Everdoom

March questions

After you’ve created the Prime and the Companion, continue with the March questions. Each role gets their own domain, but anyone may collaborate if inspiration strikes.

A March is often about a mysterious and dangerous duty with more questions than answers. The reason for the March matters as much as Doom itself. The Prime faces a problem. Conflicts and complications will then drive them toward a solution.

The March questions, all concerned with the dramatic conditions of your game. Pressure and denial, faults, and constraints are drawn out through them. The answers will contain sensory detail, political landscape, belief systems, and technology level, but will also indicate what makes this world difficult to be a hero in.

Prime: What do you want in the world? Think of a wound that drives you. This creates a desire, tension, or personal conflict. It informs the ambition the fable will fulfill.
Guide: How does the world oppose that? Think of how the March denies the Prime. This sets up circumstances to deal with. It informs how the fable begins.
Harbinger: Who governs the world? Think of a force that makes the world untenable. This sets up the villain or the threat to reckon with. It informs how the fable ends.
Companion: Why do things need to change? Think of the unbearable suffering in the world. This sets up the broader stakes. It informs the conflict the fable will resolve.

The Scale

When play begins, Doom is either 10 or 11, the Companion’s choice. The March setup questions you answer together help decide.

Set it to 10 if the world is structured and strict.
Set it to 11 if it’s haywire and liberal.

When prompted, roll the die, and compare the result with the current Doom.

If rolled under: increase Doom by 1.
If rolled over: decrease Doom by 1.
Equal: your choice which way, but it must move by 1.

A roll never determines success or failure, only shows what kind of fable you’re telling. Besides shifting Doom every time you roll, you get a relevant answer from it as well. Only roll once for an action: decide which one is most important or relevant, and hold back the rest.

The Scale shifts when consciously modified or if triggered by a roll. When it reaches 1 or 20, the Prime meets their Doom with a final choice:

1: descend to a simple life or ascend as guardian spirit.
20: fade in misery or depart in a blaze.

“The Guide shows paths …”

The Guide presents how much the world’s Faith can carry your Doom, and Tethers demonstrate where it pulls the Prime. When the Guide presents a Tether, the Prime may accept or reject the pull. Either way, cross the Tether.

If the Prime accepts the pull, they choose whether Doom increases or decreases by 1.
If the Prime rejects the pull, the Guide chooses the Doom shift.

The Guide rolls for Faith … to see how the world treats uncertainty.

If rolled under: the world is cruel.
If rolled over: the world is kind.
Equal: you choose.

Test Faith if you want to leave it to chance how an uncertain situation unfolds when there’s no risk involved. As Doom increases, the odds become likelier that things slip from the Prime’s grasp.

You may also roll for Faith to produce or recover a needed item, supply, or resource. If you roll under, it arrives with a complication. The Prime may forfeit if the cost is too high.

“The Prime decides direction …”

The Prime settles how Doom influences Trials: when the world challenges the Prime for decisive action.

If the action evokes an Aspect, choose a Trial outcome as if you rolled for it, and shift Doom according to your choice. Cross the Aspect.

The Prime rolls for a Trial … to resolve what happens after.

If rolled under: fabled outcome on a mythic scale, glorious but cataclysmic.
If rolled over: frayed outcome on a local scale, good and bad entwined.
Equal: you choose.

A Trial is any moment that cannot pass unchanged, where the Prime must act or endure, and it will carry consequences. Call for a Trial when the Prime’s response matters in a challenging social conflict, a demanding physical test, a dilemma or hard choice, a revelation or hardness of thought, or a violent opposition.

The Trial subjects the Prime, even if they act together with the Companion. Even if the Companion steps forward by offering their Aspects, the Prime is tested.

“The Companion advises on pressure …”

The Companion tells how Doom influences Balance: the cosmic tension between the world and the Prime.

Increase Doom by 1 if the world’s Chaos undermines the Prime.
Decrease Doom by 1 if the world’s Law restrains the Prime.

The Companion rolls for Balance … if the Prime provokes the world.

If rolled under: the world pushes Chaos: things slip, break, or resist structure.
If rolled over: the world pushes Law: things lock down, rules tighten, and structures harden.
Equal: you choose.

As the Prime walks between Law and Chaos, forces demand yield.

Will is expressed when the Prime, in an interaction, demands order, asserts authority, draws lines, forces a decision, or binds themselves or others to a course.

Longing is expressed when the Prime publicly abandons safety, refuses limits, follows instinct, breaks roles, or chooses desire over stability.

“The Harbinger foretells becoming …”

The Harbinger gathers how Doom influences Purpose: the Prime’s future place in the world.

A humble answer to a Purpose question grounds the Prime in the mundane plane. Decrease Doom by 1.
A hubristic answer elevates the Prime beyond the human scale. Increase Doom by 1.

The Harbinger rolls for Purpose … if the future is ambiguous.

If rolled under: portend a global, seismic change.
If rolled over: scale back to a petty and mundane life.
Equal: you choose.

There are four questions to each Arc, tied to its truth, history, or hidden self. The Harbinger may invoke one any time, but it must be relevant in fiction, connected to the current scene, often to Denizens or Foes.

The Prime’s answer alters the narrative. Together, describe how, and cross the question, it’s out of play. If the question coincides with a Trial, it defuses it: consider it resolved.