A Game of Magic and Passion

Written by Brennan Taylor Illustrated by Jennifer Rodgers

Copyright 2006 Brennan Taylor/Galileo Games All rights reserved. Cover illustration 2006 Jennifer Rodgers Interior illustrations 2006 Jennifer Rodgers Printed in Souvenier LT, Greyhound, and VirileSolid fonts. Printed in the United States of America. Book design by Brennan Taylor. ISBN 1-887920-03-X http://www.galileogames.com/mortal-coil/

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 What Is Mortal Coil? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Notes and Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The GMs Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Threshold of Credibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Scene Framing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Keeping Things Exciting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Using Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Theme Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Supernatural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Setting Magic Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Villains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Passions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Types of Passions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Starting Passions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Starting Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Faculties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Starting Faculties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Aptitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 What Does an Aptitude Cover? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Why Shouldnt I Pick the Widest Aptitude Possible? . . . . 36 Starting Aptitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Supernatural Aptitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Starting Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Starting Action Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Starting Passion Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Starting Power Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Starting Magic Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Supporting Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 How to Build Supporting Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Magic Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Magical Facts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Backing Facts with Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Supernatural Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Recovering Magic Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Gaining New Magic Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 What Is a Conflict? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Setting Stakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Conflict Rounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Multiple Sides in One Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Basic Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 The Reveal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 No Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Committing Action Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Reallocating Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Extra Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Desperate Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Recovering Spent Action Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Calling on Passions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Opposing a Passion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Passions in Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Recovering Spent Passion Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Action Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Harm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Harm Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Helping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Item Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Power Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Replacing Action Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Replacing Magic Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Changing a Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Gaining New Magic Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Taking Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 The GMs Power Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Power Token Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
~ William Shakespeare

What resides in your dreams? What nightmares lurk in the growing darkness? What strange and twisted realms exist just beyond your sight? What brooding sorcerers commit unspeakable acts, hidden in dank cells beneath the cracked and steaming streets? What unseen beings dwell all around you, real but untouchable? Find out when you play Mortal Coil.

The next chapter, Magic, describes how you shape the magical events that surround the characters in your game. The fifth chapter, Conflict, will help you create the conflicts on which all stories thrive. And the last chapter, Power, shows you how Mortal Coil provides tools for you to influence the fictional events you imagine.

What Is Mortal Coil?

Mortal Coil is a supernatural role-playing game. It allows you to create a world of fantasy, with magic either powerful or subtle depending on your desires. You create characters to explore this world, their magic and passion shaping the stories that spring forth from your mind. You decide if you tell a tale of dark supernatural horror, of wise fools and giants, of the secret wars between sorcerous cabals, or of inhuman politics among beings that can never die. Whatever world you and your friends decide to create, Mortal Coil provides the framework on which to build it.

Notes and Thanks

This game would not have taken its current shape without the influence of the online community of game designers known as The Forge (www.indie-rpgs.com). Special thanks go to master game designer Vincent Baker for his insight on game design in general. Thanks also to Russell Collins, Jared Sorensen, Nathan Paoletta, Mayuran Tiruchelvam, Keith Senkowski, Alexander Newman, and especially Thor Olavsrud for his bulls-eye suggestions. This game owes a great deal to other games, and I have shamelessly stolen concepts that I enjoy from a variety of other games. These inspirational games include Universalis, Dust Devils, Prime Time Adventures, My Life with Master, Burning Wheel, Sorcerer and its supplements, and Conspiracy of Shadows. I want to thank my dedicated playtesters, Bill Segulin, Eric Hicks, Michelle Malloy, Jason Ang, Jon Hastings, Jason Landrian, Radek Drozdalski, Michael Miller, Kat Miller, Michele Mishko, Glenn Vandenberg, Charlie Hogan, Mindi Hogan, A.J. Hernandez, David Stone, and Charlie Spicer for all of their input and enthusiasm, as well as the online originals, Bryan Himebaugh, Frank Schildiner, Jason Brethauer, Teresa Shannon, and Krista White. Thank you all for showing me how good this actually was.

The Book
The organization of this book is designed to lead you through the process of creating and playing a game of Mortal Coil step by step. The first chapter, Play, will tell you how to structure a game of Mortal Coil, and give you some basic ideas on role-playing games in general. The next chapter, Theme, instructs you on how to begin to build your world of magic in which the story will take place. The third chapter, Character, shows you how to create the imaginary people that will populate and explore your new world.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this game came from many sources. These all have a common theme of magic existing as a subversive and powerful force for transformation, which is also a central theme of Mortal Coil.

Novels and Stories

The Anubis Gates, The Drawing of the Dark, and Last Call by Tim Powers Coraline, Stardust, Neverwhere, American Gods, and the Sandman series of graphic novels by Neil Gaiman The Hellblazer graphic novels by Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle The Odyssey by Homer The Metamorphoses by Ovid Monkey by Cheng-En Wu Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Anderson 1001 Nights

Plays
Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott The Tempest and A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare

Movies
The Company of Wolves Prosperos Books Jacobs Ladder Spirited Away, The Cat Returns, and Princess Mononoke Big Trouble in Little China Jumanji and Zathura Unbreakable Sleepy Hollow

Mortal Coil is a role-playing game of magic and passion. The goal of Mortal Coil is the creation of a shared world of the supernatural, and a strong style of narrative, novel-like play. A role-playing game is one in which you create a story together with your friends, and the rules of Mortal Coil are designed to help you do this. Mortal Coil is similar to many other role-playing games: while playing, most of the people will take the role of one character, while one of the players, the Game Moderator or GM, presents challenges to these characters and portrays the supporting cast in the story. The larger group of players will represent the protagonists of your story, and will work with the GM to create the conflict and action that makes up your story.

The theme document (page 20) is also a very useful tool for you as the GM. This document is created by both you and your players, and essentially defines your game world. Players can introduce new facts into the theme document, as described later; when they do so, they are also communicating what they want out of the game. If a player creates a fact about sorcerers, thats generally a pretty good indication that the player wants to have sorcerers become part of the game world and have some impact on the story that is being told. As a GM, you can note what facts are added to the theme and see to it that these facts show up in the gamein most cases, the sooner the better.

The Threshold of Credibility

The GMs Role

The Game Moderator has several responsibilities. The GM will bring the supporting characters to life in your story, as well as help the players set the scene, present challenges to the players, and help them bring the passions and issues of their characters into play in order to drive the human elements of the story forward. This is a big responsibility, but the GM is not responsible for doing all of this alone. The other players should help the GM by making suggestions, initiating scenes and conflicts, and making sure that the issues they want to address are brought to the attention of the other players. As GM, you truly are a moderator. You have the power to organize what could be a very chaotic situation by announcing which scenes and characters are the current focuses of play, especially if it seems as if the group is getting off track. To do this, you must listen to your players. The most important things to your players are their characters passions, which are prominently listed right on the character sheets. The passions (page 28) indicate where a player is interested in taking his character. Only rarely should you try to introduce or push anything that doesnt directly relate to at least one of the player characters passions.

A game of Mortal Coil is a group effort requiring a high level of collective agreement among the players. No one player has the authority to make a sweeping decision about any character or the game world at large without the input of the other players. When someone is introducing a new fact into the theme, or adding a new aptitude to a character, attempting to use an aptitude in a conflict, or even changing a characters passions, group consensus is required. The change is announced to the group as a whole, and any other player can bring up an objection. Mortal Coil is not a competitive game, it is meant to be a collaborative one. When an objection is raised, discuss it among the players and come to some sort of agreed solution. You will gradually come to understand what your group is willing to accept and establish a threshold of credibility for new information to be added to your story. As a rule of thumb, the threshold of credibility for the group should match that of the player with the most demanding or rigorous standards.

Scene Framing

Setting a scene and knowing when to end a scene are perhaps the most important skills you can learn in Mortal Coil. Starting scenes and ending scenes strongly influences the pace of play, and helps 11

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focus the players on the important things in the game. The GM is mostly responsible for keeping an eye on this process, but all of the players also need to take an active role in this. All scenes have one of two purposes. A scene can bring out one or more conflicts, or a scene can show some key information that is relevant to the characters and the overall story. Sometimes, it can do both. Set up the scenes to move action forward, and push your story. Dont focus too much on the little detailsget right to the juicy bits. If the scene starts to drag, either move to resolution or conflict, or else end the scene and move on to the next one. Players, make sure you speak up if there is something you want to resolve in a scene before it is closed. Remember, you are responsible for moving the action forward as well.

key to interesting sessions. The passion of at least one character should be intimately involved in every scene in some way. Scenes get really interesting if more than one characters passions come up. Situations where a single characters passions pull him two different directions also create rich play, and scenes where the passions of more than one character pull in different directions create great drama. Try to get the players to choose between passions which one is the most important to them?

Tokens

All action in the Mortal Coil system involves tokens that are used in play. Tokens can be poker chips, go pieces, beads, cardboard chits, or any other type of easily visible object that can be moved around on the table during play. Four distinct colors should be used, and it is usually convenient for all of the players to use the same type and color of token so the GM can clearly see what is going on with each character. There are four types of tokens; these are detailed below. Action Tokens: Each character has a pool of action tokens usable for taking actions in the game. Each time you wish your character to perform any task, you must commit an action token to do so. Passion Tokens: Each character has powerful passions that drive his actions, and these tokens represent his ability to call on these passions to lend additional strength to his actions. Power Tokens: Players have another flexible pool of tokens, power tokens. These tokens are awarded in play, and you can sacrifice them to aid your characters actions, buy more influence over the theme and scene, or enhance your characters abilities for the long-term. Magic Tokens: Each player has a pool of magic tokens. You can hold and use these as a player, rather than having the

The scene is a bar, and Russells character, the Roman god Pluto, has just gotten the better of his rival Jupiter in a tense conflict. Pluto and his friend have managed to get Jupiter so drunk he passes out at the back of the bar. Conflict over, the players congratulate each other. Michelle, the GM, now immediately sets a new scene to move the action along: OK. The next day, Pluto is in his office, and the door slams open. Stepping inside is none other than Jupiter, and he looks angry.

Keeping Things Exciting

How do you keep a scene focused and interesting? Make sure the scene sets up a situation the characters in it cannot ignore. The situation should demand to be resolved, one way or another. How the players choose to resolve the situation is entirely up to them; as a GM, dont have one specific resolution in mind. Let the players make their own decisions, but dont let them weasel out of the tough choices. Escalate scenes to the breaking point. The players already provide you with what you need to know about what is important in your story. Passions (page 28) are the

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tokens serve as a resource associated with a character. Magic tokens must be spent to activate all magical effects in the game, or sacrificed to create new magical facts about the game world.

Using Tokens
During the course of play, tokens will be used to allow a character to act. There are three different ways to use your characters tokens, each having a different outcome: commitment, spending, and sacrifice. These uses are defined below. Committing Tokens When you declare that your character is performing an action and move an action token forward to do so, this is called committing the token. Any physical or mental effort by your character requires the commitment of an action token. Once a token or tokens are committed, they cannot be reused until the conflict to which they were committed is complete or aborted.

