With the words I conjure the spell
With my mind I see its new truth
With my heart I give it purpose With my soul I grant it life
The stories of Invisible Sun are made up of actions. Actions are what characters do. They are driven by player and character motivations, desires, and goals. An action is something a character does that is significant. Casting a spell. Running across the city square. Picking a lock. Drinking a potion. Reasoning with a murderer. Trying to figure out the puzzle box. Shooting a gun.
This means that insignificant things are not actions. Pulling something out of your pocket. Picking up a stone. Sitting down. Standing up. These are things your character can do, but they are part of another action.
This is how you play Invisible Sun, regardless of what gameplay mode you use: players take actions, and the GM helps resolve those actions. With a few exceptions (like defensive actions), only players initiate character actions. Actions are proactive in this way.
In Action Mode, an action is typically one round. A round is a very game-mechanic-focused unit of time, equal to about five to ten seconds. Just long enough to do one significant thing. In Narrative Mode and Development Mode, it can be longer—a variable depending on the action and the circumstance.
When a player states their action, the GM determines how difficult it might be to accomplish. The challenge can range from “routine,” which means there’s no real chance for failure, to “impossible,” which means there’s no real chance for success. Between these two states is a range of numbers, normally 1 to 10. This is called the challenge. (Great skill or magic can broaden the scale to 1 to 13, or even 1 to 17, effectively pushing “impossible” farther and farther off, as advantages make more of the impossible possible.)
If the action at hand falls somewhere between routine and impossible (and thus has a challenge number attached to it), the player uses dice or Sooth Deck cards to determine success or failure. If playing in Development Mode, cards determine the outcome. In Development Mode, each side scene essentially has one action at its core. Since that is fully covered in the previous chapter, and since actions in Action Mode and Narrative Mode are more complex and dynamic, we will focus on those here, and the use of dice to resolve them.
Players roll a die to determine the success or failure of an action that is between routine and impossible. First, however, they determine if they have anything that will help them with the action. If they do, this is called creating a venture, and it will modify the challenge.
To determine the venture, the player totals all the levels of skill, tools, spells, and so on (if any) that they have in play. Then they decide whether to increase the venture further by spending bene from the applicable stat pool. The greater the venture, the more likely the character will succeed at the action.
The venture is subtracted from the challenge. If the result is 0 or less, the character succeeds automatically. If it is 1 to 9, that is the number they need to roll on the die to succeed. If the result is 10 or higher, no roll is necessary, because the action is impossible.
When a roll is called for, if the result is greater than or equal to the number needed, the character succeeds. If not, they fail.
However, when a character attempts an action, the player can also spend bene for effect. Doing so usually reflects great mastery of the action at hand, great luck, or sometimes just desperation. Regardless, such effects can increase the intensity of a success, add detailed specificity to a success, or mitigate failure.
Invisible Sun uses ten-sided dice, numbered 0 to 9. If you roll or exceed the level that the GM rated the challenge, you succeed.
Vislae can also use their Sortilege pool to roll additional dice. Thus, if a vislae needs to roll a 4 to succeed at an action, they can use magic to roll two dice rather than just one to try to get at least one 4 on the roll.
Sortilege represents a vislae’s ability to draw on their inherent magical power to manipulate reality in small ways. Sortilege is not spellcasting—it is a far less precise (some would say crude) use of magic. It can get the job done, but it’s not without its risks.
Spells and magical abilities that require a roll also add extra dice (usually one, but sometimes more) to help determine if you succeed. This is noted after the spell or ability’s level. Starting characters can’t use Sortilege on actions that already have additional dice, but it’s possible to learn a secret called Advanced Sortilege that allows you to do just that.
You always know then, that if magic is involved, you’re rolling multiple dice. And that if you’re rolling multiple dice, magic is involved. However, if magic is involved in the challenge (for example, you’re trying to break down a magically sealed door), you’ll need multiple successes. So if the challenge is 4, you need to roll two 4s. That means that without magic, you can’t break down the door, ever. Because without magic, you’re rolling only one die.
Using magic, of course, runs a risk. On the first die (the mundane die), you just get success or failure. If you roll a 0 on the die you added thanks to a spell or Sortilege (the magic die), it’s not just a failure—it’s a magical flux. Magical flux results in strange, dangerous, and generally unwanted side effects. When rolling two dice, it’s possible to get a magical flux and still succeed. For example, if you need one success but you use Sortilege to roll an extra die, you could succeed with the mundane die and roll a 0 on the magic die. This means that the action succeeds but still produces an unwanted magical flux effect.
It’s possible, if you know the right secrets or cast powerful spells, that you’ll roll more than just one magic die, so you’re rolling three or four dice total.
When rolling three or four dice, it’s possible to get multiple magical fluxes, which make the failure more potent and generally worse. A minor complication might be that your spell inadvertently sours milk nearby. A major complication might make it difficult to cast spells in that location for days, months, or even years to come. There are many complication results, and they run the gamut. They help make magic unpredictable and strange.
