Characters have a number of aspects that are split into Corporeal, Ethereal and Celestial. The total number of these Aspects is referred to as the number of Forces that a given character has. Angels have a total of 9, with a refresh of 0. Soldiers have a total of 6, with a refresh of 3. Other Character types may have slightly different numbers of Forces and refresh. Every character must have at least 1 corporeal aspect and 1 ethereal aspect and 1 celestial aspect unless otherwise specified and nobody can have more than 5 aspects of a given type.
Essence is tracked separate from Fate Points, and is used for specific purposes, mainly activating powers or aspects(for Angels). All beings have essence equal to their forces. Characters can spend up to 2 essence per turn.
Mortal beings have fate points, which allow them to trigger aspects and to reroll checks. This
Vessels/Bodies: Angels cannot manifest in the corporeal realm without a vessel. Taking a single aspect vessel gets an angel a fairly generic human or small animal vessel that they can use to get around. Mortals have bodies, the first one describes the characters general appearance, what do people see when they see the character.
Corporeal Songs: The corporeal version of any song. All versions of songs are bought separately, but singers get a bonus if they have more than one version of a specific song type.
Skills: Corporeal Skills represent things that your character has a special knack for and give a plus 1 on all relevant checks.
Athletics (activities that require physical finesse)
Drive (operating any sort of vehicle)
Fight (engaging in close combat)
Physique (activities that require physical might)
Shoot (engaging in ranged combat)
Unusual Specialization (anything not covered elsewhere)
Roles/Professions: Roles and Professions are similar, just slightly different based on who has them. Angels have Roles, which are fictional personas constructed by their superiors, Mortals have Professions, which grant a suite of appropriate skills/connections.
Skills: Ethereal Skills represent things that your character has a special knack for and give a plus 1 on all relevant checks.
Burglary (breaking locks and security devices)
Crafts (creating items and objects)
Deceive (telling untruths or manipulating )
Empathy (sensing emotional states)
Investigate (actively finding clues)
Lore (general or specific knowledge)
Notice (passively seeing irregularities)
Rapport (friendly interacting)
Stealth (avoiding being seen/heard)
Unusual Specialization (anything not covered elsewhere)
Status: Status represents social power in some realm. For those with Roles, the status is attached to the role, a high status police officer would be a lieutenant or captain, a high status store owner would be a prominent local businessperson. For those with professions, Status can be a little more open ended, but represent general social status.
Contacts: Contacts represent social connections and represent a degree of connections within a certain sphere of influence. Contacts aspects should describe available sources of information in some way. Example: Contacts at the criminal court, contacts in the Polish mob, contacts in the roller derby scene.
Talismans: Talismans are magical objects that have specific powers. These may be able to perform specific songs, or have specific powers outside the structure of songs.
Ethereal Songs: Knowing an ethereal song grants an ethereal force
*Choir: For Angels, one of their main aspects is their choir. This grants the choir resonance and dissonance
Servitor Attunement: Angels serving an archangel must buy their own choir’s servitor attunement, anyone serving an archangel can buy another servitor attunement. Any soldier can buy any of Laurence’s servitor attunements.
*Character Type: Mortals main celestial aspect is their character type(natural singer, celestially gifted, etc.) These generally include the archangel they serve.(i.e. Natural Singer in service to Yves, Mermaid[mythic creature] in service to Michael)
Attunements: Anyone serving an archangel can buy a specific attunement from that superior.
Distinctions: distinctions can be bought and are taken individually, rather than cumulatively. More than one distinction can be taken.
Sorcery: Mortals who know sorcery must purchase the sorcery celestial aspect and receive a number of rituals equal to celestial forces.
Celestial Songs: Celestial songs are celestial aspects.
Affinities: Affinities are available to Ethereal Beings
Skills: Celestial Skills represent things that your character has a special knack for and give a plus 1 on all relevant checks.