Jasons character forces the door open and goes inside. Jason no longer needs to have the action token committed, so he moves it back into his pool:

Jasons character has a pool of six action tokens:

Only action tokens are committed. Passion, magic, and power tokens are not committedthey may only be spent or sacrificed. Spending Tokens Tokens are spent if they are temporarily taken from play. Spent tokens can be regained, although the method and specific requirements for regaining spent tokens varies with the type of token (as detailed later).
Jason decides his character is going to try to force open a locked door. He commits an action token:

Krista has a pool of seven magic tokens:

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Krista decides to activate one of her characters magical aptitudes. She spends a magic token:

Power tokens are not spent, but must always be sacrificed. Sacrificing Tokens A token can be sacrificed, in which case the token is permanently removed from the pool. Power tokens are always sacrificed; they are ephemeral by nature. Magic token may also be sacrificed when you wish to create some new magical fact within the game world. Very rarely will an action token be sacrificed: if one is, it usually indicates that your character has performed some action that permanently injured her body or mind.

Later, Krista decides to introduce a magical event into the game, the opening of a magical portal (the existence of the portal had already been established earlier). She spends another magic token:

Keiths character has three power tokens:

Keith decides to sacrifice a power token to get the edge in a conflict. He now has two power tokens:

At the start of the next session, Krista will recover her spent tokens:

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This token will never return to Keiths pool of power tokens. It is gone for good.

Passion tokens are never sacrificed.

Summary
The GMs Duties Bring supporting characters to life. Help players set the scene. Present challenges to the players. Help players bring the passions and issues of their characters into play. The Threshold of Credibility Equal to that of the player with the most demanding or rigorous standards. Setting Scenes Each scene should bring out one or more conflicts. A scene can also show key information relevent to the characters or story. Scenes should set up situations the characters cannot ignore. Tokens Four types: action, passion, power, and magic. Three uses for tokens: Commitment: used to declare actions (only action tokens are committed). Spending: temporarily remove tokens from play (action, passion, and magic tokens may be spent). Sacrifice: permanently remove tokens from play (power, magic, and occasionally action tokens may be sacrificed).

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The theme is probably the most important part of creating your own game of Mortal Coil. What is the setting? What is the nature of the supernatural? What is the feel of magic feel in your game? Before you do anything else, all of the players, including the GM, should sit down and discuss how they want things to be in their game. If one player is thinking disturbing supernatural horror, and another is thinking of lovelorn teenage wizards in a magical academy, it is likely at least one of the two will be upset when play begins and his vision is not respected.

bring up books and movies that are similar in feel, and try to list words that evoke the feel you are after. Your group should settle on a general tone that can be described in large part with four or five words.

The Theme Document

The theme document is where all the ideas and rules that you and the other players come up with (both at the start of and during the course of play) are recorded. It is the backbone of any game of Mortal Coil. As you are playing, any player can refer to the theme document to back up what they are saying, whether it is to add something to the world or to make an argument against adding a new fact or event. Make sure you write down what the group decides regarding any thematic decision, because the theme is the document upon which your game will be built. Since all players will have a nearly equal influence when play begins, it is important for everyone to be on the same page. The initial brainstorming and decision-making forms the constitution of the game; any subsequent decisions must take place within its framework. Any player can veto something added to the theme by another player by pointing out how it clashes with or violates something already set down in the document.

A group has gathered for a game of Mortal Coil. The first thing they do is sit down and discuss the theme document. They start with tone, and all four players have some ideas about what they would like to do. Thor and Jon are both leaning toward a realistic modern game, and Thor mentions the Hellblazer comics. He likes the gritty tone of those books. Dro is intrigued by rare but sinister magic, like that found in the works of Robert E. Howards Conan stories, with a brutal and bloody tone. Mayuran mentions the Victorian era, something along the lines of Charles Dickens crossed with Alan Moore. This last definitely piques the other players interest, and they list off class conflict, Jack the Ripper, exploration and imperialism as evocative of the world.

Setting
The next step when building the theme document is to decide where the game will take place, and the time period in which it will be set. Possible places and time periods are unlimited. A good Mortal Coil game can be set in the time of the Sumerians or this year. Fantasy or science fiction settings would work as well, but be sure to carefully define the world if using an imaginary one. Determine the basic premise of the game. Is it historical? A fantasy? What is the general idea of the game. Like a studio pitch, can you sum up the concept in a nice, punchy sentence?

Tone
One of the most important things you can establish with your theme is the tone of the game you are about to play. Tone is the general feel of your game world, whether it is bleak, gritty, hopeful, transcendent, or surreal. As you discuss the basic tone, feel free to 20

The Victorian era was settled on during the discussion of tone, and as they continue to discuss setting, the group settles on South Asia in the British Empire as the specific setting for their game. They sum up the game as dueling secret magical societies in the British colonies.

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The Supernatural
After the basic concept is settled, it is time to define some basic parameters regarding the supernatural. Answering the following questions is a great way to get started. How common is magic? What general feel should magic havehorrifying, weird and powerful, commonplace? What sorts of creatures do or dont exist in this world? Can players create magical beings of their own design, or should they stick with those from folklore? Who knows about magica select few, the general population, only folks with traditions that relate to it? How is magic learned and taught? Are some people innately magical, or can anyone access it? Are there places of magical power?

uncommon, but sometimes will be manifested within cults or secret groups. As such, magic will be very powerful, but will also come with a high price. They want crazy cabals harnessing powerful magical secrets. For creatures, the group discusses angels and demons, ghosts, scary faeries, shadow people. They agree there will be no Lovecraftian creatures in their world. There are powerful places of magic, dominion over which is contested by those in the know. Magic is known to a select few: cults within religions, cabals, and nobility. Each cabal has its own traditions, passed orally to initiates. Once someone learns magic, they cant get rid of it.

Setting Magic Level

You have the ability to determine how much or how little magic will impact your game. When setting up a new game of Mortal Coil, the players should discuss the basic level of the supernatural they desire in their game. Since magic tokens are used to introduce and define magic, the number of tokens available to each player will have a powerful effect on the tone of the game. Low magic: Each player starts with 5 magic tokens. The GM gets 5 tokens, plus 1 token for each player. This will create a game where magic is rare and valuable. Moderate magic: Each player begins with 10 to 15 magic tokens. The GM gets the same number of tokens, plus 2 tokens for each player. A game at this level will have more common magical events. High magic: Each player begins with 20 magic tokens. The GM gets 20 tokens, plus 4 tokens for each player. Magic will be quite common in this game, and most play will revolve around powerful magic.

This is where players can express their own individual desires about how the game should work, like no vampires or stay away from Lovecraft. Mortal Coil can create a great mood when the players are in agreement on the basic framework. Apart from strong desires, however, avoid describing specific beings or powers during the theme document discussion. It is good to generate a general feel of magic at this time, such as mental powers, or sorcerers earning magic from demonic bargains, but the specifics strengths and drawbacks of these powers will be settled later as the game is played, through the use of magic tokens. As a general rule, do not note down anything that would require the expenditure of a magic token during the theme document discussions. If someone comes up with something at this stage that seems like it would require an expenditure of magic tokens, put that off until character creation, or even until formal play begins.

You may also set the magic level somewhere in between these levels if fine-tuning the level suits your world and theme better.

Going from the basic setting and tone, the group begins to define magic for their game. They decide that magic will be

The group thinks about their basic concept: powerful secret societies controlling deep magic. Thor proposes a low magic

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game, since magic is supposed to be rare. Mayuran counters that it is rare, but is also powerful. The group decides to set a low moderate level of magic, setting the initial pool at 12 magic tokens.

Villains
Now that you have established the basic facts of your world, and set up a situation in which your characters will find conflict, you should determine what the opposition is. Who are the characters that will oppose those of the players? What adversity will they face when you start playing? At this stage, a simple list of villains will help players craft their characters in a way that is tied in to situation.

Situation
You have created a theme and setting at this point, and defined the basics of magic in your game world. Now, you need to discuss the significance of these things. What is your games situation? What issues are the characters going to address through their actions? What questions will they answer with their choices? This is what you would discuss if you talked about theme in a literary context, and since Mortal Coil is about creating a story with your friends, you should answer similar questions here. A good start is to set up some dichotomies, or sides to the central conflicts in your game. It is all right (and, in fact, desirable) to have more than one. These conflicts create inherent tensions within the world that will provide excellent impetus to your stories. Players may choose a specific side, or may find themselves torn between multiple sides of a particular conflict, creating drama as they are forced to choose and compromise, or are driven to ever more extreme acts in service of their principles. Once you have settled on the situation with your group, go back to the theme document. Add details or change the ones you have written to reflect the situation your group is interested in.

The group now comes up with some villains for opposition: an ambitious Hellfire Club magician, an ancient sorcerer attempting to protect his sources of power, and a dangerous king of demons. They note these characters on a list, and will continue to add to it as they make characters of their own.

The group discusses the situation for their game. The conflicts mostly revolve around imperialism, and the looting of colonized cultures for their magical secrets. The core dichotomies are resistance vs. service to the empire, colonizers vs. the colonized, and imperialism vs. local control of magical resources.

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Summary
The Theme Document Records all ideas and rules that the players come up with. Any player can veto something added to the theme by showing how it contradicts tone or some other fact already recorded in the theme. Tone The general feel of the game world. Setting A one-sentence movie studio pitch that describes the game world. The Supernatural Basic parameters and restrictions on magic, in keeping with tone and setting. Magic tokens are not spent at this phase of the game. Magic Level Choose from three levels of magic: low, moderate, or high. Low magic: 5 magic tokens/player, +1/player for the GM. Moderate magic: 10-15 magic tokens/player, +2/player for the GM. High magic: 20 magic tokens/player, +4/player for the GM. Situation Determine what issues the characters will address through their actions. Villains A basic list of villains to get players started when crafting their characters.

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Now it is time to move on to the next question. You have created the theme; thus, your game world is ready for the protagonists who will inhabit it. Who are these characters? What do they do in this world? Of these characters, who are you, and how do you fit in? Come up with a quick sentence describing who you are, like a frail old man who has been alive for centuries using magic, the nave art student, or an ancient god of the underworld masquerading as an ineffective stockbroker. Each of the players besides the GM will create a character of their own, and will take on this role as the game is played. There are several steps you need to take to build this character. Use the character sheet at the end of this book, or download one at www. galileogames.com/mortalcoil/. This sheet has spaces for all of the characteristics you will need to note down about a character, and it also includes spaces for the tokens you will be using in the game.

Types of Passions
There are four types of passions that describe the powerful emotions that motivate your character. These include the following: Duty: A duty is something that your character feels obligated to do, for whatever reason, but does not truly enjoy. Duty is generally pursued out some sense of higher responsibility, a feeling that some things take priority over emotion. Duties could include such things as diverse as family, the priesthood, service to another individual, loyalty to ones organization, or an abstract principle (journalistic integrity, for example), etc. Must is a great word to describe a duty passion. Sample Duties: I must fulfill my priestly vows; I must take care of my father until he dies; I must never let my brother down. Fear: A fear is something that terrifies your character and motivates her quite strongly out of aversion. Fear motivates the character to avoid the object of the fear, or, if that is not possible, to cower or bargain in attempt to avoid harm (real or perceived). Fears can include phobias, other individuals, or more abstract things such as loneliness, abandonment, etc. Sample Fears: I wont ever be alone again; I am terrified of enclosed spaces; do whatever it takes to keep Mr. Sampson from getting angry. Hate: A hate motivates your character through his loathing and longing to destroy something or someone. This passion is similar to fear, but your character is motivated to attack instead of avoid. Your character will do what he can to harm, hinder, or otherwise damage the object of his hate. This attack need not be overt, by any means. The character Iago in Othello is an excellent example of a character who hates, causing his enemys downfall by pretending to be a friend. Hate could be directed at an individual, the mob, drug dealers, ones self, certain nationalities or skin colors, the police, an activity, etc.