In the Black Cube, you get four dice. One is the mundane die, numbered 0 to 9. The others are magic dice, still numbered 0 to 9, but the 0s are replaced with the symbol ( ) that means magical flux.
Challenges are the threads that Invisible Sun weaves to create stories. We use dice to determine if the characters can overcome the challenges, knowing full well that both success and failure make for good stories.
Challenge is the number representing the difficulty of succeeding on an action. Determining the challenge number is probably the main job of the GM, mechanically speaking. Two things to remember, although they’ve already been stated:
1. Challenges that are routine and challenges that are impossible aren’t assigned numbers. Characters automatically succeed at routine challenges and have no chance at those that are impossible. Challenges, then, are actions for which the outcome remains unknown until a character attempts them.
2. Challenge is merely the GM’s opening in the discussion between GM and player. The player responds with a venture, which is subtracted from the challenge to determine the number needed on the die roll.
Challenge is often very easy to determine because you can just use the level of the NPC, object, or whatever else is involved. Trying to pick a level 5 lock? Challenge 5. Sneaking past a level 3 watchdog? Challenge 3. Casting a spell on a level 4 thoughtform? Challenge 4.
The only caveat to this simple rule is that sometimes circumstances or specific modifications to NPCs alter the challenge. The level is still the starting point, but, for example, a level 4 NPC might have +3 defenses, so striking them in combat or affecting them with spells is challenge 7. Climbing a wall might be a challenge of 5, but the high winds add +1 to make it a challenge of 6.
Unfavorable circumstances usually add no more than 1 or 2 to the challenge. Favorable circumstances add to the venture (see below).
When there are no levels involved, determining a challenge requires a bit more consideration, but it is still fairly easy. For the vast majority of actions, if it’s something that’s possible for a normal person to do, rate it on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the hardest.
For example, attempting a standing long jump across a gap of 1 foot is challenge 1. A standing long jump of 10 feet is challenge 10. But a typical person can’t leap farther than 6 or 7 feet under normal circumstances. Does that mean that each foot of distance equals +1 to the challenge? Seems close enough to say yes.
And in fact, it’s that “close enough” that GMs would do well to remember. Don’t agonize over challenges. Set a number and keep the game moving. Rating something on a scale of 1 to 10 is something we’re all fairly used to doing.
If a character is trying to swim in a raging river, you might think, “Well, that’s a very tough swim, but I can imagine even harder swims (swimming in a tidal wave, perhaps), so I’ll call it challenge 7.” Later, the same character is swimming in a pool with a strong current. Not routine, but not as hard as in that river. So you rate it challenge 5.
That’s all there is to it.
Challenges 11, 12, and 13 are for things that a normal person cannot do, but that someone with extensive training and talent, or someone with extraordinary tools or circumstances (or both), can possibly achieve.
This creates a new range, of 1–13, for things that are possible for mortals to do. And 13 is the number of mortality. It is the number of the Grey Sun of the Nightside Path.
Obviously, you can’t get to numbers above 9 without some kind of venture—skills, tools, bene, spells, and so on (or a combination thereof ). So setting a challenge in that range means the PCs can’t succeed at the associated action without some kind of advantage, no matter what they roll.
To keep with the standing long jump example, Olympic-level athletes can jump 10 to 12 feet. That would be challenge 12. Olympic athletes certainly fall into the range of “someone with extensive training and talent.” You can imagine that they have 3 or even 4 levels in jumping, so if they were a character, they would still need to roll well (and probably use some bene), but for them, it’s achievable. For someone with no skill, it’s simply not. So the system works.
Of course, challenges go beyond 13 in Invisible Sun, because the game involves things that go well beyond even the highest normal human limits. Challenges go to a top end of 17.
The number 17 is the very limit of the suns, the final number of the Nightside Path, and the number of known suns (8) plus the number of actual suns (9). Among other things, it is the number of immortality and divinity.
Thus, a powerful royal demon might be level 11, with +5 defenses. Trying to cast a spell on them would be a challenge of 16. Wresting free of bonds made of magical energy while suspended over a pool of lava as beings of living fire buffet you with burning wings might be challenge 15—more or less unthinkable without magical assistance.
Challenge Description
0 Routine; never requires a die roll.
1–10 Challenge range for actions possible by a typical unskilled person.
11–13 Challenge range for actions impossible for a normal person, but possible for a highly skilled person or someone with special advantages (an inhuman nature, a fantastically designed tool, and so on).
14–17 Challenge range for actions impossible for a normal person, but possible through use of magic. These are challenges in the realm of powerful magical beings and even gods.
When certain magical effects get involved, they bend reality in unexpected ways. In these cases, the GM might require a player to achieve multiple successes. This means that although the challenge might be 6, you need two 6s to succeed. Getting two 6s is impossible on one die. You need to roll at least two dice. So you need some kind of magical aid, because the only way to get an additional die is with magic.
