The master rule book

How Wildcrest is played

Every attribute and mechanic, written out in full — the six abilities, checks and difficulty, turns and actions, attacks and armour, harm and dying, conditions, gear, magic, standing and the crossing of the land.

The basics

How play works

A Dream Reader describes the world, the players say what their characters do, and the dice settle whatever is uncertain.

Wildcrest is played in scenes. The Dream Reader sets one — a rain-soaked toll road, a countinghouse in Catonath — and the players answer with what their characters attempt. Most of what a character does simply happens. When the outcome is genuinely in doubt, or when failure would cost something, the Dream Reader calls for a roll: a twenty-sided die plus the right bonus, measured against a difficulty. Nothing at a Wildcrest table is decided by the rules alone; the rules only settle the parts nobody can agree on.

At the table

The Dream Reader describes the scene and what the characters can see.
A player says what their character tries to do, in plain words.
If the outcome is certain, it simply happens.
If it is uncertain, roll a d20, add the fitting bonus, and compare it against the difficulty the Dream Reader sets.
The Dream Reader describes what follows, and the scene moves on.

Numbers at a glance

Die used for almost everything — d20
Easy task — difficulty 10
Ordinary task — difficulty 15
Hard task — difficulty 20
Near impossible — difficulty 25 or more

Examples

Walking across a courtyard needs no roll. Walking across it unseen, in daylight, with a Sirinov patrol at the gate, needs a Stealth check.

Read alongside: Checks and difficulty · Degrees of success

“The dice are only asked when the world has not already answered.”

The basics

Making a character

A character is a people, a starting city, a former life, a calling and six ability scores — chosen in that order.

Every character begins as a young adult between eighteen and twenty-two, on the edge of leaving home. You choose the people you were born to, the settlement you were raised in, the life you led before play, and the calling you have taken up. Each of these grants something: ability leanings, trained skills, gear you already carry, and standing with the powers of Wildcrest, for good or ill. Last you set your six abilities, spending from a shared pool of points.

At the table

Choose your people. It sets ability leanings, a knack and the standing your name already carries.
Choose your starting settlement. Where you were raised grants a perk and its own standing.
Choose the life you led before play. It trains skills and puts gear in your hands.
Choose your calling. It sets your wound die, your strong defences and your signature turn.
Spend your ability points.
Pick skills and any feat your calling allows, then write down what you carry.

Numbers at a glance

Starting age — 18 to 22
Starting level — 1
Ability points to spend — 20

Read alongside: The six abilities · Spending ability points · Standing

“Nobody in Wildcrest is born a hero. They are born somewhere, to someone, owing something.”

The basics

Safety at the table

Wildcrest holds hard themes. Anyone may call a pause, at any time, without explaining themselves.

Pastoral horror only works when the table is willing. Before a scene turns grim, the Dream Reader checks that everyone is happy to go there, and any player may say no or ask to move past it. A pause needs no reason and costs nothing. Words spoken in a scene can be flagged privately for the Dream Reader, and a Dream Reader may remove anyone from their table.

At the table

Agree at the outset what the table does not want in play.
Check in before a scene turns grim.
Call a pause when you need one — no reason required.
Flag anything that crossed a line for the Dream Reader to weigh.

Read alongside: How play works

Attributes

The six abilities

Might, Guile, Endurance, Wits, Attunement and Presence describe everything a character is made of.

Each ability is a score, usually between 8 and 18 at the start of play. What matters in play is not the score but its modifier: subtract 10, halve the result, and round down. A score of 10 or 11 gives no modifier at all; 18 gives +4; 8 gives −1. Every roll in the game leans on one of the six.

At the table

Read the score.
Subtract 10, halve it, round down — that is the modifier.
Add that modifier to any roll the ability governs.

Numbers at a glance

Might (MGT) — Melee damage, carrying, forcing doors.
Guile (GUI) — Armour class, initiative, ranged attacks.
Endurance (END) — Hit points and fortitude saves.
Wits (WIT) — Skill ranks, lore, glyph theory.
Attunement (ATT) — Perception, will saves, spirit rapport.
Presence (PRE) — Court presence, bargaining, oath-binding.
Modifier — (score − 10) halved, rounded down
Score 8 gives −1 · 10 gives +0 · 14 gives +2 · 18 gives +4

Examples

Endurance 15 gives +2, so a character with a d8 wound die gains 10 hit points at first level.

Read alongside: Spending ability points · Checks and difficulty

Attributes

Spending ability points

A shared pool of 20 points buys your six ability scores. Taking a weakness refunds points to spend elsewhere.