Passions

Characters in Mortal Coil are first defined by their passions. These passions are used in play to bring drama to your portrayal of your character, and they define her motivations and connections to other individuals. These are the things that are most important to the character, that drive her to act. Your portrayal of the character in the game should be driven by these passions, and the GM will also use them to present situations where your characters desires and beliefs will be challenged. It is especially important to make sure your characters passions relate to other characters (both those of other players and those taken by the GM) and to the overall theme of the game. This is absolutely essential to a good game of Mortal Coil. Passions are the most powerful tool both you and the GM can use to emotionally tie your character into the story. You should make sure that at least one of your characters passions (or better, two of her passions) relate to another player character or to the main plot line of the game (this last must be done with the groups help, of course).

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Sample Hates: Vampires must be destroyed; get the cops before they get you; no one else cares about me, so why should I? Love: A love is someone or something that your character cares deeply about. As with duty, your character is motivated to act selflessly toward the object of her love. Your character will willingly make sacrifices on behalf of her love, and will help and protect the object of her love. Of course, just because you love something doesnt mean it loves you back. Love can also inspire jealousy. Love can be directed at an individual, a group, an activity, some abstract concept (art, for example), ones self, etc. Sample Loves: Sarah is my reason for living; there is no higher calling than music; Mother is the most amazing person alive. When choosing passions for your character, you are not required to choose one of each type. You can even choose two or more passions of the same type if you desire. These are to guide and inspire you when writing your characters passions.

sion. It is constantly in her thoughts, and she rarely takes any action not somehow motivated by this passion. 5: Obsessive. Your character is completely ruled by this passion. She thinks of nothing else, and every action she takes is considered through the prism of this passion. Passions of this level are extremely pathological and unhealthy.

Starting Passions
All characters have five points to spend on their passions. These points should be distributed among the things your character cares about. It is rare and really rather unhealthy for an individual to have only one passion. The rankings of the passions are listed below: 1: Strong. This passion is your characters calling. This passion motivates her on many levels, and she will go out of her way to make time for this passion. 2: Powerful. Your characters depth of feeling has increased for this passion, and she makes sure some part of her life revolves around this passion. 3: Profound. Your character devotes most of her time and energy to the pursuit of this passion. This passion has become the main focus of her life, but she still has room for other things. 4: Feverish. Your character is nearly consumed by this pas-

Dro considers his character. His basic concept is Blake Orlack, the son of the Hellfire Club cult leader, Baron Francis Orlack. He gives Blake a Duty: I owe my father everything, and I will find Shangri-La for him. Dro makes this passion powerful (2 points). This passion gives Blake a goal, and Shangri-La will definitely be an important factor in the game. Dro has three passion points remaining, and he gives Blake another passion, a Fear: Ill never be able to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world, to make him even more driven. Blake has this passion at the powerful rank as well (2 points). Dro still has one point left. To add in further conflict, Dro gives Blake one more passion: a Hate: The Shadow People took away my mother. He makes this passion strong (1 point). The Shadow People will definitely appear in the story now, and Blake is guaranteed to have some conflict with them because of this passion.

Starting Ability

Once passions have been defined, you should have a pretty good feel for your character already. Next, your character will be rounded out by describing the specific things he can do. Characters can begin the game at any of four different skill and experience levels. Most characters are assumed to begin at a relatively unskilled level. GMs and players may decide that a particular character has more experience and ability than this, and can modify that characters starting level. The more powerful your character is at the beginning of the game, however, the more restricted he will be during play. The following rankings determine starting ability: Novice: The default starting level, for characters with average 31

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faculty and aptitude. The vast majority of the people in the world fall into this category, as they have not done anything extraordinary in their lives to this point (anything requiring peak physical and mental abilities or intensive, long-term training). Novices begin with 5 points in passions, 10 points in faculties, 7 points in aptitudes, and 3 power tokens. Veteran: This indicates characters who have had intensive training and who consistently have been in situations requiring peak physical and mental ability, such people include athletes, soldiers, martial artists, expert debaters, and the like. Veterans begin with 5 points in passions, 11 points in faculties, 9 points in aptitudes, and 2 power tokens. Ancient: These characters have lived longer than a normal human lifetime, either through sorcery or because they are undead. Ancient beings must be at least 100 years of age, and also must be sustained by some means to avoid the deteriorations of time. Ancients begin with 5 points in passions, 13 points in faculties, 13 points in aptitudes, and 1 power token. Ageless: This indicates the character is an immortal being who has been around for thousands of years, such as an ancient god, an angel, or an immortal fairy being. If you are playing an immortal being more youthful than this, choose one of the three starting ability levels above, as this level is reserved for only the very oldest of beings. Ageless characters begin with 5 points in passions, 15 points in faculties, 15 points in aptitudes, and no power tokens.

They all describe some mental or physical characteristic of your character. These include the following: Force: This measures your characters size, strength, and physical power. Big characters, tough characters, or those who are merely strong should have a good Force score. Grace: This measures your characters poise, quickness, and perception. Deft characters, agile characters, or those who are light on their feet should have a good Grace score. Wits: This measures your characters quickness of thought, cleverness, and ability to make mental connections. Smart characters, quick-thinking characters, or those who are able to come to swift conclusions should have a good Wits score. Will: This measures your characters force of will, mental fortitude, and sheer cussedness. Determined characters, focused characters, and those who simply refuse to give up should have a good Will score.

The number of points assigned to each of these faculties indicates your characters relative strength in that area. Your character can have no more than 5 points in any particular faculty. Faculty levels are described as follows: 0: Lacking. Your character completely lacks any capacity whatsoever in this area. 1: Disadvantaged. Your character is sub-par in some way. 2: Average. Your character has a normal level of ability in this area. 3: Talented. Your character transcends average ability. 4: Exceptional. Your characters ability is well above average. 5: Peak. Your character is in top form, and has few, if any, rivals in this area.

Dro continues with his character. Blake is a young scion of a noble family, one with a powerful tradition of magical aptitude. Blake is driven to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world and trains constantly. With this in mind, Dro decides his character will be a veteran.

Starting Faculties
Novice characters 10 points to distribute among their faculties. More experienced characters have more points to distribute. Veteran characters gain an extra point to distribute among their facul-

Faculties

Faculties describe four areas of ability that all characters possess. These are rated according to each characters individual ability.

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ties for a total of 11. Ancient characters start with 13 points, and ageless characters start with 15.

teenth century, he also is trained to duel. As such, he decides that Blake is a skilled anthropologist, an expert Hellfire Club magician, and a competent dueler. All these sound quite natural, and are appropriate aptitudes.

Dros character Blake is a veteran. He has 11 points to distribute among his four faculties. He decides that he does not want Blake to be impaired in any faculty, so he will assign a minimum of 2 points to each one. He spends his 11 points as follows: Force 2, Grace 4, Wits 3, Will 2.

As with faculties, characters can have up to 5 points assigned to any aptitude. The number assigned determines your characters general skill in the aptitude. 1: Novice. Your character has an edge over those with no ability, but otherwise does not have more than a passing familiarity with the aptitude. 2: Competent. Your character is comfortable using the ability, and can consistently use it successfully. 3: Skilled. Your characters level of training transcends average ability. Most tasks performed using the aptitude are now routine, and your character inserts a bit of his own flair in the performance of the aptitude. 4: Expert. Your characters aptitude is far above average, and your character has developed new techniques. Others in the field respect and emulate your character. 5: Master. Your character is considered to be one of the masters of his craft. Among those who practice the aptitude, your character is likely to be known as among the best in the world.

Aptitudes

Aptitudes describe your characters vocations and avocations. Aptitudes are characteristics, skills, and habits that your character has picked up over the course of her life through training and repetition, or just through natural gifts. Your character is further defined through her aptitudes; choosing them wisely will considerably flesh out your character. Aptitudes are relatively general, such as outdoorsman or physician. Characters may share some aptitudes, but even aptitudes of the same name or similar names will often be very different from character to character. To determine if you have chosen an appropriate aptitude, see if you can state, My character is a skilled blank, and have it sound natural. There is no set list of aptitudes; you may use whatever makes sense for your character. Sample Aptitudes: Sharpshooter, occult scholar, cop, orator, burglar, football player, liar, knife thrower, barroom brawler, video game player, runner, arm-wrestler, etc.

What Does an Aptitude Cover?

How wide-ranging can aptitudes be? That is generally up to group consensus. Aptitudes should be assumed to be useful in any task that could reasonably be considered routine for a real-world person described by the aptitude. Some include more skill sets than others, obviously. An expert knife-thrower is not going to have as many distinct applications of his skills as an expert physician. When playing, you will propose the use of an aptitude for a particular conflict. If the rest of the group (players included, not just the GM) agrees that it could reasonably apply, you are welcome to use it. The more specific your aptitude, the less resistance you are likely to get. A skilled surgeon is going to have a better argument for the

Dro tries out his choices for Blake. He decides that Blake has some schooling as a cover for his supernatural interests, but has concentrated on magical ability. As a nobleman in the nine-

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open-heart procedure you are proposing that a plain old skilled physician will.

Supernatural Aptitudes
Characters may end up with some supernatural aptitudes, such as vampire or magician. These are treated just like regular aptitudes, except you must activate the supernatural ability by spending a magic token the first time you wish to use it in a session (see the Magic section for complete details, page 47). Once a supernatural aptitude is activated, you may call on it again as often as you like in the course of the same session without needing to spend another magic token.

Why Shouldnt I Pick the Widest Aptitudes Possible?

The general or specific nature of an aptitude matters only when it is being tested against someone else with a similar aptitude. Whenever two aptitudes are directly opposed, the character who possesses a narrower, more specific aptitude gains a +2 bonus in the conflict. Because of this rule, choosing an aptitude is a balancing act between broad applicability and a narrow, powerful focus.

Dros character Blake gets in a physical conflict with a supporting character, Moran. They are fighting with their blades, and Blake has the Dueler aptitude. Moran also knows how to fight, as he has the Soldier aptitude. In this case, a one-on-one test of swordsmanship, everyone easily agrees that Dueler is a more specific aptitude than Soldier, and so Blake earns a +2 towards success in the conflict.

Dros character Blake is a Hellfire Club magician. He has not used the aptitude yet in this session, but now he wishes to try to determine what spell another magician is trying to perform. In order to use his Magician aptitude, he spends a magic token (see page 47). He may now use his Magician aptitude normally for the rest of the session. He does not need to spend another magic token to do so.