For example, a player attempting to climb and jump across a series of rocks and logs floating in midair to get to a high window finds that one wrong step sends the rock or log spinning away. This isn’t just a tricky physical challenge—magic is actively working against them. There’s magic involved, so the player must achieve two successes.
Because this is still one action, the venture applies to all the rolls. In other words, once the calculation of the final challenge is made, all the die rolls are looking for the same number.
This means that resisting the effects of an unwanted spell requires two successes. Dodging a magical bolt of fire requires two successes.
Withstanding a magical disease requires two successes.
Here are more examples that require multiple successes:
✦✦ Breaking down a magically barred door
✦✦ Finding a magically shielded, invisible button on a wall
✦✦ Picking a magically enhanced lock
✦✦ Running up a magically protected staircase
✦✦ Reading a magically encrypted book
✦✦ Intimidating a magically resilient NPC
✦✦ Locating an invisible foe moving around the room
✦✦ Affecting a magically warded NPC with a spell
✦✦ Dodging a magically created explosion of fire
Sometimes, a GM will rule that, despite the involvement of magic, multiple successes are not required. For example, breaking a ceramic vase made by magic is not harder than breaking one made conventionally. Grabbing a ball that’s levitating in the air is not necessarily harder than grabbing a ball that’s sitting on a shelf (assuming both remain still). Dodging a knife hurled by psychokinesis is probably not inherently harder than dodging a knife thrown normally (although depending on the magic involved, this might not be true). In other words, logic must prevail. Multiple successes exist in the game to reflect the mysterious qualities of magic, and that’s how and why they should be applied.
Magic sometimes negates the need for multiple successes. Let’s say an invisible ghost is hiding in the room. Normally, finding it would require multiple successes. But you have an ability that allows you to see ghosts, such as the Sensitivity secret. Now, finding it requires only one success for you.
Finally, in situations involving magic, mundane circumstances sometimes take away the need for multiple successes. Say you’re looking for that invisible ghost hiding in the room, but you don’t have Sensitivity. Normally, finding it would require multiple successes. But it jostles a table with plates and glasses on it, revealing itself. The GM should rule that—at least in that moment—only one success is needed.
Players tally up all the modifiers they can for an action to create a venture. The venture is subtracted from the challenge, so the higher the venture, the easier it is to succeed. When a spell, item, ability, or something else adds a bonus (sometimes called easing the action), this is a bonus to the venture. Likewise, when an effect gives a penalty (sometimes called hindering the action), this applies to the venture too.
The following go into a venture:
Skills: Players can add the levels of a character’s appropriate skill to the venture.
Bene: Players can spend bene from their stat pools to add to the venture for most actions. Under normal circumstances, a character cannot spend more than 1 bene in this way on their action. (The secret Expansive Endeavor allows vislae to break that limit.)
Tools: Players add the level of a tool to the venture. Unless otherwise noted, the level of a simple tool is 1. This includes weapons when making an attack, so a level 2 rapier adds +2 to the venture of a rapier attack.
Circumstances: This is typically the GM’s purview, but favorable circumstances can add to the venture. For example, hiding in a dark room is easier than hiding in a brightly lit place. Most of the time, circumstances add +1, but extremely favorable circumstances add +2.
Unfavorable circumstances can add to the challenge as well. In either case, make sure you don’t apply a circumstance to both venture and challenge.
Magical Effects: As with a tool or weapon, you add the level of a spell, forte ability, or other magical effect to the venture.
Further, sometimes a spell or effect adds to the venture of subsequent actions. In other words, a level 3 Watchman Watching spell gives you +1 to Dodge actions. You cast the spell on yourself (which never requires a roll), so you can ignore the fact that it is level 3 when you are dodging and instead look at the fact that it adds +1 to all such actions while it is in effect.
Any time an ability says that you get a certain modifier to an action, what it means is that you modify the venture. So a spell that gives you +2 to climbing actions means that when you attempt to climb something, you add +2 to the venture.
Hidden Knowledge: If a player wishes, 1 point of the character’s Hidden Knowledge score can be sacrificed toward an action. Usually, the player provides a very brief explanation of what sort of rare bit of lore or gossip they are using to improve this particular action.
Rather than using their bene to add to their venture, players can spend bene to modify the results of the action, if they are successful. The limit of 1 bene at a time (without the proper secret) still applies. In other words, a character can use a bene for success or for effect, but not for both.
You can do things like increase the damage of an attack or gain a unique result that goes beyond the realm of success or failure. For example, a vislae with a pistol wants to shoot a thief that just grabbed a bronze idol from them and is running away. Instead of making a normal attack, the vislae shoots at the idol, hoping to knock it out of the thief’s hand.
