Shared rules · all characters
The table contract
The rules on this site form Wonderground’s combat chassis. When a Profession or Grant feature gives a more specific rule, that feature wins. If two rules appear to conflict, use the more specific rule and record the question for playtest review.
From person to player character
Build order
- 1
Read the two-minute primer
Learn what the Wonderground is, what crews do, and why every character needed a supernatural Deal.
- 2
Establish the Life Before
Describe People & Form, choose an Origin package, and choose one Profession. These establish identity, community, and practiced ability before power.
- 3
Write the Want and Deal
Establish the visible Want, crisis, supernatural Force, Grant, Promise, proof of completion, Principle, Anchor, secret, and crew bonds.
- 4
Assign ability scores
Use the standard array or 27-point buy, then apply Personal Aptitudes. People & Form never determines these bonuses.
- 5
Confirm Profession and Origin mechanics
Record the Profession’s Hit Die, saves, training, rank-one feature, and equipment package. Add two Origin skills, Life Familiarity, community feature, and supplies.
- 6
Confirm the Grant
Choose one of the ten Grant Classifications, then define its Scope, starting Expressions, Facet choice, and manifestation. Its Accommodation, Core Function, Core Expression, resource, and Counterrule come from the Classification.
- 7
Generate the play sheet
Calculate hit points, Armor Class, initiative, speed, attacks, save DCs, passive Perception, and limited resources.
Strength · Dexterity · Constitution · Intelligence · Wisdom · Charisma
Ability scores
Standard array
Assign these six scores in any order:
15 · 14 · 13 · 12 · 10 · 827-point buy
Begin every score at 8. Spend 27 points; no score can exceed 15 before Personal Aptitudes.
| Score | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Personal Aptitudes
After assigning scores, add +2 to one ability and +1 to a different ability, or add +1 to three different abilities. No score can exceed 17 at level 1. This keeps aptitude separate from species, ancestry, or physical form.
Round down. A score of 15 has a +2 modifier; a score of 8 has a −1 modifier.
The place that taught you how ordinary life works
Origins & communities
An Origin describes the community, institution, or way of life that shaped the character before the Deal. It grants two skills, one Life Familiarity, one narrow community feature, and ordinary supplies. If an Origin skill duplicates your Profession training, replace it with any other skill.
Undercity Tenements
Crowded walls, improvised repairs, and neighbors who notice everything.
- Suggested skills
- Athletics · Insight · Perception · Survival
- Familiarity examples
- Undercity blocks and neighbor networks · Tenement maintenance and improvised repairs · Understreet cant
- Supplies
- Weathered coat, chalk, repair odds and ends, bedroll, and five days of rations
In a settled district, you can usually find modest shelter, a basic meal, or a local rumor through ordinary residents unless you have given that community reason to shut its doors.
Tunnel Markets
Every price has a person attached to it.
- Suggested skills
- Deception · Insight · Investigation · Persuasion
- Familiarity examples
- Tunnel-market vendors and fences · Appraisal and haggling · Market hand-sign
- Supplies
- Ledger book, hooded lantern, trader’s satchel, sample goods, and five days of rations
Given a few hours in a populated district, you can identify where ordinary, restricted, or suspicious goods are traded and who must be approached. This reveals a route, not a discount or automatic cooperation.
Court-Administered Ward
Raised where procedure is a weapon and every queue has a gatekeeper.
- Suggested skills
- History · Insight · Investigation · Persuasion
- Familiarity examples
- Court procedure and record offices · Civic seals and formal language · Ward clerks and petitioners
- Supplies
- Document case, blank forms, sealing wax, respectable coat, and five days of rations
You know which office, form, record, or minor official can delay an ordinary civic action. When the institution is functioning normally, you can secure a brief hearing or procedural explanation.
The Law’s Outer Precincts
Patrol routes, holding doors, and the distance between policy and the street.
- Suggested skills
- Athletics · Insight · Investigation · Perception
- Familiarity examples
- Precinct routines and patrol patterns · Law uniforms and field procedure · Outer-precinct streets
- Supplies
- Serviceable coat, whistle, notebook, hooded lantern, and five days of rations
You can identify ordinary patrol patterns, likely response times, public holding sites, and the branch of the Law responsible for an incident. Plausible work gear lets you pass as routine support until closely challenged.
Quiet Firm Dormitory
Institutional calm, measured voices, and doors that lock from both sides.