Will (resisting magical attacks)
*High Concept: A High Concept will include one of the other types of aspect(most likely Choir or character type)
Angels must take actions between games to remove dissonance.
Discord is a type of aspect that can be acquired in several ways. For Angels, this is mainly a way of removing Dissonance. When an Angel has at least 2 points of dissonance, they can convert 2 points into a level of Discord. Discords act as a penalty to all checks of a specific type. Discord may also be acquired through mystical means, such as a punishment for a broken Geas.
Non-Mortal beings acting on the world, especially in destructive ways, cause disturbances in the Symphony that can be sensed from a distance depending on the level of destruction. This only matters if non-mortal hands are the ones performing the action. A Celestial handing a mortal a gun and pointing to a target doesn't make noise if the mortal shoots someone. Basic roles reduce the range of a specific action by one degree. Roles with additional status can reduce range by an additional degree per status.
Songs are slightly different, mortals performing songs are audible in the symphony and songs are not reduced by roles.
A check for a specific action is a roll of three fate dice(or an equivalent card draw), and the result added or subtracted from the number of forces for the specific song/skill/attunement/etc. The difficulty is either the number of forces of the target(plus or minus a defense roll with relevant skills if actively defending) or a static target between 0 and 10.
Two specific check results require attention. A roll of all - represents divine attention, a roll of all + represents diabolic attention. What these mean in a given situation is up to a storyteller. If you are rolling without a Storyteller present, treat these as normal rolls, unless a specific result is named(diabolic attention for an angelic resonance roll automatically gives a point of dissonance).
Example: Picking a lock- a character, they have 3 ethereal forces, including burglary, the number of forces for the draw would be 4. The difficulty of the lock is 3, so the would-be burglar needs to get at least a -1
Example: Singing open a lock- a character has 3 corporeal forces, including the corporeal song of opening. The character also has the ethereal song of opening, so the number of forces for the draw would be 4. The difficulty of the lock is 3, so the singer needs to get at least a -1
Easy tasks have a difficulty of 1-2 Average difficulties are between 2 and 4. more complex tasks are between 4 and 6, higher than 6 is very difficult to nearly impossible.
Any quality tool can add one to a check or to difficulty for a defensive rating for a given check. Two specific types of equipment are relevant. Weapons add one to attacks, armor adds one to the difficulty to attack.
Damage is a specific type of aspect. When damage is taken, a character receives a trouble aspect(a hit) depending on the type of damage(corporeal, ethereal, celestial). This applies a penalty to all checks for a given category until healed. When a character has more damage than their total forces in a realm, they fall unconscious. Once unconscious, additional damage equal to total forces is necessary for death. Characters can only take two damage a turn per category, though situations may create aspects that continue to damage.
In the unlikely event of multi-participant combat, order is determined by the number of forces(plus any relevant skills/stunts, minus any hits or discord) for a given action. At the beginning of any multi-participant action scene, STs will ask what the goals of all participants are and may seek to resolve the combat narratively and collaboratively.
All songs require a check, appropriate to the category of forces. The difficulty is equal to the equivalent forces of the target or a general difficulty between 0 and 10 depending on situation. For a song with multiple resisting targets, a single check is made and those whose difficulty is above the check will not be affected. Singers get a bonus if they have multiple versions of the same song.
Countersinging- Using a song to counter another song has a difficulty equal to the original singers appropriate forces
All powers have a cost and a duration. Most powers are described in a somewhat abstract form, feel free to propose alternate uses to STs, but recognize that off label uses may have variable success.
Cost
Most powers cost an essence, some cost more than one. Costs are listed as follows
# total cost
#/t cost per target
#/d cost per duration
Duration
Durations are Instant, minute, scene, day representing the amount of time that they last.
Instant powers last for an action and are generally permanent
Minute powers last for a period of uninterrupted combat(or about a minute)
Scene powers last for a period of uninterrupted interaction(or about an hour)
Day powers expire at dawn(for heavenly powers) or sunset(for diabolical powers)