There are four levels of effect that a character can achieve by using bene in this way. Without the secret Expansive Endeavor, a character can only reach effect level 1, but even a character with the ability to spend many bene can spend only a maximum of 4 for effect.
Demoralize or disrupt one character: One (presumably unfriendly) character of your choosing that is nearby and is aware of your action is disheartened by your success. Alternatively, your action knocks them off balance, dazes them, or otherwise physically disrupts or hinders them. In either case, their next action suffers a −1 penalty.
Inflict more damage: You inflict +2 damage with your successful attack. This is true whether it is a mundane attack or a magical one.
Impress one character: One character of your choosing that is nearby and is aware of your action is so impressed by your success that any interaction with them adds +1 to the venture.
Set up your next attempt: You put yourself in a good position, mentally or physically, so that if you attempt the same action in the next round, you add +2 to the venture.
Just simply excel: Although there’s no mechanical effect, you succeed at the action with flourish, speed, grace, and aplomb.
Inspire one character: One (presumably friendly) character of your choosing that is nearby and is aware of your action is so inspired by your success that their next action gains +1.
Change the environment: This is a broad effect, but it involves causing one character of your choosing to move a close distance, cause a closed door to open (or vice versa), knock over an unsecured object, slice through a rope holding a chandelier, and so on. You accomplish these things by maneuvering well and acting quickly.
Go farther: As a part of an action that involves moving (like running, jumping, swimming, and so on), you move an additional short distance or a distance that seems reasonable under the circumstances.
Strike precisely: You aim for a specific spot when you make an attack. You might aim for a foe’s weapon to disarm them, or aim for a body part with the hopes of crippling it. How this precision strike affects the target depends on the target and the circumstances.
Inflict more damage: You inflict +4 damage with your successful attack. This is true whether it is a mundane attack or a magical one.
Knock one character down: When you attack, you do so with such power or precision that the foe is knocked to the ground in addition to suffering damage.
All that plus moving: You accomplish your action so quickly that at the end you can move a short distance as a part of your action.
Inspire all nearby friendly characters: Nearby friendly characters aware of your action are so inspired by your success that their next action gains +1.
Demoralize all nearby unfriendly characters: Nearby unfriendly characters aware of your action are so disheartened by your success that their next action suffers −1.
Inflict more damage: You inflict +6 damage with your successful attack. This is true whether it is a mundane attack or a magical one.
Impress all nearby characters: All characters nearby and aware of your action are so impressed by your success that any interaction with them gains +1 to the venture.
Stun one character: When you attack, you do so with such power or precision that the foe loses their next action.
Gain information: You do something so well that you learn something. This is a broad effect, and it might simply mean that when you search an object, you learn something about who made it. Other examples follow.
When you attack a foe, you notice that something they do reveals a weakness that you can exploit later.
In a conversation, you read between the lines of what the other person is saying to learn something they are trying to keep secret.
This might even be used in combat to get an opponent to reveal information through the use of witty repartee.
Impair one character: When you attack, you do so with such power or precision that the foe suffers a −2 penalty that is ongoing until they recover from the wound.
Frighten one character: One (presumably unfriendly) character of your choosing that is nearby and is aware of your action is so demoralized by your success that they surrender, flee, give in, or whatever else might be appropriate to the situation.
Inflict more damage: You inflict +8 damage with your successful attack. This is true whether it is a mundane attack or a magical one.
Sometimes, success or failure is a yes/no proposition. You either jump over the hole or you don’t. But sometimes, the GM will decide that circumstances warrant a more graduated result.
Sometimes, a PC will fail a roll, but circumstances suggest that there could be a partial success. You don’t accomplish exactly what you set out to do, but you don’t achieve absolutely nothing, either. If you’re talking with a gerent, you might not convince them to give you the key to the vault, but that failed roll could mean that your words still softened them up a bit. They might, for example, offer a compromise.
If you used a divination to learn information with a challenge of 8 but you roll a 6, you fail, but you still learn a level 6 fact. So if you’re trying to find a person in hiding, you don’t find their current, secret location, but you learn where lots of people saw them yesterday.
Partial success examples include the following.
Interaction: You don’t persuade the person you’re talking to, but they become somewhat more welcoming or friendly to you.
Knowledge: The character doesn’t know the answer, but they do know something.
Perception: The character doesn’t find the thing they’re looking for, but they find a clue. For example, they don’t find the secret panel, but they do find some odd scrapes in the wood.
Combat: The character misses their target, but just barely. The graze doesn’t inflict damage, but it gets the target’s attention, and maybe even scares them somewhat.
Spellcasting: The character’s spell affects its target for only a brief second. Your attempts to turn your foe into a newt fail, but you’re so close that they turn green and vaguely amphibian for just a second.
Occasionally, the GM might rule that your failure is actually a success, but with immediate and not entirely positive ramifications. For example, a thief snatches a vial that contains a potent potion. You reach out to grab them, but you roll poorly. The GM says that you did grab them, but with such force that the vial falls from their hand and is dropping to the floor. Will anyone catch it before it shatters?
