A world
with weight.

When to roll

Greenland describes physical constraints directly whenever possible. A gate may simply weigh 200 kg; the party can reason from that fact before dice enter the scene. Roll when one or more of these conditions apply:

• The stakes are high.
• The outcome is uncertain.
• The characters lack the right tools.
• The plan is bad.
• Rolling is what the player prefers.

New characters should not begin with Legendary attributes or Master skills. Those tiers are intended as achievements reached through the story.

Relative size categories

Children are small relative to their adult form. Calculate their adult height and weight, then halve each to find the child’s maximum before advancing to the next age category.

Memory

Recall information the character has encountered. Negotiate why the character would know it, and record what the GM confirms they remember.

Toxin Resistance

Resist natural or synthetic chemicals. Accumulation may increase the difficulty.

Disease Resistance

Resist bacterial or viral intrusion. Recovery from infection may require several successful rolls.

Magic variant: Memory determines how many spells a character can memorize. A memorized spell may be cast at will with the benefits of ritual preparation.

Raising an attribute by one tier requires lowering another attribute or skill by one tier. Moving into or out of Legendary shifts two other tiers total. A character can maintain no more than two Legendary attributes or Master skills combined.

The working draft uses “Average” in its tier description and “Normal” in several tables; this reference treats them as the same middle tier.

Body-weight limits

Legerdemain

Sleight of hand, escaping bonds, forgery, and disguises.

Linguistics

Language fundamentals; sufficient exposure can make communication with non-native speakers possible.

Logic

Deductive and inductive reasoning, from debate to solving puzzles.

Mechanics

Understanding how objects work, including repair and deliberate breakage.

Survival

Tracking, natural medicine, identification, and foraging. Alien ecologies still require time and study.

Defensive skills

All defensive skills require at least one reaction. A successful defense eliminates the attack’s damage, though secondary effects may remain.

Parry · 1 stamina

Use a weapon against a melee attack. A successful parry permits an immediate riposte without another reaction, though the counterattack still costs stamina and can itself be parried.

Deflect · 1 stamina

Use armor or a shield. Damage may be avoided while force or another secondary effect still reaches the defender.

Dodge · 2 stamina

Move out of the attack. Space and mobility are required; success moves the defender up to their standing long-jump distance.

Fighting styles

An attack is expected to hit unless the target uses a defense. Fighting styles therefore set the number of damage dice rather than the chance to hit. Each use costs one stamina.

Unarmed Melee

The body is the weapon. Consider the target’s material when setting damage.

Armed Melee

A held object inflicts damage; weapon and target materials matter.

Ranged—Shot

A weapon fires a projectile.

Ranged—Thrown

An object or creature is thrown; weight and suitability affect the result.

Variant abilities

Manipulation · skill

Influence an NPC through deception, persuasion, or intimidation when the table prefers a roll over extended social play.

Magic · skill

Sets a spell’s efficacy and magnitude. At great mastery, raw scale may supersede ordinary damage.

Willpower is recommended when Magic is present. It governs range, number of targets, and resistance to magic. Sight is the default sense, but another sense may establish perception.

At every life stage except Child and Ancient, take one new job or deepen an existing one. Describe the work specifically, but do not narrow away the broader experience that came with it.

For values, choose any point on a listed spectrum. Starting characters are encouraged to adopt two extremes; they need not come from the same row.

Legendary deeds fuse the caster’s will into an object for as long as its story can be recounted. Forgotten items go dormant; recovering their deeds can wake them. Inscribing that history upon the object helps preserve the bond.

A destroyed magic item can be reforged by repeating its original ritual and recounting its legacy. False stories and deceitful attempts at permanence invite backlash, often in the form of a curse.

Encounter procedure

1. 01
   Establish awareness.

   Use circumstances or Awareness. Anyone unaware of the situation cannot react.

2. 02
   Decide who acts first.

   Let players go first when sensible; otherwise use Awareness or the declared actions.

3. 03
   Choose turn order.

   “Sides” initiative is recommended: one allied party completes its turns before the next, while reactions still interrupt.

4. 04
   Execute one round.

   Resolve each character’s turn and all triggered reactions.

5. 05
   Re-evaluate.

   Describe what changed and continue only while the encounter remains unresolved.

Defensive skills and attacks triggered when an opponent enters reach are common reactions. A character may also help another: if the help makes sense and the helper has access to the moment, add dice or reduce difficulty. In sides initiative, the helper may interrupt to move into position, after which play returns to the original turn.

Combat procedure

1. 01
   Describe the action

   Decide whether it can damage a creature or object, then spend stamina.

2. 02
   Name the targets
3. 03
   Targets choose reactions
4. 04
   Resolve reactions
5. 05
   Confirm viability

   If the situation changed, decide whether the original action can still happen.

6. 06
   Set damage dice

   Apply fighting style, size, armor, and situational modifiers.

7. 07
   Resolve other effects

   Force, falling, position, damaged gear, and environmental changes may matter separately.

8. 08
   Resolve damage

The GM sets an action’s final stamina cost from both its suggested cost and the fiction. A character who has at least one stamina but lacks the full cost may overexert once per round. The deficit reduces the stamina refreshed next turn, and the character becomes Winded.

If a character would begin a turn with zero or less stamina, they become Fatigued and fall unconscious. They regain consciousness after five rounds, including the round in which they collapsed, unless the GM rules otherwise.

• Multiple 6s or 1s count only when the roll actually includes additional or subtracted dice. An attack rolling with −2d6 cannot cause instant death.
• There is no limit to added or subtracted damage dice.
• Use damage dice for creatures. Damage to objects is adjudicated directly by the GM.
• Add one damage die for every relative size category the attacker or source exceeds the target; subtract one for every category smaller.
• Damage type and description can alter the dice. Armor normally subtracts dice.
• One action may cause several separate damage rolls—for example, a strike followed by a fall.
• Roll separately for each creature unless a shared roll better serves speed at the table.

Death, weapons, and reach

Nearly any object used to attack can be a weapon, and the body is a weapon in martial arts. Material and shape matter in the fiction even when the mechanics are similar. Heavy weapons add damage dice, are harder to parry, require more stamina, and normally demand at least Exceptional Strength.

When martial-arts damage rolls would damage or break a weapon, the attacking body part is wounded or broken instead.

Armor uses the same light, medium, and heavy damage states as weapons. Heavy damage makes it unusable but repairable; further damage breaks it permanently.

Shields are armor designed for deflection and bodily cover. When Deflect is used, the shield receives armor damage first. Carrying a shield makes parrying less effective.

Targeted attacks use the normal attack procedure but may bypass armor, damage a specific armor location, or ensure any wound applies to the chosen body part. Sensitive and well-guarded targets—such as a human head—may grant additional defense dice. Targeting creates opportunities to disable or demoralize without killing.