Homefront moves

Life in the village: seasons, pursuits, and the steading’s fortunes.

Seasons Change

The Seasons Change during downtime. When you've played out any activities, scenes, and situations you and the players are interested in, skip ahead in time and resolve this move.

Roll: 2d6 +Fortunes

Each season indicates who rolls for the move (whoever is most hopeful rolls in spring, whoever is most content rolls in summer, etc.). "Whoever" refers to the PC, not the player. If you really can't decide, pick randomly.

Whoever rolls also makes any choices required by the move. They can ask for input, but the final decisions are theirs.

Each season involves rolling +Fortunes, which results in some combination of seasonal gains, threats, and (in winter) the need to consume additional Surplus.

After the roll, reset Fortunes to +1 (or +0 if the village is currently malcontent).

PCs cannot Aid each other on either the +Fortunes roll or on rolls to generate Surplus. The move assumes that everyone is doing their part already. PCs can Bolster for a coming season and spend the Preparation on the roll(s), but doing so should require a significant sacrifice to the gods (like 1 Surplus at least), and/or having the village Pull Together to make special preparations.

Bolster

When you prepare for what's coming or seek the favor of the gods, say how and answer the GM's questions.

Then, hold Preparation based on the amount of time you devote:

• A week or so: 1 Preparation
• A month or so: 2 Preparation
• The better part of a season: 3 Preparation

When you make any roll to which your efforts might apply, you may spend 1 Preparation to add +1 to that roll, after it is made (maximum +1 per roll).

This move happens during downtime, when a PC dedicates time and effort to training or study, to the making of plans, or to religious ceremony or offerings, in preparation for some future challenge or undertaking.

The times listed assume that the PC is devoting themselves to Bolstering, to the exclusion of other projects, expeditions, or even day-to-day responsibilities. Time spent Bolstering doesn't count towards other projects, and vice versa.

Preparation lasts until it is spent, until it no longer applies or makes sense, or until the PC Bolsters again. Players usually spend Preparation on 2d6 rolls for moves, but they can spend it on any damage rolls, rolls for Surplus, or even Die of Fate rolls—as long as everyone agrees that the efforts involved with Bolstering would apply to the roll.

Convalesce

When you rest for a few days, in safety and comfort...

When you rest for a few days, in safety and comfort, recover all your HP and clear all your debilities.

When you rest for a few weeks under the care of a healer, heal any problematic wounds that can heal. If you have suffered a permanent injury or impairment, either retire or Make a Plan to adapt to it.

Deploy

When you send a steading's people into danger or rally them against an attack, roll +Defenses.

Roll: 2d6 +Defenses

On a 10+, it goes as well as can be expected.

On a 7–9, it works but someone picks 1 from the list below. If the steading is acting from a position of strength, you choose. Otherwise, the GM chooses.

• It's less effective than you expected
• Injuries abound; the steading marks diminished (disadvantage to Deploy, Muster, Pull Together)
• The GM picks a named NPC involved in the action; they die

Sending a steading's people into danger could mean a raid, a patrol, a pitched battle, or a trip through dangerous lands. Rallying them against attack might mean raising the alarm, or organizing a response, or standing shield-to-shield, urging your neighbors to hold the line.

Deploy only triggers if the PCs take charge. When villagers go into danger on their own initiative, or come under attack with no PC to rally them, the move doesn't trigger.

On a 7–9, "a position of strength" means solid fictional positioning: the high ground, superior numbers, surprise, magic, etc. Or, it means using a tactic in which the village has trained (per the Well-trained Militia improvement), one that gives them an edge against their foe.

Level Up

When you have a quiet stretch of time at home and XP equal to (or greater than) 6 + twice your current level, follow these steps:

1) Subtract 6 + twice your current level from your XP.

2) Increase your level by 1.

3) Choose a new move from your class playbook, or an insert that you've unlocked.

4) If you are the Blessed (or have a sacred pouch) and your new level is even, increase your max Stock by 1.

5) If you are the Lightbearer (or have Invoke the Sun God) and your new level is even, choose a new invocation.

6) Review your Instinct and Appearance (on the front of your playbook). Change anything that no longer applies. Feel free to make up new options.

PCs can't Level Up "in the field." They need to head home. If they accumulate more XP than they need to Level Up, encourage them to Burn Brightly whenever they can.

"A quiet stretch of time" usually means a few days with no crises or adventures or significant risks. If a PC has enough XP to Level Up twice, then they Level Up twice right away.

Players can pick any move from their playbook whose requirements they meet. If a move replaces a different move, then it requires the one it replaces; taking such a move means losing the original move and any benefits it conferred. A move that requires a specific playbook is never available to other playbooks. There is no maximum level.

Make a Plan

When you wish to accomplish some project but don't know how to go about it, tell the GM what you hope to achieve.

They'll say what's required. If you're stumped on how to accomplish one of the requirements, tell the GM and Make a Plan for that.

Make a Plan is a formal way for a player to say "I want to accomplish X," and for the GM to tell them the requirements for accomplishing it. When a player wants to pursue a new long-term project, or doesn't know how to unlock an arcanum or complete a steading improvement, direct them to this move.

The GM tells them as many of the requirement templates as makes sense, connected with "and" and "or" as they see fit, filling in the blanks based on the nature of the project; the PCs' current knowledge, capabilities, and standing in town; the season; recent events; active threats, etc.

