifts or downshifts. For instance, if
you say the floor is now slippery with blood you could start adding
balance and agility Qualities to combat. (The GM has some power to
negotiate in the best interests of the story, but should use it lightly.)

Gaining Fortune

Players gain one Fortune Point at the start of each game session. The GM
can award an additional point on the spot for any of the following.
Flawless Victory – succeeding in something that was a notable
challenge, like a daring feat or overcoming a powerful opponent.
Fickle Finger of Fate – the GM does something bad to your
character that you can’t avoid, in the interests of progressing the
story (e.g. “The gas knocks you out and you awake in a dungeon”).
Trouble - invoking a Weakness to cause a setback (see box below).
Indulging - spending your ill-gotten gains between adventures can
boost your Fortune supply (see Gear, Wealth and Trade below).
GM Discretion – miscellaneous impressedness with a player, like
witty dialogue that makes everyone laugh, coming up with a
cunning plan or maybe even paying for pizza!

Weaknesses and Trouble

Here’s an option to make permanent Weaknesses more interesting

and notable parts of the character. They always give [-2] to relevant
actions. However, they can also cause Trouble: either an instant Story
Hook that causes a problem for the character, or automatic failure (an
effective result of zero) on a significant roll.

Each Weakness can be invoked no more than once per scene by the
GM or the character’s player. The player gets a Fortune Point in return
for accepting the Trouble - but must pay one to deny the GM’s
suggestion. A certain amount of negotiation may be possible.

43
 LEARNING POINTS
Learning Points are earned when a character learns something - usually
by failing at a complicated task. These Points can be spent to improve a
character’s Qualities, either learning new ones or increasing the Rank of
existing ones. So the more often a character fails, the more they learn -
which would suit a story where the characters get sand kicked in their
faces several times and eventually rise to overcome great odds.

Gaining Learning Points

There are several things for which the GM awards a Learning Point on
the spot. You might find additional situations where it seems merited.
Failing a complicated situation - as long as it has some importance,
for instance leading to undesirable consequences. (You might want
to rule that it has to involve one of the character’s listed Qualities,
making it dramatically significant to them, and not an unlisted
Average Quality.) Similarly, losing an important conflict - and if
you’re using detailed conflict it probably does have some
significance. (The group could win even if one or more characters
zero out. The question then is whether they are wiser as a result.)
Understanding - the character has a significant insight into the way
things are, or into their own nature.
Profound impact - something that might be termed a “major life
event”, so that the character will never be quite the same again. One
example, suggested elsewhere, is the death of one of their fellows.

It would be unusual to get more than one Learning Point for a given
situation.

Whether an event also merits a Fortune Point is up to the GM. Some will
merit both; some, one or the other. Fortune is more short-term and
ephemeral; Learning is about the steady path of the character’s life, each
step permanently etched, and should never be trivial.

44
Gaining Quality Ranks

Spending 4 Learning Points permits a character to raise one Quality by

one Rank, to a maximum of Master [+6]. They can only be raised one
Rank at once, and this substantial jump on the scale should be justified by
events in the story – maybe you’ve been training with a fencing master or
been exposed to some relevant supernatural effect.

If it’s a Quality you didn’t have

written down before – that is,
you’re effectively raising one of
your invisible Average abilities
to Good (or, for some arcane
abilities, creating it from thin
air at Average) – you must also
create a related Story Hook for
the GM. If a character wished
to learn Sailing, he would have
to spend 4 Learning Points and
provide the GM with a relevant
seed for a future plot, subplot,
or adventure that is tied to Sailing (“Hey, maybe I get shanghaied...”).
This doesn’t apply if it’s a specialisation of one you have, like developing
Pickpocket from Thief. But you could always come up with a Hook
anyway!

Remember that adding Quality Ranks doesn’t have to reflect the

character getting better at doing things. It could be about entanglement
with the story or setting, e.g. “Commander of mercenary unit”, “King of
Aquilonia”.

Digging Down Deep

If a character is in big trouble and needs more Fortune Points now, they
may summon up some heroic energy by spending a Learning Point to get
a Fortune Point. Convert as many as you want - but you can’t change
them back again!

45
Dark Learning Points
This is an optional addition - not all campaigns will need this for
player characters. You need to agree in your group what sorts of
things are “tainted”. Normally in sword and sorcery tales slaying any
number of people who get in your way or insult you would not count,
but messing around with metaphysical powers man was not meant to
know would. That could include associating with demons or
sacrificing people for occult power.

Dark Learning points operate in parallel to Learning Points, and in a

similar way, but:
You get them for doing tainted things, and for succeeding rather
than failing. If you might have got a Fortune Point for that
success, you get Dark Learning instead. Optionally, it might come
from just experiencing the supernatural - e.g. a sorcerer sends a
creeping monstrosity of the Dark after the hero and they are
changed by this glimpse beyond the fragile circle of light.
You can only spend them on tainted things. For gaining Qualities,
that means physical, mental or metaphysical warping away from
wholesome normality, from alcoholism to bodily mutation. For
digging down deep they can only be spent on tainted actions.

So they’re kind of about tempting the player. Those points aren’t

going to sit unused for long. They’re also a bit sticky: if you use one to
help an action succeed, there’s a good chance it’ll come back again.
The way to get rid of them is to plough them into dubious Qualities,
and then players have an incentive to emphasise those tainted aspects
of the character. How much of this you want is a style question for
your group, but you should probably treat it as seasoning rather than
main ingredients if you want characters to stay sympathetic.

There’s some overlap with Scars, introduced below, which are

Weaknesses taking the character away from health and normality. In
general Scars are limitations enforced by the GM, whereas tainted
Strengths enable the player to use creativity to open things up.

46
 DANGER LEVELS
This is about altering the consequences of zeroing out to reflect different
challenges and consequences. There are three levels.
Drama. This is the normal PDQ route. Characters who zero out are
unlikely to suffer any lasting harm, and any consequences disappear
by the next scene or a few scenes later. However, they may well find
themselves in a more challenging situation as a result of being at the
mercy of their opponents. “Damage” is about the ebb and flow of the
story going the way the characters want.
Risk. In addition to the above, zeroing out brings a long-term
consequence: a Scar, a new permanent Weakness that reduces the
character’s performance and may cause Trouble. Supernatural
threats and major plot point conflicts are usually Risks. It’s a way for
the GM to flag a situation as more important and serious than usual.
Doom. A character that zeroes out ends their story - usually through
death, but possibly some other final and irrevocable fate. This should
be used very sparingly, for situations of the utmost drama - like the
climactic confrontation of a storyline.

The level of a Risk or Doom situation is indicated by the GM going in, so

the players can judge tactics and choose how to spend their resources.
These levels are partly about simulating the peril of a situation, but at
least as much about marking crucial points in the story.

Scars
A Scar is a new permanent Poor [-2] Weakness Quality. Because it is
permanent it must come into play in any future relevant situation (unlike
a Quality reduced to Poor by damage).

The Weakness must be plausibly related to the punishment the character

just took (physical, mental, social, etc), and agreed between player and

47
GM. If it was because of being beaten in a sword fight it’s probably
something physical like Walks With a Limp, Tires Easily or Disfigured
Face. If it’s a result of seeing some entity from the deep Dark it’s probably
a phobia or other mental affliction. (It could even be an unnatural
fascination, leading the character to seek out such things in future. That
relates to the tainted path discussed under Dark Learning Points above.)
The Scar can’t correspond exactly with an existing Strength Quality, but
might make interesting connections (like “I can do This really well, except
when it involves That”). It might relate to a plot development like being
haunted by the memory of someone you couldn’t save.

You can potentially get rid of Scars if the GM agrees, there’s a relevant
notable story event and you spend Learning Points to effectively buy
them up to Average, making them invisible again.

Doom
Meeting your Doom. When a character goes to their end, their remaining
Fortune Points and Learning Points (but not any Dark Learning Points
they might have) are shared as evenly as possible between the others in
the group - the player decides where any odd ones go. Everyone gets at
least one of each, regardless of whether there are enough to meet that
total. The time to gain these points might be when the other characters
find out about their companion’s fate, if they weren’t there.

Rising from the ashes. When a player creates a new character they have
a number of Learning Points equal to the number of characters who have
previously met their Doom in the story of that group of characters. These
can be spent straight away or later.

A GM who inflicts Doom on an unwilling player is probably abusing

their position. A player who asks for it to be inflicted on their character is
probably entering into the spirit of heroic fantasy.

This is where playing with groups of main characters pays off. In a single
character’s “series” it would be very unusual to kill them off, but in
stories where a group adventure together it’s not uncommon for

48
individuals to sacrifice themselves for the others. You might even agree
among yourselves that one character will be the lead, whose story must
continue at all costs, and the others their supporting cast who come and
go over time. The major downside of character death is that it leaves the
player unable to interact with the story, so it’s best applied at the end of a
large or small story arc so they can introduce a new character soon after.

The GM can also use Doom as a way of directing player choices. By

declaring that a certain path of action leads to Doom, and making sure
that there is a legitimate alternative, it’s the players’ choice of whether to
take the risky course and accept the consequences if they fail.

Doom could apply locally within an overall situation. On a rickety bridge

above a lava lake a warrior fights the man who took his eye so many
years ago, with fiery death for the loser - but his companions fighting the
villainʹs minions several yards away on solid ground wonʹt be burned to
a cinder should they zero out. Likewise, if the duel manoeuvres its way
off the ledge above the volcano then the risk of instant death abates.

Mastery

This is an optional rule that players might find psychologically

satisfying, as it makes a feature of those high rolls that can go unused.
If a main character is attempting a complicated action or a defence
(but not an attack where success is measured in damage Ranks) and
gets a result 6 or more greater than needed, they can apply an upshift
to a related action that happens straight afterwards. If the bonus is not
used on or before their next action it disappears. You can only carry
one of these at once, even if you get multiple mastery results.

This chain has to make sense within the story. So cleaving a minor
thug in twain (as a complicated situation) would certainly justify an
improved chance of intimidating his fellows, but not of turning and
swinging across a chasm. In fact the bonus can be given to other
characters as well, as long as it’s still a sensible chain - like making an
opening for your comrade to strike or letting them follow your
handholds up the cliff.

49
 MINIONS
The source material is full of nameless henchmen who are only there to
serve as obstacles, enabling the central characters to demonstrate their
prowess on the way to some larger challenge, and not presenting much of
a challenge to dramatically important fighters.

Minion Qualities

Minions usually have a very small set of Qualities: often just Good [+2] in
an occupation like Guard or Thug, giving them a bonus for actions falling
in that penumbra. They might have one or two others to emphasise
particular capabilities, like Good [+2] Armour for a well-equipped
defensive guardian.

Minions in conflict

They can be dealt with as a complicated situation even within an overall

conflict situation. That is, if a PC can overcome such a minion’s defensive
TN it’s beaten - no calculation of damage Ranks necessary. (Feel free to
describe this victory in an appropriate way.) If you don’t overcome its TN
there’s no effect - your glancing blow wasn’t enough to slow it down. The
minion’s attacks damage the PC in the normal way, whittling down their
Quality Ranks.

Example: Darios has reached the treasure chamber of the Assassins’

Guild. His path is blocked by a henchman with Good [+2] Assassin.
Darios rolls his Good [+2] Cutlass Quality against the henchman’s
Target Number of 9, and gets 11. He slices the henchman from stem
to stern in one blow and continues toward his prize.

50
Minion “saves”

In some cases you might want to flip things round and have the minions
roll and the PC’s abilities generate a static Target Number. For instance, if
a character tries to intimidate a group of guards it’s reasonable that some
will flee and some will stay, so you could make a quick roll for each one
against the PC’s Rank’s TN. (If the PC has supplementing Qualities add
their MODs to the TN of the basic one - e.g. Expert + Good = TN 13.)

Multiple minions in combat

Minions do not use the standard rules for characters working together, as
they’d rapidly become more of a challenge than their status merits. Also,
if there’s a crowd of them we don’t want the players to get bored making
lots of defensive rolls. So do it like this instead.
Each group of attacking minions (of the same type) makes a single
attack roll against a PC, requiring a single defence roll.
If there are two minions, reflect numbers with an upshift (+2) on
their attack roll.
If there are more than two, reflect numbers with an additional
numbers die, so they’re rolling 3d6 plus any Quality MODs.
Basically once you get to three or more it all gets a bit chaotic and
only so many can find an opening to strike at any given time - the
difficulty is in cutting them all down before you’re in ribbons.
PC attacks are against individual minions, resolved as above.

Obviously this means there’s an incentive to get the numbers down as

quickly as possible! It also allows for a crowd of minions to redistribute
themselves freely between opponents as a conflict progresses, for instance
ganging up to get the advantage of numbers on the opponent who seems
the greatest threat. (Having more than three on an enemy is still
worthwhile because it’ll keep their advantage in place if the front rank is
suddenly cut down. Sooner or later the numbers die will come up high
and the PC’s defence will roll low; though for a really proficient PC only
a big difference will matter.)

51
 MAGIC
In some fantasy styles magic is a routine part of life. Those who use it and
items produced with it are common. In the sword and sorcery end of the
pool magic is widely known of but those who practise it are few, and
regarded warily by the rest of society. It is never entirely safe or tame,
and delving too far into arcane secrets can change you or bring doom.
Magical items are rare - often old, powerful and dangerous. Main
characters might sometimes know odd bits of magic, but true sorcerers
generally fill the role of obstacles to be overcome.

The system presented here has two main kinds of magic. Sorcery is
powerful and flexible, capable of almost any effect but slow and risky to
use. Charms are little bits of magical knowledge that can do a single thing
with a limited extent, but are at least safe and reliable.

There are also the magic-like skills of Alchemy and Divination. These
tend to crop up fairly often in the source material, often possessed by
sorcerously inclined villains. There
is a strand in sword and sorcery
stories that if a little knowledge
can be a dangerous thing, a lot of
knowledge is serious trouble.
Well, it also makes sense that those
who pursue the intellectual arts of
the age would be interested in all
of them. Practitioners of these
skills who aren’t sorcerers might
know one or two Charms, or even
no magic at all. Like Sorcery*, the
first Rank bought in these
Qualities is Average.

See the GM’s Notes section of the

book for more about ways of
implementing magic to suit a
setting.

52
Effects
When magical abilities are used they produce an Effect, which you can
think of as a kind of temporary free-floating Quality - for instance Good
[+2] Healing, Average [0] Illusion, Expert [+4] Curse of Crushing Pain.
The different forms of magic produce and implement their Effects in
slightly different ways, but the basics are the same.

The Magic Effects Table overleaf shows how higher Ranks enable you to
do more with a spell. Some of these properties are more about the extent
of the Effect - broadly, how much it can affect - and some are more about
its intensity - how powerful the Effect is at any given point. As the Effect
Rank goes up Sorcery advances in as many columns as apply, but other
forms of magic usually go up in only one property that’s key to the spell
(often a form of intensity), with everything else locked at Average.

Be creative in using the simple building blocks of the system to apply an

Effect. As a general guide:
use the Rank’s MOD to count numbers of things (Average is always
taken as 1 rather than 0 for counting) or to boost other Qualities
use the Rank’s Target Number for resistance against physical or
mental damage or some unwelcome consequence.

In some cases the response might simply be, “It happens as you desired.”