Every ability begins at 10. Raising one costs points from a pool of 20, and the cost climbs steeply at the top end — the last step from 17 to 18 costs four points on its own. Dropping an ability to 9 or 8 refunds points, so a character may be formidable in one thing by accepting a real weakness in another. No score may begin below 8 or above 18, before the leanings of your people and your former life are applied.

At the table

Start every ability at 10.
Raise the abilities your calling leans on, paying the cost shown.
Drop one or two to 9 or 8 if you want the points back.
Spend the pool to the last point — unspent points are wasted.
Apply the leanings from your people and your former life afterwards.

Numbers at a glance

Pool — 20 points
Floor — 8
Ceiling — 18
Score 8 — refunds 2 points
Score 9 — refunds 1 points
Score 10 — free
Score 11 — 1 points
Score 12 — 2 points
Score 13 — 3 points
Score 14 — 5 points
Score 15 — 7 points
Score 16 — 10 points
Score 17 — 13 points
Score 18 — 17 points

Examples

16 Might (10 points), 14 Endurance (5), 12 Guile (2), 11 Wits (1), 10 Attunement (0), 10 Presence (0) spends 18 of 20 — two points remain for another step.

Read alongside: The six abilities

Skills and checks

Checks and difficulty

Roll a d20, add the ability modifier and any ranks, and meet or beat the difficulty.

A check is a d20 plus the governing ability's modifier, plus any ranks you hold in the skill, plus whatever the situation grants or costs you. Meet the difficulty and you succeed; fall short and you do not. The Dream Reader sets the difficulty before the die is rolled and says out loud what failure will cost, so nobody rolls blind.

At the table

Name what you are trying to do.
The Dream Reader names the difficulty and the price of failure.
Roll a d20 and add your modifier, your ranks and any bonuses in play.
Compare the total with the difficulty.

Numbers at a glance

Total — d20 + ability modifier + ranks + situation
Trained help from an ally — +2
Working in bad light, haste or fear — usually −2

Examples

Guile +3 with two ranks of Stealth rolls d20+5 against a watchman's Perception.

Read alongside: Skills · Degrees of success · Defences and saving throws

Skills and checks

Skills

Eighteen skills cover the practical trades of Wildcrest. Ranks in a skill add to its checks.

Each skill leans on one ability and gains from the ranks you put into it. Your calling names the skills it counts as its own, and your former life trains a few outright. Skills marked as hampered are penalised by heavy armour, because you cannot tumble or pick a lock in a breastplate.

At the table

Find the skill that fits what you are doing.
Add its ability modifier and your ranks.
Subtract your armour's penalty if the skill is hampered.

Numbers at a glance

Acrobatics — Guile, hampered by heavy armour
Appraise — Wits
Athletics — Might, hampered by heavy armour
Craft — Wits
Deception — Presence
Diplomacy — Presence
Disable Device — Guile, hampered by heavy armour
Healing — Attunement
Intimidation — Presence
Lore — Wits
Perception — Attunement
Performance — Presence
Ride — Guile, hampered by heavy armour
Sense Motive — Attunement
Sleight of Hand — Guile, hampered by heavy armour
Spellcraft — Wits
Stealth — Guile, hampered by heavy armour
Survival — Attunement

Read alongside: Checks and difficulty · Armour and armour class

Skills and checks

Degrees of success

Beating a difficulty by ten does more; missing it by ten does worse. A natural 20 or 1 shifts the result one step.

Most rolls settle into four results. Beat the difficulty by ten or more and you critically succeed — the deed is done handsomely, or a blow lands for double harm. Meet it and you succeed. Miss it and you fail. Miss it by ten or more and you critically fail, and something goes wrong beyond simply not working. A natural 20 improves whatever you rolled by one step; a natural 1 worsens it by one.

At the table

Compare your total with the difficulty.
Ten or more above — critical success. Equal or above — success. Below — failure. Ten or more below — critical failure.
Then shift one step better on a natural 20, or one step worse on a natural 1.

Numbers at a glance

Critical success — difficulty + 10 or more
Success — meets the difficulty
Failure — under the difficulty
Critical failure — difficulty − 10 or less
Natural 20 — one step better · Natural 1 — one step worse
Critical hit in a fight — double the harm rolled

Examples

Rolling 24 against difficulty 15 beats it by nine — an ordinary success, not a critical one.

Read alongside: Checks and difficulty · Attacks and harm

Combat

The turn order

When a fight begins everyone rolls a Guile-based initiative, and the round runs from highest to lowest.