You’re talking to a vendor in the market and trying to persuade them with kind words to give you a discount. Your die roll indicates failure, but the GM says that the vendor does offer a discount. However, you quickly discover that they misconstrued your words and thought you were flirting. Now they are very interested in you.
In Invisible Sun, there are no special rolls. You don’t get a bonus for rolling a 9 or penalties for rolling a 0 (except for flux on a magic die, but even that doesn’t necessarily mean the PC did anything wrong or the action fails). Catastrophic failure and remarkable success are instead the hallmarks of a GM shift, where the GM changes a success into a remarkable result or a simple failure into a catastrophic one. As with any GM shift, this results in the character in question being awarded 1 Despair or 1 Joy.
For example, the PC throws a knife at a foe trying to grab their friend. Not only do they hit, but the knife strikes the foe’s outstretched hand and pins it to the nearby wall. A remarkable success. Or the PC throws the knife and not only misses the foe but strikes their friend. A catastrophic failure.
Not every action has the potential to be a catastrophic failure or remarkable success.
NPCs do not roll dice. The players always roll dice in Invisible Sun. When a PC acts, the player rolls to determine success or failure. When an NPC acts against a PC, the player rolls to defend.
Although they are discussed in greater detail in The Path, NPCs often have modifications on certain actions. An intelligent level 4 NPC might have a +2 to interactions, meaning that an attempt to fool them would have a challenge of 6, not 4.
A nimble level 5 NPC with something useful to block attacks might have a Dodge defense of +3, making the challenge to strike them in combat an 8. (Most NPCs that have the freedom to act and an awareness of an attack have at least +1 Dodge defense.) A level 6 NPC with powerful wards against magic might be a challenge 10 to affect with spells.
If an NPC gains a bene or a vex, this is a +1 bonus or −1 penalty to the NPC’s level, respectively. The vex applies to only one action for the NPC, but a scourge is a penalty that doesn’t go away.
When a spell effect bestows a −1 penalty on a PC, that penalty applies to the venture. But for an NPC, the −1 penalty applies to the NPC’s level, particularly in regard to the challenge the NPC presents to a PC.
Since NPCs don’t make rolls, they can’t get multiple successes, so this is not a consideration for them. Instead, if an NPC faces a challenge that requires multiple successes, they must have some kind of magic to aid them (just like a PC), and the NPC suffers a penalty of −3 per additional success required. So if a level 7 NPC attempts to deal with a door affected by a Sealed Door spell, treat the NPC as level 4 (7 minus 3) to open it, but it’s only possible if they’ve got some kind of magic on their side.
When an NPC takes an action that does not involve a PC, the GM determines the outcome, perhaps comparing the NPC’s level to the challenge for reference.
That means, in general, a level 4 NPC can overcome any challenge of 4 or less, although circumstances (and, most important, the needs of the story) can modify this greatly.
As a very general guideline, when there is no PC involved, the GM should feel free to add anywhere from +1 to +4 to a motivated NPC’s level to determine the maximum challenge they can overcome. This means that if a level 4 NPC is shooting at another level 4 NPC, but the defender has +2 Dodge, the attacker will miss most of the time, but it’s possible for them to hit. Again, this adjudication should come from the GM based on the circumstances and the needs of the story.
Sometimes a PC action will put something into play, but no effort on the PC’s part makes a difference.
For example, if a PC puts poison in a NPC’s drink, the GM compares the level of the poison to the level of the NPC. If the poison is greater, the NPC is poisoned. This pertains to any situation where the skill or effort of a PC has no bearing on the outcome. Even if the PC initiated the action, the PC has no effect on the result. In other words, no matter how smart or powerful the PC is, they can’t make the poison in the drink more effective once it’s there.
Likewise, if a PC casts a potent spell that causes an earthquake and makes a building collapse on a group of NPCs, the NPCs involved cope with a challenge that has nothing to do with the PC or the spell. The collapsing building is an independent challenge given a level by the GM, and that challenge is compared to the NPCs’ levels to determine if they get caught in the collapse. There’s no way for the PC to aim or finesse the collapsing building, and a more powerful spell doesn’t cause the building to collapse in a different way. It collapses or it doesn’t.
NPCs don’t have rest actions like PCs, but important NPCs do have a very similar action called recovery. They can use a recovery action to:
✦✦ Remove an unwanted condition that does not have a depletion (usually one that is removed by rests)
✦✦ Reset the number of spells they can cast (if a vislae)
✦✦ Remove/heal all Injuries
✦✦ Remove/heal 1 Wound
✦✦ Gain a +3 bonus to their next action An NPC can never use a recovery action more than once in an encounter.