Starting Aptitudes
Novice characters normally have up to 7 points to distribute among their aptitudes, and cannot be anything more than skilled (3 points) in any one aptitude. Veteran characters gain 9 points to distribute among aptitudes, and can assign any level to their aptitudes they wish. Ancient characters start with 13 points, and ageless characters start with 15. Ancient and ageless characters may also assign any level to their aptitudes.

A supernatural aptitude by itself does not allow a character to do anything until it is defined, which also requires the use of a magic token (see the Magic section for complete details, page 46). For example, sorcerers may be able to smell the lingering effects of magic. This is a fact about sorcerers, and until someone establishes it in play by sacrificing a magic token, sorcerers in the game do not possess this ability. Additional facts about supernatural aptitudes may be added at any time, by any player.

Dros character Blake is a nobleman and occult magician. Blake is a veteran, so Dro has 9 points to distribute. Based on his previous selection of aptitudes and characterization of them (skilled anthropologist, expert Hellfire Club magician, competent dueler), he decides to allocate the points as follows: Anthropologist 3, Hellfire Club Magician 4, Dueler 2.

Dros character Blake wishes to use his magic to block another magicians spell. Up to this point, no one has explicitly stated that magicians even have this power. Dro will sacrifice a magic token (see the Magic section for full details, page 45), and create that ability for magicians.

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Starting Pools

token, and ageless characters begin with no power tokens. Additional power tokens must be gained through play.

Your character has four pools of tokens, as described in the Play section. The final detail you need to add to the character is to determine the size of these pools. Each one has different requirements, described below.

Starting Action Pool

The number of tokens in your characters action pool is equal to 3 plus his highest faculty.

Dros character is a veteran, so he begins play with a starting power pool of 2.

Dros character Blake has a 4 in his Grace faculty. This is his highest faculty, so Dro adds 3 to this, and notes that Blake has a starting action pool of 7.

The GM also starts with a pool of power tokens to use for all of the supporting characters. This pool refreshes at the beginning of each session, and the GM is never awarded power tokens during play. The GMs pool of power tokens is equal to two tokens for each player in the game (including the GM herself), plus two additional tokens for each ancient or ageless player character in the game.

Starting Passion Pool

Characters start each session with a number of passion tokens equal to the number of passions they possess. If your character has three passions, she has three passion tokens. A character with only one passion has only one token. The value of the individual passions is not considered when assigning passion tokens.

There are four players in the game, plus the GM. One character is ancient, and the rest are veterans or novices. The GM starts with two power tokens for each player including herself, plus two tokens for the ancient character, giving her a total of 12 power tokens.

Starting Magic Pool

Starting magic tokens are determined by the level of magic set for the game (see the Theme section, page 23).

Dros character Blake has three passions: I owe my father everything, and I will find Shangri-La for him 2, Ill never be able to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world 2, and The Shadow People took away my mother 1. He begins the session with 3 passion tokens.

Starting Power Pool

Your characters starting power pool is determined by starting level. Novice characters begin with 3 power tokens, veteran characters begin with 2 power tokens, ancient characters begin with 1 power

Low magic: Each player starts with 5 magic tokens. The GM gets 5 tokens, plus 1 token for each player. This will create a game where magic is rare and valuable. Moderate magic: Each player begins with 10 to 15 magic tokens. The GM gets the same number of tokens, plus 2 tokens for each player. A game at this level will have more common magical events. High magic: Each player begins with 20 magic tokens. The GM gets 20 tokens, plus 4 tokens for each player. Magic will be quite common in this game, and most play will revolve around powerful magic. 39

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You may also set the magic level somewhere in between these levels if fine-tuning the level suits your world and theme better.

Everyone agreed that the level of magic in the game should be low moderate, so Dro starts with 12 magic tokens. The GM begins with 12 and adds two more for each of the four players, ending up with a total magic pool of 20.

The unique needs of the GM sometimes require a bit of flexibility. You may not always have time to create a supporting character before play starts. Someone may introduce a supporting character in a scene, or you may need to introduce one yourself to serve some function in a scene. In this case, you can simply create the character on the fly, only filling in the passions, faculties, and aptitudes that are immediately relevant to the scene. Note down whatever values you assign to this character, and if you think she will appear again, fill her out completely between sessions.

Supporting Characters

The villains you created during the theme phase should feature prominently on the list of player character passions, but that list was not intended to be final. New villains and supporting characters will crop up during the process of creating your character. Every character mentioned in one or more of the player characters passions who is not a player character himself needs to be created as a supporting character. Also, many additional supporting characters will appear during the course of play.

Dros character Blake is chasing a mysterious figure. As he wheels around a corner, the GM tells him that the figure whirls on him and draws a blade. The GM has not written anything down about this mysterious character, who is a henchman of a supporting character that he has already created in detail. The GM quickly notes down some relevant stats: Force 4, Expert Soldier 4, and a powerful passion: I hate poncy noblemen, 2. This will carry the GM through the current scene, she thinks, and she can fill in the rest of this supporting character later (if he survives this encounter).

How to Build Supporting Characters

The GM has a cast of characters, compared to the single characters created by the players. These characters are basically the same as player characters, and are created in the same way. When creating a new supporting character, choose a starting ability level, and assign points as described above. You will end up with a full character that the other players can interact with. When portraying that character, the GM has access to passions and the supporting characters action pool, just like the players have access to their own characters pools. The main difference is that the GM has a general pool of power tokens that all of her supporting characters must share, while the players each have their own pool of power tokens.

If a supporting character doesnt have a passion that relates to one of the player characters (or another pivotal supporting character) or to the main plot line of the game, you need to take a very close look at that character. Why is this person in the game, and why does he merit a full character sheet? The game is about the player characters, so make sure you are making good choices as a GM when you introduce a supporting character.

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Summary
Passions Each characters passions must relate to the other characters and the theme. Four types of passions: Duty: something the character feels obligated to do. Fear: something that terrifies the character. Hate: something the character wants to destroy. Love: something the character cares deeply about. All characters have 5 points of passions. Starting Ability Four different skill and experience levels: Novice: 5 passions, 10 faculties, 7 aptitudes, 3 power tokens. Veteran: 5 passions, 11 faculties, 9 aptitudes, 2 power tokens. Ancient: 5 passions, 13 faculties, 13 aptitudes, 1 power token. Ageless: 5 passions, 15 faculties, 15 aptitudes, no power tokens. Faculties Four areas of ability: Force: size, strength, physical power. Grace: poise, quickness, perception. Wits: quickness of thought, cleverness, the ability to make mental connections. Will: force of will, mental fortitude, sheer cussedness. No more than 5 points in any one faculty. Aptitudes No more than 5 points in any one aptitude. May be used in any task that could reasonably be considered routine for a real-world person described by the aptitude. The character in a conflict with a more narrowly defined aptitude gains a +2 advantage for the action. 42

Starting Pools Four pools of tokens: Action Pool: equal to 3 plus highest faculty. Passion Pool: equal to number of passions (not passion value). Power Pool: varies by starting ability. Novice: 3, veteran: 2, ancient: 1, ageless: 0. Magic Pool: varies by game magic level. Low magic: 5, moderate magic: 10-15, high magic: 20. GMs Starting Pools GMs Power Pool starts each session with 2 tokens for each player (including GM), plus 2 tokens for each ancient or ageless player character. GMs Magic Pool varies by magic level. Low magic: 5 plus 1/player, moderate magic: 10-15 plus 2/player, high magic: 20 plus 4/player. Supporting Characters Every character mentioned in one or more player characters passions needs to be created as a supporting character. Supporting characters are constructed in exactly the same way as player characters.

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Mortal Coil is a game in which magical things can happen. In Mortal Coil, however, the effects of the supernatural are not specifically defined when play begins. Instead, your fellow players and the GM will define magic for your game during theme and character creation, and then continue to define it during play.

Magic Tokens

Magic tokens are the currency used in Mortal Coil to add magical details to the world. They are either spent or sacrificed (see page 15 & 17) to bring magical abilities, events, and items into the game.

During play, Jasons character is fleeing from a vampire. All that is known about vampires at this point is that they are undead, and that they kill people to suck their blood. Jasons character flees across a stream, and at this time Jason decides to add a fact to the game world. He sacrifices a magic token and announces, Vampires cant cross running water. This is added to the theme document next to the entry on vampires, and the vampire is unable to follow him across the stream.

Magical Facts
The most powerful effect a magic token can have is to add a new fact about magic to the game world. Any player, including the GM, may sacrifice a magic token and add something to the game theme. During character creation (page 37), this may be something like vampires (blood-sucking undead beings) exist, allowing you to create a character who is a vampire. During play, they may be sacrificed in a similar fashion to add further facts (e.g. vampires can transform into bats). As new facts are added, they are written in the theme document. The theme document will evolve and be refined in this way. As such, it is important to remember that new facts must fit within the theme document. Facts must follow the tone and setting details that were laid out in the theme, and the threshold of credibility (page 11) definitely applies. You cannot directly contradict existing facts by sacrificing a magic token, however, you can define them more narrowly. For example, another player creates the fact that angels can inspire debilitating awe in those who view them. You cannot now contradict this fact, but you can add an additional fact that narrows or clarifies this existing ability, such as an exemption from the power for people who have seen demons.

Magic tokens must also be spent for you to introduce existing facts into a situation in order to create magical effects, or to use a magical aptitude. Since you are doing this to create a short-term effect, or are invoking an existing fact, you do not sacrifice the token, but merely spend it.

Russells character is a spell-caster. It has already been established that Russells character possesses a spell that can summon a ghostly warrior, and Russell wishes to cast this spell when confronted by an adversary. Russell spends a magic token, and the spell is cast.

Price
There is only one rule of magic that Mortal Coil specifically mandates for all games. This is a variation on the law of the conservation of energy: All magic has a price that must be paid for using it. Whenever a new type of magic or magical effect is introduced, you must also specify a price characters must pay for its use. This can be almost anything, limited only by your sensibilities, imagination, and threshold of credibility. The price for any new fact is always determined by a different player than the one who introduced the fact. If a player introduces a new magical fact, then the GM sets the price. When the GM introduces a new magical fact, a player must set the price.

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As a player, you may buy the right to set the price on a GM-introduced fact by sacrificing a power token (page 17). If another player wishes to set the price instead, he may sacrifice additional tokens to take that right away from you. Players may also buy the right to set the price away from the GM in this way, if they wish. Only the player who introduced the fact is barred from bidding to set the price. Whichever player sacrifices the most power tokens gets to set the price. If no one wishes to purchase the right to set the price, the player with the most magic tokens chooses the price (this will typically be the player who has added the fewest facts to the theme document). It is perfectly kosher for players to discuss the price among themselves before settling on it. Usually, lots of good ideas will be thrown around in this way. The player with the right to set the price always has final say, however.

is obvious or agreed that a new fact or price fits this criterion, there are two ways to back up the fact with a rule. Conflict Trigger: With this option, when the fact comes into play, it immediately triggers a conflict with pre-set stakes. The stakes for the conflict are set when the fact is introduced; whenever the fact comes into play, the appropriate players resolve the conflict.