- Suggested skills
- Arcana · Deception · Insight · Investigation
- Familiarity examples
- Quiet Firm procedure and front companies · Conditioning tells and institutional jargon · Former residents and defectors
- Supplies
- Plain uniform pieces, numbered key tag, writing kit, hygiene roll, and five days of rations
You recognize common Quiet Firm recruitment, conditioning, surveillance, and administrative habits. In a large district, you usually know how to begin looking for a former resident, contractor, or front office.
Condemned Transit Line
Dead platforms, maintenance shafts, and routes erased from current maps.
- Suggested skills
- Acrobatics · Investigation · Perception · Stealth
- Familiarity examples
- Abandoned transit routes · Climbing and safe crossings · Maintenance markings
- Supplies
- Climber’s line, crowbar, hooded lantern, chalk, and five days of rations
You can navigate ordinary abandoned civic infrastructure at a normal travel pace and identify likely service exits or stable crossings. Your crew becomes lost only if the route has been deliberately or supernaturally changed.
Family Trade-House
A name on the sign, a craft at the bench, and favors remembered across generations.
- Suggested skills
- History · Insight · Investigation · Persuasion
- Familiarity examples
- A family trade and its tools · Trade-house etiquette and credit · Guild marks and supplier networks
- Supplies
- Chosen artisan’s tools, apron or work coat, trade token, ledger, and five days of rations
Recognized trade contacts may offer an ordinary workspace, minor common materials, or brief professional help. They remember the favor and may expect repayment in work, access, or introduction.
Unrecognized Shrine District
Miracles without licenses and sanctuaries the Court refuses to name.
- Suggested skills
- Arcana · Insight · Medicine · Religion
- Familiarity examples
- Unrecognized rites and local saints · Shrine healers and mediums · Offerings, taboos, and sacred etiquette
- Supplies
- Offering pouch, candles, blanket, local charm, and five days of rations
You can locate informal shrines, lay healers, mediums, or caretakers hidden in a populated district. If you respect local custom, they will usually offer a night’s shelter and honest ritual guidance.
Oblivious Surface Neighborhood
Normality practiced so hard it becomes its own form of camouflage.
- Suggested skills
- Deception · History · Insight · Persuasion
- Familiarity examples
- Surface customs and institutions · Plausible explanations for strange events · Mundane services and records
- Supplies
- Ordinary street clothes, identification papers, travel bag, small keepsake, and five days of rations
You can convincingly navigate ordinary surface institutions and explain away minor supernatural evidence. You know where to find mundane lodging, transport, medicine, and records without drawing Wonderground attention.
Municipal Work Crew
Every building has a service entrance and someone eventually has to fix it.
- Suggested skills
- Athletics · Investigation · Nature · Perception
- Familiarity examples
- Municipal work orders and service routes · One construction or maintenance trade · Crew signs and safety procedure
- Supplies
- Work clothes, chosen trade tools, safety lantern, coil of rope, and five days of rations
You can identify who maintains an ordinary structure and where its service routes should run. With plausible gear and a reasonable explanation, you can enter nonsecure work areas without immediate suspicion.
What ordinary effort taught you
Profession training
Profession training is mundane, learned, and always available unless the fiction makes its use impossible. Choose only from the skills listed for your Profession; the number of choices is included in its training entry.
| Profession | Hit Die | Key abilities | Saving throws | Training |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breaker | d12 | Strength first; Constitution second | Strength and Constitution | Medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial melee weapons; choose two from Athletics, Acrobatics, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival |
| Enforcer | d10 | Strength or Dexterity first; Constitution or Wisdom second | Strength and Wisdom | All armor, shields, simple and martial weapons; choose two from Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, and Persuasion |
| Operator | d8 | Dexterity first; Intelligence or Charisma second | Dexterity and Intelligence | Light armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, finesse weapons, thieves' tools; choose four skills from Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth |
| Pursuer | d10 | Dexterity or Strength first; Wisdom second | Dexterity and Wisdom | Light and medium armor, shields, simple and martial weapons; choose three from Animal Handling, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Stealth, and Survival |
| Maker | d8 | Intelligence first; Dexterity or Constitution second | Constitution and Intelligence | Light armor, simple weapons, two artisan's tools; choose three from Arcana, History, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Sleight of Hand |
| Speaker | d8 | Charisma first; Dexterity or Wisdom second | Dexterity and Charisma | Light armor, simple weapons, one instrument or artisan's tool; choose four from Deception, History, Insight, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion, and one skill of choice |
| Stitcher | d8 | Wisdom or Intelligence first; Constitution second | Wisdom and Constitution | Light armor, simple weapons, finesse weapons, healer's kit and one artisan's tool; choose three from Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Sleight of Hand, and Survival |
| Scholar | d8 | Intelligence first; Wisdom or Dexterity second | Intelligence and Wisdom | Simple weapons, no armor; choose four from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Persuasion, and Religion; gain two languages or scholarly tools |
Life Familiarity
Choose one tool, trade, language, district, faction, or field of knowledge justified by your Origin or Quality. You are proficient on checks where that familiarity directly applies. It is not a blanket skill proficiency.