Sample Effect types

Healing is probably more likely as a Charm among specific healer
types than as a use of Sorcery. It restores [MOD] damage Ranks.
Damage effects use Rank TN like environmental damage: resist with
any Qualities that are appropriate to that kind of harm, like Sturdy
Constitution or Iron Will, and take any difference as damage Ranks.
Illusion has two main applications. The most usual is to affect
people’s behaviour. It’s not normal to question one’s perceptions, so
unless there’s some compelling reason to do so (like a completely

53
 Magic Effects Table
RANK, TIME/ RANGE AREA NUMBER WEIGHT FORCE ENERGY
MODIFIER, DURATION OF
TARGET SUBJECTS
NUMBER
Poor 1 action/ Touch. Closet 1 Objects up Punch Candle
[-2] reaction (12 in.) (1sq yard) to 1-hand
[5] (5 minutes) weapon

Average 1 Turn Near Room 10 Heavy Full tilt Campfire

[0] (30 minutes) (10 yards) (25 sq person body check

54
[7] yards) (250 lbs.)

Good 1 Scene Unaided Field 100 Bear, horse, Sturdy club Bonfire
[+2] (1 hour) sight small
[9] rowing boat

Expert 2 Scenes A few miles Square mile 1000 Laden Runaway Forest fire
[+4] (6 hours) wagon wagon
[11]

Master 4 Scenes A few City and Entire Ship Cannonball Volcano

[+6] (24 hours) hundred immediate city/country
[13] miles environs
 unbelievable illusion, or perhaps seeing an obvious sorcerer type
waving their arms around) those affected will react to the illusion as
if it were real. The second application is to cause mental shock and
damage from an illusion that’s particularly horrifying. In most cases
the main property of an illusion will be its extent. You might want to
use the sorcerer’s other Qualities, like creativity or depravity, in any
resistance contest.
Summoning a demon from the Dark - of course people do this in
the source material - though hopefully the PCs won’t be making a
habit of it! Such a creature can be built by taking the Effect’s [TN - 1]
as a number of MOD points to spend on Qualities. So a Good Effect,
with TN 9, could give a demon four Good [+2] Qualities. The
Monsters section later on has lots of ideas for creature Qualities.
Beings from the Dark that are encountered in other ways may be
more powerful than this.
Summoning mundane creatures - as an example of applying the
rules, you could specify such a creature very simply as Good at
being its type, like Good [+2] Wolf, and use MOD as the number that
turn up.

Sorcery*
This is a freeform creation of magical Effects, potentially very powerful.
It’s assumed that a sorcerer is well-versed in gathering and channelling
energies to produce a wide range of results. There is no list of spells - you
just define the effect you want to create and use the Effects Table to look
up the Rank required for your desired duration, range, and so on. Each
Rank lets you expand any or all properties of the spell to the listed levels.

Gathering power

A spell is made by gradually accumulating energy till it reaches the

desired level of power. So you’re actually building the Effect, one Rank at
a time, starting at Poor. A sorcerer can cast a Poor Rank cantrip as a single
action, which is handy for special effects like lighting candles with a wave

55
of your hand, but most useful Effects require more power. Gathering each
Rank takes an action and requires the sorcerer to check that they can keep
control of the mounting energy. Once the required Rank is reached it
takes an action to focus and release the spell.

Keeping control

Your Sorcery* Rank dictates the level of power you can handle safely.
Each time you attempt to add a Rank of power, make a Sorcery* roll with
that Rank as the TN. If you succeed you can carry on building the spell. If
not, the energy escapes from your control: you take the difference as
Damage Ranks and there are likely to be effects on the surrounding area
too. The perils of one’s reach exceeding one’s grasp are drummed into
novices.

Magic is unpredictable stuff. A roll of double 1’s automatically fails,

causing at least one Rank of damage, regardless of the total (though
Fortune might help).

Sorcery above Average Rank has the “Risk” Danger Level, so if you zero
out from this there will be long-term effects, leaving you with debilities
or... alterations.

Drawing from sources

In some settings the power for a spell might simply be called to a sorcerer
through the ether; in others each Rank must be drawn from a particular
kind of source, so the power available at that place and time limits what
magic can be done. In the world of the Six Serpents sorcerers draw on the
different Urge energies (see setting section); other worlds you create
might have different ones. Drawing on a source with a Quality for
magical power downshifts it for the rest of the scene. Possible sources of
power fall into the following categories.
your own internal energy or life-force (decide what Qualities can be
used to fuel this - an individual shouldn’t be good for many Ranks of
energy);

56
 the energy or life-force of
another person – although Sorcery in play
you can only access this at
the moment of death, so Player character sorcerers. You
many sorcerers resort to can certainly do this, and it could
human sacrifice; be quite interesting. You shouldn’t
usually have more than one or two
the energy of the
in the group though. They will
surroundings - though there
wrestle with questions of power
are likely to be temporary or
versus conscience, and it’s
even permanent side effects
expected that they will choose to
of this - like drawing off Fire
limit themselves to some extent,
energy making the area
where their NPC counterparts
colder - which get more
often won’t.
pronounced the more you
take (you can make
Doesn’t Sorcery* do a lot for one
common sense assumptions
Quality? Yes, it does. However,
about locations having
it’s set up to be used for occasional
appropriate Poor, Average
dramatic effect rather than as
or Good levels of a
frequent artillery. You simply
particular energy);
aren’t going to be able to do a lot
a special object that can act of impressive sorcery within a
as a sort of battery for a type scene - so you also need to invest
of energy. in other Qualities to look after
your own survival (and to support
your effectiveness as a sorcerer).
Special cases
Rituals. If you take at least five minutes over each gathering phase
instead of just a few seconds, and have suitable trappings, you can take
an upshift to control checks.

Distraction. If you are distracted during your preparations, for instance

by being struck with a weapon, you must make an additional control test
(after applying any damage Ranks) at the current Effect Rank.

Abandoning a spell. This just takes an action to dissipate the energy

safely (it doesn’t go back to the sources you drew it from).

57
Sorcery example

Malakar finds a clan of desert tribesmen camped by the ancient ruins he

wants to explore, and wishes to get rid of them - one way or another. He
decides to summon a carpet of scorpions.

There are two key quantities here. The wave of vermin must be big
enough to do the job. Let’s call that Area on the Effects Table. Average
won’t really be enough; it has to be Good. Then there’s the intensity. This
partly depends on whether the GM is
bothered for having the tribesmen resist, or
whether it’ll just work. Resistance could
be against damage, or against fear caused
by the sight, leaving victims dead or
fleeing into the desert. Anyway, let’s say
that Good will do.

Malakar has, as it happens, Good [+2]

Sorcery*. Let’s not worry about drawing
power from sources for now; it’s freely
available. On the first round Malakar is
attempting to gather power to raise the
Effect from Poor to Average [TN 7]. He
rolls 8 and adds his Sorcery* MOD for 10,
making it easily.

Next he attempts to build the power up to Good [TN 9]. Unfortunately he

rolls a mere 4, so his total is 6. That would leave him losing control of the
spell and taking 9-6=3 Damage Ranks. Maybe a small colony of irate
scorpions emerges from the sand to climb his legs and scare his group’s
horses. Alternatively he could spend a Fortune Point for a re-roll - if he
manages to wrestle the magic under control after all, on his next action he
can unleash eight-legged hell on the unsuspecting camp.

A nasty GM might, of course, have been checking whether sentries had

noticed all this chanting and made an abrupt interruption.

58
Charms
What about other people learning sorcery? Well, they can and they can’t.
The flexible (and dangerous) full form is only available to full-fledged
sorcerers (that is, characters whose Qualities support that concept).
However, other characters might be able to learn one or two Charms.
These are arcane formulae originally derived from sorcery - perhaps long,
long ago - that accomplish a fairly specific effect with a modest extent.
They’re rather like cantrips boosted by long experience.

While sorcery is big and dangerous, Charms are small and simple - and
some people prefer them for that reason. It’s suggested that Charms be
limited to a small number of character backgrounds that might
reasonably include dabbling in arcane knowledge - at least at the start of
play (such as astrologers and priests, and possibly certain Peoples).

Charm Qualities are bought similarly to Sorcery*, with the first Rank at
Average, and should be marked with an asterisk to show they’re special.
Examples: Good [+2] Charm: Healing*, Average [0] Charm: Move Object*.

Here are the main ways they differ from sorcery.

Their Effect Rank is limited: only one key property (the most
appropriate for that spell, usually to do with intensity - like the
difficulty of resisting) goes up with your Rank in the Quality and the
rest are locked at Average, setting limits for range, area and so on.
There’s no need to build power for them - it just takes a round of
concentration and muttering the words. (There might, however, be
some requirement about the availability of appropriate power
sources. In the Six Serpents world, a Charm won’t work if the caster
or surroundings are deficient in the appropriate Urge.)
It costs a Failure Rank of fatigue each time you use a Charm.

Dedicated Charm users may have an overarching Quality called

Charmcraft* that covers knowledge of Charms and how to do more
specialised things with them, notably binding them into objects. This is
described below.

59
Priests and magic
In the sword and sorcery end of the fantasy pool, being a priest of some
god’s cult mainly involves knowledge, possibly arcane, and social status,
possibly involving minions. The gods don’t make overt interventions in
the world, and following them doesn’t involve channelling their power
into mighty magics. That said, it’s fairly common for priests to know a
Charm or two relevant to their cult. These work the same as other
Charms - it’s just the knowledge of them that’s special (and guarded).

Of course, that’s not to say these are unimportant magics. As a well-

trodden example, some such cults actually serve entities of the outer Dark
and know rituals for summoning servitor creatures from there.

In other settings priests might have a thematically limited form of

sorcery, e.g. Sorcery of Living Things* - still flexible but only for certain
kinds of effect. For balance you’d probably want to make all sorcery in
the setting limited in this way.

Magical items
Overall, these are in much shorter supply than they would be in a high
fantasy setting. Those encountered are most likely to be Charm items that
can cast a modest spell and alchemical preparations - both good for a
single use only. Their creation is explained in the next few pages.
Powerful sorcerous artefacts are rare, usually acting as plot devices that
only hang around for the length of a story.

Where are all the +1 weapons?

There aren’t any. Well, that’s not strictly true. Some weapons have a
Quality like Good [+2] Sword to reflect superior workmanship, material
or whatever, and they are highly sought after. There are also artefact

60
items infused with sorcerous powers, but they are very rare and very
highly sought after (by both natural and supernatural agents).

In general, though, in this style of fantasy warriors don’t get too attached
to their weapons. They’ll acquire one and use it till it gets broken,
knocked into a pit or whatever - at which point they’ll pick up a new one
from the nearest fallen foe and carry on. The weapon is only a tool that
allows them to apply their might or finesse.

Sorcerous items

Sorcery can create items with magical Qualities embedded permanently:

either as some property of the object or as a spell that can be cast
repeatedly. This is not done often in the current age - you can assume not
all modern sorcerors know how, and it’s a difficult process. Older
civilisations were keener on such artefacts, and sometimes these emerge
in the present day - usually bringing great trouble. In general these will
only appear as part of the plot, or if a player has given their character a
sorcerous artefact by purchasing its powers as character Qualities.

Alchemy*
This is the art of combining physical materials through certain processes
to create end products with a desired effect - corrosive acids, healing
salves, anaesthetic gases and so on. It’s rather like a precursor of modern
science, but as this is fantasy the effects can vary quite widely.
Practitioners can have different styles, from nature-oriented herbalists to
academic scholars. The common factors are that it requires time,
ingredients and equipment. Alchemy* is one of those abilities found more
often among NPCs in the source material, helpful or hostile, but players
might wish to dabble.

It’s a bit like Charmcraft* in creating items for one-off use, but like
Sorcery* as the effects are freeform. What’s possible depends very much
on the style of your game, but is more “grounded” than Sorcery. As a

61
baseline, think of useful effects that aren’t too obviously flashy or
magical: healing injuries and fighting disease, enhancing faculties, drugs
and poisons, etc.

Alchemical preparations are Props. These are explained more fully in

Gear, Wealth and Trade a bit later on. The short version is that they’re
Qualities characters can carry around and use, but they’re not part of the
character so they can’t absorb damage and aren’t permanent. A
preparation can be written down like any other Effect, with a note that
it’s a potion or whatever. So a preparation is made according to the rules
below, carried around until it’s used, and then disappears. It can also be
given to someone else so they can use it.

Creation
A preparation’s Rank is the creator’s Alchemy* Rank at the time it’s
created. When used, the Effect is restricted: the Rank applies to only
one property (decide what’s most appropriate) and the rest are
locked at Average.
Each time a preparation is created in a scene, Alchemy* is
downshifted. So the Quality Rank sets how much you can make and
how good it is. For example, if you have Expert [+4] Alchemy* you
can make an Expert, a Good, and an Average before you must stop.

Prerequisites
Creation takes minutes or hours of work - use duration on the Effects
Table as a guide - so it usually takes place in a downtime scene (one
scene covering all the time when the PCs are between interesting
adventures), with the character creating as many preparations as their
Rank allows. Write them on your character sheet. Characters might try to
brew something in an action scene, but must be able to take enough time.

You also need some space where you can work undisturbed, and the
right equipment. It’s assumed that the Alchemy* Quality includes a
portable kit of ingredients and tools.

62
All of this gives the GM plenty of opportunity to use the plot or the
Fortune Point options to stop a character using Alchemy* temporarily on
occasion - the balance for its flexibility. One option, if a very specific or
powerful preparation is being attempted, is to require wealth Props equal
to the Rank to be spent to get special ingredients; or even a quest to find
something specific.

Charmcraft*
This covers knowledge of Charms - the user goes beyond having a
random collection of bits of magic and starts to understand the
underlying patterns, helping them to identify Charms that are
encountered and to do more with their own magic.

One of the key uses of Charmcraft* is to create Charm items. These are
simply objects with a Charm Quality embedded, ready to use when
needed – this usually requires a trigger word, phrase or action. The magic
can only be used once, and then is gone.

They work quite similarly to Alchemy* preparations. Charm items are

probably more likely to be Props supplied by helpful NPCs, but here are
the rules for players who want to dabble.

You can only embed a Charm you know. A Charm item’s Rank is the
lower of the creator’s Charmcraft* Rank at the time it’s created and
their Rank in the Quality for that particular Charm. When used, the
Effect is restricted: the Rank applies to only one property (decide
what’s most appropriate) and the rest are locked at Average.
Each time an item is created in a scene, Charmcraft* is downshifted.
So the Quality Rank sets how much you can make and how good it
is. For example, if you have Expert [+4] Charmcraft* you can make
an Expert, a Good, and an Average before you must stop.

Creation takes minutes or hours of work - use duration on the Effects

Table as a guide - so it usually takes place in a downtime scene (one
scene covering all the time when the PCs are between interesting

63
adventures), with the character creating as many items as their Rank
allows. Characters might try to knock something together in an action
scene, but need to be able to take enough time.

Divination*
Astrologers are scholars who scan the night sky for signs and portents,
often keeping detailed records of their observations. Others might cast
runestones, breathe vapours or inspect the innards of sacrificed animals.
They’re all seers, using different styles and trappings of Divination*, the
ability to glimpse the future and perceive what is hidden or far away.

A setting probably has a very small number of people with high Ranks in
Divination*, and they are likely to be well known figures who spend their
lives in heavily guarded temples or inaccessible caves. Most practitioners
will be at Average or Good (and this should certainly be true of PC seers).

The Divination* Quality covers the following.