The GM introduces a new power for vampires to the theme document, stating that as undead beings, vampires are unaffected by aging. Jason has the most magic tokens among the players, so he will set the price if no one else wishes to spend a power token to do so. Krista decides she would like to determine the price, and sacrifices a power token to buy the right. Jason counters by sacrificing two tokens, to take that right back himself. Krista doesnt want to set the price that badly, so she lets Jason continue. Jason states that the price vampires must pay for their unaging status is that they must drink human blood to sustain themselves. Krista suggests that the price be highervampires must kill their victims for the blood to effectively sustain them. Jason likes this, and sets that as the price.

Jason creates an artifact, a magical jewelers loupe that allows a character to see the true nature of whatever he views through it. Michelle, the GM, sets the price: This sort of true sight is damaging to a mortals mind. Everyone agrees that this is a good price, but is somewhat vague. What form does the damage take? Michelle decides to set a conflict trigger. Whenever a mortal gazes through the loupe, he must initiate a conflict. The stakes will always be the same: If the mortal wins, he will see the true nature of the being he sees through the loupe but will suffer no harm. If the mortal loses, he will still see the beings true nature, but he will also gain a 1-point passion of either Love or Fear for the being he sees through the loupe.

Bonus or Penalty: With this option, when the fact comes into play, it will confer a +2 bonus or a 2 penalty upon one or more characters for purposes of a particular action or set of actions. It often makes sense for the price to include an opposing bonus or penalty to counteract the one conferred by the fact.

Backing Facts with Rules

Sometimes a fact or price will be self-evident and needs no further backup from the game rules, such as the running water restriction mentioned above. Other times, a fact or price must trigger a rule effect in order for it to function meaningfully in your game. When it 48

Keith is playing Mithras, a god of soldiers, and introduces the fact that war gods have the power to cause those around them to grow more contentious and irritable, leading to fights. Everyone agrees that this needs to be backed up by the rules. The GM proposes that anyone attempting to perform a non-violent action when this ability is in effect must suffer a 2 penalty. Violent actions are unhindered.

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Supernatural Items
If your character has an item with supernatural abilities, you must spend a magic token to activate the item the first time you wish your character to use it. The item may then be used in play to confer its magical abilities onto a character, and can be used throughout the same game session without spending any more magic tokens. Once the session is ended, the item is no longer considered activated.

session being generally assumed to consist of three to four hours of playing time encompassing two or more scenes.

Krista spent five magic tokens during the session:

Jason wants his character to examine a new character with his magical jewelers loupe to determine if the person is in fact a magical being, and his character puts the loupe to his eye. Jason has not used the loupe so far in the session, so he spends a magic token to activate it: At the beginning of the next session, she recovers all of them, starting fresh:

Once his character has looked through the loupe, he puts it back in his pocket. Jason may have his character use the loupe again later without needing to spend a magic token.

Items must have a price that goes along with their magical abilities as well, but this price usually affects the user rather than the item (see Price, page 47).

Gaining New Magic Tokens

The only way for you to gain new magic tokens beyond your current supply is to purchase them with power tokens. The cost for buying new magic tokens depends on the magic level of the game. Low magic: Sacrificing four power tokens earns you one additional magic token. Moderate magic: Sacrificing either two or three power tokens earns you one additional magic token. (Which of these levels

Recovering Magic Tokens

It is important to note than magic tokens are for players, not for characters like the some of the other tokens in the game (page 13). Spent magic tokens are regained between sessions of play, a

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applies should be set at the beginning of play, when crafting the theme document.) High magic: You can convert power tokens into magic tokens on a one-for-one basis.

Summary
Magical Facts Sacrifice a magic token to add a new fact to the theme document. New facts must match the tone of the theme, and cannot contradict older facts. Each fact has an associated price. The player who establishes the fact cannot set the price. Facts can be backed with rules: Conflict Trigger: the fact immediately triggers a conflict with pre-set stakes when activated. Bonus/Penalty: the fact gives a +2 or 2 to certain characters or actions when activated. Supernatural Items Must be activated with a magic token. Magic Tokens A player resource, not a character resource. All spent magic tokens are regained between sessions of play. New magic tokens must be bought with power tokens: Low magic: 1 magic token = 4 power tokens. Moderate magic: 1 magic token = 2 or 3 power tokens. High magic: 1 magic token = 1 power token. The GM gains a new magic token whenever a player purchases one. In a high magic setting, the GM gains 2 each time a player purchases one.

Whenever a player purchases a power token, the GM also gains one or more magic tokens. In low to medium magic settings, the GM gets one additional magic token when a player purchases one. If you have chosen the high magic setting, the GM gets two additional magic tokens whenever a player purchases one.

Keith has sacrificed most of his starting pool of magic tokens. He decides he is running low on magic tokens. Since this is a moderate-level magic game, he sacrifices three power tokens to gain one new magic token. The GM gains an additional magic token as well.

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The game rules are meant to serve the story in Mortal Coil. You use your tokens to affect the outcome of your characters actions in the game, allowing you a considerable degree of control over these actions rather than relying on the random outcome of dice. You never need to worry about failure due to bad luck on a critical roll. Supernatural powers and magic spells just work, they do not rely on chance. Tension is still achieved, however, because you often will not know how many resources you must expend for your desired result. The drama is preserved because you decide how hard your character will try to succeed. As in all stories, the major driving force in a game of Mortal Coil is conflict. Conflicts involve your character applying his basic ability along with his skill or knowledge in an effort to overcome some opposing force, such as another character or characters, or some object or situation that blocks your characters way to the desired outcome. In short, a conflict is a situation in which your character must take a risk in order to achieve a desired outcome. In order for your character to act in a conflict, you must commit at least one action token. There are many ways to use tokens in conflicts, and these are discussed in detail later in this section.

Setting Stakes

When initiating a conflict, you and the GM must first state the result of success or failure for your character. This is called setting stakes, and it defines success and failure for the conflict. For example, if your character gets in a fight in a bar, your goal may be to get out of the fight without getting hurt, whereas the GM may state that the result of failure will be an injury to your character. The key to setting these stakes is to make sure that the result is interesting whether your character succeeds or fails. Either way, something driving the story forward should result. The GM should not set stakes to merely block your desired outcome, but instead to ensure that failure has actual consequences within the story. The scope of your conflict should not be overly specific. Each conflict can and probably should cover a number of individual actions that are aimed at the same goal, but the goal should not be too narrow. For example, each handhold your character grips while climbing a sheer cliff is not an appropriate conflict, instead, your character reaching the top of the cliff in time to stop the villain from throwing your characters lover over the edge is a more proper conflict. Similarly, engaging in a drunken argument is an appropriate conflict, but each individual shout, grab, or scuffle within the argument is not.

What Is a Conflict?
A conflict is a particular action or series of actions that requires your characters total attention. A conflict is any instance in which your character is pitting himself against another person or against the world in general, attempting any action in which the outcome is in doubt and is also essential to the story. For the most part, everyday actions (like shopping, walking, mowing the lawn, etc.) are not conflicts. There is little reason to believe, barring some exceptional circumstance, that your character will fail to perform the task, nor is the consequence of failure particularly interesting or relevant. When tensions rise, when skill and aptitude are required to succeed, when success is important or even vital this is when conflict occurs.

Kristas character is trying to distract a rough-looking supporting character so that Jasons character can talk with the roughlooking fellows girlfriend. Before they begin to commit action tokens, Krista declares her intention: She wants to keep this person from noticing what Jasons character is doing. The GM, realizing that the information the girlfriend possesses is important for moving the story forward, decides that failure will not block Jason from his action, but will instead allow the rough-looking character to realize what is going on, which will lead to complications after Jasons character finishes talking to his girlfriend.

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Conflict Rounds
Often, after everyone involved in a conflict has taken an action, the outcome of the conflict is still not clear. If the group is unsure who has won the conflict, then it is not complete and another round of actions needs to be initiated. Continue with as many conflict rounds are needed to determine a clear winner. Conflicts with multiple players and antagonists are likely to get complicated and will probably require two or more rounds of actions before one side emerges as the winner.
A conflict has arisen in a bar. Russells character wants to convince a bikers girlfriend (a supporting character) to go home with him. Michelle, the GM, decides the biker (another supporting character) wants to mess Russell up, while the girlfriend really does want to go home with Russells character, but does not want to piss off the biker in the process. Keiths character is also in the bar, and Keith wants his character to humiliate Russells character. The group talks about the conflict, and comes to the conclusion that this conflict has three sides: the girlfriend and Russell are on the same side against the biker, and Keith has a conflict against Russell. Since the results of Keiths attempt at humiliation will probably have an effect on the outcome of Russells scam move, they decide that this conflict should be decided first, and the conflict against the biker afterward.

The GMs supporting characters are trying to get an artifact back from the player characters. A conflict is initiated, with each of the players involved stating their actions and intentions, and the GM doing the same for his supporting characters. Everyone reveals their tokens, and all of the actions are sorted out. Once all of the individual actions are resolved, however, the supporting characters still do not have the artifact, and the player characters have neither escaped nor put all of the supporting characters into a position where they must stop trying to get the artifact. Everyone agrees that the conflict is still on, so everyone begins to plan their next actions.

Basic Actions

Multiple Sides in One Conflict

You may also run across the situation where more than two sides have a desired outcome for a conflict. In these cases, it is best to split these into separate conflicts. Conflicts work best with only two sides. If the outcome of one conflict will influence how another turns out, make sure to resolve it first and then move on to the next one. If everything really needs to be resolved at the same time, determine which goals are opposing which characters. Once all of these interactions are relatively clear, you will have a better idea how you will need to allocate your resources.

Actions are a direct comparison of two or more characters abilities. Your character will be testing one of his faculties and one of his aptitudes against someone elses faculty and aptitude. Whichever character has the highest total of faculty and aptitude is successful in the action, the degree of success depending on the difference between the two totals (explained in detail later). Each action needs to be directed against one other character. You can direct more than one action at the same character, but you cannot direct one action against multiple targets. Action tokens are required to initiate any conflict. Action tokens committed to an action are added to the faculty and aptitude total to reach the final number to be compared. All tokens are considered to be committed at the same time, and all actions take place at roughly the same time; there is no initiative or turn ranking in Mortal Coil.

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Dancer 1 plus 1 action token): Jasons total is 4 (Grace 2 plus Brawler 1 plus 1 action token). Kristas character succeeds in slipping past Jasons character. Kristas character is distraught and is trying to get as far away from a situation as she can, but Jasons character wants to keep her close so he can attempt to calm her down. Kristas action is for her character to rush out of the door, and Jasons action is to grab and hold her. Krista will use her characters Grace faculty and Dancer aptitude to try to dodge past Jasons character. Jason will be using his characters Power faculty and his Brawler aptitude to try to grab Kristas character as she goes by.

No Resistance
Sometimes the outcome of an action between two characters will be desired by both (such as a magical transformation, for example), and the defending character will choose not to actively resist at all. In this case, the first character must only succeed against the defending characters innate faculty. The same faculty that is being used to create the effect should be used by the other character as a passive defense.

