A Moment is a structured challenge in which Heroes work together to overcome an obstacle, pursue a goal, resolve a conflict, or navigate a developing situation. The Moment Board tracks the Heroes’ commitment to that challenge, the risks they accept, the Reserve they generate, and how their collective actions cause the situation to escalate.
Every Moment has a current objective. To participate in a Moment, a Hero’s action must meaningfully contribute toward resolving that objective. Actions that are useful but do not contribute to the current objective may still occur within the fiction, but they are not resolved as part of the Moment.
During each round, participating Heroes choose whether they will Prepare, Advance, or Breakthrough. These choices establish when they activate, the potential Wear and Impact of their Performance, the Reserve they may Yield, the danger created by Failure, and whether their Destiny is active.
PREPARE Copy link
Prepare represents observation, positioning, gathering resources, creating advantages, and setting the stage before greater risks are taken. A Hero might scout ahead, study a threat, gather useful materials, establish cover, secure a better position, or otherwise create an opportunity that contributes toward resolving the current objective.
Prepare carries Escalation 0 and is always activated first. A Prepare Performance can suffer 0–2 Wear or produce 0–2 Impact, depending upon the Performance and its outcome.
Prepare does not provide a standard Yield of Reserve. Instead, Heroes use their Performance itself to establish advantages, gather what they need, or create opportunities for what follows.
Individual Prepare Successes and Failures are not counted when resolving the Escalation Track. Preparation is safer, but the world does not stop moving while the Heroes get ready.
GROUP PRESSURE DURING PREPARE Copy link
When two or more Heroes choose Prepare during the same round, the Moment begins to turn against them as time and opportunity pass.
For every two Heroes Preparing, rounded up, Escalation moves 1 AGAINST.
This movement is caused by the number of Heroes choosing Prepare rather than the Success or Failure of their individual Performances. A group may take time to establish an advantage, but committing too many Heroes to preparation allows other forces within the Moment to advance unchecked.
ADVANCE Copy link
Advance represents meaningful progress toward the objective while accepting measured risk. It is the primary choice for Heroes who are ready to push the Moment forward without making the greater commitment demanded by Breakthrough.
Advance carries Escalation 1 and is activated after all Prepare actions have been resolved. An Advance Performance can suffer 0–2 Wear or produce 0–3 Impact.
Advance also provides Yield. A successful Advance generates 1 Reserve. A failed Advance generates no Reserve.
Failure during Advance also creates pressure within the Moment. Each failed Advance contributes 1 AGAINST when Escalation is resolved at the end of the round.
BREAKTHROUGH Copy link
Breakthrough represents decisive commitment. A Hero choosing Breakthrough attempts to force meaningful change, overcome a major obstacle, or dramatically push the Moment toward its objective.
Breakthrough carries Escalation 2 and is activated after Prepare and Advance. A Breakthrough Performance can suffer 2–3 Wear or produce 1–4 Impact, creating the greatest potential consequences in either direction.
Breakthrough also provides the greatest Yield. A successful Breakthrough generates 2 Reserve, while even a failed Breakthrough generates 1 Reserve. The Hero has committed enough of themselves to the Moment that something is carried forward regardless of the immediate result.
That commitment also creates greater danger. Each failed Breakthrough contributes 2 AGAINST when Escalation is resolved.
A Hero suffering Uncertainty cannot choose Breakthrough.
DOUBT Copy link
A Hero suffering the DOUBT Bane cannot choose Breakthrough during a Moment.
DOUBT represents hesitation, shaken conviction, or uncertainty that prevents the Hero from making the decisive commitment required to Breakthrough. The Hero may still choose Prepare or Advance and otherwise participate in the Moment normally.
Once DOUBT is removed, Breakthrough becomes available again.
When choosing where to act during a Moment, always check the Hero’s current Banes. If the Hero has DOUBT, Breakthrough cannot be chosen.
REDRAW TOKENS & FAILURE Copy link
Failure creates an opportunity for the Hero to adapt. Whenever a Hero suffers a Failure during a Moment, they gain Redraw Tokens according to where they acted.
A Failure during Prepare grants 1 Redraw Token. A Failure during Advance grants 2 Redraw Tokens. A Failure during Breakthrough grants 3 Redraw Tokens.