Knowledge about how it works and any body of previous
prophecies.
Given time and suitable trappings the seer can attempt to glimpse
the probable future in regard to some person, place or object with
which they’re connected. For a PC, this is an invitation to the GM to
use them to channel plot. The GM can either accept a Fortune Point
to deliver usefully relevant and accurate information, or pay a
Fortune Point to frustrate the character’s attempt (used especially if
it would derail the plot).
Divination* can also take a temporary Downshift to dictate a
plausible coincidence or minor fact about the current scene that the
character has predicted in advance, usually for the purpose of
making retroactive preparations (“I foresaw that someone would
take a dangerous fall, so I brought this rope along”). The GM might
allow this to adjust what Props the character has (see Gear, Wealth
and Trade below).

64
 GEAR, WEALTH, TRADE
There’s a long tradition in fantasy gaming of accumulating gold coins,
jewellery and valuable antiques, as well as finely crafted weapons and
tools. In the Jaws style of fantasy characters tend to be a mercenary lot,
particularly likely to be motivated to adventure by the prospect of loot -
though paradoxically the valuables themselves aren’t actually that
important to the story except as a way to draw characters into trouble.

Still, we want to be sure we can cater for equipment and loot in the rules.
That throws up some challenges in PDQ: everything is measured in
Qualities; Qualities are part of characters; and Ranks in Qualities make
characters tougher. We don’t want ill-gotten gains to effectively lead to
character improvement. To address this we need to add Props.

Props
These are Qualities characters can carry around and access, but they’re
not part of the character. That means three things:
they won’t take damage for you (but see Dramatic Exit below);
they can be taken away from the character permanently;
they’re not a renewable resource (when depleted they don’t recover).

So when PCs find the treasure vault below

the ruins what they get is a Prop Quality,
Expert [+4] Gold and Jewels. Props might
be “owned” by one character or, quite
often in adventuring groups, held in
common for use as needed. Well,
obviously someone has to actually carry
an item, but they can allow benefits to apply
to a colleague.

65
In fact, in most cases the acquisition of a Prop
should be a signal to the GM to come up with
story developments that will take it away or use it
up, generating new exploits for the characters in
the process.

Players can invest in a Prop, using Learning

Points to buy its abilities. The item becomes part
of their character, but only the Quality Ranks that
have been bought are available for use – any
others are simply not appearing in the story any
more, unless bought back up again.

Types of Prop

Bonus – the item has one or more Quality

Ranks that are there all the time. These are
generally more useful than flashy, like a
Weatherproof [+4] Cloak or a Fast [+2]
Horse.
One–shot - you can use it once and that’s it.
That’s certainly true of a Healing Potion that
gets drunk or a Gold Crown that gets spent
in trade – these use their MOD as a bonus,
once.
Repeat – the item can do something special
once per scene on an ongoing basis. Maybe it
could “really” be used more often, but it’s a
Prop so in story terms it only gets brought in
when dramatically appropriate. This one’s
particularly used for items with active
magical powers, if the characters ever get
such a thing.
Supply – these are collections of small things
like a Good [+2] Bag of Coins. They can be
used all at once like a One-Shot, but can also

66
 be used a little at a time, burning off a Rank for an upshift on a roll.
When the item zeroes out (you use the Poor Rank) it becomes useless
or unimportant. If you have ten similar Supply Props you can
convert them to a single item of the next Value Rank up.

Dramatic Exit

You can’t take damage Ranks on Prop Qualities, but there is one way
they can help you avoid damage. Subject to a sensible narration of how it
happens, you can use the Prop’s Target Number to add to a defence in
return for the Prop getting destroyed or lost to the character permanently.
(This will often negate an attack entirely.) You can add this on to a roll
you’ve just made and don’t fancy much. For instance, it looks like a gout
of sorcerous flame is going to cook your goose, but you sacrifice the
shield you grabbed from one of the guards, leaving it a smoking ruin. Or
you manage to bribe or distract an opponent by forfeiting your Bag of
Gold Coins. You can only do this once per scene.

Raiding the scenery

Players might sometimes seek to use the described surroundings by

grabbing an object for a one-off use, as a sort of ephemeral Prop. This can
be done by:
Tapping into the GM’s description of the area;
Detaching one of the unremarkable “shadow items” associated with
a character Quality by taking a Damage Rank to that Quality for loss
of effectiveness, e.g. selling your Swordplay sword;
Using a Fortune Point for coincidentally discovering or possessing
some plausible item.

Once grabbed, nobody can use that exact item type in that exact way
again in that game session (to avoid a landslide of boring copycat
behaviour). These ephemeral Props are Average, mundane items. Once
they’ve served their purpose they dissolve back into the background. The
entire process is, of course, subject to common sense and GM decision.

67
Trade
You might want to trade to convert an item you’ve found into cold, hard
cash, or exchange it for another item, or to purchase services.

Value Scale
This scale tells you what Value Rank goods and services should have:
look at what sort of person would find it a significant but do-able
purchase, neither trivial nor astronomical.
Poor – struggling to make ends meet, or with no property of one’s
own – beggar, slave. A few bronze pieces.
Average – ordinary trader, artisan, farmer, etc., getting by fairly
well. A few silver pieces.
Good – prosperous trader or crafter, minor noble. A few gold pieces.
Expert – most nobles, successful merchant. Tens of gold pieces.
Master – kings, richest nobles, leaders of powerful merchant houses.
Hundreds of gold pieces.

Assigning item Value. In most cases you can just pick the right Rank for
a given item. Bread is very cheap; ships are very expensive. Value-type
Qualities like Pearl-Encrusted Brooch set the base Value Rank. Function-
type Qualities like Good [+2] Sword use the base item’s value but add
their MODs to any trading rolls so it’s easier to talk them up. Magical or
supernatural Qualities give an upshift to Value - as long as the other
party is convinced they exist and is interested in such scary items!

Basic trade

Trade is always about parties exchanging goods or services with Value of

the same Rank bracket. If you don’t want to spend time on the detail of a
trade just say a straight exchange goes through.

68
 Indulging

It’s a staple of the genre that no matter how much treasure a character
amasses on an adventure, by the start of the next story it’s all gone
and they’re looking for gainful employment again. It gets spent on
indulging their lust for life. For most characters that means carousing -
“wine, women and song”, or some analogue thereof. For others it
might mean alchemical experiments with expensive ingredients, or
even helping widows and orphans - however it is that they channel
their passion.

In game terms, with a suitable justification players can cash in wealth

Props for Fortune Points, reflecting an increased sense of well-being
and living up to their heroic destiny. It gives [MOD] Points, split
between the owners of the item as agreed. Average counts as 1; Poor is
too poxy to help at all. Supply Props have to be spent in one go.

This nicely makes the players willing accomplices to the GM’s plans to
deprive them of their Props - after all, if they don’t use the stuff fickle
fate might take it anyway - and leaves them with just an assortment of
loose change, hungry for the next adventure.

Supply Props like a Good [+2] Pouch of Coins are slightly more fiddly.
A Supply with Value equal to the trade is depleted, reducing it one Rank.
A Supply of higher Value Rank can normally cover the trade out of “small
change” without being depleted. However, if it’s only one Rank higher
the GM can invoke the Fickle Finger of Fate and deplete it by paying a
Fortune Point, but can only do one of these per scene.

The Deal

If you want to play out the detail the above still applies but you roll for
the effectiveness of bargaining as a complicated or conflict situation using
appropriate Qualities.

69
The winner gets a sweetener from the loser: some agreeable Prop of the
next Value Rank down thrown into the deal.

The GM can reflect the attitude of the other party with an upshift or
downshift if they’re particularly interested or uninterested in the deal.
For instance, it’s unlikely that a merchant with a good supply of fine
blades feels a pressing need to add your rusty scimitar to his stock.

70
WORLD OF THE
SIX SERPENTS

71
 AN OVERVIEW
This is an example of how you can build on the basic rules to create an
adventuring world. Feel free to use what you like and discard elements that don’t
suit you. Hopefully even the latter will be useful illustrations.

Most of the land is wilderness of one kind or another, often harsh and
holding dangers, from weather to wild creatures to the occasional
supernatural visitation. Most people gather together in settlements. (If
you meet someone living out in the wilderness they’re probably weird,
extremely tough, not what they seem or fallen on hard times - or some
combination thereof.) By modern standards there aren’t large numbers of
people at this point in the setting’s history.

People
Technology is what you might call “dark age”: there are skilled
practitioners of craft trades like masonry and metalwork, but the sailing
ship is pretty much the pinnacle of complex engineering. Sorcery and
alchemy are the bleeding edge of “science”.

The setting has all the sorts of occupations one might expect: mercenary
warriors, thieves, minstrels, courtesans, crafters, diplomats, scribes,
farmers, hunters, sailors…

There are more arcane callings too. Sorcerers have learned to manipulate
Urge flows through arcane formulae and the power of the will. Given
enough skill and the right circumstances they can achieve almost
anything – but it is a dangerous pursuit, and mistakes can cost dearly.
There’s also the fact that a lot of people fear and distrust sorcerers. It is
often a lonely path; for many sorcerers, in the end, power is their only
companion. Seers exist in many guises, like old crones sniffing the
vapours and hawk-nosed priests inspecting the intestines of a sacrifice
(animal or otherwise). But probably the most common are astrologers,

72
who examine the positions of the stars, and geomancers who perceive the
influence of the Serpents and their Urges in the landscape and deduce the
fortunes of a place.

Different cultural groups have their own religious beliefs and practices,
usually following a single deity or a small number. None of these are
dominant in the setting, and there’s no particular evidence to prove
they’re “real”. Some priests have access to appropriate magics, and while
some might treat these as miraculous proof most folk just regard it as
something learned types do.

One belief that has spread widely is the Cult of the Worthy Ancestors.
They believe that these ancestors, also known as the Good Spirits, watch
over mortal folk and stand in opposition to the Dark Below and the strife
between the Serpents. On one level it’s quite a simple and comforting
belief, and many ordinary people pay at least lip service to it. Priests of
the Cult are called Intercessors, and they have the ability to interact with
the Ancestors for brief periods. More on them below.

Geography

The western coast

The waves of the Westmare are travelled by many vessels, both

merchantmen and the pirates that prey upon them - but still few enough
that you can go days without seeing another sail, or arrive at an island
that has never been named or charted, with ancient (and, inevitably,
deadly) secrets.

The great city of Sartain dominates the middle region of the coast. The
natural dangers of the area have been tamed, for the most part, but the
hearts of civilised men hold their own dangers. While visiting its bustling
markets and sumptuous courts, remember to look over your shoulder.

Further north lie wilder hills, moors and valleys. These are the Kalet
Lands, home to the Kalet people, also known as the Earth Tribes - warlike

73
farmers and hunters who live in simple steads and follow the earth
goddess. The small sea-town of Bryhope has long served as a place for
meetings between different clans, and for trade with the outside world.
Between clan tensions and boisterous carousing it can run a little warm
for some visitors, but fair words and a strong arm will gain acceptance.

The southern peninsula

To the south the land juts out in a great tongue that separates Westmare
from the Sea of the Moon. On the eastern shoulder, in a fine natural bay,
stands the city of Nilsomar. Amid its minarets and markets are a

NORTHLANDS

AR
E
· Bryhope

THE EASTERN SLOPES

TM
ES
W KALET LANDS RM
K WO
AC

·
Sartain
River To
w ns
· BL IVER
R
· · Narrowhome
·
·
QUEGIN Ahaan
Mirage
ISLANDS
·
Nilsomar THE EMPTY CUP
·
Temisarum
· SEA OF THE MOON
Blood
Rock
·

74
 thousand things to
delight the senses, but
while the city and its
people have a flamboyant
exterior their hearts are
secret.

The peninsula itself is

mostly covered in forest,
a warm and humid place
with deep shade where
the canopy grows tall and
thick, and drifting mists that are the subject of various legends. Civilised
folk rarely venture here. The forest hides many things, both ancient and
recent. One of these is the ruined city of Temisarum, inhabited by tribal
hunters with a strange nocturnal lifestyle. Blood Rock is a small shanty
town on the coast, huddling uneasily in the shadow of the jungle, where
traders and pirates get supplies and swap tales of sea beasts and strange
islands.

The Empty Cup

In the interior is a great area of desert within a nearly circular depression.

It’s rock and sand punctuated by occasional scrubby vegetation. More
rarely, one finds broken remnants of buildings in an ancient style.
Scholars’ tales say that once great cities stood here, and empires
prospered, but all was wiped out in some unimaginable cataclysm. Now
it is dust beneath the traveller’s feet - but best to tread carefully, because
although there may well be treasures to be found in some of these ruins
they’re not all as deserted as one might suppose.

There are travel routes across the Cup, which are reasonably safe if one
sticks to them and camps in company. There are a couple of places of
interest in this area. The half-city of Ahaan stands at one edge, the sole
survivor of ancient times, broken by the edge of the cataclysm. It is a
place of mystery and shadow, whose people have a dark and sorcerous
heritage. Elsewhere, at the largest of the rare bodies of water, is Mirage -

75
a town of tents, ever-shifting as travellers come and go, changing its size
and shape from one day to the next. It doesn’t have a People of its own,
though some individuals do take up semi-permanent residence. It’s
overseen by a Market Guild and its Wardens; many things can be bought
and sold without hindrance, but the sanctity of trade itself is the lifeblood
of Mirage and is protected diligently.

Blackworm River

The largest watercourse in the land begins in the cold slopes of the north-
east and winds its way right across to the west coast. It’s an important
travel route for much of its length. The three River Towns that stand on
its banks in the central region form a loose trade alliance, and are known
for their craft goods.

The broad estuary meets the Westmare a way south of Sartain. It is dotted
with small islands, and here live the Quegin people, tribal fishers and
river guides.

The eastern slopes

A way east of Nilsomar the land rises into a sequence of hills and
mountains running roughly north to south. There are passes through, but
little contact with whatever lands might lie on the other side. Some areas
are geologically active, with quakes, geysers and noxious gases but rarely
a full eruption.

The cliffs and ridges themselves are largely deserted, but one might
occasionally find entrances to long-forgotten halls or tombs, or encounter
undermen on an expedition to the surface or barbaric ogres seeking flesh.

The easternmost town is Narrowhome, a crossroads that began as a

shanty town within a network of ravines in the cracked plains and has
expanded more than improved. It’s a crowded, dusty place with shops
and dwellings stacked atop each other, made of a combination of caves
and rickety walkways.

76
 URGES
This world is shaped by six forces or energies known as the Urges, or
sometimes as the Six Serpents for the way they’re usually depicted. They
relate in a cycle of domination or destruction: Fire conquers Metal; Metal
conquers Wood; Wood conquers Earth; Earth conquers Wind; Wind
conquers Water; Water conquers Fire. Each Urge is connected to certain
physical things, principles, faculties, virtues and vices. In general, any
action a person performs can be seen as primarily related to one Urge
(though sometimes the determination is difficult).

Fire
Joy, Passion, Temper,
Restlessness
De Sor stru ienc on
ar,

Light, energy,
ter row cte
er
s, C sio , Fe

Me
mi

predatory beasts
r
at

Int ture Wate

uid eci ure

na , Inf thin
Co Res nisat

Presence
cre old n

tio

ta
n
Liq Ind urt
W

n, exibi gs

Action
,
,N

Or Whi

Se

l
Su ition

Red
l
ga

lf-r lity
om

i
Bla rt

l
d
a

eli
sd

u
pp
ck

an
Wi

e
te
i

ce,
Gr een
Va rea Curi

,
Blu ge
Ch son ing

us sity
Fle grow ing ity
Fre

Se owt

An y, G ings
ilit ng th nd
Re s, Fly
po

Gr
an
e

r, L ro
Liv sua
e

a
a
c
ur ures sity,
do

ge ene
t
Inc

Grey
n
m, tanc
t
on
W

ood

Stability
i
s

Practicality
in

W
xib
y

Minerals,
d

Burrowing creatures
Patience, Responsibility,
Selfishness, Greed

Earth

77
In addition to the Six there is another, separate but similar, force known
as Dark Urge, connected to the Dark Below, its inhabitants, and
corruption and destruction. Most people see it as something to avoid.

