Luck is unique amongst the other characteristics in that it represents something more abstract than a character’s physical strength or mental resilience. Luck reflects the tendency of events to work out in a character’s favor. This can seem to represent nothing more than coincidence or good fortune, but destiny and fate play a role as well. Because Luck governs no skills, a character will not be called upon to test it as often as they might for another characteristic. Luck is used in several ways: it determines a character’s chance of critical success or failure (as detailed earlier in this chapter), they can spend Luck points for certain benefits, they can attempt Luck tests in certain circumstances, and they can burn Luck permanently in exchange for a number of powerful effects. Characters cannot advance Luck at any time.
Spending Luck Points
Spending Luck Points
Each session a character is afforded a number of Luck Points, (or LP, see Defining a Character in this chapter). A character’s LP max is equal to their Luck bonus, and they begin each new game session with this many LP available to them. Characters may spend these luck points in order to influence their character’s fate:
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- Characters may spend a Luck point whenever they fail a test. If they do so, the character may immediately reroll that failed test. This may only be done once for a given test, and cannot be used to reroll Critical Failures.
- Characters may spend a Luck point to add a Degree of Success to a successful test (including one passed using spent Luck points). This can be done multiple times for a given test. Once a character has used all of their LP for a given session, they can resort to Burning Luck (see below).
- Characters may spend a Luck point in order to modify the narrative in some way, such as retroactively “remembering” to purchase something that would be helpful for the party.
Luck Tests
Luck Tests
In certain situations the GM can call upon the character to make or not some random event happens to work in the character’s favor. For example, if a character is knocking on doors during the night trying to find someone to help them, the GM could have the character make a Luck roll to determine if someone happens to be at awake to hear them. These tests function just like any other characteristic test.
Link to originalOptional Rule: Goal-Oriented Luck Points Refreshing
Some groups may find refreshing Luck Points at the start of each session to be too frequent or stale. For these groups, we recommend an optional rule: characters start with 1 LP after character creation and only gain LP by earning them through character and party moments. These might include adhering to a character’s Bonds, flaws, and personality traits; good planning; positive interactions with deities; achieving character or party goals; and other moments or interactions the GM deems appropriate. GMs new to the system or their group should reward players with LP often until they have a good idea of how the system and players use them. This rule adds more weight to character moments and can help make LP feel like a more meaningful resource, rather than a constant refreshment.
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Burning Luck
Burning Luck
The player characters are the heroes of the story, and fortune favors heroes! Characters may choose to permanently reduce their Luck characteristic score by one or more points in order to benefit from a number of different effects. This is known as Burning Luck. Luck that a character burns never regenerates naturally. A character may burn any amount of Luck at any time. Characters may burn Luck for the following effects. If they do not have the required amount, simply burn all remaining Luck:
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- Burn 1 Luck: Add a Degree of Success to a successful test. This can be done multiple times for a given test.
- Burn 3 Luck: Reroll a failed test. This may only be done once for a given test. This cannot be used to reroll Critical Failures.
- Burn 5 Luck: Negate the effects of a critical failure. This must be done immediately after the test is rolled.
- Burn 10 Luck: Ignore the effects of a wound (though they still take the damage). Alternatively, and with GM permission, this can be used to allow a character to survive Death at great cost (they are removed from play until the end of the encounter instead). Some GMs may not want players to have the ability to extend the life of a character this way, depending on the tone of a campaign.