The Dream Reader calls for initiative the moment blades are drawn. Each figure rolls a d20 and adds their Guile modifier; the highest acts first and the order holds for the whole fight. A round is one pass through every figure, and each figure has three actions to spend on their turn. Reactions sit outside the order entirely: you hold one, and it refreshes at the start of each round.

At the table

Everyone rolls d20 plus Guile.
Sort the figures from highest to lowest.
Each figure takes their turn, spending up to three actions.
When the last figure has acted the round ends, reactions refresh, and the order begins again.

Numbers at a glance

Initiative — d20 + Guile
Actions each turn — 3
Reactions each round — 1
Step without drawing a strike — 1 action, 5 feet

Read alongside: Actions and reactions · Attacks and harm

Combat

Actions and reactions

Three actions a turn, spent as you like, plus one reaction that waits for its trigger.

Almost everything costs one action: a strike, a stride, raising a shield, drawing a blade, opening a door. Some things cost two or three, and a few cost none at all. Repeated strikes in the same turn grow wilder — the second suffers a penalty and the third a steeper one. Your single reaction is spent only when its trigger fires, usually on somebody else's turn, and it returns to you at the start of the next round.

At the table

Spend your three actions in whatever order you please.
Take the penalty for each strike after the first.
Keep your reaction until its trigger comes to pass.
Reactions refresh at the start of each round, spent or not.

Numbers at a glance

Second strike in a turn — −5
Third strike in a turn — −10
Agile weapons — −4 and −8 instead
Reactive Strike — triggered when a foe in reach moves, fiddles, or leaves your reach
Shield Block — requires a raised shield
Ready — costs two actions, then fires on its named trigger

Examples

Stride, Strike, Strike: the first strike is at full bonus, the second at −5.

Read alongside: The turn order · Attacks and harm

Combat

Attacks and harm

An attack roll against armour class; on a hit, roll the weapon's harm and add the fitting ability.

Roll a d20, add your attack bonus, and compare it with the target's armour class. Meet or beat it and you hit: roll the weapon's harm die and add Might for a melee weapon, or the weapon's own bonus for a bow. Beat the armour class by ten or more and the blow is a critical hit, doubling the harm. Harm comes off hit points, and a figure brought to nothing begins dying.

At the table

Roll d20 and add your attack bonus, including any penalty for repeated strikes.
Compare it with the target's armour class.
On a hit, roll the harm die and add the fitting modifier.
On a critical hit, double the harm rolled.
Take the harm off the target's hit points.

Numbers at a glance

Attack — d20 + attack bonus vs armour class
Critical hit — armour class + 10, or a natural 20 on a hit
Melee harm — weapon die + Might
Flanked or off-guard target — armour class −2

Examples

A longsword hit rolls d8 harm and adds Might; a critical hit rolls it and doubles the total.

Read alongside: Armour and armour class · Degrees of success · Dying and death

Harm and recovery

Armour and armour class

Armour class is 10 plus your Guile, plus what you wear. Heavier armour caps the Guile it will let through.

Armour class begins at 10 and rises with your Guile modifier and the armour you wear. Every suit names the most Guile it will let through — a breastplate protects you well but does not care how nimble you are. Heavy armour also penalises the hampered skills and, at the heaviest, slows you down. A raised shield adds its own bonus for as long as you hold it up.

At the table

Begin at 10.
Add your Guile modifier, up to the cap your armour allows.
Add the armour's bonus, and a shield's if it is raised.
Apply the armour's penalty to hampered skills.

Numbers at a glance

Armour class — 10 + Guile (capped) + armour + shield
No armour — no cap, no penalty
Padded jerkin — +1 armour class, Guile capped at +8
Leather — +2 armour class, Guile capped at +6
Studded leather — +3 armour class, Guile capped at +5, -1 on hampered skills
Chain shirt — +4 armour class, Guile capped at +4, -2 on hampered skills
Scale mail — +5 armour class, Guile capped at +3, -4 on hampered skills, slows you
Chainmail — +6 armour class, Guile capped at +2, -5 on hampered skills, slows you
Breastplate — +6 armour class, Guile capped at +3, -4 on hampered skills, slows you

Examples

Guile +4 in a chain shirt gives 10 + 4 (capped) + 4 = 18 armour class.

Read alongside: Attacks and harm · Skills

Harm and recovery

Hit points and healing

Your wound die and Endurance set how much harm you can take; rest and Healing put it back.

At first level you have your calling's wound die at full, plus your Endurance modifier. Harm comes off those hit points and healing puts it back, never above your full total. A night's rest restores a modest amount; tending a wounded companion with the Healing skill restores more, and is the only thing that will steady someone who is dying.