Write the requirements down with tick boxes next to them. Give the list to the player who's making the plan, or put it somewhere public for everyone to see. As they make progress, have them tick the boxes off.

If a requirement is itself a project, with multiple requirements of its own, the players can Make a Plan for that step (now or later). If the players come up with a clever way to bypass a requirement, great! If they think of a feasible alternative way to accomplish their goal, update the plan!

Meet With Disaster

When calamity befalls the steading or panic spreads, reduce Fortunes by 1 (min −1).

When Fortunes would drop below −1 for any reason (not just calamity or panic), then the GM picks 1 instead:

• The steading marks diminished from injuries/sickness/doubt (disadvantage to Deploy, Muster, Pull Together)
• The steading marks lacking due to shortages/hoarding/distrust (treat Prosperity as 1 lower)
• The steading marks malcontent from fear/anger/despair (Fortunes reset to +0 each season, not +1; folks need Persuading more often than usual)
• Folks start to leave; reduce Population by 1

This move triggers when something clearly and undeniably bad happens to the steading: a building burns down, the village runs out of food, multiple people die suddenly, someone is killed or goes missing in a horrific or eerie way, etc.

Meet With Disaster doesn't trigger from mere rumor or bad news from abroad, nor from the day-to-day hardships of life. It does trigger when a threat looms, people freak out, and the PCs fail to do anything about it.

Fortunes can't go below −1. If anything would push Fortunes lower than −1, then the steading Meets with Disaster and the GM chooses the result. This applies even if the loss of Fortunes isn't itself particularly disastrous.

Muster

When you press every able body into the defense of a steading, reduce Fortunes by 1 and roll +Population.

Roll: 2d6 +Population

On a 7+, the steading is alert and ready for action until the threat passes, the Seasons Change, or you cease to oversee the muster.

On a 10+, also pick 2; on a 7–9, also pick 1:

• Increase Defenses by 1 as long as the muster holds
• Everyone's willing to pitch in; don't reduce Fortunes after all
• The muster holds together even without your presence
• 1 or 2 individuals show real potential; ask the GM who and how

When a PC Musters the village, they're having everyone focus on defense and readiness. It means regular drills, armed watches at all hours, weapons at the ready even while working in the garden. It means putting other work and long-term projects on hold, which reduces the steading's Fortunes and gets people grumbling. A steading can't maintain a Muster for long.

Once established, a Muster lasts until the threat passes, the Seasons Change, or the PC in charge ceases to personally oversee it for more than a day or so. If the PCs want to go on an expedition and leave a Muster behind, they need to pick "The muster holds together even without your presence."

If the PCs Muster a hamlet, they roll with disadvantage. If they manage to Muster a town or city, they roll with advantage.

Pull Together

When you set a community to work on improvements, to secure new resources, or to make major repairs, spend whatever the GM says is required (time, materiel, Surplus, etc.) and roll +Population.

Roll: 2d6 +Population

On a 10+, the job gets done.

On a 7–9, pick 1:

• It gets done, but other work doesn't; reduce Fortunes by 1
• It gets done, but the work is shoddy, crude
• It gets done, but there's a consequence (bad blood, an injury, a threat unearthed, etc.)
• There's an unforeseen cost, requirement, or challenge; address it and the job gets done

The PCs might have the village Pull Together in order to: complete a steading improvement; complete some other project (per Make a Plan); Bolster the entire village in advance of some other steading-level move (like Deploy or Seasons Change); repair damage to an important resource or fortification; or build new buildings, secure new resources, undertake significant new public works, etc.

People of the community need to be willing to work on the project at hand.

If the PCs have a hamlet Pull Together, they roll with disadvantage. If they can get a town or city to Pull Together, they roll with advantage.

Each project requires time (days, a week, a month, a season, or multiple seasons), during which the village can't Muster or Pull Together again. If a project requires multiple seasons, the village must Pull Together (and roll) once per season. Projects might also require Surplus and/or materiel; such resources are used up as the project is completed.

Trade & Barter

When you wish to acquire or sell a commonly available item, you can. When you seek to acquire or sell a special item, roll +Prosperity and subtract the item's Value.

Roll: 2d6 +Prosperity

In winter, you have disadvantage.

On a 10+, you can get it or sell it for a fair price.

On a 7–9, when you're trying to buy, the GM picks 1:

• You can get it, but it'll cost more than usual
• ___ has it, but they aren't keen to give it up
• You can get something close, but not quite right

On a 7–9 when you're looking to sell, you can sell it now but you won't get its full worth.

On a 6− either way, don't mark XP. If you want to acquire/sell it, you'll need to travel to ___ or wait until next season, and then try again.

For unique or truly exceptional items, don't Trade & Barter. Either get with the GM and Make a Plan or wait for a trade opportunity when Seasons Change.

"Commonly available" items include things on the Inventory insert or that could be found in any household. Folks trade, loan, and gift these items all the time; no roll is required to acquire them. "Special items" are things in short supply. They're not necessarily valuable, but they're not freely available.

On a 6−, the GM does not get to make a hard move (and the PC doesn't mark XP). Instead, no one in the village has the item to trade or is interested in what they're selling.

When the PCs roll to Trade & Barter in another steading, they roll with that community's Prosperity. If the steading is a hamlet, they roll with disadvantage. If the steading is a town or a city, they roll with advantage.

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