The Reveal
It is important that no one gains any advantage by knowing what an opponent is going to commit by way of tokens. All players should consider and commit their tokens as desired before the players disclose what they have committed. This way, no player gains an unfair advantage over the others. All parties to the conflict should write down their token use or commit their tokens under cover of their hand or some other sort of screen. When everyone is ready, it is time for the reveal, and all players announce how they have allocated their action tokens. The reveal is a vitally important part of the conflict rules. Everyone must pick a faculty and aptitude for each action they are planning to perform, and decide how many action tokens (use described on page 61) and passion tokens (described on page 69) before anyone reveals the total. All of these decisions must be made before the reveal. Only power tokens (described on page 82) can be used after these totals are revealed, so it is important to choose a strategy and allocate tokens carefully.

Russells character is casting a spell to transform Keiths character into a bird. Keiths character wants to be transformed, and will not resist the effects of the spell. Russells total is 8 (Will 4 plus Sorcerer 3 plus 1 action token), and he must only overcome Keiths characters Will of 3. He succeeds.

Committing Action Tokens

Once a conflict is initiated, your character uses his faculties and aptitudes to attempt to influence the outcome. In order to bring these to bear on the conflict at hand, at least one action token must be committed. You move one or more action tokens forward, declaring what faculty and aptitude the action token is drawing upon. Your character will often perform several actions in the same conflict. Each of these actions must have at least one action token committed to it. Your character cannot perform an action in a conflict without committing an action token to do so. Each action taken in a conflict round must use a different faculty. As such, your character can perform a maximum of four actions at once in a conflict round. So long as there are action tokens in your characters pool and he is not yet using at least one of his faculties

Both Jason and Krista choose their aptitudes and faculties secretly, and each moves an action token forward to commit it hidden behind their hands. Once they are satisfied, both move their hands away, and declare what abilities from their sheets they are using for the action. Kristas total is 5 (Grace 3 plus

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for an action, he can potentially perform additional actions within the same conflict round.

Reallocating Tokens
Once committed, action tokens normally cannot be used again until the action to which they are committed is resolved. If your character is committed to more than one action, however, you can reallocate tokens from one or more actions to another, even if that leaves no tokens committed to one or more of those actions. This has the effect of adding extra effort to one action at the expense of the other action or actions. Any action left with no tokens committed to it is lost. Players can only reallocate their tokens once per conflict round; if more than one player decides to reallocate tokens, they should do so secretly and have a second reveal. Reallocating tokens does cause fatigue, however, and when the actions are resolved one of the action tokens that was reallocated to a different action is now considered spent.

The scene is set in Shambala, and Thors character is attempting to prevent some other characters from stealing artifacts from the mystical city. He decides he will use his magic to summon shadowy ancestor spirits to aid him (Will), and he will also attempt to persuade these spirits to seize another character once they arrive (Wits). Lastly, he is using his sword to stab another sorcerer also attempting to command the spirits (Force). Thor could choose to perform another action drawing on his characters Grace faculty, but judges these three actions sufficient. Each of these tasks uses a separate faculty and is an action to which Thor commits one or more action tokens:

When in conflict with another character, action tokens must be committed to both offensive and defensive actions. The attacker compares his offensive action to the defenders defensive action, and vice versa. If your character is opposing more than one opponent, you must decide which action tokens are committed to each opponent; each offensive and defensive action is aimed at a single opposing character. This applies whether the conflict is a debate, a contest of skill, or an all-out brawl. Just as you shouldnt take too small a view with conflicts, it is equally important that everything grouped within a particular conflict be aimed at the same stakes. If new and distinct stakes are desired, a new conflict should be initiated (see setting stakes, page 57).

Thor realizes that the ancient sorcerer his character is opposing is much too powerful and that he will not be able to persuade the shadow spirits to help him. Instead, Thor decides to drop the spirit persuasion attempt entirely and reallocate the tokens he had committed to that action to his sword attack, which he surmises will be far more effective against his opponent:

Extra Effort
If you believe your characters basic ability and skill and a single action token are not sufficient to succeed in an action, you may commit extra action tokens to apply extra effort to the task. Any extra action tokens spent are added to your current faculty and aptitude total for the action. 63

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As noted above, you must decide how many tokens you wish to commit before the action is revealed. Your character may not retry a failed action in the same conflict round, but must initiate a new action. You must also deal with any issues arising from the initial failure before you can make a second attempt. Any character may add extra effort to any action, and supporting characters may do this as well.

As a defender, while reallocating you may commit two additional action tokens if you wish to also use your characters aptitude in defense, but you may not commit additional action tokens to also add extra effort to your defense in this case. However, if you spend one action token, you may add in your characters aptitude, and also then commit additional action tokens to defending your character from the action.

Jasons character is trying to find a supporting character hiding in a darkened basement. Jason is going to use his characters Wits faculty (3) and his characters Investigator aptitude (1), plus the action token he has committed to finding the character. This total is 5; Jason is worried this will not be enough to succeed. Jason decides his character will use extra effort and he commits two more action tokens to the task. These extra action tokens are added to his characters faculty plus aptitude total, bringing it up to 7:

Well return to the conflict where Jasons character is blocking the door and Kristas character wants to rush out. For purposes of this example, lets say that Jason did not anticipate this action, so he has no action tokens committed to stop her. Krista can use her characters Grace faculty and her Dancer aptitude to move by, but Jasons character may only use his Force faculty to resist her. Kristas total is 5 (Grace 3 plus Dancer 1 plus 1 action token) and Jasons is 2 (Force 2). Jason really wants to stop Kristas character from running away. Jason commits two action tokens in defense. His character may now also use his Brawler aptitude to stop Kristas character. He adds his Brawler (1) into the mix. His Force plus Brawler is still only 3, so he still fails:

Desperate Reactions
Often, as a defender you may not have the opportunity to allocate tokens to react to someone elses action in a conflict, such as when you are unaware of someone elses impending action or if you underestimate the threat of a particular event. In this case, only your passive defense is available. The active character must only overcome your characters faculty to succeed, rather than faculty plus aptitude. This can put your character in a very tough spot, but there is an option if you really need to defend your character in this situation.
Jason could also have decided to put some extra effort into his characters resistance. If he had, he would have spent one action token, and then he could have then committed extra action tokens to resist:

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Jasons character is confronted by a thug with a gun. The GM announces the mans goal is to kill Jasons character (or cause as much harm as the resolution of the situation will allow). Wanting to avoid this, Jason decides to go all in, committing all of his action tokens to an attempt to talk the man into putting the gun down:

With two extra action tokens, Jasons character would have exceeded Kristas total and successfully kept her character from slipping through the door.

Fatigue
All sorts of activities, be they mental or physical, cause people to become tired. Fatigue reflects a combination of factors: mental fatigue, physical exhaustion, emotional shock, aftereffects of adrenaline, strain from overextending oneself, etc. As note previously, if you reallocate one or more tokens during a conflict round, you suffer fatigue, and one reallocated token must be spent. Also, your character becomes fatigued if you commit all of your characters available pool of action tokens at once. Committing all of your tokens in this fashion is called going all in. After the conflict is complete, one of the action tokens committed is spent; the rest are brought back into the available pool as normal.

Jasons character successfully convinces his adversary to put the gun down and be reasonable! Now that the defensive action is over, Jason brings back all his committed action tokens but one, since he used his entire available pool in one action. The remaining action token is spent and he cannot recover it until later:

Jason views this as an action token well spent.

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Recovering Spent Action Tokens

Action tokens spent due to fatigue are recovered with rest. Your character can recover one of her spent tokens by doing something restful or rejuvenating for an hour or two, such as napping, relaxing in a bath, listening to music, or drinking a couple of beers.

Calling on Passions

Jasons character has been exerting himself, and currently has two spent action tokens:

During play, your character can call on one of her passions when performing some action. If the action has a direct and positive relationship to your characters passion (for example, she is attempting to help a person she loves, or to hide from something she fears), you may spend a passion token to gain a bonus on this action equal to the value of the passion called upon. Thus, if your character has passions valued at 1 and 4 points respectively, she will gain either a +1 or a +4, depending on which passion she calls upon. You must decide to use a passion and add it to your action total before the reveal. You can call on more than one passion in the same conflict round, but each action can be influenced by only one passion. You may call on the same passion more than once in a session, but each time you call on a passion, you must spend a passion token. When your initial pool of passion tokens is spent, your character can no longer call on her passions during that session.

He dozes in his car for an hour or so, and one of his action tokens returns to his pool: An expedition is being formed by the Royal Exploration Society of Calcutta. Dros character Blake has a Duty: I owe my father everything, and I will find Shangri-La for him. Blake enters a conflict with another character, Harold Grey, over who will lead the expedition. Blake uses his Wits plus Anthropologist against Harolds Wits plus Explorer. Blake has a total of 7 (Wits 3 and Anthropologist 3 plus an action token) and Harold has a total of 8 (Wits 4 and Explorer 3 plus an action token). Dro decided before the reveal that he would call on Blakes passion and spent a passion token to do so. This gives him a temporary bonus of +2 (the level of his passion), and he overmatches Harolds total of 8 for a success.

Action tokens spent due to harm may not be recovered by rest, but must be regained in the way specified by the particular type of harm (page 73).

If you choose to call on the same passion more than once, you are required to permanently increase the passions value by one. Your characters passions must always total 5, so you must choose a different passion to reduce in value whenever one of your passions 69

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increases in value. This does not change the number of tokens available for the current session, but if a passion is reduced to zero in this way, it could change the number of passion tokens available for the next session. You immediately gain the benefit of the new higher value for your passion.

Passions in Play
The higher ranked the passion, the more likely it is that some conflict involving it is going to occur. Characters with a one-point passion will end up involved in a conflict because of it on occasion, and characters with five points in a passion are unlikely to take any actions that do not directly relate to the passion. Passions are not static. They will rise and fall depending on how they are used and what is important to the character at the time. In short, passions are meant to reflect what the character feels right now. New passions can be added to your character if some event has taken place during play that you believe will change your characters passions. If you wish to add a new passion to your character, and the GM and the other players approve, you must spend a passion token and add the new passion to your sheet. Since characters may never have more than 5 points in passions at any time, you must reduce one of your characters other passions when adding a new one, to keep the total at five. This is the only way a new passion can be added to the character.

Later, Blake faces an insurrection among the sherpas assisting the expedition to Shangri-La. Blake again calls on his passion for a bonus, spending a passion token. This is the second time he has called on this passion in the session, and Blakes player Dro adjusts this passion to level 3, giving a +3 to Blakes action. Another passion must be permanently reduced for this to take effect, so Dro erases Blakes Hate: The shadow people took my mother.

Opposing a Passion
If your characters action directly opposes one of her passions (she is trying to face the object of her fear, or betray someone she loves), she must commit an extra action token just to perform the action. The GM can ask that you do this a number of times per session equal to your characters passion value (up to four times for a feverish passion, or two times for a profound passion, etc.).

A shadowy spirit is trying to get Blake to make a soul-risking deal for magical power, but Blake doesnt want to go along with it. The spirit tries to cajole him (Wits 3 plus Manipulator 3 plus one action token) for a total of 7, and Blake tries to resist (Will 2 plus Magician 4 plus one action token) for 7. They are evenly matched. The GM mentions Blakes passion of Fear: Ill never be the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Since turning down the spirits deal means turning down an increase in Blakes magical power, this negates Blakes attempt to resist (he only committed one action token to resist), unless he chooses to reallocate.

