Skyfarer Rules
Skyfarer Rules
The High Wilderness stretches out ahead of you; cruel, unwelcoming, and filled with
opportunity. London fell beneath the earth, but Queen Victoria brought it up, up into the
heavens. Here you make your living as a Skyfarer, working on board a locomotive jury-rigged
to fly through these cold skies and raging winds. Your captain has taken you to the Reach, a
frontier on the edge of civilisation, in search of fame, fortune and adventure.
Listen! You will change out here, where the Empire’s light falters and casts deep shadows, where
rebels stake their claim on fragments of sky-rock riddled with fungus, where pillagers dig into
ruins built by the now-dead sun. Who are you in the dark?
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GETTING SET UP
We’re writing this as though the gamesmaster (GM) is reading it, so when we say ‘you’,
we’re referring to the GM.
Once you’ve got your players together – in person or online – you’ll need to make
sure each has a character sheet (located at the end of this document). If you’re playing
in the same room, you should have the sheets printed out, and some dice on hand
(six-sided (D6) and ten-sided (D10) are required). It doesn’t hurt to have some pens
and pencils on hand, too.
You’ll also need around twenty tokens to represent Tenacity. Poker chips are good, as
are glass beads, but you can use coins or even matchsticks – or just keep track with
pencil and paper. We find that having a big pile of tokens to draw from improves the
play experience.
You’ll also need to familiarise yourself with the whole document before starting a
session. Once everyone’s ready to start, guide them through the character creation
process – this should only take a few minutes.
Each player should do the following (we’ll explain more about these steps later):
• Pick a profession – this is the role their character has on the crew.
• Make up or choose two qualities that describe their character.
• Make up or choose a name for their character.
• Rate their abilities (Iron, Mirrors, Veils and Hearts). The player must set one at
-1, one at 0, one at 1, and one at 2. Higher numbers are better. (There is more
information about the abilities in the Abilities section below.)
• Make up or choose two Integrities for your character – these are beliefs that they
hold, and that will probably change as they explore the Reach.
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COMING UP WITH A STORY
You don’t need to come up with a story! A lot of roleplaying games require that
you plan out an adventure for the players to go on before you begin; this is time-
consuming and liable to go wrong – as the player characters have to ‘find’ the story
you’ve written, or you have to guide them into it.
1) The Captain – who’ll you be playing – has a mission. What is that mission? Are
they transporting something dangerous, or illegal? Are they rescuing someone from
imprisonment? Are they set to collect a valuable cargo from some shady customers?
2) What’s going on when the game starts? As in: where are the player characters? Are
they on board their engine, or in port? Are they under attack from enemy fire? Are
they about to be inspected by over-zealous customs officers? Whatever’s happening,
it’s a problem that the players have to try to fix.
3) Who else is involved? Think of two or three people, places or factions that have a
stake in the mission that the Captain was given. Who wants the mission to go ahead,
and what will they do if it fails? Who wants to subvert the mission and profit from it?
Who is caught in the middle?
Captains
Who are they? How were they involved in this trip? (GM also
decides what’s happened to the captain to remove them from the
action) Some suggestions:
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Crises
What is the status of the players at the start of play?
Some suggestions:
Once you know these three things, you’ve got enough to start. (You can ask the
players for help with coming up with stuff, if you find yourself struggling.) Don’t
try to plan too far ahead: react in the moment in whatever way you feel is the most
exciting, interesting, or appropriate – or would make the best story!
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THE STARTING SETTING: THE ENGINE
All the player characters have been hired to take part in a perilous and unpredictable
journey into the the Reach, a lawless area of the heavens where frontier-folk seek
to secede from the British Empire. They are on board an engine – a locomotive
designed to fly through the harsh, unwelcoming skies using steam-powered
propulsion systems.
Like a character, the engine has a name and two qualities; the group can work out
what these are and note them down, or select from this list:
When a character interacts with the engine – steering it through a blockade, manning
the guns to fire at swarms of chorister bees, picking a course to navigate it through
uncharted territory – they can tag the engine’s qualities as though they were their
own, to add or subtract from their score. Like a character, an engine can receive
temporary conditions that impact its performance. (More on scores, qualities and
conditions later.)
