Talent Cards

When making Readiness checks or checks to resist panic, surprise, fear, or sudden pressure, remove 1 Bane Die caused by fear, confusion, shock, or being caught off guard.

Once per turn, draw, ready, stow, or retrieve one item as a Quick Action instead of a Maneuver.

This item must be reasonably accessible. Fast Hands does not let you unpack a buried item, assemble a complex object, or bypass a meaningful obstacle.

As a Maneuver, take a defensive posture. Until the start of your next turn, attacks against you add 1 Bane Die.

You must be able to move, defend yourself, or use available cover. Guarded ends early if you are Immobilized, Staggered, helpless, or otherwise unable to defend yourself.

Increase your Wound Points by 2.

You may purchase this talent multiple times; each purchase after the first increases Wound Points by only 1. Unless the Universe says otherwise, Hardy cannot increase your Wound Points above 20 + Might.

When you assist another character, they add two assisting dice instead of one: either +2 Boon Dice, or +1 Boon Die and +1 Ability Die if you have more ranks in the relevant skill than the character you are assisting.

This does not override the two-die assisting limit. The assist must represent meaningful help; the GM has final say.

Once per scene, remove 1 Bane Die from a Perception check caused by poor visibility, distance, distraction, concealment, or clutter.

Once per turn, when you fail a check but generate at least 1 net Boon, you may spend 1 Boon to gain a minor narrative advantage related to the failed attempt.

Examples include landing in a better position, learning something useful, avoiding a worse consequence, keeping hold of an item, or setting up an ally.

Gain 1 rank in one skill, respecting normal rank limits.

Skilled grants the rank directly; do not also pay the normal skill XP cost for that rank. Each purchase applies to a different skill unless the Universe allows otherwise. At character creation, Skilled is bound by the same rank caps as direct skill purchase: rank 2 for any skill, or rank 3 for one profession skill if the Universe permits. Skilled does not bypass these caps.

Choose one skill and one narrow use of that skill, such as "Stealth in urban shadows," "Medicine to stabilize the dying," "Ranged with bows," or "Craft to repair vehicles."

Once per scene, when making that specific kind of check, upgrade one Ability Die in the pool to one Mastery Die. If the pool has no Ability Dice to upgrade, add 1 Boon Die instead.

May be purchased multiple times; each purchase must apply to a different specialty.

Increase your Strain Points by 2.

You may purchase this talent multiple times; each purchase after the first increases Strain Points by only 1. Unless the Universe says otherwise, Steadfast cannot increase your Strain Points above 20 + Willpower.

When making Survival checks involving travel, shelter, food, water, weather, tracking, or route-finding, remove 1 Bane Die caused by natural terrain or ordinary environmental hardship.

Where a congregation of your faith keeps a house, a ranch, a station or a camp, you and your mount have a bed, a meal and feed without a charge or a roll, and that house counts as a ranch for Keeping a Horse (Era Rules). Add 1 Boon Die to Charm checks to preach, to teach a class, or to conduct a wedding, a funeral or a service.

Once per turn, you may mount or dismount a Scale 1 or 2 animal as a Quick Action instead of a Maneuver. The Average Riding check to vault into the saddle and move in the same turn becomes Easy. This is an exception to the Core Rules' limit on Quick Actions, as Fast Hands is.

Judging an animal before you buy it (The Stable, Training and Keeping, Quality) is an Easy Survival check, or Average if the seller is hiding something. On a success you learn the animal's quality and whether the seller is hiding a fault.

Your Credit limit is three times your Starting Stake in place of twice, and an unpaid Debt does not impose its Bane Die for the first month.

Add 1 Boon Die to Lore (Trade) checks to keep, read or audit accounts, prices, freight bills, pay rolls and tariffs. Spend 2 Boons to find the entry someone wanted hidden: a payment that does not match, a name on the wrong page, a shipment that never arrived.

Add 1 Boon Die to Survival checks to find, stalk or read game, and to your first Ranged attack against an animal in a scene. Spend 2 Boons on the Survival check to take enough meat for a party or a camp for a week.