Urges Within
People (and possibly other beings) contain Urge energies too. For most
they’re in balance at a low level, but in some people particular ones are
stronger, and sometimes they can channel that energy into great feats.
The Urges form a set of Qualities, which are normally Average and
therefore invisible but may be specified as Strengths or Weaknesses.

Player characters are more likely than most to have these. Some Peoples
are associated with particular Urges, and you can also buy them with
your Open Quality Ranks. There’s a restriction: you can’t have Strengths
in different Urges with a conflict relationship, i.e. those directly before or
after in the sequence (which means you can’t have more than three, and
only certain combinations).

For powering sorcery the individual’s Urge Rank dictates how much
power they can provide, with the Urge Quality downshifted each time a
Rank is drawn. Someone with no Quality recorded for that Urge can be
assumed to be Average, and therefore good for one Rank before hitting
the bottom of the barrel at Poor. As stated before, in most cases the only
way to get this out of another person is by killing them.

Using Urge Qualities

If you have a specified Urge Strength you can draw on it to get +1d6 for
an action related to that Urge, but each use Downshifts the Urge for the
rest of the scene; once it’s at Poor no further uses are possible. So the
higher your Rank, the more times you can use it within a short period of
time. A Poor [-2] rated Urge could mean that you’re deficient in that
energy or have trouble controlling it.

78
 Example. Katrin is facing some slavers who want to catch her in a net.
She has Good [+2] Wind Urge - one of the listed correspondences is
Freedom, and the GM agrees that it fits with avoiding ensnaring
bonds. Katrin’s player downshifts the Urge Quality to Average and
adds 1d6 to the roll.

Urges Without
The physical world can provide sources of Urge energy, mainly of
interest to sorcerers who are able to tap it. Some locations have Urge
Quality Ranks - usually rated between Good and Poor. For instance if
you’re on a ship at sea you’d be safe assuming there’s Good [+2] Water
Urge. Certain objects have absorbed the energy enough to have a rating.
As mentioned in the Magic section, draining too much can have an effect
on the environment.

Urge items

It is possible to have an object with an Urge Quality, representing a pool

of energy that can be drawn upon to do appropriate things. For the most
part these are only of interest to sorcerers and others who know how to
work with these forces.
Urge items can be created by modern sorcery, but they cannot
regenerate Urge, only hold it until used. There is a rite that draws
Urge from the surroundings and stores it in an object. This works
like a normal use of sorcery, with the Intensity being the amount
transferred (up to the Rank available).
Naturally occurring Urge items, created by exposure to those
energies, are rare and sought after.
Ancient relics from when such things were understood better are
also valuable, and may have properties that cannot be duplicated
today - for instance enabling the person holding or wearing the item
to channel that energy as it were a personal, renewable Urge Quality.

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 INTERCESSORS
These individuals, with their distinctive grey robes and staffs, may be
found wandering through any of the lands. They are, more or less, priests
of the spirits of the Worthy Ancestors. They convey the will of the
Ancestors about how people should live, give blessings in their name and
do what they can to improve the well-being of the people. Colloquially
they’re often referred to as Bone Priests.

Intercessors believe that the only way to calm the lands and get the Urges
to work in harmony is for the collective of Good Spirits to become strong
enough – which means they have a vested interest in good people
becoming dead, at the same time as a desire to help them.

Rather than having a very structured organisation they act as a

community that polices itself. Of course, being human, members of the
order can take all sorts of turns. Most maintain an attitude of respect
toward the spirits and only call them in genuine need, but there have
been some who’ve used their power to compel spirits, dominate or harm
people, and create walking corpses to serve them.

Intercessor abilities
They have a decent general education, including writing and medicine,
and may have further knowledge skills. They might have a Charm or
two. Their key supernatural ability, however, is Intercession*. This
allows them to act as a conduit to allow a Good Spirit to enter the
physical world for a time, through a living host or a dead body in good
condition. Of course this means that its strength has been taken away
from the spirit plane, so the Intercessor will probably not keep it for long
- though sometimes they carry one or two permanent helpers, usually in
bones. (Most Intercessors form relationships with one or two particular
spirits they call often, and carry connecting items among their meagre
possessions.)

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Intercession*

This is the ability to contact the spirits of the Worthy Ancestors.

Typical uses are letting a spirit speak through the Intercessor to share
knowledge it had in life, e.g. of past events, and drawing on an
Ancestor’s skills to aid in tasks.

Bringing a spirit through requires a roll. Difficulty is based on the

power and significance of the spirit - Average for ordinary local folk,
higher for legendary heroes. This assumes you have some link, like
the individual’s body or a favourite place or possession, and difficulty
is upshifted if you don’t. There’s a degree of risk: failing with a roll of
doubles gets something malicious from the Dark Below instead. This
might not be obvious straight away if it’s canny about its behaviour.

Spirit Qualities. Your Rank dictates how much of the Ancestor’s

nature gets manifested. It has a number of Qualities equal to your
MOD (1 for Average), ranked at Good [+2]. The ones you identify first
should be core occupation and most distinctive characteristics. So if
you call up a mighty warrior with Good [+2] Intercession* you could
specify Warrior and Strong. The spirit can then provide these
Qualities to assist its host or the holder of its vessel, if it chooses to.

Vessels. A spirit can speak or act through the Intercessor for a few
moments, but if it is to stay longer in the physical world it must be
bound into a dead body part (usually a bone), an entire corpse, or a
living animal or person. For this to work there must be Connection -
something that ties that spirit to that host. Parts of its former body
would work, as would a living descendant or an animal symbolically
connected to the spirit’s nature. Intercessor lore also talks about Shade
- some bindings are Light and others Dark and to be avoided. This is a
matter of judgment, based on whether it will bring physical or
spiritual harm to the vessel or other people or hinder the Spirits’
struggle. The binding can be ended by use of Intercession* (needs a
contest to beat someone else’s binding), or by destroying or killing the
vessel. In animal vessels the spirit usually takes direct control. In
people it can only do so if it defeats the vessel’s will, which most
would not want to do, but the person can allow it to manifest.

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 PEOPLES
Everyone is from somewhere. For Jaws that’s described in terms of the
character’s People rather than a nation-state. The world of the Six
Serpents is less structured than many settings, and cultural groups don’t
always form the trappings of countries - they often just have territories
where they get by as best they can.

So, you must record the People you choose on your character sheet as a
note for the future. Below are listed some of the common groups in the
setting. Each has a short description, followed by a list of a few Qualities
common to that folk. When making the character, you must take at least
one Rank in one of those Strengths - this is your only mandatory tie to the
culture of your birth, though of course you’re free to take some of the
others too. There’s a brief note at the end of each write-up to give a
pointer for the sort of name characters from that people are likely to have.
This is very much a guideline: if you have a good name that doesn’t clash
horribly, use it!

If you like, players and GM might work together to create new Peoples
that will fit in somewhere. All you need is an interesting idea, a short
description and a handful of Qualities.

Non-human races. In the standard Jaws setting (and sword-and-sorcery

in general) there are no elves, dwarves and the like - just different
variants of human stock. However, each of those groups has its own
culture, strengths and weaknesses. Some carry peculiar traits from their
people’s ancient heritage, or are particularly adapted to their
environment.

People as a Quality. If you wish you can also take the People as one of
your Open Qualities, to indicate that being of that People is important to
the character - then you’ll do better at appropriate knowledge and social
tasks, and will be able to generate Story Hooks from it. On the other
hand, characters might leave their origins far behind and never give them
a second thought.

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 The misty border between character and setting

The following write-ups serve as possible origins for characters - but

also as background snapshots for places characters might visit. In fact,
in the old sword and sorcery stories you don’t find groups of
markedly different people wandering the countryside together - that
was, perhaps, an innovation of Tolkien’s. It’s more likely in more
recent dark fantasy like The Black Company, Artesia and the David
Gemmell stories - differences between cultural groups like
highlanders and southern city folk can be key to how characters
define themselves, at least at the start of the story (typically these
differences thaw as they realise their common cause).

Anyway, the point is that you should think carefully before you allow
a PC group that’s the analogue of two humans, an elf and a dwarf.
You might be better served by narrowing the focus a bit for possible
player characters - maybe even to the extent of having them all from
the same People - and using the rest as destinations whose strange
ways they can explore.

Devilfolk of Ahaan

On the edge of the great crater of the Empty Cup stands the ancient half-
shattered city of Ahaan - one side blasted and scarred by whatever forces
scoured the land long ago, the other side clinging on in mysterious
testament to the civilisation of an earlier age, its towers and vaults
pressed into service or abandoned to wind and shadow.

Among these streets pass a strange folk with catsʹ eyes, tall and robed and
close-lipped. The open rumour is that they are partially descended from
things of the Dark Below, a result of the sorcerous practices of their long-
ago ancestors. To outsiders they are, for the most part, polite but
somewhat aloof, contending in private with their split nature. Certainly
there is sorcery here, and sometimes talk of strange ceremonies and

83
sightings of darksome creatures. Traders and travellers from other lands
prefer to stick together around Strangers’ Square and the nearby streets.

Strengths: Night Vision, Arcane Lore, Dark Urge, Mysterious

Weaknesses: Vulnerable to Temptation, Outsider
Other: Sorcery* is absolutely available. Charms are possible, but beyond
one or two you should really take Sorcery* instead. Urges are possible,
though not Fire or Wood, and none may exceed their Dark Urge Rank.
Names: Either exotic or short, giving nothing away; as if they could have
come down from long ago. Kale, Arazin, Mistelhan, Persis.

Witchfolk of Belimaur

They are known for their interest in magic, and most can cast at least one
or two small spells. They collect Charms, aiming ever to increase their
people’s store of magical knowledge. Some of them go questing far and
wide to uncover or trade for new ones. However, most avoid sorcery,
feeling that it is too dangerous and practitioners are too hard for society
to control. (Of course, it’s fairly common for individuals to be tempted to
the sorcerous path by the promise of greater power, and then might have
to be dealt with one way or another.)

They call themselves Belimaurans, and barely tolerate the common terms
“witch-man” and “witch-woman”. Most are dark-haired and quick-eyed.
Their outfits have many folds of cloth, with turbans or headscarves, and
both men and women tend to adorn themselves with jewellery and
trinkets (any piece of which might conceal a spell ready to use). They are
known to wander far from their homeland as travelling traders or
diplomats, often travelling in painted caravans. A loyal Belimauran can
be a most useful advisor for a lord or prince.

Strengths: Intelligent, Perceptive, Secretive, Trader, Traveller

Weaknesses: Curiosity

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Other: This background allows open Quality Ranks to be spent on
Charm* (specify) and Charmcraft*. Their most common Urges are Fire
and Wind.
Names: With something of an Eastern European vibe: Matteya, Janos,
Turpik, Catalina.

The Earth Tribes of Kalet

In the north-west lie the Kalet Lands, occupied by the people of that
name, who also refer to themselves as the Tribes of the Earth. Clan
groups live in steads amongst the moors and valleys, herding cattle and
other livestock and cutting peat for fuel, and worshipping the earth
goddess Hursa. They are bold but undisciplined warriors, and often
mount raids on other clans to carry off goods and prove their mettle.

The hallmarks of the Kalet people are a great vitality, whether expressed
in battle or speech (they produce great musicians and storytellers), and a
feeling of connection to nature and interest in using its gifts. Those who
lean towards learning often pick up a low level of Alchemy* based
around herbs and other natural ingredients. Earth-Priests of Hursa may
have a naturalistic Charm or two - or even, in rare cases, become
sorcerers of earth magic.

85
Strengths: Wood Urge, Warrior, Oratory, Alchemy*
Weaknesses: Impulsive, Uncivilised
Other: The Urges of Earth and Fire are also relatively common.
Names: With a Scottish/Irish feel, maybe a bit Scandinavian in some
villages. Connor, Darmid, Maeve, Brigit.

Cliff People of Narrowhome

The town of Narrowhome was founded by exiles from other lands. They
built a shanty inside fissures in the rock and tapped into lava flows and
steam vents for energy. It has grown into a dynamic but ramshackle
trading town that sprawls through a network of chasms, continually
adapting to changes in the landscape. It is noisy, chaotic and dusty,
though it does have its own rules that enable the town to survive. (For
instance, a fair bit of crime goes on. Theft of luxury items will not
motivate the Guard overmuch, but depriving someone of water or shelter
is taboo and will be treated very seriously.)

The inhabitants are a varied lot, mixed from many different Peoples over
a long period. They live in cave-homes dug into cliff faces that are criss-
crossed by vertical “streets” of ladders, platforms, etc. Major workshops
and places to trade with outsiders are at ground level. The guards are
quick to react to possible threats from the surrounding landscape, like
giant scorpions and unnatural travellers.

Strengths: Improvising, Climbing, Bargaining, Streetwise

Weaknesses: Pushy, Scruffy
Other: Urges occur with average frequency. The most common are Earth
and Wind.
Names: Any possible as they’re such a mixed lot.

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Masked Folk of Nilsomar

The City of a Thousand Delights, one of the largest in the lands, is located
on a natural bay off the Sea of the Moon at the shoulder of the southern
peninsula. It’s a place of minarets and domes, tented markets, white-
walled houses and strange scents on the breeze.

The people are brown-skinned and inscrutable, giving away little of their
true thought through face or speech, although they partake
enthusiastically in entertainments and diversions. Traditionally, masks
are worn on formal occasions - people whose roles are tied up with
formality, status and etiquette, like courtiers, often wear them all the time
in public. Fashion and decoration tend toward brightly coloured silks and
gauzes. Various powders and fumes are favoured for recreational
purposes. Cats are common pets.

They revere the moon, and the goddess Selné who’s a representation of it.
She is seen as benevolent but capricious; usually shown as a young
woman in a dance of many veils, the tales tell that removing one veil too
many leads to madness.

Strengths: Inscrutable, Misdirection, Trade, an art or performance skill,

Alchemy*
Weaknesses: Civilised
Other: Urges occur with average frequency. The most common are
Water, Fire and Wood. Sorcery and Charms are also found with average
frequency.
Names: A mixture of Indian and Arabian in feel. Omar, Anjisthira,
Shahavi, Nieva.

Water People of Quegin

The Quegin Islands in the wide estuary of the mighty Blackworm River
are an irregular group of small clumps of land inhabited by a tribal folk
who make their living on and in the water. Many of them have the ability

87
to hold their breath for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, and long, webbed
fingers and toes that help with swimming.

The islands themselves are sand and soil with scrubby undergrowth and
clumps of richer vegetation. If one dives below the waterline one can see
their foundations of mud and coral; and, going deeper, realise that these
have accreted on the uppermost spires and towers of an ancient
submerged city. The Quegin do not often speak of this with outsiders, but
will certainly try to dissuade them from venturing down there, for
unnamed things lurk in the crypts and cloisters. It is a rite of passage for
young Quegin warriors to swim into the depths and return with some
trinket or artefact. Some quite peculiar items can come back into the light
in this way.