There are several roles on board the engine that players can select as their character’s
profession. They are:
First Officer
Manages the engine’s crew day-to-day, acting as the Captain’s second-in-command
Quartermaster
Acquires and distributes supplies; manages the engine’s funds
Gunner
Maintains and fires the engine’s weapons in attack or defence
Engineer
Ensures the engine keeps running, fixes problems as and when they arise
Signaller
Communicates with other engines, ports, and creatures found in the heavens
Navigator
Plots optimal routes through the heavens and understands local customs
Stoker
Keeps the engine’s furnace fuelled with coal, and maintains a decent speed
Mascot
Cheers up the crew, catches small animals, and delivers nasty bites
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THE CAPTAIN
The captain is played by the GM, not a player. This is to ensure that everyone in the
player group has roughly equal authority, especially in their given fields, and avoids
one player giving orders to the others and expecting to be obeyed.
In addition, the Captain is unable to carry out their normal duties for much of the
game. This is to give the players freedom of choice in how to approach the challenges
they face, but also to avoid them leaning on the Captain for advice. Otherwise, there’s
a risk they will end up simply performing actions that the GM asks of them – which
isn’t much fun!
unconscious,
terrified,
drunk,
possessed,
missing,
in hiding,
a ghost,
revealed to be a cannibal,
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INTEGRITIES
When a player creates a character, they should choose or make up some Integrities
for the character. Integrities are what make a character tick – fundamental statements
about themselves that they know to be true – or, at least, they believe to be true.
When a character starts play, they have two Integrities: deep-seated beliefs that the
character has, and ones that they’re keen to display to the world. When a player
character acts in accordance with their integrities, they earn Tenacity. (They’ll spend
Tenacity to keep themselves out of trouble, which we’ll explain more about in the
Peril section later on.) GM, it’s up to you to determine how much Tenacity they
receive based on how interesting the player’s action is and where it takes the story:
+1 Tenacity Example
The action causes minor or no
Philip’s character, Staines, has the
inconvenience to the crew, or it doesn’t
integrity ‘Never Let An Insult Go
make for a particularly interesting story Unavenged’. During a diplomatic
encounter, a rival Vizier makes a
+D3 Tenacity snide remark concerning Staines’
The action causes moderate hat. If Philip has Staines make
inconvenience, or pushes the story in a snide remark in return, the
interesting directions. (For a D3 result, GM reckons that’s worth a point
of Tenacity. If, instead, Staines
roll a D6 and halve the outcome. If it’s an
marches up to the Vizier and
odd number, round up the half number.) slaps him clean across the face,
demanding a duel, that’s an easy
+D6 Tenacity D3 Tenacity – it’s pushed the story
The action causes serious inconvenience, in an interesting direction. Finally,
or leads the story in a totally unexpected if Staines immediately begins a
weeks-long campaign to drag the
and exciting direction.
Vizier’s name through the mud in
the papers, that’s a solid D6 right
there (if it pays off).
However; out in the Reach, people change. Once per session of play, a character can
change one of their Integrities to reflect the emerging truth behind their motivations.
When they do so, they remove the original Integrity and replace it with an inversion,
reflection, or continuation of the original concept. Replacing an Integrity is a
moment of revelation – and refills the character’s Tenacity to its maximum value.
However, a character cannot change an Integrity that they’ve never used to earn
Tenacity.
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I WILL NEVER... I LOVE... I WILL ALWAYS... I HATE...
Example
After a few sessions of play (and a long-winded slander campaign in several broadsheets) Philip decides
that Staines’ has learned a thing or two from their experiences. As the Vizier’s enforcers surround the
engine, looking for blood, Staines has a change of heart – maybe it’s better to let some things slide, in the
long run. Philip changes ‘Never Let An Insult Go Unavenged’ to ‘Forgive And Forget’, and refills Staines’
Tenacity to its maximum value, which will probably be useful in the impending brawl.