At the table

Take your calling's wound die at its highest value, and add your Endurance modifier.
Subtract harm as it lands.
Heal with rest, tending or magic — never above your full total.

Numbers at a glance

First level hit points — wound die + Endurance
Wound dice — d6 fragile, d8 ordinary, d10 hardy, d12 unbreakable
A full night's rest — restores your level in hit points
Tending with Healing — restores more, and steadies the dying

Examples

A d10 calling with Endurance +2 begins with 12 hit points.

Read alongside: Dying and death · Conditions

Harm and recovery

Defences and saving throws

Fortitude, Reflex and Will resist what an attack roll cannot touch: poison, fire, fear and worse.

Three defences catch everything that is not a blow. Fortitude leans on Endurance and resists poison, disease and sheer exhaustion. Reflex leans on Guile and dodges blasts, pits and falling stone. Will leans on Attunement and holds against fear, charms and the whispers under the soil of Empy. Your calling is strong in one or two of them. When something demands a save, roll d20 plus the defence against the effect's difficulty; many effects do half their harm even on a success.

At the table

The effect names which defence it tests, and its difficulty.
Roll d20 and add that defence.
Read the degree of success — a basic save halves harm on a success and doubles it on a critical failure.

Numbers at a glance

Fortitude — Endurance, against poison, disease and exhaustion
Reflex — Guile, against blasts, traps and falling ground
Will — Attunement, against fear, charms and spirit work
Strong defence — a better bonus, set by your calling
Basic save — critical success no harm, success half, failure full, critical failure double

Read alongside: Checks and difficulty · Degrees of success · Spellcasting

Harm and recovery

Dying and death

At nothing left you fall and begin dying. Dying deepens each round until you are steadied — or dead.

A figure brought to no hit points falls unconscious and begins dying at the first degree. At the start of each of their turns the dying deepens by one, and at the fourth degree they are dead. Tending them with the Healing skill, or any magic that restores hit points, steadies them and clears the dying. Once someone has been roused this way they are wounded, and each later fall begins deeper in dying than the last.

At the table

At no hit points, fall unconscious and take dying 1.
Dying deepens by one at the start of each of your turns.
At dying 4 the character is dead.
Any healing, or successful tending, steadies them and clears the dying.
Mark them wounded — their next fall begins deeper.

Numbers at a glance

Dying 1 — fallen, unconscious and helpless
Dying 4 — dead
Wounded 1 — the next fall begins at dying 2
Tending a fallen ally — a Healing check, one action

Read alongside: Hit points and healing · Conditions

“The Veil is thin at the fourth breath. Most who cross it do not come back for asking.”

Conditions

A short list of states that change what a figure can do — from shaken to frostbitten to dead.

Conditions are written on a figure and read off again: each one says plainly what it changes. They stack where it makes sense, and are cleared by rest, tending, magic or simply by leaving the thing that caused them. A few belong to Wildcrest alone — the cold of the Sogrinmar icefields, the burn of a mishandled glyph, the warm soil of Empy knowing your name.

At the table

Write the condition on the figure when it lands.
Apply its effect to every roll it touches.
Clear it when its cause ends, or when rest, tending or magic removes it.

Numbers at a glance

Bleeding — Lose 1 hit point at the start of each turn until healed.
Blinded — -2 armour class, lose Guile to armour class, 50% miss chance, half speed.
Confused — Act randomly on your turn.
Dazed — Take no actions, but defences remain.
Deafened — -4 initiative, cannot hear, spell failure chance.
Entangled — Half speed, -2 attack, -4 Guile.
Exhausted — Half speed, -6 Might and Guile.
Fatigued — -2 Might and Guile, cannot run or charge.
Frightened — Flee if able, -2 on attacks, saves and checks.
Grappled — -4 Guile, -2 attacks, cannot move freely.
Helpless — Treated as Dex 0; attackers gain +4.
Nauseated — Only a single move action per turn.
Paralysed — Cannot move or act; helpless.
Prone — -4 melee attack, +4 AC against ranged.
Shaken — -2 on attacks, saves, skill and ability checks.
Sickened — -2 on attacks, damage, saves and skill checks.
Staggered — One move or standard action per turn.
Stunned — Drop held items, lose Guile to armour class, take no actions.
Frostbitten — Wildcrest: -2 Dex until you spend an hour warm.
Glyph-Burned — Wildcrest: -2 on Spellcraft and arcane saves for a day.
Soil-Touched — Wildcrest: the warm soil of Empy knows where you are.
Unconscious — Senseless and helpless; you cannot act and lie prone.
Dying — At 0 hit points. A fourth degree of dying is death.
Wounded — Once roused, each further fall begins deeper in dying.
Dead — Beyond the Veil. Only great magic returns the dead.