Learn two additional languages at no XP cost. When you share no language with someone, the check to convey a simple message (Average Charm or Perception) becomes Easy.

Remove 1 Bane Die from checks made underground or in a mine working caused by dim light, tight spaces or bad air. A Science check to judge ore, pan a creek for colour or read a vein is Easy.

Add 1 Boon Die to Deception checks to bluff or hide your intentions in Stakes. Opponents' Perception checks to read you in Stakes add 1 Bane Die.

Add 1 Boon Die to Craft and Survival checks to build, plant, harvest, fence, doctor stock or winter a claim. The Lore (Land) check to file, prove up or defend a homestead or pre-emption claim (Stakes, a claim before an official) is Easy in place of Average.

Remove 1 Bane Die from Lore checks to read or recall the terms of a deed, claim, contract, warrant or statute. Spend 2 Boons to spot one term that works against the person who drew it up.

Add 1 Boon Die to attacks with a Lasso and to checks to rope, hold or lead stock. Once per turn, recovering a Lasso from a target and readying it is a Quick Action.

In a Showdown, add 1 Boon Die to your Stare. The first time in the scene you would suffer Strain from a Showdown, suffer 1 less, to a minimum of 0.

Add 1 Boon Die to Operate checks to drive a team, a wagon or a coach. When a team panics, the Riding check to bring it back (The Stable, Riding, Teams) is Easy in place of Average, and the Operate check for a team on a forced march (Other Notes on Skills) is Easy in place of Average.

When you generate 2 or more Boons on a Perception, Readiness, Streetwise, Lore, Medicine, Science, or Survival check, you may spend 2 Boons to ask the GM one yes/no question about the scene, subject, danger, or NPC.

The GM should answer honestly, though the answer may be incomplete if the character lacks access to the full truth.

When you use the Catch Breath Maneuver, recover 2 Strain instead of 1. The Maneuver action type and the once-per-encounter limit on Catch Breath still apply; this talent only changes the amount recovered.

You cannot use Catch Breath while Staggered, unconscious, or otherwise unable to pause and steady yourself.

When making Fortitude checks against fatigue, forced marching, pain, hunger, thirst, suffocation, harsh climates, or exhausting physical strain, remove 1 Bane Die.

When using Charm, Deception, or Negotiation with a plausible argument, credible disguise, fair offer, or believable lie, add 1 Boon Die.

This talent does not help with impossible claims, absurd offers, or lies contradicted by obvious evidence.

Once per scene, when danger would catch you completely unaware, the GM may allow you to make a Perception or Readiness check before the danger fully lands.

Success lets you act normally or warn one ally. Failure may still reduce the severity of surprise at the GM's discretion.

When using Stealth or Subterfuge to avoid attention in a crowd, occupied area, public location, or busy environment, remove 1 Bane Die.

Choose Craft, Medicine, Science, or Operate.

When making checks with the chosen skill using poor tools, improvised tools, damaged equipment, unfamiliar models, or rushed conditions, remove 1 Bane Die.

May be purchased multiple times; each purchase must apply to a different skill from the list above.

When you recover Strain at the end of an encounter or during a full rest, recover 1 additional Strain.

When receiving care for Wounds, the character treating you adds 1 Boon Die to the Medicine check.

When making Athletics, Melee, Unarmed, or thrown Ranged checks involving throwing, shoving, pushing, pulling, breaking, grappling, or forceful movement, you may spend 1 Boon to move the target or object a short distance, knock it off-balance, or create an opening.

The GM determines what movement is plausible based on size, footing, and the scene. Strong Arm does not apply to bows, firearms, or other non-thrown ranged weapons.

Once per session, after rolling a check, reroll one die in your pool.

You must keep the second result.

When resisting fear, intimidation, despair, coercion, mental pressure, or supernatural dread, remove 1 Bane Die.

When you show a badge, commission or warrant where it counts, add 1 Boon Die to Leadership and Intimidation checks to arrest, order a crowd to disperse, or demand a name. If you carry a warrant, the 1 Bane Die for being Outside Jurisdiction (Era Rules, Law in Play) does not apply to the arrest check; the 2 Bane Dice for another nation's country or another sovereign's ground still apply.