Example
The player characters are scoping out a library to try to steal a valuable book which might have the cure
for their captain’s terrible malaise. Hannah’s character, Xavier, has the Integrity ‘I always have a wink
and a smile for a pretty boy’. The GM has noticed that Hannah hasn’t been involved much in the game so
far, so they insert a floppy-haired young librarian with a nice smile to bump into Xavier and accidentally
drop all the books he was carrying. Hannah feels more involved in the game, and Xavier gets to chat up a
hot bookworm – everyone’s happy!
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ABILITY SCORES
A player character’s ability scores determine their basic aptitude when acting in
certain ways – one of them is added to (or subtracted from) every roll that their player
makes. There are four ability scores:
IRON: Confront and overpower. Use Iron when you’re kicking down a
door, restraining a thief, or smashing your engine through a blockade.
HEARTS: Convince and endure. Use Hearts to rally the crew with a
rousing speech, hold your breath while enveloped by curious winds, or
drink your paymaster under the table.
At character creation, a player rates their character’s ability scores at -1, 0, 1 and 2
– they can allocate them however they wish. A player can increase their character’s
ability scores through advancement (see below).
QUALITIES
Qualities define a character’s behaviour, personality and quirks – when a player
makes a character, they pick or create two qualities attached to them. In mechanical
terms, a quality makes an action more or less likely to succeed – more on that below.
A good quality has the capacity to be double-edged: positive in some situations, and
negative in others. For example, a Strong-Willed character would find it easier to
remain calm in a crisis and make difficult decisions, but they’d struggle to change
their mind when presented with new evidence or back down from a conflict.
Here are some example qualities that players can choose from or use for inspiration:
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SUCCESS AND FAILURE
When a player character attempts to do something that’s difficult but not impossible,
and you think it might be interesting if the character failed, you can ask their player
to roll a D10 to see if they succeed or fail.
When a player rolls to see if they succeed, they roll a single ten-sided dice and add
the relevant ability score to the result – or subtract it, if it’s a negative value.
If their character’s profession relates to the action in question, they roll an additional
ten-sided dice and choose the one that rolls highest.
If their character has a quality or condition that’s beneficial to the action, add 1 to the
result scored on the dice. (You can only apply one condition in this way per action.)
If their character has a quality or condition that would make the action more difficult,
subtract 1 from the result scored on the dice. (You can only apply one condition in
this way per action.)
DIFFICULTY
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RESULTS
If a player’s roll is equal to or higher than the difficulty number, their character has
performed the action successfully! Work with them to determine what happens
afterwards.
If a player’s roll is lower than the difficulty number, their character has failed to
perform the action properly. What went wrong? Why did they fail, and what happens
as a result? As before, work with them to figure out what happened. If a character fails
a dangerous action, their Peril increases. (See below for more details.)
The amount by which the roll exceeds, or falls under, the difficulty number can be
used as a prompt to show how well the action went.
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PERIL
The Skies are a dangerous place to be. When a character attempts a dangerous or
risky action and fails, their Peril score increases. Peril is an abstract measure of how
much trouble the character is in, and can represent rival forces, bad positioning,
terrible weather, injury, exhaustion, and so on – it’s all dependent on the situation,
but it’s never good. ERI
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The GM determines how risky or dangerous the action was, and the player increases
their Peril by an appropriate amount:
DANGER
When a player rolls to see if they succeed or fail, and their result (after modifiers have
been applied) is equal to or less than their Peril score, they suffer the consequences
and are In Danger. The ‘In Danger’ check is done before the Peril score is adjusted,
not after. If the adjustment takes the Peril above the action roll, this is not an issue till
the player’s next action. It is, however, possible to become In Danger even when the
player succeeds on a roll, if the player’s Peril is high.
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TENACITY
The other way a player can save their character from Danger is to spend Tenacity. If
a dice roll means they would be put In Danger, they can immediately spend Tenacity
to lower their Peril on a one-for-one basis. If their Peril is no longer equal to or higher
than the number they rolled, they do not become In Danger – and the player should
tell the group how their reserves of willpower, gumption and guile helped them
escape disaster at the last second.
LOWERING PERIL
When a player spends Tenacity to avoid becoming In Danger, their Peril is
permanently lowered by the amount they spent – although they can certainly gain it
back.