Rank-one completion checklist
Drive
Record proficiency-bonus Drive uses. No additional rank-one selection.
Combat Discipline
Choose Archery, Bulwark, Duelist, Great Weapon, Skirmisher.
Expertise
Choose two trained skills or tools for Expertise; record Precision 1d6.
Quarry
Record proficiency-bonus Quarry uses and its once-per-turn 1d4 damage.
Workshop & Blueprints
Name a practical specialty and two tools with double proficiency. Learn four Blueprints, prepare three, and record two d6 Supply Dice.
Fluency
Choose Expertise in one social skill or proficiency in two additional languages, instruments, or social tools; record two d6 Influence Dice.
Treatment & Anatomy
Choose Wisdom or Intelligence for Treatment, gain Medicine Expertise, and record two d6 Treatment Dice.
Analysis
Choose Expertise in two trained Intelligence or Wisdom skills and record two d6 Analysis Dice.
One supernatural system conveyed by the Deal
Grant Classifications
A Grant Classification is a mechanical family, not the identity of the Force that conveyed it. The Deal establishes the character’s creditor and Promise. The Classification establishes how the power works at the table. The two remain separate.
What every Classification defines
All ten trees use the same foundation so each Grant remains playable, answerable, and easy to reference even when its Scope and Facets make it unique.
Grant Ability
Name the ability that controls attacks, save DCs, and other calculations.
Scope
Choose one narrow family of effects. The Scope states what the Grant cannot do as clearly as what it can.
Accommodation
Give the character one always-active adaptation that makes the Grant safe and usable without becoming a separate power.
Core Function
Give the character one reliable, usually noncombat expression that does not spend the Grant resource.
Core Expression
Give the character one reliable action, reaction, or stance that establishes the Grant in play.
Starting Techniques
Offer three precise Rank I options written with activation, range, target, roll, effect, and duration.
Resource
Name the limited resource, its starting amount, and exactly when it recovers.
Counterrule
Define the condition, ownership limit, vulnerability, or failure state that keeps the power legible and answerable.
Manifestation
Require a player-authored sensory sign that can be subtle or extreme, constant or visible only during use.
Level-one authoring draft
Craft
Build one impossible instrument whose effects imitate another kind of Grant.
Craft Ability
Intelligence is your Craft Ability. Craft attack rolls equal your proficiency bonus plus your Intelligence modifier. Your Craft save DC equals 8 plus your proficiency bonus plus your Intelligence modifier.
Design Scope
Author one original, narrow Scope. State what its devices may simulate and one hard limit they cannot bypass. You may alter a device's materials, controls, and appearance, but every supernatural function must remain inside that Scope.
Active Device
You can maintain one Active Device. During a short or long rest, you may build, rebuild, or refit it from plausible parts. If you maintain another, the previous device becomes Dormant and loses every supernatural function.
Core Systems
Write one Core Function and one Core Expression for the Scope. Your Active Device carries both systems, and neither spends a Grant Charge.
Installed Schematic
Write three original Rank I Schematics within the same Scope. Your character knows all three. After a long rest, install one in your Active Device. Only the installed Schematic can be activated.
Grant Charge
You have one Grant Charge. Activating the installed Schematic spends it. Recover the Charge when you finish a short or long rest.
Creator Reliance
A device uses your Craft attack and Craft save DC. It cannot be reverse engineered into a working supernatural copy, and a Dormant or Jammed device functions only as an ordinary object.
Unfamiliar Operation
Another creature may activate your device if its form permits. Resolve the effect normally, then that creature makes a Constitution save against your Craft save DC. On a failure, it takes 1d6 force damage and the device becomes Jammed. You can reset a Jammed device with an action while it is within your reach.