Sometimes a PC wants to undertake an action that is bigger than a “normal” action such as sneaking past a guard or deciphering an inscription. A bigger action might be increasing the success of a business, deciphering and reading a coded journal, training a beast, or building a piece of furniture.
It’s tempting to handle this as a series of many actions, with many die rolls and so on, and that’s fine. But designating the larger action as an “ongoing action” simplifies the process and allows the GM to better manage the time and effort taken. An ongoing action can go on in the background of the rest of the game, so that between more focused actions, a character could be renovating his house or training an apprentice.
First, the GM determines how long the ongoing action will take. This is very likely a range of times, such as two to four weeks or three to four months, but it’s best to start with the lowest estimate. Then the GM determines how many successful rolls are needed to complete the action. This is arbitrary, but in general, the more complex the action, the more rolls are involved. Usually, a GM should call for three to five rolls.
The lowest estimate of time is then divided by the number of successful rolls, and that defines the time increment. So if the action might take three months, and the PC must make three rolls, each represents a month.
At each time increment, the GM asks the player to make a progress roll. Each successful progress roll indicates that the action is closer to successful completion. Failure is a setback equal to one time increment and means that an additional roll must be attempted. So if the second roll of that three-month project indicates failure, it’s now a four-month project.
Ongoing actions often involve expenses—materials for crafting, library fees, books, supplies for research, and so on. The GM should determine a total cost and divide it by the time increment. Failure, then, means not only more time, but more cost.
If you fail at an action, you can usually retry it. In Action Mode, you can simply try again in the next round with no penalty for doing so. In a fight, you can attack someone you tried to attack in the last round, or you can try to push open a heavy door again.
In Narrative Mode, where time is not an issue and you could keep rolling and rerolling all day, retrying an action has a cost. It costs 1 bene from the appropriate pool to retry an action, and this bene does not modify your venture.
The only time this isn’t true is when circumstances dictate that retrying isn’t possible. If you try to carefully catch a crystal vase that your friend gently tosses to you and you fail, dropping it to the ground where it shatters, you obviously can’t retry.
You can also get help on an action. If one character helps another character, the acting PC gains +1 to their venture. This requires both characters to act toward the same goal. So, in Action Mode, both characters use their action in a given round to accomplish one thing. A character could help another decipher a manuscript, climb up to a ledge, or attack a foe.
A particularly skilled character can help even more. If a character has levels in a skill that pertains to the action, they add their skill level if it is greater than 1. So either a helping character adds +1 or they add their skill level, whichever is greater.
As with retries, helping is limited by circumstance. Only one character can pick a lock, for example.
Although all actions are treated the same and handled in the same way, a few actions deserve special attention.
Interacting with NPCs, whether it be asking around for information, trying to intimidate a street urchin, or attempting to fast-talk your way past a guard, is an action. Interaction takes place in Narrative Mode, so the time the action takes is variable. It takes as long as a conversation logically takes.
Players should make it clear what they are saying. If a player isn’t great at improvisational or extemporaneous speaking, have them give the gist of what they want to say.
In an interaction encounter, players can use bene from their Interaction pool. Use the NPC’s level as the challenge. This is based heavily on the circumstance. An NPC fighting for their life is a lot less likely to react well to even a particularly persuasive speech.
In some cases, GMs should consider not even asking for a roll. If a player says just the right thing, they should be rewarded for it (if they don’t, however, they shouldn’t necessarily be punished—that’s where the roll comes in).
Sometimes, multiple successful actions are needed to reach the desired goal. Consider a wary NPC traveler making their way down the road at night. If a PC wants to get information from them, first they might have to convince the NPC that they’re not a threat (first action). Then they might have to convince the NPC to stay on the road to chat (second action). Finally, they attempt a third action to ask the questions they are really interested in.
A good interaction encounter should be as interesting and dynamic as a combat encounter.
In Action Mode, a normal character can move to any nearby location as an action. They can move to something close as part of another action. So, for example, a character can use their entire action to run a short distance or they can move a close distance and cast a spell.
If a movement action requires a roll, players can use bene from their Movement pool. Walking or running is almost always routine. Only when moving over difficult or dangerous terrain in Action Mode should anyone have to make a roll for moving.
Movement that takes another form (such as climbing, jumping, or swimming) might necessitate die rolls more often. Usually, activities like these cut the distance of the character’s movement in half, but this varies by circumstances.
In Narrative Mode, it’s usually far less important to track how far the PCs move incrementally and far more important to simply determine how long it takes to get where they’re going. GMs generally describe movement broadly. “It takes about an hour to walk there.” “You travel all day and get about halfway to the city.”
Normal characters walking on a road travel about 4 miles (6 km) per hour. Characters in a vehicle or on a mount rely on the vehicle or mount’s speed, obviously.
In Action Mode, the group should take careful consideration to track time in rounds. Rounds are useful because everyone gets to take a single action in a round. When everyone’s acted, the round is over. Each round represents about five to ten seconds. If something would take longer than that, it requires multiple rounds.