The greater the Hero’s commitment to the Moment, the greater the opportunity created by failure. Prepare allows the Hero to learn from a cautious setback, while failing during a Breakthrough provides the greatest opportunity to recover and adapt.
A Hero may only gain Redraw Tokens that are available to them and can never hold more Redraw Tokens than their Conviction allows. The Redraw supply refreshes at the beginning of a new Day; this is not an automatic award to each Hero.
ACTIVATING THE MOMENT Copy link
The Moment Board activates Prepare, then Advance, then Breakthrough: left to right on the current board.
Prepare activates first. Advance activates second. Breakthrough activates third.
This order allows preparation to alter the circumstances before Heroes attempt progress, while Breakthrough occurs only after the consequences of the other choices have begun shaping the round.
When multiple Heroes occupy the same area of the Moment Board, the WorldKeeper determines their activation order according to the developing fiction.
YIELD & RESERVE Copy link
Yield represents the Reserve generated through a Hero’s commitment to the Moment.
Prepare has no standard Yield. A successful Advance generates 1 Reserve, while a failed Advance generates none. A successful Breakthrough generates 2 Reserve, while a failed Breakthrough still generates 1 Reserve.
Reserve represents readiness, momentum, opportunity, and a Hero’s capacity to push beyond their ordinary limits. Keywords, equipment, abilities, and other effects may generate Reserve independently of the Moment’s standard Yield.
WEAR & IMPACT Copy link
Each Moment commitment has a corresponding range of Wear and Impact, listed below.
Prepare allows 0–2 Wear / 0–2 Impact. Advance allows 0–2 Wear / 0–3 Impact. Breakthrough allows 2–3 Wear / 1–4 Impact.
These ranges reflect how deeply the Hero has committed themselves to the Moment. Preparation limits both risk and potential effect. Advance allows greater influence while accepting greater exposure. Breakthrough places considerably more at stake, creating the opportunity for dramatic Impact alongside more severe Wear.
The Hero’s choice therefore establishes more than activation order. It determines the scale of consequence that their Performance can introduce into the Moment.
THE ACTIVE FLAME Copy link
The Active Flame indicates whether the Heroes’ Destiny Tokens are active during that portion of the Moment.
When the Active Flame is Enabled, participating Heroes flip their Destiny Tokens to their Breakthrough side. While lit, those Destiny Tokens resolve using their active values and effects when revealed during a Performance.
When the Active Flame is Disabled, the Destiny Tokens remain on their normal side.
The Active Flame represents a point of commitment at which the Moment has become significant enough for Destiny itself to become involved. The Hero is no longer simply attempting an action. Something about this Moment has called upon the deeper forces bound to who they may become.
MOMENT ESCALATION Copy link
The Escalation value displayed at the top of each section represents the pressure created when a Hero fails there.
Prepare carries Escalation 0, Advance carries Escalation 1, and Breakthrough carries Escalation 2.
These values trigger only on Failure. A successful Advance does not generate Escalation 1, nor does a successful Breakthrough generate Escalation 2. Instead, these numbers represent the additional danger introduced by failing after making that degree of commitment.
An Advance Failure therefore contributes 1 AGAINST, while a Breakthrough Failure contributes 2 AGAINST.
RESOLVING ESCALATION Copy link
At the end of each round, resolve Escalation using the Performances made through Advance and Breakthrough.
First, identify one Success from those Performances. If more than one Hero succeeded, use the highest Success achieved during the round. This represents the strongest progress the Heroes collectively made toward controlling the Moment and moves Escalation toward FOR.
Then count all Failures from Advance and Breakthrough. Unlike Success, Failure accumulates. Every failed Advance contributes 1 AGAINST, and every failed Breakthrough contributes 2 AGAINST.
The resulting forces of FOR and AGAINST determine how the Escalation Track moves.
A single exceptional Performance can therefore create meaningful momentum for the Heroes, but everything that goes wrong adds pressure. As more Heroes fail—or commit themselves to dangerous Breakthroughs—the Moment can rapidly begin turning against them.
FOR Copy link
The left side of the Escalation Track represents FOR.
Movement toward FOR indicates favorable momentum. The Heroes may have created an opening, disrupted an enemy, discovered an opportunity, changed someone's position, improved the environment, or otherwise caused circumstances to develop in their favor.
As Escalation travels farther toward FOR, favorable Event spaces become enabled.