Add 1 Boon Die to Lore (Law) and Negotiation checks made before a justice, a court, a land office register, a coroner's inquest or a council. Spend 2 Boons on such a check to delay a ruling, a hearing, a sale or a filing by one week.

When you take a Maneuver to aim and then attack with a rifle at Long or Extreme range in the same turn, reduce the attack's difficulty by one step (Hard to Average, Severe to Hard).

Reduce the Temper of any mount you ride, drive or train by 1, to a minimum of 0. The check to break an unbroken animal to the saddle (The Stable, Training and Keeping) is Easy in place of Average.

Make an Intimidation check at Average against a Minion group, or against up to four unarmed or unready people who can see your weapon. On a success they comply for the scene unless attacked or given an opening. Spend 2 Boons: they also raise no alarm for one round. Against a player character the check is opposed by Willpower and Readiness, and compliance lasts until the character's next turn after a friend acts or an opening appears.

Your Notoriety drops by 1 each month in place of each season when you stay out of the news and outside its Reach. Strangers who do not know you personally count your Notoriety as 1 lower when deciding whether they recognize you, to a minimum of 0.

On a forced march (The Stable, Riding, Travel), the Riding check is Easy in place of Average. On a failed forced-march check your mount is not lamed; it loses the half-again distance instead.

You ignore the Bane Die for shooting in a turn your mount moved with any weapon, and reloading in the saddle costs you no extra Maneuver (The Stable, Mounted Combat, Shooting from the Saddle). As a Maneuver you may hang to one side of your mount: until the start of your next turn you have Light cover (1 Ranged Defense) against attackers on the opposite side, and you can attack only with a pistol or a bow. Modifies The Stable, Mounted Combat, Who Gets Hit, for you only.

You keep a telegraph key or a station. Once per session, do one of these: send a message that arrives ahead of anyone riding, driving or taking the train with the same news; or learn the gist of a message that passed through your office in the last week, with an Average Craft check, Hard if it was in cipher. Spend 2 Boons on the check to hold a rival's message for a day without its sender knowing.

Add 1 Boon Die to Streetwise, Survival and Perception checks to find, follow or identify a person with a posted Bounty. The claim check (Era Rules, Notoriety and Bounty) is Easy in place of Average.

When you interpret or carry terms between two parties, add 1 Boon Die to one party's Negotiation check, or remove 1 Bane Die caused by language or custom. You must share a language with each party. Spend 2 Boons to learn which term each side is not saying aloud.

You can survey and draw a plat as an extended Science or Craft check. A plat you drew counts as evidence: add 1 Boon Die to Lore and Negotiation checks in a dispute the plat bears on (a boundary, a claim, a right-of-way).

As an Action, make an Average Charm check to address a crowd of ten or more. On a success, move the crowd's Attitude toward one named person or group one step in either direction for the rest of the scene (Era Rules, Prejudice). A Closed crowd cannot be moved by this talent.

Reduce the Prepare of any firearm you wield by 1, to a minimum of 1. A weapon with Limited Ammo is reloaded one Maneuver faster, to a minimum of one Maneuver.

In Stakes, add 1 Boon Die to Perception checks to read an opponent. Spend 2 Boons to learn the opponent's next Raise, or whether the opponent is cheating.

Add 1 Boon Die to Survival checks to track riders, herds, wagons or people on foot. Spend 2 Boons to learn the number and kind of tracks (riders, animals, loaded or empty) and how long ago they passed, within a day.

Add 1 Boon Die to Leadership checks with a work crew: a section gang, a grading crew, a mine shift, a harvest crew, a roundup. Once per session, a crew you lead finishes a day's work in half a day, or keeps working through weather that would have stopped it.

When you give Care for an illness (Era Rules, Illness), the maximum Boon Dice you can give the patient is 4 in place of 3, and you may give Care to two patients in a day. When a Calamity on your Care check would expose you to the illness, you first make an Easy Willpower check; on a success you are not exposed.