Time in Narrative Mode and Development Mode is far more fluid and less precise. Rarely is it useful to track anything in minutes. Usually, tracking how many hours pass is useful only if effect depletions are in play.
Keeping track of days is always useful. The sun rising and setting are important magical moments, as all power flows through the sun(s).
In Invisible Sun, distances are divided into four categories.
Close: Anything close enough to touch (or touch after taking a few steps) is close. Two things next to each other are close, even if they’re not touching. Very loosely speaking, this range extends up to about 10 feet (3 m). Conversationally, this might be referred to as “point-blank range.” Something that affects an area that encompasses this distance, more or less, is said to affect a small area.
Near: Something you could reach fairly quickly is near. Often referred to as “nearby” or “short range,” it represents a distance of 10 to 50 feet (3 to 15 m). Something that affects an area a short distance in diameter is said to affect a medium area.
Far: Something you can see clearly but not reach quickly is far. Commonly referred to as “far away” or “long range,” this is a distance of about 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m). Something that affects an area a long distance in diameter is said to affect a large area.
Very Far: Something you can see but not clearly is very far. Called “very far away” or “very long range” at times, this is anything from about 100 to 500 feet (30 to 150 m). Something that affects an area a very long distance in diameter is said to affect a very large area.
There are three kinds of defense actions. Defense actions are different from other actions because they are initiated by the GM, not by a player.
Dodge Defense: Used when a character is attacked physically. A character takes a Dodge defense action when someone tries to stab them, shoot them, run them over with a car, or cast a spell that flings a bolt of magical fire at them. It’s also used to dodge explosions, cave-ins, rolling boulders, stampeding herds, or other things characters would like to get away from. If a character wants to use a bene, it should come from their Movement pool.
Resist Defense: Used when a character’s mind is targeted by an effect. You don’t dodge mind control, you resist it. This is probably the most common defense against magic. If a character wants to use a bene, it should come from their Intellect pool. As magical effects almost always require two successes, wise vislae use their Sortilege when making a Resist defense roll.
Withstand Defense: Used when a character’s body or overall health is targeted by an effect. You don’t dodge a disease, nor do you resist it. You withstand it. This is used for effects that transform a character in unwanted ways, for infections and disease, for poison and venom, and for effects that outright destroy a character’s physical form in part or in whole. If a character wants to use a bene, it should come from their Physicality pool.
If you attempt to punch, stab, or shoot someone, it’s an attack. If you try to blast them with a spell that involves a physical manifestation that affects a target physically—such as a blast of fire or a conjured spear made of ice—that’s an attack too.
If a character wants to use a bene on an attack, it should come from their Accuracy pool.
Attacks always inflict points of damage, and the amount of the damage is based on the specific attack. Weapon attacks are based on the type of weapon (light inflict 2 points, medium inflict 4 points, and heavy inflict 6 points). Magical effects generally inflict damage based on their level. As a general rule, NPCs ignore weapon type and spell level and simply inflict damage equal to their own level.
Sometimes, an attack has an additional effect. A poisoned dagger is an attack that inflicts 2 points of damage (a dagger is a light weapon) but also might poison the person stabbed. If the victim is a PC, two defense rolls might be called for—one to dodge the dagger attack, and one to withstand the poison if the dagger hits (the challenge of the latter is based on the level of the poison, not the attacker).
If the attacker is a PC, the attacker makes an attack roll with the dagger. On a hit, the GM compares the poison’s level to the NPC’s level. If the poison is greater, it poisons the NPC.
If a character uses their action to give aid to another character, they can heal 1 Injury, wake them from sleep or unconsciousness (if possible), or get them on their feet. Unless the helping character has a first aid kit or similar medical supplies, they can’t use further actions to heal more Injuries on the same character in the same encounter.
Spells and most other magical abilities, like forte abilities, are single actions. They are explained in complete detail in The Way.
When a character is successfully attacked, the attack inflicts damage. Points of damage that affect a character are recorded as Injuries.
If a character sustains 3 Injuries, those Injuries become 1 Wound. All characters can sustain 3 Wounds before dying. On each character tome in the Black Cube, Injuries and Wounds are represented by boxes that a player checks off as they are sustained. When you’ve filled in all the Injury boxes, you get a Wound, and you start tracking Injuries again.
When a character sustains 1 Wound, they gain a scourge in every Certes stat pool. When they sustain 2 Wounds, they gain 2 scourges in every Certes stat pool. When they sustain 3 Wounds, they are dead.
A character’s Armor, whether from protective garments, spells, or some other source, reduces damage on a point-by-point basis. So 2 points of Armor block 2 points of damage. Points of damage that get through Armor are sustained by a character and become Injuries.