Device Form
Describe the device. Its parts do not need to function together by ordinary engineering, but its controls and effects must make the chosen Scope recognizable.
Calibrate an original Scope
These three models show the intended width and starting strength of a Craft Grant. They are not selectable packages. Every Craft recipient authors a new Scope, two core systems, and three Rank I Schematics for their own character.
Hand-Shaped Force Projection
Handsy Eddie, Maker and prosthetics specialistProject grasping, striking, restraining, and sheltering force in the shape of hands.
Spare Fingers
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 30 feet
- Duration
- Up to 1 minute
Create one projected hand that manipulates an unattended object weighing no more than 10 pounds. It can open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item, or use one simple tool. It cannot attack, activate a magic item, or perform a task that needs two hands or a full body.
Projected Palm
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 60 feet
- Duration
- Instantaneous
Make a ranged Craft attack against one creature. On a hit, it takes 1d8 force damage. If it is Large or smaller, you may also push it 5 feet directly away from the device.
Worked Rank I designs · compare only
Many Hands
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 15-foot cone
- Duration
- Instantaneous
Each creature of your choice in the cone makes a Strength save. On a failure, a creature takes 2d6 force damage and is pushed 10 feet away. On a success, it takes half damage and is not pushed.
Hold Fast
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 30 feet
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
Choose one Large or smaller creature. It makes a Strength save. On a failure, projected hands restrain it. It repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. The effect also ends if the creature moves more than 60 feet from the device.
Interposing Palm
- Activation
- Reaction
- Range
- 30 feet
- Duration
- Instantaneous
When you or a creature you can see in range takes damage from an attack, reduce that damage by 1d10 plus your Intelligence modifier, to a minimum reduction of 1.
Manifestation examples
- Pink or teal hands peel out of the device and leave finger-shaped afterimages.
- The creator's own fingers move in exact sympathy with every projected hand.
- Invisible pressure leaves handprints in dust, rain, fabric, or skin.
Visible-Light Spectrum Instrumentation
A Pursuer who reads routes through color, glare, and afterimageRecord, trace, expose, and intensify information carried by visible light.
Record Signature
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 60 feet
- Duration
- Until your next long rest
Record the optical signature of one creature or object you can see. The device stores one signature at a time; recording another replaces the first. A disguise does not change a signature, but a total transformation can.
Follow the Afterimage
- Activation
- Passive
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- While carrying the Active Device
You see chromatic traces left by the recorded signature during the previous hour wherever it passed through bright or dim light. You have advantage on Survival checks to follow that trail and Investigation checks to reconstruct its route. No trace is left while the subject is in total darkness.
Worked Rank I designs · compare only
Chromatic Lock
- Activation
- Bonus Action
- Range
- 60 feet
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
Lock onto one creature you can see and record it as the device's current signature. While it is within 300 feet and not wholly screened by total darkness or opaque cover, you know its direction. Within 60 feet, visual camouflage and light obscurement do not help it Hide from you. If it is invisible, you know its space from a distorted outline, though it retains the other benefits of invisibility.
Prism Exposure
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 60 feet
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
Choose a 20-foot cube in range. Each creature of your choice in the cube makes a Dexterity save. On a failure, colored light outlines it for the duration. Attack rolls against an outlined creature have advantage if the attacker can see it, and the creature cannot benefit from being invisible.
Dazzling Pulse
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 15-foot cone
- Duration
- Until the start of your next turn
Each creature of your choice in the cone makes a Constitution save. On a failure, it takes 2d6 radiant damage and is blinded until the start of your next turn. On a success, it takes half damage and is not blinded.
Manifestation examples
- The lens unfolds into impossible layers and paints the user's eye in spectral bands.
- Recorded subjects leave luminous afterimages only the device's creator can interpret.
- Nearby colors separate at their edges whenever the instrument wakes.
Relative Weight and Load Distribution
Marl 'Ballast' Cade, Breaker and heavy salvage handMove burden between bodies, surfaces, and supports without creating or destroying mass.
Read the Load
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- Touch
- Duration
- Instantaneous
Touch an object or structure. You learn its approximate weight, where its load is supported, whether it is dangerously overloaded, and the direction it would fall or fail if nothing changes. Supernatural concealment can hide supernatural alterations, but not ordinary weight.