Add 1 Boon Die to Leadership and Negotiation checks with voters, councilmen, commissioners and office-holders of your own town or county. Once per session, name one favor an official of that town or county owes you and call it in: a hearing moved, a license granted, a notice posted or taken down, a deputy sent or kept home. The GM may refuse a favor the official could not do or would not survive doing.

When engaged with multiple foes, reduce the total Bane Dice imposed by being outnumbered, surrounded, flanked, or pressed by a crowd by 1.

Once per turn, when an engaged enemy misses you and generates at least 1 Bane, you may spend 1 of that enemy's Banes to reposition yourself within Engaged range.

When making Medicine checks to stabilize, treat, or speed recovery, add 1 Boon Die.

When you generate 2 or more Boons on such a check, you may spend 2 Boons to reduce the time required, preserve scarce supplies, or remove 1 additional Wound, as appropriate to the Universe's recovery rules.

You may pay the normal upgrade cost to increase one characteristic by 1, respecting the Universe's normal characteristic limits. You may not take this talent more than once.

Universe-Restricted: Growth is not assumed to be available in every Universe. Universes must explicitly enable Growth and may impose tier, story, or in-fiction gates (such as requiring a milestone, training arc, mentor, ritual, augmentation, or significant in-world event).

Choose one circumstance when you purchase this talent: physical attacks, environmental damage, poison/disease, fear/mental pressure, or social coercion.

When resisting or reducing harm from the chosen circumstance, add 1 Boon Die to the relevant check. If the harm is damage and the GM agrees the talent applies, increase your effective Resistance by 1 against that instance.

May be purchased multiple times; each purchase must apply to a different circumstance.

When using Stealth or Subterfuge to bypass security, infiltrate a guarded location, escape captivity, or move through a hostile environment unnoticed, add 1 Boon Die.

When you generate 2 or more Boons on such a check, you may spend 2 Boons to gain one of the following narrative effects, GM permitting:

• Learn one specific detail about the area's defenses, occupants, or layout.
• Leave no detectable trace of your passage.
• Place yourself in an advantageous position for your next action.

Choose one skill when you purchase this talent.

Once per session, after rolling a check with that skill, you may spend 1 Fortune Point and convert 2 net Boons into 1 Success.

This conversion happens after normal cancellation. It cannot create a Breakthrough, and it cannot be used if no net Boons remain. May be purchased multiple times; each purchase must apply to a different skill.

When resisting mental, emotional, fear-based, psychic, or coercive effects, you may downgrade one negative die in the pool.

This effect may be used once per encounter.

As an Action, make a Leadership check targeting one ally at Short range who can hear or understand you.

On success, that ally recovers 1 Strain plus 1 additional Strain per uncancelled Success beyond the first. You may spend 2 Boons to affect one additional ally in range.

Choose one skill.

When making a calm, routine, non-combat check with that skill and the difficulty is Average or lower, you may treat a result with no net Successes and no net Failures as a success with a minor cost or delay.

Reliable Skill does not apply in structured combat, severe danger, opposed checks, or checks with upgraded difficulty unless the GM allows it. May be purchased multiple times; each purchase must apply to a different skill.

Once per session, declare that you have a plausible small item, contact, clue, preparation, or minor advantage that fits your character and the current situation.

The GM may require a Story Point, a reasonable explanation, or a complication if the declaration is especially convenient.

When making Charm, Deception, or Negotiation checks against a target who has personal stakes in the outcome, such as pride, loyalty, fear, self-image, reputation, or emotional investment, you may downgrade one negative die in the pool.

This effect may be used once per scene. Silver Tongue helps with personal leverage, not impersonal procedure: it does not apply to market pricing, contract terms, treaty bargaining, institutional negotiations, or other situations where the target has no personal skin in the game.

When resisting deception, illusion, false evidence, manipulation, supernatural misdirection, forged signals, or misleading appearances, remove 1 Bane Die.

When you generate 2 or more Boons on the check, you may learn one clue about what is wrong, missing, or inconsistent.