When a character takes damage, they can use 1 bene from their Physicality pool to negate a Wound. If a character has the Expansive Endeavor secret, they can spend multiple bene from their Physicality pool to negate multiple Wounds. This reflects that tougher characters (those with more Physicality) can sustain more damage than those who aren’t so tough. Characters can do this only as the damage comes in. Once damage is sustained, a character cannot use Physicality to negate a Wound. (See Recovering and Healing, below.)
Example: A vampire attacks Schaelee, a Weaver. Schaelee has woven a magical effect that gives her 1 point of Armor. The vampire inflicts 5 damage. Schaelee’s Armor reduces that to 4 points. The first 3 points become a Wound, and the fourth an Injury. Schaelee spends 1 bene from her Physicality pool and negates the Wound, so she suffers only 1 Injury from the vampire’s attack. Then the vampire’s thrall attacks her with a huge maul that strikes for 6 damage. Her Armor reduces it to 5 damage, which becomes 1 Wound and 2 Injuries. Since she already has 1 Injury, her Injuries add up to another Wound—she now has 2 Wounds. She’s got 1 more bene in Physicality and she uses it to negate 1 Wound, but that leaves her with no Physicality and 1 Wound (and no Injuries). She’s at −1 on all her Certes actions now, and she’s probably in trouble.
Sometimes a character sustains damage from a fall, from being on fire, or from some other source. When possible, use the level of the damaging source as the amount of damage. So a level 4 fire inflicts 4 damage. A character caught in the gears of a level 3 machine sustains 3 damage. And so on.
If there’s no level to use, compare the damage inflicted to the weapon types. Is the damaging thing more like being sliced by a knife (2 points of damage) or being smashed by a giant hammer (6 points of damage)?
A fall typically inflicts 1 point of damage per 5 feet (1.5 m) of the fall.
Sometimes conditions inflict damage over time. Being caught in a blizzard might inflict 1 damage per hour. So might trekking across a horrible, hot desert.
Ultimately, this is all up to the GM and what best suits the story.
Mental effects and magical attacks that harm the mind inflict damage, but such Injuries do not become Wounds, they become Anguish. Anguish works much like Wounds. Suffering 1 Anguish means a character gains a scourge in all Qualia pools. Suffering 3 Anguish results in long-term catatonia, madness, utter suggestibility, or even death, depending on circumstances.
A character can use bene from their Intellect pool to negate 1 Anguish just like they can use bene from Physicality to negate 1 Wound. A character cannot use Intellect bene to negate Wounds at any time. Armor does not protect against mental damage.
You might be poisoned or contract a disease. You might be frozen solid or turned into mist. There are terrible physical or mental things that NPCs can do to you that aren’t expressed as points of damage.
Sometimes, the condition has a logical way to end it. A serpent that coils around a character holds them fast until they break free (or someone else breaks them out). This is likely a Physicality action.
Most of the time, though, to end an unwanted effect created by an NPC, the target can take a rest action. Sometimes multiple rest actions are needed. If a poison needs 3 rests to end its ongoing effect and a vislae has only 2 rests left for the day, they’ll have to wait until the next day to use the third. That’s probably going to be a rough night.
This is also true of spells cast by NPCs, which usually don’t have depletions. They end when the affected target ends the spell by taking rest actions.
If the number of rests needed isn’t specified, assume that effects with a level of 1–5 require 1 rest, those of level 6–10 require 2 rests, and those above level 10 require 3 rests. If some other way of ending the condition is specified (waiting for the sun to rise, finding an antidote, and so on), rests will not end the condition. Particularly potent effects could require 5, 8, 10, or even more rests, meaning that it will take days to recover, if the victim lasts that long.
Damage taken by NPCs works exactly the same way as damage taken by PCs, although some may have a different ratio of Injuries to Wounds. A low-level NPC might sustain a Wound after only 2 Injuries. A high-level NPC might take 4 or even 5 Injuries before they become a Wound. In addition, particularly massive or tough NPC creatures might be able to sustain 4, 5, or even 6 Wounds before dying. The beliggos, for example, is a level 9 behemoth the size of a small town that takes a Wound after 5 Injuries and can sustain 10 Wounds before dying. With its 4 Armor, it’s very difficult to slay.
As an action, a character can spend bene from their Physicality pool to recover Injuries that have not yet become Wounds on a one-for-one basis. This is for Injuries already sustained and is different from using Physicality to negate Wounds as they occur. Characters cannot recover Wounds using Physicality after the fact.
Instead, a character can use a ten-minute or one-hour rest to recover from 1 Wound or Anguish. PCs have 1 such rest of each type, each day. These are normally used to restore stat pools. A character can also recover 1 Wound or Anguish from sleeping a full night.
Vislae who die have the opportunity to continue to act, using their inherent magical power to sustain their spiritual form in the material world. They become ghosts.
Vislae also have a variety of ways (spells, secrets, artifacts, and so on) to come back from death or sidestep the process entirely. Regardless, death almost always results in the character earning 1 Despair.