Shift the Balance
- Activation
- Bonus Action
- Range
- Self
- Duration
- Until changed or you are incapacitated
Choose one mode. Ballasted: you have advantage on Strength checks and saves made to resist being moved or knocked prone, and count as one size larger when determining what you can carry, push, or pull, but your speed decreases by 10 feet. Unburdened: your speed increases by 10 feet and your jump distance doubles, but you have disadvantage on Strength checks and saves. Use a bonus action to switch modes or end the effect.
Worked Rank I designs · compare only
Deadweight Transfer
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 30 feet
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
Choose one Large or smaller creature. It makes a Strength save. On a failure, its speed becomes 0 as its burden transfers into the surface beneath it. It repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. The effect also ends if it moves more than 60 feet from the device.
Sudden Ballast
- Activation
- Reaction
- Range
- 30 feet
- Duration
- Instantaneous
When you or a creature you can see in range would be moved against its will, knocked prone, or take falling damage, it is not moved or knocked prone and reduces any falling damage by 2d6 plus your Intelligence modifier, to a minimum reduction of 1.
Unburdened Launch
- Activation
- Bonus Action
- Range
- Touch
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You or one willing creature you touch leaps up to 30 feet to an unoccupied solid surface it can see. The path must be clear, and this movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. This is movement, not teleportation.
Manifestation examples
- Brass weights orbit the harness and slam into new positions when burden shifts.
- The user's body compresses or stretches slightly as weight moves through it.
- Floors groan, dust rings spread, and nearby loose objects lean toward the borrowed load.
Legacy one-card Grant expressions
These compact expressions remain here only to support earlier saved drafts. New characters should use one of the ten complete Classification foundations in the builder.
Shadow Passage
The city forgets the space between two connected shadows.
While you occupy dim light or darkness, teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 15 feet that is also in dim light or darkness. Creatures adjacent to the space you left cannot make opportunity attacks against this movement.
Civic Command
Made things remember that they were built to serve a purpose.
Choose one manufactured, nonmagical object of Large size or smaller. An unattended object performs one simple function it was built to perform, or a portable object moves up to 10 feet. If a creature is holding, wearing, or actively controlling it, that creature makes a Dexterity save; on a failure it drops the object or the object is unusable until the start of your next turn. The object cannot make an attack.
Ledger-Sight
Obligation leaves a line that power cannot entirely conceal.
Choose one creature you can see. Until the Grant ends, you have advantage on Insight checks to judge whether it knowingly accepts, avoids, or violates an obligation. Once before the Grant ends, after you make a d20 roll directly involving that creature, add 1d4 to the roll. This sight reveals pressure and connection, not a creature’s exact promises or objective truth.
Held Hurt
Pain can be moved, but never made ownerless.
When you or a creature you can see takes damage, reduce that damage by 1d8 + your Power Ability modifier (minimum 1). You visibly hold the removed wound. Before the end of your next turn, the first creature you hit with an attack takes extra necrotic damage equal to your proficiency bonus; if you do not discharge it, you take that damage instead. This self-damage cannot be reduced.
Borrowed Foundation
For a moment, your body carries the certainty of stone and rivet.
Gain temporary hit points equal to 1d8 + your Power Ability modifier (minimum 1). Until those temporary hit points are gone, you have advantage on checks and saves made to resist being shoved, knocked prone, or forcibly moved.
Promise-Knot
A willing word becomes something the speaker can lean on or strain against.
When a willing creature you can hear freely states a specific action it intends to complete, bind that promise. Once before the Grant ends, the creature may add 1d6 to a d20 roll that directly advances the promise. If it knowingly and willingly acts directly against the promise first, it instead takes 1d6 psychic damage and the Grant ends. The Grant cannot compel speech or action.
Scrapling
Discarded pieces briefly agree to become a small and loyal life.
Create one Tiny scrapling in an adjacent space. It has AC 13, 1 hit point, a 20-foot speed and climb speed, and can carry 10 pounds. It acts immediately after you. As a bonus action, command it to move and take the Help, Search, or Use an Object action; otherwise it Dodges. It cannot attack, activate magic items, or move more than 60 feet from you. Creating another ends the first.
Blind Spot
Attention slides past you and insists it chose to look elsewhere.
You become invisible until the start of your next turn. The Grant ends early immediately after you attack, deal damage, force a creature to make a saving throw, or move more than half your speed.
Marked Route
Once named as your destination, a person becomes a route through the city.