Strengths: Semi-aquatic*, Swimming, Boating, Water Urge

Weaknesses: Uncivilised, Vulnerable to Dehydration (from dry heat)
Other: They don’t have much truck with magic. Shamans typically have
modest levels of Divination*, receiving visions that they claim to be from
their strange gods, and maybe a couple of Charms.
Names: Use-names that outsiders will hear, at least, tend to be made from
things and events in the natural environment that strike the parents or the
person as a young adult. Shining Cloud, Empty Boat (a mysterious and ,
some would say, inauspicious choice), Starkeeper, Shark Eye.

Freemen of the River Towns

For much of the central region the great Blackworm River is like a
backbone, carrying goods and people from one land to another. The
linchpins of this are the River Towns of Halyn, Piscay and Amoset dotted
along its banks, acting as a loose trading league. They are settlements of
only medium size, but draw in many crafters and traders who want to
operate in a stable environment, supported by river fishing and produce
from the surrounding farmsteads. Each has a good harbour, and sturdy
walls on the landward sides.

88
 Oaths

A standard bit of colour in sword and sorcery is to have the characters

swear frequent oaths in the names of gods, demons, powerful spirits
or whatever. You can come up with these pretty easily using common
formats like, “By ...!” or, “In the name of ...!” or working in some
attribute of the entity in question. Decide whether the style of your
game suits going as far as reference to personal anatomy or habits.

In most places you might hear people call on the Good Spirits or
Worthy Ancestors (more or less interchangeably) - for instance in the
River Towns you’ll get, “Good Spirits preserve us!” The Kalets will
use, “Hursa!” or “By Hursa!” In Nilsomar you might get, “by the
sacred moon!” or “Selné’s veils!” Sartain is more prosaic, with
exclamations involving damnation and bastardry.

The Ahaans, when sufficiently provoked, tend to refer to devils of the

Dark little known to outsiders - but one common one is the demon
Zhe’mhat (jer-mart, roughly), also known among some other cultures
and spread elsewhere by bold and profane types. “Eyes of Zhe’mhat!”
or “Wings of Zhe’mhat!” are common examples. Folk who worry
about their reputations or are superstitious will tend to avoid calling
on such names.

The inhabitants tend to be steady and practical, putting their faith in

sturdy, well-made structures and articles. Weapons and armour from the
River Towns are among the best available. They like their surroundings
to be orderly, and the Town Watches are well staffed, trained and
equipped.

Strengths: Steady, Practical, Craft (specify), Trader, Boating, Fisher

Weaknesses: Inflexible, Unimaginative, Civilised
Other: The Urges of Earth and Metal are by far the most common. Magic
is rare, and frowned upon. Master crafters might know one or two special
“craft secrets” that are actually Charms.

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Names: Quite English-sounding, though possibly a bit medieval or
Biblical-sounding, with a definite first name and surname. The latter
often relates to a profession that was followed somewhere in the family
line, though it could relate to a place or something else. Simeon Archer,
Bertram Greenglade, Sophia Silverwright, Mary Limner.

Citizens of Sartain

The Jewel of the Western Coast, Sartain (sar-tayn’) is one of the few large
cities in this world. Its surroundings are on the warm edge of temperate,
with a mixture of wild forest and cultivated fields leading inland. The
buildings are mostly practical but elegant, with a fondness for towers and
the occasional baroque extravagance.

Society is characterised by the split between two classes. The ordinary

citizens follow the same range of professions as one might find anywhere,
from sailor and carpenter to courtesan and cutpurse, with a robust make-
do attitude and an eye for opportunity. There are certainly areas where
the blacker industries thrive, and in most neighbourhoods a stranger
walking alone at night is not entirely safe. The nobles are, for the most
part, fixated on all things fine - artworks, clothing, food and drink, and so
on - and use this as the mark of self-worth and social status. Some of
them are ineffectual fops, but it is standard for the males, at least, to learn
skills like fencing and riding so some can be quite capable. Many of them
keep busy intriguing against each other for power and wealth.

Strengths: Streetwise, Profession (specify), Connoisseur, Intrigue

Weaknesses: Civilised, Unprincipled, Vain
Other: Urges aren’t common at all - limit them to low Ranks. It can be
any type, but especially Metal. A few noble bloodlines are more attuned.
Names: Something of an air of historic Europe, especially France.
Jermaine, Matthias, Beata, Jirel. Nobles are concerned about their family
name, but ordinary folk often aren’t especially bothered with one.

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Owl-men of Temisarum

In the humid forest of the south lies ancient Temisarum, the Citadel of the
Moon, its broken marble columns and ruined temples now largely
reclaimed by vegetation and prowled by dangerous beasts. In camps on
intact roofs and in fortified squares live the Temisarans, a tall, lean, pale-
skinned folk whose culture has made the peculiar adaptation to being
active at night and resting during the day. It’s not clear whether this
originally derived from the heat of the environment, meeting nocturnal
predators on their own terms or just some whim of the Ancients. Their
ability to see at night has earned them the name “Owl-men” among
outsiders.

They are excellent hunters with a keen awareness of their territory. Some
places are best avoided, and some - like the interiors of certain buildings -
are actually taboo. (Some visitors have discovered, too late, that there’s
often good reason for this.) Though outwardly primitive, they maintain a
good base of crafts and are capable of urbane debate, though they lack a
little in humour. Their beliefs revolve around a group of patron spirits
like Seleya the Night Wind, Grandfather Jaguar and the Boneface
Watchers; and some among them know spirit Charms connected to these.
Their Wise Ones are likely to know several, plus Charmcraft* to prepare
talismans for the tribe and possibly a bit of Alchemy*. The Temisarans
find the Worthy Ancestors cult fits quite well alongside their own, and
well-mannered Intercessors are welcome here (though it will be
suggested that they be careful when opening the ways in the city).

Strengths: Nocturnal, Keen Senses, Stealth, Hunter, Spirit Lore

Weaknesses: Sensitive to Light
Other: The most common Urges are Water and Metal.
Names: Most are fairly long, three or four syllables, with ‘e’ and ‘i’
common vowels. Some individuals come to be known by a nickname or
title. Alemontaros, Firapelin, Memelosa, Crane Gatherer.

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 MONSTERS
Some fantasy styles have creatures of all shapes and sizes lurking in
every tree, with characters routinely assailed by groups of them. In the
sword and sorcery end of the pool, however, monsters are special. There
might be a single one in a story, provoking much fear and posing a real
challenge to overcome. That’s in addition to ordinary wild and domestic
creatures, of course, which are often the same as those of our own world
but need not be. Dark fantasy tales can be heavier on the monsters, with
an emphasis on the frightening and unnatural.

So an extensive list of monsters - like a dating agency but with more gore
- is less useful here than in other fantasy styles. The characters might
meet certain creature types on repeated occasions, but you should try to
make each Monster different from those that have gone before. So there’s
a fair bit of material here on constructing them, and a few examples of
the different types.

“Monsters” usually fall into these brackets:

Strange Peoples - intelligent races sufficiently different in nature or
habits to not count as entirely human. (In the Jaws setting they’re
generally descended from humans who were altered long ago.)
Fierce Beasts - animals that probably want to eat your head. They
might be far larger and more dangerous than those in the real world
- as a natural strain, a freakish individual or the subject of sorcery -
but they’re still basically natural animals.
The Unquiet Dead - from ghosts tied to the unfinished deeds of life
to walking corpses created by sorcery. These are not as common as
in many other fantasy styles.
Things from the Dark - creatures that should not exist in the world,
usually summoned by sorcery from the Dark Below. They can have
pretty much any form or ability, and minds beyond human ken.

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Size
This is possibly the most significant creature feature, defined by the
Qualities Large and Small. (If neither is specified, of course, size is
Average - that is, roughly the same as a human.) Their levels are like this,
extending away from human size in both directions:
Master Small – humanoid up to an inch tall, insect
Expert Small – humanoid a few inches tall, mouse, sparrow
Good Small – humanoid 2-3ft tall, dog, cat
Average – human-sized
Good Large – humanoid around 10ft tall, horse, bear
Expert Large– humanoid around 30ft tall, rhino, elephant
Master Large – humanoid around 100ft tall, whale

These are brackets; use the closest level. They are paired Qualities: each
comes with an associated Weakness, for instance Expert [+4] Large, Poor
[-2] Large. The Weakness activates in different circumstances from the
Strength. In some cases this depends on the size level of an opponent.

Here are some of the main applications.

Large size is good for: making powerful close combat attacks;
resisting damage from close combat attacks; feats of strength; some
tasks requiring reach.
Large size is bad for: avoiding ranged attacks from smaller
opponents; sneaking around; crossing fragile surfaces.
Small size is good for: not getting hit by ranged attacks; sneaking
around and staying unnoticed; getting into small spaces.
Small size is bad for: resisting close combat damage from larger
opponents; feats of strength; resisting forces (like being blown about
by the wind); tasks requiring reach.

93
Notes on size

Size in combat. In PDQ, unlike many other RPGs, an attack includes both
the accuracy of a strike and its damaging power, and a defence includes
both the ability to not get hit and the fortitude to soak up damage.
However, conventional wisdom says that a large creature is easier to hit
but harder to hurt, while a smaller creature is harder to hit but more
fragile. So to make size play an interesting part in physical combat we
have to come up with some guidelines, and these are reflected in the
previous paragraphs about what Small and Large are good for.
In hand-to-hand combat power is more important.
In ranged combat accuracy is more important.
Optional rule - an attacker more than one size level smaller than the
defender does Failure Ranks, not Damage Ranks - it cannot do any
lasting harm.

Size “reduction”. In conflicts the effective rank of a creature’s size may

change due to damage or downshifting. Of course the creature doesn’t
actually change size: it’s more a case of its size becoming a less important
feature of the story. When comparing two creatures’ sizes (for instance to
see whether a Weakness kicks in) always look at the permanent Ranks.

Type
Natural animals and some supernatural monsters fit into a certain
ecological role. The following can be used as a variant on professional
Qualities. Using this and size together gives a basic creature definition to
fine-tune with special abilities. (Try to fit a beast into a single category if
you can, but if necessary you could give it two, probably at lower levels,
or invent a slightly different Quality that fits better.)
Grazer – uses include running, hiding and dodging.
Scavenger – uses include foraging, resisting harm and adaptability.
Predator – uses include attacking, chasing and ferocity.

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Other common Qualities
Here’s a list of common Qualities found among beasts and monsters.
Asterisks denote supernatural Qualities.

Amorphous - basic physical make-up is less solid and fixed in shape than
most Earthly life. It can contort and fit through small gaps, and MOD
resists injury from physical blows (but not fire, cold or other energies).

Amphibious - able to operate normally in both air and water. MOD

would count for actions like swimming.

Armour - straightforward MOD protection against physical injury.

Aversion (specify)* - with this Weakness something (e.g. fire, iron, garlic)
is inimical to the creature. It can repulse, penalising the creature with the
Poor [-2] MOD in active attempts to drive it back. In attacks it causes
damage, bypassing any supernatural defences and applying the [-2] MOD
to resistance. Deliberately touching an aversion object gives 1 Damage
Rank.

Blood Hunger - with this Weakness a creature with Energy Drain* that
has no points in its energy pool is beset by hunger, becoming obsessed by
the blood in those around it and suffering the [-2] if it needs to resist
feeding. The energy pool reduces by 1 point per scene, or thereabouts;
they can’t go more than a day or two without a snack. Whether they want
to resist depends on individuals; many enjoy hunting whenever they can.

Camouflage - MOD adds to stealth due to some feature of its appearance.

This might only work in specific situations, such as a particular
environment or when stationary.

Claws, Teeth, Stinger, etc – some nasty sharp or pointy appendage(s)

that can add MOD to attacks; Rank reflects degree of nastiness.

Darksense – the ability to get around without any light at all. The
assumption is that it gives something kind of like a visual image, even if

95
it works by ultrasound or heat detection or just plain magic, though this
is probably less detailed than ordinary sight.

Damage Resistance* - increased resilience against all types of mundane

physical harm, adding MOD to a wide spectrum of rolls. It’s occasionally
found in creatures from the Dark. It is bypassed by direct magical effects
(including enchanted objects but not physical phenomena conjured by
magic) and sometimes other specific substances or influences.

Dead* – found in creatures like walking corpses, acts as Arcane

Resistance* (adds TN, not MOD) against various kinds of effect that
really only work on living subjects, including death magic, life drain,
most poisons and diseases, sleep
and pain. The MOD can be used to
oppose straightforward physical
trauma.

(Terrain) Dweller - many

creatures are particularly adapted
to their environment and skilled
in surviving there. This Quality is
specified especially when that
habitat has difficult conditions.
Possible versions include Desert
Dweller, Jungle Dweller, Ice
Dweller, Ocean Dweller. It covers
both the skills to find food, shelter,
etc. and resistance to environmental hazards like the heat of the desert.
It’s most commonly used for natural animals, as an aid to quick-and-dirty
descriptions (size, type, habitat), often at Good Rank; less commonly for
supernatural monsters (but you could use it for any character, with
variants like City Dweller). Of course you can choose to specify separate
Qualities instead (or as well if it’s particularly good at one aspect).

Energy Drain* – this can take various forms, like a chilling touch or blood
drain. The victim takes damage in the usual way, and the user recovers
that same number of Ranks of damage (Failure first). If the user hasn’t
lost that many Ranks, the surplus goes into a pool of up to 10 points that
can be spent to give Upshifts (one per action).

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Enhanced Sense (specify) – gives an unusual sense (see Darksense
above), or one that covers an unusual range (hearing ultrasonics), or one
that’s unusually sensitive (tracking by scent). Give it a name to reflect
what it does. This works like any other Quality, but some versions might
allow rolls that can’t normally be attempted. Sometimes sense Qualities
stack up, like Keen Senses, Good Eyesight and Distance Vision.

Flight – the ability to move through the air, with or without wings. Rank
gives speed and manoeuvrability.

Incorporeal* – lacking physical substance, like ghosts. It acts as Arcane

Resistance* against all ordinary physical attacks. It doesn’t work against
direct effects of magic (as opposed to physical effects produced by it).
Against physical attacks carrying a magical charge (enchanted swords
etc.) it just uses MOD. Incorporeal creatures can’t make ordinary physical
attacks, but often have some ability like Energy Drain* - Chilling Touch that
does damage on an apparent physical attack. They can pass through solid
objects, are untroubled by gravity and don’t need to breathe. The MOD
can be added to some tasks, notably stealth.

Magic Resistance* - adds MOD to resist the effects of any magic cast
directly on the creature. It doesn’t work against indirect effects, e.g.
physical phenomena created by magic like gouts of flame.

Night Vision - the ability to see normally in low light conditions, though
not total darkness.

Pack Hunter - adds on to aggression, courage, initiative and tactics when

the creature attacks in a group of at least three.

Plant - this is a bit out there, but who knows what one might find in
strangely lit caverns beneath the earth? Pain and trauma don’t affect it as
they would an animal. MOD resists physical blows, but not heat or cold.
Resists effects designed specifically for animal life with its TN - e.g.
poison, sleep, mind control, magic affecting the body.

Poison – there are many types. In most cases poison effects can only be
healed within the scene by an agency targeted specifically at poisons, e.g.
a Cure Poison charm or potion. The effect of a poison lasts “a while”,

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which will often count as continuing danger for healing purposes for the
next scene or two. The onset period of fantasy poisons is usually “turn”
(after everyone’s acted) or “scene” (end of this or early in next).
Damage poisons - just does another lot of straightforward damage,
TN opposed by toughness.
Faculty poisons - do “targeted damage” to a particular kind of
faculty, applying damage Ranks to any Qualities of that type first
and then, if any are left over, inflicting a suitable temporary
Weakness. A“strength” one might do all its damage to Strength,
Built Like a Brick Outhouse and such, while a “perception” one
could damage Acute Hearing or Night Vision.
Condition poisons - resist the poison’s TN or suffer some condition,
e.g. paralysis or blindness.