Kristas character has suffered terribly at the hands of a supporting character, and Krista decides that she needs to reallocate some passions to reflect the new emotion rising from the event. She tells the group that she wishes to create a new passion, a strong Hate: Adam Voorhees must die (1 point). Because of the game events leading to this change, everyone else agrees that the new passion makes sense. Krista adjusts her character sheet accordingly, and reduces another passion by one point.

Recovering Spent Passion Tokens

Passion tokens are refreshed at the beginning of every session, up to the number of passions your character possesses when the session begins. This can change from session to session, as passions are lost or added. 71

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Action Resolution

Harm
Some conflicts will cause mental or physical damage to your character if she fails. In other conflicts, her goal may be to cause harm another character. Physical conflict can result in harm to the character, but characters suffer harm from mental assaults as well, which cause them to be shaken, demoralized, or suffer a complete breakdown. The degree of success or failure in the conflict in question should be the primary guide to the level of harm caused or suffered. The players and the GM should decide together which possible harm result makes the most sense based on the current action, keeping in mind the stakes set for the conflict. Abject failure can result in serious wounds, maiming, or even death for the character harmed. Complete failure generally means a light or serious wound, but could possibly result in maiming if the stakes of the conflict are high enough. Near success or qualified success generally indicates a scratch or light wound.

When your character must test his abilities in order to resolve an action, you compare your characters combined faculty and aptitude total plus adjustments from tokens spent against your opponents total. If your total is greater, your character succeeds. If your total is less, your character fails. If both totals are equal, both characters achieve either a costly or a partial success. The difference between your characters faculty plus aptitude and your opponents determines the degree of success or failure as detailed below. 5 or more: Abject failure. Your characters efforts are completely fruitless, and she must suffer the greatest harm that can come to her as a result. 3 or 4: Complete failure. Your character does not succeed, and must deal with any consequences of failure. 1 or 2: Near success. Your character fails this time, but sees how she could succeed with another attempt. Whether she has the opportunity and tokens for another attempt is a different issue. 0: Qualified success. Your character succeeds, but poorly. There is something wrong with the way she has succeeded perhaps interfering with another action, succeeding by injuring herself, etc. In an opposed conflict, both characters succeed, but the outcome will be less than satisfactory for both. +1 or +2: Success. Your character succeeds, albeit not in any spectacular fashion. The task is done. +3 or +4: Complete success. Your character thoroughly succeeds, achieving something a bit beyond what she might have been intending to do. +5 or more: Spectacular success. Your character nails the task beyond what might be normally expected. Additional beneficial side effects related to the success of the task may (and most like should) occur.

You must consider character death very carefully before choosing that result. As in popular fiction, an important character in Mortal Coil does not die unless it serves the story. Characters can die to establish whats worth dying for, to escalate the conflict, or to make a final statement. Both player characters and supporting characters serve these purposes when they die. A supporting character will sometimes be killed by a player character, and in this case, the player is the one shaping the story with this death. When player characters die, this is generally decided by both the player and the GM together.

Harm Effects
Your character may suffer damage effects multiple times, but only the effect for their specific level of harm is suffered. For example, if your character suffers a light wound result twice, you must spend two action tokens, one for each light wound. 73

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Scratched/Shaken: Your character must immediately spend an action token because of the injury. The token can only be regained with medical attention (first aid) or some other outside intervention (a pep talk in the case of mental harm, for example). Unlike other harm effects, additional scratches after the first do not force your character to spend more action tokens; once a scratch is healed, though, your character must again spend an action token if he receives another scratch.

Jasons character fights with an assailant in a dark basement. He gets the worst of the conflict, ending with a complete failure result (-3). After grappling with him, the attacker strikes Jasons character in the arm with a board. This stuns him with pain, long enough for the assailant to escape. The GM and Jason agree that this should be a light wound, resulting in a spent action token:

Lightly Wounded/Demoralized: Your character must immediately spend an action token because of the injury. Each subsequent light wound requires your character to spend another action token. The tokens can only be regained with several days of recovery (after medical attention is received in the case of physical harm). Seriously wounded/Anguished: Your character must immediately spend two action tokens because of the injury. Subsequent serious wounds require your character to spend another two action tokens. The tokens can only be regained with weeks or months of physical or mental therapy. Maimed/Broken: Your character must reduce one of his faculties permanently by one because of the injury. Your character must do this every time he is maimed or mentally broken. This is permanent harm; points lost in this way are not recoverable unless they are bought back with power tokens (see page 84). Killed: Your character is dead. This result can come about in a non-physical conflict as well, but in such a case your character will usually have been driven to suicide. Note that immortal characters cannot be killed under ordinary circumstances. For these characters, the maximum result is typically maimed.
Meanwhile, Kristas character was waiting upstairs, and the assailant rushes up and into the room where she is waiting. Having heard the scuffle downstairs, she fires her gun at the escaping assailant. Since the assailant was unaware of her presence and she was quite close to him, she succeeds by a large margin (spectacular success, +5). The GM isnt ready to kill off this supporting character, so the group decides that the gunshot resulted in a serious wound. The attacker must immediately spend two action tokens:

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Helping
Many times, you will want to assist another player in a conflict. In this case, resolve your actions before those of the character you are helping. Your margin of success or failure will give the other character a bonus or penalty to his own action. If your helping character is successful, the target character gains a +1 to his action. A complete success grants the target character a +2, and a spectacular success a +3. On the other hand, failure will hinder the other character. Near success gives that character a 1 to his action, complete failure a 2, and abject failure a 3.

character a +1. These bonuses are determined on a case-bycase basis, according to the best judgment of the GM and players involved. Other circumstances can affect item use. For example, firing a handgun beyond about 30 feet could be considered to reduce the bonus, and if the shooter, the target, or both are moving, the bonus could also be reduced.

Russells character is trying to grab an artifact up off the floor. The GMs supporting villain has the goal of getting to the artifact first, so Keith decides to try to help Russell by having his character hold or trip the villain before he can do this. Since the question of which character reaches the artifact will be affected by the results of Keiths actions, Keith resolves his action first. The final result of his action is a complete success. As such, when Russell tries to grab the artifact he will gain a +2 to his action.

Kristas character is firing her gun at Jasons assailant. She is using her Grace (3) but has no appropriate aptitude. The fleeing supporting character has no defense, so he uses his Force alone to resist (2). Since a handgun is designed to shoot people, it adds+2 to her total, bringing it up to 6 with her action token. That should do it. When the attacker was using the board in the basement against Jasons character, this item was far less suited to the task at hand, but still gave some kind of advantage. The supporting character only gained a +1 in that conflict.

Item Effects

Some items will add to your characters ability to succeed in actions. These bonuses are added to your characters faculty plus aptitude total to determine the success or failure of an action. When using the item, your character will gain a bonus based on how relevant the item is to the conflict in which it is being used. Like other judgment calls of this nature, the players and the GM should discuss if there is any disagreement. Items that are used for the precise purpose they were designed give your character a +2 bonus to the action using the item. Items that were not designed for the use to which they are put, but could be used for the action without any awkward problems, give your

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Summary
Conflict Any situation where the outcome is in doubt and is essential to the story is a conflict. Stakes state the results of success or failure in a conflict. When all actions are resolved and the outcome is not clear, a new round of actions is called for. Actions Compare one characters faculty + aptitude against another characters faculty + aptitude. The highest total succeeds. Each action in a round must use a different faculty. You cannot direct one action at more than one character. Action tokens committed to an action add to the faculty+aptitude total. Commitment of tokens is noted secretly, then revealed by all at the same time. Power tokens may be added to an action after the reveal. Going all-in and committing all action tokens causes one of the tokens to be spent. Action tokens spent due to fatigue may be recovered by rest. Reallocating Tokens Players can reallocate tokens from one one action to another once per round. One of the reallocated tokens must be spent. Passions Players may call on a passion in a conflict by spending a passion token. Passions give a bonus equal to the passion rank. Each action can be influenced by only one passion. If a passion is used more than once in a session, it must increase in rank by one point. Another passion must be reduced by one. If a character goes against a passion, he must spend an extra action token just to perform the action. 78

To add a new passion, spend a passion token and note a new 1-point passion on the sheet. Another passion must be reduced by one to add the new passion. Characters recover all passion tokens between sessions.

Conflict Resolution The difference between totals in a conflict determines success or failure: 5 or more: abject failure. 3 or 4: complete failure. 1 or 2: near success. 0: qualified success. +1 or +2: success. +3 or +4: complete success. +5 or more: spectacular success. Harm Harm can be suffered by the loser of a conflict. Degree of success or failure determines level of harm: Abject failure: serious wounds, maiming, or even death. Complete failure: light or serious wounds, possibly maiming. Near success or qualified success: scratch or light wound. Types of harm and their effects: Scratched/Shaken: immediately spend an action token. Additional scratches after the first do not force the character to spend an additional token. Lightly Wounded/Demoralized: immediately spend an action token. Seriously Wounded/Anguished: immediately spend two action tokens. Maimed/Broken: permanently reduce a faculty by one. Killed: the character is dead. Helping The helping characters margin of success adds to another characters action: Success: +1 to the other character. Complete Success: +2 to the other character. 79

Spectacular Success: +3 to the other character. Near Success: 1 to the other character. Complete Failure: 2 to the other character. Abject Failure: 3 to the other character.

Items Items grant a bonus when used for an action: +2 if used on the specific task for which it was designed. +1 if used on a task it was not designed for, but that it could still serve to perform.

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Power tokens are special tokens that can be used to get a little something extra in various circumstances during game play. They can also be used to add new details to your character, take brief authorial control of the game and bring in the elements you desire to a scene, or even raise your magic token total.

Power Tokens

Unlike standard action tokens, power tokens may be sacrificed for use as action tokens after an action is revealed in order to change the outcome of that conflict. When used in this way, the changed outcome should be described in a way that incorporates chance. The power token represents luck when used like this, and the result of the action will reflect some lucky break that your character has had thanks to the expenditure.

Power tokens are always sacrificed. They do not regenerate, but new ones are periodically awarded during play. Sacrificing power tokens grants certain benefits, as described below.

Replacing Action Tokens

A power token can be sacrificed to take the place of an action token that you would otherwise be committing or spending. The result of the action is determined as if the power token were an action token; the action token for which you have substituted the power token is not committed or spent. A power token can also be sacrificed to be used as an action token if you have no action tokens left in your pool. Each power token sacrificed in this way acts as a single action token. The one exception to this rule is this: You can never use a power token to take the place of an action token that is being sacrificed.

Neither character in the above example succeeds, but Krista really wants her character to get past Jasons. After the tokens are revealed, she decides to sacrifice a power token to reach a total of 11 and gain a success. She describes how her character slips just as she reaches the door, and her stumble causes Jasons character to miss her by inches with his grab.