FOR does not necessarily mean the Heroes have completed the objective. It means the wider circumstances surrounding that objective are beginning to favor them.
AGAINST Copy link
The right side of the Escalation Track represents AGAINST.
Movement toward AGAINST indicates mounting danger, resistance, complications, or unfavorable developments. Enemies may gain an advantage, time may be running short, environmental conditions may worsen, resources may disappear, or entirely new problems may emerge.
Because all Failures accumulate, several things going wrong during the same round can rapidly push a Moment toward AGAINST.
The farther Escalation travels in this direction, the more dangerous its enabled Events can become.
NEUTRAL Copy link
The center of the Escalation Track represents Neutral.
Neutral means neither FOR nor AGAINST currently dominates the Moment. It does not mean nothing is happening. Instead, the competing pressures surrounding the objective have not yet carried the situation decisively in either direction.
As the Heroes continue participating in the Moment, Success and Failure pull this balance back and forth.
MINOR & MAJOR EVENTS Copy link
Certain positions along the Escalation Track enable Events.
A Minor Event represents a meaningful development that changes the circumstances without fundamentally transforming the Moment. A Major Event represents a dramatic development capable of altering its direction, stakes, or conditions.
Events may introduce discoveries, opportunities, reinforcements, complications, environmental changes, new threats, or other story developments appropriate to the Chronicle.
The farther Escalation moves from Neutral, the greater the potential for Events to substantially change the Moment.
DRAWING AN EVENT Copy link
When an Event is drawn, the current Escalation position determines which side of the Moment influences what occurs.
Move Escalation to the nearest Event space on the track. That Event space determines whether the Event develops toward FOR or AGAINST and whether a Minor or Major Event is enabled.
If Escalation is equally distant from an Event space on both sides, it remains Neutral.
Events therefore emerge from the direction the Moment has already taken rather than arbitrarily deciding whether circumstances favor or oppose the Heroes.
REDRAW TOKENS Copy link
Failure also creates the opportunity to adapt.
Whenever a Hero suffers a Failure during a Moment, they gain 1 Redraw in Prepare, 2 in Advance, or 3 in Breakthrough, provided tokens are available and up to their Conviction capacity.
A Redraw Token may be spent to redraw a Performance, giving the Hero another opportunity to alter its outcome.
The Redraw supply refreshes at the beginning of a new Day; this is not an automatic award to each Hero.
Failure may therefore make the current Moment more dangerous while simultaneously giving the Hero greater capacity to respond to what comes next.
CONFIDENCE Copy link
A particularly powerful Breakthrough can leave a Hero with Confidence.
When a Hero’s final Performance exceeds the Difficulty by 4 or more Power during Breakthrough, they gain Confidence.
Confidence provides a free redraw-all after a failed Performance Check. Once Confidence is used, it is removed.
Confidence represents the certainty created by having committed fully to a dangerous Moment and succeeded.
UNCERTAINTY Copy link
A disastrous Breakthrough can instead leave a Hero with Uncertainty.
When a Hero’s final Performance falls below the Difficulty by 4 or more Power during Breakthrough, they gain Uncertainty.
Uncertainty forces a redraw-all after the Hero next achieves a successful Performance Check. Once it triggers, Uncertainty is removed.
While suffering Uncertainty, a Hero cannot choose Breakthrough. They must regain their footing before they can make that degree of commitment again.
READING THE MOMENT BOARD Copy link
The Moment Board brings the changing rhythm of a challenge into one place.
Prepare, Advance, and Breakthrough determine how deeply a Hero commits to the current objective. Their sections establish activation order, Yield, potential Wear and Impact, Failure Escalation, and whether Destiny becomes active.
Below them, the Escalation Track records how the Heroes’ collective Performances are changing the situation. One strong Success can pull circumstances toward FOR, while every Failure adds to the pressure pushing toward AGAINST. Minor and Major Event spaces show when that momentum has become significant enough for the world itself to respond.
A Moment is therefore not simply a question of whether the Heroes succeed or fail. It measures how much they commit, what they risk, what goes wrong along the way, and how the world changes in response.
ESCALATION BOARDCopy link
Track the direction and amount of pressure on the Escalation Board. The Event markers at 3 and 5 show where Events become enabled. Resolve their use through the Moment and Escalation rules; the artwork does not create an extra Performance or automatic new Health cost.