Regeneration – in a physical conflict situation the creature heals very

rapidly, regaining MOD damage ranks at the end of each round (Average
counts as 1). There are often certain types of harm the regeneration can’t
heal, for instance fire. (If you want to deal with such a creature in a
complicated situation, just add this to the defence and describe
accordingly.)

Resistance (specify) – near-immunity to one particular type of harm, like

heat, cold or poison. Ordinary “background” occurrences of the harm
won’t bother the creature at all. Against those produced by key characters
it adds its Target Number to resistance rather than its MOD, and if any
damage is taken it’s as Failure Ranks.

Shocking Appearance - when the creature is first encountered this Rank

must be resisted with a roll on mental fortitude Qualities, taking the
difference as Failure Ranks or, in exceptional cases, Damage Ranks.
Creatures from the Dark Below usually have this property.

Swarm - when a large group of small creatures acts as a single unit it

becomes a greater threat. Qualities are those of the individual, but Swarm
replaces size (it can be Average). It’s based on weight of numbers, good
for resisting all physical attacks and for splitting attacks. It’s often a good
idea to run a swarm as a conflict situation to reflect gradually whittling it
down.

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Strange Peoples

Ogres

There aren’t many ogres left, and most people are happy with that. Bred
by the ancients for battle or labour, they stand around 7 feet tall and have
great strength, toughness and ferocity. They are also primitive and brutal,
and regard people as food. They can be found in most regions, singly or
in small groups, but mainly in the eastern mountains and northern
forests. There are a few dubious tales of strong men who are “half-ogres”.

Strengths: Expert [+4] Strong, Expert [+4] Tough, Expert [+4] Fierce,
Expert [+4] Outdoor Survival, Good [+2] Hunter

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Dull-witted, Poor [-2] Hot-tempered

Undermen
Dotted across the lands are cave mouths and crevasses that open into the
Underfields, networks of tunnels and caverns that, if rumour is to be
believed, connect into one huge system if one ventures deep enough.
What is certain is that they are inhabited by the Undermen, a race
adapted for underground life.

A typical individual is about 5 feet tall, pale-skinned and hairless, clad in

some brief hide or skin. A single one is no great threat, but they tend to
appear in small groups. Some few know a small number of Charms,
possibly learned through the cult of some dark god. Undermen are
indifferent or hostile to surface-dwellers, and there are many reports of
people being dragged away and never seen again.

Strengths: Good [+2] Earth Urge, Good [+2] Underground Dweller,

Average [0] Darksense, Good [+2] Resilient, Good [+2] Hunter (or
possibly other occupation)

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Vulnerable to light, Poor [-2] Uncivilised

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Fierce Beasts
The most common non-human opponent in the sword and sorcery side of
fantasy is an animal. If this sounds unimpressive, we should note the
tendency for such beasts to be somewhat larger and certainly more
aggressive than their real-world equivalents. There are also instances of
beasts that are much bigger and more dangerous than normal; possibly
smarter too. These might be a giant species, or a highly unusual
individual. (You can reflect this by giving an extra level of size and/or
Qualities like Strong, Tough and Fierce.)

Ape, Giant

These creatures from the forests of the south are like a gorilla, but larger
and more aggressive. Their hair is black, brown or grey. They have a
degree of intelligence, but this tends to get drowned out by hostility.
Some rare specimens grow up to Good [+2] Large.

Strengths: Master [+6] Strong, Expert [+4] Tough, Expert [+4] Fierce,
Good [+2] Forest Dweller, Good [+2] Keen Senses, Good [+2]
Climbing

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Hot-tempered

Bear

This is the brown bear, found high up the food chain in hills and forests
anywhere but the south. General advice is to stay away, as they are ill-
tempered, territorial and quick to react to perceived threats.

Strengths: Good [+2] Large, Good [+2] Scavenger, Good [+2]

Predator, Expert [+4] Strong, Good [+2] Tough, Good [+2] Dangerous
When Roused

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Large

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 Lion

These are the largest and most

impressive of the big cats, found
in the plains of the south.

Strengths: Expert [+4] Predator,

Good [+2] Strong, Good [+2]
Tough, Good [+2] Athletic, Good
[+2] Claws and Teeth, Good [+2]
Night Vision, Good [+2] Keen
Senses, Good [+2] Intimidating
Roar

Weaknesses: none

A seriously big male lion could

have Good [+2] Large, Poor [-2]
Large. Females in a pride might have slightly toned down stats, but
would also have a bit of Pack Hunting.

Other big cats have variations on these Qualities - for instance the
leopards of the southern peninsula have less power and more stealth and
agility.

Rat swarm

These rodents can be found almost everywhere. They might not be big or
strong, but they’re smart, adaptable and resilient. (Adapt the Swarm size
Rank to suit. Individually they have the same stats but Expert [+4] Small
and Poor [-2] Small.)

Strengths: Good [+2] Swarm, Expert [+4] Scavenger, Good [+2]

Gnawing, Good [+2] Sensitive Smell, Good [+2] Resist Poison and
Disease

Weaknesses: none

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Scorpion, Giant

These are man-sized to horse-sized and willing to attack almost anything.

They can adapt to almost any terrain, but are most common in rocky and
desert areas. Colouration varies: black, yellow, brown and even dull red.
Hunting might involve patrolling their territory or waiting under a rock
or in the sand to ambush victims. They attack by grabbing prey with their
pincers, crushing it if possible and only bringing the venomous tail sting
into play if necessary. These stats are for the larger size.

Strengths: Good [+2] Large, Good [+2] Predator, Good [+2] Pincers,
Good [+2] Armour, Good [+2] Tail Sting, Good [+2] Venom, Good [+2]
Scuttling, Good [+2] Lurking, Good [+2] Survivor

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Large, Poor [-2] Intellect

Pincers: the initial attack is usually to grab on, and if it succeeds the
target must then use suitable Qualities to get free; the scorpion can
use its actions to crush, opposed by toughness but not evasion.
Venom: comes into play on a successful tail strike, but is Downshifted
each use. Victims failing to resist TN are paralysed.
Scuttling: for moving fast or on tricky surfaces, and generally being a
bit creepy to us mammals.
Survivor: MOD for resisting environmental-type harm like heat, cold,
toxins and even weird magical radiations.

Shark

These superb marine predators maintain a place near the top of the food
chain by being very good at what they do. These stats are for a fairly
substantial one; bigger and smaller versions exist.

Strengths: Good [+2] Large, Expert [+4] Predator, Expert [+4] Sharp
Teeth, Expert [+4] Swimming, Expert [+4] Detect Scent

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Large, Poor [-2] Single-minded

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Snake, Giant

Perhaps the commonest monster in the old pulp fantasy tales is the
serpent of enormous size. They are unusual specimens, but may be found
in all regions except the coldest. Stats are for one around 15 feet long.
They tend to kill by constriction, but you could add Poison instead.

Strengths: Good [+2] Large, Good [+2] Quick Reactions, Good [+2]
Crushing Coils, Good [+2] Intimidate Mammals, Good [+2] Keen
Senses

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Large, Poor [-2] Vulnerable to Cold

Wolf

These canines are high-ranking predators in the hills and woods of the
northerly lands. An individual is a foe worthy of respect, but they usually
hunt in packs, coordinating with patience and cunning.

Strengths: Expert [+4] Predator, Good [+2] Scavenger, Expert [+4]

Pack Hunter, Good [+2] Keen Senses, Good [+2] Enhanced Sense
(sensitive smell), Good [+2] Stealth

Weaknesses: none

Wyrm

These are giant serpent-creatures - greater than giant snakes and the
setting’s closest equivalent to dragons. They vary in size and appearance,
with rare specimens becoming truly gigantic monsters though most are in
the 10-30ft range. They are all linked to one of the Urges, often reflecting
the habitat where they are found. They seem to be very long-lived.

It isn’t entirely clear what level of mentality they have. In general they act
like fairly cunning animals, but sometimes there are hints of greater
wisdom. One might even seem to aid a character or plot against them on

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rare occasions; but in general they are simply fierce predators aiming to
kill and eat people who wander into their territory.

The quick way to stat one up is to give it an overall Rank from Good to
Master and set the Quality Ranks equal to that. Alternatively you can
vary them a bit.

Strengths: [Rank] Large, [Rank] Predator, [Rank] Serpentine, [Rank]

Tough Hide, [Rank] Keen Senses, [Rank] Urge (specify), one Good [+2]
personality trait

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Large

The Unquiet Dead

Some strands of fantasy gaming mine the heck out of this vein, with
vampires, ghouls, animated skeletons and whatnot around every corner.
In the styles Jaws is aiming at this is much less common. In many pulp
fantasies even the occasional ghost seems a rare thing, with creatures
from the Dark the preferred source of chills. In Mark Smylie’s Artesia, on
the other hand, ghosts are quite common (a group acting as the heroine’s
conscience and guilt).

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The fundamental point is that as far as most people are concerned what’s
dead should stay that way, and encountering something that hasn’t is a
frightening and unsettling experience. So keep them rare and always give
them some level of Shocking Appearance - as well as Dead*.

Ghost

These are spirits of the dead that have remained in the physical world,
ranging from shrieking, hateful marauders to lost souls evoking only
pity. The ghost that acts as an invisible, intangible presence is not a great
fit for the style we’re after here. They should be spectral figures, though
possibly only visible to certain people. By their nature they’re obsessive
personalities to some degree.

Some ghosts are merely a collection of impulses, echoes of a violent death

or unfulfilled life, with varying amounts of personality. They might not
even realise they’re dead. Others are fully intelligent and aware, usually
with a clear purpose. Ghosts almost always have an anchor - a person,
place or object that they must stay close to. Destroying the anchor might
banish the ghost, but it’ll probably fight tooth and nail to prevent this.
Fighting one physically is difficult to impossible - that’s not what they’re
about. The safest way to get rid of a ghost is to satisfy the impulse that
keeps it here, for example grand-daughter is happy, revenge is achieved,
message is delivered.

Here’s an example write-up.

Strengths: Master [+6] Incorporeal*, Expert [+4] Invisible*, Master

[+6] Dead*, Average [0] Shocking Appearance, Good [+2] occupation,
Good [+2] personality trait; possible special abilities

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Dead, possibly Poor [-2] Obsessed, and Poor
[-2] Self-Awareness or Intellect for a fragmentary spirit

Ghosts can develop special powers. The following are common, though a
given spirit would probably have just one or two.
Energy Drain*: a chilling touch attack.

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 Impression*: an invisible spirit can convey fleeting sensory echoes of
the ghost’s life or death, perhaps unconsciously or as an attempt to
communicate, potentially causing Failure Ranks of fear. (Sound,
smell and texture are more atmospheric than sight.)
Shocking Appearance*: the ghost can take on a more frightening form
and use this as a fear attack.
Move Object*: affecting the physical world by willpower. It’s like a
hand with a range of about a room but Downshifted strength and
coordination.
Possession*: taking over the body of a living person. Only powerful
ones can do this, but others might be able to use a Suggestion* ability
to “push” a living person to do a certain task.

Walking corpse

These are dead bodies animated by magic. They are strong and hard to
hurt. Some have only enough mind to follow the commands of a master
or perhaps vague instincts from their living days (like going home or
getting revenge). Here’s an example of a mindless rotting shambler.

Strengths: Good [+2] Dead*, Good [+2] Strong, Good [+2] Shocking
Appearance, Good [+2] Night Vision

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Dead (e.g. affects social interactions), Poor [-2]
Stupid, Poor [-2] Slow

Others might be tougher, and even have a fully aware indwelling spirit.
Give them a fuller set of Strengths to reflect their talents and personality
(the simplest version would be Good in an occupation) and remove the
Stupid Weakness. Here’s an example of something fairly high-powered.

Strengths: Expert [+4] Dead* , Expert [+4] Strong, Good [+2] Single-
Minded, Good [+2] occupation (specify one, dimly retained from
when alive), Good [+2] personality trait (ditto), Good [+2] Darksense

Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Dead (tends to colour social interactions), Poor

[-2] Slow-moving, Poor [-2] Vulnerable to Fire

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Things from the Dark
“A devil from the Outer Dark,” he grunted. “Oh, they’re nothing uncommon.
They lurk as thick as fleas outside the belt of light which surrounds this world.
I’ve heard the wise men of Zamora talk of them. Some find their way to Earth,
but when they do they have to take on Earthly form and flesh of some sort. A man
like myself, with a sword, is a match for any amount of fangs and talons, infernal
or terrestrial.”
A somewhat experienced Conan
‘The Vale of Lost Women’ by Robert E. Howard

These don’t really fall into types - each one (or, occasionally, group) is
unique and should be crafted to order.

They’re not so much evil as different - they have their own goals, often
unguessable, and have no interest in human lives and souls except,
perhaps, as a light snack. Certainly if people get in the way of such
creatures they’ll meet a horrible fate. If there is evil involved it’s the
people who summon up such danger and let it loose on the populace.

Such creatures, written as alien dangers rather

than plundering traditional folklore (as
other strands of fantasy gaming are wont
to do), draw from the same well as the
“Cthulhu mythos” of H.P. Lovecraft and
others. This is not surprising, as the old
pulp fantasy tales were written around the
same time, appeared in the same
periodicals and in many cases came from
the same authors. However, in the mythos
tales (and RPGs derived from them) even
the smaller entities are usually too
frightening and physically dangerous to
confront directly, whereas in the sword and
sorcery tales a character armed with a good
blade and dramatic importance can take
them on (though minor characters are still
likely to lose their wits or be digested).

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Entities from the Dark should either be quite like some form of earthly
life, though twisted (e.g. a great black ape with smouldering eyes), or
completely unlike it (e.g. an amorphous mass or sliding shadow). Those
from the Near Dark are more like the things of our world - some might
even resemble humans - and those of the Distant Dark less so.

In terms of Qualities, you can pick and choose from the creature Qualities
given earlier. The only constants are that they all have some level of
Shocking Appearance and Darksense (even if it’s Average), and they
should always present a significant challenge (never treated as minions).
Here are a couple of examples.

Demon ape

This is a relatively modest threat from the nearer reaches, suitable for a
sorcerer to call forth from behind the wall hangings when confronted by
fairly new player characters. (It’s based on the giant ape in Fierce beasts.) It
appears like a huge ape with night-black hair and red eyes.

Strengths: Master [+6] Strong, Expert [+4] Tough, Good [+2] Fierce, Good
[+2] Keen Senses, Good [+2] Climbing, Good [+2] Camouflage in
darkness, Average [0] Shocking Appearance, Average [0] Darksense
Weaknesses: none

The crawler in the catacombs

This is a more serious threat from further down in the Dark. It’s a large,
amorphous tentacled mass clearly not of this world.

Strengths: Good [+2] Large, Good [+2] Predator, Good [+2] Shocking
Appearance, Good [+2] Amorphous, Expert [+4] Extra Appendages, Good
[+2] Fearsome Maw, Good [+2] Underground Dweller, Expert [+4]
Darksense
Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Large

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GM’S NOTES

109
 ADAPTING TO OTHER
FANTASY SETTINGS
You should be able to use the rules in this book for most fantasy games
toward the pulpy or gritty end of the genre, with a little adaptation. You
might do this with a favourite novel series, or as a conversion of another
RPG if you’re looking for a lighter system. This section goes through
some of the areas you might want to look at. Using Jaws for other sorts of
fantasy, like high-powered swashbuckling with magic everywhere,
would also be possible but much more of a stretch.

