Dice & Moves

As we talk about what's happening in the fiction and what your character is doing, you'll often trigger moves. A move is a little packet of rules that shapes the conversation and the fiction.

The Core Mechanic — Push Your Luck

When a move tells you to roll, you don't add a stat. You push your luck.

RISKY moves. If a move tells you to roll, it's a RISKY move — you push your luck. Moves that don't tell you to roll are safe: just do what they say, no dice. Your pool only grows when you make RISKY moves.

• Your pool starts at 1 die. Each RISKY move you trigger in a turn adds 1 die to the pool. Your first RISKY move rolls 1d6, your second 2d6, your third 3d6, and so on — the number of dice equals the number of RISKY moves you've triggered this turn.
• Roll the pool. If any die shows a 1, you bust. If no die shows a 1, you succeed.
• The pool resets to 1 die at the start of each of your turns.

Every push is riskier than the last — and that's the point. You decide how far to reach.

The three bands

The bust rule is global. Every move uses it. Individual moves never restate it — if a move doesn't say what happens on a bust, this is what happens: the GM makes a hard move, and you mark XP equal to the number of 1s in your final roll.

Busts with only 1s present

A total wash: every die in your final roll shows a 1. The fiction treats this as the worst version of a bust, and a few moves key off it by name ("if you bust with only 1s present…"). Otherwise it's an ordinary bust — hard move, XP equal to the number of 1s. With a one-die pool, a single 1 is a bust with only 1s present.

Your pool never produces the community's bands. Player outcomes are bust, success with no 6, and success with a 6. The community's bands — 6 / 4–5 / 1–3 — belong to the GM's stat-dice rolls (Seasons Change, Deploy, Pull Together, Trade & Barter). See The community's rolls, below.

A bust doesn't always mean you screwed up. It means something dramatic happens — something your character won't like. The branch breaks before you can jump. You find the missing person, but they've been dead for hours. Your blow lands, but a second foe you didn't see clocks you from behind.

Rerolls = your level

You are not helpless when the dice turn on you. When you bust, you may spend a reroll to reroll every die showing a 1. If those rerolls come up clean, you succeed after all (band by the new dice). If any comes up 1 again, you bust for real.

• You have a number of rerolls equal to your level.
• Your reroll pool resets only when you end your turn before going bust — it does not refresh after a bust.
• Spending a reroll on a bust that you then save still costs you the reroll — it's a resource, not a free pass.

(Rerolls are only spent on a bust. Advantage and disadvantage don't touch them — see below.)

XP on a bust

A bust is how you learn. When you bust and can't — or choose not to — spend a reroll, mark XP equal to the number of 1s in your final roll. Two 1s in the pool is 2 XP. This is the only XP the dice give you.

The turn loop

1. The GM's turn. The GM makes a soft move, then asks: "What do you do?"
2. Your turn. You describe your action. A RISKY move → push your luck; a safe move → do what it says and keep going.
3. Stop early (before busting) → your reroll pool resets, and it's the GM's turn again.
4. Bust (a 1 with no rerolls left) → your turn ends immediately, the GM makes a hard move, and you mark XP equal to the number of 1s in your final roll. Your reroll pool does not reset.

A bust keeps whatever you already accomplished this turn. The moves you made still happened. The sting is fictional — the GM's job is to bring real hurt on a hard move. So reach: the game wants you to push your luck. Stop early when you're satisfied, not when the math says so.

Why this shape

• Spiky pace. Turns alternate crisply — soft move, push, then either the reins come back to the GM or a hard move lands. You always know who's "up."
• Reaching is rewarded. The growing pool and level-based rerolls let you gamble for more while keeping the risk live.
• Bands map to PbtA. Bust / success with no 6 / success with a 6 lands on the familiar three outcomes — and a bust pays you XP for the trouble.

The community's rolls

The GM never rolls for the world's reactions. But when the community acts — mustering, pulling together, trading, facing the turning seasons — the GM rolls on its behalf.

Roll a number of d6 equal to the relevant stat, then take the highest.

At 0, the stat is spent — the steading is broken in this regard: roll 2d6 and take the lowest.

Advantage & disadvantage (community rolls):

• Advantage: roll one extra die.
• Disadvantage: roll one extra die and take the lowest instead of the highest.
• They cancel each other out; they don't stack.

Which stat, which move. Deploy rolls Defenses · Muster and Pull Together roll Population · Trade & Barter rolls Prosperity · Seasons Change rolls Fortunes. See the homefront moves.

Triggers

Each move has a trigger — the fictional condition that causes the move to fire. The trigger is almost always fictional: "When you fight in melee or close quarters…" or "When you study a situation or person…"

• To do it, you have to do it. If you say "I Clash," we ask what that looks like. If you elbow someone in the face and we agree that's fighting in close quarters, that's Clash — whether you said the word or not.
• If you do it, you have to do it. If your action matches a move's trigger, the move fires. You can back out before committing, but once you follow through, you roll.

It's everyone's job to watch for moves — not just the GM's. If you think you've triggered one, say so. If the GM misses a trigger, speak up.

We have to agree the trigger is met. If a foe holds you at arm's length, you can't elbow them in the face. If they're made of iron, elbowing them won't trigger Clash — the GM just says what happens. If they're distracted and don't see it coming, you're not really fighting — you just deal damage, no roll needed.

Advantage & Disadvantage

• Advantage: roll an extra die and discard the lowest result.
• Disadvantage: roll an extra die and discard the highest result.
• Both: they cancel each other out.
• On damage rolls: roll the main die twice and discard the lower (advantage) or higher (disadvantage), then add any bonus dice that apply.

Because our roll is a pool, advantage means you roll one more die than your pool and drop your worst — so the pool size stays equal to your actions, you just get to shed your lowest die (often a 1). Disadvantage adds a die and drops your best — so you keep your worst, and a stray 1 can sink you.

Advantage and disadvantage normally come from moves or conditions. The GM can apply them ad hoc if a roll is especially easy or hard — but should do so rarely.

Difficulty Tuning. Advantage and disadvantage are powerful levers. Use them sparingly — leaning on them too much diminishes the moves that specifically grant them. When you want to reward clever thinking, consider advantage; when a situation is especially perilous, consider disadvantage. But reach for fictional positioning first: most of the time, answering "what's possible?" and "which move fires?" is more interesting than adjusting the dice.

Hold and Spend

Some moves tell you to "hold X [currency]" — like Readiness, Preparation, or Acumen. Note how much you hold. You spend it later as the move describes — often 1-for-1 to do something specific.

Think of held currency as permission: "because I did this earlier, I can do this now." When you spend it, you just do the thing — no roll, no move triggers. Spend 1 Readiness to strike back at an attacker and you deal your damage without Clashing.

Always say what it looks like when you spend currency. If you can't describe it in the fiction, you can't spend it.