Mark one creature you can see. You have advantage on checks made to find, follow, or predict its route, and you know its direction while it remains within the same district. Once on each of your turns when you damage it, deal an extra 1d4 damage of the attack’s type. The Grant ends if you mark another creature.
Object Echo
Objects keep the moments people were least able to contain.
Touch one object and perceive a brief sensory impression from an emotionally powerful event connected to it. Ask the GM one question: who last held it with strong intent, what happened around it, what emotion marked it, or where it came from. The answer is a truthful impression but may be incomplete, symbolic, or limited by what the object could register.
Dead Air
For one breath, another power loses the right to be heard.
When a visible supernatural effect makes an attack roll or forces a creature you can see to make a saving throw, roll 1d6. Subtract the result from that attack roll or add it to one target’s saving throw. Use this after the original roll but before the outcome is declared. Dead Air does not end or dispel the effect.
Crowd Pulse
A feeling already present becomes impossible to ignore.
Choose courage or dread. Courage: chosen creatures in range gain temporary hit points equal to 1d6 + your Power Ability modifier (minimum 1). Dread: chosen hostile creatures in range make a Wisdom save; on a failure, they are frightened of you until the end of your next turn. A creature must be able to see or hear you.
The shared Wonderground chassis
Combat numbers
Minimum 1 HP. Then apply any rank-1 feature that changes maximum HP, such as the Breaker’s Drive and Grit.
One square is 5 feet. A feature or established physical circumstance can change this.
Roll formulas
Use the named Grant Ability
Each Classification draft names its governing ability. The current Craft draft uses Intelligence. For a Grant without a dedicated draft, choose Intelligence for studied control, Wisdom for instinctive attunement, or Charisma for force of will.
- Power attack
- PB + Power Ability modifier
- Power save DC
- 8 + PB + Power Ability modifier
Armor Class
| Protection | Armor Class | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Unarmored | 10 + Dexterity modifier | None |
| Light coat / armor | 12 + Dexterity modifier | Light armor training |
| Reinforced / medium | 14 + Dexterity modifier (max +2) | Medium armor training |
| Heavy rig / armor | 16 | Heavy armor training |
| Shield | +2 | Shield training; one hand occupied |
Specific gear wins. If a named weapon or suit of armor provides its own statistics, use those instead of this simplified starting baseline.
On your turn
Enough to enter danger
Starting equipment
- One suit of armor you are trained to use, or ordinary clothing.
- One trained primary weapon, plus ammunition if it needs any.
- One simple sidearm or backup weapon.
- Your Profession’s listed kit, tool, instrument, or focus.
- Ordinary work and travel supplies appropriate to your Origin.
- One personal item tied to your Want, Promise, Principle, or Anchor.
The Breaker
The Enforcer
The Operator
The Pursuer
The Maker
The Speaker
The Stitcher
The Scholar
Wonderground does not yet use a core starting-coin economy. The GM supplies job-specific gear when the premise requires it, while unusual, costly, or controlled equipment remains something to earn, borrow, steal, or owe for.
Later levels · one advancement choice
Advancement
Your Deal exists from the beginning. Its Promise creates narrative stakes; it is not an experience cost, power tax, or automatic penalty.
Profession Rank
Take the next available rank and gain its feature. Profession Rank cannot exceed Character Level or 12.
Power Development
Purchase one eligible node from the Grant tree while Profession Rank remains unchanged. Availability depends on earlier Grant investments and prerequisites.
What Character Level always grants
Levels 1–4
Levels 5–8
Levels 9–12
Hit points and Hit Dice
Every Character Level adds one Hit Die of your starting Profession’s type and increases maximum HP by a roll of that die or its fixed value, plus Constitution modifier (minimum +1 HP).
Recovery, collapse, and the edge of death
Rest & survival
Short rest
Spend any number of available Hit Dice. For each, regain HP equal to the roll + Constitution modifier (minimum 1). Features that refresh on a short rest also return.
Long rest
Restore all HP, regain spent Hit Dice equal to at least half your maximum (minimum one), and reset features and resources that refresh on a long rest.
Death saves
- Fall unconscious and make one death save at the start of each turn.
- A result of 10 or higher is a success. Three successes stabilize you; three failures kill you.
- A natural 20 restores 1 HP. A natural 1 counts as two failures.
- Damage taken at 0 HP causes a failed save; a critical hit causes two.