Other PDQ games

There are other PDQ fantasy games around, and some of the ideas in
those could find more general application. (If you’re after the more high
fantasy style one of these might be a better start point altogether.)

Questers of the Middle Realms, also published by Silver Branch Games, is

aimed at a humorous take on traditional fantasy gaming like Wizards of
the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons, but it could certainly be used more
seriously. QMR was the previous PDQ fantasy game that I wrote and I’ll
refer to elements of it in the following
notes.

The Zorcerer of Zo by Atomic Sock

Monkey Press is aimed at fairytale
fantasy in the style of Oz, Narnia
or anything that involves talking
toys and animals defending what
is good and right. However, the
rules in there would apply pretty
well to a game set in Middle Earth;

110
they cover ordinary skills and faculties raised to a magical level (Legolas,
we’re looking at you) and a very loose approach to magic. There’s also
lots of interesting info about how the original ZoZ campaign was planned
and run, as a guide for budding (and, indeed, somewhat wrinkled and
mildewy) GMs.

Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies, also by Atomic Sock Monkey Press, is

being developed at the same time as Jaws and should appear in 2009. It’ll
contain a version of the PDQ system that’s optimised for swashbuckling
action in the style of the Three Musketeers and The Princess Bride; and a
setting of sailing ships that fly between islands in an endless sky.

“Funnelling” Qualities

In the Six Serpents setting the mandatory freebies everyone starts with -
People, Faculty, Driver - are chosen to encourage characters who are
competent and motivated to action. This sets a baseline for what they can
do and ensures certain options for generating story hooks.

It’s recommended that you always have a bit of this “funnelling” going
on, but for other styles you might want to change it to give a different
emphasis. Some forms of sword and sorcery might dispense with
Peoples, because characters’ descent is not of any interest at all. Questers’
funnelling Qualities are the character’s Homeland and the Organisation
they belonged to before play, so they’re tied to the setting and feel like
they’ve come from somewhere. You probably want 1-3 Funnelling
Qualities (2 in most cases) depending on what you want to capture.

Here are some other possibilities.

If you want a strong military flavour - like Mark Smylie’s Artesia or
Glen Cook’s Black Company - you might push everyone to take a
Quality in the kind of unit they’ve served with, or perhaps an
associated role (Infantry, Cavalry, Scout, Physician, etc), with the
Rank giving some indication of, well, rank.
If you’re using a setting with character occupations that are strongly
distinctive and important for setting flavour - like Games

111
 Workshop’s Warhammer - you might have an “approved” list of
those for characters to allocate at least some of their past experience.
David Gemmell’s novels tend to feature characters who are pretty
capable in at least one area and do a lot of introspecting, often in the
shadow of imminent doom. You might say that the Funnelling
Qualities for them are a Skill plus something more internal, which
you might specify as a couple of options from Hope, Regret, Past,
Secret, Destiny (to achieve great things, meet some doom, or
possibly both - see box in character creation section) or similar.

Races
By which we mean intelligent species like elves and dwarves. In a lot of
the source material Jaws is aimed at these simply don’t exist - it’s all
humans - but you might want to bring them in. Questers covers this in
more detail, but the core concept is to use paired racial Qualities like
Good [+2] Elf, Poor [-2] Elf. Provided that your group has a clear idea of
the race you can tell what sorts of tasks it will be stronger or weaker in -
maybe elves are good at tasks requiring agility and bad at shrugging off
physical damage, while dwarves are the reverse. (Giving races special
power-like abilities is outside the scope of these notes.)

Humans are kind of a baseline, so instead of paired Human Qualities

they get an extra personality-type Quality like Brave, Jolly or
Authoritative at Good, and no extra Weakness (which does balance, as
racial Strengths are typically useful in a wide range of situations).

You might build up a racial Strength with further Ranks at character

creation if the race is an important part of the character concept.

Danger Levels

You could set guidelines for how these apply in order to reflect your
setting. For instance, if you want to play in another game setting using
these rules and the original makes use of “critical hits” that give gory
details of damage to various body parts, you could say that any combat

112
with an important character is a Risk situation that can result in Scars. It’s
not quite the same, as Scars take effect after the present conflict rather
than during it. If you want to make things really dangerous, allow
physical fighting with minor characters to be a Risk situation too and let
the player characters rack up Weaknesses. You could bring in Doom
more often as well, so that characters face permanent extinction in most
major confrontations, but over-egging that particular pudding really runs
counter to the spirit of PDQ.

Fortune Points

The options for gaining and using these can definitely be changed to
support the desired style of play; you might even rename them to Hero
Points or some such. Three or four is about the right number for a set of
spending options, just because it’s easy to remember, but you could have
any number you like. They don’t all have to cost a single point: you might
decide some affect the story in more powerful ways and cost 2 points or
even more, but obviously that makes it a bit harder for the group to hold
in their heads. You’ll probably want to keep the re-rolling option every
time. Here are some other examples.
Recovering damage - this is in several other PDQ games but has
been left out of the options here. A point might buy 1d6 damage
Ranks of any sort back, or you might have to choose either 1d6
Failure Ranks or 1 Damage Rank.
Buying off Ranks of damage you’re about to take, for instance
dropping it down to a single Rank.
Upshifting the damage you’re about to do, having just made a
successful attack (without downshifting anything else as Jaws does).
Getting an extra action (as a one-off - might be particularly useful if
you’re interested in more tactical combat). Does it happen alongside
your normal one, or after everyone has acted?
Improve your initiative - how much would depend on your game’s
style, from “one Rank” to “before everybody else”. (It probably
shouldn’t trump supernatural speed/reaction powers.)

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Magic

Other PDQ games have handled magic differently. In general you have
one or more Qualities for magical ability, from specific like Summon
Circle of Fire to broader like Fire Magic (not usually very broad like
Wizard, but it’s possible). The first Rank purchased is Average, as here,
giving a trade-off in potency and overall character toughness. When
casting a spell, Rank indicates ability to control the magic and the
maximum Intensity you can achieve on the chart.

Here are some issues to think about.

Breadth. A magic Quality might be general casting ability, a particular

school or division of magic, or a specific spell. Maybe different people
have access to different ones, in a similar way to Sorcery and Charms. For
instance it’d be easy to add themed variants of Sorcery like Serpent
Sorcery* or Fire Sorcery* that are flexible but only within their theme.

Cost. In Questers casting requires you to check for fatigue, taking a

Fatigue Rank if you fail and so limiting the number of spells you can cast
in a scene. That’s quite a mechanical way of doing things: at the other end
of the scale the cost of magic might be that problematic things happen in
the story (as in Zorcerer of Zo).

Reliability. This could be related to cost - what’s the chance that magic
will go wild, and what happens if it does? You could rule that any spell
escapes the caster’s control if you roll double 1s, for instance, maybe
causing damaging backlash or creating an unintended effect.

Author’s note. Personally I find magic uninteresting if it doesn’t have

some sort of consequence for the user, at least potentially. I don’t like
fire-and-forget artillery mages.

Items. It might be fairly common to have permanently enchanted objects.

They might have some Quality attached to them, reflecting some
mundane or supernatural property like increased durability; or they
might contain a magical power that can be triggered once per scene, once
per day or some such.

114
 BASIC GM ADVICE
So, you’ve stepped forward (or been pushed!) to be the Game Master
running Jaws for your group. The GM has more work to do than the other
players, and more responsibility. It’s your role to facilitate the enjoyment
of the group, to prepare adventures for the characters to run through, and
to adjudicate decisions in play. When it works, it’s a good feeling. When
it doesn’t it’s like the proverbial herding cats - very frustrating. This
section gives you a few tips for achieving the former.

Trust

With any RPG the most important factor in having a good game is having
a good group: people who can get along together, communicate as
reasonable human beings, and form a consensus about what sort of game
they’ll enjoy. This is especially important with the PDQ system, which
makes for “high trust” games.
You don’t have vast swathes of
rules to cover every eventuality,
which places the burden of
smooth running more on the
players’ ability to work together
for shared fun within the
bounds of the setting. It’s a good
idea to make sure everyone’s
happy working this way before
you start.

Tone

Another thing to make sure you

all agree on is the tone of the
game. For the kind of fantasy
Jaws seeks to deliver this

115
shouldn’t be too light or wacky: there might be humorous or eccentric
character moments, but there should also be scenes of genuine peril and
an occasional sense of horror lurking beyond the everyday world. You
could run fairly superficial pulpy action tales, or have the characters
working hard to survive an uncaring world, or play up elements of the
supernatural and human corruption. If everyone has a clear picture of
what you’re going for they can choose Qualities appropriately rather than
picking stuff that breaks the mood.

Setting Up Adventures

Goals

The most basic underpinning of an adventure is a goal: what are the

characters supposed to be doing? These are often very simple, like
“Guard the caravan till it gets to the city” or “Retrieve the amulet from
the ancient crypt”. The adventure itself consists of the stuff that happens
in the process of achieving the goal. (It might include a change of goal too
- maybe part-way through they find things are not as they thought, like
the lady who hired you actually being a witch who wants the amulet to
afflict the city with plague.)

If you adopt the quest-type model common in fantasy gaming and fiction
it really is this simple. The bits that make the story interesting are
provided by the characters’ actions and interactions along the way, and
PDQ is particularly handy for enabling that (especially through Story
Hooks).

However, remember one thing: a goal will only work if the players care
about it. That means there must be a plausible reason why the characters
would take it on board, and it must sound like a fun thing to do. If the
whole forward motion of your game depends on a hook that nobody’s
interested in or willing to follow up you’ll be tying yourself in knots
trying to get things going again.

116
Matching challenges

The general toughness of an opponent is based around the sheer number

of Quality Ranks it has. What those Qualities are, compared to those of
the player characters, makes a difference (maybe a big one) but the most
basic measure is the amount of damage needed to take it down. You can
try to match this to the player characters, but their numbers of “hit
points” will vary according to development choices. For instance, taking
a large number of Qualities at low level makes you slightly tougher than
concentrating your ranks in a smaller number of abilities, because of the
Average and Poor levels you get automatically when you take a Quality
at Good. Most starting characters will have 11-16 “hit points”. You might
find it useful to track the number of Rank increases players have bought
with Learning Points.

You can make an opponent a bit tougher by giving it a Prop or two.

However, you then have to be prepared for the player characters to get
hold of those Props if they defeat it. Don’t put anything in there that’ll
unbalance your game or short-circuit the plot.

Hazards

Traps, nasty environments, falls, burns, are all in the category of

inanimate stuff that’s bad for the characters. In most cases you can just
represent it with a Target Number that must be opposed by any relevant
abilities the characters possess, so it’s just the usual question of picking a
Rank to reflect its degree of nastiness. The Magic Intensity Table might
give some assistance in fixing a Rank.

Example. Janos is exploring a ruined temple and fails to notice an

Expert (+4) Pit Trap in time. He convinces the GM that his Expert (+4)
Outdoorsman applies because the situation is similar to losing your
footing on a mountain scramble (another GM might not have agreed),
and Good (+2) Toughness will clearly help to resist damage from the
fall. So Janos is rolling +6 against the Expert Target Number, 11. He
rolls a measly 2 and 1, for a total of 9. He takes 2 Damage Ranks and
now has to think of a way to get out.

117
Hazards can have different consequences. In the example above, the
victim got hurt and ended up in a difficult situation. Consequences
usually involve:
damage - which can mean all sorts of things in PDQ, measured in
Damage and Failure Ranks, wearing the character down;
a condition - like being unable to move or see, perhaps imposing a
Target Number (maybe Janos has a TN 11 climbing task ahead of
him) on further activity or blocking the character from some types of
action for a while (like succumbing to sleeping gas);
or both!

Decide what these will be when you design a hazard, but be fair - you’re
not trying to beat the characters or players, but to put them on that
rollercoaster of peril-escape-peril-escape.

Note: hazards can be a good opportunity to use the Fortune Points

option Fickle Finger of Fate, for instance if you want everyone to be
affected by the sleeping gas with no chance to resist, in order to move
to a scene in a villain’s lair. This is definitely high trust stuff: the
players have to know that you’re not trying to beat them but to build
a more enjoyable story.

In some cases you might want a bit more detail. Then you can treat the
hazard just as if it were a character, giving it a few appropriate Qualities
(in the same way as special items). For example you might have Pit Trap:
Good (+2) Deep, Good (+2) Spikes. What this does is add the potential for
more sophisticated interactions. Some things the characters do will only
involve one of the hazard’s Qualities (climbing out only uses Deep) but
others might have the Qualities ganging up (falling in would use both
Deep and Spikes).

Rewards

Players like to get short-term goodies. Those with experience of other

fantasy games, in particular, are likely to have been trained to go
searching for loot the moment an opponent is defeated.

118
 That naked princesses thing...

The original sword and sorcery tales were products of a different age.
For instance Robert E. Howard’s short stories of Conan, written in the
1930s, often feature a female foil who is helpless against the physically
(or sorcerously) stronger males, though she has an even chance of
possessing quick wits and a strong will. She probably has minimal
clothing and will lose even this as the story progresses. Howard
sometimes uses it as a measure of character that Conan doesn’t force
himself on these women. Other sword and sorcery “heroes” do,
though, or at least treat the idea as a routine one.

This fits somewhat uncomfortably with modern sensibilities (although

looking at our fictional media one can sometimes wonder how much
change there’s really been). In your game you will certainly want to
allow strong female player characters (according to Ron Edwards’
supplement Sorcerer and Sword - see Sources and inspiration at the end
of the book - there were a couple of early sword and sorcery heroines,
so they were rare but not unknown). In the interests of equal
opportunities you could either decide that all NPCs keep their clothes
firmly on, or allow all PCs access to their preferred choice of
companion with a non-stick wardrobe.

You need to encourage them out of that habit. It’s true that for this style
of fantasy characters are often very explicitly out for personal gain, but
that acts as an overall motivation to get them into the events of the story
rather than dictating their actions on the micro level. If they’ve broken
into the temple for the Ruby Eye of the Sleeping God they’re not going to
stop for every guard’s pocket change. In general, rewards come through
quest completion and Fortune Points gathered along the way.

Having said that, of course if they need a sword and someone has
dropped one they’ll pick it up. If the GM has fed them a rumour that an
individual carries something important on his person, of course they’ll
look for it; alternatively it’s quite in-genre for something important to fall
out of the hand or clothing of a defeated foe.

119
In Play

Spotlight

Possibly the most important thing to remember when running a game is

that all the players are there to have fun through their character, and that
means showing off: from time to time that character must do something
really impressive or otherwise entertaining. That means your story has to
give opportunities to do this. If you have a group composed entirely of
brawny barbarians don’t give them an adventure revolving around
solving clever clues. Clearly the players are all in it for the fighting, so
have one or two clues, play up the barbarians’ puzzlement and eventual
lucky success, then get on to the lamentation of the enemies. You could
turn the same example round for a group of weaselly wizards.

You also need to keep players’ spotlight time roughly equal. If the action
focuses on one character for a while, try to find things to keep the other
players interested (like amusing or exciting developments, or even giving
them a non-player character to run) and give their characters plenty to do
soon afterwards.