The GM determines when Peril is lowered in other cases. For example, if the crew are
in a fight with a rival engine and they win, at the end of the battle the GM can declare
that they’re out of danger and their Peril scores are reset to 0. On the other hand, if
that rival engine was part of a larger fleet, the GM could declare that the other vessels
are trying to track them down, and only lower everyone’s Peril to 2 (unless it’s already
lower) because they’re still in trouble.
In short: running away from, destroying, or solving your problems can remove Peril.
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CONDITIONS
When it’s appropriate, you should give player characters ‘conditions’. ‘Appropriate’ is
just what is dictated by the fiction, and is generally when someone succeeds or fails
on an action. A character can’t have more than three conditions active at one time –
if they’d acquire a fourth, it replaces an existing one (usually the one they’ve had the
longest).
For example, if their heart is stolen by a beautiful young man they might be ‘In Love’; if they
have one too many brandies at the bar they might be ‘Drunk’; if they grab a sheet of metal and
charge into danger, they might be ‘Shielded’. Conditions can even refer to items or temporary
relationships that the character has.
In mechanical terms, when a character has a condition that’s beneficial to the action
they’re performing, they add 1 to the number rolled on the dice – and if they have a
condition that’s detrimental, they subtract 1.
Instead of adding a new condition to a player character, the GM can elect to remove
or modify a condition that the character already possesses. Generally, conditions stick
around on a character until it makes sense to remove or modify them due to things
that happen in the story.
A character who’s ‘Stunned’ will recover after a few minutes, maybe an hour. This will remove
the condition. A character with a ‘Good Bottle of Wine’ removes the condition once they drink
it (or changes it to ‘Drunk’, depending on how many people they share it with). A character
who gets their gun knocked out of their hand during a firefight could change the ‘Armed and
Dangerous’ condition to ‘Disarmed.’
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ADVANCEMENT
Characters advance when they see or experience something wondrous. Out in the
Reach, there are no end of such things: ancient beasts that ride the winds, colonies
built on plants of impossible size, kingdoms of fungoid sentiences, and so on. If
the GM and players feel like a character has experienced something incredible this
session, the character advances. (It may be appropriate for some players to advance
and others not to; this is fine.)
People change over time, and as players spend The secrets of the Verdance, the
more time with their characters they might want wild fungal intelligences of the
to explore different parts of their character’s Reach, left to grow unchecked in
the now-starless kingdom
personality. This way, they can tweak their
characters so that they enjoy the game more, or to The mushroomy gardens of
reflect their character’s actions. Hybras, fetid and fecund, a
struggling colony mired in a copse
Veronica felt that Battleford’s Integrity ‘I hate having to spend of gargantuan fungus
time at the opera’ was too specific to bring much to the game.
She might broaden it out to ‘I hate having to endure fancy Sentient winds that buffet the
etiquette’, to make it more broadly applicable. Or, she could ship and bring with them wild,
swap it out entirely to reflect actions that happened in the game uncontrolled growth, missing time,
or baying hunger
and change it to ‘I hate those d_mned marauders’.
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QUICK TIPS FOR RUNNING A GAME
• Give out Conditions freely and liberally to players; make players work to
get rid of them
• Look to your player characters’ Integrities for tips on what sort of scenes
your group would enjoy, then steer them into those scenes
• When a character attempts an action and fails, that isn’t the end of the
story. Try to let failure introduce more elements to the narrative and
add complications, rather than block off avenues of exploration and
adventure
• If something sounds boring, skip it. Don’t get stuck narrating a very
tedious journey where nothing happens
• Try to make your characters distinctive from each other. Perhaps they
can sit differently, speak differently, use different mannerisms or be
interested in different things
• Play Sunless Skies for inspiration; if you like a particular port, event, or
monster, steal it!
• If you need a few minutes to work out what happens next, explain this to
your players and take a short break
• The most important thing when running a game is: make sure that
everyone is comfortable with what is happening. If someone isn’t, talk to
them, and see what you can change to help
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“The windows of your locomotive are stained glass, spilling panes of
lush colour across you. In the High Wilderness, the light of the stars is
enchanting. Looking too long can stir consuming obsessions, or wild
fascinations. The coloured glass offers some small defence.”