Once per session, when you would be incapacitated by Wounds or Strain, remain functional until the end of your next turn.

After that turn, you suffer the incapacitation normally unless healing, recovery, or another effect prevents it.

When you fan a Single-Action Revolver (The Black Powder Armory, Percussion and Cartridge Arms), add 1 Bane Die to the attack in place of 2. The weapon still gains Linked 2 for that attack. Modifies that entry.

In Stakes you may Raise three times in a contest in place of twice. The third Raise adds 2 Boon Dice in place of 1.

Core talents are favored choices too; each Role in Character Creation and Roles names its own.

When you enter a scene within the Reach of your Name, count your Notoriety as 1 higher, to a maximum of 5, for that scene.

When you call a posse, it has 2 more members, to a maximum of 10, and the Leadership check to call it is Easy. The posse's morale check uses your Willpower and Readiness in place of the group's.

When you win a Showdown by 2 or more net Successes and the loser chooses to Draw, your first attack of round one adds 1 Boon Die, and the loser cannot use the first Maneuver of round one to take cover.

When you use Leadership to assist, rally, organize, or direct allies, you may affect one additional ally within range.

When you generate 2 or more Boons on a Leadership check, you may spend 2 Boons to extend the effect by one round, one exchange, or one meaningful beat, depending on the scene.

When operating a vehicle, mount, ship, machine, mech, or similar controlled system, remove 1 Bane Die from checks to avoid crashes, pursuit hazards, difficult maneuvers, incoming attacks, or loss of control.

Universes may rename this talent as Defensive Driver, Ace Pilot, Sure Rider, Helmsmaster, or similar.

Once per round, when an enemy within Short range suffers a condition, generates 3 or more Banes, suffers a Calamity, or is hit by a Breakthrough effect, you may add 1 Boon Die to your next check against that enemy before the end of your next turn.

Once per encounter, when you recover Strain, remove a temporary condition, or receive medical care, increase the recovery effect.

Choose one recovery type that fits the triggering effect: 2 additional Strain recovered, 2 additional Wounds recovered, or one additional step of condition relief.

Choose one skill.

Once per session, when you succeed on a check with that skill and generate at least 2 net Boons, you may immediately create one additional narrative benefit appropriate to the skill and scene.

This benefit should be stronger than a normal Boon spend but weaker than a Breakthrough.

At the start of a structured encounter, after initiative is rolled but before the first turn, make a Perception, Readiness, or Leadership check at Average difficulty.

On success, choose one ally who can see or hear you. That ally adds 1 Boon Die to their first check of the encounter. Spend 2 Boons to affect one additional ally.

Once per session, when you would be defeated, controlled, broken, incapacitated by Strain, overwhelmed by fear, or forced to yield through mental or emotional pressure, you may remain in control long enough to take one immediate Action or Maneuver.

After that action resolves, the original consequence applies unless your action plausibly prevents it.

You may not trigger Defiant Will and Last Stand in the same encounter.

Once per session, when you roll a Calamity, you may also trigger a Breakthrough effect.

The Calamity still occurs. Fatebreaker does not cancel it. Instead, the disaster creates a decisive advantage, revelation, opening, or reversal in your favor.

The Breakthrough effect should be directly connected to the Calamity. Something goes very wrong, and that very failure becomes the reason something else goes right.

Choose one skill.

Once per session, before rolling an important check with that skill, declare it a legendary attempt. Upgrade one positive die in the pool. If the check succeeds, add one additional meaningful narrative effect beyond normal Success and Boon spending.

If the check fails, the failure should still be memorable, costly, or revealing.

Create one named character-defining move, method, tactic, trick, procedure, spell-form, maneuver, or social play.

Work with the GM to define:

• The skill or skills it uses.
• When it can be triggered.
• Its cost, if any.
• Its normal effect.
• What extra effect occurs on 3+ Boons or a Breakthrough.
• What complication may occur on 3+ Banes or a Calamity.

Signature Technique should be narrow, memorable, and strong. It should not replace an entire skill or make other characters irrelevant.