Scenery and description

Many of the old pulp fantasy stories had a lot of description of characters’
surroundings, painting vivid word-pictures and creating atmosphere
(sometimes as the main goal of the story). So it definitely needs
consideration - but in a game environment you won’t be able to go to
nearly the same lengths before people start to lose interest. See what suits
your group. In general you want locations and scenery to have enough of
an interesting presence to remind everyone that they’re in a fantasy
setting without the description getting in the way of the focus on the
characters’ actions.

So, come up with some interesting locations for the characters to visit.
That could mean impressive (“The ancient statues guarding the pass
tower above you”); or unusual; or just the kind of place your players

120
wouldn’t normally go (“You descend into the sewers below the city”); or
the sort of place they would go, but presented in a way distinctive to the
game setting (a bar crowded with fantasy characters).

Then describe them in a way that’s evocative but, most of all, concise.
Pick a few key features that’ll sum up the location (or creature or
whatever). The players will tell you if they want more by asking
questions. To start with think of two things.
What impressions would they get first? If you open a door into a
room containing two dozen walking skeletons with glowing red
eyes, your initial impression is not going to focus on the style of the
decorative plasterwork. You can compress these extra details, e.g.
“It’s a fancy room - full of skeletons!”, or just omit them until the
initial impressions are dealt with.
Use all the senses. Humans are strongly oriented toward sight, and
take in most detail that way, but other senses often affect us more
powerfully - describing an unusual sound or smell can be a good
way to increase atmosphere.

Story Hooks

It’s probably a good idea to talk to your players about this before starting,
just to make sure everyone’s on the same page about it. Some people will
prefer to focus on the mission at hand, while others will be happier to
wander off exploring other bits of their character’s life.

What it does for you is to enable those sorts of side tangents that make
straightforward quest-type stories more interesting, without requiring
preparation work (though it might be worth scribbling down some
possible riffs on the PCs’ Qualities as a resource, to avoid being stumped
when they come up). Because the players have identified their own
Qualities and chosen which ones take hits to generate Hooks, these
episodes should be pretty good at highlighting aspects of the character
they want to play.

121
Problems in the group

Sometimes players disrupt the game or suck the energy out of it by their
behaviour. If friendly hints don’t work, the best option is to have a
private word with them to find out what’s going on.

As GM your job is to try to make sure everyone round the table is having
fun. If that person isn’t, you’ll want to see whether you can make some
changes to help them enjoy it. Or maybe they’re just having a bad day -
we all do - and need a bit of understanding from the group this session.
Maybe they didn’t even realise that they were creating a problem, and
will fix it once it’s explained to them. Any number of things might be
going on.

On the other hand, as GM you’re responsible to the group as a whole,

and you’ll need to set some limits beyond which you won’t tolerate one
person’s behaviour spoiling things for others. If the worst comes to the
worst and someone repeatedly fails to mend their ways after an honest
but tactful chat, you might have to ask them to leave the group.
Hopefully it won’t happen to you. But remember, one of the people
who’s supposed to be having fun is you; taking on the GMing job means
you should try to be considerate and flexible, but you don’t have to be a
doormat.

122
 ADVENTURE SEEDS
The characters are robbing some location, having heard that great
wealth or some sorcerous item can be had easily, and find that the
resident sorcerer is more alert than expected and has death-traps
they must escape or long tendrils of revenge that follow them as they
flee; or that the inhuman guardians are less long-dead than
advertised. This could be a delayed effect, where the characters
believe they have triumphed but find they must pay a terrible price.
Stories in these genres often don’t have neat and comfortable
endings.
The characters are brought into the service of a powerful patron. At
first it seems like a good deal, either because it pays well or because
it’s a way out of serious trouble. As time goes on and they find out
more about the nature, actions and/or intentions of their patron they
face serious questions of ethics or self-preservation. Perhaps they see
how local people suffer under a lord’s rule, or his intended bride
(and perhaps her brave and noble true love) win them over. This
could be the backdrop to a single adventure along the lines of “Just
fetch me this item”, or to a whole storyline as it is in the first Black
Company book.
Some faction is plotting to take over a city or other area by nefarious
means. The characters stumble into the middle of it - perhaps
through mistaken identity, avenging some insult by someone who
happens to be involved, or some personal connection to an actual or
potential victim - and by their great prowess manage to foil the plot.
The characters are caught up in the siege of a castle, walled town or
even just a farming village. Maybe they are in the military, or have
been recruited by the locals to help (perhaps the job sounded like
easy money), or are just caught inside and must do their bit to
marshal the defences. The attacking forces probably seem much
more powerful than their own. What qualities can they bring into
play to secure victory? What personal journeys will the characters go
on? Will anyone pay the ultimate price?

123
The Tower of Emeth Tol
This is a sketchy outline of a short adventure, particularly close to the
style of Conan. The GM is encouraged to add extra detail to flesh it out.

The tavern
The PCs start in Piscay, one of the River Towns (or, indeed, pretty much
anywhere else). The River Towns are generally fairly lawful, but the dock
areas somewhat less so. The tavern known as The Bled Ox, where the
characters are carousing, is in such a place. Two things happen.

First, just for fun, they get into a bar fight. Their opponents are minions,
mostly Good [+2] Thugs (i.e. no more stats than that unless you find a
particular need). The main point is to make the PCs look impressive, so
have as many as you think they can handle before getting scuffed -
probably twice their number, give or take. Tougher party members can
attract more than their share and contend with the numbers die.

Second, they hear a tale about the valuable and possibly magical Idol of
the Sleeping Jaguar, which is located in the Tower of Emeth Tol not too
far from here. The intention, of course, is to stir their interest in stealing it.
There are various ways to pass the information on. Maybe a defeated
thug has a message on their person indicating that local thieves are
planning to take the idol. Maybe the fight goes badly, or there are
consequences afterwards, and the local thiefmaster sets the task of getting
the idol to make amends. Or maybe someone in the inn sees their
performance and asks them to help retrieving the idol for some reason.

The tower

You should probably fast-forward through the journey - unless you want
to add a bit of interest, like an encounter with hostile wildlife,
environmental hazards, or thieves from town trying to stop the PCs
beating them to the prize.

124
It’s a big stone tower with gardens surrounded by a high wall. The
sorcerer employs human guards - they’re at the outer gate, the tower
entrance and possibly elsewhere. He might also have guardian beasts,
like lions, that roam the grounds or are chained in place. Basically, use
these elements to make them an obstacle course suited to their talents.

When they get in through the entrance or a window, make the interior
seem unearthly. There are rooms with cabinets of barely-glimpsed stuff
and strange whispering or shuffling noises off in the shadows. Try to
convey that this is description for atmosphere, not clues or wandering
monsters, and move them along quickly. The ground floor has reception
rooms; above that are most of the displays; above that are living quarters;
and at the top alchemy and
sorcery workrooms.
Emeth Tol, sorcerer
On that floor they find a big
He’s a fairly standard issue room with rich tapestries and
sorcerous opponent, statted as a arcane symbols. Here is the Idol
PC plus a couple of extra Ranks. of the Sleeping Jaguar - and the
Plenty of scope for him to grow sorcerer Emeth Tol to stop them
alongside the PCs as a recurring taking it! Seeing that the PCs are
nemesis if you wish. He wears fine skilled and determined, he calls
robes and carries a curved knife. out in a strange tongue and the
demonic ape-thing that serves
People: River Towns
him emerges from behind a
Strengths: Good [+2] Craft - tapestry and attacks! (See p100
metalwork, Good [+2] Intelligent, for stats.) Emeth Tol can hurl
Good [+2] Seeks Power, Good [+2] Average Rank spells of pain and
Sorcery*, Average [0] Alchemy*, other nastiness from a distance -
Good [+2] Willpower, Good [+2] at close quarters he’ll probably
Persuasion, Good [+2] Scholar, have to rely on his knife. (For
Good [+2] Fast as a Striking Snake more than three PCs you might
Weaknesses: Poor [-2] Civilised want to add some guards.)

The ape is destroyed and melts

into foul slime, and the sorcerer is killed or escapes to fight another day.
The characters can simply go back and sell the idol. Alternatively, its
powers or history could form the seed for further adventures - as could
additional prisoners, writings or objects you place in the tower.

125
SOURCES AND INSPIRATION
First of all, I don’t claim to be any sort of authority on the varieties of
fantasy fiction that Jaws is trying to emulate. There will be people among
my readers who are more widely read and have a deeper understanding.
I hope they will feel that this book is serviceable for the greater whole.

Of course as a consumer of fantasy one absorbs some of these flavours by

sheer osmosis. In fact one of my strongest impressions beginning the
project was a colour, the yellow-brown of a glaring sun on a sandy waste
broken by ancient ruins. I was really fortunate to come across Storn’s
cover picture, which captures this brilliantly.

Anyway, here’s a fairly random selection of media that helped form the
book you (or your computer) are now holding. I dipped in and out of
these during the writing of the project.

Books

Sorcerer & Sword by Ron Edwards is a supplement for the Sorcerer RPG.
Not all the content is terribly useful if you’re not playing that, or
subscribing to Ron’s ideas of how the gaming she is done, but it does
draw out some of the common threads of s&s fiction. Critically useful for
me was Ron’s loving overview of the
source literature over the decades.

Not a book, but I want to give a shout-

out to R.J. Grady’s RPGnet column on
the sword and sorcery genre. It was
written in 2003 when the internet was
made of bronze, it’s short and
definitely tongue in cheek, but it does a
good job of capturing the elements.
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/
columns/ingenre24apr03.html

126
The Complete Chronicles of Conan by Robert E. Howard. The big guy. A
tomely black and gold hardback collecting Howard’s original stories
without the changes made by subsequent editors. (If we believe Edwards,
neither those nor later Conan imitators should concern us.) The tales have
a refreshing energy, reflecting their origin in the pulps of an earlier age.

Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are other
classics of the genre, written in a completely different tone to Conan: a
very modern wry, intellectual, convoluted style with less raw energy and
more cleverness, cousin perhaps to Vance’s Dying Earth. The Fantasy
Masterworks series has large collected volumes that are good value.

Nightwinds by Karl Edward Wagner was a chance find in a former

smuggling village on the North Yorkshire coast. A collection of stories
about Kane, an immortal swordsman of improbable strength and no
small sorcerous skill, wandering through different settings and episodes.
A fun example of ‘70s melodrama with a dark edge.

Black God’s Kiss by C.L. Moore collects the stories of Jirel of Joiry,
probably the first of a select group of s&s heroines. Jirel is the lady of a
castle in a species of medieval France, and just happens to have a portal
to a weird otherworld in the basement. The stories are mostly fever-
dream travelogues of her journeys to that and other dimensions where
only her towering rage saves her. Quite odd really.

David Gemmell’s books are a kind of touchstone for modern dark

fantasy. The characters are typically playing out larger destinies that’ll
leave them famous but dead - the stories are about how people find their
own heroism in a world that does no favours. I’ve only read a few, like
Knights of Dark Renown, but you soon catch the vibe.

The Black Company by Glen Cook. First in a series about a mercenary

company in a fantasy world. The characters are tough and largely amoral,
and the story focuses on their interrelationships and attempts to survive
the larger events they’re caught up in.

Artesia, graphic novel series written and illustrated by Mark Smylie.

Gorgeous, sprawling, confusing, deadly, raunchy military supernatural
epic.

127
My feedback crew suggests you also check out the short stories of Clark
Ashton Smith. While his prose is a bit more purple than Robert E
Howardʹs, and his stories less action-packed, they evoke a decadent, evil
atmosphere and provide a rich source of inspiration for sorcery. Also
recommended: The Savage Sword of Conan, Marvel Comics’ chunky b+w
collections of its 1970s adaptations, with a tone true to the original tales.

Films and TV

This one’s a bit fuzzy, to be honest. In the foreground is Conan the

Barbarian with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role. In the back of
mind was a load of other stuff like Conan the Destroyer, Red Sonja and The
Beastmaster - none of it great art or particularly fair to the literature that
spawned it, but catching just a little of the energy and atmosphere. You
could probably also count 300 for sheer bloody macho doomed energy.
I’m told the film of Robert E. Howardʹs Kull the Conqueror starring Kevin
Sorbo is “much more entertaining than it has any right to be”.

Music

Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Poledouris. Pretty much

everyone who’s ever worked on s&s fantasy games has sworn by this,
and for good reason. Highly heroic orchestral swellings, though also
somehow very much of the early ‘80s.

Pirates of the Caribbean - At World’s End soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.

I happen to really enjoy the Pirates series, and the music from the third
movie somehow works for me here, ranging from big and dramatic to
strange and off-centre.

The Mummy soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. It’s a pulp adventure with

supernatural elements, which is not far from Conan and his ilk. Would be
good background music for an Egyptian/Arabian-style location.

Lord of the Rings soundtracks by Howard Shore. Written for a different

style of fantasy, but still useful if you switch your mental imagery.

128
 THE URGES

Fire
Joy, Passion, Temper,
Restlessness

De Sor
ar,

Light, energy,

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Me
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predatory beasts
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Action
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Su ition

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lf-r lity
Bla rt

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Gr een
Va rea

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Fle grow ing ity
Fre

Se owt

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Re s, Fly
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Gr
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Liv sua
e

a
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An , G
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ood

Stability
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s
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Practicality
in

W
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Minerals,
d

Burrowing creatures
Patience, Responsibility,
Selfishness, Greed

Earth
 PDQ MASTER CHART
AS MODIFIER AS
TARGET
RANK QUALITY TO 2D6 DIFFICULTY
NUMBER
RANK ROLL RANK
Poor Notably -2 A trivial task. 5
inept.
Average Typical 0 Straightforward 7
human task.
capability.
Good Better than +2 Complex task, 9
usual; most requiring
professionals attention to
or talented detail.
newcomers.
Expert Noted/famed +4 Intricate task, 11
professional; difficult and
talent with requiring sharp
skill to back concentration,
it up. hard for an
average person.
Master Acclaimed +6 Extremely 13
genius: talent difficult task,
with hard for most
substantial professionals.
skill behind it.

Spending Fortune
Luck – if the dice come up badly, re-roll using 1d6+6 (or 2d6+6 etc)
and keep the preferred result.
Hell for Leather - before making a roll, Downshift a related Quality
to get an extra 1d6.
Narration - establish a plausible coincidence or minor fact.
 Magic Effects Table
RANK, TIME/ RANGE AREA NUMBER WEIGHT FORCE ENERGY
MODIFIER, DURATION OF
TARGET SUBJECTS
NUMBER
Poor 1 action/ Touch. Closet 1 Objects up Punch Candle
[-2] reaction (12 in.) (1sq yard) to 1-hand
[5] (5 minutes) weapon

Average 1 Turn Near Room 10 Heavy Full tilt Campfire

[0] (30 minutes) (10 yards) (25 sq person body check
[7] yards) (250 lbs.)

Good 1 Scene Unaided Field 100 Bear, horse, Sturdy club Bonfire
[+2] (1 hour) sight small
[9] rowing boat

Expert 2 Scenes A few miles Square mile 1000 Laden Runaway Forest fire
[+4] (6 hours) wagon wagon
[11]

Master 4 Scenes A few City and Entire Ship Cannonball Volcano

[+6] (24 hours) hundred immediate city/country
[13] miles environs
 DAYS OF HIGH ADVENTURE

Silver Branch Games takes the

fan-favourite PDQ system into
the realms of sword-and-sorcery and
the grittier sides of fantasy.

- The PDQ core rules -

- Additional rules for these genres of fantasy -
- Setting outline for the land of the Six Serpents -
- Notes on adapting for different settings -

PDQ lets you give your character whatever

Qualities are most dramatically
important, and provides a simple
framework for resolving any
type of conflict.

www.silverbranch.co.uk