Character Sheets

Your character has a number of sets of traits on their sheet. There are three "Prime Sets", which are Distinctions, which are in essence an elevator pitch about your character; Attributes, which describe your character's innate features or capacities; and Skills, which describe your character's training or expertise in a range of fields. Almost every roll you make will include a die from each of these Prime Sets.

Your character also two other trait sets, which may only sometimes come into play. Resources are a pool available to a given organisation, such as a noble house, or occasionally an individual, which may be distributed to characters for one-off use. Signature Assets represent particularly remarkable items or non-player character companions.

Attributes
Attributes represent a character's raw ability. Attributes are typically rated between D4 and D10, with D12 appearing in rare circumstances. D4 represents a notable deficiency in an attribute. D6 represents a typical person. D8 represents notable strength in that attribute. D10 represents rarely-surpassed excellence. D12 is at the very peak of human performance.

Mind: intellect, memory, perception and wits.
Spirit: strength of spirit and willpower.
Social: charisma and ability to navigate social situations.
Leadership: capacity as a leader.
Prowess: physical power, endurance and ability to fight.
Finesse: dexterity and agility.

Skills
Skills represent a character's training or expertise in a range of fields. D4 represents a character who is untrained in a skill and is likely to run into trouble if they even try to use it. D6 represents a character who is comfortable with a skill and knows enough to know how much they do not know. D8 represents a character who is an expert in a skill. D10 represents somebody who is near the top of their field. D12 represents somebody so accomplished that their ability is the stuff of legends.

Administration: organisation on a large or small scale, whether of noble houses, businesses, or other entities.
Arcana: knowledge of the arcane and magical.
Athletics: physical feats such as long-distance running, swimming, climbing, riding a horse, or anything else requiring fitness, strength and endurance.
Composure: remaining calm under pressure.
Dexterity: used for physical feats reliant on precision, deftness or speed, such as moving quietly, sprinting a short distance, or catching objects.
Espionage: spying, security, and subterfuge. This pertains to knowledge and organisation, while physical stealth is covered by dexterity.
Exploration: exploring the wilderness and searching for and delving into lost places and ruins.
Fighting: ability to fight.
Influence: direct personal interaction with others.
Learning: general knowledge. Specialist knowledge in a specific field, be it history, law, theology, engineering or whatever else, is denoted by special effects providing roll bonuses. Covers knowledge, research, writing and teaching.
Making: this is for making all sorts of things, from shirts to swords, as appropriate to the character.
Medicine: ability to tend to wounds and diseases, and any relevant book-learning.
Perception: awareness of one's surroundings and ability to search for or spot things.
Performance: ability to act, dance, play music or entertain.
Politics: knowledge of politics, diplomatic and courtly protocol and cultures, and operating in a political environment; a person might use politics to orchestrate a campaign, but would use rhetoric for public speaking or influence for personal engagement.
Rhetoric: public speaking to any large gathering of people, usually but not necessarily in an organised setting.
Seafaring: sailing and navigation.
Survival: surviving far from civilisation, knowledge of plants and animals.
Warfare: knowledge of warfare, including high-level strategy and ability to lead on the battlefield and to assess what is happening in a battle.

Distinctions
Every character has three distinctions. One distinction is always the character concept condensed into just a few words. For example, a character might be a Bold Adventurer, a Vibrant Social Butterfly, a Devious Diplomat, and so on. This may be but is not necessarily analogous to their vocation.

A character's second distinction relates to their cultural background.

A character's third distinction relates to their vocation.

Distinctions are always rated at D8. In many cases, you will find that at least one of your character's distinctions applies to the situation they are in. However, you might determine that one of your character's distinctions will actually hinder them in a given situation. If so, you can check with the person running the scene you are in, if applicable, roll the distinction at D4 instead, and take a plot point.

Resources
Most characters are part of organisations. Often, they will be able to draw on an organisation's resources. Each organisation has a pool of dice for various functions representing its political capital, wealth, and military. Wealth and political capital accrue each chapter and have no upper limit, but once spent, are lost. Military resources are always available but might be permanently downgraded or even lost entirely in a scene. Resources can be gained or improved over the course of a story, but permanently improving a house's passive income is difficult.

An organisation may have a number of dice in each area. A noble house ruling a substantial domain might have a resource stock like this:

Political Capital: 1D10, 3D8, 2D6

Wealth: 3D8, 5D6, 2D4

Military: 1D10, 4D8

Therefore, one could avail of a D10, three D8s, and two D6s in political capital.

Signature Assets
Signature assets are rather rare.

Where applicable to a scene, signature assets can be used to add one die to any dice pool. If a warrior has a signature asset representing a magical sword, they could use it in any fight where they are using the sword, for example. A noble attending a gala with a signature asset representing some particularly incredible aspect of their wardrobe could use it whenever they make an impression with their appearance.

Signature assets are relatively hard to come by. For example, most nobles have access to good horses, so having a horse so good that it stands out in the narrative and becomes worthy of being a signature asset is improbable. They are ordinarily rated at D8, but may be D6, or in rare cases a D10 or D12.