Replacing Magic Tokens

A power token can also be sacrificed in order to take the place of a magic token that you would otherwise be spending. The supernatural event is activated; the magic token for which you have substituted the power token is not spent. A power token can be sacrificed to be used as a magic token even if you have no magic tokens left in your pool. Each power token sacrificed in this way acts as a single magic token. Just as with power tokens spent to become action tokens, you can never use a power token to take the place of a magic token that is being sacrificed.

Kristas character is rushing out of the door, but Jasons character wishes to grab and hold her. Both players go all in. Kristas total is 10 (Grace 3 plus Dancer 1 plus 6 action tokens) and Jasons total is 10 (Grace 2 plus Brawler 1 plus 7 action tokens). Jason decides to sacrifice a power token rather than suffer fatigue, so his total becomes Grace 2 plus Brawler 1 plus 6 action tokens plus 1 power token.

Jason wants his character to use his magical jewelers loupe. He is running low on magic tokens, so he decides to sacrifice a power token instead of spending a magic token.

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Changing a Character
Power tokens can be sacrificed to change your characters faculties or aptitudes. These are permanent adjustments to your character and can be made at any time, with the agreement of the other players in the group. Aptitudes may be permanently raised one point by sacrificing a number of power tokens equal to the new aptitude level. Aptitudes can be raised to a maximum score of five. Faculties may be permanently raised one point by sacrificing five power tokens. Faculties can be raised to a maximum score of five. Aptitudes may be improved any number of times, limited by the maximum rank and by available power tokens. Changes to faculties are restricted depending on the starting power level of the character. Novices may change each of their four faculties only once. Veterans may change only three faculties during the course of a game. Ancient characters may only change one faculty, and ancient characters may not change their faculties at all. Generally, such a use of a power token should represent some fundamental change to your character that has occurred in the course of a scene or several scenes. The only exception to the rule governing faculty increases is when your character has suffered maimed or broken harm. In this case, you can spend five power tokens to restore the affected faculty to its previous level, even if the rules would normally prevent this.

Later, Krista realizes that her character has been using her Will faculty a great deal, resisting vampires and facing down adversaries. She tells the group she wants to raise her Will to reflect the workout Lucy has been getting. Luckily, she has earned a lot of power tokens this session. She sacrifices five power tokens to raise her Will to 3.

Gaining New Magic Tokens

Power tokens can be sacrificed in order to gain new magic tokens. The cost for buying new magic tokens depends on the magic level of the game. Low magic: Sacrificing four power tokens earns you one additional magic token. Moderate magic: Sacrificing either two or three power tokens earns you one additional magic token. Which of these levels applies should be set at the beginning of play, when crafting the theme document. High magic: You can convert power tokens into magic tokens on a one-for-one basis.

The GM gains one or more new magic tokens whenever a player purchases one. In low to medium magic settings, the GM only gets one additional magic token when a player purchases one. If the players have chosen the high magic setting, the GM gets two additional magic tokens whenever a player purchases one.

Krista has sacrificed most of her starting pool of magic tokens. She decides she is running too low on magic tokens, and sacrifices three power tokens she has saved to gain a new one. Bills character is a leprechaun. His character and the other player characters are about to get into a rumble with a bunch of rude dwarfs. As the scene begins, Bill realizes that he never gave his character any fighting ability. He tells the group that he thinks his leprechaun should have some skill with a shillelagh, and the group agrees. He sacrifices a power token to create the aptitude at rank 1. Since this is a moderate level magic game, the GM gains an additional magic token as well.

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Taking Control
Power tokens have another use. Spending a power token allows you to briefly act as the GM in your scene. This is very similar to adding a fact to the theme document, only in this case you are adding a non-magical fact to the current scene, as it is happening. You can sacrifice a power token to introduce a new character or situation to the scene, such as having the police suddenly arrive, or having a supporting character the GM mentioned earlier show up. How much leeway a player has when spending a power token is up to your own group, and the same rules that apply to adding magical facts apply here as well. If a player has an objection, the situation should be discussed and possibly adjusted as needed.

Power Token Awards

During play, the GM and other players will award characters with power tokens. A pool of power tokens equal to twice the number of players at the table (including the GM) should be placed in the center of the play area. During play, when you bring in your passions, perform an especially interesting or innovative action, or create atmosphere for the game in a really evocative way, any other person at the table can nominate you to receive a power token. If the group agrees, the power token is awarded to you immediately and you can use it whenever you see fit. When you act in a scene in an especially effective way, take a course of action that seems particularly appropriate for your character, create a description that really brings life to the game world, or perform some task in a spectacular fashion, you should be considered for a power token award. Passions are key in determining if a token is warranted. If you convincingly portray your characters passion, a power token should always be awarded. Your group will come to a consensus over time regarding what deserves to be rewarded with a power token. This will differ from group to group and game to game, but after a session or two, it will be pretty clear what everyone in the game feels should be rewarded with power tokens. Nearly all players should get at least one power token each session. Awarding more than three to a single player in a session will probably be rare. If tokens remain in the pool at the end of the session, they are carried over to the next session and added to the regular starting pool. Power tokens shouldnt build up! Make sure they are awarded.

In a scene in a bar, Keiths character has opened fire with his gun. Russell thinks this is going to attract the wrong kind of attention, and sacrifices a power token, announcing that the gunfire has been reported and the police are on their way.

The GMs Power Pool

The GM starts each session with a pool of power tokens. The GMs pool of power tokens is equal to two tokens for each player in the game (including the GM herself), plus two additional tokens for each ancient or ageless player character in the game. This pool refreshes at the beginning of each session; the GM is never awarded power tokens during play.

There are four players in the game, plus the GM. One is ancient, and the rest are veterans or novices. The GM starts with two power tokens for each player including herself, plus two tokens for the ancient character, giving her a total of 12 power tokens.

Krista invokes her characters passion and knocks an adversary out of the way, saving her friends life. Jason suggests she get a power token for this, and everyone agrees. She takes a token from the award pool and adds it to her own.

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Summary
Power Tokens Power tokens are always sacrificed. A power token can take the place of a committed or spent action token. A power token can take the place of a spent magic token. Changing a Character Aptitudes may be raised by one point by sacrificing power tokens equal to the new aptitude level. Aptitudes may be raised to a maximum score of five. Aptitudes may be improved any number of times. Faculties may be raised by one point by sacrificing 5 power tokens. Faculties may be raised to a maximum score of five. Changes to faculties depend on starting character level: Novice: may raise each of the four faculties by one. Veteran: may raise up to three faculties by one. Ancient: may raise one faculty by one. Ageless: may not change faculties. When a character has suffered maimed or broken harm, the player may spend power tokens to restore the faculty, regardless of the above restrictions. Buying Magic Tokens New magic tokens must be bought with power tokens: Low magic: 1 magic token = 4 power tokens. Moderate magic: 1 magic token = 2 or 3 power tokens. High magic: 1 magic token = 1 power token. The GM gains a new magic token whenever a player purchases one. In a high magic setting, the GM gains 2 each time a player purchases one. Session Power Pools The GM starts each session with 2 tokens/player, +2/ageless or ancient character. Main power pool is equal to 2x the number of players + GM. 88 89

Still there drips in sleep against the heart grief of memory; against our pleasure we are temperate. From the gods who sit in grandeur grace comes somehow violent.
~ Aeschylus

Abject Failure; 72 Action Pool; 38 Action Resolution; 72 Action Tokens; 13 Committing; 61 Reallocating; 63 Recovering; 68 Actions; 59 All In; 66 Degree of Success/Failure; 72 Desperate Reactions; 64 Extra Effort; 63 Harm; 73 Harm Effects; 73 Helping; 76 Reallocating; 63 Resolution; 72 Reveal; 60, 63 Unresisted; 61 Ageless; 32 All In; 66 Ancient; 32 Aptitudes; 34 Level; 35 Starting; 36 Supernatural; 37 Basic Actions; 59 Calling On Passions; 69 Changing a Character; 84 Committing Tokens; 14 Complete Failure; 72 Complete Success; 72 Conflict; 56 Actions; 59 Multiple Sides; 58 Reveal; 60, 63 Rounds; 58 Setting Stakes; 57 90

Degree of Success/Failure; 72 Abject Failure; 72 Complete Failure; 72 Complete Success; 72 Near Success; 72 Partial Success; 72 Spectacular Success; 72 Success; 72 Desperate Reactions; 64 Duty; 29 Extra Effort; 63 Facts; 46, 48 Price; 47 Faculties; 32 Force; 33 Grace; 33 Level; 33 Starting; 33 Will; 33 Wits; 33 Fatigue; 66 Fear; 29 Force; 33 GM (Game Moderator); 10 GMs Power Pool; 86 Grace; 33 Harm; 73 Harm Effects; 73 Killed; 74 Lightly Wounded/Demoralized; 74 Maimed/Broken; 74 Scratched/Shaken; 74 Seriously Wounded/Anguished; 74 Hate; 29 Helping; 76 High Magic; 23, 39 Items; 76

Supernatural; 50 Killed; 74 Lightly Wounded/Demoralized; 74 Love; 30 Low Magic; 23, 39 Magic Level; 23 High Magic; 23, 39 Low Magic; 23, 39 Moderate Magic; 23, 39 Magic Pool; 39 Magic Tokens; 13, 46 Gaining New; 51 Recovery; 50 Magical Facts; 46 Magical Price; 47 Maimed/Broken; 74 Moderate Magic; 23, 39 Near Success; 72 Novice; 31 Partial Success; 72 Passion Pool; 38 Passion Tokens; 13 Recovering; 71 Passions; 13, 28 Calling On; 69 Duty; 29 Fear; 29 Hate; 29 In Play; 71 Love; 30 New; 71 Opposing; 70 Starting; 30 Power Pool; 38 GMs Power Pool; 86 Power Tokens; 13, 82 Awards; 87 Changing a Character; 84 91

Gaining New Magic Tokens; 85 Replacing Action Tokens; 82 Replacing Magic Tokens; 83 Taking Control; 86 Price; 47 Bonus/Penalty; 49 Conflict Trigger; 49 Reallocating Tokens; 63 Reveal; 60, 63 Sacrificing Tokens; 17 Scene Framing; 11 Scratched/Shaken; 74 Seriously Wounded/Anguished; 74 Setting; 21 Setting Stakes; 57 Situation; 24 Spectacular Success; 72 Spending Tokens; 15 Starting Ability; 31 Ageless; 32 Ancient; 32 Novice; 31 Veteran; 32 Starting Aptitudes; 36 Starting Faculties; 33 Starting Passions; 30 Starting Pools; 38 Action; 38 Magic; 39 Passion; 38 Power; 38 Success; 72 The Supernatural; 22 Supernatural Aptitudes; 37 Supernatural Items; 50 Supporting Characters; 40 Building; 40

Theme; 20 Magic Level; 23 Setting; 21 Situation; 24 The Supernatural; 22 Tone; 20 Villains; 25 Theme Document; 20 Threshold of Credibility; 11, 46 Tokens; 13 Action; 13 Committing; 14 Magic; 13 Passion; 13 Power; 13 Sacrificing; 17 Spending; 15 Using; 14 Tone; 20 Using Tokens; 14 Veteran; 32 Villains; 25 Will; 33 Wits; 33

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