Basic Moves

These are the Moves chapter — starting with the basic moves every Student shares. They rely on your mundane attributes. When a player describes an action that fits a trigger, they roll.

Magic, playbook, and learnable moves sit beside this note in the sidebar. Keep the lists open at the table; jump to a single move from the sections below.

Force Your Way

A Basic Move. Available to all Students.

When you use raw physical power to smash, lift, grapple, or overcome an obstacle, roll +Physical.

  • 10+: You do it, and you're in a dominant position or break it cleanly.
  • 7-9: You do it, but choose one:
  • You break something else in the process (collateral damage).
  • You take a physical Wound from the strain or counterattack.
  • You leave yourself exposed.

Strike in Combat

A Basic Move. Available to all Students.

When you engage an enemy in non-magical, physical combat, roll +Physical.

  • 10+: You strike true. Deal your damage, and choose one:
  • You evade their reprisal.
  • You put them in a bad spot.
  • You deal +1 damage.
  • 7-9: You strike true and deal your damage, but the enemy hits you back or inflicts a condition.

Defend

A Basic Move. Available to all Students.

When you put yourself in danger to protect yourself or an ally from an incoming attack, roll +Physical or +Mental (if tactical).

  • 10+: You successfully mitigate the danger. Halve the incoming damage or completely avoid a condition.
  • 7-9: You mitigate the danger, but choose one:
  • You take the brunt of the attack instead of your ally.
  • You lose your footing or positioning.
  • You drop an item.

Perceive and Investigate

A Basic Move. Available to all Students.

When you closely study a person, place, or situation, roll +Mental.

  • 10+: You gain a clear insight. Ask the GM 2 questions from the list below. You take +1 forward when acting on the answers.
  • 7-9: Ask the GM 1 question from the list.
  • 6-: You deduce incorrectly, or your investigation draws unwanted attention.

Questions:

  • What here is not what it appears to be?
  • What happened here recently?
  • What is the greatest danger or opportunity?
  • Who is truly in control here?

Manipulate and Provoke

A Basic Move. Available to all Students.

When you have leverage and use it to charm, bribe, or threaten an NPC, roll +Social.

  • 10+: They do what you ask, provided you follow through with your end of the bargain.
  • 7-9: They will do it, but they need a concrete assurance or a significant concession first.
  • 6-: They are offended, report you, or demand the impossible.

Recall Knowledge

A Basic Move. Available to all Students.

When you consult your academic knowledge regarding history, science, or beasts, roll +Mental.

  • 10+: The GM tells you something interesting, useful, and directly applicable.
  • 7-9: The GM tells you something interesting, but it's incomplete or comes with a catch.

Craft an Item

A Basic Move. Available to all Students.

When you spend 1 Time Slot and basic materials to forge, build, or tinker with a mundane item, state what you are trying to make and roll. (Roll + Mental)

  • 10+ (Strong Hit): You work efficiently. Gain 2 Progress points toward the project's Complexity.
  • 7-9 (Mixed Success): The work is hard going. Gain 1 Progress point, but the GM will offer you a complication (e.g., you consume extra materials, the project is fragile, or it draws unwanted attention).
  • 6- (Miss): Fails to advance. The Time Slot is spent, the materials may be wasted, and the GM makes a Hard Move.

Resist Erosion

A Basic Move. Available to all characters.

When you face trauma, atrocity, or an assault on your mind — and you choose to hold yourself together — roll:

  • +Memory if you resist by anchoring: recalling who you are, the faces you love, the reasons you endure.
  • +Willpower if you resist by defiance: refusing to break, gritting through, pushing the horror away by force of intent.

The player chooses which attribute fits how their character fights back in the fiction.

  • 10+: You steel your mind. No ill effects — the moment passes.
  • 7-9: You are shaken. The GM offers you a choice: take 1 permanent Sanity damage, or take a temporary condition (Paranoia, Tremors, etc.) that lasts until the end of the quest.
  • 6-: The horror breaks you. Lose 1 permanent Sanity, and the GM makes a Hard Move concerning your mental state.

At 0 Sanity, your character becomes a Hollow.

See also: Sanity, Sanity & Morality, Soul Integrity.