Read alongside: Dying and death · Actions and reactions

Gear

Gear and carrying

What you wear and wield changes your numbers; what you merely carry mostly does not.

Gear falls into what is worn or wielded and what is simply carried. Only worn or wielded gear changes your numbers — an unworn breastplate protects nobody. Each piece may carry bonuses to armour class, to attacks, to harm or to particular skills, and armour may cap the Guile it lets through. Your former life and your calling put the first gear in your hands; the rest is bought, looted or forged by a Dream Reader.

At the table

Write down everything the character carries.
Mark what is worn or wielded.
Apply the bonuses of worn and wielded gear only.
Check that armour's Guile cap and skill penalty are being honoured.

Numbers at a glance

Worn or wielded — bonuses apply
Merely carried — no effect until equipped
Armour — armour class bonus, Guile cap, hampered skill penalty
Shield — a bonus only while raised

Read alongside: Armour and armour class · Attacks and harm

Magic

Spellcasting

Callings that work magic draw on one of the traditions, with a spell difficulty and a spell attack of their own.

A calling that works magic names the tradition it draws on — arcane glyph-work, spirit rapport, the ledger-bindings of Catonath, or long ritual. Its key ability sets both the difficulty others must beat to resist your workings and the bonus you add when a working must strike a target. Spells known are chosen from the compendium your Dream Reader has opened to the table; nothing is invented at the table without their leave.

At the table

Note your tradition and its key ability.
Work out your spell difficulty and your spell attack from it.
Choose your known spells from the compendium.
Cast: either the target rolls the named defence against your difficulty, or you roll your spell attack against their armour class.

Numbers at a glance

Spell difficulty — 10 + key ability + level bonus
Spell attack — key ability + level bonus
Traditions — arcane, spirit, ledger, ritual
Most workings cost two actions to cast

Read alongside: Defences and saving throws · Degrees of success

“A glyph cut wrong does not fail. It succeeds at something else.”

The world

Standing

Every character carries standing with the great powers and the lesser houses, before they do a single thing.

Your people, the settlement you were raised in and the life you led before play each grant standing — favourable with some powers, poor with others. That is your birthright, and it opens or closes doors before you speak. Through play the Dream Reader marks standing up or down as your deeds land, and each mark carries a reason so the table can see why. Your total standing with a power is your birthright plus every mark since.

At the table

Add the standing granted by your people, your settlement and your former life.
The Dream Reader marks it up or down as your deeds are noticed.
Read your total with any power as birthright plus all marks.

Numbers at a glance

Favoured — the power opens doors for you
Indifferent — you are nobody to them
Distrusted or hated — expect tolls, watchers, closed gates
Marks are set by the Dream Reader, and each carries its reason

Read alongside: Making a character · Factions and allegiance

The world

Factions and allegiance

Four great powers and many lesser houses hold Wildcrest between them, and their quarrels are yours by association.

The great powers hold land, roads and law. The lesser houses, orders and compacts hold everything else — trade, faith, secrets and debt. Each names its allies, its rivals and those it merely tolerates, and those ties are reciprocal: earn the goodwill of one and its rivals will notice. A lesser faction usually answers to a great power, and being welcome in one house may close another's door.

At the table

Note which powers your character's name is tied to.
Read those powers' ties before making a bargain.
Expect goodwill with one to cost you goodwill with its rivals.

Numbers at a glance

Allied — treats the other's friends as its own
Rival — takes the other's gains as its losses
Neutral — an understanding, no more

Read alongside: Standing

The world

Travel and the land

Crossing Wildcrest costs time, supplies and sometimes skin. Each region sets its own price.

The regions of Wildcrest are not backdrops. Marshes slow a party and rot their feet; icefields demand shelter before dark; ruinlands hold things that were buried for a reason. Each land in the world entries names its ground, its landmarks, its living things, its dangers and what crossing it usually takes. The Dream Reader calls for Survival checks against those dangers, and the conditions that follow a failure are written on the characters as usual.

At the table

Read the land's entry before setting out.
Agree the route, the pace and the supplies.
Roll Survival against the land's dangers where the Dream Reader calls for it.
Write any conditions that follow onto the characters.

Numbers at a glance

Easy going — a full day's travel, no checks
Hard going — half speed, or a Survival check to keep pace
Hostile going — Survival each day, and a condition on a failure

Read alongside: Conditions · Skills

“The road to Mothe-Othess is well kept. That is the first thing wrong with it.”