Steading Stats

The steading has four stats. Together they describe what your home is — how prosperous, how well-defended, how it's holding up — and they feed the homefront and expedition moves.

The four stats

Each stat ranges from 0 to 4.

Fortunes

Morale, social cohesion, and just "how it's going." Roll Fortunes when Seasons Change.

Starts at 2. Changes frequently during play.

Population

The number of able bodies in the steading. Population is a double-edged sword: add it to rolls to Muster or Pull Together, but also add it to the amount of Surplus consumed each winter.

Starts at 1. Changes in response to Seasons Change and Meet with Disaster.

Prosperity

The quality and variety of services and household goods, tools and weapons, finery and little luxuries. Roll Prosperity to Trade & Barter. Also add it to:

• your Preparation hold,
• the HP you regain when you Recover,
• the piercing value of your iron weapons.

Starts at 1. Increases when you complete certain improvements; decreases if you lose key resources in play.

Defenses

The martial prowess and readiness of the steading — how well-trained and well-armed the inhabitants are. Roll Defenses to Deploy.

Starts at 1. Increases when you complete certain improvements; decreases if you lose key resources in play.

Surplus (a resource, not a stat)

Surplus represents the steading's stored food, goods, and buffer against hard times — grain in the granary and household larders, livestock ready for slaughter, whisky ready to drink, fur ready to trade or work into garments. It's a resource you accumulate, consume, and spend — not one of the four stats.

The steading starts with 1 Surplus, and there's no upper limit.

• Generated in summer (1d4−1 after the season's roll) and autumn (1d4 once the harvest is done).
• Gained through trade, from an expedition to hunt big game, or as a good result when Seasons Change.
• Consumed in winter — the steading consumes 1d4+Population Surplus (min 0). Short of it? Reduce Surplus to 0, reduce Fortunes by 1, and pick 1 consequence (see Seasons Change).
• Spent to trade for other assets, or to have folks Pull Together on a project (improvements, major repairs).

Resources

Resources are what the steading lives on and trades — the things that make it prosperous. Like Fortifications, a resource list is a list, not a stat: it sits next to Prosperity, and you add to it as you establish new ones.

A steading starts with the obvious ones:

• Farming — the fields, and the harvest that feeds everyone.
• Hunting & trapping — the game, furs, and meat from the surrounding country.
• Stone — building stone, quarried or salvaged.

Improvements add to this list. Mill, Raincatching, and Harnessing the Stream add new resources; Market adds a trade site; Inn adds its name. Any notable good, service, or site the steading comes to rely on can live here.

Losing a resource matters. Lose one temporarily and the steading suffers a debility (see below). Lose one permanently and its Prosperity (and sometimes Defenses) drops.

Fortifications

Fortifications are the steading's physical defenses and standing forces — the things that make it hard to attack. Like Resources, a fortification list is a list, not a stat: add to it as you build, and if you lose one, note it (the associated Defenses may drop).

A steading starts with modest defenses:

• The Ringwall — a waist-high boundary (see the Ringwall dial). Not a real wall; cover at best.
• The Watchtowers — where the night watch is kept (see the Watchtowers dial).
• The militia — every able-bodied adult keeps a spear, a round shield, and maybe a bow, and knows how to use them.
• The bluff — the switchback and the drop to the water make at least one approach hard going (see the Switchback dial).

Improvements add to this list. Palisade and Stone Wall are the classic fortification improvements; Standing Watch, Weapons of War, and Well-Trained Militia build it out further.

Some fortifications grant advantage to Deploy when you use them (Palisade, Stone Wall); others raise Defenses outright. Note which is which as you add them.

Debilities

Much like a PC (see Harm & Debilities), the steading can suffer debilities during play. There are three:

• Diminished — by injury, sickness, or doubt. Take disadvantage to Deploy, Muster, or Pull Together.
• Lacking — due to shortages, hoarding, or distrust. Treat Prosperity as if it's 1 lower than it is.
• Malcontent — from fear, anger, and/or despair. Fortunes resets to +0 each season instead of +1, and folks need Persuading more often than usual.

There's a space on the steading playbook to mark each debility.

Debilities reflect the fiction and dictate it. If something happens that reduces the steading's capacity by injury, sickness, or doubt, you mark diminished to reflect that. If a move tells you to mark diminished, then injury, sickness, and/or doubt now plague the steading.

Clearing them: steading debilities last until a move like Return Triumphant says to clear them, or until the GM says so. Some improvements clear them too (the Inn clears one per season).

Quick reference

Who rolls what: the four steading stats are rolled on the community's behalf by the GM — a number of d6 equal to the stat, taking the highest (6 = best, 4–5 = success, 1–3 = it goes badly). At 0, roll 2d6 and take the lowest. Players push their luck; the GM rolls for the steading. Requisition stays a player move — a statless push-your-luck roll, not a stat roll.

How the stats change

• Fortunes — starts at 2 and changes constantly: disasters, musters, short winters, and victories all move it. Resets to 2 at each season's change.
• Population — moves with Seasons Change (population boom, winter losses) and Meet with Disaster.
• Prosperity and Defenses — climb via steading improvements, and drop when you lose key resources in play.

Open questions

• Stat ranges sanity — 0 to 4 for all four, Fortunes 2 / rest 1. (Confirmed by Kaia, 2026-10-27; shifted +1 with the stat-dice change, 2026-10-28.)
• [x] Stat-dice roll (2026-10-28) — community rolls now roll a number of d6 equal to the stat, take the highest (6 / 4–5 / 1–3); at 0, roll 2d6 take lowest. No stat cap.
• [x] Piercing — resolved (2026-10-27): piercing = Prosperity (min 0) on iron weapons, defined in Have What You Need.